When I was at Portugal, there was held at that time the court of justice of the Inquisition.  All the criminals were carried in procession to the great church, where eight of them were habited in gowns and caps of canvass, whereon the torments of hell were displayed, and they were condemned and burnt for crimes against the Catholic faith and blessed Virgin.

I am sorry to make any reflection upon Christians; but indeed, in Italy the Roman religion seems the most cruel and mercenary upon earth; and a very judicious person, who travelled through Italy from Turkey, tells, That there is only the face and outward pomp of religion there; that the church protects murderers and assassins; and then delivers the civil magistrate over to Satan for doing justice; interdicts whole kingdoms, and shuts up the churches for want of paying a few ecclesiastical dues, and so puts a stop to religion for want of their money; that the court of Inquisition burnt two men for speaking dishonourably of the Blessed Virgin; and the missionaries of China tolerated the worshipping the devil by their new converts:  that Italy was the theatre, where religion was the grand opera:  and that the Popish clergy were no other than stage players.

As to religion in Poland, they deny Christ to be the Messiah, or that the Messiah has come in the flesh.  And as to their Protestants, they are the followers of Laelius Socinus, who denied our Saviour’s divinity; and have no concern about the divine inspiration of the Holy Ghost.

In Muscovy their churches are built of wood, and, indeed, they have but wooden priests, though of the Greek church; they pray as much to St. Nicholas, as the Papists do to the Virgin Mary, for protection in all their difficulties or afflictions.

As to Lutherans, they only differ from the Romans in believing consubstantiation, instead of transubstantiation; but like them, they are much pleased with the external gallantry and pomp, more than the true and real practice of it.

In France I found a world of priests, the streets every where crowded with them, and the churches full of women:  but surely never was a nation so full of blind guides, so ignorant of religion, and even as void of morals, as those people who confess their sins to them.

Does it not seem strange, that, while all men own the Divine Being, there should be so many different opinions as to the manner of paying him obedience in the Christian church?  I know not what reason to assign for this, except it be their different capacities and faculties.

And, indeed, upon this account, we have perceived, in all Christian countries, what mortal feuds have been about religion; what wars and bloodshed have molested Europe, till the general pacification of the German troubles at the treaty of Westphalia:  and since those times, what persecution in the same country among the churches of the Lutherans; and should I take a prospect at home, what unhappy divisions are between Christians in this kingdom, about Episcopacy and Presbytery; the church of England and the Dissenters opposing one another like St. Paul and St. Peter, even to the face; that is, they carry on the dispute to the utmost extremity.