nted by any direct evidence. Such far-fetched and
fanciful conjectures cannot be refuted by serious arguments; but as
regards the Jewish origin of the use of incense, as well as of many other
ceremonies common to the Roman Catholic and Greek Churches, I shall give
the observation of the celebrated Dr Middleton, on an answer made by a
Roman Catholic to his well-known Letter from Rome, and who, defending the
ceremonies of his Church in nearly the same manner as the author of
"Hierurgia," says, "That Dr Middleton was mistaken in thinking every
ceremony used by the heathens to be heathenish, since the greatest part of
them were borrowed from the worship of the true God, in imitation of which
the devil affected to have his temples, altars, priests, and sacrifices,
and all other things which were used in the true worship." This he applied
to the case of _incense_, _lamps_, _holy water_, and _processions_,
adding, "that if Middleton had been as well read in the Scriptures as he
seemed to be in the heathen poets, he would have found the use of all
these in the temple of God, and that by God's appointment."

"I shall not dispute with him," says Middleton, "about the origin of these
rites, whether they were _first instituted by Moses_, or _were of prior
use and antiquity amongst the Egyptians_. The Scriptures favour the last,
which our _Spenser_ strongly asserts, and their _Calmet_ and _Huetius_
allow; but should we grant him all that he can infer from his argument,
what will he gain by it? Were not all those _beggarly elements_ wiped away
by the spiritual worship of the Gospel? Were they not all annulled, on
account of _their weakness and unprofitableness_, by the more perfect
revelation of _Jesus Christ_?--(Gal. iv. 9; Heb. vii. 18.) If, then, I
should acknowledge my mistake, and recall my words, and instead of
_Pagan_, call them _Jewish_ ceremonies, would not the use of Jewish rites
be abominable still in a _Christian church_, where they are expressly
abolished and prohibited by God himself?

"But to pursue his argument a little farther. While the _Mosaic_ worship
subsisted by divine appointment in _Jerusalem, the devil likewise_, as he
tells us, _had temples and ceremonies of the same kind_, in order to draw
votaries to his idolatrous worship, which, after the abolition of the
_Jewish_ service, was carried on still with great pomp and splendour, and
above all places, in _Rome_, the principal seat of his worldly empire.
Now, i