belief. Where these opinions were weak, no visible rent was made in the Church, but errors circulated with more safety, and often with more success, because concealed. Nor were the heretics without the Church equal in numbers to those who were misled by erroneous opinions within. Few think for themselves, or boldly avow their thoughts; but ancient systems of belief were not easily eradicated, and, unless carefully watched and checked, again and again spring up, like weeds that have attained full possession of the soil. Thus, when the Church was opposing the Gnostics and the Manicheans, the same errors, though in a milder form, were spreading throughout the great body of Christians. The essential tenet of the Gnostic philosophy was this, that union with matter is the origin of all evil, and that the only way of escape from evil is for the soul to disengage itself from material pleasures. On this principle is founded the ascetic life which has prevailed so deeply in the corrupted Churches of Rome and of the East. Hence sprung the hermits, and afterwards the monks, who, by the mortification of the body, and abstraction from material things, strive, like the Gnostics and the Manicheans, to obtain a higher degree of spiritual purity than can be the lot of those who are living in the world, and immersed in the midst of matter.

We have seen before how the worship of the

Virgin Mary connects the Papists of Rome with the Collyridian heretics, and with the still more ancient idolaters of the moon.

The emanative system, which spread so widely over the ancient world, and deduced all being from the one original fountain, is visible both in several of the writings of the Fathers, and also in the pretended explanation of the mystery of the Trinity which the Church of Rome authorises. But it is most conspicuous in the doctrine of purgatory, which is derived from the same source. Upon this system all beings are part of the Supreme Being, destined to return like drops into that ocean from which they have been separated for a time; and that return can only be delayed by the stains they contract from the pollution of matter. These stains are worn out by the action of fire, and by the power of pain, till, freed from every impurity, they joyfully reascend to their parent existence. It is impossible to find the doctrine of purgatory in the Bible, but it is very easy to find it in Virgil's Æneid. But while the theory may justly be ascribed to the ancient philosophers and poets, the Church of Rome may be allowed the merit of turning it to profit, for they receive more for their Masses offered up in behalf of the souls in purgatory, during the course of a single century, than Charon did for ferrying the souls over Styx during the whole course of heathen

ism, though the ancients put a piece of money under the tongue of each of their deceased friends, to pay the price of being wafted over to Elysium.

VII. The absurdities of Popery are impossible to be disguised, though the modern Polytheists have had recourse to the same expedient as the ancient. There is an inner and an outer Popery, as well as an inner and outer Polytheism. As the idolatry of Plato and Socrates was very different from that of the multitude at Athens, so the Popery of Bossuet is very different from the superstition of an Irish peasant or a Spanish inquisitor. The religion of the Church of Rome admits of much latitude; on the one hand, it accords every thing to superstition; practices the most gross and ridiculous are tolerated: on the other hand, it accords much to the new convert, who yet struggles against the absurdities of the superstition which he is espousing. Hence the doubtfulness that is attached to all expositions of the Romish faith, when immediately addressed to heretics, where the creed of Rome requires to be softened and placed in its most plausible point of view. Hence Bossuet in his clever exposition, takes as much space and time to declare that " he has not betrayed his conscience, nor disguised the faith of the Church," as to make the doctrines of that Church palatable to the reformed. As the little treatise of Bossuet is the most able that has been written on the subject, and as his is the most

powerful mind (for the genius of Pascal, thougli superior in some respects, was debilitated by disease and superstition) that has suffered itself to be hoodwinked by Popery, a few extracts shall be given from it, which sufficiently condemn vulgar Popery, at the same time that they plainly show the hollowness of the more refined system which Bossuet himself proposes.

The simplest view of reason shows that a creature can merit nothing; when it has done all, it must stand before the Creator as an unprofitable servant; when it has given all, it must add with David, "Thine own have we given thee." The simplest view of revelation teaches us, that man, as a fallen creature, has nothing of his own but sin, and that he can only approach the divine purity invested with the righteousness of the Saviour, and accepted in the sight of God, on account of that beloved Son in whom He is ever well pleased. Simple as these views are, they are sufficient to overturn the whole of Popery. The Papists, justly considering themselves as sinners, but neglecting the merits of Christ, look to other sinners to present their requests before the throne of God; and esteeming the souls of the martyrs to be the favourites of God, have recourse to their intercession, instead of that of the Saviour. " Parceque les saints lui sont plus agréables que nous, nous leur demandons qu'ils prennent notre défense et

qu'ils obtiennent pour nous les choses dont nous avons besoin. Delà vient que nous usons de deux

formes de prières fort différentes; puisqu'au lieu qu'en parlant à Dieu, la manière propre est de dire, ayez pitié de nous, écoutez nous; nous nous contentons de dire aux saints, priez pour nous.”

But

if the reason that the saints are favourites with God is the inducement for the Papists to offer up their prayers through them, why is not Christ, being always the well-beloved of the Father, a sufficient argument to them that they need no other intercessor but Him. Is He less willing or less able to save than the saints? Nothing but the deepest ignorance of the infinite love and infinite power of the Saviour could for a moment permit the impiety of invoking any other intercession but His. But the praying to the saints supposes them invested with divine attributes, that they are present with their worshippers in all places and ages, and this deification of them is so evident a consequence of addressing them in prayer, that Bossuet himself admits it, and with unparalleled hardihood denies that any Catholic ever supposed that the saints ever heard

any of those prayers that are continually addressed

to them by the Papists,-but that even the most illiterate Romanists believe that it is by an immediate revelation from God, or at least, by the ministry of the angels, that the saints in heaven learn the prayers which are addressed to them upon earth.