moon, or any other planet or constellation, &c. were, in the east called, tselamin talismans - or images. Here is the origin of those tickets or gospels, Agnus Dei's &c. that are used in the church of Rome for the same old superstitious purpose. The tickets called gospels, which they hang about people's necks or stitch up in their clothes, are inarked, on the inside, with one, two, or three crosses; and, on the outside, with a large cross. The cross that bishops and abbots wear about their necks is but a small one; but that, which is carried out before them in procession or otherwise, is, in general, like the large Egyptian cross with two or three transverse pieces, to shew that it is to the Egyptian cross they conformed and not to the cross that Christ was crucified upon: for every ploughman in Christendom sufficiently knows that his cross had but one transverse piece. Nay, they sometimes put a cross with two or three transverse pieces in the hand of our Saviour whereby they make him one of the Egyptian priests whose business it was to hold, or set up a cross, to inform the public of the several increases of the swell of the Nile. In order to conform, in every respect, to the heathen amulets and talismans, the church of Rome has, to what I have already mentioned, added agnus Dei's or little images, of a lamb, made of a compound of virgin-wax, balm, and consecrated oil, which they hang about children's and other people's necks for the above superstitious puposes. The pretended properties and virtues of those popish talismans are described by pope Urban the fifth, in the verses hereunder written* which he sent * Balsamus & munda cera cum Chrismatis unda with one of those talismans to Constantinople to be presented to the emperor, who, if he had right notions of the christian religion and Roman language, must have despised the present as much as the poetry, Although I condemn the custom of praying for the dead, yet I would not quarrel with such a poet for saying: de profundis clamavi. When the people get a habit of romancing, there are no bounds to their extravagance. This was Urban's case; he ascribes more power and virtue to those talismans than can with propriety be ascribed to the blood of Christ itself. "They prevent the ill effects of thunder and lightning. They preserve pregnant women from miscarriages, and procure a happy delivery. They grant spiritual Dona defert dignis, virtutem destruit ignis. They ascribe much the same virtues to what they call a revelation made to St. Bridget, which, they say, was found in writing under a tomb-stone in Jerusalem. Whoever carries this revelation about him, and says so many Paters and Ave's every day for fifteen years, will, it is pretended, see the virgin Mary before his death. The pregnant woman that carries it about her shall never miscarry. The house it is in shall never be burnt. The person who carries it about him shall never be drowned, &c. &c. They have several other amulets for the purpose of bridling the power of evil spirits. For, like the old heathens, they impute the evils of life to the influence of fairies and other like imaginary beings. Beside the cross of straw or some other matter, that they fix upon their doors to keep off those evil spirits, they nail a piece of iron to the door-sill; for the people of this kingdom believe that metal to have been impregnated with such a virtue by、 St. Patrick's benediction. When they are brewing they run a coal of fire which they call an Angel, into the malt when mashed. They keep fire near the churn and will suffer no fire to be carried out of the house while the milk is in churning, for fear the witches should carry away the butter. They also bind their churns with quickbeam for the same purpose. They suppose the air to be divided into several high roads infested by a certain kind of petty robbers, which pope Gregory the first calls quidam latrunculi, who rob the passengers of their spiritual treasures. To rout these robbers the bells were ordered to be rung. For when the Bishop baptizes a bell, he prays that it may be endued with a power of terrifying and dispersing the powers of the air. This superstitious notion they have from the old heatheus, who were of opinion, as may be seen in Theocritus's pharmaceutria or sorceress, that, the ringing of bells had the virtue of chacing away demons and dispersing ghosts and spectres. gifts to the worthy. They extinguish fires and preserve from drowning." Cardinal Baronius, in his church-annals, year 58, acknowledges this conformity between popery and paganism. "Such as are baptized, says he, carry an agnus Dei about their necks through a devotion sprung from the superstition of the Gentiles, who hung little bottles about their children's necks by way of preservatives against charms and enchantments. These bottles were made in the form of a heart to remind them that to be a man one must have heart, The christians in like manner carry the image of a lamb, to learn by his example to be meek and humble of heart." ARGUMENTS AND MEANS PRACTISED BY THE CHURCH OF ROME FOR As all nature is in a decay, the antiquity of any thing is but an equivocal argument of it's soundness or goodness; and, therefore, a man that values any thing merely for that quality, gives room to suspect that his taste is vitiated, and that he likes nothing but what is musty and rotten. There is perhaps, no argument urged by papists against protestants, that betrays the cause of property more than this plea of antiquity; and that for two reasons: 1st, because, if antiquity was a genuine mark and note of true religion, the heathen would carry the point from the Jewish and christian, as it is older than either. 2dly, because popery, strictly speaking, is nothing but the old heathen religion as I have already proved; then to plead the antiquity of popery would be to plead the antiquity of heathenism, and therefore every true christian ought to disclaim such an antiquity. But as popery in an enlarged sense is a corruption of the christian religion, a compound of heathenism and christianity; and, as I have already demonstrated that this is an innovation of later date than the christian establishment; I shall here only show that this plea of antiquity is an argument that the church of Rome has borrowed from her heathen ancestors. Never did the popish divines urge this argument with greater spirit and eloquence in favour of their religion, than the heathens did in favour of their own. "Our temples and our sacred rites, says Cecilius, are venerable for their antiquity." "Our mysteries, said the pagans to the christians,* are of a more ancient date than yours; therefore they are better established and authorised than yours are." To which Arnobius replied: "Forsooth, as if we did not know that antiquity is a teeming source of error; and as if those who lived before us could not hear and believe a falshood?" Symmachus in his defence of idols addressed to the emperors Theodosius and Arcadius, speaks thus: “If an immemorial antiquity can give sanction to religion, we ought to adhere to that creed which has been confirmed by a long succession of ages. We ought to tread in the steps of our fathers as they have done before us. Suppose Rome appeared before you and accosted you in the following manner: "Illustrious princes consider the great age I have attained to by means of my sacred ceremonies. Permit me to observe the rites I have learned from my ancestors, and that I have no reason to be ashamed of. As I am free I beg I may be allowed to live as I have done hitherto, "Tis those divine rites that have brought the world into subjection to my laws. 'Tis this religion that * Apud Arnob. has drove Hannibal from my walls and the Gauls from the capitol. Have I then outlived so many hardships to be reprehended in my old age? Though I were still capable of understanding such instructions as people would give me, yet it is too late; It is a shame for a person to begin to learn when he is grown old." To this St. Ambrose answers: "let Rome rather say: I am not ashamed to reform in my old days. Old age ought to blush for shame when it is incorrigible.' We may see in this discourse of Symmachus, that the heathens not only valued themselves for their antiquity, but also grounded their religion upon the authority of their forefathers, who handed it down successively to their children. This is a common resource with all those whose institutions are ill grounded, as may be instanced in the discource of the Samaritan woman, who, in support of her superstitious worship, alleged the authority of her ancestors. "Our fathers, says she*, worshipped in this mountain, and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship." She opposes the tradition of her fathers to the express command of God for worshipping in Jerusalem only. People are, generally, so prejudiced in favour of their ancestors that they think it would be blasphemous to call their wisdom in question; and that to innovate or reform their institutions would be sapping the foundations of the universe, and violating the respect due to the most sacred things in the world. People would rather be wrong with them than right with others. This is the enthusiastic spirit of the church of Rome, whose arguments consist mostly of quotations from holy fathers, who are sometimes called the ancient oracles, the old staunch oaks of Dodona, &c. though such arguments are, generally, no |