pagators. The Councils which destroyed Christian liberty were held for its defence. The succession of false miracles, which marked the apostacy, was wrought in its proof. The civil establishments, which degraded Christianity, propped up Trinitarianism. It was the faith given instead of the Bible, or subscribed with the Bible. Persecution has been its handmaid. Till very lately, even in this country, to deny it was an offence subject to heavy penalties. All this is ground for strong suspicion, anterior to any detailed examination of Scripture upon the subject.

The

How manifold are the evils which Antichrist (i. e. the assumptions and practices which have been enumerated, in whatever party they be found) has inflicted upon the human race! pure gospel was a rich source of blessedness. Every kind affection sprung up at its approach, like the flowers at the return of spring. Men learned to love their God, and one another. Dismally was the scene reversed, when a counterfeit gospel was palmed upon the world. The authors of that change are accountable for a mass of guilt and misery.

In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, it seemed as if all Europe were propelled on Asia. Christendom was roused to a holy war. The cross decked the ensign and the weapon of slaughter. The minds of millions were maddened with super

stitious fury, and a road was cut to the holy sepulchre by battle, siege, murder, and massacreaye, indiscriminate massacre of sex and age, preparatory to religious procession to the tomb of Jesus! What is to be charged with these infernal deeds and passions, but the corruptions of Christianity?

What a miserable object is the ignorant and misguided slave of superstition! For him, the avenues of science are closed; the affections of benevolence are chilled; he worships an unknown God; he looks for salvation to his saint, and for pardon to his priest; instead of being "a little lower than the angels," he is scarcely above the brutes; reason is absorbed in passion and instinct; he is played upon, and trodden upon, at his master's pleasure: and what has made himmade nations such things as these? The corruptions of Christianity.

They have also occasioned much infidelity. Man is not always to be condemned for not distinguishing between Christianity, in itself, and in the declarations and faith of all around him. We may sometimes see a man, of mighty mind and noble heart, entering the lists against the gospel, denouncing its author for an enthusiast, his apostles as deceivers, its records as forgeries, and its tendency as detestable. The corruptions of Christianity have dimmed his intellectual sight, and drenched his soul with moral poison.

We see Christians hating, instead of loving one another; separating, when they should unite; conflicting, when they should co-operate; causing the limitation of the gospel, when they might ensure its extension: they have burned with the fires of persecution, when they should have warmed with the glow of charity; they have been tyrants by penal laws, when they should have been brethren by the law of love; they have anathematized, when they should have blessed;-and what breeds all this confusion, but the corruptions of Christianity!

Yes; they have crushed the mind of man, and waged exterminating war with truth and charity: they have dethroned the Saviour, and given the sovereignty of the church, delegated by God to him alone, to tyrants, priests, and partizans: they have polluted the temple with unhallowed worship, and bartered the word of God for wealth, or made it a stepping-stone to seats of power. Ought not this evil spirit to be laid-to be bound in chains for ever? This consummation is promised. The Babylon of the Apocalypse was utterly destroyed. The entranced apostle heard the shout of righteous exultation, "as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth."

Paul gives a like cheering prospect in his pro

phecy of the "man of sin, that Wicked, whom the Lord shall consume with the breath of his mouth, and destroy with the brightness of his coming." And here is, probably, an allusion to the word of God, as the means by which that event shall be accomplished. The study, examination, and diffusion of the Scriptures, must be fatal ultimately to all unfounded pretensions, all errors in doctrine and worship, all unchristian practices. It is by the devout study of the word of God that both the individual and the world must be enlightened, reformed, improved, and led on towards perfection. Let me exhort every one seriously to inquire of those oracles, that if there be any thing anti-christian in his opinions, feelings, or conduct, it may be destroyed.

Read the Bible, and you will own no Master but Christ. You will see that he alone was commissioned of God to speak the words of eternal life, and that by yourself they must be interpreted for yourself, You will repel the dictation of man, in however elevated a station, as an insulting interference between the Teacher and the disciple. You will prefer the simplicity of apostolic teaching, to the mysteries of modern orthodoxy; the genuine creed of Paul, “There is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus," to the forged creed of Athanasius. Instead of repeating, in the spirit of bigotry, "Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is

necessary that he hold the Catholic faith; which faith, except every one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly:" you will affirm, in the spirit of charity, "God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation, he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him." Instead of addressing prayers to the Son, the Holy Ghost, the Trinity, you will bow your knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ:" instead of a gloomy and a capricious Deity, you will have a God who is love: and for a system which derives support from penal statutes, or political patronage, or which exists by exciting childish terrors, and shunning or stifling examination, you will have principles which are advancing in defiance of all these, holding on a triumphant course, and shining brighter and brighter unto the perfect day.

The flame of free inquiry is kindled; and while the precious things of truth, liberty, and righteousness, will abide its purifying operation, all else is doomed to perish in the conflagration. But this bright prospect belongs to a subsequent part of our Course. To delineate the evil, is our first and painful task; nor is it useless. Disgust with error may invigorate our love of truth. The enormities of bigotry are a foil to the beauty of benevolence; while the degradation of religious slavery teaches impressively that we should "stand fast in the liberty wherewith