the esteem of their Offices, in which there were such "Prayers and Hymns, and such Lessons, that if the people ❝had understood them, they must have given great scandal:

in many Prayers, the pardon of sins and the grace of God "were asked, in such a style, of the Saints, as if these had "been wholly at their disposal, and as if they had been more "merciful than God, or Christ."-Ibid. book ii. p. 59.

19th, BURNET's observations on Celibacy :

"The pretence of chastity in the Romish Priests, had possessed the world with a high opinion of them; and would "have been a great reflection on the Reformers, if the world "had not clearly seen through it, and been made very sensible "of the ill effects of it, by the defilement it brought into their ❝own beds and families."-Ibid. book ii. p. 69 *.

20th, BURNET's observations an the abuse of Fasting:

"Christ had told his disciples, that when he was taken "from them, they should fast: so in the Primitive Church, "they fasted before Easter; but the same number of days "was not observed in all places; afterwards other rules and days were set up; but St. Austin complained, that many in "his time placed all their religion in observing them. Fastdays were turned to a mockery in the Church of Rome, in "which they both dined, and did eat fish dressed exquisitely, "and drank wine."-Ibid. book ii. p. 73.

21. BURNET calls Transubstantiation one of " the designs " of the Priests, for establishing the authority of that Order, "which by its character was qualified for the greatest perform"ance that ever was; no wonder,” says he, they took all imaginable pains to infuse it into the belief of the world: " and those dark ages were disposed to believe every thing so

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* See, on this subject, the whole of the Chapter in HASENMULLER'S History of the Jesuits, entitled, "De secundo Jesuitarum Voto, "quod est Castitatis perpetuæ ;" a chapter which, from the nature of its contents, the laws of decency forbid to be copied, or even to be referred to, in any plainer terms.

"much the rather, the more incredible that it appeared to "be."Ibid. book ii. p. 83.

22d, BURNET's statement of CRANMER's remarks upon the lovers of Popery; namely,

"That their being fond of a worship, which they under"stood not, and being desirous to be kept still in ignorance, "without the Scriptures, shewed their Priests had greater

power over them, than the common reason of all mankind had."-Ibid. book ii. p. 90

23d, BURNET'S account of the last moments of Edward VI.

"A few moments before he died, he interceded very fer"vently for his subjects, that God would preserve England "from Popery, and maintain his true Religion among them."→→ Ibid. book ii. p. 200.

24th, His account of the duplicity of bloody Queen Mary on her ascending the throne:

"The men of Suffolk were generally for the Reformation; "yet a great body of them came to her, and asked her, if she "would promise not to alter the Religion set up in King Ed"ward's days: she assured them she would make no changes; but should be content with the private exercise of her own "Religion. Upon that, they all vowed they would live and "die with her."-Ibid. book iii. p. 208.

After which, BURNET says, they came and put the "Queen in mind of her promise; but she sent them home

with a cold answer, and told them, they must learn to obey her, and not pretend to govern her and one that had "spoken more confidently than the rest, was set in a pillory

for it three days, as having said words that tended to de"fame the Queen. This was a sad omen of a severe Govern"ment, in which the claiming of promises went for a crime." -Ibid. book iii. p. 220.

25th, His account of the reasons of Queen Mary's marriage with the Popish Prince Philip of Spain:

"She found it would be hard to bring the nation about in

"matters of Religion, without the assistance of a foreign power."-Ibid. book iii. p. 233.

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And of the just alarms of a British House of Commons upon such an alliance:

"When the treaty of the Queen's marriage came to be "known, the House of Commons was much alarmed at it; ❝ and they sent their Speaker, with twenty of their members, "with an address to her not to marry a stranger: and they "were so inflamed, that the Court judged it necessary to "dissolve the Parliament."-Ibid. book iii. p. 236.

26th, BURNET's account of the Queen's deprivation of the old Bishops, and the creation of sixteen new ones; as also of her putting out no fewer than Twelve Thousand of the Clergy without any trials, under the pretence of their being married, as occurring in book iii. p. 250.

See also the whole of BURNET's affecting account of the persecution of the Protestants in Queen Mary's time, as detailed from p. 271 of his third Book, ammo 1555, to the end of her ignominious and sanguinary reign, which concluded in the year 1558; especially his account of the burning of RoGERS, HOOPER, TAYLOR, BRADFORD, RIDLEY, LATIMER, and CRANMER. The statement is too interesting in all its parts to convey any idea of it in an abridgment; but one passage relating to the JESUITS, as more particularly to our purpose, may be added, and this shall conclude the extracts from BURNET.

"The Jesuits were at this time beginning to grow consi❝derable: they were tied, besides their own vows, to an ab❝solute obedience to the See of Rome; and set themselves every where to open free schools, for the education of youth, and to bear down heresy. They were excused from "the hours of the choir, and so were looked on as a mongrel "Order, between the Regulars and the Seculars. They pro

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posed to Cardinal Pole, that since the Queen was restoring "the Abbey lands, it would be to little purpose to give

"a clog than a help to the Church: and therefore they de "sired that houses might be assigned to THEM for maintaining "Schools and Seminaries, and they did not doubt but that "they should quickly drive out heresy, and recover the Church "lands. Pole did not listen to this, for which he was much "censured by the Fathers of that Society. It is not certain "whether he had then the sagacity to foresee that disorder "which they were likely to bring into the government of the "Church, and that corruption of morals that has since flow"ed from their Schools, and has been infused by them generally in Confessions, so that their whole Church is now 66 overrun with it."—Ibid. book iii. p. 295.

The importance of the above Extracts must apologize for their length. It cost MR. DALLAS, indeed, but a few lines, when he sought to destroy the beautiful fabric of the Reformation: but so much easier is it to pull down than to build up, that it has required several pages to shew that MR. DALLAS was not justified in asserting that "the Reforma❝tion has generated the most absurd superstitions ;" and to prove that it was POPERY, on the contrary, and not THE REFORMATION, which was the prolific mother of "absurd super"stitions," and the source of grievous corruptions in doctrine, and of shameful vices in practice; all of which, but for the Reformation, would be at this moment in full and vigorous operation among us.

Let the Public decide, whether, after the view which has been given of the state of Religion in England before the Reformation, the honour of God and the interests of the nation did not imperiously demand a change: we shall then discover whether the opinion entertained by MR. Dallas rests upon a rock, or upon the sand, when he declares that he "cannot conceive that there is a man of unbiassed mind and (6 good sense, who would not rather embrace all that has been "retrenched from the Catholic Creed, than adopt the spurious “abominations and blasphemies, which every where, under "the screen of toleration, disgrace the world."

MR. DALLAS, from vilifying the Reformation and defending Popery, comes (p. 60) to the defence of the CASUISTRY of the Jesuits:

This is all in its order-whoever can call himself a Protestant, and yet admire a Religion so contrary to his own, may be expected to advocate the Casuistry upon which that Religion is founded, and by which it is upheld. MR. Dallas begins his remarks on the Jesuitical Casuistry by observing, "I inquired more particularly into the character and objects "of the Casuists of the Order; and the more I reflected, the "more I was convinced of the malignity of the adversaries "of the Society," whom he then accuses of rebellious and "revolutionary" purposes.

Without stopping here to shew how little such a charge applies to those enemies of Casuistrý, PASCAL, NICOLE, and the several Ecclesiastics and Advocates of France, who ranged with such triumphant success on the same side, we will proceed to MR. DALLAS's exculpatory observations: "In such a "number of casuistical writers" (he says), " it may be ima86 gined that some have erred-THE JESUITS NEVER WISHED TÒ DEFEND THEM. Now, this assertion is at direct variance with the following facts: namely, that the flagitious work of the Jesuit PIROT was openly claimed by the Jesuits as their own, in the face of the French nation and its Clergy; that the work of the Jesuit MoYA was published with the express sanction of the Superiors of the Order; that the Somme des Péchés, by the Jesuit. BAUNI, was publicly avowed and defended by the Society; and that the Jesuit BERRUYER was as openly countenanced and protected by the same Society, after two Popes had censured his works as blasphemous and impious.

MR. DALLAS then proceeds-" THE APOLOGY FOR THE "CASUISTS, said to be published by the Jesuits, so far from $6 being avowed as a work of their own, was disavowed by the "Superiors of the Order, and condemned by the Pope and many Prelates: it was written by PERE PIROT."