62 



ROMANISM. 



human nature. The same question 

 could be started with regard to the 

 corrupt Eastern Churches, and the 

 origin, development and continuance 

 of all the human religions that have 

 existed, and especially the Paganism 

 which Christianity encountered in 

 Asia, Africa and Europe. And yet 

 we find that these maintained them- 

 selves for centuries after Christianity 

 made its appearance. If such could 

 exist for so many ages when undis- 

 turbed, and for so long after being 

 attacked by Christianity, what dif- 

 ficulty can there be in believing 

 that Romanism a mixture of de- 

 graded Christianity and almost 

 everything that could be added to 

 it can maintain and extend itself, 

 when it rests upon an infinitely bet- 

 ter foundation than the old Pagan- 

 ism, and is so much better but- 

 tressed than any human religion 

 known? The existence, perpetua- 

 tion, and increase of Romanism 

 among the same races that followed 

 the old Paganism, and that possess- 

 ed the nature, wants and necessities 

 of men of to-day, need therefore 

 cause no comment, surprise or won- 

 der. And thus it happens that 

 Christianity (in other instances be- 

 sides Romanism), after being so 

 thoroughly degraded as to become 

 a religion of nature, or " of this 

 world," will perpetuate itself, with 

 some Christian doctrines and ob- 

 servances, while two threads of it 

 hang together, where it has thor- 

 oughly obtained a footing, and is 

 dominated by a priesthood, and is 

 allowed to exist in peace, owing to 

 the personal, social and political 

 necessity of man having a religion 

 of some kind, and the difficulty at- 

 tending the introduction of a new 

 one, of divine origin or purely hu- 

 man in its nature. 



We must not forget that Roman- 

 ism has been the gradual growth of 

 ages, each generation, as it were, 

 having contributed, and is still con- 

 tributing, to its development; each 

 generation accepting its predeces- 



sor's additions, as history records, 

 and daily experience testifies. Hav- 

 ing become fairly established, there 

 would be little chance, in the face of 

 its organization and the common 

 belief in its claims, of any one call- 

 ing it in question, unless in secret, 

 without the objection being instant- 

 ly suppressed. It is too serious a 

 matter to interfere, in any age, with 

 any of the established beliefs of 

 society that have no reference to re- 

 ligion, for any one to have thought 

 of attacking a creed like that of 

 Rome, based on the infallibility of 

 the Church, at the head of which 

 was " our sovereign lord the Pope," 

 who was lord paramount of this 

 world, to whom kings were subject, 

 who possessed the keys of heaven 

 and hell, and could bless or curse 

 men or nations at pleasure, giving 

 dispensations and indulgences for 

 sins still to be committed, and mak- 

 ing that sin which was no sin, and 

 that not sin which was sin. The 

 Church was the heir of old Rome, 

 as regards its government, language 

 and literature, its laws, sciences, and 

 arts. Its priests were the sole de- 

 positories of education and know- 

 ledge, civilization and government, 

 the owners of vast wealth wrung 

 from the community, and the dis- 

 pensers of charity, in an ignorant 

 society, dominated by the barbarian 

 chiefs that overran the Western 

 Empire. They were also the instru- 

 ments of the amalgamation of races 

 and the abolition of serfship, to 

 whom the people looked for their 

 religion and assistance in the direc- 

 tion of their temporal matters, and 

 of whom they were proud, although 

 treated in the matter of religion 

 (conducted in a language unknown 

 to them) as cattle are foddered. 

 And it is a question whether what 

 they did were merits, or merely, or 

 for the most part, to maintain their 

 dominion over their followers. 



This is the power with which 

 Protestants are called upon to dis- 

 pute for the religious empire of the 



