esteem fuperftitious, and vain, and childish. Many place their hopes of falvation entirely in faith and baptifm, and in the merits, death, and fufferings of Chrift; fome in the performance of moral duties, works, which others make little or no account of, esteeming all man's righteousness as filthy rags.

1.

in good

A VERY famous French author and divine hath, in a celebrated performance, defcribed a man thus pleading for himself in the other world: Je n'ai jamais fait aucun mal; j'ai mis tout mon plaifir à faire du bien; j'ai été magnifique, liberal, jufte, compatifant: que peut-on donc me reprocher? i. e. "I never "did any evil; I placed all my happiness in "doing good; I was generous, liberal, juft, "and compassionate: what then can any "one lay to my charge?" All this was allowed him, and also that in his life" the "teftimony of his confcience had been fa"yourable to him." Now furely one would think this person was much too good for hell, and might have been placed in a state of happiness.-No fuch matter.Our author hath condemned him to endless mifery.

SUCH were the fentiments of a Roman Catholic prelate. Let us now hear the opinion

of

• Les Aventures de Telemaque, 1. 18, p. 131, 4to, à

Paris.

of a chriftian and proteftant priest, who, fays Dr. Middleton, “ appears to be a man of "fense and learning, warmly perfuaded of "the truth and importance of what he de"livers, and delivering it with much piety "and gravity." Let us, I fay, hear the opinion of this priest, in a treatise on "the "complete duty of a chriftian, in relation to "faith, practice, worship, and rituals, &c." the end of all which must be to avoid everlafting mifery and obtain everlasting blifs, This author's scheme of religion in general, and his definition of the church, out of whofe communion, he fays, "falvation is not or"dinarily to be had," we fhall pass over, tho' well worthy the reader's perufal, and mention only fome of thofe duties he principally recommends, his account of them, and how they are to be practifed,

IN the office of baptifm, he prefcribes, as neceffary to the due adminiftration of it, that the perfon to be baptized muft, in the "first place, be exorcifed by the priest, by

blowing thrice upon his face, figning him "with the fign of the crofs, and pronoun"cing a certain form of authoritative words, "commanding the devil to depart out of

him. He is next to make a folemn re"nunciation of the devil, and a vow of per"petual

Dr. Thomas Deacon.

petual obedience to Chrift: in which re"nunciation he must turn his face, to the

weft, as being oppofite to the region of "light, and reprefenting the prince of dark "nefs, whom he renounces: but in making

his vow to Chrift he must turn again to the "caft, where Paradife was planted, which "is now again laid open to him. Then he " must be anointed on the head and shoulders "with holy oil, confecrated for that purpose "by the bishop, to enable him to wrestle "the more fuccefsfully with the devil; then "he is to be plunged three times under "water, once at the name of each person of "the bleffed Trinity, to reprefent the faith "into which he is to be baptized, and also “the three days burial of Christ, and his re"furrection on the third day. After this he "must be anointed again with holy chrism, "or a compound of oil and balm, confecrated

by the bishop; and is to be cloathed with "a white garment, the emblem of that pu"rity to which he has devoted his life: then "he receives the kifs of peace, in token of "his incorporation into the church; and "laftly, is made to taste of confecrated milk "and honey, to denote his fpiritual infancy,

and his entrance into the land of reft, of "which Canaan, the land of promife, flow❝ing with milk and honey, was a type."

A s

As to the eucharift, he affirms it to be a real and proper facrifice; and calls facrifice in general," the most perfect, efficacious, and "honourable service that we can pay to God; " and the particular facrifice of the eucharist, "the most excellent worship which God "ever prescribed to man; which by its pur"gative and expiatory nature procures a ge"neral remiffion of fin for the whole church, "and atones likewife for the wilful tranf"greffions of particular finners." In order to give a true and full notion, as this author calls it, of the eucharift, he employs, as Dr. Middleton informs us, an hundred and fifty pages, or about eighty entire chapters of his catechifm. Befides recommending the keep-. ing of feafts and fafts; the latter, " to punish "ourselves for our fins, by fuffering hunger " and thirst, depriving ourselves of our plea"fures, and even of a part of our neceffary "nourishment;" befides recommending these and many other fuch-like duties, he prescribes praying morning and night, and alfo every third hour of the day; and to fome to extend their devotions to every third hour of the night. But to chriftians much engaged in bufinefs, he proposes they fhould make the fign of the crofs, and ufe this form of words" In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghoft, Amen;

❝ as

"as the strongest and most fignificant of " all prayers; because we confefs by it the "myftery of the Trinity, and by the motion "of our hands express the figure of the cross, "or the mystery of our redemption, with "that also of the incarnation, on which it depends."

He likewise advises "to pray standing on "all Sundays, and on every day, between

Eafter and Whitfunday, out of refpect and "remembrance of our Lord's refurrection.' And adds," The pofture of kneeling is

adapted only to occafions of humiliation " and penitential devotion; but that of stand-3. ing is a beautiful fymbolic reprefentation of "our Lord's refurrection, proper to raise our thoughts from the earth, and to unite them

more closely with God and the things "above: and no ceremony of the church can "be more efficacious for the purpofe of ele"vating the mind, and inflaming the affec-" "tions, and stirring up the faculties of the " foul "

SUCH are fome mens fentiments, and thus do they differ concerning the fins for which,* according to their apprehenfions, everlasting punishments are to be inflicted, and the

Dr. Middleton's works, 4to ed. Vol. I. p. 195 196, 199, 200, 203.