ple and persuasion, neglecting their high trust, and their commission from above, entered upon the management of secular affairs, and leaving their seat, and their charge with it, wandered about, from place to place, on mercantile business, and in pursuit of disreputable gain. Thus the poor of the church were miserably neglected, while the bishops, who should have taken care of them, were intent upon nothing but their own private profit, which they were forward to advance at any rate, and by any, even the foulest methods."*

Origen speaks of the clergy of his day, in language no less pointed and revolting. "If Christ," says he, "justly wept over Jerusalem, He may now, on much better grounds, weep over the church, which was erected to the end that it might be an house of prayer; and yet, through the filthy usury of some (and I wish that these were not even THE PASTORS OF THE PEOPLE) it is made a den of thieves."*

Eusebius, who lived in the next century, writes in the same strain concerning the age of Cyprian. When, through too much liberty, we fell into sloth and negligence; when every one began to envy and backbite another; when we waged, as it were, an intestine war amongst ourselves, with words as with swords; pastors rushed against pastors, and people against people, and strife and tumult, deceit and guile advanced to the highest pitch of wickedness. -Our pastors, despising the rule of religion, strove mutually with one another, studying nothing more

than how to outdo each other in strife, emulations, hatred, and mutual enmity; proudly usurping principalities, as so many places of tyrannical domination. THEN THE LORD COVERED THE DAUGHTER OF ZION WITH A CLOUD IN HIS ANGER.

If such were the character of the clergy in the days of Origen and Cyprian, we have, surely, no reason to wonder at the deep degeneracy, both in doctrine and morals, which all the records of that time show to have begun in every part of the church, and which prepared the way for the still deeper degeneracy which marked the succeeding age. teachers and leaders of the church, as a body, were no longer faithful; and it would have been miraculous, indeed, if the church herself had remained pure and harmonious.

The

In the fourth century, when Christianity became, for the first time, the established religion of the Roman Empire, both the causes and the symptoms of spiritual corruption, became, every where, more prevalent, and more strongly marked. And the first and most prominent fact which strikes us, in the gloomy scene which followed is, the DEGENERACY OF THE CLERGY. Christ's kingdom is not of this world. Of course, the moment the church becomes united with the civil government, under whatever form, she suffers a kind of spiritual prostitution, which is invariably productive of both pollution and degradation. When Constantine professed to be a convert to the religion of Christ, (and he was, probably, never more than a mere worshipper in the

"outer court" of the Christian temple) he immediate began to bestow upon its institutions and ministers all the splendour of imperial munificence. The emperor, and his subordinate officers, courted and flattered the clergy; and the clergy, in their turn, courted and flattered the great men of the empire;sought their smiles ;-accepted secular endowments with greediness;-were found in places at court;and became the sycophants and tools of men in power. Their suppleness, luxury, unhallowed emulations, and consequent unfaithfulness, led, as might have been expected, to a corresponding character among the body of visible christians. Again the Old Testament adage, "LIKE PRIEST, LIKE PEOPLE," became unhappily and signally realized. The church exchanged the simplicity of truth, and the beauty of holiness, for the habiliments of secular splendour. And then set in that full tide of corruption in doctrine, order and morals, which, after receiving one serious check in the time of Augustine, soon issued in the Papal apostacy; and transformed the chaste Virgin, as left by our Lord and his Apostles, into the "Mother of harlots and abominations."

During the dark ages, the general character of the clergy was such as we might suppose likely to produce, and be produced by, the character of the church. Ignorant, voluptuous, ambitious, contentious, and profligate, as the great body of them were, to an almost incredible degree, they continually shed a baleful influence all around them; and, instead of being teachers of truth and purity, and guides to heaven; they became, every where, instructors in

the most childish superstitions, panders to lust, and ringleaders in all wickedness. If truth, and decency, and, especially, any thing like christian character existed any where, they were sure to be found in the respective neighbourhoods of some pious ministers of Christ, scattered here and there, who, like glimmering stars in a dark night, were lighting a few humble souls to glory.

Time would fail me in entering into those minute details of historical induction which serve to illustrate and confirm our general position. But, if I mistake not, the further we penetrate into the recesses of ecclesiastical history, the more numerous and glaring will be found to be the facts, which establish, not only the reality, but also the importance of the doctrine which it is my aim to impress upon your minds.

Who were the authors of ninety-nine parts out of an hundred, of that enormous mass of superstition, which now forms, and has for ages formed, the contents of that Augean stable, which the inspired apostle styles "the Man of sin, the son of perdition ?” Beyond all controversy, ECCLESIASTICKS-ignorant, deluded, vain, or profligate ECCLESIASTICKS.

With whom have originated all the heresies, which, from the birth of Christ, to this hour, have corrupted and divided the church, and given rise to some of her most fearful calamities? In almost every instance their authors have been ECCLESIASTICKS -philosophical or ambitious ECCLESIASTICKS.

Who have created the most mischievous parties and schisms, which have distracted and torn the bo

dy of Christ; alienated his ministers from each other; and filled christendom with the most bitter and unrelenting warfare? A regard to truth still constrains me to say, that selfish, proud, turbulent EcCLESIASTICKS have been the ringleaders in all the mischief.

Who have been, in almost all cases, the haughty and cruel persecutors of the meek, pious, and faithful witnesses of the truth? Who have been most active in conducting those of whom the world was not worthy, to prison and to death, for their fidelity to God and his people? It is painful to repeat the sentence; -but it is impossible to avoid still saying-ECCLE

SIASTICKS.

Who can take the most cursory glance at the ecclesiastical history of Great Britain, in the seventeenth century, without perceiving how possible, nay, how how easy it is for a BIGOTED, PROUD, AND WORLDLY CLERGY to destroy, in a few years, the spirituality of a church, to banish her most faithful ministers, and to cover her with darkness and desolation? And who can study, ever so slightly, the rise, progress, and disasters of the French Huguenots, so conspicuous, at one period, among the nious followers of the Lamb, without being convinced that the gradual departure of their MINISTRY from the doctrines and spirit of the Reformation, was the principal means of drawing down upon them those awful judgments, by which a righteous God was pleased to reduce and scatter them, and from which they have never recovered to the present day?

On the contrary; who have been chiefly instru