Serrai. CXCII. Enmity to the Truth. 613 And then why do they mask the publick Service.of God, and the Prayers and Devotions of the people in an unknown Tongue, but that they are afraid they fhould underftand the grofs fuperftitions and idolatry of many of them? If they mean honeftly, why do they caft fuch a miff about their Religion ? why do they wrap and cover it all over in darknefs, but that they are heartily afraid, that the more people underftand it, the worfe they will like it? The truth is , their Do&rives are evil, and their deeds are evil, and plainly condemned almoft in every page ofthe Bible; and therefore 'tis a dangerous book to be fuffered in the hands of the people ; and there is hardly any thing which the Church of Rome contends againft, with more ítiffnefs and zeal, than letting the people have the fervice of God, and the holy Scriptures in a known Tongue': When the Office of theMafs was not many years fince, . byfettle Bifhops and others in France, tranflated into the vulgar Tongue, for the benefit of the people, how did the then Pope Alexander the VII. thunder againft them for it, callingthem that did it Sons ofPerdition,. and condemning the thing as if it had been the wickedeft thing in the world; and had dire&ly tended to the overthrow of the Chriftian Religion ? . And then for the ufe of the holy Scriptures in the vulgar Tongue, they have put that under fo many locks and keys , that the greateft caution in the world is ufed in the permiffion and allowance of it to any particular perfon; the Priefl' liath not power to do it, it is only the Bithops that can grant this liberty; and they do it very rarely, and only to thofe of whom theyare very fecure, and this power fince that time again revoked ; fo that the Gofpel, which before our Savi- our's ,appearance was a Myflery, hid from ages andgenerations, continues fo ftill to the common people in the Church of Rome, and is under a thicker veil, more muffled and hid from the people, in an unknownTongue, than it was to the Jews, under the obfcure prophecies, and dark types and fhadows of the old Te- ftament. So that tho' Chrift be read in their Churches every day, as Mofes was to the yews in their Synagogues, yet he bath a veil upon hisface as Mofes had. Wo unto youScribes andPharifees, Hypocrites, for yePhut the kingdomofHeaven againff men, and neither enter in your felves, nor fifer thole that would enter, togo in. The people of the Church of Rome are indeed to be pitied, who are kept in ig- norance againft their wills ; but the governing part of that Church are without excufe, who to cover their errors and corruptions, hide the Scriptures from the people, love darknefs rather than light; this therefore is their great condemnation. Witnefs the black and hellifh defign, of this day*, fuch as never before entred Premed into the heart of niais, to have ruin'd a whole kingdom at once, in its Prince and Nov. q. Reprefentative ; and by a cruel fudden blow, to have taken away the lives of the `6a4. greaten and molt confiderable Affembly in the world. They mull needs love darknefs and hate the light, who have fuch defigns to carry on, and fuch deeds of darknefs to juflifie and make good; they had need to fupprefs, and if poflibly they can, to extinguifh, not only that revealedTruth of God, but even the great Principles of natural Religion, the Belief of a God, and a Judgment to conic, that attempt fuch things. Time was, when in defpight of the cleareft evidence in the world, they did confidently deny that any fuch defign was laid by thofe of their Religion , but that it was a contrivance of fome Minifter of State, who drew in a few rafh and hot-headed perlons of defperate fortunes into it, and then betrayed and difcovered them: but when the late Popifb Plot broke out here, then they were contented to own the Gun Powder- Treafon, becaufe they that were executed for it, did con- fefs it, that they might with a better colour bring themfelves off from this, which was fo conftantly denied by thofe who were condemned and executed for it but this was but a fhift and artifice to blind the clear evidence of this latter Confpi- racy, which preft fo hard upon them: and time that, becaufe they are afraid it is (till believed, they have ufed all imaginable arts, and taken a great deal of pains to wafh this Black-a-moor; yet the Negro is a Negro ftill, and I doubt not, but they are Rill at work, carrying on the farne defign, which if God do not merci- fully a
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