Letters from an absent brother; containing some account of a tour through parts of the Netherlands, Switzerland, Northern Italy and France in ... 1823 ... Third edition ... enlarged

Preface

TO THE SECOND EDITION. The following pages comprise some par ticulars of a Tour from Calais through the Netherlands to Cologne; thence up the Rhine to Schaffhausen ; through Switzer land to Geneva ; thence by Chamouny, to Milan and Turin ; returning by Lyon and Paris to England. The reader must not expect in these Letters any thing of the studied and mi nute details of a regular tourist. The author makes no such pretensions. He travelled as an invalid and as a clergy man, after a life spent in theological pursuits, and his attention was most strongly a2

PREFACE.

TO THE directed to the beauties of nature, and to inquiries into subjects connected with mo rals and religion. His Letters are also the unpremeditated effusions of the moment, giving the first impressions made upon his mind by the scenes through which he passed, and by the information afforded him by the pious and learned persons to whom he was introduced. The facts which he records illustrative of the superstitions of Popery or the indifference of Protest antism, of the moral and social condition of the inhabitants of different countries, and of the estimate formed of spiritual and vital Christianity, he simply describes as they fell under his own observation. Perhaps he expresses himself with more surprise than the reader would expect on some occasions, from his previous recluse habits. Every thing was new to a stranger emerging from his study to travel for the first time in foreign lands.

V Some reasons may naturally be required for the publication of Letters so devoid of the ordinary claims to attention. The simple truth is, that having been ordered to travel abroad for his health last sum mer, he was accompanied by his family and an old college friend. On their arrival at Calais, his companion and his sons be gan to keep journals of their tour. From this attempt, his state of health exempted him. When the time, however, arrived for sending despatches to England, most of the party being engaged with their journals, he was unanimously requested to write the first Letter. A similar reason offered itself at each succeeding post ; and thus the author became, without the slight est previous intention, the English correspondent. He was encouraged to proceed by the accounts which he received from home, of the pleasure which his hasty sketches afforded to the absent members VI of his family.

He had soon a letter al ways in hand; and some of the journals gradually falling into arrear, his series of communications was almost the only record of the journey. By degrees, also, his health and spirits improved, and he took a livelier interest in his task, and executed it more in detail. He was, in conse quence, not at all aware of the length of his correspondence, till he saw it collected together on his return. In this totally unprepared and confi dential manner were these Letters written. The author communicated his first ideas of all he saw, and his opinions on various subjects, without the slightest suspicion that his Letters would be communicated beyond his own family. When he returned to England, he found, to his utter surprise, that they had been read by a considerable circle of friends, who were pleased to express them selves gratified with the facts he had col lected, and with the account of the state of religion abroad.

They soon became importunate with him to allow a few copies to be printed for private circulation. They admitted, indeed, that such free commu nications might not be fit for the public eye; but maintained, that no inconve nience could arise from a private edition of them. After much delay, and with extreme reluctance, the author yielded to this importunity. And the consequence, which perhaps he ought to have antici pated, has followed; he finds himself com pelled to consent to the present publication. The copies of the Letters have been, in fact, so widely circulated, as to make further concealment fruitless, if not im possible. In the meantime, the author has re ceived from various friends on whose judgment he has been accustomed to rely, en couraging opinions as to the work itself. They have stated to him, that such a publication could scarcely fail of being ac ceptable to a large class of readers, who prefer a simple and unadorned narrative of such a journey, to the elaborate and studied productions of a more professed tourist.

If the public should judge that this opinion is founded in truth, the author will have less reason to regret the strong necessity to which only he was disposed to yield. The alterations and additions which he has made in carrying the work through the press, are not inconsiderable. The Letters are substantially the same; but many of the domestic occurrences and personal allusions are omitted, a few inaccuracies are corrected, and some additional facts and illustrations are introduced; so that the general effect is, as the author hopes, strengthened and improved. He has also inserted a few explanatory Notices, and has closed the series with a new Letter, comprising some general reflections on the whole tour. There may, after all, be considerable difference of opinion as to the expediency of the present publication.

The author confesses that it does not appear to him to be inconsistent with the character of a minister of religion to publish a familiar, and even imperfect, account of a tour, rendered indispensable by indisposition, if the tendency of it is to assist the English Protestant to associate religious and moral X

PREFACE.

TO THE ends with the pursuit of health or improve ment in foreign travels. The motive, however, which determined him to yield without further delay to the necessity above adverted to, was, that a long state of painful infirmity had laid him aside from all public duties, and that, in giving a corrected edition of the following Letters, he thought he should be filling up, not altogether unprofitably, the hours of languor and suffering, and be perhaps " occupying with his single talent" as an invalid, at a time when he could not be more actively employed as a minister of the Gospel. He considered, besides, that if the serious cast of his work should prove beneficial to any of his countrymen travelling abroad, he should not be really chargeable with deserting, in the publication of it, his appropriate sphere of duty.

He therefore commends this little work, with all its imperfections, to the blessing of God, the giver of all good ; without whom the most elaborate pro duction must fail of any salutary effect; but whose approbation can prosper even the humblest effort to honour him, and to promote the welfare of mankind. April 20, 1824.

PREFACE.

TO THE THIRD EDITION. The author has to acknowledge, with much gratitude, the unexpected and rapid sale of his small work. In preparing a new edition of it for the press, he has employed all the leisure he could command, in cor recting such inaccuracies as have been pointed out to him by others, or have occurred to his own mind. He has also aimed at rendering his Letters somewhat less unworthy of public attention, by in serting some additional incidents and con versations which he thought might have a beneficial tendency. With the same view he has offered several further reflections

PREFACE.

TO THE on subjects connected with religion and morals. The work, however, though very considerably enlarged, and, as he trusts, im proved, still remains for substance the same; and he has the greatest need to cast himself on the candour of the reader for that indul gence, which the circumstances detailed in the preface to the second edition — and which his more intimate friends know to be minutely true — may seem to warrant. Had the author entertained the slightest sus picion that his correspondence would ever have been published, he should have dis posed of much of his time abroad in a man ner very different from what he did. He now regrets a variety of opportunities for in formation of which he failed to avail himself — but he does not know whether he ought to say he regrets this — for the truth is, that if any apprehension had crossed his mind that his familiar Letters, would have been forced before the tribunal of the public, he never should, he never could, have written them at all.

He is aware that they can furnish but little instruction to the intelligent tra veller. If they are in any measure inte resting to that far larger class of persons — especially young persons — who have either not visited the Continent at all, or have not read much on the countries through which they have passed, it is more than he can reasonably desire. Other readers must be referred to the professed tourist, or the writers on Geography and History. If the peculiar circumstances, then, under which these slight Letters were written, and the class of readers for whom they are designed, be borne in mind, the author is not aware that any further observations, in the way of preface, are now necessary. But as he can scarcely look for

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TO THE XVI such an exercise of candour generally, he will just remark, that the abruptness of his style in passing on from subject to sub ject, and the familiarity with which the solemn topics of religion may seem, in con sequence of this, to be sometimes treated, is almost the unavoidable result of such an unpremeditated work. He has, in deed, taken considerable pains in the pre sent edition to omit expressions of too col loquial a cast, and to soften the rapidity of the transitions where the subject of religion was even incidentally introduced. But he is far from being sure that he has suc ceeded. The Letters were penned with the utmost precipitation, and in entire confidence ; and as they were often ten or twelve days in hand, and embrace a multitude of diversified subjects, it is scarcely possible to remove what some readers may consider an undue conjunction and admix ture of topics.

In this respect he is far from standing on his defence. He may also have frequently erred in other respects against the laws of good taste in writing — and he has no doubt he has so erred. All this, and much more, is only saying that his series of hurried Letters does not par take of the qualities of a finished composi tion. The author, however, ventures to hope that no objections will be raised, in consequence of such defects, against the importance which he attaches to the principles of religion in themselves, or against the frequency and warmth with which he commends them on various occasions to others. To make such objections is quite an other thing from condemning the harshness of a transition, or arraigning a fault in matters of taste. We need only refer to the constant tenor of the Holy Scriptures, and the deliberate judgment of the bestChrisvol. i. h

PREFACE.

TO THE tians in all ages, in order to show that religion should fill and possess the whole heart. Surely if any thing distinguishes a merely cold accuracy of sentiment from spiritual and vital Christianity, it is this very point. It is easy to admit the truth of every doctrine of Scripture, and yet follow the world, give our affections to the things of time, be supremely desirous of the applause of our fellow-creatures, and shun reproach for the name and doctrine of Christ. A religion which seldom ap pears but on public and fixed occasions, and which mixes but little with the habi tual actions of the life, is far from re sembling that holy, animating principle which the Scriptures are designed to im plant, and of which they furnish such splendid examples. A mind penetrated with the astonishing truths of revelation, and grateful for the inestimable blessings of pardon and grace, cannot be indifferent.

Lukewarm ness in such a case is treachery. The world asks nothing more of us than to be tame and heartless in our religion. Gratitude and love to God, if genuine, must and will appear in their natural fruits. Nor can even a sincere regard to our fellow-creatures consist with the silence on the things of eternity and the soul, which is now so much extolled as a dictate of prudence. The heart which is at all moulded to de votion, cannot but be recalled to its great object by the diversified scenes which arise around it. And the new situations and circumstances of a foreign tour will neces sarily excite, in an unusual degree, some of these better feelings of piety and thankfulness. The author is deeply convinced, that our danger in the present day, is not that b2 XX of regarding God too much, in our travels and our various other concerns, but too little.

If we are to " love God with all our heart, and soul, and mind, and strength/' the first and spontaneous associations of our ideas will connect us with Him ; and our most familiar trains of thought will in voluntarily lead us to something relating to his providence, his commands, his mercy, his wrath, his holiness, his glory. That is, the governing affection will in this, as in every other case, draw after it all the rest. The conversation with individuals, whether at home or abroad, will accord ingly assume the same tone ; and the free and unpremeditated Letters written under the influence of such a principle, will, and must, and ought, to partake of a like cha racter. All this is so indisputable in the view of every thoughtful Christian, that the author is almost ashamed to dwell on such a point.

He is persuaded, that no one admitting the truth of revelation, would have ever objected to religion's occupying all our best time and thoughts, if there were not in the minds of men that secret alienation from the love of God, which the Scriptures lay down as a primary fact in the history of our fallen nature, and which is the source of so many other fatal inconsistencies. It is very possible, indeed, to err by submitting to the public eye hasty effusions in which religious topics are introduced injudiciously and feebly; and the author is far from saying that he may not have been guilty of this fault in the present publication. But, without including his own small work in the vindication, he would beg leave to say, that mistakes in judgment of this nature ought not to be too severely visited.

Men make similar mistakes on all other subjects, without incurring contempt. Each one speaks and writes according to his measure of natural talents, and acquired faculties and powers. Piety does not confer these adventitious endowments, nor exempt from the ordinary consequences of defects in them. The paramount duty of connecting the great Author of our being with the perpe tual blesssings of his bounty, is not to be lightly sacrificed to inferior and doubtful questions. The heart which overflows with love to God and man, though it may incur some reproach for minor errors, is infi nitely more pleasing to God, than a judgment however refined, if employed to dis guise irreligious principles. But the author has insensibly ad vanced towards a grave and important question, and he almost shrinks from the consideration which it seems to demand.

The truth is, that his small work has excited anew those objections against what is termed in reproach, Evangelical Religion, which have in all ages followed the sincere profession of the Gospel. Such objections rest on the fundamental distinction between vital Christianity and the mere external forms of it. They have been answered a thousand times — they answer themselves, when the mind is once duly in earnest in the humble study of the Bible. As, however, the author has proceeded so far, he will go on to offer some suggestions on the great topic which he is quite aware is virtually involved in what he has been stating. It is objected, then, that by this warmth in religion, and the habitual lan guage which we hold concerning it, we claim an immediate and peculiar protection of the Deity, and place the proof of the correctness of our doctrines and practice, not on their conformity to the Holy Scriptures, but on abstrac tions, imaginations, and feelings ; that we presume to invest ourselves with a sort of infallibility, and neglect the common means of moral culture and improvement; and are thus steeled against the force of those reasonings which might reduce us to a more sober habit of thought — that, in short, we are actuated by a spirit of party which has its own terms, insignia, and objects, distinct from those which neces sarily accompany genuine Christianity.* * The above charges have been boldly advanced in a celebrated literary work, whose geneial attachment to our civil and ecclesiastical establishments cannot be doubted, and the wide circulation of whose quarterly publication lends it an influence, which its articles on the subject of religion are very often far from meriting.

The gross mis-statements it has lately made on the affecting malady of Cowper, are not more pernicious, than its ignorance of facts and deplorable defect of just reasoning, in two or three other papers on the weighty question of what is called tbe evangelical doctrines. To these vague accusations it might be sufficient to reply generally, that every one of them rests on misapprehension or pre judice. No such things are done. No such undue heat is excited. No such claims are asserted. No such party is formed. The views of those ministers and pri vate Christians, whom the author sup poses to be attacked in these accusations, are precisely the same, as to all substantial truths, with those taken by the Universal Church of Christ, — with those which Au gustine vindicated in the fifth century, and the noble army of Reformers in the sixteenth.

Call them by what name you please, they are the old verities of the Bible, and the foundation of the Reformed churches. The utter fall and corruption of man by sin — his reasonable and account able nature — his impotency of himself to

PREFACE.

TO THE what is spiritually good — the doctrine of the ever-blessed Trinity — the meritorious sacrifice of Jesus Christ — the gracious operations of the Holy Ghost in regene rating and sanctifying the heart — the duty and necessity of real repentance — justification by faith only — the indispensable obligation of good works and of a life of prayer, watchfulness, and separation from the evils of the world — the ascription of our salvation entirely to the merciful will of God — the authority and sufficiency of Holy Scripture — the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment — these are the commanding features of Christianity, of which there is no better summary in the author's opinion, than the Articles, Homi lies, and Liturgy of the Church of Eng land. But the objection is not commonly urged against these doctrines thus largely stated, but to the application of them, to the urgent manner in Avhich they are enforced, and the commanding influence they are required to have over the heart and conduct.

This is only in other words to maintain, that for men to act fully on the great principles of religion as those who solemnly believe them to be true, and know they must be judged according to them at the last day, is an extravagant course of conduct; a position which common sense and the very first dictates of conscience may refute. The doctrines of Christianity are not a speculation, but deep practical principles — they are to be felt as well as understood — and when they are felt, they produce a corresponding effect on the character — they place eternity full before the conscience — they lay man prostrate in penitent contrition — they raise him with the hope of pardon and sal vation through a Redeemer — they require,

PREFACE.

TO THE XXVIII they encourage, they produce new and holy views and pursuits, pains and pleasures, fears and joys. Till they do this, they do nothing; and that they may do this, the Holy Spirit sheds his grace like dew upon the church, to soften, and fertilize, and bless it. And the sincerity and ardour with which the ministers of religion press these truths on the attention of mankind, is one of the chief means which the Holy Spirit employs in his sacred operations. But the doctrine of the particular pro vidence of God is accused as enthusiastic, and we are said to claim an immediate and peculiar protection of the Deity. Un doubtedly we hold the scriptural doctrine of an over-ruling Providence. We believe that " God is about our path, and about our bed, and spieth out all our ways" — that *f the way of man is not in himself, that itis not in man that walketh to direct 1H1RD EDITION.

XXIX his steps" — that " the Lord ordereth a good man's goings, and maketh his way acceptable to himself" — that " not a spar row falleth to the ground without our Father" — that " the hairs of our head are all numbered" — and that " his angels are ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to them that are heirs of salvation." Un doubtedly we not only admit these encou raging truths, but believe, embrace, rely on them under all the sorrows of life. Un doubtedly we endeavour to give full life and efficacy to them, and bring them into the habitual tenour of the spirit and con duct. But then the whole Bible proceeds on this doctrine of a particular providence. One essential difference between Scripture history and every other, is, that the his tory of Scripture represents the world as God's world, to use Bishop Butler's ex pression — where God is the author of

PREFACE.

TO THE every thing, and all the hearts of men are controlled by Him according to his supreme pleasure. The Bible lifts up the vail which shrouds human affairs, and shows us God's hand at work where we are accustomed to see only the conflict and confusion of human passions. The histories of Abraham, of Jacob, of David, assign all events, even the smallest, to the divine will: and the devotional and prophetical parts of the Old Testament are comments on the historical in the same view ; whilst the New Testament joins on upon the Old, and exhibits the same pro vidence as directing all the various and most minute occurrences in the lives of our Lord and the Apostles. The same providence over-rules all things in every age — or the promises of God to the church have failed. We have not indeed now the inspired comment on the designs of this providence, we have no miraculous directions of the Spirit in concurrence with it, we have no assurance of the results of each particular under taking.

And herein lies much of the distinction between Patriarchs and Apo stles, and the ordinary Christian. The scrutiny of the Divine Providence is as minute and penetrating now as in former times; but in the interpretation of its purposes, we have no longer an extra ordinary guidance — nor do we claim any. We follow the rule of the moral law of God, and the apparent duty resulting from the combination and comparison of all our circumstances. We act un der the direction of ordinary Christian prudence in the choice of our measures. We wait for the long event of things in order to infer the will of God. We diligently notice all the numerous incidental points which concur to a lawful end, in order to warrant even any probable con clusion as to the divine purposes therein. But this is no more than to say, that the Christian now lives in an ordinary period of the Church.

Still the doctrine of a particular providence is not less his comfort and stay. He is not less sure that nothing escapes the vigilance, no thing eludes the power, nothing defeats the designs of his Almighty Father and Friend. He is not less persuaded that the great God sits, as a moral Governor, on " the circle of the heavens," and ruleth by an ever wakeful providence all the affairs of men — that he stoops to the smallest and most inconsiderable matters, as well as regulates and comprehends the greatest — that he provides for the growth of the lily, whilst he orders and marshals the stars — that he guards the humblest individual Christian as " the apple of an eye;" and at the same time stills, in his general and universal govern ment, " the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves, and the tumult of the people" — that to Him nothing is great, nothing is little — that all space is one undivided point, and all time, one eternal now.

In contemplating this stupendous agency of the Divine hand, we have only to avoid the dangers before alluded to. The infirmity of man may mistake or abuse the purest truths. We must check every appearance of presumption. We must not allow any concurrence of circumstances to induce us to depart from duties of primary obligation, arising from the revealed will of God. Nothing in itself morally wrong, can become right, because Providence may seem to us to favour it. We must also guard against VOL. I. c hastily interpreting the designs of God as favouring our own projects in the course of our affairs, however just and good in themselves. We must likewise be particularly cau tious, in applying the doctrine of God's providence in a marked and express man ner, to those slight, and comparatively trifling, occasions which are of perpetual occurrence in human life.

The reason is, that if we act so, we give them a disproportionate importance, and distort our view, by an attention to small things, from a due regard to much greater ones. A general feeling of dependance and gra titude, in this respect, is all that, with our contracted minds, we seem capable of exercising aright. We should also abstain from those terms and expressions in speak ing of the providence of God, which may reasonably endanger the solemnity of religion, and expose it to contempt and ridicule. But these are merely sugges tions as to the proportion and manner of bestowing our thoughts on the proceed ings of the divine providence, and are designed to strengthen, not diminish, the faith with which we hold the truth itself, and apply it wisely and habitually to all the course of human events.

Such cau tions are constantly given by the minis ters of religion, not only as to this, but also as to every other great doctrine of the Bible; they clearly prove that we do not abuse these doctrines in the manner objected; and therefore they confirm what we assert as to the purity of our general principles. But I pass on to another class of objections. It is said that we place the proof of the correctness of what we believe and practice on feelings, and imaginations, c

PREFACE.

TO THE and abstractions, and not on their con formity to the Holy Scriptures. A charge utterly groundless. The contrary is so entirely the case, that there is nothing on which we more insist, than on the danger of relying on affections and feelings, to the exclusion of the written word of God. The proof of the correctness of what we believe and practice is the Holy Scrip tures, and the Holy Scriptures only. We have no other criterion, no other standard — " To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this rule, it is because they have no light in them." Nor is it easy to divine from what mis take this singular charge has arisen, unless it be from confounding the due use of the affections in subserviency to holy, en lightened reason and faith, with the wild dominion of those affections when left without guidance or restraint — two things about as distinct as any that can be named in the compass of practical theology.

Certainly we maintain that the affections, that all the affections of the soul, must be engaged in religion, as well as the understanding and will. We maintain, that we are to love God as well as obey him, and in order that we may obey him; we maintain that the infinite benefits of Christ warrant, demand, excite, enkindle correspondent acts of acknowledgment, gratitude, love. We maintain that religion is a spiritual thing, the offspring of grace, implanted by the Holy Ghost, and rising far above morals, and nature, and philosophy, and the unassisted powers of man. But then we constantly appeal to the Holy Scriptures as the authority, and standard, and rule, to which all these affections are to be referred, and by which they are to be judged. And the proof of

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TO THE xxxvm the correctness of this judgment we ulti mately place, as the Bible does, in the proper fruits of holy tempers, obedient conduct, watchful self-denial, every good word and work. We esteem the affections and require the exercise of them, in proportion as they produce, and because they were designed by our Creator to pro duce, the vigorous efforts of a righteous and benevolent life. We only transfer them from the service of sin to the obedience of God — that is, we do not spike the cannon and dismantle the walls of the subdued fortress; but make them avail able to new uses, and direct them against the common enemy. The charge of assuming a species of infallibility may be refuted in a sentence. For who ever claimed any thing like an in fallible accuracy of judgment in the things of religion?