THE APOSTOLICITY OF ROMANISM. —This is maintained by the Pope’s "children," but denied by Protestants. If by "apostolicity" is meant existence contemporary with Peter and Paul, let it be granted. Protestantism gains nothing by the denial, and Romanism in essence did exist in the apostolic age, and is thus indicated by Paul, brother in Christ to "the first pope," as papists style St. Peter—"The Mystery of Iniquity," saith he, "doth already work:" it was out of this that Romanism, called in scripture "Mystery," sprung forth into hideous manifestation when the pagan constitution of the Roman Empire was superseded by the revolution began by Constantine, the murderer of his son, and completed by Theodosius. So long as the Roman government continued pagan, "the Mystery of Iniquity," which in its full manifestation is more cruel and destructive of liberty than paganism, could not openly show itself: but all political let and hindrance being turned out of the way it displayed itself as a superstition, which, in the words of St. Peter’s "beloved brother Paul," "forbids to marry and commands to abstain from meats." Hence the origin of priest’s houses for male and female devotees who dedicate their bodies to "the church," and abstinence from beef steaks and mutton chops on Friday and during "Lent."

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