ligious veneration. Can the leeks and onions, adored by the ancient Egyptians, whom on that account Juvenal so severely satirizes, be more monstrous than this ? If this is not idolatry of the grossest kind, superadded to the worship of the images of saints, I know not to what corruption of religious service this term can be applied. It was not, therefore, without surprise, that I read in the newspapers a speech purporting to be that of a nobleman distinguished by his talents and liberal character, who proposed to repeal a statute or statutes, in which the Romish church is characterized as idolatrous. While it continues to practise what has been above stated, every Protestant, nay, every reflecting person, must acknowledge that this charge is perfectly founded. However desirous we may be of maintaining and extending religious liberty, we are never to abandon any essential article of our faith, or enter into any compromise with those tenets and practices which we hold to be directly contrary to the pure doctrines of the gospel. I am convinced that when the motion to which I refer was made, the subject was not viewed in a Porrum et cepe nefas violare, et frangere morsu. Juven. Sat. xv. ver. 9-11. 'Tis impious, leek or onion to assail. But an the light in which it appears to me. Both Jews and Gentiles were fond of a pompous ritual, and extremely prone to ascribe to the mere performance of such, some supernatural effect. The Christians in more early periods of the church were desirous of alluring their converts, whether Jews or Gentiles, by an assimilation to their ceremonies, and by representing those which they absurdly practised, as rendered infinitely more effectual for their ends, after they had been incorporated with Christianity. To this origin we may justly refer all the gross corruptions of the simple worship and rites sanctioned and injoined by the religion of Jesus. Among the Gentiles there were various mystical ceremonies, to which great effect was attributed, not by means of physical or moral causes, but in virtue of a secret compact with certain demons or genii. They supposed that those who had been completely initiated in these mysteries, would be happy, both in the present and in a future life. This was peculiarly the belief of those who had been initiated in the sacred ceremonies of Orpheus. This opinion, together with his institutions, that celebrated personage seems to have derived from the Egyptians. Diodorus Siculus testifies that the Egyptian myste found the VOL. II. a a Plutarchi Lacon. Apophtheg. I gods always propitious, and ready to bestow on them all celestial gifts. Even the divine Plato, as he was called, who was instructed and initiated in these mystic rites, makes this declaration:" "Whoever, without being initiated, and becoming an adept, arrives in Hades, will lie in the mire. But he who, having been purified and perfected, comes there, shall dwell with the gods." The . a "Ος ἂν ἀμύητος καὶ ἀτέλεστος εἰς ᾅδου ἀφίκηται, ἐν βόρβορο κείσεται. ὁ δὲ κεκαθαρμένος τὲ καὶ τετελεσμένος ἐκεῖσε ἀφικομένος, Merà lεãv oixýσei. (In Phædone.) Similar sentiments are expressed by Isocrates, and by Aristides in his Panathenaica. The Athenians said to Diogenes, "that the initiated obtained precedence in Hades." ”Εν ᾅδου προεδρίας οἱ μεμυημένοι τύγχανουσιν. Το this he answered, "that it would be ridiculous if Agesilaus and Epaminondas should live in the mire, while some vulgar mystics should be in the islands of the blessed.”Γελοῖον, ἔφη, εἰ Αγεσίλαος μὲν καὶ Επαμινώνδας ἐν τῷ βόρβορῳ διάξουσιν, εὐτελεῖς δὲ τινὲς μεμυημένοι ἐν ταῖς μακάρων νήσοις ἔσονται. (Laert. in Vita Diogenis.) Pharisees claimed upper rooms, and chief seats in this world. The mother of Zebedee's children asked for her two sons, that they might sit, the one on the right hand, and the other on the left of Christ, in his kingdom. (Matt. xxiii.6; xx. 21, 22.) Christ reproved, in both cases, this pride and ambition. It must, however, be granted that the wiser heathens connected with these mysteries the knowledge of truth and reformation of life. See Cicero De Legib. lib. ii. c. 14; and Arrian in Epictet. lib. iii. c. 21. The apostle Paul seems to make some allusion to the assembly of the perfect, figured by the Gentiles, in Heb. xii. 22, 23. "But ye are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly of the church of the first-born, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect." a It is, further, to be remarked, that the pagans had different degrees of sacred initiation, and different mysteries, some smaller, and some greater, till perfection was attained. Of these, as existing among both Greeks and barbarians, Clemens Alexandrinus speaks in this manner: "Not improperly, therefore, in the Grecian mysteries, purification obtains the first place, as ablution does among the barbarians. After this follow the smaller mysteries, which comprehend the elements of doctrine, and a preparation for what is going to succeed. But the great mysteries embrace the whole system. Nothing is to be learned after these, but only to contemplate and consider nature and her works." The Jews had their progressive steps of proselytism; first, to use their own language, they admitted proselytes of the gate, and then those of righteousness. In admitting and initiating these, they practised different rites. Nothing of this sort, however, appears to have been employed by the apostles, in admitting proselytes to Christian 2 Οὐκ ἀπεικότως ἄρα τῶν μυστήριων τῶν παρ' Ἕλλησιν, ἄρχει μὲν τὰ καθάρσια, καθάπερ καὶ τοῖς βαρβάροις τὸ λουτρὸν. μετὰ ταῦτα δ' ἐστὶ τὰ μικρὰ μυστήρια, διδασκαλίας τινὰ ὑπόθεσιν ἐχόντα, καὶ προς παρασκευῆς τῶν μελλόντων· τὰ δὲ μεγάλα, περὶ τῶν συμπάντων· οὐ μανθάνειν ἔτι ὑπολείπεται, ἐποπτεύειν δὲ καὶ περινοῦν τήν τε φύσιν καὶ τὰ πράγματα. See also Senecæ Nat. Quæst. lib. vii. c. 31; where he finely compares the gradual progress of the mysteries to the gradual discoveries of the works of nature. See also his 90th epistle. ity. Philip said to the Ethiopian eunuch, “If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest be baptized; and he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still ; and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him." In like manner, the jailer was baptized, with his family, by Paul and Silas, on the simple profession of belief on the Lord Jesus Christ. b In imitation of this gradation and progress of sacred instruction, observed both by Jews and Gentiles, converts to Christianity were, after corruption began to prevail, distributed into classes, chiefly into these two, catechumens, and those who had been fully instructed. The fathers deliver many observations concerning the distinctions, offices, and privileges of these classes. They also distinguished doctrine into that which might be publicly announced, and that which was to be communicated only to adepts. This discrimination seems to derive some authority from different passages of the writings of the apostle Paul. In compliance, as they supposed, with his example, Christian teachers, in the times of which I am speaking, never openly declared what they termed their mysteries, either in conversation, or in their catechetical instructions, or a Acts viii. 37, 38. b Acts xvi. 30-33. 6, 7. Phil. iii. 15. Heb. v. 13, 14; vi. 1. c See 1 Cor. ii. |