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Church, in the fulness of the power which she has received from Christ, you shall feel the holy rigour of her laws. She cannot permit the tares to infect the field on which grows the good seed. She cannot suffer you to remain among her sons, and become a stumbling-block for the ruin of many. Abandon, therefore, every hope of leaving this place, and of returning to dwell among the faithful. Know, all is finished for you.'

"Terrible moment! as I record thee in these pages, thou again freezest the blood in my veins, and fallest upon my heart with a weight not less oppressive, though not from fear, but from a solemn, invincible, tormenting remorse,—thou recallest to me my fall!.........A long silence ensued; during this interval all the terrors that had taken possession of me during my retreat assailed me at once. The immovable countenances of the Jesuits, who, mute, cold, and insensible, appeared strangers to earth, and to every human affection, sank deep into my heart, and convinced me that all was indeed finished for me. They did not once look at each other, perhaps lest they should remember they were men. I observed that one of them took down the words of Rossini, as he had previously taken down mine. Everything persuaded me that these bloody men were firmly resolved upon my extermination. My courage gave way, and, trembling, I approached the table, seized the pen with a convulsive movement, and wrote......my shame!......my condemnation!.........God of mercies, alas! may this moment be blotted from my life! Nevertheless, I bless the mysterious councils of thy justice and thy pity. Thou didst withdraw from me thy hand, that I might know my weakness. Thou sawest my heart, and thou didst there perceive a sense of vanity in having received thy gift: finding myself in the light of truth, I usurped the glory of a work entirely thine, attributing some merit to myself. Like Peter, I had relied on my own strength: I had said to thee, Etiam si opportuerit me mori, non te negabo: and, like Peter, I fell, I denied thee.

"The Jesuits congratulated me, and informed me that the following day I should be at liberty to return to San Bernardo. 'But,' added the Father Mislei, 'you must, as soon as you return, go to the Cardinal Castracani, and present to him, with your own hand, the paper you have signed.'

"On the following day I returned to the monastery; and, having obtained

permission from the Superior, proceeded immediately to the residence of the Cardinal Castracani. I presented myself just as I had left S. Eusebio,-emaciated, pale, my cheeks marked with tears, my hair in disorder, and my tunic with scarcely a trace of its original colour. I would not either change or arrange my dress; I preferred bringing before him, in my own person, a tacit but convincing proof of the cruelties inflicted during my imprisonment. He received the retractation from my hands, and placed it in the archives, at the same time praising me for the docility I had shown. Thus, in Rome, even the signification of words is changed; weakness which yields to force is termed docility, and the yes extorted by violence is called consent. Miserable condition of my country!"

He was now restored to his family and to liberty; but his soul was bowed down, and he could obtain no repose.

"When pursued by men, I had ever found refuge in peace of conscience; and, amidst the blackest tempests, celestial grace had given me light, had been to me a sun. But now that the voice of an offended God was continually sounding in my ears, embittering every worldly joy, I had no asylum; no, not even the sorrowful consolation of pouring my griefs into the bosom of a fellow-creature. Mine was a sorrow that must prey upon itself. I dared not to speak of my remorse, of my repentance for my vile apostasy from the truth, to those who smiled upon me, who caressed me, solely because I had recanted, because I had apostatized, because they believed me one of their fold. The least betrayal of my real sentiments would have drawn down upon me the bitterest rage of my most cruel enemies; and from that I shrank. Strange struggle between the flesh and the spirit! At times I felt myself urged openly to confess my faith; all dangers vanished before the sense of duty; but as the moment drew nigh that I had thought opportune for the reparation of my fault, these difficulties, which before had seemed but atoms, rose like mountains to my view, and courage fled. The spiritual man was overcome by the carnal man.

"From the internal struggle, the idea so often conceived, but always rejected, of bidding adieu for ever to Rome, to Italy, to my family, gained additional strength. This design was continually in my mind, and assisted to calm, in

some degree, the agitation of my spirit. But how was flight to be accomplished? It was the hourly subject of my meditation, and the burden of every prayer.

"The continued perusal of the Bible strengthened in me a desire, which had its origin in the persecutions I had myself endured, of solacing the unhappy beings groaning under the weight of misfortune. I passed my whole time in visiting the hospitals and prisons, and in comforting the distressed. How sweet it was to wipe away the tears of the mourner! In these moments the remembrance of my own sufferings proved an agreeable odour."

Having at length determined to become an exile from his native country, he disguised himself, and made his escape, with a passport procured in the name of his ser

vant.

"What a night of anguish was the one preceding my last visit to my family! How many mournful images crowded on my mind! I could not close my eyes in sleep. I fancied I saw around my bed my father, mother, and sisters, bathed in tears, in the act of supplicating my stay, reminding me of the affection and sympathy I had received from them in times more congenial; then, again, I saw them entreating pardon for the suffering they had so involuntarily occasioned.

"Morning came. Wearied and distressed, with a mind fatigued with reflecting on the past, and groping amidst the shadows of the future, I arose, and sought, in my Bible and in prayer, strength, guidance, refreshment, and consolation. After praying, I seemed to be inspired with new courage; and, without further delay, accompanied by my servant, I set out for my paternal home, where I remained the whole day."

He describes himself as almost heart-broken in leaving his friends, and family, and country; and that he could not afford information of his design to his mother and sister, who clung around him in great distress at witnessing his affliction. Having made his escape, he arrived, after two days' travelling, at CivitaVecchia, where he had to remain four days, awaiting the arrival of the Sardinian steam-packet, in which he was to sail for Leghorn. On

entering the church of S. Francesco, the day after his arrival, he read his name at the foot of the calendar,"D. Raffaele Ciocci, a Cistercian Monk, an apostate."

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"Anxiety lest I should fall into the hands of the blood-hounds dispatched from Rome in pursuit of me, served greatly to divert the overwhelming grief occasioned by abandoning my relatives and country. I adopted every method of precaution to elude their vigilance, but could not think myself secure under my disguise.

"Ignorant of the laws and regulations of most countries, nay, even of the laws of Rome herself, excepting as they were in connexion with the peculiarities of my own position, I was, when I fled from the monastery, like a chicken scarcely out of its shell. Had I been aware of the movements of the French packets in the ports of Italy, and of the security which any one on leaving her shores enjoys, protected under the banner of a free people, I could have spared myself much risk, and might have been relieved from the dreadful state of perplexity and fear in which I continued till my arrival in London. Instead of hazarding my flight on the 13th of March, had I set out on the 6th of the following month, I might have placed myself in safety on board a French vessel sailing from Malta for Marseilles on the 8th. Of these particulars I was iguorant; nor should I now mention them, but for the hope that this narrative may fall into the hands of some persons to whom such information may prove useful.

"After a few days of anxious suspense the vessel arrived, and I was received on board the Maria Antoinetta,' When it was dark, I went on deck: after looking around, to ascertain that I was unobserved, I threw my tunic, from whence had sprung all my misery, into the sea. Thus did I dispose of the only ensign of Popery which remained to

me.

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His difficulties continued till he arrived in France; nor was he aware that he was even then safe; for he thought that the Pope exercised the same influence in France as in Italy. The Roman Consul at Marseilles was about to detain him till he could hear from Rome, as the passport did not correspond to his age;

but the intervention of a CustomHouse Officer, who said that he had recommendations to the English Consul, who had received him with

every mark of attention, procured the necessary signature; and, after a few other difficulties, he arrived in England.

ON PREACHING CHRIST, AND THE MUTUAL RELATION OF THE EPISTLES AND GOSPELS.

(To the Editor of the Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine.)

MR. NEWMAN, in a sermon preached at St. Mary's, Oxford, Easter-Tuesday, April 13th, 1830, -before, at all events, the public developement of his system, (the title of the sermon being, "The Influence of Natural and Revealed Religion respectively;" and the text, 1 John i. 1-3,)—has a paragraph showing, not only the tendencies of his own mind at the time, but a principle which, if not essential to the theory subsequently more fully declared, appears to be, for the most part, held by those who have embraced it with him. Its fallacies inay, I think, easily be pointed out. I quote the paragraph first, and will then remark on it.

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"A comment is hence afforded us on the meaning of a phrase perplexed by controversy,-that of 'preaching Christ.' By which is properly meant, not the putting natural religion out of sight, nor the separating one doctrine of the Gospel from the rest, as having an exclusive claim to the name of Gospel,' but the displaying all that nature and Scripture teach concerning divine Providence, (for they teach the same great truths,) whether of his majesty, or his love, or his mercy, or his holiness, or his fearful anger, through the medium of the life and death of his Son Jesus Christ. A mere moral strain of teaching duty, and enforcing obedience, fails in persuading to practice, not because it appeals to conscience, and commands and threatens, (as is sometimes supposed,) but because it does not urge and illus trate virtue in the name, and by the example, of our blessed Lord. It is not that natural teaching gives merely the law, and Christian teach

ing gives the tidings of pardon, and that a command chills or formalizes the mind, and that a free forgiveness converts it; (for nature speaks of God's goodness as well as of his severity, and Christ, surely, of his severity as well as his goodness ;) but that in the Christian scheme we find all the divine attributes (not mercy only, though mercy preeminently) brought out and urged upon us, which were but latent in the visible course of things. Hence it appears that the Gospels are the great instruments (under God's blessing) of fixing and instructing our minds in a religious course, the Epistles being rather comments on them, than intended to supersede them, as is sometimes maintained. Surely it argues a mind but partially moulded to the worship and love of Christ, to make this distinction between his teaching and that of his Apostles, when the very promised office of the Comforter, in his absence, was, not to make a new revelation, but expressly to bring all things to their remembrance' which 'He had said to them;' not to speak of himself, but to receive of Christ's, and show it unto' them. The Holy Spirit came to 'glorify Christ,' to declare openly unto all the world, that He had come on earth, suffered, and died, who was also the Creator and Governor of the world, the final Judge of men. It is the incarnation of the Son of God, rather than any doctrine drawn from a partial view of Scripture, (however true and momentous it may be,) which is the article of a standing or falling church. Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is not of God;....this is that spirit of antichrist;' for, not

to mention other more direct considerations, it reverses, as far as in it lies, all that the revealed character of Christ has done for our faith and virtue. And hence the Apostles' speeches, in the book of Acts, and the primitive creeds, insist almost exclusively upon the history, not the doctrines, of Christianity; it being designed that, by means of our Lord's economy, the great doctrines of theology are to be taught; the facts of that economy giving its peculiarity and force to the revelation." ("Sermons, chiefly on the Theory of religious Belief," &c.Sermon ii., pp. 35-37.)

It is not because these statements are made by Mr. Newman in particular, that I would now remark on them. I chiefly look at the errors which they contain. At the same time, it is scarcely possible to forget the public advances of Mr. Newman during the last fourteen years, or not to see the connexion-the very intimate connexion-between some of the leading doctrines of what has been since termed Tractarianism, and the principles implied by the cited paragraph.

Naturalists have remarked, that the bat appears almost to have a sixth sense; in virtue of which it is able, in flying, even though purposely blinded, to avoid all obstacles in its way, as if it knew where they were, before actually coming to them. And thus it is that some persons, in their mental operations and progress, seem to be aware that if they go on in a certain direction, there will be found some kind of obstruction to their farther advancement. Many years ago, I was in company with a gentleman strongly inclined, to say the least, to Socinianism; and, as if aware that in the Epistles he would find great counteractions to these tendencies, he was bent upon respectfully, but still decidedly, depreciating them, and exalting the Gospels at their expense.

It ap

pears to be a favourite method, too, -though of course for a very different reason; no one thinks of impeaching their Trinitarian orthodoxy, with those who belong to the school in which Mr. Newman is

a disciple. Yet this comparative exaltation of one portion of holy Scripture, and depreciation of another, cannot be otherwise than mischievous in its operation. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God; and whoever designedly pays less attention to one part, for the avowed reason that it is inferior to another, will thus hinder himself from attaining to a complete view of the truth taught by the "perfect law of the Lord." I can easily conceive of a person whose mind leans to Socinianism, wishing, for that reason, to persuade himself that the Gospels, which give the history and teaching of our Lord before the accomplishment of the great work of our redemption, and represent him, chiefly, (very far from exclusively,) as the divine Teacher of men, because they give the life and language of Christ himself, are more necessary to be studied than the Epistles, in which we find only the language of the servants of the Great Master. And I can likewise easily conceive of persons who have admitted the essential germ of Popery, that salvation is by union with the Church, and who feel that the general tenor of the teaching of the Epistles is against them,—that being, "By grace are ye saved, through faith; "it is of faith, that it might be by grace,-and who therefore practically undervalue them, and teach, as is done more explicitly than usual in the quotation on which I am remarking, "that the Gospels are the great instruments of fixing and instructing our minds in a religious course." Plausible as the opinion may be made to seem, it is a very danger. ous one. And I take the entire statement from Mr. Newman's Sermon in which it is included, not only that justice may be done to the Preacher by a full quotation, but likewise because the statement, thus taken in its entireness, exhibits the mischief of the doctrine, as well as the doctrine itself.

1. Mr. Newman gives his own explanation of the "phrase" which has been, he says, "perplexed by controversy,-that of preaching

Christ."" He says that it signifies not "the separating one doctrine of the Gospel from the rest, as having an exclusive claim to the name of Gospel;" but "the displaying all that nature and Scripture teach concerning divine Providence, through the medium of the life and death of his Son, Jesus Christ." Here is an exemplification of the feeling of coming obstruction to which I have adverted, (for I would not ascribe it to clear and direct intention,) producing such a movement as may avoid it. The writer is evidently afraid of coming to a something inconsistent with his system, and of finding himself embarrassed by the decided references made by the Epistles to the great subject of salvation by grace, through faith. "Preaching Christ" is therefore represented as being, not the severance of one doctrine from the rest, but the display of all that nature and Scripture teach concerning the Providence of God, through the life and death of his Son. What nature teaches on this subject, I have yet to learn. I have always been accustomed to refer the doctrines connected with man's spiritual deliverance to pure revelation. And though I would not dispute merely about terms, yet surely the phrase, divine Providence, is not the one which, as customarily employed, is the most fitting for reference to the divinely-appointed scheme of human salvation. We are said to be saved by the grace of God "through the REDEMPTION that is in Christ Jesus." And this arises, not from the ordinary providence of God, but from a distinct administration, always referred to the wisdom and love of God, and which, as committed to the Son born unto us, the Child given, upon whose shoulder is the government, and who sits as a Priest on his throne, bearing the glory, should always be distinguished from the natural providence of the Creator and Preserver of all.

But, as to the term "preaching Christ" undoubtedly it does not refer to the exclusive statement of any one doctrine, while yet it does refer to such a statement of one, as shall preserve to them all that pe

culiar and distinguishing character in which they are unquestionably presented to us. It is not, certainly, to any one doctrine that the name Gospel is to be exclusively given; but yet, there is a reason why, to the whole, that peculiar name should be given, so that the whole may appear as constituting a system, devised and administered in decided reference to one great object; and all should be preached so as that the distinctive and systematic character may be seen without any rational or honest possibility of mistake. The Gospel system includes all that the Scriptures teach; but why is it arranged into such a system as is certainly presented to us in the Bible, and why is the peculiar name, the Gospel, at once exclusively and distinctively applied to it? The angelic announcement answers the inquiry: "I bring you glad tidings of great joy." "I preach the Gospel unto you." "For unto you is born a Saviour." And how is Christ a Saviour? By his incarnation; and, as connected with this, his teaching of such admirable wisdom, his exemplary life, of such excellent, lovely, and attractive purity and virtue? Never losing sight of these, there is, however, that which it has pleased God himself to place before us as the characteristic principle of the system, that because of which it is the Gospel. The incarnation of Christ is indeed a most important doctrine, an essential one: but it is itself in Scripture referred to another, as the means to an end. By his incarnation, he was "made a little lower than the angels;" but this was not for its own sake, as though we only needed for our salvation the lovely example of his humility and condescension : besides this, the importance of which is fully admitted, we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man." St. John, indeed, says, that "in this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that

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