Popery condemned by scripture and the fathers - End Time Deception

542 rOPERY CONDEMNED BY
this new element with the following address.
*'
Thou well deservest, base rascal, to lose thy
" life, and be condemned for ever, for thy
" sins ; but because thou art a servant to the
*'
Virgin Mary, thou shalt be delivered from
*'
this danf^er, that thou mayest go and be con-
" fessed." Up became accordingly, and made
the above declaration to the priest Pelbart himself.
" It was from this man himself,*' says Crasset,
" that the religious Pelbart heard this history
; and you must either believe the penitent
an impostor and cheat, or else that Pelbart was
a wicked man, who took delight in imposing
on the sovereign pontiff of Rome, (to whom
he dedicated his works), and on all the faithful
;
or you must believe this story for an absolute
fact ; and, consequently, that the Virgin
does sometimes preserve her servants from
everlasting damnation after death *.*' The
reader is at liberty to believe which he pleases.
When the Virgin bestows such marks of her
beneficence upon the base and graceless, the
faithful, who are remarkable for their pious
simplicity, have certainly reason to expect much
more extensive favours ;
and the Church would
be chargeable with great ingratitude, did she
.
only permit her members to say, " Holy Vir-
" gin, pray for us." But let us now take a
peep at the worship given to the little saints
* P. 134.
for