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those only to approach him, who first make a full surrender of their judgment to Popes and councils. A belief in Christ and his work of redemption, grounded on the Scriptures and their evidences, is thus made useless, unless it is preceded by a belief in Roman supremacy, grounded on mere surmises. Christianity is removed from its broad foundation, to place the mighty fabric upon the moveable sand of a conjectural meaning.

This looks more like love of self than of Christ; more like ambition than charity. The title to infallibility and supremacy being at the best doubtful, the benefit of the doubt should have been left to Christian liberty.-But may not the opposite conduct of the Roman church have arisen from sincere zeal for what she conceived to be the true intention of Christ? Christian candour would demand this construction, were it not for the use she has made of the assumed privilege: yet if we find that, having erected herself into an organ of Heaven, all her oracular decisions have invariably tended towards the increase of her own power; it will be difficult to admit the purity of her inten

By comparing the articles of the church of Rome with those of the church of England, we shall find that the points of difference are chiefly these tradition, transubstantiation, the number of sacraments, purgatory, indulgences, and the invocation of saints. Such are the main questions on doctrine, at issue between the two churches; for the differences about free-will and justification might, I believe, be settled without much difficulty, by accurately defining the language on both sides. Now, I will not assume the truth of the Protestant tenets on these points, nor enter into arguments against those of the Roman church; my present concern is with their tendency.

To begin with tradition: let us observe how broad a field is opened to the exercise of infallibility, by the supposition that an indefinite number of revealed truths, were floating down the stream of ages, unconsigned to the inspired records of Christianity. The power of interpreting the word of God by a continual light from above, might be confined by the Scriptures themselves, as it would be difficult to force doctrines on the belief of Christians, of which the very name and subject

seem to have been unknown to the inspired writers. Divine tradition, the first-born of infallibility, removes this obstacle; and, so doing, increases the influence of Rome to an indefinite extent. I do not here contend that to place tradition upon the same footing with the Scriptures, is an error; but whether error or truth, it is certainly power in the hands of the Roman church.

By the combined influence of tradition and infallibility, the church of Rome established the doctrine of Transubstantiation. From the moment that people are made to believe that a man has the power of working, at all times, the stupendous miracle of converting bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ; that man is raised to a dignity above all which kings are able to confer. What, then, must be the honour due to a bishop, who can bestow the power of performing the miracle of transubstantiation? What the rank of the Pope, who is the head of the bishops themselves? The world beheld for centuries, the natural consequences of the surprising belief in the power of priests to convert bread and wine into the incarnate Deity *.

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Kings and emperors were forced to kiss the Pope's foot, because their subjects were in the daily habit of kissing the hands of priests—those hands which were believed to come in frequent contact with the body of Christ.

The abundance of ceremonies supposed to produce supernatural effects, must magnify the character of the privileged ministers of those ceremonies. Hence a church possessing seven sacraments, is far superior in influence to one who acknowledges but two. Add to this the nature of four out of the five Roman sacraments-penance, extreme unction, ordination, and matrimony-and the extent of power which she thereby obtains, will appear. Penance, i. e. auricular confession, puts the consciences of the laity under the direction of the priesthood. Extreme unction is one of her means to allay fear and remorse. Ordination is intimately connected with the influence which the Roman church derives from transubstantiation, and its being made a sacrament adds probability to the miraculous powers which it is supposed to confer. Finally, by giving the sacramental character to matrimony, the source and

bond of civil society is directly and primarily subjected to the church.

There still remain three exclusive offsprings of tradition, explained and defined by infallibility, which yield to none in happy consequences to the Roman church,-indulgences, purgatory, and the worship of saints, relics, and images.

The wealth which has flowed into the lap of Rome, in exchange for indulgences, is incalculable. Even in the decline of her influence, she still looks for a considerable part of her revenues from this source: to which also she owes the degree of subjection in which she keeps the Roman Catholic governments. My unfortunate native country shows the nature and extent of this influence in a striking light. I have already mentioned the Bull of the Crusade, through which the barter of indulgences and dispensations for money, is carried on, in a manner worthy of the darkest ages. The Spanish government has two or three paltry fortresses on the coast of Africa, which are employed as places of punishment for criminals. The existence of a few soldiers in these garrisons is construed into a perpetual war against the Infidels,

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