verily eat and drink the natural flesh and bloud of Christ And what can any man do more unworthily towards his Friend How can he possibly use him more barbarously then to feast upon his living flesh and bloud It is one of the greatest wonders in the World that it should ever enter into the minds of men to put upon our Saviours words so easily capable of a more convenient sense and so necessarily requiring it a meaning so plainly contrary to Reason and sense and even to Humanity it self Had the ancient Christians owned any such Doctrine we should have heard of it from the Adversaries of our Religion in every page of their writings and they would have desired no greater advantage against the Christians then to have been able to hit them in the teeth with their feasting upon the natural flesh and bloud of their Lord and their God and their best Friend What endless triumphs would they have made upon this Subject And with what confidence would they have set the cruelty used by Christians in their Sacrament against their God Saturn's eating his own children and all the cruel and bloudy Rites of their Idolatry But that no such thing was then objected by the Heathens to the Christians is to a wise man instead of a thousand Demonstrations that no such Doctrine was then believed 3. It is scandalous also upon account of the cruel and bloudy consequences of this Doctrine so contrary to the plain Laws of christianity and to one great end and design of this Sacrament which is to untie christians in the most perfect love and charity to one another Whereas this Doctrine hath been the occasion of the most barbarous and bloudy Tragedies that ever were acted in the World For this hath been in the church Rome the great burning Article and as absurd and unreasonable as it is more christians have been murther'd for the denial of it then perhaps for all the other Articles of their Religion And I think it may generally pass for a true observation that all sects are commonly most hot and surious for those things for which there is least Reason for what men want of Reason for their opinions they usually supply and make up in Rage And it was no more then needed to use this severity upon this occasion for nothing but the cruel fear of death could in probability have driven so great a part of mankind into the acknowledgment of so unreasonable and senseless a Doctrine O blessed Saviour Thou best Friend and greatest Lover of mankind who can imagine thou didst ever intend that men should kill one another for not being able to believe contrary to their senses for being unwilling to think that thou shouldst make one of the most horrid and barbarous things that can be imagined a main Duty and principal Mystery of thy Religion for not flattering the pride and presumption of the Priest who sayes he can make God and for not complying with the folly and stupidity of the People who believe that they can eat him 4. Upon account of the danger of Idolatry which they are certainly guilty of if this Doctrine be not true and such a change as they pretend be not made in the Sacrament for if it be not then they worship a Creature instead of the Creatour God blessed for ever But such a change I have shewn to be impossible or if it could be yet they can never be certain that it is and consequently are alwayes in danger of Idolatry And that they can never be certain that such a change is made is evident because according to the express determination of the Council of Trent that depends upon the mind and intention of the Priest which cannot certainly be known but by Revelation which is not pretended in this case And if they be mistaken about this change through the knavery of crosness or the Priest who will not make GOD but when he thinks fit they must not think to excuse themselves from Idolatry because they intended to worship God and not a Creature for so the Persians might be excus'd from Idolatry in worshipping the Sun because they intend to worship God and not a Creature and so indeed we may excuse all the Idolatry that ever was in the world which is nothing else but a mistake of the Deity and upon that mistake a worshipping of something as God which is not God II. Besides the infinite scandal of this Doctrine upon the accounts I have mentioned the monstruous absurdities of it make it in supportable to any Religion I am very well assur'd of the grounds of Religion in general and of the Christian Religion in particular and yet I cannot see that the foundation of any revealed Religion are strong enough to bear the weight of so many and so great absurdities as this Doctrine of Transubstantiation would load it withall And to make this evident I shall not insist upon those gross contradictions of the same Body being in so many several places at once of our Saviour's giving away himself with his own hands to every one of his Disciples and yet still keeping himself to himself and a thousand more of the like nature But to shew the absurdity of this Doctrine I shall only ask these few Questions 1. Whither any man have or ever had greater evidence of the truth of any Divine Revelation then every man hath of the falshood of Transubstantiation Infidelity were hardly possible to men if all men had the same evidence for the Christian Religion which they have against Transubstantiation that is the clear and irresistible evidence of sense He that can once be brought to contradict or deny his senses is at an end of certainty for what can a man be certain of if he be not certain of what he sees In some circumstances our senses may deceive us but no Faculty deceives us so little and so seldom And when our senses do deceive us even that errour is not to be corrected without the help of our senses 2. Supposing this Doctrine had been delivered in Scripture in the very same words that it is decreed in the Council of Trent by what clearer evidence or stronger Argument could any man prove to me that such words were in the Bible then I can prove to him that bread and wine after consecration are bread and wine still He could but appeal to my eyes to prove such words to be in the Bible and with the same reason and justice might I appeal to several of his senses to prove to him that the bread and wine after consecration are bread and wine still 3. Whither it be reasonable to imagine that God should make that a part of the Christian Religion which shakes the main external evidence and confirmation of the whole I mean the Miracles which were wrought by our Saviour and his Apostles the assurance whereof did at first depend upon the certainty of sense For if the senses of those who say
the same church notwithstanding these Disputes because it is a very dangerous thing to leave it but they are more beholden to the Inquisition then to infallibility for this Unity 2. How do these Divisions and Heresies which disturb the Church prove that no man can be certain of his Religion If we can certainly know what the sense of Scripture is notwithstanding there are many different Opinions about it then the diversity of Opinions is no Argument against us if we cannot be certain of any thing which others deny dispute or doubt of then how can any Papist be certain that his Church is infallible For all the rest of the Christian Church deny this and scorn their Pretensions to it I may indeed safely acquiesce in the Determinations of an infallible Judge whom I am infallibly assured to be infallible how many contrary Opinions soever there are in the World But when infallibility it self is the matter of the dispute and I have no infallible way to know whither there be any such thing or where this infallibility is seated if diversity of Opinions be an Argument against the certainty of any thing which I am not and cannot be infallibly assured of then it is a certain demonstration against infallibility it self Unless we will take the Church of Romes word for her own infallibility we cannot have the Decision of an infallible Judge in this matter for she will allow no other infallible Judge but her self and yet this is so absurd a way that it supposes that we believe and that we dis-believe the same thing at the same time For unless we before-hand believe the Church to be infallible her saying so is no infallible proof that she is infallible and yet the very demand of a proof supposes that we are not certain of it that we doubt of it or dis-believe it When we ask the Church whither she be infallible it supposes that we are not certain of it otherwise we should need no proof and when we believe the Church to be infallible because she sayes so it supposes that we did before-hand believe that she is infallible otherwise her saying so is no proof The greatest Champions for the Church of Rome never pretended that they could produce any infallible proofâ— which is the true Church Cardinal Bellarmine attempts no more then to alledge some Motives of Credibility to make the thing probable and to incline Men to believe it and yet it is impossible we can be more certain of the Infallibility of the Church then we are that it is a true Church and if a Papist have only some motives of Credibility to believe the Church of Rome to be a true Church he can have no greater probabilities that it is an infallible Church Now not to take notice what a tottering Foundation some high probabilities though they amounted to a moral assurance is for the belief of infallibility which is to put more in the Conclusion then there is in the Premises The only use I shall make of it at present is this That we can at least be as certain of the meaning of Scripture as the Papists are that their Church is infallible for they can be no more infallibly assured of this then we are of our interpretations of Scripture and therefore if the diversity of Opinions about the sense of Scriptures proves that we cannot be certain what the true sense of it is the same Argument proves that they cannot be certain that their Church is infallible because this is not only doubted but absolutly denied by the greatest part of the Christian World and was never thought of by the best and purest Ages of it So this Argument proves too much and recoils upon themselves like a Gun which is overcharged and if for their own sakes they will grant that we may be certain of some things which are as confidently denied and disputed by others then the diversity of Opinions in the Church is no Argument that we cannot be certain of our Religion but only teacheth us greater caution and diligence and Honesty in our inquiries after Truth 3. These Divisions and Heresies that are in the Christian Church are no better Argument against the truth and certainty of our Religion then the diversities of Religions that are in the World are against the truth of Christianity The whole World is far enough from being Christian great part of it are Jews or Pagans or Mahumetanes still and this is as good an Argument to prove the uncertainty of all Religions as the different Parties and Professions of Christians are to prove that we cannot be certain what the true Christian Church nor what true Christianity is The Gospel of our Saviour was not designed to offer any force or violence to mens Faith or understanding no more then to their wills Were there such an irresistible and compulsory Evidence in the Gospel that wherever it was Preach'd it should be impossible for any man though never so wicked and ill disposed to continue an Infidel or to prove a Heretick Faith would be no greater a Vertue then forc'd Obedience and Compliance is The Gospel has Evidence enough to Convince honest Minds and is plain enough to be understood by those who are honest and teachable and therefore has its Effects upon those who are Curable which is all that it was designed for Those who will not beleive may continue Infidels and those who will not understand may fall into Errours and believe a Lye and yet there is Evidence enough to Convince and Plainness enough to Instruct well disposed minds and certainty enough in each to be the foundation of a Divine Faith The sum is this Though the Instructions of the Church are a very good means for the understanding of the sense of Scripture yet they are not the only means the Holy Scripture is a very intelligible Book in such matters as are absolutly necessary to Salvation and could we suppose that a man who never heard of a Church should have the use of the Bible in a Language which he understood by a diligent reading of it he might understand enough to be saved 2. If by Church is mean'd any Particular Church as suppose the Roman Catholick Church or the Church of the present Age it is absolutely false to say that the Church in this sense is alwayes a sure and safe means of understanding the Scripture What has been Universally believed by all Christian Churches in all Ages or at least by all Churches of the first and purest Ages of Christianity which were nearest the times of the Apostles and might be presumed best to understand the sense of the Apostles in the great Articles of our Faith is a very safe Rule for the interpretation of Scripture and the general Practice of those Primitive Apostolick Churches in matters of Government and Discipline before they were corrupted by worldly Ambition and secular Interest is a very safe Rule for our Practice also and this is the
people and are so desperately fond of this Device of keeping the people ignorant of what is prayed for that their Casuists have defined that a Man may say his Office privately in other Languages besides the Latin as in Hebrew or Greek but not in the Vulgar Language at the same time keeping the people in Ignorance and discouraging them in their devotions and exercising their Authority over them in the most dangerous manner that can be 6. Their ascribing spiritual Effects to several things which are purely of their own Invention is much to the discouragement of true devotion towards God And yet they have very many things of this Nature As Holy Water by the being sprinkled with which they believe rhe Devil shall have less power over them Agnus Dei's Swords and Medals which they wear to preserve them from dangers which being consecrated according to the Rules of their Church have through the devotion of the persons and the power of the Church a wonderful good effect though indeed God never promised any such thing To this Head I may refer also their Rosary which is nothing else but an odd combination of Pater nosters and Ave Mary's Several short prayers to the saying of which thousands of years of pardon of Sins are annex'd Their carrying the Image of St. Genovefa in procession at Paris and other Images in other places to obtain Rain c. And innumerable other such like practices on which Men are taught to relie and to expect great good by though they have neither any natural force or efficacy that way nor any assurance from God that such effects shall follow Nay even the Sacraments themselves according to the doctrine of the Church of Rome are only such a kind of charms for they are supposed to work effectually on the person without any devotion or Vertuous disposition being required of him in order to it Now whatever effect they promise above what the natural efficacy of the thing is apt and able to produce they must have express Authority from God or else they sadly delude and cheat those poor souls that depend upon them And at the best they are supposed only a shorter cut to Heaven an easier way of pleasing God and getting his Blessing and are invented only to ease a Man of the fatigue and trouble of the common and ordinary road of serving him by a constancy and regularity of Devotions Seventhly Their Manuals and books of Devotion which they give their People to read instead of the Scripture which they forbid to be used though they may design them as Helps yet I must range them among the Hindrances of Devotion For the best of them are so full of Tautologies and vain Repetitions that they must needs come uuder the censure of our blessed Saviour Matth. 6. though they use his own holy Name For so in the Jesus Psalter at the end of the Manuals of Prayers and Litanies printed at Paris in English An. 1682. In a Litany of fifteen Petitions the Name Jesu is repeated over above 130 times And in the same book in the Litany of the blessed Virgin they pray to her by 40 several Names being only so many distinct praises of her And the like is observable in all their books of Devotion which I ever saw Now their saying the same thing so often over is not contrived to help and Assist Attention or prevent Distraction or as a Repetition of what is more then ordinarly important or for any other good and prudent Reason but out of pure vanity and Ostentation or as it were even to flatter our blessed Saviour or the Saint which they pray to But most of the books and Legends which they put into the hands of their People to excite their Devotion and by which the People take an estimate of the Christian Religion are such wretched plain Forgeries and so pitifullie contrived Fables as can never be believed by Men of sense and if they could be believed are proper indeed to make Men Mad and Enthusiastical but not to advance true Devotion and he that reads only such books is qualified indeed to tell Stories and to believe Lies but no serious truth will stick to him or be valued by him So that such books as these are so far from doing good that they do much harm to Religion for they Imprint a wrong Notion of Religion on Mens Minds would make a Man believe that God is like a child pleased with Trifles that Religion and the Method of our Salvation is only a Charm and Trick which the Priests have gotten the receit of but that there is nothing in Christianity fiâ— to make a man wise and manly in his Worship of God or in the management of himself and practice of Devotion Nay the stories which are told in the Lives of their Saints and believed by the common people are enough even to deprave the natural Sentiments of Mankind concerning God and Religion so that perhaps it were much better to leave Men to the natural effluxes of their own minds then to pretend to assist them with such Helps as these That a little Water or a consecrated Bell should scare the devil or St Francis's rope charm and bind him would make a man have little fear of such an Enemy or a prodigious Veneration for such a Saint but how it should render a Man more piously affected toward GOD more relying on his Providence or more Religiously Carefull over himself I see not And these Stories though so apparently false yet being affirmed with such Confidence strike at the very Foundation of our Religion For it is apt to make Men believe that Christianity it self was at first propagated among a sad dull stupid and credulous Generation of Men when as really it first appeared in an Age as sharp-sighted as any Age before or since which is much for its Vindication It would tempt a Man to dispise a Religion in which such Men are Saints and such Practices commended and will set Christianity but on the same level with modern Judaism and Mahumetanism For the Jews have just as much to say for their Cabbala and the Turks for their incredible Fables for they are reported on the same Credit are just so credible in themselves and just as edifying of the People that attend to them The Miracles which they relate being often Just so useful as that pretended to be wrought in the Temple of Apollo when a Man coming out of the Temple it was observed that his body did not cast any shadow by which thing however strange in it self the Man was not much the better nor the World wiser But many of their Books of Devotion are worse then ridiculous for there are frequently such passages and prayers as I cannot tell how to vindicate from Blasphemy and Idolatry Saint Bonaventur's Psalter both in Latin and Italian I mentioned before in which there are I believe a thousand such Prayers to her or Expressions concerning her which I
they saw them were deceived then there might be no Miracles wrought and consequently it may justly be doubted whither that kind of confirmation which God hath given to the Christian Religion would be strong enough to prove it supposing Transubstantiation to be a part of it Because every man hath as great evidence that Transubstantiation is false as he hath that the Christian Religion is true Suppose then Transubstantiation to be part of the Christian Doctrine it must have the same confirmation with the whole and that is Miracles But of all Doctrines in the world it is peculiarly incapable of being proved by a Miracle For if a Miracle were wrought for the proof of it the very same assurance which any man hath of the truth of the Miracle he hath of the falsehood of the Doctrine that is the clear evidence of his senses For that there is a Miracle wrought to prove that what he sees in the Sacrament is not bread but the body of Christ there is only the evidence of sense and there is the very same evidence to prove that what he sees in the Sacrament is not the Body of Christ but bread So that here would arise a new Controversie whither a man should rather believe his senses giving testimony against the Doctrine of Transubstantiation or bearing witness to a Miracle wrought to confirm that Doctrine there being the very same evidence against the truth of the Doctrine which there is for the truth of the Miracle And then the Argument for Transubstantiation and 〈◊〉 Objection against it would just balance one another and consequeâ—â—ly Transubstantiation is not to be proved by a Miracle because thâ— would be to prove to a man by some thing that he sees that he dâ— not see what he sees And if there were no other evidence that Trâ—â—substantiation is no part of the Christian Doctrine this would â—â— sufficient that what proves the one doth as much overthâ—â—â— the other and that Miracles which are certainly the best and higâ—â— external proof of Christianity are the worst proof in the world of Trâ—â—substantiation unless a man can renounce his senses at the same tâ—â— that he relies upon them For a man cannot believe a Miracle withoâ—â— relying upon sense nor Transubstantiation without renouncing it Sâ— that never were any two things so ill coupled together as the Doctriâ—â— of Christianity and that of Transubstantiation because they draw sâ—veral ways and are ready to strangle one another because thâ— main evidence of the Christian Doctrine which is Miracles is resâ—â—ved into the certainty of sense but this evidence is clear and poiâ—â— blank against Transubstantiation 4. And Lastly I would ask what we are to think of the Argumeâ—â— which our Saviour used to convince his Disciples after his Resurrectâ—on that his Body was really risen and that they were not deluded by â— Ghost or Apparition Is it a necessary and conclusive Argâ—ment or not * Luke 24. 3â— 39. And he said unto them why are yâ—â— troubled and why do thoughts arise in your heartsâ— Behold my hands and my feet that it is I my self â—â—â— a Spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me hâ—â— But now if we suppose with the Church of Rome the Doctrine oâ— Transubstantiation to be true and that he had instructed his Disâ—ciples in it just before his death strange thoughts might justly havâ— risen in their hearts and they might have said to him Lord it iâ— but a few dayes ago since thou didst teach us not to believe our senses but directly contrary to what we saw viz. That the bread whicâ— thou gavest us in the Sacrament though we saw it and handled iâ— and tasted it to be bread yet was not bread but thine own natural body and now thou appealest to our senses to prove that thiâ— is thy body which we now see If seeing and handling be an unquestionable evidence that things are what they appear to ouâ— senses then we were deceived before in the Sacrament and if they be not then we are not sure now that this is thy body which we now see and handle but it may be perhaps bread under the appearance of flesh and bones just as in the Sacrament that which we saw and handled and tasted to be bread was thy flesh and bones under the form and appearance of bread Now upon this supposition it would have been a hard matter to have quieted the thoughâ—â— â—f the Disciples For if the Argument which our Saviour used did â—â—rtainly prove to them that what they saw and handled was his â—â—dy his very natural flesh and bones 〈◊〉 because they saw and â—andled them which it were impious to deny is would as strongâ—â— prove that what they saw and received before in the Sacrament was â—ot the natural body and bloud of Christ but real bread and wine â—nd consequently that according to our Saviours arguing after his â—esurrection they had no reason to believe Transubstantiation before â—or that very Argument by which our Saviour proves the reality of his â—ody after his Resurrection doth as strongly prove the reality of bread â—nd wine after consecration But our Saviours Argument was most â—â—fallibly good and true and therefore the Doctrine of Transubstanâ—â—ation is undoubtedly false Upon the whole matter I shall only say this that some other â—oints between us and the Church of Rome are managed with some â—ind of witâ— and subtilty but this of Transubstantiation is carâ—ied out by mere dint of impudence and facing down of Manâ—ind And of this the more discerning persons of that Church are of â—ate grown so sensible that they would now be glad to be rid of this â—odious and ridiculous Doctrine But the Council of Trent hath fastâ—ned it to their Religion and made it a necessary and essential Point of their Belief and they cannot now part with it if they would it is like a Mill-stone hung about the neck of Popery which will sink it at the last And though some of their greatest Wits as Cardinal Perron and of late Monsieur Arnauld have undertaken the defence of it in great Volumes yet it is an absurdity of that monstrous and massy weight that no humane authority or witâ— are able to support it It will make the very Pillars of St. Peter's crack and requires more Volumes to make it good then would fill the Vatican And now I would apply my self to the poor deluded People of that Church if they were either permitted by their Priests or durst venture without their leave to look into their Religion and to examine the Doctrines of it Consider and shew your selves men Do not suffer your selves any longer to be led blindfold and by an implicit Faith in your Priests into the belief of nonsense and contradiction Think it enough and too much to let them rook you of your money for pretended Pardons and counterfeit Reliques but let not the Authority of any Priest or Church perswade you out of your senses
that any other speculative scientifical Doctrine doth little or nothing conduce to a happy and blessed life but that on This our everlasting happiness doth depend and that we cannot reject This without certain Ruine Therefore we ought to take head that cunning Men do not deceive us that we do not hearken to the teachers of New Doctrineâ— which have no foundation in the Scripture their pretences to infallibility and demonstration in matters of Faith are false and unreasonable for they assume these great and unwarrantable privileges only to deceive the Ignorant and to obtrude fictitious articles of Faith upon Mankind Wherefore all that now remains is to make some short Reflections upon the Authours of Purgatory and other new-invented Doctrinâ—â— in the Church of Rome First They may be charged for imposing upon our belief things contrary to reason self-inconsistent and incongruous of this I will give but one instance which is their asserting that the Bread and Wine in the Sacrament is changed into the real and substantial Body and Blood of Christ For this is the hardest thing that ever was put upon men in any Religion because they cannot admit it unless their reason be laid aside as no competent Judge in the matter unless also they give the lye to the report of their senses And if they do this how shall we think that GOD made our Faculties true which if he did not do we are absolutely discharged from all duty to him because we have no faculty that can resolve us that this is of GOD for if our reason must not be trusted we must cease to be Men if our senses are not to be believed the chiefest proof of Christians falls to the ground which was the sight of those who saw our Saviour after he was risen from the Dead Now if I may not believe the reason of my â—â—nd in conjunction with three or four of my senses how shâ—ll I know 〈…〉 that any thing is this or that therefore I say that this Doctrine is a gross invention of Men contrary both to reason and sense Secondly The Truths they do acknowledge are made void by subtile distinctions or equivocations as for example their Doctrine of Probability and of directing the intention if a Man can find any Doctour among them that held such an opinion it makes that Doctrine probable and there is nothing so contrary to the rules of Vertue and Conscience but what some Romish Casuistical Doctour hath resolved to be good and practicable just as Tully sayes there is nothing so absurd or ridiculous which some Philosopher or other hath not maintained and asserted So by directing their intention they may declare that which is false and deny that which is true because they intend the credit of their Church and Religion this mere intention shall excuse them from the guilt of downright falshood and lying They are so well practised in equivocations that you cannot confide in any words they speak they are so ambiguous and of such doubtfull meaning in their evasions their Speech shall bear a double sense whereas no Man ought to use wit and parts to impose upon another or to make a Man believe That which he doth not mean For the Christian Law is plain and obvious void of all ambiguity or ensnaring speeches free from all Sophistications and windings of Language never flies to words of a dubious or uncertain signification but plainly declares the truth to Men therefore these practices are contrary to that simplicity and plain heartedness which ought to be in the conversation of every Christian Thirdly They super-add to Religion things altogether unlikely to be true and dishonorable to GOD which will appear in these following particulars I. The use of Images in the Worship of God an Idolatry they are too guilty of otherwise they would never leave out the second Commandment and divide the Tenth into two to conceal iâ— from the People We find better Doctrine then this among the Philosopeers who say God is to be Worshipped by Purity of Mind for this is a rational service and a worshâ—p most suitable to an immaâ—erial Beeing it being the use of that in us which is the highest and noblest of our Faculties II. The veneration of Reliques a very vain and foolâ—sh thing for there can be no certainty at this distance of time what they are and if they were indeed what they are taken for what veneration is or can be due to them For inanimate â—hings are far inâ—eriour to those that have life and for the living to worshâ—p things that are dead is unaccountable and irrational III. The Invocation or worship of Angels and Saints our Fellâ—w creatures particularly of the Virgin Mary to whom they make more Prayers then to our Saviâ—uâ— himself alâ—hâ—ugh her Name be not mentioned in aâ—l the Epâ—stles of the Apostles altâ—ough Christ himself as foreseeing the degeneracy of the Church in this thing did ever restrain all exâ—ravagant imaginations of honour due to her yet the adoration of her is the most considerable part of their Religion But why should a Man so prostâ—ue himself as to Worship those I am sure God would not have me Worship for he would not have us adore any Creature as the Apostle argues Col. 2. 18. It is but a shew of humility to worship Angels who are placed in the highest order of Creatures and if they are not to be Worshipped sure none below them are and God hath declared there is but one supreme self-existent Beeing and one Mediatour between God and Man the Man Jesus Christ IV. They withhold the use of Scripture from the People because they say Knowledge of the very Oracles of God will make them contentious and disobedient to Authority if this be true then the blame of all this must be laid upon our blessed Saviour for revealing such a Doctrine to the World as this is and thereby we should condemn the Apostles for making known such a Doctrine to Men in a Tongue they understand but I suppose the Papists are not willing to lay all the miscarriages of the World upon Christ and his Apostles Although Men may abuse the Knowledge of the Scripture yet the abuse of a thing that is usefull was never accounted a sufficient reason for the taking it away therefore Men are not to be hindred from the Know-of the Scriptures for fear they should become proud or rebellious for this would be as if one should put out a Man's Eyes that he might the better follow him or that he might not loose his way for there is nothing in the whole Doctrine of out blessed Saviour which is unfite for any Man to know but what is plainly designed to promote holiness and the practice of a good life the Romanists do indeed pretend that the unity and peace of the Church cannot be maintained unless the People be kept in ignorance then the mischief will be that for the end of keeping Peace and Unity in the Church
Palaestinians Egyptians Thebaeans Libyans Mesopotamians a Persiaâ— a Socrat. â— Hâ—l c. 8. p. 19. Scythian Bishop and many others from other Countries But there was but one Bishop for Africa one for Spain one for Gaul two Priests as Deputies of the infirm and Aged Bishop of Rome Whilst for Instance sake there were seventeen Bishops for the small Province of * V. Concil Labb Tom. 2. p. 50. c. Isauria yet such Councils are very useful such we reverence but God did not set them up as the only and the infallible Guides of Faith If there were such Guides what Guided the Church which was before them By what rule was Ebion judged before the Council of Nice How can we be infallibly Guided by them in Controversies of Faith not determined by them nay not brought before them nay scarce moved till these latter dayes Such for the purpose are the Controversies about the vertue of the Sacrifice of Christ and of Justification by the Faith of meere recumbence upon his Merits Or how shall a private Man who erres in the Faith be delivered from his Heresy seing he may die some years ere a Council can assemble or being assembled can form its decrees Arius vented his Heresie about ten years before the Council of Nice was called for the suppressing of it And soon after he had given vent to it it spread throughout Egypt and Lybia and the upper Thebes as Socrates †has reported And in a short time many other Provinces and Cities were Socr. Eccl. Hist l. 1. c. 6. p. 9. infected with the contagion of it And in the pretended Council of Trent no less then five Popes were successively concerned and it lasted in several places longer then two legal lives of a Man * From A. 1545. to A. 1563. There was indeed a Canon in the Western Church †V. Council Const sess 39. for the holding of a Council once in the space of each ten years But that Canon has not been hitherto obeyed and as affairs stand in the Church it is impracticable For the Pope will exclude all the Greek and Reformed Bishops He will crowd the Assembly with Bishops of his own Creation and with Abbots also he will not admit of former Councils unless they serve his purpose not so much as that of Nice it self * V. Greg. magn Ep. 6. 31. Leo. 1. Ep. 53. Gelas 1. Ep. 13. He will be the Judge though about his own Supremacy He will multiply Italians and others who upon Oath †Concil Labb Tom. 10. p. 23. 379. Pontific Roman owe their votes to him He will not hold a Council upon the terms approved by all Romish Princes Nor did they agree at their last Council the Emperour would noâ— send his Bishops to Bologna nor the French King his to Tren ' And though the French Church believed the Doctrines of that Synod yet they did not receive them from the Authority of it but they embraced them as the former Doctrines of the Roman Church And the Parisian ' Faculty a A. D. 1542 in coll Soâ—b See Richer H. conc general vol. 4. p. 162 163. c. prepared the way to the Articles of Trent Notwithstanding all this we firmly believe that at least the first four general Councils did not err in Faith and it is pious to think that God would not suffer so great a temptation in the Church on Earth Yet still we believe those Councils not to be infallible in their constitution but so far as they followed an infallible rule For the greaâ—est Truth is not alwayes with the greatest number And great numbers may appear on contrary sides The Council of Constantinople under Constantine Copronymus consisting of three hundred thirty eight Bishops decreed against the use of Images in Churches Yet the 2d Synod of Nice consisting of about three hundred and fifty Bishops determin'd for it And a while after in the West the council of Frankford consisting of about three hundred Bishops reversed that decree And after that the council of Trent did re-establish it though there the voting Persons were not fifty With such uncertain doubts of belief must they move who follow a Guide in Religion without reference to a farther rule But here there is offered to us by the Guide in Controversiâ—â— * an Objection of which this is the sum The fifth Canon of the Church of England does declare Object R. H. Annot. on D. Stil Answer p. 82 83. that the thirty nine Articles were agreed upon for the avoidance of the diversities of opinions and the establishing of consent touching true Religion Consent touching true Religion is consent in Matters of Faith Establishing of consent relateth both to Layety and Clergy The third and fourth Canons of 1640. Decree the Excommunication of those who will not-abjure their holding Popery and Socinianism The Reformed Churches in France teach the like Doctrine threatning to cut them off from the Church who acquiesce not in the resolution of a National Synod ‡ Art 31. ch 5 du consisâ—â—ire si un ou plusieurs c. The same course was taken with the Remonstrants in the Synod of Dort * Syn. Dord sess 138. Wherefore Protestants ought not to detract from the Authority of general Councils whilst they assume to themselves so great a Power in their particular Synods The force of this Objection is thus removed Answer Every Church hath Power of admitting or excluding Members else it hath not means sufficient to its end the order and concord of its Body Every particular Church ought to believe that it does not erre in its deflnitions for it ought not to impose any known error upon its Members But though it believes it does not erre it does not believe it upon this reason because God hath made it an infallible Guide but rather for this because it hath sincerely and with Gods assistance followeth a rule which is infallible And upon this supposition it imposeth Doctrines and excludeth such as with coâ—umacy dissent from them a See Artic. 20. 21 22. 4. This Guide is not the present Church declaring to particular Christians the sense of the church of former Ages How can this declaration be made seing Churches differ and each Church calls it self the true one and pretendeth to the Primitive pattern The Church of Rome hath on her side the suffrages of all the Councils and Fathers the first the middle the last if Campiain the Jesuite may be believed b camp Rat. 3. p. 180. Rat. 5. p. 185. On the other hand Monsieur Larroque hath Written a Book of the confirmity of the Protestant churches in France with the Discipline of the Christian Ancient church taking it for granted that their Doctrine was catholick And we likewise pretend both to the Doctrine and Discipline of it All of us cannot be in the right The Roman church without any proof calleth her self the church catholick and she pretendeth to
and partial corruption Secondly A Protestant may without Submission Assert II. of his judgement to the Roman Church find out in the Books of Holy Scripture the necessary Articles of Christian Faith Two things are here supposed and both of them are true First That the Scriptures contain in them all the necessary Articles of our Faith Secondly That the sense of the Words in which these Articles are expressed in Scripture may be found out by a Protestant without the Submission of his Judgement to the Papacy First The Scriptures contain in them all the necessary Articles of the Faith This is true if the Scriptures themselves be so For this they Witness * See S. Joh. 20. 30. 31. c. 21. 25. St. Paul b 2 Tim. 3. 15. 16 17. saith of the Old Testament as expounded of Christ that it was able to make a Man wise unto Salvation Much more may this be affirmed of the entire Canon The Apostles preached the necessaries to Salvation and what they had preached they wrote down * Iren. l. 3. c. 1. concerning the manner of it Eusebius may be consulted †Eus Hist Eccl. l. 2. c. 14. For the Primitive Fathers they allowed the Scriptures to be a sufficient Rule Irenaeus said of them they were perfect * Iren. l. 2. c. 47. S. Aug. de doct Christ l. 2. c. 9. and of the words of St. Austine this is the sense Among those things which are plainly set down in Scripture all those things are to be found which comprehend Faith and Good Manners Nay the Romanists themselves attempt to prove their very additional Articles out of the Bible That there are in it the Articles of the Apostolical Creed is evident enough to a common Reader But how the Romish Articles should be found in that Bible which was written some hundreds of years before they were invented is a riddle beyond the skill of Apollo Secondly the sense of the Scriptures in matters necessary to Salvation may be found out by Men of the Reformed Religion without Submission to Roman Infallibility The Learned know the Originals and the true wayes of Interpretation And amongst us those of the Episcopal Clergy have obliged the World with such an Edition of the Bible in many Languages as was not before extant in the Roman Church And a Romanist who writes with great mastery in such matters prefers it before the great Bible of Paris a V. P. S. p. Hist Critique p. 583 Mais elle est plus ample plus commode c. For those of the Laity who are Unlearned they have before them a Translation which erres not in the Faith And the phrases are not so obscure but that by study and Ministerial helps they may understand them They have before them a Translation which erres not in the Faith Of this the Italians and the French may be convinced by comparing the Translations of James de Voragine and the Divines of Lovain with those of Signior Diodati and Olivetan or Calvin And the English may receive satisfaction in this matter by comparing their Translations with that of Doway In all of them they will find the same Fundamental Doctrines of Faith And were there any such material alteration made in our Bible it would appear by the notorious inconsistence of one part of the Canon with another It would have been long ago detected and exposed to publick shame both by the Romanists and the other Dissenters from our Communion But the former are not able to produce one instance and the latter agree with us in the use and excellence of the Translation though in other things they extreamly differ from us And where they do but dream we erâ—e they forbear not to proclaim it In so much that a difference in the Translations of the Psalter which concerns not Faith or Manners †See Hook Eccl. Pol. Book fifth Sect. 19. and a supposed defect in the Table for keeping Easter have been made by them publick Objections * Mr. Hs. peaceable design renewed p. 14. and stumbling blocks in the way to their Conformity It is true there is a Romanist who hath raved against the Bible of the Reformed in these extravagant words ‡ A. S. Reconciler of Religions Printed 1663. c. 11. p. 38 39. The Sectaries have as many different Bibles in Canon Version and sense as are dayes in the year The Sectarian Bible is no more the Word of GOD then the Alcoran Almanack or Aesops Fables Of great corruption he speaks in general but his Madness has admitted of so much caution that he forbears the mention of any one particular place The Learned Romanists understand much better and the Ingenuous will confess it And they are not ignorant that we Translate from the Original Tongues after having compared the Readings of the most Ancient Copies and of the Fathers Whilst they Translate the Bible from the Vulgar Latin which indeed in the New Testament is a tolerable but in the Old a very imperfect Version If our English Bible were turned into any one of the Modern Tongues by a Judicious Romanists who could keep Counsel it would pass amongst many of that Church for a good Catholick Translation And this is the rather my perswasion because I have read in Father Simon a Historie critique ch 25. p. 392. 393. that not unpleasant story concerning the Translation of Mr. Rene Benoist a Doctor of the Faculty of Paris This Doctor had observed that a new Latin Translation of the Organon of Aristotle performed by a person who understood not the Greek Tongue had been very well received Upon this occasion he was moved to turn the Bible into the French Tongue though he was ignorant of those of the Greek and Hebrew For the accomplishing of this Design he served himself upon the French Translation of Geneva changing only a few words and putting others of the same signification in their room But it seems he was not exact enough in this change of words For he having overlooked some words which were used by the Genevians and not the Romanists a discovery was made by the Divines of Paris and this Edition of the Bible was condemned by them though published under the name of one of their Brethren I do not say that such places of Scripture as contain Matters of Faith are plain to every Man But those who have a competence of capacity who are not prejudiced against the Truth who pray to God for his assistance who attend to what they read who use the Ministerial helps which are offered to them shall find enough in Holy Writ to Guide them to everlasting life In finding out the sense of the Scriptures the Church gives them help but it does not by its Authority obtrude the sense upon them The Guides of it are as Expositors and School-Masters to them And by comparing phrase with phrase and place with place and by other such wayes they teach them how to judge of
or Apostolical men or has lost the Memory or Records of its first Plantation may yet have very certain means of knowing the true sense of Scripture from the Scripture it self and the Doctrine and Practice of Apostolical and Primitive Churches and a Church which has the most visible uninterrupted Succession from Christ and his Apostles may be so far from being an infallible Interpreter of Scripture that she may be very corrupt and erroneous her self if she forsake the Apostolical Tradition contained in the Writings of the new Testament and Expounded by the Catholick Faith and Practice of the first Churches as we know the Church of Rome has done which is so far from being an infallible Church that we believe her to be the most corrupt Church in the World And thus I think we are prepared to venture upon the last Clause of this Paper wherein the whole force of the Argument such as it is is turned upon the poor Protestant Churches But I doubt sayes the Author of this Paper whither or no the Protestant Church can make out this continual visible Succession and desire to be informed The sting of which Argument lies in this that we Protestants have no certain way of knowing the true seâ—nse and meaning of Scripture because we cannot prove the continual visible Succession of our Church from Christ unto this day and therefore we ought to go over to the church of Rome who has this visible Succession and receive all her Dictates as infallible Oracles But for Answer to this consider 1. That suppose the Protestant Church could not make out such a continual visible Succession yet we may understand the Scriptures very well without it and need not go to the church of Rome to Expound Scripture for us as I have already shewn at large Had he proved that we had been no church for want of a visible Succession of church Officers or that our Religion were a Novelty which was never heard of it in the world before Luther this had been something more to the purpose but to pretend that we cannot understand the Scriptures for want of a visible Succession is such a loose and inconsequent way of reasoning as a poor fallible Protestant would be ashamed of 2. But pray why can't the Protestant Church of England prove her continual visible Succession from Christ till this day as well as the church of Rome Here was a Christian Church planted in this Nation as very good Historians say as early as at Rome and it has continued here ever since to this day when Austin the Monk came over to England he found here a company of resolute Brittish Bishops and Monks who would not submit to the Usurpations of Rome and the English and Brittish Churches under several Changes and Alterations have continued to this day with a visible Succession of Christian Bishops and what better Succession can Rome shew than this I suppose no Roman Catholick will disown the Succession of the church of England till the Reformation and I pray how came we to lose our Succession then Did the Reformation of those Abuses and Corruptions which had crept into the Church unchurch us Just as much as a man ceases to be the same man when he is cured of some mortal Disease Did not the Church of England consist of the same Persons before the Reformation and after A great many indeed disowned the Reformation but were not all those Persons who were so active and zealous in the Reformation formerly of the Roman communion And did they lose their Succession too when they became Reformers When a Church consists of the same Bishops Priests and People which she had before though she have not all the same that she had when she retains the same ancient Catholick and Apostolick Faith which she did before only renounces some Errors and Innovations which she owned before how does this forfeit her Succession The Church of England is the very same Church now since the Reformation which she was before and therefore has the very same Succession though not the same Errors to this day that ever she had and that I think is as good a Succession as the Church of Rome has There are but two things to be considered in the case of Succession Either a Succession of Church Officers or a Succession of the Faith and Doctrines of the Church 1. As for a Succession of Church Officers we have the same that the Church of Rome has Those English Bishops who embraced the Reformation received their Orders in the Communion of the Church of Rome and therefore they had as good Orders as any are in the Church of Rome and these were the Persons who Consecrated other Bishops and so in Succession to this day For as for the story of the Nags-head Ordination that is so transparent a Forgery invented many years after to Reproach the Reformation that I presume no sober Roman Catholick will insist on it But we are Hereticks and Schismaticks and this forfeits our Orders and our Succession together But 1. This charge ought first to be proved against us that we are Hereticks and Schismaticks we deny and abhor both the name and thing and if we be not Hereticks and Schismaticks as we are sure we are not and as the Church of Rome can never prove us to be then according to their own Confession our Orders must be good 2. However be we Hereticks or Schismaticks or what ever they please to call us how does this destroy our Orders and Succession The Catholick Church would not allow in former Ages that Heresie or Schism destroyed the validity of Orders St. Jerome disputes against this at large in his Book Contra Luciferianos And St. Austin allows the Donatists Bishops to have valid Orders though they were Schismaticks and therefore that the Sacraments adminstred by them were valid And indeed if Heresie will destroy Orders and Succession the Church of Rome will be as much to seek for their Orders and Succession as we are which by their own Confession have had several Heretical Popes and no body knows how many Bishops Ordained by them 2. As for Succession of Doctrine which is as considerable to the full as Succession of Orders the great Articles of our Faith are not only plainly contained in Scripture but have been delivered down to us through all ages of the Church by an uninterrupted Succession The Church of Rome her self in her greatest Degeneracy did own all that we do in pure matters of Faith When we reformed the Church we did not make a new Religion but only separated the old Faith from new and corrupt Additions and therefore the quarrel of the Church of Rome with us is not that we believe any thing which they do not believe but that we do not believe all that they would have us The Doctrine of the Church of England is truly Primitive and Catholick taught by Christ and his Apostles owned by the Primitive Church and
And they seem to acknowledge we do not and therefore to make up the matter pretend a Divine Authority in the Church to cast new Articles and Truths fere de fide almost fit for a Creed and some others of them confess that some of their Opinions as Image-Worship and others were not maintain'd in the first Ages of Christianity for fear of coming too near the Heathens Worship and out of other Prudential considerations so that whosoever doth compare the Doctrine of our Church with that of Christ and his Apostles must needs conclude that our Religion is Ancient Christianity and that the charge of Novelty is groundless 2. The Nature of Reformation which was not to found a New Church but correct an old one Christianity that Pearl of great price was hid with trash and Mat 13. 3. filth that the Romish Church had heap'd upon it our Reformers removed only what loaded and obscur'd it and restored it to its first Beauty and Lustre Such a Reformation indeed is later then their errors and it must needs be so it naturally supposing them before otherwise 't is not Reformation but a destructive change but Primitive Christianity which is our Religion was long before the Dâ—sease of Popery though the cure of this Disease was after or later then the disease it self but the sound Body of Christianity for which we are concern'd was before them both for 't is not Reformation barely that we are pleased withal no more then with a Pill or Potion but only as necessary to drive away an inveterate Disease and recover an old Religion to its â—ormer Health When Christ reformed the Jewish Religion from the false senses and glosses that the Scribes and Pharisees had put upon it and grafted Christianity upon the old stock will the Romanists call this a New Religion or rather an old one well amended and improved by Divine Authority Bellarmin doth allow this for Truth and saith that Christianity was rather a new State and Condition then a new church and he that can call our Religion New because 't is mended and made now what it was about 1600 years ago may affirm that Christ built a new Temple when he Whipt the buyers and sellers out of the old And that Hezekiah built a 2 Chron. 305 New Sanctuary and Instituted a New Passover because he cleans'd the one and restor'd the other to its first Institution our Reformation did no more it only scal'd off the Leprosie that stuck to the Body of the Romish church it only pair'd off those Additions that Interest or Superstition Niceness or Foppery had glew'd to it what after remain'd was our Religion the same that Christ and his Apostles taught the world at first And if they can shew that any thing hath been added since pernicious to the Nature of the True and Old Religion our church is ready to remove it or that any thing is wanting that is necessary to its complement and perfection she is ready to entertain it with the same spirit of meekness and Wisdom and Regard to the Gospel that she used in the Reformation but hitherto upon good grounds and strict inquiry She is fully satisfied that Her Religion is absolute and compleat Christianity 3. We have many and impartial Judges on our side that our Religion is Pure and Old Christianity The particular church of Rome indeed that supports her self by a pretended Infallibility to be true to her Principle refuses to be tryed by any other Church but will be only Judge of her self and others too yet we that are certain and sure of the Truth of our Religion though not Infallible dare appeal to the Judgment of other Christian churches The Greek church condemns their half Communion the Doctrines of Purgatory Merit and Supererogation The Adoration of Images their locking up the Scriptures in an unknown Tongue their extreme Unction and sale of Masses and laughs at their Infallibility the thing that makes their errours in Faith incorrigible the Arminian Christians reject the Supremacy Baron Tom. 10. P. 256. of the Pope Transubstantiation Purgary and excommunicat those that worship Images The Jacobites the Indians of St. Thomas the Egyptian and Abassine Christians dissent from most or all of the Romish errours which we condemn We have all the truly ancient Christian Churches on our side and most of the Modern whom the busie Emissaries of Rome have not terrified or seduc'd into their Party Our Writters have appealed with great success to the Ancient Councils the holy Fathers and to the Learned and Pious Bishops and Priests of old and from thence discovered the Novelty of the Romish Faith and the good old way of the English Church And they dare not stand the trial when we desire to be determined by the best and infallible Judge the holy Scriptures exept they must give the meaning of them otherwise they load them with Ignominious Names of â— Lesbian rule mere Ink and Paper and a Nose of Wax Who will they be try'd by by a Council truly General No except it be called manag'd and Confirm'd by the Pope Will they be Judg'd by any that differ from them yet are men of good honest and unprejudic'd Judgements No they are out of the pale of the Church and stubborn Hereticks And the best reason they have for their assurance that they are in the right is that they are sure they are so and keep themselves safe in their Enchanted Castle of Infallibility The Arabian Philosopher was offended at and abhorr'd their barbarous Doctrine of Transubstantiation and eating of their God and resolv'd to stick to his Philosophical rather then be of such a Christian Religion The Roman Images and the Worship of them have laid a Stumbling block before the Jews who therefore approved our Sentence and condemnation of them having therefore such a number of good Testimonies and Judgements on our side we rise up and reverence the gray Hairs of our Religion which Rome once cloath'd in a wanton and phantastick dress and made it ridiculous which because we have pull'd off and put on its ancient habit and made it look manly with the Image of GOD and Christ upon it they call us Innovators Many of their own Writers have spoke in favour of the English Church and many of their distinctions in a fair sense have concluded for her Doctrine and shewn their dislike of many opinions of their own Church 4. That our Religion was long before Luther will appear from the oppositions that were made to the Papal corruptions which did not enjoy so quiet a life but were frequently disturb'd and cry'd oâ—t against not only by other Churches but by many honest and considering men in their own Communion Men they were not of Interest and Discontent Peevishness and given to change of little Learning and less conscience and not in the World but men eminent in their Generation men of Probity and Studies of Temper and consideration men that stood not alone
way or other being necessarily included in that belief And thought that he made sincere and sound Disciples if they believed what he preach'd only Jesus and the Resurrection in their full compass and latitude Though we believe all this in a more express and explicite sence all that is contain'd in Scripture in the Apostles Creed or the two other Creeds drawn up by the Church to explain the Christian Religion in some Articles and to oppose the Doctrines of Hereticks yet the first Christians shall be saved and we shall be damned they shall be the Elect and the Church of GOD we must be Reprobates and the Synagogue of Satan Or let Rome shew her wonted Charity and say she doubts also of their Salvation Or did Christ connive at that time of Ignorance or had he as a Lawgiver forgot to declare some part of the Will and Pleasure of GOD and upon better remembrance after so many hundred years suggested it to his careful Vicar Or did Christ knowing their Nature and Circumstances of it that they could not bear them at that time therefore delay the discovery so long Or did these new Articles lie hid so long conceal'd by his Apostles or buried by some lewd Hereticks in the rubbish of those Churches they pull'd down but afterwards found as they say the Cross was and now stored to light Or are these new Articles some way or other contained in the ancient Creeds which we believe and by easie and natural consequences deduced from them Some such fine reasons as these must be pretended otherwise we can safely conclude that our Church is truely ancient and Apostolical though she disowns the late inventions of the Romish Bishop and is known to be the Spouse of Christ by her first features and complexion though she hath cast off the new Italian dress For was the Christian Church the House of GOD irregular in its building wanting of Beams and Pillars the Essentials of Religion till Romes curious and careful Builder cast it into a new Model and compleated it 2. This Question supposeth that the Christian Church ought alwayes to be visible which is not so strictly true For Visible or Invisible make not two Churches but different States Conditions or Respects of one and the same 'T was designed by Christ that all that are baptiz'd into the Communion of his Faith and Church should make an Outward and Vissible Profession of it by their Religious Assemblies and Worship by their Sacraments Discipline and Government whereby being United among themselves and to Christ their Head they should constitute one Body call'd the Catholick church in whose Communion they must live and dye But so it came to pass that the number of Christian People so proâ—essing and owning the Faith of Jesus was lesser or greater more conspicuous or obscure as Persecutions or Heresies grew and prevailed among them which like raging Plagues wasted whole Countries destroying some perverting others and making many fly into remoter Kingdoms and only some scattered and solitary Christians living in Caves and Wildernesses remained behind or only the face of a distressed Christian Church as it hapned to the Seven Asian and African Churches which now labour under a Mahumetan Pride and Superstition But as it lost in one Countrey it gained in another the Jewish Persecution and others driving several Colonies of Christians into remoter Countries where they spread and enlarged their Religion and many times the distress or triumph of the Church followed the changes and revolutions in the Civil State suffering or flourishing with it And often the abuse of Religion Prostituting of it to Hypocrisie and secular ends the wicked lives of its Disciples or want of Courage or Resolution in its defence hath tempted Providence to permit pestilent Heresies worse then that in these Northren parts to prevail and Paganism to return again but still the promise of Christ to his Church was firm and the Gates of Hell did not prevail against her And though he was forced sometimes to travel from Countrey to Countrey and lookâ— small and obscure in the number of her Followers yet still some or other parts and corners of the World and true and zealous Christians in them made up the little flock and shall never faill while the World endures Popery like the Egyptian darkness had overspread this and other Nations yet here and there was as the Israelite that had light in his dwellings and a counter-charm against the Enchantments of Egypt the Gospel that at length did prevail against corruptions and made its Followers visible and numerous They ask us Where was our Religion before Luther As though it was not because it did not visibly appear or no where in the World because not here in England or in other parts where Popery did domineer and the Romish Faction was all and whole Christianity in the World the Catholick Church which implies contradiction and absurdity Christianity here indeed was obscur'd and like the Sun under the cloud but still the Sun was the same and at length conquer'd the Mists 't is a fine Question to ask Where was the Sun before Noon day We will suppose her Followers to be few yet Christ is true though others are lyars for he never promised that the Members of the true Catholick church should be alwayes famous for their numbers or that multitudes should alwayes follow Truth nor ever directed men to follow the Multitude in search of Truth which is found otherwayes not by Votes and Polling for her Did not our Saviour ask the question when he should come again whither at the Destruction of Jerusalem or at the Judgment day whereof the other was a Type and Prefiguration whither he should find Faith on Earth or no Did not the Prophet Luk. 1â— â— sadly complain in the Reign of Jotham Ahaz and Hezekiah Kings of Judah that the good man is perished out Mich 7. 2 of the Land and there is none righteous among men they could not then reckon up of the Tribe of Judah Twelve thousand and yet there was true Faith and a Church of GOD though little and Obscure Doth not King David cry Psal 12. 1. out Help Lord for the Godly man ceaseth for the faithful faill from among the children of Men corruption in Faith and Manners usually going together And Elijah tells a sad story of the Children of Israel that they 1 Kin. 19. 10 had broken their Covenant and destroyed the Altars and the Prophets and he only was left alive that they sought his life also God tells him that yet for all that he had seven vers 18. thousand knees that had not bowed to Baal still there was a small Church not infected with Idolatry though obscure and unknown to Elijah Have not some of the Romish Writers told us that at Christs Passion the Church was only left in the Virgin Mary all then forsaking Christ but the holy Mother The Shepheard was smitten and the Sheep disperst
Power or Design it 's no wonder it did prevail in a sly and silent manner interest having put out their eyes this Kingdom came not with observation and the approaches of the Enemy in the night of Ignorance viz. the darkness that could be felt of the ninth tenth and eleventh century when all good Learning and Manners too were fast asleep the time when many of the new devices of Rome were hammering out and the noise not heard were not discovered till they had taken possession and then by vertue of Power and great Names defended their Title And their own Writers confess that many of the great Guardians of Faith the Popes of Rome were very Vicious and Illiterate persons whose Vice and Ignorance kept them nodding while the little Theives the Notions and Speculations of men of Wit and Interest set open the Churches doors for the greater Errours to come crouding in Our Saviour confirms the truth of this when he compares his Church to a Field which had been sown by him and his Apostles with very good seed Wheat or some other Grain but while men sleept when Christians were grown wicked and careless ignorant or factious comes the Enemy and scatters the Tares and a new harvest of Weeds Heretical Doctrines Superstitious Practices Foppish and Phantastick Mat. 13. 24 25. Rites over-ran and choakt the purer Grain And the Apostle tells his Disciples that men of dangerous principles abusing the grace of God speaking evil of Dignities and despising Dominions and denying Christ that bought them had creept in unawares being well disguis'd with fine Names and pretences Jude 4. while good men were careless and sleept And when most begin to broach nâ—w Errours and spread their inventions for mighty Truths they do it with all the skill and artifice that so bad a design can possibly require Errour and Innovation necessarily calling for the utmost cunning and slyness to its aid and assistance Religion therefore may easily suffer a considerable change yet good men know not how neither the time nor authors of it It being therefore only absolutely necessary for us to know that whensoever and howsoever these errours in the Church first sprung up that they were contrary to the Primitive Faith of Christ and his Apostles and therefore were to be amended and weeded up notwithstanding the common question where was our harvest of Wheat before the Weeders our Reformers came for the Church of England finding old Christianity strangely over-grown with the new Doctrines and Creeds of Rome contrary to the Offices of CHRIST the designe of his undertaking for Mankind and the true spirit of his Religion it became a duty as much as they lov'd their Souls and would be true and loyal unto CHRIST to shake off these new and sinful Impositions and restore true and primitive Christianity Had our differences with Rome consisted only in things less fit and proper used by them in their religious Offices or in Rituals or Gestures not so decent they might have had some pretence to roar against us for breaking off Communion with her but when they plow up the very Foundation as one of her Pagan Captains did the Walls of Jerusalems Temple and lay all waste before them their new additions eating out the very Heart of old Religion to thunder out damnation against us because we renounce her Communion in this is to add uncharitableness and other gross Vices to their former sin as though they could not preserve Christianity but by defacing of it more Our Prince being constituted by GOD a nursing Father of the Church and our Bishops in their Episcopal power being co-ordinate with him of Rome or any other in the Christian World ought under the penalty of Damnation and did accordingly reform the Romish corruptions which had tainted the Vitals of Christianity an indispensable duty it was to preserve the Primitive Faith like a chast Virgin and not to suffer it to be 2 Cor. 11. 2. longer prostituted to the Designs and Passions of men by a solemn Vow and our Souls were at stake we had engag'd to preserve it pure undefiled therefore with all just and proper wayes and methods we were bound earnestly to contend for it In duty therefore to our Lord and Masters Command at such a time we began our Reformation but wish that it had been promoted and compleated many years before though the same Question would have been as fitly asked then or any other time except they think that errours must be immortal and the gates of Heaven shall not prevail against them The goodness and wisdom of our Reformation would be readily acknowledg'd and imitated did not Fame and Ambition Power and Secular Interest infect the Eye and change the natural shape and colour of things and 't is a sign the cause of Rome wants strength when such a trifling only popular Objection against our Reformation is made so powerful to preserve their Disciples in their Communion and amuse our own And we need say no more against it but this and 't is no Roman uncharitableness and rigour That if Rome notwithstanding all the clear evidence against her new and upstart Opinions shall obstinately defend them and contemn a wise and pious Reformation let her suffer the just punishment of her wilful errours He that will prefer an old Disease before a new Cure let him be for ever sick For we have healed Babylon and she was not healed FINIS A DISCOURSE ABOUT TRADITION Shewing what is meant by it AND WHAT TRADITION Is to be Received AND WHAT TRADITION Is to be Rejected The third EDITION EDINBURGH Printed by J. Reid 1686. A DISCOURSE ABOUT TRADITION AN Obligation being laid upon us at our Baptism to believe and to do the whole will of GOD revealed unto us by Christ Jesus it concerns every one that would be saved to enquire where that whole intire Will of God is to be found where he may so certainly meet with it and be so informed about it that he may rest satisfied he hath it all And there would be no difficulty in this matter had not the worldly interest of some men raised Controversies about it and made that intricate and perplexed which in it self is easie and plain For the Rehearsal of the Apostles Creed at Baptism and of that alone as a Summary of the Faith whose sincere profession intitles us to the Grace there conferred warrants the Doctrine of the Church of England in its VI Article that the Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to Salvation so that whatsoever is not read therein nor may be proved thereby is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an Article of Faith or be thought requisite or necessary to Salvation But this strickes off so many of the Doctrines of the present Roman Church which are not to be found in the Scripture nor have any countenance there that they are forced to say the Faith once delivered to the
the holy Scriptures into the hands of the Pagans were look'd upon by Christians as men that were content to part with their Religion For which there could be no reason but that they thought Christian Religion to be therein contained and to be betrayed by those who delivered them to be burnt By which I have proved more then I intended in this part of my Discourse that in the holy Scriptures the whole Will of God concerning our Salvation is contained Which is the true Question between us and the Church of Romeâ— Not whither the Scripture be delivered to us as the Word of GOD or no in this our People ought to tell them we are all agreed but whither they have been delivered to us as the whole Will of GOD. And from that Argument now mentioned and many more we conclude that Universal Tradition having directed us unto these Books and no other they direct us sufficiently without any other Doctrines unto GOD and to our everlasting rest And if they urge you farther and say that the very Credit of the Scripture depends upon Tradition tell them that it is a Speech not to be endured if they mean thereby that it gives the Scripture its authority and if they mean less we are agreed as hath been already said for it is to say that Man gives authority to GOD's Word Whereas in truth the holy Scriptures are not therefore of Divine Authority because the Church hath delivered them so to be but the Church hath delivered them so to be because it knew them to be of such authority And if the Church should have conceived or taught otherwise of these Writings then as of the undoubted Oracles of GOD she would have erred damnably in such a Tradition I shall sum up what hath been said in this second particular in a few words Christ and his Apostles at first taught the Church by word of mouth but afterward that which they preach'd was by the commandment of GOD commited to writing and delivered unto the Church to be the ground of our Faith Which is no more then Irenaeus hath said in express words L. 3. C. 1. speaking of them by whom the Gospel came unto all Nations Which they then preached but afterward by the Will of GOD delivered unto us in the Scriptures to be in time to come the Foundation and Pillar of our Faith III. And farther we likewise acknowledge that the sum and substance of the Christian Religion contained in the Scriptures hath been delivered down to us even from the Apostles dayes in other wayes or forms besides the Scriptures For instance in the Baptismal Vow in the Creed in the Prayers and Hymns of the Church Which we may call Traditions if we please but they bring down to us no new Doctrine but only deliver in an abridgment the same Christianity which we find in the Scriptures Upon this there is no need that I should enlarge but I proceed farther to affirm IV. That we reverently receive also the unanimous Tradition or Doctrine of the Church in all Ages which determines the meaning of the holy Scripture and makes it more clear and unquestionable in any point of Faith wherein we can find it hath declared its sense For we look upon this Tradition as nothing else but the Scripture unfolded not a new thing which is not in the Scripture but the Scripture explained and made more evident And thus some part of the Nicene Creed may be called a Tradition as it hath expresly delivered unto us the sense of the Church of GOD concerning that great Article of our Faith That JESUS CHRIST is the Son of GOD. Which they teach us was alwayes thus understood the Son of GOD begotten of his Father before all worlds and of the same substance with the Father But this Tradition supposes the Scripture for its ground and delivers nothing but what the Fathers assembled at Nice believed to be contained there and was first fetch'd from thence For we find in Theodoret L. 1. C. 6. that the famous Emperour Constantine admonished those Fathers in all their Questions and Debates to consult only with these heavenly inspired Writings Because the Evangelical and Apostolical Books and the Oracles of the old Prophets do evidently instruct us what to thiâ—k in Divine matters This is so clear a Testimony that in those dayes they made this compleat Rule of their Faith whereby they ended Controversies which was the reason that in several other Synods we find they were wont to lay the Bible before them and that there is nothing in the Nicene Creed but what is to be found in the Bible that Cardinal Bellarmine hath nothing to reply to it but this Constantine was indeed a great Emperour but no great Doctor Which is rather a Scoff than an Answer and casts a scorn not only upon him but upon the great Council who as the same Theodoret witnesseth assented unto that speech of Constantine So it there follows in these words That most of the Synod were obedient to what he had discoursed and embraced both mutual Concord and sound Doctrine And accordingly St. Hilary a little after extols his Son Constantius for this that he adhered to the Scriptures and blames him only for not attending to the true Catholick sense of them His words are these in his little Book which he delivered to Constantius I truly admire thee O Lord Constantius the Emperour who desirest a Faith according to what is writen They pretended to no other in those dayes but as he speaks a little after look'd upon him that refused this as Antichrist It was only required that they should receive their Faith out of God's Books not merely according to the words of them but according to their true meaning because many spake Scripture without Scripture and pretended to Faith without Faith as his words are and herein Catholick and constant Tradition was to guide them For whatsoever was contrary to what the whole Church had received and held from the beginning could not in reason be thought to be the meaning of that Scripture which was alledged to prove it And on the other side the Church pretended to no more then to be a Witness of the received sense of the Scriptures which were the bottom upon which they built this Faith Thus I observe Hegesippus saith in Euseb his History L. 4. C. 22. that when he was at Rome he met with a great many Bishops and that he received the very same Doctrine from them all And then a little after tells us what that was and whence they derived it saying That in every succession of Bishops and iâ— every City so they held as the Law preached and as the Prophets and as the Lord. That is according to the Doctrine of the Old and New Testament I shall conclude this particular with a pregnant passage which I remember in a famous Divine of our Church Dr. Jacksons in his Treatise of the Catholick Church Chap. 22. who writes
and mightily moved and if we would shew our thankfulness for it let us follow these godly motions and conform our selves in all things to the heavenly prescriptions of this Book being confident that if we do we need not trouble our selves about any other model of Religion which we find not here delivered For if you desire to know what form of Doctrine it is to which the Apostle would have us delivered it is certain it is a Doctrine directly opposite to all vice and wickedness For herein the grace of God was manifested he tells the Romans in that it had brought them from being slaves of sin heartily to obey the Christian Doctrine which taught that is Vertue and Piety Now to this the present Romanists can pretend to adde nothing All the parts of a godly life are sufficiently taught us in the holy Scriptures And if we would seriously practise and follow this Doctrine from the very heart we should easily see there is no other but what is there delivered For whatsoever is pretended to be necessary besides is not a Doctrine according unto godliness as the Apostle calls Christianity but the very design of it is to open an easier way to Heaven then that laid before us in the holy Scriptures by Masses for the dead by Indulgences by Sanctifications and the merits of the Saints and several other such like inventions which have no foundation in the Scriptures nor in true Antiquity That is a word indeed which is very much pretended Antiquity they say is on their side but it is nothing different from what hath been said about Tradition And if we will run up to the true Antiquity there is nothing so ancient as the holy Scriptures They are the oldest records of Religion and by them if we frame our lives we are sure it is according to the most authentick and ancient directions of Piety delivered in the holy Oracles of God So both sides confess them to be And if the old Rule be safe that is true which is first we are safe enough for there is nothing before this to be our Guide and there can be nothing after this but must be tried by it According to another Rule as old as Reason it self The first in every kind is the measure of all the rest And as sure as that there is a Gospel of GOD'S grace they that walk after this Rule this Divine Canon peace shall be upon them and mercy they being the true Israel or Church of God THE END A DISCOURSE Concerning the UNITY OF THE CATHOLICK CHURCH Maintained in the CHURCH OF ENGLAND EDINBURGH Re-Printed by J. Reid Anno DOM. 1686. THE UNITY OF THE CATHOLICK CHURCH Maintained in the CHURCH of ENGLAND WHosoever with an impartial eye and a truly religious concern for the Honour of GOD the Credit of the Gospel and the Salvation of Men looks into the estate of Christendom he will scarce find any greater cause of sorrowful Reflections then from the many Divisions and Animosities which have distracted and separated its parts These have opened the mouths and whet the tongues of profest enemies to reviling Invictives and profane Scoffs against our Blessed Lord himself and his holy Religion and stifled the first thoughts of admitting the most convincing Truths to a debate among Jews Turks or Pagans and stopt their ears against the wisest Charms To no one cause can we more reasonably impute the small progress which Christianity hath made in the World for a thousand years past The same contests have as pernicious influence at home upon the Faith or manners of those within the Pale of the Church Men are hereby too soon tempted into some degrees of Scepticism about very material Points of Christian Doctrine in which they observe so many to differ among themselves Others are the more easily seduced to seek and make much of all Arguments whereby to baffle or weaken the clearest evidences for their conviction and they seldom continue long in the same perswasion with those with whom they will not maintain the same Communion Thus Schisms have generally ended in Heresies As mischievous are the effects of these Distractions upon the manners of Christians There are many vitious and disorderly passions such as Anger Wrath Hatred Revenge Pride Censoriousness c. which take Sanctuary therein and under that shelter put in their claim for the height of Christian Graces and the most holy zeal for GOD and his Cause Every where they break or loosen the Discipline of the Church which should guard its children from doing amiss or restore them after it when the last and most capital punishment of being thrust out of its Communion is like to be little dreaded where many voluntarily desert it with the higest pretences of better advantage elsewhere Now though this matter of fact confirmed by woful experience be a subject too sad for a long meditation or passionate enlargement yet is it no more then what might have been foreseen without a Spirit of Prophesie to follow from the corrupt nature and depraved estate of mankind not otherwise rectified Wherefore we must suppose that our ever blessed Saviour in the Foundations of his holy Institution made all needful provision to prevent these fatal miscariages By the sufficient Revelation of all Fundamental Articles of Belief By the as full Declaration of all the necessary precepts of a good life By inculcating frequently and pressing most emphatically those commands concerning Love Peace Unity Good Order Humility Meekness Patience c. directly opposed to those contentions in every Page of the New Testament These it may suffice but to name It will soon be granted after the best provision of Rules and most convincing Arguments and Motives to strengthen them that there will be need of some Government to encourage all in their performance to restrain some from offering violence to them and to provide for many emergencies Our Blessed LORD and Master therefore for the better security of his Truth and the safer conduct of those which adhere to it establish'd a Society or Church in the World which he purchased with the most inestimable price dignified with the highest Priviledges encouraged with the largest Promises back'd with the most ample Authority and will alwayes defend with the strongest Guard against all Power or Policy on Earth or under the Earth so that as he hath told us the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it But now where this Church is to be found and what are the measures of our Obligation to it hath been a long and great debate especially between us and the Romanists In most of their late Controversial Books they have seemed ready to wave disputes about particular points in hopes of greater advantage which they promise themselves from this venerable name and that bold though most false and presumptuous claim which they lay to the thing it self even exclusive to all others which will appear from the true but short and plain state of the case
in a different manner according to the condition of those they had to do with or the temper of him that managed them yet they must needs seem more or less grievous to all when power sufficient was not left to the greatest Monarchs to defend themselves or protect their Subjects preserve the peace or promote the welfare and provide for the security of their own Countries Then no marvel if some of them grow weary of so insupportable oppressions and at last take courage to grapple with and extricate themselves from such manifest encroachments upon their own and the Peoples Civil Rights as well as the Ecclesiastical of the Church in their Dominions and be forced to some harsh and almost violent methods when the more gentle and benign could prevail nothing 3. But beside these more publick Invasions upon Church and State that which made the usurpation more odious and insufferable was the farther abuse of the same extravagant power to bring in strange and dangerous Doctrines corrupt and unlawfull practices into the Church and impose them upon all in their Communion exactly fitted to feed their Ambition enrich their Coffers secure their Authority and promote their ease and Luxury Such of the first sort are their Doctrine of Transubstantiation and Purgatory of Merit and Supererogation the multiplicity of Vows and delusions in the Principles of Repentance and ministration of Penance Of the latter sort are the Invocation of Saints and Angels Adoration of Reliques and Images their half Communion the Scripture lock'd up and Divine Service performed in an unknown tongue c. These and diverse like them have proved great Scandals abroad and stumbling blocks at home and whatever varnish they may put upon them by the fairest pretences or however they may cast a mist before the eyes of their Disciples by nice distinctions yet they have so disfigured the face of Christianity that he who compares the late appearances of it in the world with the model of it laid down in Scripture or the Records of the Primitive Church can hardly believe it the same thing But the particulars are not here to be disputed they have sufficiently been confuted and exposed by Protestant Writers and were by several before excepted against and disclaimed though some suffered severely for so doing and many more we may suppose waited an opportunity to free themselves from their pressure That which I am now most to insist upon is this that if the charge we draw up against these of falshood in judgment gross Superstition or Idolatry in Worship and immorality in manners be true and impartial as we have been ever ready to make good and shall do against all the Artifices of the Defendants Then no Authority whatever regularly founded or unexceptionably conveyed can oblidge us to these against the revealed Will or Word of God the Dictates of our Consciences as we hope carefully and righty informed the sense and reason of mankind and the Belief and practice of the Church in the first and purest Ages Greater cause was there to endeavour by all lawful means to throw off such an usurped power that made so ill use of what it had unjustly gotten and to restore Religion to its primitive beauty in Doctrine Worship and Precepts of Life But alas many difficulties lay in the way of its accomplishment and all possible struglings and contentions by force and policy were used by the adverse Party to prevent its beginning or obstruct it Progress Great was their Interest in every place Strong was the influence they had upon persons in Authority Numerous were their Assistants and Dependants at home and abroad Weighty was their concern which lay at stake and many were the advantages which they had of any that opposed them So that no wonder if a Reformation so long wish'd for and much wanted were so slowly effected It is rather more strange that in so many places it did master these and such like incumbrances and in so short a time made so considerable a progress If in some places it proceeded with less Order Uniformity and calmness then could have been wish'd for in a Religious Reformation Necessity in part with many perplexed difficulties and incumbrances may in some measure excuse what no Law before hand fully warrants IV. But leaving others to answer for themselves in my next particular I am to consider how regularly and sedately it proceeded in the church of England within the bounds of catholick Unity 1. With the concurrence and encouragement all along of the Supreme Power to free it from any but suspicion of Rebellion So it began at first with the breaking of the Papal yoke of Supremacy the Translation of the Bible and some like preparatives to Reformation under Henry the Eight and the united Suffrages of his Parliaments and the Bishops themselves therein It proceeded suitably to a further improvement in most particulars under his Son Edward the Sixth And at last it came to its full settlement and establishment under Queen Elizabeth The beginning and carrying on of the Reformation here was by such loyalty of Principles and Practices that we challenge any Church in the World to a Comparison therein Indeed this was so notorious that her Roman Adversares have turned her Glory into a Reproach by upbraiding her though most invidiously with the name of a Parliamentary Religion because it received all along so much countenance and assistance from those great Assemblies of all the three Estates of the Kingdom under their Head and Soveriagn 2. But farther to clear her of all just imputation from hence it must be added that the whole work was carried on with the advice and mature deliberation of the Clergy assembled in Convocation representing the intire body of them and therein a National Council That they from their Education and presumed Knowledge as well as from their Office and Ecclesiastical Authority are ordinarily fittest to judge debate and determine of Religious matters will be soon granted But that the civil Power may and ought sometimes to remind them of their Duty and restrain them from gross Defections from it may be proved by several Scripture Examples in the Old Testament and the Supereminence of their place But happy is that Order and Unity in which both Powers are joyned together for the service of GOD the security of his Church and promotion of his true Religion as it was here though it could not be expected but the first attempts would meet with several difficulties fierce Debates and Controversies yet still the entire establishment was ratified by the regular determination of the Clergy so assembled as before as well as was after confirmed by the Royal Assent 3 Yet farther to justifie themselves from any affected innovation in such a change all was done with the greatest Reverence Respect and Deference to the Ancient Church to clear their continued Unity therewith 1. In Doctrine The ancient Creeds were taken for the foundation of its Confession the four
that according to our Saviours own rule that he came not to destroy the Law and the Prophets but to fulfil these Laws of worshipping one God and none besides him were not lyable to any change and alteration because there was nothing to be perfected or fulfilled in them He made no change or alteration but by way of perfecting and fulfilling and therefore those Laws which had nothing to be fulfilled must remain as they were without any change To perfect or fulfil a law must either signifie to accomplish what was prefigured by it and thus Christ fulfilled all the types and prophecies of the Law which related to his Person or his undertaking as the Jewish Priesthood and Sacrifices c. or to prescribe that real righteousness which was signified and represented by the outward ceremony and so Christ fulfilled the Laws of circumcision Washing Purifications Sabbaths c. by commanding the Circumcision of the heart and the purity of mind and spirit or by supplying what was defective and thus he fulfilled the moral Law by new instances of vertue by requiring something more perfect of us then what the letter of the Mosaical Law enjoyned These are all the wayes that I know of and all that we have any instances of in Scripture of fulfilling Laws Now I suppose no man will say that the first Commandment which forbids â—he worship of any other Gods besides the Lord Jehovah is a Typical Law for pray what is it a Type of nor can any pretend that the first Commandment is a ceremonial Law for it prescribes no rite of worship at all but onlâ— determines the object of worship As for the third way of fulfilling Laws by perfecting them with some new instances and degrees of vertue it can have no place here for this Law is as perfect as it can be For it is a Negative Law Thou shalt have none other GOD. Now that which is forbid without any reserve oâ— limitation is perfectly and absolutely forbid There are no degrees of nothing though there are several degrees of perfection in things which have beeing and therefore though there are degrees in affirmative Laws for some Laws may require greater attainments then other and one man may do better then another and yet both do that which is good yet there are no degrees in not doing a thing and no Law can do more then forbid that which the Law-giver will not have done And besides â—his way of fulfilling Laws does not abrogate any command but adds to it it may restrain those liberties which were formerly indulged but it does not forbid any thing which was formerly our duty to do for when GOD requires greater degrees of vertue from us he does not forbid the less And therefore in this way Christ might forbid more then was forbid by the Law of Moses but we cannot suppose that he gave liberty to do that which the law forbids which is not to perfect but to abrogate a Law But to put an end to this dispute if Christ have perfected these Laws by indulging the worship of Saints and Angels under the Gospel which was so expreslly forbidden by the Law then it seems the worship of Saints and Angels is a more perfect state of Religion then the worship of the one supreme God alone If this be true then though the Heathens might mistake in the object of their worship was yet the manner of their worship was more perfect and excellent then what God himself prescribed the Jews For they worshiped a great many inferiour Deities as well as the supreme God and if this be the most perfect and excellent worship it is wonderful to me that God should forbid it in the worship of himself that he should prescribe a more imperfect worship to his own people then the Heathens paid to their Gods For to say that God forbade the worship of any Beeing besides himself because this liberty had been abused by the Heathens to Idolatry is no reason at all For though we should suppose that the Heathens worshiped evil spirits for Gods this had been easily prevented had God told them what Saints and Angels they should have made their addresses to and this had been a more likely way to cure them of Idolatry then to have forbid the worship of all inferiours Deities for when they had such numerous Dieties of their own to have made their application to they would have been more easily weaned from the Gods of other Countries And we have reason to believe so it would have been had GOD been pleased with this way of worship for he would not reject any part of religious worship meerly because it had been abused by Idolaters The Heathens sacrificed to Idols and yet he commands the Jews to offer Sacrifices to himself and so no doubt he would have commanded the worship of Saints and Angels had he been as well pleased with this as he was with Sacrifices had it been a more perfect state of Religion then to worship God only and without any Image When God chose the people Israel and separated them from the rest of the world to his own peculiar worship and service we cannot suppose that he did intend to forbid any acts of worship which were a real honour to the Divine Nature much less to forbid the most excellent and perfect acts of worship for he who is so jealous of his glory will no more part with it himself then he will give it to another and therefore excepting the Typical nature of that dispensation the whole intention of the Mosaical Law was to correct those abuses which the rest of the world was guilty of in their Religious Worship which either respected the object or the acts of worship that they worship'd that for God which was not God or that they thought to honour God by such acts as were so far from being an honour that they were a reproach to the Divine Nature And whatever is forbid in the worship of God unless there be some Mystical and Typical reasons for it must be reduced to one of those causes This account God himself gives why he forbids the worship of any Beeing besides himself or the worship of graven Images I am the Lord that is my Name and my glory will I not give to Isa 42. 8. another nor my praise to graven Images Whatever is his true glory he reserves to himself and therefore never did forbid any act of worship which was truly so but he will not give his glory to another and for that reason forbids the worship of graven Images or any thing besides himself and if this was not his glory then much less the most perfect and excellent part of worship I know not how it should come to be his glory now unless the Divine Nature changes and alters too So that God having forbid by the Law of Moses the worship of any other Beeing besides himself is a very strong presumption that the worship of Saints
over him as some favourites have over their Princes who can with a words speaking have any thing of them and extort favours from them even against their wills and inclinations No man can think there is any need of such Intercessours and Mediators with God who believes him to be infinitely wise and to be infinitely good to know when it is fit to hear and to answer and to be alwayes ready to do what his own wisdom judges fit to be done There can be no place for such intercessions and intreaties to an infinitely perfect Beeing For they alwayes suppose some great weakness or defect in him who want them for even a wise and a good man wants no Mediators to perswade him to do that good which is fit to be done The Objection against this is very obvious and the Answer I think is as easie The Objection is this If God be so good that he needs not such Prayers and Intercessions to move him to do good Why do we pray for our selves Why do we pray for one another Why do we desire the Prayers of good men here on earth Why is it a greater reproach to the Divine Perfections to beg the Prayers of St. Paul or St. Peter now they are in Heaven then to have begged their Prayers while they had been on Earth To this I answer When we pray for our selves I suppose we do noâ— pray as Mediators but as Supplicants and nothing can be more reasonable then that those who want mercy or any other blessing should ask for it It is certainly no reproach to the Divine goodness that God makes Prayer the condition of our receiving which is a very easie condition and very necessary to maintain a constant sense and reverence of God and a constant dependance on him And when we pray for one another on earth we are as meer supplicants as when we pray for our selves and to pray as supplicants is a very different thing from praying as Advocates as Mediators as Patrons The vertue of the first consists only in the power and efficacy of Prayer the second in the favour and interest of the person This the Church of Rome her self owns when she allows no Mediators and Advocats but Saints in Heaven which is a sign she makes a vast difference between the prayers of Saints on earth and Saints in Heaven There are great and wise reasons why God should command and encourage our mutual prayers for each other while we are on earth for this is the noblest exercise of universal love and charity which is a necessary qualification to render our prayers acceptable to God this preserves the unity of the body of Christ which requires a sympathy and fellow-feeling of each others sufferings this is the foundation of publick worship when we meet together to pray with and for each other to our common Father and it gives a great reputation to vertue and Religion in this world when God hears the prayers of good men for the wicked and removes or diverts those judgments which they were afraid of this becomes the wisdom of God and is no blemishâ—to his goodness to dispence his mercies and favours in such a manner as may best serve the great ends of Religion in this world God does not command us to pray for our selves or others because he wants our importunities and solicitations to do good but because it serves the publick ends of Religion and Government and is that natural homage and worship which Creatures owe to their great Creator and Beneâ—actor and Soveraign Lord. But to imagine that God needs Advocats and Mediators to solicite our cause for us in the Court of Heaven where none of these ends can be served by it this is a plain impeachment of his wisdom and goodness as if he wanted great importunities to do good and were more moved by a partial kindness and respect to some powerful Favourites then by the care of his Creatures or his love to goodness From hence it evidently appears how inconsequent that reasoning is from our begging the prayers of good men on earth to prove the lawfulness of our praying to the Saints in Heaven to pray and interceed for us the first makes them our fellow supplicants the second makes them our Mediators and Intercessors and how little the Church of Rome gains by that distinction between a Mediator of Redemption and Mediators of pure Intercession for though they pray to Saints and Angels only as Mediators of Intercession yet this is a real reproach to the nature and government of God a Mediator of Redemption is very consistent with the Divine glory and perfections a Mediator of pure intercession is not And the sum of all is this That it is so far from advancing the Divine glory to worship Saints and Angels together with God that it is a real reproach and dishonour to him and therefore this can be no Law nor Institution of our Saviour who came not to abrogate the Divine Laws but to fulfil and perfect them Some think there is no danger of dishonouring God by that honour they give to Saints and Angels because they honour them as Gods Friends and Favourites as those whom God has honoured and advanced to great glory and therefore whatever honour they do to them rebounds back again on God and this may be true while we give no honour to Saints and Angels but what is consistent with the Divine glory but when the very nature of that honour and worship we pay to them is a diminution of Gods glory and a reproach to his infinite perfections as I have made it appear the worship of Saints and Angels is surely it cannot be for Gods glory to advance his Creatures by lessening himself SECT VII 2. LEt us now consider whither the worship of Saints and Angels together with God be a more perfect state of Religion then the worship of God alone with respect to our selves whither it puts us into a more perfect and excellent state It does indeed mightily gratifie the superstition of mankind to have a multitude of Advocats and Mediators to address to but there are three considerations which may satisfie any man how far this is from a perfect state of Religion 1. That it argues very mean and low conceits of God for did men believe God to be so wise so good and so powerful as really he is they would be contented with one infinite God instead of ten thousand meaner Advocats The worship of Saints and Angels as I have already proved is a great reproach to the Divine perfections and therefore such worshippers must have very imperfect and childish apprehensions of the Supreme Beeing which is a plain proof what an imperfect state of Religion this is for the perfection of Religion is alwayes proportioned to that knowledge we have of God who is the object of it 2. This worship of Saints and Angels is a very servile state it subjects us to our fellow-creatures who are by
that these Fathers whose authority they alledge mean'd no such thing by these Rhetorical flourishes as they extract out of them or else that they introduced a new and unknown worship into the Christian Church and then let them prove that some few Fathers of the fourth Century without the publick authority of the Church had authority enough of their own to change the object of worship contrary as the Church in former Ages believed to an express Divine Law which commands us to worship none but God 3. Nay I farther observe that these Fathers whose authority is urged for the invocation of Saints by the Church of Rome do no where dogmatically and positively assert the lawfulness of Praying to Saints and Angels and many Fathers of the same Age do positively deny the lawfulness of it which is a plain argument that it was not the judgement and practice of the Church of that Age and a good reasonable presumption that these Fathers never intended any such thing in what they said how liable soever their words may be to be expounded to such a sense Gregâ—ry Nazianzen indeed in this Book against Julian the Apostate speaks to the Soul of Constantius in this manner Hear O thou Soul of great Constantius if thou hast any sense of these things c. But will you call this a Prayer to Constantius does this Father any where assert in plain terms that it is lawful to pray to Saints departed a hundred such sayings as these which are no Prayers to Saints cannot prove the lawfulness of praying to Saints against the Doctrine of the Fathers of that Age. Thus is his Funeral Oration for his Sister Gorgonia he bespeaks her to this purpose that if she knew what he was now a doing and if holy Souls Greg. Naz. Orat. 2. in Gorg. did receive this favour from God to know such matters as these that then she would kindly accept that Oration which he made in her praise insteed of other Funeral Ocsequâ—es Is this a Prayer to Gorgonia to intercede for him with God by no means He only desires if she heard what he said of her which he was not sure she did that she would take it kindly Whereas in that very Age the Fathers asserted that we must pray only to God and therefore they define Prayer by its relation to God That Prayer is a request of some good things made Basil Orat in Julit Martyr Greg. Naz. Orat 1. de Oratione Chrys in Genes Homil. 30. Aug. De clvit Dei l 22 cap. 10. by devout Souls to God that it is a conference with God that it is a request offered with supplication to God Which is a very imperfect definition of Prayer were it lawful to pray to any other Being besides God St. Austin tells us that when the names of the Martyrs were rehearsed in their publick Liturgies it was not to invoke them or pray to them but only for an honourable remembrance nay he expresly tells us that the worship of dead men must be no part of our Religion for if they were pious men they do not desire this kind of honour but would have us worship Idâ—â— de vera Religione cap. â—5 GOD honorandi ergo sunt propter imitationem non adorandi propter Religionem they are to be honoured for imitation not to be adored as an act of Religion The Council of Laodicea condemned the Worship of Angels and so does Theodoret Oecumenius and others of that Age. It is notoriously known that the Arrians were condemned as guilty of Idolatry for worshipping Christ whom they would not own to be the true GOD though they owned him to be far exalted above all Saints and Angels and to be as like to GOD as it is for any creature to be and those who upon these Principles condemned the worship of the most perfect and excellent Creature could never allow the worship of Saints and Angels So that through the worship of Saints and Angels did begin abouâ— this time to creep into the Church yet it was opposed by these pious and learned Fathers and condemned in the first smallest appearances of it which shews that this was no Catholick Doctrine and Practice in that Age much less that it had been so from the Apostles and I think after this time there was no authority in the Church to alter the object of worship nor to justifie such an Innovation as the worship of Saints and Angels in opposition to the express law of God The sum of this Argument is this Since there is an express Law against the worship of any other Beeing besides the supreme God the Lord Jehovah which never was expresly repealed whatever plausible reasons â—ay be urged for the worship of Saints and Angels they cannot justifie us in acting contrary to an express Law of God THE END A DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE CELEBRATION OF Divine Service IN AN UNKNOWN TONGUE UPon this Argument the Church of England doth fully declare it self in these words It is a Article 24. thing plainly repugnant to the Word of God and the Custome of the Primitive Church to have publick Prayers in the church or to minister the Sacraments in a Tongue not understood of the people But if we consult the Doctors of the Church of Rome about it we shall find them as in most other Comment in Eccles 5. 1. points differing extremely amongst themselves Mercer a very learned person and Professor of Hebrew at Paris is so free as to say Temere fecerunt c. They amongst us have done rashly that brought in the Custome of praying in an Vnknown Tongue which very often neither they themselves nor our people understand And Cardinal Cajetan saith Melius est c. It is better for our Church that the publick Prayers in the Congregation be said in a Tongue common to the In 1. Ep. Corinth c. 14. Priests and People and not in Latine Others of them are of another Mind and say that the having Divine Service in a Tongue known to the people is new and prophane and the Doctrine requiring it Diaboli calliditatem sâ—pit smells of the craft of the Devil And that the Church in making use of the Latine Tongue therein received it by inspiration from the Holy Ghost as a late Author saith Stapleton Quaest quodl Quaest 2. Sixtus Senens biblioth l. 6. â—nnot 263. Portraiture of the church of Jesus Christ c 14. With what consistence soever the former sort may speak to Truth and Reason yet I am sure the later speak with consistence enough to the Opinion Declarations and Practice of their church as is evident from the Council of Treâ—t the present Standard of the Doctrine of the church of Rome which I find thus Englished to my Hands by a noted person of their Cone Trid. Sess 22. c. 8. S. c. Answ to Dr. Pierce c. 15. church Though the Mass contain great instruction for GODS faithful people yet it seemed
their part pertaineth c. It is enough that the people can P. 463. tell this holy Oraison the Pater noster to be appointed to call upon God c. III. That no more is necessary and though they are to ask special things of God yet it is not needful to understand what or how or when or if at all they are especially prayed for For then they would understand the specials But now this state of the Case will not solve the Point For I. This is contrary to the Apostle who doth maintain that as the publick Service of God is to be ordered so as to be for edification of the Church so the Church cannot be edified without the Offices are administred in a Tongue that shall as distinctly 1 Cor. 14. 7 8 9 16. and particularly signifie and point to the thing thereby to be expressed as a Trumpet or other Instrument doth give notice by a distinction of Sounds when to advance or retreat when to fight and when to forbear And that every person the unlearned as well as the learned may know how to apply his Amen thereunto but which he can no more do without understanding the Tongue then He can know what motion or posture he is to observe that hath the Trumpet sounding to him without any distinction and whose Sounds and Notes being confounded give no direction to those that are to be guided by it So Aquinas How shall he say Amen when he In 1 Cor. 11. knows not what is prayed for because he cannot understand Quid boni dicâ—s nisi quod benediâ—as What good thou sayest except that thou dost bless II. The nature of the thing is against it For as the Offices are various and distinguished by their Ends and Uses and we cannot attain those Ends nor make use of those Offices without the understanding of those Ends and Uses So there are particular things respected in those Offices which unless we also respect we lose the benefit of them but that we cannot do without a particular knowledge of them As for example the Part. 4. c. 1. Sect. 3. c. 2. Sect. 2 4. 10. c. 4. Sect. 3. 7. c. 6. Sect. 2. de orat Dom. Romish Catechism saith That prayer is the Interpreter of the Soul and is directed to God or the Saints That therein Men do confess their sins and pray for the pardon of them that they beg for others and themselves things Temporal Spiritual and Eternal that therein also they give Thanks for whatever good they have received and do enjoy Now as these things are of different kinds so according to their kind they require different dispositions and so what are sutable to the one will not be sutable to the other But if the knowledge be only general that cannot produce special dispositions and he that ventures to be particular therein may rejoyce and give Thanks when he is to mourn and confess may mind Earthly things when the Prayer is for Heavenly may imprecate when he should bless and insteed of Ora pro nobis may say Miserere nobis that is Catechis c. 6. Sect. 3. make a Saint to be God and apply that to the Officer of the Court of Heaven which he should address only to the Judge He may be all the while in a posture of contradiction to the Church and have his dispositions so little suted to the solemnities of it that the Priests may say to such with some little variation in the Words of the Gospel We have piped unto you and ye have mourned we have mourned unto you and ye have daunced So that unless they will say There are no need of particular dispositions according to the kinds and special uses of the Offices of Religion they must say That Service in an Unknown Tongue is not for the edification of the Church So Aquinas again He who doth hear and not understand is not edified as far as he understands not although he Ibid. he understand it in general III. If this were true That a confused general knowledge is sufficient yet this will not help them or justifie them in the use of an Unknown Tongue For even the general knowledge they pretend to doth not proceed from the Tongue for that they understand not but is obtained some other way that is by some actions and Postures some particular Words and Phrases some Ceremonâ—es and Signals given in the administration of their Service And which would signifie as Much for the most part without the Tongue and Words as with the Tongue that is not understood IV. I shall add That whereas they pretend experience in the case and which for the present we shall not so far question as uâ—teâ—ly to deny but that there may be some Devotion amongst the ignorant sort of them yet so far as this Devotion of theirs is real it must be because of some-what understood but so far as it is without Instruction so far unquestionably it proceeds only from the Imagination and if it rises from no better or higher a cause whatsoever semblance it may have of Devotion yet it hath no right to that Character I shall make this clear by an instance or two Not many years since in a certain City of Brabant there was for ornament a large Statue erected at a conduit near the Market-place to which the Country People as they passed to and fro did often pay their Devotions not discerning any differenâ— betwixt that and an image of a Saint so much to the publick scand◠〈◊〉 â—at to prevent any such mistake for the future it was by command transformed into a little Boy with a change also of the posture Now if we would enquire into this Devotion it is much what the same we are discoursing of There wanted not an inward disposition that inclined the people to it there wanted not outward expressions for they bowed befor it kissed the Feet of it said their Pater nosters c. before it and all with as much Devotion as if it had been the Image of S. Roch or S. Sebastian or S. Michael himself the Protector and Patron of the place And yet all this being applied to a common and not a religious Object and being only the Fruit of Imagination and not of Instruction it deserved another name then Devotion and was not so accounted by themselves And now why what is given suppose to a right Object but without knowledge should not be equivalent to the other that was intended to a right but was addressed by mistake to a wrong is not easie to discern Farthermore Let us suppose a Case A person being before hand possessed with a report of certain persons met together upon a design of Conjuration comes to the place and finds the Company there assembled and hearing all that they say performed in a Language he understands not he presently is seased with a pannick fear and is every moment in expectation of the foul Fiends's appearance at their
hold a Vulgar Tongue necessary in Divine Service and doth both absolutely forbid their own Missal to be so translated and persecute those that have so used it And yet they cannot dare not say it is unlawful in it self For it is better to have it in the Vulgar then not at all saith one It is matter of Discipline saith a second It hath been granted in some cases is acknowledged by others And it is most expedient to have it in the Vulgar saith a fourth And if so why this diligent Cassander de off pii viri p. 86â— care to prevent and suppress it Why this out-cry against it Why this Severity What need of such Decrees and Anathema's of Councils What need such Commands of the Popes for Princes to oppose it with all their force as that of Gregory VII to Vladislaus of Bohemia what reason is there for a general Convention of the Clergy of a Kingdom to proceed against a translation of their Missal When if we consult the ends for which the publick Service was inâ—â—itutâ—d iâ— we consult the reason of the thing if we consult Scripture or â—athâ—rs or the practice of the Church for about seven hundred Years together we shall find that it is not only expedient but necessary to have it in a Tongue understood of the people and that the Church of Rome that is so forward in its Anathema is under a precedent and greater oâ—â— even that of the Apostle Whosoever shall preach any other Gospel let him be Anatâ—emâ— So that which is most to be respected the Anathema of Heaven or that of the Council the command of God or a Decree of a Pope the Church of God in its best times or the particular Church of Rome in latter Ages whither the edification of the Church of God or the will and interest of a corrupted Church is not difficult to conceive And therefore we may end as we began with the Church Art 24. of England It is a thing plainly repuguant to the Word of God and the 〈◊〉 of the Primitive Church to have publick Prayers â—â— the Church or to minister the Sacraments in a Tongue not understâ—â—d of the people FINIS A DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE DEVOTIONS OF THE Church of Rome Especially as compared with those of the CHURCH of ENGLAND In which it is shewn That whatever the Romanists pretend there is not so true Devotion among them nor such rational Provision for it nor Encouragement to it as in the Church established by Law among us EDINBURGH Re Printed by John Reid Anno DOM. 1686. A DISCOURSE Concerning the DEVOTIONS Of the Church of Rome IT is certain one of the greatest Commendations that can be given of any Church or body of Christians that a man can with Truth afirm of it that the Doctrines which they profess the Rules and Orders under which they live that the frame and constitution of the Church tendeth directly to make men more pious and devout more peâ—â—tent and mortified more heavenly minded and every way of better Lives then the way and profession of other Christians For to work men up to this holy frame and disposition was one of the main designs of the Gospel of Christ which intends to govern mens Actions and reform their Temper as well as to inform their Understandings and direct their belief And in this particular it differs much from all the Ethicks of the learned Heathen For whereas they design'd especially to exalt the passions and to raise up the Mind above it self by commending the high and pompous Vertues thereby to stir men up to great designs and to appear bold and braving in the affairs of this Life the Gospel is most frequent in commendation of the humble lowly and mortifying Vertues which would reduce the Mind to it self and keep Men within due bounds and teach them how to behave themselves towards God and to live in a due regard to another Life Now there is scarcely any thing which the Church of Rome doth more often urge for her self or with greater confidence pretend to excel the Church of England in then by endeavouring to perswade that the Frame of their Church is more fitted for the exciting of Devotion and a good Life then ours is And so they will boast of their severe Rules and Orders the Austerities of their Fasts and Penances the strict and mortifyed Lives the constancy and incessancy of Devotions used among them and would thence inferre that that mâ—st needs be the best Religion or way of serving God in which these practices are enjoyn'd and observed That the Tree must needs be good by such excellent Fruitâ— and that if all other Argument fail yet they say they have this to show for themselves that in their Communion there is at least somewhat more like that great Self-denial and Morâ—â—fication so often made necessary under the Gospel then is to be found in the Reformed Churches or particularly in the Church of England Now laying aside all Disputes concerning Points of Doctrine in controversie between them and us in which it hath been abundantly shewn that they err in matters of Faith and that in what they differ from us they differ also from the Scripture and the true Church of Christ in all the best Ages I 'll confine my self to examine their Preâ—â—â—ce to Devotion where I doubt not but it will sufficiently appear that they are as much deficient also in Regularity of Practice that there is not that true Foundation laid for such Devotion as God accepts nor that strict Provision made for it nor that real Practice of it which they would make us believe but that even the best which they pretend to is such as doth by no means befit a truly Christian spirit I 'll discourse in this Method 1. I 'll instance in the several Expressions of Devotion the Motives to it or Assistance of it whâ—ch the Church of Rome pretends to and on which she is used to magnifie her self 2. I will alledge the just Exceptions which we have against such their Pretences 3. And then shew that they are so far from encouraging true Devotion that many things both in their Doctrine and Discipline directly tend to the Destruction of it 4. I 'll shew what excellent Provision is made in the Church of England for the due exercise of all the parts of Devotion and what Stress is laid on it and on a good Life among us First Though Devotion is properly and chiefly in the mind a due sense of God and Religion yet it is not sufficient if it stop there For there are certain outward Acts which are either in themselves natural and proper Expressions or else are strictly required of us by God as Duties of Religion and Evidences of the devout temper of our Minds and these are called Acts of Devotion And all the Commendation that can be given of any Church on Account of Devotion must be either that there is a true Foundation
frequencie and unseasonableness of their Prayers will make it very difficult for them to attend as they ought and their Doctrine concerning the No-necessity of attention at Prayer will certainly make them to yield to these difficulties and so there may be abundance of Words said but no Devotion perform'd Besides all this they have a way of being eased of this trouble of the Prayers for according to their Casuists it is allowable for a man to get or hire another to say his Prayers for him At least he may be dispensed with by his Superiour and this Dispensation is good whither there be a just Reason or Occasion for it or no according to an excellent Maxim of theirs Non ad Valo rem sed ad Justitiam requiritur Causa And if after all this Men still will be more then they need strict in their Prayers according to the Rules of their Orders they almost constantlie offend in the End and Design of their Devotions For they do them not so much to benefit the World or work themselves up to a better temper of Mind but to perform a task imposed on them and which they have vowed to perform or especiallie to merit by their works For they do not so much as pretend that this strictness in Devotion is absolutelie necessary for their Salvation for else why do they not enjoin it to all seing all have the same need of Salvation and therefore the sole end of all this strictness and constancy in Prayers is only to get Heaven for others Which Opinion besides that it will mightilie discourage Men of an ordinarie Charitie from being very intent on what they do when they are sensible they Labour only for another It countenanceth also a false and dangerous Doctrine concerning the Merit of good Works and encourageth all vicious practices in other Men who will hope to be saved tho' not by their own Prayers yet by the Prayers of these holy Monks said for them So that on many accounts their is little of true Devoton to be found in that constant course of Prayers said so regularlie by the Monks and Hermits Not to mention several other particulars concerning the Frame and Language of their Prayers the Object or Persons worshipped or prayed to the Persons prayed for and the like which I may have Occasion to mention afterwards which being put together do abundantlie shew the improprietie and the worthlesness of such Devotions Thirdly And as to the Austerities of the Lives of their Monks and Nuns the Punishments which they inflict on themselves as they profess for the sake of Religion by course and uneasie Garments scanty Food and Fare long and tedious Watchings frequent and cruel Whippings and Lashings and other such Course and Harsh Treatments which they use towards their own bodies I confess I pitie them but can discern little or no true Christian Devotion in them For all Severity to our bodies is not Devotion or any part of that Self-denial which the Gospel requires nor is this of theirs though they pretend it to be for the sake of Religion but their insisting so strictly on it and valuing themselves so much on it is of very bad consequence to Religion All Punishment which men inflict on themselves is not Religion nor commendable nor is the patient bearing of it alwayes a Sign of a true Christian Temper Christ hath no where told us that he that can fast longest or endure most Lashes is the best Man but he that governeth himself and his Life best We have strange Instances of this Insensibleness of Pain in many of the worst Principles and most profligate Consciences The Devil hath his Martyrs as well as God and if the voluntarily inflicting Punishment on themselves be a Sign of Devotion the Priests of Baal 1 Kings 18. must have been a very devout Generation of Men. Therefore it is not any religious commendation of a Man that he can â—onstantly whip or lash himself or bear it from another without flinching Such a man might have made a good Gladiator but seems not so well qualified for a Christian Nor is all Punishment which Men inflict on themselves and say they do it for the sake of God and Religion alwayes a Sign of true Devotion For in other Cases it is not Men's saying that they design well which will make their Actions acceptable with God but it is their doing what he hath commanded and for the ends which he designed and intended with which he is well pleased And it too ofâ—en happens that men do Actions having a shew of Sanctitie and of great Self denial which yet are received by God only with a who hath required this at your hands Self-denial indeed is commanded in Scripture and is necessary also to many and excellent Purposes to subdue a man's Passions and Affections and to bring him to a right understanding of himself to put a man in mind of leaving the pleasant things of this World sensibly to affect him with the Condition of those that are in Misery and alwayes want thâ—m and to inure him to bear patiently the adverse things or whatever it shall please God to lay upon him It is necessary that a man should have a mind alwayes ready and prepared to lose all for Christ And therefore he ought often to deny himself somewhat for the Sake of Christ that he may give full proof to himself that his mind is affected as it ought to be And by voluntary Acts of this Nature he preserves a Power over himself and is much the more fitted for all the Accidents of Life and for the Exercise of Devotion But let a man have a care that he keep within due bounds He may exceed and transgress both in the Measure and in the End and Design of such Mortification He exceeds in the Measure of it when he inflicts such Severity on himself as shal render him unfit for the Service of God and useless in his Place God delights not in the punishment of his Creatures but desiâ—es their Good here as far as it is consistent with their greater Good hereafter And though he requires Self-denial of us it is only in such a measure as is for our Good in order to the bettering of our Temper and to cut off the Occasions of Sin in us And therefore it is a great fault in any man on this pretence to render his Life so uneasie to himself as that he shal not be able to serve God contentedly cheerfully and without Distraction As a Man may be to blame also for his Charity when without a just Occasion he throws or gives away all For if this Course were allowed or followed the worst People and they that know least how to use an Estate well would be the richest and Owners of all and the only persons in Authority and Power And he transgresseth also in the end and Design of such Severity when he pretends to merit by it and hopes to buy Heaven which is
with Thunder in his hand And my Saviour appears more lovely to my mind thoughts when I consider him as coming into the World and dying for us then when I see him pictured and carved on a Crucifix For it is more useful to see him with the Eye of Faith then of Sense and it is not the Proportion of his Body represented to my eyes but the Dignity of his Nature the love that he bore me and the Passions of his Soul for me that I admire most and which no Pencil can draw Besides a Picture or Image tells me nothing but what I knew before and it is by what I knew before that I can make sense or any devout use of this Picture for else I might take it for another profane and idle Story And I would fain know whither the reading considerately the 26 and 27th Chapters of S. Matthew will not affect any pious Heart much more then the seeing and contemplating a Picture Certainly if this will affect the Sense and bodily Passions the other will more work on our Reason and that will be to better purpose Nay the seeing of any Picture often will naturally make it familiar and not at all affecting to us 5. And if the severity of the Monks to their Bodies is not any great Sign of Devotion much less can the Austerities used by the common People turn to any great Commendation of the Church It is true they are forced to keep Fasts but it would make a Man laugh to read how their Casuists have defined concerning the modus the Measure the End of Fasting Escobar hath resolved it That no Drink breaks a Fast be it Wine or Chocolat and because it is not wholesome to drink without eating you may eat two Ounces of Bread For that is but a quarter of a Meal and if a man should chance to break his Vow of Fasting thus he is not bound to fast another day for it unless on a new Obligation And if all this be too hard you may be dispensed with for your whole Life and that whither there be any just cause for it or no. Nay Servants tho they eat never so gluttonously of the Scraps they break no Fast Indeed there need be no Rules set down concerning the Poor Peoples observing Fasting Dayes They are kept low enough without them And as for the Rich their Fasting is Mock-fasting to fast to Luxury with Wine and Fish and Sweet-meats Is not this great Self denial If any therefore are still truly mortified when they can thus help it I must rather commend their own Piety and devout Temper then the Rules and Orders of their Church which give much Liberty that a man must have a very cross-grain'd Appetite or be in the highest degree sensual not to be willing to comply with it We find then no Fault with Fasting being enjoyned and at set seasons For we our selves commend and practise it but let it not be to play tricks but for true and real Mortification and for the proper end of Mortification to humble the Body to the Soul and to bring the Mind to a better Temper and to these ends is Fasting commanded by our Church but not as if we looked on this or that kind of Meat to be unholy or design'd to purchase Heaven by our Abstinence as the Church of Rome doth 6. And as for their Pilgrimages and Worship of Reliques they must needs have less pretence to Religion For their Fasts and other Austerities somewhat resemble true Christian Duties but these have no shew that way If Pilgrimage be enjoyned for Penance then there is no thanks due to the Person performing it If it be voluntary there is no true Devotion in it For the Worth of it must consist in some of these Reasons viz. either First That GOD is more present or Secondly more propitious in one publick place of Worship then another both which are contrary either to the Nature of God or his Declaration in Scripture when he says In every place a pure Offering shall be offered to him Mal. 1. 11. And Where ever two or three are gathered together in Christs Name he is in the midst of them Mat. 18. 20. And the teaching otherwise is in some measure to revive Judaism which allowed God as to some cases to be served acceptably only in one place or Thirdly that the Saint is more present or propitious here then any where else But we are speaking of Devotion to God not to the Saint or Fourthly That it is their punishing themselves that is so acceptable but that hath been sufficiently discarded already Or Fifthly That going so far and taking such pains is a sign of their Love But a man may shew his Love to God and to his Saints too by more proper Instances and do more good by it which GOD to be sure will better accept and the Saint if he be a Saint will like as well And therefore the making such account of Pilgrimages seems rather to favour the Mahumetan then the Christian Religion For the going on Pilgrimage to Mecca is one of the five indispensable points of the Mahumetan Superstition And as for the Veneration of Reliques all the World knows what a cheat is put on Men in vending any old rotten Bone or peice of Cloth c. for a Relique of this or that Saint So that according to a moderate Computation I suppose scarcely one in a hundred is true And some have pleaded they need not be true Now what ever Devotion is performed to or on occasion of these Reliques can be commendable only in regard of the Mind and devout Temper of the Person which I think might as acceptably shew it self in any other proper time and place And there is required a long Series of Consequences before the sight of St. Joseph's Axe or any such other of their Reliques can be pretended to raise a man's Devotion But it being the chief Trade at Rome to sell feigned pieces of Antiquity and other such worthless Trinkets at a high rate I the less wonder that they have such an Esteem for Reliques for it is for their profit to keep up the value of them they being the principal commodities of the place 7. And the belief which they have of the Saints hearing them and their practice of praying to them is no proper Encouragement or instance of true Devotion For all Devotion is properly towards God and therefore the making of Addresses to any other cannot possibly have any direct Tendency to exalt our Devotion to him but is really a great hinderance For it takes mens Mindes off from GOD and sets them on his Creature And the same time that is spent in Prayer to them surely is better spent in praying to God who is more present with us hears us better and loves us more And Men's going to Saints when God is present naturally tends to provoke God's Jealousie For he declares himself jealous as to his Worship
is to all the ends and purposes of a Miracle as if it were not and can be no testimony or proof of any thing because it self stands in need of another Miracle to give testimony to it and to prove that it was wrought And neither in scripture nor in profane Authours nor in common use of speech is any thing call'd a Miracle but what falls under the notice of our senses A Miracle being nothing else but a supernatural effect evident to sense the great end and design whereof is to be a sensible proof and conviction to us of something that we do not see And for want of this Condition Transubstantiation if it were true would be no miracle It would indeed be very supernatural but for all that it would not be a Sign or Miracle For a Sign or Miracle is alwayes a thing sensible otherwise iâ— could be no Sign Now that such a change as is pretended in Transubstantiation should really be wrought and yet there should be no sign and appearance of it is a thing very wonderfull but not to sense for our senses perceive no change the bread and wine in the sacrament to all our senses remaining just as they were before And that a thing should remain to all appearance just as it was hath nothing at all of wonder in it we wonder indeed when we see a strange thing done but no man wonders when he sees nothing done So that Transubstantiation if they will needs have it a Miracle is such a Miracle as any man may work that hath but the confidence to face men down that he works it and the fortune to be believed And though the Church of Rome may magnify their Priests upon account of this Miracle which they say they can work every day and every hour yet I cannot understand â—he reason of it for when this great work as they call it is done there is nothing more appears to be done then it there were no Miracle Now such a Miracle as to all appearance is no miracle I see no reason why a Protestant Minister as well as a Popâ—sh Priest may not work as often as he pleases or if he can buâ— have the patience to let it alone it will work it self For surely nothing in the world is easier then to let a thing be as it is and by speaking a few words over it to make it just what was before Every Man every day may work ten thousand such Mâ—racles And thus I have dispatch'd the First part of my Discourse which was to consider the pretended grounds and Reasons of the Church of Rome for this Doctrine and to shew the weakness and insufficiency of them I come in the SECOND place to produce our Objections against II. it Which will be of so much the greater force because I have already shewn this Doctrine to be destitute of all Divine warrant and authority of any other sort of Ground sufficient in reason to justifie it So that I do not now object against a Doctrine which hath a fair probability of Divine Revelation on its side for that would weigh down all objections which did not plainly overthrow the probability and credit of its Divine Revelation But I object against a Doctrine by the mere will and Tyranny of men impos'd upon the belief of Christians without any evidence of Scripture and against all the evidence of Reason and Sense The Objections I shall reduce to these two Heads First the infinite scandal of this Doctrine to the Christian Religion And Secondly the monstrous and insupportable absurdity of it First The infinite scandal of this Doctrine to the Christian Religion And that upon these four accounts 1. Of the stupidity of this Doctrine 2. The real barbarousness of this Sacrament and Rite of our Religion upon supposition of the truth of this Doctrine 3. Of the cruel and bloudy consequences of it 4. Of the danger of Idolatry which they are certainly guilty of if this Doctrine be not true 1. Upon account of the stupidity of this Doctrine I remember that Tully who was a man of very good sense instanceth in the conceit of eating God as the extremity of madness and so stupid an apprehension as he thought no man was ever guilty of * De Nat. Deorum l. 3. When we call sayes he the fruits of the earth Ceres and wine Bacchus we use but the common language but do you think any man so mad as to believe that which be eats to be God It seems he could not believe that so extravagant a folly had ever entered into the mind of man It is a very severe saying of Averroes the Arabian Philosopher who lived after this Doctrine was entertained among Christians and ought to make the Church of Rome blush if she can * Dionys Carthus in 4. dist 10. art 1. I have travell'd sayes he over the World and have found divers Sects but so sottish a Sect or Law I never found as is the Sect. of the Christians because with their own teeth they devour their God whom they worship It was great stupidity in the People of Israel to say Come let us make us Gods but it was civilly said of them Let us make Gods that may go before us in comparison of the Church of Rome who say Let us make a God that we may eat him So that upon the whole matter I cannot but wonder that they should chuse thus to expose Faith to the contempt of all that are endued with Reason And to speak the plain truth the Christian Religion was never so horribly exposed to the scorn of Atheists and Infidels as it hath been by this most absurd and senseless Doctrine But thus it was foretold that †2 Thess 2. 10. the Man of Sin should come with power and Signs and Lying Miracles and with all deceiveableness of unrighteousness with all the Legerdemain and jugling tricks of falsehood and imposture amongst which this of Transubstantiation which they call a Miracle and we a Cheat is one of the chief And in all probability those common jugling words of hocus pocus are nothing else but a corruption of hoc est corpus by way of ridiculous imitation of the Church of Rome in their trick of Transubstantiation Into such contempt by this foolish Doctrine and pretended Miracle of theirs have they brought the mosâ— sacred and venerable Mystery of our Religion 2. It is very scandalous likewise upon account of the real Barbarousness of this Sacrament and Rite of our Religion upon supposition of the truth of this Doctrine Literally to eat the flesh of the Son of man and to drink his bloud St. Austine as I have shewed before declares to be a great Impiety And the impiety and barbarousness of the thing is not in truth extenuated but only the appearance of it by its being done under the species of bread and Wine For the thing they acknowledge is really done and they believe that they
Credulity is certainly a fault as well as Infidelity And he who said blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed hath no where said blessed are they that have seen and yet have not believed much less blessed are they that believe directly contrary to what they see To conclude this Discourse By what hath been said upon this Argument it will appear with how little truth and reason and regard to the interest of our common Christianity it is so often said by our Adversaries that there are as good arguments for the belief of Transubstantiation as of the Doctrine of the Trinity When they themselves do acknowledge with us that the Doctrine of the Trinity is grounded upon the Scriptures and that according to the interpretation of them by the consent of the ancient Fathers But their Doctrine of Transubstantiation I have plainly shewn to have no such ground and that this is acknowledged by very many learned men of their own Church And this Doctrine of theirs being first plainly proved by us to be destitute of all Divine Warrant and Authority our Objections against it from the manifold contradictions of it to Reason and sense are so many Demonstrations of the falsehood of it Against all which they have nothing to put in the opposite Scale but the Infallibility of their Church for which there is even less colour of proof from Scripture then for Transubstantiation it self But so fond are they of their own Innovations and Errours that rather then the Dictates of their Church how groundless and absurd soever should be call'd in question rather then not have their will of us in imposing upon us what they please they will owerthrow any Article of the Christian Faith and shake the very foundations of our common Religion A clear evidence that this Church of Rome is not the true Mother since she can be so well contented that Christianity should be destroyed rather then the Point in question should be decided against her FINIS A DISCOURSE Concerning the ADORATION OF THE HOST As it is Taught and Practiced in the CHURCH of ROME Wherein an Answer is given to T. G. oâ— that Subject And to Monsieut Boileau's late book De Adoratione Eucharistiae Paris 1685. EDINEVRGH Re-printed by John Reid Anno DOM 1686. A DISCOURSE OF THE ADORATION Of the HOST c. IDolatry is so great a Blot in any Church what ever other glorious Marks it may pretend to that it is not to be wondred that the Church of Rome is very angry to be charged with it as it has alwayes been by all the Reform'd who have given in this among many others as a just and necessary Reason of their Reformation and it must be confessed to be so if it be fully and clearly made good against it and if it be not it must be owned to be great Uncharitableness on the other side which is no good Note of a Church neither as grievous Slander and most uncharitable Calumny which will fall especially upon all the Clergy of the Church of England who by their Consent and Subscription to its Articles and to the Doctrine of its Homilies and to the Book of Common Prayer do expresly join in it For it is not the private Opinion only of some particular and forward men in their Zeal and Heat against Popery thus to accuse it of Idolatry but it is the deliberate and sober and downright Charge of the Church of England of which no honest man can be a Member and Minister who does not make and believe it I might give several Instances to shew this but shall only mention one wherein I have undertaken to defend our Church in its charge of Idolatry upon the Papists in their Adoration of the Host which is in its Declaration about Kneeling at the Sacrament after the Office of the Communion in which are these remarkeable words It is hereby declared that no Adoration is intended or ought to be done either unto the sacramental Bread and Wine there bodily received or unto any corporal presence of Christs natural Flesh and Blood for the Sacramental Bread and Wine remain still in their natural substances and therefore may not be adored for that were Idolatry to be abhorred of all faithful Christians Here it most plainly declares its mind against that which is the Ground and Foundation of their Worshipping the Host That the Elements do not remain in their natural Substances after Consecration if they do remain as we and all Protestants hold even the Lutherians then in Worshipping the consecrated Elements they worship meer Creatures and are by their own Confession guilty of Idolatry as I shall shew by and by and if Christs natural Flesh and Blood â—e not corporally present there neither with the Substance nor Signs of the Elements then the Adoring what there is most be the Adoring some things else then Christs body and if Bread only be there and they adore that which is there they must surely adore the Bread it self in the opinion of our Church but I shall afterwards state the Controversie more exactly between us Our Church has here taken notice of the true Issue of it and declared that to be false and that it is both Unfit and Idolatrous too to Worship the Elements upon any account after Consecration and it continued of the same mind and exprest iâ— is particularly and directly in the Canons of 1640. where it sayes a Canon 7. 1640. about placing the Communion Table under this head A Declaration about some Rites and Ceremonis That for the cause of the Idolatry committed in the Mass all Popish Altars were demolish'd so that none can more fully charge them with Idolatry in this point then our Church has done It recommends at the same time but with great Temper and Moderation the religious Gesture of bowing towards the Altar both before and out of the time of Celebration of the Holy Eucharist and in it and in neither a Ib. can 7. 1â—40 Vpon any opinion of a corporal presence of Christ on the Holy Table or in the mystical Elements but only to give outward and bodily as well as inward worship to the Divine Majesty and it commands all Persons to receive the Sacrament Kneeling b Rubric at Communion in a posture of Adoration as the Primitive Church used to do with the greatest Expression of Reverence and Humility tropo proskynesios kai sebasmatos St. Cyrill of Hierusalem speaks c Cyril Hierosolym Catech. Mystag 5. and as I shall shew is the meaning of the greatest Authorities they produce out of the Ancients for Adoration not to but at the Sacrament so far are we from any unbecoming or irreverent usage of that Mystery as Bellarmine d Controv. de Eucharist when he is angry with those who will not Worship it tells them out of Optatus that the Donatists gave it to Dogs and out of Victor Vticencis that the Arriaâ—s trod it under their Feet
and useless Light especially the Ignis fatuus of Purgatory whicâ— serves onely to mislead Men out of the way and so lose them iâ— the bogs or woods of perpetual errour which teaches us to believâ— quite otherwise then the Papists do for such as these are the instructions of the Holy Spirit John 5. 24. Verily verily I say unto you he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hatâ— everlasting life he shall not come into condemnation but is passâ—â— from death to life Mat. 18. 8. Wherefore if thy hand or thy fâ—â—â— offend thee cut them off and cast them from thee it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed rather then having two hands and two feet to be cast into everlasting fire Mat. 19 29. And every one that hath forsaken houses or Brethren or Sisters or Father or Mother or Wife or Children or Lands for my names sake shall receive an hundred fold and shall inherit everlasting life Mat. 25. 46. And these shall go into everlasting punishment but the righteous into life everlasting In the sixteenth Chapter of St. Luk's Gospel from the nineteenth to the one and thirtieth Verse we read how the Rich Man was cast into Torments and the Poor Man lodged in Abraham's Bosome Between the places of both these Men there was Mega chasma a Wide Gulph never to be passed Insomuch that Dives did dispair of any relief out of his misery when the gift of a drop of Water to cool his tongue would not be granted him If we can assent to what the Papists say they have paved a large Caus-way over this wide Gulf and have opened a very easie passage from a life of torments to that of eternal happiness For by vertue of some prayers oblations and indulgences they have made the way broad to Heaven and narrow to Hell a Man that hath Money in his pocket cannot be damned and a Camel may assoon pass through the eye of a nedle as a poor man be saved But granting that the written word of God hath nothing of Purgatory in it the Romanists will tell you that Tradition will defend them in the belief thereof which word Tradition they are wont to alledge to give a colour to most of their present innovations Wherefore in the second place I am to shew how they are mistaken in this case of Tradition also and to declare for what reasons the Fiction of Purgatory was first set on foot The Traditions we receive as good and authentick are the Doctrines which we now read in the holy Scriptures but I have proved Purgatory to be none of these Therefore those of the Romish Perswasion must mean some other Tradition that is not to be found written in the word of God But here we ought to observe that the Scripture in this case aswell as in all others is the only rule of Faith therefore Traditions Councils and Fathers are onely to be used as helps to understand the Scripture better but not to be entertained as any rule of Faith in which case we are bound to be of the Apostle's mind If I or an Angel from Heaven preach any other doctrine then that which we have delivered let him be accursed For this reason we cannot receive those Doctrines for truth which the Church of Rome presses upon our Belief upon the account of Tradition Especially when we consider with what strategems of force and fraud this Church hath laboured to keep the People in ignorance for the sake of her New Doctrines that they may be swallowed the more glibly Which is an artifice to enslave Mankind by disabling them either to see or know what she is a doing Whereas if we would keep up the honour and priviledge of Humane nature if we would preserve our Bibles from being sequestred into Hucksters hands if we have any regard to God's pure and undefiled Religion we must resolve against the Novelties of Popery For in the true Religion there is nothing which the reason of Mankind can challenge wherein the judgments of Men may not have so good an account as to receive full and ample satisfaction And to speak the truth I do not understand that there is any Religion farther then that which is owned among Protestants what more is to be found among the Papists is accommodated to serve some by-ends and purposes For this reasons a great Abbot in the Roman Church was wont to say that he did greatly suspect his Religion must needs fail being not built upon so firm a Rock as was supposed because there was so little Ground for many Tenents of it in the word of God I may add that there is as little in the principals of God's Creation or in that which we call Natural Religion If this be so I wonder with what face they can still stand up for Purgatory or imagine such a state in which the Souls of Men are for a time shut up untill they are set at liberty by the Prayers of the Living or a Pope's Indulgence but to justifie themselves in this unpardonable abuse of the Christian Religion they tell us that some Christians in Old Time did make use of Prayers and Commemorations for those who died in the true Faith of our Saviour Jesus Christ Now the question is whither the Supplicants that used this kind of Devotion intended by these means to obtain a pardon for the Criminals that were condemned to this Prison The right understanding of this custome will put an end to the Controversie and who can better inform us of their meaning then they themselves or those that lived in the same Age with them amongst whom may be reckoned Dionysius the Areopagite who treats particularly of the Rites used in their Burials of the Dead this Authour tells us that the Bishop was wont in the midst of the Congregation to make a Prayer of Thanksgiving unto God for his restraining the power of the Devil over Mankind as also for his mercifull admittance of sincere Penitents into his Grace and Favour And farther prayes that God would place them in the Land of the Living seat them in Abraham's Bosome where now they rest from their Labours here they may be received into a place of Light Peace and Joy everlasting this was the end of their Prayers for those that Rest in the Lord. Now leâ—t by mistake we should infer from hence as some have done that the Souls of good Men departed this life are not yet in Paradise but remain for some time in a condition of darkness loss and pain there to be prepared for Heaven by certain Purgations and thence to be discharged by the satisfactions and prayers of the Living the same excellent writer hath mentioned only two divisions of the Dead of those that have lived well and of those that have lived ill whereas the upholders of Purgatory have lodged them in three distinct Apartments But the Primitive Church know but two places of entertainment for the
simple and plain vertues the People are brought up to shew so many tricks and to act over so many mimical postures of Worship But thanks be to God we have not so learned Christ we came not into the World to be idle Spectatours therein to be slothfull and unprofitable Monks to gratifie our senses feed our lu 〈…〉 or to live at ease but to pay a reasonable service to God and to promote the publick good not to advance our own advantages and designes but the common interest and benefit of Mankind And as we are not to neglect our duty upon which the saving of our Souls depends in expectation that after this life is ended we may get out of Purgatory into Heaven so we must not mistake our time of doing our duty but begin it as soon as we come to the use of our reason and understanding that assoon as our rationall powers begin to move Religion also may shew it self at the same time with all the brightness and majesty of truth and vertue Therefore Men do mightily abuse themselves when they are led aside by erroneous opinions concerning their future state and so lose the happy occasion of advancing their true interest this they do who put off their living well to the last who defer their Repentance with groundless hopes of having the same good success as the Penitent Thief had or who neglect all those good means that would make them sound and good Christians out of a false perswasion that their sufferings hereafter will be but Temporary and then they shall be as happy as the best Men are Some Philosophicall Persons are mistaken in this matter for they will tell you that they would rather chuse not to be at all then be placed in such a condition of Life as that they shall be in danger of everlasting punishment if they difobey the Laws of God Surely this cannot be the desire of a good or a wise Man as if a Man had better chuse to live in the Woods in a wilde state of confusion and anarchy then be subject to the Laws of a Just and Mercifull Ruler under whom he may lead an happy and quiet life meerly because he shall be punished if he do amiss We are beholding to the infinite bounty and goodnes of God for that he hath given us all a Being and when we were made it was abfolutly necessary that we should carefully observe and keep the Laws of Almighty God but such is the degeneracy of Mankind that they would never doe this unless there were severe penalties to be suffered for the violation of them which penalties are eternal upon impenitent Sinners for this reason among others because the goodness and mercy of God is eminently shewn towards Men both in threatning and inflicting these punishments for hereby they may behold his severity against fin and so break off the practices of it that they may escape the punishments of the future state which are inflicted because Men have been unreclaimable either by the mercies or severities of God towards them in this life The suffering these punishments God may accept of as a â—ull satisfaction to his Law if they be such as tend to break men off from sin assert 〈…〉 's Right and vindicate his honour to the World for we must know that the end of punishment is not the satisfaction of anger in God as a desire of revenge but the design of it is to vindicat the honour and rights of the injured person by such a way as himself shall judge most satisfactory to the ends of his Government But the misery of any Creature cannot be an end to us much less to the Divine nature because an End supposes something desirable for it self so that God neither dâ—â—h nor can delight in the miseries of his Creatures in themselves but as they are subservient to the ends of his Government and yet such is his kindness in that respect too that he uses all means agreeable thereto to make them avoid being for ever miserable For there is a vast dâ—fference between the end of punishment in this Life and in that which is to come the punishments in the life to come are aflicted because Sinners have been unreclaimable by either the mercies or punishments of this Life and they are intended to deter Men from commiting those sins which will expose them to the wrath to come Let us therefore alwayes laud and bless the Name of God in whâ—m we live move and have our Beeing for that he hath raised us out of nothing to be not onely Living but Rational Creatures Now we are bound to act according to the dâ—gnity of our Natures if we do not we degenerate into the lower Rank of Animals and very deservedly pull God's vengeance upon us for disappointing the end of our Creation which was to serve our Creatour in all Faithfulness and Truth it being a fault never to be forgiven for any Creature to say that he is not beholding to God for giving him a Beeing unless he may be freed from the dreadfull apprehensions of that everlasting punishment which is due against all such as wilfully offend so good and wise so holy and just a God Wherefore let no vain expectations of escaping the wrath to come betray us into so great a soâ—tishness as to put off our Repentance or to defer making provision for Eternity to be throughly regenerate is a harder taâ—k then to mumble over so many Pater Noster's or Ave Mary Prayers I fear those ignorant People whose Religion hangs on a string of Beads and whose Prayers are set upon Tallies understand very little what true Sanctification imports what reconciliation with the naturâ— will and mind of God signifies unless we are thus qualified for the enjoyment of God no Flames of Purgatory will ever prepare us for it Now therefore is the time of working out our Salvation the next World will be the time of giving an account of what we have done either good or evil as this Life leaves us so eternal Life will find us what advantages then we have to day of knowing the will of God and of learning his statutes let us make use of them that we may be able to stand before his Judgement Seat and receive the rewards of good and faithful Servants in order to the acquitting of our selves well at this Bar we have the direction of the holy Scripture which we may search as curiously as we please we have all God's institutions to guide us we have the assistance of GOD'S Spirit to help and encourage our endeavours and the promises of the Goâ—pel to assure us that ouâ— labour shall not be in vain These are the benefits of the present time but what warrant have we from Scripture that those duties may be performed hereafter which are now neglected No we are told the quite contrary because I called saith GOD and ye would not answer I will then laugh at your destruction and mock
this there is a constant use of Confession and Absolution too in the Church of England in every dayes Service which though they be both in general terms as they ought to be in publick Worship yet every Penitent can both from his own conscience supply the generality of the confession by a remorseful reflection upon his own particular sins as well as if he did it at the knees of a Priest and also by an Act of Faith can apply the general Sentence of Absolution to his own Soul with as good and comfortable effects as if it had been specially pronounced by his Confessor But this publick confession doth not please the Romanists neither and they know a Reason for their dislike namely because this doth not conciliate so great a Veneration to the Priest-hood as when all men are brought to kneel to them for Salvation Neither doth this way make them to pry into the secret thoughts of Men as Auricular confession doth wherein the Priest is not only made a Judge of mens estate but a Spy upon their behaviour and is capable of becoming an Intelligencer to his Superiours of all the Designs Interests and even constitutions of the People Moreover the church of England allows of private confessions also as particularly in the Visitation of the sick which office extends also to them that are troubled in Mind or conscience as well as to the afflicted in Body where the Minister is directed to examine particularly the state of the Decumbents soul to search and romage his conscience to try his Faith his Repentance his Charity nay to move him to make a special confession of his sins and afterwards to absolve him upon just grounds Nay farther yet if besides the case of sickness any Man shall either out of perplexity of Mind scrupulosity or remorse of conscience or any other devout consideration think it needfull to apply himself to a Priest of the church of England for advice ease or relief he hath incouragement and direction so to do in the first Exhortation to the Holy communion and may be sure to find those who will tenderly and faithfully as well as secretly administer to his necessities So that I see not what defect or omission can be objected to this church in all this Affair or what Temptation any Man can have upon this account to go from us to the church of Rome But all this will not satisfy them of the Church of Rome they are neither contented with publick confession nor with private no nor with secret neither if it be only occasional or voluntary It is the universality and necessity of it which they insist upon for it is not with them a Matter of Ecclesiastical Discipline to prevent the Scandal of the Society to conserve the Reverence of the Church or to restrain men from sinning or much less an Office of Expediency and Prudence to be resorted to upon exigencies or such as may accidentally become necessary upon emergency as suppose upon the â—trocity of some fact committed the scandalousness of some persons former life which may make him more doubtful of his Pardon the weakness of his Judgment the Melancholy of his Temper or the Anxiety of his Mind or any such like occasion but it must be the standing indispensable duty of all men as the condition of the Pardon of their Sins in one word it must be a Sacrament of Divine institution and of Universal Obligation For so the Council of Trent determines Sess 4. canon 1. Si quis dixerit in Ecclesia catholica poenitentiam non esse vere proprie Sacramentum pro fidelibus quoties post Baptismum in peccata labentur ipsi Deo reconciliandis a Domino nostro institutum Anathema sit i. e. Let him be accursed who shall affirm that Penance is not truly and properly a Sacrament instituted and appointed in the Universal Church by our Lord Christ himself for the reconciling those Christians to the Divine Majesty who have fallen into Sin after their Baptism And in the Doctrinal part of that Decree they teach and assert more particularly First That our Saviour instituted this Sacrament expresly Joh. 20. 22. 2. That this Sacrament consists of two parts viz. The Matter and the Form the matter Sess 14. Cap. 2. of the Sacrament or quasi materia as they cautiously speak is the act or acts of the Penitent namely contrition confession and Satisfaction the Form of it is the act of the Priest in these words Absolvote 3. That therefore it is the duty of every Man cap. 3. who hath fallen after Baptism as aforesaid to confess his sins at least once a year to a Priest 4. That this confession is to be secret for publick cap. 5. confession they say is neither commanded nor expedient 5. That this confession of Mortal sin be very Ibid. exact and particular together with all circumstances especially such as speciem facti mutant alter the kind or degree of sin and that it extend to the most secret sins even of thought or against the 9th and 10th Commandment Ibid. 9. That the Penitent thus doing the Absolution of the Priest here upon pronounced is not Cap. 6. conditional or declarative only but absolute and judicial Now in opposition to this Doctrine and Decree of theirs and the practice of that Church pursuant thereof as well as in defence of the Doctrine and practice of the Church of England in that particular I will here endeavour to make good these Three things 1. That our blessed Lord and Saviour hath neither in his Gospel instituted such an Auricular Confession as aforesaid nor much less such a Sacrament of Penance as the Church of Rome supposes in the recited Decree 2. That Auricular Confession hath not been of constant and universal use in the Christian Church as the Romanists pretend much less looked upon as of Sacramental and necessary Obligation 3. That Auricular confession as it is now used in the Church of Rome is not only unneceslary and burdensome but in many respects very mischievous to Piety and the great ends of Christian Religion If the first of these appear to be true then at the worst the want of such an Auricular confession in the reformed Churches can be but an irregularity and no essential defect If the second of these assertions be made good then it can be no defect at all in those Churches that use not such a Rite but a novely and imposition on their parts who so strictly require it But if the third be true it will be the corruption and great fault of the Church of Rome to persevere in the injunction and practice of it and the excellency and commendation of those Churches which exclude it I begine with the first that it doth not appear that our Saviour hath instituted such an Auricular Confession of such a Sacrament of Penance as the Church of Rome pretends and practises I confess it is a Negative which I
they are sure they are great Truths by vertue of Infallibility which is one of the Miracles of Rome which can change the nature of things Fowlis hist Preface p. 1. which may be true in England and the quite contrary at Rome as Father Cotton and other Jesuites affirmed at Paris For it 's plain to all impartial judgements that their Doctrine of Purgatory Transubstantiation and the like are not to be found in the Scriptures are utterly unknown to the truely ancient Fathers and the eldest and purest times of Christianity and contrary to the reason of mankind They may as well tell us that the City of Rome was never sackt and spoil'd because some Flatterers humour'd her Pride and arrogance calling her Vrbs aeterna immobile saxum Grot in Apoc. c. 17. the immortal city and impregnable Rock as that these gross errors never invaded and ruin'd the Christian faith because of the fine name of Infallibility which they arrogate to themselves And may as well put out our eyes and then bid us see if we can discover any errours in the Romish Church And St. Peter's being at Rome proves no more that he left Infallibility behind him then consecrated clouts sent from Rome that the Infant that wears them shall ever after be a firm defender of the Romish Faith 4. This Question will serve any Heresies or errours that have got some Antiquity on their side against a Reformation If it be true in this case 't is so in all others and then what a shelter have they provided for all Heresies if they chance to live long to be safe and secure in and escape correction And there are many errours contemporary with Christianity it self in its first plantation in the World at least followed it very close at the heels such were the Ancient Gnosticks the Carpocrations or Ebionites the spawn of Magus and others who can plead great Antiquity on their side and as properly ask any Reformer of their Heresies Where was his Religion before such a time as the inconstant World began to favour his new Faith and Innovation And so Errours once superinduced upon the Truth will become by Age Truth it self and are never to be mended for fear of this pert Question and charge of Innovation And it 's plain that new and old are but uncertain Characters to judge of Truth and Falshood by there being sometimes a new Truth that is lately discovered to be so but really old and an old errour kept up a long time by force or art and walking in the garb of Truth but truly new having come in after the Truth it vies with Time like a River many times bringing down Straw and Trash leaving weightier things behind which when they come to be retriev'd are called new Fashions and Inventions When Abraham restored the true Worship of GOD and stript it of Idolatry and Superstition the Chaldean Priests whose Power and Interest was shaken by it were very brisk and ready to charge this pious and mighty Man from the East with Novelty and Singularity in his Religion the false service of GOD in Isaiah 41. 2. these Countries being then ancient and almost universal though the Patriarchs Religion did derive it self from a very ancient stock that of Adams in Paradise kept up by an Enoch and a Noah in single Families when all Flesh had corrupted their wayes and now delivered unto Abraham and now all the Gen. 6. 11. sticklers for a false Religion began to upbraid the Sons and Followers of Abraham's Faith with Novelty and askt them Where was your Religion before the times of Abraham who set up his but yesterday and scorns and uncharitably damns all his Forefathers who of old liv'd beyond the River in our Religion The same Objection might have been cast in the teeth of Moses when he was settlling a Religion delivered to him by GOD in opposition to the Idolatries and false Devotions of the World and to serve his farther designs of providence that he affected Novelty and Singularity that all the World stood against him in this and one of his Disciples afterward was inhumane and uncharitable in praying Psalm 79. 6. GOD to pour out his indignation upon the Heathen who had not known his Laws And his Successor Joshua might have met Josb 24. 15. with the same fare when he bids his People choose whom they will serve either the Gods beyond the Floud and in Egypt or the Gods of the Amorites Old and great Nations who might have had this Objection in its full strength on their side or the GOD of Abraham and stoutly tells them Let that plausible Argument weigh withthem what it will as for my self and his Family they would serve the LORD And as this Religion might degenerate in descending Ages so any Restorer of it might be set upon by the same frivolous Objection and so it hapned to our Messias and his fore-runner who was to restore all things who when he began to reform the false glosses and corrupt senses which the Scribes and Pharisees had put upon the Law of Moses and cry down their Traditions which made the Commands of GOD of none effect was look'd upon as an Enemy to Moses a Blasphemer of the Law a Prophaner of the Temple and a Changer of all their Religion whose Design was onely to fill up their Law and restore it to its Natural Beauty and Perfection and before Abraham was I am not only in his Divine Nature and designation to his Office but in his Religion also which now he was going to to teach the jew and Gentiâ—e too And Heb. 9. 10. now the times of a general Reformation being come and the Apostles were Preaching this excellent Religion unto all the World Jew and Gentile conspire together in the same Language and call them setters forth of strange Gods and new Acts 24. 14. Acts 28. 22 Heresies Heads and Contrivers of new Sects and Wayes and are whipt for Vagrants and Impostors who would cheat the World out of their old paternal Religions that were entail'd upon them teach them to speak ill of the Gods of their Fathers and Predecessors and to think they all dyed in a false Religion and to embrace a new-fangled Faith of a few illiterate and rambling fellows who had turn'd the World upside down And had this Argument prevail'd then as much as the Romanists do desire it should new we should have had no Christianity among us the Idol-Gods of our Ancestors in this Island their Woodens and Twisters would have prescribed against Christ himself 3. To turn the Question upon them and ask them some others of the like nature Men that are insolent and ever boasting of the Antiquity of their Family and upbraiding others with their obscure Birth and Extraction do many times meet with some cross Questions about the Head and Fountain of their Families which many times proves onely to be a Shepheard or meaner Original made
glorious with arrogant Titles and borrow'd Names Search into the Pedegree of Romes Religion we do not find Christ or St. Peter or any of his Apostles to be the Authors of it but Pride Interest and Design old Vices indeed but new Fathers of a Christian church which brought in a late and new generation of Opinions and additions to Christs Religion clothing them with the venerable Names of Primitive and Apostolical Where was the Romish Religion before the Council of Trent concluded onely about the year 1563. of a latter date then when Luther first began which legitimated all their Innovations the issue of Scholastick Wranglings pretended Dreaâ—â—s and Visions forc'd and unnatural Senses of Scripture Ambition and Profit the Fxchequer of Rome to be made Sons of the Church and Fundamentals of the Christian Faith Many of their own Writers confess that for 1400 or â— 500 years the Pope was not believ'd to be infallible till of late some of their flaming Zealots have vested him with infallibility whereby the Roman Church is sick unto death and no cure is to be applyed because she is so certain and sure that she is well Their lewd Doctrine of Transubstantiation was not made an Article of Faith till the Council of Laâ—eran under Innocent the third above 1200 years after Christ and many of their own Writers are still dissatisfied about it The Title of Vniversal Bishop was obtained by Pope Boniface the Third not till about 600 years after Christ fearing a powerful Rival the Constantinopolitan Bishop who affected the same and therefore by the Popes themselves was declaimed against as proud and Antichristian but now by Hypocrisie and base compliance with the wicked Phocas who was guilty of Treason and Murder against the Emperour Mauritius Rome gained the delicious point and has made it a fundamental Article of her new Religion though the Popes came not up to their swaggering temper and Power of Hectoring Christian Princes some hundred of years afâ—erwards The Doctrine of Purgatory which some derive from the Platonick Fancies of Origen the Montanism of Tertullian pretended Visions and Pagan Stories Rhetorical Flourishes and doubtful Expressions of the later Fathers yet it was not positively affirmed till about the year 1140. and not made an Article of Faith till the Council of Trent then indeed a good Estate became a surer way to Heaven then a good Life and Conversation The use of indulgences was the Moral to the Fable of Purgatory and began to grow much what about the same time though it came not to the height and perfection till Pope Leo the Tenths time when Luther so stoutly opposed them then Heaven was set to sale and the best Chapman was the greatest Saint though they boast of the second Council of Nice for the Antiquitie of their Image Worship And if it will do thern any good so they may of Simon Magus who was of an elder date and a very fit Patron of Acts 11. 13 such an Opinion yet the Council of Frankfurt condemned it and the purest times did not so much as allow the making of Images And it was not the Catholick Doctrine in France for almost 900 years after Christ nor in Germany till after the 12th Câ—â—tury then indeed such a Doctrine might be very proper when true Religion was turned into Pageantry and a form of Godliness The number of the seven Sacraments is now an Article of the Romish Faith yet the Council of Florence ended in the year 1439 was the first Council and Peter Lombard the first man that precisely fixt that number That the Laity ought to receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper onely in one kind was never made an Article of Faith till the Council of Constance concluded in the year 1418 then indeed that Council with the greatest insolence and a direct Invasion of the Authority of CHRIST took the Cup from the Laymens mouths notwithstanding as it was then acknowledged the Institution of CHRIST to the contrary and they may as well Christen the Laicks Children only in the name of the Holy Ghost leaving out the Father and the Son by the way of concomitancy it being as Lawful to Baptize as Communicat by the halfes For what cannot such a pretended Power do The prohibiting of Priests to Marry was not in perfection as 't is now till Pope Gregory the Sevenths time Let them tell us where 't is said by Christ or his Apostles or any of the truly Ancient Writers of the christian Church that Pennance is a Sacrament or that Auricular Confession is necessary to Salvation or that Prayers ought to be made in an unknown Tongue or that good works are strictly meritorious or where can they find the many Impieties and absurdities of their Mass in those early times of Antiquity And since they are fond of asking us this Question we might ask them many more about the many Fopperies and Innovations in their Faith and Devotion and many they are and large is the inventory almost as many as are the Christian Truths in direct opposition to them or prevarication from them But they seem to confess the newness of their Religion when they arrogantly set up a Power in their Church to frame new Articles of Faith and many things only Opinions and Notions at first have grown up by degrees to Fundamental Truths and having once slipt into errour they are bound to maintain it for the Reputation and Autâ—ority of Holy Church And who knows how many of this Nature are upon the Romish forge ready to be put into their Creed and where must we end not till it be believed that consecrated Feathers and Holy Water can convey Divine Grace to us and drive away wicked Spirits and the Weathercocks of our Churches be thought Pâ—illars of it Would the Champions of Rome speak out they would tells us as their Eckius did the Duke of Bavaria That the Doctrine of Luther might be overthrown by the Fathers though not by the Scriptures 't is a plain confession that we have the truest Antiquity on our side and in the beginning it was not so But we add that we have the Fathers also on our side for otherwise what mean their Expurgat orian Indices of the Fathers and other Ancient Writters but that they very well know that these are old Enemies to Pope Pins's new Creed and the Truth in them confounds their errour Such an account as this about the Original and Progress of their new Additions to the old Faith was convenient to be given not because the Nature of the thing did necessarily require it for it had been sufficient only to have prov'd that these Romish Additions to the Christian Faith are contrary to the Word of GOD and no where to be found in any of the Divine Writings the only Infallible Rule of Faith and that they have no power of minting new Articles Fundamental to Salvation but because the Disciples of Rome so frequently ask us the Question and