the devil, which every Christian had renounced at his baptism." (Vol. VI. 191.) Even the holding such offices under the civil government, where the heathen had rule, as required them to have any thing to do with such things, was forbidden; or if the offices were accepted, those holding them were debarred communion during the term of office. The plea of curiosity, he says, was not allowed as suf ficient excuse for witnessing a heathen sacrifice; a servant, however, attending his master on duty was excused. Bingham also shows that the writing or reading of lascivious books and plays was forbidden, and mentions an instance of a bishop who wrote one, and was deprived of his office because he would not recant it. He shows, in like manner, that immodest apparel and decoration were forbidden to Christians. In vol. iii. we have a particular account of the baptismal renunciation, from various authors. One of the forms, according to St. Ambrose, was: "I renounce the devil and his works, the world and its luxury and pleasures." Another, according to St. Jerome, was: "I renounce thee, Satan, and thy pomp, and thy vices, and thy world." Sometimes, he says, "the games and shows, which were part of the devil's pomp, were expressly mentioned in this form of renunciation," as it is in Salvian. "I renounce the devil, his pomps, and his shows, and his works;" and this was after idolatry was removed from the public shows. The same form substantially has continued to this day in the Christian Church,

and is meant to condemn substantially the same vain, lewd, and improper things. If not, then is it an unmeaning service. Moreover, the ancients traced it to the time of St. Peter, who speaks of "the answer of a good conscience towards God" as being the saving thing in baptism. At the time, however, that idolatry ceased, though lewdness still remained in their public entertainments, the Church had become degenerate, discipline was relaxed, though the canons were the same; and in many instances, the only opposition made to worldly conformity was the faithful denunciation of these things by those bishops, priests, and laymen, who themselves continued faithful. Some such there ever have been, making an uninterrupted stream of testimony on the part of the Church against these things.

In proof that very many of the early Christians were, from principle and in practice, opposed to such things, though discipline was needful to restrain many, especially when all catechumens and all the baptized, who then also became communicants, though infants, were to be governed, I adduce a few passages from Cave's History of the Early Christians. After speaking of the simplicity of their manners, dress, and entertainments, he says: "Nor were they more studious of pleasures and recreations abroad, than they were of fineness and bravery at home. They went not to public feasts, nor frequented the public shows, that were made for the disport and

entertainment of the people, and this was so notorious, that the heathen charged it upon them as part of their crime." Observe how he, in Minutius Felix, draws it up: "The Romans (says he) govern and enjoy the world, while you in the mean time are careful and mopish, abstaining even from lawful pleasures; you visit not the shows, nor are present at the pomps, nor frequent the public feasts; you abhor the holy games, the sacrificial meats and drinks, crown not your heads with garlands, nor perfume your bodies with sweet odors-a ghastly, fearful, and miserable people." To which it is replied: "That they could not be present at such places without affronting their modesty, and offering a distaste and horror to their minds;" that at their baptism they had solemnly engaged "to renounce the devil and all his works, pomps, and pleasures; that is, says St. Cyril, the sights and sports of the theatre, and such like vanities."

If it be said that such places and amusements have greatly changed, and are not now liable to the same objections, we reply that there is enough left to bring them under the full condemnation of baptismal VOWS. Human nature is the same in every age, and is born into the same world of sin and temptation. In its unsanctified state, it delights in the indulgence of the same lusts, in the same gratifications. Even in its sanctified state, there is a remainder of sin ever ready to return to such things. The devil is the same unchanged being that he was at the first; still

bent upon the injury of our race, as when he tempted our first parents to gratify appetite, curiosity, and ambition, saying: "Ye shall not surely die, but shall be as gods." His children are the same now as ever, sons of Belial, and daughters of pleasure, tempting even the sons of God. He uses fullness of bread and abundance of idleness as means of corruption still, and destroys as many souls as ever in the snares of pleasure. The children of God have the same conflict as ever, and the kingdom of heaven still suffereth violence, and can not be taken but by force. The Canaanites are yet in the land. The heathen in heart are all around us, and we must come out from among them, as we hope to be the sons and daughters of God. The same heaven is to be won; the same hell to be escaped. If, from these general remarks, we descend to particulars, we shall find a closer resemblance than some might imagine between the pleasurable vices of the former and latter days, as well as all other sins. Games of chance, for instance, are the same absorbing, time-wasting, and soul-destroying things now that they were in the first days of the Church, and among the heathen. If gladiatorial combats were discontinued, other combats took their place, in different parts of Christendom, and have not been entirely abandoned to this day. If the shows of wild beasts and their deadly combats with each other, and with men, passed away, combats between domestic animals have been carried on to the destruction of thousands, and have been

attended in many parts of Christendom by thousands of baptized Christians, sometimes even on the Sabbath. As to the theatre, are not sentiments continually there uttered, and in the most imposing manner, just as contrary to our religion and offensive to God, and pernicious to morals, as any idolatrous ones in those of old? Is there not indelicacy and lewdness in the dress and action of performers now as of old, and are not actors and actresses excluded now as of old, not only from the communion, but from respectable society? Are not the theatres the very places where the most abandoned of the female sex come to use all their arts for the seduction of the other, and where thousands of the other sex rush into the snare? Is it not shocking to think that our sisters and daughters are sitting beneath the same roof with these wretched beings, delighted with the same exhibition, applauding the same false sentiments, and even amused at the same indecent and licentious jests, or gestures, from persons perhaps of the same character? And as to dancing, can there have been any thing in ancient times more immodest than the half-dressed female performers on the stage, who attract so many to behold the shame, ful exposure of their persons, while engaged in an unnatural use of their limbs? Would any persons in such a garb be admitted into respectable houses? Would not the very boys follow and hiss at such along the streets, if any attempted to walk them in such an undress? But is this all? Do not some