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ARCH OF CONSTANTINE.

they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness."

Beyond this arch of Titus, rises the immense mass of the Coliseum, the arena of which was first bathed with the tears of captive Jews, and afterwards with the blood of martyrs and gladiators. It stood the companion of the Roman glory; and it still exists the ruined survivor of its decay.

Turning from the Via Sacra into the Triumphal Way that leads round the foot of the Palatine, we pass by the arch of Constantine, first dedicated to Trajan. Its three divisions are ornamented with eight fluted Corinthian columns; its bas-reliefs relate, on the side of the Coliseum, to acts of Trajan, and the sacrifices he offered to the god Mars, Apollo, and Diana. There is no record of the persecution of Christians on this arch of triumph; but faithful history turns our eye on the amphitheatre. Who is that feeble captive just brought on the arena ?-it is Ignatius. "He, too, must die at Rome,"-sentenced there to join the number of those "of whom the world was not worthy." He sailed from Asia; and, entering the Tyrrhene sea, and passing by several islands and cities, at length he came in view of Puteoli, which being shewn, he hastened to go forth, desirous to tread in the footsteps of the apostle Paul; but a violent wind arising, did not allow him to accomplish this object. See him, as he approaches the scene of his execution, praying to the Son of God to put a stop to the persecution, and to enable the disciples to love one another: then view him led into the amphitheatre, and speedily thrown to the wild beasts.

The hearts, as well as the habitations, of all that know not God, are filled with cruelty.

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Returning down the Via Sacra, we had the Palatine on our left. At that angle of this famous mount which is over the Temple of Vesta, (now the church of St. Theodoro,) was the cave sacred to Pan, and the Ruminal Fig-tree, under which Romulus and Remus were found by Faustulus. I gazed! I measured with my eye the distance of the Tiber, on whose banks they were said to have been found. It could not be; but then the Tiber had once flowed at the foot of the Tarpeian. Oh! then it might have been; but I could not help smiling while I tried to settle this important question, and still left it amongst the things unknown.

CHAPTER X.

Superstitions-Altars of Divination-Diario Romano-Spiritual Christmas Food-Cradle adored at Santa Maria Maggiore-Christmas

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I ENTERED Rome with the persuasion that, at least externally, I should perceive some light from the glare of the French revolution; but no: I found midnight darknessthe grossest superstition, or absolute atheism-superstition every where externally exhibited-atheism, in conversation and in practice.

Transubstantiation, penance, purgatory, prayers for the dead, to the Virgin, invocation of saints, pilgrimages, auricular confession, indulgences, the worship of images, of pictures-sprinkling with holy water,-relics-all still the dogmas and ceremonies of the church.

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The Roman Catholic religion is what it ever was. As at the Reformation, men are still bound fast in fetters of iron;" the whole is one universal and oppressive system of bondage-the fiction of purgatory every where in full power. I heard, at their high festivals, sermons in which the method of God's salvation by faith in Christ—justification "by faith alone," was never once hinted at; man was still left far from God, uncertain of his forgiving love uncertain whether he could work enough to be accepted or he was instructed that, if he practised certain ceremonies, did certain works of charity, he would be so:

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IDOLATRIES OF THE ROMISH CHURCH.

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thus overthrowing the testimony of God, that man, by nature, is" without excuse"-his declaration, by St. Paul, to the Romans, "So they that are in the flesh cannot please God"-Jesus's own words to Nicodemus, "Ye must be born again"—his own gracious promise to those that are thus born again, "Whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die"-overlooking the explanation given by the Spirit to St. John, "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God"-overlooking, too, the effect of being born of God: For whosoever is born of God, overcometh the world; and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." I heard them continually boasting of tradition, but altogether omitting to bring to the ears of their people the following inestimable soul-cheering words of St. John, which whoso believeth, has, I think, found that happiness and purity which the most ardent endeavour of the united philosophy of the human race has sought after for ages; but, alas! how ineffectually, all nations witness.

"If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which he has testified of his Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself; he that believeth not God, hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son." "And this is the record that God hath given to us-eternal life; and this life is in his Son."

"He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God, hath not life. These things have I written to you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God."

VOL. I.

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IDOLATRIES OF THE ROMISH CHURCH.

Yes, when these words are believed, the lame man leaps as an hart-the tongue of the dumb sings-the promise is fulfilled, "In the wilderness waters break out, and streams in the desert."

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'Sing, oh heavens, and be joyful, oh earth, and break forth into singing, oh mountains; for the Lord has comforted his people, and will have mercy on his afflicted."

“The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God."

When I looked upon their "altars of divination," how did I rejoice in the Scriptures, and cry out, "My soul is escaped as a bird out of the hands of the fowler."

Oh that the clergy of all nations would indeed act the part of the gentle Shepherd! that they would bring before their people glad tidings of great joy!

When really in Rome, and surrounded by idolatrous images, and heathen unavailing ceremonies, it is evident that it was truly the light of the Holy Spirit which beamed upon, and directed Paul, amidst the thick Pagan darkness which covered the throne of the mighty Cæsars and their golden palaces, enabling him, in his solitary cell, “to see the glory of the Just One"-to know that God had, in these latter days, spoken not by the mouth of lying oracles-not by the Cumean Sybil, or the winged Mercury, but "by his Son, who, being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had, by himself, purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." Thus to St. Paul was revealed, in the midst of general error, the right object of man's adoration.

Amidst the chaos of false notions, perhaps now and then

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