best Satisfaction for at the last Day 't will be no Excuse to be deceived by another a Man must be his own Expositor Minister Bishop and Council for these will not bear his Punishment he must bear it himself Those Powers and Authorities given to others was the Cause of making and multiplying Creeds and Rules of Faith which ever were modelled according to the present Interests and Animosities of prevailing Parties in very deed Creeds were the spiritual Revenges of Dissenting Parties upon one another 'T is observable that the whole Aim of our Saviour in the Gospel is to use a Clearness of Direction for Practice When he speaks in Parables 't is to make Things familiar to those whose Apprehensions more readily conceive and retain what is express'd by Similitudes because they are acquainted with them in common Practice such is the Parable of the Seed thrown into barren Ground the Tares among the Corn and many others used in that easy and familiar Manner to make every thing descend into the meanest Capacity and be retained by the shortest Memories In all his Expressions in that admirable Sermon on the Mount there are no hard Words or dark Doctrines it being his blessed Will to give Light to all not to reserve or keep any thing dark or vailed 't was private Design Interest and Faction that invented hard Words puzling Expressions or unintelligible Notions and Doctrines had such a Method been conducing to Salvation he that was the Redeemer would not have omitted any thing necessary to the Redemption I design to examine whether any particular Points controverted in Religion if they had never been mentioned or thought of had been a Prejudice to the serving of God and following the full Directions of the Gospel But first it may be proper considering the strange and wild Fancies and Opinious that have been taught and exercised as Parts of Religion to examine as I propounded sometime before whether probably the Priests themselves did or could believe those most ridiculous things which they themselves taught and imposed Though 't is no Wonder that the People should be perswaded to believe such Variety of Extravagancies for as I have shown Men have ever had a Proness rather to believe than to examine and all Religions are alike easily taught and nurss'd up from Infancy and every one is equally fierce for that in which he has been educated Hence comes the strange Zeal of the poor Indians to lay down to be crush'd to Death under the heavy Wheels that carry a Virgin representing their Goddess Amidio and of others of them that stretch out an Arm in Devotion towards Heaven so long that they are never able to draw it back and thereupon presume that they are sufficiently sanctified Some Turks have also been so zealous that after having seen the Alchoran they have put out their Eyes that they might never more see a Profane Sight while Christians wonder at these Extravagancies they perhaps yield to others as much Detestation or Scorn for some of their ridiculous and impossible Doctrines and superstitious Parts of their Devotion When the Morocco Ambassador attended King Charles the Second at Newmarket the King observing the large Sleeves they wore ask'd Lucas one of the chief of the Ambassador's Retinue How they could believe that the Moon should come into a Sleeve which they said they wore so large for that Use Lucas answered him with another Question How Christians could believe that our Lady's Chappel at Launretta flew thorow the Air 200 Miles and pitched it self where it now stands This Lucas had been a great Traveller he had been at Lauretta as well as at Mecha where Mahomet's Sepulchre is I believe there are equal Causes for the Miracles at both Places Thus all Religions are equally easy to be imbibed from the first Milk and other-ways it were impossible the World should continue in such different divided and absurd Faiths but we see plainly that Generations continue in the same Opinions about Religion as well as in the same Natural Descents as if one were as natural as the other 'T is true that by the Help and Light of the Gospel some have broken these Fetters and step'd into the Freedom of Reason but then the Priests always apply themselves to their last and best Argument Persecution to prevent the Increase of reasonable and honest Men. The Heathens were more to be excused who continued in blind Obedience to their Priests for they had nothing to guide and direct them but what their Priests invented from time to time but Christians have a Revealing Gospel plain and easy enough to direct to the Doctrines Means and Ways of Salvation and to redeem People from dark and blind Obedience by the clear Discovery there made of the Being and Vnity of God and the as clear Precept of Catholick Love and Charity thus laying an evident and certain Foundation of Eternal Happiness on what is equally rational and intelligible He that has redeemed us from Mystery and Sin has insisted chiefly on the plain and decent Methods of Justice performed to one another and in his Rule of Prayer he makes the Forgiveness we implore from God to depend on a Covenant of doing the same to others that we desire of him Forgive us our Trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us In our Saviour's Sermon on the Mount all those excellent Rules are delivered after a most explicit and plain Manner there we find no Footsteps nor the least Rise given for such Mysterious Fancies and Opinions as the Priests teach and injoin in the Church of Rome all such Doctrines and Impositions arose from nothing but Priest-craft to support and to inlarge their Interests and Power If they practised only as true Disciples of Christ and taught after his plain and blessed Manner and Method they would then exercise themselves wholly in a sincere and plain Example of Life and make such an Example the Scope and End of their Teaching and thereby by infuse the Power of Religion into the Minds and Hearts of Men. But instead of this they teach and impose the Power of themselves and their dark and disputable Points cannot be necessary no nor sutable to the Ends of the Gospel there being nothing there prescribed to breed Perplexities or to alter and transfer its own Rule and Power to the Interpretations and Power of Men. Mystery therefore is used only as a Means to this Perswasion that Power and Knowledg is in the Priests and Persecution is the heavy Rod to awe and terrify Men from questioning their Doctrine But though Education shows us that Men may be bred up to and may be taught all Religions alike and it may be in part excused by the Ignorance of the People occasioned by the Multiplicity oâ— Cares and Business yet there is not the same Cause or Apology for Priests to continue in their old Elusions and Deceits The People are generally forbid to reason and examine they must submit to the
helpful to preserve Mystery and thereby to reduce the Power and Use of Religion to themselves and so enlarge their worldly Interest and Wealth They easily apprehended that following the plain Method of the Gospel in a humble Example and zealous Perswasion ascribing all Honour and Power to God and none to themselves would hardly make a great Purchase of Interest and Honours to themselves there would not have needed a Statute of Mort-main here in England to prevent possibly all at the least most of the Land to be given to what they call the Church that is the Priests The last and most cruel Contrivance of Priest-craft to support Mystery is Persecution to preserve their Power by the Destruction and Oppression of others And as in all the Particulars of Priest-craft before treated of they have differed from the Methods of the Gospel so in none so much as their being absolutely contrary to the Proposition of our Saviour's coming not to destroy but to save and to do to others as we would be done to our selves 'T is a strange Way of performing those just and blessed Rules to destroy and persecute others for most certainly cruel and bloody Persecutors would not be willing to suffer the Torments and Severities they impose Hatred Violence and Cruelty are the Methods of their proceeding while our Saviour has made the Doctrines of Love Meekness and Charity the Ingredients of his Gospel and the Characters for his Disciples to be known by The Christian Religion that brought Light to the World began thus with Clearness Meekness Love and Charity winning Men to their Salvations by such wise and peaceable Ways that if Heaven and Eternal Happiness had not been added as our farther Reward yet the before-said Duties and Principles exactly practised contribute to preserve every one in Health both of Body and Mind and to the safe Enjoyment of undisturbed Property The Impostor Mahomet pretended he was sent from God to convert the World and brought in his Religion with Destruction and Fierceness of Rage yet we see that now in a few Ages that persecuting Madness is softned it seems now too cruel for their Natures as Men and contrary also to their Interests so that now paying that small Tribute to the State which is agreed on the Christians injoy the Use of their Religion and Freedom of Trade and Commerce under a quiet and peaceable Protection On the other side the Christian Religion that was begun to be taught with so much Gentleness Love and Charity grew to be changed into Fury Hatred Malice and Persecution and though they justly complained under the Persecution of the Heathen Emperors especially Dioclesian Maximin and Julian yet they were no sooner freed from those Miseries but they practised upon others all the Mischiefs and Crimes which themselves had suffered and had inveighed against and Revenge and its ready Instrument Persecution grew to be their Gospel-Methods that which before they called Fury and Rage when used by themselves must be called Zeal and Devotion The first Cause of this Severity that began famously among the Christians was from Athanasius and Arius and the Council of Nice it self shewed a Spirit of Contention rather than of Peace and Charity Constantine was forced to burn the Records of their Quarrels and Animosities to set their Faces towards any prospect of Spiritual Good The War of Persecution began under the wrangling Names of Homo-ousians and Homoi-ousians and no sooner was Great Constantine dead but the Arians influenced his Son Constantius to retaliate upon the Homo-ousians by returning Persecution for Persecution If the Homo-ousians had made a Creed at Nice the Homoi-ousians in return fitted them with another at Ariminum and Seleucia adding to them the Christian Retaliations of Anathema's Banishments Imprisonments Deprivations Consiscations Executions Burnings of Books and the rest From this Creed-making came Persecutions almost equal to those of the Heathen Emperors which were so much the more ugly because it was still one Part of the Christian Church that vexed the other Zozomen reckons up nine of these Creeds made in a few Years The Ecclesiastical War being begun Creeds were as the Arms and Ammunition with which to carry it on they served also as Declarations and Causes of the War and as Power and Opportunity gave leave they pursued one another with these both Means and Incentives to Revenge Hilary Bishop of Poictiors describes this saying We decree every Year of the Lord a New Creed concerning God nay every Change of the Moon our Faith is alter'd we repent of those Decrees and we defend those that repent of them He concludes with saying that the Christians were torn to pieces by themselves Gregory Nazianzen was so full of Detestation at these Quarrels of Christians that at last he resolved never more to come into an Assembly of Bishops because saith he I have never seen a good and happy End of any Council but Mischiefs are rather increased than remedied by them their obstinate Contentions and Ambitions are infinite At last Heresy came to be the greatest Crime and Hereticks so called were fore-doomed to Eternal Fire and in the mean time to undergo the more temperate ones here It grew to be a Vie of Christianity who should be most zealous in Extirpation of Hereticks and to preserve the Honour of the Church by cruel and bloody Means The famous St. Dominick was the most wickedly zealous in this Tragical Task and from his Order chiefly the Inquisitors have been chosen ever since one of his Successors issued Process for an hundred Thousand whereof six Thousand were burnt in a few Years Pope Leo the Tenth with the Approbation of the Council of Lateran decreed a severe Prosecution of the Hereticks but at the same time a slight Punishment was ordered against such as blasphemed God or the Lord Christ an Offence immediately against God was not to them of so dangerous a Nature as that which they call Heresy because Heresy is contrary to their Dictates and Power And yet they would not seem to be Men of Blood but with a miserable Evasion make the Magistrate their Stirrup-Dog and loo him on to seize and execute the Prey as they direct him But 't is very lamentable that not only in former Ages those that have suffer'd under and complained of Persecution when by Alteration of Fortune the Power hath fallen into their own Hands they have acted all that which before they condemned but even still in our days every Party that has groaned under such Sufferings when they are arrived at Power use the same Severities which formerly they inveighed against Persecution is commonly taken to rise from the Impatience of Men to endure Contradiction but if Difference arose only from Disputes where there is no concern of Interest or Ambition Men would not unite to make Laws to destroy or punish or endeavour by such Means to compel others to believe as themselves believe The love of worldly Power and Interest was the
unjust Practices his Error in Opinion cannot be a Crime nor any Foundation of a Punishment If we seriously consider the ill and unjustifiable Grounds of such a Persecution the Heresy will appear to be on the other side the Persecutors will be the Hereticks for those who practise Uncharitableness and Cruelty commit that Heresy of the Flesh directly contrary to what our Saviour taught and founded the Christian Religion upon even Meekness Charity and Mercy But as St. Paul says He that was born after the Flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit Even so it is now and so it ever will be while Self-interest and Love of Dominion are allowed to make the Want of Mercy the Means to support and propagate Religion and such ill-gotten Power must encrease the Cruelty and Pride of Men and consequently new and more large Inventions of Massacres and other Persecutions and yet sure themselves cannot but think it ridiculous that a Religion whose Institution is so humane and merciful should be propagated by Cruelty and Inhumanity St. Paul says the Servants of the Lord must not strive but be gentle to all Men in Meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if God peradventure will give them Repentance to the Acknowledgment of the Truth Here Persecution is forbid though against those that oppose the known Truth which needed Repentance they are directed to proceed by Meekness and Instructions sure then the Persecutors that strive to be ungentle and use Cruelty instead of Meekness and Death and Tortures instead of Instruction must be the true Hereticks 'T is very observeable that for real Heresies of the Flesh there are no Inquisitions set up nor any particular Persecutions not for Drunkenness or Whoredom or other Vices they increase as much by Temptation and Example as those sort of Vices can and yet were never made Objects of the pretended pious Zeal or of any Persecution Against such Heresies they follow more the Apostle's Rule endeavouring to convert by Instruction and Perswasion but towards the Heresies that are propâ—rly against themselves they proceed by another Method by the Rule of their own Passions not by the Directions of Christianity The Reason is Heresy against true Morality does not shake their Design of Power and Interest but Heresy against their Rules of Faith which they would have superiour to Scripture is an Abnegation of their Authority The Endeavour to find out Truth should not be reckoned an Offence it should rather tend to unite than divide and raise Tenderness sooner than Persecution God's Service is the pretended Cause of Persecution but without suffering it to be fairly examined whether the Difference consists in Matters truly necessary to Salvation Which again evidences that the Persecution is not for the Cause of God or the Good of the Persecuted but of the Persecutors 'T is sure a most Melancholy Prospect of Persecution that all the Particulars in which those differ who profess the Name of Christ are in themselves of no consequence in respect to Salvation for if it be temperately considered there is not one Particular that if it had never been controverted or so much as thought of had been at all a Prejudice to our following the true and the plain Rules of Christianity nor can the Belief or Dis-belief of any of those disputed Particulars be reputed any Part of the Necessary Faith Suppose that the Devotion paid to Saints Angels Images and Relicks Prayers for the Dead Consecration of Agnus Dei's Blessing of Clouts Indulgences and Pardons made Mercenary had never been thought of where would the Want of them appear if we followed the acknowledged Rules and Precepts of the Gospel Does any of these concern the doing as we would be done to or would they contribute to Mutual Love and Forbearance of one another In relation to Faith and good Works they could neither be Instrumental nor Exciting and had they been material they would have found some place among the Precepts and Institutions delivered by our Saviour in his Sermon on the Mount where no Part necessary to Christian Conduct can be believed to be omitted So that these invented Particulars by Priest-craft are only to create a Faith in them not in Christ or his Gospel where every thing that is necessary is also plain and clear but these consist of Darkness to involve Deceived Mankind in a Blind and Implicit Obedience Another of their abstruse Inventions is Purgatory wholly the Subject-matter of Power and Profit as if it were possible there could be a separate Confined Place where the Punishment or Purgation should be more or less as the Price is as if Heaven were to be bribed according to their lesser or greater Lucre. If Men must believe in their Redeemer and living according to his Example may thereby obtain Salvation to what purpose could that Invention be unless for the Interest and Power of the Priests that invented it For if it never had been thought of what Prejudice could it have been to the Christian Religion whose Rules are perfect and effectual without it and which affords no tolerable Intimation of such a Place They may as rationally affirm that all the Rules of the Gospel followed in a good Life shall yet not be available to Salvation without the Belief of Purgatory so that one Point of Salvation is wholly forgot by him that saved as pretend that after a Life of Contempt or Neglect of the Gospel Precepts a Man for all that may be ransomed by Money given to the Priest from the Place of Punishment so near to Blasphemy does this extravagant Opinion reach Be sure Purgatory is not of so antient date but that there were Christians long before all mention made of it who were questionless in a State of Salvation without the Help of that Fancy and others are so now without the Belief of it the Faith of it is useless to any Person or Thing but only to the Priests to compleat their Catalogue of Mysteries and to increase their Profit and Authority The most famous of their dark Particulars to which they pretend to be directed by the Gospel is the Real Presence where the Priest can Transubstantiate without being himself Transubstatiated which is ridiculous enough For all its seeming Importance 't is of the same nature with the Particulars before-mentioned and if it had never been thought of could in no ways have been prejudicial to the Christian Religion For suppose any one should eat of the very Body and Flesh of our Saviour would that particular Food have been the Food of Salvation without Belief in him that died for us 'T is impossible that any can affirm it would for if it were so and that Priests can make Bread or a Wafer to be Christ's Flesh the Eating of it must of Consequence procure Salvation without the Help of Faith and good Works but if by Faith in his Death for us Love and Charity and following the Example of his Life we must be saved