designation is to be found in the Apocalypse. But this being a revelation vouchsafed to St. John, and written after the death of St. Peter, could have furnished to him no sort of precedent. If, therefore, Rome be really meant, some better cause for such a nomination must be looked for-and it will more easily, I think, be sought than found. There is no allusion in the latter to Roman characters, government, or manners, nor to any thing that could give the smallest offence to the higher powers; so that any injury which might arise to the writer from the discovery of its contents, would alike take place, whether dated from Rome or from Babylon. Besides, such a motive as the fear of punishment could never have operated on the mind of an apostle, ever prepared to brave tortures, and death itself, in the service of his Divine Master. Had he really written from Rome, he would rather, I think, have taken occasion to record the success of his mission in that celebrated city, and to comfort and confirm the converts he was addressing by the example of their Roman brethren, by representing the interest they took in the increasing propagation of the Gospel. On the whole, there seems so little ground for disguise, that I fully coincide with those who think no disguise or concealment was intended, and that the Church of Babylon means some new Christian settlement in the Chaldean or Babylonian regions, which then might have been known by that name, and where St. Peter probably was, at or about the time of writing this Epistle.

SECOND EPISTLE OF ST. PETER.

The fourteenth verse of the first chapter informs us, that the life of the holy apostle was shortly to terminate, and therefore this Epistle must have have been written a little before his death. Then, if ever, he was surely in possession of that three-crowned supremacy, that sovereign jurisdiction over all the professors of Christ's religion, which Popes pretend to derive from his episcopate, as Primate and Metropolitan of the city of Seven Hills. Can we possibly believe that a letter addressed to all believers, a little before this Vicar of God on earth, this supreme ecclesiastical Potentate left that world over which he had been commissioned to rule with undisputed and infallible sway, should be destitute of the most trifling symptom of such authority, of the most remote allusion to such unlimited and absolute domination. Can we believe that such an occasion as the approaching departure of its head, would not have been employed to announce to the Christian world the necessity of that obedience which would so shortly become due to the lawful inheritor of all his privileges, that high and mighty potentate who was so soon to succeed him. For that obedience, there was nothing to prepare the minds of those who had been accustomed to see churches established in different places, under the particular care of ecclesiastical overseers, (Episcopi) and under the general and equal superintendance of apostolic ministry. The singular occurrences of the great day of Pentecost, and the important results which followed, must have been fresh in the recollec

tion of every convert. From these, if truly related by St. Luke, though they would collect enough to distinguish the early activity of St. Peter; yet they could gather no circumstances tending to prove his permanent authority over the other inspired teachers, who, though they might not have laboured alike, and though some might have been more successful or more respected than others; yet all stood upon equal ground as the commissioned disciples of their Divine Master. St. Paul even reproves those who were disposed to range themselves under a particular head or master-" who (says he) is Paul, or who is Apollos, (he had mentioned Cephas, or Peter before) but ministers by whom ye believed? I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase; so then is neither he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. "Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, Jesus Christ." There was therefore, I repeat, nothing to prepare the minds of believers for this new superstructure of Papal domination, which, according to Romanists, was laid by St. Peter before his death, upon his becoming Bishop of Rome. There was nothing either in the doctrine or the practice of the primitive Church which would suggest even the conception of so great a change. All upon earth were servants-Jesus Christ, and he only, was the head. Now, if St. Peter had purposed to make any change in the existing discipline, if he had conceived himself warranted to set aside the authority of the other apostles, to take the reins of ecclesiastical government into his own hands, and to establish a spiritual empire, which was to descend for ever to the Bishops of Rome as his lawful successors, he must have taken some occasion of notifying it to the persons concerned. It was not among the things they could learn from any existing modes of instruction; on the contrary, they must previously have unlearned much of what they had been taught; and it was so adverse to that natural independence of mind which every intelligent bosom wishes to cherish, that nothing but the specific assurance of a divine injunction would have procured its acceptance. Nothing less than the express authority of St. Peter himself, could have possessed sufficient weight to effect so great a revolution; and the declaration of that authority unquestionably would not have been wanting, had the establishment of it been contemplated by the holy apostle. Where then is this authority to be found? Where is the inspired document rendering it obligatory upon Christians, (for no authority of man will suffice) to believe that the doctrines and discipline of Christ's Church, as established by the preaching of the apostles, were to be reversed and superseded by a new order of things? Where is the inspired document conveying to St. Peter the primacy of the Roman Church? "He who believeth in him, and is baptized, shall be saved." Where is the document to show that this gracious declaration has been annulled—that the allegiance due to God has been transferred to his Vicar-and that no believer in Christ can be saved unless he believes also in the Pope. The last words of St. Peter, as I may justly call these his General

Epistles, are perfectly in unison with those of his Divine Master, the main purport of them being to impress with all the force of parental exhortation, the blessings of a lively faith, holiness of conversation, hatred of sin, purity of life, and steadfast reliance on the assistance of that heavenly grace, which, after enabling him to sustain all the perilous trials of this life, will finally perfect, confirm, and establish the true believer. In the way of negative proof, nothing can be stronger than the testimony here produced from St. Peter against the assumptions and innovations of St. Pope, and of direct Scriptural proof in favour of that authority, there is not a rational shadow. What then is the just conclusion? It is manifestly this and I give it not in my own weak words, but in those of an inspired apostle-(Epistle to the Galatians, 1st. c. 9th. v.)— "Though we, or an angel from heaver preach any other Gospel to you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other Gospel to you than that ye have received, let him be accursed." Have St. Paul, or St. Peter, St. John, or St. James, preached or taught any other Gospel or good tidings of salvation, than what were then received, and are now to be found in the divine pages of the New Testament? Certainly they have notand therefore the perusal of that divine book, which contains the charter of our salvation, is prohibited by the Church of Rome, under the ostensible pretext of its leading readers into error, but with a real apprehension of its guiding them to the truth. Her fear is not that its obscurities may confound the understanding, but that its plain, pure, and holy doctrines may enlighten it. It is indeed a well-founded terror, for the authority of the Church of Rome, and the authority of the Bible, are incompatible. He who pins his faith on the one, must of necessity renounce his allegiance to the other. They are rival candidates for power over the minds of believers. They cannot reign together; and therefore the Church of Rome, trembling for the loss of that influence, which a long course of ignorance and barbarism enabled her to attain, is straining every nerve, and employing every artifice to smother, to vilify, and to withhold that evangelical knowledge, to the popular absence of which she is indebted for the successful practice of lucrative frauds, the imposing show of superstitious ceremonies, the deceptious exhibition of lying miracles, the politic introduction of fictitious dogmas, the horrible establishment of tyrannical inquisitions, and the gradual acquisition of an usurped power, alike incompatible with the revealed word of God, and with the civil and religious liberties of mankind.

SENEX.

MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS.

PESTALOZZI AND HIS PLANS.

(Concluded from our last.)

When I was at Yverdon, Pestalozzi's school had temporarily lost much of its interest, by the secession of so many of his masters. Krusi and Tobler, Blockman, Buss, and Niederer, &c. were no longer his assistants: dissensions arose among themselves, and these all determined to quit the Institution, unless Pestalozzi dismissed Schmidt from his confidence, and from being economist to the house. I did not at first, of course, know who was in the wrong, nor how much each; but Pestalozzi adhered to Schmidt, and the rest all quitted. They all went to different places except Krusi and Niederer, who remained at Yverdon; and they all established different schools for themselves. The latter was master of the school for females there, which is mentioned in Jullien's book, and which was conducted still upon Pestalozzi's principles. As far as I was able to observe, in the classes of the Institution, some of the lessons were then not taught, in harmony with what I knew to be Pestalozzi's principles; but this certainly was only a casual defect, arising from some of the masters being but newly arrived, and not yet weaned from their pre-conceived opinions, and brought over to the simplicity of Pestalozzi's ideas, upon those branches, in which they had been accustomed to consider themselves, and in fact were, masters and proficients. The lessons in arithmetic and mathematics, to which I first attended, were highly satisfactory, though I was not able to follow them through half their calculations and demonstrations.

The first impression made by Pestalozzi's appearance and person, and by the apparent want of order in the classes, must, I should think, have been very unfavourable on those, who went merely from curiosity, and especially on the English, who expect neatness in dress, and conceive that order and silence are indispensable in a school-room. His person was so neglected, his long black locks mixed with grey, of which he seemed not to have lost a single hair, hanging down over his face and neck upon his shoulders, or stroked with his hand occasionally back behind his ears, to keep them from falling over his eyes, his neck uncovered, his collar and breast open, loose black trowsers, black worsted stockings and old shoes appearing from beneath a rough loose dark grey great coat, which was wrapped carelessly round him, and kept from falling open only by being now and then tucked under one arm, together with the great appearance of age in his countenance, which was excessively and universally wrinkled-his want of almost all his teeth, and his not shaving every day, must have been very unfavourable to the impression, which the presence of a man so eminent would have been likely otherwise to produce upon foreigners. When not speaking, or when

musing, his face was not pleasing, though probably, when young, it was, as his features were good; but when speaking, his expression was at least to me peculiarly agreeable, his eyes exceedingly lively, and his countenance very animated in conversation; his voice, as I said, perhaps the most agreeable, and most capable of expressing the various feelings with which he spoke, of any I had ever heard. His perfect unreserve of manner, however, would soon efface the impression made by his first appearance, and the stores of his mind, all native, practical, and applicable to use, would soon obliterate the recollection of the disculture of his person. The noise of his school-rooms also was very displeasing at first to a person, educated, as in England, to believe, under the penalty of the rod, that silence is the perfection of discipline in a school, and that all noise and speaking should be utterly banished from it; but it should be remembered, that it is an essential part of Pestalozzi's plan, that as many as possible of the children should be actively employed at once, and that simultaneous instruction of a considerable number is one of his principles, which renders it impossible that there should be such perfect silence in all the classes, as is witnessed in Lancasterian schools. Besides, there is always at our schools, one class at least in the room, namely, that which is immediately engaged in repeating its lessons, which is not kept in silence, but is necessarily allowed to speak; and it should be remembered, that each school-room at Pestolozzi's Institution contained but one class, or at most only different divisions of the same class, and that therefore his class-rooms, of which there were eight or nine, did not at all represent the single school-room of our large schools, where all the boys are aggregated together, but are in reality so many distinct schools, in which different branches are taught. In each of his rooms, there was but one class and its master. The discipline in these classes was by no means so severe as in our schools. I might almost say, that the child was allowed to attend or not, as he pleased or felt inclined at the time. Every effort was indeed made to render what he was learning interesting, so as to attract his attention; but if his body or attention were really wearied, or his mind unavoidably distracted, he was never compelled by severe punishment to exert himself, as is the case in common schools, nor disgusted with study, by being forced to it against his will. The occasional consequence of this certainly was, that a few of the children, in some of the classes where branches of learning were taught, for which they happened not to have a natural taste, seemed sometimes as inattentive as children in our schools, and that the idle sometimes disturbed the studious with impunity; but it was obvious to any one who watched the different classes, that on the whole, there was a much greater appearance of interest and attention in the pupils, than in common schools, and that they always seemed less wearied than other children, and more alive to what was going on. fact, as they changed the subject which they were studying, at the end of each hour, there was much less danger of their attention being fatigued, and they had always from five to ten minutes

In