be disagreeable to you, Gentlemen, whofe candour and love of truth I am well acquainted with, to examine it impartially, and fee if there be any reason for imputing it to them; or what is the proper fense and meaning of it. In the first place then, I obferve, that I never yet faw in the course of my own reading, nor heard it alledged by any other, that this proverb, was ever published in any decree of their councils, or by any of their Popes, or any public authority among them. Confequently, it is no part of their religion, it is no article of their creed, for they acknowledge nothing as fuch, but what has the public fanction of their Church-authority ftamped upon it. Secondly, I never yet could be certainly informed, that it was taught, in the general terms above expreffed, by any particular divine of their communion; fo that I am really at a lofs to know whence it could arife, and why it should be attributed to them at all. But, thirdly, when I converfed with fome RomanCatholick acquaintances concerning it, they referred me to one of their greatest divines for an explication of it, viz. St Thomas of Aquin, who is a standard among them for all theological matters, and who lived in thefe very middle ages, which Proteftants commonly alledge were over run with more than Cimmerian darknefs, and confequantly a proper season for fuch a proverb to gain ground in the world. This learned man then, in the second part of his Sum of divinity, in the article of devotion, observes, that true devotion confifts in an affectionate converfion of the will to God and a continual readiness to do what is agreeable to him. Hence he infers, that whatever

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increases our esteem and love to God, increases our devotion: and, on the contrary, whatever increases the esteem and love of ourselves, diminishes devotion. As, therefore, the more we know of God, of his Divine perfections, of his infinite love to us, and of what he has done for us, the more we muft of course esteem and love him; therefore, all fuch knowledge, which is chiefly acquired by holy meditation on the great truths of religion, by increasing our esteem and love of God, increases our devotion. On the contrary, as we find from experience, that worldly learning, and the knowledge of thefe fciences which are esteemed among men, generally speaking, from the corruption of our heart, puff up our minds with vanity, fill us with felf-conceit, and increase felf-love; while, at the fame time, they carry off the mind from giving due attention to those facred truths which more directly, and more effectually, fill us with a fenfe of our own weakness, and a high esteem of God, that, therefore, fuch worldly learning, generally speaking, is rather a ftop and hinderance to true devotion, This is the fubftance of what that learned divine fays upon this fubject; which is certainly moft juft and conformable both to the doctrine of St Paul, who affures us, That knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth, 1 Cor. viii, 1.; and likewise to experience itself, as we daily find more love to God, more fear of offending him, and more defire of pleafing him, in poor illiterate people, who know nothing but the great truths of religion, and take delight in meditating thereon, than in those of the greatest learning, whofe minds are puffed up with a vain conceit of themselves; and who, as the fame holy apofte obferves, thinking they

know fomething, know nothing as yet that they ought to know, I Cor. viii. 2. Now, you will eafily obferve, Gentlemen, that the above explication of St Thomas unriddles the whole mystery of the proverb: For if ever any Roman-Catholick author used that proverb in his writings, it is evident, from all we have seen above, that he could never mean by it, That ignorance of God, or of the truths of Christianity, is the mother of devotion; for this sense of it is evidently contrary to the prin ciples, practice, and most authentic decrees of his church, and to the doctrine of their most celebrated divines; and it is in this fenfe only that it is, or can be, of any weight against the Catholicks. The only fenfe then in which it could be used by any writer of that communion, is, That ignorance of the human fciences, and vain philofophy is, generally speaking, rather a help than a hinderance to devotion; not fo much indeed from any particular opposition that these things have of themselves to devotion; but from the pride of our heart, which commonly gathers ftrength and increase from them, and thereby fhuts the door against true devotion; which can never exist except it be founded in true humility. But from this, every one must fee, how cruelly unjuft and ungenerous it is to apply the above adage, in the way it is commonly done by Protestants, against the Roman Catholicks; and, at the fame time, what arms we put into their hands by fo doing, to the unspeakable detriment of the Proteftant religion.

The next example of this kind is in the account given by our author, of the corruptions that have infected the morals of Chriftianity,

from the spirit of false religion; in which he pre fents us with another fcene of falfehood, mifreprefentation, and flander. The fubjects he has chofen for his purpose here, are, first, The practice of Roman-Catholicks of fasting and abstinence, with their religious vows of chastity and poverty; and, fecondly, That vulgar flander fo commonly alledged against them, to the difgrace of humanity, That they have it for a principle of religion, to lie, betray and murder; when by fo doing the interest of their church can be promoted. I am fenfible, that in detecting the defpicable conduct of this writer in what he fays upon these fubjects, I muft be obliged to relate what account the Romanifts themselves give of them, without which it will be impoffible to form a proper judgment of the matter; but I fhall endeavour to do this with the greatest impartiality, and leave it to your own good sense to judge and decide; being well aware, that I am writing to those whofe candour and humanity will not readily misapprehend me, and whofe impartiality and efteem for truth makes them readily embrace her lovely form where-ever they find it, from a Papift as well as from a Proteftant.

Our author introduces what he has to fay against fasting and abstinence, and monaftic vows, by condemning them at once, as " extravagan"cies the most marvellous, the most frantic; fuch

as dishonoured the name of religion, and rendered "men worse than useless," p. 52. One would naturally expect, from this fevere condemnation, that he would demonftrate fomething very fhocking and odious in these practices, and bring convincing proofs of his heavy charge against them. But here the author fails us entirely, and his

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bold affertion is the principle proof we are to expect; only, he lets us know, that these things took their rife from fuperftition, which makes that people believe, That "the lefs pleasure they "admit on any account, and the more pain they inflict "upon themselves, the more perfect they are, and "the more acceptable to God; from which falfe principle, (fays he), and a perverfe interpre"tation of the scripture, all their vows of ab"stinence, celibacy and poverty, take their rise; " and, under the pretext of thefe, they difpenfe "themselves from the duties they owe to their fel"low-creatures by the irrevocable laws of na"ture, become useless and idle members of fo"ciety and public nuisances."

If now I apply to a Roman-Catholick, and afk what he has to fay against this charge, he holds up his hands with wonder and furprise, to fee a person of common fenfe publish to the world fuch calumnies. In the first place, he abfolutely denies the abfurd principle upon which all this accufation is founded, and affures me, "That

nothing is further from the doctrine of his "church, than to believe that perfection con"fifts in depriving ourselves of pleasure, and inflicting pain upon our own perfons, or that the more we do fo, the more perfect we are; that 66 to accufe the Roman-Catholicks of this is mere "mifrepresentation and flander, and confequently that all the author builds upon this founda"tion deferves no better appellation. He refers "me to all their books of devotion and inftruc"tion, published for the use of their people, ❝and in every body's hands among them; where "we find it their unanimous doctrine, That per“fection consists effentially in purity of heart,

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