this Case to Pardon the Sentence of Death would deliver such a man from all other Punishments too which by the Law are due only to that man who is under the Sentence of Death and in such a Constitution for any man to say that the Prince's Pardon extends only to Life but does not excuse from Whipping and Pilloring and perpetual Imprisonment would be to make the Pardon void since no man by the Law can suffer those other Punishments but he who is Condemned to Die and therefore he who is pardoned the Sentence of Death in consequence of that is pardoned all other Punishments too Thus it is here the original Curse against sin was in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die which by the Gospel of Christ is expounded of Eternal Death and there is no other threatning in all the Gospel against sin but Eternal Death and therefore all other Punishments are inflicted by Vertue of this Law and consequently he who is delivered from this Curse of the Law from Eternal Punishments is delivered from the whole Punishment due to sin unless they can find some other Law in the Gospel besides that which threatens Eternal Death which obliges a Sinner to Punishment Again since they acknowledge that Christ by his Death has delivered us from Eternal Punishments I do not think it worth the while to Dispute with them whether those Sufferings and Calamities which good men are exposed to in this World may properly be called Punishments or only Correction and Discipline but I desire to know Why they call Purgatory which is a place of Punishment in the other World a Temporal Punishment for this is an abuse of the Language of Scripture which makes this World Temporal and the next World Eternal as St. Paul expresly tells us the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal 2 Cor. 4. 18. And therefore Temporal Punishments signifie the Punishments in this World but the unseen Punishments as well as the unseen Rewards of the next World are Eternal which is a demonstration that there is no Purgatory unless it be Eternal and then it is but another Name for Hell and therefore the State of the next World is called either Life or Death eternal life or eternal death those who believe in Christ shall never die 11 John 25 26. Now I desire to know the difference between Living and Dying and Perishing in the next World for bad men do not cease to be nor loose all sence in the next World no more than good men and therefore Life can only signifie a state of Happiness and Death a state of Misery which is much worse than not being now if good men must not perish must not die but live in the next World they must not go to Purgatory which as much perishing as much dying as Hell though not so long but if they must never die never perish they must never suffer the pains of Purgatory which is a dying and perishing that is a state of Torment and Misery while they continue there Let us then see how a Papist who believes a Purgatory-fire in the next World wherein he shall be tormented God knows how long for his Sins can prove that a penitent Sinner shall not be eternally damned Oh! says he Christ has died for our Sins and made attonement for them and we are pardoned and justified through Faith in his Bloud and what then may we not still be punished for our Sins If not what becomes of Purgatory If we may prove that we shall not be eternally damned for Sin which is the proper punishment of it For if to be pardoned and justified signifie to be delivered from punishment it signifies our deliverance from the whole punishment of Sin since the Scripture does not limit it if they do not signifie our deliverance from punishment then we may be eternally punished for Sin though we are pardoned and justified But we are redeemed from the curse of the Law and saved from wrath But if such a man may go to Purgatory why not to Hell Or if the Curse of the Law and the Wrath of God be in Hell but not in Purgatory though the torments are equally great why may not he lie for ever in Purgatory as well as a thousand Years with this comfort that though he be infinitely tormented yet it is not the curse of the Law nor the wrath of God. Well but Christ has promised That those who believe in him shall not perish but have everlasting life And that proves that the pains of Purgatory cannot be for ever for then Christ could not make good his promise of bestowing everlasting Life on them so I confess one would think and so I should have thought also that when Christ promised that such Believers should not perish and should never die that he meant such men should not go to Purgatory in the next World but if falling into Purgatory be not perishing and not dying it may be everlasting life too for ought I know and then the pains of Purgatory may be eternal Whoever would not forfeit all the assurance the Gospel has given us of our Redemption from Hell and a glorious Immortality must reject the Popish Doctrine of Purgatory as a flat contradiction to all the gracious Promises of the Gospel for Hell or an eternal Purgatory is as reconcileable with the Promises of Forgiveness and immortal Life as the Popish Purgatory is 2. This Doctrine of Purgatory destroys our hope and confidence in the Mediation and Intercession of Christ and that for these two plain reasons 1. As it represents him less merciful and compassionate And 2. less powerful than the wants and necessities of Sinners require him to be For I. After all that is said in Scripture of his being so merciful and compassionate an High-Priest a Sinner who hears what is told him of Purgatory could wish him a great deal more compassionate than he is for it is no great sign of tenderness and compassion to leave his Members in Purgatory-fire which burns as hot as Hell. Could I believe this of our Saviour I should have very mean thoughts of his kindness and not much rely on him for any thing We should think him far enough from being a merciful and compassionate Prince who can be contented to torture his Subjects for a year together and it is a wonderful thing to me that when a merciful man cannot see a Beast in torment without relieving it it should be thought consistent with the mercy and compassion of our Saviour to see us burn in Purgatory for Years and Ages To be sure this destroys all our hope in him in this World for why should we think he will be concerned what we suffer here who can contentedly let us lie in Purgatory to which all the calamities and sufferings of this life are meer trifles O Blessed and Merciful JESU pardon such Blasphemies as these For II. If he be
sinners while they continue in their sins if they believe the judicial authority of the Priest to forgive sins for they every day absolve men who do not forsake their sins and if their absolution be good God must forgive them too and thus the holiness and inflexible justice of God loses its force upon good Catholicks to reform their lives and therefore were there no other arguments against it it is not likely that the judicial absolution of the Priest as it is taught and practised in the Church of Rome should be a Gospel-Doctrine 3. The Death and Sacrifice of Christ is another Gospel-Motive to Holiness of Life not only because he has now bought us with his own Blood and therefore we must no longer live unto our selves but to him who died for us but because his Blood is the Blood of the Covenant and the efficacy of his Sacrifice extends no farther than the Gospel-Covenant which teaches us to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world That is no man can be saved by the Blood of Christ but those who obey the Gospel which obliges all men who hope to be saved by Christ to the practise of an universal righteousness This the Church of Rome seems very sensible of that none but sincere Penitents and truly good men can be saved by the Sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross which gives no hope to Sinners who do not repent of their sins and amend their lives and therefore she has found out a great many other ways of expiating Sin which give more comfort to Sinners The Sacrifice of the Mass has a distinct vertue and merit from the Sacrifice upon the Cross it is a propitiatory Sacrifice for the living and the dead to expiate especially the sins of those for whom it is particularly offered and thus those sins which are not expiated by the Death of Christ upon the Cross are expiated by the Sacrifice of the Mass and that by the bear opus operatum by the offering this Sacrifice of the Mass itself without any good motion in the person for whom it is offered and thus the Sacrifice of the Mass destroys the vertue of Christ's Sacrifice upon the Cross to oblige men to holiness of life for though none but sincere and reformed Penitents are pardoned by the Sacrifice of the Cross the Sacrifice of the Mass will expiate the sins of unreformed Sinners and then there is no need to reform our lives Thus I am sure all men understand it or they would never put their confidence in the Mass-Sacrifice for if it does no more for us than Christ's Death upon the Cross it might be spared for it gives no new comforts to impenitent Sinners They are very sensible that holiness of life is necessary to intitle us to the Pardon and Forgiveness purchased by the Death of Christ but then the Sacrifice of the Mass Humane Penances and Satisfactions and Merits and Indulgences seem on purpose contrived to supply the place of Holiness of Life for no body can imagine else what they are good for Christ has by his Death upon the Cross made a perfect Atonement for the sins of all true penitent and reformed Sinners and therefore a true Penitent who according to the terms of the Gospel denies all ungodliness and worldly lusts and lives soberly righteously and godly in this present world needs no Expiation but the Death of Christ Will they deny this by no means They grant that all our sins are done away in Baptism meerly by the application of Christ's Death and Passion to us and therefore the Death of Christ is a complete and perfect satisfaction for all Sin or else Baptism which derives its whole vertue from the Death of Christ could not wash away all sin What use can there be then of the new propitiatory Sacrifice of the Mass of humane Satisfactions and Merits and Indulgences Truly none but this that when our sins are expiated by the Death of Christ and the pardon of all our sins applied to us in Baptism the Gospel exacts a holy life from us and therefore men forfeit the baptismal Pardon of their sins by the Bloud of Christ unless they either live very holy lives or make some other satisfaction for their not doing so And for this purpose the Sacrifice of the Mass humane Penances and Satisfactions serve It will not be unuseful nor unpleasant to draw a short Scheme of this whole matter which will explain this great Mystery and make it intelligible which now appears to be nothing but nonsence and confusion Christ then has made a perfect Atonement and Expiation for sin this is applied to us at Baptism wherein all our sins are forgiven and while we continue in this state of Grace we cannot be eternally damned though we may be punished for our sins both in this World and Purgatory But every mortal sin puts us out of the state of Grace which we were in by Baptism and till we be restored to the state of Grace again we must be eternally damned because we have no right to the Sacrifice and Expiation of Christ's Death the only way in the Church of Rome to restore us to this state of Grace is by the Sacrament of Penance and the Absolution of the Priest which restores us to the same state which Baptism at first put us into and therefore very well deserves to be thought a Sacrament And thus we recover our interest in the Merits of Christ's Death and therefore cannot be eternally damned for our sins but still it is our duty to live well for the Death of Christ does not excuse us from Holiness of Life which is the condition of the Gospel and therefore if we are in a state of Grace and thereby secured from eternal damnation yet if we live in sin we must be punished for it unless we can find some other expiation for sin than the Death of Christ upon the Cross which still leaves us under the obligations of a holy life and therefore cannot make such an Expiation for sin as shall serve instead of a holy life Now here comes in the Sacrifice of the Mas Humane Penance Satisfactions Indulgencies For the sacrifice of the Mass as I observed before does not serve the same end that the Sacrifice of the Cross does the Sacrifice of the Mass is a propitiatory Sacrifice for the living and the dead But what sins is it a Propitiation for For such sins for which men are to satisfie themselves that is for all sins the eternal punishment of which is remitted for the Sacrifice of the Cross. This is evident from their making the Sacrifice of the Mass a propitiatory Sacrifice for the dead that is for the Souls in Purgatory who suffer there the temporal punishments of sin when the eternal punishment is forgiven the Souls in Hell are capable of no Expiation and therefore an expiatory Sacrifice for the dead can be only for
Sinners which are much weakned by some Popish Doctrines 2. THe Gospel of Christ was intended to give the highest demonstration of God's Love to Mankind and the greatest possible Security to all humble penitent Sinners of the Forgiveness of their Sins Hence the Gospel is called the Grace of God and the Gospel of Grace as being a Dispensation of Love and Goodness and therefore whatever lessens and disparages the Gospel-Grace can be no Gospel-Doctrine As to consider this particularly The Gospel magnifies the Grace of God in giving his own Son for us God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life 3 John 16. In this was manifested the love of God towards us because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins 1 John 4.9 10. And St. Paul assures us that this is such a glorious manifestation of God's love as will not suffer us to doubt of any other expressions of his Goodness He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things 8 Rom. 32. So that the Gospel of our Saviour gives us much higher demonstrations of God's love and goodness than either the Light of Nature or the Law of Moses did Love is the prevailing Attribute of God under the Gospel-dispensation For God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him 1 John 4.16 Thus the Gospel of Christ gives a humble Penitent as great assurance of Pardon as his own guilty Fears can desire for Repentance and Remission of Sins is preached in the Name of Christ He has expiated our Sins by the Sacrifice of his Death God commendeth his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us much more then being justified by his bloud we shall be saved from wrath through him for if when we were enemies we were reconciled unto God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life 5 Rom. 8 9 10. For as he was delivered for our Offences so he was raised again for our Justification And him hath God exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance unto Israel and remission of sins So that if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous who is able to save all them to the uttermost that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them 7 Heb. 25. These are the fundamental Doctrines of Christianity and therefore nothing can be a Gospel-Doctrine which weakeâ—s or overthrows them Let us then examine the Popish Doctrine of Purgatory and the Invocation of Saints and Angels as our Mediators with God and see how they are reconcileable with the Gospel-notion of God's love and that security it gives us of Pardon through the Merits and Intercession of Christ. 1. Let us consider the Doctrine of Purgatory which is but the outward Court or Region of Hell where the Punishments are as severe as in Hell itself only of a less continuance and yet as short as they are they may last many hundred nay thousand Years unless their Friends and the Priests be more merciful to them or they themselves have taken care before Death to pay the Price of their Redemption This is a barbarous Doctrine and so inconsistent with that mighty Love of God to penitent Sinners as it is represented in the Gospel of Christ that it is not reconcileable with any notion of Love and Goodness at all you may call it Justice you may call it Vengeance if you please but Love it is not or if it be it is such a Love as no man can distinguish from Hatred for my part I declare I do not desire to be thus loved I should rather chuse to fall into nothing when I die than to endure a thousand Years torments to be happy for ever for Humane Nature cannot bear the Thoughts of that And is this that wonderful Love of God to Sinners which is so magnified in the Gospel to torment those who are Redeemed by the Bloud of Christ some hundred or thousand Years in the Fire of Purgatory which is not cooler than the Fire of Hell The Light of Nature I confess never taught this for Mankind never had any Notion of such an outragious Love they always thought that the Love of God consisted in doing good not in damning those whom he loves for so many Ages And if this be all the Discovery the Gospel has made of the Love of God we have no great reason to glory in it He who can believe that God who so loved the World as to give his only begotten Son for the Redemption of Sinners will torment a penitent Sinner so many Years in Purgatory till he has either endured the punishment of his Sins himself or is released by the Charity of his Friends or the Masses of some Mercenary Priests deserves to lie in Purgatory till he thinks more honourably of the divine goodness and be convinced that it is no such extravagant commendation of the love of God to send penitent Sinners to Purgatory There are two extravagant Notions whereon the Doctrine of Purgatory is founded which overthrow all the natural Notions men have of Goodness and destroy all the hope and confidence of the most penitent Sinners in the goodness of God. As 1. That God may forgive Sins and yet punish us for them for no man can go into Purgatory according to the Doctrine of the Church of Rome whose Sins are not already forgiven but though his Sins are forgiven he must make satisfaction for that temporal punishment which is due to them either in this World or in Purgatory Now how reconcilable these two are to forgive and to punish let all mankind judge I believe very few men think they are forgiven when they are punished for that which all men desire should be forgiven them is the punishment they have deserv'd What is it men are afraid of when they have sinned is it not that they shall be punished for it What is it men desire when they desire Pardon is it not that they may not be punished And is it any comfort to a Malefactor to be pardoned and to be hanged Does any man boast of his love and kindness or take any comfort in it who freely forgives him but exacts the payment of the Debt or the punishment of his fault And if this be so contrary to the very notion of goodness and forgiveness among men how comes it to be the notion of goodness and forgiveness in God How comes that to be love and goodness which the Sinner receives no benefit by for love and goodness I think signifies
Sins The principal of them are Fastings that is abstaining from Flesh and other Acts of Penance as Whippings Pilgrimages and some Bodily severities or Prayers that is saying over such a number of Ave-Maries or Alms that is to pay for Indulgencies or to purchase Masses for themselves or their Friends in Purgatory or to found some Religious Houses or to enrich those that are which are much more satisfactory and meritorious than common acts of Charity to the Poor All which men may do without the least sorrow for Sin without any true devotion to God without mortifying any one Lust. They mightily contend for the Merit of Works but what are their Meritorious Works Whoever reads the Lives of their Canoniz'd Saints will easily see what it was that made them Saints their Characters are usually made up of some Romish Superstitions of their Devotions to the Virgin Mary and their familiar Conversations with her the severities of their Fasts and other external Mortifications their frequenting the Mass the great numbers of their Ave-Maries pretences to Raptures and Visions and such wild Extravagancies as made them suspected of Madness while they lived and Canoniz'd them for Saints when they were dead Other things may be added to fill up their Stories but these are the glorious Accomplishments especially of the more Modern Saints for no man must be a Saint at Rome who is not a famous Example of Popish Superstitions Monkery is thought the most perfect State of Religion among them and has even Monopolized the Name for no other persons are called the Religious but those who belong to one Order or other And wherein does the Perfection of Monkery consist 1. In the Vows of Caelibacy Poverty and Obedience to the Superiors of their Order which are all External things no Virtues in themselves and very often the occasion of great Wickedness 2. In the strictest Observance of the External Rites and Ceremonies of their Religion of Masses and Ave-Maries and Fastings and Penances and many of them would be glad if they could go Pilgrimages too These things are in perfection in their Monasteries and Nunneries with such additional Superstitions as are peculiar to particular Orders As for other true Christian Vertues they may as soon be found without the Walls of the Monastery as within Now when such External Rites and Observances shall be judged Satisfactions and Expiations for Sin shall be thought the most highly meritorious shall be made the Characters of their greatest Saints and the most perfect state of Religion I cannot see how any true thorough-paced Romanist can aim at any thing but a Ceremonial Righteousness Indeed the true reason why any thinking men are so fond of an External and Ceremonial Righteousness is to excuse them from true and real Holiness of Life all men know that if they mortifie their Lusts they need not afflict their Bodies with Fastings and other severities that if they have their Conversation in Heaven they need not travel in Pilgrimages to Jerusalem or Loretto that if they take care to obey the Laws of the Gospel they need no satisfactions for their Sins nor no works of Merit or Supererogation which are nothing else but meritorious and supererogating satisfactions for all men know that in the Offices of Piety and Vertue they can never do more than is their Duty and therefore as nothing can be matter of Merit which is our Duty so the true intention of all Merits and Works of Supererogation are to supply the place of Duty and to satisfie for their Sins or to purchase a Reward which they have no title to by doing their Duty but a good man who by believing in Christ and obeying him has an interest in his Merits and a title to the Gospel-Promises of Pardon and Eternal Life needs none of these Satisfactions Merits or Supererogations Now would any man who believes that he cannot be saved without mortifying his Lusts be at the trouble of Whippings and Fastings c. not to mortifie his Lusts but to keep them and to make satisfaction for them Would any man travel to Jerusalem or the Shrine of any Saint who believes he shall not be forgiven unless he leaves his Sins behind him which he might as well have parted with at home The true notion of Superstition is when men think to make satisfaction for neglecting or transgressing their Duty by doing something which is not their Duty but which they believe to be highly pleasing to God and to merit much of him Now no man who believes that he cannot please God without doing his Duty would be so fond of doing his Duty and doing that which is not his Duty nor pleasing to God into the bargain 3. And yet these meritorious and satisfactory Superstitions are very troublesome to most men and though they are willing to be at some pains rather than part with their Lusts yet they would be at as little trouble as possibly they can and herein the Church of Rome like a very indulgent Mother has consulted their ease for one man may satisfie for another and communicate his Merits to him and therefore those who by their Friends or Money can procure a vicarious Back need not Whip themselves they may Fast and say over their Beads and perform their Penances and Satisfactions by another as well as if they did it themselves or they may purchase Satisfactions and Merits out of the Treasury of the Church that is they may buy Indulgencies and Pardons or it is but entring into some Confraternity and then you shall share in their Merits and Satisfactions This is an imputed Righteousness with a witness and I think very External too when men can satisfie and merit by Proxies 4. And I think it may pass for an External Righteousness too when men are sanctified and pardoned by Reliques Holy-water Consecrated Beads Bells Candles Agnus Dei's c. And how unlike is all this to the Religion of our Saviour to that purity of Heart and Mind the Gospel exacts and to those means of Sanctification and methods of Piety and Vertue it prescribes Whoever considers what Christian Religion is can no more think these Observances Christian Worship than he can mistake Popish Legends for the Acts of the Apostles II. Let us now consider what kind of Worship Christ has prescribed to his Disciples And the general account we have of it 4 John 23 24. But the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth Now there are three things included in this description of Gospel-Worship 1. That we must Worship God under the Notion of a Pure and Infinite Spirit 2. That we must Worship him under the Character of a Father 3. That we must Worship him with the Mind and Spirit First We must Worship God under the Notion of a Pure
does this prove the Bishop of Rome's Infallibility Just as St. Peter's Primacy proves the Pope to be the Oecumenical Primate They themselves must grant that an infallible Apostle may have a fallible Bishop for his Successor or else they must either deny that the rest of the Apostles as well as St. Peter were infallible or they must grant that all the Apostles Successors that is all the Bishops who succeeded any of the Apostles in their Sees must be as infallible as the Bishops of Rome who succeeded St. Peter and then there will be so much Infallibility that it will be worth nothing If then there be not a natural and necessary entail of Infallibility upon the Successors of infallible Apostles they must shew us an express Institution which makes the Successors of Peter at Rome infallible And let our Protestant demand this before he owns the Infallibility of the Pope of Rome and then I believe they will not think him worth Converting Thus as for those who place Infallibility in a General Council demand a Scripture-proof of it that they would produce the General Council's Charter for Infallibility This they can't do but they say the Church is infallible and the General Council is the Church Representative and therefore a General Council must be infallible too So that here are several things for them to prove and to prove by Scripture too for there is no other way of proving them before they can prove the Infallibility of General Councils As 1. That the Church is infallible 2. That a General Council is the Church Representative 3. That the Church Representative is that Church to which the promise of Infallibility is made And then they might conclude that a General Council as being the Church Representative is infallible Now instead of proving every particular of this by Scripture as they must do if they will prove by Scripture that General Councils are infallible they pretend to prove no more than the first of the three that the Church is infallible and that very lamely too as may appear more hereafter and then they take all the rest for granted without any proof which is just as if a man who in order to prove his Title to an Estate is required to prove that this Estate did anciently belong to his Family that it was entailed upon the Heir Male that this entail was never cut off nor the Estate legally alienated and that he alone is the true surviving Heir should think it enough to prove onely the first of these that the Estate did anciently belong to his Family which it might have done and yet not belong to it now or if it did still belong to it he may not be the true Heir Thus if we consider what it is they teach about Purgatory we shall quickly perceive how little it is they pretend to prove of it they tell us that there is a Purgatory-fire after this life where men undergo the punishment of their Sins when the fault is pardoned that the Church has power out of her stock of Merits which consists of the supererogating Works of great and eminent Saints to grant Pardons and Indulgencies to men while they live to deliver them from several thousand Years punishment which is due to their Sins in Purgatory that the Souls in Purgatory may be released out of it by the Prayers and Alms and Masses of the living which is the very life and soul of this Doctrine of Purgatory Now of all this they pretend to prove no more from Scripture but that there is a Purgatory-fire after this Life and how they prove it you have already heard But that either Penances or Pilgrimages and other extraordinary Acts of Devotion while we live or the Pope's Pardons and Indulgencies can either remit or shorten the pains of Purgatory or that the Prayers and Alms of our living Friends or Masses said for us by mercenary Priests can deliver us out of Purgatory which we are principally concerned to know and without which Purgatory will not enrich the Priests nor the Church this they never attempt that I know of to prove by Scripture whether there be a Purgatory or not in it self considered is a meer speculative point and of no value But could they prove that the Pope has the Keys of Purgatory and that Alms and Masses will deliver out of Purgatory this were worth knowing and is as well worth proving as any Doctrine of the Church of Rome for there is nothing they get more by But if you will not believe this till they produce a Scripture-proof of it you may let them dispute on about the place of Purgatory and keep your Money in your Pocket Thus it is in most other cases if you take their whole Doctrine together and demand a Proof of every part of it and not take a Proof of some little branch of it for a Proof of the whole you will quickly find that they will not be so fond of disputing as some of them now are 3. Another way our Roman Adversaries have of proving their Doctrines from Scripture is instead of plain and positive proofs to produce some very remote and inevident consequences from Scripture and if they can but hale a Text of Scripture into the premises whatever the conclusion be they call it a Scripture-proof There are infinite instances of this but I can only name some few Thus they prove the perpetual Infallibility of the Church because Christ promises his Disciples to be with them to the end of the world 28. Matth. 20. which promise cannot be confined to their persons for they were to die long before the end of the World and therefore must extend to their Successors Suppose that and does Christ's being with them necessarily signifie that he will make them Infallible Is not Christ with every particular Church with every particular Bishop nay with every particular good Christian and must they all be Infallible then Thus Christ promises that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against his Church Ergo the Church is Infallible for if Error and Heresie prevails against the Church the Gates of Hell prevail against it And I add if Sin and Wickedness prevail against the Church the Gates of Hell prevail against it Ergo the Church is Impeccable and cannot Sin which is to the full as good a consequence as the other And therefore the Gates of Hell prevailing can neither signifie the meer prevalency of Errors or Sin in the Church but such a prevalency as destroys the Church and this shall never be because Christ has promised it shall never be and it may never be though the Church be not Infallible and therefore this does not prove Infallibility Thus they prove there is such a place as Purgatory where Sins are forgiven and expiated because our Saviour says That the sin against the Holy Ghost shall neither be forgiven in this world nor in the world to come Matt. 12. 32. and therefore there are some
presumed to understand their own Religion the first Reformers who were all educated in Popery might be as well presumed to understand what Popery then was and therefore there can be no reason to suspect that they Mis-represented Popery out of Ignorance Nor is it more probable that they should Mis-represent Popery out of Interest and Design for if they were conscious to themselves that Popery was not so bad as they represent it to be why should they themselves have set up for Reformers and what hope could they have that at that time when Popery was so well known they should perswade the World to believe their Mis-representations Was it so desirable a thing for men to bring all the Powers of the Church and Court of Rome upon themselves meerly to gratifie a Mis-representing humour Do these men remember what our Reformers suffered for opposing Popery the loss of their Estates their Liberties their Lives all the Vengeance of a blind and enraged Zeal And did they undergo all this with such constancy and Christian patience only for the sake of telling Lyes and raising scandalous Reports of the Church of Rome We think it a very good Argument that the Apostles and first Preachers of Christianity were very honest men and had no design to cheat the World because they served no worldly Interest by it but chearfully exposed themselves to all manner of Sufferings in Preaching the Gospel and why does not the same Argument prove our first Reformers to be honest men and then they could not be wilful Mis-representers Nay if we will but allow them to have been cunning men and it is evident they did not want wit they would never have undertaken so hopeless a design as to run down Popery meerly by Mis-representing it when had their Exceptions against Popery been onely Mis-representations of their own all the World could have confuted them had the first Reformers been onely Mis-representers can we think that they could have imposed upon such vast numbers of Men Learned and Unlearned who knew and saw what Popery was They were no Fools themselves and therefore could not hope to impose such a Cheat upon the World. 2. Ask them again How old this Complaint is of Protestant Mis-representations of Popery how long it has been discovered that Popery has been thus Abused and Mis-represented were the first Reformers charged with these Mis-representations by their Adversaries in those days did they deny that they gave Religious Worship to Saints and Angels and the Virgin Mary to Images and Reliques did they cry out of Mis-representations when they were charged with such Doctrines and Practices as these or did they defend them and endeavour to answer those Arguments which the Reformers brought against them And yet methinks if Popery had been so grosly Mis-represented by the Reformers this would as soon have been discovered by the Learned Papists of those days as by our late Representer but it is most likely they did not then think Popery so much Mis-represented for if they had they would certainly have complained of it So that the high improbability of the thing is a sufficient Reason to Unlearned Protestants to reject this Charge of Protestant Mis-representations of Popery as nothing else but a Popish Calumny against Protestants and to conclude that if Popery be Mis-represented now it is onely by themselves and that is the very truth of the Case Secondly Let us consider this Charge of Mis-representations in the Consequences of it It would a little puzzle a man to guess what service they intend to do the Church of Rome by it For 1. By complaining of such Mis-representations of Popery they plainly confess that those Doctrines and Practices which we charge the Church of Rome with are very bad and fit to be rejected and abhorred of all Christians This the Representer himself confesses and is very Copious and Rhetorical upon it Now this is of mighty dangerous consequence for if it appears that we have not Mis-represented them that the Doctrines and Practices we charge them with are truly the Doctrines and Practices of the Church of Rome then by their own confession Popery is a very bad Religion and to be rejected by Christians Then there was a very just reason for our Separation from the Church of Rome and we are no longer either Schismaticks or Hereticks and if the Cause be put upon this Issue we need desire no better Vindication of the Church of England for if they cannot prove us Hereticks or Schismaticks till they can prove us Mis-representers I believe we are pretty secure for this Age. 2. These men who complain so much of Mis-representing endeavour to make the Doctrines of the Church of Rome look as like Protestant Doctrines as possibly they can as if there were little or no difference between them Now methinks this is no great reason for a Protestant to turn Papist that the Popish Faith is so much the better the nearer it comes to the Protestant Faith. The truth is the chief Mystery in this late Trade of Representing and Mis-representing is no more but this to joyn a Protestant Faith with Popish Practices to believe as Protestants do and to do as Papists do As to give some few instances of this in the Papist Mis-represented and Represented The Papist Represented believes it damnable to Worship Stocks and Stones for Gods to Pray to Pictures or Images of Christ the Virgin Mary or any other Saints This is good Protestant Doctrine but then this Papist says his Prayers before an Image Kneels and Bows before it and pays all external Acts of Adoration to Christ and the Saints as represented by their Images though it is not properly the Image he honours but Christ and his Saints by the Images Which is down-right Popery in Practice Thus he believes it is a most damnable Idolatry to make Gods of men either living or dead Which is the Protestant Faith but yet he prays to Saints and beggs their Intercession without believing them to be Gods or his Redeemers which is Popery in Practice He believes it damnable to think the Virgin Mary more powerful in Heaven than Christ. Which is Protestant Doctrine but yet he prays to Her ostner than either to God or Christ says ten Ave-Maries for one Pater Noster which is a Popish Devotion He believes it unlawful to commit Idolatry and most damnable to Worship any Breaden God. Which is spoke like a Protestant but yet he pays Divine Adoration to the Sacrament which is done like a Papist And thus in most of those thirty seven Particulars of the double Characters of a Papist Mis-represented his great Art is to Reconcile a Protestant Faith with Popish Practices So that this new way of Representing Popery is no reason to a Protestant to alter his Faith because it seems they believe in many things just as we do but I think it is a very great reason for a Papist to alter his Practice because a Protestant Faith and
compassionate he must want Power to help us and that destroys the hope of Sinners as much as want of Compassion It must be want of Will or Power in him that he does not deliver us from Purgatory as well as Hell and if he want Power to deliver us from Purgatory for my part I should more question his Power to deliver from Hell for that is the harder of the two if his Bloud could not expiate for the Temporal punishment of Sin which the Merits of some Supererogating Saints or the Pope's Indulgence or the Priests Masses can redeem us from how could it make expiation for Eternal punishment If his Interest in the Court of Heaven will not do the less how can it do the great There is no Doctrine more irreconcileable with the perfect Love and Goodness of God and the Merits and Intercession of our Saviour which are the Fundamental Doctrines of the Gospel which is a Dispensation of Love and Grace than this of Purgatory and therefore we may safely conclude that this is no Gospel-Doctrine 2. Let us now examine the Doctrine of Invocation of Saints and Angels as our Mediators with God and see whether it does not disparage the Grace of the Gospel the Love of God and of our Mediator and Advocate Jesus Christ to penitent Sinners Now a very few words will decide this matter 1. With respect to God now can that man believe that God is so very gracious to Sinners for the sake of Christ who seeks to so many Advocates and Mediators to interceed for him with God. To imagine that we want any Mediator to God but only our High-Priest who mediates in Vertue of his Sacrifice is a reproach to the Divine Goodness The Wisdom and Justice of God may require a Sacrifice and a High-Priest to make Attonement for Sin but Infinite Goodness needs not any Entreaties and meer Intercessions to move him A truly good man who knows a proper Object of his kindness needs not to be asked to do good The use of such Advocates and Mediators among men is either to recommend an unknown Person to the favour of the Prince or fairly to represent his cause to him which has been mis-represented by others or to procure favour for an undeserving person or among equal Competitors to procure some one to be preferred this is all the use of Intercession among men for a good and wise and just Prience will do what is wise and just and good not only without Intercessors but against all Intercessions to the contrary Now I suppose no man will say that God wants Mediators and Advocates upon any of these accounts for he knows every man understands perfectly his cause will never be perswaded by any Intercessions to shew kindness to unfit Objects that is to impenitent Sinners and his Goodness is so unconfined and so extensive to all that there can never be any competition for his Favour and therefore to multiply Advocates and Mediators to God must argue a great distrust of his Mercy and Goodness which a kind and good Prince would take very ill of us God indeed has commanded us to Pray for one another in this World as he has to pray for our selves but this is not by way of Interest and Merit as the Church of Rome pretends the Saints in Heaven pray for us but by humble Supplications which is very reconcileable with the goodness of God to make Prayer a necessary condition of granting Pardon and other Blessings we want but as the use of Prayer for our selves is not to move God meerly by our importunities to do good to us for we must pray in Faith that is with a humble assurance and confidence that God will hear us which includes a firm Belief of his readiness to grant what we pray for so neither are our Prayers for others to move God by our interest in him that is they are not the Intercessions of Favourites but of humble Supplicants There was great reason why God should make Prayer the condition of our receiving though he wants not our importunities to move him because there are a great many excellent Virtues exercised in Prayer such as great sorrow for Sin great humility of Mind faith in God's Promises the acts of Love and affiance and trust in God and a constant dependance on his Grace and Providence for all spiritual and temporal Blessings and there was great reason why he should command us to pray for others tho' he wants none of our Intercessions for them because it is a mutual exercise of Charity of Love to our Brethren and Forgiveness to our Enemies and is a mighty obligation to do all other acts of kindness for those who know it to be their Duty to pray for one another will think themselves bound to do good to one another also This becomes those who live and converse together in this World because it is a great instrument of Virtue and that is a reason why God should encourage the exercise of it by promising to hear our Prayers for each other But as far as meer goodness is concerned the Gospel represents God as so very good to Sinners that there is no need of any Intercessor for them For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life 3 John 16. This was an act of goodness antecedent to the Incarnation and Death of Christ and the highest act of goodness that God could manifest to the World and therefore secures us of God's love and goodness to Sinners without a Mediator and Advocate for that love which provided a Mediator for us was without one and proves that it was not for want of goodness or that he needed entreaties that he gave his Son to be our mediator And therefore hence S. Paul proves how ready God is to bestow all good things on us He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things 8 Rom. 32. And our Saviour himself represents the goodness of God by the tenderness and compassion of an earthly Parent If ye then being evil that is less good than God is know how to give good things to your children how much more shall your heavenly Father give good things to them that ask him 7 Matth. 11. especially in the Parable of the Prodigal where our Saviour describes the goodness of God to Sinners by that passion and joy wherewith the Father received his returning Prodigal nay he assures his Disciples that there was no need of his own Intercession to incline God to be good and kind to them At that day ye shall ask in my name and I say not unto you that I will pray the Father for you for the Father himself loveth you because ye have loved me and believed that I came out from God 16 John 26 27. God is so infinitely good that he
his Son for he owns himself our Father in no other Name and if he will hear our Prayers and answer our humble Petitions only as a Father then he will hear only those Prayers which are made to him in the Name of his Son How great Favourites soever the Blessed Virgin and other Saints may be if God hear Prayers only as a Father it is to no purpose to pray to God in their Names for he hears us not 3. To Worship God as a Father signifies to pray to him with the humble assurance and confidence of Children This is the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father For because ye are sons God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father A dutiful Son does not question his Father's good will to him nor readiness to hear and answer all his just requests he depends upon the kindness of his Father and his interest and relation to him and seeks for no other Friends and Favourites to recommend him And upon this account also the Invocation of Saints is a contradiction to the Gospel-Spirit of Prayer to that Spirit of Adoption which teaches us to cry Abba Father for surely those have not the hope and assurance and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Children who dare not go to their Father themselves but must send their Petitions to him by the hands of Favourites and Intercessors To pray to God in the Name of Christ is onely to pray to him as Sons for it is in his Name only that he owns us for Sons and this is the true Spirit of Adoption in the Name and Mediation of Christ to go to God as Children to a Father but to pray to him in any other Name how powerful soever is not to go to him as a Father but as to our Lord and King who must be Addressed to by the Mediation of some great Favourites To pray to God in any other Name which does not make us his Sons is to distrust our Relation to him as our Father in Christ and this is contrary to the Spirit of Adoption which teaches us to call God Father and gives us that assurance of his Fatherly goodness to us in Christ that we need and desire no other Advocates Thirdly To Worship God in Spirit is to Worship him with our Mind and Spirit for that is most agreeable to the Nature of God who is a Spirit God cannot be Worshipped but by a reasonable Creature and yet a Beast may Worship God as well as a Man who Worships without any act of Reason and Understanding or devout Affections To pray to God without knowing what we say when neither our Understandings nor Affections can joyn in our Prayers is so absurd a Worship of a pure Mind that Transubstantiation it self is not more contrary to Sense than Prayers in an unknown Tongue are to the Essential Reason and Nature of Worship I suppose no man will say that to pray to God or praise him in words which we do not understand is to Worship God in Spirit unless he thinks that a Parrot may be taught to pray in the Spirit What difference is there between a man 's not speaking and speaking what he does not understand Just so much difference there is between not praying and praying what we do not understand and he honours God to the full as much who does not pray at all as he who prays he knows not what and I am sure he affronts him a great deal less However if Christian Worship be to worship God in Spirit Prayers in an unknown Tongue in which the Mind and Spirit cannot be concerned is no Christian Worship SECT IV. Concerning the Reformation and Improvement of Humane Nature by the Gospel of CHRIST 4. ANother principal end and intention of the Gospel was to cure the Degeneracy of Mankind and to advance Humane Nature to its utmost Perfection for as Man fell from his original Happiness by falling from the purity and integrity of his Nature so there was no restoring him to his lost Happiness much less no advancing him to a more perfect state of Happiness not to an earthly but to an heavenly Paradise without changing and transforming his Nature and renewing him after the Image of God. And therefore our very entrance into Christianity is a new Birth Except a man be born of water and of the spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit And such a man is called a new Creature and a Christian Life is a newness of Life and living after the Spirit and walking after the Spirit and this new Nature is the Divine Nature the Image of God the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness which is renewed in knowledge after the Image of him that created him So that there are two things wherein this new Nature consists Knowledge and Righteousness or true Holiness and I doubt it will appear that the Church of Rome is no great Friend to either I. Knowledge Now I suppose neither the Church of Rome nor any one for her will pretend that she is any great Friend to Knowledge She is so horribly afraid of Heresie that she endeavours to nurse men up in Ignorance of their Religion for fear they should prove Hereticks and indeed she has some reason for it for the Church of Rome was never so Triumphant as in the most ignorant and barbarous Ages but as Knowledge broke in upon the World so men turned Hereticks apace If there be any knowing Papists and it would be very hard if there should be none they are not beholding to their Church for it which deprives them of all the means of Knowledge for she will not allow them to believe their Senses which is one way of knowing things and the most certain we have and yet she commands us to believe Transubstantiation which no man can do who believes his Senses and if I must not believe my Senses in so plain a matter as what is Bread and Wine I know no reason I have to believe them in any thing and then there is an end of all Knowledge that depends on Sense as the proof of the Christian Religion itself does for Miracles are a sensible proof and if I must not trust my Senses I cannot rely on Miracles because I cannot know whether there be any such thing as a real Miracle The Church of Rome also forbids men the use of Reason in matters of Religion will not allow men to judge for themselves nor to examine the Reasons of their Faith and what knowledge any man can have without exercising his Reason and Understanding I cannot guess for to know without understanding sounds to me like a contradiction She also denies Christians the use of the Bible which is the only means to know the revealed Will of God and when men
it sufficient that a man believes as the Church believes without an explicite knowledge of any thing they believe but the general opinion is that a man must have an explicite belief of the Apostles Creed but as for every thing else it suffices if he believes as the Church believes without knowing what the faith of the Church is that is it is not necessary men should so much as know what the new Articles of the Trent Faith are if they believe the Apostles Creed and resign up their Faith implicitely to the Church Now this is a plain confession that all the Doctrines in dispute between us and the Church of Rome are of no use much less necessary to salvation for if they were they would be as necessary to be known and explicitely believed as the Apostles Creed and I cannot imagine why we Hereticks who believe the Apostles Creed and understand it as orthodoxly as they may not be saved without believing the new Trent Creed for if we need not know what it is there seems to be no need of believing it for I always thought that no man can and therefore to be sure no man need believe what he does not know So that it seems we know and believe all things the explicite knowledge and belief of which by their own confession is necessary to salvation except that one single Point of the Infallibility of the Church of Rome believe but that and ye need believe or know nothing more but the Apostles Creed and yet go to Heaven as a good Catholick which makes an implicite Faith in the Church of Rome as necessary as Faith in Christ is But if the intent of the Gospel was to improve our Knowledge then Christ never taught an implicite Faith for that does not improve Knowledge and if the Faith of the Church of Rome excepting the Apostles Creed which is the common Faith of all Christians need not be known then they are no Gospel-Doctrines much less necessary Articles of Faith for Christ taught nothing but what he would have known and though the knowledge of all things which Christ taught is not equally necessary to salvation yet it tends to the perfecting our knowledge and Christ taught nothing which a man need not know which I think is a reproach to meaner Masters and much more to the eternal and incarnate Wisdom Secondly The improvement and perfection of Humane Nature consists in true Holiness and Virtue in a likeness and conformity to God and a participation of the Divine Nature and this is the great end of the Gospel to advance us to as perfect Holiness as is attainable in this life Christ indeed has made expiation for our sins by his own Bloud but then this very Bloud of Atonement does not only expiate the guilt of sin but purges the Conscience from dead works that we may serve the living God for no Sacrifice not of the Son of God himself can reconcile an impenitent and unreformed Sinner to God that is can move God to love a Sinner who still loves and continues in his sins which an infinitely holy and pure being cannot do Indeed the expiation of sin is but one part of the work of our Redemption for a sinner cannot be saved that is cannot be advanced to immortal life in the Kingdom of Heaven without being born again without being renewed and sanctified by the holy Spirit after the Image and likeness of God. For this new Nature is the only Principle of a new immortal life in us an earthly sensual mind is no more capable of living in Heaven than an earthly mortal body In both senses flesh and bloud cannot inherit the Kingdom of God neither can corruption inherit incorruption The Church of Rome indeed has taken great care about the first of these and has found out more ways of expiating sin and making satisfaction for it than the Gospel ever taught us whether they are so effectual to this purpose let those look to it who trust in them but there is not that care taken to inculcate the necessity of internal holiness and purity of mind and one would easily guess there can be no great need of it in that Church which has so many easie ways of expiating sin The true character of Gospel-Doctrines is a Doctrine according to Godliness the principal design of which is to promote true goodness all the Articles of the Christian Faith tend to this end to lay great and irresistible obligations on us to abstain from every sin and to exercise our selves in every thing that is good as we have ability and opportunity to do it and therefore all Doctrines which secretly undermine a good life and make it unnecessary for men to be truly and sincerely vertuous can be no Gospel-Doctrines That there are such Doctrines in the Church of Rome has been abundantly proved by the late Learned and Reverend Bishop Taylor in his Disswasive from Popery which is so very useful a Book that I had rather direct my Readers to it than transcribe out of it My design leads me to another method for if I can prove that the Doctrines and Practices of the Church of Rome naturally tend to evacuate the force of the Gospel it self to make men good and holy every one will easily see that that can be no Gospel-Faith and Worship which sets aside the Gospel it self The whole Doctrine of the Gospel either consists of the Rules of Holiness or of the Motives and Instruments of it for the Articles of the Christian Faith are all of them so many Motives to a good life let us then consider how the Faith and Worship of the Church of Rome has made void the Gospel of our Saviour as the Pharisees made void the Law of Moses by their Traditions 1. Let us begin then with the Gospel-Rules of Holiness It would be an endless thing here to take notice of the loose Determinations of their famed and approved Casuists of their Doctrine of probable Opinions of the direction of the intention by which means the very Laws and Boundaries of Vertue and Vice are in a great measure quite altered and it may be this would only make work for the Representer and furnish out a fourth part of the Papist Misrepresented if we venture to tell the World what has been the avowed Doctrines of their great Divines and Casuists But whether such Definitions be the Doctrine of their Church or not I am sure they are equally mischievous if they be the Doctrines of their Confessors who have the immediate direction of mens Conscience Those who have a mind to be satisfied in this matter may find enough of it in the Provincial Letters the Jesuits Morals and Bishop Taylor 's Disswasive It sufficiently answers my present design to take notice of some few plain things which will admit of no dispute I have already shewn what a great value the Church of Rome sets upon an external Righteousness which is much more meritorious than a