great strait betwixt two desiring to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is far better This implies that he did not doubt but it would be so But if there were a Purgatory to pass through first it would be far better to abide longer in the Body For though St. Paul had less Sin than others yet it cannot be denied but he might have some venial Sins And if there must be Punishment undergon by way of satisfaction for these Sins equivalent to the Fire of Hell as that in Purgatory is said to be though he did undergo more Crosses and Afflictions than others yet ye did not undergo those that were equivalent to the Fire of Hell and how could he be sure then but that he also must enter into Purgatory first before he pass into Heaven and then one would think he should have little Heart to desire to be dissolved But he doth not fear any of this And note that the Apostle speaks of the Happiness in the next Life in common in the plural number as belonging to all the Saints and not as a special Priviledg to himself alone So 2 Tim. 4. 8. Henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the Righteous Judg shall give me at that day that is the day of his departure out of this Life vers 6. And then mark Not to me only but unto all them also that love his appearing Luke 23. 43. Our Saviour said to the believing Thief on the Cross This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise He doth not say when thou shalt have been some Years in Purgatory I will receive thee into Paradise but this day c. Now Paradise is acknowledged to be the Seat of the Blessed not a place of Torment And yet there was no Person that could deserve more to be sent to such a place than the Thief having had no time to do Penance for any of his Sins For if to suffer Death for his Sins was a sufficient Satisfaction then it were best for every Man to desire to suffer such a Death or worse For the pains of the worst of Deaths are much easier it seems than those of Purgatory But is it not indeed very strange that God should forgive Men the Eternal Punishment due to the worst and most mortal Sins for the sake of Christ's Satisfaction and yet exact so severe a Punishment for Sins in their own nature Venial which may be so easily remitted that God should do the greater and yet that he should not do the less When yet it must needs be owned that Christ hath offered a Satisfaction enough for all if it be but applied As for those places that are pretended to prove a Purgatory 1 Cor. 3. 13 15. There we read of Fire indeed and that is all but not one word of Purgatory-Fire It is the Fire of the Day of Judgment is there meant which is eminently in Scripture called the Day and is that indeed which shall be revealed by Fire 2 Thess 1. 7 8. And it is the Works of Men there that shall be burnt that is their false Doctrines which are but Hay and Stubble when the Trial comes But it doth not speak of the burning of their Persons that hold the Foundation who are not to be burnt but saved yet so as by Fire which is only a phrase to express the doing of a thing with great difficulty Zech. 3. 2. see a like phrase Jude 23. As for Mat. 12. 32. it speaketh of the greatest of Sins the Sin against the Holy Ghost which shall never be forgiven and so that Phrase signifies neither in this nor in the World to come that is not at all So Mark 3. 29. it is exprest He hath never forgiveness but is in danger of eternal damnation or that Phrase may signify that that great Sin should not be forgiven in the Times of the Messiah or under the Gospel which is sometimes exprest by the World to come Heb. 2. 5. 6. 5. when the Jews expected that greater Sins should be forgiven than could be expiated by Levitical Sacrifices Or if Sins be said to be forgiven in the World to come what is that but at the Day of Judgment when the actual deliverance of the Just from Punishment and their final acquittal may be not improperly called the full remission of their Sins What is this to Purgatory where Sins are not forgiven but punish'd Mat. 5. 26. They shall not come out thence till they have paid the uttermost Farthing that is never but must abide in Hell for ever Hell is mentioned vers 22 29 30. And divers degrees of Punishments intimated there with allusion to the different degrees inflicted in the Jewish Courts but not one word of Purgatory As for 1 Pet. 3. 19 20. those Spirits there said to be disobedient were not saved at all as it is pretended they shall be out of Purgatory And the Prison that they are said to be in doth not signify Purgatory as if Christ then by his Spirit preach'd to them there But by his Spirit in Noah he preach'd to a disobedient World though his preaching did then no good their Souls being then as it were by Lust and Sin enslaved and imprisoned in their Bodies and are now lying in the Prison of Hell for all this Now then if there be no Purgatory or place of Torment in the next Life for just Men to the end pretended then likewise Prayers or Masses and Alms for them are vain things to the end proposed viz. in order to the deliverance out of it If there be no such thing then these things that have relation to it can be of no use And yet if there were a Purgatory for expiation of Sins and for satisfaction for temporal Punishments due to them how doth it appear that Prayer for those in that State will help them out of it or who can tell but that they must continue there if they be there till the Day of Judgment As for the supererrogating meritorious Works of the Living and their availableness to deliver their dead Friends out of Purgatory it is after proved likewise that there are no such Works But yet if they were how should they be available to get them out of it when the superabundant Merits and Satisfactions of Christ were not available to prevent their going in If others Satisfactions and Merits might be of use to them in Purgatory one would think Christ's should have kept them out But if Christ's Satisfactions could not help them but they must satisfy for themselves how should the Saints good Works upon Earth help them This is the great Doctrine with the Appendages of it that brings in so great Wealth to Rome and therefore no wonder it is so stifly retained though among all the Directions that are given about Prayer up and down the Scripture there is not any where the least intimation of any direction for praying for the Dead or of
be justified and by thy Words thou shalt be condemned Yet we do not say that all Sins are equal or equally deserving the same degree of Death or Pain but all deserving the Death and exclusion from God. So that 't is not possible for the Sinner to offer a sufficient Recompence or Satisfaction for the least Sin. Mich. 6. 6 7. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the High God Shall I come before him with Burnt-offerings with Calves of a Year Old Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams or with ten thousands of Rivers of Oil Shall I give my First-born for my Transgression the Fruit of my Body for the Sin of my Soul So by what means shall I satisfy the Justice of my God Shall I Fast in Lent Shall I make Prayers of forty hours long Shall I give all my Goods to nourish the Poor But all these things cannot expiate my Sins these have no proportion or equivalence to his Justice And moreover as to those Penitential Works which are said to be Satisfactions as Prayer and Fasting and Alms c. they are Debts already to which we are obliged by virtue of the Law there being no Works of supererrogation beyond or above the Precept of the Law as is proved afterwards and therefore they cannot be Satisfactions for other Debts or Sins or Defects of Obedience For that which is a Duty already due before the commission of the Fault can never satisfy for the Fault committed We are obliged indeed to Repentance and to practise some Acts of Discipline to shew our indignation against our selves for our Sins and to deter us the more from sinning for the future And sometimes we must make some Satisfaction to the Church for the Scandals that we have committed and to testify the truth of our Repentance and sometimes to particular Men in case of particular Instances And we do not doubt but these things are very pleasing to God and may averâ— his Displeasure according to his Covenant and Promise made to us Penitens and are tending to his Honour But we deny that they are proper and equivalent Satisfactions to the Justice of God or that any Sufferings are so which we can undergo or that there can be any such performed or undergone by us at all As for the Sufferings and Punishments inflicted by God himself upon Men after their Sins are forgiven these are not designed by him as vindictive Punishments upon them and Compensations to his Justice but either for Example to others that they sinning may not presume upon impunity from his sparing of others or as Acts of mere Discipline and fatherly Correction to deter his own from falling into the like Sins for the time to come For Psal 103. Like as a Father pitieth his Children so the Lord pitieth them that serve him What a Father doth is for his Childrens amendment he doth not inflict Torment or Suffering on them for his own Satisfaction nor doth delight in giving them any trouble were it not needful for themselves Or if any earthly Parent does so yet God doth not Heb. 12. 10. Nor is it true always that these temporal Inflictions are or are to be inflicted upon good Men but only in some certain Cases when God sees it meet and fitting for them or others CHAP. XVIII That some Persons may satisfy over and above what is needful for themselves and their own Sins so that their Satisfactions may serve for others that want them or have not enough of their own Catech. Rom. par 2. cap. 5. p. 61. And that these are put into the Treasury of the Church to be dispens'd by Indulgences Decret de Indulg BUT by what is said in the foregoing Chapter it appears that no Man whatsoever can offer an equivalent Satisfaction or Compensation to the Justice of God for any one Sin of his own and that he can never by his Sufferings exhaust the demerit of any one Sin the Wages of Sin being Death everlasting And Psal 130. 3. If thou Lord shouldst mark Inquities O Lord who shall stand The Psalmist's Question implies that no Man can stand in Judgment if God should be strict with him And how can he be supposed to suffer more than he deserves Psal 143. â— Enter not into Judgment with thy Servant O Lord. The Psalmist is afraid to put himself upon an equal Trial before God. But according to these People one may not only reckon with the Justice of God but that God will be indepted something over and above Psal 90. 7 8. We are consumed by thine Anger and by thy Wrath are we troubled Thou hast set our Iniqui-quities before thee our secret Sins in the Light of thy Countenance The Prophet Moses here speaks of the Calamities of this Life and refers them all to our Sins So that whatsoever we suffer is but a just infliction for our Sins Dan. 9. 7. O Lord Righteousness belongeth unto thee but unto us confusion of Face The Prophet reckons that whatsoever God inflicts upon Men he is righteous therein and that an utter confusion of Face is but what we deserve It was his own Sin as well as the Peoples that he was confessing Vers 20. Ezra 9. 13. After all that is come upon us for our Evil Deeds thou our God hast punish'd us less than our Iniquities deserve Must not we always say the same And what is become then of Satisfaction and superabundant Satisfaction Lamen 3. 39. Wherefore doth a living Man complain a Man for the punishment of his Iniquity But if God should punish him more than he deserves he would have cause of complaint But Job 34. 23. God will not lay upon Man more than is right that he should enter into Judgment with God as it is implied he might do if he should So that whosoever suffers suffers but what is due and yet doth not satisfy much less over-satisfy The Penitential Works of the Saints are but what are due also before as was before observed and therefore are not Satisfactions And the Afflictions that are laid upon them are for other ends and not to be an equivalent Satisfaction to Divine Justice It is Christ alone who hath offered himself a full perfect and sufficient Sacrifice for all our Sins He is the Lamb of God that taketh away the Sins of the World. Who his one self bare our Sins in hiâ— Body on the Tree The only Propitiation 1 Tim. 2. 5 6. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and Man the Man Christ Jesus who gave himself a Ransom for all This is no Man's Business but his nor can be done by any but him For Acts 4. 12. There is not Salvation in any other For there is no other Name given among Men by which we must be saved But if others may satisfy and their Satisfactions may serve for us they are so far made our Redeemers and Saviours Which is to put them into Christ's Office and stead
faithful to her Bridegroom As for our parts we are fully perswaded that the Holy Ghost may speak as good Sense and as intelligibly in the Scriptures as any of them in their Writings or as the Church can in hers and that it was his Design to do so And therefore we doubt not but it is done plainly and fully in all Points necessary to Salvation and also as to the Controversies between the Church of Rome and us that enough may be plainly gathered from them And where there is any obscurity either it is in lesser Matters or in prophetick Visions or only ariseth by accident by reason of the distance of time wherein the Holy Scriptures were written the variety and change of Customs the difference of Dialects or Forms of Speech or some such other Causes which are incident to all ancient Writings and especially of the Eastern Countries And either it may be cleared up by the same means which we may use as well as they or else it must for what I know remain so yet to us both for the exercise of our farther industry It is the Scripture then that we build our Faith upon and guide our selves by though we do not refuse any help to the understanding of it And we are not afraid that our common People should read it but do exhort them to it For we do not desire to retain any Doctrines or Works of Darkness and therefore we are very willing that all should be brought to the Light. It is the Scripture that we love and whilst we love the Scripture we do declare it that we cannot be very fond of Rome A plain simple view of Scripture is sufficient to keep us out of the ways of Romish Delusion And such a view is presented to the Reader in this little Treatise in a Method fitted to the most vulgar Capacity Let us but stick to the Scripture or written Word which the Church of Rome is really most dreadfully afraid of and then we are out of danger The Scripture we know from whence it is but as for their Traditions many of them we know not whence they are They pretend they come from the Apostles but we have nothing else but only their own word for it For we cannot perceive the Apostolical Image and Superscription upon them Nor would they then ever contradict the Apostolical Writings as we are well assured they do many of them Tradition indeed alone doth but open a Gap to whatsoever bold and confident Men may obtrude that have subtilty enough to set off a Thing a little plausibly But let us hold fast the written Word and we shall not fear to be intangled with those new Doctrines which are the obtrusions of crafty and ambitious Men to make an advantage by which the face of Christianity comes to be quite marred and all Religion comes to be indangered And read but this little Treatise then and compare Doctrine and Text and then see who is in the right the Church of Rome or We For see if their Doctrine and the Holy Text be not at variance the one with the other And if so the Church of Rome must excuse us if we leave their Doctrine and follow the Text. Beware of false Prophets which come to you in Sheeps Cloathing but inwardly they are ravening Wolves ye shall know them by their Fruits Do not believe every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they are of God. If the Blind lead the Blind they will both fall into the Ditch Heresies will arise in the Church and the Devil will sometimes transform himself into an Angel of Light to deceive whom he can deceive Therefore see with your own Eyes and beg the holy Anointing to teach you A Table of the Popish Errors refuted in this Treatise Of the Holy Scripture and Traditions Chap. I. THat all saving Truth is not contained in the Holy Scriptures but partly in them and partly in unwritten Traditions pag. 1 II. That the Scripture is obscure 12 III. That it is not for the Common People to read the Scripture 15 Of the Church IV. That the State of the Church is always visible 20 V. That Multitude is a Mark of the Church 25 VI. That temporal Happiness is a Mark of the Church 29 VII That Miracles are a Mark of the Church 32 VIII That St. Peter was Head of the Church under Christ and the Pope is so as his Successor 36 IX That the Pope hath power over Kings and can absolve Subjects from their Allegiance and that Ecclesiastical Persons are exempted from the Secular Jurisdiction 44 X. That the Church of Rome is Infallible and the Judg of Controversies to whose Judgment all are bound up 49 Of Prayer and Worship XI That Prayers and Divine Service is to be celebrated every where in Latin in a Language unknown to the People 61 XII That it is good and Profitable to pray to Saints and Angels 65 XIII That Images and Relicks are to be venerated or worshipped 81 XIV That the Clergy may not Marry 91 XV. That the Vow of Poverty is laudable and that Mendicant Friars are in a State of Perfection 94 XVI That the Vow of Blind Obedience is laudable 98 Of Satisfactions Indulgences Purgatory and Praying for the Dead XVII That Persons are obliged partly to satisfy the Justice of God for their Sins themselves Christ having not satisfied for all the Punishment due to them 100 XVIII That some Persons may satisfy over and above what is needful for themselves and that their satisfactions may serve for others being put into the Treasury of the Church to be dispenc'd by Indulgences 108 XIX That there is a Purgatory after this Life for the expiation of the Sins of those that are not sufficiently purged here and that the Souls there detained may be help'd by the Masses and good Works and Prayers of the Living 115 Of Justification and Pardon of Sin. XX. That Justification consists in the infusion of Grace 123 XXI That for the obtaining of Pardon of Sin Auricular Confession to the Priest is necessary 128 Of the Merit of Good Works and Works of Supererrogation XXII That good Works are truely and properly meritorious of Eternal Life 123 XXIII That Men may do Works of Supererrogation above what the Law requires and may have superabounding Merits more than themselves need which may be profitable to others 139 Of Baptism XXIV That Baptism is absolutely necessary to Salvation so that those who die without it are liable to condemnation 143 Of the Lord's Supper XXV That after Consecration there remains no more of Bread and Wine in the Sacrament but that it is transubstantiated into the very Body and Blood of Christ 149 XXVI That in the Sacrifice performed in the Mass the self-same Christ is contained and offered that offered himself in the Cross and that this Sacrifice is truely propitiatory for the Sins of Quick and Dead 159 XXVII That the Host is to be worshipped with Divine Worship 166
are we cleansed from these if we are not cleansed from the temporal Punishment due to them when they say there is no other Punishment due to these but Temporal So Vers 9. If we confess our Sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our Sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness Where the same universal Terms are used all Vnrighteousness without exception 1 John 2. 1 2. Iâ— any Man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous and he is the Propitiation for our Sins and not for ours only but also for the Sins of the whole World. The Propitiation for Sin for all Sin is wholly ascribed to Christ But how is he a Propitiation if Vindictive Justice still makes its Demands and we must still satisfy in part our selves John 1. 29. Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the Sins of the World. If it is he that doth it all then no part of Satisfaction will be demanded of us So Heb. 1. 3. He by himself purged our Sins Not we at all by our own Sufferings So Heb. 9. 26. Once hath be appeared in the end of the World to put away Sin by the Sacrifice of himself And Heb. 10. 14. By one Offering he hath for ever perfected them that are sanctified Where Sin is put away and compleatly expiated and Sinners perfectly reconciled what is there more to be done to satisfy This is done by the one Offering and Sacrifice of Christ there is no Sacrifice or Offering then â—or us to make Gal. 3. 13. Christ hath redeemed us from the Curse of the Law being made a Curse for us Are the Punishments of Purgatory or those temporal Ones here spoken of threatned by the Law or no If not then they are not due If they were Christ hath taken them off as they are a Curse that is as they are vindictive or satisfactory Punishments for he hath redeemed us from the Curse of the Law. Rev. 1. 5. Who hath loved us and washed us from our Sins in his own Blood to him be Glory for ever and ever If is not the Blood of Martyrdom or the Sufferings of any of the Saints that washeth them from their Sins but the Blood of Christ all the Glory of it belongs to him But the Romish Doctrine implies that 't is but part of our Sins and part of the Punishments that he delivereth us from This certainly lessens the Love of Christ and the Glory due to him For they must needs grant that he had loved us more and had been a more perfect Saviour if he had delivered us from all But we find also that full Remission and Pardon is granted unto us now through Christ And what is Remission of Sin but Remission of the Punishment due to Sin so that none is to be undergone by the Sinner by way of Satisfaction and consequently Remission of all Sin of all such Punishment Now this is the Covenant of which Christ is the Mediator Heb. 8. 12. I will be merciful to their Vnrighteousnesses and their Sins and their Iniquities will I remember no more But how can it be said that God remembers their Sins no more when he still exacts Satisfaction The Apostle says Heb. 10. vers 17 18. That where remission of these is there is no more Offering for Sin. All being done sufficiently by the once Offering of Christ Thus Col. 2. 13. He hath quickned you together with him having forgiven you all Trespasses Not some only or only in some part or respect But how are all Trespasses forgiven if still there is some Satisfaction to be made Isa 44. 22. I have blotted out as a thick Cloud thy Transgressions and as a Cloud thy Sins But it seems by the Romish Doctrine they are not quite blotted out Rom. 8. 1. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus that walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit But is not that a sort of Condemnation to be adjudged to make Satisfaction for Sin by undergoing so many Punishments either here or in Purgatory What is Purgatory but a Temporary Hell But Rom. 8. 33. Who shall lay any thing any thing at all to the charge of God's Elect It is God that justifieth Who shall condemn It is Christ that died The Death of Christ answers all and God will not demand any thing of the Sinner Ephes 4. 32. Be ye kind one to another forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you God's forgiving us our Trespasses is made a Rule to us to forgive our Brethren Now we are to forgive our Brethren all Trespasses and so doth God then forgive us Mat. 18. 32. I forgave thee all that Debt because thou desiredst me And this forgiveness of God is all free to us for Christ's sake Psal 32. 5. I said I will confess my Transgressions unto the Lord and thou forgavest the Iniquity of my Sin. He doth not pretend he had satisfied for his Sin by his Sufferings mentioned Vers 4. but speaks of it as meer and free forgiveness only upon his Confession and Repentance Free Forgiveness and Satisfaction are inconsistent 1 John 1. 7. God is so there indeed to be faithful and just to forgive us our Sins but that is not upon our satisfying for them but only upon our confessing and forsaking them And none will say that to confess and forsake them is to give a Recompence and Satisfaction And therefore the Faithfulness and Justice of God there must be understood with respect to his own Promise and not to the Sinner's own Satisfaction Besides to teach that Men may satisfy for some Sins themselves as all Venial Sins is to require that which is impossible to be done there being no Sins truly Venial or not deserving Eternal Death and seclusion from the Presence of God in their own Nature though all Sins are Venial upon Repentance and in respect of the Event only through Christ's Mediation So that to encourage Men to look for the doing away of such Sins by their own Satisfactions is to bolster them up in Pride and Self-confidence and at last to deceive them For we can never by our Satisfactions exhaust the demerit of any of our Sins For Rom. 6. 23. The Wages of Sin is Death the Apostle speaks it without exception So Ezek. 18. 20. The Soul that sins shall die That 's the desert of Sin. So again Gal. 3. 10. Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the Book of the Law to do them He who commits the least Sin meriteth the Curse For Jam. 2. 10. Whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offendeth in one Point is guilty of all by Interpretation the Authority of the Law-giver being violated in that one as well as in all Mat. 12. 36. I say unto you That every idle Wâ—rd that Men shall speak they shall give account thereof in the Day of Judgment For by thy Words thou shalt