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SKETCH

OF

POPERY.

TO THE LAW AND TO THE TESTIMONY:
IF THEY SPEAK NOT ACCORDING TO THIS WORD,
1r 18 BECAUSE THERE IS NO LIGHT IN THEM.

ISAJH Vi.

LONDON:

THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY;

Instituted 1799.

SOLD AT THE DEPOSITORY; 56, PATERNOSTER ROW,
AND 65, ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD;

AND BY THE BOOKSELLERS.

843.

SKETCH

OF

POPERY.

CHAPTER I.

RISE AND PROGRESS OF POPERY.

No

TRUE religion must be personal. In many cases a proxy is admissible, but here it is not. one can become pious for us: a substitution of others for ourselves is utterly impossible. Religion is often exhibited in the Scriptures as knowledge, affection, and obedience; and these are obviously not relative, but individual. Equally certain, therefore, is it that religion must be personal also. It is, in fact,

a heart of flesh," a renewal in the spirit of the mind, a new nature, a Divine principle, the life of God in the soul of man, a life kindled from above, and rising to the world from whence it came. Not only does true piety operate on the individual, as considered apart from others, but it acts on the whole man. In his understanding, it is light; in his affections, it is love; in his conscience, it is submission to supreme authority; throughout his course, it is habitual conformity to the law of righteousness.

B

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