John Huss, Luther, and Zuinglius, in regard to several of the chief articles. These men lived a great while in obscurity, busied in the culture of barren lands, which, with indefatigable industry, they rendered fit for corn and pasture: a proof of our being greatly to blame, if through neglect, we suffer any part of France to be uncultivated. The neighbouring grounds were let to them on leases; and they improved them by their labour, so as to maintain themselves, and to enrich their landlords, who never complained of their behaviour. In the space of 250 years, their number increased to near 18,000, who were dispersed in thirty small towns, besides hamlets. All this was the fruit of their industry. There were no priests among them, no quarrels about religious worship, no law-suits; they determined their differences among themselves. None but those who repaired to the neighbouring cities knew that there existed any such things as mass or bishops. They prayed to God in their own jargon;* and, being continually employed, they had the happiness to know no vice. This peaceful state they enjoyed for above 200 years, since the wars against the Albigenses, with which the nation had been wearied. When mankind have long rioted in cruelty, their fury abates and sinks into languor and indifference; as we see constantly verified both in the case of individuals and whole nations. Such was the tranquillity which the Waldenses enjoyed, when the Reformers of Germany and Geneva came to hear that there were others of the same persuasion as themselves. Immediately they sent some of their ministers, a name given to the curates of the Protestant churches, to visit them; and since then, the Waldenses are but too well known."+ So

* What Mons. Voltaire means by this uncouth speech, is, that the Waldenses had no liturgy or forms of public prayer.

+ Voltaire's Universal History, Vol. II. p. 338, 12mo. Edit. Edin 1782.

far Mons. Voltaire, whose narrative, considering the principles of the author, is as candid and correct as could reasonably be expected.

Of the number of persons who professed the faith of the Waldenses, both within and without the vallies of Piedmont, at the beginning of the sixteenth century—the period when Luther broke off from the church of Rome, and began the reformation in Germany, it would be impossible to attain to any certainty. But, it is presumed the reader will have seen enough in the preceding pages to satisfy him, that the opinion which has so currently prevailed among us, of the almost total extinction of the christian profession, in its purity, at the time of, and for ages preeeding, the Lutheran reformation, is altogether a popular error. There was a period, in the history of ancient Israel, when idolatry and profaneness appeared to have so wholly deluged the land, that the prophet Elijah was led to consider himself as a solitary worshipper of the true God, in the midst of the creation. Yet the Lord had reserved to himself seven thousand souls who had not bowed the knee to Baal, although unknown to the prophet. It appears from what Voltaire has just remarked, and, indeed, an attentive reader of the works of Luther and his associates, will easily perceive, that their minds laboured under a somewhat similar mistake as to their own case. It was not without surprise they learnt, that there were numbers around them, in every country, opposed to the corruptions of the church of Rome, and sighing in secret for a reform. It may also be added, that Protestants in every succeeding age have but too implicitly imbibed their error.* The

I might instance in proof of this fact, even in our own times, Mr. Cox's interesting Life of Melancthon, recently published. The author of that work does indeed speak of “ Waldus, Wickliff, Huss, and Jerome of Prague," as of imperishable names; and he adds, “but in vain did they struggle against the torrent of corruption that deluged the earth. VOL. II.

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blessed God hath never left himself without witnesses in the world; and even during the reign of antichrist—a period of the most general and awful defection from the purity of his worship, he had reserved to himself thousands and tens of thousands of such as kept his commandments and the faith of Jesus. Nor is there any thing in this to occasion our surprise. The real followers of Christ are subjects of a kingdom that is not of this world. And having no national establishment, nor aiming at worldly power, their principles and conduct have seldom been thought worthy of regard by the world, except in so far as their public testimony against it has subjected them to persecution. The true profession of Christianity leads its friends to cultivate peace and union among themselves, and, like its divine author, to avoid all turbulence and faction in the

state.

But amidst the rubbish of error, as a late writer has justly remarked, which had accumulated century after century till the Reformation, God determined to erect the temple of Truth, and his providence cleared an ample space, chose a variety of workmen, and reared the admirable structure. And as in the erection of a building, it is necessary that

They could oppose, in their respective times and stations, but a momentary resistance, and were swept away. Their efforts, indeed, produced some effects, but they were evanescent, for 'darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness the people.' But when Luther appeared," &c. page 3.

Now what I object to, in this statement, is, that it is calculated to mislead the reader, inasmuch as it has a tendency to impress him with this very erroneous notion, that during the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries, the four individuals, whose names he records, were the only advocates of reform. Thus the thousands, and tens of thousands, of the Waldenses and Albigenses, who at the constant peril, and generally at the expence of their lives, kept up a standing testimony against the abominations of the man of sin, are wholly overlooked! This is scarcely pardonable in a dissenter who knew better, and can only have arisen from the most culpable inadvertency.

there be different kinds of labourers, all co-operating together and all essential to complete the undertaking, so it was requisite, in erecting this great edifice, to prepare and to employ persons very differently constituted, but all capable of useful co-operation. If the Reformation claimed. the steady efforts of true courage and inextinguishable zeal, it ought also to be remembered, that it no less required a proportion of nice discernment, elegant taste, and literary skill;-if a superstition which invested a mortal with the prerogative of infallibility, were to be attacked and levelled with the dust, the ignorance which, with its characteristic blindness, supported that superstition, was at the same time to be dethroned and demolished;-if old abuses were to be removed, and a new order of things to be introduced and systematized, it was desirable to find not only a nervous, but a polished mind, at once to clear away the rubbish of error, and clothe unwelcome novelties with attractive beauty;-in a word, if existing circum, stances called for a LUTHER, they also demanded a MELANCTHON.*

In the year 1530, George Morel, one of the pastors of a church of the Waldenses, published Memoirs of the History of their Churches, in which he states, that at the time he wrote, there were above eight hundred thousand persons professing the religion of the Waldenses;† nor will this appear an exaggerated statement, if we consider the view that was given, in the last section, of their dispersions throughout almost every country of Europe-the immense numbers that suffered martyrdom; and, what was formerly mentioned, that in the year 1315, namely two centuries before this time, there were eighty thousand of them in the small kingdom of Bohemia.

* Cox's Life of Melancthon, p. 38.

+ Morland's Evangelical Churches, p. 224.

It seems reasonable, however, to conclude, that the Waldenses must have beheld with infinite satisfaction, the schism which took place in the Roman church, when Luther and his associates withdrew from its communion. For, independent of the labours of this intrepid reformer, the great cause for which the Waldenses were contending, viz. the purity of the doctrines of the gospel, and the simplicity of christian worship-was powerfully supported by a host of learned men, who rose up in rapid succession, and ranged themselves on the side of Luther. Among these were Philip Melancthon, John Ecolampadius, Martin Bucer, John Calvin, Theodore Beza, Zuinglius, Peter Martyr, Bullenger, and many others, all advocates of reform, and men of eminent talents, who, by their various labours, both from the pulpit and the press, contributed greatly to disseminate the knowledge of divine truth, and free the minds of their contemporaries from the slavish shackles of ignorance and superstition.

But although we may readily conceive the pleasure which it must have yielded the Waldenses, to contemplate the labours of these great men in so glorious a cause, they do not appear to have acted precipitately in interfering with them, or soliciting an union of churches. The reformers, with all their zeal and learning, were babes in scriptural knowledge, when compared with the more illiterate Waldenses-particularly in regard to the nature of the kingdom of Christ, and its institutions, laws, and worship in general. Luther, for instance; besides that both he and Calvin always contended for a form of national christianity-a principle which, the moment it is received into the mind, must necessarily darken it as to the nature of the kingdom of Christ; Luther, with all his zeal against popery, was never able to disentangle his own mind from the inexplicable doctrine of transubstantiation, which he had imbibed in the church of Rome. He, indeed, changed