who was announced and expected from the earliest ages to be the Saviour and Redeemer of mankind, and that they should receive this Saviour with a sincere desire of "knowing Him whom God hath sent." The progress of Christianity would have been slow, indeed, if the apostles or their disciples had considered themselves obliged to teach even the smallest and plainest Catechism of later times. The detailed knowledge of religion which may be the duty of each Christian to acquire, must depend on a multitude of circumstances. Let every one according to his peculiar opportunities cultivate this knowledge by every means in his power: but let no man tell another that because he has not arrived at the same conclusion, or made up an equally large catalogue of articles of faith, he cannot be saved.

Fourthly:-Do not make your Christianity depend on any theory concerning the extent and degree of the inspiration of the scriptures. Much of what divines say upon this point is theory. Accustom yourself to look upon the

New Testament as the true records of the teaching of Christ and his apostles. The spirit of the whole, a Christian must believe to come, as the authors themselves came, from God. In the letter, i. e. in particular passages, there may be something from men. But a candid examination of the whole, as a whole, has convinced me, that with the largest allowance for corruptions and interpolations, nothing has been allowed to mix itself with the New Testament that can impair the divine spirit which dwells in its contents. A similar kind of examination will probably lead others to the same conclusion. But I would entreat such as build their faith upon any one theory of inspiration, to beware of destroying the faith of others who do not require any such theory to believe in and obey our common Saviour. Nothing impresses me with a higher reverence for the founders of the English Church, than their having abstained from introducing any theory of inspiration into their articles.

If you pursue your religious studies under these cautions, which are the fruit of a long experience, if you prepare your heart by the practice of Christian virtues to the full extent of your spiritual growth, and if you habitually address yourself in prayer to the Father of lights, I trust you will never turn away from Christ. Whenever you are tempted to desert him consider, not the absolute quantity of light which you perceive in the Gospel, but its relative magnitude compared with every religious system which has ever addressed itself to the natural religious wants of the human soul. If you are inclined to think that the Gospel light and the Gospel evidence are not equal to what you would wish to have, consider that, if on that account you give up Christianity, you act like a man who should cast himself into utter darkness for life, because the sun is not as large and luminous as he conceived it ought to be.

Finally, remember Paul's remarkable direction for the pursuit of religious knowledge: "Whereto

we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing."* Take up the study of Christianity as an object of supreme importance, and be faithful to the light which you receive from it, be it ever so small. That light, I feel assured, will be encreased to those who with purity of heart, and humble prayer, pursue the plain path of duty which every honest man must see and approve in the New Testament.+

Our conversation ended here, but I trust my serious and practical recollection of the advice I received in it, will last to my last day.

*Phil. iii. 16.

+ See Appendix on the Christian Evidence at the end of

the 1st vol.

Rome.

CHAPTER V.

Observations on the Rise and Character of its Power under the Christian Religion, in a Paper by Mr. Fitzgerald.

ROME! Rome! exclaimed our whole party, when we first discovered that wonderful city: and so fully did Rome occupy our thoughts that we scarcely exchanged a word for a long time. At length I broke this silence. I had been dwelling on the almost uninterrupted dominion of Rome either as the head of a political or of a religious empire: and I was at a loss to account for this curious moral phenomenon. Addressing myself, principally, to Mr. Fitzgerald, I observed, that there was something very wonderful in the transition from temporal to spiritual power which had taken place at Rome, as soon as the empire of the West ceased to exist. "I have now (said I) examined the subject of papal authority too long and too closely to attach any controversial importance