Old Christianity against papal novelties

Front matter

Qass.

Book.

5"4

Author's Preface

Rev. Mr. Thayer's challenge, page 17 — Character of the Christian religion, 1 9 — The Scripture a true guide to salvation, 20 — Its different versions agree on every doctrine, 20 — Pope Clement XIV. and Dr. Manning acknowledge it a sure rule of faith and practice, 20 — The author's correspondence with Mr. Thayer, 21 — Dr. Atterbury on Archbishop Tillotson's controversies with papal divines, 22 — The author takes up Mr. Thayer's challenge, and writes his " Defence of the Old Religion against Papal Novelties," which, after passing through four editions, remains unanswered ! 24 — Remarks on a scandalous letter to the author, 25 — A solemn address to Roman Catholics, teachers, and people; and to Protestant teachers and people, 26 — Impqrtant arguments, 31.

THE TRENT CREED STATED.

The Roman Catholic clergy are bound by oath to believe and teach it, 37 — Important observations thereon, 40 — A notable extract from the Missal, with interesting remarks, 44 — 46.

Letter I. On Extreme Unction

A host of Protestant writers unanswered, 50 — Extreme unction no sacrament, 50 — The Trent canons on it, &c, self-opposed, 51 — The

4 CONTENTS.

Trent council in great perplexity, 53 — It and holy orders cannot stand together, 54 — Not found in James v. 14, 55 — The apostolical use of it, 57 — The refusal of it to condemned persons, not sick, exposes it, 58 — Dr. Challoner, in its defence, self-entangled, 59 — It and purgatory destroy each other, 62 — Pope Innocent overthrows it, 64 — St. Augustine, with a host of fathers, &c, opposed to it, 66 — Interesting conversation with a priest and two laymen on it, 62 — 67 — Extreme unction ruinous both to clergy and laity, 68 — Weighty questions, by a sick man, to the anointing priest, 70 — The priests, forced to give up this sacrament as false, are, with their council, engulfed in sworn self-contradiction ! 73 — Mr. Thayer's challenge retorted, 76.

Letter II. Infallibility Destroyed

Definition, 77 — Propositions, 78 — Papal doctrines framed to subserve the papacy, 80 — The dogma on intention opened; was designed to prostrate the people to the clergy, but, in its reaction, must prostrate and annihilate themselves, 81 — Popery a necessarily persecuting religion, 85 — Infallibility proved a chimera, by four arguments, 87 — Scripture destroys it, 89 — " Thou art Peter," &c, examined, 90 — The ancient fathers opposed to it, 93 — It involves blasphemy, 94 — Peter had no supremacy, 96 — The popes claim to it an imposture, 98 — Pope Gregory declares it to be the mark of antichrist, 99 — The popes exhibited by Cardinal Baronius, Platina, and others, as the most flagitious monsters, 103 — The gates of hell can never prevail against the church of Christ, 106 — Her true characters stated, 106 — They attach to all true Protestant churches, 113 — The papal church corrupt; eight general councils against her, 126 — Her infallibility destroyed, is clearly of antichrist, 128 — An important note and warning, ibid.

Doctor Milner's defence of his church, one hundred and twenty-two pages of his book are overthrown by a few plain observations, 116 — He, Bossuet, and Manning, did not believe themselves, 122 — He destroys his church at once, 123 — The gates of hell prevail against her, 125 — He is confuted on extreme unction, seven sacraments, infallibility, supremacy, &c, 129 — Predestination retorted, 132 — His claim to sincerity not tenable, 133 — His defence of indulgences and purgatory destroyed, 166 — His purgatory is the third heaven, 172 — It constitutes its clergy

CONTENTS. 5

false prophets, antichrists, 174 — He is defeated on the sacrifice of the mass, host-worship, transubstantiation, and half-communion, 278 — 284 — He is wholly exposed on private confession and absolution, 298 — He is shameful on worship in a strange tongue, 318 — On invocation he completely destroys himself, his character, and cause, 336 — 343 — His defence of miracles is most ridiculous, 346 — His effort, in seven letters, for his pope's rule of faith, is futile, and utterly ruins him, his pope, church, and clergy, beyond remedy, 375 — The Scriptures the true rule of faith, 376 — His artifice with regard to antichrist, and Dr. Doyle's sophism, blown up, 379.

Letter III. Pttrgatoby A Figment

Trent council and her clergy entangled in sworn self-contradictions and absurdities by purgatory, 134 — Cardinal Fisher and other doctors confess it a novelty, 137 — It is disowned by St. Patrick and the fathers, 138 — Strange notions of some fathers that the blessed virgin and all saints pass through a purging fire, 141 — No place in Scripture for purgatory, 142 — 1 Peter iii. 19, and other Scriptures examined, 143 — St. Athanasius and Bede's judgment, 146 — Dr. Challoner and the Roman Catholic catechism annihilate purgatory, 148 — The blood of Christ the only purgatory, 149 — The oath that binds the papal clergy to purgatory, compels them to pronounce the Scriptures, the apostles, the ancients, &c, false, 151 — It is a source of much impious wealth, 152 — Questions to be put to a priest on it, 152 — An excellent argument from Dr. A. Clarke, 154.

Letter IV. Indulgences Impieties

The doctrine stated, 156 — Their use. 157 — Indulgences, purgatory, and masses, cannot stand together, 158 — They exalt the pope and degrade Christ, 159 — The pope's cruelty, and an extract from Tillotson, 159 — Indulgences a source of gain, 160 — The ancients and eminent papal doctors against them, 161 — Dr. Moylan obtains an indulgence for Cork, from Pius VII., 163 — A curious extract, a note, 164 — The church that hath them is, by a papal doctor, pronounced the school of Satan, 166

1*

O CONTENTS.

Letter V. Transubstantiation An Impossibility

When this doctrine began, 177 — Eight important propositions, 178 — Canons and creed of the Trent council, 181 — Drs. Gother and Chal loner refuted, 183 — Reason, Scripture, and antiquity against it, 189 — Conversation with a priest, also an anecdote from Magher, note, 190 — Transubstantiation incompatible with Christianity, 193 — Objections answered ; the term, " body of Christ," in five different senses, 195 — Papal divines against it, 197 — Dr. Challenor on the 6th of John fully confuted, 199 — The true meaning supported by seven short arguments, 200 — The Trent council's threefold sense of the eucharist, 20 1 — Popes, doctors, and fathers contend that by " flesh and blood" was meant, not the eucharist, but grace, 202 — The expression, "verily and indeed taken," in the church catechim, vindicated, 205 — The mass canon destroys the corporal presence and its ministers, 206 — Testimony of the fathers and others on the eucharist, from nearly the apostle's days to the thirteenth century, 207 — Pope Nicholas II. and Pope Gregory VII. opposed to each other on this dogma, 219 — It was no article of faith till an. 1215, 219 — Helvetian confession on the eucharist, 221 — That of the Protestants of France, 222— That of England, 223— That of Luther, and the papal story about him and the devil — his character, 224, 250 — Calvin's testimony, 226 — Concluding remarks, 226 — 231.

Letter VI. Sacrifice Of The Mass Antichbistian

The doctrine stated, with propositions destructive of it, 232 — The mass necessarily subversive of Christianity, 233 — Fathers and papal doctors against it, 234 — The mass and priesthood destroyed by the Trent canon, 235 — Drs. Barrington and Challoner, in its defence, confound and cover themselves with eternal disgrace, 236 — St. Paul destroys it, 237 — Objections answered, 239 — Conclusion, 240.

Letter VII. The Worship Of The Host Gross Idolatry

The decree for it, 243— Propositions in confutation of it, 244 — The

CONTENTS. 7

decree contains seven blasphemies, 245 — No informed pope or priest ever believed this doctrine, 246 — The pope assumes to be true God, and above God, note, 248 — Horrible impieties of the Trent council, 249 — Difficulties of this worship, 254 — Dr. Doyle bound to idolatry and destruction, 254 — The impious craft of Costerus, 255 — The more wicked the doctrine, the more solemnity used in practising it, 256 — Priest above angels and men, 258 — Yet they know not if they are either priests or Christians, 259 — M. Felix on pagan god-making, compared with papal god-making, 260 — The beast and his image, 263 — Concluding remarks, 264.

Letter VIII. Haef-communton A Grievous Novelty

Christ's institution stated, 266 — Propositions, 267 — The decrees of the councils of Constance and Trent, prohibiting the cup, and charging the Lord's institution with error, 267, 268 — The fathers, papal doctors, &c, against half-communion, 269 — Bellarmine's confession, 271 — Archbishop Synge on this subject, 272 — Dr. Challoner's sophistries exposed, 273 — The expression, » mv», the priest's main proof, sifted, 275 — Conclusion, 276.

Letter IX. Ost The Latter-day Apostasy

The divine warning, 284 — Its characters found in the Pope's church ; first mark, false doctrines, fourteen, stated from, 289 to 300 — Priestly forgiveness of sins a gross error, 290 — Protestant absolution stated and explained, 292 — Auricular confession reprobated by St. John Chrysostom, &c, 293— This doctrine blasphemes the Son of God, 294— This was framed for the papacy by the Trent council, as the priest's masterpiece, yes, and the people's ruin ! 295 — Stated by Dr. Challoner, is plain priestcraft, 296 — Without three requisites that are impossible, the whole is useless ! 296 — It is owned that such pardons are false ; and it follows, that the ministers of them are false prophets, antichrists, 297 — Mark 2d. The time of the rise of the predicted apostate, as stated by Pastorini, &c, 300— Mark 3d. Place of his abode, Rome, 306— Mark 4th. Pride and

8 CONTENTS.

exaltation above all men, 310 — Mark 5th. Scarlet array, 312 — Mark 6th. Mother of harlots, 313 — Mark 1th. Worship in a strange tongue, introduced an. 666, by Pope Vitalianus, 3 1 3 — A notable advice to Pope Paul III. against the Bible as the foe of the church, 317— Mark 8th. Forbidding marriage an inlet to great wickedness, 319 — Mark 10th, Fornication, as its result, polluting all classes of men, and all orders of clergy, 321— The testimony of Petrarch and Bridget, 327— Mark 11th. Idolatries, image-worship, 329 — Invocation of angels and saints in pagan blasphemy, 331 — Not taught by God in any age, nor by Christ or the apostles, 332 — It entangles the Trent Council in self-contradiction, and destroys both teachers and people, 334 — Twenty-eight popes, with Carmelites and others, belie the blessed Virgin, 335 — No prayers but to God through Christ, 338 — Invocation involves the danger of supplicating the damned, 343 — Mark 12th. Faxse miracles. A demonstration thai no true miracle has been wrought in the church of Rome for more than twelve hundred years past, 344 — 356 — Mock miracles in the Breviary and Scapular, &c, 345 — Mr. Thayer converted by imposture, 346— Dr. Doyle and Dr. Murray's miracles detected, 348 — Miracles by magicians and demons, 349 — By heretics, 353 — By devils, 353 — How true and false miracles can be known, 354 — Priests put to the test, 355 — Dr. Stillingfleet's fine caution, 356 — Decrees of a synod in Tuam, in 1817, and ratified in Rome, against miracle mongers, note, 356 — Mark 1 2th. Believing a lie ; the predicted great lie, and its dangers, 357 — Mark l^th. Persecution by the beast and drunken woman, &c, 359 — Papal decrees for destroying the saints, 360 — Popes chastise kings and emperors; bull against Queen Elizabeth, 362 — Pastorini's luminous description of the bloody woman and her beast, note, 363 — Thanksgivings to God for Protestant ascendancy, 365 — The bloody Rhemish notes, &c, 366 — Protestants undone when priests get power, 367 — Mr. D. O'Connell's vast inconsistency, 367 — The -papal creed the dire parent of these evil notes and butcheries, 368 — No informed pope or priest ever believed this wicked creed, 369 — Mark 15th. Number of his name, 666, is found in Aarzivoc, " Latin," compared with Vitalianus's Latin service in 666 — 369, 315 — Mark 16th. False god, antichrist; how the pope is made a god, and shows himself such, 373 — He exalts himself above and opposeth himself to God, 374 — He blasphemes God and his tabernacle, 377 — He is the antichrist, 378— Mark 17th. Duration, antichrist's rise, progress, and end, 378 — Conclusion, 383.

CONTENTS.

Appendix

Interesting remarks; papal baptism, &c., considered, 386 — That of Dells, 388 — The oaths on popes, bishops, priests, papal kings, and on Ribbonmen, to uphold the papacy and destroy Protestants, 388, 389— False prophets, antichrists, 393 — Protestant rule of faith infallible, 393 — No informed man can be a priest, 393 — The church of Rome can never be reformed, 393.

Preface

TO THE

FIRST AMERICAN EDITION

An American by birth, a Protestant by choice, experience, and profession, I cannot but view with feelings of the liveliest concern every question involving the interests of either our beloved country, or the church of God. Popery I regard as a question of this class, as having a natural and necessary tendency to mar the beauty of Christianity, regarded either as a system of morals, or as a revelation of religious truth.

Where is the country on the map of this wide world ever subjected to its sway, that may not justly number the influence of popery on its civil and social affairs as one of its heaviest calamities, and indeed as the source of most of its misfortunes.

Popery is truly "semper eadem," always the same evil thing, dishonouring God and destroying men whenever it has the ascendency, and may be fitly compared to those dreadful clouds that at once shut

12 AMERICAN PREFACE.

out the light of heaven and blight the prospects of earth, smiting the lofty oak and mountain ash with fire, and the humbler vegetation with mildew and rust.

Whether, as some wise and good men fear, in the inscrutable counsels of Heaven popery is again to have the ascendency, or otherwise, we shall not venture to predict. One thing, however, is certain, that they ardently wish it, — that they seek it, — that they will not be satisfied without it, — that they will use every means to obtain it, — and that, if they succeed, they will act over again the foulest deeds of deception and death that pollute the annals of time gone by.

Before we reconcile ourselves to slumber while our enemies are busily engaged in sowing tares, let us lay this one thing to heart, that as there is no greater earthly blessing that we can transmit to our children than their civil and religious privileges, so there is no event under heaven that would more in fallibly deprive them of both than the ascendency of Romanism.

Two things are to be attended to, if we would pre vent that ascendency which has ever been the deathknell of civil and religious freedom; let the word of God have free course, let it be freely circulated among them, and let persons of Protestant pretensions read fair and manly expositions of the dogmas of Romanism. Let them see the man of sin unmasked, and flee from his hideousness.

AMERICAN PREFACE. 13

The work now before the reader is one of life and energy, and animated by the spirit of an ardent Christian and a faithful preacher; it glows with all the attributes of truth. The publisher, therefore, confidently commends it to the favour and patronage of all who prefer old Christianity to papal novelties, persuaded that such as receive its doctrines and spirit will be both wiser and better Christians.

M. SORIN.

ADDRESS.

Since all sincere Roman Catholics, and Protestants, believe that our Lord Jesus Christ taught the true religion wholly, and agree that his apostles taught it as perfectly as did He, and wrote the doctrine as* accurately, though not so often as they taught it, (for this would be idle tautology,) and as both believe the New Testament is of divine inspiration, so must they believe that it hath the whole doctrine which Christ first taught. And in this they are the more confirmed, when, after all that has been said, no doctrine can be found in the one version, that is not, (self-contradictions avoided,) found in the other also. To deny therefore that Christ's whole doctrine was thus divinely written, or that it is not in the New Testament, they must agree, involves instant infidelity, as being a daring denial of the apostles' integrity and divine inspiration.

Shall it not then follow, first, that if this religion, this gospel thus taught by our Saviour, be the sure way to eternal glory, it must be God's best gift to man, and that whoever would keep it from man, is man's worst foe, and Christ's opponent, i. e. an antichrist? 2d. That whereas Christ and his apostles taught it to the multitudes unrestrictedly, and that as none but a devil or wicked man could censure this, so

16 ADDRESS.

must he who now blames this example, be either ignorant or insane, or a wicked man and of the devil ; 3d. That as this way of Christ is the sure and narrow way to heaven, so must that doctrine that opposes it be the certain broad road to hell ; lastly, that as they who take the same road, must assuredly meet in the same town it leads to, so must they who carefully cleave to the gospel, be exactly such Christians as Christ himself taught, be one in faith and love to God and mankind, and must undoubtedly meet in heaven. This is my belief; and must, I judge, be that of every sincere Christian, of every informed, honest man.

The Author.

PREFACE.

Shall all but man look out, with ardent eye, For that great day which was ordained for man ! Great day of dread, decision, and despair, At thought of thee, each sublunary wish Lets go its eager grasp, drops the world, And catches at each reed of hope in heaven. At thought of thee ! and art thou absent, then 1

Ah, no ! I see, I feel it :

I see the Judge enthroned, the flaming guard,

The volume opened, opened every heart,

A sunbeam pointing out each secret thought ;

No patron, intercessor none; now past

The sweet, the clement, the mediatorial hour :

For guilt no plea, to pain no pause, no bound ;

Inexorable all, and all extreme t Young.

Salvation will ever be a paramount consideration with every man who is conscious that he is shortly to appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, to receive according to the deeds done in his body. To find the road to salvation, then, that he may walk therein and escape eternal misery, will consequently claim his first attention. That "narrow way" laid down by our Saviour in the Scriptures, Protestants are taught to believe to be the only safe way ; but Mr. Thayer having judged otherwise, has written a book, to call them into what he has considered the right way.* When

* The following is the challenge contained in his " Catholic Controversy :" —

" Mr. Thayer, Catholic priest, will undertake to answer the objections any gentlemen would wish to make, either publicly or privately, to the doctrine he preaches ; and promises, if any one can convince him he is 2* 17 the gauntlet is thus thrown down, to examine the subject maturely cannot by any candid man be deemed improper.

Mr. Thayer has, we see, proposed to open the eyes of Protestants ; and we, so far from being displeased, ought to be thankful to him. As we profess to follow the light wherever it appears, we should therefore esteem the man, whosoever he may be, that shall discover to us the truth of God, as our friend, the beloved of God, and the enemy of the prince of darkness. Matt. v. 19. Phil. i. 18. To hate or oppose any such person because not of our party, would betray the most stupid ignorance and bigotry; seeing Christ our Lord, to whose example and instruction all should ever attend, reproved his apostles for having, in their mistaken zeal, prevented a man from doing good — from casting out devils in his name, because he followed not with them ; saying, with awful threatenings, to discourage all such conduct forever, "Forbid him not, for he, that is not against us, is on our part." Mark ix. 39, 42. But, on the other hand, it must not be expected that we can suffer ourselves to be led astray — to receive a new gospel from even an apostle, or an angel from heaven. If the doctrines which this gentleman has proposed to support can be proved false,

in error, he will publicly and solemnly abjure it, and recant his present belief, as he has done the Protestant religion, in which he was educated. I stand forth in defence of the genuine Popery, as taught in the councils, catechisms, and schools of the Catholic church ; I not only offer this public disputation, but I even conjure the ministers, if they have real love for souls, to accept it, that the people's eyes, who are kept in darkness, may be opened to the light. I also desire them to come armed with all the arguments which Tillotson, and other champions of Protestancy, ever used in its behalf.

"JOHN THAYER, Catholic Missionary."

N. B. It is a plan, a ruse, adopted by the papal writers, to assume the highest possible tone of confidence and sincerity with regard to the purity of their faith, and uprightness of their motives before God, when no informed priest can be ignorant that his faith is flatly opposed to Christ ! See for a specimen of this practice, Dr. Milner's preface to " End Of Controversy."

no man can blame us, or consider we treat him or his friends ill, when, in obedience to God, we reject them.

The old religion, that of our Lord Jesus Christ, is a religion of truth, goodness, peace, and love to God and all mankind. This religion, older than the foundations of the earth, dwelt in the bosom of Deity, and from thence has issued forth to our lower world, to illumine and purify man, and, having enriched him with its unsearchable riches and glory, and filled the earth with its splendours and felicity, to return with him to his God, from whom it came, and place him, amidst the acclamations of the heavenly hosts, as an heir of God and joint-heir with Jesus Christ, safe, and forever, in that inheritance that is incorruptible and undefiled, and which fadeth not away.

That our Lord Jesus Christ was the purest and wisest teacher that ever appeared among men, and that to establish this religion on earth, and therewith bless all the families thereof, and by his death atone for their transgressions, and thus prepare and finally receive them, to glory, was the chief end, to accomplish which he condescended to visit our world, is agreed on by all — at least by all Christians. That the apostles, the blessed virgin, and the other disciples who then lived, learned this holy religion of him, and enjoyed it with him ; that he taught it so fully and so completely that it never can be amended ; and that, therefore, to add to it or take away from it, must argue great arrogance and impiety; that, consequently, this most blessed religion is the only safe and blissful way for all Christians to everlasting life; and that none who reject it, being fairly laid before them, can be happy here or hereafter, is likewise admitted.

This holy treasure, this religion of God, notwithstanding the folly and madness of corrupt men, and the malice of Satan, who would banish it from the earth, is, through the providence and goodness of God, still preserved among men, and. stands on record m that book called the Bible, the New Testament especially. And however great a diversity of opinion may have prevailed among Christians, and unhappily divided and distracted them, so that most dreadful and shameful contentions have, age after age, been found amongst them, yet, when the copy of the Bible, which each party has, is brought forward from the different parts of the earth and compared, their agreement, with so very little comparative difference, considering the many furious contentions of their owners ; the lapse of time since the days of Moses to the end of the Jewish economy, and from the days of the apostles, when the New Testament was first written, to this day; the various translations they have undergone ; and the many thousand times they have been copied by so many different hands, especially before the happy invention of printing, is most admirable, if not a miracle, and wonderfully displays the divine superintendence and mercy of the Lord to his creatures, however unworthy, in thus preserving to them this invaluable record. The Bible, then, being the only safe record to be relied on, the copies of which, in the hands of the different parties, so wonderfully agree, and in which this religion is found, is the book all men should, therefore, love and cleave to.

"The gospels," saith Pope Ganganelli, vol. i. let. 40, " contain the religion of Christ, and are so plain, that the meanest capacity can comprehend them." Saith Dr. Manning, in his Moral Entertainments, "The answer of Christ to the young man, who wished to know from him the way of salvation, saying, < How readest thou?' teacheth us, that if we will be rightly instructed in the ways of salvation, we must go to the divinely inspired writings. The gospel is that which we must follow ; by it we must be judged, and by it stand or fall in that day; and happy is he that shall •be found able to meet that awful question of the great Judge, < How readest thou V " If this, therefore, be the Book to which all Christians should adhere, no other book or man should be allowed to contradict it, or to add to it or detract from it. For if any book, purporting to teach religion, contradict it, it is plain the Bible or that book must be rejected. If it be only in agreement with the Bible, it adds nothing to it, though it may explain ; but if it add or diminish, the divine anathema is immediately incurred. Hence, any doctrines not found in, or contrary to the New Testament, are not from Christ, and cannot be necessary to any man's salvation, but should be instantly rejected as novelties; as saith St. Paul, "Though we or an angel from heaven, (or any other man to the end of time,) preach any other gospel to you, let him be accursed." Gal. i. 8. Now, if the twelve apostles, or an angel from heaven, would, in this case, be had accursed, should not every other man tremble exceedingly, and carefully look to himself, lest he teach any new doctrine ?

Each man who loves his own soul, his neighbour, and, above all, his God, ought, nay, is commanded, to contend, yet in love and humility, for this faith or religion once delivered to the saints. Therefore, when Mr. Thayer's Controversy appeared, and was found to contain several new, i. e. unscriptural, and consequently dangerous doctrines, I wrote to him immediately, and made inquiries concerning them, which shall be found in the following sheets. However, notwithstanding his many invitations and promises, " that he would answer any gentleman, either personally or by letter, any questions on these subjects he proposed to defend," he returned me,after waiting for six months, no answer. I wondered at this, and wrote to him again most pressingly for his promised answer, but in vain ; my questions he would not touch, but sent me a few lines directing me to read certain Roman Catholic books ; books in which, however, no answers to my questions could be found; and advising me, if I would be saved, to enter into the Roman Catholic church as he had done. As I now saw his challenge was mere gasconade, my hopes of any answer were at an end. And as I saw no other pen raised against him, and considered the danger many might be exposed to from such a specious but fallacious challenge, strange doctrines, and other like crafty proceedings, I found myself, in some sense, in conscience bound, and strongly moved to publish my inquiries to him : and thus, though a weak instrument in the hand of that God who maketh weak things to confound things that are mighty, try to preserve the unsuspecting and weak from seduction.

That many able and learned works have been written on these subjects, by Protestants — works which the author is of opinion have never been, nor ever can be fairly answered — is most true. But answers which consist of railing, witticisms, evasions, or mere sophistry, such as have been returned to those Protestants, cannot be deemed answers, except by the ignorant or prejudiced; yet, such in general have been those given them. I shall, for the reader's satisfaction, give him, out of many, one instance.

The amiable, learned, and accomplished Dr. Atterbury, whose fame now needs no eulogy from me, writing in defence of his friend Archbishop Tillotson, in his Vindication of him against N. Cressy, a Roman Catholic writer, above one hundred years ago, thus speaks in page 13: "If any mere human author ever wrote with strength of argument and demonstration, as well as accurateness of style and strength of expression, it was certainly the late Archbishop of Canterbury. Yet N. Cressy, the author of the ' Modest Account,' represents him 'As without sound sense or solid argument, and that (his friend) Mr. Serjeant was much superior to the ingenious Tillotson ;' in answer to which, I shall refer the reader to the preface of the first volume of the archbishop's Sermons, where he will find a full and satisfactory account of the controversy between them, and plainly discover how little