worship shall be exclusively the subjects of present inquiry. You will recollect that we now draw near the period fixed by the later Christians for the birth of our Saviour, and as that event or the anniversary of it approaches, the ostentation of Catholick worship increases. This Sunday, being the first in the Advent or coming of our Lord, is celebrated in Rome by the communion, which was this year performed in great style by the cardinals in absence of the pope, who has gone to Paris to consecrate the new emperour. I should vainly attempt to give you a correct idea of the magnificence of the Roman Catholick worship in this its principal seat. In St. Peter's, the ordinary number of canons, who assist at publick worship, is not less than sixty. They are clothed in sumptu ous apparel, and chaunt the grand mass with dignity and imposing effect. The chapel, in which this mass, is performed, is splendid beyond conception. St. Peter's contains twelve or fourteen of these chapels, all of which are rich and magnificent.

In the Gregorian chapel they prepare the communion table, and four cardinals assisted at the ceremony. These cardinals arrive at St. Peter's in a style superiour to that, which any crowned head in Europe assumes on common occasions. They have two superb coaches for each of them, both of a bright crimson colour richly ornamented with gold,with four, servants behind the first, and two behind the second coach. The cardinals are dressed in rich purple robes of the most precious kind, with a hat of crimson. Their train, which is very long, is upheld by gentlemen, arrayed in black silk gowns, like those used by our clergymen, and they appear to be, and I believe are, men of good manners, and I dare say of science and erudition.

The cardinals enter the church with a vast train of servants, one carries the hat, another the umbrella, a third the cloak, besides a considerable number of well dressed dependants. When the cardinal kneels, his whole cortege, or retinue, kneel and pray with him. After the service is finished, the cardinals proceed one by one to pay their obeisance to the statue of St. Peter: (which, by the way, was made out of a statue of Jupiter Capitolinus) a genteel man, dressed in black, precedes his excellency, to wipe with a white handkerchief the foot of the statue, which had been soiled by the constant embraces of the vulgar. The cardinal then advances, kisses it, rubs his forehead against the toes, says a short prayer, again kisses it, and departs to repeat the same ceremonies in another chapel. When the vulgar, or even laymen of rank, say their prayers, they fall down on the bare marble floor: not so the lofty cardi. nal; he is preceded by a gentleman usher, who drops a soft silk purple velvet cushion, upon which his sa cred knees softly recline. The service finished, the cardinals retire in the same ostentatious style, in which they came.

When oge reflects, that all the pre-eminence claimed by the church of Rome, its popes and its cardinals, is derived from the idea of their being the direct, and only legitimate descendants of the primitive church and of the apostles: that they aver, that all the apostolick powers and privileges, all the pre-eminence and authority, which were vested in those most excellent, glorious and brave defenders of our faith, have devolved upon them, one camot help contrasting, the pure, modest, humble manners, the simplicity and poverty of the one, with the refined

ostentatious, magnificent, proud behaviour, the riches and luxuries of the other. Who would believe, that the present splendid claimants of the apostolick functions were the imitators of the humble and lowly Saviour, who often knew not where to lay his head, who despised, and taught his followers to contemn the forms and pageantry of this world; that they pretend to be the successors of those heroick disciples and inspired heroes, who suffered exile, persecution, poverty, distress, death, for the religion, of which they were the worthy and disinterested profes3ors? In place of setting at nought the honours and pleasures, the vanities and luxuries of this life, you must search every thing which is rich, magnificent, costly, luxurious, of high value amongst men, all the fine arts, all which can contribute to pride, splendour and human grandeur, in the palaces of cardinals, popes and their relations. What is the Vatican, what St. Peter's, but the coverings to the splendid mausolea of deceased popes, little if any inferiour to those of Augustus, of Trajan, or Adrian ?

One might forgive this splendour, this perversion of the first principles of christianity, if it was not accompanied with the impious claims of exclusive sanctity. But what can you say of it, when you perceive its effects in society? In order to main tain a system so flattering to pride, so gratifying to heman ambition, yet so repuguant to reason and the correct principles of christianity, men must be made dupes. Such expenses can be defrayed only from the treasury of tyranny; it must be a tyranny over the purses and the bodies, or over the minds of men, over the purses at any rate. This can be effected only by making men uperstitious, and they can be made

so only by rendering them ignorant, See then, in two words, the great secret of Catholick influence, ignorance and its sister, superstition.

But this you will say is commen place; you are repeating the fine sayings of Voltaire, and a thousand others, who have said them much better. Not at all. I came into Italy free from prejudices. My ideas, feelings, wishes are all against the New School, all averse to innovation. I was and still am disposed to overlook, to pardon the errours of papacy; but I cannot, in my conscience, refrain from censuring the proud luxury of these Roman lords, or the miserable blindness of their tools.

When I see men believe, because they are told they must, the most absurd legends, infinitely more ridiculous than the doctrine of witchcraft, when I see indulgences daily offered for sale, when I observe even the talents of men of genius employed in pictures to represent modern saints, Capucins, Franciscans and others, as curing the blind and even raising the dead, when I see the Catholick doctrine of purgatory represented with all the eloquence of the pencil, and perceive souls rais ed by prayers, after ed by prayers, after punishment,from hell to heaven, (for such representations have I seen) how can one help feeling a degree of indignation at men, who can countenance, or who do not condemn errours so fatal to the genuine practice of the gospel principles ? What people will ever be willing to mortify their unruly passions, to live a life of self-denial, to wage a perpetual warfare with sin, who believe, that a few masses, a death-bed repentance, and an absolution by a priest, who knows nothing of their state of mind, can wipe away every transgression?

Do you need other arguments in

proof of the dangerous security, in which the Catholicks of Italy find themselves? You will see it in their habits and manners. The Sunday is with them a day of gaiety and festivity even at Rome. There are no sermons, to enlighten or instruct; no exhortations at most of the churches; no conveniences for the worshippers. The priests are conceived to do all. The people enter at all periods of worship, stay as long as they please, pray when they please, and depart with joyous and happy faces; convinced that a kiss of St. Peter's foot and the holy water, has expiated all the sins of the week. Such never was, and never can be the design of the gospel. If the Protestants do not practice better, the greater will be their condemnation, because they certainly think more correctly.

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They know that our holy religion is of the heart, and not of ceremonials only. Perhaps I ought to except some of our own sects, who place as little reliance on good works, and as much on unintelligible mystery, as the Papists. I have been puzzled to know, how the Catholicks get rid of the commandment, which forbids them to worship any graven image in the likeness of any thing, that is in the heavens above," when it is notorious that they do worship many graven or sculptured images. In vain shall they say, that they worship the person typified by the image, and not the image itself, because, "out of their own mouths I will condemn them.” If they worshipped the person, and not the image, then all images of the same person would be held in equal veneration, but so far is this from being true, (without mentioning our Lady of Loretto, and the Virgin of Bologna, which are worshipped because they are the workmanship of

St. Luke, whom the Catholicks say, was a sculptor and painter,) we will notice only those cases, which occur in Rome, and which, being under the immediate notice of the father of the faithful, he must be responsible for.

There is a picture of the Virgin near the house, in which we reside, in the open street upon a wall (a thing not uncommon here) which attracted my attention, from having observ. ed that all descriptions of persons, the better informed as well as vulgar, pulled off their hats with great devotion as they passed. Upon inquiry, I found, that this particular image was called Notre Dame des Miracles, our lady of miracles, and it is averred, that she has been known to perform a great many.

There is another of this kind near St. Peter's, where the grateful patients, who have been restored by this particular image of the Virgin, have offered up their praises and acknowledgments by paintings sugpended around the chapel, descriptive of the particular calamity or evil, from which they were delivered by the influence of this image. You see drawings of legs, hands and other parts of the human body, which have been put on, after being cut off, or otherwise restored miraculously,

When you add to this the devotion paid to St. Peter's bronze statue, which is not paid to any other of St. Peter's likenesses, with which Rome abounds, I think I am justiled in saying, that the worship of the papists at Ronie bears very hard upon a breach of the commandment above cited.

Another remark on the religion of this nation, and I believe you will be glad that I have closed. In no place,, ia o quarter of Europe, or I believe of the world, do you see so mach poverty, distress, sech truly heart-breaking scenes, as

at Rome. In vain do the sovereign pontiffs intimate upon their coins, that the " poor you have always with you;" the maxim is forgotten as soon as uttered, and in no part of the civilized world are the poor ap-.

parently so neglected. Pray heav en that the government are not answerable for this neglect ; it would be too weighty a burden!!

Yours, &c.

THE Canon of the New Testa ment is a collection of books, written by the apostles, or by men, who were companions of the apostles, and who wrote under their inspection.

These books are called the canon, from a Greek word, which signifies, a rule, because to a christian they constitute the only proper and sufficient rule of faith and practice.

These books are also called The Scriptures, or The Writings, because these Writings are held by christians in the highest estimation. They are the scriptures of the New Testament, or, more properly speaking, of the New Covenant, because they contain a complete account of the christian dispensation, which is described as a covenant, by which Almighty God engages to bestow eternal life upon the penitent and virtuous believer in Christ. For this reason the christian scriptures, and particularly the books, which contain

the history of Jesus Christ, are calleral translation of the word way ed the Gospel, or Good news, a litAtov, as these sacred writings contain the best tidings, which could be communicated to mankind.

The canon of scripture is either the Received Canon or the True.

The Received Canon comprehends the whole of that collection of books, which is contained in the New Testament, and which are generally received by christians, as of apostolical authority. The True Canon consists of those books only, the genuineness of which is established upon satisfactory evidence..

When, or by whom, the received Canon was formed is not certainly known. It has been commonly be leved, that it was fixed by the coun cil of Laodicea, A.D. 364, but this is certainly a mistake. catalogue of canonical books, which is now extant, was drawn up byOrigen, A. D 210. It leaves out the Epistles of James and Jude.

The genuineness and authority of every book in the New Testament

rests upon its own specifick evidence. No person, nor any body of men, has any right authoritatively to determine concerning any book that it is canonical and of apostolical authority. Every sincere and diligent inquirer has a right to judge for himself, after due examination, what he is to receive as the rule of his faith and practice. The learned Jeremiah Jones on the Canon, and Dr Lardner's laborious work upon the Cred. ibility of the Gospel History contain the most accurate and copious information upon this subject.

The most important distinction of the books of the New Testament is that mentioned by Eusebius bishop of Cesarea in the third book of his Ecclesiastical History. He dis tinguishes them into the books which were universally acknowledged, ὁμολογόμενα, py, and those which though generally received were by some disputed, AYOMEVE.

The books universally acknowl-. edged are, the four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, thirteen Epistles of Paul, the first Epistle of Peter, and the first Epistle of John. "These only," says Dr. Lardner*, should be of the highest authority, from which doctrines of religion may be proved."

The disputed books, aveyoueva, are the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Epistle of James, the second of Peter, the second and third of John, the Epistle of Jude, and the Revelation. "These," says Dr. Lardner, "should be allowed to be publickly read in christian assemblies, for the edification of the people, but not be alleged as affording alone sufficient proof of any doctrine."*

These distinctions prove the great pains, which were taken by the prim

itive christians in forming the Canon, and their solicitude not to admit any book into the code of the New Tes tament, of the genuineness of which they had not the clearest evidence. It is a distinction of great importance to all, who desire to appreciate rightly the value and a thority of the several books, which compose the received Canon.

Sec. 2.-Brief Account of the received Text.-Editions of the Greek Testament by Cardinal Ximenes, by Erasmus, Robert Stephens, Beza, and Elzevir.

A text perfectly correct, that is, which shall in every particular exactly correspond wish the autograph of the apostles and evangelists, is not to be expected We must content ourselves with approximating,. as nearly as possible, to the original. The utility of this is too obvious to need either proof or illustration.

The Received Text of the New Testament is that, which is in gen eral use.

The degree of credit,which is due to the accuracy of the Received Text, will appear from the following brief detail of facts.

The New Testament was originally written in Greek: perhaps with the exception of the Gospel of Matthew, and the Epistle to the Hebrews, of which books, however, . the earliest copies extant are in the Greek language

Previously to the Reformation in the sixteenth century, the. Greek copies of the New Testament were grown into disuse: the priests used an imperfect Latin translation in the publick offices of religion, and all translations into the vulgar tongue for the use of the common people were prohibited or discouraged.

In the beginning of the sixteenth century Cardinal Ximenes printed at