true that Popery, in the event, may make no confiderable progrefs, yet what thanks would be due to these who have removed the legal barriers, and thrown wide the gates for its entrance?

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ry into England. Yes, indeed, will they tell you fo again.-But our late hellish "plot, adds he, is a plain demonftration, that their whole party believed it pos"fible. But granting the belief of a Roman Catholic, that the introducing of Popery was fo feasible, to be a certain argument that it was fo, and that this "was once the belief of the whole party, yet how does it follow that it is fo "ftill? If they be that cunning and politic people they are faid to be, I am fure "they have very little reafon to think that that defign, which was in fo hopeful 66 a forwardness, as never fince Queen Mary's' days could be boafted of, carried. on with all the art and contrivance, all the fecrecy and cunning of a most ac-, tive and diligent party, favoured by feveral of the greatest perfons in the "kingdom,-the univerfal fecurity of the nation, that then not fo much as "dreamed of the mine that was ready to take fire, confpiring, together with "thofe fons of darkness, in the great work of our destruction; and yet, after "all this was brought to nought, should ever at all (or at least in this age) be "effected, when all their measures are broken, and all their wicked contrivan ces laid open, and the whole scene of that religious villainy displayed to public view, when the whole nation is ftill kept awake with continual fears, and "fresh alarms against them, while the very meanest of the people are as diligent in this caufe, as the great ones which defcend to join with them in it, "and when (to prevent any surprise from the Pope or the Gaul) there is not a "goofe but cackles for the prefervation of our Capitol. Alas! fuch projects as "thefe, when once difcovered, are for that age defeated; and, when fo great a design is to be hatched anew, it ripens as flowly as china does, that must be buried an age under ground before it comes to perfection, and then too is very often as brittle as that, and as eafy to be dafhed in pieces. Thus we "fee how impoffible a thing it is, that, in the temper which now runs quite "through the English nation, that idolatrous fuperftition should ever be here "re eftablished, which by fo unanimous a confent of fo many of our wifest

princes, and all our people, has been rooted out from among us."-" If "arbitrary power be the foundation of Popery, there is very little fear of ever "feeing that great idol reared, whose bafis can never be laid."-" There is "none can be fo great a stranger to the affairs of this country as not to fee how

flong the tide runs against Popery; a tide fo impetuous, fo ftrengthened and "fwelled up with the flowing in of almost all interefts against it, that it can 46 never be stemmed by the small resistance that the most vigorous prince can "make in the bead of fo ruined, fo weak and inconfiderable a party; it were folly to attempt it, and extreme madness to hope to effect it. So young as the Reformation was in the reign of Queen Mary, it might indeed with fome "eafe be plucked up ere it had taken root, or fpread itself over half the kingdom; the number of Papifts in thofe days being equal at least, if not exceed

Indeed I am very much inclined to entertain nearly the fame views, and willingly flatter myfelf, that it is now too late a period for this pretended Catholic religion to become once more Catholic, or even national, in any place where it has been publicly fuppreffed. It bears the fignatures of falfehood, fraud, and folly fo vifibly on its front, that fo long as the fmalleft degree of genuine Chriftianity, true knowledge, or common fenfe remains with perfons, it cannot fail to be held in abhorrence and contempt. And what is ftill greater fecurity than all our celebrated improvements; religious, literary, or civil, though a confideration overlooked by purblind politicians, and contemned by our minute philofophers, the period allotted for its prevalence and reign in the earth is now paft; and the limited time of its existence irrevocably fixed, and not obfcurely declared in the divine predictions, is not far from the point of final expiration. And that event, with its concomitants and confequences, is the greatest and most interesting in the history of the church and of kingdoms in the last times, to which the interested schemes of princes, the ambition and mancuvres of warriors, the political revolutions of empires, the shaking of the heavens and the earth, the feas and the dry land, must be fubfervient and introductory, and of which they are but the portentous and terrific figns. Nor can human power or policy either prevent or retard this grand event fo much as one hour. This is the purpose that is pur

ing that of Proteftants. But now that this idolatrous fuperftition has been fo "long worn off the minds of the people, and the Reformation fo deeply and fo "ftrongly rooted, -the church of England fo firmly established, the Romish "church fo detefted, both for the dangerous innovations of its doctrines and the Co idolatry of its ceremonies, and fo odious in the eyes of the people for its per"nicious principles expreffed in the villanous practices of its profeffors in mas

facres and plots, all detected, and at last defeated, to their utter confusion "that engaged in them: things, I fay, being in this flate, it would be a greater miracle than the moft romantic legends of that church has yet to boast of, "should it ever be restored in the English nation." Anfw. to the Character of a Popish Succeffor, and what England may expect from juch a one. Edin. repr.

an. 1681,

pofed

pofed upon the whole earth, and this is the hand that is ftretched out upon all the nations:—for the Lord of hofts hath purpofed; and who shall difannul it? and his hand is fretched gut: and who shall turn it back ? -I hope in God, who has vials of wrath filled up to pour out on that kingdom of darkness throughout all the world, that he will foon abolish it in Britain, and that the late measures, however feemingly favourable for its increafe, will, through a superintending and over-ruling Providence, have a contrary operation, and, in the event, haften more quickly its downfal.

But though there be but fmall ground to fear that Antichriftianifm fhould become general, fo as to eclipfe totally the land, caufing again a darknefs which might be felt,yet may it increase to fuch a degree as may juftly alarm us, and produce incredible mifchief. Weak as it may appear, it may ftruggle hard for life, and yet make fome last and defperate efforts, before it yield up the ghoft. Nor is its farther growth and progrefs altogether fuch an incredible or improbable thing as fome would reprefent it. Whatever fpecious arguments a priori are mustered up, to prove that Popery, from its nature, cannot be a popular or thriving religion, experience hath abundantly refuted them in former and later times: and, fetting experience afide, there are not wanting arguments of the fame kind, taken from the nature of Popery, the principles of human nature, and even the circumftances of this age and country, to warrant and fupport our fears, and afford but too much cause to apprehend that Popery may yet make no inconfiderable advance in Britain. To fay nothing here of the fpirit of infatuation that is often fent forth among a guilty people, or of the ftrong delufions to which men are often given up, in the righteous judgment of heaven, that they may believe the moft monftrous figments, and the groffeft and most dam

Lett, on Moderat. ut fupra.

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nable lies,-left the graceless part of this age (which already itfelf exhibits the moft convincing and deplorable proofs of fuch infatuation and delufions) fhould dread a fermon; the following things, which we briefly mention, deferve to be carefully adverted to.

The genius of that religion is fuch, notwithstanding all its abfurdities, that it eafily recommends itself to weak, illiterate and uncultivated minds; in which clafs the greater bulk of mankind may ftill be ranked, even in the most fcientific age, and the most enlightened and knowing countries. It addreffes itself more to the fenfes than the reafon of men. The pompous rites, the fplendid apparatus of its worship, its imagery, mufic, fhowy habits, proceffions, and exterior decorations, eafily attract the groffeft minds, and win upon the affections of the mob.-By its confident pretenfions to be the only true religion, in which alone men can be faved, configning all to damnation who embrace it not, it is calculated to work strongly on the hopes and fears of mankind.-The priests and miffionaries whofe choice or lot it is to refide among Proteftants, are often very laborious and affiduously intent upon its propagation, compaffing fea and land to make profelytes. Being commonly Papifts by principle, and living expofed to continual oppofition and contradiction, not to say infult, they are, as may be expected, men of keener zeal, and are ac tuated by a more enthusiastic spirit of bigotry than is common in other places; while the zeal of Proteftants is often too much wanting in a better caufe. By fophiftical and guileful words, by the captivating and high-founding terms of antiquity, fathers, perpetual fucceffion, unity, univerfality, infallibility, martyrs, miracles, and the like, cgregiously mifapplied, may they beguile the hearts of the fimple; efpecially when they have recourfe to the arts of varnishing and white-washing, and prudently employ thẹ doctrine of refervation and accommodation. That they

want

want not men among them alert at pòlemical weapons,' and furnished with a fufficient ftock of erudition, philology, fubtilty, and wit, accompanied with a proportional quantity of impudence, to exhibit their caufe in its best drefs, and to give every argument and artifice its full force and effect, is evident from their late appearances and exertions from the prefs.-Some great families, alfo, are yet, to their difgrace, either openly or covertly, friends to this fuperftition, whofe influence cannot but be confiderable upon their dependants; and fome of this faith, we are af fured, have long been accustomed to employ other methods of profelyting, more likely to fucceed than all the logical fyllogifms, and rhetorical flourishes of their literati, or all the grimace of the priesthood; they feduce the poor with money, and other douceurs of a wordly kind, to make purgatory, mafs, and tranfubftantiation, go more easily down*; and perhaps from fuch liberalities they may have acquired

"I am well affured, that, if the miffionaries who are now amongst us "make any harvest, it is amongst the lower and poorer part of the nation. "And to what is this fuccefs amongst them owing? To their poverty and ig25 norance, cunningly applied to, by liberality on the one hand, and books of "inftruction and devotion (as they are called), on the other. Their neceffities << are often relieved by the charity of the Popish nobility and gentry; they have coals provided for them, to fupport them under the severities of the winter; "they have perfons to apply to under their illneffes, and remedies freely given them, to heal their difeafes: and, being fubdued by the kindness of those "who thus minifter to them in their neceffities, how can they think il of a "religion that thus prompts men to acts of goodness ?" Chandler, Notes of the Church, p. 53. an. 1735.

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"In the country, certain fums, L. 5 in fome counties, are given to every " new male convert to Popery, who is neceffitaus: and the children of the poor in Effex and elsewhere are taken by them, and fed and educated in great "numbers."-The fame anonymous riter also affirms, "That there has long "fubfifted in this country a coalition between Popery and the prime minifter, "and that the principal Papifts have given their influence and intereft at elec tions in confideration of their being connived at." Three Questions refolved, &c. Lond. pr. 1757.

"The zeal of Popery, in this kingdom, is active, is indefatigable. Its very state of separation tends naturally to this effect. The priests are affiducus, f from principle, in making profelytes, and in urging their party to make them. There