There may have been a French translation of the Bible by Le Cene, one of the French refugees, Socinian in its tendency; but we have no evidence that he was a Protestant minister; and though he were, this would be most inadequate ground on which to fasten any general charge of Socinianism against a Christian Church. Moreover, it was not circulated in France.

The submission and loyalty of the Protestants were remarkable. Indeed, nothing can be more striking than the contrast between the way the people treated their sovereign, and the way in which he treated them. Repeatedly did Roman Catholic criminals confined in the same prisons with the persecuted Protestants seek, but seek in vain, to enlist them in a conspiracy, which, if successful, would have released both. One case is mentioned, where they not only solemnly protested against a horrible conspiracy, but gave information of it, and so saved the lives of a captain and his garrison. On another occasion, in May 1705, they refused to stir out of their cells, when Roman Catholics of some condition had destroyed the governor of the castle, mastered the guards, made their escape, and left the doors open. At a later day, in 1744, when they were allowed to hold a National Synod in the deserts of Lower Languedoc-a privilege which, so far as I can learn, had not been enjoyed for more than half a century-what did they resolve upon? Did they denounce their oppressors, and proclaim rebellion against the State? No; they commanded that a fast should be kept in all the Reformed churches of the kingdom, "for the preservation of his Majesty's sacred person, the success of his arms, a cessation of war, and the deliverance of the Church." Ministers are ordered to preach at least one sermon a-year, on the duty of submission to civil authority. When news arrived, during the sitting of the Synod, of the illness of the king, "they all fell upon their knees, and made a fervent prayer to God for his recovery;" and when he was restored, they sung "Te Deum," and mingled in the general rejoicing. In a petition to Marshal Count de Saxe, to implore his

intercession with their sovereign in their behalf, they declare themselves " firmly resolved to sacrifice their lives and fortunes for his Majesty's service." Nay, they proceed still farther, and counsel their teachers to abstain from points of controversy with the Romanists, and to speak with the utmost circumspection of the sufferings of the Protestant Churches; to avoid working on saints' days, lest they should give offence; and, in fine, to bear patiently all the ill usage they might be exposed to on account of their religion. What noble sentiments are these! What an admirable spirit, and mode of proceeding! How unlike the suggestions of natural feeling! Surely this compliance with the Scripture call, to love their enemies, to bless those who cursed them, to pray for those who despitefully used and persecuted them," indicated the presence of no doubtful Christian discipleship. An eminent Protestant minister, in 1746, thus expressed himself:

"This I can affirm for truth, that if his Majesty allow the Protestants the liberty of having pastors, to celebrate their marriages, baptize their children, and perform the other ministerial offices of their religion, only in the desert, they would be ready to do all that men can do to demonstrate their gratitude and their attachment to his person. Nay, I dare say, that were they to be employed in repelling the enemies of the State, they would fill the world with the fame of their exploits; and Louis XV. would be no less charmed with their bravery, than Henry the Great was with that of their forefathers."

Reviewing these manifestations of Christian feeling and conduct, I cannot but think the labours of those faithful men must have been eminently blessed, who acted as their teachers. When all Protestant schools and colleges were overthrown, and when it was death to assemble the people and preach the Gospel, and dispense ordinances, in 1731 a seminary was erected at Lausanne, in Switzerland, for the education of Protestant ministers for France, drawing its chief support from Holland and England. Doubtless it was of such men

that a missionary in France lately made the interesting statement, speaking of Mirabel, and of a person whom he met there.* * "He told me," says he, "that formerly in the days of persecution, the pastors were received and concealed by his family. He showed me a large tumbler, on which were written these words-' I LOVE GOD,' and the date of the year 1738; and which, he informed me, had been used by the pastors in the days of persecution, when administering the Lord's Supper in desert places. He also showed me a white embroidered linen cloth, more than a century old, which he said had been used to carry infants into the same desert places to be baptized by the pastors." It would not have been wonderful, if men, provoked and oppressed as the Protestants were, had been driven to resistance. One or two slight cases of this kind there may have been; but the Protestants were remarkable throughout for patient endurance and the most unsullied loyalty; and what so likely to form to such a character as the diffusion of Christian instruction, even amid trials and difficulties ?

While the character of the Protestant Church was thus so praiseworthy, what was the character of the Church of Rome, her great enemy, during the same period? Not to speak of the persecution of the Protestants, which she instigated and upheld, and which proved her a tyrant, she, in other respects, presented a miserable aspect to the eye of Christendom. The Church of boasted unity appeared rent and torn in her own members. The Jansenists and Jesuits carried on a most furious warfare, which ended in the persecution, even to imprisonment and death, of the Jansenists. The work of Quesnel upon the Gospels, who was an eminent member of this body, was condemned by the Pope, and he himself driven into exile, where he died. The controversy connected with his book gave rise to the celebrated bull of Unigenitus, issued by the Pope in 1713-a bull which denounces, as heretical and reprobate, 101 such precious and important truths as-"That

* Twentieth_Report of European Society,lp. 5.

it is useful and necessary for all persons to know the Scriptures that the reading of the Scriptures is for every body-that the Lord's day ought to be sanctified by Christians, in reading pious books, and above all, the Scriptures that to deprive the unlearned people of the comfort of joining their voices with the voice of the whole church, is a custom contrary to apostolical practice, and to the design of God;" and many others. Indeed, the great leading truths of the Gospel salvation were all pronounced heretical, and their preachers accursed; while the Jesuits, the successful party, were ere long found to be so formidable to the peace of the Church and of the nation, that they were first deprived of their power, and ultimately suppressed. What a contrast is here between the Protestant Church and the Church of Rome, and how honourable to the former !

For the sake of those who may not be acquainted with the nature or history of Jansenism, it may be proper to state, that Jansen was a bishop of the Church of Rome, who flourished at the beginning of the 17th century; and that his sentiments, which were formed with the greatest care and deliberation, after many years of mature study, are Calvinistic, and so entirely at one with the doctrinal articles of the Church of England, and the Church of Scotland, and also the Protestant Church of France, of course they are at perfect war with the prevailing doctrine of the Church of Rome, which is essentially Arminian. As might have been expected, though Jansen himself acted a timid and unworthy part, his opinions called forth keen opposition within the borders of the Church of Rome. But, in spite of this, they spread, particularly in France and Flanders, till multitudes more or less secretly entertained them. They were formally condemned by the Church of Rome in 1653, in 1657, in 1705, and in 1713; and the penalty for holding them was most severe. At the second date to which I refer, all clergy refusing to abjure them, were deprived of their livings, cast into prison, or sent into exile, and the abjuration was required not

Ee

merely of the secular clergy, but of every monk and friar. In short, it was safer to be an Atheist than a Jansenist.

The existence of Jansenism shows, that even the Church of Rome cannot exclude the saving truth of God, and it is delightful to find such truth even in so corrupted a quarter. Indeed, apart from the faith of it, there can be no salvation in the Church of Rome. The sentiment may seem a harsh one, but, on the principles of Scripture, a genuine Roman Catholic cannot be saved. Men in the external communion of the Romish Church, but holding Jansenist or evangelical doctrine without being sensible of it, may be subjects of salvation. It is impossible, however, to believe that any clinging to systems which subvert and destroy the Gospel of grace can be saved. “Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, Christ Jesus the righteous." In this view, how cheering is the Jansenism of the Church of Rome. It places men on the right foundation, without, it may be, their being aware of it. It makes salvation possible, though they may still shrink from the name of Protestantism with horror, and cling tenaciously to the visible communion of Rome. Had the Jansenists seen things in the proper light, they should have joined with the persecuted Protestants of France. In essentials they held far more in common with them than with the Church of Rome; but they were blinded by the dogmas which the Popish Church has circulated so industriously, that there is no salvation beyond her visible pale. The case of the Rev. Martin Boos, in modern times, is a remarkable illustration of the same point. But though Jansenists may not appreciate their true place, nor act out their own principles, let us rejoice that there are such persons. Once they were so numerous as to alarm Rome with the terror of wide-spread change, and rouse the energies of the Jesuits, the most active of her orders. And blessed be God! they are not now extinct even in Italy, the headquarters of papal superstition and error. It may be noticed, in passing, as a curious circumstance, somewhat provoking to the men who place