themselves and others, they may as well expect to bring a Cart, as
a Soul, to Heaven.

"What say you to the Popish Doctrine of the _Sacrifice of the
Mass_.----According to this Doctrine, our blessed Saviour must still, to
the end of the World, be laid hold on by Sinners, be ground with their
Teeth, and sent down into their impure Paunches, as often as the Priest
shall pronounce this Charm, _hoc est corpus meum_: and it seems that he
was a false Prophet, when he said upon the Cross, _It is finish'd_, seeing
there was such an infinite deal of _loathsom Drudgery_ still to be
undergone.

"For _Purgatory_, 'tis not material in it self, whether it be, or where it
be, no more than the World in the Moon; but so long as that false Fire
serves to maintain a true one, and his Holiness's Kitchen smokes with the
Rents he receives for releasing Souls from thence, which never came there,
it concerns him and his to see to it, that it be not suffer'd to go out."

An ingenious Author, Sir _Richard Steel_, has of late made a _Dedication_
to his _Holiness_ the _Pope_ himself, before a Book entitled, _An Account
of the State of the Roman Catholick Religion throughout the World_, &c. In
which _Dedication_, that most exalted Clergyman the _Pope_, that
[suppos'd] infallible Dictator in Religion, and most grave Person; who, if
_serious_ Matters and Persons were always to be treated _seriously_, may
vie with any other Mortal for a Right to _serious_ Treatment; is expos'd
by incomparable _Drollery_ and _Irony_ to the utmost Contempt, to the
universal Satisfaction of Protestant Readers, who have been pleas'd to see
a gross Impostor, however respected and ador'd by godly and serious
Papists, so treated.

VI. In fine, it is suited to the common Practice of this Nation to
ridicule _Popery_ as well as _Nonconformity_; and tho several _grave_
Books, written among us against Popery, in the Reign of King _James_ II.
(of which yet the _Romish_ Priests complain'd, as treating the King's [82]
_Religion_ with Contempt) were then very well receiv'd and applauded for
Learning and strength of Arguing; yet, I believe, it may with more
Propriety be said, that King _James_ II. and _Popery_ were [83] _laugh'd_
or _Lilli-bullero'd_, than that they were _argu'd_ out of the Kingdom.

The reading the _King's Declaration of Indulgence_ in Churches 1688, had
this fatal _Jest_ put upon it by a reverend Divine, "Who pleasantly told
his People, _That tho he was oblig