Strifes might not be endless or such as are restrain'd to the Apostles themselves Such is that Mat. 16. 19. I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatsoever thou bindest on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou loosest on earth shall be loosed in heaven The plain meaning of which words seems to be only this I will give thee the the priviledg of first opening Vide Lightfoot in locum the Gospel frequently call'd the Kingdom of Heaven and whatsoever parts of Moses's Law thou bindest to the Observation of or takest off the Obligation for so the Phrases of binding and loosing are generally us'd in the Jewish Writers shall be observ'd and forborn God will ratifie and confirm what thou establishest Accordingly we know St. Peter did first Preach the Gospel to the Jews in Acts 2. and to the Gentiles Acts 10. And this priviledg of binding and loosing was peculiar to him and the other Apostles Lastly Their proofs are such as agree to every particular Church and faithful Christian Thus that of Matt. 18. 17. Speaks only of a Jurisdiction in every Church for quieting differences among the Members of it And that other of Matt. 16. 18. The gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church For by the Gates of Hell may be either understood the crafts and policies of Hell Councils using to sit in the Gates of Cities shall not totally prevail There shall be a body of Christians in the World or the Translation should be mended and the words read the Gates of the Grave or the invisible State Death which is frequently call'd among the Greeks by that name shall not gain Victory over the Church over the particular Persons of which it consists tho they dye yet Christ will rescue them by a glorious Resurrection Death shall not have Dominion over them nor over the Church notwithstanding it s many Enemies it shall not perish totally or irrecoverably These are the best proofs of their Infallibility I can find in the Scripture and while they are so easily and naturally applicable to a different sense I cannot think a Doctrine so obscurely deliver'd in the Christian Rule to be any Articles of the Christian Faith Besides what use do they make of this gift they pretend to Have they oblig'd the World by an infallible Comment on all the difficult places in Scripture and put a final end to all controversies among themselves On the contrary have not some Popes profess'd their no skill in Divinity and infallible Councils contradicted each other Are not there violent disputes between the Franscicans and Dominicans Jansenists and Jesuits French and Italian Clergy Surely the Pope must be very regardless of the Peace of the Church who will not give an infallible discovery of the truth And if ever God did give this gift since the Apostles days he may have long since justly taken it away because they have hid their Talent and made no use of it And now I have weaken'd this pretence the other of the Scriptures dependance on the Authority of their Church falls of it self for if their Church be not infallible why should I believe the Scriptures to be Gods Word meerly because they say so any more than Mahomets Alchoran 'T is true the Testimony of their Church jointly with all other Christians in the World and the Confession of Jews and Heathens handed down to us by the most unquestionable historical Tradition is a great Confirmation that these were the Books indicted by the Apostles that they were confirm'd by various Miracles and are not corrupted in any material Articles but we believe their Divine Authority not because the Church says so but because of those Seals which God hath affix'd to them We have convincing Arguments enough of the Scriptures Divinity and need not go to Rome to know what they mean Christ hath fully prov'd that his Message is from God by the excellence of his Doctrines the accomplishment of Prophecies and numerous miraculous Works and we will not forsake these firm foundations of our Faith and be so unreasonably credulous as to believe the same things meerly upon the Affirmation of a company of the worst sorts of Christians in the World Thus have they dangerously invaded the Offices of Christ I proceed to 3. They have corrupted the excellent Rules of an holy Life contain'd in the Gospel The great design of the Christian Religion is to purifie and amend the World and reduce it to its primitive Innocence And I wish there were less occasion to think that the design of these men is to Debauch the World and show that it is possible to be more corrupt than the very Heathens themselves for have not they by their nice distictions render'd a holy Life a very needless thing and overturn'd the very foundations of Virtue and Morality Repentance that first Introduction to an holy Life consisting in such a hearty Sorrow for every Sin as influences the practice and disposes us to forsake them they have made utterly unnecessary For while they distinguish Sins into Mortal and Venial and impose very easie Penances for those of the most purple dye Is not this the way to tempt their Proselytes to a continuance in their Sins and keep them from that severe hatred of them and those firm Resolutions of forsaking them they ought to take up Besides they maintain that a slight Attrition and imperfect Sorrow for Sin meerly from the consideration of some temporal inconvenience if join'd with the Sacrament of Penance is sufficient to fit a man for Heaven so that it is a very needless thing to hate or forsake our evil ways This is desin'd by their Council of Trent and generally maintain'd by their most famous Casuists And Morinus tells us as I find him quoted by Dr. Stillingfleet * Preface to Answer to several Treatises That the excellence of the Evangelical Precepts above the Legal chiefly consists in this That by them we are freed from the heavy yoke of Contrition and Love to God A Speech that would better become a Turk or Heathen than a Christian Thus we see they have hinder'd the first entrance into an holy Life and made the Gate to Heaven wider and the passage much more easie than our Saviour or his Apostles And if we run over all the parts of our Duty we may find too plain a Contradiction among their Casuists If we examine the Duties of Piety towards God How necessarily must they have low and irreverent thoughts of his imcomprehensible Majesty who behold such scandalous Pictures of him in their Churches and see the same Devotions and Gestures of Adoration us'd to those who were once perhaps equally sinful Creatures with themselves How have they incourag'd an abuse of his sacred Name by their Doctrine of Equivocation and prophan'd his Holy Day by allowing the remains of that time that is not spent at Mass to be imploy'd in idle Sports and foolish Mirth How
and instead of bringing them news of the Kingdom of Heaven he would have brought the more welcome tidings of that Kingdom on Earth they expected Then they would have gladIy receiv'd him as the promis'd Messiah the Son of God But seeing he imploy'd his power another way they misrepresent his Doctrine slander his Person Persecute him to death as an enemy to Cesar and accuse his followers as disloyal persons and Authors of Rebellion But that the Christian Religion is no sriend to disloyalty a very little search will quickly determine for obedience to Magistrates is very much urg'd and Rebellion severely reprehended in the Gospel The great design of Christs coming into the world was peace To reconcile God to man and men to one another To subdue our passions and calm our discontents To pull down our pride and abate our selfishness To polish the roughness of our natures and take away all those impediments which would hinder our paying a due observance to superiors None of his Doctrines did ever infringe the Magistrates Power but he perswaded men to be subject not only for wrath and fear of punishment but out of a principle of conscience and duty Tho he was Universal King of the whole Creation yet his Kingdom was no way destructive of the just rights of Cesar Tho he challeng'd Subjection to him from all his followers yet he press'd both by precept and example a due subjection to their Emperor also The same mouth that commands to pay unto God the things that are Gods requires us Mark 12. 17. also to pay unto Cesar the things that are Cesar's He works a Miracle to pay the tribute-penny which was either a tax impos'd by the Romans or rather requir'd by the Sanhedrim for the use of the Temple Either way he declares his subjection to the Civil or Ecclesiastical Government He commands his Disciples to pray for their persecutors not to curse and damn them and gives them leave to fly from their rage but not to oppose and resist it He hid himself from the People when they would have made him a King and check'd his Disciples when they vainly contested about priority in that Earthly Kingdom they fondly expected He Rebuk'd Peters forward zeal for his Master when he cut off Malchus's Ear and to prevent the Slanders of his Enemies miraculously cur'd the injur'd person Tho he could have commanded twelve Legions of Angels to his rescue yet he chose rather to imploy them in messages of peace and tho with those Majestick words of I am he He could have struck the Souldiers dead as well as down to the earth yet did he meekly submit without any resistance he went as a Sheep to the Slaughter and as a Lamb he was dumb and open'd not his mouth Tho his adversaries bare manifest false-witness against him yet was he meek and compassionate and the sharpness of his pain extorted no passionate exclamations against the injury they had done him But on the contrary he forgot not his own precepts but breath'd out that admirable prayer for them Father forgive them they know not what they do And his Disciples did exactly imitate their Lord. And tho they liv'd among his enemies and their own and met with injuries enough to have inflam'd their Spirits yet they give us the same lessons of peaceable subjection to the higher powers Saint Paul that is here accus'd commands the Romans tho living under Nero an Heathen a Tyrant a Persecutor and one of the most infamous Monsters in Nature To be subject to the higher powers and render fear honour tribute custom to them Nor was this submission only constrain'd through Rom. 13. the necessity of those times wherein they had not power to resist For says he we must needs be subject not only for wrath but for conscience sake and be that resists shall receive to himself damnation And because perhaps some seeds of Rebellion might begin in those early days to be sow'd by some Hereticks the Apostle exhorts Titus to put his converts Tit. 3. 1. in mind of their duty of subjection to principalities and powers The same doctrine is urg'd by Saint Peter Submit to every ordinance of man for the Lord sake Indeed the Christian Religion is the best security to governours of the obedience of their subjects A disloyal Christian is a perfect contradiction He can be no true friend to Christ his supreme King who rebels against his deputies and vicegerents True undissembled Loyalty is the very complexion of a Christian and the best Christians are always the most I had almost said the only Loyal Subjects The Apostles therefore did not deny but inforce subjection to Magistrates Indeed where the commands of God and their Prince interfer'd in this case they resolv'd to be faithful to God and dar'd to do what he commanded rho Cesar forbid it They did not deify their Emperor but pay'd him all that reverence that was due to a Crowned Head They accounted Princes Gods Subjects and thought Rebellion against him a greater crime than against the highest Monarch In this case they appeal'd to their adversaries themselves whether Acts 4. 19. reason was not on their side couragiously saying whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken to you rather than God judge ye But tho they could not actually obey the unjust Command of their Magistrates yet then they made no violent resistance but passively submitted to the exacted punishment As they profess'd a lowly Subjection to Christ their King in Heaven so they paid a respectful Obedience to his Lieutenants and Representatives on Earth They testifi'd their Loyalty to Christ by the respect they gave to the Commands of his Deputies These Jews therefore had no reason to accuse the Apostles as encouragers of Rebellion and in either of these senses the Apostles were not blameable turners of the World upside down They were wholly innocent in this latter sense and deâ—serv'd Commendation for disturbing the World in the former sense and would to God the whole Christian World at this day might be as easily defended as Christ ' and his Holy Apostles And this leads me to the saddest part of my Subject III. Quest Whether any professed Christians at this day are guilty of turning the World upside down Ans A very little inquiry will present to our consideration a potent Faction that proudly Usurps the name of the Catholick Church whose Principles and Practises do clearly overturn the whole design of Christianity and are pernicious to Governours who have sheltred Heathenish Superstitions in Christian Temples after the Power of God had chas'd them away and dug up some Limbs of the Ceremonial Law out of the Grave after Divine Wisdom had rung her Knell and proclaim'd her Funeral I know what an invidious task it is to accuse a whole Body of men and certainly he that hath any Love to God or his Redeemer cannot account it a delightful office to satisfie his
their Obligation of making new Articles of Faith and condemning things plainly commanded by him If any shall pretend without sufficient Proof a Vicarious delegated Commission from him and usurp the place of the Universal Law-giver of the World These must be acknowledg'd to be invaders of his Regal Office and in how many Instances the Church of Rome hath been thus bold and Jaringly guilty is too well known How many new Articles have they obtruded on our belief since the Canon of Scripture was sealed And how doth their Faith increase and decrease like the Moon Tho the Apostle pronounces an Anathema against the highest pretended Saint or Angel that should Preach any other Doctrine than what he had deliver'd to the Galatians Gal. 1. 8. Yet the Conventicle of Trent those professed Angels and Guardians of the Church have levell d their curses against all that will fear the threatnings of the Apostle and will not receive their supplemental and corrupt Traditions with the same reverence and pious Affection that they do the Holy Scriptures I need not tell how they have claim'd a power of dissolving the Obligation of the most Solemn Oaths and Covenants and of allowing Marriages in forbidden degrees How they have made Fornication a lesser Sin in a Clergy-men than Marriage tho the one be the Ordinance of God and never prohibited to any company of men and the other forbidden by the very Law of Nature I need not tell how the Pope hath usurp'd the Office of Universal Bishop and Vicar of Christ tho Pope Gregory severely reflected upon John of Constantinople for affecting such a Titile and call'd it the badg of Antichrist I need not tell how they have added five other Sacraments to those two instituted by our Saviour what a number of Church-Officers they have instituted unknown in Scripture and the purest Ages of the Church Nor how they have Lorded it over the Consciences of men by rigorously imposing numerous burdensome Ceremonies which change the spiritual Worship of the Gospel and alter its very Nature 'T is confess'd that Governours have a Power of imposing indifferent things and whatever tends to the more orderly and decent Administration of the Worship of God may be the object of their command But when these are either vain and useless or indecent in their number when they are impos'd as parts of Worship and necessary to Salvation When they obscure the Worship of God and are more like the shadows of the Law than becoming the light of the Gospel such Impositions are Acts of Tyranny and Usurpation I shall conclude this head with the mention of one more bold tho acknowledg'd Invasion of the Regal Office of Christ and that is their half Communions They have snatcht away the Cup in the Eucharist from the People and ingross'd it to the Clergy This was establish'd as an Article of the Romish Faith at the Council of Constance and afterwads confirm'd at Trent The chief remarkable Causes are these Seeing that in divers parts of the World there be some who rashly presume to say That Christian People ought to receive the Eucharist under both kinds this present Holy General Council being desirous to provide for the safety of the faithful doth decree That tho Jesus Christ did Administer the venerable Sacrament in both kinds and tho in the primitive Church the faithful did so receive it yet notwithstanding this custom ought to be kept i. e. that the Priest that says Mass shall communicate under both species of Bread and Wine but the Lay people under that of Bread onlyâ— and they that say the contrary let them be expell'd as Hereticks and grievously punish'd by the Bishop and his Officials How horrible a Canon is this and what a notorious Usurpation of Christs Prerogative They accuse of Rashness Error and Heresie all who dare by their own Confession imitate Christ and his Apostles and the Primitive Church for this only reason some have been burnt at a Stake and it was an occasion of cruel Wars and Bloodshed in Germany They indeed pretend this to be an indifferent circumstance to be continued or remov'd at the Churches pleasure But why should this be more indifferent than the Bread Hath not Christ more expresly commanded the drinking the one than receiving the other Drink ye all of it says he as if he foresaw and design'd to prevent this great Corruption And to argue ad hominem our Saviour tells us Joh. 6. 53. Except ye drink the blood of the Son of man ye have no life in you These words if understood of the Eucharist as the Romanists pretend prove the absolute Universal necessity of communicating under both kinds So that either this great prop of Transubstantiation must be deserted or their half Communion condemn'd 2. They have invaded Christs Priestly Office By this he hath fully satisfi'd Divine Justice by giving himself a compleat Sacrifice for our Offences and procur'd for us the pardon of Sin the Graces of the Spirit and eternal Happiness upon Condition of sincere Obedience to his Laws and now is enter'd into Heaven and is by vertue of this Sacrifice our powerful Intercessor at the Right hand of God This Office also is shamefully invaded by those of the Romish Church and that in these following instances 1. By their proud doctrine of Merit Tho the Scriptures fully declare that by grace we are saved and eternal life is the free gift of God tho our reasons may convince us that a Creature how innocent soever can deserve nothing at his Creators hands tho a little reflection upon our selves will discover many spots in our fairest vertues many blemishes in our best duties many imperfections in our most religious exercise many sinful mixtures in our most unpolluted actions and great defects in our best obedience yet do these men boast of their good works and account them not only spotless but meritorious too but if all this zeal for good works as one well observes were designed to advance an holy life the nobleness of the design might a little excuse the fault but alas those works which they most extol are either pieces of will-worship that tend only to advance the Secular interest of their Church as Pilgrimages building Abbys enriching Monasteries c. or else are such actions as we think to be daring sins as murdering Hereticks and persons coldly affected to the Catholick Cause Thus 't is storied concerning Cardinal Richelieu that great Politician of France that when he lay upon his death-bed his Consessor came to him to perform the last offices of charity and urged him to a full confession of all his sins the Cardinal mention'd only some little petty crimes and told him those were all he could recollect at which the Confessor started saying Surely this sickness hath rob'd your Grace of your memory for we who have been plac'd in a lower sphere have observ'd many actions of a far deeper Dye and then mention'd many Murders committed by his
are called so in Scripture and if they will call it a commemorative sacrifice as it is a memorial of Christs once perfect offering up himself on the crose Or even a Propitiatory sacrifice as it is a means of propitiating the Divine favour and seals and exhibits to us the real benefits purchased by his death we need not quarrel about words if this be their only sense And indeed as Bishop Andrews somewhere speaks take away Transubstantiation and the conceit of Purgatory and this wordy controversy would quickly be ended 4. By their formal Invocation of Saints The Scripture teaches us that there is but one Mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus and that none might pretend there may be other Mediators of intercession tho not of Redemption the Apostle hath prevented that distinction 1 Tim. 2. 1. 4 compar'd where the Apostle urges us to pray for all men because all of whatsoever Nation or Condition in the world are interested in Christs intercession He is the only Mediator that prevailingly intercedes for us in Heaven To make creatures the objects of our formal invocation what is it but to make them competitors with Christ and share in his prerogative We may as well ascribe redemption to others as intercession Besides what a disparagement is it to his Love that when he hath given us the largest assurances of his kindness and ready acceptances of our prayers and graciously promis'd that if we put our considence in him he will be our Advocate and we shall have a gracious answer from Heaven Nay when God the Father hath declar'd that whatever we ask in the Name of the Lord Jesus shall be granted I say how do we disparage his love by begging others to plead our Cause Can we imagine that the servants of God can do more for us than his beloved Son Or the blessed Virgin than the Lord Jesus He that looks into the Roman Rituals indeed may be tempted to think so where ten Avemaries are prescrib'd to one Paternoster and they have pictur'd Christ as frowning upon sinners and driving them away from him but the Virgin Mary inviting them with her smiles and lending a willing ear to their Devotions But he that looks into Scripture there finds nothing of this nature We are never directed to put our confidence in man but curses denounc'd against those that do so The Saints in Heaven are there never made the objects of our Prayers and it was always thought by the Primitive Church a good Argument against the Arriant that Christ is God because we are directed to address our selves to him Whether the Saints Pray for us or no in Heaven is not the question and while we understand not the extent of their knowledg it will remain a doubt Luk. 15. 7. Those who rejoyce at the conversion of a sinner may perhaps as far as they know our condition pray for their militant fellow-members Rev. 6. 9 10. And those who so passionately desire that vengeance may be executed on the Churches enemies may reasonably be thought as earnest for the salvation of their friends But this their intercession is not as the Romanists pretend like the Lord Jesus's by presenting their merits in our behalf nor hath God given them power to pardon our sins heal our diseases supply our wants or save our Souls and yet for such things as these are prayers directed to them nor is there any warrant from hence for us to make them our Mediators and pray unto them For tho they may know such things concerning us whereby their own happiness and comfort may be increas'd yet that they should understand all the particular grievances and concernments of our lives hear our prayers or know our hearts is not to be imagin'd And when we use the same gestures of external adoration to them that we do to our Saviour we thereby make them copartners with him in the same honour and rivals to him in his dignity 3. They have invaded Christs Prophetical office By this he hath reveal'd the whole will of God unto us and that we might not be deceiv'd by the subtilties of seducers Commission'd his inspir'd Apostles to commit his precepts to writing in the Holy Scripture that this might be our standing rule According to this we are bound to walk and whatever Doctrines or practices are not agreeable to it must be disown'd This Office is also invaded by the Roman Church and most eminently by these following ways 1. By hiding the Scripture from the common people and to justify this practise accusing it of obscurity 'T is well known how they have forbid the Scriptures to be Read in the vulgar language and by terrible curses and Anathema's have scar'd their Lay-proselytes from this admirable guide to happiness How have they lock'd up this bread of life and ingross'd this facred Manna to themselves How have they inclos'd this well of Salvation and churlishly refus'd their Laity so much as a tast of the purer streams except they will take in the mud and filth and their own impure mixtures also Their people must be content with the crumbs which the Clergy are pleas'd to let fall and be satisfi'd with only a glimmering of that light which would clearly direct them to the paths of Life The Scriptures like the rising Sun would quickly dispel the darkness of error and their former ignorance and therefore the proud Prelates resolve to stop this Giant in his race and hinder him from scattering his Beams in the World But alas what an high affront and daring in dignity is this to the great Prophet of the Church That when he descended from his Fathers Bosom for this very end that he might discover the mind and will of God unto us took such unwearied pains to publish his Doctrine strengthend it by such amazing Miracles and inspired his Apostles that they might commit to writing this his last Testament and admirable Legacy I say what â— Monstrous piece of Ingratitude is it to hide it from the sight of those to whom it is consign'd by our Lord And that by them who pretend to be the Guardians of it and the Executors of their departed Saviour Such an Action might be more excusable in Julian or Dioclesian but for the Vicar of Christ to be Guilty of it is a crime sufficient to forfeit his Title and tempts us to believe him Antichrist Was the Scripture first Preach'd and afterwards written in a Language capable of being Universally understood And is there not as much necessity it should be so continued Did God command the Jews to be frequent in the Meditation of the Law To lodg it in their thoughts to make it their daily companion and the subject of their constant entertainment And hath Deut. 11. 18 19 20. he any where forbidden the use of the Gospel To delight in the Law of the Lord and to Meditate therein day and night was once the Character Psal 1. 1 2. of a Blessed
Man And is the scene so much chang'd that now it is become the black mark of a damnable Heretick The Prophets permitted the People to judg by the Scriptures which were true and which were counterfeit messengers from Heaven crying out to the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this word 't is because there is no Isa 8. 20. light in them And must we acknowledg these men for the Pillars of Truth and the Lights of the World without being allow'd the same liberty When our Saviour was ask'd by that young man what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life Our Lord answers him what saith the Law How Readest thou And shall ignorance be now accounted the surest Road to Heaven Search the Scripture was his precept but is the prohibition of the Romish Church Timothy and the Bereans were indeed commended by St. Luke and St. Paul as noble persons for their diligence in the Scriptures But if they had liv'd in the days of our Modern Saints this would have been thought a crime deserving the lash of the inquisition An Anathema would have been their spiritual reward and fire and faggot their civil recompence Certainly such a practice as this had need be back'd with good Apologies or else they will never be able to justify so great an abuse of the Lord Jesus But how weak are their pleas and how insignificant the excuses they make Is it because the People may wrest the Scripture to their perdition that they are forbidden their use Alas because some may abuse it must all therefore be depriv'd of it because some may make Scripture the support of their errors must it not therefore be the foundation of truth Because some dogs have trampled on the Bread of Life Must the Children therefore be withheld from their Spiritual Food Because Hereticks have taken too large draughts of the new Wine of the Gospel must all therefore be denied to tast of it Because some know not the worth of these Pearls must those therefore who know how to value them be hinder'd from their possession By the same reason the Scriptures should not be permitted in the Learned Languages for Learned Men have been generally the first broachers of Heresy and are most capable of perverting the Holy Writings Is it because Scripture is so obscure that if the common people did injoy it they could not understand it 'T is acknowledged there are mysteries in our Religion and God hath for wise ends left some things more dark and obscure to awaken our industry abate our Pride and show the most Learned his ignorance and infancy in knowledg and create in us all earnest longings after that Happy state where all the Riddles shall be unfolded and the mysteries clearly reveal'd But there is so much perspicuously laid down as is necessary to Salvation and every man that Reads it and sincerely endeavours to understand it shall with the help of Divine Grace arrive at so much Knowledg as if improv'd into practice will bring him to Heaven The great end why the Scripture was written was that we might have a constant Monitor of our duty and guide 2 Tim. 3. 16. to happiness now if the Scripture were so obscure that it answer'd not this end this would reflect upon the Divine Wisdom as if he had chosen an insufficient means and were defeated in his methods and expectations And it would equally reflect upon his goodness as if he envied his creatures happiness if after our sincere and humble endeavours we could not understand the things that are necessary to our Salvation The essentials are clearly reveal'd tho there be some obscure passages yet the Divine Goodness hath left them not that we should be debar'd from Reading but to prevent our loathing and contempt and the darkest phrases are incomparably more intelligible than the cloudy obscurities of their admired Authors The pious nonsence of Mother Juliana and the sanctifi'd gibberish of their mystical Divines are infinitely less perspicuous than the Prophecies of Daniel or mysteries of the Revelations And yet those which reflect on Christianity as if it consisted only in Enthusiastick heats and raprures are allow'd while the Scripture which gives so lovely a description of the Christian Religion must be shut up from the sight of the multitude But whatever slender pretences may be us'd to delude perverse Hereticks we have good ground to think that the true cause of this Restraint is the same which our Saviour mentions Joh. 3. 19. They love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil Should the Scriptures be read by all their Proselytes would be few and their Altars would no longer smoke the Grandeur of the Church must be abated the infallible Chair would totter and Rome would be no longér the Mistress of the Earth 2. Their pretence of Infallibility and the Scriptures dependance on the Authority of their Church This is another Invasion on Christs Prophetical Office For if Infallibility be lodg'd in either Pope or Council for they are not agreed where it is plac'd then tho Christ hath never so clearly explain'd his mind they may make what Expositions of his words they please and obtrude them on our belief Their great Champion Bellarmine asserts That if the infallible Head should condemn Vertue for Vice and commend Vice as Vertue we are bound to believe Vice as morally good and Virtue evil but if this be Gospel our great Master hath deceiv'd us and we have been led by our Saviour into an Error Then if that impure Cardinal that writ a Book in praise of the scarlet Sin of Sodom had been exalted to the Papal-chair and from thence proclaim'd that unnatural Vice to be morally good we should have been bound to believe it And tho some pretend that such a Supposition is not to be made because the Spirit of truth will guide the unerring Head into all truth yet sad experience hath taught us that the broadest Impieties have been canonized and miscal'd Virtue and Justice at Rome Besides what possible reason is there they should be secur'd from Error more than from Sin How can it be imagin'd that that Holy Spirit which is griev'd with impurity and will not dwell in the Habitations of uncleanness did infallibly assist those Monsters for Villany which are acknowledg'd by Baronius and Platina to have worn the Triple Crown in the ninth and tenth Centuries Surely if such a gift as this was ever given to the Guides of the Church How obscure soever the Scripture be in other things it will be highly necessary it should plainly lay down this important Doctrine But alas How impertinent are the Proofs they bring They are either such as will equally prove the Civil Magistrates and Judges in Westminster-Hall infallible Such is that Deut. 17. 10 11 12. Where Judges are appointed to decide matters of Difference between man and man to whose Decisions the People are bound to agree that their
have they destroy'd that trust we ought to place on God alone by teaching men to rely on Creatures and damp'd well-grounded hopes of Heaven by unreasonable fears of Purgatory How have they taken off all necessity of Faith in Christ by their Doctrine of implicite Faith and while they teach the salvability of Heathens will not allow that any Christian can be sav'd who is not a Subject to the Pope and thus a belief in him is more necessary than in the Lord Jesus I might give many instances out of their Casuists how they make it unnecessary to love God above once a year and if they say their Prayers no matter whether they attend to them or no. The Duties of Justice and common Honesty are as perfectly overthrown by the nice Distinctions of Rome Their maintaining it lawful to exercise Revenge and Kill him that hath injur'd us in Honour Goods or Reputation is certainly no way own'd by our Saviour who commands us to love our Enemies and do good to them that hate us by no means to avenge our selves but to overcome evil with good That Latitude of uncleanness and immodesty allow'd in their Books is but a very bad Comment upon that Text. He that looks upon a Woman to Lust after her hath committed Adultry already with her in his heart Neither were they ever incourag'd by him who said Thou shalt not for swear thy self to falsifie their Oaths or violate their Faith with Hereticks The great pattern of meekness and compassion that check'd his Disciples fiery zeal against the Samaritans with Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of Never encourag'd their envenom'd rage against Dissenters from them Never encourag'd their Gibbets Stakes or Inquisition Nor did he command that all should be tortur'd with the most bloody Cruelty who are so obstinately sullen as to refuse to stoop to a Wafer-Cake and believe their own senses before his Holiness They have turn'd Nupitals into Massacres and at the conclusion of Wedding-Feasts have not transubstantiated but exchang'd Wine for Blood They have treacherously murder'd thousands of Innocents and blasphemously sung praises to God as if he were the Author of those Villanies which are highly-displeasing to him and abominably odious in his sight The Gospel teaches us to maintain the most diffusive unbounded Charity towards all the world but they have consin'd their love within the Walls of Rome And like the Pharisees of old will allow no Salvation to any other Christians that will not submit to the usurpations of their High-Priest and Sanhedrim The Christian Religion is design'd to abate our pride and cure our selfishness But the great design of these men is to aggrandize their Church and promote the Secular interests of the Clergy Heavenly-mindedness and self-denial is every where urg'd in the Gospel But that the great corruptions for which we accuse the Church of Rome do plainly aim at a worldly interest may easily appear by an induction of the particulars I have already discours'd of And tho there are many Cloyster'd Votaries among them that make great boasts of their mortification who pretend to bid adien to the world and all its flattering vanities who pretend to spend their whole time in devotion and dressing their Souls for Heaven yet all this may be a juggle and cheat to blind the world Pharisaical and not Evangelical And if we might be allow'd to search their Cells and Abbeys we might perhaps find they have been more careful to lay up Treasures on Earth than Heaven true Mortification is chiefly inward but theirs is mostly in externals Their Religion lies no deeper than their skins and tho the Apostle tells us that this bodily exercise profiteth little yet they make it the very sum of their self-denial Thus have they Evacuated the great duties of our Religion And tho I cannot say that all these are Doctrines defin'd by their Councils and in that sense to be subscrib'd to by all that Communion Yet they are publickly Printed by their Casuists and the order of Jesuites who most propagate them are most encourag'd And while a denier of Transubstantiation shall be Sacrific'd to the Flames these debauchers of the World enjoy the best Ecclesiastical Promotions I might have enlarg'd in further instances but he that desires more may read enough to turn his stomach in Taylors Disswasive from Popery the Practical Divinity of the Papists to omit the Mystery of Jesuitism and the Jesuits Morals He that Reads those collections out of their own Authors will find that the Pious and Judicious Dr. Tillotson did not go beyond the bounds of his wonted moderation when he us'd these seemingly harsh expressions * Sermon on 5th Nov. -78. I speak it with grief says he and shame because the credit of our common Christianity is some way concern'd in it That Panaetius and Antipater and Diogenes the Stoick Tully and Plutarch and Seneca were much honester and more Christian Casuists than the Jesuits or the generality of the Casuists of any other Order that I know of in the Church of Rome Thus have I appli'd the first sense of these words to these men and I think sufficiently proved That they have overturned the whole design of the Gospel I proceed therefore to inquire Whether they can produce any divine commission for these great alterations they have made Are their Doctrines reasonable or have they any intrinsick excellence to commend them The Doctrines of the Apostles were highly reasonable and their worth and excellence attracted every unprejudic'd person But theirs are plainly absur'd and irrational such as none but the wilfully blind and resolvedly obstinate can believe For is it reasonable to worship the incomprehensible God by Images of Wood and Stone and to give the same veneration to Creatures that we do to the Lord of Angels and Men Is it reasonable to adore a Wafer-cake or imagine that the charming words of a Priest can fetch down the Body of Christ from Heaven and convey away the Bread in an instant Is it reasonable to believe that Christs Body may be in a thousand places at once that it may be divided not into parts but wholes and crowded into every crumb of the consecrated Wafer Is it reasonable to believe these and a 1000 more fulsome contradictions which that hard word Transubstantiation implies Is it reasonable to worship a spiritual Being with gay ceremonies and all the little pieces of soppery us'd in their worship Is it reasonable to believe that God should be so fond of the City of Rome that the Bishop thereof tho never so notorious for ignorance and villany shall become infallible Is it reasonable to believe that Absolution can change Attrition into effectual Repentance and the Omnipotent Words of a Priest conjure a man to Heaven in an instant But the world knows how the Jesuit Veronius hath implicitely confess'd Reason not to be on their side who presented the world with a new method more promising than ordinary