his Power in this way Nay in this Kingdom of England he needs not stay for such pretences For his Holiness as appears upon Record has declared that this Kingdom is held in Fee of the Papacy And that whoever wears the Crown here is their Vassal and consequently may be turned out at pleasure What the effects of these Doctrines have been we of this Kingdom have had sufficient experience since the Reformation Not to mention the troubles they have given us in former times The instances are so many and so very well known that I need not name them But if they were all forgot The Late shall I say or the Present Popish Plot for the taking away the life of His Sacred Majesty and Subverting the Protestant Religion and the Established Government of this Kingdom now brought to light This alone though all the other instances were worn out of memory would sufficiently shew us what we are to expect from these Roman Principles as to the security either of our Prince or our Liberties or our Religion But blessed be Gods Name that this Cursed Design has been hitherto Defeated and we are here to Praise him for it and to Pray to him for a farther Discovery of it And blessed be his Name That he hath given us this Remarkable evidence that he has not yet abandoned us notwithstanding our manifold provocations Certainly this extraordinary Providence of God towards us is one of the most Comfortable Arguments that we can draw to ourselves That God has yet some Pitty for this Nation If we will but pitty ourselves And Lastly blessed be Gods Name that this Mercy has already had this good effect upon us That we are awakened into a more lively sense of the manifold Iniquity and Mischief and Danger of the Popish Religion and Party What is now further to be desired but that the Issue of things among us may be suitable to these beginnings God has once more given this Nation a great Opportunity for the Establishing her Tottering Candlestick and who knows whether ever the like will be offered again It therefore infinitely concerns all of us especially You to whom the Managery of Publick Affairs is committed to improve this Present Opportunity to the good purposes for which it was given That so this great Mercy and Providence of God be not lost upon us Offences may come And we may be disappointed But as our Saviour said Wo be to that Man by whom the Offence cometh Such a man will never be able to answer it either to God or his Country or at last to his own Conscience O may God so inspire you with the Spirit of Wisdom and Counsel with Temper and Moderation with a Spirit so disengaged from private Ends and Interests So unbyassed by particular Faction And so wholly intent upon the Public Good that you may be the blessed Instruments of Healing all the Distempers we groan under And of Deriving upon us those Blessings which we this Day Pray for That by your means Atheism and Contempt of Religion as also Lewdness and Debauchery of all kinds may be so discouraged that they shall not dare to appear with an open Face That by your means a stop may be put to the Scandalous Schisms and Divisions that are among us That if it be possible we may serve God with one Heart and with one Mind That by your means not only the Person of His Sacred Majesty and the Rights of his Crown may be secured against all wicked attempts whether of Papists or Others But also that upon his Head the Crown may be so Supported and so Flourish that we may at least be in a condition not to fear the Malice or the Power of any Foreign Enemy Lastly that by your means as effectual Provision as possible may be made both for the keeping out that Foreign Religion which as we have seen so little serves the ends of Christianity and so much disserves the Interest both of King and People And for the more firm Establishment of the Protestant Religion of the Church of England That so our present Candlestick may be continued to our Posterity and they as well as we may have reason to bless God for You. But in Order to the procuring those great blessings to the Kingdom There is a duty necessary to be performed by all of us in our private Capacities which is here specified in the Text viz. Repentance I will come unto thee quickly says our Saviour and will remove thy Candlestick out of its place except thou Repent Which Repentance How it ought to be performed by us Is the Third and Last thing I am to speak to But because I would not exceed the ordinary limits of a Sermon I shall only mention the Heads of those things which upon this Occasion are proper to be insisted on If we would Repent sincerely of our sins so as to do our parts towards the prevention of those Judgments that hang over our heads and the procuring those Blessings we stand in need of It will be necessary that every one of us do deeply Humble and Afflict our Souls before God for our own Sins the sins which we have in person committed Devoutly confessing them and begging of God That when he makes inquisition for a National guilt he would not remember them nor let the publick suffer any thing upon our account It is also necessary that we be duly sensible of the Common Sins of others so as to Repent of them also Lamenting before God the Corruptions of the Times The Publick Fashionable Vices of the Age. This was the Spirit of David who was concern'd for the faults of others as well as his own Rivers of Tears saith he run down my Eyes because men keep not thy Law Nay further In order to a National Repentance We are obliged to confess to God the Sins of our Forefathers and pray for the forgiveness of them also What my own former private sins are to me at present with respect to my personal Capacity the same are the sins of our Fathers to us all considered as a Nation or People We are to Repent as well of the past as of the present sins of the Land This is the Rule that God himself hath prescribed for a Publick Repentance And for not putting that Rule in Practice the people of the Jews in our Saviours time severely suffered For upon the Men of that Generation as our Saviour had threatened was Revenged all the Righteous blood shed in the Land from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zachariah Though yet none of that blood was shed by that Generation Great reason therefore have we at this day seriously to put up to God that Petition which we so often repeat in our Litany Remember not Lord our Offences nor the Offences of our Forefathers but spare us good Lord spare thy people whom thou hast Redeemed with thy most precious blood and be not angry with us forever But to make this Repentance such as it ought to be there is further required a through Change in our Hearts and Minds So that as we Confess and ask Pardon for the Faults of our Lives we should also amend them Without this all our Ceremonious Humiliation will signifie nothing Nay We must not only Reform Ourselves but do what we can in our Spheres towards the Reforming of Others And every one of us might do a great deal if we would though it was but in this one thing In heartily discouraging Scandalous and Open sins where ever we meet with them So far as it may be done without breach of Respect to our Superiors or Forfeiture of common Prudence If Vice had once an ill name in the world Was once generally stigmatized with Reproach and Ignominy it would quickly lose its Empire and thousands that are now the slaves of it would become Proselytes to Virtue But further if we truely fear the Judgment I have been speaking of and by our Repentance would prevent it Let us make this particular expression of that Repentance viz. Let us set a great Value upon the Religion we at present enjoy Let us in all our Actions shew a great Zeal and Concernment for it and do what we can both towards the continuing and promoting it If Every one of us in his way would but express half that Zeal and Industry and Diligence in the Cause of our Religion that we see our Adversaries do We should probably in a very little time see a quite different Face of Things And should not only put a stop to their present Successes but gain so much ground upon them as to cast them into despair of ever making a Conquest of this Nation But here is the misery we are so Confident and Secure of the goodness of our Cause that we think it will support itself without any help of ours Let us in this Point learn Wisdom from our Enemies But especially let us practise heartily those Virtues which our Religion peculiarly Teaches as Opposed to Popery Let us be Meek and Gentle and Long-Suffering even to those that differ in Opinion from us Let us hate all Tricks and Devices and Equivocations both in our Words and our Carriage Let us be Constantly and Inflexibly Loyal to our Prince and let no consideration in the world make us violate our Allegiance to him To all which Let us in the last place add our earnest and constant Prayers to God That he would be pleased to take pity of us To avert the Judgments we are threatened with and continue the Mercies we have hitherto enjoyed That he would protect our Religion and make it to flourish more and more That he would preserve our King our Government our Laws And in order thereunto That he would Influence and Direct all the Publick Councels especially the great Councel of the Nation now Assembled in Parliament That this Session of Theirs may have a Happy and a Glorious Issue Which God of his Mercy grant c. FINIS Cap. i. 20. Ibid. Cap. ii 2 3. V 6. Luke xiii 6. Bellar. de Rom. Pontif. lib. 4. cap. 5. De Nat. Deor lib. 3. Matth. xxiii 35.
A SERMON Preached on the Day of the Public Fast April the 11 th 1679. AT St. Margarets Westminster BEFORE THE Honourable House of Commons BY JOHN SHARP Rector of St. Giles in the Fields and Chaplain to the Right Honourable Heneage Lord Finch Lord High Chancellor of England Published by Order of the House LONDON Printed by M. C. for Walter Kettilby at the Bishops Head in St. Pauls Church-Yard 1679. A SERMON ON REVEL ii 5. I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy Candlestick out of his place except thou repent WE are this day met together to humble ourselves for our sins before God and to implore his mercy to this Nation in the Preserving our King our Laws our Religion and our Lives and in Blessing the present Publick Counsels in order thereunto And never was a work of this nature more seasonable or more necessary than at this time and to us of this Kingdom For as our sins were never greater never cried louder to Heaven for Vengeance so the Judgments they deserve did never more visibly threaten us than they do at this Day Insomuch that if our circumstances be duly considered we may have just reason to apprehend that our Saviour in the way of his Providence does now speak to the People and Church of England the same words that he ordered St. John by the way of Letter to speak to the Church of Ephesus Remember from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy Candlestick out of his place except thou repent This Church of Ephesus as also the other six Churches of Asia to each of which St. John by the command of our Saviour doth here address a several Epistle were at the time when these Letters were dictated very flourishing Churches favoured as much with the especial presence and influence of Christ as ever any Churches were This appears from the Preface to this Epistle in the first Verse of this Chapter wherein Christ the Author of the Epistle is described as holding the seven Stars in his right hand and walking in the midst of the seven Golden Candlesticks The seven Stars are the Angels of the seven Churches as he himself Interprets them that is according to the sence of all Antiquity The Bishops the Presidents the Governours of those Churches His holding them in his hand is his supporting and directing them for the good of the people The seven Golden Candlesticks in the midst of which he walked are as he himself likewise expounds them the seven Churches themselves as being the places where those Stars those Lights did shine And his walking among those Candlesticks is his presence in those Churches Encouraging or Reproving Rewarding or Punishing the members of them as there was cause having the power in his hands either to continue those Lights among them or to remove them to another place I insist on the Explication of this passage because it lets us in to the meaning of the phrase that we meet with in the Text of removing the Candlestick out of its place which from hence we plainly see to be the Un-Churching any people the withdrawing the Light of the Gospel from them Well But this Church of Ephesus to which the Epistle I am now concerned in was written how much soever Christ had done for them had it seems made but a bad requital of his kindnesses At first indeed they had walked very worthily and are much commended by our Saviour for their Zeal and Piety and Labour in Religion but now they were fallen to a great degree of negligence and remissness It is true they at this time continued Orthodox in their Doctrines and Opinions they did both know and profess the true Religion and were Zealous against false Doctrines which also our Saviour takes notice of and commends them for This saith he thou hast That thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans which I also hate but yet notwithstanding so offended was he with the Loss of their first Love the decay of Devotion and Charity among them that he threatens them solemnly in the Text That if they did not repent and do the first works he would remove their Candlestick out of its place that is as I said he would withdraw from them his presence and the Light of his Gospel This is a brief account of my Text as to the first design and litteral meaning of it that is as it concerns the Church of Ephesus I now desire leave to make such Application of it to ourselves as may be subservient to the ends designed in the Solemnity of this Day And we have warrant enough to make such an Application for let us not flatter ourselves what is here Reproved and what is here Threatened hath not such a peculiar respect to the particular Church of Ephesus but that it doth equally concern all Churches so far as they fall under the same Character Which whether we at this day day do or no it is fit we should seriously examine ourselves about Here are three things considerable in the Text. First a great Sin and Guilt supposed Secondly a great Judgment denounced for that Guilt no less than the Un-Churching of that people that had contracted it Thirdly the means prescribed for the averting that Judgment viz. Repentance My Application of the Text shall proceed upon the same Heads that is I shall first desire leave to enquire whether we of this Nation at this day for our manifold sins and guilt may not be judged to be in as bad or worse circumstances than the Church of Ephesus in the Text and consequently have not just reason to fear the same Judgment that they are here threatned with Secondly I shall consider the Judgment here threatened how grievous a one it is and consequently how great an argument the consideration of it ought to be to us all to Repent Thirdly I shall speak somthing of this Repentance how it ought to be exprest if we would thereby prevent the Judgment I begin with the first of these points which concerns our sin and our guilt to make some representation of the Spiritual Maladies and Diseases that this Nation groans under those publick grievances by which the Holy Spirit of God is provoked to withdraw himself from us and to give us up to the Power and Dominion of other Masters This I must confess is a very melancholy and unpleasing Argument but yet very necessary to be insisted on and that very freely too especially upon such an occasion as this and most of all when I speak to those whose Concernment and whose Care it is to inspect these Matters and from whom we hope for a Cure of our Distempers It is here taken notice of the Church of Ephesus to her commendation that she retained the truth of the Christian Doctrine in opposition to the Heresies of those times and this God be thanked may be
spoke of us at this day we are not much degenerated from the purity of Christianity as to Doctrinals Our Church may vie with all the Churches in the world for Orthodoxy and Conformity to the Primitive Church in matters of Faith And blessed be Gods Name this Light is not put under a Bushel There is perhaps no Church since the Apostles time wherein the Divine-Truth hath been more publickly and more purely taught or the Sacraments more rightly and duely Administred than among us and no Church wherein Knowledg has more abounded among all the members of it than it does now in Ours But the thing that is charged upon the Church of Ephesus is their corrnption in Manners and this is the point we are now concerned in and which t is fit the whole Nation should examine themselves upon and deeply lay to heart Though we still keep up the form of Godliness yet have we not in a great measure lost the power thereof Though the Principles which our Church Owneth and Professeth be excellently good Yet do not many of us horribly contradict them in our Practices Is there not a visible decay of Christian Piety to be observed among us and a Deluge of Vice and Wickedness of all sorts overspreading the face of the Land I speak not here of the faults of this or the other particular person for we know there was never any Age nor any Religion that was free from such but I speak of the National sins the reigning Vices of the Times the miscarriages that are so prevailing and so common that a publick guilt is contracted by them and the whole people may justly share in the punishment of them I must confess to speak strictly the Degrees and Proportions in which any Age grows better or worse than those that went before it are not easily to be measured unless we could live the space of several Ages and out of our own experience make observations and remarks upon them All that we have to make our estimate by is the Histories and Records that are left us of the state of former Ages with which we may compare our own But yet this way is often very fallacious because it is the common humour and custom of men even of those that transmit the Memoires of their own Times to Posterity still to complain of their own Times most and to prefer the former Ages before that in which they live Upon this consideration I shall not be forward to draw a comparison between the former times and ours in order to the shewing how much greater our sins are than of those that went before us and consequently how much riper we are now for Judgment Most certain it is That God as he has done to the Sea so has he to every Nation set its bounds of wickedness beyond which they shall not pass and when their iniquities are at full he will not fail to repay vengeance into their Bosom The Canaanites the Jews and many other Nations I might name have been said instances of this kind of proceeding But when a Nation is come to that Fatal Period none knows but God and whether we are not already very near it we cannot tell but we ought infinitely to fear Too evident it is that things are in a very bad posture among us and our sins are grown to that height that it is a Miracle of the Divine patience and long-suffering that we are not already consumed Let us be more particular If the prevailing of Atheism in a Land and the contempt of God and Religion If open Lewdness and Debauchery and Immorality of all kinds If the turning Religion into a mere piece of Formality and outward profession If Schisms and Divisions and Factions in a Church And lastly if our general Unthankfulness for and Unprofitableness under the means of Grace and the many mercies and privileges that have been vouchsafed us If any or all of these sins can provoke God to forsake a Nation and give it up to ruin and yet these sins are both in the Scripture and by the ordinary course of Gods providence especially markt out for such then are we of this Nation at this time in a very deplorable condition and are to expect Judgment without Mercy unless it be prevented by a speedy Reformation For first of all was there ever more Atheism and Irreligion in a Christian Nation at least in a Protestant Christian Nation or more countenance given to such Doctrines and Opinions as directly tend thereto than now among us There are not many perhaps that dare in express terms affirm That there is no God because they know it is not safe so to do But many affirm it by consequence by asserting such Principles from whence it must necessarily be concluded For what is the consequence of such Doctrines as these That there is nothing but Body in the world and that the very Notion of a Spiritual Incorporeal Being implies a contradiction That there is nothing Just or Unjust Virtuous or Vitious in itself but as it is made so by the Laws of the Kingdom That all things come to pass by a Fatal Necessity and that no man is so free and Agent as to be capable of Rewards and Punishments for his Actions What is the result of these Doctrines but the necessary introducing of Atheism and the banishing Religion from among men It being upon these Principles not only a needless impetinent but an absurd contradictious thing And yet are not these the avowed Principles of too many among us and those too that are the great pretenders to Reason and Philosophy But what has been the effect of such Philosophy Why suitable enough to the Notions of it You may meet with those that make no scruple to scoff at God and every thing that relates to the other world and to turn into Ridicule every thing that is Sacred And he is accounted the Great Spirit that thinks freely and dares speak boldly what he thinks And if a man will set up for a Wit he cannot take a more effectual course to gain him that Reputation in many Companies than to be confident and peremptory in contradicting the common Sentiments of men as to Religion To be able to Burlesque the Scriptures humorously To be dexterous in imploying Religious Phrases to Scurrilous Purposes and to Baffle and Droll out of countenance those that stand up for the Reputation of Sacred things As the world goes it is a piece of virtue to believe a God and Providence and future Rewards and Punishments with the other Principles of Natural Religion They do very well that go thus far But as for Instituted Reveald Religion for instance Christianity How many are there that think themselves no way concerned in it but hold it in the same rank with Judaism and Mahometanism And if they profess that rather than either of these it is only because they were born and bred up in it It is the Religion of the Country
Holiness and Purity How our Brethren of the Separation will dispose of their Members that are of this temper I know not But as to all those that pretend to be of our Communion and yet live scandalous lives and think that their owning themselves for the Sons of the Church will make Atonement for their Immoralities It is to be feared they have done us more hurt than ever they will do us good And unless they would Reform it may perhaps be wished that we were rid of them Let them declare themselves Fanaticks Papists Any thing rather than Members of the Church of England And though by their Recession and going over to the Enemies Camp we might possibly be so weakened that we could not support ourselves but must be forced to fall under our Adversaries Yet I do not know whether even then the Church would not be the better for it And it would perhaps be more desireable to live in a mean low afflicted condition without such Company than to govern the world with it But Fourthly These are not all the Maladies which this distressed Church and Nation labours under There is another Wound that is as Wide and Bleeds as much as any of the rest And which if timely care be not taken of it may cause her expiration as soon as any other I mean the Unnatural Un-Christian Feuds and Divisions that are amongst us our Nations being rent and torn into so many Parties and Factions and the cruel and bitter Animosities with which each party does prosecute the other And all this if men would consider for Little things in comparison things certainly not worth all this heat things that the Wisest and Best of the several dissenting parties confess to be indifferent O! How do men by these foolish and unaccountable Divisions weaken the common interest that all pretend at least to be concerned for What advantages are hereby given to the Adversaries It is likely indeed that as They first set on foot so They still continue to foment these differences They laugh at this opportunity of making Proselytes to their Religion and a plentiful Harvest they have hereby Reaped to themselves But where is our wisdom in the mean time Have men no more understanding than to be still hot and eager in their contentions about a shadow when there is an Enemy at the Gate that is in a fair way to take from us the Substance Some indeed may be apt to dispute which side ought to comply Whether the Dissenters ought to come over to the Established Church or the Church to them It is not now a time fully to debate the Merits of that Cause But this may be truly said If men would be honest and sincere and mix no passion or worldly concernment with their Religion the Point would soon be Decided on the Churches side Every man that calls himself a Protestant would think himself obliged to obey Lawful Authority in all things where he was convinced their commands were not Unlawful And if he could not with a safe Conscience come up to it in all things he would come up as far as he could And as for those things that he was not satisfied about as he would not Condemn or Censure Those that were persuaded or practised otherwise so neither would he raise any disturbance in the Church by joyning himself to an opposite Party And on the other side Those that did Conform to the Church in all things would not withdraw their Charity from their fellow Christians for not doing so much as They. Though they differed from them in several Opinions yet they would joyn hands with them in all Christian Offices of Mutual Love and Charity and in a joynt opposition of the Common Enemy But alas Things are not thus with us And I note it as a fault for which we ought deeply to be affected this Day And if men did duely weigh the sinfulness and the danger that all Schisms and Separations of this kind do bring upon a Nation they would be thus affected If human conjectures about the Reasons and Causes of Divine Judgments may be allowed it will appear from History and Experience that there has been as much War and blood-shed caused in the world as many Nations desolated as many Churches Ruined by the malignity and evil influence of this Sin of Schism as any other And if ever God in judgment shall think fit to give over this flourishing Church of ours as a prey to that mighty Hunter that would erect an Universal Spiritual Monarchy to himself upon the Ruines of all the particular Churches of Christendom we should have good Reason to believe that the unnecessary Divisions and Quarrels among ourselves had a great hand in bringing on the Judgment In all appearance we of this Nation might be Impregnable as to our Religion if those Protestants amongst us who have been so long separated from the Communion of our National Church would once return into its bosom that we might all heartily join together in Loving and Assisting one another and Opposing the publick Adversary But Fifthly and Lastly If the state of our Church and Nation was not near so bad as I have now represented it Yet there is another thing still that all even the best of us have reason to be sensible of and to mourn for as that which of it self is sufficient to bring destruction upon us And that is our Ingratitude to God for his many Mercies and Deliverances and our Unprofitableness under those means of Grace that he has been pleased so long to afford us I cannot call this a particular sin It is if you will an Aggravation of all the rest or all of them summed up together However I give it a particular consideration because it is a thing that God has set a Mark upon and has so far declared his displeasure against it that he has determined it a just cause to Un-people or Un-Church a Nation Our Saviour tells us that when a certain man had Planted a Fig-Tree in his Vineyard and came and sought Fruit thereon and found none he said unto the Dresser of his Vineyard Behold these three years I come seeking fruit on this Fig-Tree and find none cut it down it why doth it cumber the ground Let us apply this Parable to ourselves as certainly the Reason of it will sufficiently prompt us Was ever Fig-Tree or Vineyard more curiously Planted more carefully Drest more richly Manured more securely Fenced from the outrages of Beasts of Prey than our Fig-Tree our Vineyard the Church of England For of a Church this Parable is necessarily to be understood Is there any one of the Protestant Churches in Europe that has been so regularly Reformed that in the first Constitution of it was Established upon Principles so justifiable so agreeable with the Laws of Nature and Christianity and the Civil Rights of the Kingdom as this Church of England was Is there any Protestant Church in Europe whose Articles
next to the being of no Church it is the least desireable to be of This. And for all the specious Titles of Visible and Perpetual and Catholick and Infallible which they would amuse us with If we did seriously consider what a kind of Religion we now enjoy and what a kind of Religion will come in the place of it if ever they get their will of us we should sadly reflect upon the Change And for all we continued a Christian Country Yet we should lament over ourselves that our Candlestick was removed out of its place I believe there are few here but sufficiently understand what a kind of Religion this is and what you are to expect from it But yet I will beg leave to give a brief account of some of the Articles of it Not to instruct you but to give you occasion to consider how well it will sute with us of this Kingdom or indeed with Any that would be Christians after the way of Christs Institution It is a Religion whose avowed Principles are to keep their people in ignorance as much as they can For with them Ignorance is the Mother of Devotion And if you do but blindly Believe as the Church Believes and blindly Obey what is imposed upon you you are good Catholicks It is a Religion in which you will not be allowed to have any Prayers in public that you can understand When you come to Church you may entertain yourselves with saying over your Rosary which is a solemn set of Praiers containing Ten addresses to the Virgin Mary for One to our Lord and other Private Prayers if you have them But joyn in the Publick Service with the Minister you cannot unless you understand Latin It is a Religion into which as soon as you enter you must give up your Bibles For the people must not read the Scripture without especial Licence and not at all of that Translation you now have of it It is a Religion that Robs you of half the Sacrament For you must never be allowed to receive the Cup in the Lords Supper Notwithstanding the Institution of our Lord in express words And notwithstanding the Practice of the Primitive Church to the contrary It is a Religion in which you are so far from being permitted to try all things and to hold to that which is good according to the Apostles Command That you must wholly submit your reason and understanding to the Dictates of an Infallible Judg even so far if one of their greatest Authors say true to be bound to believe Virtue to be Bad and Vice to be Good if it shall please his Holiness to say so Nay It is a Religion in which you shall not be allowed to believe your very Senses For though four of your five Senses tell you that one of the Consecrated Elements in the Sacrament is a piece of Bread yet you are obliged under pain of Damnation to believe that it is not so But the very Body of Christ that was Crucified at Jerusalem and is now in Heaven and which upon this supposition must be Actually and Separately present in a thousand distant places at once every day It is a Religion that will bring you back to the Old Paganish Idolatry Or to that which is as near it as can be For as the Old Heathens had their inferior Deities their Daemons and Hero's to be Mediators between God and them So will you have your several Saints and Patrons of the like nature which you must apply to for the recommending your Prayers to the Divine Majesty And as they had the Images of their Gods and Mediators to worship and fall down before So will you also for the same purpose have the Images of the blessed Trinity and the Virgin Mary and the rest of the Saints It is true the Pagans were mightily reproved for these things both in the Scripture and by the Primitive Christians And they made several Defences and Apologies for their Practices And the very same doth the Church of Rome now make for her Invocation of Saints and Image-Worship But if the one were guilty of Idolatry there is little doubt but the other are so also For there is not an hairs breadth difference between the Pleas and Apologies that each party makes for it self Nay It is a Religion that will engage you in a more Unnatural Idolatry than ever the Pagans were guilty of Cicero that was a Heathen himself and knew as much of that Religion as any man living did Yet affirms that there was none so mad in any of the Religions of his time as to pretend to eat his God But yet this you must do in that Religion every time you Receive the Sacrament And the Priest does it every day when he says Mass. For he eats that which himself and you all must worship And you are taught to believe that what you worship in the Mass is God that is the very Humanity of our Saviour united personally to his Divinity It is true In this Religion there are many advantages and conveniences pretended that you cannot really have in the Religion you now profess But look you to them whether they will prove so in the event The easie ways they have to reconcile sinners to God even after the most Vicious life by the means of the Sacrament of Penance as it is commonly Taught and Administred in that Church Together with the liberty you may take in the choice of such a Confessor as you think will be most favourable to your Case Add to this The Virtue of Indulgences and Masses for the Dead As also the efficacy of Pilgrimages Reliques and Holy Garments c. For the purging of Sins All these things put together may perhaps rid you of a great many Uneasinesses and Scruples and Pangs of Conscience with which you might otherwise be troubled and which would not be so easily Cured in the Way that you are now in There is little doubt but upon the Commonly received Principles of that Religion you may go to Heaven upon much easier Terms than you can upon ours But yet for all that in a business of such consequence as the Salvation of a mans Soul is It is good to make a serious enquiry whether of the two Ways is the safer But there is one thing in this Religion which will not so easily go down with Englishmen And that is That you cannot therein be any longer good Subjects to your Prince than his Holiness will give you leave If his Majesty should be a Heretic as it is certain his present Majesty is in their account Nay In other Cases besides that of Heresie the Pope has power to Depose him and Absolve his Subjects from their Allegiance And that not only in the judgment of their most famous Casuists and by the Established Rules of their Canon Law but by the Decree of an Infallible General Council And it has been a frequent Practice of the Pope to make use of