Popery condemned by scripture and the fathers - End Time Deception

112 POPERY CONDEMNED BY
have been the devices of Popes, or received
their approbation.
Upon this subject, the R. has not judged proper
to' enlarge. He only observes, that there
were " some cruelties committed in Queen
" Mary's reign *= ;" and even these, he attempts
to persuade his readers, proceeded from the
cruelty of her disposition, and a sense of the
wrongs which she had received from Protestants.
But did not Mary herself ascribe it to that
gloomy and intolerant religion, to which she
Vvas a bigot And were not Popish priests her
abettors and exciters He indeed tells us, that
religion was only the pretext for destroying Ridley,
Cranmer, and others who had attempted to
deprive her of the succession. Will he inform
us, if the poor old men and women, blind and
lame, who suffered at that time, were burnt by
Mary upon this principle; or if reading the
scriptures,
denying transubstantiation, and other
absurd tenets of the Romish Church, were such
high treason against her,
as to occasion the consignment
of many to the flames Or will he
deny,
that the greatest part of these mart^Ts for
the testimony of Jesus, were taken from the lower
walks of life, and burnt at the stake, amid the
rejoicing and execrations of priests Did many
Papists know half of the spirit of that religion
which they profess, they would lend it their
* P, 9.
heartiest