istic of its divine origin, the spirit and the law of love! It could not surely have been forgotten, that this was referred to, by the great teacher sent from God, as the most decisive test of resemblance to himself, and the most unequivocal proof of interest in his favour. He had recorded it as the distinct avowal of his design, that, he "came not to destroy men's lives but to save them," and the inference was therefore unquestionable, that intolerance and persecution in any form, and to any extent, are in eternal opposition to the spirit and genius of his religion.

It would have been well for the interests of the world, if the force of this conclusion had been felt and acted upon in the Christian Church. But it was soon forgotten, when the corruption of Christian doctrines and institutions had prepared the way for the most tremendous violations of "the law of love." The records of ecclesiastical history are stained with blood. Those offices, to the undertaking of which, nothing should have prompted, but pious zeal and holy benevolence, became by the appendages of worldly emolument, most attractive objects to unsanctified ambition. The possession of power uncounteracted by moral principle and unchecked by religious liberty, soon gave scope to the exercise of tyranny; and out of this spirit arose the usurped prerogatives and the unbounded domination of the See of Rome. The world "wondering at the beast," beheld with silent astonishment, the gradual encroachments of a spiritual empire, which by the refinement and extent of its policy, acquired and absorbed within itself the supreme jurisdiction of all affairs that upon any principle of construction could be reckoned spiritual and ecclesiastical; till it became at length, a maxim, supported by the authority of innumerable precedents, that errors of opinion were within the cognizance of the secular power, and exposed their

unfortunate adherents to fines, imprisonment and death.

Before the establishment of Christianity by Con-stantine, the emperors of Pagan Rome had frequently inflicted the most dreadful cruelties on their Christian subjects, and awfully verified the prediction of the Apostle, that "all who live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." I am not about to horrify you, by any recitals of those tragic acts which have fixed indelible infamy on the Roman name; but I ask, might it not have been expected, that as soon as Christianity acquired the ascendency, its mild and beneficent principles would have taught all in authority, to employ no weapon for its future propagation but persuasion and argument? And such unquestionably, would have been the result, had it been pure and uncorrupted Christianity. But it was degraded, perverted, and polluted, before it was rendered capable of conforming itself to the intolerance of Paganism. It was not Christianity that ascend edthe throne and issued edicts of bigotry, and required the subjection of faith and obedience at the point of the sword. It was a worldly religion, a religion secularised by its alliance with the civil power, a religion assuming the name of Christianity that perpetrated these deeds of darkness, and seemed rather the offspring of hell, than the descendant of heaven! The immediate origin of persecution in the nominally Christian Church, was the combina- tion of religion with secular power, by which the authority of the one became the instrument of enforcing the requisitions of the other. Separate any specific modification of Christianity or of religion from this alliance as its support, and you render the most intolerant system of opinions harmless. But incorporate religion with the state, so as to identify their interests, and unless the state make express provision for the liberty of dissentients, and

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absolutely refuse to recognise heresy and schism as crimes, that incorporation to a greater or less degree, will be persecuting and intolerant. When the emperor of Rome, after Christianity was the religion of the empire by the enactments of law, happened to be an Arian, the Arians persecuted the Trinitarians; and when he was reputedly orthodox, the heretics were in their turn the victims of persecution. Persecution was thought by all parties a duty and what our Lord foretold, of the sufferings of the primitive Christians, that "the time would come, when whosoever killed them, would think he did God service," was literally applicable to the spirit displayed by the " Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Church of Rome," towards all who seceded from her communion, or refused to come within her pale. So matters continued, till the time of the reformation; nor did the reformation at once and immediately reform this worst of heresies, the spirit and temper of persecution. Within the last century an amazing change has been effected in the general tone of thinking and feeling on this subject, in our own country. The frequent interchange of opinions, the liberty of proving and defeuding, without being led to a prison or a stake, as the only method of conversion, and the friendly collision of sentiment and feeling on the various topics of religious inquiry have tended to produce most beneficial results. The laws of Britain have distinctly and frequently recognised the sacred rights of conscience, and thus restrained the power of ecclesiastical intolerance; and the spirit of the law has happily diffused itself through the community.

* John xvi. 2. See an admirable Sermon, on this passage by Dr. Grosvenor, in the Salter's Hall Lectures, Vol. II—and an able and highly argumentative discourse by Dr. Doddridge, on "the absurdity and sin of Persecution." Works—Voł. III. p. 117. (Leeds Edit.)

It is not uncommon on political occasions, to find even Roman Catholics avowing the same general principles of religious liberty with those which pervade other classes of society; and I have no doubt that individuals among them are sincere in that avowal. But is not the Church of Rome wherever it is the established or predominant religion, an intolerant and a persecuting religion? And do not its essential principles produce and cherish this intolerance? It is no answer to these questions, to inform me, that any particular Catholic state allows of toleration, or that English Catholics disavow the imputation which these inquiries would affix to them. Political considerations may in numberless cases restrain and modify and soften the general, and otherwise invariable tendencies of the system. But what, I ask, are the principles of their canons and creeds and councils? They condemn in the first place the right of private judgment. In the next place, they consider every instance of deviation from their creed as heresy, and all without the pale of their Church, as Schismatics. In the third place, heresy and schism according to the uniform language of their councils are mortal sins; and unrepented of, will secure the inevitable damnation of those who commit them. In the fourth place, they always employ where they can, the power of the civil magistrate to assist them in putting into execution the sentence of their ecclesiastical courts. Hence the well known phrase" to deliver to the secular powers,' by which this transfer of their victims is described. Fifthly, they have most unequivocally recognised and established the principle of persecution in the the decrees of their general councils. In the fifth council of Toledo, the holy Fathers say-" we promulge this decree pleasing to God, that who"soever hereafter shall succeed to the kingdom, shall not ascend the throne, till he has sworn

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among other oaths, to permit no man to live in "his kingdom, who is not a Catholic: and if "after he has taken the reins of government, he "shall violate this promise, let him be anathema "maranatha in the sight of the eternal God and "become fuel of the eternal fire."*

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The Council of Lateran, under Pope Innocent III. decreed, that "all heresy, and heretics should "be anathematised, and these being condemned, "must be left to the secular power to be punished.” By the same council, magistrates and princes and all civil authorities are commanded to swear, that they will endeavour, bona fide, and with all their might, to exterminate from every part of their dominion, all heretical subjects, universally, that “are marked out by the Church." And if this engagement be not fulfilled, the council proceeds to absolve the subjects of such non-complying governments, from their allegiance.† The sanguinary codes of Justinian and Theodosius inflicted capital punishment on heretics, through the influence and instigation of the Roman priesthood. The writ for burning heretics, among the ancient precedents of our own law, and thought by some to be as old as the common law itself, may be traced to the general prevalence of the maxim, that heresy was a crime, which it was the province of the spiritual court to prove, and for which the secular power punished. The history of the Church of Rome, after its adulterous connection with the kingdoms of this world, affords one continued series of illustrations on this melancholy subject.

Hence I observe, sixthly, that Persecution has been practised in the Roman Church in every age. After the decree of the Lateran council, the Albi

* Caranza. Sum. Concil. p. 404.

+ Ibid. p. 602. Cited by Dr. Grosvenor, in the Sermon referred to-p. 12—14.

1 See Blackstone's Commentaries. Vol. iv. B. 4, C. 4.