very distant period, to be abolished, preparatory to the conversion of the Jews, and the universal diffusion of genuine Christianity.

.

A

The great and leading evil, which may be considered as the source from which the rest flow, or the soul by which they are animated, is an usurped authority over faith and conscience. voice from heaven proclaimed of Jesus, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye him." He is declared to be "the author and finisher of faith." All human authority in matters of religion, all dictation of what is to be believed or done by Christians, as such, is rebellion against his supremacy, and whenever admitted, has proved the fertile source of error, confusion, and persecution. The apostles were aware of this tendency, and pointedly disclaimed spiritual authority. "We preach, not ourselves, but Christ Jesus, the Lord." "Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy." They reminded the elders of churches, that they were not "lords over God's heritage." The meek and lowly Jesus vindicated this supremacy as his peculiar dignity and right. "Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. Be not ye called rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. And call no man your Father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven." Such precepts as these, which, far from being so unim

portant as they are sometimes considered, have a vital connexion with the authority of revealed religion, and its intellectual and moral influence, have been grossly and generally violated,―by the powers which Councils, beginning with that of Nice, in the fourth century, have arrogated to themselves over the church; by the pretensions of the Patriarchs of the East, and the Bishops of Rome in the West, who assumed the title of Pope, or Father; by the English Episcopacy, in forgetting that Christ was the sole Head of the church, and bestowing that appellation, with correspondent powers, on the profligate, licentious, and tyrannical Henry VIII.; by the Presbyterian divines, in imposing their Confession and Catechism; and by the Diotrephes of the Meetinghouse, who, by making his own faith the standard of Christianity, and its profession the term of communion, emulates, according to his station and ability, the possessor of the triple crown.

The primitive church was composed of persons united merely by the acknowledgement that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah, a divinely-commissioned Teacher, whose instructions each was to interpret for himself. This allowed great room for diversity of opinion, and such diversity actually existed; but while they exercised mutual charity, and none attempted to set up their own faith as a standard, things went on very well. Their bishops and elders were designed, not

more for the purposes of instruction, than for those of worship and discipline. The first evil was the elevation of these officers into a separate, dignified, and endowed class. The wealth of the world, and the speculations of the philosophers, flowed into the church, destroying alike simplicity of manners, faith, and worship. Then came new doctrines, and new methods of stating and enforcing doctrine, by creeds, anathemas, and decisions of councils: ecclesiastical power reared its head: heretics (all who believed differently from the strongest party) were driven from communion, consigned to future and endless punishment, and the strong arm of imperial authority invoked to crush them: the Bible became a prohibited book: proud man sat in the temple of God, as God, and dispensed the pardon of sins, and fixed the terms of everlasting life. The Reformation left the principle of these enormities, though its extravagancies were pruned. Churches still tell you what you must find in the Bible, though you are allowed to read it. Even Dissenters play their little game of tyranny, and make Christians pass to the Lord's table through the pool of baptism, or under the forks of the Assembly's Catechism. (b) All this is not more unchristian than pernicious. Mental liberty is essential to mental strength. That a man does not think for himself in religion, not only keeps him ignorant, but it makes him slavish, bigoted,

and subservient to the bad designs of others; it enlists him under the banners of the principle of evil; makes him a soldier in the armies of corruption, and an enemy of the human race, whose improvement he retards, and whose debasement he would perpetuate.

The next mark of an anti-christian church is, alliance with temporal authority, which is not only suggested by the expression, "with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication," (Rev. xvii. 2,) but appears from the whole description, in which the beast represents the civil powers, and the woman is an emblem of the corrupt church supported by their interposition. The Romish Church had the extraordinary address, or fortune, to gain for itself a political existence, and become a state. This anomaly is supposed to be the subject of distinct prophecy, and to be shadowed out in the little horn of Daniel's fourth beast. Other churches have stopped short of such a consummation; but the subservient connexion in which they have rested can scarcely be deemed less pernicious. They are kingdoms of this world, established by its authority, subservient to its designs, paid from its treasures, and armed with its vengeance; consequently far indeed from being the kingdom of Christ. By such alliances Christians have lost the freedom of their minds, the simplicity of their faith, the purity of their worship, the indepen

dence of their characters; and they have gained the exclusive possession of wealth and honour, a patent to dogmatize, and a power to persecute.

The gospel was distinguished by simplicity; it was preached to the poor, and adapted to their capacities; it revealed many mysteries, or secrets, by which they ceased to be so, but it taught none; on the contrary, mystery is inscribed on the forehead of apostacy, and is presented as a test that, however intermixed with the doctrines of Christ, we may detect and discard the corrupt additions of after ages. Secrecy was resorted to by the early Christians, under persecution, in the celebration of their worship, from necessity or prudence; it was retained from policy, for the purpose of exciting reverence for particular ceremonies, and being thus introduced, it gradually pervaded the whole system, until every thing was mysterious, from the most important proposition in a creed, to the most trifling article of dress of the priest by whom it was repeated. The senses and the understanding were alike bewildered. Against the Eastern Church, with which, indeed, the notion of Transubstantiation originated, at the second Council of Nice, this charge may be as completely made out, as against the Church of Rome. And was mystery got rid of at the Reformation? Look at the Athanasian Creed; read the Institutes of Calvin, and the Confession of the Westminster Assembly; take