they have a vast number of fasts and festivals, so their superintendants exercise a high authority on those occasions; for they are sure to order the clergy to preach on whatever topics they think proper, and to prescribe rules for their conduct during every part of the solemnity. During their fasts, the shops are shut up, all manner of exercise ceases but devotion; though on their festivals, and even on Sundays, they will play at cards in the af

ternoon.

We shall, in the next place, proceed to their form of excommunication. In Denmark and Sweden, is is accompanied with very severe penance. In the Danish ritual, we are informed, that the person excommunicated, when he first appears in the church, is turned out with disgrace by the clerk of the parish, in the presence of the whole congregation. However, if the excommunication be of long continuance, he is not excluded from the privilege of attending public worship and joining in the congregation during sermons, and other acts of public devotion; but he is obliged to sit in a place appointed, and some distance from them; and when the minister comes down from the pulpit, the clerk beforementioned conducts the excommunicated person out of the church. This has a near resemblance to some of the practices of the Primitive Christians when their church was on the decline.

As to the Swedes, their form of excommunication is equally rigid and severe. We are assured by a traveller, who visited that country, that he saw at Lincoping, a young woman who had been guilty of some rash misdemeanor, and who, by consequence thereof, had rendered herself obnoxious to the church, exposed to public view upon her knees, from break of day till noon, in the church porch, upon an eminence, like a criminal's bar, erected for that partieular purpose. It is probable, however, that might have been a civil punishment and not an ecclesiastical censure. Such young women as are not ashamed of exposing themselves by drinking to excess, or the commission of any other odious and abominable vice, are punished in the same manner at the Hague. There is not therefore, a possibility of forming a proper notion of this sort of Swedish punishment, because we know not whether it is of a civil or religious nature.

It is true, their discipline is severe, but no ecclesiastical censures are to be inflicted through the coersion of the civil power, This is much to their hoBour, and we are sorry to say that there is one Protestant church in the world where this practice prevails. In a word, the Lutherans admit of the lesser excommunication; but as to any civil pains and peNo. 25.

nalties being inflicted on the delinquents, they are never thought of. Probably, the civil power, in arbitrary countries, may sometimes deviate from what is here laid down; but still there is nothing in the ecclesiastical constitution of their churches that can give any authority for such a practice. Excommunication is the casting a person out from among the faithful, but except in the church of Rome, and in one single protestant church, the punishment. ceases with the declaration of the minister, which, according to the spirit of Christianity, should always be of a spiritual nature.

Luther has given us a formulary baptism in the vulgar tongue, in order that every person present might understand it, and in this we find many of the ceremonies used by the the Roman Catholics left out, particularly that of breathing upon the infant, which however was, from a mistaken notion, practised in ancient times: Exorcism, or commanding the devil to go out of the child, is still observed, and the sign of the cross is retained.

As the Lutherans retain a large share of popish superstition, so they make it a rule to baptize their children as soon as possible after they are born. Ir case the child should be too weak to be carried to the church, they baptize him at home, and on such occasions one or more godfathers must attend. When they imagine the infant to be in danger, then the midwife baptizes him, just as they do among the Roman Catholics. If a child is found exposed in the streets, and a note is left along with it, intimating that it had been baptized, no regard is paid to that intimation, so that it is carried to the church and baptized in public. They never baptize idiots when they arrive at years of maturity till they have regained the use of their reason. All legitimate children are baptized before divine service begins, but bastards after it is over.

There are baptismal fonts in some of the Lutheran churches, but not in all of them. In several of the Saxon churches, the figure of an angel with a bason in his hand, descends from the ceiling by a private pulley, or some other secret machine, and presents the bason to the minister, who is to baptize the child. In some other places, a table is brought out of the vestry, and placed before the altar with the bason upon it; but this custom prevails more at Augsburg than any where else.

After the preliminary questions which are always common at baptism, the minister makes a discourse by way of exhortation, and then he exorcises the devil in the following words, "Get thee hence thou unclean spirit and make room for the holy ghost." The minister at the same time, makes the sign of 7.K

the

the cross upon the infant, saying unto him, "Receive the sign of the cross, and be a faithful soldier of Jesus Christ, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." He then baptizes the child by dipping him three times in the water, in the name of the blessed trinity, and the whole ceremony concludes with an exhortation and a blessing. And here we must not omit to take notice that the Lutheran ministers exact fees from those who have their children baptized; but we shall have occasion to mention this practice as taking place in some other reformed countries in Europe, and, indeed, in many

of them.

The next thing to be taken notice of, is their form of confirmation, which has no affinity to that of the Romish church; for they make no use of oil, and any common pastor of a congregation may perform the ceremony. The young person who comes to be confirmed, must give a satisfactory answer to all questions proposed to him by the minister, which practice is very much like that of the primitive church. When they have answered all the questions proposed to them, the minister delivers a suitable exhortation, and the congregation sing an hymn, and then the ceremony concludes with a prayer and the benediction.

The Lutheran discipline with respect to matrimony, is regular and uniform. In order to the consummation of marriage where there is no lawful impediment, the parties present themselves at church before their pastor, who asks them whether they are inutually agreed to enter into that state? and thereupon they join their right hands, and make an exchange of their respective rings. Then the pastor says, "A. and B. being desirous to enter into the holy state of matrimony, before all this congregation here present, I do hereby declare them husband and wife, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Gost, one God, Amen." After that he repeats, without a book several texts of scripture, that enforce the duties of husbands and wives; and the whole ceremony concludes with a prayer for their prosperity in time, and their happiness in eternity. It is proper to observe, that the Lutherans never marry any of their people on fast days, and few but the lower sort of people go to the church to have the ceremony performed; for those in genteel life, are generally married at their own houses in the evening; the ceremony, however, is the same, consisting of prayers and exhortations.

In some parts of Germany where the people are married publicly, the streets are strewed with flowers, and there is a great deal of other unnecessary parade,

not worthy of being mentioned. In the morning of the wedding day, which is very frequently on a Sunday, the bridegroom goes out of his own house to visit his mistress; but before he goes out, the door and windows of his house are adorned with flowers, to give intimation to the people that he is to be married. At his first setting out, a young girl throws some of the flowers into his face, after which he gets into a chaise, or cart, according as his circumstances will permit, the horses being grandly adorned. When he meets his mistress at her own apartments, he quits his carriage, and both she and he go in another to the church, the streets being strewed with flowers; and as soon as they arrive at the church, the nuptial knot is tied, by which they are bound together for life.

We come at last to their funeral ceremonies, or, at least, to that last stage which puts an end to human existence. The dying Lutheran has no extreme unction administered to him, no outward application of relics, he receives no comfort or consolation from a crucifix being put into his hand. He is buoyed up with no hopes from the virtues arising from a monk's habit, and he expects no happiness after death, in consequence of a number of masses having been said for him. His whole dependence is on the merits of Christ Jesus, and he receives spiritual consolation in consequence of the admonitions and exhortations he receives from his pastor. But notwithstanding they are very superstitious; nor is it an easy matter to divest the mind of superstition, without running it into Deism.

On the day appointed for the interment of the corpse, the relations and friends of the deceased meet together at the house where he died, and the minister of the congregation resorts thither at the same time, attended by a train of young scholars, who, no doubt come to learn the nature of the ceremony; for mechanical religion is not easily attained to. These youths sing two or three hymns before the door where the deceased lays, after which they march in the front of the procession, having either a cross or a large crucifix carried before them. An inferior clerk, or some young scholar appointed for that purpose, marches close by the side of the corpse with a small cross, which is afterwards fixed in that part of the church, or church-yard where the body was interred. The relations and friends of the deceased follow the corpse, the men first, and the women after them. During the procession, their bells are, for the most part, tolled, out of respect and complaisance to the deceased, and several hymns sung as they march along. It is customary like

Austria to oppose, as well as the cunning and malice of the court of Rome. Most of the German princes, who supported him, had nothing more in view than to get themselves delivered from the galling yoke of popish slavery, and to keep that money themselves, which had been annually sent to the Romish treasury. Such men as these did not seek for simplicity in worship; rites and cercmonies were more agreeable to them, because they captivated the senses. Nor was it less difficult to engage the prejudices of the common people, who were grossly ignorant, and long accustomed to popish ceremonies. It was wise in Luther to begin with removing a few of the nuisances, reserving the others for some more favourable period, when the minds of the people would be better prepared to comply with innovations, and more ready to part with their favourite ceremonies.

Secondly, although the Lutherans retain a great

many absurd ceremonies, yet in many things they are better reformed than some other Protestants churches. Thus they have no plurality of livings, and the clergy are obliged to reside with their people, so that they are all personally known to them. They are so zealous in the discharge of their duty, that the people almost adore them. Wherever they are met, either in the streets or in the fields, all hats are off to them; and from the regularity and simplicity of their lives, their ministry has a vast effect on their morals. It is the pious lives of ministers that must make religious exercises have a due and proper effect.

Lastly, as to the time when this religion is to be further reformed, it is not for us to enquire; we are satisfied that the means of salvation are to be found in it, and where these are properly improved, the end must be left to divine wisdom.

JENRY VIII. ascended the throne of England

HENRY

1509, and married the widow of his brother Arthur, a circumstance that produced the most serious effects. Henry had been taught the jargon of school divinity, with a view as is thought of making him archbishop of Canterbury; but his brother's death changed that design. When Luther opposed the pope, a book was published in Henry's name against the opinions of that illustrious reformer, and although it was generally believed that Dr. John Fisher, bishop of Rochester, was the author, yet the king in consequence thereof, had the title of defender of the faith conferred on him.

It has been proved by lord Hebert, and several other writers of credit, that Henry had resolved to sue for divorce from his queen sometime before he saw Anne Boleyn. He had a large ingredient of superstition in his character, and he imputed the death of his two sons to the divine vengeance, for having married his brother's widow; and he was extremely desirous of male issue, to prevent all No. 25.

disputes about the succession. He was startled at at doubt suggested of the legitimacy of the birth of his daughter Mary; and being a prince of violent passions, longed to be united to a lady of more endearing qualities than his present queen, who had not many personal attractions. His scruples, which are ascribed to the writings of Thomas Aquinas,. were encouraged by his favourite Wolsey, who hated Catherine, on account of her disapproving of his licentious manner of living, and was equally incensed against her nephew the emperor, for having twice baffled him in the design he had formed of obtaining the papal chair.

As the king passionately desired to obtain Catherine's consent to a separation, he sent several bishops to her, together with as many noblemen, to persuade her to drop her appeal, but all in vain; and when they endeavoured to persuade her to submit her cause to the decision of four ecclesiastics, she said, she would pray to God to send the king happiness, that she was his lawful wife, and would abide by 7. L.

her