And that I am speaking the truth, I will give you _one single_ instance, and from this _one_, you will be able to judge of _the rest_, of their sly method, of squaring the scripture to their _new_, and _re_forming ideas. Of all the tenets of the Catholic creed, there is _none_, that has been _more lustily_ inveighed against, and accordingly, _none_ that sound _so awfully_, to an _English Protestant_ ear, as Purgatory, and Prayers for the dead. (_O keep your seats, Most Reverend Gentlemen, I am not going to put you into Purgatory, although you may imagine it smells very strongly of it on this side the grave._)[L] Well, mind this doctrine of Purgatory, and of Prayers for the dead, was the belief of the Jews, and of all the first Christians, and continued even to the time of the Reformation. Now in the book of _Machabees_, this doctrine is so _plainly_ laid down, that no man in his senses, can contradict it. Read the following passage, and tell me, if I am not speaking the truth. "And making a gathering, he (Judas Machabeus) sent 1200 drachms of silver to Jerusalem for sacrifice, to be offered for the sins of the dead, thinking well, and religiously, concerning their resurrection. (For if he had not hoped that they that were slain, should rise again, it would have seemed superfluous, and vain to pray for the dead.) And, because, he considered that they who had fallen asleep with godliness, had great grace laid up for them. It is, therefore, a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins." II. Mac. xii. 43-46. Now this passage was so _clear_, and _positive_ a proof of purgatory, and of prayers for the dead, that the first Reformers found, that they could not get rid of it, _without denying the divine_ authority of the book. _Accordingly_, these new soul-menders, told the people that the two Books of Machabees, were not included in the Jewish Canon, but _unfortunately_, they _forgot_ to tell the world _the reason_, (viz.,) because the Jewish Canon was compiled by Esdras, _long before_ the Books of Machabees were written. And now, you may understand the _sly_ words of your sixth article, "but yet it doth not apply them (these books) to _establish any doctrine_," viz., to establish the _Catholic_ doctrine, and to _overturn their new-fangled_ ideas. Now, Gentlemen, is it not plain that your _Church_, hath _both corrupted_ the Scriptures, and expunged from her _Protestant_ Canon, many of the _inspired_ books of those sacred volumes?