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    titute for a long period of those qualities which could command our esteem , and now abandoned—a solemn warning against the pernicious combination of the interests of Religion and the State , and the attempt to " raise the fabric of ecclesiastical policy on the ruins of gospel liberty . "

    In the same countries where Christianity had spread its cheering influence with unexampled rapidity against all the opposition of power and bigoted interest , it dwindled away into insignificance and gradual extinction when known only as the corrupt but ambitious associate of the State , seeking to lord it over the consciences of mankind

    by the power of the sword . It is true , that it is impossible to say with any certainty what would have been the result on future ages if Christianity had preserved herself uneontaminated by the blandishments of power ; but thus much I think we may venture to assert with confidence , —that the results of the course

    actually pursued were bad—that the patronage of the State gave almost all their venom and bitterness to the dissensions which weakened and divided the Greek empire , and fostered , if not gave birth to , those corruptions which added plausibility to Mahomet ' s pretensions of reform—and , that the Church

    in its identification with the temporal authority of the Greek empire , " in passing to its summit of prosperity /* degenerated as rapidly from its ancient purity , and forfeited the respect of future ages , in the same proportion as she acquired the blind veneration of her own . *

    How far the support of the State would have preserved such churches as those of the East from the degradation to which their own corruptions

    were fast carrying them , let the Abyssinian Church testify , where full play has been given to the system which was then the ruling one , among those whose fate we are taught to deplore . The Church of Constantinople would

    not offer a much more inviting prospect . So far from the Imperial protection availing any thing , we find it aggravating the sufferings of those who nad enjoyed it ; and that those whose connexion with the State was the least v ) -f % * Hallam . 'lJ .- , 200 .

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    intimate , especially the heterodox sects met , at any rate for many years , , with protection in their property and worship , in the fullest extent , from the Mahomentan government , so that thei ? condition became much more flourishing than under the Christian emperors . *

    The Nestonans even enjoyed in Persia its peculiar favour , and were employed in most important and confidential situations ; and in Egypt the Christian faith was also peculiarl y favoured . The Monophysites in Syria enjoyed the same privileges ; and if , when we are lamenting the downfal

    of the Church of Antioch , we at the same time recollect that for a century it had , by the heretical zeal of Severus ( its patriarch under the reign of Anaa - tasius ) and the orthodox purgations of his successor , been one scene of bloodshed and oppression , we shall be inclined to make the Western

    powers divide some of the obloquy of its decay with the Eastern ; nay , perhaps have some ground to look at the progress of the Moslem arms as giving an opportunity to the oppressed to

    breathe , and at any rate to purchase from their conquerors that liberty of worship which their own government denied on any terms . When " 54 bishops were swept from their thrones , and 800 ecclesiastics were cast into

    prison , " during the short dominion of one of the alternately prevailing sects , it is not too much to s ay ^ that " the oriental flocks , deprived of their shepherds , must insensibly have been either famished or poisoned ; "f even though favoured with the protection of the civil power . [ To be continued . ]

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    An Account of the Protestant Churches in Paris , No . II . The Consistorial Church of the Christians of the Augsburgh Confession . IN consequence of a decree issued at Bayonne , 20 th July , 1308 , the Church ( formerly the Ohurch of the Carmelites ) in the Rue des Billettes , at Paris , was appropriated to the religious services of the Christians of the Confession of Augsburgh , resident in the capital . A-decree on the 15 th ot * Moshehii ' s Eccl . Hist . t Gtt > bolu

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    266 An Account of the Protestant Churches * in Paris .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1820, page 266, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2488/page/10/