God, while they and their party are his

They are profeffed Ene-
To listen to that would,

only favorites.
mies to Reason. To liften

in their account, be low and carnal. No! Divine Inspiration excites them to every thing; and under this pretence, they often give a loofe to their vengeance, their ambition, their uncharitableness, and every evil defire; and fanctify all with this plausible pretence, that they are following God's direction in defpifing or destroying those whom he detefts and abhors. This hath always been the effect of Fanaticism wherever it hath power to exert it felf. It is not confined to this or that time, nation, or condition of men. It is the fame pernicious Wild-fire whether in a Brachman, a Magian, a Mufti, a Dervize, a Pope, a Friar, a Bishop, a Prefbyter, an Emperor, a King, a Cromwell or a Cobler. So juft is the Obfervation, that as true Religion is the Perfection of Reason, Fanaticifin is the Difgrace and Deftruction of it.

ONE method which Fanatics of all forts have made use of to justify their follies and exceffes has been to introduce cant phrafes and hard words into Religion. Each of them has it's ABRACADABRA : and these words are to do every thing. Of what wonderful importance was the word ΟΜΟΟΥΣΙΟΣ fuppofed formerly to be in the Christian Religion! Those who brought, and those who kept it in, represented to the people, that the very Effence of Christianity confifted in it; though neither the word nor the thing it would exprefs, has any place in the divine writings; but was evidently transferred from the works of the Heathens by fome learned men, who were fonder to fhew themselves mighty Philofophers than humble Christians. According to Suidas in his Dictonary ocios or coeffential is faid of thofe things, which having, each of them, it's particular Hypoftafis or Substance, are, amongst themfelves, of the fame nature.

In this fenfe of the word Ariftotle has faid ὁμούσια δε πάντα ἄτρα all the ftars are of the fame effence. Porphyry has written ὁμούσιοι αι των ζώων ψυχαὶ ἡμετέραις, that the Souls of Beafts are of the fame effence with ours and Plato believed that his three Principles were soos that is coeffential and of the fame nature. In this sense the Council of Antioch, affembled in the year 270 against Paul of Samofata, rejected and condemned Paul's Moos as dividing the Supreme Being, and therefore contrary to the Unity of the Godhead. But however, it was in this very fenfe that the Council of Nice, 325, decreed, that the Son was oucos that is of the fame specific Effence or Nature with the Father. And therefore Mr. Jackson, in his Novation, hath afferted that the Homooufian Doctrine, which took it's rife from the Pagans or the Heretics, could never be truly Orthodox; and that it is to the Council of Tyre, which condemned Athanafius, that

we should give the glory of TRUE ORTHODOXY.

Of all the Religious Sects that ever appeared in the world, the Church of Rome hath produced the most and the greatest Fanatics. To give Inftances of this would be endlefs. In general one may fay that the Lives of all their Saints, Male and Female, are abundant proofs of it. But Saint Francis and St. Dominic are more famous for their Revelations, especially for their Intercourses and Communications with the Virgin Mary, than any of the reft. The Stories of thefe and their other Saints feems to us Heretics to be the moft ridiculous pieces of Burlesque that were ever exhibited to the world and happy would it be for Mankind if that were all the harm they had done to make us laugh. But alas! These fanatical Stories, ridiculous as they feem, have been made the occafion of

very ferious mischief. In pursuance of

thefe

these pretended Revelations it was that St. Dominic fet himself, with so much zeal, to extirpate the Albigenfes in France, who were the Fore-runners of the Proteftants there; for the Pope, at this Saint's folicitation, raised a Croisade against them, and destroyed by fire and fword, above fifty thousand of them. However Dominic was not fatisfied with this, but, refolving to prevent the growth, or the very appearance, of Herefy in that Country for the future, advised the Pope to erect a Court of Inquifition there, of which he himself was made the firft Inquifitor: and this kind of Tribunal hath been fince established in diverfe other Countries, to the fuppreffion of every thing generous and worthy in human nature, and the exaltation of every thing tyrannical and abominable: and St. Dominic's venerable picture is carried in the Banners of the Holy Office, on every public occafion, with the greatest folemnity, to this day. Thefe and a thousand other perfecutions

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