Therefore there is a striking similarity between the practices required by the Church of Rome, to obtain the forgiveness of sins, and to be exempted from the punishment of those sins, through the medium of a substitute, and those which were required in the Pagan religion for the same purpose. 2. We prove that the practices required by the Church of Rome to obtain the forgiveness of sins, and to be exempted from the punishment of those sins, through the medium of a substitute, were not instituted among Christians in the first two centuries. The Roman Catholic theologians do not pretend that the Christians of the first two centuries held those practices, nor that the Church of Rome herself held them; but they say that the Church of Rome established them successively, as the good of Christians required it, according to the power of government and infallibility granted to her, and to her alone, by Jesus Christ. Consequently, the practices required by the Church of Rome, to obtain the forgiveness of sins, and to be exempted from the punishment of those sins, were not instituted among Christians in the first two centuries. We draw the general conclusions of this chapter: It has been proved that there is a striking similarity between the practices required by the Church of Rome to obtain the forgiveness of sins, and to be exempted from the punishment of those sins, and those which were, and still now are, required in the Pagan religion for the same purpose; and that those practices were not instituted among Christians in the first two centuries. Therefore the Church of Rome borrowed from the Pagans the doctrine of Vicarious Atonement, namely, that a small number of privileged Christians obtain the forgiveness of their sins, and are exempted from the punishment of their sins, through the medium of a substitute.