ROMANISM. 



said as long as they are paid for, 

 for the Church does not publicly 

 profess to know or teach when souls 

 are released, and passed to a state 

 of final happiness. In virtue of his 

 consecration, which separates him 

 from all earthly relations, the priest 

 becomes a member of a world-wide 

 caste, that is exalted above any 

 order that can be conceived, and 

 that secures him provision for life, 

 almost as if he were independent of 

 Providence for a sustenance ; as well 

 as immunity against arrest or punish- 

 ment by any person or power out- 

 side of the Church, where Roman- 

 ism is completely in the ascendant. 

 Even if raised from the dunghill, he 

 is yet eligible to the office of our 

 " sovereign lord the Pope," who is 

 "above all principalities and powers;" 

 and although filling an humble posi- 

 tion in the Church, and yielding 

 implicit obedience to his superiors, 

 he can confess and pardon even 

 that superhuman dignitary, as if, in 

 short, he were a part of the God- 

 head itself ; for priests confess and 

 pardon priests on all occasions, no 

 less than the most ignorant devo- 

 tees. And let anyone wallow in the 

 mire every day of his life, he can 

 go to the priest and make confession 

 and receive forgiveness, paying, of 

 course, a fee on the occasion. The 

 most memorable events in the lives 

 of priests, before or after consecra- 

 tion, are the first sin they pardoned, 

 and the first wafer they converted 

 into a god to be worshipped. This 

 " mystery of iniquity" is propagated, 

 bodily and mentally, from age to 

 age, and becomes the daily life, 

 and hope for happiness in a future 

 state, of countless millions ; and the 

 dignified sacerdotal position in so- 

 ciety, as well as the "bread and 

 butter," of the principals, managers, 

 or governors, with no apparent pros- 

 pect of it ever coming to an end. 

 And not only that, but it makes 

 converts among ritualists, and that 

 floating part of the population, of 

 both sexes and all ages and classes, 



that, in the language of St. Paul to 

 Timothy, are " ever learning and 

 never able to come to the knowledge 

 of the truth;" and (which is not so 

 surprising) among those who have 

 little more knowledge of religion 

 than the instinct of nature "that in- 

 tellectual and emotional want that 

 is as common to man as instinct is 

 to the brute creation for the ends 

 which it has to serve."* 



Every religion of which we have 

 any knowledge, except what has 

 been revealed in the Scriptures, 

 seems to have sprung from the ex- 

 ercise of this natural instinct, which 

 was doubtless accompanied origin- 

 ally by a revelation. So deep is the 

 darkness and mystery surrounding 

 the origin and degradation of re- 

 ligion, and the innumerable forms 

 of worship and superstition to which 

 they gave birth, that we may dis- 

 miss the questions from contempla- 

 tion so far as they could illustrate 

 any one, in whole or in part, known 

 to us, except in the matters of sac- 

 rifice and prayer. But even these 

 are worthy of little regard, inasmuch 

 as in the cases of the enlightened 

 Greeks and Romans, St. Paul tells 

 us that " the things which the Gen- 

 tiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils 

 (demons) and not to God" (i Cor. 

 x. 20). And the prayers which ac- 

 companied their sacrifices, as well 

 as their supplications in general, no 

 matter how sincere they were, doubt- 

 less went in the same direction 

 certainly to beings that existed only 

 in the imaginations of the worship- 

 pers; as illustrated by Plato the 

 divine and godlike Plato when he 

 said, " Let us pray," and thus began : 

 " O Pan, and ye other gods of this 

 place;" and by Socrates when he 

 said, " Crito, we owe a cock to yEs- 

 culapius ; pay it, and by no means 

 neglect it." God did not altogether 

 abandon men to themselves, " for 

 the invisible things of him from the 

 creation of the world are clearly 



* Disquisition on the Gipsies, p. 502. 



