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will content myself at present, in transcribing the words of a noble man* by nature, who deserves a statue of gold, for boldly exposing the corruption of hierarchy, and the hypocrisy and duplicity of its votaries; which he has done to perfection, because he wrote from experience. He has only exposed the corruptions of the church of England; but alas! too many of his animadversions, are peculiarly appli cable to several churches in America; the ministers of whom too often use their boundless authority in opposition, and not in subordination to the gospel; who live upon the fleece, and the devil may take the flock for what they care; finally, who are, as to power, popes, while called parsons.

number of little boys, who had strings in their mouths, in representation of bridles, and were driven by one of their playmates, when one lad more prudent than the rest, exclaimed against their play; as being too servile, the driver and the driven got irritated at the reasonable expostulation, and beat the prudent and judicious lad most unmercifully.

* The Rev. David Simpson, who has proved his sincerity by relinquishing a lucrative establishment in the church, from conscientious motives.

The gospel was pure and powerful, and its ministers zealous and holy men, till it was introduced into the circles of royalty, by Constantine the Great; and then, and not till then, power and privileges incompatible with the practice and precepts of our adorable Saviour, were usurped by his followers: Then the gospel was reduced to a step-ladder for ambitious politicians and became the implement of destruction, and the innocent cause of war,*

It is painful even to think upon the enormities committed under the cloak of religion; and "could we form an estimate of the lives lost in the wars and persecutions of the Christian church alone we should find it nearly equal to the number of souls now existing in Europe. But it is perhaps in mercy to mankind that we are not able to calculate, with any accuracy even this portion of human calamities. When Constantine ordered that the hierarchy should assume the name of Christ, we are not to consider him as forming a new weapon of destruction; he only changed a name which had grown into disrepute, and would serve the purpose no longer, for one that was gaining an extensive reputation; it being built on a faith that was likely to meet the assent of a considerable portion of mankind. The cold-hearted cruelty of that monarch's character, and his embracing the new doctrine with a temper hardened in the slaughter of his relations, were omens unfavourable to the

superstition and bigotry; and I am sorry to say, it remains the same in many

future complexion of the hierarchy; though he had thus coupled it with a name that had hitherto been remarkable for its meekness and humility. This transaction has therefore given colour to a scene of enormities, which may be regarded as nothing more than the genuine offspring of the alliance of Church and State.

"This fatal deviation from the principles of the first founder of the faith, who declared that his kingdom was not of this world, has deluged Europe in blood for a long succession of ages, and carried occasional ravages into all the other quarters of the globe. The pretence of extirpating the idolatries of ancient establishments, and the innumerable heresies of the new, has been the never-failing argument of princes as well as pontiffs, from the wars of Constantine, down to the pitiful stillborn rebellion of Calonne, and the count d'Artois.

"From the time of the conversion of Clovis, through all the Merovingian race, France and Germany groaned under the fury of ecclesiastical monsters, hunting down the Druids, overturning the temples of the Roman Polytheists, and drenching the plains with the blood of Arians. The wars of Charlemagne against the Saxons, the Huns, the Lombards and the Moors, which desolated Europe for forty years had for their principal object; the extending and purifying of the Christian faith. The crusades, which drained Europe of its young men at eight successive periods, must have sacrificed, including Asiatics and Africans, at least four millions of lives. The wars of the Guelfs and Gibelines, or pope and anti-pope, ravaged Italy and involved half Europe in factions for two centuries together. The expulsion of the Moors from

countries to the present moment. It is matter of amazement as well as lamen

Spain depopulated that kingdom by a war of seven hundred years, and established the inquisition to interdict the resurrection of society; while millions of the natives of South America, have been destroyed by attempting to convert them.

"In this enumeration we have taken no notice of that train of calamities which attended the re-conversion of the eastern empire, and attaching it to the faith of Mahomet: nor of the various havoc which followed the dismemberment of the Catholic Church by that fortunate schism, which by some is denomi nated the Lutheran heresy, and by others the Protestant reformation.

But these, it will be said, are only general traits of uncivilized character, which we all contemplate with equal horror, and which, among enlightened nations, there can be no danger of seeing renewed. It is true, that, in several countries, the glooms of intolerance seem to be pierced by the rays of philosophy and we may soon expect to see Europe universally disclaiming the right of one man to interfere in the religion of another. We may remark, however, first, that this is far from being the case at this moment; and secondly, that it is a blessing which never can originate from any state establishment of religion. For proofs of the former we need not penetrate into Spain or Italy, nor recall the history of the late fanatical management of the war in Brabant-but look to the two most enlightened countries in Europe; see the riots at Birmingham, and the conduct of the refractory priests in France.

"With regard to the second remark-we may as well own the truth at first as at last, and have sense this year as the next: The existence of any kind of liber

tation, that mankind should suffer themselves thus to be hood-winked, dragooned, and imposed upon for so many centuries, and that so many lazy and intolerant parsons should be able, with an arm of flesh, thus to degrade human nature, and metamorphose a religion so pure and peaceable, to the dæmon of war and carnage; and that they could contrive so long to live upon the labours, and trample upon the rights of their fellow creatures. All this has been done, not by forces physical or moral, but by religious fraud. The cunning priests introduced ignorance for knowledge, superstition for religion, and a belief of their own infallibility for the light of reason; and with these fatal auxiliaries, they did with the greatest facility, infringe the rights of God. And this engine in all countries, and among almost all denominations,

ty is incompatible with the existence of any kind of church. By liberty, I mean the enjoyment of equal rights, and by church I mean any mode of worship declared to be national, or declared to have any preference in the eye of the law."

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