brains of Papists. The acceptation of it, among Protestants and all other people in the world, is that it is no more than Numa Pompilius's unbloody sacrifice of bread and wine. They have the authority of history, the evidence of sense, and the mathematical demonstration for their meaning of the Popish Mass; but the Papists have neither for theirs. If one should put the word, idolatrous, superstitious, wicked, or the like, into the acceptation or description of the Popish Mass; would not the Papists say, that, that was a tack of his own? By the same rule he might tell them that, when they put the words, body and blood of Christ, into the acceptation, or description of it, it is only a tack of their own. To decide the dispute between them, the affair must be referred to what falls under the cognizance of the senses; and then it will be evident to demonstration that the Popish Mass has been celebrated by heathen priests for several ages before the birth of Christ.*

* What this letter-writer says of the English liturgy, viz.—' That it was formed from the old Romish' is absolutely false like the rest, as will appear from the following instance. Suppose a man, bred and born in the Heathen religion,should find out in process of time, that his religion was idolatrous and superstitious, but still that many of the truths of the religion of Noah were intermixed with it, which he collects and unites to what, or part of what he finds upon record of the old religion. I ask, whether this collection could be said to be formed from the heathen religion? No certainly, it is even so with the English liturgy. Part of it is taken from the Scripture, and the rest was found to have been in use among the primitive Christians, but scattered up and down and stifled in the rubbish of Popery. It is likewise so with our form of ordination. Whoever does not view Protestancy and Popery in this light, will never see either in their native light.

Hence, it is apparent, that nothing can be more disengenuous than the queres that are put to my Doctorship: they never disputed my right to the title of Doctor, until I became a Protestant. But now, as they cannot dispute my life with me, they would, if they thought I had lost my diploma's and letters of orders, deny that I had ever taken a degree, or even that I had ever been ordained a Priest.. I shall, for the reader's satisfaction, add to this postscript, a copy of the diploma upon which I found my rite to the title of doctor. In the mean time, I shall give him an idea of the degrees taken in the faculty of divinity in Paris. After taking the batchelor's degree, a man must wait two years, and sometimes three, before he can enter upon the course called the licence or licentiate, which is a course of probation that holds constantly going for two years. Then, if the graduate has a mind to qualify himself for benefiting of the emoluments of the faculty, he must pay down a certain sum of money, and undergo a short ceremony that is called taking the cap. But, as the whole merit of theological degrees consists in taking the degree of licence, the graduate has a right to the title of Doctor ever after, though he has not a right to any benefit in the faculty by it. Now, as a graduate should remain in or near Paris in order to be entitled to any benefit in the faculty, and as Irish Priests are liable to be commanded home by their bishops, it is rare, that any of them take the cap, and still their title of doctor is never disputed with

them till they become Protestants. But then Juno must be invoked to wreak all her envy, malice, fury, and vengeance upon their heads. Flectere si nequeunt Superos Acheronta movebunt.

eyes

As to Dr. Middleton's work, I solemnly declare I never yet saw it. And even if I had, I own I would have borrowed as many helps from him as I wanted, nor would I thank any man for it, as I wrote in order to strengthen my brethren, and to open the of those who are blinded by the artifice and sophistry of selfish and crafty men.* Nay, if I had copied out Dr. Middleton's or any other's parallel, it would still be of general use, as thousands might see it through my means that would never perhaps have otherwise heard of it at all. It is impossible for any man to write upon a subject of

* One remarkable instance of Popish artifice I shall beg leave to give here which was this:-at the time that Pope Paul the fifth, had laid the Venetians under an interdict, and when that state was upon the point of separating from the church of Rome, the Jesuit Caraffa printed at Venice some theses in philosophy, with this inscription: PAULO V. VICE-DEO Christianæ Reipublicæ Monarcha invictissimo, & Pontificia Omnipotentiæ conservatori acerrimo" To Paul the fifth, the Vice-God, the most invincible Monarch of the Christian Commonwealth, and most zealous asserter of the Papal Omnipotency." It was observed by bishop Bedell then at Venice, that the numeral letters of the first words PAULO V. VICE-DEO made exactly 666, the number of the beast in the Revelation. This mark of the Pope's being Antichrist, flew over Italy; but lest it should take too much among the people, the Pope caused it to be given out, that Antichrist was at that very time, born in Babylon of the tribe of Dan, and was coming with a vast army to subdue Christendom; wherefore all christian princes should be warned to prepare themselves for resisting so great an invasion. This was so confidently asserted, that it stifled all the effects which were dreaded from the foregoing observation. [See Bishop Burnet's Life of Bedell.]

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this kind, without compilation, as it is impossible to make out the argument without the help of historical authority. But what are all those cavils to the matter in question, or how is religion concerned in those recriminations? Surely, truth is truth still, whether a man hears it from another or discovers it himself.

THE FOLLOWING IS A COPY OF MY DIPLOMA FOR THE DEGREE OF LICENSE.

UNIVERSIS præsentes literas inspecturis Decanus et Facultas Sacræ Theologiæ Venerabilis Studii Parisiensis salutem in eo qui ést omnium Vera Salus. Cum universi fidei Catholicæ Cultores tam naturali æquitate quam divinæ legis præcepto sint adstricti ut fidele testimonium perhibeant veritati: multo magis convenit ut Magistri Sacræ Theologiæ Professores, qui veritatem de divi nis Scrutantur & in eà alios instruunt & informant, ut sic nec amore vel favore aut alià quacunque occasione devient a rectitudine veritatis aut rationis. Cum igitur non solum famà referente, sed ipsius rei evidentià declarante, veraciter nobis constet dilectum nostrum vanerabilem virum & discretum Magistrum ANDREAM MEAGHER Presbyterum Casseliensem in Hibernià vità Moribus, & Scientià fore multipliciter commendabilem; volentes quantum nobis incumbit hàc in parte veritati testimonium perhibere tenore præsentium notum facimus tam præsentibus quam futuris quod præfatus Magister ANDREAS MEAGHER Presbyter Casseliensis in Hibernià Licentiatus gradum in nostrá Facultate præviis examinibus rigorosis secundum ejusdem nostræ Facultatis statuta & consuetudines, diligenter praehabitis, solemnitatibus in talibus assuetis, laudabiliter & honorifice est adeptus die 14 Mensis Februarii, anno Domini 1752. In cujus rei testimonium sigillum nostrum præsentibus literis duximus apponendum. Datum Parisiis

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in nostrá Congregatione generali apud Collegium Sorbonæ Solemniter celebratá anno Domini 1752 die primà Mensis Martii. Mandato D. D. Decani & Magistrorum praefatae Facultatis Sacre Theologiæ Parisiensis.

HERISSANT SGRIBA..

But they had heard only that He which persecuted us in time past, now preacheth the Faith which once he destroyed; and they glorified God GALAT. 1. 23, 24.

in me.

He that will not allow a man to entertain some measure of bias in favor of the opinions he has received from education, must be a stranger to the distinguishing character of the human mind. To act without principle, is to act out of the sphere of reason. Those early prejudices then, being so many principles of conscience and duty, cannot be renounced by any honest man, without a rational evidence and conviction of its being his duty so to do.

But such is our unhappy condition since the fall of our first parents, that those things which were originally ordained for the honor of our nature and the happiness of our being, very often, by a strange fatality, prove the destruction of both. That, zeal arising from the prejudices of education, has often filled the world with scenes of confusion and desolation, we know by the experience of past ages;

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