..LIBRARY 
 
 (>F TIIK 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 Received . 
 
 Accessions No. 
 
 Shelf No. 
 
POPERY 
 
 IN 
 
 ALLIANCE WITH HEATHENISM: 
 LETTERS 
 
 PROVING THAT WHERE 
 
 THE BIBLE IS WHOLLY UNKNOWN, 
 
 AS IN THE HEATHEN WORLD, 
 
 OR ONLY PARTIALLY KNOWN, 
 
 AS IN THE ROMISH CHURCH, 
 
 IDOLATRY AND SUPERSTITION ARE INEVITABLE. 
 BY JOHN POYNDER, ESQ. 
 
 " ...................... Ubi passim 
 
 " Palantes error certo de tramite pellit ; 
 
 " Ille sinistrorsum, hie dextrorsum abit ; unus utrique 
 
 " Error, sed variis illudit partibus. . . ........... " 
 
 Hon. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 J. HATCHARD AND SON, 187, PICCADILLY; 
 SEELEY AND SONS, FLEET-STREET; 
 
 AND ALL OTHER BOOKSELLERS. 
 
 1835. 
 
LONDON I 
 
 tBOTSOV AND PAI.MFR, PRINTERS, SAVOY-STREET, STRAND. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 LETTER PAGE 
 
 1. On the Use of Incense, and Holy Water . .17 
 
 2. On the Lights burnt in Pagan and Papal Temples; 
 
 and the Votive Offerings of Heathenism and Popery . 21 
 
 3. On the Votive Offerings of Heathenism and Popery. 
 
 (Continued.) . ... 26 
 
 4. On the Alliance between the Deities of Paganism, and 
 
 the Saints of Popery . . . .30 
 
 5. On the Conformity between Heathen Deification, and 
 Romish Canonization . . .34 
 
 6. On the Alliance between the Image Worship of Hea- 
 thenism and of Popery . . . .36 
 
 7. A Refutation of the Papist's Assertion that Images are 
 
 not Worshipped, but only used as Aids to Devotion . 42 
 
 8. On the Alliance between the Artifices of the Pagan and 
 Papal Priests in supporting the Credit of their Idols . 48 
 
 9 . On the Conformity between the Prodigies of Heathenism, 
 and the Miracles of Popery . . 54 
 
 10. On the Identity of the Refuge, or Protection afforded 
 to Criminals under the Pagan and Papal systems the 
 similarity of the two Priesthoods, and of the Religious 
 Orders and Fraternities of Heathenism and Popery . 59 
 
 11. On the Conformity between the Religious Processions 
 
 of the Heathens, and those of the Papists . . 64 
 
4 CONTENT*. 
 
 LETTER PAGE 
 
 12. On the Agreement between the Water Idolatry of the 
 Heathens and the Papists . . .67 
 
 13. The same subject continued . . .72 
 
 14. On the Conformity between Purgatory and Transub- 
 stantiation . . . .76 
 
 15. On the Identity of Heathen and Romish Pilgrimages 81 
 
 16. On the Alliance between the perpetual Sacrifices of 
 Heathenism, and the perpetual Sacrifice of the Mass 87 
 
 17. On the Agreement between Heathen and Romish 
 Exorcism . . . .95 
 
 18. The Agreement between Heathen and Romish Exor- 
 cism further considered, with a Refutation of the pre- 
 tended Continuance of this and other Miracles in the 
 Church of Rome . . . .99 
 
 19. On the analogous Nature of the Expiation of Sin, by 
 Money, in the Heathen and Romish Churches, and 
 the Analogy between other Pagan and Papal Atone- 
 ments for Sin the Conformity between the Stories of 
 the Pagan Deities and the Romish Saints between 
 the Ancient and Modern Idolatry in producing actual 
 Vice between Abstinence from Food in the two Sys- 
 tems and between the supreme Power of the respec- 
 tive Priesthoods . . . .105 
 
 20. Concluding Reflections on the preceding Facts . 113 
 
PREFACE 
 
 TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 IN sending a second Edition of this little work to press, 
 the writer would gladly, in compliance with the sugges- 
 tion of more than one friend, have altered the epithet of 
 " POPERY," in the title-page, as designating the Roman 
 Catholic religion, had he not deemed it, upon mature con- 
 sideration, more correct to retain the former term, for the 
 following reasons. First, that in employing that word, 
 he only follows all those who have appeared on the side 
 of the Protestant faith, ever since a protest was made 
 against the errors of the Romish creed. Until, therefore, 
 it can be shown that Cicero was mistaken, when he said, 
 " Magister optimus est Usus," the value of precedent 
 will perhaps be allowed its proper weight. Secondly, in 
 turning to the definition of Dr. Johnson, we find that 
 " Popery" is described by that accurate etymologist, as 
 * c the religion of the Church of Rome." Now, until the 
 members of that church can shew that Popery is not the 
 religion of the Church of Rome, but some other religion, 
 it is clear that no wrong is done them by the application of 
 the term ; and if it be not competent to them to dispute 
 this title, then how much less right have any members of 
 our own church to suggest that injury is inflicted in the 
 case in question ! If the members of the Church of Rome 
 
O PREFACE. 
 
 be any thing else than Papists, they then renounce, ipso 
 facto, the authority of the Pope, but so long as they con- 
 tinue to acknowledge him, either for their civil or eccle- 
 siastical head, So long are they Papists, and so long is 
 Popery their religion, as Dr. Johnson expressly defines it 
 to be. Thirdly, if, in compliance with modern liberality, 
 or rather with the affectation of it, Protestants were now 
 to change this designation, it is obvious that such circum- 
 stance would not affect any existing fact, or alter the na- 
 ture of things, since it would be still as true that the mem- 
 bers of the Romish church either acknowledge allegiance 
 to its temporal head, or are found in alliance with its spi- 
 ritual head, notwithstanding that certain members of our 
 own church may prefer to suppress all recognition, both of 
 the one and the other connexion. For these reasons, I 
 cannot but prefer the original term by which our Protes- 
 tant ancestors (who were at least as well informed on this 
 subject as ourselves) agreed to designate the religion of 
 the church of Rome. 
 
 It is still, however, with the most anxious and sincere 
 desire for the best, and highest, interests of the Romish 
 laity, that I would entreat them to consider how far the 
 unqualified deference paid by them, not merely to a man like 
 themselves, but to one whom the Holy Scriptures charac- 
 terise as eminently " the man of sin," and whom all history 
 agrees in proving to have remarkably deserved that title, 
 from the beginning how far, I say, such implicit deference 
 to human authority can consist with the allegiance due to 
 the only Lord and Saviour, who is the head over all things 
 to his church ; how far the erection of tradition into an 
 equal rank with the express revelation of God, can consist 
 with the exclusive reverence, which is claimed by the 
 Almighty for the inspired oracles of divine truth ; and 
 whether the single fact of these records of eternal life being 
 kept from the people at large, to this very hour, by the 
 authority of any man, or set of men, does not, of itself, 
 demonstrate, beyond all dispute, an unsound and indefen- 
 sible state of things, which dreads and deprecates inquiry, 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 as depending for its continued existence upon the extent of 
 the darkness and ignorance which may prevail in the 
 world, reminding us of a passage in that accurate observer 
 of human nature, Shakspeare 
 
 We of th' offending side 
 
 " Must keep aloof from strict arbitrament, 
 
 " And stop all sight-holes, every loop from whence 
 
 " The eye of reason may pry in upon us." 
 
 Unwilling to offer the slightest offence, by any single 
 term, or phrase, which it might be possible, consistently 
 with truth, to expunge, or modify, I beg unequivocally 
 to assure my fellow-subjects, of the Romish laity, that 
 I feel the most sincere affection for their persons, while I 
 entertain no respect for their system that I view, with 
 the deepest commiseration, that spiritual bondage in which 
 they continue to be held ; while I can entertain no such 
 sympathy for those " blind guides" who presume to exact 
 an obedience for which they can shew no warrant from 
 Scripture, and no justification, on the ground of right 
 reason, or common sense. Let them only once resolve to 
 judge for themselves, and to take the Scriptures of truth 
 as their guides, and they will at once throw off the yoke 
 from which it was the glory of our own Reformation to 
 deliver us. It is evident that there is no extent of doc- 
 trinal error denounced by our blessed Lord as upholding 
 the spiritual dominion of the interpreters of his law in 
 the Jewish church, which does not, with equal, or greater, 
 force apply to the ecclesiastical professors of his gospel 
 in the church of Rome; and if this fact required con- 
 firmation, the late complete exposure by the Irish Pro- 
 testant clergy, in the British metropolis, of the anti-scrip- 
 tural casuistry long taught in the United Kingdom, with 
 the sanction of episcopal and sacerdotal authority, would 
 abundantly establish it.* 
 
 * I allude to the two celebrated meetings at Exeter Hall, in Lon- 
 don, on the 20th of June, and llth of July, 1835, at which Lord 
 Kenyon presided. 
 
O PREFACE. 
 
 It is really painful to reflect, that notwithstanding the 
 boasted light of the present age, so many persons who 
 are respectable and amiable in all the relations of life, 
 should deliver themselves up, as if divested of their eyes 
 and ears, to the usurped dominion of the Papal hierarchy, 
 when the slightest attention to the primitive institution 
 of Christianity, would reveal to them the Saviour of sin- 
 ners in all his fulness, requiring no mediators by 
 whom he is to be approached, but able and willing as 
 the one only mediator between an offended God, and his 
 guilty creatures to save to the uttermost all that come 
 unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make interces- 
 sion for them inviting all, without exception, or restric- 
 tion, to take of the water of life freely, and proposing to 
 our faith that single sacrifice, and those transcendant 
 merits, as alone atoning for sin, and justifying the offender, 
 which all the institutions and ceremonies of the papal 
 church, tend only to obscure, and invalidate. 
 
 Nor let it be supposed that this attempt to be useful 
 to the laity of the Romish church, is the act of an enemy, 
 rather than the intention of a friend. It is not, indeed, 
 reasonable to expect that truth can always be told, with- 
 out offence, when even an apostle found it necessary to 
 appeal to his readers in that remarkable expostulation 
 " Am I your enemy, because I tell you the truth ?" 
 " It is not easy" (says Hooker) " to speak to the con- 
 " tentation of minds exulcerated in themselves, but that 
 " somewhat there will be always which displeaseth." 
 
 To those who think that every thing in the form of 
 controversy should be avoided, I would observe, in the 
 language of Lord Bacon " Neuters in contentions are 
 " either better, or worse, than either side," leaving it to 
 themselves to consider to which class they belong while 
 to those who may be disposed to cavil at some strength 
 of expression in the conduct of my argument, I would 
 add, in the language of the same illustrious writer 
 " Earnest writing must not hastily be condemned, for 
 " men cannot contend coldly, and without affection, about 
 
PREFACE. 9 
 
 " things which they hold dear and precious. A politic 
 " man may write from his brain, without touch and sense 
 " of his heart, as in a speculation which appertained! not 
 " unto him ; but a feeling Christian will express, in his 
 " words, a character of zeal, and love." Again, I ask, 
 that He who has all hearts in his hand, may accompany 
 this publication with his blessing, and cause it to issue 
 in his glory. 
 
 London, Nov. 5th, 1835. 
 
 O 
 
PREFACE 
 
 TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
 
 THE celebrated Dr. Middleton, the translator of Cicero, 
 and the librarian of Cambridge, who was an eye-witness of 
 the abominations which he records, has furnished the basis 
 of the following Letters, in that able Letter which he wrote 
 from Rome, entitled " The Conformity between Paganism 
 " and Popery." The writer of the following Letters has 
 however been indebted to other sources of information, and 
 more especially to the observations of an able writer on 
 Indian affairs, long resident in that country ; * which tend 
 to establish the same connexion between the heathenism of 
 papal Rome, and of pagan India, at the present moment, as 
 may be traced between Rome under the Christian popes, 
 and under the Heathen emperors. Proofs of a similar 
 identity have also presented themselves in the corruptions 
 of Popery at present existing in a portion of the united 
 Empire, which afford a perfect transcript of the worst abuses 
 of the ancient idolatry of the Gentile world. 
 
 To this latter spot, certain persons occasionally resort 
 who are advocates for what they term a liberal and en- 
 lightened policy, although they there witness the utmost 
 degradation of their species, in the unlimited power exer- 
 cised by the Romish priesthood over the consciences and 
 persons of their bigoted adherents; but it is impossible that 
 
 * The late Charles Grant, Esq., M. P., formerly Chairman of the 
 East India Company. 
 
 B 2 
 
12 
 
 men of real religion should witness the idolatries which de- 
 file that country, and observe such superstitions as had 
 scarcely their counterpart in heathen lands, (all prac- 
 tised, be it remembered, under the eye, and with the 
 sanction, of the popish hierarchy and clergy of Ireland,) 
 it is impossible, I say, that such persons should witness 
 scenes like these, without contemplating idolatry in the same 
 light in which the Bible exhibits it, and without abhorring 
 those pollutions of doctrine and practice which the word of 
 God invariably represents as perilous in the extreme, both 
 to those who profess, and those who patronize them. 
 
 In consequence of the large accession, in Protestant 
 England, to the numbers of those who profess the Romish 
 faith, and of the great increase both of their places of wor- 
 ship, and religious establishments, since the concession of 
 the Romish claims, the attention of the Protestant public 
 appears, more than ever, due to the consideration of the 
 difference existing between their own, and the Romish 
 church. If it can be shown that there is a near alliance 
 between the Romish religion and the Heathen religion, the 
 difference between the Church of England and the Church 
 of Rome will be rendered still more apparent. I propose, 
 therefore, to consider the conformity between Popery and 
 Paganism, premising only that I do not wholly pretend to 
 originality, but am indebted to the valuable writers already 
 alluded to, for many of these remarks. The more learned 
 of my readers, whose attention may never have been turned 
 this way, will not be displeased to find their thoughts di- 
 verted into a new channel ; while such as are in quest of 
 truth will hail every attempt to enlighten the world upon 
 the subject of the gross superstitions of modern idolatry, 
 in a professedly Christian church, and their connexion with 
 the ancient idolatry of the Heathens, before the introduc- 
 tion of Christianity. 
 
 If the following be a faithful and correct statement of 
 the conformity between heathenism and popery, what did 
 any members of our own church, our government, or our 
 parliament, promise themselves or their cause, by the sup- 
 
PREPACK. 13 
 
 port they may have tendered to the Roman Catholic claims ? 
 Why were they not rather found on the side of the ark of 
 God, when their ancient foes were unusually vigilant and 
 active? " If Baal be God, follow him ; but if the Lord 
 " be God, then follow him." The Roman Catholic ques- 
 tion was never one of a merely political or secular nature, 
 nor were the interests which it involves of a secondary or 
 subordinate character. The state of suspense and jeopardy 
 in which the Protestant Church was long periodically 
 placed, terminated at last in concession to the claims of the 
 Roman Catholics, because certain persons, who might and 
 ought to have known better, determined to regard this 
 question as one of mere human policy, without permitting 
 the paramount consideration of religion I mean the fun- 
 damental difference between the Protestant and Popish 
 Creeds to form a part of their calculations, or to influence 
 their conclusions. So long as this great question was merely 
 argued upon principles of secular expediency, it is no mat- 
 ter of surprise that sagacious statesmen were taken in their 
 own craftiness, and that they were unable, under their 
 mode of treating the subject, to deal with arguments which 
 were at least as plausible, if not as valid, as their own. 
 They ought to have taken higher ground, and have resolved 
 to stand by the constitution, which would then have stood 
 by them. If they had reasoned about the religious abo- 
 minations, and political evils, of popery as did Queen Eli- 
 zabeth, and King William, Lord Burleigh, and Lord Bacon, 
 Sir John Temple, and Lord Clarendon, Sir Matthew Hale, 
 and Bishop Burnet, their difficulties would have vanished 
 at once ; they would then have stood firmly on the rock 
 which the providence of God, and the wisdom of their an- 
 cestors, had placed under their feet; nor would all the 
 sophistry of crafty and designing men have moved them 
 from the true interests of our Protestant empire, or induced 
 them to yield one inch of that sacred ground for which our 
 martyrs had bled at the stake, and our warriors had tri- 
 umphed in the field. If peace had been their object, they 
 should have taken a statesmanlike view of this great ques- 
 
14 I-EEFACE. 
 
 tion in all its breadth and length, and have considered that 
 although a temporary and hollow peace might be obtained 
 by conceding to Papists, a portion of civil, and political, of 
 legislative and executive power, yet that such characters 
 must have been traitors to their own church and cause, if 
 they could rest satisfied with a moderate share of that 
 power, or with anything less than ascendancy for their own 
 church and party. This fearful experiment however has 
 been made. It may possibly follow that the real Protes- 
 tants of this country (I do not mean the nominal ones,) 
 who are far too enlightened and too free to breathe in the 
 same atmosphere as popery, and still less, to witness pa- 
 tiently its daily encroachments, or submit to its galling 
 yoke, will be heard in their turn. If the people of this 
 country could not endure the pretensions of popery at the 
 great epochs of the Reformation, and the Revolution, much 
 less is it likely that they will endure them now, when a 
 greater degree of religious light is diffused over the nation, 
 and when the principles of civil liberty are better under- 
 stood than ever. 
 
 It is only, however, as the religious character of popery 
 is properly estimated by the nation at large, that a success- 
 ful stand can eventually be made against her pretensions 
 whether ecclesiastical or civil ; and the time appears to 
 have arrived, when every member of the Protestant church, 
 who supposes he may have any thing to contribute to the 
 general stock, is bound, with the humble female commended 
 by our Lord, to do what he can ; and with another, who 
 was equally honoured with his approbation, to cast his mite 
 into the common treasury. The present attempt is, indeed, 
 no more ; but such as it is, may it please the great Head of 
 the church, ( " without whom nothing is strong, nothing is 
 " holy, 11 ) to favour it with his blessing, and to crown it witli 
 success ! And since, in the degree that we are brought to 
 understand the worldly and intriguing character of the re- 
 ligion of " the Man of Sin," we shall be the better able to 
 estimate the value of the reformed religion we profess, I 
 shall conclude with a passage from Bishop Burnet's Abridg- 
 
PREPACK. 15 
 
 ment of his own History of the Reformation, the whole of 
 which Preface indeed, has as remarkable an application to 
 the present times, as if expressly designed for them.* 
 
 " That Religion is chiefly designed for perfecting the 
 " nature of man, for improving his faculties, governing his 
 " actions, and securing the peace of his own conscience* 
 " and of society in general, is a truth so plain, that without 
 " further arguing upon it, all will agree to it. Every part 
 " of religion, then, is to be judged by its relation to the 
 " main ends of it ; and since the Christian doctrine was re- 
 " vealed from heaven, as the most perfect and suitable way 
 " that ever was, for advancing the good of mankind, no- 
 " thing can be a part of this holy faith, but what is propor- 
 " tioned to the end for which it was designed ; and all the 
 " additions that have been made to it, since it was first deli- 
 " vered to the world, are justly to be suspected; especially 
 " where it is manifest, at first view, that they were intended 
 " to serve carnal, and secular ends. What can be rea- 
 " sonably supposed, in the papacy, where the Popes are 
 " chosen by such intrigues, either of the two crowns, the 
 " nephews of the former Pope, or the craft of some aspiring 
 " men, to entitle them to infallibility or universal jurisdic- 
 " tion? What can we think of redeeming souls out of 
 " purgatory, or preserving them from it, by tricks, or some 
 " mean pageantry, but that it is a foul piece of merchandise ? 
 " What is to be said of implicit obedience, of the priestly 
 " dominion over consciences, of the keeping the Scriptures 
 " out of the people's hands, and the worship of God in a 
 " strange tongue, but that these are so many arts to hood- 
 i( wink the world, and to deliver it up into the hands of an 
 " ambitious clergy ? What can we think of superstition 
 " and idolatry of images, and all the other pomp of the 
 " Romish worship, but that by these things the people 
 " were to be kept in a gross notion of religion, as a 
 " splendid business, and that the priests have the art of 
 
 * This valuable abridgement, by Buriiet himself, of his voluminous 
 history, was recently reprinted by the University of Oxford at a mode- 
 rate charge. 
 
16 PREFACE. 
 
 " saving them, if they will but take care to humour them, 
 " and leave that matter wholly in their hands ? And, to 
 " sum up all, what can we think of that constellation of 
 " prodigies in the sacrament of the altar, as they pretend 
 " to explain it, but that it is an art to bring the world, by 
 " wholesale, to renounce their reason, and sense, and to 
 " have a most wonderful veneration for a race of men 
 " who can, with a word, perform the most astonishing 
 " thing that ever was ?" 
 
LETTERS, &c. 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 Ow the use of Incense, and Holy Water. 
 
 THE USE OF INCENSE. This is a custom which has 
 descended in a straight line from Heathenism, as is 
 evident from Homer, Virgil, Theocritus, and Ovid. The 
 first Christian martyrs opposed the use of Incense with 
 such fortitude, that the mode of trying and convicting 
 them under the heathen emperors, was merely to require 
 them to throw a grain of it into the censer, or on the altar, 
 which they as invariably refused, and for which refusal 
 they forfeited their lives. (See Act. Martyr. Nicandri apud 
 Mabill. Iter. Ital. vol. i. p. 247; Durant. de Ritibus, 1. 1. 
 c. 9; Jerome's Works, vol. iv. Epist. ad Heliod.) and 
 under the Christian Emperors, the rite was considered by 
 the early Christians as so peculiarly heathenish, that the 
 very places or houses where incense could be proved to 
 have been offered were by a law of Theodosius confiscated 
 to the Government. (See Gothorf de Stat. Paganor. sub 
 Christian. Imper. leg. 12, p. 15.) In all the old sculptures 
 of heathen sacrifice, may be seen a boy in a sacred habit 
 attending the priest, with a small box of incense for the 
 altar. (See Montfaucon Antiq. vol. ii. plate 23.) Thus 
 in the church of Rome, a boy attends the priest, with the 
 sacred utensils, especially the incense vessel, of which the 
 priest makes abundant use through the service, by waving 
 it round, and over, the altar : and thus at this moment in 
 
18 THE USE OF HOLY WATER. [LETTER I. 
 
 China, the use of Incense is a part of their idolatry. 
 " In this temple," (says one of the suite in the late Em- 
 bassy to China,) " I found a print of the head of our 
 " Saviour, and incense vessels placed before it. The priest 
 " showed me a book containing the service which he said 
 " they read when they worshipped this picture." And 
 again, " I am now writing to you from a temple in which 
 " are upwards of a hundred priests, and as many Idols. 
 " About fifty priests worship (with morning and evening 
 " prayers) images of Buddah. There are three hundred 
 " images placed on aline: before these, the priests burn 
 " tapers, offer incense, and recite prayers, sometimes 
 " kneeling, and repeating, over and over again, invocations ; 
 " and sometimes putting the forehead to the ground in 
 " token of adoration, submission, and supplication." (See 
 this letter at length, in the Times Journal of the 17th 
 Sept. 1817.) 
 
 THE USE OF HOLY WATER. No member of the 
 Romish Church ever enters, or quits, a church without 
 being sprinkled with it, which is performed by the priest 
 on solemn days, while on common occasions, the person 
 helps himself from a vessel at the door. This practice is 
 so notoriously derived from heathenism, that the Romish 
 writers are obliged to avow it. Lacerda the Jesuit in a 
 note on Virgil, (Mn. vi. 230,) says, " Hence was derived 
 " the custom of our holy church to provide purifying or 
 "holy water at the entrance of the churches." (See note in 
 loco.) Montfaucon says, the aquaminarium was a vase of 
 holy water placed by the heathens at the entrance of their 
 Temples to sprinkle themselves with. (See Antiq. t. ii. p. 
 1. 1. iii. c. 6. and Europ. lone. v. 96.) Croesus gave two 
 of these vessels to the Temple of Apollo at Delphos. (See 
 Herodot. 1. 1. 51. and Clem. Alex. Strom. 1. 1.) Indeed, the 
 Heathens' custom of sprinkling was so essential a part of 
 all their religious offices, that their mode of excommunica- 
 tion was by forbidding offenders the use of the holy water. 
 (See ^Eschin. Orat. contr. Ctesiphon 58.) The very com- 
 position of the holy water was also the same among the 
 
LETTER I.] THE USE OF HOLY WATER. 19 
 
 pagans as among the papists, being simply a mixture of 
 salt with common water. (Theocritus 95; Durant de 
 Rit. 1. i. c. 21.) The form of the sprinkling brush, (the 
 aspersorium,) which is much the same with what the priests 
 now use, may be seen in bas-reliefs and ancient coins, where- 
 ever the insignia or emblems of the pagan priesthood appear. 
 (See Montfaucon's Antiq. t. ii. p. 1. 1. iii. c. 6. and Agostini's 
 Discorso sopra le Medaglie.) Platina in his Lives of the 
 Popes, and other authors, ascribe the institution of holv 
 water to pope Alexander I. who lived about one hundred 
 and thirteen years after Christ; but it could not have been 
 introduced so early, since we find the primitive Fathers, 
 some ages after, treating it as a custom purely heathenish, 
 and condemning it as impious and detestable ; one of them 
 in particular observing, that " it was invented by the 
 " devil, in imitation of the true Baptism signified by the 
 " prophets, in order that their votaries might also have 
 <4 their pretended purifications by water." (Justin. Martyr. 
 Apol. J. p. 91.) The heathen Emperor Julian, in opposi- 
 tion to the Christians, used to order the victuals in the 
 markets to be sprinkled with holy water, with a view of 
 either starving them, or obliging them to eat what by their 
 own principles they esteemed polluted. (See Hospinian de 
 orig. Templor, 1. ii. c. 25.) Hence we may see what 
 opposite opinions the primitive Church, and the Romish 
 Church, have entertained on holy water. The early 
 Christians condemned it as superstitious, abominable, and 
 heathenish ; the Roman Catholics adopt it, as highly con- 
 ducive to Christian piety : the first Christians esteemed it 
 a contrivance of the devil to delude mankind : the Romish 
 Church regards it as a security against the delusions of 
 the devil. The absurdity of this ceremony may appear 
 from the long enumeration which may be found in many 
 Popish writers, of the virtues and benefits derived from 
 its use, both to the soul and body : (See Durant de Ritib. 
 1. i. c. 21 ; and Hospinian, ibid. &c.) while, to complete 
 this absurdity, along roll of miracles is produced to attest 
 the certainty of the several virtues ascribed to it. See 
 
20 THE USE OF HOLY WATER. [l.KTTER I. 
 
 Durant de Rit. 1. i. c. 21.) The remark, therefore, of 
 Ovid, upon the error of paganism on the subject of holy 
 water, applies with equal force to the delusion of Popery 
 on the same point : 
 
 " Ah nimium faciles, qui tristia crimina caedis 
 
 " Fluminea tolli posse putetis aqua !" OVID, Fast. 2. 45. 
 
 Holy water was also used at the heathen funerals, as it 
 is now at the popish funerals. (See Kennett's Rom. Antiq. 
 p. 358; and Virg. ^En. 6.) 
 
 " Socios pura circumtulitunda!" 
 
 The Romish Church, however, proceeds much farther 
 than the heathens in the use of holy water, since there is 
 a yearly festival in Rome peculiarly devoted to the purifying 
 or blessing of horses, asses, and other cattle, vulgarly called 
 the Benediction of Horses, which is celebrated with much 
 solemnity, in the month of January, when all the inhabi- 
 tants of the city and neighbourhood send their horses, 
 asses, &c. to the convent of St. Anthony, near the church 
 of St. Mary the Great, where a priest in his surplice, at 
 the church door, sprinkles, with his brush, all the animals 
 singly, as they are presented to him. The advantage de- 
 rived by the animals, on this occasion, may probably be 
 about the same as accrues to their owners ; but the priest, 
 at all events, does not lose his reward, since there is a 
 gratuity of tant par tite payable for his zeal and ability. 
 (See Middleton's letter; Rom. Modern. Giorn. 6. c. 46 ; 
 Rione de Monti, and Mabillon's Iter. Ital. p. 136.) Dr. 
 James Edward Smith also notices this gross abomination 
 of modern heathenism (of which he was an eye witness) 
 in the following terms : " On the 17th of Jan. being St. 
 " Anthony's day, we witnessed the ceremony of blessing all 
 " the horses, asses, and mules in the town, which were led, 
 " decked out with ribbands, to one of the doors of the 
 " church of this saint, where a priest stood ready to 
 "sprinkle them with holy water: some of these animals 
 " took it with much greater devotion than others, who 
 
LETTER II.] LIGHTS IN THE TEMPLES. 21 
 
 " seemed much frightened at the holy sprinkling. This 
 " is performed every year, and the Doge is always pre- 
 " sent a laudable co-operation of church and state, who 
 " wisely keep one another in countenance in this holy 
 " and beneficial ceremony." (See his Tour to the Conti- 
 nent, vol. i. p. 258.) The only thing in heathen antiquity 
 which appears to resemble this custom is, the sprinkling 
 their horses with water in the Circensian games : (see 
 Rubenii Elect. 2. 18:) but it is not clear whether super- 
 stition dictated that usage in order to purify them (the 
 races being esteemed sacred) or merely to prepare them 
 for the physical exertion of the race. The ingenuity of 
 the Romish priests, however, in converting so coarse a mo- 
 dification of superstition into the means of their support, is 
 sufficiently remarkable. 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 On the Lights burnt in Pagan and Papal Temples ; and 
 the Votive offerings of Heathenism and Popery. 
 
 THE LAMPS AND CANDLES BURNING IN CATHOLIC 
 CHURCHES AND CHAPELS IN BROAD DAYLIGHT, afford 
 another example of heathen conformity. Mabillon ob- 
 serves on this custom, in his It. Ital. p. 25 ; but every 
 one has witnessed its frequency. Now the perpetual lamps 
 and candles of the heathen worship are constantly adverted 
 to by their authors, as burning before the altars and 
 statues of their Deities, as they now do before the shrines 
 and images of the Romish superstition; (See Plin. Hist. 
 Nat. 1. xxxiv. 3, Cic. in Verr. 2. Virg. JEn. 4-200.) 
 Herodotus states that the Egyptians, who first introduced 
 the use of lights into their idolatrous temples, (Clem. 
 Alex. Strom. 1. i. c. 16.) had a grand yearly festival, 
 called, from its chief business, the lighting up of candles: 
 
22 LIGHTS IN THE TEMPLES. [LETTER II. 
 
 (Herod. 1. ii. 62. Lond. edit. :) but there is scarcely a 
 single festival of Papal Rome to which this phrase might 
 not be justly applied. The primitive Christians exposed 
 the folly and absurdity of this heathenish custom, little 
 dreaming that their successors would adopt it. (Hospin. 
 de Orig. Templor. 1 ii. 22.) " They light up candles to 
 " God," says Lactantius, speaking of the heathens, " as if 
 " he lived in the dark : but do not they deserve to rank as 
 " madmen who offer lamps to the Author and Giver of 
 " light ?" In the old heathen inscriptions are many instances 
 of presents of lamps and candlesticks from individuals to 
 the temples and altars of them that were no gods. (See 
 Grut. Inscr. 177, 3.) This practice continues in modern 
 Rome, where each church abounds with lamps of massy 
 silver, and sometimes of gold, the gifts of princes and 
 others. The principal saints and miraculous images of 
 popish countries have lamps perpetually burning before 
 them, as St. Anthony of Padua, St. Charles Borromeo of 
 Milan, and the Lady of Loretto ; and the votaries of less 
 distinguished places of worship are lighted in like manner 
 to their devotions, in the broad blaze of each day's sun, by 
 humble ends of holy candle, stuck about the altars of the 
 several chapels and oratories, in honour of the particular 
 saint whose image is there set up, and before which images 
 they are found duly prostrating themselves, with all the 
 ceremonies of a more ancient form of worship. A man has 
 only to cross over from Dover to Calais to witness this 
 mummery in perfection. " They light them candles, yea 
 " more than for themselves, whereof they" (the idols) 
 " cannot see one." (Baruch, ch. vi. v. 19-) " The super- 
 " stitious use of lights in the church by day, is an affront 
 " done both to the Sun in the heaven, and to the Sun of 
 " Righteousness in the Church." (Archbishop Leightori's 
 Lustre of the Church,) A reference to the first letter will 
 show that the idolaters of China are lighted to their devo- 
 tions at the present, moment, precisely in the same way. 
 
 THE OFFERINGS AND VOTIVE GIFTS HUNG UP IN 
 CATHOLIC PLACES OF WORSHIP, IN GRATITUDE FOR DE- 
 
LETTER II.] VOTIVE OFFERINGS. 23 
 
 LIVERANCES FROM DANGER AND CURES IN SICKNESS, may 
 
 be identified with the votive offerings of the heathens in 
 their temples on similar occasions. No practice was more 
 common among the Pagans, as the classical reader will well 
 know. (See Montfauc. Antiq. t. ii. p. 1, 1. iv. c. 4, Hor. 
 passim, &c.) Their original donaria, or votive offerings, 
 are preserved to this hour in the cabinets of the curious ; 
 and in the British museum are various figures of eyes, feet, 
 hands, breasts, and other parts of the body, formerly hung 
 up in the heathen temples, in testimony of cures supposed 
 to be performed by their tutelar deities in those particular 
 parts ; but the most common of the offerings were pictures 
 representing the history of some miraculous cure or de- 
 liverance vouchsafed upon the vow of the donor. For a 
 remarkable example, take Tibullus: 
 
 " Nunc, Dea, mine succurre mihi, nam posse mederi 
 " Picta docet templis miilta tabella tuis." El. 1, 3. 
 
 It may be true, that the infidels of antiquity ridiculed 
 this practice of heathenism, as the infidels of France ridi- 
 culed the absurdities of Popery ; but it is equally true, 
 that the practice itself prevailed in both cases, and is a 
 constituent part of each religion. Cicero relates, that a 
 friend of Diagoras the philosopher once said to him in a 
 temple, " You who think the gods take no notice of human 
 affairs, do not you see by this number of pictures, how 
 many people, for the sake of their vows, have been saved 
 in storms at sea, and got safe into harbour?"'' t; Yes," 
 said Diagoras, " I see how it is ; for those persons are 
 " never painted who happened to be drowned." (Cic. Nat. 
 Deor. 1. iii. 253.) The temples of ^Esculapius were more 
 especially rich in these offerings, which Livy says, were 
 " the price and pay for the cures that he had wrought for 
 " the sick." (Liv. 1. xlv. 28.) Here they used always to hang 
 up in tables of brass or marble, a list of all the miraculous 
 cures which that Deity was supposed to have performed. 
 (See Strabo, t. i. 515.) A remarkable fragment of one of 
 
24 VOTIVE OFFERINGS. [LETTER II. 
 
 these tables still exists, and the inscription is recorded by 
 Gruter. (See his Inscript., p. 71.) It was found in the 
 ruins of one of his temples at Rome ; and Montfaucon ob- 
 serves upon it, that " it proves either the artifice of the 
 " devil to deceive the credulous, or else the tricks of the 
 " Pagan priests, by suborning men to counterfeit diseases 
 " and miraculous cures ;" (see Montf. Antiq. t. ii. p. 1, 1. iv. 
 c. 6 ;) a remark equally applicable to the pretended mira- 
 cles of modern, as of ancient Rome. Now this piece of 
 superstition had been found much too profitable to the 
 heathen priesthood to be overlooked by the Romish clergy, 
 and was, therefore, engrafted upon the worship of Popery, 
 and reigns at this hour in as full vigour as in the ages of 
 Pagan idolatry. This superstition was so gross, as to dis- 
 gust some of their own communion. Polydore Virgil, after 
 describing this practice of the heathens, observes, " In 
 " the same manner do we now offer up in our churches little 
 " images of wax ; and when any part of the body is hurt, as 
 " the hand or foot, we make a vow to God, or to one of his 
 " saints, to whom, on our recovery, we offer that hand or 
 " foot in wax, which custom is now come to that extrava- 
 " gance, that we do the same thing for our oxen, horses, and 
 " sheep!" (Pol, Virg. de Inv. Rer. 1. v. i.) Baronius ob- 
 serves, that " the altar of St. Philip Neri shines with votive 
 " pictures and images, the proofs of asmany miracles, receiv- 
 " ing every day the additional splendour of fresh offerings 
 " from those who have been favoured with fresh benefits,"" 
 (Baron. Ann. 1. An. 57, v. 162 ; It. A ring. Rom. Subter. 
 1. 1. c. 30.) Among these votaries, a late Pope offered a 
 yearly acknowledgment to this saint, for a miraculous de- 
 liverance which he fancied he had obtained through his 
 invocation.. It would be endless to enumerate the patron 
 saints of the late Pope ; but from his revival of the holy 
 office of the Inquisition, and the unholy order of Jesuits,* 
 
 * The " History of the Jesuits," lately published, (but now, I believe, 
 with difficulty to be obtained,) proves that this order is only a corrupt 
 modification of the Papal system, and that its members have ever been 
 
LETTER ]!.] VOTIVE OFFERINGS, 25 
 
 it is generally supposed, that he considers himself mainly 
 indebted to Saint Dominic, and Saint Ignatius, and that he 
 has taken the most effectual method of discharging his per- 
 
 the most active agents of the Romish church, and have most effectu- 
 ally forwarded its designs upon the happiness and liberties of mankind, 
 in furtherance of which objects, they have not scrupled to employ PER- 
 SECUTION^ in all its forms, both civil and religious. It is further 
 provec^ that the Jesuits at this time occupy a very strong position 
 in the centre of this Protestant country the College of Stonyhurst, 
 near Preston which is in constant communion and correspondence 
 with another Jesuits' College in Ireland, and with the Continent at 
 large. That the constitution and rules of the society sanction practices 
 opposed to the dictates of religion, and hostile to the safety of sove- 
 eigns and governments. That in the two centuries of their existence, 
 the Jesuits were the authors of almost all the calamities which deso- 
 lateo the world at large, and Europe in particular, especially the Pro- 
 testant part of it. That, to doctrines of the most pernicious tendency, 
 both in morals and politics, they added practices, in each, of a nature 
 utterly indefensible. That the agents employed by them in the prose- 
 cution of their objects have been, almost exclusively, members of the 
 Romish communion, who have ever been their willing instruments, 
 and that inasmuch as the concessions of the late reign (especially 
 the grant of the elective franchise) have greatly increased the number 
 and influence of Roman Catholics, both in England and Ireland, the 
 connexion which has always subsisted between the Jesuits and them- 
 selves assumes the more importance, and threatens the greater danger 
 to a Protestant nation and government. That the circumstance of the 
 Jesuits having now established themselves in such force amongst our- 
 selves, is part of the system of achieving by fraud what cannot be 
 effected by force. That numerous converts from the Protestant to the 
 Romish communion have been already made in our own country 
 through the indefatigable activity of these agents ; and that the work 
 of conversion is proceeding with remarkable success at this moment, 
 more particularly in the inland counties : and finally, that the late 
 Pope, in reviving an Order which was abolished by Pope Clement XIV. 
 on the supplication of the whole of Europe, (both Catholic and Pro- 
 testant,) and in assigning to it, at the same time, the aid of the IN- 
 QUISITION, (its oldest and best ally,) has himself acted upon the 
 great principle of Jesuitism, viz. that the end to be accomplished will 
 sanction the means which may be used, and has effectually provided 
 for the revival of all those moral and political evils which are insepa- 
 rable from the employment of such agents. Notwithstanding these 
 facts, Mr. CHARLES BUTLER, in his last work, eulogized this Order in 
 
26 VOTIVE OFFERINGS. [LETTER III. 
 
 sonal obligations at the expense of the whole civilized 
 world a mode of evincing his gratitude riot quite so harm- 
 less as that adopted by the late king of Sardinia, who was 
 content to display his sense of piety, merely by assuming 
 the habit of St. Ignatius, a taste in which his Majesty 
 might, perhaps, have been much more safely indulged. 
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 The Votive Offerings of Heathenism and Popery. 
 
 [CONTINUED.] 
 
 A FEW more words on the VOTIVE OFFERINGS of Popery, 
 as allied to those of heathenism. I have before adverted to 
 Calais as presenting a good specimen near home, of the pro- 
 fusion of lights burning in broad day on the altars of their 
 saints. The rude pictures of the poor misguided fishermen 
 in the churches of Calais, in honour of the Virgin Mary, 
 furnish a fine example of votive offerings. Indeed, the 
 Virgin Mary seems to have done wonders in this way ; so 
 that what Juvenal said of the goddess Isis may be applied 
 to her, that the painters get their livelihood out of her. 
 
 " Pictores quis nescit ab Iside pasci ?" 
 
 These donaria, or votive offerings of Popery, are generally 
 close copies of their heathen originals : in each case the vow 
 is said to be divinely inspired, or expressly commanded, and 
 the cure or deliverance is stated to have been wrought 
 either by the visible appearance, and immediate hand, of 
 
 the highest terms, and publicly stood forth as its champion, in defiance 
 of the clearest case of moral and political turpitude ever established ; 
 indeed the Roman Catholics at large (as might have been expected) 
 have pursued the same course, and have thus identified themselves 
 with the same system. 
 
LETTER TII.J VOTIVE OFFERINGS. 27 
 
 the tutelar saint, (a gross delusion,) or by the notice of a 
 dream, or other miraculous intimation from Heaven. 
 " There can be no doubt," says one of their celebrated 
 writers, " but that the images of our saints often work 
 " signal miracles by procuring health to the infirm, and by 
 " appearing to us often in dreams to suggest something of 
 " great moment for our service. (Durant de Ritib. l.i. c.5.) 
 Now the same effects precisely were ascribed by the ancient 
 Pagans to their deities as are referred by the Papists to 
 their saints nay, even to the images of those saints ; which 
 latter appears a more rank form of superstition than 
 abounded anciently. A comparison of the inscriptions in 
 Gruter, and other records of antiquity, with those in the 
 churches of Italy and other Romish countries, will place 
 this matter beyond all doubt. These offerings, however, 
 are not confined to the poor, the vulgar, and the ignorant. 
 The gifts and offerings of the wealthy and the noble, in 
 vessels, lamps, statues, and jewellery, rival those of heathen 
 devotees. The altar of St. Thomas a Becket formerly, the 
 shrine of the Virgin Mary at Loretto, and elsewhere., now, 
 and indeed the actual contents of almost every Romish 
 church which has escaped the plunder of the French and 
 Italian revolution, bear ample testimony on this point. 
 The splendour of the Romish shrines has passed into a 
 proverb ; and a woman dressed out in all her finery is, by 
 a well-known French phrase, said to be decked like a shrine 
 (parse comme une Chasse). Now, what is the church of 
 Loretto, but the counterpart of Apollo's temple at Del- 
 phos ? (See Horn. II. 9. 404; see also Liv. 1. 40, 37, as to 
 the temple of .yEsculapius.) There is even a resemblance 
 between the ancient and modern temples in their very fur- 
 niture and appendages, for each have their wardrobes : the 
 changes of dress for a single Romish priest are sufficiently 
 numerous and puzzling, but those of his Holiness (the great 
 high priest of all the modern temples) are almost innume- 
 rable. One part of the treasury of the holy house of Lo- 
 retto consisted of its wardrobes ; and so, as Tertullian ob- 
 serves, the idols of antiquity used to be dressed out in 
 
 c 2 
 
28 REVIVAL OF THE INQUISITION, [LETTER III. 
 
 curious robes of the choicest stuffs and fashions. (De Ido- 
 lat. p. 116. edit. Rigalt.) The classical traveller, on being 
 shown at Loretto the great variety of costly habits, some 
 embroidered by queens and princesses, and others bristling 
 with jewels for the use of the miraculous image of our Lady, 
 will at once be reminded of Queen Hecuba of Troy, pros- 
 trating herself before the miraculous image of Pallas, with 
 a present of the best and richest gown of which she was mis- 
 tress, as described by Homer, II. 293. The modern devo- 
 tees of the church of Rome fall not a whit behind those of 
 heathen times ; nor has the pious monarch, mentioned in 
 my last, as having assumed the habit of St. Ignatius, 
 displayed a more remarkable example of attachment to the 
 church of Rome, than a certain sagacious monarch of 
 modern times, who has given undoubted testimony of his 
 piety and gallantry at the same moment, by actually work- 
 ing with his own hands a petticoat for the use of the Virgin 
 Mary ! It is impossible to refer to these " dark places of 
 the earth" without adverting to a remarkable edict of the 
 Spanish Inquisition, dated Madrid, April 5, 1815, entitled, 
 " The Edict of the Most Excellent Lord Inquisitor General, 
 " Don Francisco y Campillo," and which is stated in detail 
 in the introduction to the History of the Jesuits before no- 
 ticed. Under that decree, all those heretics (or Protestants) 
 who did not abjure their religion, and embrace Popery, with- 
 in one year from its date, were rendered amenable to all the 
 terrors of imprisonment, confiscation, and death ; a fact 
 sufficiently characteristic of the implacable hostility of the 
 Romish church, which (to use the language of the author 
 of that history) " has in the very instant of her exaltation 
 " and revival., through the instrumentality of Protestant ex- 
 " ertions, rewarded the Protestant church and cause by the 
 " foulest ingratitude, and the most atrocious persecution/'* 
 If, in spite of the tremendous visitations of Europe, her 
 monarch s are rendered no wiser by their misfortunes, and if 
 the result of all the efforts which have been made in the 
 cause of regal legitimacy, be only to confirm the empire of 
 ignorance, and to consolidate the power of superstition, may 
 
LETTER 111.] AND OF THE ORDER OF JESUITS. 29 
 
 it not be feared that the exhausted nations of the earth have 
 yet much to endure before the general tranquillity can be 
 permanently secured ? The lavish expenditure of Protes- 
 tant blood and treasure which we have witnessed, has in- 
 deed had the desirable effect of restoring ancient establish- 
 ments to the seats from which they had been hurled by 
 usurpation ; and so far, every friend of law and order must 
 rejoice ; but if in propping, or setting up, ancient govern- 
 ments, we shall find no better reward for our toil than the 
 poor consolation of having deposed a usurper, in favour of 
 a bigot, and obtained a religious, instead of a political dy- 
 nasty, it may be doubted whether the interests of religion, 
 or humanity, will have gained much by the change. The 
 first return which was made by the late Pope for the resto- 
 ration of his power by Protestants, was to restore the order 
 of Jesuits which was originally formed for the avowed ob- 
 ject of opposing the Protestant reformation, and had conti- 
 nued, down to the period of its suppression, the great en- 
 gine of the Romish church in persecuting Protestants : his 
 next step was the express prohibition of the Bible in the 
 vulgar tongue, and its general distribution in any tongue; 
 an act of such direct hostility to the whole Protestant world, 
 and to this nation in particular, that it is only astonishing 
 how, after such a measure, Popery could find defenders 
 among those who bear the name of Protestants. It is under 
 the same auspices that the Inquisition has reared its blood- 
 stained head ; and who that has any proper feeling, either 
 for the religious or civil liberties of mankind, will contend, 
 that England in particular, or the world at large, has any 
 reason for congratulation upon the re-establishment of that 
 odious engine of oppression and wrong ? While such a 
 policy is to prevail (and only such an one will prevail 
 wherever Popery has power) it becomes very problematical 
 whether the influence which England has honourably exerted 
 in establishing rightful authorities, has not unwittingly had 
 an injurious and adverse tendency in enabling a church 
 against whose corruptions she has always protested, to set up 
 her old idolatries, and to establish her ancient empire over 
 
30 PAGAN DEITIES AND PAPAL SAINTS. [LETTER IV. 
 
 the consciences and persons of men. At all events, this re- 
 mark may not be without its use, in the way of caution 
 against further concessions nearer home. To revert to the 
 more immediate subject of this Letter the Votive Gifts 
 of Popery who can doubt that votive gifts to saints are a 
 pollution of the holy name of God, when he reads " Pol- 
 lute ye my holy name no more with your GIFTS and with 
 your idols?" (Ezek. xx. 33.) 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 On the Alliance between the Deities of Paganism, and the 
 Saints of Popery. 
 
 The subject of votive offerings to the deities of pagan- 
 ism, and the saints of popery, naturally involves the conside- 
 ration of THE ALLIANCE BETWEEN THE OBJECTS OF WOR- 
 SHIP IN ONE AND THE OTHER SYSTEM, where a close simi- 
 larity will appear. The Dii Tutelares of the ancient idola- 
 ters, to whom the defence of certain countries was commit- 
 ted, such as Belus among the Babylonians and Assyrians, 
 Osiris and Isis among the Egyptians, and Vulcan among 
 the Lemnians, are rivalled by those tutelary saints of the 
 papacy who are supposed to defend particular nations. 
 There is not a nation where popery is the religion of the 
 state, which is without its patron saint ; but as there is a 
 fashion in most things, and as novelty has peculiar charms, 
 we find our old friends, the French, of late years rather un- 
 ceremoniously deserting their long- tried patron St. Louis, 
 in favour of an illustrious infant ; an event announced to 
 France and the world by the prelate who presided at that 
 infant's funeral, at St. Denis, in the following terms : 
 " Mademoiselle, regenerated by the waters of baptism, is 
 " henceforth the angel of our country; an angel who, 
 
LETTER IV.] PAGAN DEITIES AND PAPAL SAINTS. 31 
 
 " united in Heaven with the saints of her family, will gain 
 "for herself^ and draw down upon us, the benediction of 
 " the Lord" Thus also the Dii Prcesides of the heathen ido- 
 laters, to whom the protection of certain cities was commit- 
 ted, as Apollo at Delphos, Minerva at Athens, Juno at 
 Carthage, and Quirinus at Rome, are closely copied by the 
 patron saints of the Romish cities, there being hardly one 
 without its saint or good angel, as St. Firmin at Amiens, 
 who walked miraculously with his head in his hand some 
 hours after it had been cut off; or St. Januarius at Naples, 
 whose blood still liquefies when his beloved city is in dan- 
 ger, and the appearance of whose image, or idol, borne by 
 the priests in public processions, never fails to stop the 
 eruption of even so unruly a neighbour as Mount Vesuvius 
 itself. Again, the Dii Patroni of heathenism, whose office 
 was to preside over the temples and altars, as Jupiter in the 
 Capitol, Venus in the temple of Paphos, and Diana in that 
 of Ephesus, are followed by the patron saints of Anti- 
 Christ ; as in England, our Lady of Walsingham, and our 
 Lady of Ipswich once existed, precisely as our Lady of 
 Loretto is now familiar to Italy, or as Diana-Coriphea, 
 Diana-Ephesia, Venus-Cipria, and Venus-Paphia, were 
 once familiar to heathenism ; and thus also, as the sea and 
 land, the fire and air, and other created objects, had an- 
 ciently their deities, as Neptune, Triton, Vulcan, &c., so 
 now these natural objects have their saints, as St. Christo- 
 pher, St. Clement, St. Agatha, he. ; nay, even diseases are 
 honoured by the Papists with special saints as gods for the 
 cure of them, as St. Cornelius for the falling-sickness, and 
 St. Appollin for the tooth-ache, &c., in opposition to the 
 divine declaration " See now that I, even I, am he ; and 
 " there is no God with me ; I kill, and I make alive ; I 
 " wound and I heal ; neither is there any that can deliver 
 " out of my hand." (Deut. xxxii. 39.) Should it be urged 
 in defence of a system which thus robs God of his honour, 
 that the saints are not so properly considered objects of 
 worship, as they are the intercessors between God and man, 
 it may be answered, that the Pagans had thus their Dii Me- 
 
32 PAGAN DEITIES AND PAPAL SAINTS. [LETTER IV. 
 
 whom they also regarded as intermediate inter- 
 cessors between the Deity and themselves; an error which, 
 although not without its excuse with them, has no apology 
 among those upon whom the light of the gospel has shone, 
 and who are, by such a practice, effectually invalidating and 
 rejecting the revelation of that Divine Personage who is 
 expressly declared, in the scriptures of truth, to be the one 
 and only Mediator between a holy God and his guilty 
 creatures. 
 
 It is thus also that the rural deities of the ancient Romans 
 have been copied by their successors of the Romish church. 
 These formerly presided over the roads, streets, and high- 
 ways, and were entitled, Viales, Semitales, and Compitales. 
 Sometimes their little temples, or altars, but still more fre- 
 quently their rude statues, appeared in the public ways, 
 and travellers used to step aside and pay their devotions at 
 these rural shrines, and solicit a prosperous journey and 
 safe return. 
 
 " Invoco vos, Lares viales, ut me bene juvetis." PLAUT. MERC. 5. 2. 
 
 (See also Apulei Florid. 1.) Now this custom is still 
 common in most popish countries, but especially in Italy, 
 where the old Hecate in triviis is replaced by the Maria in 
 triviis ; and in passing along the road, it is common to see 
 travellers, on their knees, before these rustic altars, which 
 none ever presume to approach without some act of reve- 
 rence, and even those who are most in haste, or who pass at 
 a distance, are sure to cross themselves, and pull off 
 their hats in token of their devotion. In the same way, 
 wooden crosses frequently appear to invite the same genu- 
 flections and prostrations ; and the poor unenlightened pos- 
 tilions would think they deserved to be murdered before 
 the end of their journey, if they should omit the accustomed 
 acts of piety prescribed by their priests, those " blind 
 leaders of the blind." It is evident that all the multiplica- 
 tion of saints which has been noticed in this Letter bears a 
 close affinity to the Polytheism of the heathens, the only 
 
 * " At ita me Di, Deaeq. superi atque inferi, et Medioximi." Plau- 
 lus Cistellaria, A. 2. s. l. 
 
LETTER IV.] PAGAN DEITIES AND PAPAL SAINTS. 
 
 33 
 
 difference being, that paganism had avowedly many gods, 
 which the Romish faith has also, but without calling them 
 by the same name. The polite but profligate city of 
 Athens was so full of gods, that a witty philosopher ob- 
 served it was easier to find a god there than a man ; and 
 thus the endless profusion of saints in the Romish church 
 has followed close upon antiquity, all of which saints not 
 only worked miracles while they lived, (or they could not 
 have been admitted as saints by the Romish church,) but 
 their very relics, pictures, and statues, work miracles now 
 they are dead, while they themselves are expressly made 
 the objects of prayer, which no created being can be, with- 
 out gross idolatry in the worshipper. * 6 Sancte Ursula, ora 
 pro nobis:" What is this but first to pray to a saint to 
 pray to God for the devotee ? 
 
 Indeed, every where through Italy we see their sacred 
 inscriptions breathing the pure spirit of Paganism, and 
 ascribing the same powers, characters, and attributes to 
 their saints, as were formerly ascribed to the heathen gods, 
 as the few following specimens will evince : 
 
 PAGAN INSCRIPTIONS. 
 
 Mercuric et Minervae 
 Diis Tutelarib. 
 
 Dii Qui Huic templo 
 Praesident. 
 
 Numini. 
 Mercurii Sacr. 
 
 Herculi. Victori. 
 
 Pollenti. Potenti. 
 
 Invicto. 
 
 Praestiti Jovi 
 
 S. 
 
 Diis. 
 
 Deabus 
 
 Que. Cum. 
 
 Jove.* 
 
 * Gruter Corp. Inscript. p. 50. 
 It.Cic. Or. pro Lege Man. 15. It. 
 Grut. p. 54. It. p. 50. It. p. 22. 
 It. ib.p. 2. 
 
 POPISH INSCRIPTIONS. 
 
 Maria et Francisce 
 Tutelares mei. 
 
 Divo Eustorgio 
 
 Qui Huic templo 
 
 Praesidet. 
 
 Numini. 
 Divi Georgii 
 
 Pollentis. Potentis. 
 Invicti. 
 
 Divis 
 
 Praestitibus Juvantibus. 
 Georgio, Stephanoque 
 Cum Deo opt. Max.* 
 
 * Vid. Boldonii Epigraphica, p. 
 439. It. p. 348. It. p. 422. It. p. 
 649. 
 
PAGAN DEIFICATION, &C. | LETTER V. 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 On the Conformity between Heathen Deification, and 
 Romish Canonization. 
 
 THE observation in the conclusion of the last letter 
 respecting the miracles which it is necessary for the saints 
 in the church of Rome to have worked, before they can be 
 canonized, or beatified, suggest the propriety of noticing 
 
 THE CONFORMITY BETWEEN HEATHEN DEIFICATION AND 
 
 ROMISH CANONIZATION. The ancient priests, in order to 
 the credit of their system, felt it necessary to persuade the 
 people, that certain characters, many of whom had, how- 
 ever, been the most ambitious and sensual of mankind, 
 were honoured by the especial favour of Heaven ; were deep 
 in its mysteries- and even worthy of being placed among 
 the gods themselves ; in consequence of which, their public 
 deification took place, with all " the pomp and circum- 
 " stance" so well calculated to impose upon a gross and ido- 
 latrous people. In order, however, to this ceremony, some 
 miraculous intimation of the favour and will of Heaven as 
 to the individual in question was necessary, which was 
 duly attested, as essential to the ceremony. Thus, in the 
 case of Romulus, one Julius Proculus took a solemn oath, 
 6 ' That Romulus himself appeared to him, and ordered him 
 " to inform the senate of his being called up to the assem- 
 " bly of the gods, under the name of Quirinus," (Pint, in 
 Vit. Rom. Dyonis. Halicar. 1. 2. p. 124,) and in the dei- 
 fication of the Caesars (some of whom were little less than 
 monsters) the established proof of their divinity was an 
 eagle flying out of the funeral pile towards heaven, which 
 was supposed to convey the soul of the deceased, and was 
 also required to be duly attested. (Dio Cass. p. 598, 842.) 
 The Papists, in imitation of this Pagan original, consider 
 it necessary to their credit, to canonize or beatifv certain 
 
LETTER V.] SAINTS OF MODKltN POPERY. 35 
 
 individuals of their communion ; (some of whom have, like 
 their heathen prototypes, been of infamous and scandalous 
 lives;) and in order to this act, they also introduce the 
 machinery of miracles, although with some difference as to 
 the mode of its operation. In this case, the miracles are 
 alleged to have been performed by the saints themselves, 
 and there is as little difficulty in procuring the necessary 
 attestations in modern, as in ancient Rome. The creation 
 of saints has in consequence become almost as common as 
 that of cardinals, there having rarely been a Pope who did 
 not enrich the calendar with some fresh specimens. Bene- 
 dict 13th canonized eight in one summer, and his suc- 
 cessor, Clement 12th, four more. Innocent 13th, who suc- 
 ceeded him, beatified Andrew Conti, a member of his own 
 family : and this is another main source of saintship when, 
 to gratify the ambition of the reigning Pope, this honour 
 is conferred on some of his name or family. The late Pope 
 canonized five saints, all of whose banners are at this mo- 
 ment waving in a chapel of St. Peter's. The Papists con- 
 sider this rite as so essential a part of their religion, that 
 they have even perverted the sacred scriptures, for the pur- 
 pose of giving sanction to the practice, having translated 
 the passage of St. James, v. 11, not as it ought to be: 
 " Behold how we count them happy which endure," but 
 " Behold how we beatify those who have suffered with con- 
 " stancy ;" in like manner as, in order to give a sanction to 
 their religious processions with the host and with relics, 
 &c. they translate the passage in Heb. xi. 30 " The walls 
 " of Jericho fell down after they were compassed about 
 " seven days," " after a procession of seven days." And 
 as they render the 21st verse of that chapter, instead of 
 " Jacob worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff," 
 " Jacob worshipped the top of his staif ;" which the learned 
 rabbins of the church of Rome explain by supposing some 
 visible representation, worthy of divine worship, to have 
 been on the staff, in order to justify their own worship of 
 almost any thing, and every thing, except the proper object 
 of adoration. It costs an immense sum to be made a saint, 
 
36 PAGAN AND PAPAL IMAGE WORSHIP. [LETTER VI. 
 
 but pious relatives are sometimes content to bear it. Proof 
 of the miracles wrought by the deceased must be adduced 
 in due form, in a judicial way. Witnesses are examined, 
 and, in order that full justice may be done, counsel are ap- 
 pointed on both sides; one undertaking to establish the 
 miracles, and the other opposing them ; and thus the mat- 
 ter is solemnly argued " dans les formes, et selon les 
 regies" and not determined, until after a long and expen- 
 sive process. It is further remarkable, that some miracle 
 must have been performed by the deceased after his death, 
 as well as during life; one of these by the way, being quite 
 as easy to the saint as the other, and each being equally 
 capable of proof. It is unnecessary to observe, that these 
 judicial inquiries invariably terminate in favour of the saint 
 and his family ; since the Pope and his council are equally 
 interested in the successful issue of the suit : indeed, as 
 an atheistical Pope once observed" What a profitable 
 fable is that of Jesus Christ to us !" 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 On the Alliance between the Image Worship of Heathenism 
 and of Popery. 
 
 I WOULD next consider, somewhat more particularly, 
 
 THE ALLIANCE BETWEEN THE IMAGE WO11SHIP OF HEA- 
 THENISM AND THAT OF POPERY. Plato informs us, that 
 there were images in the temples of Egypt, from the 
 earliest antiquity. (Plat, de Legib. 1. ii. p. 656. Max. 
 Tyr. Diss. 38.) It appears evidently from Scripture, that 
 they subsisted there as well as in Palestine, before the time 
 of Moses; indeed, they owed their early introduction to 
 the original apostasy of man, who no sooner departed from 
 " the living God/ 1 than he displayed the depravity of his 
 
LETTER VI.] USE OF IMAGES IS IDOLATRY. 37 
 
 nature, by " honouring and worshipping the creature, 
 "more than the Creator;" by bowing down before them 
 that were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and 
 stone ; that had eyes and saw not, ears and heard f not, 
 neither was there any breath in their nostrils. The natural 
 reason of every man, when not perverted and debased by 
 sin ; and the plain testimony of his conscience, when not 
 under a similar delusion, manifested sufficiently the folly 
 and impiety of such conduct ; but to leave him altogether 
 without excuse, the written law of God was superadded to 
 the common law of nature. By the law proclaimed at 
 Sinai, the Almighty was revealed as the sole object of 
 divine worship, and as a God jealous of his honour : man 
 was expressly prohibited from making to himself " any 
 " graven image, or any likeness of any thing in heaven 
 " above, or in the earth beneath, or in the water under 
 " the earth," and from " bowing down himself to them, or 
 u serving them." (Exod. xx. 4, 5,) This law, equally obli- 
 gatory on Jew and Gentile, was never relaxed in any 
 degree ; and the peculiar test of true religion, which the 
 rigid observance of the second commandment formed 
 throughout the whole Jewish economy, is the strongest 
 proof of the abhorrence in which idolatrous representations 
 of every kind were held by the divine Lawgiver, Whatever 
 was permitted to the Israelites, in condescension to their 
 particular situation and circumstances, there was ever a 
 stand made against the use of images, under whatever pre- 
 text ; as a custom the most dangerous to the first principles 
 of vital religion, as tending naturally to corrupt it, and as 
 necessarily introducing superstition and idolatry into the 
 worship and service of God. In this particular, the Al- 
 mighty, speaking after the manner of men, in condescension 
 to our infirmities, was pleased to declare himself A JEALOUS 
 GOD ; not only abhorring in his people the spiritual 
 adultery of gross idolatry, but jealous and indignant at the 
 exhibition of that sister evil which the use of images in- 
 volved : in like manner as an earthly husband would not 
 only expect his wife to abstain from actual crime, but would 
 
38 USE OF IMAGES IS IDOLATRY. [BETTER VI. 
 
 find his jealousy excited, and his indignation kindled, by 
 her showing those attentions to another, to which he alone 
 possessed the just and rightful claim. 
 
 The use of images and pictures in the Christian church 
 did not begin till the fourth century, when corruption in 
 religion had everywhere shown itself. The Protestant his- 
 torian, Dean Milner, mentions the zeal of Epiphanius, 
 Bishop of Cyprus, in that century, " in tearing a painted 
 " curtain which he saw in a place of public worship ; 
 " which seems 11 (says the historian) " at once a proof of 
 " his detestation of pictures and images in religion, and 
 " also of the weak beginnings of that superstition in the 
 " fourth century." (See Hist, of Church of Christ, vol. ii. 
 p. 300.) The same ecclesiastical historian also furnishes 
 a sufficient refutation of the stale defence which has been 
 always made of images or idols, and which defence will no 
 doubt be repeated again I mean the plea that such 
 things are only used to raise the mind of the worshipper 
 to the Beings whom they represent. After noticing a letter 
 of that arrogant and worldly-minded pontiff, Gregory III. 
 written in the eighth century to the emperor, which contains 
 this precise defence of images or idols, he observes, " A 
 " pagan philosopher would have defended heathen idolatry 
 " much in the same manner; and the dependence which 
 u both the pagan and the papist place on the image, de- 
 " monstrates that they imagine the power of the saint or 
 " daemon to be intimately connected with the image which 
 " represents, as it were, the body, of which the object of 
 " their worship is the soul; so justly do the Scriptures 
 " describe idolaters as literally worshipping the works of 
 " their own hands, and the man of sin as worshipping 
 " daemons. (1 Tim. iv.) Sophistry may evade, but it 
 " cannot confute. When men cease to ' hold the head,' 
 " and to be satisfied with Christ as their all, they fall 
 " into these and similar errors. The heart which feels 
 " not the want of the living God, as its proper nutriment, 
 " will feed on the ashes of idolatry." (Vol. iii. 375.) 
 
 The Christian emperors were so convinced of the con- 
 
LETTER VI.] FIRST CHRISTIANS ABHORRED IMAGES. 39 
 
 nexion subsisting between images, and the worship of them, 
 that they strictly prohibited their pagan subjects, on pain 
 of death, from lighting up candles, offering incense, or 
 hanging up garlands to images, which external acts were 
 then considered by the whole Christian church as flagrant 
 proofs of genuine paganism. (Vide Gothof. Comment, de 
 statu Pagan, sub Christian. Imperatorib. leg. vi. p. 7.) 
 They considered these images as senseless idols, the work 
 of men's hands, and therefore unworthy of any honour; 
 and all the instances and overt acts of such worship, as 
 condemned by the law of Theodosius, are exactly the same 
 with what the papists practise at this day ; viz. lighting 
 up candles, burning incense, and hanging up boughs and 
 garlands. These laws even confiscated the house or land 
 where any such acts of heathen superstition had been com- 
 mitted. (Ibid. leg. xii. p. 15.) The Christian emperors, 
 who no doubt acted under the advice of their bishops, did 
 not think that paganism was abolished, as indeed it was 
 not, until the use of images was utterly extirpated, this 
 being always reckoned the chief of those heathen rites, 
 which, in conformity with the sense of the purest ages of 
 Christianity, are never mentioned in the imperial laws, 
 without the epithets of " profane," " damnable," " impious," 
 &c. (Ibid. leg. xvii. 20,) while the worshippers of such 
 images are invariably considered by the primitive Fathers 
 as heathens and pagans. (Pamphili Apol. pro. Orig. vid. 
 Hieron. Op. torn. v. 233. Ed. Par.) What opinion then 
 can be entertained of the Church of Rome, but that by a 
 change only of the name, she has found means to retain 
 the thing ; and by substituting her saints in the place of 
 the old deities, has set up idols of her own, instead of those 
 of her forefathers ? The professors of that corrupt re- 
 ligion have now the effrontery to make that the principal 
 part of Christian worship which the primitive Christians 
 regarded as the worst part of paganism, and they even ex- 
 tract the most profitable revenue from a practice which, in 
 the first ages of Christianity, would have cost a man both 
 his life and estate. 
 
40 PAGAN, ALTERED TO PAPAL, IDOLS. [LETTER VI. 
 
 The noblest heathen temple now extant is the Pantheon 
 at Rome, which, as the inscription over the portico in- 
 forms us, " having been impiously dedicated of old by 
 " Agrippa to Jupiter and all the Gods, was piously con- 
 " secrated by Pope Boniface the Fourth, to the blessed 
 u Virgin and all the Saints." With this single alteration, 
 it serves as exactly for all the purposes of the popish, as 
 it did for the pagan worship, for which it was built : for 
 as in the old pagan temple, every one might find the God 
 of his country, and address himself to that deity to whose 
 religion he was most devoted ; so it is precisely, at this 
 moment : every one chooses the patron saint whom he 
 prefers, and the spectator may here behold different ser- 
 vices going on at the same time, at different altars, with 
 distinct congregations around them, just as the fancy and 
 inclination of the different worshippers incline them to one 
 or the other particular saint. It is difficult to say what 
 better title the modern saints can show to the adoration 
 now paid to them, than the old deities whose shrines they 
 have usurped : for the religion of Christianity is as silent 
 about the merits of the many thousand Romish saints as 
 about those of pagan antiquity, and has no more pre- 
 scribed divine honours to be paid to the one than to the 
 other ; nor is it easy to show how it can be less criminal 
 to bow down before the images erected by the popes than 
 to those which Agrippa or Nebuchadnezzar set up : the 
 fables and falsehoods upon which such honours are claimed 
 for the saints of popery, the greater part of whom were 
 any thing else than saints while they lived, are of a nature 
 to outrage all credibility, and to disgust every man who 
 has not resolved to deliver up his reason, bound hand and 
 foot to the high priests of popery, and to swallow the 
 most monstrous and revolting absurdities, in obedience to 
 their commands. As it is in the Pantheon, so it is in many 
 other heathen temples which yet remain in Rome, where 
 they have only pulled down one idol to set up another ; 
 and changed rather the name, than the object, of their 
 worship. Of this, a variety of instances might be given ; 
 
LETTER VI.] PAGAN, ALTERED TO PAPAL, IDOLS. 41 
 
 but the most remarkable is that of the Temple of Romulus, 
 built on the spot where he was supposed to be suckled by 
 the wolf; and from which circumstance, the heathens re- 
 garded Romulus (after they had made him a god) as sin- 
 gularly propitious to the health and safety of young chil- 
 dren, from which notion it became a practice for nurses, 
 and mothers, to present their sickly infants before his 
 shrine, in this temple, in confidence of a cure or relief. 
 Now, when this temple was afterwards converted into a 
 church, lest any piece of superstition should be lost, or 
 the good Christians of modern Rome think themselves in- 
 jured by the change, in losing such a protector for their 
 children, care was taken to find out, in the place of the 
 heathen god, a Christian saint, who had also been ex- 
 posed in his infancy, and found by chance like Romulus, 
 and so might be presumed to be quite as fond of children 
 as their old deity. The worship of Romulus was there- 
 fore transferred to St. Theodorus: and children are pre- 
 sented at his shrine by their mothers and nurses, who sit 
 with silent reverence before the altar of the saint, waiting 
 for his miraculous influence on the health of the. infant. 
 (Rom. Modern. Giorn. T 2da. c. 35. Rione di Ripa.) It 
 is common, in these temples, to find the shrine of some 
 ancient hero, filled by the meaner statue of some modern 
 saint : while, in other instances, they have not even given 
 themselves the trouble to make this change, but have been 
 content to take up with the old image just as they found 
 it, after baptizing or consecrating it anew, by the imposi- 
 tion of a Christian name; as in the church of St. Agnes, 
 the antique statue of a young Bacchus, with a little change 
 of drapery, was afterwards worshipped under the title of 
 that female saint. The famous statue of St. Peter, in his 
 cathedral at Rome, is seated in a chair, and he holds a key 
 in his hand the well-known position of Jupiter; who 
 however held a thunder-bolt. The history of this statue 
 is rather curious: there were formerly two statues of 
 Jupiter Capitolinus, one of stone, and the other of bronze. 
 When Christianity succeeded to Heathenism, they put St. 
 
42 IMAGES PROVED TO BE ADOKED. [LETTER VII. 
 
 Peter's head on the body of the stone statue, and gave him 
 a pair of new hands, in one of which they placed a key ; 
 they then melted the bronze of the other statue of Jupiter, 
 and recast it, after the fashion of the stone one, as altered ; 
 and so, as Horace says, " Mutato nomine, de te, fabula 
 " narratur." In plain English the worship went on 
 quite as well to the modern apostle, as it had done to the 
 ancient thunderer. In either case, the true God was neg- 
 lected and forgotten, and an image was set up in his place, 
 " which had eyes and saw not, and which had ears and 
 " heard not, neither was there any breath in its nostrils." 
 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 A Refutation of the Papists' Assertion that Images are not 
 Worshipped, but only used as Aids to Devotion. 
 
 IN pursuing the subject of THE IDOLATRY OF IMAGES, 
 it is necessary to notice the denial of the papists, that they 
 worship their images as gods, or believe that any divine 
 power resides in them ; and also their assertion, that they 
 only employ these external memorials, as aids to the mind 
 in devotion, and extending no further than may lead them 
 to desire the prayers of those whom they represent. 1st. 
 As to the belief of a divine power residing in the image, 
 their celebrated writer Durant says, " There can be no 
 " doubt but that the images of our saints often work 
 " signal miracles, by procuring health to the infirm, and 
 " appearing to us often in dreams, to suggest something 
 " of great moment for our service." (De Ritib. 1. i. c. 5.) 
 Thus their votive inscriptions ascribe the power of healing 
 diseases to their saints, as especially the following at Milan ; 
 "Divae Savinae Livia Euphemia in acerbo stomachi cru- 
 
LETTER VII.] MIRACLES ASCRIBED TO IMAGES. 43 
 
 " ciatu opem nacta," precisely as the heathen inscriptions 
 ascribe the same power to their deities. (See Gruter, pp. 
 48, 65.) There is a prayer in the Romish books of offices 
 ordered by the rubric to be addressed to the sacred and 
 miraculous picture of St. Veronica, couched in the follow- 
 ing terms: " Conduct us, O thou blessed figure, to our 
 " proper home, where we may behold the pure face of Christ." 
 (See Conform, of Ancient and Modern Ceremonies, p. 158.) 
 The miraculous images in every great town of Italy are 
 erected into proper objects of divine worship by the blas- 
 phemous narrations which are reported of their divine power; 
 their books testifying, their priests asserting, and their people 
 believing, that several of these images have the power of 
 locomotion, and have actually transported themselves from 
 one place to another ; have shed tears, and even blood ; 
 have spoken with audible voices, and wrought miracles ; all 
 which necessarily implies a power nothing short of Divine. 
 The image of Loretto is fully believed to have been trans- 
 ported over vast oceans, and immense tracts of land, while 
 the shops in Loretto are filled with crucifixes, Agnus Deis, 
 and other popish trinkets, all accompanied by certificates of 
 their having been touched by the holy image ; thus evincing 
 the general persuasion and belief, that some virtue is com- 
 municated by that touch, from a power residing in the 
 image. In a church at Lucca is the image of the Virgin 
 and Child ; of which it is related, that an infidel threw a 
 stone at the infant, but the Virgin, to save him from the 
 blow, shifted him from one arm to the other, while the 
 reprobate was swallowed up, and the hole is shown just 
 before the altar of the image, enclosed by a grate ; the Vir- 
 gin received the blow on her shoulder, whence the blood 
 issued, which is preserved in a bottle, and shown with the 
 greatest ceremony, by the priest in his vestments, with 
 tapers lighted, while all embrace the sacred relic on their 
 knees. Vide Wright"* s Travels at Lucca. Now what is 
 this, but to attest the existence of an actual power in this 
 idolatrous image, to defend itself from injury, and to avenge 
 insult ? The image or picture of St, Dominic of Surriano 
 
 D 2 
 
44 MIRACLES ASCRIBED TO IMAGES. [LETTER VII. 
 
 is declared by their histories to have been brought down 
 from heaven by the Virgin Mary, in person, and two other 
 saints ; and they affirm that, before this picture " great 
 '' numbers of the dead have been restored to life, and hun- 
 u dreds from the agonies of death the dumb, the blind, 
 " the deaf, the lame, have been cured, and all diseases, and 
 " mortal wounds miraculously healed.*'' All which is at- 
 tested by public notaries, and confirmed by cardinals, bi- 
 shops, generals, and priors of that order ; and all this is so 
 generally believed, that from the 9th of July to the 9th of 
 August (his anniversary festival) there have been counted 
 above 100,000 pilgrims, (many of the highest quality,) 
 who came from all parts of Europe to pay their devotions, 
 and make their offerings, to this picture. La Vie de St. 
 Dominic, p. 599 and 602, edit. Paris. Is not this to in- 
 sist on a divine ower in this image or idol, which could 
 have warranted the devotions of these worshippers ? 
 Aringhus says, " the images of the blessed Virgin shine 
 " out continually by new and daily miracles, to the joy of 
 " their votaries, and the confusion of opponents." And 
 speaking of this picture, he says, " it is a most solid bul- 
 " wark of the church of Christ, and a noble monument of 
 " the pure faith of Christians against all the impious op- 
 " ponents of image worship. It has more than once re- 
 " moved itself from one place to another. The worship, 
 " therefore, of this picture is become so famous through 
 " all Christendom, that multitudes, to the number of 
 "100,000 and upwards, resort annually to pay their de- 
 " votions to it ; and not only the original picture (made 
 " not by human but by heavenly hands) is celebrated for 
 " its daily miracles, but even the copy of it at St. Mary's 
 " Monastery is famous for its perpetual signs and wonders 
 <c as the many votive offerings hanging round it, and the 
 " bracelets and jewels which adorn it, testify." (Aring. 
 Rom. Subter. torn, ii. p. 464.) Maldonat calls it an im_ 
 pious and absurd error of the Protestants to think that no 
 religious worship is due to any but to God ; and some of 
 the Roman expurgatory indexes go so far as to expunge 
 
LETTER VII.] MIRACLES ASCRIBED TO IMAGES. 4 
 
 those passages in the works of the primitive Fathers which 
 teach that creatures ought not to be adored. (See Mal- 
 donat in Mat. v. 35, and Index Expurg. Madrid, 1612.) 
 In the Liturgies, Missals, and Breviaries, published at 
 Rome, by the highest authority, the Virgin Mary is called 
 fc< the Mother of Mercy,"" The Hope of the World," 
 and " The only Trust of Sinners;" while the saints are 
 addressed as " Intercessors," " Protectors," and " Givers 
 of Grace." When the papists assert that they do not ascribe 
 such miracles to any inherent power in the image, but to 
 the power of God, who is moved to work them by the 
 prayers and intercession of his saints, of whom these are 
 the images, the answer is shorl and simple : the Bible no 
 more recognises the virtue of the saints' prayers or inter- 
 cession than it does the authenticity of their miracles ; and 
 to suppose that the Deity can be moved to exert his power 
 for confirming such false and absurd stories of pictures 
 and images sent down from heaven is arrant blasphemy, 
 and only forged for purposes of lucre, and for the advan- 
 tage of a church, which, by resorting to such artifices, 
 most effectually proves her departure from the apostolic 
 faith. 
 
 In the second place, if the argument that images are 
 aids to the mind in devotion were admitted to sanction 
 their use, the same argument would justify their use by 
 the Heathens, who did not so worship the material image 
 as not still to hold their deities whom those images repre- 
 sented, in still higher honour ; and who, in point of fact, 
 actually contended, as the papists do now,' that the image 
 was only an aid to their devotions. Let the early English 
 Reformer WICKLIFFE be heard on this head " We 
 "' worship not the image but the being represented by the 
 " image, (say the patrons of idolaters in our times;) suffice 
 " it to say, IDOLATROUS HEATHENS SAID THE SAME." 
 Nothing indeed is more certain, than that the wiser 
 Heathens always maintained that they did not give either 
 to their inferior deities, or their idols, the worship proper 
 to the Supreme Being ; which is precisely what is asserted 
 
46 IMAGES PllOVED TO BE WORSHIPPED. [LETTER VII. 
 
 by the papist when he supplicates the Virgin Mary, in- 
 vokes the saints, and falls down before the images of one 
 and the other : but inasmuch as the Almighty has declared, 
 that all adoration of the creature is contrary to his will, 
 and that he will both reject such worship, and destroy the 
 worshipper, this is no other than the adoration of idolatry ; 
 however it may have answered the purpose of the priest- 
 hood to keep the world in darkness, as to its real nature, 
 and its awful consequences. In like manner, the crime of 
 the Jewish idolaters did not consist in their absolute re- 
 jection of the true God, but in bowing before other gods, 
 and taking them into communion with himself; and their 
 frequent defection into idolatry, was no other than their 
 joining another worship to that of the God of Israel. They 
 still held his religion to be true, and believed that Moses 
 was divinely inspired ; but, deluded by this intercommu- 
 nity of gods, they came to regard the true God as a local, 
 tutelary deity, precisely as the Romanists receive the God 
 of the Scriptures in common with their own papal mytho- 
 logy of saints, or tutelary deities. (See Warb. Div. Leg. 
 b. v. s. 2; Jurieu. Grit. Hist. v. 2, p. 3, c. 9 ; Mede's 
 Apostasy, c. x. p. 651 ; Le Clerc on Acts, vii. 42 ; Macrob' 
 1. iii. c. 9 ; De Evocandis Diis Tutelaribus ; and Law's 
 Theory of Rel. p. 92.) In St. Peter's at Rome, a foot of 
 St. Peter's statue is almost worn away by the perpetual 
 kisses of the devotees, who kneel and salute it whenever 
 they pass. This act of devotion is that bowing down be- 
 fore an image which God has forbidden, nor can all the 
 wit and wisdom of the conclave explain it away. Every 
 act of the Romish church, in reference to its images, proves 
 that it uses them for higher purposes than mere aids to 
 devotion. Why else are they solemnly carried in proces- 
 sion, on occasions of great public calamity ? Is there any 
 charm in a block of wood, or stone, to produce rain at one 
 time, or fine weather at another ; to avert a pestilence, or 
 stop a volcano ? In the church of St. Mary of Impruneta, 
 near'Florence, is a miraculous picture of the Virgin Mary, 
 held in the highest veneration through all Tuscany. When- 
 
LETTER VII.] BLASPHEMOUS WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN. 47 
 
 ever that state is involved in any peculiar danger, this idol 
 is carried in procession through the streets of Florence, at- 
 tended by the prince himself, with all the nobility, magis- 
 trates and clergy. To prove that this picture has never 
 failed to afford relief, they produce various acts and re- 
 cords confirmed by public inscriptions, setting forth all 
 the benefits obtained from each procession, and the several 
 offerings made on that account to the sacred image. Among 
 these inscriptions, one records the miraculous ceasing of a 
 pestilence in Florence, after a three days' procession ; and 
 another inscription set up in their church, only a century 
 since, has these words, " There is no one who can be saved, 
 " O most Holy Virgin, but through thee ; there is no 
 " one who can be delivered from evils but through 
 " thee ; there is no one from whom we can obtain 
 " mercy but through thee ; Mary opens her bosom 
 " of mercy to all, so that the whole universe receives 
 " out of her fulness the captive, redemption ; the sick, 
 " health ; the afflicted, comfort ; the sinner, pardon ; the 
 " just, grace ; the angels, joy ; the whole Trinity, glory !" 
 (Vid, Memorie Istoriche della Miracolosa Immagine in 
 Firen. 1714, 4to.) Such are the blasphemous ascriptions 
 of deity offered by the church of Rome to a creature. No 
 man can consider all this, and say, that either the Virgin, 
 or her image, are merely used as aids to devotion. They 
 are made the actual objects of that devotion ; and when the 
 Romish church can prove from Scripture that divine 
 honours are prescribed to the Virgin, she may also prove 
 that they are prescribed to her image. If, however, she 
 shall produce tradition to prove either the one or the other, 
 we reject the admissibility of such evidence, and protest 
 against any deference to such authority ; because, upon this 
 principle, tradition may be made to sanction any thing else, 
 which, in defiance of Scripture, is at present observed in 
 that church. 
 
 The great fallacy of the argument of antiquity, both in 
 the case of Images and of Purgatory, and indeed of all the 
 other corruptions of the Romish church, is, that reference 
 is invariably made to that period when the church having 
 
48 FOlUiED MIRACLES, &C. [LETTER VIII. 
 
 apostatized from her first faith, had corrupted herself with 
 idolatrous abominations ; which, as they were wholly un- 
 known to the primitive and apostolic age, form no part of 
 genuine Christianity, and were renounced accordingly by 
 Protestants at the Reformation. " Should any person/ 1 (says 
 the protestant historian, Dean Milner,) " startle that I call 
 44 image worship by no better name than idolatry, and rank 
 " pagan and papal practices in the same class, I would refer 
 " such to the censure of St. Paul on the Galadans, iv. 8, 
 44 9- Idolatry being with them merely mental, originated 
 " in a self-righteous principle ; and the apostle looks on 
 44 them as worshippers of false gods, and informs them 
 44 that they were returning again to bondage. How much 
 44 more justly may image worship be called the doing ser- 
 44 vice to them which by nature are no gods, where the 
 44 idolatry is both mental and external !"' Dean Milner^s 
 History of the Church of Christ, vol. iii. p. 188. In con- 
 clusion, I would refer to the first Letter, where it is shown 
 that the present practice of the idolaters of China is pre- 
 cisely similar to the practice of the church of Rome in wor- 
 shipping pictures and idols, and in burning tapers and in- 
 cense to them that are no gods. 
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 
 On the Alliance between the Artifices of the Pagan and 
 Papal Priests in supporting the Credit of their Idols. 
 
 THE AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE INVENTIONS OF THE 
 HEATHEN PRIESTS TO KEEP UP THE CREDIT OF THEIR DEI- 
 TIES, AND THE INVENTIONS OF THE POPISH PRIESTS, FOR 
 
 THE SAME PURPOSE, may be next considered. The evi- 
 dence of all antiquity goes to show that the most impro- 
 bable falsehoods were coined by the ancient priests in ho- 
 nour of their deities and idols. These were equally revolt- 
 ing to the natural reason of mankind, and to their daily 
 
VIII.] FOKGED MIRACLES, &C. 
 
 experience ; but so necessary were they to the 
 the old superstition, that the wiser Heathens justifi 
 as pious frauds, even while they ridiculed their absurdity. 
 See Polybius, (Hist. 1. xvi. p. 732, edit. Casaub.) who de- 
 termines that, " great allowance must be made for those 
 " writers who invent miracles, and legends, to keep up the 
 " devotion of the people." The occasion of his giving this 
 opinion was, that the Bargelitae fully believed that the 
 image of Diana, being exposed to the air, could receive no 
 injury either from snow or rain ; which was also believed 
 of the image of Vesta by the Jassians; both which miracles 
 were recorded by their historians. Polybius intimates his 
 own sense of such follies ; and he instances another equally 
 absurd, related by Theopompus, of Jupiter's temple in 
 Arcadia, which was, that the bodies of those that were in 
 it, never cast any shadows ; notwithstanding all which, he 
 insists that something of this kind must be resorted to, in 
 order to keep alive the devotion of the people, provided it 
 be kept within due bounds ; the extent of which, however, he 
 admits to be very difficult to determine. In like manner, 
 the frauds of the heathen priests, in their various temples, and 
 more especially at the celebrated oracles of Delphos, Dodona, 
 and elsewhere, are universally known ; no one of which de- 
 lusions was believed by the priests themselves, but which 
 they palmed upon the people in order to their own sup- 
 port ; for had they only possessed the honesty of Deme- 
 trius, they must frankly have avowed with him " Sirs, ye 
 " know that by this craft we have our wealth," (Acts xix. 
 25.) Now the conformity between the priests in the Ro- 
 mish church and of heathenism is striking in this parti- 
 cular. It is well known that the Martyrologies, Lives and 
 Acts of Saints, Breviaries, and Legends, contain relations 
 which are calculated to outrage all belief, and to insult the 
 common sense of all mankind ; they are such as no man of 
 education, or common sense, can possibly believe ; and who- 
 ever opens, not only the ancient, but the modern Ecclesias- 
 tical Fables of the Church of Rome, must feel convinced 
 that the priests themselves never could have believed such 
 
50 FORGED MIRACLES, &C. [LETTER VI J I. 
 
 falsehoods for an instant. I allude to such absurdities as 
 men and women walking with their heads in their hands, 
 casting out devils, flying in the air, walking on the sea, 
 fasting for whole months, and in various other ways sus- 
 pending or opposing the whole course of nature; which 
 things Leslie, in his work on Deism, designates as " those 
 " pious cheats which have bid the fairest of any one con- 
 " trivance to overturn the certainty of the miracles of 
 " Christ and his apostles, and the whole truth of the gos- 
 " pel, by putting them all upon the same footing.""* These 
 
 * The placing of the miracles of popery upon the same footing with 
 those of the scripture, has nothing in it of novelty, for it has been 
 refuted usque ad nauseam. To advert at present only to the evidence 
 as to the miracles of the New Testament: the testimony upon which 
 the miracles of Christ, and his apostles, are founded, is as infinitely 
 superior to the evidence on which the miracles of popery rest, as the 
 heaven is higher than the earth, as God is above man, or as divine 
 inspiration is better than the pretence to it. Two things are neces- 
 sary to give sufficient credibility in a testimony, viz. the actual know- 
 ledge, and undoubted fidelity of the witnesses. If they record that 
 only of which they were certain witnesses, never give any suspicion 
 of fraud or deceit, and produce the fullest attestations to their own 
 fidelity, then it is unreasonable to disbelieve them. This is the case 
 of those who recorded the miracles of our Saviour and his apostles 
 they either saw them wrought, or received them immediately from 
 those who did they published them in that age when they were 
 capable of being disproved by all then living in the same places where 
 they were wrought, and were avowed enemies of the persons who 
 wrought them, and interested in discovering, for their own justifica- 
 tion, the least fraud or imposture which might have been attempted : 
 besides which, these witnesses voluntarily abandoned all hopes of 
 worldly advantage, incurred the greatest danger in attesting all they 
 affirmed, and finally laid down their lives to confirm the truth of their 
 testimony. On the other hand, the great majority of the Romish 
 miracles have been believed upon the credit of lying fables, and vague 
 reports; the testimony of those who delivered them has been refuted 
 by men of greater authority than themselves, and the most notorious 
 forgeries and impostures have been discovered in such miracles the 
 persons relating them have found their own advantage in their being 
 believed, and have never laid down their lives in support of them ; 
 on which accounts the attempt to assimilate the testimony of the pri- 
 mitive church, respecting the miracles of Christ and his apostles, to 
 
LKTTER VIII.] EXAMPLE OF FORGED MIRACLES. 51 
 
 falsehoods, however, were necessary to the support of a 
 system of error, and we accordingly find the most eminent 
 
 that: of the Romish miracles must at once fall to the ground. Her 
 Breviaries, Lives of Saints, and Martyrologies declare that the 
 house of Loretto was carried by angels from Nazareth to Dalmatia, 
 and from Dalmatia to Loretto ; that queen Lupa, in Spain, who pre- 
 vented the burial of St. James at Compostella, was turned into a 
 lamb, and her palace into a church : that in Toulouse, a German, 
 who was hung, while on a pilgrimage to Compostella, was brought to 
 life by that saint, after he had been dead thirty-six days, while an- 
 other poor pilgrim had an ass lent him by the same saint, (who per- 
 sonally appeared to him) which carried him from Pampeluna to Com- 
 postella and back : that a captain fell to the bottom of the sea with 
 armour on, but found St. James below, who helped him up; and 
 another marine pilgrim was held above water by the hair of his head, 
 by St. James, for three days; that a high tower, by his order, stooped 
 to the ground, and let a man off without danger. Protestant readers 
 should know that Pope Calixtus himself records these last five mi- 
 racles, and asserts that the leaning tower story happened A. D. 1106. 
 How do these things deserve to be compared with the miracles of 
 Christ, and his apostles ? In the church of St. Maximin in France is 
 declared to be the vial into which St. Mary Magdalen put the blood 
 of our Saviour, which visibly boils up every year on Good Friday. 
 Cardinal Tolet affirms, that the skin of Christ performed splendid 
 miracles ; and although Ferrandus, the Catholic writer, admits that 
 four nations contend they have the original, he accounts for that, by 
 boldly affirming that it is multiplied by the omnipotent power of God, 
 and really is in them all ; which is quite as easy to believe as that the 
 Sacramental bread, whenever, or wherever, eaten, is the actual and real 
 body and blood of our Lord. Ferrandus, in like manner, instances the 
 very same tears of Christ which the Virgin put into a vial, as being in 
 two different places ; and he defends the claim of Judaea, Italy, Spain 
 and many parts of France, to the possession of the blessed Virgin's 
 milk, precisely on the same principles. Spondanus declares, that at 
 St. Denis are the hair and swaddling clothes of our Lord ; and Mo- 
 linceus affirms, that at Courchiverni, near Blois, is the breath of St. 
 Joseph kept in a vial (which, it is to be hoped, was hermetically 
 sealed;) but what are all these to the stories gravely told by Cressy 
 the Catholic, (in his Church History,) of Justinian, who, after decapi- 
 tation, walked with his head in his hands, over the sea to the port 
 where a church is now built to his memory of St. Osith, who also 
 walked a quarter of a mile with her head in her hands of St. Clams, 
 who, by the help of angels, first carried his head to a fountain, where 
 
52 FORGED MIRACLES JUSTIFIED BY PAPISTS. [LETTER VIII. 
 
 popish divines admitting, and many even justifying their 
 use. Thus Ludovicus Vives admits, that " the lives of 
 the saints are generally corrupted with abundance of lies, 
 the writer recording, not what the saint did, but what he 
 would have had him do ;" and he honestly proceeds to 
 condemn the practice. (See Lud. Vives de trad. Discip. 
 1. 5.) Thus also Melchior Canus (" a prophet of their 
 
 he washed it, and then carried it a great while longer; after which 
 he went straight to heaven (without any purgatory as it seems) of 
 St. Decumanus, whose body, after decapitation, without the help 
 of his hands, united his head to it, and walked away to a clear foun- 
 tain, where he used his hands to wash it quite clean ! It would be 
 easy to supply a volume of these lies, for, as Boileau says, I choose 
 to call things by their right names 
 
 " Je ne puis rien nommer, si ce n'est par son nom." 
 
 But I shall here content myself with asking, how such absurd legends 
 as these can, in point of credibility, be compared with the miracles of 
 Christ and his apostles? None will deny that there are some limits 
 to be set to our belief of reports concerning miracles ; for although 
 the omnipotence of the Almighty has no bounds, yet we are not to 
 suppose that He employs his power in all things, and at all times, 
 and as often as the accredited guides of popery shall say he does. 
 The raising of the dead and the curing of inveterate diseases are 
 arguments of the divine power, and of the truth of the religion which 
 they attest ; but all that miracles could effect for the Christian reve- 
 lation was done in the earliest age of the church, and therefore 
 ceased with that age. If men will not receive the testimony 
 which the first miracles supply, " neither will they be persuaded, 
 though one rose from the dead." In being continued and repeated, 
 they would be miracles no longer ; and it has been merely to prove 
 the infallibility of the Romish church, and to invest- its standing 
 priesthood with continued power over the conscienees of men, that 
 such a church has found it necessary to hoodwink the world with 
 such gross delusions as she has ever practised. Hence I conclude 
 that the argument drawn from the power of God is inapplicable to 
 the case in hand; and that to justify the foolish, extravagant, 
 and wicked falsehoods which are current in the Romish church, is 
 nothing less than to make God at once the patron of error, and the 
 author of sin to erect human tradition above divine revelation 
 and to prove, beyond contradiction, that the language of the apostle, 
 when he speaks of " signs," " lying wonders," and " strong delusion," 
 is strictly and properly applicable to the church of Rome. 
 
LETTER VIII.] TESTIMONIES TO FORGED MIRACLES. 53 
 
 own 1 ') observes, " the lives of the heathen philosophers are 
 " more faithfully written by Laertius than the lives of the 
 " saints by Christians ; and Suetonius has recorded the 
 " lives of the Caesars, with more honesty and integrity, 
 " than the Catholics have done those of virgins, martyrs, 
 "and confessors;" after which, he charges, not their 
 meaner historians only, but their most grave writers, with 
 following uncertain reports, " yielding to the desires of 
 " the people, whom they found fond and greedy of these 
 " miracles, and reporting such as they did not believe 
 " themselves, that they might not be wanting to the pious 
 " desires of the people;" in other words, telling lies to 
 please them. (See Melch. Can. loc. Theol. 1. xi. c. 6.) 
 In like manner, Petrus Damianus observes, that " there 
 " were some who thought they honoured God by inventing 
 " falsehoods to extol the virtues of his saints;" although, 
 he adds, " God does not stand in need of our lies." (See 
 Pet. Damiani, Vit. St. Homualdi.) While Gerson, on the 
 other hand, like a true son of the church, affirms that " the 
 " end of legends and miracles, of visions and revelations of 
 " the saints, is to stir up the piety of the people ; and it is 
 " no matter," says he, " if some things that are really false 
 " are piously believed, so that they be not believed as 
 " false, or known to be false, at the same time" a precious 
 piece of casuistry ! (Gerson Declar. Veritatum, torn. i. 
 p. 415.) Lyra also notices the same deceptions (in c. xiv. 
 Dan. ;) and Cajetan, in a discourse addressed to Pope 
 Leo X. and prepared for the Lateran Council, expressly 
 adverts to the same practices. To these testimonies may 
 be added that of Launoy, who informs us that he was " so 
 " far from receiving thanks for exposing the artifices and 
 " impostures of the monks, that many referred him to 
 " Polybius, to prove the lawfulness of resorting to fraud, 
 " in order to recommend religion ;" that is, they referred 
 him to heathen authority, to prove the lawfulness of doing 
 evil that good may come ; a principle upon which the 
 church of Rome has unblushingly acted from her earliest 
 history, (See Launoy de Cura Eccles. pro venerat. Sanct. 
 
54 PRODIGIES OF HEATHENISM, [LETTER IX. 
 
 art. xxx. coroll. 1.) It will be observed, that I have here 
 chosen to advert only to the Romish writers themselves as 
 the least exceptionable testimony ; but I think, on com- 
 paring the evidence which they afford as to the intentional 
 frauds of popery, with the delusions practised by the heathen 
 idolaters, the most superficial observer will perceive a re- 
 markable and extraordinary coincidence. 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 On the Conformity between the Prodigies of Heathenism 
 and the Miracles of Popery. 
 
 I PROPOSE to follow up the last letter by exhibiting, 
 somewhat more in detail, THE ALLIANCE BETWEEN THE 
 
 PRODIGIES OF HEATHENISM AND THE MIRACLES OF PO- 
 PERY. Livy observes of heathen Rome, that her miracles 
 were always multiplied, in proportion to the disposition of 
 the credulous to swallow them. (Liv. 1. 24, 10.) And 
 abundant proof has appeared in the preceding letter, that 
 the priests of modern Rome display the same talent at 
 forging their holy impostures, and even justify the fraud 
 upon principle. First, as to celestial appearances. In 
 the early war of the Republic with the Latins, the gods 
 Castor and Pollux, are said to have appeared on white 
 horses, and gained a victory for the Roman army, for 
 which the general, Posthumius, vowed and built a temple ; 
 and in Cicero's time, there was shown the mark of their 
 horses' hoofs at Regillum ; (Cic. de Nat. Deor. 1. iii. 5. 
 ib. ii. 2. vid. de Div. i. 34 ;) as the marks of Hercules' feet 
 were shown in Scythia ! (Herodot. 1. iv. p. iv. 251.) 
 Dionysius of Halicarnassus says, that in his time, a yearly 
 festival, a sacrifice, and procession, preserved the memorial 
 of this fact, which, after all, was the ridicule of the wiser 
 Heathens themselves. (Vid. Cic. de Nat. iii. 5.) Thus 
 
LETTER IX.] AND MIRACLES OF POPERY. 5 
 
 Mabillon published an old History of the Holy Wars, written 
 by a pretended eye-witness, where it is affirmed of three 
 Romish saints, that they also appeared on white horses, at 
 the head of armies. (Bell. Sac. Hist, in Mabill. Iter. Ital. 
 T. i. Par. ii. p. 138.) In Italy are frequently shown the 
 marks of hands and feet on stones, made by saints or angels. 
 (Rom. Mod. Gior. v. Rion. di Camp. c. i.) And it is no- 
 torious that the papists have many churches and monuments 
 erected in testimony of saints and angels fighting visibly 
 for them. See also Boldonii Epigraph. 1. ii. p. 349, as 
 to St. James fighting for Spain ; whilst the largest altar in 
 St. Peter's at Rome represents Attila, in full march to 
 Rome, terrified and driven back by an angel, and the cas- 
 tle and church of St. Angelo are so named from an angel 
 appearing there, in the popedom of Gregory the Great. 
 (Rom. Mod. Giorn. 1; Rion. di Borgo. 1.) Secondly, 
 As to images fallen from heaven. Cicero says, the worship 
 of Ceres of Enna was celebrated with wonderful devo- 
 tion through Sicily, numerous prodigies attesting her 
 divinity, and many deposing to miraculous help received 
 from her in the utmost distress, and that her figure was 
 not believed to have been made by human hands, but dropt 
 down to them from heaven. (Cic. in Ver. 449, and 5 7.) 
 Now, let us substitute in the place of Ceres, the image of 
 our Lady of Loretto, or of Impruneta, or any other mira- 
 culous Romish saint, and the same account will suit the 
 modern idol, as Cicero relates of the ancient ; nay, Mr. 
 Brydone, in his Tour, has the following striking observa- 
 tion upon it : " The temple of Ceres, at Enna, was re- 
 " nowned all over the heathen world, and pilgrimages 
 " were made to it, as they are at present to Loretto" 
 (vol. ii. 244.) Aringhus names the very year in which 
 St. Dominic's picture fell down from heaven, (1530,) to 
 the confusion, as he states, of all the impious enemies of 
 images. (Aring. Rom. Subter. 1. v. c. 5.) At Rome, is a 
 picture of the Virgin which came from heaven with much 
 pomp, and, after hanging awhile in the air, with great lus- 
 tre, in the sight of all the clergy and people, was deli- 
 
56 HEATHEN PRODIGIES COMPARED WITH [LETTER IX. 
 
 vered by angels to Pope John the First, who marched out 
 in grand procession to receive this celestial present ; pre- 
 cisely as Nuraa did, to receive the famous ancile or shield 
 from heaven. (Rom. Mod. Giorn ii ; Rion. di Ripa. 
 c. 43.) There is scarcely a great town without its mira- 
 culous image, made by angels, and sent down from heaven- 
 (Montfauc. Diar. 137.) All these are mere copies of the 
 heathen fables of the Diana of Euripides, which he 
 says fell from Jupiter. (Iphig. in Taur. 1. 86.) Hero- 
 dian's image of the Mother of the Gods, (1. i. c. 35.) 
 Numa's Ancile, or Shield, which he persuaded the Romans 
 fell from heaven ; (Plut. in Numa, p. 68, and Ovid, Fast. 
 1. iii. ;) the Trojan Palladium, a wooden statue of three 
 cubits, which fell from heaven and protected Troy ; 
 (Pitisci. Lexic. Antiquitat.) and the Image of the great 
 Goddess, which the town-clerk of Ephesus gravely af- 
 firmed that all the people knew fell down from Jupiter. 
 (Acts xix. 35.) It is further remarkable, with regard 
 to Numa's shield, that as (for the better preservation of 
 the original) he had several others made so exactly like 
 it, that the original could not be distinguished ; (Ov. Fast. 
 1. iii. ;) so the Romish priests took the hint, and have so 
 many copies of the picture of the Virgin which descended 
 from heaven, that there is equal difficulty to settle their 
 pretensions to the divine original. Thirdly, As to Heathen 
 and Romish relics. The rod of Romulus, with which he 
 performed his auguries, was preserved as sacred, and never 
 handled by the people. (Plut. in Camil. 145.) So the 
 modern priests of Rome pretend they have the rod of 
 Moses with which he performed his miracles, which they 
 show in one of the chief churches. Again, the old Romans 
 asserted, that when the temple where their rod was kept 
 was burnt, it was found entire in the ashes, (Valer. Max. 
 c. viii. 10. It. Cic. de Divin. i. 17,) which miracle has been 
 often copied by their descendants; but especially in an 
 image of our Saviour in St. John Lateran, over which the 
 flames, it seems, had no power, though the church has 
 been twice burnt. (Rom. Gior. vi. Rion de Monti, xi. 4.) 
 
LETTER IX.] ROMISH MIRACLES. 57 
 
 Fourthly, As to ascribing the functions of life, or loco- 
 motion, to mere matter. The image of Fortune in old Rome 
 spoke twice in favour of some who had dedicated a temple 
 to her. (Valer. Max. i. 8.) Apollo's statue, on the ap- 
 proach of a public calamity wept for three days and nights. 
 (Livy, 1, xliii. 13.) The idols in Juno's temple sweat 
 drops of blood. (Ib. 23. 31. and 27. 4) Certain sacred 
 mystical things travelled about from country to country, 
 and after many removals settled in Delus. (Herodot. 1. iv. 
 p. 255.) The frankincense in the temple miraculously dis- 
 solved without the help of fire, which, however, Horace 
 laughed at, when the priests tried to impose upon him at 
 Gnatia. (Sat. i. v. v. 98.) Arion, the musician, rode 
 safely on a dolphin when thrown overboard. (Anc. Mythol.) 
 The harpies, or winged furies, gave much trouble to 
 "pious*" ^Eneas. (Virg. .ZEn. iii. 211.) Now let us observe 
 the analogy in Popery. Their images speak, weep, sweat, 
 and bleed. (Rom. Mod. Gior. vi. Rion. di Monti xi ) One 
 image of the Virgin at Rome reprimanded Pope Gregory 
 the Great for passing her too carelessly ; and in St. Paul's 
 Church, a crucifix made a speech to St. Bridget. (Ibid. 
 Gior. v. Rion. di Camp.) Another Madonna addressed the 
 sexton in praise of one of her votaries. (Durant. de Rit. 
 1. i. c. 5.) An image of our Lord wept so copiously before 
 the sacking of Rome by the barbarians, that several pious 
 monks were employed in wiping its face with cotton. (Rom. 
 Mod. Gior. vi. Rio. di Mon. xxxi.) One church in Rome 
 is built in honour of an image which bled abundantly from 
 a blow given to it by a blasphemer ! (Ib. Gior. iii. Rio. di 
 Mont, xvii.) The holy house of Loretto went from Nazareth 
 to Dalmatia, and thence to Loretto, and all this before the 
 invention of balloons, rail-roads, or steam-boats vid, the in- 
 scription set up within it. The liquefaction of St. Januarius's 
 blood at Naples, whenever brought to his head, is one of 
 the standing miracles of Italy. This miracle regularly 
 takes place on his festival, though our own Addison, who 
 witnessed it twice, declares it to be one " of the most clumsy 
 
 E 
 
58 IDENTITY OF PAGAN AND PAPAL MIRACLES. [LET. IX. 
 
 tricks he had ever seen attempted." (Add. Trav. at Na- 
 ples.) It is also performed whenever danger threatens. 
 The parallel between this and a heathen observance is very 
 striking. The month dedicated to Mars was the regular 
 time for carrying the Roman ancile in procession ; yet when 
 war was proclaimed, the Salii were solemnly to remove the 
 ancile, in order to rouse Mars from his seat to assist them. 
 (Vid. Alex. ab. Alexand. 1. i. c. 26. ; and Kennel's Rom, 
 Antiq. p. 75.) Thus we find, in both cases, a stated festi- 
 val in honour of an idol, and a recurrence to the same 
 power, on extraordinary occasions. At Ravenna, are mo- 
 saics of several successive archbishops, on all of whom they 
 declare that the Holy Ghost used to descend visibly in the 
 shape of a dove. (Hist. Raven. Aring. Rom. Subt. 1. 6. c. 
 48.) The Romish legends assert that dolphins have re- 
 peatedly taken up 3 and brought ashore their saints, with 
 great pomp, precisely as Arion was assisted. (Aring. Rom. 
 Subt. 1. i. c. 9.) In the church at Rome, which joins the 
 Gate of the People, is an altar whose inscription expressly 
 asserts, that Pope Paschal II. built it by divine inspira- 
 tion, in order to drive away a nest of demons or monsters, 
 who used to perch upon a tree there, and insult the good 
 citizens ; and no doubt had a Pope existed in Virgil's time, 
 JEneas need not to have been tormented as he was by the 
 harpies, and would also have raised an altar for his deliver- 
 ance, as gladly as those who were rescued by Pope Pas- 
 chal II. The next letter will briefly pursue this paral- 
 lel, as it respects some of the customs* of heathenism an4 
 popery. 
 
LETTER X.] PAGAN AND PAPAL REFUGE FOR CRIMINALS. 59 
 
 LETTER X. 
 
 On the Identity of tke Refuge or Protection afforded to 
 Criminals under the Pagan and Papal System-s, the 
 similarity of the two Priesthoods, and of the Religious 
 Orders and Fraternities of Heathenism and Popery. 
 
 AN ALLIANCE WILL BE FOUND TO SUBSIST BETWEEN 
 HEATHENISM AND POPERY, IN THE FOLLOWING CUSTOMS OF 
 
 THE TWO RELIGIONS : First, THE REFUGE OR PROTECTION 
 
 AFFORDED TO PERSONS SEEKING SANCTUARY Romulus, in 
 
 imitation of the cities of Greece, opened an asylum for fu- 
 gitives from all other nations. (Ovid. Fast, iii.) A custom, 
 which has been transferred directly from the heathen tem- 
 ples to the Popish churches ; nor will it avail to contend, 
 that this custom is derived from the Jewish provision of 
 the cities of refuge ; because those cities were only typical 
 of the expected Saviour, and the type was consequently 
 abrogated at his coming. The Romish church, however, 
 improved, as usual, upon the heathen custom ; for while 
 the old republic had but one asylum, there were hundreds 
 in the single city of Rome ; and whereas, when the sanc- 
 tuary of ancient Rome was found to produce licentious- 
 ness, they enclosed it, so as to prevent all access : (Dio. J. 
 xlvii. p. 385:) the popish sanctuaries stood perpetually open, 
 not to receive strangers, but to shelter criminals ; so that 
 what our Saviour said of the chief Jewish temple literally 
 applied to all the popish temples that they had " turned 
 the house of prayer into a den of thieves." In the primi- 
 tive ages, the emperors and councils put severe restrictions 
 on this privilege, exempting murder, adultery, rape, theft, 
 &c. ; (Justin. Novel, xvii. c. 7 ;) but the most detestable 
 
60 CONFORMITY OF PAGAN [LETTER X. 
 
 crimes found sanctuary in the holy Romish church, 
 whence, in part, assassinations became so common in Italy, 
 churches being always at hand, and always open to save 
 the offender, both from the spiritual and temporal pe- 
 nalties which the laws of God and man alike denounce 
 against the shedders of human blood. Secondly, ANO- 
 THER RESEMBLANCE WILL APPEAR IN THE PRIESTHOOD 
 
 OF THE TWO RELIGIONS, on which the celebrated Leslie 
 (on Deism) makes this remark : fi As the devil apes God 
 
 61 in his institutions of religion, his feasts, his sacrifices, 
 " &c. so likewise in his priests, without whom no religion, 
 " whether true or false, can stand." The high priest, or 
 Pontifex Maximus of Old Rome, possessed the greatest au- 
 thority and dignity in the republic, and was considered the 
 arbiter or judge of all things, civil as well as sacred, hu- 
 man as well as divine. (Cic. pro. Dom. i. Fest. 1. xi. in voce 
 Max. id. in Ord. Sacerdot. and Veil. Pater. 1. 2. 128.) 
 His power, established almost with the foundation of the 
 city, " was an omen and sure presage" (says Polydore 
 Virgil) " of that priestly majesty by which Rome was once 
 " again to reign as universally as it had done before by 
 " force of its arms." (Pol. Ver. De rerum invent. 1. 4. 
 c. xiv.) Even divine honours were commonly bestowed on 
 the ancient emperors, who assumed the office of augur, as 
 well as of pontiff, as appears from several coins of Augus- 
 tus, Vespasian, Julius, &c. Now, the sovereign pontiff, 
 instead of deriving his succession from St. Peter, a poor 
 and humble fisherman, who, if ever he was at Rome at all, 
 certainly did not reside there in worldly pomp and splen- 
 dour, may with more reason and a better plea, style him- 
 self the successor of the old high priest of heathenism, 
 while many of his benighted and bigoted followers have 
 not been wanting even in the ascription of divine honours 
 to this modern augur and pontifex, this spiritual and tem- 
 poral potentate. The Jesuits of Clermont declared before 
 all Paris, that the Pope was as infallible as Jesus Christ 
 himself; (Villiers on the Reformation;) while Ravaillac 
 affirmed, before the council, that he had killed Henry IV. 
 
LETTER X.] AND PAPAL PRIESTHOODS. 61 
 
 because he made war with the Pope, which he affirmed 
 " was the same as to make war against God, seeing that 
 " the Pope was God, and God was the Pope." (Vide 
 Thuani Hist.) A declaration, which remarkably corres- 
 ponds with the confession of faith found in the box of a 
 priest at Gorey, (a copy of which is given by Sir Richard 
 Musgrave,) in which the Pope is twice blasphemously called 
 44 Christ's vicar, the Lord God, the Pope;" and once " the 
 " Holy Father, the Lord God, the Pope:" in which con- 
 fession it is further declared, that " the Pope, together 
 " with the primates, bishops, &c. can make vice virtue, 
 " and virtue vice, according to their pleasure ;" an opinion 
 which Cardinal Bellarmine himself deliberately maintains, 
 alleging that " the Catholic" (meaning the Romish) 
 " faith teaches us that every virtue is good, and that every 
 " vice is evil ; but if the Pope should err in commanding 
 44 vices and forbidding virtues, the church would be bound 
 " to believe that VICES ARE GOOD, AND VIRTUES EVIL, 
 44 unless she wished to sin against conscience." His words 
 are, i4 Fides catholica docet, omnem virtutem esse bonam, 
 44 omne vitium esse malum : si autem Papa erraret, praeci- 
 4i piendo vitia, vel prohibendo virtutes, teneretur Ecclesia 
 44 credere VITIA ESSE BONA, VIRTUTES ESSE MALAS, nisi 
 44 vellet contra conscientiam peccare" Bellarmine de Ro- 
 mano Pontifice, lib. 4. cap. 5. 
 
 It is only that ' 4 strong delusion," under which all pa- 
 pists are infatuated " to believe a lie," which can possibly 
 account for any one of them enduring to read this solemn 
 blasphemy of an eminent cardinal, without at once resolv- 
 ing to shake off the yoke which such men impose upon the 
 minds and consciences of their adherents. To return, how- 
 ever, to the subject in hand. It is clear that the apostolic 
 prediction of the Romish Apostasy has been completely 
 realized in the other pretensions and doctrines of the Popes, 
 and especially in the papal doctrine of transubstantiation. 
 (2 Thess ii. 4, 12.) Again, all the Egyptian priests had 
 their heads shaved, and kept continually bald. (Herodot. 
 1. ii. 36. Juv. vi. 33.) On which account it is most pro- 
 
62 PAGAN AND PAPAL [LETTER X. 
 
 bable that the Jewish priests were commanded to renounce 
 a custom so plainly idolatrous, and " not to shave their 
 " heads, nor to make any baldness upon them/' (Ezek. 
 xliv. 20, and Lev. xxi. 5.) And thus, the Emperor Corn- 
 modus, that he might become a priest, caused himself to 
 be shaved. (Lamprid. in Commod. 9.) And this very 
 pagan rasure (or tonsure as they call it) on the crown of 
 the head, has long been the distinguishing mark of the 
 Romish priesthood. To return, however, to his Holiness, 
 it is remarkable that of all the sovereign pontiffs of Pagan 
 Rome, Caligula was the first who ever offered his foot to 
 be kissed by those who approached him ; a custom which, 
 when first introduced, raised a general indignation, Seneca 
 designating it as an introduction of slavery, and the last 
 affront to liberty. (De Benef. 1. ii. 12.) Yet this servile 
 act unworthy alike of being imposed, or observed, by man, 
 is now the standing ceremonial of Christian Rome, a neces- 
 sary condition of access to the reigning Popes ; and ob- 
 served accordingly, not by French and Italian Catholics 
 only, but (proh pudor !) by Protestant Englishmen. 
 Whenever this great personage appears in public, there is 
 no external mark of divine homage that is commonly offered 
 to the Supreme Being which is thought too high to honour 
 his appearance, and propitiate his favour ; while the holy fa- 
 ther is, on his part, incessantly occupied in dispensing his 
 sacred benedictions to all his admiring devotees. In the 
 Relation de ce qui s'est passe a Rome, published by Keat- 
 ing, it is expressly asserted that the late Pope performed 
 many miracles, and that every one regarded him as a saint. 
 (Tom. iii. p. 126. 140. 3.) A THIRD RESEMBLANCE WILL 
 
 APPEAR IN THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS AND FRATERNITIES OF 
 
 HEATHENISM AND POPERY. The ancient societies of the 
 augurs, the Pontifices majores and minores, the Salii, the 
 Fratres Arvales, &c. will here occur to every classical 
 reader, as the precursors of the Franciscans, Dominicans, 
 Benedictines, Jesuits, &c. The Flamines of heathen Rome 
 appear to bear an affinity to the Romish cardinals, while 
 the vestal virgins probably supplied a hint for the nunneries 
 
LETTER X.] ORDERS AND FRATERNITIES. 63 
 
 of popery. (See especially as to the Flamines, Liv. 1. i. 
 and Noct. Att. 1. x. c. 15.) The severe austerities of the 
 monastic life, as exemplified in the Selli or priests of Do- 
 donsean Jove, (the self-mortifying race mentioned by Plato, 
 in Timaeo, p. 1044, and by Homer in II. xvii. 234,) bear a 
 striking resemblance to the monks of La Trappe. They 
 were accustomed, like their successors, to live by them- 
 selves, retired from the world, and fancied that in becoming 
 less like men, they became more like God: 
 
 " Whose groves the Selli, race austere, surround, 
 
 " Their feet unwash'd, their slumbers on the ground." POPE. 
 
 The order of Mendicants, or lazy begging priests, was 
 well known to the ancient heathens. They travelled from 
 house to house, with sacks on their backs, and from an 
 opinion of their sanctity, levied large contributions of 
 money, bread, wine, and victuals, for the fraternity. (See 
 Apuleius Metam. 1. viii. p. 262,) in whose description we 
 have the very portrait of the Mendicant Friars, who go 
 about the streets in the same habit, and on the same errand, 
 and never fail to obtain from the superstition of those, 
 whose good works are to carry them to heaven, abundant 
 " provision for the convent." Even Cicero (himself a hea- 
 then) in his Book of Laws would restrain this practice of 
 mendicity to one particular order of priests, and that only 
 on certain days, because, as he truly says, " it propagates 
 " superstition, and impoverishes families." (Cic. de Legib. 
 1. ii. 9. 16.) The Church of Rome, however, in the full 
 blaze of a light which this wise heathen never enjoyed, 
 not only continues the custom, but with a worldly policy 
 peculiar to herself, has actually multiplied her Begging 
 Orders; of whom Burnet observes, " Under the appearance 
 " of poverty, and coarse diet and clothing, they gained 
 " much esteem, and became almost the only preachers and 
 " confessors then in the world. They had a general at 
 " Rome, from whom they received such directions as the 
 " popes sent them, so that they were more useful to the 
 " papacv than the monks had been: they had also the 
 
64 PAGAN AND PAPAL [LETTER XT. 
 
 " school learning in their hands, but living much in the 
 " world, they could not conceal their vices so well as the 
 " monks had done." (Burnef s Abr. 149.) 
 
 I shall conclude this letter with an extract from the 
 works of the great Lord Bacon : " Superstitionis causes 
 " sunt, grati et sensuales ritus ac ceremonige, externae et 
 " pharisaicse sanctitatis excessus ; traditionum major quam 
 " par fuerit reverentia, quae Ecclesiam non potest non one- 
 " rare; stratagemata Praelatorum, quibus utuntur ad am- 
 " bitionem propriam et lucrum." (Opera, vol. x. p. 48. 
 edit. London, 1803.) 
 
 If the above opinion of that illustrious statesman, thus 
 solemnly recorded against the errors of popery, were duly 
 weighed by certain Protestant advocates of the Romish 
 Church, it might perhaps produce a beneficial result. 
 
 LETTER XL 
 
 On the Conformity between the Religious Processions of 
 the Heathens and those of the Papists, 
 
 THE CONFORMITY BETWEEN THE RELIGIOUS PRO- 
 CESSIONS OF THE HEATHENS AND THOSE OF THE PAPISTS 
 
 may be next noticed. The main object of the ancients 
 was to supply the people with something visible and tan- 
 gible in their religion, which they regarded as an affair of 
 the senses, and not of the heart ; and therefore strove to 
 excite such an interest by external ceremonies and ob- 
 servances as the mind might rest upon, in the absence of 
 that light which afterwards displayed God as " a Spirit," 
 and declared, that all who worshipped him " must worship 
 " him in spirit and in truth." Every thing, accordingly, in 
 their worship was gross and carnal, and of a piece with the 
 obscure and degraded state of the world at that period. 
 
:im*i 
 
 LETTER XI.] PROCESSIONS AND PENANCES. \^* ~~ 
 
 The account given by Plutarch, of Numa, is very 
 cant : " By the establishment," says he, of " supplications 
 " and processions to the gods, which inspire reverence, while 
 " they amuse the spectators, and by pretended miracles and 
 " divine appearances, he reduced the fierce spirits of his 
 u subjects under the power of superstition" (Plutar. in 
 Numa, p. 16.) In describing their religious processions, 
 Apuleius observes, that the chief magistrate used fre- 
 quently to assist, in his robes of ceremony, attended by the 
 priests, in white vestments, with wax-candles in their hands, 
 carrying upon a pageant, or thensa, the images of their 
 gods, dressed out in their best clothes ; these were followed 
 by the chief youth, in white linen vestments, singing hymns 
 in honour of the God whose festival they were celebrating, 
 accompanied by crowds of persons, of the same religion, all 
 with flambeaux or wax-candles in their hands. In this ac- 
 count Pausanius is agreed, ii. 7. And now let any one who 
 has been abroad, and more especially in Italy, Spain, and 
 Portugal, testify whether the above description would not 
 serve quite as well for a papal, as for a pagan procession ; so 
 that when Tournefort, in his Travels through Greece, cen- 
 sures the members of the Greek church for adopting " many 
 " of the old rites of heathenism, such as carrying about the 
 " images of the saints in their processions to singing and 
 " music," (Let. iii. 44,) he reminds us of the remark of a 
 learned author, " On va souvent chercher, Men loin, ce 
 quon a chess soi ;" since the reflection certainly applies 
 with equal force to his own, as to the Greek church. So far, 
 however, from this practice giving any scandal in Italy, the 
 learned author of the Florentine Inscriptions takes occasion 
 to show the conformity between them and the heathens from 
 this very instance of carrying in procession the representa- 
 tions of their saints, as the heathens did those of their gods 
 in their sacred processions. (Inscript. Antiq. Flor. p. 377.) 
 In other processions of the church of Rome, the self-in- 
 flicted cruelties of the devotees bear a near resemblance to 
 those of the goddess Bellona, or the Syrian goddess; as 
 also to those of the votaries of Isis, all of whom used to 
 
66 THE HOST WORSHIPPED. [LETTER XI. 
 
 slash and cut themselves when they appeared in procession, 
 like the priests of Baal, recorded in the Bible, (1 Kings 
 xviii. 28,) or the priests of India, at this hour. I allude to 
 the practices of the Flagellantes, more especially in the time 
 of Lent, who march with whips in their hands, and lash 
 themselves as they go along, on the bare back, till it is all 
 covered with blood. So absolutely are such practices op- 
 posed to the benignant spirit of the Gospel, and so calculated 
 are they to render the sacrifice of a Saviour nugatory, that 
 even a wise heathen could discern the impiety and folly of such 
 a course ; of which he observes, " They try to appease the 
 " gods by such methods as an enraged man would hardly take 
 " to avenge himself; but if there be any gods who desire 
 " to be so worshipped, they deserve not to be worshipped 
 " at all ; since the very worst of tyrants, though they have 
 " sometimes torn and tortured people's limbs, have yet never 
 " commanded men to torture themselves." (Fragm. apud 
 Lipsu. Elect. 1. ii. 18.) The Emperor Commodus was so 
 offended with these Bellonarii, or Flagellantes of heathen- 
 ism, that he commanded they should not be suffered to im- 
 pose upon the spectators, but be obliged to cut and slash 
 themselves in earnest. (Lamprid. in Commodo. v.) 
 
 To return to the ordinary processions of popery, it will 
 be found that their pageant is the consecrated Host, and all 
 are expected to bow down before it. This is a refinement 
 upon the heathen worship, and such an extravagance as 
 they never supposed likely to happen ; for Cicero (himself 
 a heathen) when adverting to the absurdity of the Hea- 
 thens in the choice of their gods, inquires, " Was any man 
 " ever so mad as to take that which he feeds upon for a 
 " god ?" (De nat. Deor. iii.) The Papists have supplied a 
 practical answer to his question ; and what this old Roman 
 could not but suppose too gross even for the idolatry of 
 Egypt, is now become the principal part of worship, and 
 the distinguishing article of faith in the creed of modern 
 Rome. It is impossible to enlarge here upon the masterly 
 expedient which Transubstantiation affords for exalting the 
 necessity of a standing priesthood, at the expense of common 
 
LETTER XII.] PAGANS AND PAPISTS WORSHIP WATER. 67 
 
 sense, and in opposition to the plainest testimony of Scrip- 
 ture : but I cannot avoid noticing the simple answer which 
 was given by a Chinese disciple to a Romish missionary, who, 
 after having taken great pains to teach him Christianity, 
 asked him before a large assembly, " How many gods there 
 44 were?" to which the humble learner answered, " None !" 
 44 44 None !" exclaimed the astonished priest, " why, have 
 44 not I always told you there was One?" 44 Yes, sir," 
 replied the new convert, " but you know I ate him yes- 
 44 terday !" 
 
 LETTER XII. 
 
 On the Agreement between the Water Idolatry of the 
 Heathens and of the Papists. 
 
 It may be useful to point out THE EXACT CONFOR- 
 MITY BETWEEN THE WATER IDOLATRY OF THE HEATHENS 
 
 AND THAT OF THE PAPISTS. When the true apprehension 
 of the Deity was banished from the world, there was scarcely 
 any thing with which men were conversant that did not either 
 become an object of divine worship, or a supposed medium 
 of access to the Deity. In water, more especially, the pa- 
 gans considered a divine power to reside, and they bowed 
 before it accordingly. Jul. Firm, says, that the Egyptians 
 put up petitions to fountains and rivers in general, and to 
 the Nile in particular, and had a great veneration for the 
 sea. (Vide lib. ii. ; and Herbert's Religion of the Gentiles, 
 p. 139.) Thus the Persians held it impious to pollute run- 
 ning streams, and paid them divine honours. (Herodot. 
 lib. i. ; Strab. lib. xv.) The Greeks worshipped the Ocean 
 as the father of the gods ; and when Alexander had sub- 
 dued a city, he offered sacrifice to the Ocean. (Justin, lib. 
 xii.) A part of the idolatry of Athens appears to have been 
 
G8 WATER IDOLATRY [LETTER XII. 
 
 the worship of water ; and the learned Gale in his " Court 
 " of the Gentiles," considers the judicial tribunal of the 
 Areopagus (Acts xvii. 190 .to which St. Paul was cited, 
 as deriving its title from the water idolatry of the Grecians. 
 'Ape to v Trdyov, signifying Mars' well, where that idol was 
 invoked irdyoQ being derived from irriyri, a fountain, whence 
 they who drank of the same well were called Pagans. See 
 Court of Gent. Part. iii. p. 205. The Romans honoured 
 water in the same manner, and had their gods and goddesses 
 presiding over lakes, rivers, and fountains, of which the 
 following examples may be briefly referred to : Neptune 
 invoking the gods of the rivers; (Ovid. Met. Li. 1.276.) 
 Daphne praying to the river Peneus ; (ib. 1. i, 1. 545.) 
 Diana charging Calisto, when deflowered, not to pollute the 
 Sacred Fountains ; (ib. 1. ii. 1. 465.) Virgil invoking the 
 fountain Arethusa; (Eclog. x. 1. 1.) Aristeus visiting the 
 river Peneus by his (the river's) divine permission ; (ib. 
 Georg. 1. iv. 1. 357.) ^Eneas supplicating the god Tyber, 
 and promising to offer up a sacrifice to him ; (ib. JEneid.) 
 JEneas worshipping the rivers on his first landing ; (ib. 
 ^En. vii. 1. 135.) Horace vowing a sacrifice to the fountain 
 of Blandusia ; (1. iii. Od. xiii.) The Sacred Well near 
 Rome, where Egeria met Numa ; (Juv. Sat. iii. 1. 13. and 
 1. 18.) Ovid on the same Holy Well, which he designates 
 as, " Antiqua ReligioneJSacer," (Fast. 1. iii.) and again 
 on its origin, (Fast. 1. ii.) 
 
 Thus, in India, at the present moment, the same adora- 
 tion is paid by the benighted idolaters to the river Ganges, 
 and to a variety of sacred fountains and wells ; offerings 
 and sacrifices are also made to the different rivers esteemed 
 sacred ; and ablutions are constantly performed, by the 
 direction of the Brahmins, or Indian priests, which are con- 
 sidered efficacious in washing away the guilt of sin, and 
 purging the conscience of the worshipper. 
 
 " Of holy rivers, dedicated to one or other of the deities, 
 " Brahma, Vishnow, or Mahadeo, there are twenty-eight, 
 " named in the Institutes of the Emperor Akber, beginning 
 " with the Ganges, and traversing the whole continent to 
 
LETTER XII.] OF INDIA AND IRELAND. 69 
 
 " the Indies; so that all the professors of Hinduism are 
 " within reach of an imaginary antidote against the conse- 
 " quences of guilt. Each of these rivers has some peculiar 
 " property ascribed to it, and many places upon the banks 
 " are held sacred, and annually resorted to. The virtues 
 66 of the river Ganges are universally allowed to be pre- 
 u eminent the water of it assuredly purifies from all sin : 
 " ablutions in it are used continually to this end, as Euro- 
 " peans daily see ; and the dying, when within a moderate 
 " distance of it, are carried to its edge, and their feet are 
 " placed in the river, that thus they may have a happy 
 " passage out of life. Its water is conveyed to distant parts 
 " for the same purposes ; and if persons are not within reach 
 " of it thinking of it, and invoking it, when they bathe in 
 " any other water, will still give them all the efficacy of it." 
 See Mr. Grant's Observations on India, ordered by the 
 House of Commons to be printed, in 1813. 
 
 Now the analogy between the practices of heathen Rome 
 and India, and the practices of the church of Rome and 
 her priests in Ireland, although forming a part of our 
 own Protestant empire, and lying immediately under our 
 own eyes, is very remarkable. A main part of the worship 
 of Irish Roman Catholics is made by their corrupt priests 
 to consist in this water idolatry. St. Patrick's Purgatory 
 is in an island situate in the midst of a lake, in the county 
 of Donegal, called Logh Derg, or the Red Lake, reputed to 
 be sacred ; and to this place immense shoals of misguided 
 papists are sent by their spiritual guides to wash away their 
 sins, precisely as is done in India, under the tuition of the 
 heathen priests. As soon as the pilgrims come within sight 
 of the Holy Island, they pull off their shoes and stockings, 
 uncover their heads, and walk with their beads in one hand, 
 and sometimes a cross in the other, to the lake side, from 
 whence they are ferried over, for sixpence each ; they then 
 go to the prior, and ask his blessing ; and then to St. Pa- 
 trick's altar, where kneeling down, they say one pater, one 
 ave, and one creed. Rising up, they kiss the stone of the 
 altar, and from thence go into the chapel, where they say 
 
70 IDOLATRY OF ST. PATRICK'S PURGATORY. [LETTER XII. 
 
 three paters, three aves, and one creed. Then, beginning 
 at a corner of the chapel, they walk round it and St. 
 Patrick's altar seven times, saying a decade, (that is, ten 
 ave-marias and one paternoster,) every round. In the first 
 and last circuit, they kiss the cross before the chapel, and 
 touch it with their shoulders, the last circuit. Next, they 
 go to the penitential beds, (or a collection of hard stones 
 on which seven saints are feigned to have slept,) every one 
 of which they surround thrice, saying three paters, three 
 aves, and one creed. Then kneeling, they say the like 
 number. After which, they enter each bed separately, 
 and circuiting it thrice in the inside, they say three paters, 
 three aves, and one creed ; which done, they kneel, and 
 repeat three more of each. Leaving the penal beds, they 
 go into the water, and go thrice round some sacred stones, 
 saying five paters, five aves, and one creed ; after that, they 
 go farther into the water to another stone, and say one pater, 
 one ave, and one creed, with their hands lifted up ; from the 
 water, they return to the chapel, where they repeat the Lady's 
 Psalter (which consists of fifty aves, and five paters, or, 
 according to some, of 150 aves and 15 paters) ; and thus 
 they finish one station, which must be performed thrice a 
 day, about sun-rising, noon, and sun-setting ; only bread 
 and water being allowed them. On the ninth day, the 
 prior puts the pilgrims into St. Patrick's Cave, where they 
 are shut up very close for twenty-four hours, during which 
 time, all manner of refreshment is kept from them. While 
 they are in the cave, they are bound to perform the same 
 tally of devotion as on the preceding days. On the tenth 
 day they are let out, after which, they immediately go into 
 the water, and wash their bodies, and more particularly 
 the head, to signify that they are entirely cleansed from 
 their sins. To encourage the resort to this place, the wor- 
 shippers are told, that in consideration of such a penance, 
 they will either escape the pains of purgatory, or have them 
 greatly abated ; but the profit accruing from their visit, 
 and the keeping the deluded people in gross darkness and 
 ignorance, are the real motives. 
 
LETTER XH.] IDOLATRY OF ST. PATRICK'S PURGATORY. 71 
 
 While all this mummery lasts, (which is expressly de- 
 clared in the written rules laid down for tfye Pilgrims to 
 be for the satisfaction of sin,} mass is performed several 
 times a-day, and a sermon is daily preached in Irish. 
 They are also obliged to confess, before they begin their 
 stations, and some do it much oftener, paying sixpence 
 each time. In all the perambulations, they carry a cross- 
 staff and their crossing, bowing, kneeling, and kissing of 
 stones are almost innumerable. If any one cannot perform 
 this penance himself, he may obtain a licence from the 
 prior for another to do it for him, who is paid for the 
 purpose ; while many who never saw Logh Derg, pay to 
 have it done by proxy, which is considered quite as good 
 as if they went in person, and which I, for one, certainly 
 do not mean to deny. 
 
 When these deluded worshippers return from Logli 
 Derg, they are treated by the common people with great 
 respect and veneration, and they generally kneel down and 
 ask their blessing , but the writer who has given the 
 public the fullest account of this gross superstition, relates 
 a humorous anecdote of one of these pious devotees, who, 
 having been very hospitably entertained at one of her 
 neighbour's houses, after doing penance at St. Patrick's 
 Purgatory, got up before day, and walked away with all 
 the linen she could lay her hands on. Nor will this appear 
 extraordinary, if, as some hold, penance has, like con- 
 fession, a prospective efficacy in reference to sins about to 
 be committed, as well as to those which have occurred 
 already. So far as confession is concerned, it was certainly 
 in evidence, on the trial of the conspirators of the fifth of 
 November, 1605, that some of them obtained absolution 
 before-hand. 
 
72 IDOLATRY OF HOLY WELLS IN IRELAND. [LETTER XIII. 
 
 LETTER XIII. 
 
 On the Agreement between the Water Idolatry of the 
 Heathens, and of the Papists. 
 
 [CONTINUED.] 
 
 Ix addition to the great Dagon of St. Patrick's Purga- 
 tory, the Irish abound in holy wells for the absolution of sin. 
 St. John's Well, in the county of Meath, is much resorted 
 to by pilgrims. The legend asserted of this spring is, that 
 one Mr. Warren, the proprietor of the land about it, 
 having undertaken a pilgrimage to the river Jordan, as he 
 was washing himself in the water, his staff dropped into it, 
 and was conveyed through a subterraneous passage to this 
 well, and cast up by the ebullition of the water on a Mid- 
 summer-day, in the sight of his shepherd, who, bringing it 
 to Mrs. Warren, she knew it to be her husband's staff, and 
 found an inscription upon it, stating that great benefit 
 would be derived by going in pilgrimage to that well upon 
 St. John Baptist's day, " Credat Juda?us Apella non 
 ego." It is generally visited on Midsummer-eve. When 
 pilgrims come within sight of the well, they walk bare- 
 headed and bare-footed up to it, and drink plentifully of 
 the water. They kneel at the east corner, and say five 
 paters, five aves, and one creed ; and the same number, in 
 the same posture, at every one of the other three corners, 
 and go thrice round on their knees, which makes up one 
 station. They go through four of these stations ; after 
 which, they kneel in the water, say three paters, three aves, 
 and one creed, drink of the water, wash in it, and conclude 
 all with prayers to St. John the Baptist for his aid and 
 intercession. 
 
LETTER XIII.] IRISH HOLY WELL AND CROSSES. 73 
 
 At Cranfield, in the county of Antrim, there is a running 
 spring, said to be consecrated by St. Colman, a famous Irish 
 saint. Pilgrims go to it on May-eve. They empty and 
 clean the well at twilight, stay all night about it, saying 
 a certain number of paters, aves, and creeds. In the 
 morning, they find small transparent stones, of an amber 
 colour, in the bottom of the well, which (if you believe 
 them) grew there the night before, and will preserve those 
 that carry one about them, from any loss by fire and water. 
 These stones are to be found there at any time, yet the 
 natives thereabouts will not be convinced of it. 
 
 There is a tradition among the Irish, that St. Patrick 
 brought three crosses from Rome to Ireland, and that St. 
 Colman* set up one of them near Ardbo Church, in the 
 county of Tyrone, on the brink of Lough Neagh. This 
 cross is about eighteen feet high, four feet square, and 
 fairly cut, having images of their saints on every side. 
 They believe that it is better to pray before it, than in any 
 common place, and that the water directly opposite to this 
 cross has great virtue in it, for healing man or beast. The 
 pilgrims go thrice round the cross, upon their knees, saying 
 their beads, and at the west side of the cross they bow to 
 it. When they have done, they leave a piece of silver on 
 the pedestal. 
 
 On the subject of CROSSES, the Romish Bishop Milner 
 has kindly informed us (Inquiry into certain Vulgar Opi- 
 nions, &c. p. 149, third edition,) that a portion of the true 
 cross is undoubtedly in possession of a friend of his, in 
 Ireland, and that he has himself kissed the precious relic, 
 having seen and believed the vouchers for its authenticity. 
 
 At Clunfad eastachd, in the county of Monaghan, there 
 is a well pretended to be consecrated by St. Patrick, near 
 which there is a small heap of stones, with a large stone on 
 the top, having the print of his knee in it, and over all, a 
 
 * Colganus,in his Act. Apost.p.$J46, tells us, that St. Colman planted 
 a tree, and that a piece of the wood, carried about by any person con- 
 fiding in the saint, was a miraculous security against the most immi- 
 nent dangers of death ! " These be thy gods, O Israel ! " 
 
 F 
 
74 IRISH WATER IDOLATRY [LETTER XIII. 
 
 stone cross, said to be erected by himself there ; and forty- 
 nine paces from thence, an alder-tree, which sprung up (it 
 is said) immediately upon his blessing the ground. The 
 pilgrims to this place, first kneel at the north side of the 
 well, salute St. Patrick, and say fifteen paters, and one 
 creed. They rise up, bow to him, walk thrice round the 
 well, and drink of the water every round, at the place 
 where they began. From thence they go to the heap of 
 stones, bow to the cross, kiss the print of St. Patrick's knee, 
 and put one of their knees into it. Then they go thrice 
 round the heap on their knees, always kissing the stone that 
 has the print of St. Patrick's knee : when they come to it, 
 they rise up, bow to it, and walk thrice round, bowing to 
 the stone, whenever they come before it, and the last time 
 kiss it. From the heap of stones, they go to the alder-tree ; 
 they begin at the west side by bowing to it, go thrice 
 round, and bow to it from east to west, and conclude their 
 abominable idolatry with fifteen paters and one creed. 
 When any of the neighbours have their cattle sick, they 
 bring some of the water of this well for it to drink, in order 
 to a cure. 
 
 There is at Urney, about midway between Belturbet 
 and Cavan, a holy well, or rather a pond, and near it 'a 
 heap of \stones, where every Midsummer-eve great multi- 
 tudes assemble and kneel before one of the stones, on which 
 is cut a face, representing St. Brigid, and kiss it ; which 
 was explained by the parish priest, who was one of the 
 worshippers, to be an adoration allowed by their church, 
 as due to a relic of the saint who placed the stone where it 
 was. 
 
 Such was the sense of the legislature, in Queen Anne's 
 time, of the effect of these superstitions upon public morals, 
 and also of the political evils connected with them, that by 
 an act of parliament passed in the second year of her reign, 
 it was attempted to restrain and punish such gross idolatry 
 by a pecuniary fine of 10s. on all who should frequent 
 St. Patrick's Purgatory, or the Holy Wells, and of 20s. 
 on those who erected booths for the sale of liquor and 
 
LETTER XITI.] PROHIBITED BY LAW. 75 
 
 victuals ; and by that act, sheriffs, justices of the peace, and 
 other magistrates, were required to be diligent in prevent- 
 ing such resorts, and in demolishing all crosses, pictures 
 and inscriptions, which were any where publicly set up, 
 and were the occasions of popish superstition. Such, how- 
 ever, has been the power of the priesthood, and such the 
 darkness and ignorance in which they have kept the people, 
 that notwithstanding all the efforts which have been made 
 to check these abominations, the same practices still prevail 
 in all their height. Quid leges sine moribus? 
 
 The above examples may serve to show the affinity that 
 exists between the sacred waters of the Heathen, and the 
 Romish, idolatry. Indeed, as has been already observed, 
 there can be little doubt that the holy water of the Catholic 
 churches is descended in a straight line from the holy 
 water of the heathen temples ; one evidence of which 
 (among others) occurs in that remarkable passage in Ovid, 
 where Deucalion and Pyrrha are represented as sprinkling 
 themselves with the holy water of heathenism, before they 
 went into the Temple of Themis : 
 
 " Adeunt pariter Cephisidas undas, 
 
 " Inde ubi libatos irroravere liquores." MET. 1. i. c. 370. 
 
 Upon which passage, Menelius has this remarkable note 
 " Inde mos aqua sacrata vestes supplicantium insrjergendi 
 " in Christianorum Templis originem traxit : " or, 
 u Hence the custom of sprinkling the clothes of worship- 
 " pers with holy water in the temples of Christians had its 
 4< origin" a testimony too conclusive to be disputed, or 
 explained away, by modern Roman Catholics. 
 
7() PURGATORY AND INDIAN [LETTER XIV. 
 
 LETTER XIV. 
 
 On the Conformity between Purgatory and Transmigra- 
 tion. 
 
 THE CONFORMITY BETWEEN PURGATORY AND A PART 
 OF THE CREED OF HEATHENISM WHICH ANSWERS TO IT, may 
 
 be next noticed. Purgatory is no other, in its origin, than a 
 relic of the old doctrine of Transmigration, although the 
 Church of Rome has contrived to abuse this ancient supersti- 
 tion to worse purposes, and to make it productive of even more 
 mischief in the world, than the doctrine from which it was 
 derived. Pythagoras, and indeed the ancients in general, 
 maintained, that the souls of men transmigrated into species 
 corresponding with their former natures, but which still 
 was not the final destiny that awaited them ; and this sup- 
 posed transmigration was not merely confined to a state of 
 being, but it frequently had reference to a distinct place, as 
 well as to a different condition. Dr. Johnson, in defining 
 the word transmigration, describes it as " a passage from 
 " one place, or state, into another." Now, what is the 
 Romish purgatory but a transmigration in both these par- 
 ticulars? The soul is represented by it as passing from 
 its corporeal residence in the present life, into an inter- 
 mediate state of existence, from which, however, it is again 
 to be released by the transcendent power of the priest, and 
 in virtue of prayers for the dead, when it shall be translated 
 into a final state of felicity and glory. Bellarmine himself 
 admits that Plato held a purgatory ; (Bel. de Purgat. 1. i. 
 c. 8 ;) and doubtless, in arguing for the antiquity of his 
 own religion, he there, as elsewhere, carries it farther back 
 than Christianity. It is not my present purpose to combat 
 the doctrine of purgatory, upon the principles of Scripture 
 or reason, but simply to show its conformity with the reli- 
 gion of heathenism. I therefore purposely abstain from 
 
LETTER XIV.] TRANSMIGRATION ALIKE. 77 
 
 adverting to the powerful arguments against it, which are 
 derived from both these sources, and proceed to adduce a 
 further confirmation of this view of the subject, which is 
 supplied by the practices of the present idolaters in hea- 
 then India, as attested by the most eminent writers, but 
 more particularly by Mr. Grant, in his valuable Document 
 on the State of India, ordered to be printed by the House 
 of Commons in 1813. In this work, speaking of the 
 idolaters of India, he observes, " Methods are likewise de- 
 " vised for the benefit of those who have not been suffi- 
 " ciently careful during their own lives, to ensure the par- 
 " don of their sins, by which their friends who survive are 
 " enabled to be highly useful to them. The body, or the 
 " bones of the deceased, being thrown into the Ganges, 
 " temporary happiness at least is procured to the soul, 
 " and the advantage of such a condition in another trans- 
 " migration as shall at last bring it to heaven. At Gaya, 
 " a famous resort of pilgrims, there is a particular stone, 
 " on which the god Vishnow set his foot ; and a person, by 
 " putting on this stone, in the form prescribed, a certain 
 " paste prepared there, and by repeating, at the same time, 
 " the name of a deceased friend, can transfer that friend 
 " from hell itself to supreme felicity. And this benefit he 
 " may extend, not to one friend only, but, by repeated ap- 
 " plications of the paste, to as many as he can recollect, 
 " even of his distant connexions." (Mr. Grant's State of 
 India, p. 61.) 
 
 Now, who does not perceive the remarkable coincidence 
 between the Indian heathens notions of an intermediate 
 state, and those entertained by the papists ? The statement 
 here given would serve, mutatis mutandis, for a description 
 of the Romish purgatory. The distinctive features of 
 each are precisely the same. We find the modern heathens, 
 in India, recognising a provision for benefiting those who 
 have not ensured the pardon of their own sins while they 
 lived ; the advantage of the intervention of friends for that 
 purpose ; the transmigration from this world to some in- 
 termediate state, and thence to heaven ; and certain modes 
 prescribed, no matter whether by mortuary paste, or 
 
78 PURGATORY AND TRANSMIGRATION, &C. [LETTER XIV. 
 
 obituary masses, which can transfer deceased friends from 
 a state of punishment to one of bliss a benefit not confined 
 to one friend only, but extending itself even to his remote 
 connexions. Such are also the leading fallacies which go to 
 make up the idea of purgatory in the Romish Church ; 
 and it will therefore appear, that whatever arguments 
 against this corrupt and unscriptural doctrine may be 
 drawn from other sources, it is primarily of heathen origin, 
 and is idolatrous per se. But further : In speaking of obla- 
 tions to the manes of deceased ancestors, Mr. Grant quotes 
 the Hindoo Code, which says, " He" (the worshipper) 
 " gives to the Brahmins money, goods, and food, dressed 
 " and undressed, in the name of his father, grandfather, 
 " and great grandfather, and of his mother, grandmother, 
 " and great grandmother. The principle," adds Mr. 
 Grant, u upon which they proceed, is that of increasing 
 " the welfare, solace, and enjoyment, of departed progeni- 
 " tors ; the real effects are to provide a stated succession 
 '* of sacrificial entertainments for the Brahmins ; to add to 
 " the ceremonial burdens and superstitious terrors of the 
 " people by threatenings of dreadful consequences, as well 
 " to those who omit these rites, as to the spirits of the 
 " deceased who are thus neglected." (State of India, p. 63.) 
 Now, where is the difference between these idolatrous gifts 
 to the priests of India, and the public endowment at St. 
 Denis, by Louis XVIII, of a royal chapter of thirty-four 
 canons, including the whole titular bishops and other eccle- 
 siastics, whose duties are expressly defined to be, " to per- 
 " form nine masses for the dead daily, viz. three for each of 
 " the three dynasties of the French monarchy^ to say vespers 
 u daily for the dead, the service to be read, to be conse- 
 " crated exclusively to prayers for the souls of the illus- 
 " trious dead whose remains are deposited in that church ;" 
 for which object no less a sum than that of 10,000 sterling 
 per annum was appropriated from an exhausted treasury ? 
 Where, I again ask, is the difference between the heathen- 
 ism of India, at this moment, as detailed to a British 
 House of Commons, and the heathenism of the church of 
 Rome, at this moment, as evidenced by the above fact? 
 
LETTER XIV.] PAGAN AND PAPAL PURGATORY ALIKE. 79 
 
 No ingenuity or sophistry can suggest a shade of distinction 
 between the two cases, or evade the legitimate conclusion 
 deducible from each. The casuistry of the Jesuits of 
 Rome, of Paris, or of England, will seek in vain to establish 
 any difference between the purgatory of India, and the pur- 
 gatory of Rome, or between the means of supporting each 
 system by a standing priesthood, who equally find their in- 
 terest in propagating a gross delusion destructive to the 
 souls of men, opposed to the Scriptures of truth, and re- 
 pugnant to natural reason ; since what Mr. Grant has re- 
 marked of the Creed of Hindooism, applies with equal 
 force to that of Popery : "What suitable ideas of spi- 
 " ritual happiness and divine justice can a people adopting 
 " such a practice possess ? and how must it discourage vir- 
 " tuous exertion to think, that all may be undone after the 
 "death of the performer by the carelessness of another 
 " person." In further confirmation of the heathen notions 
 as to an intermediate state of existence bearing a close affi- 
 nity to the Romish doctrine of purgatory, I would refer to 
 Plutarch, who observes, that " It is according to justice that 
 " the souls of virtuous men are advanced, at death, to the 
 " rank of spirits, from which, if they are properly purified, 
 " they are exalted into gods." (Plut. Vit. Rom. p. 36. edit. 
 Paris.) In which passage we have the Romish purgatory 
 completely defined, if, instead of "gods," we only read 
 " angels." 
 
 I would also notice the remarkable passage in Virgil, in 
 which his heathen description of the intermediate state of 
 departed souls would serve equally well for the state of 
 purgatory. See the lines in the 6th ^Eneid, beginning 
 
 Nee auras 
 " Respiciunt, clausae tenebris et carcere cceco." 
 
 And so on to line 747 ; the literal translation of which 
 passage is, " Their life is gone with the last beams of light, 
 " but not every ill ; nor are all corporeal evils removed from 
 " the unhappy beings. It is absolutely unavoidable, that 
 <( many habits which have long grown up with the soul 
 " should be confirmed there; therefore are they tormented 
 
80 PAGAN AND PAPAL PURGATORY ALIKE. [LETTER XIV. 
 
 " with pains, and pay the penalties of their former sins" 
 He then describes the modes of punishment ; one of which 
 is, to have their guilt burnt away byjire (" scelus exuritur 
 " igni ;") and he adds, " Each of us has his demon from 
 " whom we suffer, till length of time (when the fixed period 
 " has elapsed) has removed the inherent stains, and has left 
 " celestial reason pure, and restored the fire (of the soul) 
 " to its original and simple brightness. Then are we con- 
 " veyed into Elysium, and we, who are the happy few, 
 " possess the seats of bliss."" 
 
 This pagan description of an intermediate state would 
 evidently serve precisely as well for the papal purgatory ; 
 and indeed Lord Orrery observes upon it, " It bears so 
 " near a resemblance to the modern purgatory, that were 
 " the same words found in a Christian poet, they could not 
 " be construed to any other signification." (Observation 
 on Pliny's 9th Epist. B. v.) 
 
 I cannot here omit the remarkable testimony lately sup- 
 plied to the British public by the proclamation of the Em- 
 peror of China, translated by the late Dr. Morrison, and 
 published here in 1821. 
 
 The following is one of the directions given by the Em- 
 peror on his accession to the throne of his ancestors. " Let 
 ' 4 officers be dispatched to sacrifice at the tombs of the 
 " departed emperors, and kings, of every past dynasty at 
 " the grave of Confucius and at the five great mountains, 
 " and the four great rivers of China !" 
 
 How exact a resemblance is this of the purgatorian ob- 
 sequies of St. Denis ! 
 
 As prayers for the dead have a near connexion with pur- 
 gatory, I will just suggest, for the consideration of the 
 learned, whether the " Terra sit tibi levis," which is de- 
 servedly ridiculed by Martial, was not the foundation of 
 prayers for the dead ; certain it is that the office of the 
 Romish priest, in the administration of extreme unction to 
 the dying, as a passport to heaven, is identical with the 
 duties assigned to the god MERCURY in the Heathen My- 
 thology, who was accordingly called ^VKOTTO^TTOC, or the Soul- 
 guider, from the two words ^x*?? anima, and TreyuTrw, mifto. 
 

 ,r. 
 
 LETTER XV.] PAGAN AND PAPAL PILGRIMAGES ALWfcfe. 81 
 
 ^^fc^'^JEJ T(T1 k< 
 
 The last testimony to which I shall advert, in proof of 
 the connexion between purgatory and paganism is that of 
 Broughton, who demonstrates that pagans and Mahome- 
 tans hold that doctrine, as well as papists ; while there is 
 as little doubt that the corrupted Jews, in the time of the 
 Maccabees, taught, in the same manner, that sin might be 
 expiated by sacrifices after the death of the sinner, which 
 is the reason why the Apocryphal books are held in such 
 esteem by the papists, since more than one of their corrupt 
 doctrines find support and sanction there. 
 
 The above may serve to show that the false and ground- 
 less doctrine of purgatory which the Church of Rome 
 maintains to this hour with the utmost tenacity, although 
 perhaps the most pernicious of all her errors, is, like so many 
 other of her doctrines, drawn from the lowest depths of hea- 
 then corruption ; a necessary consequence of rejecting, or 
 perverting, the Scriptures of eternal truth, in favour of any 
 human traditions, or inventions. 
 
 LETTER XV. 
 
 On the Identity of Heathen and Romish Pilgrimages. 
 
 THE CONFORMITY BETWEEN HEATHEN AND RoMISH 
 
 PILGRIMAGES may next be considered. The ancient hea- 
 thens believed, that some places were more holy than 
 others, and therefore that visiting such places was highly 
 meritorious ; tended to satisfy the Divine justice, and to 
 obtain the favour of Heaven. Pilgrimage to those sacred 
 spots was consequently an essential part of the religion of 
 heathenism ; a religion in which the heart had no share ; 
 in which a renewal of heart was an unexplained and inex- 
 plicable mystery ; and in which, a round of external duties 
 and observances usurped the place of that spiritual worship, 
 which the purity of vital religion invariably requires. Thus 
 is it also in the church of Rome. The priests notoriously 
 prescribe pilgrimages, sanction the holy places of popery 
 
82 PAGAN AND PAPAL PILGRIMAGES ALIKE. [LETTER XV. 
 
 by their presence, perform public masses at them, assert 
 that miracles are performed there, and are very well paid 
 by the whole pilgrimage system. Indeed, it has been one 
 of the great sources of the revenue of that church ; the 
 priests are paid by the pilgrims going, and they are paid 
 by their staying away ; for though pilgrimages may be re- 
 mitted, it is not to be supposed that staying at home is 
 done for nothing. This observance, or its commutation, is 
 so necessary to the Romish Church, that (as in other cases) 
 she has falsified and perverted the original text of Scrip- 
 ture, to give a better colour to the trade. In 3 John ver. 5. 
 she makes the inspired writer praise Gaius for having 
 " dealt faithfully with pilgrims," while all he is commended 
 for, is for having done so by strangers, or those of another 
 country ; and again in 1 Timothy v. 10. the Romish ver- 
 sions make it the qualification of a good widow " that she 
 " have lodged pilgrims? while she is really commended 
 by the apostle for having lodged strangers, the verb used 
 in that place being a compound of the same word which 
 signifies strangers, and of another which means " to 
 lodge."" See a great variety of similar falsifications of Scrip- 
 ture, to serve their purpose, adduced by Serres in his Trea- 
 tise of " Popery an Enemy to Scripture." Innumerable 
 instances of pilgrimages among the ancient heathens might 
 here be given ; but it may afford some variety to select the 
 examples from modern idolatry, which is equally to my 
 purpose. 
 
 " Holy places," says Mr. Grant, in the elaborate and 
 valuable work already cited, " are spread through all parts 
 of Hindostan. " Some of the most distinguished are 
 " Benares, and the district ten miles round : the celebrity 
 " of that city, and the continual resort to it, of pilgrims, 
 " are well known." He then instances Oude, Metra, and 
 Herdewar, characterizing the last as " a place of great 
 " annual resort;" mentions Ellahbas as " esteemed super- 
 " latively holy," and describes Cash mire as " all holy 
 " land ; forty-five places being dedicated to the Deity 
 " Mahadeo, sixty-four to Vishnow, three to Brahmah, 
 " and twenty-two to Durgah." He then points out the 
 
LETTER XV.] PAGAN AND PAPAL PILGKIMAGES ALIKE. 83 
 
 famous Pagoda of Juggernaut, in Orissa, the greatest and 
 most celebrated resort of pilgrims throughout India, of 
 whose abominations the late Dr. Buchanan, an eye-witness, 
 is well known to have given a most interesting and affect- 
 ing account to the British public ; and he adds, " There 
 " are many more such places of great resort in the Deccan, 
 " and the northern parts of Hindostan. Rules are laid 
 " down for every pilgrimage to them, and various rewards 
 " promised to those who perform them. Not only are 
 " pilgrimages held beneficial both to the soul and body, 
 " but such is the virtue ascribed to the sanctity of the 
 " sacred places, that, by only naming them, men receive 
 "remission of their sins; and on that account, great 
 " persons, who are somewhat solicitous on this score, run 
 " over the names of the principal of them, every morning, 
 " as .if they repeated a prayer ; so that where a pilgrimage 
 " cannot be conveniently undertaken, yet the benefit may 
 " thus be secured :" and Mr. Grant then gives his au- 
 thorities. See pp. 60 and 61. To this remarkable agree- 
 ment between Pagan India, and Papal Ireland, may be added 
 the pilgrimages of Mecca to the false prophet, in which the 
 Mahometans place as much of their religion as the Irish do, 
 and with equal warrant from Scripture. The Koran affirms 
 that he who dies without performing this pilgrimage once in 
 his life, may as well die a Jew, or a Christian ! A square 
 stone building, called the Caaba, is chiefly reverenced. Be- 
 fore Mahomet, the idolatrous Arabs worshipped there no 
 fewer than 360 different images, all which were destroyed by 
 Mahomet, who sanctified the spot, as the chief place of 
 worship for all true believers : in other words, he changed 
 theformer idols for one idol namely himself, precisely as the 
 Romanists converted the old Pantheon to their own purposes. 
 The several processions round the Caaba ; the resort to the 
 adjacent stations, and the ceremonies observed during the 
 pilgrimage, as detailed in the Edinburgh Theological 
 Dictionary, p. 633, bear so close a resemblance to the Irish 
 observances, that I regret my limited space forbids my ex- 
 tracting the account. I only observe, with Dr. Johnson, 
 that " he who thinks &in will be more freely pardoned by 
 
84 PAGAN AND PAPAL PILGRIMAGES ALIKE. [LETTER XV. 
 
 " pilgrimage, dishonours, at once, liis reason, and his reli- 
 " gion." Now. what are the pilgrimages of Popery but the 
 precise counterpart of the heathen pilgrimages ? Not to 
 enumerate the holy groves and waters of the Romish churches 
 in Italy, Spain or France ; what are the Pilgrimages of 
 St. Patrick's Purgatory in Ireland, and her various Holy 
 Wells, but so many idolatrous transcripts of the holy 
 places of the first heathens, of the idolatrous Jews, of the 
 modern Indians, and of the worshippers of the false pro- 
 phet? The place in India which is " superlatively holy,*" 
 may answer to the superlative holiness of St. Patrick's 
 Purgatory, who is not only the titular saint of that nation, 
 but is publicly called " the Apostle of Ireland" in the several 
 advertisements which now announce, to the British public, 
 his annual festival, although that public had till lately 
 supposed that there were only twelve Apostles, no one 
 of whom had any special commission for Ireland.* The 
 
 * See~"*the Life of St. Patrick, Patron, Primate, and Apostle of 
 Ireland," published by Keating, London, a stock book in the Church 
 of Rome, at this moment, although filled with all the incredible ab- 
 surdities of the lives of saints, and with no small portion of blasphemy ; 
 among other instances of which, may be noticed the ascription of the 
 title, " the Lamb of God '," to a Popish Bishop, named Sennachus One 
 of the miracles ascribed to St. Patrick, among a thousand others equally 
 outrageous, is, that he collected together from all parts of Ireland all 
 its poisonous reptiles into one place, and then drove the whole 
 swarm, by the mere power of his word, from a precipice, headlong into 
 the ocean, to say nothing of his turning some cheeses into stone, and 
 his drowning, tout d'un coup, fifty armed men, who came to take his 
 life, merely by stretching out his hand, and making a speech. Surely 
 if certain right honourable senators would read this Life of St. 
 Patrick, and other nonsense of the same school, they might find subjects 
 more suited to the display of their talents than in the setting up of Popery, 
 and the pulling down of the Church of England. The antiquarian reader 
 need not be informed that Ledwich, Ry ves, and Maurice, have thrown 
 some reasonable doubts upon the very existence of such a personage 
 as St. Patrick; and have sufficiently proved an alibi as to that portion 
 of time which the Romish Church assigns as the period in which this 
 reverend Patron, Primate, and Apostle flourished, and also as to some 
 ages before and after it If, however, the Irish should succeed in re- 
 taining this saint in the Calendar, they must dispense with our faith in 
 his stone cheese, and his convocation of toads and snakes ! 
 
LETTER XV.] BIBLE OPPOSED TO PAPAL PILGRIMAGES. 85 
 
 rules laid down in India and Mecca for the government of 
 the heathen pilgrims, may be compared with those pre- 
 scribed for the conduct of the pilgrims in Ireland - they 
 are alike destitute of, and opposed to, all true religion. 
 Spiritual rewards are equally proposed by the Pagan, 
 Papal, and Mahometan priests to their deluded fol- 
 lowers for going upon these pilgrimages ; and such 
 journeys are deemed alike meritorious for delivering 
 from the guilt of sin, and procuring the favour of God. 
 The parallel further holds good in this particular, that it 
 is not essentially necessary the poor devotee should perform 
 this painful duty in person he may do it, by doing 
 something else : in India, by enumerating his bead- 
 roll of sacred places ; in Ireland, by providing a sub- 
 stitute to attend them, as in the case of the militia, upon 
 the principle of " qui facit per alium, facit per se." Such 
 are the gross delusions which are practised upon the credu- 
 lous, and the ignorant, both in one and the other system 
 such the inevitable consequence of the absence of the light 
 that " cometh down from above ;"" a light which cannot, 
 indeed, burn where the revelation of God has never en- 
 tered, but which has been awfully obscured, and well nigh 
 extinguished, by the traditions and corruptions of design- 
 ing and ungodly men, where it has appeared ; a fact which 
 leaves us in no doubt as to the real and sole cause of the 
 solemn denunciations of the pope against all Bible Societies, 
 and translations of the Scriptures. The Bible is too full 
 and too plain against idolatry, in all its modifications, to 
 suffer such a system of wickedness and darkness to exist, 
 where it is generally received. That Dagon may be set up 
 again and again by the priests, both of heathenism and of 
 popery, as it has been from the beginning ; but it never 
 can stand for an instant beside the ark of God. It will 
 still fall prostrate, headless, and dismembered, when put 
 in competition with the knowledge and worship of Him 
 who " is a Spirit, and must be worshipped in spirit and in 
 " truth." " If God's book," says Bishop Hall, " might 
 " be in the hands of men, the religion of popery could not 
 " be in their hearts. The concealment of Scripture breeds 
 
86 BIBLE AGAINST PAPAL PILGRIMAGES. [LETTER XV. 
 
 " ignorance, and ignorance superstition. God never laid 
 " other foundation than in the prophets and apostles : upon 
 " their divine writings he meant to build his church, which 
 " he therefore inspired, that they might be like himself, 
 " perfect and eternal. Popery builds upon an unwritten 
 " word the voice of old, but doubtful, traditions; the 
 " voice of the present Church, that is, as they interpret it, 
 " their' s with no less confidence and presumption of cer- 
 " tainty than any thing ever written by the finger of God. 
 " If this be not a new foundation, the old was no founda- 
 " tion. God never taught his church to know any other 
 " husband than Christ, to acknowledge any other head, to 
 " follow any other shepherd, to obey any other king. 
 " Popery offers to impose on God's church a king, shep- 
 " herd, head, husband, besides her own, a man, ' a man 
 " of sin :' he must know all things, can err in nothing ; 
 66 direct, inform, animate, command, both in earth and 
 " purgatory ; expound scriptures, canonize saints, forgive 
 c; sins, create new articles of faith ; and, in all these, is 
 " absolute and infallible as his Maker. Who sees not, 
 " that if to attribute these things to the Son of God, be to 
 " make him the foundation of the church ; then, to ascribe 
 " them to another, is to contradict him that said, ' Other 
 " foundation can no man lay, than that is laid, which 
 " is Jesus Christ? 1 To lay a new foundation doth neces- 
 " sarily subvert the old." 
 
 In adverting to Bishop Hall, I cannot avoid taking this 
 opportunity of calling the particular attention of all those 
 Protestants (whether in or out of the Church of England) 
 who profess to admire the evangelical doctrines, and prac- 
 tical piety, of our first reformers, and early theologians, to 
 the decided protest which they all bore, as one man, 
 against the usurpations and corruptions of popery both in 
 religion and politics; and against the impolicy and ab- 
 surdity of admitting such characters either into the temple, 
 the senate, or the citadel. Modern reasoners indeed con- 
 tend that popery is a different thing now from what it was 
 then, and that its professors are altered for the better ; but 
 the onus probandi lies with those who make such asser- 
 
LETTER XVI.] THE MASS A REMNANT OF HEATHENISM. 87 
 
 dons: while, in proof of the contrary, we have only to 
 consider, as human nature remains the same, that the spi- 
 ritual abominations of the Church of Rome must be 
 equally acceptable and palatable to the carnal heart ; and 
 that the actual proceedings of the head of that church, and 
 of his agents, in our own time, afford the most effectual 
 evidence of a design to establish the temporal power of the 
 papacy upon the ruins of personal freedom, and the rights 
 of conscience. 
 
 In spite, however, of this knowledge, and of these warn- 
 ings, our Parliament has resolved on an experiment, the 
 results of which are already developing themselves to their, 
 and our, common confusion. A peculiar character of this 
 grand error of all legislation is, that good, as well as 
 bad, men consented to help it forward; but although it 
 was competent to our legislators to give credit and currency 
 to the political power of Popery, they had no more power to 
 alter the religious character of that great apostasy, than 
 they could alter the truth of divine revelation. The object 
 of this little work is to show the depth of that apostasy, 
 and its intimate connexion with that system of darkness 
 and ignorance which preceded the coming of Christ. 
 
 LETTER XVI. 
 
 On the Alliance between the perpetual Sacrifices of Hea- 
 thenism and the perpetual Sacrifice of the Mass. 
 
 I PROPOSE tO show THE CONFORMITY BETWEEN 
 THE PERPETUAL SACRIFICES OF HEATHENISM AND THE 
 PERPETUAL SACRIFICE OF THE MASS. It is Well known, 
 
 that a main part of the corruption of true religion by the 
 pagans was in their rite of sacrifice, which they derived 
 originally from the Jews ; to whom it was a divine ap- 
 pointment, and, when rightly understood, the standing type 
 of that great sacrifice for sin, who should appear, in the 
 fulness of time, to take away sin by the sacrifice of him- 
 self. The old Heathens corrupted and polluted this divine 
 
88 UNSCRIPTURAL NATURE OF THE MASS. [LETTER XVI. 
 
 rite, understood nothing of its spiritual import, and sacri- 
 ficed to the false gods of their own idolatry ; but not to 
 the God of Israel, whom they neither loved, nor served, 
 and " did not like to retain in their knowledge." In the 
 early age of the Christian church, sacrifice was of course 
 unknown, since the advent of the expected Saviour had 
 abrogated a rite, which, having reference to himself alone, 
 was necessarily at an end when he appeared, who was the 
 sum and substance of that, as of all the other types of the 
 Jewish dispensation. When the Christian church corrupted 
 herself, she came, among other errors, to hold the necessity 
 of a perpetual sacrifice being offered on her altars, as had 
 long been offered on the Jewish and Pagan altars ; but it 
 still appeared too gross and palpable a corruption to revert 
 to sacrifices in their original form : how then was the diffi- 
 culty to be overcome ? She altered the external form of 
 perpetual sacrifice, but retained the thing itself. The 
 splendid and standing miracle of transubstantiation sug- 
 gested an expedient, by which the material elements of 
 bread and wine, being first changed by the power of the 
 priest into the actual and proper body and blood of Christ, 
 the participation by the priest of this sacrament, in the 
 mass, should be considered as the offering up of the sacri- 
 fice of the Saviour afresh, as often as it should be so 
 partaken of. It is well known that the vulgar phrase of 
 hocus pocus owes its origin to the foreign mode of pro- 
 nouncing the phrase hoc est corpus ; and surely a finer juggle 
 than transubstantiation never was invented. (See Arch- 
 bishop Tillotson on this etymology.) Hence every mass 
 of the Romish church is deemed, on account of the cor- 
 poreal presence assumed to be in the sacrament, a proper 
 sacrifice of Christ himself: and the Council of Trent ac- 
 cordingly, in its twenty-second session, defines the Mass to 
 be " a true and proper sacrifice, truly and properly pro- 
 " pitiatory, for the sins and punishment, the satisfactions 
 " and necessities of the dead and the living ; and that to 
 " offer this true and proper sacrifice, our Saviour instituted 
 " a true and proper priesthood, when he said, ' Do this in 
 " remembrance of me.'" On the other hand, the Pro- 
 
LETTER XVI.] UNSCRIPTUIIAL NATURE OF THE MASS. 89 
 
 tcstant Church, although content in her Liturgy to admit 
 with the primitive church that the holy eucharist is " a 
 " sacrifice" in that large and extensive sense of the word 
 in which the Bible terms every religious performance our 
 prayers, our praises, and even ourselves, sacrifices to God, 
 yet she rejects, in common with the earliest antiquity, 
 every such notion of the communion of Christ's body and 
 blood as shall divest it of its simple, and sacramental 
 character, and elevate it into a proper propitiatory sacri- 
 fice; a few scriptural reasons for which may thus be 
 given: 1. St. Paul declares, "that without shedding of 
 " blood there is no remission of sin;" therefore, since no 
 blood is shed, there can be no remission of sin in the mass. 
 2. That " it was not needful that Christ should offer him- 
 " self often, for then must he have often suffered." Christ 
 then cannot offer himself without suffering; but he does 
 not suffer in the mass, therefore is not offered. 3. That 
 " by one oblation he hath for ever perfected them that are 
 " sanctified ;"" therefore the sacrifice of Christ is not to be 
 repeated, since a further oblation would be superfluous, 
 which renders the pretended sacrifice of the mass, vain and 
 useless. 4. That " where remission of sin is, there is 
 " no more offering for sin," Now, the blood of Christ ob- 
 taining that remission, the sacrifice of the mass only dero- 
 gates from the all-sufficiency of his true sacrifice on the 
 cross. 5. The same apostle, speaking of Christ, says, 
 " Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation." But no 
 part of the Bible says either that he is to be continually 
 set forth in the mass, as such propitiation, or that the mass 
 itself is that propitiation. 6. The whole Epistle to the 
 Hebrews shows that there is no priest under the gospel 
 that can reconcile sinners to God, but Christ, nor any 
 other than a commemorative sacrifice of his death in the 
 Lord's supper. But the Romish church, and the Council 
 of Trent, always define the priesthood as empowered to 
 offer up to the Divine Majesty a real proper sacrifice, like 
 the priests of old ; forgetting that Christ, " being made a 
 " Priest for ever, has, by one oblation of himself, once 
 
 G 
 
90 THE MASS PRODUCTIVE OF VICE. ("LETTER XVI. 
 
 " offered, made a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, ob- 
 " lation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world." 
 The New Testament knows nothing of sacrificing priests, 
 any more than the Old does of an unbloody sacrifice. 
 The Old Testament, indeed, appointed priests to offer 
 sacrifices, as types, until our Lord should appear ; and the 
 New, records his appearance as the complete abrogation of 
 those offerings. The Heathens possessed the form of a 
 sacrificing priesthood, but wholly corrupted the ordinance. 
 The Church of Rome revived, and continues, a sacrificing 
 priesthood, though not with all its grossness of actual and 
 sanguinary rites, having substituted in their place the 
 sacrifice of the mass ; only with this addition to the heathen 
 superstition, that her sacrifice is for the dead as well as the 
 living, in the same way as I have already shown the Indian 
 Heathens to hold that the dead may be assisted by forms, 
 as well as the living. The obvious and inevitable tendency 
 of masses for the dead, is to encourage and sanction a vi- 
 cious life. " To think," says Jeremy Taylor, " that any 
 " suppletory to an evil life can be taken from such devo- 
 " tions as prayers for the souls of deceased sinners, may 
 " encourage a bad man to sin, but cannot relieve him 
 " when he hath." Rightly, therefore, does the Church of 
 England maintain in her thirty-first Article that " the 
 " offering of Christ, once made, is a proper redemption, 
 " propitiation, and satisfaction for all the sins of the whole 
 " world, and that there is no other satisfaction for sin, but 
 " that alone." That in the holy eucharist, the application of 
 his death is made by faith to all such as receive it with 
 true repentance, and hearty contrition, we undoubtedly 
 believe ; but that by that holy ordinance, as by " a true 
 " and proper propitiatory sacrifice," we, or the priest for 
 us, can appease God's wrath, perfect the obedience, or 
 supply the necessities of others of the dead as well as of the 
 living of those who are absent, as well as those who are 
 present, we utterly deny, nor can any such impious and 
 heretical doctrine ever be proved from Scripture. Re- 
 demption from sin, and its curse, can only be procured by 
 
LETTER XVI.] THE MASS, AN ARTIFICE OF THE PRIESTS. 91 
 
 the sacrifice of the cross, nor can it be referred to any 
 other, or meaner source, without derogating from the per- 
 fection of the Saviour's sacrifice, and invalidating the 
 merits of that complete redemption which was there achieved 
 for us men, and for our salvation, by him " who, his own- 
 " self, bare our sins in his own body on the tree ;" so that, 
 (as Cranmer says,) " Now we may look for none other 
 " priest, nor sacrifice, to take away our sins, but only him, 
 " and his sacrifice :" (Cran. on Sac. p. 107.) There is no- 
 thing certainly more revolting to Scripture (as Bishop Hall 
 has observed) that a priest should every day make his God, 
 than that he should sacrifice him ; and if a man can be- 
 lieve the one, because his church declares he must, he may 
 as easily believe the other, and for the same reason, espe- 
 cially when her solemn curse is denounced upon his incre- 
 dulity ; for i( If any man," says the wise and amiable 
 Council of Trent, " shall say that the sacrifice of the mass 
 " is only a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, let him be 
 u accursed." (Sess. vi. c. 9.) Salmeron, and Baronius, in- 
 deed, the great advocates of the Romish church, alike 
 admit, that there is no other foundation for the belief of the 
 mass being this propitiatory sacrifice for the living and dead, 
 than unwritten tradition ; but upon such a sandy founda- 
 tion is that church content to build this, as she does so 
 many other of her pernicious doctrines. 
 
 Nothing, certainly, could have been better contrived to 
 demonstrate the necessity, and exalt the authority, of a 
 standing priesthood, than the introduction of such a mys- 
 tery as transubstantiation into the simplest institution of 
 Christianity. Thus, Burnet calls it " One of the designs 
 " of the priests for establishing the authority of that 
 " order, which, by its character, was qualified for the 
 " greatest performance that ever was ;" and he adds, " No 
 " wonder they took all imaginable pains to infuse it into 
 " the belief of the world. The plain institution of the sa- 
 " crament was much vitiated with a mixture of many 
 " heathenish rites and pomps, to raise the credit of the 
 " priests, in whose hands that great performance was 
 
 G2 
 
92 DR. WATTS'* S OPINION OF THE MASS. [LETTER XVI. 
 
 " lodged ; a great part of the service was secret, to make 
 " it look like a wonderful charm. The consecration itself 
 " was to be said very softly ; for words that were not to be 
 " heard, agreed best with a change that was not to be seen. 
 " Masses were also said for all the turns and affairs of 
 " human life. Trentals, a custom of having thirty masses 
 " a year on the chief festivities, for redeeming souls out of 
 " purgatory, was that which brought the priests most 
 " money ; for these were thought God's best days, in which 
 " access was easier to him. On saints 1 days in the mass it 
 " was prayed, that by the saints" intercession the sacrifice 
 " might become the more acceptable, and procure a larger 
 " indulgence ; which could not be easily explained, if the 
 " sacrifice was the death of Christ ; besides a numberless 
 " variety of other rites, so many of the relics of heathenism 
 " were made use of, for the corrupting of the holiest insti- 
 u tution of the Christian religion." (Bur. Ab. b. ii. p. 52.) 
 
 I cannot conclude this letter without reminding the 
 
 British public of Dr. Watts^s opinion of the mass, and its 
 
 kindred errors an authority, to which neither Protestant 
 
 churchmen nor Dissenters will object, who remember what 
 
 Dr. Johnson has transmitted to posterity respecting him 
 
 " Few men" (says he) " have left behind such monuments 
 
 " of laborious piety. He has provided instruction for all 
 
 " ages, from children who are lisping their first lessons, to 
 
 " the enlightened readers of Malebranche, and Locke. He 
 
 " has left neither spiritual nor corporeal nature unexa- 
 
 " mined ; he has taught the art of reasoning, and the 
 
 " science of the stars.' 1 " How strange and unreasonable " 
 
 (says Dr. Watts) " is the doctrine of the Popish church, 
 
 " who, while they profess to believe the religion of Christ, 
 
 " yet introduce many other methods of atonement for 
 
 " sin, besides the sufferings of the Son of God, and the 
 
 " atonement which Jesus has made. Every time they cele- 
 
 " brate the Lord's Supper, and the priest communicates the 
 
 " consecrated bread to his deluded followers, they suppose 
 
 " there is a fresh propitiation made for sin ; therefore they 
 
 " call it the sacrifice of the mass, and imagine that their 
 
LETTER XVI.] DR. WATTs's OPINION OF THE MASS. 93 
 
 " unscriptural representation of this holy ordinance is a real 
 " propitiation, not only for the sins of the living, but for 
 " those that are dead also. Whereas St. Paul assures us, 
 " Heb. ix. 28, ' Christ was once offered to bear the sins of 
 " many/ Heb. x. 14. ' By one offering he hath for ever 
 " perfected them that are sanctified.' This practice of 
 " theirs in the mass, looks something like a pretence of ho- 
 " nour, to the name and death of Christ, because they de- 
 t6 clare the mass is but, as it were, a repetition of the very 
 " sacrifice of Christ himself; but that is expressly contrary 
 " to the language of Scripture ; for c this man Jesus, after 
 44 he had offered one sacrifice for sin, for ever sat down at 
 " the right hand of God ;' Heb. x. 12 ; because his single 
 " sacrifice was all-sufficient, and needs no repetition. 
 
 " But, besides this, they have many other methods of 
 u atonement which men perform, and which they add to the 
 " atonement of Christ. What are all their imposed pe- 
 " nances their pilgrimages on bare feet the scourging of 
 " their own bodies the garments of hair worn upon their 
 " flesh and their multitude of repeated Latin prayers? 
 " What are they all, but toilsome and painful labours, in- 
 " vented by men to make atonement for the sins of the soul ? 
 
 " Blessed be the name of our God, who has delivered 
 " our nation from this bondage of iniquity, from these foolish 
 " yokes and burdens of superstition ; these profane disho- 
 " uours done to the sacrifice and atonement of Jesus our 
 " Saviour. We are ready to look on Popery now as lying 
 " afar off, across the seas, as an evil thing at a great distance, 
 " and are not so much impressed with a grateful sense of our 
 " preservation from it. We are too soon forgetful of our 
 " narrow escape from this mischief by the late Revolution, 
 " and the Protestant succession, by the arm of God, and by 
 " the best of kings, William our deliverer, and George our 
 " defender. Had it not been for these providences of Hea- 
 " ven, and these princes on earth, our land might have been 
 " filled with these superstitions, and they might have been 
 " imposed on us, under the penalties of imprisonment, and 
 " poverty, torment and death. And how could we stand in 
 
94 IDOLATRY OF THE OFFICE OF THE MASS. [LETTER XVI. 
 
 " the fiery trial ? Awake, O my heart, and let my tongue 
 " awake into songs of praise and salvation, that I am not 
 " tempted or compelled to disgrace the blood of my Sa- 
 " viour, by having other atonements for sin imposed on my 
 " conscience. And in the midst of thy praises to God, O 
 64 my soul, drop a tear of pity on thy brethren, who dwell 
 " in the midst of these temptations : and ,in the language 
 " of Christian sympathy, lift up a prayer to Heaven for 
 " them, and say, How long, O Lord, how long ?" (Watts's 
 Works, vol.i. p. 411. edit. 1800.) 
 
 The office of the mass for the dead ought to be consider- 
 ed by all who call themselves Protestants. It perpetually 
 recognises the efficiency and necessity of the intercession 
 and mediation of the saints, and addresses them by name, 
 such as the Virgin Mary, the Archangel and " Standard 
 " Bearer," St. Michael, St. John Baptist, St. Peter, " and 
 " all the saints ;" among whom are enumerated on one occa- 
 sion Ignatius [Quere, the founder of the Jesuits ?] Alex- 
 ander Marcellin,Felicitus, Perpetua, Agathy, Lucy, Agnes, 
 Cecily, and Anastasia ! Almost every prayer not only sup- 
 poses such intercession and mediation of creatures essential 
 and available, but also ranks as highly meritorious, and as 
 one of the procuring causes of salvation, both the sacrifice 
 of the mass, and the prayers offered for the dead on this oc- 
 casion, to the virtual exclusion, or complete derogation, of 
 the " one offering for sin once offered." Among other 
 abominations, there is a sequence, as it is termed, begin- 
 ning 
 
 " Dies irae, dies ilia 
 Solvet saeclum in f'avilla 
 Teste David cum Sybilla ;" 
 
 which is thus translated on the opposite page : 
 
 " The day of wrath, that dreadful day 
 Shall the whole world in ashes lay, 
 As David and the Sybils say." 
 
 And pray, who are the Sybils ? Alas ! the religion of Hea- 
 thenism will give us their history, and the religion of Po- 
 
LETTER XVII.] PAGAN AND PAPAL EXORCISM IDENTICAL 95 
 
 pery retains them in her service so that the misguided 
 devotees of the Romish church are required in the nine- 
 teenth century, and even in England, to believe the doc- 
 trine of the day of judgment, upon the authority of the 
 Sybils ! (See the Office of the Mass for the Dead, printed 
 by Keating.) 
 
 LETTER XVII. 
 
 On the Agreement between Heathen and Romish Exorcism. 
 
 I PROPOSE to consider next, THE AGREEMENT BE- 
 TWEEN HEATHEN AND ROMISH EXORCISM. The ancient 
 
 idolaters, in forsaking the true God, both worshipped, and 
 dreaded, the evil spirit. In proof of the first, St. Paul 
 declares that they " sacrificed to devils, and not to God ;" 
 and the second is sufficiently manifest by their mistaken 
 efforts to rid themselves of the real or fancied presence of 
 daemons, by imitating the false magicians of Egypt with 
 their enchantments, and resorting to the practice of exor- 
 cism, for the purpose of dispossessing those who were under 
 their influence. Pythagoras held, that daemons inflicted 
 diseases on men and cattle, (Diog.Laert. vit. Pythag. ;) and 
 the Greeks and Romans alike believed in malignant and be- 
 nevolent spirits : of the former class were their Lymphatici, 
 Cerriti, and Larvati, vide Plautus. Hor. et al. ; and espe- 
 cially the first, in his Amphitruo, 2- 2. 144. where the 
 mode of ejecting the evil spirit is by lustration, as in Vir- 
 gil's 6th JEneid ; in other words, a purgation by holy 
 water : " Quin tu isthanc jubes pro Cerrita circumferri ?" 
 " Why do you not order her to be exorcised as possessed ?" 
 Daemoniacal possession was generally believed both by the 
 Heathens and the Jews, and various were the modes ob- 
 served for ejecting the evil spirit. In like manner, exorcism 
 is common among the idolaters of India. " When a Hindoo 
 " yawns," (says Mr. Grant, in his State of India laid before 
 
96 A MODERN MIRACLE OF EXORCISM. [LETTER XVII. 
 
 the House of Commons, " he performs a short exorcism to 
 " prevent the daemon from seizing that opportunity of 
 " entering into his body. Possessions are most firmly be- 
 " lieved by them, and the appearance of them is not at all 
 " uncommon." Let us see how this matter stands in the 
 Romish church. She expressly believes in the continued 
 possession of evil spirits, has an office in her ritual for exor- 
 cising them, and resolutely contends that her standing 
 priesthood possesses the power of the first apostles in 
 working this miracle, among others, down to our own day 
 and time. I have lying before me a tract, written by the 
 Rev. E. Peach, of Birmingham, in which he gives a circum- 
 stantial account of his casting out a devil at King's Norton, 
 in Worcestershire. In the title-page, the miracle is called 
 " A successful Exorcism," and the reverend gentleman 
 expressly terms himself " the exorcist." He begins by 
 observing, that possessions existed in the apostolic age, 
 (about which there can be no doubt,) and he then asserts 
 that the words of our Lord, " In my name they shall cast 
 " out devils," " a pply to those who shall believe in him in 
 " all succeeding ages ;" which may be just as truly asserted 
 of raising the dead, and healing the sick, as of exorcism, or 
 of any other miracle ; and indeed the Romish church holds, 
 that all those miracles have been performed by her clergy, 
 and will be, to the end of time. He then declares that " the 
 " power of exorcising, has from the earliest ages been con- 
 <k ferred on those who entered into the ministry;" speaks 
 with sarcastic contempt of " the new acquired lights which 
 " the glorious Reformation spread over the minds of men," 
 and plainly charges infidelity on such as will not believe 
 these things; observing, "that if our Saviour was to ap- 
 " pear again on the earth, his wonderful works would make 
 " no greater impression on the minds of these enlightened 
 " men, than they did on the incredulous high priest and 
 " pharisees." Let us, however, come to the statement itself, 
 which he calls " a sign for unbelievers, and an effect of the 
 " promise of Christ." Sometime, it seems, after Easter, 
 1815, the reverend gentleman was applied to by the friends 
 
LETTER XVII ] EFFECTS OF HOLY WATER, &C. If U ? 97 
 
 \C> 
 
 of a young woman, a Protestant, who had been married in 
 the beginning of the preceding Lent, and on the 
 her marriage became suddenly delirious, and declared 
 a multitude of infernal spirits surrounded her, with whom 
 she must go, and she threatened self-destruction : this had 
 lasted for two months, when her medical attendant de- 
 clared, that in all probability she could not survive twenty- 
 four hours. The clergyman of the parish was accordingly 
 called in. but finding the case past his art, he departed : at 
 length, however, a Catholic woman made a tender of her 
 services, which were accepted, when lo, she procured some 
 holy water, with which she made the sign of a cross upon 
 the patient's forehead, who declared she was scalded, but 
 forthwith fell into a gentle sleep. On awaking, the Catholic 
 put holy water into her mouth, on which she said her throat 
 was scalded, but in a few minutes, fell into a comfortable 
 sleep for some hours. Next morning more holy water was 
 applied, which gave ease, and from that time the danger 
 of death decreased. She then enjoyed (the writer says) 
 lucid intervals, and invariably after the application of holy 
 water fell into a slumber. (Perhaps the gentle reader will 
 think that she was not the first who has been sent to sleep, 
 again and again, by holy water.) It is, however, time that 
 the exorcist himself should now make his appearance. He 
 did not, it seems, attend on the first application : at length, 
 however, on Tuesday in Rogation week, he set out, a spe- 
 cial messenger having stated that the patient was in a worse 
 condition than ever. (" Nee Deus intersit nisi dignus vindice 
 nodus.") It was, he says, the most awful visit he ever 
 made ; for during his walk of six miles, and while he re- 
 mained, it thundered incessantly. She required two persons 
 to keep her in bed, before he entered, but though she could 
 not see him, she then required three, and (still without see- 
 ing him) said, she knew who he was, and gradually revived. 
 He then explained some of the articles of the Romish faith, 
 and assured her that she must believe the holy Catholic 
 church, before she could obtain relief; which she at once 
 declared she did, and had done from the moment she knew 
 
98 EFFECTS OF HOLY WATER, &C. [LETTER XVII. 
 
 what holy water was, and experienced its effects. She then 
 pronounced a long panegyric on it ; said she was not deliri- 
 ous, but knew and remembered all that had passed ; upon 
 which he dipped his finger into the holy water, and made 
 the sign of the cross on her forehead, which she again de- 
 clared scalded her. The Lord's Prayer was then repeated ; 
 but when the patient came to the petitions, she fell into con- 
 vulsions, and could hardly articulate ; after which the ex- 
 orcisms began, through the whole of which, every limb and 
 joint was agitated and convulsed, and " it required," says 
 the reverend gentleman, " constant attention to keep her 
 covered ;" in the mean time, he adds, " the lightning was 
 " flashing, and the thunder rolling, and I, with an impera- 
 " tive voice, commanding the evil spirit to reply to my in- 
 " terrogatories, and to go forth from her." No wonder 
 that, under such circumstances, his flesh should creep, and 
 his hair stand on end, as he then assures us was the case. 
 However, the whole being duly concluded, the patient be- 
 came calm, and in a few minutes conversed with the same 
 ease as before ! She was then baptized into the Romish 
 church ; and the exorcist says, he repeated several acts of 
 contrition, during which, he says, she trembled like a leaf, 
 and again said, the holy water gave her as much pain as 
 boiling water. Immediately after the ceremony, she con- 
 versed with all the cheerfulness of a person in perfect health 
 and spirits, took her tea, was next day down stairs per- 
 fectly well, and has been so ever since. The reverend gen- 
 tleman then proceeds to designate the Protestant religion as 
 " a sect," and dilates on the surprising efficacy of what he 
 terms " mere salt and water blessed by a Catholic priest." 
 He then adverts to " the super-enlightened men of the age," 
 as likely to turn away from such a story, as beneath their 
 notice ; nor indeed does any very superior degree of light 
 appear necessary to produce such a consequence. In an 
 Appendix he states, that having visited his patient up- 
 wards of a year afterwards, she told him that she knew 
 nothing at all about the Catholic religion, but was con- 
 vinced that it was the truth, and would acquire a know- 
 
LETTER XVIII.] PAPAL FRAUD, &C. 99 
 
 ledge of it, as soon as possible ; upon which, he promised 
 to send her books of instruction, and left with her two 
 copies of the account of her own exorcism I presume, in 
 order to her more speedy conversion ; and he sums up the 
 whole by a solemn declaration, that the ministers of his 
 own church have inherited the powers granted by Christ 
 to his apostles!! It is important to observe, that this 
 miracle of Mr. Peach is highly extolled by the Roman 
 Catholics of England, and was recorded with admiration by 
 the editors of two monthly Popish journals published in 
 this Protestant metropolis ! ! ! Qui vult decipi decipiatur. 
 
 LETTER XVIII. 
 
 The Agreement between Heathen and Romish Exorcism 
 further considered, with a Refutation of the pretended 
 Continuance of this and other Miracles in the Church 
 of Rome. 
 
 IN the foregoing relation of casting out a devil by a 
 modern priest of the church of Rome, we observe a very 
 convenient and summary mode adopted by him of getting 
 over the objections which Scripture and reason, alike, pre- 
 sent against continued miracles that is, to brand all who 
 do not believe them as infidels. This is the old artifice of 
 the Romish church as to t ran substantiation, purgatory, the 
 Church's infallibility, the saving nature of their seven sacra- 
 ments, and so forth ; in all these cases, as in that of mira- 
 cles, if a man will not take the testimony of tradition, or 
 rather of the priesthood, he is an infidel and a heretic, and 
 so they consider there is an end of the argument ; but the 
 fact is, it is such monstrous corruptions of truth as these, 
 which make infidels ; it is when the fair form of a scrip- 
 tural faith comes to be tricked out in such false and mere- 
 
100 PRETENSIONS TO MIRACLES REFUTED. [LETTER XVIII. 
 
 tricious frippery, that many persons of good sense 
 in the Roman Catholic church, conceive disgust, and 
 are repelled, even at the threshold of such a creed, from 
 proceeding to examine, and embrace it. That which is 
 only above reason, but without being repugnant to it, such 
 as is the religion of the Gospel, has found humble and 
 honest believers, even in the strongest, and most cultivated 
 minds : what has been both below reason, and contrary to 
 it, as are so many doctrinal errors of the Romish church, 
 has doubtless driven multitudes, in every age and na- 
 tion, into the darkness and wickedness of athekm, or de- 
 ism, as a refuge from such a religion as that of popery ; 
 while such as have chosen to take their religion upon 
 trust, and to believe all that a corrupt church has pre- 
 scribed, have rested, like the Jews of old, in the false 
 security of external forms, and been any thing else than 
 the spiritual worshippers required by that Gospel which 
 declares, that " except a man be born again, he cannot 
 " enter into the kingdom of God" a birth, not merely 
 by the baptism of water into a visible church, but by 
 the baptism of the Spirit also, into an invisible church. 
 To such formalists, the reproof of our Lord to the Jews, 
 applies with equal force : " In vain do they worship me, 
 u teaching for doctrines, the commandments of men." 
 With regard to the reverend writer's declaration, that if 
 our Saviour were to appear again on earth, his miracles 
 would make no impression on certain persons if he mean 
 to include in this sweeping clause, the Protestant church, 
 which he afterwards terms " a sect," he may be briefly an- 
 swered, that it is simply because the miracles of our Lord 
 do make an impression on members of that church, that 
 they refuse to believe in all the forgeries and falsehoods 
 which have been since attempted to be added to them. 
 The two main fallacies of the Birmingham high priest, as 
 of his church, are 1st, his erroneous interpretation of 
 Scripture, by which he would prove that our Lord's gift 
 of miracles to his first followers descended in succession to 
 the end of the world, and that such succession is only in the 
 
LETTER XVIII.] PRETENSIONS TO MIRACLES REFUTED. 101 
 
 Romish priesthood ; and, 2ndly, that, among other splen- 
 did miracles, this of casting out devils is a certain proof of 
 Divine doctrine. As to the first error, this is just as rea- 
 sonable a notion as that the gift of tongues was to continue 
 in the church, and can be as easily proved : " All those 
 u acts," says Bishop Hall, " which proceeded from super- 
 " natural privilege, ceased with their cause : who now 
 " dare undertake to continue them, unless bold papists, 
 " who have brought in gross magic, instead of miraculous 
 " authority?" (See his Letter to the Bishop of Worcester.) 
 And again, " Why should any in these latter times chal- 
 " lenge a right of succession in one miracle, and not claim 
 " it in another ? All these were given with one and the 
 " same breath, continueoj by the same power, and called in, 
 " and stinted, by the same Providence, with their fellow 
 " miracles." (Invis. World, B. iii. s. 9.) The limiting of 
 the performance of these wonders to the Romish priesthood, 
 was an admirable expedient for keeping the lower world in 
 awe, and subjecting all mankind to the dominion of an 
 ecclesiastical tyranny. 2nd. If the Romish church could 
 even succeed in proving that the miracle of casting out 
 devils were now in her hands, (which she never can,) she 
 would be no nearer to the proof of her own infallibility, 
 or perfection. The magicians of Egypt certainly did 
 some wonders ; but they were still false prophets, while 
 Moses was the true. The corrupt Jews had their exor- 
 cists, as Christ plainly intimates " If I by Beelzebub 
 " cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them 
 " out?" We read also, in the Acts, of " vagabond Jews," 
 who were " exorcists ;" and Josephus relates, (Antiq. 1. viii. 
 c. 2,) that he saw the Jew Eleazer casting out devils by 
 the help of a magical ring, in the presence of Vespasian and 
 his army. Thus also the disciples told their Lord, that 
 they had seen one " casting out devils in his name, who 
 " followed not with them."" So far is such a testimony 
 (even if its present existence could be proved) from afford- 
 ing a criterion of a true church, that the same gift to 
 Judas did not prove him a true disciple, but still left him 
 
102 MIRACLESNOT INFALLIBLE TESTS OFTRUTH. [LET. XVIII. 
 
 a false one. Well, therefore, might our Lord say, " In 
 " this, rejoice not, that the spirits are subject to you, but 
 " rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven." 
 Gifts and graces are very distinct things. Moses assigns 
 an infallible test by which the truth of a creed or doctrine 
 may be tried, viz. whether the party working a miracle in 
 its favour, enforces the worship of the true God, or not. 
 If not, his miracle is fallacious, and his condemnation cer- 
 tain. (See Deut. xiii. 1. 5.) Thus our Lord foretold of 
 false Christs, and false prophets, whose signs and wonders 
 should even be great, and the ancient prophet points out 
 the only proper test of miraculous pretensions. " To the 
 " law and to the testimony, if they" (the performers of 
 miracles,) " speak not according to this word, it is because 
 " there is no light in them." (Is. viii. 20.) The true and 
 golden rule in this matter is furnished by Justin Martyr : 
 " How shall it be known that our miracles are better than 
 " the heathen's?" the answer to which is, "By the faith 
 " and worship of the true God" in adverting to which, 
 Bishop Hall observes, u Miracles must be judged by the 
 " doctrine they confirm ; not the doctrine, by the miracles. 
 16 The dreamer or prophet must be esteemed, not by the 
 " event of his wonder, but by the substance and scope of 
 " his teaching. The Romanists argue preposterously while 
 " they would prove the truth of their church by miracles ; 
 " whereas they should prove their miracles by the truth. 
 u For example : That power cannot know the prayer, 
 "which knows not the heart: either then the Virgin is 
 4t God, for that she knows the heart; or to know the heart, 
 " and so our prayers, is falsely ascribed to the Virgin ; and 
 " therefore the miracles which teach men thus to honour 
 " her, are teachers of lies, and so, not of God. If the 
 " practice of worshipping the Virgin be bad, God deliver 
 " me from the immediate author of these miracles. Change 
 " but one idol for another, and what differ the wonders of 
 " Apollo's Temples from those of Romish Chapels." 
 (Epistles.) 
 
 The sentiment of St. Chrysostom is important to show 
 
LETTER XVIII.] BISHOP MILNER^S MODERN MIRACLE. 103 
 
 that modern pretensions to miraculous powers will no more 
 prove the church of Rome a true church, than the want of 
 those powers will prove the church of England a false 
 church. " Once" (says he) " it was known by miracles 
 " who were true Christians, and who were false : but now 
 " the power of working miracles is wholly taken away 
 " the pretence of it is to be found amongst those who pre- 
 " tend to be Christians :" with this, agrees the opinion of 
 Augustine, who observes, " against those miracle-mongers^ 
 " God has put me upon my guard, by admonishing me 
 " that in the last days, there shall arise false prophets who 
 " shall work such signs and wonders as to deceive, if pos- 
 " sible, the very elect." And in like manner Calvin re- 
 marks " To demand miracles of us is highly wrong; 
 " for we have not been the inventors of a new gospel, but 
 " we retain that very gospel which has for its confirmation 
 " all the miracles which Christ and his apostles have 
 " wrought," 
 
 I would here observe, that a Romish bishop (as well as 
 a Romish priest) has also ventured to put the credulity of 
 some persons, and the patience of others, to the test by 
 publishing in this Protestant nation an account of another 
 miracle performed at a holy well in Staffordshire, and at- 
 tested by himself, as if to try how far the public mind 
 would endure the exhibition of so much absurdity, and no 
 doubt as a prelude to future experiments upon their com- 
 mon sense and their forbearance. See " Authentic Docu- 
 " ments relative to the miraculous Cure of Winifred 
 White, at St. Winifred's Well, by the Right Rev. John 
 "Milner, D.D. Vicar Apostolic." 
 
 I conclude by observing, that a man who chooses to take 
 his religion from the Holy Scriptures may believe all things 
 necessary to his salvation, without being an infidel, although 
 he does not believe that the priests of the Church of Rome 
 can cast out devils, raise the dead, heal the sick, speak with 
 divers tongues, change common water into holy, or convert 
 the material elements of bread and wine into the actual 
 body and blood of our adorable Lord. Further, that so 
 
104 FORGED MIRACLES, &C. [LETTER XVIII. 
 
 far from its being capable of proof that all, or any, of these 
 miracles have been performed since the Apostolic age, the 
 gross artifices and foul falsehoods of which the Church of 
 Rome has been openly convicted, in innumerable instances, 
 when attempting to palm such miracles upon the world, in 
 support of her own pretensions, afford the best proof of the 
 apostasy and corruption of a church which could conde- 
 scend to stoop to such base and unhallowed expedients ; 
 that it is to the endless additions which have been made to 
 the simplicity of the gospel of Christ by the craft of de- 
 signing men, that such characters must refer the greatest 
 portion of the infidelity which has been found amongst 
 men ; that it is to their suppression of the Bible, that they 
 must ascribe the awful ignorance which has prevailed in 
 the world; and to their Pagan principles, and pliant morals, 
 that they must attribute the actual portion of vice and im- 
 morality which have been ever found in connexion with their 
 own, and every other, system of darkness and error. 
 
 Finally, if the pretended workers of such miracles as 
 these, claiming as they do to be the true successors of the 
 apostles, do not come under the description and condemna- 
 tion of the apostle in 2 Corinthians, ch. xi. ver. 13, 14, 15, 
 language should seem to have lost its meaning.* 
 
 * It would seem as if some of the laity of the Romish church in 
 Ireland were at length disgusted and wearied with the spiritual yoke of 
 a profligate and venal priesthood. In a meeting at Cavan (Thomas 
 M'Cabe, Esq. in the chair) of a large assembly of Catholic Laymen, 
 Dr. McDonald stated (without contradiction) that " notorious and fla- 
 " grant abuses had long existed" that " scandalous lives rendered 
 " men unfit for the ministry of the Gospel" that " a superstition of 
 " the most monstrous and detestable description, which would have 
 " dishonoured and disgraced the most barbarous ages, had taken firm 
 u root" that " the exclusive right of working miracles was now laid claim 
 11 to by men of the most infamous and profligate characters, who are 
 " not only a dishonour to religion, but a disgrace to human nature ; 
 " some of whom are so far gone in folly as well as depravity, as to 
 " make religion pander to their avarice and profligacy" and he de- 
 clared there were then present the most respectable persons ready to 
 attest the truth of his assertion. The speaker roundly asserted that 
 " it is in vain to look for reformation from any exertion of the clergy." 
 
LET. XIX.] PAGAN AND PAPAL PECUNIARY EXPIATIONS. 105 
 
 LETTER XIX. 
 
 On the Analogous Nature of the Expiation of Sin by 
 Money, in the Heathen and Romish Churches and the 
 Analogy between other Pagan and Papal Atonements 
 for Sin the Conformity between the Stories of the 
 Pagan Deities, and the Romish Saints between the 
 Ancient and Modern Idolatry in producing actual Vice 
 between Abstinence from Food in the two Systems 
 and between the supreme Power of the respective Priest- 
 hoods. 
 
 THE ANALOGY BETWEEN THE HEATHEN AND ROMISH 
 METHODS OF EXPIATING OFFENCES BY MONEY, OR BY 
 
 ITS WORTH, may be next considered. The tax-book 
 of the Romish Chancery presents the following bead-roll 
 of crimes, and their pecuniary commutations : 
 
 s. d. 
 
 For procuring abortion . . .076 
 
 For simony . . . . 10 6 
 
 For sacrilege 10 6 
 
 For perjury in a criminal case . .090 
 
 For robbery 0120 
 
 *For burning a neighbour's house . .0120 
 
 This meeting produced a great sensation in Ireland, and may perhaps 
 be the occasion finally of driving the idolatrous priests of Baal, not 
 only out of the diocese of Kilmore, but out of a country which has too 
 long groaned under the tyranny of these modern Popes ; whose igno- 
 rance and vice would furnish, at this moment, details as awful and dis- 
 gusting as those which are recorded of the period immediately pre- 
 ceding our own Reformation in England. 
 
 * A horrid trial occurred on occasion of the house of one Lynch hav- 
 ing been burnt in Ireland by Devan, the clerk of the Romish chapel 
 near it, who mustered the conspirators in that building, when eight 
 
 H 
 
106 PAGAN AND PAPAL ATONEMENTS FOR SIN. [LET. XIX. 
 
 For defiling a virgin . . . .090 
 For incest with the nearest relatives .076 
 For murdering a layman . . .076 
 
 For keeping a concubine . . . 10 6 
 For laying violent hands on a clergyman 10 6 
 For forging letters apostolical . .170 
 
 I dare not add to the above list certain other offences which 
 are not calculated to meet the public eye ; but I ask, what 
 are these sums levied by the court of Rome on the commis- 
 sion of particular sins, but so many licenses to commit them ? 
 and what is such a taxation but an ecclesiastical encourage- 
 ment by the Pope, and his agents, for the commission of 
 crimes for which absolution can be afterwards purchased, 
 at as easy a rate as the license itself? 
 
 The idolatry of India presents, in its native code, the fol- 
 lowing scale for scandalous expressions : One of equal 
 rank with the accused, shall be fined 2/. ; an inferior 41. ; a 
 superior M. For absolution of the crime of perjury, the 
 offender shall perform worship to the goddess Jershuttee. 
 False testimony may be given to preserve life, but if a man 
 have murdered a Brahmin, he shall be punished by not 
 being allowed to give false witness to save life. The crime 
 of adultery may be committed for about Is. Procuring the 
 death of an innocent person, about I/. Where a man is ca- 
 pitally convicted, he shall pay 1 50/. to escape death ; half 
 that sum when his sentence is dismemberment; and afourth 
 when it is banishment. Much more might be added, but 
 
 human beings, among whom were some unoffending children, perished in 
 the flames ; one of the witnesses on which trial deposed, that he " swore 
 " on his knees to aid and assist the Catholics ; never to deal with a 
 " Protestant, if he could get what he wanted from a Catholic, and to 
 " assist the cause with person and pocket" Is it too much to suppose 
 that the absolution of the Romish church stood these offenders in stead, 
 now that the Taxaiio camera apostolica is no longer in force ; and that 
 the certainty that pardon might be obtained on confession, if it did not 
 present an actual inducement to the commission of such an atrocious 
 outrage, must at least have facilitated its commission by removing 
 some of those terrors which a sense of future responsibility rarely fails 
 to excite ? 
 
LET. XIX.] PAGAN AND PAPAL PENITENCE EXTERNAL. 107 
 
 the short remark of Mr. Grant may suffice : "" Immorali- 
 44 ties of every description are tolerated on easy terms to 
 " one part of society, and some of the most atrocious crimes 
 " have all the encouragement which a legal sanction can 
 44 give them." (See Mr. Grant's work on India, p. 58.) 
 
 THE ANALOGY BETWEEN PAGAN AND PAPAL ATONE- 
 MENTS FOR SIN AS SO MANY ENCOURAGEMENTS TO SIN, 
 
 may be next adverted to. Mr. Granfs book on India lying 
 before me, I proceed to adduce instances to this point from 
 modern heathenism, although the whole religion of ancient 
 idolatry was one continued round of external expiation for 
 sin. " The Hindoos, 1 ' says Mr. Grant, " are taught to 
 44 have recourse to various ceremonial works and observ- 
 " ances, and confidently to depend on these for absolution ; 
 66 real contrition and amendment, hatred of evil, and a re- 
 44 spect to the holiness of the divine nature, do not appear 
 44 to enter into their consideration of this subject. The 
 * 4 whole is reduced to certain external performances ; and 
 " in the Vedas, (the sacred books,) there are long enume- 
 46 rations of every species of offence which men can commit, 
 44 with the particular expiation prescribed for each. In ge- 
 44 neral, these expiations consist in pilgrimages, in living 
 44 and dying in places reputed holy, in ablutions, in pe- 
 44 nances, in the celebration of festivals, in fasts, in largesses 
 44 to Brahmins, in sacrifices and offerings to idols, in anoint- 
 6t ing the body with the excrements of a cow, and in other 
 " expedients of a similar nature." (Ibid. p. 59.) He then 
 particularizes holy rivers, and holy places, on which I have 
 enlarged before ; and distinctly enumerates, under separate 
 heads, offerings, festivals, almsgiving, endowments to the 
 priests and to pagodas, rigorous penances, religious ser- 
 vices for the dead, and works of supererogation. Now 
 let any man only take the trouble of comparing the 
 above heathen rites and observances with those of Popery, 
 and he cannot fail at once to perceive the close similarity 
 which obtains between them ; indeed, the connexion is so 
 obvious, that in the summary given by Mr. Grant, of 
 the abominable superstitions of the Indian idolatry, he 
 
108 HEATHENISM AND POPERY [LETTER XIX. 
 
 does not fail to hold up that connexion, with adequate 
 reprobation, to the view of the British parliament, and 
 public. "In short," says he, " the modes of expiating 
 " guilt, and of acquiring merit, are endless among 
 " this people. To accomplish this end is the business 
 " of all their vast train of ceremonies, services, and ex- 
 " ternal performances ; it is the very thing that has upheld 
 " the fabric of Hindoo superstition, and has perpetuated the 
 " credulity of the multitude, and the impostures of their 
 " priests." (Ibid. p. 61.) Again, " Upon the whole then 
 " it appears, that the Hindoos pursue methods of ob- 
 " taining pardon of sin, without regard to the disposi- 
 " tion of the mind, or the conduct of life. On their 
 " own principles, they may go on committing wilful of- 
 " fences every day, and as regularly wiping them off, and die 
 6t at last pure, and in peace, and pass through the water of 
 " the Ganges to happiness in a new state.* For the viola- 
 *' tions of conscience, which, though smothered, is not ex- 
 " tinct ; for the disregard of truth, of justice, and of 
 " mercy, their system has enabled them, without making 
 " any, the slightest, compensation to men, to give sufficient 
 " satisfaction to their gods. To them they pay a certain 
 "- quit-rent, or acknowledgment, for liberty to do whatever 
 " their inclination and ability may prompt them to, as far as 
 " their fellow-creatures are concerned. Can we hesitate to 
 " say what must be the effect of such principles on their 
 " character? Among such a people, crimes must prevail. 
 " True it is, and greatly to be lamented, the prevalence of 
 " crimes is no new thing, nor peculiar to them. The an- 
 " cient world exhibited a picture of the same kind ; and to 
 " the dishonour of the Christian name, in countries nearer 
 " home, that pure religion has been changed into a mys- 
 " tery of imposture, and corruption. But, though it must 
 " be said, that the light which overspreads Europe, has 
 " prevented the same degree of effect from the system of 
 
 * Extreme unction being here read, for sacred water, we have the 
 analogy complete. 
 
LETTER XIX.] PRODUCE VICE. 109 
 
 " delusive fraud still practised there, yet have not the con- 
 " sequences been infinitely prejudicial to those countries 
 " where it has prevailed ; and is not that system likely, in 
 " the end, to dissolve the frame of society in them." (Ib. 
 p. 62.) I apprehend that the necessary tendency of Popery, 
 like heathenism, to favour and propagate every species of 
 vice and immorality, can hardly be better described. 
 
 THE CONFORMITY BETWEEN THE STORIES OF THE 
 
 PAGAN DEITIES AND THE ROMISH SAINTS may be here ad- 
 duced, not because it has been omitted before, but because 
 the example of heathen India affords further confirmation 
 of the evidence supplied from ancient idolatry. In speak- 
 ing of the Hindoo deities, Mr. Grant observes " The le- 
 " gends and histories of their actions are innumerable, and 
 " in the highest degree extravagant, absurd, ridiculous, and 
 " incredible ;" (ibid. p. 64.) ; a remark which will serve, 
 without the alteration of a word, to describe the shameless 
 delusions recorded in the lives of the Romish saints and 
 martyrs, for the belief of the world ; while such as do not 
 choose to believe them, are branded as infidels. 
 
 THE CONFORMITY BETWEEN THE ANCIENT AND 
 MODERN IDOLATRY IN PRODUCING ACTUAL VICE, may Hl- 
 
 t rod uce the masterly description of idolatry, and its con- 
 sequences, which is briefly given by Mr. Grant. " The 
 " worship and ceremonies," says he, " practised by the 
 " Hindoos, with various circumstances appertaining to 
 " them, have the effect of vitiating, as well as of stupifying 
 " their minds. In an enlightened land, it may appear 
 " superfluous formally to state, that such are the conse- 
 " quences of idolatry ; but that which is admitted, it may 
 " be well also, to recollect and to view, as exemplified in 
 " practice. The divine nature is infinitely degraded by 
 " every material representation ; and the man already so 
 " gross as to resort to one, becomes more gross in using it. 
 " If he does not at length drop the idea of a distinct invi- 
 " sible Power, and think only of the object before him, (as 
 " there is reason to suspect he will,) he at least believes that 
 " his God inhabits the stock or the stone which he has set 
 
110 TALISMANS AND SCAPUL ARIES. |_ LKTTER XIX ' 
 
 " up. European apologists for so monstrous a practice 
 " have been willing to deny this idea of idolatry ; but an 
 " evidence of far superior authority, the author of the 
 " Bhagvad, asserts its reality. He introduces Crishna, 
 " who is there represented with supreme authority, saying, 
 " ' The ignorant believe me, who am invisible, to exist in 
 " ' the visible form under which they see me.' And the 
 " learned translator of the Bhagvad is of opinion, that it was 
 " one of the aims of that work, to induce men to believe 
 " the supreme God, present in every image before which 
 " they bent. Between depraved opinions entertained of 
 tfc the Divine Being, and depraved practice, there is a 
 66 necessary and inseparable connexion. Those opinions 
 " originate from corruption ; and he who makes a god for 
 " himself, will certainly contrive to receive from him an 
 " indulgence for his corrupt propensities." (Ib p. 65.) 
 
 THE SIMILARITY BETWEEN THE TALISMANS OF 
 
 HEATHENISM AND POPERY is remarkable. The old hea- 
 thens had their portable gods, as well as their domestic 
 ones ; and some charm or other against evil was commonly 
 worn about their persons. Thus it is with the modern hea- 
 thens in India. " With incantations," says Mr. Grant, 
 " may be classed the endless variety of charms, spells, ta- 
 " lismans, amulets, and other inventions of this nature, 
 " of which no individual, small or great, of all the mil- 
 lions of the Hindoo race, is destitute ;" (p. 68;) and 
 now, only let an honest inquirer after truth take up one of 
 the Romish scapularies, which are publicly sold, and given, 
 by the Romish priests, all over Ireland, to their miserable 
 devotees, and let him honestly say, whether there is any 
 difference between them, and the talismans of ancient and 
 modern heathenism ; let him only consult the account of 
 the Romish scapulary, which is printed at Cork, and well 
 known throughout Ireland, and say, whether he must not 
 turn from such a collection of lies, with a disgust approach- 
 ing to horror, more especially when he considers, that the 
 falsehoods in question are calculated, like the other mira- 
 cles of the Romish church, to support a system of doctrine 
 
LETTER XIX.] FASTING OF BOTH SYSTEMS. Ill 
 
 fallacious in itself, and destructive to the souls of thou- 
 sands. 
 
 THE SIMILARITY BETWEEN ABSTINENCE FROM FOOD 
 IN THE SYSTEMS OF PAGANISM AND POPERY may 
 
 next be noticed. Mr. Grant observes of the Indian 
 Heathens, " The ceremonies which respect the article of 
 " food alone, might form a volume." (Ibid. p. 71.) 
 And again he says, the Vedas prescribe " a purification of 
 " three paraccas; that is, a total abstinence for twelve 
 " days and nights, as setting free from all sins, however 
 "heinous." (Ibid. p. 59.) The analogy between heathenism 
 and popery, in this particular, will readily occur to all. 
 It would be at once beside my purpose, and unnecessary to 
 my argument, to show, that fasting was a malum in se : 
 but in the abuse to which both heathenism and popery 
 have alike subjected it, no true Christian can for a moment 
 entertain a doubt that the corruption of each system, in 
 this particular, has been identical. The mortification of 
 the body (intended only, originally, as the means to an 
 end) has, in either case, been deemed expiatory for the 
 sin of the soul ; and Papists, like the Heathens, and Jews 
 of old, have chosen rather to challenge Heaven, on the score 
 of their own meritorious fastings, and pharisaical righte- 
 ousness, than to submit to that moral renovation of heart 
 and life which alone are designated in the Scriptures by 
 the name of religion. 
 
 The last point of resemblance between heathenism 
 and popery to which I shall advert, is THE SUPREME 
 
 POWEE AND PARAMOUNT INFLUENCE OF THEIR RESPEC- 
 TIVE PRIESTHOODS, although this point has been noticed 
 before. The priests of the ancient idolatry were the life 
 and soul of a system which originated with, and mainly 
 subsisted for, themselves. The duties which they incul- 
 cated, and the penances which they prescribed, emanated 
 from a common source, and depended upon the credit in 
 which the order which established them was enabled to 
 stand with the world around. Hence the priests alone, 
 blind as they were, were the authorized guides of the 
 
112 POWER OF THE PRIESTS. [LETTER XIX. 
 
 blind, and teachers of the ignorant. They kept the people 
 in utter ignorance, and virtually encouraged them in sin. 
 They forged miracles to attest their own authority, and 
 retained, in willing subjection, a world lying in wickedness, 
 whom they had first succeeded in convincing that they 
 were themselves essential to human happiness here, and 
 endless immortality hereafter. Thus is fear, but not love, 
 the bond between the priest, and the people, of Ireland. 
 But let us again hear Mr. Grant on the subject of the 
 priests of paganism ; and the conformity between them- 
 selves, and their brethren of another system, will be 
 apparent : " The absolute dominion which this religion 
 " gives to the Brahmins over the rest of the people must 
 " have forced itself upon the attention. No similar in- 
 k< vention among men seems to have been so long, and so 
 " completely, successful. This success may be accounted 
 " for, partly, from a favourable concurrence of various 
 " circumstances ; but, chiefly, from the character of the 
 " religion itself. Erected upon the darkest ignorance, and 
 " the boldest falsehood, it has been the work of ages to 
 " strengthen these foundations, and to render the fabric 
 " impregnable. The understanding is chained, and kept in 
 " perpetual imprisonment, like dreaded rivals for power in 
 " the East, who, deprived of their eyes, and immured in 
 " dungeons, received poisoned provisions from the gaoler's 
 " hands. Every avenue which might lead to emancipation 
 " is strongly guarded. Fear is immeasurably excited, and 
 " incessantly wrought upon ; not a rational fear of falling 
 " into moral evil, and offending the righteous and holy 
 " Sovereign of the universe, but a fear of numberless ficti- 
 " tious dangers from every part of nature, from things 
 " real and imaginary, in every situation, and in every 
 " transaction. Fear is the grand instrument by which 
 " these poor people are held down, never daring to 
 " examine into the reality of what they are told is im- 
 " pending over them. False hope is likewise held out to 
 " them ; and they are taught to seek deliverance, safety, 
 " and happiness, in a multitude of unmeaning, fantastic 
 
LETTER XIX.] POPERY COEVAL WITH PAGANISM. 113 
 
 " ceremonies, which constitute a grievous drudgery, en- 
 " grossing their time, and confining their thoughts. In all 
 " these rites, and in whatever regards the civil and per- 
 " sonal, as well as the religious concerns of the Hindoos, 
 " the Brahmins (or priests) have made themselves indis- 
 " pensably necessary. They formed the religion, they are 
 " the sole exclusive depositaries of its ordinances, they are 
 " the expounders of them, they are the sole ministers, 
 " either officiating or directing, in all the vast train of 
 " ceremonies, observances, ablutions, defilements, purifica- 
 " tions, penances, and works of supererogation, of which 
 " their religion consists." (Ibid. p. 73.) Only apply all 
 this to Ireland, and the analogy will be obvious. 
 
 I cannot conclude this Letter without a single quotation 
 from our own Spenser, illustrative of the specious and 
 rotten fabric of popery : 
 
 "It was a goodly heap for to behold, 
 
 " And spake the praises of the workman's wit, 
 " But full great pity that so fair a mould 
 
 " Did on so weak foundation ever sit : 
 " For on a sandy hill that still did flit, 
 
 " And fall away, it mounted was full high, 
 " That every breath of Heaven shaked it; 
 
 " And all the hinder parts that few could spy, 
 " Were ruinous and old, but painted cunningly." 
 
 FAIRY QUEEN, Book i. Canto 4. 
 
 LETTER XX. 
 
 Concluding Reflections on the preceding Facts. 
 
 A FEW reflections to which the foregoing remarks have 
 given rise are ; 
 
 1. The Church of Rome, in vaunting of her antiquity, 
 proves rather too much for her purpose. She is indeed 
 
114 POPERY COEVAL WITH PAGANISM. [LETTER XX. 
 
 of very ancient origin, for she is older than Christianity 
 itself, and as old as paganism, her twin sister. It is easy 
 to understand upon what principle the idolatry and super- 
 stitions of paganism were at first adopted, and are still 
 continued, by the Church of Rome: they present some- 
 thing tangible, and visible, for the external senses to rest 
 upon, in the place of that spiritual change of heart which 
 the Bible, in all its parts, supposes as essential to salvation. 
 Christianity, in its pure and primitive structure, had no 
 charms for those pagans who had been accustomed to an 
 imposing exterior of forms and ceremonies, which, while 
 they amused their minds, and pacified their consciences, 
 required no peculiar sacrifices, and left them in undisturbed 
 possession of their former sins. The Church of Rome, 
 aware of this fact, entered accordingly into a compromise 
 with the old idolatry. Her object was secular dominion, 
 and while this might be attained, she regarded the illumi- 
 nation, and conversion, of the world but as secondary ob- 
 jects, or rather as things more likely to obstruct her 
 schemes of worldly policy, than to advance them. No 
 writer has better established this fact than the celebrated 
 Gale, (in his " Court of the Gentiles,") who, after proving, 
 with extensive erudition, how paganism and popery sym- 
 bolized in a variety of particulars, observes, " The carnal 
 " professors of Christianity, who were most numerous, 
 " were not content to part with their pagan rites ; where- 
 " fore, to compromise the matter, they turned their pagan 
 " rites into Christian solemnities, and so christened their 
 " daemon festivals under the name of some Christian martyr 
 " and saint ; and that which made this design more plau- 
 " sible was this some groundless hopes, by such symbo- 
 " lizing with the pagans, to gain them over to embrace the 
 " Christian religion, which vain attempt was so far 
 " blasted by God, as that it proved but a door to let in 
 " Antichiist, and all his idol worship into the Church 
 " of Rome." Human nature being the same in every age, 
 there is no doubt that the idolatries and superstitions of 
 the Romish Church have, from the earliest period of her 
 
LETTER XX.] TAPISTS' CHARGE OF HERESY REFUTED. 115 
 
 history, had the force of retaining within her visible pale a 
 vast majority in succession, who, if they had not been 
 nominal Christians, would have been professed infidels, but 
 who found in the round of external and pharisaical ob- 
 servances which Popery prescribes, a sedative for their 
 fears, and a substitute for their piety. The Reformed 
 churches of the Continent, and of this country, have pro- 
 tested, with vigour and effect, against a system which, while 
 it is eminently calculated to amuse the multitude by a 
 specious exterior, is no less adapted to hold them in spi- 
 ritual bondage, by blinding their minds, and sensualizing 
 their hearts by giving them the shadow of religion in- 
 stead of its substance, and by setting up a variety of idols 
 in the place of the one, true, and living God of the 
 Scriptures. 
 
 2. With what injustice does the Church of Rome charge 
 her younger sister, the Protestant Church, with heresy ! 
 the translators of the English Bible observe on such a 
 charge in their preface: " Heretics they call us, by the 
 " same right that they call themselves Catholics, both being 
 " wrong." The continued determination of the Romish 
 church, in all her official acts, down to this hour, to brand 
 every Protestant with the title of a heretic, and, by a ne- 
 cessary consequence, to hold him amenable to all her severe, 
 and unrepealed, laws against heretics, is the best evidence 
 of what may be expected from the operation of a persecu- 
 ting spirit, if the power of exercising it were again to oc- 
 cur ; and this observation will hold good, notwithstanding 
 all that may be asserted to the contrary, either by Roman 
 Catholics who are not empowered to answer for their own 
 church, or by Protestants who are still less empowered, and 
 the majority of whom are altogether ignorant both of the 
 principles, and practices, of that church whose cause they 
 unwittingly advocate. As far, indeed, as the Church of 
 England is concerned with the charge of heresy, she needs 
 no other defence than that with which the apostle has sup- 
 plied her : " This I confess unto thee, that after the way 
 
116 NOMINAL PllOTESTANTS. [LETTER XX. 
 
 " which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my 
 " Fathers." (Acts xxiv. 14.) 
 
 3. The perilous nature of such a profession as that of 
 popery to its members is great indeed, since the very foun- 
 dation of her whole system is laid in the virtual rejection 
 of the two first commands in the Decalogue. That multi- 
 tudes who live and die in the communion of the Church of 
 Rome do yet escape the contagion of their own creed, and 
 are preserved by the special grace of God, sincere and ex- 
 emplary Christians, is readily admitted ; but it is no less 
 true, that the whole machinery of the system erected by 
 that church, is opposed to the Scriptures of truth, and 
 only designed to exalt the authority of a secular priesthood, 
 and to keep the world in perpetual ignorance and error ; 
 and in point of fact, the Church of Rome, by engrafting on 
 the native stock of Christianity the most awful depravation 
 of doctrine, has overspread the world at large with a pro- 
 portionate corruption in practice. 
 
 4. The agreement which has been shown to exist be- 
 tween the worship of false gods, as exhibited in the pagan 
 and papal religions, and the worship of the true God, as 
 revealed in the religion of the Holy Scriptures, speaks 
 loudly to those nominal professors of Protestantism who are 
 wearing their own religion much too loosely about them to 
 stand in a posture for public or private trial ; nay, who 
 may even be halting between two opinions ; and, amidst 
 the increased exertions for converts now making by the 
 Church of Rome, are almost disposed to go over to " the 
 " old religion," as it is triumphantly called by its advo- 
 cates, and (as we have seen) most truly called, although in 
 a sense which they will be very unwilling to allow. Cer- 
 tainly, as far as the great interests of truth are concerned, 
 the Protestant cause will gain as little by the adherence, 
 as it will lose by the defection, of such nominal professors, 
 while to themselves, individually, it will be of little import- 
 ance in which rank they are found at last : but their pre- 
 sent ignorance of -the religion into which they were baptized, 
 
LETTER XX.] VALUE OF THE SCRIPTURES. 117 
 
 and of that to which they are invited, may justify anxiety 
 on their own account. If they determine for the Protestant 
 faith, let them at least understand to what it is they adhere, 
 and if for the Popish, to what it is they depart. 
 
 5. It is impossible to close this parallel between Hea- 
 thenism and Popery, without remarking that where the 
 Bible is wholly unknown, as in the heathen world, or only 
 partially known, as in the Popish church, idolatry and su- 
 perstition are inevitable. This happy and highly favoured 
 country has, of late, been invited (though not by the voice 
 of authority) to commemorate the tercentenary of the 
 English Reformation, inasmuch as on Sunday, the 4th of 
 October, 1835, precisely three centuries had elapsed since 
 the printing of the English translation of the Bible, by 
 Myles Coverdale, afterwards Bishop of Exeter. This call 
 was loudly responded to, throughout the united empire, 
 both in, and out of, the national establishment, and consi- 
 derable interest appears to have been excited, in conse- 
 quence, upon the paramount question " of the sufficiency 
 of the Holy Scriptures for salvation," (as defined by the 
 sixth article of our Church,) " so that whatsoever is not 
 " read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be 
 " required of any man, that it should be believed as an arti- 
 " cle of faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salva- 
 " tion." Hence the inalienable right of every human being 
 to the possession, and perusal, of the Scriptures of eternal 
 truth, as opposed to all the traditions, and inventions, of 
 fallible creatures like himself ; and hence, again, the inde- 
 fensible injustice, and impiety, of any man, or order of men, 
 presuming to refuse, or restrict, the circulation of the re- 
 vealed will of the Almighty, as the common property of all 
 his rational creatures. 
 
 It is in vain for the members of the Romish Church to 
 assert that any change, or modification, has taken place in 
 the decrees of the Council of Trent, and the oft-repeated 
 prohibitions of the sovereign Pontiff against the circulation 
 of the word of God. The Bull of the late Pope Pius VII., 
 
118 VALUE OF THE SCRIPTURES. [LETTER XX. 
 
 in particular, against the British, and Continental, Bible 
 Societies, dated from Rome the 29th of June, 1816, cha- 
 racterizes the circulation of the Scriptures as " an abomi- 
 " nable device, undermining the very foundation of reli- 
 gion ;" designates the Bible Society as " a pestilence" 
 " a defilement of the faith," and " of the most imminent 
 " peril to souls " as " the impious machination of inno- 
 " vators," and " an abominable scheme, the wickedness 
 " of which, it is the duty of the episcopal office to expose." 
 His Holiness further declares that " the Holy Scriptures, 
 *' in the vulgar tongue, have through the temerity of men 
 " been PRODUCTIVE OF MORE INJURY THAN ADVANTAGE" . 
 enjoins strict adherence to the decree " of the 13th of 
 " June 1757, which prohibits all versions of the Scriptures 
 " in the vernacular tongues, except such as are approved 
 " by the apostolic see, and published with annotations ;" 
 and finally guards all true Papists against " the snares 
 " which are prepared for their eternal destruction ;" that is 
 to say, by the translations, of our own, and all other, Pro- 
 testant churches. 
 
 This Bull is of course in full force and validity : indeed 
 any supposition to the contrary, would be to charge the 
 supreme authority from which it emanated, with error, 
 while he is as notoriously too infallible to be mistaken, as 
 his system is too immutable to improve. Can it be any 
 matter of surprise, after this, that they who both refuse to 
 be guided by the inspired Scriptures, and withhold them 
 from the people, should be left to fall into the delusions 
 even of the heathens themselves ? And can any argument 
 present a stronger appeal to their own followers, to think, and 
 act for themselves, than the awful consideration that " if 
 " the blind lead the blind, BOTH shall fall into the ditch ?" 
 At all events, let British Christians prize, above all their 
 other blessings, the inestimable privilege of using and cir- 
 culating the revelation of God that great and especial 
 glory of their own Reformation ; in which case, they will 
 not fail to dread, and deprecate, in an equal degree, the in- 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 119 
 
 roads and encroachments of a church, which, while it is 
 ostensibly founded on the Holy Scriptures, is proved, to 
 demonstration, to have symbolized with the heathens of 
 old, and, in conjunction with the Pharisees of a later age, 
 to have made void those Scriptures by its own traditions. 
 
 P.S. In addition to the numerous authorities which are 
 either cited, or referred to, in this publication, the follow- 
 ing Works will be found to support, and illustrate, the 
 position of the writer, namely, that POPERY, properly so 
 called, as defined by the council of Trent, is a modification 
 of PAGANISM. 
 
 " A true and lively representation of Popery showing 
 " that Popery is only new-modelled Paganism, and per- 
 " fectly destructive of the great ends, and purposes, of God 
 " in the gospel." 1677. 
 
 " Gale's Court of the Gentiles." 2 vols. 4to, 1669-77. 
 
 " Conformite des Ceremonies modernes avec les Anci- 
 " ennes, ou Ton prouve, par des autorites incontestables, 
 " que les ceremonies de FEglise Romaine sont empruntees 
 " des Payens." Par Pierre Mussard Geneve, et Leyde. 
 1667. 
 
 Note. An English Translation of Mussard was pub- 
 lished in London in 1732, entitled, " Roma Antiqua et 
 " Recens, or the Conformity of Ancient and Modern Cere- 
 " monies, showing, from indisputable testimonies, that the 
 " ceremonies of the Church of Rome are borrowed from 
 " the Pagans, Translated from the French," [by James 
 Dupre.] 
 
 " Papists no Catholics, and Popery no Christianity." 
 By Lloyd, Bishop of Worcester. 
 
 " The Conformity of Ancient and Modern Ceremonies." 
 Author uncertain. 
 
 " Popery not founded on Scripture." 4to. London, 
 1688. In the British Museum. 
 
 " Rise and growth of Popery, from Vanity to Supersti- 
 
120 POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 " tion thence to worse than Heathen Idolatry/' 8vo. 
 London, 1680. In the British Museum. 
 
 " Conformita delle Ceremonie Cinesi coir Idolatria 
 " Greca e Romana." 
 
 " Pangano Papismus; or an exact Parallel between 
 " Rome Pagan, and Rome Christian, in their Doctrines, 
 " and Ceremonies." By the Rev. Joshua Stopford, 1678. 
 In the British Museum. 
 
 " A Comparison between Popery and Paganism." By 
 the Rev. Samuel Johnson, Chaplain to Lord William 
 Russell. In the British Museum. 
 
 u A Discovery of Popish Paganism," deducing the Su- 
 perstitions of the Romish Church from the Rites of Pa- 
 ganism. By the Rev. Oliver Ormerod, Rector of Hunts- 
 pill. 
 
 " The Conformity between Popery and Paganism il- 
 lustrated." London, 4to. 1746. By the Rev. T. 
 Seward, Prebendary of Salisbury. In the British Museum. 
 
 The work to which the writer has been chiefly indebted 
 is entitled, 4< A Letter from Rome, showing an exact con- 
 " formity between Popery and Paganism, or the Religion 
 " of the present Roman Catholics derived from that of 
 " their Heathen Ancestors. 11 By the Rev. Dr. Conyers 
 Middleton. With a Preparatory Discourse and Ap- 
 pendix. 
 
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