ought to be estemed a very bad Man and so the Commands of Scripture enjoyn us to take Care to do Good as well as to abstain from Evil else we shall be reckoned among the unprofitable Servants We are sure that publick Service ought to be preferred before private the Glory of God and the Good of Men being more advanced by it and therefore though that man that lives in a Wilderness and serves God there when he is forced to it by Persecution may hope for a Blessing tho' he be alone and neither worshippeth God in Publick nor gives a good Example to the World yet he that runs into a Wilderness to be wondred at and admired and neglects the ordinary and most useful way of serving God there is too much reason to fear he hath his Reward At least how far soever it may please God to pardon his blind Zeal and want of Discretion yet certainly this Example of his ought not to be recommended to all as a Rule for them to walk by The first Monks we grant were very good and pious Men and were compelled to forsake their Houses and live in Solitude but it is very unreasonable to make their manner of Life a Pattern to be followed in the quiet and peaceable Ages of the Church For this would be to shew our selves insensible of the goodness of God to us in giving us the Liberty of serving him freely and openly and that we dare profess our Religion without fear of losing our Lives And for the same reason we should still chuse to celebrate the Sacrament in an upper Room because our Blessed Saviour and his Holy Apostles did so and should have our religious Assemblies in Crypts and Vaults under Ground because the first Christians in times of Difficulty and Persecution often durst use no other And as the Solitude of a Monastick Life is no proper Asfistnce or Expression of true Devotion was not known in the first Ages of the Church and afterwards was not taken up of Choice but by Necessity So also in the last place I observe that the Gospel of Christ and the Rules of Living which are given us by himself and his Holy Apostles never enjoyn or suppose any such thing We are always supposed to live in Company and Society and accorpingly the Precepts of our Saviour and the Apostles are adapted to the common Cases of Men and the Concerns of such as converse freely in the World And therefore I must needs say that it hath been very wisely ordered that there should be new and distinct Rules made for those that delight in this solitary and Monastick way of Life For they are such a kind of men as the Gospel of Christ hath no proper Rules for Secondly And I am afraid that there is as little true Devotion in their so frequent and constant Prayers enjoyned and practised in their Monasteries though this be confessedly what is most commendable in their way of Life and is the only way by which they themselves can pretend to do any Good in the World If I except those which are but very few that workwith their Hands Praise and Prayer is therefore acceptable with God as it is in the volunrary Expression of our Souls a Free-will Offering and Sacrifice which we offer to God in consideration of his infinite Excellencies and Perfections in himself his former undeserved Goodness to us and our Liableness to him Now the constant Prayers used in their Monasteries in more particulars than one come short of that true Devotion due from Men to their Maker For first they are as much as can be forced on a rational Being and on that account must needs lose much of their Worth and Acceptableness The Monks are obliged by the Rules of their several Orders to say such and such Prayers and just at such and such times whatever Devotion or Intention of Mind they have and they are severely punished if they fail of them Exactly at Midnight at two or three a Clock in the Morning so very often and at so very unseasonable times that many have confessed this strictness of their Devotions to be of all the greatest Burden of their Lives And yet this they must do in Imitation of some holy Man of Old who is recorded to have pray'd at these Houres whereas these Mens Devotions is not warm enough to keep them awake when they are at Prayer And therefore these Prayers not being the free Emanations of their own mind methinks the praise of them is not so much due to the Monks themselves as to the head and founder of their Order who obliged them to such Rules And their Devotion is little more praise-worthy than that of the Jews at Avignon and several other Places who are once in a Week forced to go to Church and hear a Sermou as these Monks are at least to sit there whilst a Sermon is preached and return home as good Christians as they went thither But then they are not only thus strictly obliged to such Hours of Prayer for that were somewhat tolerable they might possibly be intent on their Prayers notwithstanding But they are at the same time taught that they need only say the Words with their Mouths it is not absolutely necessary that their mind should go along with them and this together with the other must needs spoyl all true Devotion The frequency and unseasonableness of their Prayers will make it very difficult for them to attend as they ought and their Doctrine concerning the No-necessity of attention at Prayers will certainly make them to yield to these difficulties and so there may be abundance of Words said but no Devotion perform'd Besides all this they have a way of being eased of this trouble of the Prayers for according to their Casuists it is allowable for a man to get or hire another to say his Prayers for him At least he may be dispensed with by his Superiour and this Dispensation is good whether there be a just Reason or Occasion for it or no according to an excellent Maxim of theirs Non ad Valo rem sed ad Justitiam requiritur Causa And if after all this Men still will be more than they need strict in their Prayers according to the Rules of their Orders they almost constantly offend in the End and Design of their Devotions For they do them not so much to benefit the World or work themselves up to a better temper of Mind But to perform a task imposed on them and which they have vowed to perform or especially to merit by their works For they do not so much as pretend that this strictness in Devotion is absolutely Necessary for their Salvation for else why do they not enjoyn it to all seeing all have the same need of Salvation and therefore the sole end of all this strictness and constancy in Prayers is only to get Heaven for others Which Opinion besides that it will mightily discourage Men of an ordinary Charity
strengthen their Resolutions of amendment for it is our amendment and not our punishment which God is pleased with And we take care that all these things be performed in a due measure proportionably to the strength of the Person and the Nature and Design of the Duty but are afraid of straining them too high lest men should be altogether deterred from them or acquiesce only in the outward Action or render our selves and our Cause ridiculous by an imprudent management We have the Sacraments duly administred as our Saviour commanded them we reckon our Baptism with Water perfect without Oyl or Spittle We grutch not the Cup to the Laity nor celebrate solitary Communions nor admire whispering to God in the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ but as we have received from Christ so we teach and administer without Addition or Diminution of any thing essential or material In short in the holy Offices themselves and the behaviour which our Church requires they be celebrated with there is always a great propriety observable agreeable to the Command of God in Scripture and the Practice of the Apostles and first Ages of the Church proper to the several parts of divine Worship expressive of our Sense consonant to Reason and the use of the World especially respect being always had to the exciting of Piety and Devotion in the minds and carriage of our People Thirdly All useful Helps Motives and Occasions are here plentifully afforded and pressed on Men. For we not only have all our Service in a Language which the meanest People understand but have it so contrived by frequent Responses that every Person bears a part in that Worship which he is so much concerned in and doth not only hear the Priest speak to God Almighty but prays for himself and is required to joyn his assent to every short Prayer by a distinct Amen With us the same Service and Rules of Life are enjoyned to all all Men having the same Concern in another Life however different their Circumstances and Cocerns are in this Life We have constant Prayers in every Parish weekly at least in many dayly with the blessed Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ frequently administred nay every Sunday not only in Cathedrals but in several Colledges and private Parish Churches And we appeal to all Men whether there be any where more practical Sermons fitted to the Cases of Men without Vanity and Superstition than among us Whether good and free Learning be any where more encouraged or where better care is taken for the due Instruction of the People The Scriptures being in every one's hands with us and other excellent Books made according to the Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures instead of Legends and Lives of Saints St. Bonaventure's Psalter and other such Books which are really Libels against Christianity and yet are the principal Books which the Priests of the Church of Rome commend to their People For as for the Bible if any one of them hath happened to read in it who is not licensed to that purpose he must own it as a Sin to his Priest at his next Confession And as there are such blessed Opportunities afforded so constantly and such Prudent Provision made for all Cases Ordinary and Extraordinary so I thank God we can say that our People are generally very diligent in the use of these Means or would be more so were it not for the Divisions which they of the Church of Rome especially raise among us For they may easily perceive that we urge no more on them than their own good and the commands of God require of them though our Church knows her Power very well yet she makes use of it only to enforce the Laws of God to explain illustrate and apply them to particular Cases but never to set up her own Commands in Opposition to them as the Church of Rome doth and therefore though we teach our People to dread an Excommunication it being summum futuri Judicii Praejudicium as Tertullian calls it a foretast or forestalling of the last Judgment and not for a World to lye under it though it were inflicted only for Contempt yet we warn them in the first place to avoid the Cause and Occasion of Excommunication and therefore not to value what Censures of the Church of Rome we are under they being so very unjust and Groundless Fourthly and lastly as only the true Object of Devotion is here worshipped only proper Expressions allowed all useful Helps afforded so also the greatest stress is laid on the Practise of it agreeable to the true Nature End and Design of it The Principal ends of Devotion are to pay a Homage to God our great Creator and Benefactor to get his Blessing and to work our selves up to a better temper of Mind And to this end we are in our Service Importunate without Vanity or Impertinency long without Tediousness or Idle Repetitions Only we use the Lord's Prayer often that no part of our Service may be without that perfect form and also in Consideration of the great Comprehensiveness of it and of the Distraction of Men's Minds which seldom can attend to the full Sense of it all at one time And we teach our People that every Man must work for himself for he that prays only by a Proxy it is very just that he should be rewarded only by a Proxy too we put our People in mind that an unfeigned Repentance is absolutely Necessary and not a Verbal one only That it is out of our power and of any Man 's in the World to turn Attrition into Contrition We pretend not to dispense with any for not obeying the Command of God We have no Taxa Camaerae by which the Papists are shown how all Sins are fined in their Church for in that Book Men see at what Charge they may kill a Father or comit Incest with their Sisters But we assure all that the Wages of Sin is Death Death Eternal if indulged and not most earnestly repented of And we tell all that Devotion is necessary for all though the Church of Rome hath ways of gratifying every Inclination so as they that will not lead a strict Life need not and yet may have hopes of Salvation We own their Policy in this Contrivance but do not so much admire their Religious regard to the Salvation of Mens Souls And to conclude though we thus forcibly press all Christian Duties on all Men yet at the same time we warn them not to pretend to Merit Heaven at God's Hand but after they have done their best to confess they are unprofitable Servants Wersay of our Charity or whatever else we do in Obedience to God that of his own we give to him and we are bound to thank him both for the Will and the Ability to give The most that we pretend to is only to make a small Acknowledgment by way of Sacrifice for what we have received we beg of God to accept it as a Testimony of a grateful Mind and we know that his Goodness is so great that he will abundantly reward an honest and sincere Servant though he hath done no more than was his Duty And we hope that what we offer though mingled with many Imperfections he will be pleased to accept for the sake of Christ as if it were perfect These are the Grounds that we go on in our Devotions and whatever we do for the Honour of God and thus designing and thus acting and persisting we need not doubt but the good Providence of God which watcheth over his whole Church will in an especial manner watch over this which is so pure a Member of it that he will accept of the Devotions which are offered to him in it and hear the Prayers that are made unto him for it and defend it against all its Enemies on every side which God of his Infinite Mercy grant for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. FINIS
Course of Life was they would take the Liberty to break their Rule sometimes in order to extraordinary Charity or when an occasion offered it self of doing more good as is recorded particularly concerning Spiridion a Bishop in Cyprus Nor do we find that they always continued in the same State of Life but took such a severe course on themselves at some particular times and on some special occasions as the Nazarites of old did to humble and bring their Bodies under and as St. Paul adviseth the married but not to continue always so lest Satan should tempt them and they reckoned it in an higher degree praise-worthy for every Act of Mortification to be voluntary than that they should once for all force themselves to it And therefore still retained a Power to themselves and did vary from this Method-sometimes and on occaosin would indulge themselves a greater tho' still a lawful Liberty They took not on them the Vow of Poverty nor placed Perfection in Beggery but reckoned every Creature of God to be good and even the outward good things of this Life to be the Gift and Grace of God if they be well employed according to 1 Pet. 4.10 and remembred that Saying of our Blessed Saviour Acts 20 35. It is more blessed to give than to receive Nor did they vow what the Church of Rome now calls Chastity but reckoned themselves as chaste in Wedlock and as for Obedience the third part of the Monks Vow they thought it sufficient to obey the Commands of God and knew not of any other Obedience due from them but only to their Governours in Church and State whose lawful Commands they reckoned themselves obliged to in order to the more regular Administration of Affairs and the more peaceable Government of the World much less had they any distinct Rules to be set up in Competition with the Laws of God and urged as necessary to Salvation making even the Commandments of God of none effect as many of the Monks Rules apparently do as might be easily made to appear Such religious Men as these there were in the first Ages who practised a stricter Devotion than others that God's Name might be the more hallowed by them the more it was profaned by the rest of the World and who were more than ordinary instant and constant in Prayers for a Blessing on the Church and State of which they were Members and by the Strictness and Severity of their Lives made some amends for the Negligence and Viciousness of the Age in which they lived And many such as these we doubt not are now among us who yet utterly dislike the Popish Mankery And if by the Monastick Life all this were done and nothing else designed it were justly to be commended For let Men deny themselves as much as they will and use their Christian Liberty to the Restraint of themselves by a voluntary Self denial and Mortification to keep their Bodies under and thereby get a better Temper of Mind But all this will not suffice in the Church of Rome For it is not enough for a man to live so strict and holy a Life unless he enter into a Vow particularly to this purpose Nay though a man do take on him all these Vows of Chastity Poverty and Obedience and tho' they be made to his Bishop or Confessor who one would think were the properest persons in the Case yet still it is not sufficient he cannot be said to be in this religious State unless he vow Obedience to another kind of Spiritual Jurisdiction So that it is neither the living so strictly nor vowing to live strictly as the most severe Monks but it is their being of a particular Order and living under such and such Rule that is so meritorious so that by Monkery indeed Monkery is encouraged and some politick and Secular Designs answered but the Advancement of Piety and Devotion is not principally designed or intended But to discourse more distinctly of it In a Monastick Life these three things are especially remarkable First The secluded and perhaps Eremetical way of living which they lead Secondly The Constancy and Regularity of Devotions practised there Thirdly The Severity of their Rules and Austerity of their Lives But I must needs say that there is little of true Devotion that I can discover in any of these First Their being shut up from the World or living in Desarts is no very proper Instance of their Devotion or agreeable to the Design of Christianity For a man should converse in the World else he cannot so well understand it what is amiss or wanting in it nor how even to apply and place the Emphasis of his Prayers A man that lives in a Wilderness or shut up always in a Monastery it is possible that he may keep himself free from the Defilements of the World but yet it must be looked on as much more noble and commendable to converse in the World and yet to avoid the Pollution of it And tho' by such a secluded Life he may escape one kind of Temptation yet still he will be at least as liable to the two others that arise from the Devil or his own Flesh and Temper as ever And if he avoid some Sins yet still he will be more subject to others Sowerness Moroseness Melancholly Censoriousness spiritual Pride and other Sins of as high a Nature as those which by being shut up from the World he pretends to avoid And yet such as these are generally legible and observable in the very Looks Conversation and Carriage of Monks and Hermits Indeed Retiredness sometimes is an excellent help to the Mind by giving it time to recollect it self and to reflect on its former Miscarriages and the better to prepare it self for its future Encounters in the World But a man may exceed in the Measures and Degrees of this as well as of other Convenicies and lawful Enjoyments and so it may become a Snare and an Evil to him For the mind will naturally be as much tir'd with Solitude as with Bufiness Besides that the Devil is always most busie when men are idle and Diversion and Recreation is as necessary to most Tempers as Health and Cheerfulness are and fits a man even for the Duties of Religion For the keeping the Mind in a constant Bent tho' of Devotion will in a short time weaken its Spring and dull its Edge and the Acts of Devotion in such a mind will it 's to be feared be rather a formal piece of Drudgery than a reasonable Service And though we should grant that by being confined to a Monastery a man might better escape the Defilements of any kind of Sin yet it must be granted that he cannot be in so much capacity of doing good in the World as if he conversed freely with it And Sozomon quotes it as a most remarkable Saying of some of the first Monks Soc. l. 1. c. 12. That he that abstains from Evil but doth no Good
A DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE DEVOTIONS OF THE Church of Rome Especially as compared with those of the CHURCH of ENGLAND In which it is shewn That whatever the Romanists pretend there is not so true Devotion among them nor such rational Provision for it nor Encouragement to it as in the Church established by Law among us LONDON Printed for Benj. Tooke at the Ship in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1685. ERRATA P. 13. l. 18. r. Monkery p. 16. l. 29. r. Assistance p. 25. l. 20. r. Seale for Seat p. 37. l. 25. r. Rev. 19.10 p. 40. l. 10. r. destroy for remove p. 45. l. 31. r. punished for promised p. 46. l. ult r. depending p. 47. l. 30 31. r. Decisions for Devisions p. 48. l. 29. r. severe for secure p. 50. l. 31. r. for p. 51. l. 21. r. loth for loath p. 63. l. 22. r. especial for especially p. 64. l. 27. r. and for or p. 65. l. ult r. Camere for Camaerae A DISCOURSE Concerning the DEVOTIONS OF THE Church of Rome c. IT is certainly one of the greatest Commendations that can be given of any Church or Body of Christians that a man can with Truth affirm of it that the Doctrines which they profess the Rules and Orders under which they live that the Frame and Constitution of the Church tendeth directly to make men more pious and devout more penitent and mortified more heavenly minded and every way of better Lives than the way and profession of other Christians For to work men up to this holy Frame and Disposition was one of the main designs of the Gospel of Christ which intends to govern mens Actions and reform their Temper as well as to inform their Understandings and direct their Belief And in this particular it differs much from all the Ethicks of the learned Heathen For whereas they design'd especially to exalt the Passions and to raise up the Mind above it self by commending the high and pompous Vertues thereby to stir men up to great Designs and to appear bold and braving in the affairs of this Life the Gospel is most frequent in commendation of the humble lowly and mortifying Vertues which would reduce the Mind to it self and keep Men within due Bounds and teach them how to behave themselves towards God and to live in a due regard to another Life Now there is scarcely any thing which the Church of Rome doth more often urge for her self or with greater Confidence pretend to excel the Church of England in than by endeavouring to perswade that the Frame of their Church is more fitted for the exciting of Devotion and a good Life than ours is And so they will boast of their Severe Rules and Orders the Austerities of their Fasts and Penances the strict and mortifyed Lives the constancy and incessancy of Devotions used among them and would thence inferre that that must needs be the best Religion or way of serving God in which these Practises are enjoyn'd and observed That the Tree must needs be good by such excellent Fruits and that if all other Arguments fail yet they say they have this to show for themselves that in their Communion there is at least somewhat more like that great Self-denial and Mortification so often made necessary under the Gospel than is to be found in the Reformed Churches or particularly in the Church of England Now laying aside all Disputes concerning Points of Doctrine in controversie between them and us in which it hath been abundantly shewn that they err in matters of Faith and that in what they differ from us they differ also from the Scripture and the true Church of Christ in all the best Ages I 'll confine my self to examine their Pretence to Devotion where I doubt not but it will sufficiently appear that they are as much deficient also in Regularity of Practice that there is not that true Foundation laid for such Devotion as God accepts nor that strict Provision made for it nor that real Practice of it which they would make us believe but that even the best which they pretend to is such as doth by no means befit a truly Christian Spirit I 'll discourse in this Method 1. I 'll instance in the several Expressions of Devotion the Motives to it or Assistances of it which the Church of Rome pretends to and on which she is used to magnifie her self 2. I will alledge the just Exceptions which we have against such their Pretences 3. And then show that they are so far from encouraging true Devotion that many things both in their Doctrine and Discipline directly tend to the Destruction of it 4. I 'll shew what excellent Provision is made in the Church of England for the due exercise of all the parts of Devotion and what Stress is laid on it and on a good Life among us First Though Devotion is properly and chiefly in the mind a due sense of God and Religion yet it is not sufficient if it stop there For there are certain outward Acts which are either in themselves natural and proper Expressions or else are strictly required of us by God as Duties of Religion and Evidences of the devout temper of our Minds and these are called Acts of Devotion And all the Commendation that can be given of any Church on Account of Devotion must be either that there is a true Foundation laid for it in mens Minds or constant Provision made for the due Exercise of it all necessary Encouragement given to it and a suitably strict and regular Practice of it observable among them And there are several things which are not at all insisted on by us which they of the Church of Rome boast of as serving to some or all of these purposes which I shall represent as fairly as I can that we may see what there is in that Church that doth answer such great pretences For it is observed that they of the Church of Rome oftentimes instead of dispute endeavour to work on our People and too often prevail by appealing to matters of Practice visible to every ones Eye an Argument to which men need not use their Reason but their Sense and this will say they sufficiently convince any of the excellency of our way For here are several things used as Instances and Expressions of Devotion very acceptable to God and suitable to a good Christian Temper which are either not at all used in the Church of England or at least not in that Degree and Measure and yet all those that are used in the Church of England say they are used among us For we not only enjoyn and practise constant use of Prayers public and private together with Reading and Preaching of the Word Sacraments and what ever is used in the Church of England but we have besides several things which are as well proper Expressions of Devotion as Helps and Assistances which are not used among the Protestants The Principal things which they urge are
such as these 1. They blame the Reformation in general as well as the Church of England for the want of Monasteries and such other Religious Houses which are so numerous in the Popish Countries where Holy Men and Women being shut up and having bid adieu to the World live as in Heaven in constant Exercise of praising of God Night and Day and of praying to him for the Church and State and particular Christians as well as themselves and who are not only so beneficial to the World by the constancy of their Prayers but also by their Example putting others in mind of Religion and of doing likewise and by the severity of their lives as to Diet Garbe and other Circumstances live in a constant Practice of that self-denyal which is commanded in Scripture and was so practised by Holy Men almost from the beginning of Christianity and are as it were constant Preachers of Holiness and Mortification who tho' they do indeed stay here in the World below yet converse not in it but are in some Sense out of it and live above it 2. They sometimes also boast of the extraordinary Charity and Liberality to all good and Holy Uses pressed and practised among them which is but sparingly used say they among the Protestants Especially their excessive Expence and Cost in building and endowing Monasteries erecting Churches Chappels and Crosses their so pompous adorning the Places dedicated to the Worship of God besides their Charitable Assistance and relief which they afford to the Bodies of the Living and the Souls of the Dead and no Man can deny but Charity is a certain Evidence as well as a great branch and duty of true Religion and Devotion 3. Sometimes they glory in the great number of Saints commemorated in their Church and dying in the Communion of it and urge them as a forcible Example to others and a mighty incentive to Devotion they think also it redounds much to the Honour and Commendation of their Church to have had such glorious Members of it and twit us as they think severely when they ask us what Saints we have of our Church and wonder especially that we should observe so few Festivals and Holidays whereas the very many days set apart in their Church in memory of their several Saints they think not only afford proper Occasions for all Acts of Religion but are a sign of their being less addicted to this World when so great a part of their time is spent in the Service of God and that Piety and Devotion are a considerable part of their Business and Employment 4. They urge also the multitude of Pictures and Images of several Famous Men and Women who have in an eminent manner served and pleased God and been instrumental in converting the World as very proper Assistances of a Mans Devotion instructing some they being the Books of the Unlearned and sensibly affecting and alluring all to the Imitation of the Persons whom they represent 5. Sometimes they commend their Church for the Fastings and other Acts of Severity and Mortification used not only by the Monks and Regulars but by all sorts of Men according to the Rules of their Church on set days of the Week or Seasons of the Year as well as such Austerities as are enjoyned by their Confessors by way of Penance their going bare-foot and bare-headed in Processions their whipping and lashing themselves their drawing great Chains and Weights after them as great and proper Instances of Self-denial and Devotion 6. They place also a great Deal of Religion in Philgrimages which the more Devout sort take and spend their Estates and sometimes their Lives in to Jerusalem Rome Loretto Mount-ferrat to St. Thomas at Canterbury St. Winefrid's Well or some such other places where some extraordinary Person hath lived or some strange Relique is left or where they reckon God hath on some Occasion or other wonderfully manifested himself and they reckon that the very visiting or kissing these are either an argument of truly Devout Minds or that which will make them so And their Manuals or Books which their Priests give into the Peoples Hands do not fail by all the art imaginable to endeavour to screw up Mens Devotion even to rapture and extasie in Commendation of these Practises and Orders even as if they would have us believe that there is no true Religion and Devotion without these and that where there are these things practised it is a certain Sign that the mind is affected as it ought and Piety flourisheth in the highest Degree And besides these Matters of Practice there are also several Doctrines and Opinions peculiar to themselves whichthey reckon do naturally tend to the Advancement of true Devotion As 7. Their Doctrine concerning the Intercession of Saints for us and the Advantage of Invocation or Prayer to them and that we of the Church of England want one of the greatest Encouragements to Prayer and Devotion that can be who neither own nor make use of these Helps and therefore that we cannot have such hope of Success and Blessing as they have 8. Their Doctrine concerning the Merit of Good Works and Supererogation is of the same Nature in their esteem For the more Worth you suppose in any Action the greater Incouragement is there to the Performance of it and therefore surely it must be a most irresistible motive to Devotion to perswade men that the worth and value of it is such as that you may by it purchase Heaven not only for your selves but for others also 9. Their belief of Purgatory and of the validity of Prayers for the Dead doth naturally tend to excite men to Devotion say they for here is a greater Scope and Occasion for our Prayers we may hope to be instrumental to more good more Persons to be relieved and helped by our Prayers than are supposed in the Devotions of the Church of England 10. And especially their Doctrine and Practice of Confession Penance and Absolution they look on as so necessary to Devotion that it is a wonder with them that there should be any show of it where these are not received and practised For a particular Confession of all Sins to a Priest being so strictly required they say is the readiest way to bring men to a Sense of and shame for their Sins and Penance being also imposed presently on them will surely make Men to be more afraid of sinning again when they see it must cost them so dear and that they may not despair or despond by Reason of the Multitude or Weight of their former Sins but may be encouraged to strive more earnestly against Sin for the future the Priest gives them Absolution of what is passed at the same time encouraging their hope as well as exciting their fear and endeavouring by the same Method both to allure to force and to shame Men into Amendment Lastly they insist much also on the Validity of their Ordinations the Truth and Succession Unity
and Authority of their Church and the Obedience that is payed to the Rules and Orders of it as mighty Helps and Assistances and Encouragements to Devotion when they are so sure of the Sacraments being duly administred and all other Acts of Authority rightly performed when the Laws of the Church for the Punishment of Offenders are duly executed and when the Church hath Power to oblige all to an Uniform and Regular Practice All these things say they do either encourage and excite men to Devotion or assist or direct them in the exercise of it give more room or afford better Occasions for it or else show more fully the Necessity of such and such parts of it then what is received and practised in the Church of England and therefore the Church of England that wants these wanteth also much of the Occasion Matter Opportunities and Arguments for Devotion so that laying aside all disputes concerning Articles of Faith they doubt not but it will be readily granted that at least they are a more devout People whatever their Belief is their Practice is more agreable to that Self-denial and Mortification commanded in Scripture that God is more constantly and reverently served among them than he is among us that they take more Pains are at more Cost and Trouble in the Worship of God which they think is an Instance of a good religious mind and will be most secure of God's Acceptance These are I think indeed the most that they do urge for themselves in this point and there is something of appearance of Truth in all this Most of these Instances are such as may perhaps be very taking at first sight with some people they having a shew of Regularity Strictness and Severity or else of being proper Helps and Assistances of Devotion For Men are wont to admire any thing that looks odd or big especially if others have but the Confidence highly to praise and extol it But if we examine them we shall find them to fall infinitely short of such specious Pretences some of them to be unlawful and those that are good in themselves to be some way or other spoiled in the use of them always they err in some material part or Circumstance and taken all together they have nothing in them which evidence any true devout Temper either designed to be wrought by the Church or actually working in the People Much less do they bespeak greater Devotion than is required and practised in our Church For it hath been well observed by the judicious Sir Edwin Sandys that the Church of Rome hath so contrived its Rules and Orders as rather to comply with and fit every Temper and Inclination good or bad than to work any real good effect on any And therefore as it hath several things which openly agree with and please the profane and debauch'd so it must be granted that it hath somewhat also to suit with and gratifie the melancholly Temper where the devoutly disposed may find somewhat an agreeable Retreat And therefore one would be apt to suspect that the most strict and severe of their Orders were kept up rather out of a politick end to please and quiet the People than really to advance true Piety to God and Devotion But however it is plain that taking the whole Frame of that Church together it doth not design to promote serious and true Devotion but only to make a Noise and to appear so to do For when I see the same Church tho' sometimes seeming to countenance the utmost Severity as necessary yet at other times to give all Liberty and let the Reins loose to all kind of Debauchery I have just reason to fear they are not in earnest for Religion For all such irregular Heats are a fign of bad Principles or a distemper'd Constitution Just as if I should see the same person sometimes desperately dissolute and debauch'd and at other times intolerably strict and severe and this interchangeably and often I shall much question his strictness whether it be sincere If his Sense of Piety were real it would be more lasting and uniform and therefore without Breach of Charity I think I may look on him in his greatest Severity rather to act a part on a Stage and to serve a present Turn and Occasion than to be really in his mind what such Strictness would represent him And therefore whatever true Devotion is in any of that Communion ought to be ascrib'd to somewhat else than to the Constitution of that Church For even those things which they are used to boast most of which I have mentioned already we shall easily find to have little that is truly commendable much that is greatly faulty in them and if their best things are no better what are their worst If the Subject of their Glory is shameful what will become of the rest 2. And therefore I 'll now shew what we have justly to except against their fore-mentioned pretences to Devotion 1. As for Monkery in general which they boast so much of calling it Status Perfectionis religiosus as if besides the State of Men in Holy Orders that were a State of Perfection and nothing else worthy the Name of Religious We confess that scarcely as to any thing concerning the Externals of Religion doth the Church of England distinguish it self from the Romish Church so much as that there is not any Provision made or so much as a Supposition of such Monasteries or religious Houses or publick places of Retirement for devout People as they are called being again ever setled among us For tho' we are not so rash as utterly to abhor and throw away every thing that at any time had been abused to Superstition yet we are very well contented that Monasteries should never be rebuilt among us For we do not look on the Life of Monks as any great help to Devotion or an instance of true Religion prevailing where they are found much less that they are necessary in the Christian Church For it is evident that the first and purest Ages of the Church did not know any thing of them Almost three Centuries passed without any mention of them in Ecclesiastical History Antony and Paul in the Dioclesian Persecution being taken notice of as the first of that Way We read indeed of some that did lead a more than ordinary severe Course and denied themselves much of the perhaps lawful Pleasures of this Life in respect to Religion and the other Life but these were not Monks or the modern Asceticks tho' it hath been the way of the Church of Rome in more instances than this to impose some new thing on the World upon the Reputation of some good and reverend Old Name For the Lives of the ancient Asceticks or mortified Men differed much from the present Monks of the Church of Rome We find not that they engaged themselves in a solemn Vow distinct from or above that of their Baptism For whatever their general