In those pages you will not learn to hate the Roman Catholics. No! But you will learn to be more than ever watchful in guarding the precious treasures of Freedom bestowed upon you by your fathers. You will learn never to let them fall into the hands of those who, with the sacred name of Liberty on their lips, and the mask of Liberty on their faces, are sworn to destroy all Liberty.
TO ALL THE FAITHFUL MINISTERS OF THE GOSPEL,
I also, dedicate this book.
Venerable Ministers of the Gospel! Rome is the great danger ahead for the Church of Christ, and you do not understand it enough.
The atmosphere of light, honesty, truth and holiness in which you are born, and which you have breathed since your infancy, makes it almost impossible for you to realize the dark mysteries of idolatry, immorality, degrading slavery, hatred of the Word of God, concealed behind the walls of that modern Babylon. You are too honest to suspect them; and your precious time is too much taken up by the sacred duties of your ministry, to study the long labyrinth of argumentations which form the bulk of the greater number of controversial books. Besides that, the majority of the books of controversy against Rome are of such a dry character that, though many begin to read them, very few have the courage to go to the end. The consequence is an ignorance of Romanism which becomes more and more deplorable and fatal, every day.
It is ignorance which paves the way to the triumph of Rome, in a near future, if there is not a complete change in your views, on that subject.
It is that ignorance which paralyzes the arm of the Church of Christ, and makes the glorious word “Protestant” senseless, almost a dead and ridiculous word. For who does really protest against Rome, to-day? where are those who sound the trumpet of alarm?
When Rome is striking you to the heart by cursing your schools and wrenching the Bible from the hands of your children; when she is not only battering your doors, but scaling your walls and storming your citadels, how few dare go to the breach and repulse the audacious and sacrilegious foe?
Why so? Because modern Protestants have not only forgotten what Rome was, what she is, and what she will forever be: the most irreconcilable and powerful enemy of the Gospel of Christ; but they consider her almost a branch of the church whose corner-stone is Christ.
Faithful ministers of the Gospel! I present you this book that you may know that the monster Church of Rome, who shed the blood of your forefathers, is still at work, to-day, at your very door, to enchain your people to the feet of her idols. Read it, and for the first time, you will see the inside life of Popery with the exactness of Photography. From the supreme art with which the mind of the young and timid child is fettered, enchained and paralyzed, to the unspeakable degradation of the priest under the iron heel of the bishop, everything will be revealed to you as it has never been before.
The superstitions, the ridiculous and humiliating practices, the secret and mental agonies of the monks, the nuns and the priests, will be shown to you as they were never shown before. In this book, the sophisms and errors of Romanism are discussed and refuted with a clearness, simplicity and evidence which my twenty-five years of priesthood only could teach me. It is not in boasting that I say this. There can be no boasting in me for having been so many years an abject slave of the Pope. The book I offer you is an arsenal filled with the best weapons you ever had to fight, and, with the help of God, conquer the foe.
The learned and zealous champion of Protestantism in Great Britain Rev. D. Badenoch, who has revised the manuscript, wrote to a friend: “I do not think there is a Protestant work more thrilling in interest and more important at the present time. It is not only full of incidents, but also of arguments, on the side of truth with all classes of Romanists, from the bishops to the parish priests. I know of no work which gives so graphically the springs of Roman Catholic life, and at the same time, meets the plausible objections to Protestantism in Roman Catholic circles. I wish with all my heart that this work would be published in Great Britain.”
The venerable, learned and so well known Rev. Dr. Kemp, Principal of the Young Ladies’ College of Ottawa, Canada, only a few days before his premature death, wrote: “Mr. Chinqiuy has submitted every chapter of his ‘Fifty Years in the Church of Rome’ to me: I have read it with care and with the deepest interest; and I commend it to the public favor in the highest terms. It is the only book I know that gives anything like a full and authentic account of the inner workings of Popery on this continent, and so effectively unmasks its pretence to sanctity. Besides the most interesting biographical incidents, it contains incisive refutations of the most plausible assumptions and deadly errors of the Romish Church. It is well fitted to awaken Protestants to the insidious designs of the arch-enemy of their faith and liberties, and to arouse them to a decisive opposition. It is written in a kindly and Christian spirit, does not indulge in denunciations, and, while speaking in truth, it does so in love. Its style is lively and its English good, with only a delicate flavor of the author’s native French.”
TO THE BISHOPS, PRIESTS AND PEOPLE OF ROME,
this book is also dedicated.
In the name of your immortal souls, I ask you, Roman Catholics, to read this book.
By the mercy of God, you will find, in its pages, how you are cruelly deceived by your vain and lying traditions.
You will see that it is not through your ceremonies, masses, confessions, purgatory, indulgences, fastings, etc., you are saved. You have nothing to do but to believe, repent and love.
Salvation is a gift! Eternal life is a gift! Forgiveness of sin is a gift! Christ is a gift!
Read this book, presented by the most devoted of your friends, and, by the mercy of God, you will see the errors of your ways—you will look to the GIFT—you will accept it—and in its possession you will feel rich and happy for time and eternity.
SPECIAL NOTICE TO NEW EDITION.
Since the publication of the second edition of “Fifty Years in the Church of Rome,” the incendiary torch of the foe has twice reduced into ashes the electrotype plates, with many volumes already printed, and about to be delivered to subscribers.
Though those two disasters have completely ruined me financially, they have not discouraged me, for my trust was in God, and in Him alone. Relying on His divine and paternal protection, I offer this New Edition to my brethren, with the prayerful hope that the Good Master will bless it for His glory, and the good of His elect, wherever it may go.
I have no words to sufficiently bless the friends who have extended to me a helping hand to raise the book from its fiery grave; and I cannot sufficiently thank the Press, both religious and secular, of Europe and America, for the kind appreciation given, almost everywhere, to my humble labor.
May this book, with the help of God, be the means of giving liberty to those who are held in the bondage of ignorance, superstition and idolatry, is the sincere desire of their friend,
C. CHINIQUY.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
