on earth to see his miracles and hear his doctrin the same is also to bâ—… said of the Acts and Epistles of the Apostles Now to bar the Vulgar from this is to hinder them to hear and see Christ and his Apostles as if that were a Priviledge restricted to Church-men What shall be then said of these who call the Scriptures a Nose of Wax the Sourse of all Heresies a Book written not on Design but upon particular Emergents and do assert its incompleatness unless made up by the Traditions of the Church Is not this to add to the Words of that Book and to accuse the faithful Witness of unfaithfulness But worse than all this is held by these who will have all the Authority of the Scriptures to depend on the Church which must be believed in the first place But here a great difference is to be made betwixt the testimony of a Witness and the authority of a Iudge the former is not denied to the Church and so the Iews had the Oracles of God committed to them but that doth not prove the Authority of their Sanhedrim infallible or superiour to Scripture and in this case more cannot be ascribed to the Christian Church than was proper to the Jewish in our Saviours time But further if the Scripture be to be believed on the testimony of the Church then upon what account is the Church first believed It cannot be said because of any testimony in Scripture for if it give authority to the Scriptures it cannot receive its authority from their testimony How then shall it be proved that the Church must be believed or must it be taken from their own word and yet no other reason can be given to prove the Church infallible For to say that they have continued in a Succession of Bishops from the Apostles days concludes nothing unless it be first proved that the Doctrine of the Apostles was of God otherwise the Mahometan Religion is as much to be believed since for many Ages a Succession of Priests have believed it Further the Greek Churches drive up the Series of their Bishops to the Apostles days as well as the Roman why then should not their Authority be likewise acknowledged infallible In fine must the Vulgar go and examine the Successions of the Bishops and judge about all the dubious Elections whether the Conveyance have been interrupted or not Certainly were this to be done it were an impossible Atchievement and harder than the study of the Originals of both Testaments Therefore the Vulgar must simply believe the Authority of the Church on her own testimony which is the most absurd thing imaginable and this to every individual will resolve into the testimony of their Priest Behold then a goodly Foundation for building our Faith upon Christ Prophetick Office is also invaded by the pretence of the Churches Infallibility in expounding Scriptures for if this be granted the whole Authority will be devolved on the Church for by this Doctrine she may teach what she will and were the Scripture evidence never so full to the contrary yet whatever wrested Exposition she offer though visibly contrary to the plain meaning of the words must be believed But with whom this Power and Authority is lodged is not agreed to among themselves some yielding it to the High Priest of the Church when in his Chair others to the great Sanhedrim of Christendom in a General Council others to both jointly but all this is asserted without proof for that of Christs of telling the Church Mat. 18. 17. so often repeated by them is meant of particular offences and so is restricted to the case of differences among Brethren and relates not to points of Doctrine Besides the Context of these Words doth clearly shew them applicable to every Parochiaâ—… Church and yet their Infallibility cannot be asserted So it is clear that Christ doth only speak of a jurisdiction for quieting of differences among the Brethren That of the gates of Hell their not prevailing against the Church Mat. 16. 18. proves not the pretence of Infallibility And indeed the Translation of that place deserves Amendment and instead of hell that Word is tâ—… be rendred grave so that the meaning of the Phrase is Death which is the mouth and gate through which we pass â—…nto the Grave and is so used by Greek Writers shall never prevail against the Church that is the Church shall never die Neither will that of the Spirit of truth leading out into all truth Joh. 16. 13. advance the Cause a whit since that promise relates to all Believers and it is a part of the happiness of the new Dispensation that all in it shall be taught of God And the promise of founding the Church on St. Peter Matth. 16. saith as â—…ittle for suppose the Rock on whom the Church were to be built were St. Peter himself which I shall not much contravert that is not peculiar unto him since we are all built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets and on the twelve foundations of the new Ierusalem are written the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb but what will that prove for a series of the Bishops of Rome And finally for the keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven Matth. 16. 19. their being given to St. Peter that saith no more but that he was to open the Gospel which is usually called the Kingdom of God or of Heaven in the New Testament Now the use of keys being to open the door this was peculiar St. Peters honour who did first publish the Gospel both to Jews and Gentiles and in particular did first receive the Gentiles into the new Dispensation But this hath no relation to the Bishops of Rome nor to the pretended infallibility of that See That which hath the fairest appearance of reason is that if there be no absolute unerring Court on earth for deciding of controversies there shall be no end of them but every private man may upon the pretence of some ill understood place of Scripture break the unity of the Church and so the peace of the Church is in hazard of being irrecoverably lost But how specious soever this may appear it hath no weight in it For it is certain that vice as well as errour is destructive of Religion and it will be no â—…mputation on our Religion that the one be no more guarded against than the other is if then there be no authority for repressing Vice but the outward discipline of the Church it is not incongruous there be no other authority for â—…uppressing of errour but that same of the Discipline of the Church It is certainly a peece of humility for a man to suspect his own thoughts when they lye â—…ross to the Sentiments of the guides and â—…eaders of the Church But withal a man ought to be in all he does fully perwaded in his own mind and we are commanded to try the spirits and not to believe very spirit 1
to examine the Sacraments of which so much being said already little remains to be added By their dividing the Cup from the Bread they destroy Christs Institution and so make it no Sacrament and the hearing of Mass without communicating though it make up the greatest part of their worship yet is purely a service of their owâ—… devising without warrant from Christâ—… Institution who said take eat this is my Body thereby shewing he intended the vertue and benefit of that Ordinance only for those who received it And in a word let any read and compare the Institution of the Lord Supper as it is in the three Gospels and the Epistle to the Corinthians together with the whole office of the Mass as it is in the Roman Church and then let him on his Conscience pass his verdict whether they have adhered to or departed from Christs Institution in that piece of their worship Finally one great end of all solemn Worship being the Communion of Saints in their joint adorations and mutual occurrence in divine services what union can they have with God or what communion can they hold one with another who perform all their Worship in an unknown Tongue which is the rule and constant practice of that Church beyond Sea though for the better venting of their sophisticated stuff among us they give the people Books of devotion in their vulgar Language yet continue to say the Office of the Mass in Latine And thus far I have run a round that great Circle I proposed to my self in the beginning of this discourse and have examined the chief Designs of the Christian Religion and have found the great and evident contradictions given to them in all their branches by the established and authorized Doctrines and practises of that Church in which I have fully justified the wise mans observation that he who increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow and have said enough to evince to all rational and considering minds how unsafe it is for any that would keep a good Conscience to hold Communion with them But I have not finished my design till I likewise examine the Characters of the Christian Religion and compare them with these are to be found in the Synagogue of Rome The first Character of our faith is that it was delivered to the World by men sent of God and divinely inspired who proved their Mission by Miracles Now these Doctrines about which we differ from that Church can pretend to no such divine original let them tell us what inspired man did first teach the worship of Images of the Mass of Angels and Saints and of Reliques what man sent of God was the first Author of the belief of the corporal presence of the Sacrifice of the Mass of the Popes supremacy of Purgatory of Indulgences and of all these innumerable superstitions of which the Scripture is absolutely silent for if these doctrines were not the off-spring of Revelations they are none of the Oracles of God nor can we be obliged to believe them as such It is true they vouch Scriptures for proof to some of these but these are so far stretched that their sure retreat is in the Sanctuary of the Churches Traditions but till a clear warrant be produced for proving it was impossible that any falshood could have that way crept into the World we must be excused from believing these Neither is it possible to know what Traditions came from the Apostles for as the vulgar are not capable of pursuing the enquiry so the loss of most of the writings of the first two Ages makes it impossible to know what Traditions came from the Apostles But this I say not that we need fear this trial for the silence of the first and purest Ages about these things which are controverted among us is evidence enough that they were not known to them especially since in their Apologies which they wrote to the Heathens for their Religion and Worship wherein they give an abstract of their Doctrines and a Rubric of their worship they never once mention these great evils for which we now accuse that Church It is true a late ingenious Writer whose sincere zeal and candor had much offended the Roman Court and drawn censures on himself and his Book took a way to repair his reputation by a new Method of proving the truth of the Opinions held in the Roman Church which was that since the present Church held them that shews that they had them so from their Ancestors and they from theirs till you run backwards to the days of the Apostles alledging that a change in the Worship was unpracticable since it could not be done in a corner but in the view of all the World who it is not to be imagined were capable of suffering any great or considerable change to be made in that which was daily in their view and much in their esteem therefore he concludes that every Generation adhered to that belief in which they were born and so no change in any great substantial and visible part of worship could be made It is true he applies this only to the belief of the corporal presence which he attempts to prove could never have been introduced into the Church had it not been conveyed down from the Apostles He hath indeed set off this with all the beauties of wit and elegencies of stile and much profound reading But with how great and eminent advantages both of reason and learning this pretence hath been baffled I leave it to the judgment of all who have been so happy as to read Mr. Claud his incomparable Writings And the common sense of mankind will prove this but an imposture how fairly soever adorned for if we find it certain that any Doctrines or main parts of worship are now received into that Church and if from the undeniable evidences of History and Writings of Ancients it appear that these things were not received in the ancient Church then it is certain there hath been a change made from what was then to what is now though an ingenious Invention may make it appear very difficult to imagin how and when the change came in especially when it was insensibly and by pieces advanced If then it be proved that the Fathers believed the Elements in the Sacrament were really bread and wine and not changed from their own nature but only types and figures of the Body of Christ then we are sure a change must have been made though the ignorance of some ages makes it a hard task to clear all particulars about it It is true the Fathers did highly magnifie this Sacrament with many expressions which though the vehemence of Divine Rhetorick can well justifie yet will not bear a Logical Examen but when they speak in a cooler Stile nothing can be more clear then that they believed not the corporal presence But may not that reasoning of the impossibility of a change in a worship be as well applied to the taking
these Practices Another Art not very remote froâ—… this for detracting from the value 〈◊〉 Christs death and the confidence wâ—… should have in it is the Priestly Absolution wherein after the Sinner hath gone over his sins without any sign of remorse â—…nd told them to the Priest he enjoins a â—…enance the doing whereof is called a satisfaction and the Vulgar do really â—…magine that the undergoing the penance doth fully serve for appeasing Gods wrath against sin but as soon as the Priest hath enjoined his penance without waiting that they obey it he lays his hand on their head and says I absolve thee and after this they judge themselves fully cleansed of sin and that they may receive the Sacrament had their former life been never so bad It is true the practice of the Priests in their slight penances and hasted absolutions and promiscuous allowing of all the holy Sacrament is condemned by many in that Church who complain of these Abuses with much honest zeal but these complaints are so little regarded that their Writings are condemned and the Corruption continues unreformed Now what can take off more from the value of the Death of Christ than to believe it iâ—… the power of a Priest to absolve from sin All the power of the Church being either Ministerially to declare the absolution offered in the Gospel upon the conditions in it or to absolve from the scandal which any publick trespass hath given It was counted blasphemy in Christ when hâ—… said Thy sins are forgiven thee Mar. 2. 5 10. of which he cleared himself from the power was committed to the Son of Man on earth to forgive sins which shews it to be blasphemy in all others to pretend to absolve from sin it being an invasion of his Prerogative To this I might add the scorn put on Religion by many of the penances enjoyned for sin such as the abstaining from flesh for so many days the pattering over so many Prayers the repeating the penitential Psalms the going to such Churches and such Altars with other ridiculous Observances like these which cannot but kill the Vitals of true Religion and lead away Souls from these earnest Applications to Jesus Christ for pardon and renovation And who can have any sad apprehensions of sin who is taught such an easie way of escaping punishment I confess in this as in all other parts of Religion the Masters of that Church have so contrived things that their Doctrines might according to the fable of the Manna taste pleasant in every mans relish for if any be grave and melancholy then silence solitude and retirement are enjoyned them if their tempers be more fiery and sullen severe corporal mortifications and disciplines are tasked on them such as cruel and perhaps publick whipping or other unspeakable austerities with which the Lives of the modern Saints are full but if one be of a more jolly temper who desires Heaven at an easie rate then some trifling penance shall serve turn These are a few of their Arts for diverting Souls from flying unto Jesus as to the sure and safe refuge from the Fathers wrath in whom only we can find sanctuary and whom the Father hath sent into the World to seek and save lost Sinners Now whether the Priest in the injunction of easie penances and giving absolution do not violate thâ—… Prerogative of Jesus and insensibly deâ—… bauch Souls from that affectionate anâ—… grateful Duty they owe their Redeemer into their trifling methods and appointments I refer it to all who know them Another opposition made to the Priestly Office of Christ is their conceit oâ—… the sacrifice of the Mass which they believe is a formal expiation of sins both for the living and dead who are in Purgatory Christ once offered himself up for taking away sin which he did bâ—… that one Sacrifice and this is by the Apostle stated amongst the differences whicâ—… are betwixt the Sacrifices of Moses whicâ—… were to be daily and yearly renewed and râ—… peated whereas Christ offered one Sacrifiâ—… in the end of the World so that there wâ—… no need of more Heb. 10. 1 2 3 12 14 Now to imagine that the Priests goinâ—… through the Office of the Mass and hâ—… receiving the consecrated Elements 〈◊〉 have a virtue to expiate the sins 〈◊〉 others especially of the dead is a thing so contrary to the most common impressions that it will puzzle a mans belief to think any can credit it And yet this is one of the Master-pieces of the Religion of that Church It is true in a right sense that Sacrament may be called a Sacrifice as it was by the Ancients either in general as Prayers Praises and Alms-deeds are called so in Scripture or as it is a Commemoration of the Sacrifice of Christ but to imagine the Action hath an expiatory force in it is a visible derogation from the value of Christs Death and all the value is in any outward Sacramental Action can only be derived into the Soul of the Receiver but it is absurd to think one mans action can be derived to another and it clearly appears from the institution of the Lords Supper that its end was the joint communicating of Believers which is perverted manifestly by the practice of these Priests who communicate in name of the Spectatours Finally what a derogation is it from the Priestly Office of Christ one branch whereof is his Intercession to join Saintâ—… or Angels with him in that work nay and prefer them to him Which will be found too true if the Office of the Virgin and the Prayers offered to her be compared with those offered to her Son Did Christ by the Merits of his Passion acquire this honour at so dear a rate and shall we for whom he suffered rob him so injuriously and sacrilegiously of his honour and bestow it on these who are our fellow-servants But having touched this in the former part of my Discourse I advance my Enquiry to the opposition given the Regal Office of Christ And first how contrary is it to the glory wherewith even his humane Nature and Body is refulgent in Heaven to believe that five words muttered out by the Priest shall have the virtue to produce his real and glorified Body instead of the annihilated Elements of Bread and Wine and yet under their accidents and appearances This is a new and strange kind of humiliation if true by which he who is now cloathed with Glory must be every day exposed under so thick so dark and so contemptible a covering as are the resemblances of Bread and Wine What low thoughts of his Person must it breed in such minds as are capable of believing this contrivance Again he as King of his Church hath given her Laws and Precepts to whose obedience she is obliged to which none can add without they acknowledge another Head and whose obligation none can untye or dispense with for Christs dominion consists in this authority he hath over
they are still so fresh in our remembrance by the copious accounts we have of them that I need not tell what Arts the Popes and other Ecclesiasticks used to set all Germany on fire upon this account noâ—… need I tell the cruelty was exercised in the Nether-Lands in Charles the fifth his time in which more than an hundred thousand are said by Grotius to have been butchered on the account of Religion And in his Son Philips time the D. of Alva did in a short time cut down 36000. Nor need I tell the cruelties were practised in France for about forty years together nor of that treacherous Massacre wherein there was an equal mixture of perfidy and cruelty which for all that was intertained at Rome with great joy and applauses It will be also needless to tell of their cruelty in England in Queen Mary's dayes which was chiefly mannaged by the Churchmen And many are yet alive who remember what enraged cruelty appeared in our neighbour-Island against all of our Religion which did not only flow from the fury of an oppressed People but they were trained encouraged and waranded to it by their Priests and the Nuntio who came afterwards among them discovered who was the spring of all their motions Shall I to this add all the private assassinations committed on that account which were not only practised but justified I might here congest many instances Brother murdering Brother on the account of Religion Neither is Clement a Dominican his murthering Henry the third nor Chastlets attempt nor Ravalliaâ—…s fact on Henry the fourth forgotten Q. Elizabeths life is full of these attempts and the blackest of them all was the Gunpowder treason all which are to be charged on that Church because the Doctrine of murthering Heretique Princes was taught licenced printed and yet not condemned in it From these hints we may guess how much of the lowly meek and charitable Spirit is to be found with them But should I to this add the horrid cruelties exercised in these massacres I should be almost past belief had I not undeniable Historians for verifying it but the mildest of them being to be burned alive we may guess what the more savage have done by their tortures and lingering Deaths Next shall I mention their Courts of Inquisition which have been among them in the hands of Churchmen from the dayes of their pretended Saint Dominick whose order have been the great Instruments of the cruelties of that Church and whose procedure being tyed to no forms of equity or justice is as unjust as unmerciful persons being haled to their black Courts upon bare suspitions or secret Informations without leading of proofs against them are by Torture examined not only of their own opinions but of all that are known to them whose Testimony though drawn from them by cruel Torture will bring the same Tortures on all they delate neither is there any mercy or any whom this Court declares Heretick but the Civil Magistrate must condemn them to the fire Now what man that considers the meekness of Christ and the Evangelical Spirit can think that Church the Spouse of Christ that hath rioted it with such savage rage against thousands of persons for no other crime but because they adhered firmly to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and would not consent or concur with these signal and palpable corruptions with which they have adulterated it But as from the constitution of their Church we see their difformity from the Gospel-rule so we will next consider their Church-men and we shall find how far they have strayed from the first Original Church-men ought to be the Guides and Pastours of souls Now how little of this there is among them we will soon be resolved in What do the Popes about the feeding of souls when do they preach the Gospel or dispence the Sacraments Alas it were below the height of his holiness to stoop to such mean Offices Does any vestige of a Church-man remain in that Court and do they not directly rule in the Spirit of the Lords of the Gentiles And in this the Cardinals Bishops and Abbots do to their proportion imitate their most Holy Father abandoning wholly the work of the Gospel as if they bore an empty title or at most were only bound to say Mass on some greater holy days but in all other things do avowedly cast off the care of their flocks Shall I here tell of the relaxation of all the ancient rules about the offices and duty of Church-men which these latter ages have invented and mention how children are made Bishops how they allow of Pluralities Non-residencies Unions Commendams Gratia expectativa's with a great many more corruptions which are every day authorized and granted at Rome and so zealous were they for these that they strugled hard against the honest attempt of some at Trent who would have had residence declared of divine right and got it though with much ado to be laid aside And thus it is that the Bishops and Abbots among them do for most part relinquish their Charges to live at the Courts of Princes and insinuate themselves upon all affairs and offices and swarms of them go to Rome gaping for preferment there I deny not but even these late ages have produced great men among them who seem to have designed the reviving of the Ancient Discipline both among the Clergy and the People but as these instances are rare so they were hated and persecuted at Rome for their zeal Witness the condemning of Arnolds Book of frequent Communion and the severity Iansenius and the Abbot of S. Gyran with their followers have met with and thus whatever individuals that Church may have produced yet the corruptions I have hinted are notoriously publickly and generally practised in it and no where so avowedly as at the Court of Rome But to compened this defect of the Superior Clergy they have swarms of the inferior ranks every where both secular and regular who seem to mind the care of souls very seriously But not to reflect again upon any thing hath been hitherto said of their bad conduct of souls I shall now only take notice of the authority they pretend to as if the People were bound blindly to follow their Confessors direction as the voice of God which clearly makes them the servants of men and subjects them to the heaviest yoke which is most directly contrary to the liberty where with Christ hath made us free and what a rack to souls have they made Confession and what an Engine to get into the secrets of all the World and to bring mankind under their subjection is obvious enough to any that considers it and to enforce it the more as they teach it simply necessary to Salvation so the authority they made the World believe the Priests were vested with for pardoning sin together with their easie pardons and slight penances did root it deep in the hearts of all of that Communion But I go next
Charity neither do we condemn any who holds the foundation though in some lesser matter 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 other Traffiquers and the driving from us those who do so disturb us All the authority we give the Church is Paternal and not Tyrannical our Church-men we hold to be the Pastors but not the Lords of the flock who are obliged to feed them sincerely both by their Doctrine Labours and whole Conversation but we pretend to no blind obedience due to their directions and count them noble Christians who search and try all they say by that Test of the Scriptures We send the People to confess their sins to God from whom only we teach them to expect their pardon and pretend to no other keys but Ministerial ones over publick and known Scandals In our Worship as all do understand it so every one may joyn in it And in the number use and simplicity of our Sacraments we have religiously adhered to the Rules of the Gospel we holding them to be solemn federal Rites of our Stipulation with God in which if we do worthily partake of them we are assured of the Presence of the Divine Spirit and Grace for uniting our Souls more intirely to God and advancing us in all the ways of the Spirit of Life and if the Institution of them in the Gospel be compared with our Administration of them it will appear how close we have kept to our Rule And thus we see how exactly conform the Doctrine of our Church is to the whole Branches of the Christian Design upon which it is not to be doubted but the Characters of the Christian Religion will also fit ours We found our Faith only on the Scriptures and though we pay a great deal of venerable esteem to the Churches of God during their purity which continued above four Centuries and so be very willing to be determined in Rituals and Matters that are external and indifferent by their Opinions and Practices yet our Faith settles only on the Word of God and not on the Traditions of Men neither do we believe every Spirit that pretends to Rapts and Visions but try the Spirits whether they be of God or not and though an Angel should preach to us another Gospel we would hold him accursed The Miracles we trust to as the Proofs of the Truth of that Revelation which we believe are only those contained in the Scriptures and though we believe there was a wonder-working power continued for some time in the Church yet we make a great difference betwixt what we historically credit and what we religiously believe neither will we for supporting our Interest or Authority have recourse to that base trade of forging lying Wonders but we rest satisfied with the Miracles Christ and his Apostles wrought for the proof of the Religion we own since what we believe is no other than what they taught and therefore we leave the trade of forging new Miracles to them who have forged a new Religion And for the plain genuines of the Gospel we have not departed a step from it since we call upon our People by all the motives we can devise and with all the earnestness we are Masters of to receive full and clear Instruction in all the Matters of our Religion which we distinctly lay open to them And nothing of Interest or Design can be charged on us who pretend to nothing but to be the Stewards of the Mysteries of God nor have we offered to sophisticate the simplicity of our Worship by any additions to it for the determining about some particular forms is no addition to Worship but only the following forth of these Precepts of doing all things to edification peace and order But an addition to Worship is when any new piece of Divine Service is invented with a pretence of our being more acceptable to God thereby or of our receiving Grace by that conveyance and therefore any Rites we have as they are not without some hints from Scripture so we pretend not to become any way acceptable to God by them Further we teach no irrational nor unconceivable Doctrine It is true there are Mysteries in our Faith and even reason it self teacheth that these must be unconceivable but for all our other perswasions they are such as may be well made out to the rational faculties of man therefore we do not betake our selves to that Sanctuary that we must be believed assert what we please but we assert nothing but what we offer to evince by the clearest proofs And in â—…ine we add nothing to the burdensomness of the Laws of Christ but teach and propose them as we have them from his Gospel without adding changing or altering a tittle from the first Institution And so far have I considered the Doctrine and Worship of our Church wherein if I could justify all our Practices as well as I can do our Principles there were no grounds to fear hurt from all the Cavils of Mortals But for bad practices whatsoever matter of regrate they may furnish us with they afford none for separation Therefore there is no ground that can justify a separation from our Church much less warrant the turning over from us to the Communion of Rome And thus far have I pursued my designed Enquiry which was if with a safe Conscience any might adjoin themselves to the Popish Religion or if Communion with our Church was to be kept and continued in and have found great grounds to assert the evident hazards of the former so that no man to whom his salvation and welfare is dear can or ought to joyn himself to that Church on the other hand without renting the Body of Christ none can or ought to depart from our Churches But I leave the â—…erusal and considering of these things â—…o the serious Reader to whom I â—…ope they may give some satisfaction â—…f he bring with him to the Enquiry an attentive serious and unbyassed mind And I leave the success of this and every other attempt of this Nature for the clearing of Divine truth with him who is the only Fountain of Blessings who is over all God blessed for evermore Amen FINIS Errata PAge 16. line 6. for formerly read formally l. 24. Abuses r. Abases p. 30. l. 14. forewarnes r. warneâ—… â—…â—…1 l. 1. where r. what p. 52. l 9. but r. yet p. 54. â—… 24. dele a. p. 64. l. 18. betwixt add that p. 91. a r. â—…is p. 99. l. 5. enhansing r. engrossing l. 8. transmitâ—…ng r. transmuting p. 103. l. 16. since r. for p. 110. â—… 18. or r. for p. 138. l. 13. unity r. purity These Books are to be sold by Moses Pitt at the Angel near the Little North Door of St.
It is true noble pieces of morality were acknowledged and taught by the Heathen Philosophers and the Books of the Old Testament have the Doctrin of virtue purity humility and meekness laid open very fully but without derogating from these it must be acknowledged that as the Doctrin of Christianity teacheth all these precepts with clearer rules and fuller directions so they were in it recommended by the example of its Author backed with the strongest Motives and enforced with the greatest Arguments In these are the lessons of purity chastity ingenuity humility meekness patience and generosity so clearly laid down and so fully evinced that no man who is so much a man as to love these things whereby his mind may be improved to all that is truely great and noble but must be enamoured of the christian-Christian-Religion as soon as he is taught it The fourth design of Religion is to unite mankind in the closest bonds of peace friendship and charity which it doth not only by the rules prescribed for the tempering our passions forgiving of injuries and loving our Enemies and by the Doctrin of obedience to those in authority over us but likewise by associating us into one Body called the Church wherein we are to worship God jointly and to be coupled in one by the use of the Sacraments which are the Ligaments of the Body Having thus viewed the great designs of the Christian Religion in the several branches and parts thereof I shall add to this the main distinguishing Characters of our Religion which are also four The first is its verity that it is not founded on the tattles of Persons concerned nor on the reveries of Dotards nor received with a blind credulity being founded on the Authority of the great God which appeared visibly in those that published it chiefly in the Person of Iesus Christ who by his Miracles that were wrought in the sight of all the People even his enemies looking on and not being able to deny them but chiefly by his resurrection from the dead was declared to be the Son of God which was seen and known by many who followed not cunningly devised fables but were the Eye-witnesses of his Majesty who went in his Name and published it to the World confirming it by miracles and mighty wonders attesting it notwithstanding of all the persecutions they met with most of them confirming it with their blood And this Doctrine was received and believed by the better part of Mankind though it being contrary to all the interests of the flesh whose mortification it teacheth its reception cannot be imputed to credulity or interest The second Character of our Religion is its genuine simplicity and perspicuity that all its Doctrines and Rules are clearly and distinctly held out to us not like the Heathen Divinity much whereof lay in dark Oracles in the Books of the Sybils and in other pretended Mysteries which none but the Priests might handle and expound The Iewish Religion was also vailed with Types and Figures so that it was not easie to see the substance and truth through all these foldings and shadows But the glory of the Christian Religion as to this particular is nobly laid out by St. Paul in these words 2 Cor. 3. 18. But we all with open face as in a glass beholding the glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord. The third Character is the reasonableness of the Christian Religion it containing none of these absurd incredible things which abounded among the Heathens nor of these Rites of Judaism the reasons whereof beside the Will of God in enjoyning them could not be assigned but both the Doctrines and Precepts of the Christian Religion are fitted for Mankind and so congenial to his Nature that they well deserve the designation of reasonable service or rational worship God having made our Souls and them of a piece And the fourth Character of our Religion is its easiness Christs yoke is easie and his burden light Mat. 11. 30. Wherein we are freed from all the barbarous and cruel Rites of Gentilism and from the oppressive Bondage of Iudaism which was a Law of Ordinances and a yoke that our fathers were not able to bear but that we are called to by Christ is so simple so easie and so plain that well may we say his Commandments are not grievous 1 Ioh. 5. 3. Having given this hint of the Design and Characters of the Christian Religion I hold it not necessary to dwell on a further deduction of those generals into more particular branches nor to make this scheme of Religion good by any longer proof the position I have laid down being so obvious to the reason of every considering person wherefore I go on to examine if there be any such system of Doctrins or Opinions among pretenders to Christianity which tends to the overthrowing and enervating of this whole design and whose Characters are directly opposite to these I have mentioned and the less avowed and the more disguised that Society be as it is more likely to prevail since Error and Vice are not so formidable in their own colours as when vailed with the pretences of Truth and Virtue so it will better agree with that great Character the Prophecies give of this defection that it was a Mystery and had Mystery on its fore-head Rev. 17 15. And here remains the sad part of my discourse for what lover of mankind can with pleasure either satisfie his own reason or convince the judgment of others in a matter the issue whereof is to prove so great a part of the Christian Societies to be Antichristian and adulterate and certainly if my love to truth and the honour of my Redeemer and his Gospel and by consequence a zeal for souls did not engage me to this search I could easily quit the Task and chuse more easie and pleasant subjects for the exercise of my thoughts but the wisdom of God having declared it a part of wisdom to observe the characters of the Antichristian beast I therefore though not without pain engage in the survey of it And first in the entry it will be a bad Omen of no good to be expected from any society that shall study to keep her members in ignorance and to barr them the study of the holy Scriptures which being the Revelation of the whole counsel of God and written by plain and simple men and at first directed to the use of the rude illiterate vulgar for teaching them the Mysteries of Godliness and the path of Life it is a shrewd indication that if any studie to hide this light under a Candlestick and to keep it in an unknown Tongue or forbid the Body of Christians the use of it though its native tendency be to enlighten the understanding and to enflame the will it being given out by God for that end that those must be conscious to themselves of great deformity to that
needs tell things which to a pure mind were both nauseating to write and to read Those that have been in that Spiritual Babylon know that is a Sodom even in the letter none being more guilty of that crying Wickedness than those that bear the character of religious or sacred Orders And what shall we think of the Scarlet Fraternity that produced a Monster that attempted Heaven it self by writing in defence of that impiety which it avenged by Fire and Brimstone and yet had no Censure passed on him for it Whereas for the least tincture of Calvinism or Lutheranism he had been condemned to the Fagot Some of them do also teach that Fornication is not forbidden by the Laws of Nature and only by positive Precepts so that it may be dispensed with For the eighth Command those profane Casuists have made such shifts for it that none needs to be guilty of Theft for they teach it to be no sin to take that from another which he made no use of but may well want and that in such a case he who steals is not obliged to restitution Others of them teach That he who stole a great summ is not obliged to the restitution of the whole but only of so much as may make the theft not notable But they teach that small thefts even though often repeated are but Venial sins which is an excellent Doctrine for warranting Servants insensibly to purloin their Masters goods They also teach Arts of escaping just Debts beyond all the subtilties of false Lawyers which the Jesuites themselves have often put in practice and have found out Arts for justifying oppressive Usury defrauding of Creditors ruining of Commerce and making havock of our Neighbours goods without Injustice For the ninth Command though it be so contrary to Nature that the worst of men count it a reproach to be charged with Falshood and Lying yet they have favoured it avowedly For by their Doctrines of Equivocating and using Mental reservations the greatest Falsities in the World may be averred and sworn without sin And the value they set on a strict observance of promises and candor in them appeared at Constance where a whole Council required Sigismund the Emperor to burn Iohn Huss and Ierom of Prague though he had given them his safe Conduct for they taught him that faith was not to be kept to Hereticks Another such like trip of one of the Popes proved fatal both to Ladislaus and the Kingdom of Hungary at Varna where they breaking the Truce they had sworn to the Turk upon the Popes warrant were signally punished for their treachery The Doctors of the fore-mentioned School do also teach that he who hath born false witness in a matter that may cost another his life is not bound to retract it if that retractation may bring great evils upon him They also propose methods for suborning Witnesses and falsifying of Writs and Records without any sin and that all this may be done to defame a person with some horrid imputation who is led as a Witness to prove any thing against one that thereby he may be cast from witnessing And as for the tenth Command they have struck out all the first motions of the mind to Evil from being accounted Sins and by their division of Sins into Venial and Mortals they make sure enough work of this Command that it shall not be broken mortally It were an endless work to go and make out all these particulars of their dissolving the Moral Law by clear proofs but he who desires satisfaction in that will find it in the Provincial Letters or the Morals of the Iesuits But if we pass from the Law to the Gospel we shall find they have made no less bones of it We are all over the Gospel called to be heavenly minded to despise the World and to set our affections on things above and particularly Church-men are taught not to seek the riches splendor and vanities of a present World which was most vigorously enforced by the example of Christ and his holy Apostles But how contrary to this is that Religion whose great design is the enriching and aggrandizing of the Teachers and Pastours of it chiefly of him who pretends to be the supreme and sole Pastor I need not here re-mind the Reader of the Trade of Indulgences by which that Church rose to its riches and pomp nor need I tell what a value they set on outward actions of piety the chief of these being the enriching of Churches and Abbies and how these were commended to the World as the sure means of attaining Eternal life Shall I add to this the visible and gross secularity and grandeur in which the Head and other Prelates of that Church do live The Head of it being in all things a temporal Prince perpetually busied in intrigues of State and ballancing the Princes of Europe and chiefly of Italy and what base and Simoniacâ—… practices abound in that Court all who have written of it with any degrees oâ—… ingenuity do acknowledge all things are venal there Money being able to raise the basest and unworthiest to the highest promotions the Cardinals arâ—… also named either upon the Interests 〈◊〉 Princes and chiefly of the two greâ—… Crowns or to make the Popes Nephews have a greater stroke in the next Conclave or upon some such carnal account And perhaps for good manners sake a Scholar or a person famous for Devotion may get a red Hat but such are alwayes the least esteemed in the Colledge all affairs being governed by the Popes Nephews or the Protectors of the Crowns And who shall expect that such a company of secular ignorant I mean in matters of Religion and oftentimes licentious men should be the great Sanhedrim by whose advice all that belongs to Religion must be managed These must be likewise the Electors of the Pope when the See is vacant whom they choose out of their own number who is always elected by the prevailing Interests of one of the Crowns or by the Faction of the former Popes Nephews And what Caballings what bespeaking of Suffrages and what impudent ambitus is commonly practised in the Elections of Popes is well enough known nor can it be denied Now what man of common sense can imagine that a Pope thus elected by Simoniacal Arts and carnal Interests can be Christs Vicar on Earth or have the Holy Ghost always affixed to his Chair that he shall never erre in any of his Decrees Truly he that can believe this may believe any thing that is gross and absurd Is not the whole frame and contrivance of that Court turned so entirely Secular that not a vestige of the Character of a Church or of Church-men remains And to this shall I add all the splendor of their Apparel the state of their Processions and the ceremonies of their Coronation and how they wear a Triple Crown which being so well known to all whoever were at Rome need not be descanted on by
THE MYSTERY OF INIQUITY UNVAILED IN A DISCOURSE Wherein is held forth The Opposition of the Doctrine Worship and Practices of the Roman Church TO The Nature Designs and Characters of the Christian Faith By GILBERT BURNET Chaplain in Ordinary to His MAJESTY LONDON Printed by W. Godbid and are to be sold by M. Pitt at the Angel over against the Little North Door of St. Pauls 1673. THE Mystery of Iniquity UNVAILED HE that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow is an observation which holdeth true of no part of knowledge so much as of the knowledge of Mankind It is some relief to him who knows nothing of foreign wickedness to hope there are other Nations wherein Virtue is honoured and Religion is in esteem which allays his regrates when he sees Vice and Impiety abound in his Country but if by travelling or reading he enlarge his Horizon and know Mankind better his regrates will grow when he finds the whole World lyes in wickedness It argues a cruel and in humane temper to delight in beholding scenes of horrour and misery and certainly none who either honours his Maker and Redeemer or is a lover of Mankind can without sorrow look on and see the indignities done to God and his Son Christ and see the Enemy of the humane race triumphing over the World with such absolute authority and so much enraged cruelty and that not only in the dark Regions of it which the Sun of Righteousness hath not yet visited with his Gospel but that where Christ should have a Throne Satans Seat should also be is justly surprising and astonishing That almost all Christendom hath fallen from their first love is what none whose eyes are open can deny and it is little less evident that the greater part of it hath made shipwrack and erred from the Faith and that the Church whose Faith was once spoken of throughout the World is now become the Mother of the Fornications of the Earth It is true the Scriptures warned us of a falling away of a mystery of iniquity of an Antichrist to be revealed in due time and of a Babylonish Rome which should bewitch the Earth with her Sorceries but should be varnished over with fair colours and specious pretences so that mystery should be on her forehead Being then warned of so much danger to the Christian Religion it is a necessary though painful enquiry to see if this Antichrist be yet come or if we must look for another But because some have stretched the Notion of Antichristianism so far that things harmless and innocent come within its compass and others have so much contracted it that they might scape free we are to take a view of the Nature and Designs of the Christian Religion and to conclude from that what must be Antichristianism It being not only a bare contradiction to some branches or parts of the Gospel for then every errour or heresie were Antichristianism but a design and entire complex of such opinions and practices as are contradictory to and subversive of the power and life of Christianity And if we find any such thing to be broached and received in the World we may with the least hazard of uncharitableness pronounce it to be Antichristianism and if it be acted or animated by any Head he may be concluded Antichrist The Designs of the Christian Religion run betwixt these four heads The first is to give us right apprehensions of the Nature and Attributes of God that we may conceive aright of him and adore him sutably to his Nature and according to his Will and thereby be admitted to a free converse with him and become partakers of the Divine Nature How little of God was known by the twinklings of Natures Light even to the better and wiser part of the World Tullies Books of the Nature of the Gods do sufficiently inform us But if the Philosophers were so much to seek in it what shall we expect from the Vulgar And indeed Homers Iliads and Ovids Metamorphosis were wretched Systems of Divinity and yet such and such like were the sentiments of the Nations about the Godhead It is true the seed of Abraham were delivered from that darkness and knew God by his Name Iehovah and had Laws and Ordinances given them by God yet their Worship was so carnal and did so strike upon and affect the senses that we will be soon satisfied it was not so sublime and free as became the Spirituality of the Divine Nature and so was only fitted for the Infancy of the People of God but by Christ the mystery that lay hid from ages and generations was revealed for he declared the Father and revealed him and taught us to renounce Idols and vanities and to serve the living God commanding all men every where to repent the times of ignorance wherein God winked at Idolatry being then over That so Mankind being Gods Off-spring might feel after him and not worship him any more in the blinding grossness of Idolatry but in a pure spiritual manner and whereas the Law came by Moses by Christ came Grace and Truth Grace in opposition to the severity of the Law and Truth as opposed not to Falshood but to the Figures and Shadows of Moses his Law and therefore God is to be worshipped in Spirit and Truth in opposition to the Carnal Ordinances and Typical Rites which shadowed out the Truth in the Law The second branch of the Christian Religion is to hold forth the method of mans reconciliation with his Maker For the sense of all mankind agrees in this that sin is an indignity done to God which deserveth punishment and cannot be expiated by any service man can do It was therefore necessary there should be a mean found for incouraging sinners to imbrace a Religious life of which all had reason to despair without pardon were offered to penitents upon the change of their lives Now this was that the Heathen could not dream how to procure It is true the Iews had sacrifices for expiating of sin but these could never quiet their consciences since the common sense of mankind tells that the blood of beasts cannot appease God The mystery therefore of the reconciliation of sinners to God is the proper character of the Christian-Religion which holds forth to us how the eternal Word was made man and endured unspeakable sufferings for the sins of men even to the death of the Cross and was raised up by God and carried to Heaven where he is vested with all power and authority and by the merits of his death hath a right to grant pardon give grace and confer eternal life on all that believe on him by whom God conveys all things to us and through whom we are to offer up all our worship to God he being the Mediator betwixt God and man The third head of the christian-Christian-Religion is to teach the perfectest clearest and most divine rules for advancing of the souls of men to the highest perfection of their natures