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    tain how the shreds , the fringe , and < the tatters of this mantle have been < preserved , and carefully sewed into ; the " solemn stole ' of almost every ;

    religious institution , ihe arrogance of the priesthood ; the implicit confidence of the laity ; the prescribed pale of salvation ; the dogmata of belief ; absolution for offences , and passports to salvation , are all found as satellites ,

    affording their lesser influences to every planetary church in the reformed hemisphere of Christendom . Is it the weakness of humanity , the indolence of habit , or the feeble progress of knowledge , that inclines all to be desirous of some staff to lean

    upon , when the crook of St . Peter is wrested from their support ? If it be not too severe to identify the history of sacred fiction , and that of church establishments together , I beg your indulgence whilst I just mention a few instances , by which the above remarks will be

    corroborated . And should any of your Correspondents favour your readers with a history of religious fiction , the hints for such an undertaking now suggested , are capable of considerable addition , as well as great amplification .

    Our national church , the achievement of so much effort , and the boast of many centuries , will be found , like her Metropolitan Temple , a very exact copy of her great prototype , St . Peter ' s at Rome . Her supreme head , her legislative authority , articles of

    faith , ( even the Athanasjan !) punish * merit of heterodoxy , and hierarchical jurisdiction , varying the shadowy effect a little , leave the lineaments of her great parent entire . Add to this the politico-religious fiction of the

    indispensable union of church and state , the equally convenient one of interpreting Scripture by the Prayer-Book , as by " law set forth / ' and the domination of the civil over every higher authority is complete .

    The Vnitas Fratrum boast th eir uninterrupted ordination from the apostolic times , and the visible guidance of their affairs , by the second person of the Trinity . The key of Paradise is

    appended to the observance of their ritual , and happiness here and hereafter secured , by living and dying in the close connexion of the society . The Methodbt finds his security in being

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    " bought . with a price ; ' the Calvinist erects his pentagonal tower , immoveably fixed upon five points , by which he , like those of old , endeavours to reach unto hearen .

    What shall we say to the impugners of infant baptism ? Is not immersion with them the " Cretan ditany , " able to staunch , like the wound of Eneas , every issue by which life ebbs away ?

    Indeed , Mr . Editor , your pages hardly yet dry from the impression of this subject , but too readily evince how closely the alloy of an external coating , sticks to the pure ingot of superior intelligence .

    Should those discoveries which Newton predicted , ever be realized , when he anticipated greater improve * ments in the moral world , than had then taken place in the natural , with

    what fading insignificance the distinctions of party will melt away ! Amongst some of the probable advantages that will then be disclosed , the foliowiug suggestions may , perhaps , be included . That had it not been

    for the Passover , we should never have known the Eucharist : had there been no feasting at the conclusion of the Jewish sacrifices , we should not have had those in the primitive church denominated love-feasts : had there

    been no circumcision , no witness to the deed , no designation of the child by a name perpetuated in the tribe ; * ' They said unto her * there is none of thy kindred that is named with this name : " had there been no " passing through fire to Moloch , " no

    dedication of children to the protection of a favourite idol , no " baptism for the dead " . i& it not equally presumptive , that no injunctions would have been recorded respecting the baptism of Christian proselytes ? Names would never have been considered otherwise than as appropriate appellations , as they were in Homer ' s time :

    » u Say what the name you bore Imposed by parents in tbe natal hour ; For from the natal hour , distinctive names One common right , the great and lowly claims . "

    Perhaps * the " vantage ground * of our present information will hereafter become more fully manifested * and it will appear that Christianity blooms the best in the meridian of knowledge ; that the church has the accumulating

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    554 On Religioiis Fictions *

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1818, page 554, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2480/page/18/