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I am the larger and warmer upon this subject, because the Nonjuring clergy, and those who agree with them in every thing but in not taking the oaths, have shewn so much zeal, and preached and written so much for the restoration of penance, among the other chimeras and barbarities of Popery. It is a doctrine admirably contrived for intoxicating and enslaving the spirits and persons of men, and for opening their purses; and no wonder that the advocates for levitical empire are so fierce for it. But, as it can never be introduced, without the total extripation of all civil and religious liberty, it becomes all sober Christians and rational men to be as zealous against it.

NUMBER 68.

The Teachers of all Sects (who lay claim to Power and Submission) how apt to reproach, yet how much resembling each other.

ALL sects reproach one another; but though all their reproaches be generally too well grounded, they should in good policy spare them, and be equally silent, since most can equally recriminate. By the contrary conduct they do but furnish one another with reciprocal weapons, invite an assault by giving it, and arm men of free and unlisted minds against them all. "Why do you keep the Bible from the laity?" says a Protestant minister to a Popish priest: "Why do you not give it them in their own tongue ?" The priest answers, "Why do you not give it them in their own sense?" "So we do," says the minister, "when their sense of it is orthodox,;" "that is, when they submit to your sense," says the priest. "Just so do we, but with more sincerity. We tell them they cannot, they shall not understand it for themselves. And while both you and we keep the spirit and explication of it to ourselves, what avails the dead letter? What signifies poring over leaves and print with another man's eyes? If they must not understand it as they please, where is the pleasure of reading? Would it not be downright mockery in me, to say to you, Sir, some men are so barbarous as to let their necessitous friends go naked. There's Lord Peter does so, an inhuman wretch, though he pretends to be the most fatherly and most Christian creature alive. But my name is John or Martin; I hate Lord Peter, and abominate bis example so much, that I neither eat nor drink with him. I will, therefore, in charity to your poor carcass, give you freely a suit of clothes; they shall be made solely for your use, and be entirely yours. But because, though you want them sadly, your are not qualified to wear them yourself, I will wear them for you. But you may declare to all the world, as I will, that they are your clothes, and that you have the free use of them; though for good reasons, you are not permitted to make use of that use; and you and I will rail plentifully all the while at Lord Peter, who keeps all the wool to himself, and will not allow his

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creatures and followers a rag of clothes, like a miser as he is! a wolf? a tyrant !"

I know not what the Protestant could answer to this raillery of the Catholic. To say that the Pope is anti-christ, and an usurper would be no answer, or a foolish one. For, I take upon me to maintain, that anti-christ has as valid a right to be an usurper, and to do ill and inconsistent things, as any good Christian whatsoever. I do further aver on the other side, that the Bible is of no use but to be understood; that another man's understanding is not my understanding; that heretics and scismatics have as much need to read the Scripture, as any the most orthodox and conforming man; that the laity have souls to be saved as well as the clergy; that the word of God is of sovereign use thereunto; and that no man can be pious or knowing by proxy.

We ought at least to be free from the faults with which we upbraid others. The Popish travellers relate with abhorrence the superstitious phrenzies, and religious barbarities of the modern Pagans, which, compared with those of their own church are few and tolerable. Their church has refined the godly madness of heathenism, enlarged it beyond bounds, carried pious wickedness as far as human craft and selfishness can carry it.

The Lama or arch-priest of Great Tartary, is a considerable monster, and described as a hideous one by Catholic writers, who adore the Pope, a monster more complicated and terrible. Dr. Gemelli, a Romish traveller, tells us, "That impious and ridiculous adoration is paid by the Tartars to a living man, whom they call Lama, that is, great priest or priest of priests; because from him, as the source, they receive all the grounds of their religion or idolatry; and therefore they give him the name of eternal father. This man is adored as a deity, not only by the inhabitants of the place, bot by all the kings of Tartary, who own a subjection to him in matters of religion. And therefore not only these kings, but their people, go in pilgrimage, with considerable gifts, to adore him as a true and living God. He, as a great favour, shews himself in a dark place of his palace, adorned with gold and silver, and lighted by several hanging lamps, sitting upon a cushion of cloth of gold, on a place raised from the ground, and covered with fine carpets. Then they all prostrate themselves flat on the ground, and humbly kiss his foot. Hence he is called father of fathers, high-priest, priest of priests, and eternal father. For the priests, who are the only persons who attend, and wait on him upon all occasions, make the simple strangers believe wonders of his sanctity. And, that he may be thought immortal when he dies, they seek out through all the kingdom for one very like him; and having found one, place him upon the throne, and make all the kingdom hold it as an article of faith, (they being all ignorant of the imposture) that the eternal father rose again out of hell, after seven hundred years, and has lived ever since, and will live to eternity: which is so deeply imprinted on the minds of those barbarous people, that no man amongst them makes the least doubt of it. They adore him so blindly, that he thinks himself completely happy, who has the fortune to get the least bit of his excrement, which is bought at a great rate. They believe that by wearing it about their necks in a gold box, as the great lords use to do, it is a sure defence against all evils, and an antidote against

all diseases; and there are those, who out of devotion put some of it into their meat. This living deity is of such great authority throughout all Tartary, that no king is crowned till he has sent ambassadors with rich presents to obtain the great Lama's blessing, for a happy and prosperous reign. His residence is in the kingdom of Barautola, or Lossa, where he assumes the regal dignity, though he takes nothing upon him of the government, contenting himself with the honour, living quietly and peaceably, and leaving the care of the kingdom to another, who they call Deva, or Dena: which is the reason why they say there are two kings in Barautola.”—Churchill's Collections, Vol. iv. p. 325.

This is the character of the Lama, who does pretty well for a pope of rude and savage Tartars, but is, in reality, an innocent and limited cheat, compared to the Lama of Rome; who, like the other, is often stiled our Lord God the Pope, and like him receives adorations: but in pretensions to power and mischief, the other is a babe to him. Here an old crazy friar, avowedly subject to follies, diseases, and death, affects a power over heaven, earth, and bell; and, though he cannot restore a lost finger, pretends to save or damn the souls of all mankind; and to open and shut, at his pleasure, the gates of the upper and infernal worlds, though not a door in his own palace will lock or unlock at his command. He is so far from living peaceably, and not meddling with government, that he has made and murdered kings, claims a sovereignty over sovereigns, and has butchered, or caused to be butchered, a great part of the world, for the ambition of governing the rest. In the midst of his hypocrisy, impurities, and tyranny, he sets up for such infinite sanctity, that he has engrossed the word, is styled sanctity itself, and conveys (generally sells) saintship to all that have it. Hitherto be has not thought fit to canonize his own personal excrements. But the excrements of the dead, their rotten bones, dried flesh, their hair and nails, serve the same purpose, are as highly reverenced, and travel over the globe at a high price. And the putrid, perishing remains of the dead, who could not defend themselves from casualties, executions, and the common lot of nature are esteemed the guards and security of the the living. For the rest, the Lama's foot is as good as the Pope's toe; and in grimace, pomp, the awe of sounds and appearances, his holiness still exceeds. Nor do we find that the Lama ever set his sanctified foot upon the necks of princes.

By this idea of these two monsters, it will appear which is the more frightful.

The fathers missionaries were greatly astonished, and pierced at the heart with the wild and nasty superstitions of the East India Pagans; who, in some places, whenever a cow urines, run to that fountain to drink and wash, as an act of religion. Now, I would be glad to know of the reverend fathers, wherein the cow's holy water and theirs differ in cleanliness and efficacy? Is theirs a stronger or a sweeter lee for the soul; or does it more potently purify from sin?

NUMBER 69.

The Hierarchy of Rome, how like that of Japan. The obvious Danger to a State from Popish Missionaries.

I HAVE, in my last, shewn the resemblance between the Pope of Rome, and him of Tartary, I shall not now enquire whether the domina tion of priests does not naturally end in a papacy; in exalting one with blasphemous titles and pretensions over all the rest, and over all men; or whether the popedom of Rome is not an improved copy of the popedom of barbarous Pagans; but shall here draw from the history of Japan some passages and observations concerning its Pagan hierarchy, to which the Popish hierarchy bears so intimate a likeness.

The general name for the Japanese priests, is Bonzes. These profess to live in celibacy, and have laws forbidding them the use of wo men, as a thing filthy and detestable; but they are allowed the use of boys as a practice holy and virtuous. They have a priestly sovereign, with uncontrolable authority over them all. He is an infallible judge in matters of religion, and makes unerring decisions about public and private worship, and about points necessary to be believed concerning the Deity; without believing which, I presume be tells them they cannot be saved. This pontiff chooses and consecrates the paudes, a sort of ecclesiastics of quality, lower than himself, but higher than the bonzes, who resemble monks, as those do bishops.

They abstain from fish and flesh; they shave their heads and beards; and under the appearance of an austere life, conceal their debauche. ries. A considerable branch of their revenue arises from burials; and a very great one from the refreshments which they undertake, for large offerings, to procure to the souls of the dead, I suppose, by masses, penance, and conjuration. It is plain from hence, that they have a purgatory; and the poor people, who have great faith in their power there, spare nothing to bribe the Bonzes, to release their friends out of it. These holy men have yet another high pious fetch to cheat their simple flocks, and enrich themselves; they borrow money to be paid with great interest in the other world, and tell the lenders what a rare bargain they have.

There is however one good thing to be said of the monks of Japan; and in it they differ as much from the Romish monks, as they agree with them in impurities and devout knavery. They are of twelve different sects, or religions, and each has full liberty to follow their own. They say, that the bodies of men may be a-kin, but their understandings know no kindred This is to assert the natural independency of conscience, and even Christian charity; to the infamy of such Christians, who will allow no man to have a conscience, unless he has their conscience; which, by the character that in this they give of themselves, no honest man would choose to have.

The Bonzes and their superiors have amongst their deities dead men canonized to these they pray and make offerings, (at the people's expence,) as the Popish Bonzes do their saints. These their artificia!

deities are so complaisant, that for the pronouncing of one word, they will save you. It is a principle amonst the divines of Japan, that by the single invocation of Namuamidabut, or by barely crying Forenguelio, you expiate all sorts of sin, and without repentance are in a state of salvation: an expeditious cut to heaven!

It puts me in mind of father Barry the Jesuit's book of easy devotions, quoted by Mr. Paschal in his provincial letters, and entitled, Paradise opened to the lovers of holiness, by an hundred devotions to the mother of God, easy to be practised. The following are some of the father's easy devotions: "To salute the blessed Virgin whenever you see her image: To say over ten Ave Maries for the pleasures of the Virgin to give commission to the angels to do her reverence as from us: To wish one's self able to build her more churches than all kings and princes put together have built: To bid her good morrow every morning, and every evening good night: To say every day an Ave Maria in honour of the heart of Mary." He affirms this last to be so effectual, that the practiser of it may assure himself of the Virgin's heart. "Heart for heart, says he, were indeed but what ought to be; but yours is haply too much taken up with the world, and is ever filled with the creature; for which reason I dare not invite you to offer up immediately that little slave that you call your heart." Nay be offers devotion easier still, and as certain: such as "carrying about one a pair of beads, or a rosary, or some picture of the Virgin." These, or any of these, the father says, will certainly do the business, and he will be responsible for Mary. Do the Japonese doctors go beyond him?

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The chief opposition made to the missionaries in planting their religion in Japan, came from the Bonzes, not by reasoning or disputes, says Mr. Bayle, but by ways common with ecclesiastics. Here they forgot, or renounced their tolerating principle. They had recourse to the secular arm; they animated the kings and people to maintain the old religion, to persecute the followers of the new; and though they could not hinder the Christian religion from making a great progress in a little time, yet at last they worked up the Emperor to violences which drove it totally out of Japan, and well swelled the martyrology.

The abbot who wrote the history of the church of Japan, admires the depths of the judgments of God, and wonders that he suffered the blood of so many martyrs to be shed, without making it serve, as in the first ages of the church, for seed rising up fruitfully into new Christians. Mr. Bayle's reflection upon these words of the abbot is just I shall give it at length.

Without taking liberty, says he, to search after the reasons which the wisdom of God may have to permit at one time what it permits not at another, one may say, that the Christianity of the sixteenth century had no right to hope for the same favour and protection from God, as the Christianity of the three first ages. This last was a benevolent religion, gentle, patient; a religion which recommended to subjects submission to their sovereigns, and aspired not to an elevation over thrones by the means of rebellion. But the Christianity preached to the infidels of the sixteenth century was no longer such: It was a bloody, a murdering religion; for five or six hundred years accustomed to carnage; she had contracted an inveterate habit of maintaining and ag