scorned to accept money to confer | And it is partly through the merits 66 66 a Christian grace, with the words, 'Thy money perish with thee, be'cause thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money" (Acts viii. 20). Nor did he pardon any one, for he said, "Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and Pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee" (verse 22). Nor would he allow any one to fall down at his feet, for he raised Cornelius from that position, saying, “Stand up; I myself also am a man" (Acts x. 26). Nor would Paul and Barnabas, on the occasion mentioned, allow the same to be done, for we are told that when the people would have rendered them divine honours, as understood among heathens, they rent their clothes, and ran in among the people, crying out, and saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein (Acts xiv. 14, 15). While St. Peter permitted no one to fall down at his feet, but made him stand up, his socalled successor allows and expects, if he does not command, even the kings of the earth to kiss his foot, or rather his big toe, as well as that of the statue of "Blessed Peter."* And, although no one doubts that a living lion is better than a dead dog, Romanists "worship the Saints," who for anything they know never were saints, some of them being of doubtful, others of hateful character, and some of them never having had any existence as saints or sinners. *It is interesting to notice the light in which the old Pagans would have regarded such an act of homage, if rendered to one of their emperors; for, says Plu tarch :—" If you were commanded to kiss Cæsar's feet, you would think it an outrage and an excess of tyranny. What else is this than slavery?" and intercession of such uncertain beings that Romanists expect to get to heaven. Not content with that, they will not even let their bones rest in peace, or the rags that covered them while on earth or in the tomb, but use them (or substitutes for them) for conferring benefits on the living; while they pray to the supposed saints in heaven, imagining that they can hear and attend to the wants of countless millions at the same time, as if they were omnipresent and omniscient, and therefore gods. The Apostles would receive no veneration or worship from any one while on earth, for they were engaged in too holy a cause, and were of too elevated character to look for that, or approve of it after death, or perhaps even give a thought to the estimation in which they would personally be held among men. We are told in the Scriptures that the Church is "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets," that is, on what they taught, "Jesus Christ himself being the Chief Corner-stone" (Ephes. ii. 20); but Romanists tell us that Peter had length and breadth and thickness on which to erect the whole Church, past, present, and to come! A sorry foundation "Blessed Peter" was on which to build anything. Although possessed of many eminent qualities, he was forward, hasty and presumptuous, and much of a braggadocio-having "given up his all," perhaps "an old cobble boat and a rotten net," to follow his master; often open to reproof and correction, and apt to get his company into trouble, yet, like the rest, a runaway when real danger presented itself. Three times, with cursing and swearing, did he deny his master, who at one time ordered him, as Satan, to get behind him, like a dog that had been spoken to. After the ascension, he so trimmed and shuffled on a question that should have been met in a manly way, that Paul "withstood him to the face because he was to be blamed" (Gal. ii. 11), for being a "dissembler," and as guilty of "dissimulation" (verses II-16). He unquestionably occupied the position of priority, and priority only, at first, but afterwards, as his character or capacity developed itself, a secondary one, that of a servant, messenger or deputy, in carrying out his colleagues' decisions; and then he became the Apostle to the Jews. And was it on this rolling stone that the Church was built, and through whom the Pope claims to be infallible in faith and morals, in virtue of merely being his so-called successor as bishop of Rome, when no positive evidence can be shown that "Blessed Peter" ever was at Rome, and much to show that he never was bishop of it? In all their allusions to their Church, Romanists never mention the Greeks, for the reason that they are heretics and schismatics from that Church, that is, according to their theories, from the Church, having broken away from it when they formed about a third of its numbers, after having been founded and, as it were, colonized by it, the mother Church in which Christianity altogether had its origin and was developed; and from which they separated, as the United States parted from their mother country, but under somewhat different circum stances. Never, in all my conversations with Romanists, could I get one of them to enter upon that subject, or even allow it to be discussed, for the reason that they can advance no argument in proof of their own legitimacy; but they are very brave when the question is between Rome and the rest of the West, while they will scowl when the Eastern Church is mentioned to them. The Pope should be required, in legal phraseology, to "prove his pedigree" on the following points: 1st. Was St. Peter in any way infallible, that is, when "speaking ex cathedra," or otherwise? Or did he ever personally speak ex cathedra at all? 2d. Did he ever pardon sins, not as against himself or the Church, but as against God, so that they could not be charged against the sinner in a future state? If neither of these can be proved of him, then his so-called successors, and their priests, in claiming such attributes, as being inherited or in any way derived from or through him, must be impostors; without raising the question whether Peter or any of the Apostles transmitted such power to any who have since claimed it, assuming that it was possessed by the Apostles at first; or asking why Romanists do not also claim the power of healing the sick, raising the dead, or working the other miracles of the Apostles. 3d. When the Romans seceded from the Church, under the circumstances mentioned, did they not thereby become heretics and schismatics? If they did, they are, according to their own theories, no better than heathens, outside of the pale of salvation. 4th. Did St. Peter exercise any dominion over the rest of the Apostles, and was`he ever at Rome, and if so, was he the bishop of it? 5th. Assuming that he was at Rome, and the bishop of it, can the Pope prove he is his legitimate successor? That is, can he show that every link connecting him with "Blessed Peter" was genuine, according to the rule of consecration that requires that every one contributing to the consecration during the past, and spreading out in every direction, up to the time of the Apostles, had no flaw or base alloy in it? Or if that rule would be too arbitrary and comprehensive, what other one would he adopt; or what does he mean by consecration, as conveying anything from the Apostles? 6th. How does he regard the con- | manist system fills, as it were, the secrations made in the fourteenth mind and almost the atmosphere and fifteenth centuries, when two which the person breathes, leaving and sometimes three sets of pontiffs, little chance for him to think or act cardinals and councils claimed, at otherwise than the community has the same time, to be the Church, hitherto done; assuming that he each consecrating bishops and has the capacity to do it, or has had priests, and anathematizing the it so trained that it could act in others and all consecrated by them? such a way, or had materials within And in what light does he regard its reach on which, like the process the acts of the Church at Rome, of digestion, it could operate; or and the consecrations made by it, had education of any kind, or had when seized upon, as it often was, others near him to assist him, who by as abandoned men as ever lived? are much more apt to thwart him When a religion becomes estab- in any desire he may entertain to lished and dominated by a priest- change his belief. If he doubts or hood, and especially when not sur- becomes indifferent to it, it is, as it rounded or mixed up with a con- were, in secret, however he may, flicting one, people, as a body, born from habit or fear, outwardly oband brought up under its influence, serve it; and so he becomes an inso far as they have religion at all, fidel,unable to advance in his doubts, acquire and follow it as naturally as with no glimmering in any tangible they do the ways and observances, shape of what is better than what the dialect and feelings of nation- he was brought up to (and that is ality, of the country in which they very common among Romanists), so have been reared; and it becomes that, at the very best, he sends for to them something like an instinct a priest at his latter end; for he has of nature. This applies to the inherited with his blood too great a Pope no less than the most ignor- dislike for the "Black Protestants" ant peasant, in regard to what they to apply to them for relief. Someprofess, let its nature and merits, times he lives and dies an atheist, origin and development, or corrup- or a deist at the best. tion, be what they may. Nor, for that matter, could the Pope even have acquired the art of feeding himself as he does had he not been taught it, or learned it by imitating people around him; to such an extent are we generally indebted to our fellow-creatures, or society, for the knowledge we possess, whatever that knowledge may be. It is questionable if what Romanists hold in regard to religion generally takes a stronger hold on their belief, feelings or observances, than the religions of Pagans did on their votaries, who never professed to furnish real proofs or arguments to support the origin or truth of what they believed or taught. And the same may be said in regard to the heathen to-day. The absolute and all-controlling despotism of the Ro Strong as the feeling of submission is that is shown by a sincere lay Romanist, whose religion constitutes in no way his living, calling, or position in society, it is infinitely more so in the case of the priest, who is absolutely bound to his position in every way in which he can be held. All priests are so brought up, that it might be said of their education that every part of it is directed to the creation of a strong religious feeling, in order that they might "breathe religion," such as it is. According to their system, there is little merit in following their calling, for the despotic discipline of their Church, and the daily, almost hourly, calls upon them to discharge its many kinds of duties, urge them on, and keep them continually moving round in the vortex in which they were reared, and in which they live, and move, and have their being. In short, they are priests, whose duty is not to think, but learn the system of their infallible Church, and do the work of priests, to which they have been sworn and educated, as so many well-made and well-oiled machines, who have received all their instruction without question, or almost the capacity of questioning it. As human nature, in all its aspects, with trifling or occasional variations, perpetuates itself from generation to generation, so do religion and the priesthood which dominates it; each contributing to the creation and maintenance of the other, the priests acting on the people, and the people acting on the priests-a continual action and reaction that keep both alive, and lead to the filling of the ranks of the priesthood, and the perpetuation of the common religion. So much are priests so many machines, so to speak, that, with the Bible in their hands, Protestantism seems to the best of them a mystery, however much one may strive to get them to understand that it is nothing but the teaching of Christ and his Apostles, whom they (and the Jesuits in particular), in their own peculiar way, profess to have so much at heart to glorify before men. up human nature, and all its wants and superstitions, with which he is continually called upon and forced to deal: he will do his sworn duty, which is eagerly sought and accepted by his people, whatever the result may be. And as regards himself, he will submit to all the offices of the Church, even the last, not because he believes in them, or because they can benefit or cannot hurt him, but because it is his sworn duty to do so, as a "true son of the Church;" while he will defend it to the last against all opposers. If a doubt arises in the mind of a priest, under almost any ordinary circumstances, it is generally kept to himself, on account of every priest being the other's confessor and detective. If he becomes an infidel or atheist, "having his conscience seared with a hot iron," it makes no difference to him what he thinks of the position he fills. Like many a Pagan priest of old, he is "in the service of the gods, if there be gods," but he does not believe in what is taught; he does not see, however, that it does any harm; it might be true, or not true, so far as he knows or cares; at least, he does not doubt the phenomena of The position occupied by priests seems to them something like an inherent part of human nature itself, for it has existed, in some form, in all ages and religions (the Christian only excepted), as if people were created for them, and they for the people, in whose minds there is a vacuum in regard to ghostly matters, which they, without controversy, question or doubt, have to fill, whether it relates to this life princi-. pally, as under the old Pagan system, or this life and the life to come, both of which Romanism embraces; the future life being the principal fulcrum used by them to operate on the passions to secure obedience to their Order, which identifies itself in the highest degree with the most important matter that concerns man. It is for them, the sole and exclusive possessors of truth and power, to direct, manage and dominate over others in things spiritual, and temporal so far as they can accomplish it; and live upon them, as one animal looks upon another as its natural prey; and their constant thought is about them. Being an exclusive caste, by virtue of its consecration, and having many peculiarities which are kept secret from the world, it is exceedingly jealous of outsiders prying into its actions, or the principles by which it is governed and held together; and that these should be divulged by any of themselves, or that anything derogatory to a member should be made public. It necessarily occupies a position like that of a conspiracy against the rest of the world, as if it slept over a volcano that might burst out at any time (however much it may feel assured of the absolute submission of its devotees), particularly when there are 66 heretics" in the community. That can be plainly seen in the furtive glances of the priests, especially when they cannot immediately tell the persuasion of the people they meet with, although their deportment towards them soon reveals what it is. The priests know well the estimation in which the "heretic" holds them, and few of them can be unaware that their calling has been stamped upon their countenances, let them disguise themselves in almost any way they please; countenances which are generally anything but pleasant for the rest of the world to contemplate. The principal idea in the minds of priests is that of "shepherds and sheep;" and they 'handle their flocks" as if they were literally sheep, confessing and pardoning them, and collecting their dues, with the expertness that comes from practice, as real sheep are shorn or dressed. Well has the confessional been called a "slaughter-house of consciences," for both confessor and confessed. It presents a wonderfully mutual and ghastly fascination for priest and people-a spell, laid upon both in early youth, and practised ever since, that can hardly be broken-the one, of all ages and sexes and conditions in life, pouring into the mind of the other sins of every nature, whether in thought, word or deed, and often all the circumstances connected with them; making the priest's mind the receptacle of the moral filth of the world, dug out by the most systematic crossquestioning, and drawn up, as it werc, with a stomach-pump, and suggesting sins that might never otherwise occur to the devotee. The most deplorable part of the confessional is when women must divulge the most secret peculiarities of their nature to the priests, to the younger of whom it is often agreeable enough; but many of them will lament the result, and shed tears when they, in their turn, confess, and yet will almost immediately afterwards enter the pulpit, and in the most devout and eloquent language expatiate on the "miraculous interposition of God in keeping his priests as pure as angels in the confessional." They come well trained to fill the office, having had to take their degree of competency from some hoary old professor of the science. Then in God's name they pardon the penitents, placing them in. the position of never having sinned; and that over and over again, even hundreds of times, for the same person, sinning, confessing and being pardoned in rotation, each time drawing their fees when they do it.* In short, the priest is their "keeper" in this world, and opens unto them the gate of happiness in the next, at his pleasure, or according to his judgment, taking toll from them. when in life, and from their relations after death. There are so many singular things peculiar to the priests of Rome, that, in spite of the honours and submission shown them by their followers, one would think they must have a sense of inward degradation when possessed of some of the finer feelings of our nature, and to a great extent, if not altogether, sincere in most of what they teach and practise of their worship, which is " in all things too religious,' as St. Paul characterized that of the Athenians. And language can * It will naturally occur to the reader to ask, is this the system that some people are anxious to see introduced as part of the religion of the Church of England? Let it be once established, and it would soon swallow all the rest. |