as to lay her commands upon her Saviour.* There are in popish missals many idolatrous intercessions to the Virgin Mary to that blasphemous effect; and her worship at length árose to such an height of estimation, by the

In a book written by a capuchin friar, and printed in english (permissu superiorum) anno 1639, and dedicated to the lady Audley, intitled "an admirable method to love, serve, and bonour THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY, (p. 53,) we have a de licate specimen of right and true popish DIVINITY." There is none saved without you, O blessed Virgin !"—says this idola ter,-" none delivered from their grievances but by you,-none but by your mediation receives any gift from God.-None but at your suit obtains forgiveness of their sins;-and at page 57, he says, "all the help of human kind consists in the multitude of favors and graces of the BLESSED MлKY;"—page 58, “all the world acknowledges her the ONLY REFUGE of the miserable, and the aim to which all christian people direct their vows and ardentest desires. Knowing for certain she can do all she will For which reason all sorts have recourse to her, as their CHIEF TREASURE IN HEAVEN, the source whence all their graces spring;" page 60, she is again "unlimited in her power;"→ and page 61, "omnipotent in her advocation" Yet notwith standing all these strong sayings, the inspired psalmist says of another, (Ps. lxxiii. 25.) whom have 1 in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire, in comparison with thee."-And many christians think as he does, although this DIVINE will have it that they are all MARIANISTS. Thus do they "blaspheme them that drwell in heaven!" (Rev. xiii. 6.)

repeated encouragement of popes and councils, and encomiums of the ecclesiastics, and the lying visions and pretended miracles of the monks, that litanies to her service were composed, and indulgences granted to her

See Sect. xxvi. p. 181.-The hymns to the blessed Virgin, and the "Psalterium beata Virg."—in which all the Psalms are addressed to her, by an idolater who is himself a canonized saint, and an idol for other idolaters to worship.

Their devotion to the Virgin knows no bounds. They say upon her ten AVE MARIA's to one PATER NOSTER, and call forty times oftner than upon Christ." O Mary, the star of the sea," "the haven of health;"-" the learnedest advocate of the guilty,"-"the only hope of the desperate,"-"the SAVIOUR OF SINNERS!". "Thou callest thyself the handmaid of Jesus Christ, but art bis lady, (or mistress,) for right and Therefore pray reason willeth that the mother be above the son.

him humbly, and COMMAND him from above, that he lead us to his kingdom at the world's end."-Antidotar. Animæ p, 101. et alibi.

Their idolatry of the dead saints (of whom it is known that many thousands* in their MAHUZZIMOLOGY never had any existence, except in the brains of the lying legend writers,) comes little short of this. In their prayer book intitled "Hora secund. usum Rom." is a beautiful prayer to St CLAUD.—“ (! desalatorum, c.-O! comforter of the desolate, deliverer of captives, the resurrection of the dead, the salvation of all that hope in thee, holy Claud, pray for us." This gentleman (or lady)

Not excepting St. Ursula and her ten thousand virgins, nor

the three kings of Colen.

worshippers, to the eclipsing of the glory of the supreme God himself, and making the mediation and redemption achieved by Christ a matter of mere secondary consideration.

though not of our acquaintance, is doubtless of chief rank amongst the Mahuzzim, since he makes quite free with the peculiar titles and offices of the SON OF GOD, Can there remain any doubt that the gods of these heathens are devils? seeing they receive such worship as this?-See Sect. vii. p. 194.

It is notorious that they have assigned to each of them his peculiar post and tutelage, as the heathens before them did to their idols. In war they called upon Mars,-Esculapius in sick. ness, Lucina in parturition,-Cloacina in &c.So in popery, St Agatha is good for sore breasts,-St Appollonia cures the tooth ach,-St Anthony inflammations, &c. Every speeies of cattle has also its own patron saint, according to the thyme

To St Syth for my purse,

St Loy save my horse,

For my teeth to St Appolline,

St Job for the pox,

St Luke save mine ox,

And St Anthony keep my swine.

Blasphemy is justly chargeable upon popery, for the impious titles given to the pope, but they have deserved it equally on the score of the saints, and even some not accounted such. Thus WISELLUS of GRONINGEN, a learned man of his time, was decorated with our Saviour's title of Lux Mundi,-" The light of the world." And one in our own time has made bold

a

Much as our blessed Lord must have loved his mother for her piety and faith, yet he of ten gave the most significant intimations, that his favor in the day of judgment would be dispensed by other rules than the claims of kindred, or expectations of personal friendship on earth. When he was yet but twelve years old, we read that he accompanied his

with another of his attributes, being called-" THE PRINCE OF PEACE;"—but he is not likely to have much peace in the enjoyment of the dangerous title.

In a book written by Antonius, archbishop of Florence, intitled "Historical Sums," part 3, tit. xxiii. lib. 1, s. iii. there is a long and blasphemous comparison drawn between St Doм1NIC (the barbarous and bloody inquisitor, who butchered many thousands of the innocent ALBIGENSES, and was canonized by POPE GREGORY IX. in 1223,) and our blessed Lord Jesus Christ, with a preference given to the popish saint. This archbishop was himself canonized.

That infamous book of "THE CONFORMITIES OF ST FRANC1s with Christ, contains legends of him full of the most dreadful blasphemies." This man," says the author, "is the example of all perfection, whom the church militant hath merited to be an ADVOCATE WITH GOD."-That "all are saved that die in his order, and under his rule." The putting on the HA EIT by him prescribed, "giveth full remission of sins, and freeth as well from the punishment as from the sin. Christ hath pray rd, Francis hath obtained, e," Hist. of Popery

Matt. xx. 22,

parents to one of the solemnities of their religion, at Jerusalem. Unkindness, at such a time of life, to a most affectionate mother, was less to have been expected, and certainly less excusable, had there been a real unkindness intended, and not rather a lesson of instruction, and a design that the circumstance should be recorded, and be hereafter seen in quite another point of view,

Jesus staid behind in the temple, after his parents and their numerous friends had departed. Here he entered into disputations with the great luminaries of the jewish reli gion at that time, both hearing their opinions, and (in the manner of Socrates) asking them questions, of such a nature, as must necessarily lead them to become instructors of themselves, without jealousy or suspicion of their teacher. Thus he would introduce them to new ideas, and lead them imperceptibly to a more correct apprehension than the scribes had before of the office of the Messias whom they expected, and of the true meaning of the prophecies on that subject. For in truth ma