To give man his intended and proper supremacy, as being under none but God, Christ came under all our burdens, and rose above them to put all things under our feet, as we rise with him.

Hence the beautiful and forcible exultation in the Revelations, "I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore, and have the keys of hell and death." These keys are the proprietorship of that prison, which he will open, as the way for man out of the grave.

He is also the way to final glorification. He will glorify our bodies. "For our conversation is in heaven, whence also we look for the Saviour, who shall change our vile bodies, and fashion them like unto his glorious body.

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He is preparing the mansions, and will equip us for them; that we may be with him, where he is, behold and share in his glory.

We are to see him as he is, and be like him he is the truth for us here, and the truth for us there. Thus is he the way to the Father, on earth, in reconciliation and intercourse; in heaven, for our final dwelling place.

His present exaltation then, is the truth of what is in store for he is the way by which that truth will be realized.

us, and

II.

PRIESTS' RELIGION.

HUMAN AUTHORITY AND INVENTION versus CONSCIENCE AND THE BIBLE.

The Scriptures are the only standard of Christian faith and practice: every one is at liberty to examine them; but no one is at liberty to decline this examination: and though we may receive the help of others, we may not rest on their authority, (which is man-worship ;) nor receive as religion, what is not in the Scriptures, (which is willworship.)

THE EPHESIAN DIANA, AND THE MODERN SHRINE MAKERS.

AN OLD SERMON, PREACHED OVER AGAIN.*

"Sirs! ye know that by this craft we have our wealth."-Acts xix. 25.

WE need only transfer the scene of action from Ephesus to Rome, or to any other city or country, where ambitious and worldly priests trample upon all the rights of truth, reason, and conscience, in order to prove these two points.

I. That Popery is a craft, a human craft.

II. That it is a craft, a trade invented and managed with a sole view to get wealth, power, and greatness; or to exalt priests into lords over mankind.

And it is the gainfulness of this craft, which supplies the Popish priests with so furious a zeal to maintain its credit, and support its practice.

It is equally true that all worldly establishments, and Anti-Christian devices brought into religion, are crafts, political engines for loading a set of proud, tyrannical, worldly clergymen with the wealth of the laity.

Consequently, a deliverance from such a set of men, is a very great and merciful deliverance, and ought to be had in everlasting remembrance. The whole may be reduced to one point, namely:-that Popery is a human invention to befool, enslave and impoverish the laity; and to magnify and enrich the clergy.

No wonder then if the spiritual tradesmen are very loth to give up their gainful craft.

I shall name a few doctrines and practises of Rome, a short view of which will shew the truth of our positions and justify the application of the text to our present purpose.

1. For instance, what can be said for the universal headship and infallibility of the Pope? Why, Sirs! ye know that by this craft we get *The above was preached by the Rev. J. BASSET, and is sent to "the Bible and the People," as one of those valuable relics buried in scarce old Tracts.-EDITOR. VOL. I.

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our wealth. By virtue of this doctrine, we claim a power over king's, a right to dispose of crowns and kingdoms, and to tax all countries, as once we did England, till God opened their eyes, and then our gainful trade was at an end.*

By virtue of this doctrine, we hook in abundance of money for vacancies of archbishoprics, abbacies, and all spiritual places: for retaining of livings without residence; for change of incumbents; for preventions of benefices before they fall; for resignations, commendams, compositions, dispensations, bulls, giving the pall, &c. &c.

By virtue of this doctrine, we bring all spiritual causes into our own courts, where they are managed at a vast expence to the laity, and bring great gain to the clergy.

By virtue of this doctrine, we persuade people to obey whatever the Pope decreeth; and we are sure that all his decrees will take care of the clergy. 2. But how come you, gentlemen priests, to claim freedom from secular jurisdiction, and to pretend that lay judges have no authority over Churchmen?

Why, by this craft we have our wealth: hereby we clergymen are fixed in our dependence on the Pope, who connives at all our rogueries. In all criminal causes, we are to be tried by our spiritual brethren, and courts made up of our own tribe will never hurt us: be we ever such knaves, we hardly ever come to the gallows, while priests are our own judges.

By this doctrine, we not only save our necks, but we preserve the mastership of our own wealth; and hereby our spiritual powers shine above those of temporal princes.

3. Why do you priests insist upon auricular confession, and oblige all the laity to tell all the secrets of their life, in private to you? By this craft we get our wealth. All our people fear disobliging us, knowing what tales we are able to tell against them.

By this art we fetch out all the secrets of kings and kingdoms, and keep the world in awe.

We get many a bribe for secresy, and have it any revenge our own quarrel.

time in our power to

Besides, the penances we enjoin are a very gainful part of our trade, as we are able to sell commutations of penance at our own price.

4. This leads us to enquire, what can be said for dispensations and indulgences to sin for times to come, and pardons for sins in times past, which the Pope and the priests pretend to bestow?

Why, Sirs! ye know that by this craft we have our wealth. We get a world of money, by this article of our trade. These indulgences cost us very little, yet the deluded people buy them at great rates. They will give round sums for a liberty to sin, or to quit scores with God and the priest after sinning. We know, indeed, when a man is condemned by God, it will be a poor comfort to him, that he hath the Pope's pardon in his pocket; but the priestly power of absolutism, is so well established in the Church, that we think our trade pretty safe; we have so effectually hoodwinked the laity, that we hope they will not easily be undeceived.

* See in Fox's Acts and Monuments, vol. i. p. 369. A table of the Pope's Gatherings, exactions, and oppressions in the realm of England.

5. But pray, gentlemen, how can you defend the doctrine of purgatory, a place of future torments, out of which souls may be delivered by the masses of priests? Why, Sirs, all the world, except our own slaves, know, that by this craft we have our wealth.

Who would not give a good deal of money, rather than lie many years in torment; especially at a time when he can keep his money no longer, and giveth what is scarcely his own? Can a sinner make a better hand of his wealth than by giving it to priests to be soon prayed into heaven? This is the most wonderful trick in all our craft, for purging the pockets of the laity.

Besides, it procureth us a vast reverence, when people believe our powers reach into the other world, and can affect them beyond death. What will not people do to please men who have the keys of heaven and hell!

Moreover, this art we are able to manage in the greatest perfection; as we are bred up in all the methods of craft and subtlety, we know how to treat every constitution, to humour every inclination, to apply to every passion, to suit ourselves to every season.

It is our constant maxim to attend the beds of dying sinners, and the more flaming their vices have been, the better hope we have of success: we take advantage of their distempers, and their natural fears, to overwhelm the poor wretches with terrible ideas of purgatory, of which we believe not a word ourselves, we confound their imaginations by our awful descriptions, and cherish every superstitious fear we have raised; at length our patients lose all liberty, strength and capacity of reasoning; they take any impression we desire; then, with wonderful address and cunning, and with all the airs of gravity and concern, we sell our ghostly advice and consolation to the dying, at what price we please, and if we give them any hope, and pronounce absolution, they are sure to pay dear for it. Thus by this craft, we get our wealth.

6. But can anything be offered to defend creature-worship, reverence to the Virgin, devotion to dead saints and dead sinners, a veneration for images and relics? Yes, by this craft we get our wealth. Such offerings are brought to our Churches, and the shrines of our canonized saints, that they excel the palaces of princes in costly ornaments; the officers of our churches are maintained like noblemen; and in many countries, we have engrossed almost a third part of the land and riches of the kingdom: our WOODEN GODS have procured us a deal of good money.

Our churches and abbeys are a resource of boundless wealth on any extraordinary occasion. We are able to maintain spies, in all courts, and to send emissaries into all countries, and pay armies to support the hierarchy.

Old girdles, bits of rotten wood, the legs of an ass, and other precious ware, we can sell at vast rates, our market for these holy trifles runs indeed higher or lower, as the number of fools is, who come to buy, but they generally go off for ready money.

7. But can the monstrous doctrine of Transubstantiation be defended? Yes; by this craft we get our wealth. This wonderful trick we got, of turning bread into a real human body, creates in people a prodigious reverence for a man who, by pronouncing a few words can produce so ex

traordinary an effect. When once we have brought people to believe this, they will then swallow every other doctrine the priests shall teach.

This exceedingly magnifies the clergy, who, having got dominion over the understandings and consciences of the laity, easily assume an empire over their purses. We own it requires an uncommon stock of impudence, thus to outface people's reason and senses, their eye-sight, feeling, taste, smell, hearing; but we have carried our point for some ages; and are resolved to stand by it as long as we can.

8. And why are the laity deprived of their Bibles, unless a special license be obtained? And have you priests the sole authority to interpret Scripture? And why must men in worshipping God, do and say they know not what, by saying their prayers in Latin?

Why, Sirs! ye know that by this craft we have our wealth. This is our fundamental art: we are undone, and our trade is at an end, if the laity read and understand the Bible, and begin to open their eyes.

The Bible is the most dangerous book that ever was printed; if it go abroad, all our craft is in danger: and we are in terrible fear that the art of printing will one day be our ruin. As to our claim to interpret the Scriptures for our people, this keeps us masters of the faith and understandings of the laity. And unintelligible prayers help to keep men blind, and support an opinion "that it is enough if their priests pray and understand for them."

9. If it be asked, why is celibacy and a monastic life so strictly required, and so much exalted? The answer is still the same. This keeps all our wealth amongst the clergy; whereas, by the priest's marriage, it would be scattered among the unhallowed laity. To make us amends, we are indulged in all liberties with the fair sex, yet freed from the expense of mistress and offspring.

10. Again, why are the laity denied one-half of the sacrament? To keep all the rich wines for the priests, and to make a sufficient distinction between the order of holy men and the common herd. Yet we have a trick in Protestant countries, to cheat people by a cup of ablution, instead of the cup of consecration.

11. Why are works of supererogation defended? To fill the Pope's coffers, by the sale of them.

12. Why are so many holy days instituted and imposed by your Church? To keep the laity poor, and to indulge them in sensual pleasures, that they may not feel the yoke of the priests, nor trouble their heads with reading and religious disputes, which always turn to our disadvantage.

13. Why are such a crowd of ceremonies introduced into your worship? When we have robbed and cheated our people of their understandings, consciences, religion, liberties, wealth, we must substitute something in their room; and we endeavour to amuse and divert them by a train of fopperies, and christen them by the name of devotion. We paint and adorn our churches, erect and enrich altars, and make all our worship magnificent and gaudy, on purpose to be a bait to catch the eyes and

NOTE. From the Hoc est Corpus of Popish Church jugglers is derived the hocus pocus of our market jugglers, who impose upon the vulgar with more art, but with less impudence than the Romish priests.