human nature. But the sincere Romanists stake everything upon their submission to their Church; so that, to disturb them in their belief is like rending their heart-strings, to say nothing of the incapacity of many, if not most, of them to acquire a new religion. Even Samuel Johnson used to say that many an Englishman would become a religious man, if he only knew how to go about it. Sincere Romanists, however, are seldom such by reflection and knowledge, like Protestants; but by having been the subjects of the ghostly influences of the priest and Church before their earliest recollections, and which they have hardly ever been without. tion-every one receiving what was asserted, or none disputing it, and all outside more or less believing and practising it-must necessarily have become the belief to a greater or less extent among the priests; at least that, as a matter of fact, whether always completely believed in or not, it was the religion that all should obey and venerate. Many of them, however, from the Pope downwards, have been actual, if not professed, infidels and atheists, looking upon everything they taught and defended, as to them, so many fortunate and profitable fables. It is a great stretch on the charity and credence of those outside of their fold to believe that many of them can be altogether sin-* cere in what they profess and teach.* Romanists, before they began the * Many things will occur to the reader under this head. For example, a convert leaves a large amount by will for masses for his soul, and a high dignitary calls upon the widow for a further large sum, giving as his reason that the legacy had got him only so far out of purgatory. This happened to my own knowledge in a the particulars for an obvious reason. Protestant community, but I pass over Priests can go a great length in a matter like this, or in anything tyrannical, or even odious; for the devotees will turn to their cannot change their religion as they do Church, however hardly used, as they their garments. And no one knows that like the priests. As regards the priests, many of them are doubtless sincere, particularly the less intellectual or more ignorant ones, however questionable they may privately consider some of the doctrines and practices of their Church, or how they originated, or some of their own actions in life, or the means they resort to to support the interest and dignity of the Church, and everything connected with it. The whole matter concerns the questions, what we are, where we come from, and whither we go, about which no one personally knows anything, but must naturally look somewhere outside of himself In communities entirely Romanist, the for information. Everything Ro- poorest and most ignorant devotees are manists have, they have inherited, better than dogs; indeed, as many, on frequently treated, in many respects, little and been most rigorously brought getting possession of dogs, treat them up to. It is a possession received roughly to test their dog-like quality of from a high antiquity, to be believed submission, so do priests sometimes apin, maintained, and transmitted unpear to test, in a somewhat similar way, the obedience of their people. The genius impaired to the end of time. It of their religion makes it a moral necessimust be upheld against every oppo-ty to exact absolute submission to them nent, as everything that is pure and holy, angelic and august, surrounded with its halo of hoary antiquity, and the grandeur of mighty Rome; and everything derogatory to it must be refuted, denied, or got rid of in some way. All this having been bandied about and dinned into the ears of priests from generation to genera as representing it. When a contractor engages labourers on an extensive scale, and especially when at a distance from powerful local authority, he will sometimes "keep a priest;" and frequently will "his reverence "be seen coming "tearing" down the road, with a whip in hand. And that man would be "torn from limb to limb" who would dare to lay his hand upon him, or treat him disrespectfully. study for the priesthood, are assumed to have been as highly endowed with the natural religious instinct as other people; and their second careful training has developed in them a strong religious, priestly, or sacerdotal feeling, connected with what is distinct from the material things of life, such as may be called forth by parts of the service, its dogmas, incense, music, singing, praying and confession, and ceremonies foolish enough in themselves, and that general obeisance to what is outside of themselves, and which may be called ghostly; without destroying, but rather sharpening, those instincts that are applied to advance the interests of their corporation-all so impressed on them that it is difficult to wean them from "Mother Church." To realize in some degree the ghostly feeling of Romanists lay or clerical-let any one enter their churches, and lay aside his religious knowledge and principles, and he can feel what Pagans were inspired with when they entered their temples and gloomy religious groves, provided he has a lively imagination, and a sensitive feeling of the religion of nature. And that can be said in a much greater degree of Romanists themselves, to whom the scene conveys, generally, an exquisite pleasure and a profound awe; and especially when they contemplate in the mass, God on the altar, their own belief, confession, and absolution, and the mysterious priest as the instrument of the miracle of transubstantiation, and the custodier of the keys of heaven for all believSuch phenomena as these are nearly everything, when supported by the common example of old and young; no one questioning what is taught and professed, and no information to be had to the contrary, or no disposition shown to examine it. Such people, when they come together, or think of their religion, will look at each other for encouragement and support, passive or active, ers. on a question like this, that has come down to them from a high antiquity, when anyone expresses a doubt in regard to it; and the most positive, noisy and daring of them will carry the crowd with them in the cry, Great is Diana of the Ephesians," "whom all Asia and the world worshippeth." And "what man is there that knoweth not how that the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the great goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down from Jupiter? down from Jupiter?" "Things that cannot be spoken against (Acts xix.), as if they were facts that no one could or would dare doubt. Humanity as such will not question, and is hardly capable of questioning a national worship of this kind, but receives it actively or passively, with something like a natural instinct. Whatever the abuses, real or apparent, that may have crept into it, it was not for the priests publicly to make an ado about them, for fear of destroying the whole religion of the Great Diana herself. If it is hard for people to understand why the more intelligent of the priests of Rome do not condemn many things connected with their religion, but rather teach and practise them, it can be answered that such is for the interest of themselves and their infallible Church, which has to be upheld under all circumstances; to say nothing of the things complained of being submitted to, and doubtless believed in by as intelligent lay members, who have no particular interest in doing so. Considering the amazing things that have been practised as religion, we need feel no surprise at what comes up of that nature, and must therefore reserve an opinion on what is believed or not believed among Romanists, lay or clerical. At the worst, we can yield to the priests of Rome the credit due to as much belief in their system as could be given to the priests of Paganism, past and present, whatever that might be, provided they have never read the original charter of Christianity, and been made aware of the changes and variations of those claiming to represent it. They have every human motive to make the most of a religion which none of them, on their own knowledge, and relying upon themselves, can tell whether it is true or false; and they might say of it what Cicero made the pontiff of old Rome say of the gods, that he did not believe in them as a man, but did as a pontiff, and as one upholding the religion of his ancestors. The real moral responsibility of the priests of Rome would begin with the study of the word of God, and tradition, and history, contrasting these with the doctrines and practices of Rome to-day; which they will not do, like one that is afraid or ashamed to look at himself in a mirror. As the old Pagans, surrounded by all the pomp and awe of animal sacrifices, incensed, prayed and sang praises to "Pan and all the gods,' which existed only in their imaginations, so does human nature worship its deities in various countries today. As the Romans adored Jupiter, and the Greeks Zeus-"the father of gods and men with a host of demigods, and to a great extent believed in God in the abstract, but did not worship Him adequately, or only along with a multitude of beings of their own creation, so it can be said of Romanists in their worship of God and the saints, who are too numerous to be mentioned individually. They can as easily believe in Christ and the Holy Ghost as they believe in God and the saints, or as the old Pagans believed in Jupiter, or as Eastern nations believe in their deities, when they have been taught from infancy to do so, and when it is obligatory on them as a part of an inherited public worship, which they could not altogether corrupt or modify. Among Romanists, Christ and the Holy Ghost may be considered, in common with God and the saints, as representing the deities of ancient Rome, in the possession of a sodality of priests, or close sacerdotal corporation, making their worship a Pagan one in reality, although Christian in name. Here we would have the major deities changed and presented merely as a blind to the real Paganism and idolatry that make up the worship, viz.: that of the Virgin and the saints, and the innumerable superstitions connected with them; Christ being seldom mentioned or thought of, but brought forward on public occasions. support or constitute their position before the world; and God merely a kind of Jupiter whom no one must trouble, but through the saints deputed from one to another, till the petition reaches the "greatest and best," "the father of gods and men," of the heathen. Christ and the Holy Ghost seem, in practical Romanism, to be there merely because they were inherited, and could not in the nature of things be kept out; while the Bible is a superfluity, and a source of great weakness when appealed to. If one had entered many an old Roman temple, he would have found the people, with more or less sincerity, according to the occasion, worshipping Jupiter and some of the demigods, and many with great sincerity at all times. Let one enter a Roman Church to-day, and he will find substantially the same religion, the same human nature, and the same degrees of sincerity; the saints being, at the very least, demigods that are supposed to hear and answer the prayers of millions at the same moment, that is, beings existing in that respect, and often in every respect, only in the imaginations of the worshippers. It is strange that Christianity, which recognized the worship, in all its simplicity, of God, Christ, and the Holy Ghost, only, and our duties to each other, should, as it were, have ended in the system | manifesting his divinity in the hearwhich we have been considering. ing of one who did not understand And it is strange that the humility his language, would illustrate the of Christ, "whose kingdom was not saying of St. Paul, when he wrote :— of this world," to the extent that he "If I know not the meaning of the would not even give an opinion re- voice, I shall be unto him that garding the division of an inherit- speaketh a barbarian, and he that ance between brothers, should have speaketh shall be a barbarian unto one like the Pope claiming to be his me" (1 Cor. xiv. 11). And who is vicegerent, or “God on earth”-the to decide when the Pope speaks cx supreme ruler in things temporal as cathedrâ, and when he does not well as spiritual who has shed speak ex cathedrâ, or how can that oceans of blood, and tortured the question be settled? For all practibodies and souls of men, for no cal purposes, every priest, according other offence than reading God's to the system, is infallible in the Word, and entertaining conscien- teaching he gives his followers, or tious opinions in consequence there- how can they feel sure that what he of. Such a phenomenon, with all tells them is truth? And what its idolatry, can only be accounted would that avail them, if they were for for some such reason as that al- not also infallible to receive and unready given, viz: "And for this derstand what he tells them? Uncause God shall send them strong der any circumstances, even with delusion, that they should believe a Romanists, there must be the right lie, that they all might be damned of private judgment, whatever it who believed not the truth, but had might result in. pleasure in unrighteousness Thess. ii. 11, 12).* (2 The Pope has been declared to be infallible to enunciate, but what would that avail if his followers are not equally infallible to understand? | Does this Italian "God on earth" reveal his will from day to day in Latin, when he might not infallibly understand that language? Who in that case would guarantee the infallibility of his scribe, or the infallible correctness of the translations into the languages of all the tribes of the earth, or their infallible meaning to the bog-trotters and brigands, or the most ignorant of beings, clothed in rags and covered with vermin-mere Mumbo Jumbo religionists-who are the most devoted of Romanists? In short, we would require to be all infallible to make the infallibility of one of any use to the world; and then the infallible proclamation of that one would be in a measure superfluous. As it is, the Pope, * See page 53. Rather than "search the Scriptures," which he dares not say are not infallible, the Pope would have nothing less than the human family receive, as divine and infallible truths, his dogmas, conveyed through a variety of earthen conduits, some of them being of the basest materials; while he, or the synagogue of which he is the chief, infallibly assures us that mankind at large can make nothing of these Scriptures, and would be guilty of the highest presumption, if not absolute profanity, in even attempting to do it, unless in rare instances, or by priestly permission. Of these same Scriptures St. Paul wrote to Timothy :- "From a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus" (2 Tim. iii. 15). The apparent trouble of the Pope in regard to the Scriptures is to get rid of their circulation, and perhaps themselves, altogether, if he could do either with any show of decency; and, not being able to do it, beyond mistranslating them in many places, and striking out the second commandment, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image," it is easy to understand why he proscribes them to the extent he does, or limits the reading of them; for when they are earnestly and prayerfully studied by his followers, they lead them to renounce him and his works," with a bitterness that almost amounts to an execration, after loosening themselves from the toils in which they had been held. Could not the Pope, in virtue of his recently proclaimed superhuman attribute, be prevailed on to favour the world with an ex cathedrâ decision on the meaning of the following passages of Scripture: "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth."-1 Tim. iv. 1-3. "Let no man deceive you by any means; for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God."-2 Thess. ii. 3, 4. Lord Bacon used to say that if these passages were printed as a "hue and cry," no constable in England would find a difficulty in laying his hands on the person wanted. trembled. And Mount Sinai thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire; and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole_mount quaked greatly."-Ex. xix. 16-18. And Christ, whose vicegerent the Pope claims to be, said : "For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew v. 18, 19). "Heaven and earth shall pass away; but my words shall not pass away.' Mark xiii. 31, and Luke xxi. 33. Here is the second commandment, which Romanists keep out of their catechisms and books of devotion, and the Scriptures themselves, dividing the tenth, so as to nominally preserve the original number: Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments."-Ex. xx. 4-6. And in the last verse but two of the Scriptures we find the following: "And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are "Thunders and lightnings, and a written in this book."-Rev. xx. 19. The ten commandments were delivered to Moses amidst |