perfectly clear, and require no explanation whatever and it is unfortunately these clear parts of which the clergy are much more afraid than of the more abstruse and difficult passages of the law and of the prophets yet because there are obscure parts which none understand, they argue that no part can be understood without their help. If, however, the laity were familiar with the Holy Scriptures, they would know, that so far from the letters of the Apostles being addressed to the clergy with directions to them to explain them to the people, they are addressed to the whole body of the people, women as well as men. St. Paul addresses his Epistle to the Romans to all the

Christians in Rome: in the

First Epistle to the

Corinthians, Sosthenes joins with him, and the letter is addressed "unto the Church of God which is in Corinth, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours." In the Second Epistle, Timothy joins with him in writing, not only to the Church at Corinth but to "all the Saints which are in all Achaia." In the Epistle to the Galatians, "all the brethren" who were with St. Paul at Rome are joined these Galatians had endangered the salvation of their souls by mixing other things with, or adding other things to, the sacrifice of Christ,—an error which was tantamount to the renunciation of

the faith altogether, and to which every Christian had something to say, as well as those who were specially called to rule the Church. The same observations may be made on the Epistles to the Ephesians, Colossians, &c., all tending to shew that the written word of God was not given to the clergy apart from the people, nor specially to them, but rather the reverse; for in no instance are they addressed to the clergy, but to all the people: nor are they written exclusively by Apostles, for St. Paul joins other faithful men to himself in writing them.

The clergy have contrived to puzzle plain subjects in such a way as to make the laymen lose their common sense, or these latter would see that there is a perfect analogy in this matter between the statute-books of the Ecclesiastical and of the Civil Law. The acts of parliament are published, not for the exclusive use of the judges and lawyers, but for all the people; and all the people are legally answerable for knowing the contents of them. If disputes arise, the difference must be settled in tribunals appointed for that end: but until the tribunals have pronounced authoritative decisions, the lawyers know no more of the meaning of the law than the rest of the people. So it is with the Scriptures; if disputes and differences arise, lawful councils must be summoned, and their decisions must be obeyed; but until competent

ecclesiastical courts have determined the matter, the clergy know no more than the laity.

In the assumption of class wisdom, class holiness, class sanctity, &c., the clergy of the Christian Church have been ensnared as were the heathen priests, who first assumed and laid claim to a character superior to that of the laity, and kept the people in ignorance in order to practise more completely their deceptions. It is not necessary to the truth of this statement that such deceptions, on the part of the Christian clergy at least, should have been intentional; that they should be conscious to themselves that they were unduly exalting themselves, or unduly trampling upon others: nor is it just, even if such were the case, to lay the blame exclusively upon the priests, either heathen or Christian; the laity have been quite as much to blame by their willingness to be deceived; the priests have done little more than what the people asked for. In all countries, and in all ages, men have loved to resort to any who claim, or who seem to have a greater familiarity than others with the invisible world, whether magicians of ancient or of modern times, witches, soothsayers, priests, prophets, mesmerisers, ghost-seers, &c. The Son of God has come out from the bosom of the Father to reveal to mankind the hidden Light which resides in the Invisible One, but they will not

come to it, and rather follow some ignis fatuus instead. Reformation is not by one class rising up against the deception practised by another, but by each coming to that Light, and that Truth, in the channels through which alone they are ordained to proceed.

So

The place where the officious meddling of the Romish clergy in secular affairs is most complete, and where it has produced its most pernicious and legitimate fruit, is Ireland. The priests depend for their support almost exclusively upon the gifts which they receive from individuals of their flocks for performing the rites of the Church. As the people abound, so do the gifts; as the flock is numerous, so are the fees. The clergy, therefore, have reared people as farmers rear stock. soon as boys and girls are marriageable they persuade them to marry in order to get the marriage fees: children follow, and fees in proportion; gifts in commutation of penance; fees in cases of sickness; the extreme unction, and lastly death, combine to give to each Roman Catholic priest about three hundred pounds' worth of meat, potatoes, eggs, poultry, whisky, provender for horse, and clothes, &c. &c. per annum; and the process of bartering on these points has been described by Sydney Smith, with his accustomed comic power. By the same means also is a population produced

beyond the power of a pasture country to employ, and therefore a population always on the verge of starvation, desperate from want, reckless from the conscious inutility of all exertion, and ready for any outbreak which may possibly give them the means of subsistence for another day. When benevolent individuals or the government have proposed to convey the starving people to one of our colonies, where labour was wanted and well remunerated, the clergy have denounced from the altar all such plans, the persons who propose them, and the people who would take advantage of them. A system of more refined cruelty and oppression was never devised, and could only succeed amongst a people entirely sunk in ignorance, and in the superstitious worship of those over them.

The world was to be taught by, and to follow the example of the Church; and as the clergy have acted in the latter, so have rulers in the former. Instead of regarding themselves as mere channels of spiritual blessings to others, the clergy have been as lords over God's heritage; and kings and nobles, instead of regarding themselves as delegates from God to promote the happiness of their inferiors, have sacrificed those below them to their own selfishness. The clergy have set the example to kings which the latter should have followed: they have not suffered the Christian Church to be