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WILLIAM CUNNINGHAM,

MINISTER OF TRINITY COLLEGE PARISH, EDINBURGH.

EDINBURGH:

FRASER & CO. 54, NORTH BRIDGE;

SMITH, ELDER, & CO. AND H. WASHBOURNE, LONDON;
AND W. CURRY, JUN. & CO. DUBLIN.

MDCCCXXXVII.

EDINBURGH:

Printed by ANDREW SHORTREDE, Thistle Lane.

INTRODUCTION.

THE system of Popery occupies a prominent place in the New Testament. Not only are there abundant materials in the word of God for establishing the erroneous and dangerous character of its tenets individually, but the system, as a whole, is there delineated so fully and plainly, that it seems to be scarcely possible to mistake it. It is predicted as a great apostacy from the true faith, which was to prevail extensively in the professing Church, and to be attended with the most injurious consequences. It is expressly ascribed to the peculiar agency of Satan, and, indeed, the very reason why it forms the subject of so many of the predictions of the New Testament is, because it was Satan's great scheme for frustrating the leading objects of Christianity-for depriving men of the important advantages, connected both with this world and the next, which the preaching of the Gospel was intended to convey; and was to be very successful in effecting these ends. When God created man after his own image, Satan resolved to tempt him to commit sin, and was permitted to succeed. Since man fell, there have been three leading forms of the true religion, all embodying the same fundamental principles, the Patriarchal, the Jewish, and the Christian. The great enemy of mankind having secured a most important advantage in man's fall, has exerted himself to corrupt

and pervert each of these forms of the true religion, and to make them subservient to the accomplishment of his own purposes. He has displayed his cunning in this respect, by adapting his measures, not merely to the leading features of man's depraved nature, but likewise to the particular circumstances in which men in these different periods were placed, the degree of light which they enjoyed, and the character of the dispensation under which they lived. Under his agency the Patriarchal religion degenerated among the mass of mankind into Paganism-the Mosaic into that state of things which is described in the Gospel history, and which, for want of a better word, may be called Pharisaism, - and the Christian religion into Popery. There is a very remarkable resemblance among these three corruptions of the true religion, which might be traced at once in their leading principles, and in many minute points of detail, and especially in the singular conformity between the rites and ceremonies of Paganism and of Popery.*

Men must have something in the shape of religion, and the object of their great enemy is to provide, that they shall have as little as possible, and that what they have shall be inconsistent with the great principles which God has revealed as regulating his intercourse with fallen man. The leading feature of Paganism is idolatry ; that is, worshipping those who are no gods, or worshipping God by images. This was addressed to

*The resemblance between Paganism and Popery has been often adverted to by writers on the Popish controversy, but the cheif works devoted expressly to the illustration of it are the following:一 Du Pré's Conformity of Ancient and Modern Ceremonies; Stopford's Pagano-Papismus, or an exact parallel between Rome-Pagan and Rome-Christian, in their doctrines and ceremonies, published in 1675; Eixwy Tou Ongiou, or the Image of the Beast, by Delaune, the well-known nonconformist, 1684; Middleton's Letter from Rome, shewing an exact conformity between Popery and Paganism, or the religion of the present Romans derived from that of their heathen ancestors, fourth edition, 1741; Popery the religion of Heathenism, by Ignotus, published in 1818, which contains, along with a summary of the conformity of Popery to ancient Paganism, a full proof of its similarity to modern Híndooism.

that feature in the character of fallen man which prompted our first parents to hide themselves among the trees of the garden, and to that evil heart of unbelief which inclines all their posterity to depart from the living God. This very idolatry, although in a more mitigated form, corresponding to the greater light of the Christian dispensation, is still a leading feature of Popery, and serves to a large extent, among its deluded votaries, the object of withdrawing men from contemplating God, and holding communion with the Father of their spirits. The Jewish religion, in many of its provisions, was specially intended to guard the chosen people of God from the idolatry that prevailed among the rest of mankind, and it effected that important object to a great extent, especially during the latter period of that dispensation; for it is well known that there was no open idolatry among the Jews after the return from the Babylonish captivity. The state of religion among the Jews in the time of our Saviour, however, was such as to afford abundant proof of the ingenuity and activity of the great enemy of God and man. Pharisaism was a complete perversion of the true religion as revealed by God through Moses, and had a very striking resemblance to Popery, especially in these important particulars,that it was founded not upon the written word of God, but upon the traditions of men; that the ground of a sinner's hope was obscured, if not overthrown, by a principle of self-righteousness; that personal religion was supposed to consist in the observance of outward rites and ceremonies, rather than in genuine holiness of heart and life; and that to a considerable extent the authority of the divine law was made void by human traditions. The Sadducees may be fitly regarded as representing that infidelity which, in certain circumstances, has been generally the fruit of the prevalence of Popery; and the union of the Pharisees and Sadducees, in opposing the Lord Jesus Christ, bears a

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