not alter, yet the assistance of the congregation at the sacrifice with piety, fervour, and prayers, is all that God requires:-there is no text of scripture against this position.

Whilst the Jewish religion was the only true one, those who flocked from all parts of the world to Solomon's temple spoke different languages, and the officiating priest uttered his benedictions in the only language in which they were originally instituted, yet the people felt no inconvenience on that account; for they knew by the victim and ceremonies at which they assisted with piety and fervour, that as a public minister he was offering a sacrifice of atonement, and praying in a public manner for them, as well as for himself; they united in the same pious sentiments, and whether the individuals of the congregation prayed in the Roman, Greek, or any other language, divine worship was performed with all its essential requisites.

Thus Catholics from the remotest parts of the globe who hear Mass in Paris or London, feel no more inconvenience in the public exercise of their religion than if they were at home; for if the French or English priest officiates in Latin, he officiates in the same language with the priest of China or Japan, not to mention Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Poland, &c. in all or inost of which several states and kingdoms, the laity have the Mass translated into their native languages; their prayers are all the same; they know the determined object of their worship, and understand_everything in the same sense: but the case with Protestants is the reverse; a Church-of-England-man, for example, would be as much bewildered at hearing divine service performed at Geneva, as he would be at hearing Mass at St. Peter's in Rome, or a thatched chapel in Ireland; and, on the other hand, the Genevese Calvinist would be equally perplexed in any Lutheran church in Sweden or Denmark, or in any cathedral of the church of England.

As to our Saviour's not instituting ceremonies, he certainly did not, though it must be acknowledged that he performed some: such for example, as the washing his disciples' feet in token of his humility-mixing spittle with dust for the cure of the blind man, to intimate that the same God who formed man of the dust of the earth, is now come in human shape to restore him to the light of grace, of which the blindness of sin had deprived him. But though our Saviour did not institute ceremonies, he nevertheless did not forbid them to be instituted, more especially when they tend to excite devotion, and add to the solemnity of religious worship; such, for example, as the conseeration of churches-chiming of bells on great festivals—playing on organs at the time of divine service-wearing of surplices and other clerical robes-using the sign of the cross in baptism, &c.; all of which, though practised in the Church of England, are detested as so many idolatrous abominations by a Scotch Presbyterian, who considers himself as the pure grain of the Protestant religion. To argue, therefore, against religious ceremonies because Christ did not ordain any, is to argue against erecting churches, or houses of divine worship; for although he foretold the destruction of the temple where the true God was adored, he never commanded a church or chapel to be built for that purpose in its stead; or is it fair to argue against a Christian's going to church on Sundays, because no such command is to be found in the gospel ?

But if civil society has the power of making political laws for the regulation of the conduct of its members, why should not the Church, whom Christ commands us implicitly to hear and obey, have the power to enact spiritual laws for the edilication of her children? Let all things (says St. Paul) be done decently and in order.

As to the conformity of the Church-of-England prayers with every word of the Bible, it is not the

business of a Roman Catholic servant to inquire; for on the same principle, in getting into the ser vice of a Presbyterian, he would be obliged to compare the Assembly's Catechism, or their Prayer Book (if any Prayer Book they have) with the Bible: the same with an Anabaptist, and so on to an infinity. During this tedious inquiry there would be no time left for the coachman, the footman, the groom, or the postilion-the cook, the laundry-maid, the chamber or kitchen maid, to discharge the duties of their several stations in the family, till at length the most patient master or mistress would be forced to cry out to Tom or Bet (nodding perhaps by the kitchen fire over the book of Job,) Come, come! this is intolerable -I can no longer suffer it: it was not to read the Bible, Betty, but to do my work that I hired you.

It is moreover the less incumbent on a Catholic servant to make this inquiry, since he sees, not only a great number of Protestants, such as Presbyterians, Anabaptists, Moravians, Methodists, Antinomians, Quakers, Seekers, Jumpers, Unitarians, &c., incessantly reading the Bible, and still remaining separate from the Church of England; continually inveighing against her, but that even some of her own ministers, such as Lindsay and others, have of late resigned their benefices, together with their Creed and Common Prayer Book, and formed a new religion for themselves, which they think more godly and conformable with the Bible. If then, persons born in the Church of England, and nursed in her very bosom, refuse to conform to her worship on Sunday or holidays, either inwardly or outwardly, how can such a conformity be reasonably expected from a Roman Catholic Servant, whose faith cannot vary, and in whose communion, the Creed, which includes a belief in the Catholic Church, was professed ages before so many new religions made their appearance in the world, and in whose communion it will be professed till time shall be no more?

The most ignorant Catholic servant knows the Lord's Prayer, in which is specified what he is to pray for, and what he wants; and that he is to expect every blessing, whether corporeal or spiritual, from the Father of all, who is in heaven. If he beseeches the saints and angels to pray for him, it is not because he considers them as gods or goddesses to be adored, (as some, from motives best known to themselves, have insinuated;) but rather as fellow-petitioners, more worthy to be heard than himself, who in the divine essence now see every thing, (not in a glass darkly, as St. Paul says, but face to face,) and who in heaven, according to our Saviour, rejoice at the conversion of a sinner on earth. He believes from the communion of saints, mentioned in the Creed, that the blessed who depart this life in the love and friendship of God and their neighbour, entertain the same wishes for the happiness of their fellow creatures which they had for them whilst on earth; and his belief of this article is farther corroborated from the testimony of St. Paul, who assures him, that, when all other virtues shall cease, charity shall abide for ever. Besides believing the Creed, which contains the fundamental articles of his religion, the Catholic Servant also knows the Ten Commandments, which regulate his social duties and moral conduct, and teach him to be a good Christian and an honest man; and more than these no master or mistress can reasonably require of him. With respect to other articles, he believes in general what the Catholic church, composed of so many venerable fathers, learned doctors, and celebrated universities, in a long succession of ages, believes, and in these he has the most respectable vouchers the world has ever produced. Is it not, therefore, unreasonable to expect, that persons in his station of life, should discuss every speculative point, since the generality of mankind are ill qualified for such a disquisition? St. Paul himself, when speaking of the members of the

church, does not require it: Are they all apostles 2 says he, are they all doctors?

The particular points in which a Catholie differs from his neighbours of a separate communion, are explained in his Catechism, which may be read in the space of an hour, or in Bossuet's Exposition of the doctrine of the Catholic church, not to mention a number of other books of the kind. It is in them his religious tenets are to be found, by such as are anxious to know them; not in the polemical declamations of writers or orators, as, either from interests or from the influence of early-imbibed prejudice, misrepresent the Catholic religion, and leave abortives at her door which she utterly disclaims.

As to occasional conformity, or joining in any other mode of religious worship but his own, the Catholic servant cannot do it without incurring the guilt of the sin of schism, imposture, hypocrisy ; nor does the example of our Saviour's going to the temple, as quoted in the paper, prove that he can; for the Jewish religion continued to be the true religion till it was annulled by his death; be inwardly believed, and outwardly practised the law of Moses, as appears by his being circun.cised, assisting at the morning sacrifice, celebrating the passover, and eating the paschal lamb with his apostles on the eve of his passion. The Jewish religion, moreover, required a determined space of time for its total abolition, viz., till after the death of the Messiah, when the new law being sufficiently propagated, the synagogue would be buried with honour; but to wear the mask of dissimulation, to be interiorily convinced of the truth of one religion, and at stated times to make open profession of another, by conforming to its ceremonies, and joining in its mode of worship, is a conduct so diametrically opposite to common honesty, that I would prefer the Jew, who, for want of a synagogue, would worship God in an open field, to the Jew, who, from worldly motives or interested compli