be such a Condition in Order to this End Psal 51.4 as All may have That so God may be Justified when he speaks and clear when he Judges and if men be not saved it may appear it was through their own Folly and not from the difficulty of the Condition which God offers For it would be infinitely derogatory to the Wisdom and Goodness of the Divine Nature to the God of Love the only Wise God to give such a Condition of Salvation as All were not capable of attaining For Salvation is not confined to the Wise and Learned 1 Cor. 1.26 nay St. Paul seems to intimate the Contrary Not many Wise men are called Jude 3. but it is the Common Salvation in which all Rich and Poor High and Low Young and Old the Learned and Unlearned the Wise and the Simple have a share The Foundation of this Assent to the Conditional Propositions of Salvation is not therefore our Understanding of them to be true by the Power of Reason our comprehending or apprehending the manner of them but it springs from the Confidence that we have of the Veracity of him who propounds them to our Belief and that we are assured that he will not because he cannot deceive us because he is Truth it self as whoever believes a Supreme Being must of Necessity believe Truth to be of his Essence THUS I believe the Glorious Mystery of the Trinity Three Persons but one God the Incarnation of the Son of God the proceeding of the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son the Resurrection of the Body and the rest of the Articles of the Christian Faith not because I dare pretend to understand them or to give a Satisfactory Reason to my self how this can be Or why it should be but I rest my self satisfied upon the assurance that he who requires me to believe it cannot deceive me nor require me to believe what is not most certainly true But God being in Heaven in that inaccessable Light of Glory and I upon Earth there must be therefore some Internuncius between us that so I may receive these Conditions of Salvation to be believed This Office was in former times committed to the Prophets Rom. 3.4 2 Tim. 3.16 2 Pet. 1.21 and God spake by them For God is only true and all Men may be Lyars and therefore all Scripture was given by Inspiration and came not at any time by the Will of Men but Holy Men of God spoak being moved by the Holy Ghost Heb. 1.1 But the great Prerogative of Christian Religion is That God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past unto the Fathers hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son whom he hath appointed Heir of all things by whom also he made the Worlds Now these Holy Instruments whom God employed to declare his Will to Men that they might obtain Credit to their Message were assisted with power of working Miracles which were the Letters Testimonial the Credentials of Heaven in their behalf to assure the incredulous World that they were Messengers and Ambassadors from God for it is a Natural Inference which Nicodemus made even whilest he was so Unregenerate that he thought Regeneration an Impossibility Jo. 3.2 Rabbi we know that thou art a Teacher come from God for no man can do these Miracles that thou doest except God be with him This Revelation of Gods Will Confirmed to be so by Miracles Signs and Wonders when it comes to be considered and attended to will gain the Assent of the Mind and that these must needs be Truths of a Divine Extract and Original Since All their Precepts are free from any Design but the Advantage of those to whom they are proposed and to make them partakers of the Divine Nature by the practice of that Truth Innocence Justice Temperance and Purity which they do so Universally require as the Way to Happiness both in this Life and that of Celestial Glory and Immortality And these Commands Collected into a Body we call the Holy Canon of Sacred Scriptures I think I need not produce Arguments to prove those Writings to be the Word and Will of God that being a Principle so confessed that without it no Man can be called a Christian I am not now to deal with Heathens or Infidels FROM this Postulatum granted these Conclusions will Naturally follow First That Faith does not depend upon Humane Authority but upon Divine Revelation For it came not by the Will of Man but by the Will of God And therefore no Humane Authority has any power to Impose upon the Belief any thing either contrary or more than God has plainly revealed to be his Will as the Condition of our Salvation for to Command what God has not commanded as such a Condition is insufferable Pride and Insolence an Usurpation upon the Incommunicable Prerogative of him Heb. 12.2 who is the Author and the Finisher of our Faith How great then is the Impiety of those who contrary to the practice of the Universal Church for 1500 years have added the Books of Apocrypha meer Humane Writings to the Holy Canon and under pain of Damnation Impose them upon us as matters of Faith and Conditions of Salvation How Unreasonable is it to make Tradition the Foundation of Faith and of Equal value with the Holy Writings Of which Traditions there being so great Uncertainty it is very Improbable our Faith should receive any Confirmation from them For what is liable to a doubt it self is very unlikely to take away all cause of Doubting Yet this is the Faith of the Roman Church in their Vnwritten Verities SECONDLY it follows That nothing ought to be Imposed as De Fide and the Necessary Condition of Salvation but what is clearly Demonstrable to be the Will of God revealed and which all Men because all are capacitated for Salvation may easily Understand to be so And since all men have an Equal Title to Salvation upon their performance of the Conditions by God required to be believed and done therefore what Faith will Save the Unlearned will also save the Learned For God proposeth no different Methods more for the one than the other for he is no respecter of Persons Act. 10.35 but in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh Righteousness is accepted with him So that he who is Baptized Repents Lives Righteously Godly and Soberly in this present World believing the Gospel of our Lord and obeying it according to that Belief shall certainly receive the end of his Faith and hope the Salvation of his Soul For these are Truths so clearly contained in the Scripture that the meanest Capacity may understand them and perform the Conditions required Now what is necessary and sufficient for all and whatever is proposed more is Superfluous since he that believes this and no more shall certainly be saved and he that believes more shall but be saved It is
Expiating Guilt and Purchasing Heaven after all the Enjoyments of a sensual lascivious and debauched Life by Confession here and Masses bought to be said hereafter and at the worst the pains of Purgatory all which Doctrins bring in Treasure and Authority to the Priests and Church which generally shares with them in the purchase and permits them not to have lawful Heirs that so she may be their Executrix these and a multitude of the same Nature which are made matters of Faith and Sacraments in their Church essential to Salvation Fasten on the Manacles and make their Proselytes voluntarily entertain a slavery so agreable to their Wishes and Desires For who would not like a Religion which permits him to Enjoy all the Liberties of the World and the Flesh though renounced by his Baptismal Vow and yet puts him out of the danger of Hell and Damnation that allows him to serve his Mammon of Unrighteousness and yet expect a Reward from God whom he may at the same time serve though Christ says Nay to it and please with a few random Prayers repeated only with the labour of the Lips which at one Heaven according to their Quantity and are Efficacious by their Multiplicity who would not be a Papist who can believe that though he live all the Year like a Heathen in Sensuality and open Impiety yet if at Easter he make Confession to a Priest he shall thereby clear the score betwixt God and his Soul and be a good Catholique though he is no sooner parted from his Ghostly Father but he repeats the same Crimes or it may be worse and returns to the former Vomit and wallowing in the Mire perfectly upon the incouragement of the same Remedy who would not be such a Catholique when a few knocks upon his Breast shall be Contrition and some austerities and hardships practised upon the Body shall satisfie for the sin of his Soul and the most flagitious Offenders may hope for and be certain of Reconciliation to God and yet never be sensible of the severe Agonies of Spirit and the insupportable Wounds of Conscience the dreadful Horrors of a guilty Mind Is not this a soft and easie way to Heaven which makes the Way so broad and the Gate so wide which is set open by St. Peter's Keys that it is impossible any man should either Miss the one or not Enter the other who is not either so miserably Poor or so wretchedly Covetous or so great an Vnthrift or so destitute of Charitable Friends as not to be able to leave a small sum of Money for Masses and Dirges to reskue him from the Pains of Purgatory O dangerous Simony which sells Heaven and the Holy Ghost without which the other cannot be had for Money And if the Pope has such a Power to relieve the Quick and the Dead he is the most Uncharitable person to say no worse in the World who when for a word of his Mouth he can Save so many Souls from the Horrid Pains of Purgatory will not do it unless he be hired to it the Good Shepherd lays down his Life for the Flock but the Hireling will not spare his Breath to Cool the Flaming Tongues of those who suffer such Intollerable Pains unless he be paid for his AND if at any time the more Learned or Intelligent come to discover the pious Frauds the Great Severities which are made use of against them if they do but mutter against the Church the Fear of loosing their Lives or Estates and wearing the Infamous Brand of Hereticks is the Interest which seals their Lips in silence AND for the Clergy the High Honors to which they may arive and the dazeling Lustre of the Tripple Diadem shines so full upon their Eyes that it takes away their sight and the innumerable ways of obtaining Dignities Riches Esteem and Veneration with the Laity generally prove too strong Charms to be resisted by feeble Nature For who would turn a poor Protestant Priest when thereby he shall be so great a looser when thereby he shall part with all the fair Revenue of Masses for the Dead Money for Pardons Indulgences Licences Dispensations and the more than Almighty Priviledge and Miracle of making his Creator and transubstantiating a poor piece of Bread into the real body of the Son of God when he must renounce all hopes and pretensions to the Red Cap the Title of Eminency and the Princely state of S. E. R. Cardinal the next step to Vice Deus and the Supreme Honor of the Triple Miter and when in Exchange he must confine his Ambition to it may be a small Benefice and a great Charge in his vigilant Cure of Souls a heavy Burthen and it may be a light Gain and which if he does indeavour faithfully to discharge shall procure him in the room of Love Honour and Esteem Hatred Scorn Contempt and Reproaches And when the highest that can be hoped is but a Pastoral Staff and humble Mitre the Load and Envy of Government the Constant Care of the Churches and a certain Revenue of Malice for the little Temporal Honour and Estate which it may be is but just sufficient to maintain Charity and Hospitality those Honourable Characters as well as Expensive Duties of a Primitive Bishop I could heartily wish that even this Interest and the Revenue of the Church could not be objected against any Dissenters as a former Motive that induced them to Ruine her that so they might Rob her and that the same Spur did not still continue their Career in the same Design I know they will disown it and I wish we could believe them and our senses at the same time I wish the advantages they make of Tones Phrases long Prayers sanctified Looks and Religious Disobedience with which they please the Factious shelter the Seditious and agrandize themselves both in Riches and Reputation might not be objected against Dissenters as a greater Reason for their Nonconformity than any real Power of Conscience And they give a just occasion to suspect that they have not a Conscience void of offence towards God and Man who dare daily break the Laws of the one and the other and make no scruple to wound the Consciences of others both weak and strong under pretence of keeping their own from being wounded which is just so charitable as for me to wound another man and say it was in my own defence and lest he should have injur'd me So that it appears how great an influence Interest has upon the minds of Men to obstruct the Entertainment of Truth and that therefore in Order to obtain Peace and Vnity there is an absolute necessity that Men should lay aside the Clog of self Interest CHAP. III. IT is not Interest alone that obstructs the happy Vnion that ought to be amongst Christians and occasions those Divisions amongst them but there is also a necessity that Men should devest themselves of their prejudices and prepossessions of mind for these do always
he knows more and better what he ought to do than he who has Power to Command him This is the knowledg which St. Paul says puffeth up but Charity edifieth 1 Cor. 8.1 2. And therefore he subjoyns If any man think he knoweth any thing he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know that is if his knowledg occasions a breach of Charity he does not yet know himself or his Duty to God and Man This is so clear a Case with those of the Separation who break both Charity and Unity by their Disobedience that they must shut the clearest beams of Truth out of their Souls if they do not discover it SECONDLY An obstinate adherence to any private Opinion whereby the Peace of the Church is destroyed especially in things no ways in themselves Essentially necessary to Salvation must of necessity proceed from Pride for why should any person prefer his private Judgment before the Determination of his Superiors before that of the Catholick Church in all Ages but because he thinks himself wiser and more able to discern what is for the Publick Good than all that were before him or that are above him though hereby Solomon will tell him from the Spirit of God that he only purchases the Character of a Fool Prov. 12.15 The way of a Fool is right in his own eyes but he that hearkeneth unto Counsel is wise And therefore the Prophet pronounceth a Woe against such Woe unto those that are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight Esa 5.21 Which must be meant of private persons for the Wisdom of Superiors is not so much their own as the Wisdom of all former Ages and for this Reason St. Paul commands Rom. 12.16 Be of the same mind mind not high things prompted by Pride or Ambition but condescend to men of low Estate much more to those of high be not wise in your own conceit And for Encouragement to this kind of Private Wisdom once more hear Wisdom it self speak by the wise man Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit Prov. 26.12 there is more hope of a Fool than of him And it is impossible to give any other Reason why men should not submit to Truth and their Superiors when they may be sensible to a demonstration from Reason Scripture and Experience that their private Opinions are unlawful because dangerous contrary to Charity and Gods Command but because they think such a Submission a Retractation or Compliance with Authority would be a lessening of them as to that Opinion for Wisdom and Sanctity which others attribute to them and that dangerous Flatterer Pride perswades them they are Masters of THIRDLY To indeavour to strengthen themselves by making a Party to secure them in their Disobedience and Obstinacy is the certain and unseparable Symptom of Ambition as well as Pride for if I dislike any thing I may do so to my self but to perswade others to it must have respect to a further Design and declares that I intend not only to own my Disobedience but to justifie and maintain it by Power The best Men in the World may Err privately but it is to be suspected they are the worst who make their Errors Publique to draw Disciples after them by Disobedience a man Equals himself to his Superiors for it is a plain denying their Authority over him by Obstinacy he shews his intention to stand his Ground and make good his Incroachment upon their Power and by his making of a Party he does as it were make secret Levies and inrols a Militia to defend himself from the Power of his Superiors and looks as if he meant to struggle with them not only for Precedence but Dominion I wish these were only Suppositions and that we could not from woful Experience say they are but too true but it was this very way that lately laid the Crown as well as the Mitre in the Dust too lately to give us the least reason to doubt that the same Methods may do it again if not in time prevented either by the vigilance of Authority or by reducing the disorderly and disobedient to the Wisdom of the Just and by informing their Understandings to oblige them voluntarily to abandon those Men and Principles whose Practices will infallibly lead them to these Conclusions or oblige Authority by the utmost Severities of Laws to prevent the Danger and Ruine of the whole Frame of Government both in Church and State AND as Pride and Ambition are but too visible amongst the Principles of Dissention amongst us and the principal Obstacles of our Peace and Vnity so are they no less Obstructions to a Reconciliation with the Roman Church for it is the Ambition of Supremacy over all other Churches and over all Temporal Powers and even over our Faith it self the incommunicable Prerogative of our blessed Jesus Heb. 12.2 the Author and Finisher of our Faith which has render'd all Reunion with them not only dangerous but impossible unless we will resolve by believing as that Church believes to disbelieve not only our Sense and Reason but Scripture and all Antiquity and not only those but God himself who has given us them to assist us in our Faith IT is the Ambition of the Clergy which obliges them to keep the Laity in Ignorance so blind that they are not permitted to inquire or doubt And for the Clergy as before was observed in the point of Interest they are constantly fed with the nourishment of Ambitious Thoughts hopes of Dignities and Promotions The meanest Priest or Recluse may come to be head of his House Superior and after General of his Order a Prior or Abbot and it may be a Bishop the Bishop may advance the Mitre to the Honour of a Cardinals Hat and the Red Hat may turn to the Triple Mitre and all this by being a Zealous Maintainer of the Usurped Power of that Church justifying her Incroachments upon the Crowns of Princes and the Mitres of all other Bishops Primates Metropolitans and Patriarchs owning her Monopoly of the Word Catholique avowing her Canonical and Decreed Errors for Rules of Faith and Manners and divulging her fictitious Collusions for real Miracles though to the hazard of rendring the true ones of Christ and his Apostles suspected upon which the sole confirmation of our Religion depends These are the Stairs by which men ascend to the Papal Dignity which now out-flies the Imperial Eagle as well as the smaller Royal Birds of Majesty Et Caput inter Nubila condit for to oppose any of these is a certain way to be prefer'd to the Torments of the Inquisition to be branded with Heresie and Apostacy and to Expire in Flames and Torments So that I hope by this time it is evident how pernioiously powerful the Principles of Interest and Prejudice Custom and Education Pride and Ambition are in the Minds of Men to hinder them from Embracing Truth and her Beautiful Children Peace and
obedience to a private doubt to break a known Command of God who commands Obedience to my Superiors in all things which are not contrary to his commands and whether we should obey God or Man our selves or the Magistrates and Rulers of of the Church is no such hard Question as some people have made it BESIDES Though wilful Errors in Faith are Damnable yet Errors in Circumstances neither are nor can be so unless we make them so our selves by Disobedience to God in refusing for Peace and Vnity to submit to our Superiors which is Damnable Nor indeed can any of the several Rites and Ceremonies of Religion be properly called Errors though they be different nay contrary one to another For where there is no positive Command of God to Determine us either part is lawful or unlawful only according as it is commanded or forbidden by those who are in Authority and if it be not determined by them then as we in our own Judgment shall be perswaded that is conducive to Gods Glory and the Happiness of Mankind For whether I should pray in a Surplice or in a Cloak is not a point of Salvation for I may do it with either or neither and yet go to Heaven but Disobedience to my Lawful Superiors should they command me to pray to God in Publique in either of them is an Error in Faith for who ever is guilty of that Disobedience must either believe that God is not the Author of that Command or that it is not true which is Infidelity and Error Now let any person of Sobriety Judg whether such a Conscience is a good Conscience and void of offence to God and Men which will strain at the Gnat of an indifferent Ceremony and swallow the Camel of Disobedience And whether all good Christians ought not to joyn with the National Church in such Ceremonies and manners of Worship as admitting them to be as bad as any Ceremonies can be which are not Damnable rather than by endeavouring to avoid them and refusing to use them to run the certain Hazzard of ruining the Peace of the Church and Nation and certain Damnation by their Disobedience to the Command of God I desire to make this as clear as I can and therefore we will Instance in the sign of the Cross after Baptism This Ceremony is by many so much abhorred that they will rather not have their Children received into the Covenant of Grace by Baptism or which is the same thing have the Sacrament from those who having no lawful Ordination have therefore no Commission to go and Baptize all Nations Now supposing the sign of the Cross after Baptism a superfluous or superstitious Ceremony which yet will never be proved as by the Church explained in the Office of Baptism and the 30 Canon yet still the Use of it could not be injurious to Salvation or Damnable because it is no where in Scripture forbidden nor ever asserted to be Essential to the Sacrament Nor condemned by either Councels or the Practice of the Church in any Age but frequently used by the Primitive Christians both upon that and many other Occasions what a man may do without fear of Damnation he may do safely nor is he to be judge of the Expedience or edifyingness of the Ceremony for who made any private man a Judge over others that very capacity Excludes him from that Power But for any person to refuse to have his Child Baptized because of this Ceremony or to refuse to obey his Superiors is to make himself a Judge over them and a damnable Sin Washing with Water in the Name of the Father the Son and the holy Ghost is the Essence of the Sacrament but there are some Prayers to be made 1 Tim. 〈◊〉 For every Creature of God is sanctified by the Word of God and Prayer some Gestures some Postures to be used in such a weighty Solemnity some Praises due for so great a Benefit and these being no where directed what they shall be are left to the Care and Wisdom of the Governors of the Church who to avoid Confusion and to Establish Vnity by Vniformity to preserve the Decency of so Sacred a Duty prescribe this Form of words these Gestures and Rites and this sign as of great signification that as St. Paul says We should Glory in the Cross of Christ and receive that as a Badge or Cognizance of our Christian Profession THE same Answer will serve for all the Ceremonies which are made use of or commanded by the Church of England Nor shall we need to fear lest by this Power of the Church the Ceremonies should swell to such a bulk as to be burthensom by being too numerous since the Governors themselves are not without a Rule in this particular which is the Determination of the first General Councel at Jerusalem Acts 15.28 For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things one of those necessary things was before indifferent viz. to abstain from things strangled and St. Paul seems to make even the other about the things offer'd to Idols the same which now were made by the Councel necessary BUT supposing that there were a real Clog of Ceremonies which none can justly complain of amongst us yet would any man loose the substance for fear of the shadow refuse to Eat good and wholsome Diet because the Dish was Silver and too much Garnished and by Schism and Disobedience run the hazard of his own Soul and all those seduced by him meerly to avoid the doing of those things which if he does them cannot in the least prejudice his Salvation for these are only the Conditions of our maintaining Peace Vnity and Charity but not the Conditions upon which our Salvation depends because God has no where said he that does these things shall be damned and he that abstains from them shall be saved but he has said we must hear the Church and if she Commands this for Peace sake we must Obey lest we be justly esteemed as Publicans and Heathens BESIDES they who Command must answer to God for themselves and they who are to Obey shall not answer for the Errors of their Superiors but no man can answer to God for his disobedience against them in these Commands not only because they are not Judges whether they ought to do or not to do what they are Commanded but because there can then be no such thing as Obedience if every man may be his own Judge for what one man may do out of pure doubt or scruple of Mind thousands will pretend to do and it being impossible to discover the Tender Conscience from the Obstinate and Designing all Duty to our Superiors in the Church will be Evaded with pretence of Doubting or else consist in obeying only so far as we like the Commands which is for fear of Popery to make every Man his own Pope to dispense with the
for suffering this which they will call Persecution for Righteousuess sake Now from this way of Procedure these inconveniencies will necessarily follow FIRST The most Notorious Sinners shall be incouraged in their Impenitence and shall be perswaded that to be reconciled to God Almighty there is no necessity of Submission Repentance or Absolution from the Church which they have offended but rather they shall be inspired with principles of Hatred and Revenge against the Church from which they are Excommunicated and though they be denyed Salvation without Repentance in one Church yet they can go to another where they shall certainly meet with the Promise of it upon cheap and easie terms viz. those of Joyning with them in their way of Worship SECONDLY Hereby men come to have a mean and contemptible Opinion of this Power of the Church And value Excommunication from any Church no more than some idle Servants do to be turned out of their Masters Doors who will presently tell you that the World is wide enough and if one will not another will That there are more Services to be had So will this sort of People tell you there are more Churches and no question but where in any Nation this Principle is allowed there would be almost as many Churches as People and when once they are come to slight the Censure and the Church they will never so much as think of being released from the Dangerous Bond of Excommunication or to have their Sins remitted upon Earth by the power of that Church which they have offended THIRDLY Hereby others of the most Loose and Licencious Lives will be incouraged to continue impious and Irreligious though owning no Sect or Faction And coming by their Example to despise this Power of the true Church and to look upon Excommunication as a thing of no Danger they will value no Church but abandon themselves to all manner of Wickedness Irreligion and Atheism and provided they can but scape the danger of Humane Laws they will never trouble themselves about the Ecclesiastical FOURTHLY People will in a little time come to believe that the only Duty of the Minister consists in their abilities to Preach and Exhort and that to Admonish and Correct is no part of their Office and this being so easie a thing to be attain'd and many times Eloquence as before was observed being a Natural Talent Hereby Bold Illiterate Unexamined Unqualified Conceited and Pragmatical Opiniatres will invade the Sacred Function by which means Errors will abound new Heresies will spring up daily and old ones revive flourish and increase without control or contradiction the Holy Sacraments of the Eucharist and Baptism will be either neglected and laid aside or prophaned by unhallowed hands and in short those great Mischiefs which are so much feared must break in upon us either Atheism or superstitious will Worship the Commandments and Traditions of Wilful Ignorant and Erroneous Men and when once the Church is trampled under foot by so many Sects and Heresies Ignorance will daily get ground and that sets the Dore wide open either to the dreaded thing call'd Popery to Paganism or the Turkish Alchoran which comes with the fairest Pretence and the finest Dress to win their Favour I do heartily wish all this were spoken like the Prophecy of Jonah against the Ninivites what was such occasion of grief and discontent to him as to oblige him in a sullen humor to wish to dye would be to me the greatest Joy of my Life But Experience that fatal Mistress has taught us the truth of some of these Effects and may well give us terrible apprehensions of what we may expect For no sooner can an Offender fall under the deserved Censure of Excommunication or but in the danger of it but presently he turns Dissenter is received into the bosom of some Sect or Faction and then he bids Defiance to all the Power of the Church and fears nothing but the Secular Writ de Excommunicato Capiendo Nay I have my self heard some Persons boast of their being Excommunicated and pretend to receive it as a savour to be prohibited coming into the Church from these mens contempt and vilifying of this dreadful Sentence others who have no Religion have learned to despise it too nor is there any thing in it formidable to them besides the expence of their Money to the Lay-Officers of the Ecclesiastical Courts and when once men come to place all their Religion in fear of the Secular Power and have no other bridle upon their unruly Passions and Desires besides the Reins of Humane Punishments and the Laws of the Civil Magistrate it is not to be admired if they run headlong into Brutish Impiety and downright Atheism and they who are taught to believe and easily learn the Lesson both by Example and Precept that the Priest or Bishop has no more Power over their Souls than over their Bodies will not be long before they Despise both the Persons and their Office and when men are arrived at that for my part I look upon their condition to be next to Desperate for however they may please and flatter themselves in their Gay and Jolly humor of despising these contemptible Priests the affront is really done to God Almighty and I cannot see any great security in such Atheistical Drollery Hear ye Despisers and Tremble at what our Great Lord and Saviour says concerning the 70 Disciples whom he sent abroad to Preach the Gospel of the Kingdom Luk. 10.16 He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me and St. Paul is plain 1 Tim. 4.8 He that despiseth despiseth not Man but God WHAT can be the End of this but Misesery here and Eternal Damnation hereafter He that despised Moses Law died without Mercy Heb. 10.28 29. of how much sorer punishment then are they worthy who despise the Son of God which all those do who despise his Servants the Governors of the Church who are sent by him which if I do not prove let them go on and despise but if they are let them have a care of falling into the hands of a revenging God for it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God Heb. 12.28 for our God is a consuming fire This is certainly the utmost despight to the Spirit of Grace and the most unpardonable affront that can be offer'd to the Divine Clemency and against which there is no remedy A dismal Example of which we have in the Nation of the Jews That God who proclaims himself Merciful slow to anger of great Compassion and that repenteth him of Evil after he had born all their Iniquities and Rebellions could not bear with this 2 Chron. 36.15 16 c. For the Lord God of their Fathers sent to them his Messengers rising up betimes and sending them because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling
therefore the most unreasonable thing in the World to Impose the Modus of any thing which God has not clearly revealed upon Men as Essential to Salvation For most of those Modes are Metaphysical Notions which do as far exceed the Capacities of the Greatest part of Mankind as the Mysteries of the Incarnation and Trinity c. do those of All and even of the Angels who desire to peep or pry into them 1 Pet. 1.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they do not fully Understand them Is it not unreasonable to exact that from me upon the Credit of a Man or many Men Saying so which they are not able to shew me one positive Testimony or clear Consequence for from the mouth of God that it is so and that though I believe all that he requires as the Condition of Salvation yet I must be Accursed and Secluded from Salvation because I will not Lye and say I believe what in Truth I cannot for want of Evidence or Capacity Must I forfeit all I have on Earth and my hopes of Heaven too because I do not believe this or that Doctrine which God has given me a Capacity to believe nay which it may be contradicts all those Capacities of Sense and Reason which he has given me that I might believe them and which give me occasion to doubt his Truth for if he deceive my Senses he may deceive my Understanding and my Hopes at last Is not this to make God an Austere Master gathering where he has not scattered and like the Egyptian Taskmasters to require Brick where he has not afforded Straw to make it Far be it from the Judg of all the Earth to do this Wrong This is the very Case of the Sacrament of the Altar in Transubstantion For it is not enough to believe that Christ is really present there but I must give my senses the Lye which neither see him nor feel him a greater degree of Faith than he required of St. Thomas I must discard my Reason which assures me it is impossible that one Body should be in Infinite Places at the same time and believe how he is there Corporally or be a Heretick Though neither they who impose it upon me are agreed among themselves now it is nor am I able to Understand what they mean as the greatest part of the Vulgar are incapacitated to receive such Apprehensions and the most Learned are not able to express them so as to be Understood Sure it is very hard measure that a poor Christian should be made a Bloody Sacrifice to Cruelty because he does not because he cannot believe that Incruentum Sacrificium of the Mass and that the Glorified Son of God should be ravished from the Right hand of the Majesty on high to become passible again to Expiate for the sins of the Quick and the Dead Which if it be true must be the same that he suffered upon the Cross and a Bloody Sacrifice and as great an Impiety as that of the Wicked Jews who Slew the Lord of Life and hanged him upon the Tree and if it be real and not a Commemorative Sacrifice is for Christians to Crucifie the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame Heh 6.6 and if it be not the same Sacrifice which Christ offer'd it is not propitiatory and in reality only a sacrificing to our own Nets to Ensnare mens Souls The same Measure ought to be observed of all other Theological Points which admitting of variety of Opinions are not therefore to be imposed as Essentially necessary and the Conditions of Salvation WERE this observed it would put an End to those Intestine Quarrels which miserably rend the Peace and Unity of the Church by enlarging Faith to the Destruction of Charity which is making broad the Plylacteries and forgetting Justice and Mercy This would give a Supersedeas to those doubtful Disputations against which St. Paul gives an Express Command Rom. 14.1 And if men were permitted to believe or not believe according to the probability and full perswasion of their own Minds keeping their Faith to themselves in a private way which is true Christian Liberty where men do not impose their Opinions upon others as Essential to Salvation we should soon see an End of those Mortal Jarrs and those Unchristian Doctrines and their strange consequences which have fill'd the World with Error Horror and Confusion which Cruelty Injustice and Persecution not inferior to that of Pilate mingling the Blood of those Christians with their Sacrifices for whom Christ sacrificed his And were it possible to perswade Men to this Modesty and Moderation the Occasion of Quarrels being taken away they would live in Unity and Godly Love and not afflict themselves disquiet the World move Heaven and Earth for the Establishment of a doubtful Opinion as matter of Faith when may be it is not of Truth and without the knowledge of which they may attain Salvation Thus might Men Enjoy their Private Opinions without any prejudice to the Publique Peace and please themselves with their Knowledge without being puff't up to the Ruine of that Charity which Edifies and to the affronting Authority by disobedience because it will not permit their Private Opinions to Ride in the Triumphant Chariot of Conquerors over other mens Faith then with St. Augustine might men say Errare possum Hereticus esse nolo They might be mistaken and be neither Hereticks nor Schismaticks they might differ from others in their sense and yet agree in the Common and Essential Faith which as it owns so always maintains the Communion of Saints FOR it is not Mens Opinions but their Actions derived from those Opinions which disturb the Peace of the World and the Unity of the Church and a man may be of a contrary Perswasion to another in many things and yet Live as becomes a good Christian in Humility and Charity with him and all others it is a ferocious Pride and hasty Passion which pretends to make the Narrow way to Heaven wider by widening Differences and by opening the Gate to shut out all besides our selves The way is not in it self so narrow but that if men were lovers of Peace they might go thither without jostling one another it is not the way for us to Enter in at the strait Gate to do like the Pharisees shut others out They who pretend thus to be the Porters of Paradise usually are without the Gates themselves whilst they brandish the flaming Sword on every side to frighten others THEN would the Doctrines of Supremacy Satisfaction Purgatory c. which have rent the seamless Coat in a thousand pieces cease to make Divisions in the World But this we may wish and pray for but can scarcely hope to see so long as the insatiable thirst of Temporal Advantages stops the Mouth of Truth and the desire of Soveraignty shall Exalt the Idol of Profitable Opinion into the Throne and Sacred Temple of Divinely revealed Faith AND