besides her Authority She will have your Assent to their being of Divine Authority to depend wholly upon her Testimony Notwithstanding that God Almighty hath vouchsafed to the World marvellously full and plentiful Evidence thereof and such as is adapted to the capacities of all those who have the use of Reason but never once mentioned this as a part of that Evidence and therefore much less can it be thought the Whole How infinitely ill hath this Corrupt Church deserved at the hands of all Christians although this were the onely Abuse she had put upon them For to say nothing of her Horrible Pride and Uncharitableness in making the truth of the Scriptures dependent on her Testimony that her Pretence supposing her making her self the onely true Church this is the greatest injury imaginable to Christianity nor can she take a surer course than this to make all men Infidels And that upon these two Accounts First This Pretence of hers is immediately founded upon a Precarious and most Evidently false Principle viz. That of her Infallibility I dare appeal to those of her own Sons who have studied the Controversie whether there was ever a more shamefully baffled Cause in the World than this is Whether by their Infallible Church they mean with the Iesuits the Pope alone or with others the Pope with his General Council that is a pack of Bishops and Priests of his own Faction As the Psalmist saith If the Foundations be destroyed what shall the Righteous do So if this be the Foundation of our Christian Faith and that be proved to be a Rotten Foundation as nothing was ever proved if this be not then what shall we Christians do We must then acknowledge our selves a Generation of most Credulous Fools and that our Faith is vain If the Foundation be tottering the whole Superstructure must fall to the Ground But so fond is this Unsatiably Covetous and Ambitious Church of her Great Diana Infallibility by the Pretence whereof she hath raised her self to such a Height and Grandeur that she is well content if that must fall that our Saviour and his Apostles both the Old and New Testament should fall with it And she hath done all that lies in her to make it necessary that those who shall have the wisdom to reject her Ridiculous Doctrine of Infallibility should at the self-same time renounce Christianity If Popery were Chargeable with no other Crime as it is with innumerable others and many of them intolerable I say were it Chargeable with no other Crime but the making our Belief of the Authority of the Books of Scripture to be founded on the Infallibility of the Romish Faction we ought to be as zealous for the Preventing its Reestablishment in this Nation from whence it hath happily been twice Expelled as we are desirous to Preserve the Christian Religion Secondly The Romish Churche's making her Authority the sole Foundation of our Belief of the Scriptures makes the Testimony of the Spirit to the Truth of Christianity in our Saviour when on â—arth and in the Apostles and others in the Primitive Ages to be now perfectly Insignificant I think it makes them to be so as to the Church Representative for she pretends to her Infallibility and consequently to her Infallible Assurance of the Truth of Christianity as an immediâ—te Gift of the Holy Ghost therefore what need hath she of the Testimony of Miracles But as to Private Christians I can by no means understand in what stead they stand them for if the Churches Authority be necessary to their believing the truth of the Scriptures and therefore to their believing that there were those Miracles really wrought which the Writings of the Apostles tell us of then why may they not without any more ado make her Authority the immediate ground of their Assent to the truth of Christianity It is said that the truth of the Matters of Fact are not knowable at this distance such as whether there were such Persons as our Saviour and his Apostles whether they performed such Miracles and the Apostles wrote such Books c. but by the Tradition of the Church because no such Matters are to be known at any considerable distance but by Tradition To this it is Answered that it is one thing to believe the Matters of Fact upon the Churche's Tradition and another to believe them upon her Authority founded upon her Infallibility Now this latter we reject but adhere to the former as a Ground of our belief of those things But then by the Tradition of the Church we are far from meaning that of Rome onely We mean the Catholick Church or the whole Collective Body of Christians throughout the World from the Apostles times down to this present Age of which the Roman Church is but a Part and therefore does Impudently in appropriating Catholicism to her self and that a very Vitiated Part too and that Church Representative an exceedingly small Part. And we receive the Tradition of the Catholick Church as a Ground as I said of believing these Matters not as tâ—e Ground because we take in another Tradition viz. that of those who are out of the Church and Enemies to Christianity the Iews especially In short we believe those and the like matters of Fact upon the same ground that we believe all other wherein Religion is not concerned but there are Circumstances which give the Tradition of Christian matters of Fact a mighty Advantage above other Traditions as unquestionable Assurance as these give men when they are General and Uninterrupted But 't is well known to all who are not strangers to the Popish Writers what lamentable work they make in proving the Testimony of the Church to be the foundation of our Faith concerning the Authority of the Scriptures This Proof they fetch out of the Scriptures themselves and their main Text for this purpose and for the Infallibility of their Church is those words of S. Paul 1 Tim. 3. 15. where he calls the Church the Pillar and Ground of Truth But what a manifest Circle is this We ask them how it appears that the Scriptures are the Word of God They answer it appears from the Testimony of the Church We ask again how it appears that the Testimony of the Church is true They reply it appears from the Scriptures And so they prove the Authority of the Scriptures by the Testimony of the Church and then wheel about again and prove the Authority of the Church by the Testimony of the Scriptures But again We can either be certain of the truth of these words of S. Paul setting aside the Authority of the Church or we cannot be Certain If we can be Certain why then not of the truth of the whole Scripture as well as of this single Text If we cannot be certain of the truth of this Text without the consideration of the Churche's Authority what Folly or rather Knavery is it to make this Text an Argument to prove the thing
Thirdly Our Saviour hath moreover purchased for us a rich supply of Grace to enable us to use the forementioned Means with happy success He hath obtained from his Father by his Perfect Obedience both Active and Passive Authority to send the Holy Ghost powerfully to assist us and hath assured us that those who ask him shall have him in those most excellent and most comfortable words Luke 11. 11 12 13. If a Son shall ask bread of any that is a Father will he give him a stone Or if he ask a fish will he for a fish give him a Serpent Or if he shall ask an Egge will he offer him a Scorpion If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your Children how much more shall your Heavenly Father give his holy Spirit unto them that ask him And if any of us want the Holy Spirit 's Assistance it is certainly because we either pray not at all for it or not with a sincere and earnest desire that he should root up and destroy every Evil Affection in our Souls Because we are secretly unwilling to let go some beloved lust or other And because we are false to God and our own Souls in those things which he hath put into our Power For 't is certain that not to put forth the power we have already received and yet complain for want of strength is to play the Hypocrities and no wonder if the Holy Spirit of God doth estrange himself and withhold or withdraw his blessed Influences from such persons But as for those who are faithful so far as those Talents reach which they are at present intrusted with our Lord hath promised them that more shall be given them That is the meaning of those words Mark 4. 25. He that hath to him shall be given That is that useth what he hath for no man properly hath or possesseth what he makes no use of 't would be the same thing to him to be without it Nay our Lord doth not only promise to him that hath that more shall be given him but also that he shall have abundantly more Matth. 13. 12. For whosoever hath to him shall be given and he shall have more abundance And he repeats this Chap. 25. 29. And if we were not through wilfulness and carelesness wanting to our selves in putting forth that measure of strength we have as sure as Iesus is the Christ we should fully experiment the truth of this promise We should then feel the Divine Spirit working in us mightily as the Apostle S. Paul saith he did Col. 1. 29. The great things that are spoken concerning the Spirit and of what he shall do in the hearts of men would be then punctually fulfilled in us and we should be satisfied by happy experience that they are not mere words the Holy Ghost would not fail to do all that for us he was sent by our Lord to do It is to be acknowledged with great sadness that both Fleshly and Spiritual Lusts are exceedingly strong and vigorous even in the generality of those that profess Christianity as well as in others and no less than in others that are Strangers to our Religion But this never to be enough lamented Evil doth not proceed from hence that grace is denied to the generality but 't is wholly to be imputed to their Receiving the grace of God in vain and wilfully refusing to comply therewith It is not at all to be ascribed to the Spirits refusing to perform his Office in them or to do in their behalf what doth belong to him but to their refusing to do their part This we are as fully assured of from abundance of Texts of Scripture as we can desire to be The same is to be said of mens so ordinarily falling again and again into those sins which they frequently Pray and Resolve and Vow against This is far from being the account of it that God is not willing to hear their prayers For as S. Iohn speaks 1 Epist. 5. 14. This is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask any thing according to his will he heareth us and to ask victory over our Lusts is of all Petitions most agreeable to his will This cannot be the reason of it that the Holy Spirit refuseth to inforce his Preventing or Prevenient with his Assisting Grace that he will not assist some persons in the performance of those good Resolutions which his Preventing Grace hath excited in their Souls But this is the true account hereof viz. Such Persons are undoubtedly wanting in the use of some Necessary Means or other for the subduing their Lusts they do not use all the means our Lord hath appointed and are especially faulty in neglecting particularly the great duty of Consideration They pray it may be very frequently and earnestly too that God would give them strength against this or that Corruption and they add Vows to their Prayers but they add not Consideration to their Prayers and Vows they watch not over themselves disregard the first motions of their Wills and inclinations of their Souls towards the sins or sin they so Pray Resolve and Vow against and are not careful to avoid Temptations And as inconsideration is the chiefest cause of unsuccessfulness in the use of means for the subduing of Corrupt Affections so the gross neglect of that grand Means the Lords Supper but now discoursed of which I hope in no Age nor among any people professing Christianity was ever so common as to our great shame it is in this Age and this Nation this gross neglect I say is questionless a very great cause of so much Non-proficiency in attendance on other Ordinances as is complained of Which Nonproficiency may well be notwithstanding the Promises of the plentiful Effusion of the Spirit and our Saviour's purchasing so rich a supply of Grace for us For our Saviour is no such Friend to Negligence and Carelesness as to dispense his Grace in such a way and manner as that it must necessarily be a motive and encouragement to do nothing or but little our selves But on the contrary he so communicates his Grace and Strength as to make it a great Exciter and Quickner of Endeavours Of this S. Paul assures us in making God's working in us to will and to do or his readiness so to do an argument to perswade us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2. 12. Lastly As our Saviour hath purchased for us a rich supply of Grace for the Enabling us to use the Means of our Deliverance with happy success so he hath given us the most powerful Motives and Arguments that can be imagined to prevail upon our Wills to comply and cooperate with this Grace And these Arguments are not only proposed outwardly to us in his Gospel but they are also inforced inwardly upon our hearts as appears by what hath been now said by his Holy Spirit That is they are inforced upon the
of God the Powers that be are ordained of God whosoever therefore Resisteth the Power Resisteth the Ordinance of God c. So that all we assert is this that we are bound to obey our lawful Governours for God's sake who hath invested them with the Authority they have over us and commanded us to obey those Laws of theirs which are not contradictory to any of His. Nor do we say that Humane Authority can make more Duties or Sins than God hath made or to speak properly and strictly can make any thing to be a Duty or Sin for it can only Command or Forbid and what it Commands if lawful the Divine Authority makes it a Duty and what it Forbids if not a Duty the Divine Authority makes it a Sin Or to speak in the words of the Learned Bishop Taylor Humane Authority doth not make the action of disobedience to be a Sin It makes that the not compliance of the Subject is Disobedience but it is the Authority of God which makes Disobedience to be a Sin And what immediately follows deserves also to be transcribed in this place viz. And though no Humane Power can give or take Grace away yet we may remember that we our selves throw away God's Grace or abuse it or neglect it when we will not make use of it to the purposes of Humility Charity and Obedience all which are concerned in our Subordination to the Laws There is also this difference between the Obligations of Divine and Humane Laws viz. The Divine Laws bind our Thoughts and the Sense of our Minds they bind us not onely to obey them but to think them also Wise and Good Laws But so do not Humane Laws they oblige onely to Obedience but not to the thinking them such as ought or are fit to be imposed A man may think a Humane Law imprudent or unreasonable and be guilty of no Transgression if notwithstanding he complies with it I mean provided he keeps his thoughts to himself or does not make them publick The forementioned Worthy Prelate layeth down no sewer than Ten or Eleven differences of Divine and Humane Laws in their obligation in his Ductor Dubitantium Whether they will all hold or no or may not be reduced to a smaller number I will not take upon me to say but thither I refer the Reader And thus much may serve to be spoken to the First thing premised viz. That Conscience is not so Sacred a thing as to be uncapable of being bound by Humane Laws Secondly I premise also that no man can be deprived properly of the true Liberty of his Conscience by any Power on Earth I mean without his own consent no Mortal nor any Creature is able to invade it This will appear by considering what that is which is called Conscience Conscience is The Mind of a man considered as possessed with certain practical principles and comparing his own actions with those principles doth according as he finds them agreeing or disagreeing with them judge of himself either absolve or condemn himself So that there are three Offices of Conscience The first is That of assenting to and embracing certain practical principles as Laws for the governing a man's self The second is That of comparing ones self or actions with those Rules or Principles The third That of passing judgment of ones self accordingly Now that is properly Liberty of Conscience and that onely which relates to the execution of these three Offices But the Acts of Conscience in executing these Offices being all Internal and within a mans Soul how can its Liberty in exerting those Acts be infringed by any Humane Power What Earthly Power can make me Assent to or believe what it pleaseth Can so give Laws to my Conscience as to necessitate me to receive them for such and to think them good Laws and safe to steer my Actions by Again how can any such Power deprive me of my Liberty to compare my Actions with such Rules as I think I am obliged to be governed by And having reflected upon my self and actions and made this comparison how can any such Power abridge me of Liberty to Absolve my self if I find my actions agreeing with those Rules or to Condemn my self if I find the contrary Can make me Condemn when I ought to Acquit my self or Acquit when I see reason to Condemn my self So that the Liberty which is with so much heat contended for by some and inveighed against by others under the name of Liberty of Conscience is truly and properly Liberty of Practice not of Conscience And the great thing in contest is Whether a Liberty of doing what a man's Conscience tells him he ought to do and of forbearing what it tells him he ought to forbear be an inviolable Right and not to be invaded by Humane Authority This being the true state of the Question I shall endeavour an Answer thereunto in these following Propositions Prop. 1. That there are two Extremes about this matter to be carefully avoided First That of Asserting an unlimited Liberty of practising according to a mans Conscience Secondly That of over-great severity in Restraining this Liberty First As to the Extreme of Asserting an unlimited Liberty of practising according to a man's Conscience This will appear to be an Extreme indeed and a very wild and mad one if we consider that there is scarcely any thing so extravagant or wicked but the Consciences of some or other may urge them to it Nay it is certain that men have pretended Conscience for some of the most impious and most villanous actions in the World So the Papists have done among our selves we all know And another sort of People too whose principles though very bad were better than theirs And it is not possible for us to know that their pretences of Conscience were mâ—re pretences Nor is it hard for us to perswade our selves that through the just judgment of God for past provocations the Spirit of delusion may be permitted to have such power over some mens Consciences as that they shall call evil good and good evil put darkness for light and light for darkness and bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter for we find a Woe pronounced against such as do so Esay 5. 20. which there would not have been if there were no such men nor could be And it is said of some 2 Thess. 2. 10 11 12. that Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved God shall send them or permit to be sent them strong delusions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strength of delusion that they should believe a lie That they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness Our Saviour foretold his Disciples Iohn 16. 2. that The time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doth God service That is the time is coming when men shall kill you out of Conscience As no doubt the Papists have done
Cruelty Pride and Ambition Covetousness Uncleanness Intemperance and the greatest Injustice and Unrighteousness As for Malice and Cruelty as now we intimated they are the Natural and Genuine Off-spring of that most Horrible Uncharitableness that is proper to Popery When men have once conceived such an opinion of any of their Fellow-Creatures as that they are hated of God and damned Reprobates they think themselves obliged to Hate them too and Hatred and Cruelty are never separated We have already given Instances of Popish Cruelty in Butchering Protestants and shewed what a vast Sea of Bloud hath been shed by the Papists which hath been at the command of their Holy Father and the instigation of his cursed instruments the Iesuits And I now add that they have not satisfied themselves with the mere shedding of Bloud but have devised the most exquisitely tormenting Methods of doing it such as can hardly be recited without great Horror and Consternation of mind To pass over the inexpressible Tortures of the Holy Inquisition what say you to long protracting the torments of those whose Bodies have been committed to the merciless Flames by letting them down by degrees with Pullies that the lower parts might be consumed before the Fire could reach the Vitals What say you to Roasting alive To Flaying off mens skins alive To Boiling of the Young Children of Hereticks alive and casting them alive to be devoured by Swine What say you to Ripping up the Bellies of Women Great with Child their hands and feet being first nailed down To Hanging men at their own doors by their privy Members To Burying men alive and young Children making holes in the Ground out of which they have put their hands and made sad moan for their Mothers What Heart is so hard as not to bleed at the mere Reading or Hearing such things as these But these and innumerable such like nay far more horrible things we might shew are Instances of Popish Cruelty And those inâ—licted upon the account of no greater Offences than Refusing to be Idolaters and not daring to be partakers of Rome's Sins lest they receive of her Plagues But how should those think that these Devilish Barbarities do not well become them who presume the poor Wretches they so torture to be Accursed of God Devoted to destruction and to far more grievous and intolerable Torments and that the Hatred God bears to them doth cause him to accept it as an Excellent piece of Service at their hands to be their Destroyers and Tormenters that is the Executioners of His Wrath Moreover the Absolute Obedience they owe to Christ's Vicar imposeth a Necessity upon them not to boggle at the greatest Cruelties whensoever his Holiness shall please to imploy them in such Services which his Pride and Malice will never permit him to fail to do whensoever he thinks it consistent with his interest And that a power to employ his Vassals in such work as this was conferred by Christ upon S. Peter and his Successors Pope Pius the Fifth tells you in the beginning of his Bull against Queen Elizabeth Saith he Regnans in excelsis c. He that Reigneth on High to whom is given all Power in Hâ—â—â—en and in Earth hath committed the one Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church to one alone on Earth viz. Peter Prince of the Apostles and to his Successor the Bishop of Rome to be governed with a plenitude of Power This one hath he constituted Prince over all Nations and Kingdoms but what to do The next words tell us Qui evellat destruat dissipet disperdat plantet aedificet That he may pluck up destroy break in pieces waste Blessed work plant and build i. e. upon those Ruines And Pope Innocent the Third applieth to the Popes in a literal sence those words in the Prophecy of Ieremy See I have set thee over the Nations and over the Kingdoms to root out and to pull down and to destroy and to throw down to build and to plant And it would be a most tedious piece of work to shew what use the Popes have made of this their pretended power and how they have menaced with Excommunication those good-natured or prudent Princes whom they have not found forward to obey their Commands in destroying Hereticks So necessary is it that a Papist if he will be true to his principles should be either actually Cruel or in a ready preparation to be so And where is the Lust of Pride and Ambition so gratified to the height as in the Church of Rome As for the Head of this Church can there be a prouder or so proud a Creature upon Gods Earth Who claims as Universal and Unbounded an Empire over Mankind as the Father hath invested his Son Iesus withal Who pretendeth his Authority to exceed as much the Royal Power as the Sun doth the Moon Which are the words of the now mentioned Pope Innocent in the place cited Who assumes to himself as great a Power over Kings and Emperors as over the meanest of Peasants and Authority to dispose of their Crowns and Kingdoms at his own pleasure And whensoever he hath been strong enough hath made them feel it Who claims as great a power over Mens very Consciences their Minds and Understandings as we have seen in matters of Religion as God himself can Nay usurpeth such a Power as God himself abhors to have as shall be shewn anon So that if the Man of Sin who sitteth in the Temple of God and Exalteth himself above all that is called God be not to be found in Rome no part of the World ever was or will be able to shew him And how is it possible that such prodigious Pride in the Head should not affect and influence the Members both Clergy and Laity and that there should be none or little contagion in such an Example Surely the Example of the profoundly Humble Iesus cannot have a more powerful influence upon his Disciples than that of his Diabolically proud and haughty pretended Vicars must needs have upon their Proselytes especially considering the great propensity of Humane Nature to this Sin of Pride But as for the Popish Clergie they have infinite temptations to the gratifying to the height this Lust and as great Opportunities for it To pass by the Cardinals and Bishops the former of which have the stile and go in the Equipage of Princes and are co-partners with their High and Mighty Lord in his forementioned vast Rule and Government And the latter not inferior to the greatest of the Nobility and have been Censured for going too much out of their way to meet Princes I say to pass by these their Common Priests Monks and Friers have the greatest incentives to Pride haughtiness and Contempt of others that the most Ambitious of them all can well wish to have As for the Priests I need not say how much their pretended Power of Transubstantiating the Elements in the Eucharist which is no less than making a
to shew how little she befriends it in that she makes her own Authority the onely foundation of that Belief That of Hearing his Word we have now seen how Ineffectual she makes it That of Prayer she makes so as much as she can both by her foresaid Doctrine of the Non-necessity of imploying the Mind therein and her suitable Practice of enjoyning the Reading of Prayers in an unknown Tongue As also by defiling them with Superstitious Rites and even gross Idolatry And by joyning many Mediators with Iesus Christ. That of the Observation of the Lords day for which we have uninterrupted Tradition from the Apostles times she hath made as effectual to the business 't is designed for as the rest of her Holy-days That of Denying our sensitive Appetites she is a wonderful Friend to as appears by the foresaid Doctrine concerning simple Fornication and the forementioned Liberty she allows and the Indulgences her Popes have granted And lastly Those of the Sacraments how unserviceable hath she made them to their intended End by her Doctrines of opus operatum and of making their Efficacy dependent on the Priests Intention And that of the Lords Supper by Robbing the People of half and converting the whole by her prodigious Doctrine of Transubstantiation into the most Shameful Idolatry and by her Doctrine of the Sacrifice of the Mass into a daily Crucifying our Lord afresh and putting him again to an open shame Thirdly Whereas we have shewed that our Lord hath purchased for us a rich supply of Grace to enable us to use these and the like Means with happy success I need not say what an Enemy Popery is to this Grace and the Efficaciousness thereof having now shewn what an Enemy it is to these Means Fourthly Whereas we have likewise presented several most powerful Motives which our Lord hath given us to prevail with our Wills to comply with this Grace Popery is apt greatly to weaken and deaden every one of them to all its Proselytes As for instance 1. That of the Vnconceiveable Love of God expressed in sending his onely Begotten Son upon the Errand of our Deliverance c. Wherein we said are implied two wonderfully exciting Motives to comply heartily with the Method Christ hath taken to set us free from the Dominion of Sin viz. First Gods extremest Hatred of Sin in that he would not propose Terms of Reconciliation to Sinners without the intervention of such a Sacrifice as that of his Dear Son Secondly His as wonderful love to Sinners Now as to the former of these two Motives what influence can it have upon those who are made to believe that a company of little sleight Penances will satisfie for great and enormous Crimes Can they think that God doth account Sin so heinous and intolerable an evil when they presume Him so willing to be reconciled to great Sinners upon the most easie terms and conditions The foresaid Gentleman who was conversant among them tells us that their Penance doth ordinarily consist but in Ave Maries and Pater Nosters with some easie Alms to them that are able and some little Fasting to such as are willing And that he himself hath known when the Penance for Horrible Blasphemy and that frequent too besides much other lewdness hath been but the bare saying of their Beads thrice over which in Italy such good Husbands are they hinders no business but as he also observes they dispatch their Beads as they walk the Streets or rid business at home making it two lips and one fingers work But were the Penance imposed by the Priests never so sharp he shews that the Fathers plenary Pardon sweeps all away at a blow And that of these they have granted especially the Pope that lived in his time so huge a number that he believed there were few Churches of note in Italy which had not purchased or procured a perpetual plenary Indulgence by virtue whereof whosoever at certain days being Confessed and having Communicated pours out his Devotions at some Altar in that Church or gives Alms to the behoof thereof had forthwith free Remission of all sin and punishment Which I say is the most effectual course that can be devised to make people think that the greatest sins are no greater evil in God's than they are in their own account And then as to the latter Motive how is the Love of God to sinners lessened by this Doctrine of theirs viz. That by the Sufferings of Christ true Penitents are indeed delivered from Hell but not from the direful pains of Purgatory which as was said may be equal in all respects to those of Hell except in the duration of them which yet may endure too for many Ages but that they have invented means to shorten them And their eaking out the satisfaction which Christ hath made to the Divine Justice for sinners with satisfactions of their own making doth also not a little disparage his and his Fathers love in what he hath suffered in their behalf 2. As to the Motive of Christ's Admirable Example we have shewed of what little Efficacy this is made by the Vile Examples of his Vicars and Vicegerents and their Spiritual Guides Whereunto I will add this passage of the said Sir Edwin's That the Iniquity of their Chief See hath been so exorbitant as to have raised amidst themselves this Proverb or saying That the worst Christians of Italy are the Romans of the Romans the Priests are Wickedest the Lewdest Priests are preferred to be Cardinals and the baddest Man among the Cardinals is preferred to be Pope 3. As for this Motive viz. The assurance Christ hath given us that he will not take such advantage of our Frailties as to cast us off for them it is even quite taken away by their Doctrine of even Venial Sins being so severely punisht in Purgatory 4. For that of our Saviour's Mediation and Intercession what a little Motive have they made it by making so many Co-Mediators with Iesus Christ as if his Mediation were far from sufficient And nothing hath been more observed than that for one Pater Noster they say very many Ave Maries And the Virgin Mother of God as they call her is Caressed after that rate by them that 't is scarcely uncharitable to suspect that they lay far more stress upon her's than upon her Son's Merits Lastly To joyn together the Motives of the Glorious Reward promised to the subduing of Corrupt Affections and the most Dismal Punishment those are threatned with who gratisie them it appears abundantly from what hath been already said that they have made these exceedingly weak and insignificant But that one Doctrine is enough to do it alone which we find backt with the Authority of the Council of Trent viz. That Imperfect Contrition or Attrition although by it self it cannot bring a sinner to Iustification without the Sacrament of Penance nevertheless it disposeth him for the obtaining of the Grace of God in that
may be easily mistaken when we undertake to determine of the Fitness of them Thus having with submission to my Superiors offered my Opinion about this weighty Argument in the foregoing Propositions I hope I shan't be censured as immodest if I also add that I do not see but Governours might avoid the two Extremes in reference to Liberty of Conscience as it is called by having a constant regard to such like Rules And that the Governed on the other hand by doing the like might understand without much difficulty within what bounds they ought to confine themselves in Craving of their Governours or Expecting from them this kind of Liberty But I think it seasonable to suggest this one thing more to these that they would so behave themselves that those who have Power to grant it as far as is sitting might not be tempted to think it a thing onely adapted to the serving of Interest and by that means be the more inclined to a total Refusing of any such Liberty I mean that there be no Occasion given to what is so Commonly not without ground said viz. When 't is mens Temporal Interest to plead for Liberty of Conscience then they are Zealous for it but the Tables are no sooner turned but who like them against it Were we as honest as we should be we should be more fixed and constant and not so vary in our Principles as our Circumstances vary We should not in one Circumstance build what before we destroyed and in another destroy what we before built And so declare amidst all our Stir and Noise about Liberty of Conscience that we have either none at all or but very little Conscience But in the Conclusion of all I must not forget that which hath occasioned all this Discourse about Liberty of Conscience viz. that whatever that Liberty of this kind is which we have a Right to it is not a Branch of Christian but of mere Natural Liberty There is no Text of Scripture that mentioneth this as a Liberty of our Saviour's Purchasing and therefore no Christian may claim it as a Christian. 'T is due to men of all Religions who may be supposed to make Conscience of what they do and not only to the Professors of the Christian Religion And 't was always and in all places as much mens Right as it hath been since our Saviour's Appearance in the World and is in those Parts of it where his Gospel is received CHAP. XVI The Third Inference from our Notion of Christian Liberty viz. That Popery is the greatest Enemy in the World thereunto Where it is shewed First That the Church of Rome Robs those who are subject to her of that Natural Liberty which necessarily belongs to them as they are Men viz. That which consists in the free use of their Vnderstandings in matters of Religion That She will not permit men to Examine either her Doctrines or Practices by the Holy Scriptures nor yet to receive the Holy Scriptures themselves otherwise than upon her Authority The Wickedness of this exposed in two Particulars The alledging of Scripture for it shewed to be the grossest Absurdity Their great Text 1 Tim. 3. 15. spoken to Her Tyranny over mens Minds further shewed HAving now spoken to all the False Notions of Christian Liberty that I know of and discovered the intolerable Mischievousness of them as well as Falsity I proceed to another Inference from our Notion thereof namely Thirdly That Popery is a Religion if I honour it not too much in calling it so that is the greatest Enemy in the whole World to Christian Liberty Should all the wicked Wits in the World meet together to Consult and Complot how to Banish out of it this Liberty they could not devise more effectual means for the doing of it than those which are pitch'd upon by the Church of Rome And here we will shew First That She Robs those who Subject themselves to her of that Natural Liberty which necessarily belongs to them as they are Men or Reasonable Creatures And much more Secondly That She Robs them of that Liberty which it was the Design of our Saviour's Coming into the World and of all he did and suffered here to instate us in First That She Robs those who Subject themselves to her of that Natural Liberty which necessarily belongs to them as Men or Reasonable Creatures There is no Liberty so Essential to Humane Nature or so much its Inviolable Right as that which consists in the free use of our Understandings But a Papist is miserably tied up and inslaved here and that in those matters wherein it is of Infinitely the greatest Importance and Concernment to him that his Mind should be free namely in matters of Religion which have such a necessary influence into the Welfare of our Souls and our Eternal Happiness But notwithstanding that Injunction of S. Paul 1 Thes. 5. 21. Prove all things hold fast that which is good And that of S. Iohn 1 Epist. 4. 1. Beloved believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they be of God c. This Church denieth to her Children all judgment of Discretion in Points of Religion at least except in this one Point the choice of the Church for their Guide which having Chosen they must follow her blind-fold all their lives after They must be Implicit Believers and Implicit Chusers She will 〈◊〉 and believe for them All their â—â—dgment and Faith must be resolved into hâ—rs as being if you will believe her 〈◊〉 and Uncapable of being either deceivâ—◠〈◊〉 self or of deceiving others And therefore to take our Saviour's 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 thâ— Scriptures except for the forementioned one thing nay for that too as we shall see anon is to put an Affront upon Her Authority and the Bereans who were so highly commended for so doing were guilty of great Sauciness and high Presumption And She takes the most successful course that can be thought of that you shall not Search the Scriptures by locking them up as She does and making the Bible so scarce a Book to be light upon where she hath Power enough to do it and in those places where her Power is Clipt by using a many wicked Artifices to keep the Vulgar from looking into it who are so miserably imposed upon by their wretched Priests as to think it a lighter sin to be Drunk or to commit Fornication and transgress many an express Law of God than to cast their Eyes upon the Holy Scriptures So well aware is this Church that a great part of her Religion is neither to be found there nor agreeable with them but as expresly as it can be done by words contradicted by them And as you may not Examine any of her Doctrines or Practices by comparing them with the Rule of Faith and Practice the Scriptures so neither which is but a necessary consequence from thence may you have any other Foundation for your Belief of the Books of Scripture themselves