which we withdrew from her are additions to our faith for in this we mainly differ from that Church that whatever we acknowled they acknowledg likewise but with a great many additions We believe the Scriptures are a rule for Christians and they believe the same but they add Traditions and the authority of the Church to the Scriptures We believe that God is to be worshipped spiritually they believe the same but add that he may be worshipped by images and sensible Figures We believe Christ to be the Mediator betwixt God and Man they believe the same but add to this the intercession of Saints We hold that God and Christ are to be worshipped they hold the same but add Saints and Angels to their worship We believe Heaven and Hell to be the several States of the future life they believe the same but add Purgatory betwixt them to the day of Judgment We believe Baptism and the Lords Supper to be the Sacraments of the new Covenant they believe the same but add five more We believe Christ is spiritually and really present in the Lords Supper this they believe but add the unconceivable Tenent of his corporal presence In a word it might be instanced in many other particulars how they have driven us from their Communion by their additions to the truth and sincerity of the Gospel which they have adulterated by their Inventions and not only have they imposed all these things but thundered out Anathema's on all that question them and have so wreathed all their fopperies with that main and fundamental article of their belief of the infallibility of their Church that it is impossible to hope for their recovery till they renounce that Principle which is so dear to them For if their Church be infallible then in no matter of faith or practice can she decree amiss and therefore the lawfulness and sanctity of all her Decrees must be maintained with an equal vigor and zeal for if in one of them she step aside her infallibility is for ever gone And by this we may see to how little purpose it is to treat of accomodating matters with that Church since there is no possibility of our Union with them without we turn over entirely to them For they cannot part with one of their errors without they first renounce that which is the dearest of them all to wit the unerring authority of their Church How cruel then is that Church which addeth the severe sanction of an Anathema to all her decrees even about the most trifling matters and about things that are by their Confession of their own natures indifferent And a consectary to this is that cruel opinion they hold that none can be saved out of their Communion pretending there is no Salvation without the true Church which they restrict to those who are under the obedience of the Roman Bishop and this is what they usually frighten all with But it is to be considered what the true notion of the Church is that so we may see through this frightful Vizar The Church then is a Society of Christians united in the same faith for worshipping of God jointly And another definition of a Church cannot be proved from Scripture for the Church being called the Body of Christ its union with him as its Head is held forth by the Apostle in these words Col. 2.19 The head Christ from whom the whole body by joints and bonds having nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the increase of God. From which words we see what constitutes a man a member of the true Church which is first his union to Christ as his head together with a dependance on him for growth and nutriture and next his being knit to all others who are thus united to Christ which is first the inward union of divine charity by which he loves all who cleave to Christ as their Head and next his associating himself with them in outward visible acts of worship which every Christian is bound to do with all that worship God in Spirit and Truth But if a Society of Christians do visibly swerve from Christ in many great and signal contradictions to the honour due to his Person and to the obedience due to his Laws and do grosly adulterate the worship so that communion cannot be had with that Church without departing from the Head Christ then it can be no departing from the Church to adhere to Christ and his true worship and to separate from the corruptions which are brought in upon the Christian Religion If then it appear that the Church of Rome hath departed from the truth and simplicity of the Gospel in so many great and main points those who attempted the reforming her to her first Purity and finding that not to be hoped for did unite among themselves for serving and worshipping God aright cannot be charged with separation from the true Church But by that cruel Tenent of theirs they breed up all their Children in the greatest uncharitableness imaginable condemning all who cannot believe their strange Doctrines or concur in their unhallowed worsh p. Thus they are the Schismaticks who have departed from the true Church and who force from their Communion all who adhere to it but this cruelty rests not in uncharitable censures but hath extended it self to as much bloody and barbarous rage as ever sprung from Hell for all the cruelty of the heathen Persecutors cannot match the practises of that Whore that hath been so often drunk with the blood of the Saints and of the Martyrs of Jesus What enraged cruelty appeared against the poor Waldenses for the separating from their Corruptions How many of all Sexes and Ages were cruelly butchered down by the procurement of the Rulers of that Church and because the Albigenses lived under the protection of Princes that favoured them how did the Popes depose their Princes and instigate other ambitious invaders to seize on their dominions Which to effectuate a Croissade was proclaimed that had been formerly practised against the Enemies of the Christian Faith and Heaven was promised to such as went against these poor innocents whereupon they were killed by thousands without all mercy Never was there any who had the zeal or honesty in these dark ages to witness against the apostacy of the Church but the Pope and Clergy used all means to get his zeal rewarded with a Faggot And when the time of Reformation came with what rage and spite did the Pope by his Letters and Legates instigate all the Princes of Europe to cruelty against them But as these things were not done in corners so they are still so fresh in our remembrance by the copious accounts we have of them that I need not tell what Arts the Popes and other Ecclesiasticks used to set all Germany on fire upon this account Nor need I tell the cruelty was exercised in the Netherlands in Charles the Fifth his time in which more than an hundred thousand are
Church to have them all believed without once questioning them But how comes it that in Heretical Countries as they call them where there is more need of those Miracles and where they might be more irrefragably proved if true since the Examiners of them were not to be suspected yet none of these mighty works do shew themselves forth Certainly that they are to this day so rife in Italy and Spain and so scant in Britain is a shrewd ground to apprehend Legerdemain and forgery in the accounts we get of their later Saints And indeed the Contrivers of these Stories have not managed their design by half so well as need was for they have bestowed as many of them on one person as might have Sainted the half of an Order But the gain that is made by new Saints and new Reliques is well enough known not to speak of the general advantage that Church pretends to draw from it In end tho some things among them did seem to surpass the known powers of Nature these ought not to prevail upon us for departing from the truth since though an Angel from Heaven Preached another Gospel he is to be accursed Gal. 1.8 If then they have so changed the Christian Doctrine by their Additions and Inventions that it is become thereby as another Gospel none of the seemingly Seraphical Appearances they may have among them tho true ought to reconcile us to it and that the rather since we were expresly guarded against this Imposture by St. Paul who gave it as an Indication of the Son of Perdition that his coming was after the power of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness 2 Thess 2.9 10. And it is a part of their curse that they are given up to strong delusions to believe lies the Beast also that appeared to St. John Rev. 13.13 did great wonders so that he made Fire come down from Heaven in the sight of men and deceived many that dwelt on the Earth by these Miracles which he had power to do But to conclude this my greatest quarrel at these forgeries of Miracles is that the People being taught to believe them and the Miracles of the Gospel with an equal certainty since they have the Testimony of the Church for both and they seeing such evident Characters of fraud and forgery on these supposed Miracles whereby they are convinced of their falshood are thereby in danger of suspecting all the Miracles of the Gospel as the tricks of subdolous and crafty men whereby they run head-long to an Atheistical disbelieving the truth of all alike And thus far we have found how opposite that Church is to the Spouse of Christ since her Doctrines are so ill founded and look so like cunningly devised Fables without the authority of Divine Inspiration or the proof of true Miracles The next Character of our Faith is its perspicuity and simplicity all being called to the clear light of the day in it and every part of it being so genuine that it is apparent it was not the contrivance of designing men that by the belief of it they might obtain the power and possess the riches of the World And therefore there are no secret Doctrines in our Faith which must be kept up from the Vulgar whereby the Pastors of Christendom may have dominion over their Souls But what must we conclude of them who by all means study to keep all of their Communion ignorant as if Devotion were thereby nourished and allow them not the use of the Scriptures in their Mother-tongue nor a worship which they can understand whereby it is that they who occupy the room of unlearned cannot say Amen at the giving of thanks since they understand not what is said To this might be added their implicite Faith to all the Doctrines of the Church without further inquiries and their blind obedience to the Confessarius be he never so ignorant and carnal These are certainly darkening opinions and practises and far different from the methods of the Apostles in preaching the Gospel who withheld from the People nothing of the Counsel of God and studied the enlightening their understandings as well as the enlivening of their wills But further how much of interest appears in the Doctrines of Rome which tend to the exalting or enriching the Papacy and inferiour Clergy for it is visible what a trade they drive by them and all the contrivances all the projectors in Europe ever fell upon for enriching their Master's Treasury falls short of the projects of Purgatory the Treasure of the Church Indulgences and the Pope's absolute authority in making abrogating and dispencing with all Positive Laws Neither is there more of design to be found in the Alcoran than in the Mysteries of that Caliph of the Spiritual Babylon And we may guess of their concernedness in these matters since a gentler censure may be hoped for upon the violation of the greatest of the Laws of God than upon the least contradiction to their idolized Interest The one is the constant subject of their Studies and Sermons whereas the other is seldom minded The third Character of our Faith is that it is rational and suitable to our Souls God having fitted it and framed them so harmoniously that they are congenial one to another It is true the Mysteries about God and Christ are exalted above the reach of our faculties but even reason it self teacheth that it must be so since if there be a God be must be infinite and incomprehensible and therefore it is not to be wondered if the Scriptures offer some Mysteries to us about God and Christ which choak and stifle the impressions we are apt to take of things But in these it is visible that the Object is so disproportioned to our faculties that it is impossible we can reach or comprehend it but as for the other parts of Religion they are all so distinctly plain that the reasonableness as well as the authority of them serve to commend them to us but how void are they of this who have made one of the chief Articles of their Faith and the greatest matter of their Worship that which is not only beyond but contrary to the most common impressions of Nature which teacheth us to believe our Senses when under no lesion and duly applied to a proper object For indeed in that case we cannot really doubt but things are as they appear to us for we cannot believe it mid-night when we clearly see the Sun in the Meridian nay and our Faith rests on the evidences our Senses give since we believe because Miracles were clearly seen by these who first received the Faith And Christ said believe me for the very works sake John 14.11 And so their sight of these Works was a certain ground for their belief therefore the Senses unvitiated fixing on a proper object through a due mean are infallible therefore what our sight our taste and our touch
the Books of the Old Testament have the Doctrine of Vertue Purity Humility and Meekness laid open very fully but without derogating from these it must be acknowledged that as the Doctrine of Christianity teacheth all these Precepts with clearer Rules and fuller Directions so they were in it recommended by the example of its Author backed with the strongest Motives and enforced with the greatest Arguments In these are the Lessons of Purity Chastity Ingenuity Humility Meekness Patience and Generosity so clearly laid down and so fully evinced that no Man who is so much a Man as to love these things whereby his Mind may be improved to all that is truely great and noble but must be enamoured of the Christian Religion as soon as he is taught it The fourth Design of Religion is to unite Mankind in the closest Bonds of Peace Friendship and Charity which it doth not only by the Rules prescribed for the tempering our Passions forgiving of Injuries and loving our Enemies and by the Doctrin of Obedience to those in Authority over us but likewise by associating us into one Body called the Church wherein we are to worship God jointly and to be coupled in one by the use of the Sacraments which are the Ligaments of the Body Having thus viewed the great designs of the Christian Religion in the several Branches and Parts thereof I shall add to this the main distinguishing Characters of our Religion which are also four The first its its verity that it is not founded on the tattles of Persons concerned nor on the reveries of Dotards nor received with a blind credulity being founded on the Authority of the great God which appeared visibly in those that published it chiefly in the Person of Jesus Christ who by his Miracles that were wrought in the sight of all the People even his Enemies looking on and not being able to deny them but chiefly by his Resurrection from the Dead was declared to be the Son of God which was seen and known by many who followed not cunningly devised Fables but were the Eye-witnesses of his Majesty who went in his Name and published it to the World confirming it by Miracles and mighty Wonders attesting it notwithstanding of all the Persecutions they met with most of them confirming it with their Blood And this Doctrine was received and believed by the better part of Mankind though it being contrary to all the Interests of the flesh whose mortification it teacheth its reception cannot be imputed to credulity or interest The second Character of our Religion is its genuine simplicity and perspicuity that all its Doctrines and Rules are clearly and distinctly held out to us not like the Heathen Divinity much whereof lay in dark Oracles in the Books of the Sybils and in other pretended Mysteries which none but the Priests might handle and expound The Jewish Religion was also vailed with Types and Figures so that it was not easie to see the Substance and Truth through all these foldings and shadows But the Glory of the Christian Religion as to this particular is nobly laid out by St. Paul in these words 2 Cor. 3.18 But we all with open face as in a glass beholding the glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord. The third Character is the Reasonableness of the Christian Religion it containing none of these absurd incredible things which abounded among the Heathens nor of these Rites of Judaism the Reasons whereof besides the Will of God in enjoyning them could not be assigned but both the Doctrines and Precepts of the Christian Religion are fitted for Mankind and so congenial to his Nature that they well deserve the designation of reasonable Service or rational Worship God having made our Souls and them of a piece And the fourth Character of our Religion is its easiness Christ's Yoke is easy and his Burden light Mat. 11.30 Wherein we are freed from all the barbarous and cruel Rites of Gentilism and from the oppressive Bondage of Judaism which was a Law of Ordinances and a Yoke that our Fathers were not able to bear but that we are called to by Christ is so simple so easy and so plain that well may we say his Commandments are not grievous 1 Joh. 5.3 Having given this hint of the Design and Characters of the Christian Religion I hold it not necessary to dwell on a further deduction of those Generals into more particular Branches nor to make this Scheme of Religion good by any longer Proof the Position I have laid down being so obvious to the Reason of every considering Person wherefore I go on to examine if there be any such System of Doctrins or Opinions among Pretenders to Christianity which tends to the overthrowing and enervating of this whole Design and whose Characters are directly opposite to these I have mentioned and the less avowed and the more disguised that Society be as it is more likely to prevail since Error and Vice are not so formidable in their own colours as when vailed with the pretences of Truth and Vertue so it will better agree with that great Character the Prophecies give of this defection that it was a Mystery and had Mystery on its Fore-head Rev. 17.15 And here remains the sad part of my Discourse for what lover of Mankind can with pleasure either satisfy his own Reason or convince the Judgment of others in a Matter the issue whereof is to prove so great a part of the Christian Societies to be Antichristian and adulterate and certainly if my love to Truth and the honour of my Redeemer and his Gospel and by consequence a zeal for Souls did not engage me to this Search I could easily quit the Task and chuse more easy and pleasant Subjects for the exercise of my Thoughts but the Wisdom of God having declared it a part of Wisdom to observe the Characters of the Antichristian Beast I therefore though not without pain engage in the survey of it And first in the entry it will be a bad Omen of no good to be expected from any Society that shall study to keep her Members in Ignorance and to bar them the study of the Holy Scriptures which being the Revelation of the whole Counsel of God and written by plain and simple Men and at first directed to the use of the rude illiterate Vulgar for teaching them the Mysteries of Godliness and the Path of Life it is a shrewd indication that if any studied to hide this Light under a Candlestick and to keep it in an unknown Tongue or forbid the Body of Christians the use of it though its native tendency be to enlighten the Understanding and to enflame the Will it being given out by God for that end that those must be conscious to themselves of great deformity to that Rule and apprehend that if it were more known their Doctrin would be less believed especially since the hardest
see Christ and his Apostles as if that were a Priviledge restricted to Church-men What shall be then said of these who call the Scriptures a Nose of Wax the Sourse of all Heresies a Book written not on Design but upon particular Emergents and do assert its incompleatness unless made up by the Traditions of the Church Is not this to add to the Words of that Book and to accuse the faithful Witness of Unfaithfulness But worse than all this is held by these who will have all the Authority of the Scriptures to depend on the Church which must be believed in the first place But here a great difference is to be made betwixt the Testimony of a Witness and the Authority of a Judg the former is not denied to the Church and so the Jews had the Oracles of God committed to them but that doth not prove the Authority of their Sanhedrim infallible or superior to Scripture and in this case more cannot be ascribed to the Christian Church than was proper to the Jewish in our Saviour's Time. But further if the Scripture be to be believed on the Testimony of the Church then upon what account is the Church first believed It cannot be said because of any testimony in Scripture for if it give Authority to the Scriptures it cannot receive its Authority from their Testimony How then shall it be proved that the Church must be believed or must it be taken from their own word and yet no other Reason can be given to prove the Church Infallible For to say that they have continued in a Succession of Bishops from the Apostles days concludes nothing unless it be first proved that the Doctrine of the Apostles was of God otherwise the Mahometan Religion is as much to be believed since for many Ages a Succession of Priests have believed it Further the Greek Churches drive up the Series of their Bishops to the Apostles Days as well as the Roman why then should not their Authority be likewise acknowledged infallible In fine must the Vulgar go and examine the Successions of the Bishops and judg about all the dubious Elections whether the Conveyance have been interrupted or not Certainly were this to be done it were an impossible Atchievement and harder than the study of the Originals of both Testaments Therefore the Vulgar must simply believe the Authority of the Church on her own Testimony which is the most absurd thing imaginable and this to every Individual will resolve into the Testimony of their Priest Behold then a goodly Foundation for building our Faith upon Christ's Prophetick Office is also invaded by pretence of the Churches Infallibility in expounding Scriptures for if this be granted the whole Authority will be devolved on the Church for by this Doctrine she may teach what she will and were the Scripture-Evidence never so full to the contrary yet whatever wrested Exposition she offers though visibly contrary to the plain meaning of the words must be believed But with whom this Power and Authority is lodged is not agreed to among themselves some yielding it to the High-Priest of the Church when in his Chair others to the great Sanhedrim of Christendom in a General Council others to both jointly but all this is asserted without proof for that of Christ's of telling the Church Matth. 18.17 so often repeated by them is meant of particular Offences and so is restricted to the Case of Differences among Brethren and relates not to Points of Doctrine Besides the Context of these Words doth clearly shew them applicable to every Parochial Church and yet their Infallibility cannot be asserted So it is clear that Christ doth only speak of a Jurisdiction for quieting of Differences among the Brethren That of the Gates of Hell their not prevailing against the Church Mat. 16.18 proves not the Pretence of Infallibility And indeed the Translation of that place deserves Amendment and instead of Hell that word is to be rendred Grave so that the meaning of the Phrase is Death which is the Mouth and Gate through which we pass into the Grave and is so used by Greek Writers shall never prevail against the Church that is the Church shall never die Neither will that of the Spirit of Truth leading out into all Truth John 16.13 advance the Cause a whit since that Promise relates to all Believers and it is a part of the happiness of the new Dispensation that all in it shall be taught of God. And the Promise of founding the Church on St. Peter Matth. 16. saith as little for suppose the Rock on whom the Church were to be built were St. Peter himself which I shall not much controvert that is not peculiar unto him since we are all built on the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets and on the twelve Foundations of the New Jerusalem are written the Names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb. But what will that prove for a Series of the Bishops of Rome And finally for the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 16.19 their being given to St. Peter that saith no more but that he was to open the Gospel which is usually called the Kingdom of God or of Heaven in the New Testament Now the use of Keys being to open the Door this was peculiar St. Peter's Honour who did first publish the Gospel both to Jews and Gentiles and in particular did first receive the Gentiles into the New Dispensation But this hath no relation to the Bishops of Rome nor to the pretended Infallibility of that See. That which hath the fairest appearance of reason is that if there be no absolute unerring Court on Earth for deciding of Controversies there shall be no end of them but every private Man may upon the pretence of some ill-understood place of Scripture break the Unity of the Church and so the Peace of the Church is in hazard of being irrecoverably lost But how specious soever this may appear it hath no weight in it For it is certain that Vice as well as Errour is destructive of Religion and it will be no imputation on our Religion that the one be no more guarded against than the other is if then there be no Authority for repressing Vice but the outward discipline of the Church it is not incongruous there is no other Authority for suppressing of Error but that same of the Discipline of the Church It is certainly a piece of Humility for a Man to suspect his own Thoughts when they lye cross to the Sentiments of the Guides and Leaders of the Church But withal a Man ought to be in all he does fully perswaded in his own Mind and we are commanded to try the Spirits and not to believe every Spirit 1 Joh. 4.1 Now Reason being the chief excellency of Man and that wherein the Divine Image doth mainly consist it were very absurd to deny Man a rational judging and discerning of these things wherein his eternal Interest is most concerned Besides
of Oaths of dissolving the Wedlock-bond of allowing the Marriage in the forbidden Degrees And as for their Additions to the Laws of Christ they are innumerable And here what I mentioned last calls me to mind of a pretty Device to multiply the forbidden Degrees of Marriage yea and add the Degrees of Spiritual Kindred that is of Kindred with our God-fathers or God-mothers in Baptism which is done upon no other design but to draw in more to the Treasure of the Church by frequent Dispenses If I should here reckon up all the Additions which by the Authority of that Church are made to the Laws of Christ I should resume all that I have hitherto alledged they being visible Additions to the Doctrine and Rules of the Gospel and imposed with such unmerciful Cruelty that an Anathema is the mildest of the Spiritual Censures they thunder against such as comply not with their Tyranny and a Faggot would be its civil Sanction were the Secular Powers at their Devotion I do not deny but there is an Authority both in the Civil and Ecclesiastick Powers of enjoining things indifferent but no Authority beside Christ's can reach the Conscience Besides if these indifferent things swell so in their number be vain pompous and useless and be imposed without all regard to the tender Scruples of weak Consciences they become tyrannical and such as do so impose them discover their affecting a tyrannical and Lordly Dominion over Consciences and that they prefer their own Devices to the simpler Methods of Christ and the plainer and easier Rules of his Gospel But one Instance of their abrogating the Laws of Christ is more signal in their violating the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper wherein tho he instituted it under both kinds and did so distribute it with the express Command that all should drink of it yet they presumed notwithstanding of that and tho the Primitive Church distributed it in both Kinds which is confessed in their Canon to snatch the Cup from the Laity and engross it to the Clergy Now it is to be considered that the value of the Sacramental Actions flowing only from their Institution the first Appointment should be most religiously observed in them Besides the universal extent of Christ's Word Drink ye all of it which was not used in the distribution of the Bread hath a particular Mystery in it to guard against the foreseen Corruption of that part of it and the reason given in the distribution of the Cup shews it must reach to all that need the Blood of Christ for the remission of Sins which not being restrained to the Priests shews that the Cup without a direct opposition to the Mind and Command of Christ ought not to be taken from the People and any that will read the goodly Reasons given for this Sacriledg will see what a low account they have of the Commands of Christ when upon such trifling Pretences they will violate them And with how much cruelty they backed this Invasion of Christ's Authority the History will declare they beginning it with a perfidious burning of two Witnesses who opposed it at Constance And occasioning so much War and Blood-shed against those who adhered to the Rule of the Gospel in the Matter and refused to stoop to their Tyranny But I advance to another Invasion of Christ's Regal Authority committed by him who pretends to be the Vniversal Bishop of the Church and to have Authority over all Church-men whom he makes swear Obedience to him and looks on them but as his Delegates It was unluckily done of Gregory the Great to be so severe on this Head as to condemn the Title of Vniversal Bishop as Antichristian But little dream'd he in how few Years his Successor would aspire to that height of Ambition Now by this pretence all these Officers whom Christ hath appointed to Rule and Feed his Church are turned out of their Authority and made subject to him And with how much pride he treads on his Fellow-Bishops the Histories of many Ages do declare It is true at first as being Bishop of the Imperial City the Bishops of Rome were highly esteemed but Pride and Ambition began soon to leaven them yet they were for the first four Ages looked upon by the other Bishops but as their Fellow-Bishops and by the Decrees of two General Councils the Bishops of Constantinople were in all things except the Precedency made equal to them And by the Decree of the Council of Nice other Metropolitans are levelled with them And here I must tell of a shameful Forgery of three Bishops of Rome who one after another would have obtruded on the African Churches a Decree allowing of Appeals from them to the Roman See as if it had been made at Nice Which they of Africk rejected and upon Tryal found it to be none of the Appointments at Nice but a Decree of the Council of Sardice But by degrees the Bishops of that City got up to the height they are now at and not content with their usurping over their Brethren and Fellow-Church-men their next attempt was upon Princes who deriving their Authority from Jesus Christ the King of Kings by whom Kings do reign it was an Invasion of his Power to attempt against his Vice-Gerents on Earth But the Popes made no Bones of this for being now held Christ's Vicars on Earth with other blasphemous Titles as Vice-God yea and Lord God they thought their Power was limited as long as Kings and Emperors were not even in Temporals subject to them And therefore from the days of Pope Gregory the Seventh they pretended to a Power of deposing Princes disposing of their Dominions to others and dispensing with the Oaths of Fidelity their Subjects had sworn to them and it was easy for them to make Crowns change their Masters as they pleased For there were always other ambitious Princes ready for their own Ends to invade the Dominions of these deposed Kings upon the Pope's Warrant and the generality of the People were so possessed with the Pope's Power of releasing Souls from Purgatory and from the punishments due to Sin that they were easily prevailed upon to follow his Thunders And by that time the Popes had swarms of Emissaries of the begging Orders who under shew of austere Piety gained much reverence and esteem in the World and so got all subjected to the Papal Tyranny Now should I instance this in Particulars I should transgress the limits of a short Discourse by a long History but the Lives of Gregory the Seventh Alexander the Third Boniface the Eighth and Julius the Second to mention no more will sufficiently convince any who will be at the pains to read them as they are written by these who lived in that Communion And Matthew of Paris will at length inform his Reader how much and how often England smarted under this Tyranny And all this is so far from being denied that it is defended avowedly by not a few of the Canonists
she is so poor as not to be able to maintain such Seminaries But on the way it is no great character of the Piety of their Church that she abounds so with great and rich donations when we consider the Arts they used for acquiring them by making People believe themselves secure of Heaven by such donations Indeed had we got our People befooled into such persuasions the cheat might have prospered as well in our hands but we are not of those who handle the Word of God deceitfully nor will we draw the People even to do good with a crafty guile or lye for God. But now as a conclusion to this Discourse I must consider if all things among us be so sound and well grounded that with a quiet Mind and good Conscience every one may hold Communion with our Church and hope for Salvation in it I shall therefore briefly run over the Nature and Characters of the Christian Faith to see if any contradiction to them or any part of them be found among us And first of all we worship God in Spirit as a Spiritual Being with suitable Adorations which we direct to no Image nor Symbol of the Divine Presence but teach that we ought not to figure God to any corporeal being no not in our thoughts neither do we worship any beside God the Father Son and Spirit We also worship Christ but as he is God and hath the fulness of the God-head dwelling in him bodily Angels indeed we honour but knowing them to be our fellow-servants we cannot pray to them or fall down before them We count the holy Virgin blessed among women but dare give her no share of the glory due to her Son All the Saints we reverence and love but knowing God to be a jealous God we cannot divide that honour among them which is only due to him and therefore do neither worship them their Images nor their Reliques We desire also to offer up to God such Sacrifices as we know are well-pleasing to him Prayers Praises broken and contrite Hearts and our Souls and Bodies but reject all Charms and Enchantments from our Worship as contrary to the reasonable service which is acceptable to God and do retain the genuine simplicity of the Gospel-worship in a plain and intelligible stile and form without any mixtures drawn from Judaism or Gentilism And thus there is nothing among us contrary to the first design of Religion And as little will be found against the second which is the honour due to Christ in all his Offices We teach our People to study the Scriptures and to examine all we say by them and exhort them to depend on God who by his Spirit will teach them as well as us neither do we pretend to an authority over their Consciences but acknowledg our selves men of like infirmities with the People who are all called to be a Royal Priesthood and thus we honour Christ's Prophetical Office by founding our Faith only on the Divine Authority of the Scriptures We also believe there is no Name given under Heaven by which we can be saved but the Name of Christ who laid down his Life a ransom for our Souls that by his Cross we might be reconciled to God and it is to that one Sacrifice that we teach all to fly for obtaining remission of sins and the favour of God trusting only to it and to nothing we have done or can do knowing that when we have done all we can do we are but unprofitable servants much less do we hope for any thing from any of our Fellow-creatures We apply our Souls to no Intercessor but Christ and trust to no Satisfaction but his and we acknowledg him the only King of his Church whose Laws must bind it to the end of the World. Neither do we acknowledg any other Authority but his over our Consciences It is true in things indifferent he hath left a power with his Church to determine in those Matters which may tend to advance order edification peace and decency but as the Church cannot add to our Faith so neither can it institute new pieces of Worship which shall commend us to God or bind any load upon our Souls We own a Ministerial Authority in all the Pastors of the Church which they derive from Jesus Christ and not from any visible Head on Earth and therefore they are only subject to Christ We also hold that the Civil Powers are of Christ whose Gospel binds the duty of obedience to them more closely on us and therefore if they do wrong we leave them to Christ's Tribunal who set them up but pretend to no power from his Gospel to coerce or resist them and thus we honour Christ in all his Offices and so are conform to the second branch of the design of our Faith. We also receive the third with the same fidelity and whatever the practices of too too many among us be yet there is no ground to quarrel our Doctrine we preach repentance to all and study to convince them of their misery and lost estate that they may mourn for their sins and turn to God by a new course of life we preach Faith through Christ in God as that which unites our souls to him by which we are in Christ and Christ is in us We stir up our people to love the Lord their God with all their heart strength soul and mind and to wait for his Son Christ Jesus who is the hope of glory and shall change our vile bodies into the likeness of his glorious Body And from this great motive do we press our people to the study of holiness withâ—ut which they shall never see God. We send them to the ten Commandments for the rule of their lives whose exposition we chiefly take from Christ's Sermon on the Mount neither can we be charged for having taught the People to break one of the least of these Commandments We exhort all our hearers to make the life of Christ the pattern of theirs and to learn of him who was meek and lowly in heart neither can our Church be accused of having taught any Carnal Doctrines for gratifying the base Interests of the flesh or for ingrossing the power or treasure of the World the subsistence of our Church-men being but a livelyhood and not a treasure In a word we preach Christ and him Chrucified and all the rules of his Gospel for ordering the conversation aright without adding or taking from it and thus our conformity to the third branch of Christianity appears We teach also according to the fourth branch of Christianity the Doctrines of Charity neither do we condemn any who hold the foundation though in some lesser matters they differ from us but hope they may be saved as well as we We abhor the Doctrine of cruel persecuting of any for their Consciences The outmost we allow of or desire of that nature being the preservation of our own Societies pure from the contagion of
other Traffiquers and the driving from us those who do so disturb us All the authority we give the Church is Paternal and not Tyrannical our Church-men we hold to be the Pastors but not the Lords of the Flock who are obliged to feed them sincerely both by their Doctrine Labours and whole Conversation but we pretend to no blind obedience due to their directions and count them noble Christians who search and try all they say by that Test of the Scriptures We send the People to confess their sins to God from whom only we teach them to expect their pardon and pretend to no other keys but Ministerial ones over publick and known Scandals In our Worship as all do understand it so every one may joyn in it And in the number use and simplicity of our Sacraments we have religiously adhered to the Rules of the Gospel we holding them to be solemn federal Rites of our Stipulation with God in which if we do worthily partake of them we are assured of the Presence of the Divine Spirit and Grace for uniting our Souls more intirely to God and advancing us in all the ways of the Spirit of Life and if the Institution of them in the Gospel be compared with our Administration of them it will appear how close we have kept to our Rule And thus we see how exactly conform the Doctrine of our Church is to the whole Branches of the Christian Design upon which it is not to be doubted but the Characters of the Christian Religion will also fit ours We found our Faith only on the Scriptures and though we pay a great deal of venerable esteem to the Churches of God during their purity which continued above four Centuries and so be very willing to be determined in Rituals and Matters that are external and indifferent by their Opinions and Practices yet our Faith settles only on the Word of God and not on the Traditions of Men neither do we believe every Spirit that pretends to Rapts and Visions but try the Spirits whether they be of God or not and though an Angel should preach to us another Gospel we would ho d him accursed The Miracles we trust to as the Proofs of the Truth of that Revelation which we believe are only those contained in the Scriptures and though we believe there was a wonder working power continued for some time in the Church yet we make a great difference betwixt what we historically credit and what we religiously believe neither will we for supporting our Interest or Authority have recourse to that base trade of forging lying Wonders but we rest satisfied with the Miracles Christ and his Apostles wrought for the proof of the Religion we own since what we believe is no other than what they taught and therefore we leave the trade of forging new Miracles to them who have forged a new Religion And for the plain genuines of the Gospel we have not departed a step from it since we call upon our People by all the motives we can devise and with all the earnestness we are Masters of to receive full and clear Instruction in all the Matters of our Religion which we distinctly lay open to them And nothing of Interest or Design can be charged on us who pretend to nothing but to be the Stewards of the Mysteries of God nor have we offered to sophisticate the simplicity of our Worship by any additions to it for the determining about some particular forms is no addition to Worship but only the following forth of these Precepts of doing all things to edification peace and order But an addition to Worship is when any new piece of Divine Service is invented with a pretence of our being more acceptable to God thereby or of our receiving Grace by that conveyance and therefore any Rites we have as they are not without some hints from Scripture so we pretend not to become any way acceptable to God by them Further We teach no irrational nor unconceivable Doctrine It is true there are Mysteries in our Faith and even reason it self teacheth that these must be unconceivable but for all our other persuasions they are such as may be well made out to the rational faculties of Man therefore we do not betake our selves to that Sanctuary that we must be believed assert what we please but we assert nothing but what we offer to evince by the clearest proofs And in fine we add nothing to the burdensomness of the Laws of Christ but teach and propose them as we have them from his Gospel without adding changing or altering a tittle from the first Institution And so far have I considered the Doctrine and Worship of our Church wherein if I could justify all our Practices as well as I can do our Principles there were no grounds to fear hurt from all the Cavils of Mortals But for bad practices whatsoever matter of regrate they may furnish us with they afford none for separation Therefore there is no ground that can justify a separation from our Church much less warrant the turning over from us to the Communion of Rome And thus far have I pursued my designed Enquiry which was if with a safe Conscience any might adjoin themselves to the Popish Religion or if Communion with our Church was to be kept and continued in and have found great grounds to assert the evident hazards of the former so that no man to whom his salvation and welfare is dear can or ought to joyn himself to that Church on the other hand without renting the Body of Christ none can or ought to depart from our Churches But I leave the perusal and considering of these things to the serious Reader to whom I hope they may give some satisfaction if he bring with him to the Enquiry an attentive serious and unbyassed mind And I leave the success of this and every other attempt of this nature for the clearing of Divine truth with him who is the only Fountain of Blessings who is over all God blessed for evermore Amen FINIS BOOKS Printed for Joseph Watts SUre and Honest Means for the Conversion of all Hereticks and Wholesome Advice and Expedients for the Reformation of the Church Writ by one of the Communion of the Church of Rome with a Preface by a Divine of the Church of England 4 to Dialogues between Philerene and Philalethe concerning the Popes Supremacy The first Part. 4 to A Treatise of the Corruption of Scripture Councils and Fathers by the Prelates Pastors and Pillars of the Church of Rome for maintenance of Popery by Thomas James Library-keeper of Oxford In five Parts 8 vo The True Nature of the Divine-Law and of Disobedience thereunto in Nine Discourses tending to shew in the one a Loveliness in the other a Deformity By Samuel Dugard sometime fellow of Trinity College in Oxon now Rector of Horton in Staffordshire 8 vo Reform'd Devotions in Meditations Hymns and Petitions for every day in the Week and every Holiday in the Year in two parts Second Edition 12 s. An Earnest Invitation to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper with Devotions c. By Joseph Glanvil Chaplain in Ordinary to his Late Majesty The Seventh Edition with Additions A Compleat Discourse of the Nature Use and Right-managing of that Wonderful Instrument the Baroscope or Quicksilver Weather-glass in Four parts by John Smyth C. M. To which is added the true Equation of Natural Days drawn up for the use of the Gentry in order to their more true adjusting and right managing of Pendulum Clocks and Watches
part of the Scriptures are the Writings of the Old Testament And yet these were communicated to all of that Dispensation who were commanded by Christ to search them and who did educate their Children in them continuing that Holy care to a high degree even to this Day Now except it be said that it is sitter all be kept under Darkness in the new Dispensation than was in the Old no account can be given for the Zeal is used in any Church to keep their Children in such ignorance and yet this is a part of the distinguishing Characters of the new Dispensation from the Old that Light hath appeared in it Now all may know how guilty those of Rome are in this What pains are taken to detract from the Authority of the Scriptures how they quarrel sometimes its Darkness sometimes its Ambiguousness sometimes the genuineness of its Originals and always complain of its being too much perused and therefore let as little of it be put in vulgar Tongues as can be read it publickly in an unknown Tongue and permit no private Person the use of it without allowance from his Confessor Of which tho in some places the Reformation hath made them more liberal yet where there is no hazard of that they betray their aversion for the Scriptures too palpably in all their Writings and Discourses But now to pursue my Design more closely I must call to mind the first Branch of the Christian Religion which teacheth how God is to be worshipped in a pure and spiritual Way and see how far this is contradicted And here I must consider the Idolatry of the Gentiles which was of two kinds The one was when the True God was worshipped in a false manner The other was when Divine Adoration was offered to those who were no Gods. Of the first I shall reckon two kinds the first was when an Image or Figure was erected for representing the Deity to the Senses and adoration offered to God through it In which case though perhaps the Herd did formally worship the Image yet their Philosophers declared they meant these only for exciting the Senses and Imagination and not for being worshipped much less that the Deity should be conceived like unto them as we find both in Celsus Julian and Maximus Tyrius Now this form of Adoration is contrary both to the Divine Essence and Command For God must either be conceived like such an Image or not If like to it then a great indignity is done the Divine Nature greater than if a Toad or Worm were set out as the Image of a King to have civil Reverence paid to it since he is of his own Essence Incomprehensible and Invisible and so hath no Shape or Figure In a word it abases our thoughts of God when we figure him to our selves But if we conceive God not like such an Image then why is it used except to be a Snare to the Vulgar who will be ready to think God like unto it And certain it is that whatever the more refined or abstracted Wits may conceive of these Images yet the Vulgar offer up their Adorations directly to them and conceive God to be like unto them This Worship is also contrary to the Divine Precept who made it one of the Ten Commandments which himself delivered to his People Exod. 20.4 That no graven Image nor Likeness should be made to be worshipped And the reason given shews the Law was perpetual for God is ever jealous of the Glory due to him Now what kindness those of Rome have to this Command may be guessed by their striking it out of their Catechisms as if it were only an Appendix of the first But if we read the whole Old Testament it will furnish us with large discoveries of God's Displeasure at this kind of Worship to which the Jews were so inclinable but God would not give his Praise to graven Images Isa 42.8 Now here it is to be remembred that the Jewish Dispensation was low and carnal when compared to that to which we are called If then this Worship was not allowed of to them it is much less to be allowed of among Christians Another part of the false Worship of the Heathens was that they believed the Deity and Divine Power was by mystical and magical ways affixed to some Bodies as the Sun or Stars are or to some Temples and to some Ancilia and Palladia which they believed came down from Heaven Acts 19.35 to which they held God to be present and adherent and therefore worshipped them And of kin to this was the Israelites their worshipping the Calf in the Wilderness Exod. 32. for it is clear they looked on it as their God who had brought them out of Egypt therefore could not possibly be adoring the Egyptian God that was an Ox but the Feast that was to Jehovah and the Psalm 106. vers 20. that says they changed their Glory into the similitude of an Ox do shew that they worshipped the True God though in a false manner Neither is it to be imagined that Aaron the Prophet and Saint of the Lord though very guilty in this Matter could for all that be so criminal as to make a false God But the most satisfying account of his Fault is that when he saw God in the Mount Exod. 24.10 God appeared in that Figure that was afterwards in the most Holy Place which was to be framed after the Pattern seen in the Mount. And if so then God appeared between the Cherubims now the Figure of a Cherub was the same with that of a Calf in its hinder parts Ezek. 1.7 And if we compare vers 10. of that Chap. with Ezek. 10.14 what in the first place is called the Face of an Ox is in the second called the Face of a Cherub which tells us clearly what was the Figure of the Cherub And therefore Aaron seeing the People desired a sensible Symbol of God's Presence among them he made choice of that he had seen in the Mount about the Divine Glory and yet all that did not excuse his Fault in the sight of God. In like manner after the Tabernacle and Temple were set up wherein were the Cherubims when Jeroboam revolted he set up Calves 1 King. 12.28 29. as is probable upon the same account but no doubt continued in all Points the Worship of the True God as it was at Jerusalem as might be proved from many Particulars but the Sin wherewith he made Israel to sin was the worshipping of the True God by a false Symbol The like account is to be given of the Idolatry of Gideon's Ephod Judg. 8.27 And of the worshipping the Brazen Serpent 2 King. 18.4 where certainly the True God was adored and yet the People went a whoring from him in that Worship And here the Title of Whoredom given to Idolatry so often in the Old Testament is to be considered the importance whereof is that God by covenanting with his People is married to them
really imagine that the undergoing the Penance doth fully serve for appeasing God's Wrath against Sin but as soon as the Priest hath enjoined his Penance without waiting that they obey it he lays his Hand on their Head and says I absolve thee and after this they judg themselves fully cleansed of Sin and that they may receive the Sacrament had their former Life been never so bad It is true the practice of the Priests in their slight Penances and hasted Absolutions and promiscuous allowing of all the Holy Sacrament is condemned by many in that Church who complain of these Abuses with much honest Zeal but these Complaints are so little regarded that their Writings are condemned and the Corruption continues unreformed Now what can take off more from the value of the Death of Christ than to believe it in the Power of a Priest to absolve from Sin All the Power of the Church being either Ministerially to declare the Absolution offered in the Gospel upon the Conditions in it or to absolve from the scandal which any publick Trespass hath given It was counted Blasphemy in Christ when he said Thy Sins are forgiven thee Mar. 2.5 10. of which he cleared himself from the Power was committed to the Son of Man on Earth to forgive Sins which shews it to be Blasphemy in all others to pretend to absolve from Sin it being an Invasion of his Prerogative To this I might add the Scorn put on Religion by many of the Penances enjoined for Sin such as the abstaining from Flesh for so many Days the pattering over so many Prayers the repeating the penitential Psalms the going to such Churches and such Altars with other ridiculous Observances like these which cannot but kill the Vitals of true Religion and lead away Souls from these earnest Applications to Jesus Christ for Pardon and Renovation And who can have any sad Apprehensions of Sin who is taught such an easy way of escaping Punishment I confess in this as in all other parts of Religion the Masters of that Church have so contrived things that their Doctrines might according to the Fable of the Manna taste pleasant in every Man's relish for if any be grave and melancholy then silence solitude and retirement are enjoined them if their Tempers be more fiery and sullen severe corporal Mortifications and Disciplines are tasked on them such as cruel and perhaps publick Whipping or other unspeakable Austerities with which the Lives of the modern Saints are full but if one be of a more jolly temper who desires Heaven at an easy rate then some trifling Penance shall serve turn These are a few of their Arts for diverting Souls from flying unto Jesus as to the sure and safe Refuge from the Father's Wrath in whom only we can find sanctuary and whom the Father hath sent into the World to seek and save lost Sinners Now whether the Priests in the injunction of easy Penances and giving Absolution do not violate the Prerogative of Jesus and insensibly debauch Souls from that affectionate and grateful Duty they owe their Redeemer into their trifling Methods and Appointments I refer it to all who know them Another Opposition made to the Priestly Office of Christ is their Conceit of the Sacrifice of the Mass which they believe is a formal Expiation of Sins both for the Living and Dead who are in Purgatory Christ once offered himself up for taking away Sin which he did by that one Sacrifice and this is by the Apostle stated amongst the Differences which are betwixt the Sacrifices of Moses which were to be daily and yearly renewed and repeated whereas Christ offered one Sacrifice in the end of the World so that there was no need of more Heb. 10.1 2 3 12 14. Now to imagine that the Priests going through the Office of the Mass and his receiving the consecrated Elements can have a virtue to expiate the Sins of others especially of the Dead is a thing so contrary to the most common impressions that it will puzzle a Man's Belief to think any can credit it And yet this is one of the Master-pieces of the Religion of that Church It is true in a right sense that Sacrament may be called a Sacrifice as it was by the Ancients either in general as Prayers Praises and Almsdeeds are called so in Scripture or as it is a Commemoration of the Sacrifice of Christ but to imagine the Action hath an expiatory force in it is a visible derogation from the value of Christ's Death and all the value is in any outward Sacramental Action can only be derived into the Soul of the Receiver but it is absurd to think one Man's Action can be derived to another and it clearly appears from the institution of the Lord's Supper that its end was the joint communicating of Believers which is perverted manifestly by the practice of these Priests who communicate in name of the Spectators Finally What a derogation is it from the Priestly Office of Christ one Branch whereof is his Intercession to join Saints or Angels with him in that Work nay and prefer them to him Which will be found too true if the Office of the Virgin and the Prayers offered to her be compared with those offered to her Son. Did Christ by the Merits of his Passion acquire this Honour at so dear a rate and shall we for whom he suffered rob him so injuriously and sacrilegiously of his Honour and bestow it on these who are our Fellow-servants But having touched this in the former part of my Discourse I advance my Enquiry to the Opposition given the Regal Office of Christ And first how contrary is it to the Glory wherewith even his Humane Nature and Body is refulgent in Heaven to believe that five words muttered out by the Priest shall have the virtue to produce his real and glorified Body instead of the annihilated Elements of Bread and Wine and yet under their Accidents and Appearances This is a new and strange kind of Humiliation if true by which he who is now cloathed with Glory must be every day exposed under so thick so dark and so contemptible a covering as are the resemblances of Bread and Wine What low thoughts of his Person must it breed in such Minds as are capable of believing this Contrivance Again he as King of the Church hath given her Laws and Precepts to whose Obedience she is obliged to which none can add without they acknowledg another Head and whose Obligation none can untie or dispense with for Christ's Dominion consists in this Authority he hath over our Consciences which he hath vindicated into Liberty by delivering us from the Bondage of Corruption If then any pretend a Power of obtruding new Articles on our Belief or Obligations on our Consciences these must be confessed to be injurious to the Dignity wherewith Christ is vested What then shall be said of him who pretends an Authority of dispensing with and dissolving the Obligation
I should descend to the Cardinals Bishops and Abbots and shew how secular they are become all their design being to engross the Power and monopolize all Riches which contagion is also derived into the Inferiour Orders of the Clergy who by the magnifying of their Images Saints and Reliques use all the Arts they can devise for enriching of themselves and their friends And even those Orders that pretend to mortification and abandoning the world and talk of nothing but their poor and austere manner of Life yet have possessed themselves of no small part of the Riches and glory of the World. It is true there is a young Brotherhood among them which though the youngest yet hath outstripped the elder and made them stoop to it and serve it And what base and sordid ways that Society hath pursued for arriving at the highest pitch of greatness and riches and how successfully they have managed their designs is sufficiently cleared what through the Zeal of some of the honester of that Communion what through the envy of other emulating Orders All these things do fully prove how unlike that Church is to the poor and pure simplicity of Christ and his Apostles and of the first Ages of the Church If we further examine the Characters of Evangelical purity we have them from the mouth of our Saviour when he commands us to learn of him for he was meek and lowly in heart and he made it the distinguishing badge of his Disciples that they loved one another Now for humility it is true the Head of that Church calls himself the servant of the servants of God but how far such humility is from his Design his aspiring pretences do loudly declare All the World must stoop to him not only must his fellow-Bishops swear obedience to him and become his Vassals but the Kings of the Earth must be his footstool and all must pay him that servile homage of kissing his foot an ambition as insolent as extravagant His power must be magnified with the most blasphemous Titles of his being God our Lord God on Earth Omnipotent with a great deal more of such servile Adulations offered to him from the Parasites of that Court. in a word a great part of that Religion when rightly considered will be found on design contrived and abetted for exalting him to the highest degrees of insolence But so many proofs of this were already upon other occasions hinted that it is needless to go over them again and that same leven levens the whole lump of their Clergy who all pretend that by their Ecclesiastical character they are only subject to their Head and so enjoy an immunity from the Civil Authority be their crimes what they may be And an in-road on this pretence of late from the State of Venice when they seized two Churchmen that were highly guilty drew out so much of their most holy Fathers indignation that he thundred against them and finding the weakness of the spiritual sword resolved to try the edge of his temporal one upon them in patrociny partly of these Villains and partly of the covetousness of the Clergy to which the Senate had set a small limit by a Decree but finding they were like to prove too hard for him he was willing to put up his sword rather than to kill and eat as one of his Cardinals advised him Shall I with this also tell the instances of the ambition of Cardinals who from their first original of being Presbyters of Rome have risen up to the height of counting themselves the companions of Kings and in their habits affect a Princely splendor but have unluckily chosen the Liveries of the whore for they wear Scarlet as the Bishops do Purple the foretold colours of the Whores Garments Shall I next shew to what a height of pride the exaltation of the Priestly dignity among them hath risen as if it were equal nay preferrable to the condition of Princes The Priest giving absolution is a sure device to make his power be much accounted of since he can forgive sin The gorgeous and rich apparel they wear in worship serves also to set off their Dignity And what a goodly device is it that their spittle must make one of the sacred Rites in Baptism Certainly that must be esteemed a marvellous holy creature whose very excrements are so sacred Their engrossing the Cup to themselves from the people was another trick for raising of their esteem But above all things their power of transmuting the substance of the Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of Christ by uttering five words was a marvellous device to make all the World admire them who can so easily and every day work a miracle compared to which all the miracles of the Gospel may pass for ordinary actions What a great piece of wonder must such a man be held to be who can thus exercise his authority over the very person of Jesus Christ notwithstanding of all the glory to which he is now exalted And it was no contemptible Engine for that same design to possess the people with a belief of the Priests offering in the Mass an expiatory Sacrifice for the sins both of the dead and living which proved a Stock for them to trade on both for their ambition and covetousness and from these evidences we may infer how little of the humility of Christ appears in the Church from the highest to the lowest The next branch of the Evangelical spirit is Meekness and Charity which leads me unto the consideration of the fourth Design of the Christian Religion which was the uniting of Mankind under one Head and into one Body and this it designed to effectuate not only by these sublime Precepts of the highest love and the utmost extent of the pardoning of injuries and of returning them with the best offices of love and prayer which the blessed Author of our Faith did enact but by the associating of the Faithful into one Society called the Church which was to be united with the closest bonds of brothely love and charity and was to be governed by Pastors and Teachers who should feed the flock with the sincere milk of the Word and was also to be cemented together by the Ligaments of the holy Sacraments by which as by joynts and bands they are both united to their Head and knit together Now we are from these things to consider what opposition that Church we are now considering gives to this branch of the end of Christianity And first whereas the Gospel pronounceth us free and that we are no more the servants of men but of God if any attempt upon that liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free he changeth the authority of the Church into a tyrannical yoke much more if all the new articles of belief and rules for practice be imposed under the severest certificates But here we are to consider that all these things which that Church hath imposed on all of her communion for
tell us is Bread and Wine must be so still and cannot be imagined to have changed its substance upon the recital of the five words Shall I add to this that throng of absurdities which croud about this opinion For if it be true then a body may be in more places at once triumphing in glory in one and sacrificed in a thousand other places And a large body may be crouded into the narrow space of a thin Wafer they holding it to be not only wholly in the whole Wafer but also intirely in every crumb of it A body can be without dimensions and accidents without a subject these must be confessed to be among the highest of unconceivables and yet these Miracles must be believed to be produced every day in above a hundred thousand places Certainly he hath a sturdy belief who can swallow over all these absurdities without choaking on them It is little less unconceivable to imagine that a man of no eximious sanctity nay perhaps of noted impiety nor extraordinarily knowing nay perhaps grosly ignorant in Theological Matters shall have the Holy Ghost so absolutely at his command that whatever he decrees must be the Dictates of the Spirit And what an unconceivable mystery is the Treasure of the Church and the Popes Authority to dispence it as he will No less conceivable is the efficacy of the Sacraments by the work wrought nor is any thing more affronting to reason than the barbarous worship And of a piece with this is the blind subjection pleaded for the Confessarius his Injunctions and their opinions of expiating their sins by a company of little trifling penances which tend not to the cleansing the Soul nor killing of the life of Sin much less can be able to appease God either of their own inbred worth or by reason of any value God is pleased to set on them either by Command or Promise But should I reckon up every thing is among them that choaks reason I should dwell too long on this and reckon over most of the things have been through the whole Discourse hinted which seem to stand in the most diametrical opposition to the clearest impressions of all mens reasons But to bring my Enquiry to an issue Easiness and gentleness are by Christ applied to his yoke laws and burden and whatever opposition or trouble they may give to the carnal man by mortifying his lusts and contradicting all his inordinate and unlimited desires yet by the rational faculties and powers they are both easily understood and practised Indeed Religion lies in few things and its chief work is the reforming and purifying the inward man where it mainly dwells and exerts its force and virtue but these who have added so much both to be believed and done beyond what our Lord prescribed as they accuse his unfaithfulness so bring unsupportable burdens on the Consciences of Christians These therefore who lead out the mind by presenting a great many foreign objects to it do introduce superannuated Judaism instead of that liberty Christ brought with him unto the World. But shall I number up here all the Impositions of that Church whose numbers are great as well as their nature grievous for it is a study to know them all But what a pain must it be to perform them It is a work which will take up a great deal of time to understand the Rubricks of their Missals Breviaries Rituals and Pontificals In a word they have left the purity and simplicity of Religion and set up instead of it a lifeless heap of Ordinances which must oppress but cannot relieve the Consciences of their Disciples Shall I add to this the severity of some of their Orders into which by unalterable Vows they are engaged their whole lives Now whatever fitness might be in such Discipline upon occasions for beating down the body or humbling of the mind yet it must be very tyrannical to bind the perpetual observance of these on any by an Oath for thereby all the rest of their lives may become insupportably bitter to them wherein they stand obliged under perjury to the perpetual observance of some severe Discipline which tho at first in a novitious fervour might have had its good effects on them yet that drying up it will afterwards have no other effect but the constant dejecting of the soul and so their life will be a rack to them by their perpetual toil in these austerities This I speak of those who seem the chief Ornaments of that Church whose Devotion doth for most part turn to outwards and rests in the strict observance of their rules not without voluntary assumed mortifications which they add to them but wherein they for most part glory and so the life of pride and self-love the subtillest of all our enemies is fed and nourished by them Neither can we think that these whose exercises are so much external can be so recollected for the inward and serene breathings of the Mind after God and Christ without which all externals tho they seem to make a fair shew in the flesh yet are but a skelet of lifeless and insipid things But indeed they have studied to remove this objection of the uneasiness of their Religion by accommodating it so that the worst of men may be secure of Heaven and enjoy their lusts both according to the corrupt conduct of some of their spiritual Fathers But what I have hinted of the uneasiness of their Religion is taken from the Nature of their Devotions in their highest altitude and elevation And thus far I have pursued my Design in the tract whereof I have not been void of a great deal of pain and sorrow For what pleasure can any find by discovering so much wickedness and so many errors in the Christened Regions of the World and see the holy and beautiful Places wherein the former Ages worshipped God in the Spirit turned to be habitations of Idols and graven Images by which God is provoked to jealousie God is my witness how these thoughts have entertained me with horror and regret all the while I have considered them And that I am so far from being glad that I have sound so much corruption in the Roman Church that it is not without the greatest antipathy to my nature imaginable that I have payed this duty to truth by asserting it with the discovery of so many Impostures which have so long abused the Christian world and if any heat or warmth hath slipped from my Pen I must protest sincerely it is not the effect of anger or passion but of a tender and zealous compassion for those souls who are either already blinded with these delusions or do incline towards those paths which lead to the chambers of death I am none of those who justify rage or bitterness against those in errors for if we had the the Spirit of Christ in us we should mourn over and lament their misery who lie under so much darkness And this is a sure