Spirit, and who will come again in glory, to render unto every man according to his works.

The Greek church has its hierarchy under the supreme government of a patriarch. The episcopacy of the Anglican church is of a far less superstitious character; yet it presents to our view a fabric of the same kind, under the rule or headship of a temporal monarch. The Scotch kirk is governed by its synod of elders, under the direction of a Moderator; the Methodists, by a similar council, composed of their ordained ministers; and there are few Christian sects which are destitute of some form or other of ecclesiastical domination. But it is in Rome that we are to seek for the system of man's authority over man, in religion, carried out into its full and legitimate results. The Romish church, seated in temporal as well as spiritual authority upon her seven hills, professes to spread her arms over the whole earth; she arranges her hosts of ecclesiastical soldiers with a perfect precision; she rejoices in her army of monks, friars, and priests, married only to her

self; she clothes her hierarchy in garments of beauty, and hesitates not to claim and usurp the sacerdotal office. "Absolute and implicit obedience to superiors," is the motto inscribed on her whole polity; and while she boasts herself in her long array of general councils, her true rest is in the never-dying central authority of her Pope, the successor of the chief of the apostles, the vicar and visible representative of Jesus Christ.

I propose in the following treatise, to take an account of some of the principal features which mark the views and practices of the church of Rome, and to contrast them with what I believe to be pure Christianity; and in so doing I shall probably have to disclaim many things which are far from being exclusively Romish. These are still adhered to by various classes of believers -by every one in its own way and measure; but they have nevertheless an affinity to the Papal and Hierarchical system, in that large sense of the terms, to which I have already adverted.

To this task I venture to apply myself for the truth's sake, but without the least feeling of jealousy or ill-will towards any denomination of my fellow believers. I rejoice in the conviction that there are many vital Christians among all the orthodox denominations, Roman Catholics included, who are drinking of the same Spirit; and who, therefore, even though separated from each other in place or circumstances, are “baptized" by that "one Spirit, into one body." And possibly there may be some who disclaim all sectarian distinctions, who nevertheless do truly form a part of the mystical body of Christ. As I am far from confining my view of antichrist to any one denomination of Christians-(I believe antichrist may be found lurking in almost every existing sect)-so I do not hesitate to allow that under a vast variety of names and conditions, Christ has a people of his own, who, as they abide in the faith and patience of the saints, "shall never perish," neither shall any man pluck them out of his hands.

I beg it may be understood that I select the

Romish church in this discussion, because I consider her to present the extreme case of the dependence of man on man, in the things of God—a dependence which I hold to be the main cause of the extent of her departure from simple Christianity. I am well aware that many of the distinctive errors of that church are opposed and rejected by all the Protestant communities ; nevertheless, we ought all to look to ourselves, lest any thing of the same leaven should be found lurking within our own borders. “Know ye not," said the apostle to the Corinthian church, and by implication to all Christians in every age,- "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy, for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are."