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rise, was still magnificent in its conception, and imposing by the worldly power and grandeur which accompanied it. Founded on such principles, possessed by such power, it assumed the tone of the kingdom of heaven in this world. It not only" sat as a queen," but "lifted itself up to heaven." Babylon became " the praise of the whole earth," and it was said by her and her antitype, "What city is like unto the great city"-her "head" or origin in heaven, her institutions heavenly, her very intolerance a passport to the kingdom of heaven!

It is observable how strict Babel maintained the character of her founder for intolerance even to the very last. Even when Nebuchadnezzar acknowledges the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego-the acknowledgment cannot be made without a bull; the confession of the truth cannot be made without a decree ; "Therefore, I, Nebuchadnezzar, make a decree, that every people, nation, and language, which speak any thing amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill; because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort."*

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Such are the interesting remarks of this author on the subject of Babel." But let us now observe, that this original attempt after uniformity (if such it really was) completely failed,† and, as we learn from the sacred history, was wholly displeasing to God.

But though the attempt to introduce a self-invented symbolism in worship, and an uniformity over all, was frustrated in this instance, yet it has not always been so. And in almost every community a certain class have succeeded in what the Babel-builders as a body failed.

* See Morison's Religious History of Man, p. 219.

+ Gen. xi. 8.

THE PRIEST.

Allusion has already been made to a priesthood laying the people under restraints as to meats, which God gave in free grant to Noah and his posterity, and in them to all mankind. And there is a priesthood in the present day, walking so curiously in the footsteps of those who have gone before them; and though they claim the name of Catholic, yet opposing so strenuously all true catholicity, that it belongs to these pages to touch on this subject. And this is perhaps the best place for doing so ; for, already in the family of Noah, in the most remote antiquity to which profane history or tradition can carry us, we find an order of men similar to that which has just been alluded to; we find a regularly constituted priesthood.

Nor is this to be wondered at. The sacerdotal institution is the natural fruit of human nature; and for good or for evil according to circumstances, makes its appearance wherever society possesses any degree of development at all. Man loves power, and needs religion, and these two principles are enough to develope a priesthood in every community. Man loves power; and, generally speaking, every body does what in him lies to become possessed of power. But of all who are aiming at power, especially in a simple and ignorant state of society, the priest is sure to succeed the best. For man feels his need of religion; and history proves, that in such a state of society as has been referred to, there is a constant tendency on the part of the people to refer every display of power, and every unexplained phenomenon, simply and directly to the divine agency. By a felicity of ignorance, its only felicity, simple people pass by all second causes, and, ascending at once to the fountain-head, ascribe all things to God. And this were indeed good,

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and, in point of fact, the noblest philosophy, as well as the soundest theology, did they only refrain from ascribing what is sinful to God. But, unfortunately for the cause of truth and morality, simple people make no distinctions. Not discriminating between the divine fountain itself, which pours forth the mighty torrent of life and power always pure, and the creature machinery which that torrent sets agoing and maintains in action, simple people ascribe all to God, the deformed as well as the beautiful, the evil as well as the good. In the early stage of the human mind, there is little reflection and no analysis. All is impression. Philosophy is as yet wholly in the womb of religion. A Pantheism is the universal faith. Theocracy is the only form of government recognised. Nor was this feature in the character of man neglected in the councils of Heaven. An epoch in the development of humanity, in many respects so beautiful, was not suffered to pass away without the peculiar voice of Heaven respecting it. God took it up; and by revealing the knowledge of Satan, an agency distinct from his own, and opposed to it, and having for its object the advancement of evil, as his own has the advancement of good, God purged Pantheism of its capital error. And this done, He then became Himself the head of that form of government which has been named, and which is alone congenial with the spirit of primæval times, and the necessities of primæval society. God consecrated the theocratic epoch of the human mind. He gave his chosen people a true theocracy.

But, passing by this idea for the present (afterwards to return to it), and merely calling to mind the tendency of man in a primæval state, to refer every thing to Divine agency, there is in this fact plainly the ground on which an ambitious man may practise with success, in order to attain authority of the highest kind. In order

to this, in fact, it is plain that nothing more is necessary, than that he manage to persuade the people around him, that he is one who communicates more directly than they do with that Divine power, of which they all are already predisposed to be mysteriously and darkly impressed. Such a course, then, being open to ambition, many may be expected to attempt to attain to power and authority in this way, and some to succeed. And thus is the first footstep made towards the existence of a sacerdotal order.

But the talents which are crowned with success in such an enterprise, will be generally sufficient, also, to teach those who are successful, not to quarrel with each other. Nay, since a contradiction of each other, would invalidate the pretensions of all, while, plainly nothing on the other hand, would tend so well as a perfect harmony among them (as if all their utterances were but echoes of the Divine voice), to stamp with the claims of a Divine communication whatever they might give out to the people, we may expect them all to agree with each other, and to work to each other; and, consequently, to form an order by themselves. Thus does a priesthood naturally come into being, and organize itself; and while a certain state of society subsists, thus does it naturally govern the people for good or for evil. And, truly, when an order of religious men, thus enjoying the supremacy, have attained to it by a lawful use of the true religion, and are themselves holy men, seeking the glory of God, the salvation of souls, and the well-being of the society which they preside over; as, for instance, (to mention a modern case), the Polynesian missionaries,they are of infinite value, and can achieve wonders of good.

But history shews that the sacerdotal order (though with many illustrious exceptions, of course) has resembled all other orders in this, that it has always sought

its own security and aggrandizement as its principal pursuit. Nay, the ministers of Christ have too long shewn the disposition to arrogate to themselves the place of God. The priesthood of the Romish Church represents itself, to this day, as a mediatorial agency, and tries to persuade the faithful in that communion, that it is not from open revelation, or from the voice of reason and conscience, but from the utterances of the priesthood alone, that the will of God is to be learned, and that it is through this channel alone that the favours of heaven are conferred. But, plainly, these extravagant pretensions in a priesthood must cease, wherever that priesthood is animated by the spirit of Christianity. The fact is, that, in the true religion, ever since the true worshippers have constituted nations, God has provided against all dangerous usurpations on the part of the priesthood. Nor need we wonder at this, since it has been every where proved, that excessive power is incompatible with purity and spirituality on the part of those who enjoy it.

Ever since true worshippers constituted nations, God has given a charter between the priesthood and the people,-a charter in which the privileges and duties of both are defined, so that neither can usurp or overbear the other, without sinning against God; and this is one of the most striking peculiarities in the economics of true religion. During the Theocracy, the law of Moses was the charter. Under Christ, the gospel is. And in all the churches of the Reformation, the Bible is deferred to, both by the ecclesiastic order and the people, as the standard of reference, and the charter between them. It is only since the Reformation, however, that we find the people referred by the ecclesiastics to a higher authority than the utterances of their own order for the truth of what they advance. But these are views which will

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