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the ftate of foreign nations, to obferve with "admiration, the advantages thefe religious people are of to their refpective countries? "Some of them are employed in inftructing the

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people, as fpiritual teachers, in the concerns "of religion; fome keep public schools for the "education of youth, and go through all the

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drudgery of teaching the rudiments of gram"mar, as well as the more fublime sciences, to "numerous auditories; and, that without any "fee or reward from their scholars themselves,

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being content with food and rayment allow"ed them from their order. Can any thing be "of more general benefit to the people than "this, feeing, by this means, the poorest amongst "them may have the beft education for their "children, without cofting them a farthing? o"thers again employ themselves in publishing, "for the benefit of mankind, the fruits of their "studies and learning; and to them the world "is indebted for the most excellent productions "in all kind of literature. What fhall I fay of "numbers of thofe religious people, who, full "of zeal for the good of fouls, go cheerfully to "the utmost corners of the earth, to preach the

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gofpel to the heathen world in the midst of "numberless hardships, and have been the happy inftruments of converting many nations "to the faith of Chrift? Even the very nuns "themselves, their religious women, though generally more retired from the world than "the others, yet are not wanting in contributing their mite to the good of their fellow crea"tures; how many of them teach public schools of young girls, inftructing them in what they

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"moft need for their ftation in the world? "Whilft others give the beft of education to those young ladies who are boarded with them; as " is well known to numbers both of our English

nobility and gentry who have got their educa"tion among them? And are not all thefe reli"gious orders employed, as an effential duty of

their ftate, in pouring out their daily prayers ૉટ to heaven for the bleffing of God upon their "country? And can these be called idle ufelefs "members of fociety and public nuifances? Or can a "fcanty maintenance of food and raiment be "in juftice refufed them? With fhame then be it "faid, that fuch things fhould ever be published among us!"

To this purpofe, a Roman-Catholick would talk upon thefe fubjects: How juft his reasoning is, I leave to yourselves to determine; and only obferve, that, as in the accufation charged upon his church by our author in these points, there is evident misrepresentation and calumny; instead of benefiting the Proteftant cause by fo doing, he has only put arms in the hands of his adverfary, and given him an opportunity in repelling that calumny, of fetting forth his true doctrine in fuch a light, as cannot fail to ftagger every well meaning Proteftant, who gives himself the trouble to think seriously upon the fubject,

I come now to confider the other point our author has produced as a proof of corruptions which have been introduced by fuperftition into the Christian morality; and here indeed, for the honour of human nature, I fincerely wish I could draw a vail over all that he has advanced: for he has in this given us a fcene of fuch unparalleled flander, accufations of fuch an atrocious nature,

and couched in fuch infinuating language, that it shocks me to peruse it, and makes me wifh, if it were poffible, to bury his words in eternal darknefs and oblivion: But alas! the contagion is already published, and it is moft neceffary fome remedy be applied to prevent its spreading; for the venom of his words creeps into the readers heart before he is aware; extinguishes in his breast every sense of pity and compaffion towards the accused; excites the most indignant paffions against his innocent fellow creatures, and utterly extinguishes all feelings of Chriftian charity. O! how unworthy the name of a Christian, to be the unjuft, the guilty caufe of fuch evils; and yet this would appear to be the most darling theme of our auther; in which he feems to exert the utmost effort of his genius and eloquence in order to strike the furer blow, and more deeply wound the unwary reader's heart with his malicious and deadly poifon. He begins this hideous fcene page 55. by telling us, another engine of fuperftition, by which he hath tainted the morals of the Gospel, is a diftinction fhe hath fuggefted between the caufe of God and the caufe of virtue and integrity; thefe, fhe artfully infinuates, may, in certain circumftances, be found to clafh: when that happens, the latter must be facrificed to the former, &c. He then goes on, with great energy indeed, to fhow the fhocking impiety of fuch horrid maxims, which one should scarce imagine could ever enter into the heart of man. But it is no difficult matter to fight against a phantom of one's own invention, and the more he displays the horror of the crime, the more he excites averfion in the heart of his readers against those whom he brings in as guilty of it. Had he here candidly told us,

that there were a handful of heretics, (for fuch appellation they moft certainly deferved who could hold fuch antichriftian tenets), who appeared in Spain about the end of the fourth century, and who held it lawful to fwear and perjure themselves rather than difcover the fecret abominations of their fect; and that the fame accurfed cafuiftry was renewed again about the beginning of the fifteenth century by the Flagellants, another fet of heretics about the borders of Germany and Italy, of whom more by and by; and that both the one and the other were loudly condemned by the whole Chriftian world, and cut off from the communion of the Roman-Catholicks themselves, upon account of these very impieties, he would have acted the part of an honeft man and a lover of truth; but, instead of that, he artfully infinuates, and even boldly affirms, that the whole body of the Roman-Catholicks, who condemned and anathematized thefe errors, were the very persons who embraced and approved them; and, that the innocent reader may fufpect no foul play, but easily swallow down the gilded poison, he cunningly introduces one of that communion as defending thofe impieties, marks in the margin the words which he puts in the mouth of this pretended antagonist, no doubt that his readers may imagine they are citations from fome of their own authors, and then brings him in as appealing to the authorities of learned theologues, profound fcholars, invincible doctors, yea refcripts of Popes and the practice of councils, to prove, that it is not contrary to the will of heaven, to lie, to betray, to murder, when the fuppofed intereftof their Church requires it.

I will not trouble you in defcribing the emotions

that were excited in my breast on perufing this paffage; but, before I begin to enter into the merits, of the cause, I must observe, that the Papifts and our author must stand or fall by the determination of this question. If the Papists be really what this author here defcribes them; if they do adopt these damnable tenets; if they do hold, that lying, treachery and murder can ever become lawful for any end whatsoever, then they are without all difpute the most execrable wretches upon the face of God's earth, intolerable in any Protestant state, and justly deserve the odium and abhorrence of all mankind: But if, on the contrary, they be perfectly innocent of the charge; if they abhor and deteft fuch impieties; if they even absolutely refufe to admit any one into their communion who holds them, then it evidently follows, That-oh, my God! that fucha confequence should ever fall upon a member of any Proteftant Church.-It follows, I fay, that the au- . thor of this unchriftian fermon is guilty of the moft diabolical calumny, and has done an irreparable injury to the caufe of that Church of which he pretends to be a member. Here, my friends, there is no medium, either the Papifts are, or they are not guilty of what this author lays to their charge, and confequently either this author is, or he is not guilty of the most damnable detraction; a detraction fo much the more to be abhorred, as it effentially tends "to ftir up in the hearts of Proteftants an eternal enmity against Catholicks, to diffever the followers of Chrift paft all hopes of reconciliation, and, in Prote"ftant governments to devote the Papifts to "death and diftruction; and, at the fame time, to prevent, in the breafts of those who hold the

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