and Moon fhall endure, and your Soul and Body eternally. happy when Time fhall be no more. To this Prayer, I fhall only add, that I am unfeignedly,

fophy Profeffor in the

Royal College at Nifcrimes, a City of Langue

doc in France, where it was written. But as foon as it was Printed, it was fuppreft by the Command of Authori ty, prohibiting all Perfons to keep any of them, upon I know not what fevere Penalties; and fuch Copies as could be found, were publickly burnt by the Hangman, about 1660. Whereupon the poor Gentleman, for fear of being condemned to keep Company with his Books, was forced to fly to

Geneva,

Geneva, where he not long after died. These Severities of our Adverfaries, bring to my Remembrance what a learned and ingenious Frenchman once told me, viz. That this fmall Tract hath more nétled their Party, than any one Piece that ever was extant in France, fince the Reformation of Religion there. Whether that be a mistake, I know not, but this I dare affirm, That though many famous Men of that Kingdom have, in the Memory of this Age, written very fmartly against the Romish Herefies, yet there is not one of them whofe Perfon and Writings have had fuch hard Measure. Whence it appears, that our Author (his very Enemies being Judges) hath made good what he undertook, viz. he hath destroyed hat great Diana the Mafs, and hath alfo, by way of Prevention, deftroyed all the Arguments made ufe of by the Romish Doctors for the reftoring and re-establishing of her: Which he

hath

hath fo well performed, that to this very Day, not one of them have dared fo much as to attempt to revive her, by anfwering his Book; fo that here you may fee her laid in her Grave, without hope of Refurrection; and therefore the Book may very fitly be termed, The Funeral of the Mafs; and confequently the Fune ral of Romibe Herefies and Idolatries, as the Author well obferves. For the Truth is, the Mafs and the Romifh Religion are almoft convertible Terms, fo that if the former be destroyed, the latter muft vanish into its firft Nothing; and therefore our Author having deftroyed the Mafs, hath deftroyed the Thing called Popery too. As for the monftrous Abfurdities and Blafphemies which flow from this one Romish Doctrine of the Sacrifice of the Mafs, they would fill whole Volumes : But I fhall content my felf to fay, that the Mafs confifts of more grofs and abominable

abominable Superftitions, Phanaticifms, and Idolatries, than ever have been believed or practised by the most ignorant Pagans. What the Tenets of the Romanifts are, and what their Practices have been in Reference to Proteftant Magiftrates and People, woful and fad Experience hath fufficiently taught the World. I fhall only add, That they are as pernicious to our Bodies and Eftates, as their heretical Doctrines, and idolatrous Services are to our Souls. And confequently to introduce Popery into this Kingdom, would be an Act as Unpolitick as Anti-chriftian, as hath been demonstrated in that incomparable Piece, entituled, The established Religion in Oppofition to Popery. But because (I know not by what ftrange Infatuation or Enchantment, or rather by what wonderful Judgment of GOD) this monftrous, abfurd, and deftructive (fhall I call it?) Religion prevails amongst us, I thought good

to