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the dark? O! Lord Jesus, send the light of the gospel, in its power, to open the eyes of such blinded mortals, that they may see their delusions, see their true interests, and assert their privileges! And here we will further ask, what can induce men, professedly in the sacred office, thus to play the devil with their fellow creatures? Interest, sordid self-interest, is the only cause. Long has this principle been the ruling one, without a single exception, where they have been true, in the hearts of the clergy of the church of Rome. Instead of pointing out the way of righteousness to men, and faithfully teaching them the way of salvation, they have ever treated their people like asses, and kept them in ignorance. Who gave them that right? Are not all men equally free? "Hath not God made of one blood, all the kindreds of the earth?" But thoughtless mortals abandon their privileges by indolence and inactivity. And, indeed, what can man do without instruction and intelligence! We all are infants, before we are men. Instruction is necessary to make us wise. Suffer the race to follow the first and natural bent of their inclinations, and it will be a miracle if they do well! But here, even nature is not suffered to take her own way; in this Romish church, hundreds watch and stand ready to seduce, betray, debase, and destroy, forever. Bad as human nature is acknowledged to be, men would not be so ill, if they were not debased by their loco foco seducers. Should those parents be recognized as having done their duty, in instructing in the rudiments of true wisdom, who have never provided tutors to aid and conduct us in the paths of knowledge? I tell you nay. Such parents lend a hand to these loco focos, who very easily now make their own of us, to the ruin of both the body and the soul!

Where human beings are no sooner out of the hands of their nurses than they fall into the hands of the loco foco priests of the Oracle, whose leading maxim is, that ignorance is the mother of devotion, how can they be expected

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to understand either their own happiness or interest, in any thing? Doubtless, the first, who gave up their natural rights and privileges, by neglecting to follow after true knowledge deserved to bear a heavy burden: but what shall be said of their unfortunate children, who, through their negligence and inactivity, are trained up in ignorance; and, of course, cannot know how to deliver themselves? Could not the dictates of nature, alone, we ask again, have directed them otherwise? Could not the law of the heart itself, with all its corruption, still have admonished them against such absurd debasement? Alas! human beings are capable of being instructed, but cannot learn, without teaching. But how then shall we vindicate the conduct of Providence, towards the many millions of those who sit in darkness? Why should children suffer for the iniquities of the fathers? Should not the Almighty have sent them the means of knowledge, as a merciful compensation for their father's deficiencies? He has ability to have done so, no doubt. But what if we should here affirm, as our opinion, that this judgment upon several generations of wretched mortals has been suffered to continue, because they have abused the dictates of common sense, and their own conscience. To this day it is true, we are of a people who love to be duped and debased. "The loco foco prophets prophecy for gain, for a reward--and the people love to have it so." Therefore justly do they merit dupery, slavery and ruin, who make these things the objects of their choice.

When men are attempted to be taught in principles of true or false and spurious knowledge, they certainly must use or abuse their senses - false teachers cannot ever lead men wrong, without in some degree dealing with their sensations. Sensation, or perception, is a part of our nature. Our functions of feeling, are the workmanship of our Creator; and hence only is it, that in matters of speculation, it may be easy to lead us astray; and as to those things. which are not the objects of our senses, it is often, not dif

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ficult for some species of loco focos to impose upon us. But to receive, and believe absurdity, in matters where our senses are competent judges, is choosing our own delusions. Suppose, through our ignorance of testimony, loco focos may mislead us; yet in what comes within the notice of our perceptions, they cannot mislead us, unless we please. The perception of the clown, if you please, in matters within his grasp, are, generally, as quick as those of the philosopher; and it requires no more but to use that perception, as to those things which are its objects, to keep clear of dupery and disgrace.

Though every one is not able to judge of the orthodoxy of a creed, and the truth of what are called the canons of any church, or falsely, "The Church" yet, every one is able by the exercise of his senses, to know that bread is not fish, nor wine, blood; and that the same body cannot be in millions of places, at the same time.

When men thus depart from common sense, with which they are endowed by their Maker, it is but just to deprive them of other advantages, which it is probable they would give up, through heedlessness, as they do their senses. Our Creator knows, what use men would make of better enjoyments; and when he tries them with common mercies which they abuse, he vindicates his providence, by withholding others of a higher value, as a punishment for the crime of abusing those, he had already bestowed; on the recognized principle the world over, that "he that is faithful in little, will be faithful also in much." Such as are endowed with common sense, therefore, and depart from it, or give up its exercise, but ill deserve to be intrusted with the sublime truths of our religion! Indeed, admitting the being of our God, common sense is the foundation of personal religion such as depart from, or are destitute of it, cannot in the nature of the case, be really, truly religious. When, therefore, we consider the situation of many, deluded, and debased nations and people, we cannot refrain

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from pitying them; yet, at the same time, we cannot hold them guiltless in the matter of giving up their perception. We, at the present day, who have been so happy as to enjoy better instruction than those who remain in ignorance, upon a little reflection, may find that many amongst us have little, in a religious view, whereof to boast. The people of Italy, and Spain, are not the only people who have received absurdities, and been cursed by loco focos. Not, however, to come nearer home at present, the land of our English ancestors, not two hundred years since, where they then boasted of freedom, compared with those upon the continent of Europe, presents to our view thousands, who submitted tamely enough to many atrocious absurdities. Yes, even in Britain, a land then renowned for all sorts of liberty- a nation to which there was then none equal upon the face of the earth the people had reason, indeed, to give thanks to the Almighty, that they were, comparatively free. But they were only comparatively so. It matters not whether men become slaves, or are made so, if they are really in bondage. Issachar couched down and became a slave. To the charge of their sovereign, in Britain, at the time referred to, nothing could be laid respecting their liberties; but their laws, fixed a burden upon every subject in the kingdom. There were those among the people then, who said and preached, that no man is entirely free, who is subjected to losses and disappointments by the laws of his country, on account of his religion. They could not see how a man can be free, who, when faithful to civil government, and whose principles taught him to be so, was yet deprived of some of the important advantages of the government, by his choice of a mode in which to worship God! Could he be free from a burden, who must either submit to the "test act," contrary to the dictates of his conscience, or lose a privilege, which might promote the welfare of himself and his country? The complainants at that time reasoned, and they

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reasoned correctly, that perhaps it might be easy for such as had enlarged consciences, to call this no hardship; and for such as loved to make a monopoly of privileges, to say, you may just let it alone; but where then is our boasted liberty? when it only consists in negatives of this sort? but even this, is not always the case. Suppose a good subject were to refuse the calls of his king and his country, in the time of danger, to protect them or help them out of difficulty? On the one hand, he might be reckoned disaffected, and on the other, he would most clearly act unconscientiously. Here then the laws of his country lay such a subject under bondage, and bring him into a grievous dilemma. This was a burden, undoubtedly; however light it might seem to such as are not immediately concerned; but could such slavery be necessary, to make faithful subjects, and good members of society? Or on the contrary, did not such restrictions tend to fill all places of power and influence, with the worst of men?

Strange, indeed, it was, and ever will be, that men cannot be supposed faithful, just and good, unless they kneel down. before such a particular altar as the madness of the times. may erect, and there commune with the loco foco church, at the expense of a gross sacrifice of their own conscience! This was nothing less than a snare to catch the silly brotherhood. There certainly, was no reason, to suspect the loyalty of all such as scrupled to communicate with their loco foco church, nor would such a compliance have been any evidence of a faithful member of society, or a good subject. There is every reason to suppose, that persons who had been otherwise brought up, did not and could not have acted sincerely, in such a compliance; and it was a most execrable snare to their integrity. Can the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ be so dependent upon the kingdoms of this world, as that it cannot subsist, if any be admitted to civil preferment or to preach his gospel without giving such security for their behavior towards it? In what

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