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
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-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
so often in the Old Testament is to be considered the importance whereof is that God by covenanting with his People is married to them to be their God and the conjugal Duty they owe him is Adoration When therefore other Creatures have any share oâ—… that bestowed on them spiritual whore 〈◊〉 is committed Now how sad the Application of this to the Christian Church must be all may judge who know how great a part of Christendom worship God by Images and how the adored and incomprehensible Trinity is painted as an old man with a child in his arms and a dove over the childs head though no man hath seen the Father at any time Ioh. 6. 46. and the Son as God can no more be represented by an Image than the Father and the Holy Ghost though once appearing in the symbolical representation of a Dove cannot without Idolatry be represented and worshipped under that figure Neither can any apology be offered for this which could not with the same reason have cleared both Jews and Gentiles of Idolatry And whatever more abstracted Minds may think of these Images yet none that considers the simplicity of the Vulgar the frailty of Man and his inclination to apprehend all things as sensible can doubt but that the Rabble do really conceive of God as like these figures and do plainly worship them It is further to be considered that though the Son of God was Man yet as Man he is not to be worshipped and therefore the setting out of Figures and Statues for his Humane Nature which on the way are no real adumbrations but only the fancies of Painters and worshipping these as the Images of the Son of God is no less Idolatry than to worship the Father as an Old Man And further the Worship of the Mass is Idolatry as evidently as any piece of Gentilism ever was For if it be certain that Christ is not in the Hostie which shall be afterwards made out then to adore him as there must be Idolatrous Neither will it serve for excuse to say that Christ is truly worshipped as present and if he be not there it is only a mistake about the Presence but no Idolatry can be committed the Worship being offered to a proper Object who is God But if this Apology free them of Idolatry it will also clear those Heathens who worshipped some Statues or Creatures in which they conceived God was present so that they might have pleaded it was the great and true God they adored believing him there present as their Fathers had formerly believed But he were very gentle to Idolaters who upon such a plea would clear them of that crime What then is to be said of that Church that holds it the greatest piece of her Religion to adore the Bread with the same devotion they would pay to Christ were he visibly present who call the Bread God carry it about in Processions and worship it with all the Solemnity imaginable And finally the Worship they give the Cross is likewise an adoring of God under a Symbol and Representation And thus we have seen the parallel of Rome-Heathen and Rome-Christian runs but too too just But the next kind of the Heathens Idolatry was their worshipping of others beside God whom they held of two ranks Some that were so pure that they never dwelt in Bodies Others they judged to be the Souls of deceased Men after their death acknowledged and honoured with divine honour And this kind of Idolatry was first begun at Babylon where Nin is made the Statue of his Father Belus be set up and worshipped it And from him all these lesser gods were called Belim or Baalim Now concerning these the Heathens believed that they were certain intermedial powers that went betwixt God and men by whom all good things were conveyed to mortals by whom also all our services were offered to the gods Thus the Nations had gods many and lords many 1 Cor. 8. 5. And these lesser Deities or Dâ—…mons they adored by erecting Statues to them about their burial places where they built Temples for them and worshipped them And from this hint of Babylons being the Mother of this kind of Idolatry we may guess why the Apostacy of that City which in St. Iohns dayes did reign over the Kingdoms of the earth Rev. 17. 18. is shadowed forth under the name of Babylon to hold out that the corruption it was to fall into was to be of a kind with that begun in Babylon and the Character of the Whore doth likewise agree well with this Now if we compare with this the worship of Angels and Saints in the Roman Church we shall find the parity just and exact For after the conversion of the Roman Empire it is not to be denied but that in order to the gaining of the Heathen World to a complyance with Christianity the Christians did as near as was possible accommodate themselves to the Heathenish customs And therefore in stead of their gods they set up the Daemon and Baal-worship to the Apostles and other Saints and Martyrs which Theodorat doth most ingeniously acknowledge to have been set in the stead of their gods They became afterwards so exact in the parallel that as the Heathens had of these lesser gods for every Nation so there was a Saint appointed for every Nation St. Andrew for Scotland St. George for England St. Patrick for Ireland and many more for other Nations And as every house among the Heathens had their houshold god so every person was taught to have a tutelar Saint and Angel And as among the Heathen there were gods for all Trades for all Sicknesses and for every Virtue so in Antichristianism there were Saints for every Disease for every Profession and for all the Graces And as the Heathens built Temples for them so did also Babylonish Rome And here an odd remark is in my way of this conformity that the Pantheon at Rome dedicated in Augustus his time to Cybele the mother of the gods and to all the gods was afterwards consecrated to the Virgin and all the Saints And as the Heathens offered Prayers made Vows observed Days brought Presents used Processions in honour to these lesser gods and worshiped their Statues and Images So all this by degrees crept into Rome-Christian as might be branched out in more particulars than the nature of so short a discouse will allow of It is true the worship of Images came not in before the eighth Century but after that time it engaged all that received it into a high degree of madness for advancing that Heathenish piece of Worship And shall I here tell what is known to all who have seen the forms of that Church how you shall find their Churches all over dressed up with Images and Statues gorgeously apparelled and well adorned where the poor vulgar are lying prostrate before them saying their Devotions and perhaps washing the feet of their Shrines with their tears and with great
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
the Chalice from the People who in reason should be imagined so tenacious of so great a priviledge that no consideration should have obliged them to part with it and yet we know nor do they deny how it was wrung from them about 250 years ago What may seem less credible then for the People to consent to have their worship in an unknown Tongue and yet we know that all once worshipped in their Mother Tongue but that after by the overthrow of the Roman Empire the Latine Tongue decayed the barbarous worship was obtruded on the World And what piece of worship is both more visible and more contrary to the clearest evidence of Scriptures especially to the commandments in which the people were always instructed then the worshipping of Images And though we know well enough that for the first seven Centuries the Christian World abhorred them yet within a hundredth years after that we find a great part of it bewitched with them And what can be thought more uneasie for the World to have received then the Popes absolute authority over all the Churches and States of the World One should think that though Religion and Reason had lien out of the way yet Interest and Ambition had withstood this yet we see clearly by what steps they crept up from being Bishops of the Imperial City in an equality of power with their neighbouring Bishops into that culminating hight to which they have now mounted In a word we refuse not to appeal to the first four Ages of the Church in these matters that we quarrel the Roman Church for We deny not but humane infirmity begun soon to appear in the Church and a care to gain on the Heathens made them quickly fall upon some rites and use some terms which after-ages corrupted But the ruin of Religion was when the Roman Empire being overturned by the incursion of the Northern Nations in the beginning of the fifth Century both piety and Religion being laid to sleep instead of the Primitive simplicity of the faith and worship of the Christians they turned all their zeal to the adorning of the outwards of Religion hence the corruptions of the Church took their rise But I had almost forgot to name some Revelations which that Church pretends to even for some of her most doubtful opinions which are the visions and extraordinary Inspirations of some of their Saints from which they vouch a divine confirmation to their Doctrines I confess there is a great deal of extraordinary Visions Rapts and Extasies to be met with among the lives of their Saints and I fear a great deal more then truth for really whoso will but read these writings he must confess they are so far from being probable or well contrived that they speak out their forgery Alas whereas St. Paul being put to Glory of Visions and Revelations was to run back fourteen years for one Their Saints are found in them every day Are they not very credible Stories they tell of Christs appearing to some of their She-Saints and kissing them giving them Rings being married to them and celebrating nuptial rites making them drink out of his side and leaving on them the prints of his wounds with many other such like apparitions of the Virgin and other Saints which were either forgeries dreams or the effects of melancholy or histerical distempers and yet these extravagant fables are given out to the people as sacred pieces of Divine Revelations But the inspiration of the holy Writers on which we found our Faith was proved by their miracles which they wrought publickly in the sight of many and in the presence of their adversaries many of whom were convinced by them and it is certain that whosoever offers any thing to anothers belief pretending he comes to him in the Name of God must have some evident proof of his Divine Mission since none are bound to believe him barely on his own Testimony Otherwise there should be no end of Impostures if every pretender to Divine Inspiration were to be believed without proof Now the way it must be proved is by some evidence of Gods extraordinary assisting such a person which appeared alwayes either in Prophesies or Miracles but chiefly in miracles under the New Testament and therefore both Christ and his Apostles appeal to the mighty works they wrought as the great confirmation of their Doctrine If then there be new Doctrines brought into the Church they must have the like confirmation otherwise they are not to be believed But here those of that Church think they triumph For miracles they have in abundance not a Relique they have but hath wrought mighty wonders nor a Countrey-Saint but the Curat of the place can gravely tell a great many deeds of his puissance nor want the Images their marvellous atchievments but wondrously wondrous are the feats the Hosty hath performed Here I am upon a sad Subject of that trade of lies and fictions wherewith the Merchants of that Babylon have so long traffiqued of which the sincerer among themselves are ashamed How ridiculous are many of their miraculous narrations Was it a worthy piece of the Angelical Ministration for Angels to go trotting over Sea and Land with a load of Timber and Stones of the Virgins house till at length they set it down at Loretto that great devotions might be shown to it It is a goodly story for to tell of a Saint that walked so far after his head was cut off with it in his arms resting in some places to draw breath yet he will pass for an Infidel that should doubt of this at St. Denis-Church Who can look on the lives of the late Saints of that Church without nausea Gregories Dialogues begun this trade which indeed hath thriven well since The miracles of the Christian faith were grave and solemn actions but what ridiculous scenical stories not to say blasphemous ones meet us about the miracles of their Saints He that would know this may read the Lives of St. Francis and St. Dominic St. Bridgit and the two St. Catherines and he will be satisfied to a surfeit The Miracles also of Christ and his Apostles were acted publickly in the view of all but most of these narrations of their Wonders were transacted in corners none being witnesses but persons concerned to own the cheat And the Doctrine of Equivocating was a good cordial for the ease of their Consciences though they swore what they knew false according to the natural sense of the words which they uttered Thus we have many fables of Christs appearing in the Hosty sometimes as a child and sometimes as crucified when but a very few of the whole company present were honoured with that amazing sight Further the Miracles of the Christian Faith were written in the times in which they were acted that so enquiries might have been made into their falshood and the powers that then governed being enemies to the Faith it was safe for its opposers to have proved
souls who are either already blinded with these delusions or do incline towards those paths which lead to the chambers of death I am none of those who justifie rage or bitterness against those in errours for if we had the Spirit of Christ in us we should mourn over and lament their misery who lye under so much darkness And this is a sure character to judge if our zeal for God and his truth be Divine and Evangelical if it make us pour out Rivers of tears for those that have gone out of the way rather than streams of Fire against them That zeal which raiseth melting sorrow tender compassion and fervent prayers for those we see erring is Christ-like and worthy of that meek and charitable spirit which the Gospel so much recommends Whereas that which boils out in rage and foam against such as err and designs their ruin and mischief and studies how to persecute rather than convert them and kindles in men bitter aversion to their persons together with rude harshness in their behaviour to them is all Antichristian and carnal My design therefore in this discourse is to provoke pity rather than wrath and tears more than flames towards those deceived multitudes that we may pray for them rather than rail at them But my chief aim is to perswade all who love their souls to consider the danger of continuing in the Communion of a Church that hath not only fallen from her first love and purity but hath in so many great and essential points corrupted our most holy Faith and adulterated the pure sincerity of our worship I shall not here search into the depths of the Mercies of God how far they may reach any of that Communion nor examin how far they hold the foundation Christ notwithstanding of all the base superstructures they have reared upon it nor shall I consider how far invincible ignorance may excuse the guilt of an error nor how applicable this may be to them nor shall I discuss how far the private differing from these errors may in many things secure some of the individuals of that Communion from the general guilt lies over them upon all these particulars many things may be said and none alive is more willing to stretch his invention for finding out grounds to fix his Charity on than my self But all I can devise falls short of a full and satisfying excuse for those who being educated in the knowledge of the truth and sincerity of the Gospel do fall away into the errors and superstitions of that Church nor can I imagin what their temptations should be to it except one of two The first is that they desire a sensible Religion and therefore loath the simplicity and spirituallity of the Gospel and love to have some glorious objects in Worship to strike on and affect their senses But however this may make impressions on the grosser rabble yet certainly any that considers that the perfection of man lies in his reason and not in his outward senses and that the exaltation of reason is Religion he must confess that the less it dwell in the senses and the more inward it become on the reason it is the more suitable both to the nature of God of Religion and of the rational faculties But the other consideration that may draw many to that Religion is yet worse which is because in it a great allowance is given to all manner of sin by the treacherous conduct of some Confessors who perswade men of Heaven on terms very easie and pleasing to flesh and blood And hence it is that we see very few who have expressed any affection to a devout life abandoning us to go over to the Roman Communion most of those who do so except it be one of a thousand being as void of virtue is ignorant of the nature of true Religion that we may say Ioh. 2. 19. They went out from us but they were not of us for if they had been of us they had not gone out from us These being the only visible tentations to entice any from our Communion to theirs it is hard to preserve any great degrees of Charity for them For a third tentation being that only which can work on a devout mind takes with so few among us that I need scarce name it which is the solitary and retired houses among them for leading a devout and strict life and the excellent Books of Devotion have been published by many of that Communion This I know wrought mightily on one and made him many times wish that he could with a good Conscience throw himself into one of these Religious houses but the consideration of these great corruptions lay so in his way that without the doing the greatest force on his Conscience imaginable and thereby securing damnation to himself by complying with things he judged so damnable he durst not do it Yet for his further satisfaction he went among them to see if their Worship appeared more amiable in practise then it did in Writings but I have heard him often declare that though his mind was as free of prepossessions as perhaps ever mans was yet all he conceived of them even from the Writings of their adversaries was nothing compared to the impressions which the sight of their Worship left upon him it appearing so Histrionical in all its circumstances and so idolatrous in its substance especially as he saw the Vulgar practise it And for their Religious Houses he was among a great many of all Orders but was far from meeting with that spirit of devotion he had hoped to find among them for they always magnified their Order and the little external austerities and devotions of it but for genuine humility a delight in God and Christ abstraction from the world for all their frocks and retirements sincere heavenly-mindedness and fervent Charity to the Brethren he regrated he had met with little of it among them And that he found the several Orders full of emulation and envy at other Orders and of heats among themselves which made him see that he who meant to lead a devout life must choose another Sanctuary than any of these he saw in that Communion I deny not that it is the greatest defect of the Reformation that there are not in it such encouragements to a devout life though the intanglements of Vows to things without our power is a manifest invasion of the Christian liberty and to languish out ones life in a tract of lasie Devotion without studying to serve God in our Generation seems contrary to the intendment of Religion a great many of its Precepts being about those Duties we owe our Neighbours Yet for all this it is not to be denied to be a great defect that we want recluse Houses for a stricter training up of those who design to lead a spiritual life and to serve in the Gospel that their minds being rightly formed before their first setting out they may be well qualified and
word shall I tell how the Sacramental Actions are polluted by the superfoetation of so many new Rites whereby they are wholly changed from their original Simplicity In Baptism instead of washing with Water in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost how have they added so many adulterated Rites the Child must be thrice blown upon then a Charm used for turning the Devil out of him he must be anointed with holy Oyl and hallowed Salt must be put in his mouth sanctified Garments also must be put on him and a holy Wax candle in his hand and the Priests Spittle must be gently stroaked upon him Whether doth all this look like the Simplicity of the Spouse of Christ or the Attire of the Harlot And in the other Sacrament a great deaâ—… more adoe is made so that any indifferent Spectator who were not waâ—…ned of it would swear it were a solemâ—… piece of Pageantry the Priest muâ—… come in cloathed with rich embroidâ—…red Vestments then he goes to the Altar sometimes reads on the one side then he turns to the other Often he bows and kisses and crosses sometimes single sometimes thrice repeated crosses Most of the Office he mutters though what he says is all alike understood being in an unknown tongue Sometimes he turns to the People and gives them a short Barbarian Benediction Then he goes on till he come to the five wonder-working words And then instead of the Bread which the force of these words hath driven to nothing behold a god to be worshipped by the Spectators And after the adoration the god is to be devoured by the Priest which made the Arabian say he never saw a Sect of Religion so foolish as the Christians were who with their teeth devoured the god they had adored Certainly all this looks so like a piece of extravagance especially if the simplicity of the first institution be considered that many will doubt if it be possible that such worship can be received in any corner of the Christian World And by these hints though a hundred more could be instanced let it be guessed what is become of the simplicity of the Christian Religion when it is so vitiated in all the parts and branches of it And whether that genuine sincere spirituality appear in it which the Gospel holds forth to the world These things having a native tendency for leading away the soul from attending upon God in her acts of worship which is the only thing for which external worship is to be continued in that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we may jointly concur to converse wâ—…h our Maker If from this I should reckon up all the tricks are used in secreter worship what stories should I tell of the pattering over the Beads of the multiplying little unintelligible Prayers the using of Penances some whereof are ridiculous for their gentleness and others of them are as formidablâ—… for their horrour and fitter for the Priests of Baal or the worshipers of Diana Taurica then for those that worship the living God with joy and gladness of heart Now by the performance of these the simple deluded people imagine themselves reconciled to God and secured from his wrath And so go about them meerly in the opinion of a charm But I must next shew how the multiplicity of the Jewish rites was also brought in upon Christendom though Christ came to set us at liberty from that Pedagogy which was made up of Ordinances and lifeless Precepts that could not make the doer thereof perfect nothing being enjoyned in the Christian Religion but that which was of it self easie and proper for the great design of purifying our souls Now such as have brought in a yoke of ordinances that have no tendency to the cleansing of our souls but oppress us with their tyrannical burdensomness being both heavy and numerous must be looked on as the introducers of a new Judaism for oppressing the Christian world what a heap of new superadded forms have the High Priests of Rome brought upon these who stoop to their tyranny And how much sanctity do they place in them enjoyning severer censures on the violation of these than on the greatest transgressions against either the Moral or Positive Laws of God How many holy days have they instituted How much distinction of meats of fasting and abstinence And how like are their Jubilees and Pilgrimages to the Jubilees and yearly trotting up to Ierusalem which was among the Iews In a word there is not a piece of worship about which there is not a greater appendage of vain pompous and withall burdensom Ceremonies then were among the Iews Shall I here mention the five superadded Sacraments to the two instituted by Christ with all the rites belonging to each of them or recount all the rites in their multifarious ordinations Shall I tell of the laying up the Bodies when dead and of the forms of their Burials The burning of Lamps in the clearest day together with the Incense that perfumes the worship which are clear pieces of antiquated Judaism In a word no part of the parallel holds more exactly than that they are zealous of the traditions of their Fathers whereby the Commandments of God are made of none effect and that they honour God with their lips when their hearts are far form him And worship him in vain teaching for Doctrins the Commandments of men Matth. 15. 8 9. And hitherto I have discoursed upon the first limb of Antichristianism and have discovered too evident indications of the contradictions is in it to the first branch of the design of Christianity whereby the worship of God is partly adulterate and partly smothered by a heavy and troublesome load of useless and lifeless perâ—…ormances which must needs lead out the soul from an inward attending on God or free converse with him The second branch of Christianity is â—…he holding forth that Mysterious contrivance of the wisdom and goodness of God for reconciling the World â—…o himself by his dear Son whom â—…e gave to the death for us and also raised up making him both Lord and Christ Whose glory and dignity is vulgarly branched out in these his three Officeâ—… of Prophet Priest and King By the first of which he revealed the Father and his whole council to manking in plain and simple discourses afterwards committed to writing by the faithful eye and ear-witnesses of his Majesty His Prophetiok office therefore is chiefly acknowledged in our grateful receiving these discoveries and our studying to adjust both our Faith and Practice to that unerring rule But can any thing bâ—… more contradictory to this than to keep the knowledge of these writings from Christians to accuse their darkness and defects and to apprehend great danger from their diligent perusal to vilify that sacred study preferring the lame and lifeless discourses of men to the words oâ—… eternal wisdom For we must consider that our study of the Gospel is of thâ—… same nature with a personal following oâ—… Christ when
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
mention no more will sufficiently convince any who will be at the pains to read them as they are written by these who lived in that Communion And Matthew of Paris will at length inform his Reader how much and how often England smarted under this Tyranny And all this is so far from being denied that it is defended avowedly by noâ—… a few of the Canonists and Iesuits 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 â—…east be healed of the wound was given â—…t 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 though this be one of the Characters of the scarlet-coloured whore But thus far have we gone through the second part of Antichrists Character and have discovered too clear â—…ndications 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 oâ—… men into a participation of the divine Nature whereby the soul being inwardly purified and the outward conversation regulated the World may be restoreâ—… to its Primitive innocence And men admitted to an inward and intimate fellowship with their Maker The firsâ—… step of this renovation is repentance for God commands men every where to 〈◊〉 and repentance and remission of 〈◊〉 are alwayes united And this being 〈◊〉 horrour at sin upon the sense of its native deformity and contrariety to the Law of God which makes the soul apprehend the hazarâ—… it hath incurred by it so as to study by 〈◊〉 means possible to avoid it in all time coming nothing doth prepare the mind morâ—… for faith in Christ and the study of 〈◊〉 new life than repentance which 〈◊〉 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 easie 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 this 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 enjoyn 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 oâ—… Indulgences which is so direct an opposition to Evangelical repentance as if 〈◊〉 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 confide 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 〈◊〉 godly leaders since the Order that 〈◊〉 owned all these corruptions is yet 〈◊〉 of the Consciences of the greater 〈◊〉 of them that own that Communioâ—… they being the universal 〈◊〉 And since they license the publick 〈◊〉 of so much corrupt Doctrine printed Writings what reason have 〈◊〉 to suspect their base compliance 〈◊〉 sins in their more secret and 〈◊〉 Practisings with such poor deluded 〈◊〉 as trust to their conduct of which 〈◊〉 proofs are brought by others of 〈◊〉 same Church But I pursue my enquiry into the 〈◊〉 traces of the Antichristian corruption of the purity and power of our 〈◊〉 holy Faith Solemn Worship and 〈◊〉 Devotion are the great means of 〈◊〉 souls to God and of deriving the sistance of his Spirit and Grace to us when these are performed in an 〈◊〉 tongue How uncapable are they of 〈◊〉 that end And the Doctrine of efficacy of the Sacraments for coming 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
me But the mention of the Crown calls me tâ—… mind of the literal accomplishment oâ—… that of Mystery being on the forehead oâ—… the whore since the word Mystery was for a great while the inscription on the front of their Triple Crown though it be now altered which being proved by others I may not stay to makâ—… it good From this 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 these 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 badg 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 Church-men that were highly guilty drew out so much of their most holy Fathers indignation that he thundered 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 Villanes and partly of the covetousness of the Clergy to which the Senat 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 then 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 preferable to the condition of Princes The Priests 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 enhansing the Cup to themselves from the people was another trick for raising of their esteem but above all things their power of transmitting 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 Mass an expiatory Sacrafice 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 outmost 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 Brotherly 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 certificats But here we are to consider that all these things which that Church hath imposed on all of her Communion for which we withdrew from her are additions to our faith for in this we mainly differ from that Church that whatever we acknowledge they acknowledge likewise but with a great many additions we believe the Scriptures are a rule for Christians and they believe the same but they add traditions and the authority of the Church to the Scriptures We believe that God is to be worshipped spiritually they believe the same but add that he may be worshipped by Images and sensible Figures We believe Christ to be the Mediator betwixt God and Man they believe the same but add to this the intercession of Saints We hold that God and Christ are to be worshipped they hold the same but add Saints and Angels to our worship We believe Heaven and Hell to be the several States of the future life they believe the same but add Purgatory betwixt them to the day of Judgment We believe Baptism and the Lords Supper to be the Sacraments of the new Covenant they believe the same but add five more We believe Christ is spiritually and really present in the Lords Supper this they believe but add the unconceivable Tenent of his corporal presence In a word it might be instanced in many other particulars how they have driven us from their Communion by their additions to the truth and sincerity of the Gospel which they have adulterated by their Inventions and not only have they imposed all these things but thundered out Anathema's on all that question them and have so wreathed all their fopperies with that main and fundamental article of their belief of the infallibility of their Church that it is impossible to hope for their recovery till they renounce that Principle which is so dear to them For if their Church be infallible then in no matter of faith or practice can she decree amiss and therefore the lawfulness and sanctity of all her decrees must be maintained with an equal vigor and zeal for if in one of them she step aside her infallibility is for ever gone And by this we may see to how little purpose it is to treat of accomodating matters with that Church since there is no possibility of our union with them without we turn over entirely to them since they cannot part with one of their errors without they first renounce that which is the dearest of them all to wit the unerring authority of their Church How cruel then is that Church which addeth the severe sanction of an Anathema to all her decrees even about the most trifling matters and about things that are by their Confession of their own natures indifferent And a consectary to this is that cruel opinion they hold that none can be saved out of their Communion pretending there is no Salvation without the true Church which they restrict to these who are under the obedience of the Roman Bishop and this is what they usually frighten all with But it is to be considered what the true notion of the Church is that so we may see through this frightful Vizar The Church then is a Society of Christians united in the same faith for worshipping of God jointly And another definition of a Church cannot be proved from Scripture for the Church being called the Body of Christ its union with him as its head is held forth by the Apostle in these words Col. 2. 19. The head Christ from whom the whole body by joints and bonds having nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the increase of God From which words we see what constitutes a man a member of the true Church which is first his union to Christ as his head together with a dependance on him for growth and nutriture and next his being knit to all others who are thus united to Christ which is first the inward union of divine Charity by which he loves all who cleave to Christ as their head and next his associating himself with them in outward visible acts of worship which every Christian is bound to do with all that worship God in Spirit and truth But if a Society of Christians do visibly swerve from Christ in many great and signal contradictions to the honour due to his Person and to the obedience due to his Laws and do grossly adulterate the worship so that communion cannot be had with that Church without departing from the head Christ then it can be no departing from the Church to adhere to Christ and his true worship and to separate from the corruptions are brought in upon the Christian religion If then it appear that the Church of Rome hath departed from the truth and simplicity of the Gospel in so many great and main points these who attempted the reforming her to her first purity and finding that not to be hoped for did unite among themselves for serving and worshiping God aright cannot be charged with separation from the true Church But by that cruel Tenent of theirs they breed up all their Children in the greatest uncharitableness imaginable condemning all who cannot believe all their strange Doctrines or concur in their unhallowed worship Thus they are the Schismatiques who have departed from the true Church and who force from their Communion all who adhere to it but this cruelty rests not in uncharitable censures but hath extended it self to as much bloody and barbarous rage as ever sprung from Hell for all the cruelty of the heathen Persecuters cannot match the practices of that Whore that hath been so often drunk with the blood of the Saints and of the Martyrs of Iesus What enraged cruelty appeared against the poor Waldenses for the separating from their Corruption how many of all Sexes and Ages were cruelly butchered down by the procurement of the Rulers of that Church and because the Albigenses lived under the protection of Princes that favoured them how did the Popes depose their Princes and instigate other ambitious invaders to seize on their dominions which to effectuate a Croissade was proclaimed that had been formerly practised against the Enemies of the Christian Faith and heaven was promised to such as went against these poor innocents whereupon they were killed by thousands without all mercy Never was there any who had the zeal or honesty in these dark ages to witness against the apostacy of the Church but the Pope and Clergy used all means to get his zeal rewarded with a faggot And when the time of reformation came with what rage and spite did the Pope by his Letters and Legates instigate all the Princes of Europe to cruelty against them but as these things were not done in corners so
and discovered their forgery had any such been But many of the Miracles of Rome are not heard of till some Ages at least Years be past whereby they are secure from the after-game of a discovery and he were a stout man that would adventure to question the verity of these pretences at Rome where it is the interest of that Church to have them all believed without once questioning them But how comes it that in Heretical Countreys as they call them where there is more need of those Miracles and where they might be more irrefragably proved if true since the Examiners of them were not to be suspected yet none of these mighty works do shew themselves forth Certainly that they are to this day so rife in Italy and Spain and so scant in Britain is a shrewd ground to apprehend Legerdemain and forgery in the accounts we get of their later Saints And indeed the Contrivers of these Stories have not managed their design by half so well as need was for they have bestowed as many of them on one person as might have Sainted the half of an Order But the gain that is made by new Saints and new Reliques is well enough known not to speak of the general advantage that Church pretends to draw from it In end though some things among them did seem to surpass the known powers of Nature these ought not to prevail upon us for departing from the truth since though an Angel from Heaven Preached another Gospel he is to be accursed Gal. 1. 8. If then they have so changed the Christian Doctrine by their Additions and Inventions that it is become thereby as another Gospel none of the seemingly Seraphical appearances they may have among them though true ought to reconcile us to it and that the rather since we were expresly guarded against this Imposture by St. Paul who gave it as an Indication of the Son of Perdition that his coming was after the power of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteouseness 2 Thess. 2. 9 10. And it is a part of their curse that they are given up to strong delusions to believe lies the Beast also that appeared to St. John Rev. 13. 13. did great wonders so that he made Fire come down from Heaven in the sight of men and deceived many that dwelt on the Earth by these Miracles which he had power to do But to conclude this my greatest quarrel at these forgeries of Miracles is that the people being taught to believe them and the Miracles of the Gospel with an equal certainty since they have the Testimony of the Church for both and they seeing such evident Characters of fraud and forgery on these supposed miracles whereby they are convinced of their falshood are thereby in danger of suspecting all the Miracles of the Gospel as the tricks of subdolous and crafty men whereby they run head-long to an Atheistical disbelieving the truth of all alike And thus far we have found how opposite that Church is to the Spouse of Christ since her Doctrines are so ill founded and look so like cunningly devised fables without the authority of divine inspiration or the proof of true Miracles The next Character of our Faith is its perspicuity and simplicity all being called to the clear light of the day in it and every part of it being so genuine that it is apparent it was not the contrivance of designing men that by the belief of it they might obtain the power and possess the riches of the World And therefore there are no secret Doctrines in our Faith which must be kept up from the Vulgar whereby the Pastors of Christendom may have dominion over their souls But what must we conclude of them who by all means study to keep all of their Communion ignorant as if devotion were thereby nourished and allow them not the use of the Scriptures in their Mother-tongue nor a worship which they can understand whereby it is that they who occupy the room of unlearned cannot say Amen at the giving of thanks since they understand not what is said To this might be added their implicite Faith to all the Doctrines of the Church without further inquiries and their blind obedience to the Confessarius be 〈◊〉 never so ignorant and carnal These are certainly darkening opinions and practises and far different from the methods of the Apostles in preaching the Gospel who with-held from the people nothing of the Counsel of God and studied the enlightening their understandings as well as the enlivening of their wills But further how much of interest appears in the Doctrines of Rome which tend to the exalting or enriching the Papacy and inferiour Clergy for it is visible what a trade they drive by them and all the contrivances all the projectours in Europe ever fell upon for enriching their Masters Treasury falls short of the projects of Purgatory the Treasure of the Church Indulgences and the Popes absolute authority in making abrogating and dispencing with all Positive Laws Neither is there more of design to be found in the Alcoran than in the Mysteries of that Caliph of the Spiritual Babylon And we may guess of their concernedness in these matters since a gentler censure may be hoped for upon the violation of the greatest of the Laws of God than upon the least contradiction to their idolized Interests The one is the constant subject of their Studies and Sermons whereas the other is seldom minded The third Character of our Faith is that it is rational and suitable to our Souls God having fitted it and framed them so harmoniously that they are congenial one to another It is true the Mysteries about God and Christ are exalted above the reach of our faculties but even reason it self teacheth that it must be so since if there be a God he must be infinite and incomprehensible and therefore it is not to be wondered if the Scriptures offer some Mysteries to us about God and Christ which choak and stifle the impressions we are apt to take of things But in these it is visible that the Object is so disproportioned to our faculties that it is impossible we can reach or comprehend it but as for the other parts of Religion they are all so distinctly plain that the reasonableness as well as the authority of them serve to commend them to us but how void are they of this who have made one of the chief Articles of their Faith and the greatest matter of their worship that which is not only beyond but contrary to the most common impressions of Nature which teacheth us to believe our senses when under no lesion and duly applied to a proper object For indeed in that case we cannot really doubt but things are as they appear to us for we cannot believe it mid-night when we clearly see the Sun in the Meridian nay and our Faith rests on the evidences our senses give since we