ditch it is not their saying they were led thither will help them out S. 20.5 Furthermore although Christ upon occasion of the two disciples desiring of him that they might sit the one on his right hand and the other on his left in that temporal Kingdom they fancied he was to have said to Peter and all the Apostles Ye know that the Princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them and they that are great exercise Authority upon them but it shall not be so among you I say though this be so express as you see yet notwithstanding the Pope as pretended successour to St. Peter claims a Supremacy over Kings and a priviledge to be appealed to as the last and highest Tribunal upon earth And in case any Kings turn hereticks to him in denying his Claim and casting off his yoke he takes upon him a power to chastise them to excommunicate them and then to depose and dethrone them and to dispose of their Kingdomes and to absolve their subjects from the duty of their allegiance to their natural Prince And for what reason is this swelling power of overtopping Kings assumed The pretence is that the Pope as head of the Church being Superiour to all Christian Kings as being but members of that body whereof he is head they upon that account are under his conduct and government in using their secular power for the interest of the Christian Religion and Catholick cause and for the chastising of such as are heretical or undutiful and disobedient This is the Pretence But the true design is to render the Pope the more magnificent and venerable the more awful and terrible in the eyes of all and to lift him up to the highest pinnacle of worldly Pomp and greatness attainable in this world and to use the power and interest of such Kings to support and secure him in his Pontifical Chair of State and as executioners of his wrath and displeasure against all that shall but peep and mutter any thing against him or any of his decrees or orders or give him the least disturbance That this is the design tho' the other be pretended appears in that the Pope is well enough contented that these Kings should tolerate or connive at any wickedness in their Dominions though never so dishonourable to Christ and Christianity and destructive to his Religion in the power of it provided they be but tender of his Interest and will not connive at any Affronts put upon his Government as Papal Men may do what they will provided they meddle not with the Popes Crown or the Monks bellies was the saying of Erasmus S. 21.6 Again as the Popes do claim a supremacy over Temporal Princes for themselves so they do a priviledge and exemption for their subordinate Clergie from the Temporal power Concil Trid. Sess 25. as holding immediately under their Ecclesiastical Head the Pope which is another device to strengthen their Interest For hereby all his Clergy are the faster tied and engaged to their grand Master the Pope and at the greater liberty act securely in abetting his Interest and serving his designs as occasion and opportunity serves S. 22. 7. As the false Apostles broached Doctrines tending to Licentiousness to increase their party and strengthen their Interest so the Authors and Founders of Popery have set on foot certain corrupt doctrines good for nothing but to increase their party and wealth thereby and to strengthen their Interest Such is that of a pretended power vested in the Pope and from him derived to every Priest of absolving men and forgiving their sins upon such easie terms as the confessing them to the Priest and doing such slight Penances as he out of his Indulgence to them if they please him is pleased to appoint And which is yet worse if worse can be viz. the Doctrine of the Popes power not only of granting Indulgences for Sins past but also Dispensations to commit them for time to come And that such a power is pretended to we learn from Authors of their own Espenseus hath told us that They allow not only the Laity but also their very Clergie-men to dwell with Whores and Harlots and to beget Bastards for a certain Tax Comment on Tit. p. 478 479. Also De Continentia Lib. 2. Cap. 7. And the Princes of the Roman Empire assembled at Noremberg in the years 1522 1523. complained that the Popes sucked the marrow of the peoples Estates by Indulgences and that they heightened the imposture by their hireling Cryers and Preachers and that Christian piety was banished while to advance their Market they cried up their Wares for the granting of wonderful peremptory pardons not only of Sins already committed but of Sins that shall be committed So that by the Sale of these Wares as they said together with being spoiled of their money Christian Piety is extinguished while any one may promise himself impunity upon paying the rate that is set upon the Sin he hath a mind to commit Fasciculus rerum experendarum fol. 177 178. And if the people can believe that the Pope hath power by his Dispensations to bear them out for money in such Immoralities they may as well believe also that he hath power to dispense with their taking of such Oaths and entering into such Obligations which they never intend to keep or to do any other thing as bad especially if it any way tend to the advancing of the Catholick Cause And if so by what Test can they be discovered to be really what they are when they have a mind to conceal it or what security can such Oaths or other Obligations be to Protestant Princes of their true allegiance to them And what is said in this is the more considerable it we add thereto those other two loose Doctrines of theirs the one touching the lawfulness of their breaking Faith with Hereticks such as they esteem Protestants to be and the other the Jesuitical Doctrine of Equivocation with mental Reserves Wherein also they exactly follow their Leaders the false Apostles For they as I have shewed thought or at least taught that in some cases they might deny Christ in word so they did but retain a belief in him in their hearts and partake with Idolaters in their Idol Sacrifices so they did but retain in their minds a belief that there were no other Gods but one and intended not any honour to the Idol The very complexion of these and such like Doctrines shews them to be calculated not to promote Religion and Virtue but to hook in filthy lucre to gratifie any that will but be for them in giving scope to their Lusts and to set men free from all ties of Religion and Conscience when they stand in the way of their Cause and Interest That which the Prophet of Old from the Lord charged upon the Priests then when he said They eat up the sin of my people and set their heart on their Iniquity Hos 4 8. falls upon
advantage of that and by corrupt arts under religious pretences rise to that greatness in the world as to cause the world to wonder after them do fairly seem to be prophetically pointed at by the Apostle as those which should carry on the Mystery of Iniquity to a greater height and prevalence when that which hindred was taken out of the way than it could reach to in the Apostles dayes But I need not lay the stress of proving the Authors of Popery to be the Actors of the second part of the Mystery of Iniquity upon this contexture of Scripture I have been beating upon for the thing I suppose will appear evident enough of it self if there had been no such thing written as what we have in 2 Thes 2. For if they out of a worldly design have corrupted the Christian Religion under pretence of Religion as the false Apostles did Then they must needs be found workers of Iniquity in a Mystery as well as they And whether they have or no comes next to be enquired into which brings me to the Second part of what I was to discourse and that is to justifie my comparing the Authors of Popery with the false Apostles in managing a carnal and worldly design in corrupting the Christian Religion under pretence of practising and promoting it S. 15. To prepare my way to this I shall premise for our better understanding that though the design and practice of the false Apostles and the Authors of Popery agree in the general nature of them yet they differ in some circumstances But then that wherein they do differ does not tend to extenuate but to aggravate the iniquity of the design of the Authors of Popery and to render it more criminal than the same design was whiles and as it was managed by the false Apostles The false Apostles acting their part in times of open opposition against Christianity and of persecution for so much as but confessing the name of Christ were under a sore temptation of doing what they did at the first only to save their lives and to preserve and get a livelihood in the World Whereas those that gave the first rise to Popery taking their turn in the world in Halcy on days and peaceable times when persecution for confessing Christ was not only ceased but them when the profession of Christianity was grown into honourable request with High and Low they were under no such temptation of doing what they did in the way of their design either to save their lives or livelihood or to obtain an honourable estate becoming Bishops of the Churches of Christ being therein prevented by the bounty of Christian Emperors But their design and the mâ—â—ns used to effect it was founded in an excessive thirst and exorbitant desire after greatness and worldly domination exceeding all bounds of moderation And this difference renders the iniquity of the worldly design in the false Apostles but little in comparison of what it was in the Authors of Popery Solomon saith Men do not despise a thief if he steal to satisfie his soul when he is hungry Prov. 6.30 They pitty such as through a kind of seeming necessity are drawn to do that which yet is no wise-justifiable under such a Circumstance when the same thing done by another under no such temptation is looked upon with indignation To acquaint you then with the first rise of Popery as founded in a worldly design as at the first I acquainted you with the rise of the false Apostles and their corrupting the Christian Religion founded in a design for this world I must first represent to you the ill use which some of the Bishops made of that peace and prosperity which the Church of God at last came to enjoy when the Emperors and Rulers of the world became Christians themselves and imployed their power and greatness to encourage and farther the profession and practice of Christianity For when the Bishops of the Churches came not only to be protected in the discharge of their Function by publick Authority but also to be greatly honoured and highly advanced for their Profession and Function sake some of them were not able to stand under so great a weight of honour as was cast upon them without being puft up and transported with Pride and Ambition And this Pride and Ambition put them upon striving and contending for precedency preheminence and superiority of Jurisdiction which settled at last in a claim of Supremacy made by the Bishop of Rome in arrogating to himself the Title of Vniversal Bishop over all Bishops and Churches in the world And out of this pretended headship grew by degrees the whole body of Popery by which the Christian Religion hath been corrupted This exorbitant Power claimed by the Bishop of Rome could not be upheld and maintained without the assistance of such other Bishops and Presbyters as were willing to own and defend this headship Nor could that be expected without their sharing in the worldly advantages to be obtained thereby Nor could that grandeur which they designed for themselves be maintained without a suitable Revenue Nor such a Revenue be raised had the plain honest and moderate methods of Christianity been observed in it For if those methods could have been observed and their turn served thereby they would never have been at the trouble of inventing and defending new ones That these ends designed therefore might be served certain additions to and corruptions of the Scriptures and Christian Religion were pitcht upon as the likeliest means to obtain them but yet to be managed so as that the people might be perswaded that those additions and corruptions were either parts of Christian Religion or necessary means to promote it And these additions and corruptions are the things which we call Popery and not any other things though held and done by Papists which yet are agreeable to the Scriptures and which other Christians hold and do as well as they I do not say nor indeed think that the first Authors and beginners of Popery had in prospect or did practise all the additions and corruptions which afterward were found out by their successors as necessary to secure and uphold the Usurped Power and Greatness No more did their predecessors the false Apostles begin with all the evil devices which they were afterwards led to to carry on their design I shall now therefore come to instance in some of those additions and to shew how they fall in with this worldly design projected by the Authors of Popery and how like they look to what was designed and done by the false Apostles It may be every one of those additions in difference between Protestants and Papists may not directly tend to promote their worldly design though many of them do remotely which do not immediately But yet that will afford them no relief though so it should be Because when men invent some errors for no other reason but because they are serviceable to them in
being to be adored by the people as St. Peters successor as Christs Vicar and visible head of his Church and to be saluted with the appellation of The most Holy Lord the Pope and to have Kings do homage and kneel to them yea and to kiss their very feet That Pope understood well enough what he said when he said What need of the Net when the Fish is caught Certainly this seeking and receiving honour from men at this rate by the Popes hath been no very good argument to prove themselves St. Peters successors who was so shie as we know of being worshipped by Cornelius and of receiving too much honour from men when he had wrought a Miracle indeed for he said Ye men of Israel why marvel ye at this or why look ye so earnestly on us as though we by our own power or holiness had done this Act. 3.12 Unity in Religion indeed hath been pretended as the reason of the necessity of such an universal visible Headship as the Bishops of Rome have claimed But unity of Consent and endeavour in the people to honour them as such and to maintain them in that magnificence which hath followed that pretence and claim hath doubtless been at the bottom when the other hath been at the top as is visible in the effects of it If this were not so they would never so patiently endure those many differences and bitter contests about Religion as they do which are among the several Orders of men under their Government provided they do but all agree in owning the Pope and his claim of Succession Supremacy and Universal headship Whereas let any but whisper any thing against this and he shall quickly find a watchful eye over him and a heavy hand upon him So that 't is self-interest which is the White aimed at that still governs in the use of what power and preheminence is obtained though other things to cover the design are pretended S. 17.2 Another of their corruptions is a pretence to an Insallibility in the Popes in their Decrees Canons Constitutions and Determinations derived from St. Peter by virtue of their succeeding him Not that it can be reasonably thought that they can in earnest believe any such thing concerning themselves For several things uttered and done by them or some of them have bewrayed their own misgivings as to this as I could shew However they think fit to set a good face on 't outwardly to the world as being a thing necessary and useful for the carrying on of their worldly design For by perswading the people to believe such a thing concerning them they get a great advantage to make them become perfectly their creatures For if the people be made to believe that the Popes are Infallible and cannot err in the things aforesaid then they can have no pretence to dispute any thing imposed upon them by them but according to their own belief must become perfectly Vassals and yield absolute obedience to them A thing than which what could be more cunningly contrived by the Popes and their Confederates to serve their ends upon the people S. 18.3 And because several Religious Orders of men were thought as necessary to support this Ecclesiastical Monarchy as the Janizaries and Bassa's are to support the Turkish therefore some things likewise were thought necessary to procure reverence and respect to the Popes dependants in their several Orders and Degrees to the end the people might stand the more in awe of them and be the more ready to yield Obedience to them in execution of the several Offices and Orders they have received from the Pope their Head One of which is a power of Absolution and Forgiveness of sins vested in their Priests Another is a power of making a God for the people to worship by Transubstantiating the Bread and Wine in the Sacrament into the Real Body and Blood of Christ And who would not be glad of the favour of such wonderful men and do any thing to please them And by Auricular confession to a Priest another of their corruptions they lay the people under their mercy being thereby masters of their Secrets besides the advantage of giving intelligence in special cases which must needs keep them in a continual awe of them And by their receiving the Sacrament in both kinds when the Laity are suffered to receive it but in one another of their corruptions a great and sacred difference forsooth is put between the Clergy and Laity And besides the effect of the peoples publick Devotions is made to depend upon the intention of the Priest another corruption and therefore no need of having their Divine Service in the Vulgar tongue another corruption likewise added to that All still tending to make the people the more dependant upon the Clergy and the more governable by them in all things while they live and to be in the better disposition to be directed and prevailed upon by them in disposing of a good part of their Estates to the use of the Church when they die S. 16.4 Although the Scripture saith that every one shall bear his own burden and give an account of himself to God and tho' Christ hath said Search the Scriptures and the Bereans for doing so were highly commended yet in contradiction hereto the doctrine of Implicitie faith is set on foot by which men are taught to believe as the Church believes i. e. as their Priests believe they believing what the Pope or the Pope and a General Council of their own have defined for matter of faith And this also is one of their corruptions and the forbidding the Laity to read the Scriptures without licence from their Bishop is another and so is their Tenent that Ignorance is the mother of devotion And what is their end in these things Vnity in the faith and to keep people from running into heresie is pretended and is not puting out a mans own eyes that he may be led by another a good expedient not to miss his way but their end is to secure their corrupt principles and fraudulent arts from being inquired into by the people and that the Laity may depend upon them as infallible Oracles even in those things which are imposed upon them under one Religious pretence or other when in truth it is but to serve the Pope and his Clergies interest and to work their ends upon them undiscovered It is that the people might entirely and tamely resign up themselves to them and be wholly at their dispose in what they would have them believe and do though otherwise it should seem to them never so unreasonable And therefore Bellarmine de Rom. pontif l. 4. c. 5. fin was not ashamed to affirm that if the Pope should err in forbidding Virtues and commanding Vices yet the Church were bound to believe Vices to be good and Virtues bad unless she should sin against conscience But when the blind that are led and the blind that lead are both in the
things by what hath been fairly argued from Scripture by many to satifie doubtful minds concerning them I am very confident they might easily come to plenary satisfaction in their own minds touching this one thing viz. That to bear with those things for the peace of the Church and the Interest of Religion in general is not so inexpedient as it is by dividing the Church by forsaking that Worship to expose our Religion to the scorn and contempt of Atheists Infidels and Papists and to occasion alas too many others to become such and as it is to confound and unsettle the minds of well meaning but injudicious people and to betray them into the hands of seducers and as it is to divert mens minds from the serious consideration study and practice of the weightier matters of Religion and to engage them in contentious janglings and uncharitable revilings and censurings to the destruction of true Piety and placing Religion much in Opinion and in being of a different form and party and lastly as it is to expose us all to the danger of the breaking in of Popery by strengthning their hands who are of that way and by weakning our own and by encouraging them in hopes of success by our Divisions to practise upon us and by all their Arts to improve the advantage we put into their hands by our distractions and yet these and such like have been the effects of dividing our Church And if to bear with those external circumstances of Worship for the sake of the peace and edification of the Church and securing to us our Religion be not so inexpedient as it is to draw on us the foresaid bad effects of our divisions by withdrawing from the worship it self for the sake of those circumstances Then the Rule before laid down and according to which St. Paul acted shews which of these inexpediencies in case both should be such is to be yielded to and born with that the other may be avoided Now that to bear with the foresaid Circumstances of worship is not so inexpedient as it is to cause divisions and the Consequents of them by forsaking the worship for their sake will easily appear by this viz. In that the Lord hath not declared himself against the former as he hath done against the latter Although God hath expresly appointed the substantial parts of his worship as the ministration of the Word Prayer and Sacraments yet he hath not so expresly appointed the external form method manner and circumstances of Administration as whether it shall or shall not be administred according to the external circumstances required in our Liturgy but hath left things of that nature to be ordered by general rules of Education Comeliness and Order according to the best skill and prudence they have into whose hands the providence of God hath put the ordering of affairs of that nature And although the external form of administration of Gods publick worship may be comparatively better in one Nation or Church than in another when but all one in substance as it would be in particular congregations also if all Ministers were left to their own liberty therein Yet the meanest of them would not be unlawful so long as nothing is done in opposition to any divine precept or to the defeating of the end of the external administration of Gods publick worship But God hath not left men to any such latitude to cause or not to cause divisions and offences in the Church as he hath for them to use different forms and circumstances of forms in his publick worship and therefore there cannot be the like reason to pretend Inexpediency in submitting to them as there is in causing divisions and offences in the Church by forsaking the publick worship upon account of them If the honour of God and good of men had been as much concerned in the external form of his worship in not having it in this way but in that as they are in mens keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace we have all reason on our side to think he would then have been as particular and express for this form and against that as he hath been for the peace unity and charity of the Church and against their contraries and their contrary effects which yet he hath not been What God said to the Jews when he found them hot for Sacrifices but cold and careless in the moral part of Religion may with a little variation be very aptly applyed to our case in hand I spake not unto your Fathers nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the Land of Egypt concerning burnt Offerings or Sacrifices But this thing commanded I them saying obey my Voice c. but they hearkened not c. Jer. 7.22 23 24. For when our Lord Christ sees us more nice about forms of worship and more zealous for this and against that than we are for peace and Charity and the honour and safety of our Religion and the good of other mens souls which are greatly wronged and endangered by our divisions may he not as truly say When I gave forth the Gospel spake I a word to my Disciples to be hot for that external form of worship you contend for in opposition to that you contend against But this I said have Salt in your selves and peace one with another let all your things be done in Charity endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brothers way that none occasion be given to the adversary to speak reproachfully and wo to the world because of offences and wo to him by whom the offence cometh and yet you have not been curious nice and cautious in these as you have been about the other Which if true what account can be given for our breaking the Church in pieces and exposing our Selves our Religion and the Spiritual and eternal concerns of others to such damage perils and hazards as have been mentioned and all for the sake of that which he commanded not I say commanded not definitively For doubtless they have been under a very great mistake who have asserted that nothing is to be done in the worship of God which he hath not commanded if they mean it not only of the intrinsick matter and substance of his worship but also of all external circumstances of administration as appears I suppose by what I have already said and by a due consideration of those very Scriptures upon which that opinion is supposed to be founded Such as Deut. 17.3 Jer. 7.31 19.5 32.35 Levit. 10.1 compared with Chap. 16.12 Chap. 6.12 13. Where when some have been censured by God for doing what he commanded them not it was in reference to false worship in the Substance of it done in opposition to what he had otherwise expresly appointed and commanded but never in reference to undetermined