Excerpt from The Ordinances of Religion Practically: Illustrated and Applied The era of the doctrine of Forms in religion, as well as in philosophy, seems now however, to a great extent to have passedaway. The image of papal superstition, which had so long been sustain ed by entwining itself with the cords of civil despotism, has received an irrecoverable shock. The few grotesque and unmeaning Observances, which are still retained as the necessary append ages Of a sinking ecclesiastical system, have but little hold upon the judgment of those, among whom they are maintained; and there is reason to believe that the progress of knowledge and educa tion, combined with the more effective influence of religion, will speedily break the few remaining links of this portentous enthralment. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.