who is always doing us good, and who delights in our prosperity.

But the paper will soon stop my rambling: I must leave room to tell you that I am, though I have not room to tell you how much I am

Your affectionate and obliged

JOHN NEWTON.

Southampton, the 21st September, 1789, evening.

WHEN our church asserts that we are justified by faith, no enlightened person conceives that thereby is meant that the grace of faith itself justifies in the way of meritorious cause. It is only the instrumental cause; the hand by which we receive Christ, whose atonement is the sole cause of our justification. Thus Archbishop Usher observes-Faith is an instrument whereby my justification is wrought, an instrument whereby Christ is received. We must know that in point of receiving we all live on God's alms; all our justification is his gift, and faith is that palsy hand which receives all our comfort.'-Life of Sir Richard Hill.

THE PILGRIMAGE.

A COMMUNICATION has been sent to us, by a highly valued clerical friend, whose letters from the continent have occasionally appeared in these pages. By some accident, the first leaf was left out of the pacquet: and as our friend was on the point of starting on another foreign tour when he dispatched it from Ireland, we must either await his return or present it to our readers in its imperfect state. We prefer the latter. It appears to be a translation from a recent production of that eminent Christian minister, Cæsar Malan: but whether published or not we cannot say.

The manuscript in our hands thus continues from the lost page:

He simply relates what he saw and heard, upon a late excursion in that part of his native country which formed the scene of the early labours of the Helvetic reformer of the sixteenth century, Ulric Zuingle. The title of the chapter of Dr. Malan's work, of which I propose to give an extract is as follows:

'Le culte de la Virge Marie, des Saints, des images, des reliques, etc.' and it begins thus:

THE PILGRIMAGE.

Upon one of the highest summits of Mount Etzel, at the eastern extremity of the lake of Zurich, rises the little chapel of St. Meinrad, held in great venera

tion in the church of Rome, and which is as it were the gate of the wild valley where, at some distance from thence, is seen the ancient Abbey of Notre Dame des Ermites.

Every year innumerable multitudes of pilgrims flock from all parts to these consecrated places, and it is there that we may see in all its pomp and freedom from restraint the worship which the church of Rome renders to the Virgin Mary, to the angels and saints, and to images and relics of every description.

I was on my return from the north of Switzerland. I had passed by the sad and deserted city of Constance; I had there adored the Saviour in the very dungeons of John Huss and of Jerome of Prague; I had praised him in that hall where was held the impious and murdering council, and before those seats which a perfidious emperor and pope had occupied ; and I had given Him thanks upon the spot, for ever separated, upon which were kindled the piles of the two faithful martyrs of the Bible.

My soul was full of acknowledgment towards Him who has given me his word, and I had desired to recal to my heart all that such a benefit consists in, upon the same spot where, three centuries since, the Spirit of God revealed them to the sincere and learned Zuingle, then preacher at the celebrated monastery which I was about to visit.

It was on the morning of a bright day: I rested myself upon a naked rising ground, from whence the view extended itself upon the distant borders of the lake, and upon the plains and mountains which surround it, and which bound the horizon.

Bands of pilgrims, from the cities, the towns and villages of Alsace, of Brisgau, of the Black Forest,

of Suabia, and even of Hungary and Austria, ascended the steep path, by which for eight hundred years past crowds of this description of travellers have succeeded to each other, of every rank and of every age.

Old men, mothers with their children, men and young people slowly mounted the narrow and paved track, and each according to the form of devotion, which they had chosen.

Here, a man, already bowed down by years towards the ground, carried upon his neck a thick yoke, and of the heaviest wood. Here, a young woman bent her head under an enormous stone, with which she had loaded herself from the foot of the mountain. Another man had his feet tied together with fetters. Another had loaded himself with a heavy cross, formed of two planks. A woman, aged and all in a tremour, advanced with difficulty, having her hands tied together. Another woman had her face covered with a black stuff, and could only walk groping; while another of these disciples advanced only by drawing back two steps, after having taken three.

The worship of the Virgin Mary. The chapel bell rang, and their prayer was recited aloud. They said:

'Blessed Mother of God, always a Virgin, Princess of heaven, Queen of men, Empress of angels, sole and sovereign Mistress of the universe, Refuge of sinners, Gate of heaven, Mother of mercies, and light of the world which you have made, which you preserve and govern, we prostrate ourselves before you, we adore you, and we supplicate you, you and the holy apostles, St. Paul, St. Peter and St. Andrew, and with them all the

saints, to look towards us, your unworthy and miserable servants and handmaids, who live only by your love! Wife of the living God, Lamp of grace, to whom God has given the right of gentleness and of mercy, save us! for without your pity we are lost. In you alone is the hope of life.'

This prayer was followed by a chaunt, in which St. Meinrad was invoked and praised, along with the angels, and many saints, and according as these pilgrims arrived in front of the chapel, they prostrated themselves, kissing the dust, and muttered the prayers.

And thus all the bands succeeded each other; then they prosecuted their way in order towards the abbey, whither the supernatural image of the blessed Virgin attracted them, and where her worshippers were to find miraculous cures, with the absolution of all their sins.

I have seen it with my eyes, reader, and I myself have walked among these pilgrims; I have been present at their worship and their festival; I have followed their adorations; I have participated in their ceremonies and their practices; I have conversed with many among them; and I have been able to know in this respect, and even in its details, all that the church of Rome invites me to do, in calling upon me to enter into her bosom.

Without doubt, as in the days of the Pagans of Athens, of Rome, or of the Gauls, some cultivated spirits despised the gross superstitions of idolatry, leaving them to the ignorant and simple; in like manner now, in the church of Rome, many of her doctrines and of her practices are slighted and re