ROMANISM. 



53 



been established in modern times, 

 in the memory of people hardly 

 past the middle of life, is illustrated 

 by Mormonism, which has a much 

 greater hold upon its followers than 

 the world is aware of, or willing to 

 believe. 



The conclusion to be drawn 

 would be, that human nature was 

 formerly, as it is now, capable of in- 

 venting a religion, and setting up a 

 worship, and establishing a priest- 

 hood, manufacturing it out of noth- 

 ing, as it were, having everything to 

 seek where nothing was to be found, 

 except the natural instinct of man 

 to receive, and the faculty to act on, 

 what was presented to it. Why, 

 then, could not that self-same hu- 

 man nature, as it got gradually con- 

 verted to or absorbed in it, and 

 then born into it, take an actual 

 revelation, complete in itself, and 

 applying to this life and the next, 

 and create from or out of it a re- 

 ligion and worship completely its 

 own, but much superior to common 

 Paganism, using its facts, ideas and 

 phrases only to twist and pervert 

 them to " other purposes and to- 

 wards other objects than the origi- 

 nal ones," and adding " innumer- 

 able superstitions" to it ; so that it 

 became a religion of nature, or 

 Paganism, which its followers would 



their minds, and said that he was a god " 

 (Acts xxviii. 1-6). 



Deification among the Pagans seems 

 to have been a common occurrence, but 

 it was only that of the true benefactors of 

 mankind that took root and flourished. 

 It was the rule among the heathen em- 

 perors of Rome, extending sometimes to 

 members of the imperial family. Thus 

 Tacitus says that Tiberius forbad the 

 " forms of religious worship" at the 

 funeral of his mother, Livia, the widow 

 of Augustus ; which was unnecessary, as 

 "it was her desire not to be deified." 

 Claudius, however, rendered her "divine 

 honours," as related by Suetonius. And 

 a daughter of Nero, dying before she was 

 four, months old, we are told by Tacitus, 

 " was canonised for a goddess : a temple 

 was decreed to her, with an altar, a bed 

 of state, a priest, and religious cere- 

 monies." 



afterwards even fight for, as " the 

 faith of their ancestors," or main- 

 tain it for contention or filthy lucre's 

 sake, or make it supply the place 

 generally filled by all the religions 

 known among men ? When such a 

 revelation had been perverted, God 

 could with much more reason and 

 justice not merely " give them over 

 to a reprobate mind," as he did the 

 heathen, but " send them strong de- 

 lusion that they should believe a lie, 

 that they all might be damned who 

 believed not the truth, but had pleas- 

 ure in unrighteousness" (2 Thess. 

 ii. ii, 12).* 



We read of the Apostles healing 

 people or striking them dead, or 

 bringing them to life again (which 

 no priest will attempt to do), but 

 never of their having pardoned their 

 sins, for the apparent reason that 

 God alone does that with the really 

 penitent and believing; while the 

 other gifts, being visible and tangi- 

 ble acts, obvious to every one, would 

 serve the purpose of advancing the 

 religion preached, which the pardon 

 of sins could not do, and was there- 

 fore foreign to the mission of the 

 Apostles, as applicable to any other 

 offences than those connected with 

 church discipline. But the fountain 

 for the washing away of sins as 

 against God, claimed by a priest, 

 ignorant and immoral as he some- 

 times is, never runs dry or freezes, 

 particularly while the applicant's 

 money holds out; while St. Peter 



* This seems to have been the " natural 

 history " of man : First, we have the race, 

 with the exception of Noah and his fam- 

 ily, destroyed by the flood (Gen. vi. 5-8), 

 without apparently improving it ; next, 

 the confusion and scattering of it at Ba- 

 bel ; then the Jews who " received the 

 law by the disposition of angels and did 

 not keep it" dispersed over the earth, 

 for their wickedness ; and lastly, the way 

 in which the Christian Revelation was 

 sooner or later treated. All these cast 

 a certain light over the "darkness and 

 mystery surrounding the origin and deg- 

 radation of religion, and the innumerable 

 forms of worship and superstition to 

 which they give birth." 



