would be well to adopt such precautions as would at once suit the dignity of the crown and that of the Church. But a Roman Catholic Church and a Pope are not necessary for this purpose, but councils only, which are now introduced into many Protestant coun tries. Besides, the experience of three centuries, in Germany, Sweden, and Denmark, has taught us that the Protestant Church runs no danger from the power of her Protestant sovereigns, and that she was in general only then oppressed when her sovereigns either were or became Roman Catholic. It is also true that the Protestant hierarchy is in too little esteem and consideration in the State, that it is excluded from all intercourse with princes, ministers, and the great nobility, by its want of rank, and cannot, therefore, coun teract the proselyting efforts of the high Roman Catholic ecclesiastics, who are amalgamated with the court. But this is only the case in Germany, not in England, Sweden, and Denmark; and even in Germany Prussia has, by the restoration of Protestant episcopacy, advanced a step towards improvement. But it does not follow that because it is not right to class the clergy with the lower ranks and populace, it is, therefore, necessary to make them princes and sovereigns. The latter extreme is as injudicious and injurious as the former; the medium is best: it is, however, clear that it does not become him who pretends to be the father of all Christendom to have a temporal kingdom also. He who will be sole bishop of all Christendom is surely so much occupied with his own office, that he ought not to burden himself with the weight of a temporal government. Your Pope will thereby be only involved in political contests, and placed in embarrassments between the interests of the Church and those of his political kingdom; he and his cardinals and archbishops are always more politicians than ecclesiastics, more lawyers than theologians, more learned in the affairs of this world than in those relating to the kingdom of heaven. Go

I

through the history of the popes, and you will find that they were involved, without end, in political disputes, and played, in truth, no very honourable part in them. Does it become those, who would represent the Apostles, to be ministers of state and generals of armies, as Richelieu and Mazarin in France, as Cardinal Sourdis, who commanded the fleet, and Cardinal la Valette, who, in the thirty years' war, commanded an army of the King of France?

Mother. We need not have recourse to history; the testimony of Jesus passes judgment upon all that you have advanced respecting the splendour of the Pope he says expressly (St. John xviii. 36.) My kingdom is not of this world ;" and when he (St. Matt. vi. 24.) delivers the precept "No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to the one and despise the other, ye cannot serve God and Mammon," he at the same time passes sentence upon the Pope, who will be both a vicegerent of God and a temporal king. Satan (St. Luke iv. 5.) shewed to the Saviour also all the kingdoms of the world to induce him to appropriate to himself a temporal kingdom, but the Lord said "Get thee behind me, Satan." What the master refused, it does not become the servant to receive. His disciples certainly aspired after political dominion; but how did the Saviour address them when he perceived it? "Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever shall be great among you let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief let him be your servant," (St. Matt. xx. 25-27.) It is as if the Saviour had foreseen with prophetic spirit that one of his followers would once constitute himself a Pope.

Father. The ground which we have gained by today's conversation is this, that according to the design of Jesus there ought to be no Pope, that till the

eleventh century there existed neither Pope nor Roman Church, that a Pope as a temporal prince is not adapted to the spiritual kingdom of Christ, and that the assertion is groundless, that the Roman Catholic Church was founded immediately by Christ, and is, therefore, the only true Church, and consequently the Protestant a false one..

Bernhard. On all this I offer but one remark. What were received by the Church, during the five first centuries, as public articles of faith, are contained in the three general Christian creeds, the Apostles', the Nicene, and Athanasian creeds. These confessions the Protestant Church receives also, and she, therefore, agrees with the Church of the five first centuries. If she rejects the doctrines concerning the Pope, masses, the seven sacraments, the worship of saints, and other things, she only rejects what was received later into the Church without any authority from Scripture. For of these additions those three general creeds contain nothing. So false, therefore, is the assertion that the Roman Catholic Church, as now constituted, is the Church of the first centuries; so unjust the reproach, that the Protestant Church has apostatized from the ancient Church; she has rather returned to her, and the Roman Church has apostatized from her.

HENRY's father was absent on mercantile affairs for a week, during which the conversations were discontinued. Henry found time to weigh in his mind all that had been said, but he arrived at no other conclusion, than that his strongest bulwarks by which he had intended to justify his conversion were no longer tenable. One point he still retained, but he feared that this could be maintained no better than the rest. He began secretly to own to himself that he had perhaps been rather premature in his conversion; and to this secret acknowledgment succeeded a regret that he had abandoned his philological studies, devoted himself to painting, and gone to seducing Rome. Before his departure for Italy he had left his collection of books in the care of his father, and since his return he had made no inquiry for them; he now went to his library in order, as he said, to pass away the time during his father's absence. He examined the books, and turned here and there the leaves of an ancient author. On the following day he had these books brought to his room, and soon afterwards was observed to read Plato with eagerness.

1 Antonio was astonished at this new taste of Henry's, as he had not been used to see him read Greek and Latin authors. He could not refrain from asking what the contents of these books were, and what was to be learned from them. "From these," answered Henry abruptly, "a man learns not to imagine that he knows what he does not know." [zem nasm

"There is nothing remarkable in that," answered Antonio, "I should have thought that was selfunderstood."

"You might think so," said Henry, "it is not, however, so easy, and I feel myself a perfect novice in this science."

Antonio. If it mean that we are frequently in error on points which we think we understand, then I have also a book from which I learn much of the same kind.

Antonio, (drawing a small book out of his pocket, and giving it to Henry.) Here, this is my treasure of wisdom.

Henry. Ah! your New Testament translated by the priest Van Ess. Have you found any thing remarkable in it?

Antonio.

Yes, something very remarkable, and I am only surprised that I was not struck with it on my first perusal.

2

Henry. Now let me hear.

Antonio. It is in the twenty-third chapter of St. Matthew; here, read it.

Henry, (after looking over it.) Is that all?

Antonio. And is not that enough, and more than enough? It is a description of Rome, of the Pope, and the Clergy not

!

Henry. Are you in your senses, Antonio? Who has found any thing of the kind in those words?

Antonio, I have: Christ's description of the Pharisees and Scribes answers exactly to the Pope and the Clergy. What was blamed as wrong in the Jewish priests must be wrong in the Christian priests also, for Jesus censures it.

Henry. There you are quite right; but what is there in the Romish priests by which they resemble the Jewish?

Antonio. If you will hear me patiently I will give you such an explanation of the whole chapter as must