can there be under the old system, which is Antichrist both in its temporal and spiritual capacity. The Christianity of the old Roman church is this, that it maintained the superiority of the spiritual over the temporal sword. It was in this abstract fundamental principle chiefly that it could be called a Christian church. It had a good deal of the movement spirit in it, in respect to the arts, forms, ceremonies, &c.; and the clergy were the leaders of the movement. But the practical results of their doctrine were by no means such an equitable distribution of the comforts of life, or such a general development of the social principle, as would result from a state of society in which competition had ceased to cherish the selfishness and cruelty of the human heart. In fact, the old Roman church might be called a spiritual hell, and Protestantism the hell of the sword; but all this process has been necessary to develop the fruits of human intellect, and prepare the way for a moral union, which can only be the result of a strict investigation of facts, and a long and ardent conflict of opinion. I don't mean to say that the old gentleman is wrong in calling the old Roman clergy Christian: they were Christians as long as they were elaborating the system; but they could not establish the moral nor unriddle the doctrine; and even in their movement career they confined themselves solely to theology, in the most confined sense of the word, and laid an embargo upon what they denominated the profane sciences. In this they differ decidedly from the clergy posterior to the reformation. The movement of scholastic theology has entirely ceased with the latter. They have wrapped up their talent in a napkin; and not even lent it out to usury. Both Catholics and Protestants are now at a stand, and what theology they now have is a recurrence to first principles, and some of the old practices and dogmas of the fathers, excepting the morality, the fraternal union, and generous distribution of property, which characterised the early Christians. These the reformed Christians and their Catholic contemporaries take care to avoid, as if they were a deadly contagion.
Cousins, Printer, Duke Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields.
