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benefit of having the fcripture in our own hands; by diligently attending to the mind of God therein made known, and obeying it in the tenor of our actions. May God in his mercy open the eyes of the deluded; and turn the hearts of those who lead them aftray. And may there be no other contention among those who profefs christianity, than who fhall best answer the defign of it, in the pious and peaceable and beneficent course of their lives. Amen.

FINI s.

7

PAGE 23. lin. 27.

pag. 4 lin. 7.

dele it was not long e'er. contradiftinction.

pag. 60. lin. antepen. for cap. 6. r. cap. 2. pag. 94. lin. 18. after help, r. and to my counsel. pag. 107. lin. 14. r. Rev. xix. 10.

pag. 158. lin. 14. r. 20th.

APPENDIX

I

T has been shewn in the foregoing effay, that the doctrine of indulgences has a manifeft tendency to the ruin of mens fouls. It has this pernicious tendency, even in cafe the indulgences be understood to relate only to fins paft. For if a man who is viciously inclined can perfuade himself, that pardons may be purchased for money, or obtained by any of those trifling meafures which the indulgences prefcribe; he will fecurely go on, paying for pardon after pardon, and complying with every method which shall be fubftituted in the room of real amendment; but will never endure the thought of that change of heart and mind, without which the Moft High himself bestows no pardon. And a Romanist is the more in danger of going on thus to his life's end, because he knows, that according to the doctrine of his church, the priest is obliged to give abfolution to any man in the article of death, who profeffes penitence: nay further, that after he is dead, he may be prayed out of purgatory, if he leave behind him fufficient to fatisfy the priest for his pains. If therefore it were ever fo certain, that the indulgences mentioned in the +foregoing effay, from Thomas Aquinas, from

U

*

* Concil. Trident. Seff. XIV. de pœnit. cap. 7. + Pag. 116, 117.

Anto

Antonine's Repertorium, and from the canon-law, relate only to fins paft: if they were meant only of forty days paft, or feven years past, or a third part of fins paft; or if the plenary indulgences themselves were pardons only for all fins paft: yet it is as certain, that they who can believe, that fuch pardons can be obtained by vifiting of churches, or by any of the other trifling methods prefcribed in the Romish indulgences, will never in earnest fet about the work of reformation, or think of conforming their heart and life to the mind of God. Romish indulgences therefore have much the fame pernicious tendency, if understood concerning fins paft, as if they directly promised pardon for fins to come: and the granting them, in thofe circumftances in which the popes of Rome grant them, is in effect the fame monftrous abomination, as giving leave to commit fin, and granting pardon beforehand. Nor can any reafon be given, why they, who will fet themselves in the place of God, and undertake to forgive fins paft, as they do, may not as well pretend to forgive fins to come.

The Romish writers indeed deny, that by indulgences they mean leave to commit fin, or pardon for fins to come. And particularly the author of the Grounds of catholic doctrine * denies that he means any fuch thing. It would be fomewhat impolitic, if he should directly own it. But whatever this author may mean; what if both the particulars denied by him should be proved by the infallible authority of popes themselves? To this purpose it was intended to have produced

*Pag 49.

in

in the foregoing effay a monumental inscription, containing a pardon for 26000 years and 26 days; and likewise an indulgence granted in the year 1351, to a king and queen of France and their fucceffors, allowing them liberty to break their oaths and vows, when they could not commodiously keep them. But the copy of the infcription was miflaid: and the other teftimony was not produced, because the author of the effay had not an opportunity of confulting the book in which it was first published, and did not choose to quote it at fecond hand.

A fresh and authentic copy of the inscription is supplied by the friendship of the reverend Dr. George Legh, rector of Hallifax in the county of York: to whom it was tranfmitted by George Legh, of HighLegh in the county of Chester, efquire: who took care to have the impreffion taken from the monument itself, and attested by the hand of the reverend Mr. John Robinson, now minifter of Macclesfield in the fame county in whofe parish the monument is ftill to be seen, on the east-wall of an oratory, formerly belonging to the earls Rivers, standing on one fide of the parochial chapel of Macclesfield. There is a brief account of this monument in the last edition of Cambden's Britannia, vol. I. pag. 678, 679. But it is very imperfect: and speaks in fuch a manner of 2 of the infcriptions belonging to it, as to render it very doubtful whether they belong to the fame monument or not; whereas the plates containing thofe inscriptions, and feveral others hereafter defcribed, tho' ftanding in different parts of the monument, are all with great exactness jointed together upon one stone, in the compafs of 23 inches in height, and 22 in breadth.

At the bottom of the monument, on a brafs or copper plate, are the following words; in 3 lines, U 2

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