The foregoing is only a cursory hint of the bloody character of modern christianity, from the time when it slew the apostles who held the keys of revelation, and has ever since denied the need of any further revelation; for a hundred volumes of the size of the Bible, would not suffice to detail each instance where men and women have been whipped, hung, ripped open, or gibbeted, or burnt, or their ears bored, and their faces branded with hot irons. The massacres of France, half-murdered Ireland, Germany, and England, if written in detail, would make an imposing library. Fortunate for humanity's sake, that no one religious power has any greater predominance than it has; else the want of religious checks and balances would even now be as fatal to the minority as the exhalations of the Upas. Yet, after all this, christianity claims to be tolerant and catholic; and her bishops, enthroned in a salary of more than £27,000 sterling per annum, claim a regular succession from St. Peter. They might better have said from the murderers of St. Peter. Oh, shame on the cry of apostolic succession! What a transformation Peter must have undergone by this chain of succession! His gifts of discernment and healing gone! The spirit of prophecy and tongues have left him! The power to open prison doors, and of converse with angels, have left him impotent as other men! Marvellous falling off of every thing but salaries and pomp and persecution! Many suppose that Christ's Church must have been perpetuated on the earth, because it is said that the gates of hell should not prevail against it. Strange and fallacious argument for the continuance of the Church! Can it be supposed for a moment, that the Church is prevailed against, because it is removed from the earth? Jesus was removed from this life and gave up the ghost, but was he therefore prevailed against? Did he not triumph over death, and ascend up on high, and lead captivity captive? Did he not thereby acquire the possession of all things in heaven and upon earth?