most honoured of women. But if she had been without sin, as thou sayest, why should she have spoken of her Saviour, and why should Jesus himself have reproved her as having committed a fault?

'And so far am I from seeing the apostolic church admit of this immaculate conception of the Virgin, as thou callest it, it is not until the twelfth century that I see the feast of it originated; and even then I hear the Abbot of Clairvaux, the eloquent Bernard, elevate himself with indignation against this doctrine, 'which has been,' says he, neither known in the custom of the church, nor approved by reason, nor recommended by ancient tradition.'

"Honour the Virgin,' said this sincere man, 'but with judgment: she hath conceived of the Holy Ghost, but she hath not been conceived: she was a Virgin when she brought forth her son, but her mother was not one when she brought her forth.

"How then will you call holy a conception which is not of the Holy Ghost, not to say that it is of sin?' "This blessed woman will dispense willingly with an honour which leads either to the knowing of sin, or to the introducing of a false holiness.'

See, priest of Rome, what thou wouldest have known, if thou hadst read were it only the history of thy church. And thou wouldest also have known that numerous doctors, and five popes in particular, have thought and spoken as the wise Abbot of Clairvaux; and that if, finally, the council of Basle decreed the truth of this fable, this council was rejected by many, and that a pope, at length, put an end to this dispute, in leaving every one free.

'What signifies then this feast of the conception, which rests but upon a manifest error? And how

can he who fears the Eternal, impose upon the people a lie, under the pretence of serving God?

'I will say of it to thee all at once, O master of human doctrines! respecting the assumption of the Virgin. Seek for it in scripture: it is not there. Speak of it to the apostolical fathers: they know nothing about it. Ask of history what is its origin : it will name to thee the reveries of a monk, after that the edict of an emperor. And it is thereupon that thou reliest, in order to make the people believe an idolatrous fable!

'But I will say no more to thee concerning these fatal superstitions. That which afflicts me above all is to see thee despise Jesus and deny his divinity, in lowering his work to the littleness and to the incapacity of the work of man, of the work of a creature.

"O thou that comprehendest not as yet neither the grace of the Father, nor the incarnation of the Son and the perfection of his work, nor the sovereign efficacy of the Holy Ghost! tell me what use wouldest thou have made of the meditation or the intercession of any creature that might be, or even of all creatures together, when it is God who hath saved, and when it is God who intercedes?

'Hath not the Holy Ghost pronounced that he who, even under the pretext of humility, will render worship unto angels, intrudes himself into that which he is ignorant of, is vainly puffed up with the mind of his flesh, and, above all, that HE HOLDS NOT THE HEAD of the church, the Lord Jesus?

‘Thou speakest of a monarch of this world, and thou sayest that, as he is approached by ministers or subaltern officers, so the church approaches her

Father by the Son, and the Son by the Virgin, or by the angels, or by the saints.

'But why thinkest thou that God is like unto a sinful man, who is nothing but ignorance and weakness?

'If this earthly monarch, of whom thou speakest, was infinite, and knew all the hearts of his subjects, would he not have known himself what passes at the bottom of mine, and were it necessary that he should learn it by another intelligence beside his own?

'And is it not herein, precisely, that thou dishonourest the Lord Jesus, and that thou takest away from him either his omnipresence, or his omniscience, or his omnipotence, or his all-mercy, that is to say his DIVINITY; for, if he wants any one of these attributes, is he God?

'Finally, what have these souls to do whom thou deceivest, these poor sheep, without a shepherd, whom thou leadest to death,-what have they to do, tell it us, with the merits of the Virgin or of the saints, suppose even that they had it, since the Lord Jesus hath saved his church, since salvation is accomplished in him, since every soul which, by Him, draws near to the Father is saved entirely ?

'Is access unto the Father refused to the weakest, to the most obscure of these souls? No, no! quite the contrary, the scripture says to it, that it has free access, by Jesus, unto the throne of mercies!

Or, is this soul held at a distance from the Saviour, so that it cannot approach him with perfect confidence?

Come unto me, saith the good Shepherd, all ye who labour and are heavy laden! For, adds an apostle, we have not an High Priest who cannot sympathise with our weaknesses: but we have Him who, having been

tempted, like us, in all things, sin excepted, is well qualified to compassionate our infirmities. Let us go then with assurance unto the throne of grace, in order that we may be helped in need.

Therefore I adjure thee before the Lord, who hath just heard thy words, that thou assemble anew this multitude; that thou open before it the holy Bible, and that by this word of truth thou draw these poor souls out of the nets of error, of superstition, and idolatry, in which thou hast entangled them.

'Become then a truth-teller, and say to them, that there is no other Mediator between them and God, (whether of redemption, or of intercession. O man, skilful in seducing! from whence hast thou derived this subtle distinction?) than the Lord Jesus; that there are no merits except in him alone, and that God alone hears our prayers; that the worship of angels is condemned by scripture; that the second commandment exists, and that it forbids and denounces idols and images, and all worship which can be rendered unto them; that these observances are those of paganism, engrafted in the church in times of darkness; and that thus, in order that God may be feared, in order that the Lord Jesus may be acknowledged as God the Saviour, and in order that the testimony of the Holy Spirit may be no more despised, these souls should repent of their criminal superstitions, break their idols, reject their vain reliques, cease to invoke creatures and the dead, and trust without reserve in the fulness of salvation which is in Jesus, and which every poor sinner possesses for ever by faith.

6

Then, but only then, thou shalt see the life of

God, by the Holy Ghost, take the place in souls of the vain and fearful devotion of servitude. Then, instead of so many useless ordinances, which always conceal from the worshipper the presence of his God, faith shall be established in the heart, and by it holiness.

'Thus shall pagan customs be put an end to this holy water, these wax candles, these particular vestments, these processions, these feasts, these patrons, these oratories, these altars,these ex-vetos, these ringings of bells or sounds of trumpets, these agnus-deis, these blessed wafers, these rosaries, and so many other practices, which all of them were those of Paganism, of which God has never thought, and which turn away from Jesus the carnal heart which they amuse, or which they send a wandering.'

Ah, reader, how could I have desired that these words were indeed pronounced by another priest of Einsidlen, by a second Zwingle, in the Abbey and the public place, and for many days? My feeble voice uttered some words here and there, and some souls, perhaps, were attentive to them. But what was it, in the face of such evils? What bursting forth of light was not needed to dissipate such profound darkness?

Here I finish my translation, and I think it unnecessary to add much more. I believe that your readers may rely on this being a faithful portrait of a scene witnessed, but a short time since, at the very place where, three hundred years ago, the light of the reformation began first to dawn upon Switzerland. And after having contemplated it, they will, I believe, think with me, that the Popery of the nineteenth century is the same with that of the sixOCTOBER, 1839.

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