Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker Discourse volume 1.djvu/310

Rh themselves, and responsible to none on earth. Private inspiration was reckoned dangerous. Freedom of conscience was forbidden; he who denied the popular faith was accursed. The organization of the Church was then copied from the Jewish temple, not the synagogue. The minister was a priest, and stood between God and the people; the Bishop, an high-priest after the order of Aaron, his kingdom of this world. He was the “Successor of the Apostles;” the Vicegerent of Christ. Men came to the clerical office with no Religious qualification. Baptism atoned for all sins, and was sometimes put off till the last hour, that the Christian might give full swing to the flesh, and float into heaven at last on the lustral waters of baptism. Bits of bread from the “Lord's table” were a talisman to preserve the faithful from all dangers by sea and land. Prayers were put up for the dead; the cross was worshipped; the bones of the martyrs could work miracles, cast out devils, calm a tempest, and even raise the dead. The Eucharist was forced into the mouths of children before they could say, “my father, and my mother.” The sign of the cross and the “sacred oil” were powerful as Canidia's spell. In point of toleration the Christians went backward for a time, far behind the Athenians and men of Rome. The clergy assumed power over Conscience; power to admit to Heaven, or condemn to hell; and not only decided in matters of mummery, whereof they made “divine service” to consist, but decreed what men should believe in order to obtain eternal life; an office the sublimest of all the sons of men, modest because he was great, never took upon himself. They collected the writings of the New Testament, and decided what should be the “Standard of Faith,” and what not. But their canon was arbitrary, including some spurious books of small value, and rejecting others more edifying. However, they allowed some latitude in the interpretation of the works they had canonized. But next they went further, and developed systematically the doctrines of Scripture, on points deemed the most important, such as