y Scriptures, but rejected
every thing else, and especially prohibited the invocation of saints,
the worship of images, of relics, and of the holy Virgin. It taught
me that they worshipped God alone, through Jesus Christ his Son;
that their only hope of salvation was in his mercy, revealed in the
sacrifice of the cross of Christ; that they recognised no other
Mediator, no other Advocate, and no other Intercessor with God, than
him who gave himself as such, and who alone has the right of saying to
sinners, "Come unto me and I will give you rest." It taught me that
they believed no more than myself in purgatory, in the supremacy of
the pope, or in the real presence, &c. In short, it taught me that
the protestants received and professed no other than primitive
Christianity.

It would be impossible for me to tell you how rejoiced I was to find
my most intimate feelings expressed by a minister of a religion
founded on the Gospel. From this, and from all that your mother had
told me, I clearly saw that the Protestants were unjustly accused and
misrepresented by the wicked or the ignorant, and that they were in
truth those christians, according to the word of God, to whom the
promises of the Gospel are made. From that time I acknowledged them
as my true brethren in Christ Jesus, and my chief desire was to be
admitted into their communion.

I clearly foresaw, my children, that by making an open avowal of my
religious principles, and by publicly declaring myself a Protestant, I
should raise many violent passions against myself, and expose myself
to a thousand trials; but the truth was dearer to me than life, and
conscience spoke louder than the fear of man. I resolved, therefore,
without hesitation, to confess my Saviour before men, let the result
be what it might, and I immediately wrote to Mr. ----, the pastor
at Nerac, and the author of the letter I had read, requesting the
assistance of his experience and kind advice. In short, after I had
been eleven months in correspondence with this excellent minister of
the Lord; after I had visited him, in order to acquaint him more
fully with the state of my mind, and to enjoy the privilege of his
instruction; after I had frequently attended the performance of
Protestant worship and their different religious ordinances; after I
had carefully compared these, as well as their doctrines, with the
only standard of truth, the word of God, and was fully convinced of
their perfect accordan