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 to be their God and the conjugal Duty they owe him is Adoration When therefore other Creatures have any share oâ—… that bestowed on them spiritual whore 〈◊〉 is committed Now how sad the Application of this to the Christian Church must be all may judge who know how great a part of Christendom worship God by Images and how the adored and incomprehensible Trinity is painted as an old man with a child in his arms and a dove over the childs head though no man hath seen the Father at any time Ioh. 6. 46. and the Son as God can no more be represented by an Image than the Father and the Holy Ghost though once appearing in the symbolical representation of a Dove cannot without Idolatry be represented and worshipped under that figure Neither can any apology be offered for this which could not with the same reason have cleared both Jews and Gentiles of Idolatry And whatever more abstracted Minds may think of these Images yet none that considers the simplicity of the Vulgar the frailty of Man and his inclination to apprehend all things as sensible can doubt but that the Rabble do really conceive of God as like these figures and do plainly worship them It is further to be considered that though the Son of God was Man yet as Man he is not to be worshipped and therefore the setting out of Figures and Statues for his Humane Nature which on the way are no real adumbrations but only the fancies of Painters and worshipping these as the Images of the Son of God is no less Idolatry than to worship the Father as an Old Man And further the Worship of the Mass is Idolatry as evidently as any piece of Gentilism ever was For if it be certain that Christ is not in the Hostie which shall be afterwards made out then to adore him as there must be Idolatrous Neither will it serve for excuse to say that Christ is truly worshipped as present and if he be not there it is only a mistake about the Presence but no Idolatry can be committed the Worship being offered to a proper Object who is God But if this Apology free them of Idolatry it will also clear those Heathens who worshipped some Statues or Creatures in which they conceived God was present so that they might have pleaded it was the great and true God they adored believing him there present as their Fathers had formerly believed But he were very gentle to Idolaters who upon such a plea would clear them of that crime What then is to be said of that Church that holds it the greatest piece of her Religion to adore the Bread with the same devotion they would pay to Christ were he visibly present who call the Bread God carry it about in Processions and worship it with all the Solemnity imaginable And finally the Worship they give the Cross is likewise an adoring of God under a Symbol and Representation And thus we have seen the parallel of Rome-Heathen and Rome-Christian runs but too too just But the next kind of the Heathens Idolatry was their worshipping of others beside God whom they held of two ranks Some that were so pure that they never dwelt in Bodies Others they judged to be the Souls of deceased Men after their death acknowledged and honoured with divine honour And this kind of Idolatry was first begun at Babylon where Nin is made the Statue of his Father Belus be set up and worshipped it And from him all these lesser gods were called Belim or Baalim Now concerning these the Heathens believed that they were certain intermedial powers that went betwixt God and men by whom all good things were conveyed to mortals by whom also all our services were offered to the gods Thus the Nations had gods many and lords many 1 Cor. 8. 5. And these lesser Deities or Dâ—…mons they adored by erecting Statues to them about their burial places where they built Temples for them and worshipped them And from this hint of Babylons being the Mother of this kind of Idolatry we may guess why the Apostacy of that City which in St. Iohns dayes did reign over the Kingdoms of the earth Rev. 17. 18. is shadowed forth under the name of Babylon to hold out that the corruption it was to fall into was to be of a kind with that begun in Babylon and the Character of the Whore doth likewise agree well with this Now if we compare with this the worship of Angels and Saints in the Roman Church we shall find the parity just and exact For after the conversion of the Roman Empire it is not to be denied but that in order to the gaining of the Heathen World to a complyance with Christianity the Christians did as near as was possible accommodate themselves to the Heathenish customs And therefore in stead of their gods they set up the Daemon and Baal-worship to the Apostles and other Saints and Martyrs which Theodorat doth most ingeniously acknowledge to have been set in the stead of their gods They became afterwards so exact in the parallel that as the Heathens had of these lesser gods for every Nation so there was a Saint appointed for every Nation St. Andrew for Scotland St. George for England St. Patrick for Ireland and many more for other Nations And as every house among the Heathens had their houshold god so every person was taught to have a tutelar Saint and Angel And as among the Heathen there were gods for all Trades for all Sicknesses and for every Virtue so in Antichristianism there were Saints for every Disease for every Profession and for all the Graces And as the Heathens built Temples for them so did also Babylonish Rome And here an odd remark is in my way of this conformity that the Pantheon at Rome dedicated in Augustus his time to Cybele the mother of the gods and to all the gods was afterwards consecrated to the Virgin and all the Saints And as the Heathens offered Prayers made Vows observed Days brought Presents used Processions in honour to these lesser gods and worshiped their Statues and Images So all this by degrees crept into Rome-Christian as might be branched out in more particulars than the nature of so short a discouse will allow of It is true the worship of Images came not in before the eighth Century but after that time it engaged all that received it into a high degree of madness for advancing that Heathenish piece of Worship And shall I here tell what is known to all who have seen the forms of that Church how you shall find their Churches all over dressed up with Images and Statues gorgeously apparelled and well adorned where the poor vulgar are lying prostrate before them saying their Devotions and perhaps washing the feet of their Shrines with their tears and with great
furnished for their work Such Houses might also be retreating places for old Persons after they had served their Generation and were no more able to undergo toil and fatigue they might be also Sanctuaries for devout Persons in times of their greater afflictions or devotions But for all this want it fixeth no imputation on our Church her Doctrine or Worship that 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 dotations 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 perswasions 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 acknowledge our selves men of like infirmities with the People who are all called to be a Royal Priesthood and thus we honour Christs 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 Intercessour but Christ and trust to no Satisfaction but his and we acknowledge him the only King of his Church whose Laws must bind it to the end of the World Neither do we acknowledge 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 Christs 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 Iesus 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 without 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 Christs 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 subsistance of our Church-men being but a lively-hood and not a treasure In a word we preach Christ and him Crucified 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
word shall I tell how the Sacramental Actions are polluted by the superfoetation of so many new Rites whereby they are wholly changed from their original Simplicity In Baptism instead of washing with Water in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost how have they added so many adulterated Rites the Child must be thrice blown upon then a Charm used for turning the Devil out of him he must be anointed with holy Oyl and hallowed Salt must be put in his mouth sanctified Garments also must be put on him and a holy Wax candle in his hand and the Priests Spittle must be gently stroaked upon him Whether doth all this look like the Simplicity of the Spouse of Christ or the Attire of the Harlot And in the other Sacrament a great deaâ—… more adoe is made so that any indifferent Spectator who were not waâ—…ned of it would swear it were a solemâ—… piece of Pageantry the Priest muâ—… come in cloathed with rich embroidâ—…red Vestments then he goes to the Altar sometimes reads on the one side then he turns to the other Often he bows and kisses and crosses sometimes single sometimes thrice repeated crosses Most of the Office he mutters though what he says is all alike understood being in an unknown tongue Sometimes he turns to the People and gives them a short Barbarian Benediction Then he goes on till he come to the five wonder-working words And then instead of the Bread which the force of these words hath driven to nothing behold a god to be worshipped by the Spectators And after the adoration the god is to be devoured by the Priest which made the Arabian say he never saw a Sect of Religion so foolish as the Christians were who with their teeth devoured the god they had adored Certainly all this looks so like a piece of extravagance especially if the simplicity of the first institution be considered that many will doubt if it be possible that such worship can be received in any corner of the Christian World And by these hints though a hundred more could be instanced let it be guessed what is become of the simplicity of the Christian Religion when it is so vitiated in all the parts and branches of it And whether that genuine sincere spirituality appear in it which the Gospel holds forth to the world These things having a native tendency for leading away the soul from attending upon God in her acts of worship which is the only thing for which external worship is to be continued in that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we may jointly concur to converse wâ—…h our Maker If from this I should reckon up all the tricks are used in secreter worship what stories should I tell of the pattering over the Beads of the multiplying little unintelligible Prayers the using of Penances some whereof are ridiculous for their gentleness and others of them are as formidablâ—… for their horrour and fitter for the Priests of Baal or the worshipers of Diana Taurica then for those that worship the living God with joy and gladness of heart Now by the performance of these the simple deluded people imagine themselves reconciled to God and secured from his wrath And so go about them meerly in the opinion of a charm But I must next shew how the multiplicity of the Jewish rites was also brought in upon Christendom though Christ came to set us at liberty from that Pedagogy which was made up of Ordinances and lifeless Precepts that could not make the doer thereof perfect nothing being enjoyned in the Christian Religion but that which was of it self easie and proper for the great design of purifying our souls Now such as have brought in a yoke of ordinances that have no tendency to the cleansing of our souls but oppress us with their tyrannical burdensomness being both heavy and numerous must be looked on as the introducers of a new Judaism for oppressing the Christian world what a heap of new superadded forms have the High Priests of Rome brought upon these who stoop to their tyranny And how much sanctity do they place in them enjoyning severer censures on the violation of these than on the greatest transgressions against either the Moral or Positive Laws of God How many holy days have they instituted How much distinction of meats of fasting and abstinence And how like are their Jubilees and Pilgrimages to the Jubilees and yearly trotting up to Ierusalem which was among the Iews In a word there is not a piece of worship about which there is not a greater appendage of vain pompous and withall burdensom Ceremonies then were among the Iews Shall I here mention the five superadded Sacraments to the two instituted by Christ with all the rites belonging to each of them or recount all the rites in their multifarious ordinations Shall I tell of the laying up the Bodies when dead and of the forms of their Burials The burning of Lamps in the clearest day together with the Incense that perfumes the worship which are clear pieces of antiquated Judaism In a word no part of the parallel holds more exactly than that they are zealous of the traditions of their Fathers whereby the Commandments of God are made of none effect and that they honour God with their lips when their hearts are far form him And worship him in vain teaching for Doctrins the Commandments of men Matth. 15. 8 9. And hitherto I have discoursed upon the first limb of Antichristianism and have discovered too evident indications of the contradictions is in it to the first branch of the design of Christianity whereby the worship of God is partly adulterate and partly smothered by a heavy and troublesome load of useless and lifeless perâ—…ormances which must needs lead out the soul from an inward attending on God or free converse with him The second branch of Christianity is â—…he holding forth that Mysterious contrivance of the wisdom and goodness of God for reconciling the World â—…o himself by his dear Son whom â—…e gave to the death for us and also raised up making him both Lord and Christ Whose glory and dignity is vulgarly branched out in these his three Officeâ—… of Prophet Priest and King By the first of which he revealed the Father and his whole council to manking in plain and simple discourses afterwards committed to writing by the faithful eye and ear-witnesses of his Majesty His Prophetiok office therefore is chiefly acknowledged in our grateful receiving these discoveries and our studying to adjust both our Faith and Practice to that unerring rule But can any thing bâ—… more contradictory to this than to keep the knowledge of these writings from Christians to accuse their darkness and defects and to apprehend great danger from their diligent perusal to vilify that sacred study preferring the lame and lifeless discourses of men to the words oâ—… eternal wisdom For we must consider that our study of the Gospel is of thâ—… same nature with a personal following oâ—… Christ when
THE MYSTERY OF INIQUITY UNVAILED IN A DISCOURSE Wherein is held forth The Opposition of the Doctrine Worship and Practices of the Roman Church TO The Nature Designs and Characters of the Christian Faith By GILBERT BURNET Chaplain in Ordinary to His MAJESTY LONDON Printed by W. Godbid and are to be sold by M. Pitt at the Angel over against the Little North Door of St. Pauls 1673. THE Mystery of Iniquity UNVAILED HE that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow is an observation which holdeth true of no part of knowledge so much as of the knowledge of Mankind It is some relief to him who knows nothing of foreign wickedness to hope there are other Nations wherein Virtue is honoured and Religion is in esteem which allays his regrates when he sees Vice and Impiety abound in his Country but if by travelling or reading he enlarge his Horizon and know Mankind better his regrates will grow when he finds the whole World lyes in wickedness It argues a cruel and in humane temper to delight in beholding scenes of horrour and misery and certainly none who either honours his Maker and Redeemer or is a lover of Mankind can without sorrow look on and see the indignities done to God and his Son Christ and see the Enemy of the humane race triumphing over the World with such absolute authority and so much enraged cruelty and that not only in the dark Regions of it which the Sun of Righteousness hath not yet visited with his Gospel but that where Christ should have a Throne Satans Seat should also be is justly surprising and astonishing That almost all Christendom hath fallen from their first love is what none whose eyes are open can deny and it is little less evident that the greater part of it hath made shipwrack and erred from the Faith and that the Church whose Faith was once spoken of throughout the World is now become the Mother of the Fornications of the Earth It is true the Scriptures warned us of a falling away of a mystery of iniquity of an Antichrist to be revealed in due time and of a Babylonish Rome which should bewitch the Earth with her Sorceries but should be varnished over with fair colours and specious pretences so that mystery should be on her forehead Being then warned of so much danger to the Christian Religion it is a necessary though painful enquiry to see if this Antichrist be yet come or if we must look for another But because some have stretched the Notion of Antichristianism so far that things harmless and innocent come within its compass and others have so much contracted it that they might scape free we are to take a view of the Nature and Designs of the Christian Religion and to conclude from that what must be Antichristianism It being not only a bare contradiction to some branches or parts of the Gospel for then every errour or heresie were Antichristianism but a design and entire complex of such opinions and practices as are contradictory to and subversive of the power and life of Christianity And if we find any such thing to be broached and received in the World we may with the least hazard of uncharitableness pronounce it to be Antichristianism and if it be acted or animated by any Head he may be concluded Antichrist The Designs of the Christian Religion run betwixt these four heads The first is to give us right apprehensions of the Nature and Attributes of God that we may conceive aright of him and adore him sutably to his Nature and according to his Will and thereby be admitted to a free converse with him and become partakers of the Divine Nature How little of God was known by the twinklings of Natures Light even to the better and wiser part of the World Tullies Books of the Nature of the Gods do sufficiently inform us But if the Philosophers were so much to seek in it what shall we expect from the Vulgar And indeed Homers Iliads and Ovids Metamorphosis were wretched Systems of Divinity and yet such and such like were the sentiments of the Nations about the Godhead It is true the seed of Abraham were delivered from that darkness and knew God by his Name Iehovah and had Laws and Ordinances given them by God yet their Worship was so carnal and did so strike upon and affect the senses that we will be soon satisfied it was not so sublime and free as became the Spirituality of the Divine Nature and so was only fitted for the Infancy of the People of God but by Christ the mystery that lay hid from ages and generations was revealed for he declared the Father and revealed him and taught us to renounce Idols and vanities and to serve the living God commanding all men every where to repent the times of ignorance wherein God winked at Idolatry being then over That so Mankind being Gods Off-spring might feel after him and not worship him any more in the blinding grossness of Idolatry but in a pure spiritual manner and whereas the Law came by Moses by Christ came Grace and Truth Grace in opposition to the severity of the Law and Truth as opposed not to Falshood but to the Figures and Shadows of Moses his Law and therefore God is to be worshipped in Spirit and Truth in opposition to the Carnal Ordinances and Typical Rites which shadowed out the Truth in the Law The second branch of the Christian Religion is to hold forth the method of mans reconciliation with his Maker For the sense of all mankind agrees in this that sin is an indignity done to God which deserveth punishment and cannot be expiated by any service man can do It was therefore necessary there should be a mean found for incouraging sinners to imbrace a Religious life of which all had reason to despair without pardon were offered to penitents upon the change of their lives Now this was that the Heathen could not dream how to procure It is true the Iews had sacrifices for expiating of sin but these could never quiet their consciences since the common sense of mankind tells that the blood of beasts cannot appease God The mystery therefore of the reconciliation of sinners to God is the proper character of the Christian-Religion which holds forth to us how the eternal Word was made man and endured unspeakable sufferings for the sins of men even to the death of the Cross and was raised up by God and carried to Heaven where he is vested with all power and authority and by the merits of his death hath a right to grant pardon give grace and confer eternal life on all that believe on him by whom God conveys all things to us and through whom we are to offer up all our worship to God he being the Mediator betwixt God and man The third head of the Christian-Religion is to teach the perfectest clearest and most divine rules for advancing of the souls of men to the highest perfection of their natures
Ioh. 4. 1. Now reason being the chief excellency of man and â—…hat wherein the Divine Image doth â—…ainly consist it were very absurd to â—…eny man a rational judging and discering of these things wherein his eternal â—…terest is most concerned Besides the nature of Religion it being a thing sutaâ—…e to the powers of the soul shews that man must have a conviction of the truth of it on his mind and that he cannot be bound in contradiction to his own apprehensions to receive any opinions â—…rly upon the testimony of others If to confirm all this I should add all can be brought from History for proving General Councils to have erred in matters of Faith or that Popes have beeâ—… Hereticks or that they have been ana thematized as such by other Popes and General Councils I should be too tedious But in end how shall the Vulgar know the definitions of Councils or the De crees of Popes Or must they be blindly determined by the Priests assertion Certainly this were to expose theâ—… to the greatest hazards since they aâ—… not suffered to found their Faith upoâ—… the Scriptures Nor doth the Churâ—… reveal her Doctrines to them so thâ—… their Faith must be resolved upon tâ—… bare Testimony of a Priest who is peâ—…haps both ignorant and licentioâ—… And by this we may judge to whâ—… a pass the souls of the people a brought by this Doctrine In a woâ—… we are not the servants of men nor bound to their Authority for none can be a Judge but where he hath power both to try and to coerce Now none but God can either search our hearts or change them for as no humane power can know our thoughts so neither can it turn them which are not in our own power much less in the power of others therefore our Consciences can and must only fall within Gods jurisdiction And since the renovation of the Image of God consists in Knowledge and Religion designs an union of our souls to Divine Truth that we may freely converse with it it will follow that all these pretences of absolute authority and infallibility in Teaching are contrary to Christs Prophetick Office who came to reveal the Father to us The second of Jesus Christs Offices was the Priestly without which the former had never been effectual for had we known never so perfectly the Will of God without a method had been laid down for reconciling sinners to him it was in vain to think of Religion since nothing sinners could do was able to appease God or expiate sin but this was fully done by the Sacrifice of that Lamb of God Who became sin for us and bare our sins on his own Body In whom we have redemption even forgiveness of sin through his Blood 2 Cor. 5. 21. 1 Pet 2. 24. Ephes. 1. 7. If then any have derogated from the value of this satisfaction they have offered the utmost indignity to the highest love and committed the crime of the greatest ingratitude imaginable who would requite the most inconcieveable love with such a Sacrilegious attempt But how guilty are they of this who would set the Merits and works of men in an equality with the Blood of God as if by these we were justified or owed our title to Glory to our own performances whereas we are taught by the Oracles of God that by grace we are saved that God only hath made the difference betwixt us and others and that he hath freely chosen us in his Son Christ Iesus Ephes. 2. 5. 1 Cor. 4. 7. And alas where are we or what is all we do that it can pretend to the lowest degree of Gods acceptance without he freely both help us in it and accept of us for it so that when he rewards us for our services with Eternal Life he freely crowns his own free gifts to us For when we consider how great a disproportion there is betwixt our best Services and Eternal Glory when we also remember how all our good actions flow from the Principles of Divine Grace freely given but withal reflect on the great defects and imperfections that hang about our best performances we will not be able to entertain any thoughts of our meriting ought at the hands of God And certainly the deeper impressions we have either of the evil of sin or the goodness of God we will be further from a capacity of swelling big in our own thoughts or of claiming any thing on the pretensions of justice or debt It is true this Doctrine of Merit is so explained by some of that Church that there remains no ground of quarrelling it except for the Terms sake which is indeed odious and improper though early used by the Ancients in an innocent sense But many of that Church acknowledge there can be no obligation on God by ouâ—… Works but that which his own promise binds upon him which none who believe the truth of the promises of the Gospel can question but still we must remember that we owe all to the love of Jesus and nothing to our selves which as it is the matter of the Allelujahs of glorified Saints so should be the subject of our daily acknowledgements wherefore we must abominate every thing that may seem to detract from this But alas were all this zeal many of that Communion own for Merits and good Works meant for the advancing a Holy and Spiritual Life it would carry a good apology with it and its noble design would very much qualify the severity of its censure but when these good works which for so many ages were highly magnified were the building of Churches the enriching of Abbeys Pilgrimages and other trifling and voluntary pieces of Will-worship advanced for the Secular interests of the Church what shall be said of all that pains was used by the Monks for advancing them but that they were willing to sell the value of the Blood and Merits of Christ for advancing their own Secular interests and divised practices Alas how far are these from that Holiness and Sanctity which must qualify us for the Kingdom of God and the inheritance of the Saints And to end this matter let me add one thing which is most evident to all who have observed the methods of the directours of Consciences in that Church that with whatever distinctions this matter be varnished over among them yet the Vulgar do really imagine they buy and sell with Almighty God by their undergoing these Laws of the Church and penances imposed by their Confessour Which as it nourisheth the life of Pride and Self-love so it detracts from the value they ought to set on the blood of Christ as their only title to Heaven and Glory And to this I must add that distinction of the temporary and eternal punishments sin deserves The latter whereof they acknowledge are removed by the Blood of Christ but the former must be expiated by our selves either by sufferings in this Life or those we must endure in Purgatory unless by