rious, envious, slow to good works, and prone to evil. Where at this day can be found that continence in gesture, diet, apparel, and conduct, that becomes the clergy? At banquets, taverns, plays, and theatres, they are more frequently found than in places dedicated to God. How infinitely pernicious to the universal church, the scurrility, the ignorance, the fornication, the simony, and other crimes are, with which almost the whole clergy are infected, there is no man who can entertain a doubt."

Surely it is not wonderful that all this contempt of morality in those who ought to have been its guardians, and who professed to be its teachers, should have induced utter disregard for it in the minds of the people. This we find actually to have been its melancholy effect; for Nicholas Clemangis, already quoted, himself an archdeacon in the church of Rome, declares, "That wicked persons did so much abound in all professions of men, that scarcely one among a thousand was to be found, who did sincerely live answerable to his profession; or, if there was any one that was honest, chaste, temperate, and did not follow this licentious kind of life, he was made a laughing stock to others, and was forthwith called either an insolent and singular madman, or a hypocrite."

These are evils for which the progress of literature and science-if, indeed, it were possible, that, in such a state of things, literature and science could have made progress-would have furnished no remedy. Speculators about the improvement of mankind may dream of the regeneration of the human character,

and the melioration of human society by other means, but the whole past experience of man compels us to believe and to affirm, that Christianity, and Christianity alone, is adequate to the accomplishment of that great work. In vain had philanthropists laboured, and sages taught, and the splendour of human wisdom for four thousand years illumined the world. illumined the world. Christianity, at

her first entrance among the children of men, beheld gross and universal depravity pervading the manners of mankind. They were, according to the testimony of Him whose words are eternal truth, "filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful." Wheresoever her influence extended, Christianity accomplished a blissful and glorious change,— a change which was the boast and the joy of her apologists, and the confusion of her enemies. "Give me," exclaimed the Christian Cicero *, pleading the cause of our divine religion, "give me a man passionate, slanderous, ungovernable; by the power of the word of God I will render him placid as a lamb. Give me a man greedy and avaricious, I will give him back to you liberal, lavishing his gold with unsparing hand. Give me a man who shrinks from pain and death, and presently he shall contemn the gibbet, the stake, and the

* Lactantius.

N

wild beast. Give me one who is libidinous and a debauchee, and you shall see him sober and temperate. Give me one cruel and bloodthirsty, and his fury shall be converted into clemency itself. Give me, in short, one addicted to folly, injustice, and crime, and he shall become prudent, and harmless, and just." Now, the Reformation, being a recurrence to the form and the spirit of genuine christianity, might have been expected to produce a recurrence to that purity of conduct, and that elevation of moral character, which are its inseparable attendants. Accordingly, we find that this was really the case. The thousand abuses and immoralities which were tolerated, and even encouraged, under the preceding reign of darkness, fled as lowering clouds are scattered by the sunbeams of the morning; a return was extensively made to that purity of external conduct which had been universally relinquished; and the foundation was laid of all that refinement of manners, and all that dignity of character, by which, since the Reformation, the people of the Protestant have been exalted above the people of Catholic lands.

There are, it is true, some Protestant countries, in which this auspicious change has taken place to a greater extent than has been the case in others. In Scotland, for example, and in Protestant Switzerland, the lower orders of society are much superior, in point of intelligence and morals, to people of the same class in any other land. It is obvious, that this superiority is to be attributed to the more extensive diffusion of knowledge-especially religious knowledge-in these

countries, and their consequent more enlarged enjoyment of the blessings of the Reformation. But the influence of this happy revolution, in elevating the tone of social morality, has not been confined to Protestant lands. In those Catholic states, in which Protestantism has obtained toleration, a very considerable improvement has taken place in the morals both of the clergy and of the people. This reformation of conduct, indeed, was forced upon the members of that church, by the surprising increase of light and knowledge that had taken place around them; nevertheless, the elevation of the standard of morality, and the consequent melioration of man's social condition, are pleasing events-in what way soever they may have been accomplished,—and we feel compelled to venerate the memory of the momentous revolution by which they were produced.

It merits to be remarked farther on this part of our subject, that the Reformation has imparted a degree of security and confidence to the transactions of commerce, and to the intercourse of social life, which, under the reign of popery, could not possibly exist. The detestable principle-to which we have again and again adverted-that every other interest must be abandoned when it comes into competition with the interest of the church, must appear to every person of common reflection to have been utterly at variance with every thing like generous friendship, and unsuspecting intercourse, among mankind. What confidence could there be in social intercourse, what happiness in friendship, when men lived in continual jea

+

lousy of each other, afraid to speak the genuine sentiments of their hearts, lest some unguarded expression should annihilate their correspondence, and occasion the sacrifice of their friendship-peradventure also of their lives-at the shrine of unholy zeal * ? Add to this, that, in consequence of the unbounded influence which the clerical orders possessed over the minds of the people, they had the virtue, the peace, the happiness of domestic society entirely in their power. A more striking illustration of this remark cannot be conceived, than that which is furnished by the prevalence of the practice of auricular confession. It was the doctrine in which the people were carefully instructed, that they ought to acquaint their spiritual guides with all their affairs-their faults and their good deeds-every thing, in short, which they either had done or intended to do. It would not be believed, if it were not proved by the fact, that ever the human mind could be so dismally blighted as tamely to acquiesce in such a degrading imposition. Alas! it would seem that if the mental eye be once closed in darkness, there is no usurpation too dreadful or too debasing to obtain the implicit reverence of mankind. Auricular confession was received as a divine doctrine; and the wrath of the Almighty was supposed to rest upon the sinner who dared to neglect it. And thus did it come to pass, that the priesthood became acquainted with the tran

• One memorable and mournful example of the triumph of Popish principle over the endearing obligations of human relationship, the reader will find recorded in the Appendix, No. VIL