ROMANISM. 



61 



It made a strong and a long fight 

 against Christianity, and to a great 

 extent ultimately smothered it. 

 Like a woman marrying, it lost its 

 name and personal identity, but 

 transmitted to posterity a numerous 

 and vigorous progeny. It gave to 

 the Romanists the form of their 

 churches, and many of their temples, 

 altars and idols ; their government 

 and organization ; their pontiff, 

 priests and vestals ; and a multitude 

 of their peculiarities, such as 

 canonizations or demigodism, saints' 

 days and festivals, incense, lustra- 

 tions and holy water, votive offer- 

 ings, pontifical dispensations, conse- 

 cration of sacred places, winking, 

 nodding, sweating and bleeding 

 images, relics, vestments, etc. ; all 

 of which have been palmed off upon 

 the world as Christianity ! It in- 

 vented its confessional 1,250 years 

 after the introduction of Christianity, 

 for, as Dean Stanley, in his Lectures 

 on the Eastern Church, says : " The 

 priestly expression of absolution, 

 which in the Western Church was 

 in the same thirteenth century 

 changed into the positive form * I 

 absolve thee,' in the Eastern Church 

 is still, as it always was, ' May the 

 Lord absolve thee.' " * 



embracing Christianity, in whatever form 

 it was presented to them ; and as an 

 argument, would have applied to any 

 superstition or idolatry that ever existed 

 in the world. Two systems of Paganism 

 in competition would resemble two per- 

 sons contesting the possession of pro- 

 perty without title-deeds. Of course, 

 each could claim and maintain what it 

 was in possession of, for the reason that 

 possession gives a title when no one can 

 show a better. And so it would happen 

 that the one system of Paganism could 

 not injure the other, so far as the origin of 

 each was concerned. Romanism, how- 

 ever, is in possession on two titles, that of 

 occupancy, as the successor of both 

 Paganism and Christianity, and a formid- 

 ably specious one in the shape of Chris- 

 tian muniments, that make it a difficult 

 matter to reduce by any ordinary form of 

 procedure. The better way, as I have 

 said at page 55, is for the world, as repre- 

 senting the Crown, to call on Romanists 

 to " prove their pedigree," and produce 

 the charter by which they hold, to see 



I Let any disinterested and candid 

 person carefully, or even super- 

 ficially, study the New Testament 

 and Romanism, not altogether as it 

 exists, in some churches, in the midst 

 of Protestants, but as it is found in 

 the books, hearts and practices of 

 its priests and people all over the 

 world, and he cannot but conclude 

 that that religion is not Christianity. 

 It will naturally enough call itself 

 by that name, for such, at least, it 

 has inherited ; and it will as natural- 

 ly fall back on its historical records 

 and associations, in the manner of 

 all institutions known among men, 

 however unworthy it is of them, and 

 however much it may have de- 

 parted from its letter and spirit, and 

 substituted others for them, to give 

 support to its existence, and the 

 tremendous powers it lays claim to. 

 No religion was ever introduced that 

 gave a priesthood more plausible 

 pretexts to exercise dominion over 

 its followers, or more powerful ma- 

 chinery to oppress them, illustrating 

 the saying that what is the best be- 

 comes the worst when prostituted 

 to the basest of purposes. It has 

 been said that Romanism could not 

 have spread so far, or lasted so long, 

 had it not some deep foundation in 



whether they have performed its condi- 

 tions, or have corresponded otherwise 

 with the description of the parties therein 

 described. In a mere historical sense, as 

 representing possession if that amounts 

 to anything, as distinguished from the 

 spirit, doctrines, and practices of the 

 Christian religion the Easterns can 

 always be played off against the Romans, 

 putting the latter on the defensive, to 

 prove that they are what they claim to be. 



* New York Edition of i862,/. 126. In 

 this work we find the following remarks : 

 " No theory of the Christian Church 

 can be complete which does not take 

 some account of their [the Eastern 

 Churches'] existence," in which are " to be 

 found nearly a third part of Christendom 

 one hundred millions of souls profess- 

 ing the Christian faith " (p. 89). " The 

 field of Eastern Christendom is a com- 

 paratively untrodden field" (p. 88). " The 

 centralization of the West, as displayed 

 in the Papacy, is unknown in the East" 

 (p. 128). 



