demnation of all non-Catholics, indulgence, atonement by penances, and other things, as eternal articles of faith; and it is in vain that many intelligent Roman Catholics of the present day wish for some alteration on these points. In a Church which declares herself infallible, an error is eternal, and is supported by bans and punishments, as immoveable truth. The Church of Rome, therefore, maintains an endless contest with the progress of the sciences and the improvement of society. It cannot, as the Protestant, proceed at an equal pace with these, but must either sink into the stream of time, or endeavour violently to stifle the improvement of mankind, and again to restore the middle ages in which it arose, and in which it alone could flourish. This is what the Roman Priesthood of the present day openly attempt; but it will be attended with no better success than if an experiment were made to make a child of a grown man. Our public creeds, on the contrary, are not intended as decrees of faith, but only as testimonies how the Scriptures were understood at the time of the Reformation. We can, therefore, correct a past error, and unite the results of advancing science with the truths of Christianity. The Gospel of Nazareth, will, therefore, continue and grow; but the Gospel of Rome and of Trent will perish. Were I to compare mankind with a growing child, I would say, the Protestant Churches, which allow freedom of opinion on points of faith, and found conviction on proofs, are like an arbour of living trees, which grow up with the child, whose branches the youth trains higher, till they arch above the man, and form a friendly bower, in whose shade he gladly rests. But the Roman Church, which rigidly and immoveably adheres to its infallible and eternal articles of faith, is like an arbour of dead wood, constructed by the carpenter for the child, against which the youth soon strikes his head, and which the man leaves and clears away.

Henry. I am almost of opinion that we boast too much of the unity and stability of faith in our Church; that difference of religious views is unavoidable, and free from all danger; and that the explanation of the Word of God, by convincing arguments, is the most proper explanation.

Wilhelmina. Were it not presumptuous in me to interfere in such learned disputes, I might perhaps add a few words to enliven your serious countenances. { Father. Beneath the jest a serious truth may perhaps lie concealed. Let us hear it.

Wilhelmina. The Scripture says to the woman, (Gen. iii. 16.) Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. These words are very clear, and yet they have been in all ages differently interpreted. The Orientalist ruled over his wife in the strictest sense of the word, and she was his servant. Among the Greeks she was little more. Bernhard has given me some very good explanations on this subject. How these words are understood in these days, you all know. Many clergymen, when, in the marriage ceremony, they come to the words, "He shall rule over thee," add, as an explanation, in all reasonable things. But what is gained by this? Every woman and every man have their own peculiar ideas of reasonable things, on which they would scarcely agree if a whole treatise were written on reasonable things. All explanations of the words are in the end of little consequence, though they may be made by a whole assembly of infallible Popes. For every woman will either govern or be governed, in proportion to her influence over her husband. This appears to me to have been already the case in the most ancient times; for it strikes me, that Sarah and her daughter-in-law Rebecca also explained the words, "He shall rule over thee," in their own way, although at that time the most rigid interpretation prevailed. What mischief can arise if women explain these ancient

words in a different sense, I certainly do not see. Hitherto, at least, the world and domestic affairs have gone on very comfortably.

Henry. You women explain every thing as it suits you. It would well become you to say with the virtuous Mary, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord!"

Wilhelmina. But when Mary said this, she had not an obstinate husband before her, butan angel. It is not said that Mary used these words to Joseph her husband. If all men were angels

Bernhard, (interrupting.) And all women were also angels, they would stand on an equal footing. But, jesting apart, you see, Henry, that men will always conceive points of faith in different lights, and that there cannot be a sufficient number of Popes and Councils to decide upon every point, and to compel men to adopt the same views of it. Therefore, every Church may have her written articles. She gains by them only unity of words in her public formularies, but not uniformity of ideas in the minds of men. Difference of opinion on religious points is natural, unavoidable, and accompanied with no danger to the truth. It is, therefore, not right to call each other heretics on this account, or by violent measures to enforce unity of faith. It is this violence which renders religious sentiments dangerous, whilst it eternalizes error, creates fanaticism and hatred, and obstructs the natural developement of the human mind.

I

CHAPTER XIII.

ONE of the chief arguments against the Protestant Church, which had taken deep root in Henry's inexperienced mind, was the doctrine concerning the Priesthood, which he introduced on the following evening. He had been persuaded that the Roman Catholic Priests alone form the true Priesthood, descended from the Apostles, and lawfully called to instruct mankind, and to administer the sacraments, and, therefore, that they alone can effectually forgive sins, and duly administer the sacraments. His mother certainly thought that this was a subject which deserved but little attention, as it was of small importance; but his father was of a different opinion, as the doctrine concerning the Priesthood is a fundamental article of faith with the Roman Catholic Church; and Bernhard observed, that the proselyte-makers of earlier and more recent times, have always attempted, with great zeal, to confirm the reproach, that the Protestant Clergy have no right to their offices. To obviate unnecessary investigations, it was at once conceded to Henry, that Jesus and his Apostles had intended overseers and teachers of the flocks to be in the Church, and that the Apostles had ordained Bishops and Elders over the congregations. "On this general arrangement, they added, "the legitimacy of the Protestant Clergy is founded;" and they asked Henry why he objected to this legitimacy.

Henry. The Roman Catholic Church teaches, that Jesus and his Apostles not only ordained, as you

say, overseers and teachers in the congregations, but that they founded a particular class or order of Priests, to whom exclusively, and without any participation of the laity, the government of the Church, the right of teaching, of duly administering the sacraments, of forgiving sins, of deciding disputes of faith, ought to be assigned. Without the Priesthood, therefore, the layman can do nothing. The Priest must baptize him, and he, thereby, first becomes a Christian; the Priest must confirm him and absolve him at the confessional, celebrate mass for him, assist him out of purgatory, and, by all these means, open to him the gates of paradise, which the Priest alone is able to accomplish. Finally, the Priesthood has the exclusive right of determining what the laity are to believe as true, and to reject as false; what is true sanctification, and what are the proper means for attaining it.

Father. The Roman Catholic Priests are thus not guardians but lords of the souls of the laity, the most absolute sovereigns of the same, because they possess, in matters of religion, not only the executive, but the legislative power over the laity. These, pardon the expression, are the negroes, and the Priests the planters. Such Priests we certainly have not in the Protestant Church.

Henry. You cannot have them; for the rights of the Priesthood are derived from the Apostles, and are only communicated through the ordinations of the Priests. They can, therefore, only belong to that Priesthood, which descends by an uninterrupted chain of ordinations from the Apostles, and has, by this means, propagated and transmitted unchangeably the sacerdotal gifts. The Roman Catholic Clergy can trace the succession of their Bishops historically, from the Apostles, and, consequently, derive their Priesthood as genuine from Christ, its founder. The Pro-testant Clergy cannot do this: they can only derive their origin and right from the founders of the Reformation, Luther and Zwinglius.