A History of the Corruptions of Christianity
By Joseph Priestley, LLD, FRS
Contents
I-The History of Opinions relating to Jesus Christ
II-The History of Opinions relating to the Doctrine of Atonement
III-The History of Opinions concerning Grace, Original Sin, and Predestination
IV-The History of Opinions relating to Saints and Angels
V-The History of Opinions concerning the State of the Dead
VI-The History of Opinions relating to the Lord’s Supper
VII-The History of Opinions relating to Baptism
Appendix to Parts VI and VII
VIII-A History of the Changes that have been made in the Method of conducting Public Worship
IX-The History of Church Discipline
X-The History of Ministers in the Christian Church, and especially of Bishops
XI-The History of the Papal Power
Appendices to Parts X and XI
XII-The History of the Monastic Life
XIII-The History of Church Revenues
The General Conclusion
Dr. Priestley’s Preface
After examining the foundation of our Christian faith, and having seen how much valuable information we receive from it, in my Institutes of Natural and Revealed Religion, it is with a kind of reluctance, that, according to my proposal, I must now proceed to exhibit a view of the dreadful corruptions which have debased its spirit, and almost annihilated all the happy effects which it was eminently calculated to produce. It is some satisfaction to us, however, and is more than sufficient to answer any objection that may be made to Christianity itself from the consideration for these corruptions, that they appear to have been clearly foreseen by Christ, and by several of the apostles. And we have at this day the still greater satisfaction to perceive that, according to the predictions contained in the books of Scripture, Christianity has begun to recover itself from this corrupted state, and that the reformation advances apace. And though some of the most shocking abuses still continue in many places, their virulence is very generally abated; and the number is greatly increased of those who are most zealous in the profession of Christianity, whose lives are the greatest ornament to it, and who hold it in so much purity, that, if it was fairly exhibited, and universally understood, it could hardly fail to recommend itself to the acceptance of the whole world of Jews and Gentiles.
The clear and full exhibition of truly reformed Christianity seems now to be almost the only thing that is wanting to the universal prevalence of it. But so long as all the Christianity that is known to heathens, Mahometans, and Jews, is of a corrupted and debased kind; and…
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