suet, the subtle Bishop of Meaux, are the two most popular defenders of the Catholic religion. Massillon, Bourdaloue, and Flechier, were deemed models of pulpit eloquence. A list of the Popes from St. Peter down to Pius the Seventh, will be found in the Rev. R. Adam's Religious World displayed." Many of these spiritual fathers were men of learning and piety, whilst others, by their ambition and tyranny, proved themselves the pests of the world. Ganganelli was a most honourable exception; he was known to the public under the title of Clement the Fourteenth. It was his common saying, that "we too often lay aside charity to maintain faith, without reflecting, that if it be not allowed to tolerate men, it is forbidden to hate and persecute those who have unfortunately, embraced heresy!" He died in 1775, not without suspicion of being poisoned. As to his far-famed Letters, there are doubts of their authenticity. Archbishop Fenelon was also distinguished for his benevolence and piety. His Life and that of Bossuet have lately appeared from the pen of Charles Butler, Esq., well known by his learned and liberal productions. An eloquent delineation of the Catholic religion in its glory will be found in Goodwin's Life of Chaucer, the Father of English Poetry; in which work are described the manners of our forefathers in the 14th century, a period not long antecedent to the reformation. Among the Roman Catholics are several monastic orders, the Augustines, Benedictines, the Carmelites, the Dominicans, the Franciscans, &c., and also a variety of sects, the Jesuites, the Jansenists, the Molinists, and others of celebrity. Pascal, in his "Provincial Letters," famed for their sarcastic severity, aimed an effective blow at the order of Jesuits, and it was abolished in France, 1762, being suspected of practices inimical to the country.

For further information the reader is referred to a little volume intitled, "A Papist misrepresented, and represented,or a twofold character of Popery," by John Gother; an edition of which has been recently published. writings of Challoner, Milner, Hay, Troy, O'Leary, and Berrington, should be also consulted. See Bishop Mil

The

ner's Work, singularly intituled, "An end to all controversy," with a ludicrous schedule, or an immense Vine of the Popes in apostolic succession, with Heretics as a rotten branch, Wickliffe, Luther, &c., falling off into perdition!! The Roman Catholics, though more than once relieved in the course of the late reign, complain of the penal statutes now in force against them; and their last application for their repeal was negatived by a small majority. A similar effort, in the year 1780, produced the Protestant Association headed by Lord George Gordon, whose followers, inflamed with un outrageous zeal, burnt the houses of the Roman Catholics, and threatened the metropolis with extinction! Since that period the temper of the nation is ameliorated. Men of every description begin to perceive that whatever absurd tenets or ridiculous practices attach to any party, they are not on this account to be deprived of their religious freedom. Indeed, the time is at length come when Catholic and Protestant are agreed, that the spirit of persecution is not the spirit of Christianity. See "Historical Memoirs of the Catholics," by C. Butler, Esq., of Lincoln's Inn, a curious work, in four volumes-abounding with information. But it must not be omitted that a controversy has taken place between Robert Southey, Esq., Poet Laureat, and Charles Butler, Esq., which seems to have no termination. The former has published "A Book of the Church," and "A Defence of the Book of the Church," which the latter has replied to with avidity. Both contend for mastery, and each boasts of victory! Southey advocates the Reformed religion, and Butler is the advocate of Popery. Other writers have pressed forward, and the contest is still before the world. The Rev. Blanco White, a ci-devant Popish Priest, has written most earnestly for his new Faith, and reprobates every species of Popery. Dr. Milner, the Catholic Prelate, wielded his able pen in behalf of his religion in a variety of publications-but he is deceased and gone to his final account:-peace be to his memory!

GREEK, OR RUSSIAN CHURCH.

The Greek, or Russian Church, which now spreads itself over the Eastern part of Europe, is ancient, and bears a resemblance to the church of Rome, though in communion with the patriarch of Constantinople. It agrees however with the refomed church, in disavowing the supremacy and infallibility of the Pope, and the church of Rome as the true Catholic church; also in rejecting purgatory by fire, graven images or statues, and the celibacy on the secular clergy, and administering the sacrament in both kinds; but it differs from it in the number of the sacraments, in using pictures, in admitting the invocation of saints, in transubstantiation, or rather consubstantiation, and of course the adoration of the host; and, though it rejects purgatory, it has something that may be said to resemble it; and it admits masses and services for the dead. But, as this church has no public or established articles of faith like those of the united church of England and Ireland, we can only collect what are its doctrines from the councils whose decrees it receives, from the different offices of its liturgies, and from the catechisms which it authorizes to be taught.

The Greek church equals the Romish church in the number of ceremonies and superstitious customs; some of which are thus described in Chantreau's Travels into Russia:-"At the beginning of the year, the king's day is a singular festival, which the Russians call the Benediction of Waters! On the Neva, then frozen, there is raised for the ceremony, a kind of temple of an octagonal figure, on the top of which is a St. John the Baptist, and the inside is decorated with pictures, representing the baptism of Jesus, his transfiguration, and some other parts of his life. There your attention is drawn to an enormous Holy Ghost, appearing to descend from heaven: a decoration common in the Greek church, which introduces the Holy Ghost every where! In the middle of the sanctuary is a square place, where the broken ice leaves a communication with the waters running below, and the rest is ornamented with rich tapestry. Around this temple there

is erected a kind of gallery which communicates with one of the windows of the imperial palace, at which the empress and her family come out to attend the ceremony, which begins as soon as the regiment of the guards have taken post on the river. Then the archbishop, at the sound of the bells, and of the artilery of the fortress, comes out of the palace, and walks in procession, with all his clergy, to the little temple we have just mentioned. When arrived at the place where the ice is broken, he descends, by means of a ladder, to the side of the water. There he dips his cross three or four times, afterwards says some prayers, an orison to the great St. Nicholas, and the waters are then thought blessed. The prelate sprinkles the water on the company around him and on the colours of all the regiments that happen to be at St. Petersburgh. After this benediction the archbishop retires. Then the people crowd towards the hole by which this prelate has blessed the waters. They drink of them with holy avidity. Notwithstanding the cold, the mothers plunge their infants, and the old men their heads, into them. Every body makes it a duty to carry away some for the purification of their houses, and curing certain distempers, against which the good Russians pretend this holy water is a powerful specific. While every one proceeds to this useful provision, four popes who are at the four corners of the sanctuary, sing a kind of litany, in which they rehearse all the titles of the empress, and to which the people answer by these words, Pameloi-Bog! -May God take pity on her!"

Efforts have been made to join the Greek to the Reformed church; but they have failed of success. The Rev. Dr. John King published an account of the doctrine, worship, and discipline of the Greek church in Russia. There are several particulars to be found in the "Russian Catechism," composed by the Czar, and which was published in London, 1725, in Robinson's "Ecclesiastical Researches ;" and in a work entitled "Secret Memoirs of the Court of Petersburg."

The administration of baptism by the Greek church is truly curious and worthy of attention. According to Dr.

King they baptize by immersion, and they use the trine immersion, or form of dipping the child in water thrice, which is the most ancient manner; but previous to baptism, the child, though not two months old, must be solemnly initiated into the church as a Catechumen, through the medium of its sponsors, when exorcism is used on the occasion. when the child is baptized, the priest immediately proceeds to anoint it with the holy chrism; for this, though reckoned a distinct mystery, is inseparable from baptism. Previous to baptism the child was anointed with oil, which was likewise used in the consecration of the baptismal water; but this chrism is very different from it, and consists of various oils and other precious ingredients, which, in different proportions, are all boiled together, and afterwards solemnly consecrated by a bishop. It can be prepared only by a bishop, and only on Maunday Thursday, i. e. Thursday in Passion week. This anointing, the Greeks call "the seal of the gift of the Holy Ghost," which words the priest repeats while he applies the crhism or holy oil to the forehead, eyes, nostrils, mouth, ears, breast, hands, and feet of the child. Immediately after, or some days after, as ordered, the child is again brought to the church, when the priest, after praying for it, unties its girdle and linen clothes, and taking a new sponge, moistened with clear water, he washes its face breast, &c. saying," Thou hast been baptized, enlightened, anointed, sanctified, and washed, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, now and for ever, even unto ages of ages, Amen!"

Dr. King assures us, that the more learned of the Russian clergy "would willingly allow no picture or representation of God the Father-for the figure of the Ancient of days, from Daniel, 'whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool,' is by them interpreted to be the second person in the Trinity, who so appeared to the prophet: yet it must be confessed that the common practice is so contrary to their opinions, that in a great number of churches, as well ancient as modern, this figure and Jesus and the Dove are painted