nor uncircumcision availed any thing and that in the new Creature there was neither Circumcision nor uncircumcision but Christ was all in all and that one God did both justifie the Circumcision by Faith and the uncircumcision through Faith from all which it is evident that those of the Circumcision might be saved and by consequence that their Religion was a true Religion and yet that their doctrine of Circumcision was an error can be disputed by none who read the Epistles of S. Paul And it is no less clear that they held it an Article of Faith delivered to Abraham by God So here it is plain that S. Paul in one breath both condemns this Opinion as erroneous and yet allows Salvation to such as believed it With how many errors doth S. Iohn charge some of the seven Churches yet they were still the Churches of Christ. The Church in the second Century did generally believe the Millennium as a thing revealed by God which the Roman Church now calls an error yet I hope I. K. will not condemn that Church as holding a false Religion The African Churches held it necessary for Infants to receive the Eucharist from these words Except you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of man you have no life in you and this was approved by P. Innocent and was continued many Ages in the Roman Church as appears from the Ordo Romanus and yet that Church has declared that not to be necessary by which the Opinion the former Ages had of its necessity is declared an error But it were a strange thing from that to condemn these as holding a false Religion The Franciscans and Dominicans had hot contests about the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin and both pretended Divine authority and Revelations so that one of those must have held an error The Dominicans and Iansenists believe Predestination and Grace efficacious of it self this the Molinists deny both vouch Scriptures and the definitions of the Church The Canonists Courtiers of Rome and Iesuits have asserted the Popes Infallibility from Scripture and Councils the Sorbon hath always rejected this Now of all these different Opinions the one must be true and the other false since they stand in the terms of a contradiction and they have all vouched God and Scriptures for them therefore those who hold the false side of the contradiction according to I. K's reasoning must be of a false Religion which I believe when he considers more maturely he will find he mistook his measures in this And in fine his Argument will also hold as strong to prove that every Individual of a true Religion must be exempt from all errors in every Opinion whereof he takes God to be the Author For I. K's Argument will be as strong for every thing whereof God is believed the Author as for Articles of Faith So that every mistaken sense of Scripture will turn one to be of a false Religion since every mistaken exposition is an error and yet that being thought the meaning of the place God is believed the author of that meaning and by I. K's consequence of the error it self From all which I may I hope even by I. K's leave infer the necessary distinction between things that are believed to be errors and those that are believed to be Truths For the former to vouch God the Author of what we know to be an error and corruption is certainly so criminal that none of the true Religion can be guilty of it But there be many things which though errors yet any one may very innocently mistake for truths I do not say the mistake does quite excuse the error if the error be fundamental the mistake must be so too But if the error be in a lesser matter it is a lesser error and it will never be made out That if one apprehending an Opinion true embrace it as come from God and as an Article of Faith if he is mistaken in that he strikes at the divine veracity for among men who thinks that any wronged his veracity if another mistook his meaning and understood his words in a different sense from what he intended and expressed Certainly he who so mistakes after the true meaning is cleared cannot be understood to have fastned any reproach upon the Candor of him whose words he mistook all the blame being to be cast only on his want of right understanding This were indeed a hard case if all our mistakings of divine Revelations did infer a charging God with error or corruption But the thing is so clear that I am afraid I have spent too many words about it and this Argument of I. K's cannot but upon first reading appear to all that are accustomed to weigh and examine truth to be a piece of crude ill digested and ill palliated Sophistry Thus far have I followed I. K. through those six points he imagines he has demonstrated and have shewed how true the first four were but how little reason there was to account them such for any thing he said for their proof and how false the other two are And I suppose he will acknowledge that if what is already set down hold true and be founded on good reason I need not follow him through the rest of his Book it being only a direction to his gentle courteous Reader how to manage this method of arguing so as to convince all persons that dissent from the true Religion which he thinks is a Mathematical and sure way of proceeding and such as no man can decline or avoid and in end must be either convinced by it or be forced to confess himself no better than an Ass or a block which concludes him a mad man I will not follow this with a railery that is as obvious as severe but I love not to mix matters of sport with such serious purposes therefore I follow I. K. no more through the rest of his Book But come next to consider the great support of that cause which he manages both in his Preface and through the rest of his Book that there can be no certainty neither about the true books of Scripture the Decrees of Councils or writings of Fathers without there be a true Church and Religion agreed on which shall both declare to us what Books are true and what not and shall deliver their true meaning to us otherwise endless confusions must follow which plainly appears in the many divisions of the Protestants and the uncertainties they are in about all Controverted points From which the necessity of a true Church appears as much as in a well ordered State there is not only a necessity of clear and good Laws but of Judges to expound them CHAP. VII Of the supposed Inconveniencies J. K. imagines in the want of a true Church to Iudge Infallibly and of the right methods of finding Truth THere is nothing about which those of the Roman Church make more noise than the necessity of
Roman Religion were propagated in the same manner and shall first examine his grounds His first Branch of the Comparison is that as the Christian Religion contains some high Mysteries in it above the reach of humane Reason so does the Roman Religion in holding Transubstantiation He did well to distinguish this from the Mysteries of the Christian Religion for it is indeed none of them nor is it above humane Reason as he calls it but contrary to it and not at all to be compared to the Mysteries of Christian Religion as the Trinity the Incarnation and the Resurrection The last of these contains nothing in it that may not be Rationally enough conceived as very possible and easy to Divine Omnipotence for the other Mysteries that concern God it is no wonder those be above our understandings since the divine Nature is so vastly exalted above all our depressed Notions of things and therefore is not a proper object for our Faculties So no wonder we cannot frame such clear conceptions of his Nature as to give a distinct account of it to our Reasons But a material object proposed to our senses is proportioned to our Faculties And therefore we must either believe the clear evidence our Faculties give us of the Bread and of the Wine after the Consecration or turn Scepticks for ever since full evidence to our Faculties is all can possibly be offered for our conviction and if that in any case fail it is in no case certain So that if our Senses fail in this we have no reason to receive any thing upon their Testimony for a noted Liar in one thing is to be believed in nothing even though his lie had been discovered by a divine Revelation Now if we weaken the evidence of Sense all the authority of the Christian Religion which it received from the Miracles will be weakned for these were only known by the Senses of the spectators And so far of the first branch of the parallel The Second branch of the parallel is that as the Christian Religion enjoyns diverse severities to embrace Crosses to Love our enemies and to Mortifie our passions so also the Roman teaches very hard precepts and Counsels as Vows Fasts Confession prohibition for Priests to Marry to which I. K. adds an c. The Christian Religion does indeed command diverse duties contrary to our natural appetites but those are things of themselves Morally good and such as do highly perfect our Natures But the Roman Religion has made a shift to find means for voiding all these Sacred obligations and to set a great many little trifling performances instead of them which have no tendency to the purifying of our Natures or the bettering of Mankind How much they have detracted from the obligation to all the severer and unalterably Moral Duties of Christianity hath been already and shall be more fully laid open if it be called for though that be needless it being so clearly done by many better Pens but for those they have substituted in their room let us a little consider these I. K. mentions and to begin with Vows We do not deny that the first design of Monasteries in the primitive Church was excellent but it quickly began to degenerate into idleness and superstition which S. Ierome though inclined enough to the severities of that course of Life hath fully told us But how they did afterwards sink into all the Corruptions imaginable all Histories inform us And whatever may be said for such Houses as either Seminaries for the Church or Sanctuaries for those that are no more able to labour in it yet certainly the entanglements of Vows is a yoke which none can be assured he shall be able to bear We ought to Vow and pay our Vows unto God and therefore should be sure to Vow nothing but that whereof the execution is in our power Now when we Vow to serve God which we do in the Sacraments we are assured of the aid of the Divine Grace to assist us in the performance But to Vow things which we are not sure to perform our tempers being so liable to Change that what agrees with them at one time becomes an intolerable burden and snare at another is certainly to cast our selves headlong into many temptations And what unnatural and brutal lusts have abounded in these Houses we read a great deal more than I am willing to repeat What a cheat is the pretence to poverty in those Orders which have got such vast Riches that they are become the envy of the world as the Benedictine the Caâ—â—husians and the Iesuits And for the begâ—ing Orders it is both against the rules of Chrisâ—iâ—n Religion and all good Government to allow much more to encourage such swarms of idle fellows who shall always go rambling and begging about and do not work that they may eat And for their obedience what a rack it may be under a Tyrannical Superiour and what an engine it may prove for Sedition and disturbance I leave to all to judge In a word all such severities as tend to the subduing our lusts and passions are good and sutable to the spirit of Christianity but for overcharging men with new burdens which signifie nothing but to create a perpetual trouble and constant scrupulosity is to abridge them of their Christian liberty without cause and tends to swell them up with pride and a lofty opinion of their meriting by such practises and a contempt of others who though they bear none of these voluntary assumed burdens yet are more meek more humble and more charitable and in all things more conformable to the life and doctrine of our Blessed Saviour And if voluntary severities be a character of a true Religion the Priests of Baal the worshippers of Diana Taurica the Ebionites the Montanists the Eâ—cratites and many other heresies might have put in a fair claim since they abounded in them From your Vows I go to your Fasts God forbid we should disclaim Fasting which our Saviour did so much recommend both by his example and Commands we acknowledge it a powerful mean both for mortifying all bodily lusts and for disposing the mind to prayer and all other spiritual exercises and therefore we do not allow these to the Roman Church as peculiar to them And I do not believe any of them will justifie the corruptions they are palpably guilty of in the observance of their Fasts which are generally only a change of diet wherein no severity nor strictness is to be seen Wine is liberally drunk the most delicate Fishes with the most exquisite way of dressing them are sought for and no other mixtures of higher Devotion appear on these weekly or annual returns For Confession I know no Christians that deny the usefulness of it but the setting up the necessity of Auricular Confession as it hath driven out of their Church the primitive and publick Confession with all the ancient discipline which was indeed the great glory
by a curious improving those hoped that their other faults should be more easily forgiven both by God and man Afterwards a great many notions were found out if not for a direct defence of those disorders yet for palliating them and allaying the grief for them A devotion to Saints was one great Engine the opinion of many sins being expiated in Purgatory together with the belief of the Popes power of Redeeming from it was an universal Medicine for all diseases of Conscience Then the dispensing with Vowes Covenants and most of all Duties was a great ease to the natural man There were also some new coined duties of Religion which did agree well with their passions such as fighting for Religion against Infidels Hereticks and others that were excommunicated by the Pope and a violent persecuting of all who in any point departed from the received Opinions And their Auricular Confessions easie Penances and ready Absolutions were sure and Infallible means to reconcile them to Religion after it was so debased as to meet them more than half way But when a great part of Europe was delivered from those more apparent Impostures the natural man did not for all that give over his practising upon Religion to frame it to his own taste and a fondness on some reformed Opinions with a Reverence for the Persons of the Teachers came to be set up by many as all they drave at But cunninger Arts were also found out and some sacred truths did insensibly become so abused as to be made the excuses of sins especially as they were stretched by the corruptions of men which were much encouraged by many unwary expressions of some hot Divines who in the eagerness of dispute had said many things that were not to be justified Hence it was that the Doctrine of Christs dying for sinners and being their Sacrifice by which the guilt of their sins was expiated and they reconciled to God was used by many for a security for men to sin as pleased them so they but trusted to Christ and because perfection was not attained in this life it was held unattainable and sin insuperable Nor could men be much afflicted for sin nor guard diligently against it who believed they were inevitably led and determined to it especially when that was thought done by God himself and fighting for Religion against the supream Authority was also by many made a great demonstration of their zeal for God and Religion and a surious bitter zeal against all who departed from their Opinions whether to the one hand or to the other was looked on as a great evidence of Grace and Love to God And it is plain in many persons Religion does not so much mortifie their passions and lusts as palliate and disguise them or at most change their object but not their nature Men of Cholerick dispositions placing all Religion in an eager violent yea and if need be a bloody maintaining all their Opinions about matters of Faith The melancholy men put it all in abstraction and recluseness valuing themselves much upon it and undervaluing others that were not so retired Others of a more sanguine Complexion finding either great excuses for all their levities and follies or if more serious turning all their thoughts to the dressing up some pretty Notion And thus men not forming their minds by the dictates and precepts of Religion but framing it according to their own tempers so as might best suit their inclinations did hold the truth in unrighteousness And thus again the natural man did adulterate the notions of Religion which are spiritually discerned But the last and greatest because both strongest and subtilest assault that Nature made upon Religion was by the misguidings of ill directed and ill managed Reason The former prejudices were more visible and could not be so well defended but this was managed with a deeper cunning And first the great value that the Masters and pretenders to Learning and Reason had of themselves made them scornfully reject all Instruction stiffly maintain all they had once asserted and despise every one that differed from them Hence it was that the Philosophers broke into so many divisions being as is apparent mightily swelled in self-conceit so that they scorned to yield to one another but employed all their wit and eloquence to justifie their own Notions how absurd soever Now this is the temper in the world the most incapable of instruction and this their pride they carried higher laughing at all Inspiration as a kind of madness which therefore they despised and thought that their Reason was able to penetrate into the deepest and secretest mysteries And as this occasioned a numberless variety of opinions so it made them despise the first preachings of Christianity in which as there was none of their Metaphysical canting so poor illiterate men delivering it they who valued themselves on their Learning and their noble generous tempers rejected it with scorn which was fed with the contempt they had for the first Converts who were either such as they called Barbarians or men of mean Education and Employments But after an Age or two many of those were by the prevailing progress of Christianity Converted to the Faith and did for some Ages very good service to it But diverse of their Successors retaining the old temper of the Philosophers the debates about Religion begun to be managed with an unyielding ambition and Anathema's were the common sanctions with which they imposed their Opinions And at length one of the Bishops assumed to himself and Successors the absolute authority of judging and deciding all Controversies which though the most unreasonable opinion in the world and that which destroys the free and right use of Reason yet was brought in on the highest pretences of Reason as the only mean to end all disputes And when a great many errors were visibly got into their Church and some rose who with all the evidence of Reason imaginable laid open these and pressed them to disown and reform them they continued in their stubborness multiplied their Anathema's and wreathed all their errors in one Chain as S. Iames had done the Law of God and imposed all without mercy And for doing this they brought their Janizaries whom they had educated in Nurseries at fencing cudgelling and the other discipline of Pen-slaughter and Ink-shed These Schoolmen who had been well trained to dispute about every thing and stubbornly to maintain every position how trifling or how false soever with all confidence and earnestness were brought to give Battel and they as Mercenaries who expected good preferments did fight it out most obstinately nothing was too disingenious for their confidence no Author was so spurious but they would vouch his testimony no place of Scripture sounded favourably to their Opinions but though it had been never so plain that it was to be understood in a different sence was brought as a certain proof no maxim of the Schools no old fustian distinction was