We have shown that the Church established by the Savior in all its pristine beauty and purity was taken from the earth. As none of the religious denominations, existing between the time of the ancient apostles and the nineteenth century have received a new commission from heaven, that fact is proof that the effect of the primitive apostasy has extended without interruption to the present age of the world. Dr. Mosheim is the author of four large volumes of religious history comprehending about eighteen centuries of the Christian era. This work has been translated by Dr. Murdock with copious notes, or extracts, from the writers who lived contemporary with the times of which he writes. From the translation of Mosheim's Ecclesiastical Institutes we make a few quotations. In speaking of the second century of the Christian era, Mosheim says (Vol. 1, p. 142): "For the noble simplicity and the majestic dignity of the Christian religion were lost, or at least impaired, when these philosophers presumed to associate their dogmas with it and to bring faith and piety under the dominion of human reason." On pages 182 and 183 of the same volume we are informed that, to conform to the customs of Jews and Pagan priests, rites and ceremonies were added to the simplicity of correct worship, and a "large part therefore of the Christian observances and institutions even in this century had the aspect of Pagan mysteries." Passing on to the third century on page 257, we have the following: "All the monuments of this century which have come down to us, show that there was a great increase of ceremonies." Page 259: "Baptism was publicly administered twice a year to candidates who had gone through a long preparation and trial." Of the fourth century we learn from p. 345 that the regard for Platonic philosophy was embraced and mingled with the doctrine of the Savior: "Hence it is that we see on every hand evident traces of excessive veneration for Saints in heaven; of belief in a fire to purify souls on leaving the body; of partiality for priestly celibacy; the worship of images and relics, and for many other opinions which, in the process of time, almost banished the true religion or at least very much obscured and corrupted it." Of the fifth century, an account is given of impostors perpetrating artifices to make people think they were miracles and thereby induce them to embrace Christianity. Religious teachings, we are informed, "were substantiated, not so much by the declarations of the Holy Scriptures, as by the authority and logical reasonings of the ancient doctors." Page 455: "The whole Christian Church was in this century overwhelmed with these disgraceful fictions."