seen with their Eyes taught and established by the first Planters of Christianity No I know no such thing Though this would have been a strange favour to the World would the Almighty Creator have wrought such a Miracle in favour of Ignorant Man But what then Did Jesus Christ after the manner of Moses write a Book of all Christian Rites and Observances or did he not at least command some one of his Twelve Apostles or all of them together to write some such Book so full so compleat so plain as none that would not willingly mistake could possibly mis-understand it Certainly he could not but foresee what disputes would arise about observances of Days and Sacraments amongst Christians in future Ages Why did he not tell us plainly by some Authentick Writing or other His pleasure was that all the Mosaical Rites and Observances of Days should be abolished and instead of them he would have no Exterior Rites and Days at all or else if he would have any why did he not take care that some Book or other should be written wherein every one that could read might see how many Rites called Sacraments he would have to be used amongst Christians and how and to whom and by whom he would have them to be administred Whether he would have certain days observed by Christians in memory of his Birth Death Resurrection and Ascension or no any set days of Fasting any distinction of Garments in Priests from the People or no But himself to write never a Book to this purpose nor any of his Apostles to write any thing but his Holy Life and Death four times over and some little of the Life of some one or two of his Apostles and a few occasional Letters of two or three of his Followers to particular Christians whom they had fully instructed by word of mouth what can we conclude from all this But that surely Jesus Christ has left us some other means than those written Books we have fully to instruct us in the whole Counsel of God in Order to our Eternal Salvation Indeed I find an Ancient Prophesie that in the latter days God Almighty would write his Laws in his Peoples Hearts Was this to intimate to us that whosoever would find fully and clearly the Laws of Jesus Christ in the latter days he must not so much consult written Books as the Hearts of Christians And truly there is no other way without a miraculous Revelation by the Ministry of Angels or some such means for us who live now to know what was taught or practiced sixteen hundred years before we were born but only by Books written in that time or near that time or else without Books by the oral Tradition of Fathers to their Children But what Certitude can there be in this Could we speak with every Father and Son that has lived since the Apostles days and should they tell us unanimously that they had been taught to believe and practice thus and thus For Example to Baptize Children or not to Baptize them to abstain from Flesh on Fridays or not to abstain in memory of our Lords bitter Death and Passion and to humble our selves for our sins and such like no body could doubt of the truth of such a Testimony more than he does mistrust his own Eyes or other Senses But all the intervening Fathers and Sons 'twixt us and the first Age wherein our Lord Jesus lived except only our Fathers and Grandfathers being gone to another World my Grandfather can tell me certainly what his Father taught him concerning Fasting on Friday Baptizing of Infants Reverencing such a Book as of Divine Authority written by a Holy Man talled Mathew sixteen hundred years ago but what assurance can he give me that all his Progenitors have practic'd and believ'd after the same manner ever since the Apostles days Why what assurance could a Jew that lived in our Blessed Savioms time have given to a Pagan or to one of his own Children that the Books of the Law of Moses were written by a Holy Man called Moses who familiarly conversed with God so many hundred years ago He could only have discoursed to him after this manner Thus I was told by my Father and thus all our Neighbouts were told by their Fathers and 't is impossible in any Age since our Great Moses all our Ancestors should agree together to tell their Posterity so great a lye to their own and their Posterities Eternal damnation One Man may tell an impudent notorious lye but a whole Countrey cannot conspire in a lye which they know to be a lye or could they some neighbour Nation would tell the Cheat to Posterity In like manner must the Apostolical Christian answer when he is demanded an account why he reveres such and such Books as Apostolical writings or observes such and such Rites as Apostolical Ordinations And this is the belief and practice of an Apostolical Christian in general VVhatsoever this present Age or any other Age since the Apostles time in several Nations and Countries unanimously attest that they have received from their Forefathers from the Apostles and he cannot positively show that it was of a later date begun for Example in or near such a time by such and such he submits to it as Apostolical and this though it cannot positively be proved that for Example such a Book or Practice was received in every Age since the Apostles days by positive Testimonies out of Authentick writings of every particular Age. And thus much satisfaction and no more could Jacob have given to his Children why he kept the Sabbath day commanded by Almighty God to our first Parent Adam above two thousand years before He had neither Scripture nor other Record of writing for any such Institution the use of writing being unknown to the world till afterwards when God Almighty wrote the Ten Commandments in Two Tables of Stone He could only tell them thus he and his Neighbours had been immemorially taught to believe And their objecting how could they tell but some body out of a supersttious opinion of more Sanctity in every seventh day than in every sixth or eighth might have introduced the will-worship of such an Observation such an Objection I say as this would not have excused them before God from such an Obligation which the whole present Generation told them they had observed immemorially from Adam And indeed though it were granted that according to the Holy Scriptures we Christians are obliged to keep every first day of the week Holy yet it cannot be proved out of Scripture or any other Book or by any other Argument but the immemorial tradition and practice of several Christian Countries that the day we now observe is the true first day of the week from that first first-day on which our Blessed Savour rose from Death to Life And yet that there should be Christians who should make no distinction betwixt Friday and the other days of the week
of St. Augustin to cast your Eyes not only upon the Cockle but also upon the good Wheat and if you will needs be comparing the Professors of our several Religions together do not compare the best of your own Religion with the worst of ours but the best of ours with the best of your own and the worst of ours with the worst of your own and do not consider how little our Fasting-days or Holy-days or Confession of sins c. conduce to Piety as they are observed by the Libertines of our Church but what helps they would be to make all the world better were they observed in a due and Christian manner Another great cause of your mistakes is that great Lye devised by the first Reformers viz. That the New Testament is a Compleat Rule of Faith and Manners for all Christians Hence whatsoever Practice or Ceremony you cannot find there you reject it as a Superstition and Will-worship And this makes you quarrel with all Abstinence from certain kinds of Meats on Fasting-days and with all Holy-days except Sundays with the Sign of the Cross c. Whereas Christian Doctrines and the Evangelical way of Worship were first taught the world by the Apostles before they writ any thing at all Nor did ever any of the Apostles or all of them together go about to write a Book of the whole Body of the Christian Law like to those of Exodus and Leviticus written by Moses as is manifest to any one that considers the Nature of the Books of the New Testament The four Gospels are a History of our Blessed Saviours Life and Death who lived as to the External Rites of Religion according to the â—ewish Law and so we cannot reasonably in any of them expect what Holy-days or Fasting days or Ceremonial Rites we Christians are to observe in the time of the Gospel Indeed had the Acts of the Apostles been intended as an exact Narration how the Apostles lived as to the whole course of their life what days they kept Holy and what they fasted and how and what Sacraments they administred and now and with what Rites c. we might reasonably have expected there some mention of Ascension and Christmas-day of Lent and Abstinence from Flesh on Fridays of Renouncing the Devil and the Sign of the Cross in Baptism c. But that Holy Book making mention only of some few particular passages of two or three of the Apostles lives the Apostles might well keep divers Holy-days besides Sunday and abstain from Flesh in Lent and upon other Fasting-days and use the Sign of the Cross c. and teach the same also to their first Converts and yet there be a profound silence of them in the Book of their Acts. As for St. Johns Prophetical Book it looks nothing like a Ritual or an Account of what days and Rites in the Divine Worship are pecular to us Christians The rest of the New Testament are Epistles or Letters of Spiritual Counsel written by St. Paul or some other Apostle to Persons already instructed in the Christian way of Worship And why they should make mention therein of all Christian Exterior Rites and Days I understand not unless perchance the Persons they wrote unto had been deficient in such Observances The Adequate Rule of our Faith and Manners are the Doctrines and Practices taught the World by the Apostles of our Blessed Saviour And the Holy Scriptures are an Excellent but not the only means whereby we may assuredly come to know what Truths were taught and what Practices were set on foot over the whole Earth by by the same Apostles We must consult the immemoral Faith and Practices and unanimous attestations of several Christian Countries and what they joynly witness immemorally to have received from Father to Son from the Apostles whether it be a Book written as they tell us by the Apostles or a Doctrine taught by them or a Ritual Observance ordained by them we safely submit unto it as Apostolical For that the several Christian Inhabitants all over the World could never possibly meet together to forge a lye And it is no small cause My Dear Friends of all your mistakes that you conceit you know the Holy Scriptures to be the infallible Word of God by their own light There 's no doubt but any one that reverently reads those Holy Books cannot but acknowledge that there are very many Excellent Truths declared in them but that every thing in them is infallibly true and that they were written by Men un-erringly inspired by the Holy Ghost it 's not possible we should ever have come to know so much but by the teaching of our Parents who from our Infancy imprinted upon us a Reverence to those Sacred Writings above all others And did we but reflect that the assurance we have that the Books of the New Testament were written by Apostolical Persons is only this that so all Christian Countries since the Apostles have immemorially believed our Discourse would strait tell us there 's all reason we should ask of those several Countries from whom we have received those Divine Books in what sense they have been always taught to understand them and interpret them accordingly and what Rites and Observances they received together with them and admit them with the like Reverence And it will be hard to give an Account to our Blessed Saviour why with such awful dread you submitted to the four Gospels or Epistles of St. Paul as most Sacred and Divine and yet dared to reject as superstition and Will-worship certain Practices and Observances delivered to you by the same Hands immemorially from the Apostles Mistrust not the Providence of our Dear Redeemer he has in all Ages had a Watchful Eye over his Holy Church not permitting her to Apostarize by Idolatry or be defiled with Superstition or to deliver to posterity her own Inventions for Apostolical Traditions But more of this hereafter Till you hear further from me my Dearest Friends let me only obtain this favour of you to do your selves this right to converse familiarly with Roman Catholicks and to hear impartially what they have to say for themselves wherein they differ from you and not to fancy they believe a thousand Absurdities which they no less detest than your selves Yours ever W. H. FINIS
of their Saviour Jesus can forbear in some devout fit especially those of the tenderer Sex from kissing the Picture of their same dearest Lord. But here 's the difference betwixt them and the Doltish Papist That the Papist Bows at the Name of Jesus and kisses his Picture with a design to give Divine Honour to the very Name and Picture but our Prelatick Protestant does the same thing intending only to give them civil respect as he would give to the Name or Picture of his King Furthermore a Papist is one that believes the Pope can give him leave to commit any sin for Money or if any one were so bold to commit the sin before he got leave to commit it 't is but giving so much Money and the same Holy Indulgent Father can so perfectly pardon your sin as you shall not be in the least danger of any punishment for it Temporal or Eternal in Purgatary or in Hell And all this though you have no purpose at all to forsake your sin And this his Holy Father can do by a plenitude of Power which he has of disposing and applying to whom he pleases penitent or not penitent the superabundant merits of Jesus Christ our Blessed Saviour and his Millions of Saints of all whose merits the Pope is supreme Lord to dispose of them to the living or dead as he by his un-erring Spirit thinks fitting I say to the living or dead for this Papist believes that the Pope can free what Souls out of Purgatory he pleases paying their debts for which they are there in prison out of the stock of the supererrogatory works of Saints Always provided that in lieu or rather purchase of so great a favour some of the deceased parties friends give a large alms to his Holiness Moreover the Papist Honours the Virgin Mary much more than he does her Divine Son or God the Father and therefore for one Prayer he makes to God he says ten to the Holy Virgin But alas what are his Prayers A company of Latin words he neither understands nor cares to understand which if he do but patter over in such a number though his mind and heart be wholly taken up with worldly thoughts and desires he thinks he has done such a meritorious work as God almighty is obliged for the great Honour he has done him to give him Eternal Happiness If he do but believe as his Churchmen believe though he be wholly ignorant of their Belief his Soul is safe enough Besides he makes not only Gods of Holy Men departed but even of sinful Men whilst they live Hence he makes less scruple of breaking Gods Laws than he does of violating any Ordinance of the Pope or any Law of his Church He must by no means touch the least bit of Flesh on a Fasting-day against his Churche's Law upon pain of damnation but if he commit Fornication 't is but a Venial sin and sprinkling himself with a little Holy Water he 's as pure from all spot as a new Baptiz'd Infant And as for obedience to Magistrates if they be not of his Religion he ows them no Allegiance And it he have by Oath obliged himself he has a Holy Father can dispense with him for that or any other Oath for a piece of Money If his Prince persecute him for his Religion let him but have so much desperate courage to Sacrifice his own life to Stab or Poison his said Persecutor he shall at Rome be Canoniz'd for a Saint Nor can private persons expect any fidelity from him when he is thus traiterously rebellious against his Liege Lord and Soverain Therefore whatsoever promise he has made to an Heritick he may lawfully break it and cheat and cozen him without any scruple Nay need make no more difficulty of killing an Heritick than of a common Highway Man As for Fasting and Mortification if he but abstain from Flesh though he drink all day long the best Wines he can get fill himself at noon with all variety of Fish and stuff himself again at night with all sorts of Sweet-meats he has like a good Christian piously and sorrowfully commemorated the bitter death and passion of his dear Redeemer he has done a work of a strange force to satisfie for his sins to suppress his corrupt inclinations to elevate his mind to Heaven to cast out the Devil to obtain the Holy Ghost for himself or others As for Virginal Purity if he do but make a Vow of Chastity and keep himself from Marriage though he be as familiar with Nunns as Lay People are with their lawful Wives he is one of the Virgins in the Mystical Book of St. John who follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes As to Pardons Indulgences 't is wonderful what he believes For a round Sum of Money paid to his Holy Father the Pope he can purchase a Pardon for himself and his Heirs for ever for whatsoever sins he or they may possibly commit Sins that are to be committed by himself twenty years hence or by his Posterity a hundred years hence he has a Pardon for them already in his Pocket under the Broad Seal of Christs Vicar upon Earth which our Lord Jesus neither can nor will deny but has engaged his infallible word to ratifie and confirm and all this though the Persons who have obtained this Pardon or Indulgence should chance to dye without the least Remorse or Repentance for their sins And by this the World is taught to understand what a Blessing it is to have a great Estate for that Rich Men who have but Mony to purchase one of those Pardons can never fail of Heaven whereas the Poor and those of slender Fortunes for want of them must be hurried away into Eternal Misery without Bail or Mainprize Moreover by vertue of these Pardons they have leave to commit all manner of villanies without sin or at least without any danger of receiving any prejudice by sin These Papists they 'l tell you indeed their Church is a Holy Church and has all means imaginable to suppress vice and encourage to sanctity They have a Hell to set before audacious sinners to terrifie them from committing mortal and grievous offences and they have a Purgatory with which they threaten lesser offenders But in very deed both their Hell and their Purgatory are so easily avoided by any one that has a little Money that he must be one that startles at his own shaddow that can at all be terrified by either For had you committed all kinds of sins imaginable if you have but the Impudence to tell your Ghostly Father all those villanies in his Ear though you be so far from resolving to amend as you secretly purpose when you have clear'd the old to begin a new score provided you do but profess to your said Confessor that you are sorry and say you will amend he by three or four words in Latin Ego te Absolvo c. By the Authority of Jesus
Christ I Absolve thee from thy sins does as perfectly free you from all obligation to Eternal Torments as if you had never sinn'd And as for the temporal pains in Purgatory which may be due to you for want of a true sorrow and a hearty purpose to amend 't is but saying Seven Pater Nosters and as many Ave Maries upon such a Saints day in such a Church and you go strait to Heaven clear from all spot and stain There are many more ridiculous absurdities which this sadly deluded Papist believes and practises but these I think are sufficient to make any Man in his wits to abhor Popery as the greatest piece of Non-sense imaginable And understanding by Popery what has been said and yet that is not half of that Ridiculosity which the Generality of people in England understand by it he that should turn Papist be he for Religion Protestant Jew or Turk he must certainly for understanding be a Mad Man Child or Fool either one that has lost his wits or one that is not yet come to his wit or one that never had nor ever shall have any wit But were not our Ancestors here in England for many ages together all Papists Are not whole Nations France Spain Italy and others generally Papists Have we not some thousands of Papists still remaining in our own Countrey Are all these Children Fools or Mad Men Let them look to that You and I are sure that no Man that has half the understanding of a Man can think that such a bundle of ridiculous Tenets and Absurdities can look like any such thing as a Religion revealed from Heaven And if they confess themselves to be Papists and to hold those witless absurdities the Conclusion unavoidably falls upon them They must be Children Mad Men or Fools Unless you will say they know well enough all those ridiculous absurdities how irrational and senseless they are as well as you and I but for temporal ends in their Hearts being of no Religion at all they make a profession of believing and revering all the above-mentioned Fopperies And this I must confess is another strange folly in these Papists and a contradiction not to be paralel'd in the most blockish uncultivated Indians For the Happiness Riches Honours and Pleasures of this life they make a show of believing most seriously a thousand absurdities which they laugh at in their Hearts and yet they are so senseless as they 'l loose their Lives Estates Dignities and all rather than abjure those very absurdities Further They are so ashamed of their doltish Religion that charge them with any of their stupid opinions and they 'l profess by all that 's Sacred they neither believe nor practice any such things as you lay to their charge And yet you and I know most assuredly that they do in the very bottom of their Hearts so strongly adhere to them that they would part with Life and all that 's dearest to them rather than forego them But how come you and I to know they hold such and such absurd fancies they so constantly professing they hold no such thing Can any body know their minds and practices better than they themselves That 's a considerable Question and shall be answered afterwards Sure if this be their Case That indeed they do not Worship and Pray to Pictures and Stocks and Stones as Gods nor believe any such extravagant power in their Holy Father at Rome to pardon or give leave to commit sin for Money and a thousand other absurdities which commonly they are charged with And yet they will rather endure all losses of Estate Liberty or Life then relinquish the said detestable abominations methinks they do not deserve so much to be persecuted sequestred imprison'd hang'd drawn and quarter'd for Traytors as to be pitied and cast into Bedlam for Mad Men or to have their Estates begg'd for Natural Fools There is some Mystery lies hid here which we have not yet discovered Either they are grosly and stupidly mistaken in matters of Religion or else we are strangely mistaken in them and what is indeed their Religion But for Gods sake as you desire our Eternal Wellfare which you seemed in the beginning of your discourse so heartily to pretend unto of what Religion are you your self who write thus for the satisfaction of your deluded Puritanical Kindred and Acquaintance whom you so pity and compassionate If you be neither Puritan Prelatick Protestant nor Papist what are you A Jew Turk or Pagan No I thank the All Good God I am a Christian An Apostolical Christian That is one that believes whatever Doctrine can be proved to him to have been taught the World by the Apostles of Jesus Christ One that admits of any practice introduced into the World by the same Apostles One that reverences all Books or Writings as of an in allible Divine Authority left by them Nay if the Holy Apostles left any in Commission as their Successors to make Ordinations observable by all Christians I receive all Decrees of such Delegates of the Apostles also But these are general terms what do you believe in particular as to the Worship of God in this World and the state of departed Souls in the other and such line controverted points betwixt Papists and Protestants Do you believe all those Papistical Doctrines you mentioned above or no I thank my God there 's not one of them which I do not detest as Hell it self But what do you positively believe I do believe whatsoever Jesus Christ taught his Twelve Apostles and what his Twelve Apostles taught the VVorld And I do believe Almighty God has left us who live in this Seventeenth Age from our Dear Saviour certain and infallible means to know what they taught the VVorld in that first Age in which they lived at least so much of what they taught and established as is needful for us to know and practice to dispose us for Beatitude in the other life For that otherwise the universal Redeemer should not have been a sufficient Saviour of all the VVorld but only of that part of it which had the happiness to live in that first Age of Christianism or at most only of such Ages as were so near that Primitive Happy Time that they could certainly and infallibly know what Truths were taught and what practices in order to the bettering to the preparing of Mankind for Heaven were set on foot by Jesus Christ or his infallible Delegates Substitutes or VVitnesses But what means has Jesus Christ left us at this distance from the time wherein he illuminated the VVorld by his Divine resence to know how he lived and how he taught his followers to live to come to Eternal Life Has he in some strange Island preserved some Hundreds of Venerable Old Men who have been kept alive ever since that first Age to testifie to all Generation what kind of Doctrin they had heard with their Ears or what kind of Worship they had