decayed boroughs of this country to the representative principles of the English constitution.* The people who were empowered to choose their own officers were also required to act with them in enforcing the acknowledged laws of Scripture, relating to the admission or exclusion of members, and to every matter of discipline or worship. This is evident from the recorded instructions of the Saviour, from the epistle to the Corinthians, and from many other sources.† But to the few and simple statements of the Gospel on the points adverted to, the most artful glosses were after a while annexed, and canons and decrees like the sand of the sea for multitude. As the commandments of men were thus multiplied, the enforcement of them came to be connected exclusively with the clerical office. Power usurped is commonly power abused, and in this instance it was pre-eminently so. Far from being satisfied with those spiritual censures which formed the only weapons of the primitive church, it was affirmed by these selfconstituted legislators, that the sword of their anathema not only separated its victim from the fellowship of the faithful on earth, but as certainly from the communion of the blessed in heaven. * On this subject the reader may consult Mosheim, I. 99. Gibbon, II. 324. III. 282-285. Fleury's Discourses, 349. Dupin, 28, 112. The following passage from Father Paul on Benefices, I must be allowed to quote: "The order of admitting none to any ecclesiastical function, except by an election of all the faithful in a general assembly, was inviolably observed, and so continued for about two hundred years." c. III. p. 3. See also c. VII. and XV. for proofs of the prevalence of the custom to a much later period. † Matt. xviii. 15-17. 1 Cor. v. 2 Cor. ii. 1-11. Nor was it enough that the disobedient should be thus doomed to perish everlastingly when this fleeting life has closed, but in the mean time the unhappy delinquent was exposed to confiscations and exile, to imprisonment, torture, and death. Slight too were the aberrations of conduct or opinion which frequently brought these terrific penalties along with them; and what added not a little to the turpitude of the whole, was the consummate hypocrisy with which these Christian pastors continued to affirm, that their weapons were not carnal,-the sword of the magistrate, though employed at their bidding, being still his sword, not theirs! Here the contrast between the Christianity of the Scriptures and that of the Vatican is violent and revolting. We are here called to turn from the shepherd that fosters to the wolf that devours. Two classes of maxims are before us: the one breathing a spirit of justice and charity altogether unearthly, the other no less distinguished by a spirit of usurpation and revenge-the one conferring on man the noblest impressions his spirit can receive, the other fixing on his nature the foulest blot with which it has been stained. The first Christians used the Gospel; the papal priesthood abused it; and while the former rose above humanity, the latter fell below it. The bare mention of the Waldenses, the Inquisition, and St. Bartholomew, is enough to give to the strongest language that may be employed on this subject, a character of truth and soberness. 5. From the papal apostacy, as affecting the Christian polity, we proceed, in the last place, to consider its influence on the Christian ritual. Under this head we must include the sacraments of the church, as well as the more general exercises of prayer and praise. To the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's supper, five others have been added by the church of Rome, as no less important; and while nothing can be conceived more simple or rational than the services of this character enjoined in the Scriptures, scarcely any thing can be more mystical or puerile than are those in the rubric of the Romanist. We shall only advert to the rite of baptism, from which it will be easy to judge as to the character of the rest. In the place of the simple application of water to the body, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, there are, in the first place, certain persons, called sponsors, or godfathers and godmothers, who are to be interrogated. These having promised to live and die catholics, presently demand for the infant, the gift of "faith." The priest then breathes three times on the face of the child, uttering the words, "Come out of this child, thou evil spirit, and make room for the Holy Ghost." The sign of the cross is then made on the forehead and the breast. The salt of wisdom is then placed in the mouth, and afterwards spittle is rubbed around it by the thumb of the priest. While the holy oil is preparing, the upper part of the child is made bare by the sponsors, who hold it over the font with the head eastward. Certain questions being put and answered, the priest pours the water Nor was it enough that the disobedient should be thus doomed to perish everlastingly when this fleeting life has closed, but in the mean time the unhappy delinquent was exposed to confiscations and exile, to imprisonment, torture, and death. Slight too were the aberrations of conduct or opinion which frequently brought these terrific penalties along with them; and what added not a little to the turpitude of the whole, was the consummate hypocrisy with which these Christian pastors continued to affirm, that their weapons were not carnal,-the sword of the magistrate, though employed at their bidding, being still his sword, not theirs! Here the contrast between the Christianity of the Scriptures and that of the Vatican is violent and revolting. We are here called to turn from the shepherd that fosters to the wolf that devours. Two classes of maxims are before us: the one breathing a spirit of justice and charity altogether unearthly, the other no less distinguished by a spirit of usurpation and revenge-the one conferring on man the noblest impressions his spirit can receive, the other fixing on his nature the foulest blot with which it has been stained. The first Christians used the Gospel; the papal priesthood abused it; and while the former rose above humanity, the latter fell below it. The bare mention of the Waldenses, the Inquisition, and St. Bartholomew, is enough to give to the strongest language that may be employed on this subject, a character of truth and soberness. 5. From the papal apostacy, as affecting the Christian polity, we proceed, in the last place, to consider its influence on the Christian ritual. Under this head we must include the sacraments of the church, as well as the more general exercises of prayer and praise. To the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's supper, five others have been added by the church of Rome, as no less important; and while nothing can be conceived more simple or rational than the services of this character enjoined in the Scriptures, scarcely any thing can be more mystical or puerile than are those in the rubric of the Romanist. We shall only advert to the rite of baptism, from which it will be easy to judge as to the character of the rest. In the place of the simple application of water to the body, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, there are, in the first place, certain persons, called sponsors, or godfathers and godmothers, who are to be interrogated. These having promised to live and die catholics, presently demand for the infant, the gift of "faith." The priest then breathes three times on the face of the child, uttering the words, "Come out of this child, thou evil spirit, and make room for the Holy Ghost." The sign of the cross is then made on the forehead and the breast. The salt of wisdom is then placed in the mouth, and afterwards spittle is rubbed around it by the thumb of the priest. While the holy oil is preparing, the upper part of the child is made bare by the sponsors, who hold it over the font with the head eastward. Certain questions being put and answered, the priest pours the water |