of adoration of an idol, though without the intention, is a true act of idolatry. So that for a man to mind what he doth when he is at prayers, or to be earnest in his desires of that which he prayeth for, though it may possibly be a commendation and accomplishment, yet it is not necessary, either to the pleasing of God, or satisfying of his duty, according to the church of Rome. Nay, it is a praise for a man to draw nigh with the mouth, and honour him with the lips, though the heart be far from God; notwithstanding that our Saviour, after the prophet Isaiah, blamed the Jews for so doing. Indeed, such a kind of superficial Christians will this doctrine make, that a pharisee would have been an excellent man, if he had lived in these days.

And pursuant to this doctrine of the no-necessity of attention at prayers, they take care that the people shall not be able to attend to what is done; and therefore provide, that the public prayers, and the scripture itself, shall be only in a language unknown to the people, and are so desperately fond of this device of keeping the people ignorant of what is prayed for, that their casuists have defined, that a man may say his Office privately in other languages besides the Latin, as in Hebrew or Greek, but not in the vulgar language; at the same time keeping the people in ignorance, and discouraging them in their devotions, and exercising their authority over them in the most dangerous manner that can be.

6. Their ascribing spiritual effects to several things, which are purely of their own invention, is much to the discouragement of true devotion towards God. And yet they have very many things of this nature: as holy water, by the being sprinkled with which they believe the Devil shall have less power over them; Agnus Dei's, swords, and medals, which they wear to preserve them from dangers; which being consecrated according to the rules of their church, have, through the devotion of the persons, and the power of the church, a wonderful good effect, though indeed God never promised any such thing.

To this head I may refer also their rosary, which is nothing else but an odd combination of Paternosters and Ave Mary's; several short prayers, to the saying of which thousands of years of pardon of sins are annexed; their carrying the image

of St. Genovefa in procession at Paris, and other images in other places, to obtain rain, &c., and innumerable other such like practices, on which men are taught to rely, and to expect great good by, though they have neither any natural force or efficacy that way, nor any assurance from God that such effects shall follow. Nay, even the sacraments themselves, according to the doctrine of the church of Rome, are only such a kind of charms; for they are supposed to work effectually on the person, without any devotion or virtuous disposition being required of him in order to it.

Now, whatever effect they promise above what the natural efficacy of the thing is apt and able to produce, they must have express authority from God, or else they sadly delude and cheat those poor souls that depend upon them: and at the best they are supposed only a shorter cut to heaven, an easier way of pleasing God, and getting his blessing, and are invented only to ease a man of the fatigue and trouble of the common and ordinary road of serving him by a constancy and regularity of devotions.

Seventhly, Their manuals and books of devotion, which they give their people to read instead of the scripture, which they forbid to be used, though they may design them as helps, yet I must range them among the hinderances of devotion.

For the best of them are so full of tautologies and vain repetitions, that they must needs come under the censure of our blessed Saviour, Matt. vi. though they use his own holy name. For so in the Jesus Psalter, at the end of the Manual of Prayers and Litanies, printed at Paris in English, an. 1682, in a Litany of fifteen petitions, the name Jesu is repeated over above 130 times. And in the same book, in the Litany of the blessed Virgin, they pray to her by forty several names, being only so many distinct praises of her: and the like is observable in all their books of devotion which I ever saw. Now their saying the same thing so often over, is not contrived to help and assist attention, or prevent distraction, or as a repetition of what is more than ordinarily important, or for any other good and prudent reason, but out of pure vanity and ostentation, or as it were even to flatter our blessed Saviour, or the saint which they pray to.

But most of the books and legends which they put into the

hands of their people to excite their devotion, and by which the people take an estimate of the Christian religion, are such wretched plain forgeries, and so pitifully contrived fables, as can never be believed by men of sense; and if they could be believed, are proper indeed to make men mad and enthusiastical, but not to advance true devotion: and he that reads only such books, is qualified indeed to tell stories, and to believe lies, but no serious truth will stick to him, or be valued by him. So that such books as these are so far from doing good, that they do much harm to religion; for they imprint a wrong notion of religion on men's minds; would make a man believe that God is like a child, pleased with trifles; that religion, and the method of our salvation, is only a charm and trick, which the priests have gotten the receipt of; but that there is nothing in Christianity fit to make a man wise and manly in his worship of God, or in the management of himself and practice of devotion. Nay, the stories which are told in the lives of their saints, and believed by the common people, are enough to deprave the natural sentiments of mankind concerning God and religion; so that perhaps it were much better to leave men to the natural effluxes of their own minds, than to pretend to assist them with such helps as these. That a little water, or a consecrated bell, should scare the Devil, or St. Francis's rope charm and bind him, would make a man have little fear of such an enemy, or a prodigious veneration for such a saint; but how it should render a man more piously affected toward God, more relying on his providence, or more religiously careful over himself, I see not. And these stories, though so apparently false, yet being affirmed with such confidence, strike at the very foundation of our religion: for it is apt to make men believe that Christianity itself was at first propagated among a sad, dull, stupid, and credulous generation of men; (whenas really it first appeared in an age as sharpsighted as any age before or since, which is much for its vindication.) It would tempt a man to despise a religion, in which such men are saints, and such practices commended; and will set Christianity but on the same level with modern Judaism and Mahometism; for the Jews have just as much to say for their Cabbala, and the Turks for their incredible fables; for they are reported on the same credit, are just so credible in them

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selves, and just as edifying of the people that attend to them: the miracles which they relate being often just so useful, as that pretended to be wrought in the temple of Apollo; when a man coming out of the temple, it was observed that his body did not cast any shadow; by which thing, however strange in itself, the man was not much the better, nor the world wiser.

But many of their books of devotion are worse than ridiculous; for there are frequently such passages and prayers, as I cannot tell how to vindicate from blasphemy and idolatry. St. Bonaventure's Psalter, both in Latin and Italian, I mentioned before; in which there are, I believe, a thousand such prayers to the blessed Virgin, or expressions concerning her, which, I confess, I could not with a safe conscience say of any creature. And Albertus Magnus, the master of St. Thomas Aquinas, hath not only twelve books of the praises of the Virgin Mary, but also a distinct book called Biblia Mariana; in which he applies several places of scripture to the Virgin Mary, as if she were prefigured in several passages of the Old Testament, as well as her Son: so, Gen. i. 1. that "she was that heaven that God made:" Gen. i. 3. " she was the light which God there made:" and so on through almost the whole scripture. And however cautious they are in the books which they print in English, for the use of their converts here, yet in them we find often such sayings to or of the Virgin Mary, as I cannot reconcile with Christianity; for so, in the Manual quoted before, in the prayers for women with child, they sing thus to her:

Hail to the queen, who reigns above,

Mother of clemency and love, &c.

Elsewhere they pray thus to her, page 196: "O blessed Mother, assist my weakness in all my dangers and necessities, in all temptations to sin, and in the hour of my death, that through thy protection I may be safe in the Lord." Where the Lord indeed is mentioned out of compliment, and for fashion's sake; but they had first begged of the Lady as much as they wanted, or could desire: and, page 80, they call her "Spouse of the Holy Ghost, Promise of the Prophets, Expectation of the Patriarchs, Queen of the Angels, Teacher of the Apostles, Strengthener of Martyrs, faithful Comforter of the living and dead." Now if they print such things in English, what do they print in Spanish? If they do such things in a green tree,

what shall be done in the dry? And I fear that even their nicest casuists give too much countenance to this so gross practice: for they have determined that "honours above civil, cultus hyperdulia," are due to the Virgin Mary; that is, in plain English, Divine honours must be paid to her: for it must be a very metaphysical head that can, in this sense, apprehend a kind of honour above civil, and yet not Divine; it must be somewhat like his, that would pretend to find a mean between Creator and creature, between finite and infinite.

Lastly, This is most notorious, that they enjoin acts to be used, and propose objects of worship, which they themselves cannot deny but there is danger of offending in them, and even of falling into idolatry; and yet take little or no care of giving caution concerning them; and if the grossest abuse should happen, there is scarcely any possibility of redress.

Indeed wherever they speak of veneration due to relics and images, of worshipping saints, and especially the Virgin Mary, they always seem as if they cared not how much honour were paid to them; only they must make as if they put some restriction on it, for the sake of the reformed, who would exclaim against them: and therefore their command for the worshipping of them is general and absolute; but the limitations are so nice and forced, that one may easily see that they very unwillingly deny any worship to be paid to them. For so the wary council of Trent, speaking of images, says, "they are to be kept, and due honour and veneration paid to them:" and though by and by they seem as if they would limit this honour, yet presently they put in such words as make that pretended limitation to signify nothing: for they tell you, that "whatever honour you pay to the image goes to the persons represented," (v. g. to our Saviour,) it seems the honour is paid to him, whether we intend so or no. And hence you may

easily gather what honour is due to the image of our Saviour, and how little fear there is of paying too much honour to it: for I suppose we are all agreed there is no fear of paying too much honour to our blessed Saviour; and whatever honour is paid to his image, is paid to him, if we can believe these gentlemen. And agreeably hereunto, it is very rare to hear of any person censured or blamed for paying too much honour to images, though surely it is as possible for men to be idol