heathens as an amulet against evil, shews that there was more of imitative superstition than religion in it.

The coincidence between the phylactery of the jews, and the CROSS worn by the papists with the very same superstitious idea of preservation, and too frequently with an idolatrous reverence, seems to infer a prophetic design in our Saviour's censure. The cross

is suspended round the neck, and at the breast, and the sign of the cross is made upon the forehead and the right hand, (exactly where St John said the MARK OF THE BEAST should be made,) many times a day, and on every sudden emergency;-but with what other possible view can it be, than as a magical charm, or a phylactery? Had such a continual crossing of themselves been an ordinance of Christ, yet still the putting that confidence in the outward sign itself, which is due only to him who gives it all the efficacy that it can have, is the way to turn a real sacrament into superstition and idolatry, as is actually the case in the pretended sacrifice of the mass.

The censure our Saviour passed upon the false ideas the jews entertained of the relative holiness of the temple, and the altar therein &c. and their groundless distinctions, and ridicu lous modes of absolution from oaths, may be considered also in the same light. For who doss not see the much more profane superstition and absurd distinctions of the papists, (set up upon the same footing of tradition,) by prophetic anticipation hereby equally held up to contempt? Their holy shrines of the saints, holy images, holy reliques, and all the holy trumpery of their "refuge of lies," and whole mystery of iniquity, which obtain the greatest share of that divine worship and adoration that is only due to God himself.*

* In regard to the worship of reliques the COUNCIL OF TRENT decrees thus. "That the faithful be instructed,that the holy bodies of holy martyrs &c.-SHOULD BE WORSHIPPED BY THE FAITHFUL; whereby God affords many be pefits unto men: so that they which say worship and honor is not due to the reliques of saints; or that those and other MONU MENTS are honoured by the faithful in vain; and that the monuments of the saints, for the obtaining of their help, are in vain frequented; are altogether to be condemned, as the church bath long ago, and now condemns them also.” Sess, 25. Decret. de Invocat. venerat. &c. Reliq. SS. &c.

To so monstrous a pitch of extravagance was the idolatry of images carried, that the image of the same idol was esteemed of greater power, and attracted more pilgrims, and wrought more miracles, and drew a greater

Here according to the present established constitution of the church of Rome, RELIQUES ARE TO BE WORSHIPPED, and confidence is to be placed in them as divinities capable of granting succour to the miserable supplicant. But as this had now somewhat more tender ground than formerly to stand upon, BELLARMINE (who pleads stoutly for religious worship of the saints, their reliques and images,) assigns notwithstanding for these a lower degree thereof, than for their owner whose images and reliques they are. But after all (says he) it is reducible to the same kind of worship. Their distinctions between DULIA and LATRIA, the different kinds of worship, which as above confest comes all to the same thing at last, are to the full as frivolous and false as those our Saviour censured in the jews.-Man of Sin, b. ii. p. 140. See Chemnitius Examen. Concil. Trident. part iv.

In order to make way for the worship of these vanities, they have far exceeded the boldness of the jews, who made void the law of God through their traditions, for these have cancelled it altogether, wholly leaving out the second COMMANDMENT, as words superfluous, or at least unfit and unnecessary for these times, says Sir Edwin Sandys. For the benefit of English catholics it is so omitted in the "HORE BEAT. VIRG. fol, 185." and in the "PRIMMER or, OFFICE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN," latin and english, printed at Antwerp 1599. The number of ten is fraudulently still kept up by dividing the tenth into two,

Man of Sin, p. 145.

revenue of votive offerings in one place than in another; for as there were several Jupiters &c. amongst the pagans, so there are still a greater number of "Our Ladies," which are held in different degrees of estimation of holiness, but all of them more sought to than God and Christ.

*

The encomium which our Saviour delivers upon the doctrines and practices of the pharisees at large, if it be compared with the similar doctrines and practices which prevail in the church of Rome, will speak for itself, whether at the time he must not be supposed to have had in view the pharisees of the antichristian apostacy? The monks and religious devotees of popery are there drawn with such strong features of likeness, as if in fact they had been the originals of the picture, and the jewish pharisees only the copy. And they have taken as much pains to throw the pharisaical cloak about their own shoulders, as if they had aimed at nothing less, and had been envious of the original wearers.

* Math. xxiii. Mark xii. 28; Luke xx. 45.

Like them, they make a great parade of the outward semblance of sanctity, but are truly like whited sepulchres. They have invented different orders of religious, and imaginary badges of holiness without end. They bind heavy burthens for other men's shoulders, and know how to remit and take them off again for a price, (which as far as we know) is a great improvement upon their predecessors in hypocrisy. They lord it over God's heritage in a manner more imperious than the pharisees did, and exalt themselves to both spiritual and temporal dignities, by every artifice of imposture.-One remarkable point of affinity between them is, that they also "shut up the kingdom of heaven against men,” and neither enter themselves, nor suffer any (whom they can hinder) to enter in; but, content to remain in the darkness of lucrative error themselves, they compel others to abide with them and keep them in countenance.-They -They "devour widows' houses," and swallow up in the church the inheritances of the dying, “and or a shew make long prayers," and that for the dead as well as the living. In which te