Subjects are strictly commanded to be subject and obedient to their lawful Governors and are like to perish if they rise up against them And to command them to rebel and rise up against their lawful Governors is to command them to break these sacred Commands of the Gospel and to do that for which they are like to perish and be damned Rebellion Perjury and Murder are very great and black Crimes and for such are men like to go to the Lake that burns with fire and brimstone as St. John shews Rev. 21.8 Murderers and all Lyars are to have their part therein and perjured Persons may be reckoned in the front of Lyars To command men to do these things is to command men to do things which are extraordinary sinful and wicked and to be the great Firebrands of the world And yet such is the Practice of the Church of Rome to do these things flat contrary to the clear Commands of the Gospel of Christ and to the destroying of whole multitudes of men both here and hereafter too XV. Their debasing and vilifying of the blessed Word of God as obscure and dangerous and insufficient and productive of Errors and Heresies And their making their oral Traditions of as great Authority as the Word of God and letting them take place of it is sinful enough and inconsistent with the sacred Scriptures We are to believe that the Wisdom and Goodness of God hath taken sufficient care that the Canon of the sacred Scriptures should be perfect and compleat and that there should be no defect in them And we are to believe that they are plain and clear enough to direct all men to eternal Life that will diligently read them and hear them read and preached and carefully practise what they are taught therein And this is St. Paul's testimony of them 2 Tim. 3.15 And that from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto Salvation thro' faith which is in Christ Jesus These sacred Writings will furnish all men with sufficient Instructions for Salvation And saith he ver 16 All Scripture is given by Inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness That the man of God may be perfect thorowly furnished unto all good works St. Paul doth here shew that the sacred Scriptures are sufficient to make men perfect and thorowly furnished with Instructions to all good works Tho' some places in them are somewhat dark and difficult to be understood yet such as will carefully mind these sacred Writings may there clearly see their duty and what they are to do that they may obtain eternal Life and there are no Instructions compararable to them And we may see that oral Traditions ought not to be had in as great a veneration as the sacred Word of God and be made of as great Authority For this would be little less than adding to the Word of God to make such Traditions as sacred and of as great Authority as it And this we are commanded not to do Deut. 4.2 Ye shall not add unto the Word which I command you neither shall you diminish ought from it that ye may keep the Commandments of the Lord your God which I command you And Deut. 12.32 What thing soever I command you observe to do it thou shalt not add thereto nor diminish from it Thus strictly did God command that nothing should be added to or diminished from his sacred Word and Commandments And the Jews are sharply rebuked by our blessed Lord for making void the Commands of God by their Traditions Matt. 15.3 But he answered and said unto them Why do you also transgress the Commandment of God by your tradition For God commanded saying Honor thy father and mother and he that curseth father or mother let him dye the death But ye say whosoever shall say to his father or his mother It is a gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me and honor not his father or his mother he shall be free Thus have ye made the Commandment of God of none effect by your Tradition And saith he Mar. 7.7 Howbeit in vain do they worship me teaching for doctrines the commandments of men For laying aside the Commandment of God ye hold the tradition of men The Jews are sharply rebuked for setting up their Traditions so high and making the Word of God void by them and yet they pleaded as much for their Traditions as the Church of Rome can for her's And here we see how vain a thing it is for men to pretend to serve God while they teach for doctrines the commandments of men and follow their own vain traditions and make them of equal authority with the Word of God and prefer them before it And saith St. Paul to Titus Tit. 1.13 Wherefore rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the Faith not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men that turn from the truth The Commandments of men if they once come to vie with the sacred Word of God are utterly to be rejected By these places and what hath been said before we may see that it is great wickedness to set up any thing in competition with the sacred Word of God The Practice of the Church of Rome in undervaluing the blessed Word of God and setting up of Traditions in competition with it and preferring them before it is repugnant to the sacred Scriptures and a very great Crime XVI Lastly the bloody Cruelty of the Romish Church is not at all consistent with the Gospel of Christ The bloody Wars that have been raised by the Papists against the Protestants and such as refused the Communion of the Romish Church upon the account of Religion the cruel Inquisitions that have been set up in the Popish Countries the merciless Massacres that have been committed and perpetrated by them and the horrid and hellish Burnings that they have used towards the Protestants are not at all agreeable to the sacred Scriptures The Persecutions of the Romish Church exceed all the Persecutions of the Pagan Emperors and more Christian Blood hath been shed by Papists than ever was shed by the Heathen Emperors But such bloody Cruelty and such treacherous Murdering and destroying of men by thousands is not at all agreeable to the Gospel of the blessed Jesus the Prince of Peace that came to save mens Lives and not to destroy them When Solomon's Temple was built it was built without the noise of hammers and axes and iron tools 1 King 6.7 And the Gospel was introduced without the noise and use of iron-weapons Our blessed Saviour and his Apostles practised no such Cruelty and commanded no such thing to be practised by Christians but the quite contrary Our Saviour gave no positive command to his Disciples to take up the Sword as I conceive by those Words Luk. 22.36 And suffered St. Peter to cut off Malcus's ear ver 50 only that
cause Jews Turks and Pagans to cry out against it when they see such inhumane Cruelty and merciless Murders committed by the Professors of it Such bloody Spectacles are of a very moving and frightful nature and very distastful and odious to all men that have any sense of humanity left in them and the ready way to make them abhor the Christian Religion when they see such as call themselves Christians to act like the worst of men And for this must they one day answer And a sad thing it is to see that such as call themselves Christians should now be the greatest Enemies of the Christian Church and put men to death in a merciless manner purely for Points of Conscience where the poor Sufferers have Truth and the Gospel of Christ on their side By what hath been said it is clear enough that the bloody Cruelty of the Romish Church is not at all agreeable to the Gospel of Christ but flat contrary to it By these particulars without going any farther we may see that Popery is not at all consistent with the sacred Scriptures and the Gospel of the blessed Jesus but quite another Religion directly contrary to it even in the Fundamentals of it For in the Christian Religion we are taught that Christ is the Head of the Church and are positively commanded to call no one Father and Master in such a high manner and to admit no Competitor with him But in Popery the Pope is the Head of the Church And tho' he pretends to be Christ's Vicar yet in truth and reality he is no such thing but acteth like a supreme Lord of the Church himself and will admit of the Christian Law and the Commands of the Gospel no farther than they suit with his humor and pleasure or interest and at his own will and pleasure doth over-rule them and herein doth take upon him a Power above our blessed Lord. And by these Papers it is plain that the Members of the Romish Church live in an open and notorious violation of the Christian Law and the Commands of the Gospel They call themselves Christians but in truth and reality they are not Christians but men of another Religion quite different from Christianity and may be called Papists in opposition and contradistinction to Christians For as we Christians do own Christ for our Head and profess our selves to be his Disciples and look upon his Laws and Commands as sacred and to be kept inviolable and do engage to take care to keep them So do they own the Pope for their supreme Head and are his Disciples and do set up his Laws and Commands that are ratified by his Authority as supreme and above the Laws and Commands of Christ and look upon themselves as obliged to keep them inviolable and take more care to keep them than the Laws of Christ The Romish Church notwithstanding its outward profession of Christianity yet in reality is not to be looked upon as any part of the true Christian Church but as a People of another new Religion And there is no doubt to me but that the Papists are the Gentiles spoken of Rev. 11.2 and that the time is now at hand that they shall tread the holy City the true Church of Christ under foot forty and two months And that the Popedom and Romish Church is the Beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless Pit that shall make War with the Witnesses of God and overcome them And that those names of Sodom Egypt and Babylon the Great do belong to Rome and the Romish Church And the Learned and Reverend Archbishop Usher Dr. More and Dr. Barrow do not say much less Archbishop Usher 's Predictions Dr. More 's Antidote against Idolatry Dr. Barrows 's Treatise of the Pope's Supremacy And we may see that Divine Providence hath afforded as great a Cloud of Witnesses against Popery in these latter ages of the World as it hath against the Pagan Idolatries in the Primitive times of Christianity And I suppose upon a fair examination it will appear that far more have died Martyrs here in Europe in testifying the Truth against Popery than have died Martyrs in the time of the Pagan Emperors in testifying the Truth in opposition to Pagan Idolatry And when these things are fairly considered I cannot see but that Christians heretofore might with as much safety to their Souls turn to Pagan Idolatry as Protestants may now turn to Popery The glorious Martyrs that have suffered in the Popish Persecutions are as high a Testimony against Popery as any that can be found I believe against Pagan Idolatry And for my part I do not see how Protestants that turn to Popery can be saved or how Papists that wilfully continue therein when they see and consider these things can be saved and escape eternal Destruction How far God may extend Mercy over and above the declarations of the Gospel in pitying the ignorance and infirmities of some is an Arcanum that we cannot look into and belongs not to us to open But as to the declarations of the Gospel there is certainly no hope of Salvation to be had in the Romish Church as it is now corrupted And if any one thinks that I strain the Cord too far and would have me to remember to keep within the bounds of Charity I return him this answer That I am in Charity with all the World as I hope and desire the Good and Well-being of all men both here and hereafter And that I think it far greater Charity to deal plainly and sincerely in a matter of such weight and moment than to use any deceitful and treacherous Flattery to the deluding of mens precious and immortal Souls and to give them any just cause to curse me hereafter when they are wrapt up in Eternal Wo and Misery I believe St. Paul and St. John were men full of true Christian Charity and yet they positively declare that those that commit such sins as they enumerate and reckon up are not like to be saved but to be eternally damned if they do not repent in time And seeing the Romish Church is so notoriously guilty of many of those very sins there is no cause that any good Body should be offended at me for asserting That there is no hope of Salvation to be had in that Church and for being willing to save both Protestants and Papists by endeavouring to keep the one Party from falling to such a corrupt and sinful Religion and to draw the other from it And our Church in effect declareth as much as I do For in Athanasius's Creed we have these Words Which Faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled without doubt he shall perish everlastingly And our Church having made this a part of her publick Liturgy hereby doth shew that this is her sense and that this was the sense and judgment of the Primitive times And seeing the Romish Church doth not keep the Catholick Faith whole and undefiled as it it clear enough by these Papers therefore our Church doth declare that the Papists and Members of the Popish Church are like-to perish everlastingly if they do not repent in time To conclude then seeing Popery is so notorious a violation of the blessed Word of God and there are such plain declarations in the sacred Scriptures against it seeing no less than Eternal Death is threatned to the things that are constantly practised therein and the Professors of it are accounted no better than Gentiles in the Revelation of St. John seeing God hath set a whole Cloud of Witnesses and Martyrs to give testimony against it by resisting unto Blood and by chusing rather to be burnt to death in the fire than to turn to it From hence we may well be assured of the sinfulness of this Religion and that it is at the hazard of our Lives and Souls if we turn to it There is no halting in this case for if we turn to it we go presumptuously upon Destruction Let us then be wise betimes and not trifle with Eternity and run wilfully into the Lake of everlasting fire Let us not by a little Terror of men be driven to it and so bring the Curse and Wrath of Almighty God upon our selves But seeing we are warned of its coming before hand let us do what we can to prepare our selves against it that we may not be born away with the violence of it when it cometh Let us reform and amend our sinful lives and be in a readiness to dye if God should call us to give farther testimony against it and let us then call upon him for his blessed Assistance and go cheerfully to the Stake rather than to turn to so sinful a Religion wherein we are like to perish to all Eternity And I desire that all well minded Papists would seriously consider what is said here and lay it to heart and not hearken to deluding Priests and Jesuits I hope and am fully persuaded that Mercy doth yet wait upon them and that if they will now return from Popery and become good Christians and live according to the Precepts and Commands of the Gospel they may preserve their Souls and that God will pass by their Provocations hitherto But if they do not now repent and return I doubt it will go very sore with the Papists of these Kingdoms For as I am confident and well assured that Popery is at hand and will prevail here for a time so am I also confident that after the 42 Months Rev. 11.2 are expired it will be driven out again and then I fear that the Wrath of God will fall very heavy both upon Papists and upon such Protestants as turn to Popery It is very probable that there may be some Bloodshed at its entrance but I expect that the great Slaughter and Destruction of men will be when it is driven out again You may peruse The Watch-man's-Voice and the Letter of a Protestant Clergy-man c. I have no more but my hearty Prayer That Almighty God of his great Mercy and Goodness would have mercy upon the whole Kingdom and turn us all from our own sinful ways into the path of Life and preserve us safe unto his eternal and blessed Kingdom for his dear Son Christ Jesus's sake Amen FINIS
any thing out of the sacred Oracles to countervail what is said of it Again we may see that it is an impossible thing for one spiritual Pastor to superintend and overlook the Affairs of the whole Church and to do it in such a Christian manner as it ought to be done There is no more likelihood that one Bishop should Rule and see to the whole Church than that one Temporal Prince should govern the whole World which hath never yet been done since it hath been overspread with Inhabitants It is altogether impossible for one Pastor to take Care of the Church that is scattered into the four quarters of the Earth and to administer Assistance to places a thousand or perhaps four or six thousand miles from him To such he can be nothing but an Inutile Pondus and hinder them of that speedier Help and Succour which otherwise they might have by having Pastors of their own that could act without waiting for his tedious Commissions And it is clear that particular and National Churches had Power to govern themselves without any dependance at all upon the Church of Rome The Epistles to the Corinthians do shew that they had Power to govern their own Church according to St. Paul's Direrections and Commands 1 Cor. 5.12 Do not ye judge them that are within saith the Apostle And by the Power of Christ were they to deliver over the Incestuous Person to Satan ver 4 5 In the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ saith St. Paul when ye are gathered together and my spirit with the Power of our Lord Jesus Christ To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus In this weighty Matter which was to be done in such a solemn manner there was no need of any Authority from St. Peter or Rome but they might act of themselves with the Power of Christ And saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 14.40 Let all things be done decently and in order By this Chapter and other places in his Epistles to the Corinthians we may clearly see that St. Paul doth give them full Power to govern and rule their own Church without any dependance at all upon Rome or any other Church And the Epistles to Timothy and Titus do plainly shew that they had Power to do so too And our Lord as I have shewed before hath expresly declared that no one of his Disciples should Lord it over the rest as the Kings of the Gentiles did Matt. 20.25 And this plainly shews that all the Pretences of the Roman Church of this kind are vain and groundless and not at all consistent with the Gospel of Christ But farther It is our Lord's Prerogative and Peculiar to be the Chief Shepherd and the Universal Head of all the Church and those that do assume such a Title invade his Prerogative and Right This the Apostles shews that our blessed Saviour Christ is the Supreme Head of the Church and the Chief Shepherd thereof Ephes 1.20 Which he wrought in Christ saith the Apostle when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places far above all Principality and Power And hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be the Head over all things to the Church which is his Body And saith he Ephes 5.23 For the husband is the head of the Wife even as Christ is the Head of the Church And again Col. 1.18 And he is the Head of the Body the Church who is the beginning the First-born from the dead that in all things he might have the preeminence And St. Peter sheweth that Christ is the Chief Shepherd 1 Pet. 5.4 And when the Chief Shepherd shall appear saith he ye shall receive a Crown of glory that fadeth not away And he tells the dispersed Jews to whom he wrote that they ought not to Lord it over God's Heritage ver 3. Neither as being Lords over God's heritage but being ensamples to the flock We see that no Bishops are to Domineer over the Church and that it is our Lord 's Right and Peculiar to be the Head and chief Shepherd of the Church and that no one ought to invade this Right and Prerogative of his And no one ought to be forward to give such Supremacy and Preeminence to any earthly Bishop and think it a light thing to do so Lastly Those that keep not the Doctrine of the Gospel pure and uncorrupt but fall to gross Errors and Heresies can be no true Governors of the Church at all much less the supreme Governors thereof This the sacred Scriptures plainly shew A Bishop must be blameless saith St. Paul Tit. 1 7-9 as the Steward of God Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught that he may be able by sound Doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers And such men as act flat contrary to the Gospel of Christ do make void their Authority Matt. 5.19 saith our blessed Saviour Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least Commandments and shall teach men so he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven And Joh. 15.6 If a man abide not in me he is cast forth as a branch and is withered and men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned No one must pretend to be a Pastor under our blessed Lord that doth not carefully observe his Doctrine and Commands but must then expect to be cast out like a withered branch that is to be cast into the fire and burned And St. Paul sheweth that an Apostle or an Angel that should pretend to come from Heaven which should preach contrary to the Doctrine of the Gospel is not to be heard and heeded but to be accounted accursed Gal. 1.8 But tho' we saith he or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you let him be Accursed As we said before so say I now again if any man preach any other Gospel unto you than that ye have received let him be accursed But it is plain by these Papers that Popery is another Gospel in that they make the Pope the supreme Head of the Church and allow him a Power to over-rule and disannul the sacred Commands of our blessed Lord at his own pleasure and to set up his own Commands in the room of them And how can the Bishops of Rome then that establish another Gospel and whom the Apostle here pronounceth accursed for so doing How can they I say be any Pastors at all of Christ's Church And what good Christian then that is zealous for our blessed Lord and his sacred Commandments can comply in such a sinful Religion as Popery is And saith St. John 2 Joh. 9 Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God If there come any unto you and bring not this Doctrine receive him not
he might have an opportunity of doing an act of mercy and kindness to him even at that time when he came to apprehend our Lord and to take him away to be crucified And he cured his ear again that no one might have any just cause to complain that any injury or wrong was done to him by Christ or his Disciples And when his Disciples would have called for fire to come down upon the Samaritans as Elias did because the Samaritans would not entertain them perceiving that they were Jews he rebuked them and told them that he was not come to destroy mens Lives but to save them Luk. 9.54 And when his disciples James and John saw this they said Lord wilt thou that we command fire to come down from Heaven and consume them even as Elias did But he turned and rebuked them and said ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of For the Son of man is not come to destroy mens lives but to save them And from hence it is plain that the Disciples of the blessed Jesus ought not to destroy mens lives but to do what they well can to save them Ananias indeed and Sapphira his Wife were stricken dead upon St. Peter's admonition of them Acts 5.1 But this seems to be done by the immediate power of God and St. Peter caused no violent hand to be laid upon them And this was for a very great Crime for lying to the Holy Ghost and to God And such sins against the Holy Ghost men are not now well capable of committing except God should now vouchsafe such evidence and demonstration of the Holy Spirit as was then which is not to be expected This place cannot be any encouragement at all now to Cruelty and Bloodshed Elymas for his wickedness was stricken blind upon St. Paul's words Acts 13.11 But this seems also to be done by the immediate power of God and it is probable that he had still time to repent and God might thus afflict him that he might be brought to repentance hereby if he would St. Paul ordered that the incostruous Person at Corinth should be delivered to Satan 1 Cor. 5.5 But this was for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus That by such chastisement he might be brought to repentance and so be saved He also delivered Hymeneus and Alexander to Satan 1 Tim. 1.20 But it was that they might learn not to blaspheme He ordered also that an heretick after the first and second admonition should be rejected Tit. 3.10 But gave Titus no command to put him to death And our blessed Saviour commanded his Apostles when he sent them forth to be harmless like Doves Matt. 10.16 Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of Wolves be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves Our blessed Lord and his Apostles practiced nothing like this bloody Cruelty and he commanded his Apostles the quite contrary and shews that he came into the World upon no such design but for a quite contrary end And the Gospel is full of Precepts commanding the highest charity and love and goodness that can be to all men even to our enemies Matt. 5.44 saith our Saviour But I say unto you Love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despightfully use you and persecute you That ye may be the Children of your Father which is in heaven for he maketh his sun to rise on the Evil and on the Good and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust And to this purpose Luk. 6.27 This universal love and charity are we to exercise that we may be the Children of God and imitate his universal love and kindness and if we do not so we shall not approve our selves to be the true Children of God And saith St. Paul Rom. 12.14 Bless them which persecute you bless and curse not And ver 20 Therefore if thine Enemy hunger feed him if he thirst give him drink For in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head Be not overcome of evil but overcome evil with good And saith he Gal. 5.22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace long suffering gentleness goodness faith or faithfulness meekness temperance These are the works of the good Spirit of God and not Bloodshed and Cruelty And saith St. Peter 1 Pet. 1.22 See that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently And 1 Pet. 2.15 For so is the will of God that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men This and not the Sword and Rack and Fire is the way that he prescribes to silence the ignorance of the foolish And 1 Pet. 4.8 And above all things saith he have fervent charity among your selves for charity shall cover the multitude of sins This fervent and universal love and charity doth the Gospel require And so far ought we to be from malice and cruelty towards others that we should rather be ready to lay down our own Lives for them when it is likely to be beneficial to them as St. John shews 1 Job 3.16 Hereby perceive we the love of God saith he because he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren And so far is the Gospel of Christ from tolerating and giving any encouragement to such bloody Cruelty and merciless Practices that it flatly declares that Murderers shall not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven but that they are like to perish eternally and to go to their Father the Devil that was a Murderer from the beginning as our Saviour saith Joh. 8.44 That such are not to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven St. Paul shews Gal. 5.19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest saith he which are these Adultery fornication Envyings murders drunkenness revelling and such like of the which I tell you before as I have also told you in time past that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God And saith St. John 1 Joh. 3.15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer and ye know that no murderer hath eternal Life abiding in him For Envy and Hatred and Murder especially are men to be shut out of the Kingdom of Heaven And saith St. John Rev. 21.8 But the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and murderers shall have their part in the Lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death Such bloody Murders and merciless Cruelties as are committed by the Romish Church are thus severely threatned in the Gospel and it Cries out aloud against them as directly contrary to it We are to lead holy and innocent Lives and to take great care that we do not cause the Christian Religion to be evil spoken of among Unbelievers Rom. 2.24 1 Tim. 6.1 Tit. 2.5 But such wicked and hellish Practices are the ready way to