"tain of grace," "refuge of sinners," "comfort of "the afflicted," "advocate of all Christians," as she is called in that Litany of our Lady still used in their devotions. For we have no instance of such attributes given to the blessed Virgin in the holy Scriptures, and they are too big for any mere creature.

We will not ascribe those excellencies to her, that she never had nor could have; as, a fulness of habitual grace, more grace than all the angels and archangels of God put together ever had; that she was born without original sin, and never committed any the least actual sin, and consequently never needed a Saviour. These are wild things, which very many of the papists, drunk with superstition, say of her.

We will not give her the honour of invocation, or praying to her, as all the papists do, for the unanswerable reasons above mentioned. Indeed, as long as that one text of Scripture remains in our Bibles, which we read 1 Tim. ii. 5. There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; we shall never be persuaded, by any sophistry or subtle distinctions of our adversaries, to betake ourselves to the mediation of the blessed Virgin, much less of any other saint.

Much more do we abhor the impiety of those among the papists, who have held it disputable, whether the milk of the blessed Virgin or the blood of her Son be to be preferred; and at last could pitch upon no better resolution than this, that the milk and blood should be mixed together, and both compound a medicine for their souls.

We abhor to divide the divine kingdom and empire, giving one half, the better half, the kingdom of

mercy, to the blessed Virgin, and leaving only the kingdom of justice to her Son. This is downright treason against the only universal King and Monarch of the world.

We are astonished at the doxology, which some great and learned men of the church of Rome have not been ashamed to close their printed books with; Laus Deo, Deiparæque Virgini; "Praise be to "God, and the Virgin-mother of God."

We should tremble every joint of us, to offer any such recommendation as this to the Virgin Mary. Hear if you can without horror a prayer of theirs to her. It is this:

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"O my lady, holy Mary, I recommend myself into thy blessed trust and singular custody, and into the "bosom of thy mercy, this night and evermore, and in "the hour of my death, as also my soul and my body; " and I yield unto thee all my hope and consolation, "all my distress and misery, my life and the end thereof, that by thy most holy intercession, and by "thy merits, all my works may be directed and disposed, according to thine and thy Son's will. Amen." What fuller expressions can we use to declare our absolute affiance, trust, and dependence on the eternal Son of God himself, than they here use in this recommendation to the Virgin? Yea, who observes not, that the will of the blessed Virgin is expressly joined with the will of her Son, as the rule of our actions, and that so, as that her will is set in the first place. A plain smatch of their old blasphemous impiety, in advancing the mother above the Son, and giving her a commanding power over him. Can they have the face to say, that all this is no more than desiring the blessed Virgin to pray for them, as

we desire the prayers of one another on earth? And yet, this recommendation is to be seen in a manual of prayers and litanies printed at Antwerp no longer ago than 1671, and that permissu superiorum, in the evening prayers for Friday. A book it is to my knowledge commonly to be found in the hands of our English papists; for I had it from a near relation of mine, (who had been perverted by the emissaries of Rome, but is since returned again to the communion of the church of England,) who assured me, that she used it herself by the direction of her confessor, in her private devotions.

Lastly, We abominate the impious imposture of those, who have translated the most humble and holy Virgin into an idol of pride and vanity, and represented her as a vainglorious and aspiring creature, like Lucifer, (I tremble at the comparison,) thirsting after divine worship and honour, and seeking out superstitious men and women, whom she may oblige to her more especial service, and make them her perpetual votaries. For what greater affront than this could they have offered to her humility and sanctity? How fulsome, yea how perfectly loathsome to us, are the tales of those, that have had the assurance to tell us of the amorous addresses of the blessed Virgin to certain persons her devout worshippers, choosing them for her husbands, bestowing her kisses liberally on them, giving them her breasts to suck, and presenting them with bracelets and rings of her hair, as lovetokens! The fables of the Jewish Talmudists, yea of Mahomet, may seem grave, serious, and sober histories, compared to these and other such like impudent fictions. Insomuch that wise men have thought that the authors of these romances in religion were no

better than the tools and instruments of Satan, used by him to expose the Christian religion, and render it ridiculous, and thereby to introduce atheism. And indeed we are sure, that the wits of Italy, where these abominable deceits have been and are chiefly countenanced, were the first broachers and patrons of infidelity and atheism in Europe, since the time that Christianity obtained in it.

In a word, such is the worship given to the blessed Virgin by many in the church of Rome, that they deserve to be called Mariani, rather than Christiani, &c.

My brethren, let us bless God that we yet breathe in a pure air, free from the noisome and pestilent fogs of those superstitious vanities, where none of those fooleries and impieties are obtruded on our faith or practice; that we live in a church, wherein no other name is invocated but the name of God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; nor divine worship given to any but to the one true God, through Jesus Christ the only Mediator. O happy we, if we knew and valued our own happiness! But alas! alas! many of us do not. We despise and trample upon that reformation of religion, which by a miracle of God's mercy was wrought in this nation in the days of our forefathers, and run to schismatical assemblies under pretence of seeking after a better reformation. We abandon that church, and can hardly forbear to call it antichristian and popish harlot, the foundation-stones whereof were laid and cemented in the blood of God's holy martyrs, that died in defiance of the errors and superstitions of the Romish synagogue. And yet these men call themselves protestants, yea the only true protestants, and will scarce allow us of

the church of England a share in the title. God grant, that by this our horrid ingratitude, we do not provoke him to recall that mercy, which ourselves indeed throw back into his face, as if it were not worth our acceptance, and to cause a dark night of popery to return on us; wherein a superstitious and idolatrous worship shall be thrust upon us, yea and we shall be compelled to forbidden and idolatrous worship, or to death; wherein our Bibles, that we now, not only with liberty but encouragement, carry about us, shall be snatched out of our hands, and fabulous lying legends put in the room of them; wherein our excellent Liturgy, in a tongue we all understand, which many of us now loathe, and call pitiful pottage, yea and popish mass, shall be abolished, and the abominable Roman mass indeed placed in its stead; wherein the cup of blessing in the holy eucharist shall be sacrilegiously taken from us, which is now openly and freely held forth to us all, and that in so excellent a way of administration, that the whole Christian world beside is not able at this day to shew the like; but we scorn to take it, and refuse to receive it, unless it be given us by an unhallowed hand in a factious conventicle. If ever these and the other ill effects of popery, which I cannot now mention, happen to us, (which God avert,) and I trust it will never come to pass; but, I say, if ever these things should befall us, we should then, when it is too late, clearly distinguish between light and darkness, and discern the vast difference between the established religion, which many now call popery, and popery itself. We should then cast back a kind and mournful eye upon our dear mother the church of England, whose very bowels we now tear and