est son to buy a loom; and with the labours of the mother, who works at her needle and takes in washing, the family are now supporting themselves in comfort."

Mr. and Mrs. S. were once very well off. He was the London agent of several Liverpool Merchants, and in a good way of business, until the failure of many of these merchants ruined him. They have outlived all their relations, and were found really starving at a poor lodging in the Hackney road. The man was suffering dreadfully from hernia, and a child was dying from want. Their wants were supplied. A situation was got for them, where they are comfortably off, and have conducted themselves to the entire satisfaction of their employers.

Oh! Christian Reader, be melted by these affecting accounts into gratitude for your own mercies, and into pity for the poor destitute. And should you wish to lend your aid to a Society which is doing so much good in London, the Editor will be very thankful to receive any sums however small, or cast off clothes, or pieces of flannel, print, &c. towards a package which he hopes to send to the Spitalfields Society early in December.- -Donations may be sent to W. W.CARUS WILSON, ESQ. M. P. Casterton, Kirkby Lonsdale.

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DYING JEW.

The REV. W. MARSH went to see a converted Jew on his death-bed, who spoke to him nearly as follows:

"I am a poor Jew, a miserable sinner. I bless the London Society; I bless God for the London Society. I thought as a Jew, that if I did not steal, and if I outwardly observed the commandments, I should go to heaven: and though I knew I could not do what the Jewish Scriptures required, I believed the mercy of God would pardon it: but, in general, I thought little on the subject. But now my trust is in my Saviour; and I adore the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It was not any merit in me which brought me to this knowledge; it was the Holy Spirit. Christ is my

foundation. He is a rock; I build my house on a rock. I am a great sufferer, but I bless God for my sufferings: they are for my good; and what are they, when compared with the sufferings of my Saviour for my sins? I went lately to receive the Sacrament for the last time. What a privilege to be admitted to the table of my Lord. Now I wish to die. Satan may tempt me. Now my faith in Christ does not waver. I hope to retain my senses to the last, and to acknowledge my Saviour. O my poor brethren! my heart is broken for my poor brethren! My heart's desire and prayer to God for them is, that they might be saved."

Whole chapters to be got off: Isaiah 1-12-25-26-30 -35-40-41-43-44-53-54-55-58-60-61.

Whole Epistles: Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians.

Just published,

SERMONS originally preached in the Parish Churches of Whittington and Tunstall. BY THE REV. W. CARUS WILSON, M. A. Vicar of Tunstall. Price 5s. 12mo. boards.

VIVIAN'S EXPOSITION OF THE CHURCH CATECHISM. New edition. Price 2s. bound.

Printed by A. Foster, Kirkby Lonsdale.

FRIENDLY VISITOR.

No. LXII.

NOVEMBER, 1823.

VOL. V.

Price one Penny, or 7s. per hundred.

PRINTED AND SOLD BY A. FOSTER, KIRKBY LONSDALE; And sold by Seeley, Fleet Street, London; Timms, Grafton Street, Dublin; the Religious Tract Society, at their Depository in East Register Street, Edinburgh; and by all other Booksellers:

Of whom may be had, in stiff printed covers, the four first Volumes; 18. 4d, each also the numbers for the four first years, bound in two volumes, sheep and lettered, 3s. 4d. each.

THE INQUISITION.

I proceed now to give some account of the Inquisition, which I led my readers to expect last month. This court was founded in the 12th century, by Father Dominic and his followers; who were sent by the Pope to excite the Catholic princes and people to root out heretics, to search into their number and quality, and to transmit a faithful account thereof to Rome. From the nature of their office, that is, to inquire after, and search out heretics, they were called the Inquisition. They established themselves in all Italy, and the dominions of Spain. Nor were their proceedings confined to Europe, as will hereafter be seen. This horrid tribunal has power to inflict the most grievous tortures and the most cruel deaths upon heretics. The people stand so much in fear of it, that parents deliver up their children, husbands their wives, and masters their servants, to its officers, without daring in the least to murmur. The prisoners are kept for a long time in cells and dungeons, 'till they themselves turn their own accusers; for they are neither told their crime, nor confronted with their witnesses.

L

As soon as they are put in prison, their friends go into mourning, and speak of them as dead, not daring to ask for their pardon, lest they should be brought in, as concerned with them. Sometimes when there is no shadow of proof against the criminal, he is set at liberty, after suffering the most cruel tortures, a tedious and dreadful imprisonment, and the loss of most of his goods. The sentence against the prisoners is pronounced publicly, and in a very solemn manner. On the day when they are called forth to appear before the Inquisitors, they know what they are to suffer by the clothes they wear. Those who appear in their own clothes, are discharged on payment of a fine. Those who have a strait yellow coat without sleeves, charged with St. Andrew's cross, have their lives, but forfeit all their effects. Those who have the resemblance of flames made of red serge, sewed upon their yellow coats, are pardoned, but threatened to be burnt, if ever they relapse. But those, who, besides these flames, have on their coats their own picture, surrounded with figures of gods, serpents, and devils, are condemned to expire in the flames. This gaol delivery is appointed as often as a competent number of prisoners are convicted of heresy; and it is called the Auto da Fè, or Act of Faith. In the morning, the prisoners, clad as just stated, go into the great hall, led by the dominican friars, and with wax candles in their hands. Those to be burnt have a Jesuit on each side, constantly preaching to them to recant. After the prisoners, comes a troop of servants on horseback; then the Inquisitors and other officers of the court, on mules: last of all, the Inquisitor General on a white horse, led by two men with black hats and green hatbands. A scaf. fold is erected, big enough for two or three thousand people; at one end of which are the inquisitors; at

the other end the prisoners. After a sermon, praising the Inquisition, and crying out against heretics, the sentences are given. The condemned are then loaden with chains, and carried back to prison. Some are strangled to death, and then burnt to ashes: others burnt alive. There are as many stakes set up, as there are prisoners to be burnt, with dry furze about them. The stakes are about four yards high, with a board near the top for the prisoner to sit upon. The Jesuits, after be seeching them to be reconciled to the church, part with them, telling them they leave them to the devil, who is standing at their elbow to receive their souls, and carry them with him into the flames of hell. On this a great shout is raised; and the cry is, "let the dogs beards be made;" which is done by thrusting flaming furzes, fastened to long poles, against their faces, till their faces are burnt to a coal; which is attended with the loudest shouts of joy. At last, fire is set to the furze at the bottom of the stake, over which the poor heretics are chained so high, that the top of the flame seldom reaches higher than the seat they sit on; so that they seem rather roasted than burnt. There cannot be a more dismal scene. The sufferers often cry out, "pity for the love of God;" yet it is beheld by all with transports of joy.

By the extreme agony on the rack, Mary Bohor quia, a young lady of noble birth, who was burnt for being a Lutheran, was driven to confess, that she had talked with her sister on religious subjects. This latter was soon seized; put into a loathsome dungeon, though far gone in her pregnancy; and a few days after she was delivered, tortured with such devilish rigour, that the ropes cut into the very bones of her arms, legs, and thighs. She soon died after this inhuman treatment.

A Bishop of Gloucester, speaking in a letter to