ever believed; and yet one, that came afterwards to be very generally received, we mean the doctrine of transubstantiation. Transubstantiation is the change of bread and wine into the real body and blood of Christ. The believers in this doctrine contended, that the bread and wine, were changed by the priest's prayer into the body and blood of Christ; the very same body which was born of Mary, crucified upon the cross, and raised from the dead. The priests did not attempt to prove this so much from reason, as from the testimony of ghosts and apparations, which they alleged they had seen. One priest alleged, that he saw the bread become Christ in his full form, as a babe; that he clasped him to his bosom, and afterwards beheld him in the form of bread again. When this doctrine was first advanced, it met with much opposition. Nearly two centuries passed away, before it could with propriety be called the doctrine of the majority. But, as soon as the papal priests saw, that the doctrine was received by the multitude, and that it gave people a reverence for those who could change bread and wine into the actual body and blood of Jesus, they began generally to advocate it; and pope Innocent the Third, at the Council of Lateran, in 1215, by a decree, made it an article of faith. In this age of the world, it is hard to believe, that people were ever so infatuated. Many, we have no doubt, sincerely believed the delusion; and the papal clergy were well enough pleased with it; for they loved to be exalted in the people's estimation, even if it were at the expense of reason and truth. reader of ecclesiastical history cannot but be astonished at the daring impiety of some of the clergy who believed this doctrine. They seemed intoxicated with a love of the power they thought they possessed. One of them spoke in this way; "On our altars, Jesus Christ obeys all the world. He obeys the priest, let him be where he will, at every hour, at his simple word. They carry him whither they please. He goes into the mouth of the wicked, as well as the righteous.

The

He makes no resistance, he does not hesitate one moment." And it is said, some of the priests boasted, that they had even more power than Mary, the mother of Jesus; because they could create their Creator whenever they pleased.

The doctrine of transubstantiation gave rise to a practice approaching very near to idolatry, known by the name of the elevation of the host. This practice consisted in carrying about the streets, upon an elevated table, or stand, prepared for the purpose, with the greatest pomp and magnificence, a portion of the consecrated bread, which was adored by the multitude. The custom very naturally resulted from the belief, that, by consecration, the bread was changed into the real body of Jesus.

Although we have now arrived at the summit of superstition on this subject, we have not noticed the full extent of it. We are at the top of the hill; but we came up by degrees, and we must go down by degrees. People did not throw off their superstition all at once. It is a moral sickness, of which it takes some time to cure the world. As this corruption began very early, and went further than any other, so it was with great difficulty rectified; and, indeed, it may not be wholly done to this day.

The subject of the Lord's Supper was one of great interest at the time of the Reformation. Luther, although a reformer in many important points, did but little to correct the error of the church concerning the Eucharist. Notwithstanding he professed to reject the doctrine of transubstantiation, nevertheless, he maintained, "that the partakers of the Lord's Supper received, along with the bread and wine, the real body and blood of Christ." But Carlstadt and Zuinglius took the proper ground, maintaining, in that early day, that the body and blood of Christ were not present in the Eucharist; but, that the bread and wine were signs and symbols, designed to excite in the minds of Christians the remembrance of the sufferings and death of the di

vine Saviour, and of the benefits which arise from it. It should not be supposed, that this great advance was made without high disapprobation, even among the Reformers themselves. For Luther, and other milder men, highly disapproved of it. Zuinglius, the Swiss reformer, was a man of a capacious and penetrating mind. He was far before Luther in the march of improvement. Had he not been cut off by premature death, the age of the Reformation, bright as it was, would have shone with a greater glory.

The effect of the corruptions we have named was long and widely felt, and was principally injurious in exciting a general dread of participation in the Supper. Fear seized the church, fear which increased with its errors, and which can decrease only with them. As we are not, at this day, rid of all the error, so we are not rid of all the injurious fear. Many there are, desirous of observing the communion rite, and who are fully qualified therefor, who are restrained by the lingering influence of some of the errors of which I have spoken.

III. The necessity of the organization of churches and of the celebration of the Lord's Supper, is deeply felt by many Universalists. It is true, there is among us a difference of opinion on this topic, which, although it is lamented, is the cause of no alienation of feeling. We think, however, that there is an increasing attention to the subject. Much has been written upon it; and we can state our own views no more faithfully than it is done in a late article in the "Universalist Expositor," from the pen of the editor of that work.

"There is a class of means which we should most earnestly recommend to a more general adoption among us, were it not, that some of our brethren have conscientious scruples with respect to them. As the case

is, it becomes us only to express our opinion. We allude to the institution of churches, and the regular observance of the Lord's Supper. We say, of churches; although we understand it to be a practice in certain parts

of our country to gather the societies themselves somewhat on the plan of churches; that is, to admit none but of apparent Christian lives, and on a direct profession of Christian faith, and to maintain a system of moral and religious discipline to which all the members are subject. So far, these societies are, in their regulations, churches, only under another name. But, where the society is gathered indiscriminately, as in New England, and, we believe, in most other places, where it consists of all who choose to belong to it, from whatever motive, or to share in the pecuniary burdens or profits of building, &c., it seems to us highly important that there should also be an association based on the special ground of positive faith and experimental religion. The more we have seen this measure earnestly and perseveringly tried, the more have we been persuaded, that its operation is of great benefit. Is it not natural, that it should be so ? Mankind associate for all other purposes in which they feel a mutual interest, and they derive mutual advantage from their connexion. Like coals brought together, they exert a wider and more powerful influence around. And why not, in the cultivation of religious principle and practice? Most of the other sects never form a society without a church. Has it not been observed, that in general, (there are exceptions,) they rather excel us in strong, enduring attachment to their religion and to their social institutions ? Now, it is an ominous fact, that in a very large proportion of our societies, probably in more than two thirds of our eight or nine hundred, there are no churches, no associations of the kind whatsoever! We have a deep and increasing presentiment, that there must be a thorough change of this state of things, and that churches, or something tantamount, (why shun the name?) must be introduced in all cases where we form a society, or that its prosperity will not be permanent. At any rate, we cannot conceive of general neglect, without the most disastrous tendencies. The laws of our nature, in the present life, are such, that the strongest principle will

be, with most men, but intermittent in its action, and extremely prone to decay, unless sustained by social regulations, which are like a heavy balance-wheel, not indeed the moving power itself, but a sort of depository thereof, whence it is distributed in timely supplies to all parts of the multitudinous machinery.

"With respect to the communion of the Lord's Supper, we may be told, that it is questionable whether this institution was intended as an absolute ordinance, that is, as perpetually and universally obligatory by force of a positive command. We think so too. We have doubts of the existence of ordinances in Christianity; we mean in the usual technical sense of the term. But then we must not overlook the fact, that rites or formal observances of some kind, are, in the nature of things, inseparable from social religion. What are all our regulations and usages, our selection of a preacher, the appointment of our meetings on Sundays, our simultaneous gathering, the postures we assume, the order of exercises, &c., what are they but forms? There is an absurdity into which we may here fall, through inadvertence. With the laudable aim of preserving simplicity in religion, some have thought it necessary to decry observances in general; but the utmost they can do, in this respect, is to discard the old and adopt new. Witness the Quakers. The very channels of all social intercourse are artificial forms and signs, more or less defined. Society as inevitably grows up with them, as men with their fleshly bodies. And when we institute societies for the diffusion or promotion of religion, forms will, in spite of us, adhere to them. The only practicable questions are, What are the proper ones? and, To what intent ought we to observe them? Now, in the ceremony of the Lord's supper, there is so natural a significance, and so great a simplicity, that it is difficult for us to conceive of objections to it, except on the absurd ground of former abuse, or with equally absurd aim of discarding every thing of the kind. It falls naturally into the train of usages in all climes and states