"with another; tho' they do not think it a "fin to break their word, to injure a perfon, "to rob or murder him '."

"THE people of Formosa suppose, that "there is a kind of hell, but it is to punish "those who at certain seasons have not gone "naked; who have dreffed in callicoe, and "not in filk; who have prefumed to fearch " for oysters, or who have undertaken any "bufinefs without confulting the fong of "birds: whilft drunkenness and debauchery "are not regarded as crimes. They believe,

even that the debauches of their children "are agreeable to their gods "." And fo great, fo wife and learned a man as Sir Thomas More firmly believed, and laid down his life as a teftimony of it, that his eternal falvation was concerned in acknowledging no other head of the church than the pope.

SECONDLY, Of the means of avoiding those punishments and obtaining eternal blifs.

"IN India the people believe, that the "waters of the Ganges have a fanctifying "virtue. Those who die on its banks are "imagined to be exempted from future tor

ments, and intitled to dwell in a delight"ful·

De

1 Relation de frere Jean Duplan Carpin, envoyé ex Tartarie par le pape Innocent IV, l'an 1246. l'Esprit des Loix, t. II. 1. xxiv. ch. xiv. p. 81.

m

Recueil des voyages qui ont fervi à l'etablissement de

la Compagnie.de: Indes, tom. V. par. 1. p. 192. Ibid.

"ful region. Urns filled with the afhes of "the dead are frequently fent from the most "remote places to be thrown into this river. "What then does it avail, whether thefe "people have lived virtuously or not, fo " that when dead their remains are cast into "the Ganges "?"

It would be endless even barely to mention the variety of opinions that prevail among Pagans, Jews, and Mohammedans, concerning the means of avoiding everlafting punishments and obtaining eternal blifs, and of the many ridiculous and even wicked inventions they have fought out for thofe purposes. And though all the different churches and fects of chriftians lay claim to, and pretend to be guided by one and the fame rule, which they fay is infallible, yet nothing can be more various and contradictory than their belief and practices on these fubjects.

As means to escape everlafting punishments, and obtain eternal happiness, some prescribe holy oil and holy water to be applied outwardly, and holy bread and holy wine, tranfubftantiated into the flesh and blood of Chrift, to be taken inwardly; with a multitude of other contrivances, feveral of which have been already mentioned, equally rational and efficacious, and which others. esteem

Y 4

» Lettres édifiantes, quinzieme recueil. Ibid. P. 82.

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, in good works, which others make little or no ac-. count of, esteeming all man's righteousness as filthy rags.

A VERY famous French author and divine hath, in a celebrated performance, described 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, compatiflant: 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, just, "and compaffionate what then can any

one lay to my charge?" All this was allowed him, and alfo that in his life" the

teftimony of his confcience had been fa"vourable to him." Now furely one would think this perfon 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 prieft", who, fays Dr. Middleton, appears to be a man of "fenfe 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 fcheme 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 shall pafs over, tho' well worthy the reader's perufal, and mention only some of those duties he principally recommends, his account of them, and how they are to be practifed.

In the office of baptifm, he prescribes, as neceffary to the due adminiftration of it, that "the perfon to be baptized muft, in the first place, be exorcised by the priest, by blowing thrice upon his face, figning him' "with the fign of the cross, and pronoun

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tr

cing a certain form of authoritative words, "commanding the devil to depart out of him. He is next to make a folemn renunciation 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 "west, as being oppofite to the region of "light, and representing the prince of dark❝ness, whom he renounces: but in making "his vow to Christ he must turn again to the “east, 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 fuccessfully 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 represent 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 bifhop; 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 kiss 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 promise, flowing with milk and honey, was a type."

As