Page:History of the Nonjurors.djvu/313

Rh the Nonjurors had no leaning towards Rome, though the charge was so ignorantly adduced. Thus he says, that the design of his work was "to demonstrate the unlawfulness of being a member of the Church of Rome, and to overthrow her pretended infallibility, by proving her erroneous in no less a point than an article of faith." This is from the Dedication to Brett. He proceeds: "As you are a true Catholick yourself, so I cannot in the least doubt your approbation of my endeavours to establish the Ancient Christian Doctrine, concerning the state of the dead, to shew the falsity of the Roman Purgatory, and thereby to strip the Papal sect of the glorious title of Catholick, which without any right she assumes to herself." Deacon also enters upon the other points, which were comprehended under the general designation Usages. The work is managed with considerable ability: and whoever reads it will see that Deacon was not a Papist, as his enemies asserted. It is indeed distinguished by so much good sense, that I venture to quote a few passages. The following remarks, from the preface, appear to me to be deserving of attention in the present day. "I have often observed with concern the usage, which Protestants and Romanists have given each other in controversies; sometimes they accuse each other of practices, which cannot be charged upon the body: or if they could, yet would signify nothing to the matter of communion. Sometimes they argue against the opinion of private men, as if they were the tenets of the sect they were opposing: and sometimes they deny the doctrine of their own church, and misrepresent that of their adversaries. This management has been practised on both sides."

Deacon's book was a reply to a Romish paper on