Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free.This is an OCR edition with typos.Excerpt from book:but pious relatives are sometimes content to bear it. Proof of the miracles wrought by the deceased must be adduced in due form, in a judicial way. Witnesses are examined, and, in order that full justice may be done, counsel are appointed on both sides; one undertaking to establish the miracles, and the other opposing them ; and thus the matter is solemnly argued " dans les formes, et selon les regies" and not determined, until after a long and expensive process. It is further remarkable, that some miracle must have been performed by the deceased after his death, as well as during life; one of these by the way, being quite as easy to the saint as the other, and each being equally capable of proof. It is unnecessary to observe, that these judicial inquiries invariably terminate in favour of the saint and his family; since the Pope and his council are equally interested in the successful issue of the suit:—indeed, as an atheistical Pope once observed—" What a profitable fable is that of Jesus Christ to us!" LETTER VI. On the Alliance between the Image Worship of Heathenism and of Popery. I Would next consider, somewhat more particularly, THE ALLIANCE BETWEEN THE IMAGE WORSHIP OF HEATHENISM And That Of POPEiiY. Plato informs us, that there were images in the temples of Egypt, from the earliest antiquity. (Plat, de Legib. 1. ii. p. 656. Max. Tyr. Diss. 38.) It appears evidently from Scripture, that they subsisted there as well as in Palestine, before the time of Moses; indeed, theyowed their early introduction to the original apostasy of man, who no sooner departed from " the living God," than he displayed the depravity of hisnature, by " honouring and worshipping the creature, " more than the Creator;" by bowing down before them that were no gods, but the work of men's h...