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 donations 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 persuasions 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 acknowledg our selves men of like infirmities with the People who are all called to be a Royal Priesthood and thus we honour Christ's 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 Intercessor but Christ and trust to no Satisfaction but his and we acknowledg him the only King of his Church whose Laws must bind it to the end of the World. Neither do we acknowledg 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 Christ's 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 Jesus 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 withâ—ut 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 Christ's 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 subsistence of our Church-men being but a livelyhood and not a treasure In a word we preach Christ and him Chrucified 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 Charity neither do we condemn any who hold the foundation though in some lesser matters they differ from us but hope they may be saved as well as we We abhor the Doctrine of cruel persecuting of any for their Consciences The outmost we allow of or desire of that nature being the preservation of our own Societies pure from the contagion of
and Jesuits and is a Doctrine dearly entertained in the Court of Rome to this day as appeared from the late Attempt of Pope Paul the Fifth upon Venice But the World is now a little wiser than to be carried away by these Arts and therefore that Pretence is laid to sleep till haply the Beast be healed of the Wound was given it at the Reformation But I cannot leave this Particular without my sad Regrates that too deep a tincture of this Spirit of Antichristianism is among many who pretend much aversion to it since the Doctrine of resisting Magistrates upon colours of Religion is so stiffly maintained and adhered to by many who pretend to be highly reformed tho this be one of the Characters of the scarlet-coloured Whore. But thus far have we gone through the second part of Antichrist's Character and have discovered too clear indications of a difformity to the Spirit and Truth of the Christian Religion in all the Branches of the Honour and Worship due to Jesus the only Mediator of the New Covenant From this I proceed to the third part of my Enquiry which is the Opposition made to the great Design of Christian Religion for elevating the Souls of Men into a participation of the Divine Nature whereby the Soul being inwardly purified and the outward Conversation regulated the World may be restored to its Primitive Innocence And Men admitted to an inward and intimate fellowship with their Maker The first step of this Renovation is Repentance for God commands Men every where to repent and Repentance and Remission of Sins are always united And this being an horrour at Sin upon the sense of its native deformity and contrariety to the Law of God which makes the Soul apprehend the hazard it hath incurred by it so as to study by all means possible to avoid it in all time coming nothing doth prepare the mind more for Faith in Christ and the study of a new Life than Repentance which must needs be previous to these But what Devices are found to enervate this Sins must be divided into Venial and Mortal the former deserving only some temporal Punishment and being easily expiated by some trifling piece of seeming Devotion and hereby many Sins are struck out of the Penitents consideration For who can have a great apprehension of that which is so slightly expiated And this may be extended to the easy Pardons given for acknowledged mortal Sins For he who thinks that God can be appeased for them with the saying by rote so many Prayers cannot possibly have deep apprehensions of their being either so displeasing to God or so odious in themselves But shall I to this add their asserting that a simple attrition which is a sorrow flowing from the consideration of any temporal Evil God hath brought upon the Sinner without any regard had either to the vileness of the Sin or the Offence done to God by it that is I say can suffice for justifying Sinners and qualifying them for the Sacrament whereby the necessity of Contrition and Sorrow flowing from the Principle of the Love of God is made only a high degree of Perfection but not indispensibly necessary In the next place all these Severities they enjoin for Penances do but tend to nourish the Life of Sin when Sinners see a Trade set up by which they can buy themselves off from the Wrath of God. To this is to be added the Doctrine of Indulgences which is so direct an opposition to Evangelical Repentance as if it had been contrived for dispossessing the World of the sense of it That which is next pressed in the Gospel for uniting the souls of Mankind to God is that noble ternary of Graces Faith Hope and Love by which the Soul rests in God by a holy affiance in him believing the Truth of his Gospel expecting the accomplishment of his Promises waiting for the full fruition of him and delighting in his glorious Perfections and Excellencies Now how much all this is shaken by these carnal and gross Conceptions the Roman Doctrine offers of God in their Image and Mass-worship and by their Idolatry to Saints is apparent Are they not taught to confind more in the Virgin or their Tutelar Saints than in the Holiest of all Doth not the fear of Purgatory damp the hopes of future blessedness And finally what impious Doctrine hath been publickly licensed and printed in that Church of the degrees of the love we owe to God Some blasphemously teaching that we are not at all bound to love him others mincing it so as if they were afraid of his being too much beloved In a word there is an impiety in the Morals of some of that Church particularly among the Disciples of Loyola beyond what was ever taught amongst the worst of the Heathen Philosophers which hath been fully discovered by some of the honester and more zealous of that Communion And though these Corruptions have not been avowed by the Head of that Church yet by their being publickly vented by the Deaf Ear he gives to all the Complaints against them and by the constant Caresses and Priviledges he heaps upon that Order which teacheth them he discovers either his great Satisfaction in that corrupt Doctrine or that upon the account of other interests he is content to betray the Souls of Christians into the corruption of such impious and ungodly Leaders since the Order that hath owned all these Corruptions is yet possessed of the Consciences of the greater part of them that own that Communion they being the universal Confessors And since they license the publick vending of so much corrupt Doctrine in printed Writings what reason have we to suspect their base compliance with Sins in their more secret and unknown Practisings with such poor deluded Souls as trust to their Conduct of which many proofs are brought by other of that same Church But I pursue my enquiry into the other traces of the Antichristian Corruption of the Purity and Power of our most Holy Faith Solemn Worship and secret Devotion are the great means of uniting Souls to God and of deriving the assistance of his Spirit and Grace to us but when these are performed in an unknown Tongue how uncapable are they of reaching that End And the Doctrine of the efficacy of the Sacraments for conveying of Grace by the Work wrought looks like a design against all serious preparation for the worthy receiving of them since by that Doctrine a Man be he never so ill prepared yet is sure of their efficacy for if his Priest absolve him and he have a simple Attrition for Sin without any thing of the Love of God he is by their Doctrine and Conduct qualified for receiving worthily were his Heart never so much united to Sin or averse from all Devotion or Application to Divine Matters And what Complaints shall be here made of these who teach that the sure way of gaining the Favour of God which they phrase by the Keys of
I should descend to the Cardinals Bishops and Abbots and shew how secular they are become all their design being to engross the Power and monopolize all Riches which contagion is also derived into the Inferiour Orders of the Clergy who by the magnifying of their Images Saints and Reliques use all the Arts they can devise for enriching of themselves and their friends And even those Orders that pretend to mortification and abandoning the world and talk of nothing but their poor and austere manner of Life yet have possessed themselves of no small part of the Riches and glory of the World. It is true there is a young Brotherhood among them which though the youngest yet hath outstripped the elder and made them stoop to it and serve it And what base and sordid ways that Society hath pursued for arriving at the highest pitch of greatness and riches and how successfully they have managed their designs is sufficiently cleared what through the Zeal of some of the honester of that Communion what through the envy of other emulating Orders All these things do fully prove how unlike that Church is to the poor and pure simplicity of Christ and his Apostles and of the first Ages of the Church If we further examine the Characters of Evangelical purity we have them from the mouth of our Saviour when he commands us to learn of him for he was meek and lowly in heart and he made it the distinguishing badge of his Disciples that they loved one another Now for humility it is true the Head of that Church calls himself the servant of the servants of God but how far such humility is from his Design his aspiring pretences do loudly declare All the World must stoop to him not only must his fellow-Bishops swear obedience to him and become his Vassals but the Kings of the Earth must be his footstool and all must pay him that servile homage of kissing his foot an ambition as insolent as extravagant His power must be magnified with the most blasphemous Titles of his being God our Lord God on Earth Omnipotent with a great deal more of such servile Adulations offered to him from the Parasites of that Court. in a word a great part of that Religion when rightly considered will be found on design contrived and abetted for exalting him to the highest degrees of insolence But so many proofs of this were already upon other occasions hinted that it is needless to go over them again and that same leven levens the whole lump of their Clergy who all pretend that by their Ecclesiastical character they are only subject to their Head and so enjoy an immunity from the Civil Authority be their crimes what they may be And an in-road on this pretence of late from the State of Venice when they seized two Churchmen that were highly guilty drew out so much of their most holy Fathers indignation that he thundred against them and finding the weakness of the spiritual sword resolved to try the edge of his temporal one upon them in patrociny partly of these Villains and partly of the covetousness of the Clergy to which the Senate had set a small limit by a Decree but finding they were like to prove too hard for him he was willing to put up his sword rather than to kill and eat as one of his Cardinals advised him Shall I with this also tell the instances of the ambition of Cardinals who from their first original of being Presbyters of Rome have risen up to the height of counting themselves the companions of Kings and in their habits affect a Princely splendor but have unluckily chosen the Liveries of the whore for they wear Scarlet as the Bishops do Purple the foretold colours of the Whores Garments Shall I next shew to what a height of pride the exaltation of the Priestly dignity among them hath risen as if it were equal nay preferrable to the condition of Princes The Priest giving absolution is a sure device to make his power be much accounted of since he can forgive sin The gorgeous and rich apparel they wear in worship serves also to set off their Dignity And what a goodly device is it that their spittle must make one of the sacred Rites in Baptism Certainly that must be esteemed a marvellous holy creature whose very excrements are so sacred Their engrossing the Cup to themselves from the people was another trick for raising of their esteem But above all things their power of transmuting the substance of the Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of Christ by uttering five words was a marvellous device to make all the World admire them who can so easily and every day work a miracle compared to which all the miracles of the Gospel may pass for ordinary actions What a great piece of wonder must such a man be held to be who can thus exercise his authority over the very person of Jesus Christ notwithstanding of all the glory to which he is now exalted And it was no contemptible Engine for that same design to possess the people with a belief of the Priests offering in the Mass an expiatory Sacrifice for the sins both of the dead and living which proved a Stock for them to trade on both for their ambition and covetousness and from these evidences we may infer how little of the humility of Christ appears in the Church from the highest to the lowest The next branch of the Evangelical spirit is Meekness and Charity which leads me unto the consideration of the fourth Design of the Christian Religion which was the uniting of Mankind under one Head and into one Body and this it designed to effectuate not only by these sublime Precepts of the highest love and the utmost extent of the pardoning of injuries and of returning them with the best offices of love and prayer which the blessed Author of our Faith did enact but by the associating of the Faithful into one Society called the Church which was to be united with the closest bonds of brothely love and charity and was to be governed by Pastors and Teachers who should feed the flock with the sincere milk of the Word and was also to be cemented together by the Ligaments of the holy Sacraments by which as by joynts and bands they are both united to their Head and knit together Now we are from these things to consider what opposition that Church we are now considering gives to this branch of the end of Christianity And first whereas the Gospel pronounceth us free and that we are no more the servants of men but of God if any attempt upon that liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free he changeth the authority of the Church into a tyrannical yoke much more if all the new articles of belief and rules for practice be imposed under the severest certificates But here we are to consider that all these things which that Church hath imposed on all of her communion for