To this explanation of the use of incense in the churches, I may answer by the same observation which I have made, p. 144, on a similar defence of the use of lights, namely, that it is a strange materialization of spiritual ideas by embodying into a tangible shape what is simply typical, and which is not warranted 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?