THE MYSTERY OF INIQUITY UNFOLDED OR The False Apostles and the Authors of POPERY compared in their secular Design and Means of accomplishing it by Corrupting the Christian Religion under pretence of Promoting it John 7.18 He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory 1 Tim. 6.5 Men of corrupt minds and destrtute of the truth supposing that gain is Godliness LONDON Printed by J. M. for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in St Paul's Church-Yard 1675. THE PREFACE THE design of the following Discourse is to shew that Popery is founded in a like worldly corrupt Interest as the way of the false Apostles was and carried on by a like Art And if it shall appear to be so indeed there will be no great cause to marvel why the many worthy endeavours of the Advocates of the Protestant Cause to convince the Papists of being guilty of corrupting the Christian Religion should prevail no more upon them than they have done for such an Interest whilest adhered to doth obstruct the operation of all such Truth on the Mind and Will as tends to oppose or undermine it So that upon the former supposition we may well conceive that the reason why the endeavours of the Persons aforesaid have prevailed no more upon the Gainsayers is not the weakness of their Cause nor weakness in their managing of it nor yet the strength of their Adversaries Arguments in opposing them but the true reason will be found to lye in the prevalence of a carnal worldly corrupt Interest For that which was the reason why the Holy Apostles could not recover the false Apostles nor those that stuck to them from their Errors and Corruptions we may well conceive to be the reason likewise why the Advocates for Reformation have recovered no more than they have done of the Papists neither from theirs which were introduced into the world and persisted in upon the same or like carnal reason and motive as the Corruptions of the false Apostles were Now our Adversaries themselves cannot but grant that the reason why the Holy Apostles prevailed no more upon the false Apostles and their followers than they did in managing the Christian Cause against them in corrupting the Christian Religion was neither the badness of their own nor goodness of their adversaries Cause nor the Holy Apostles weak managing of their Cause and if none of these were the reason what else could it be in probability but the false Apostles love of close adherence to and fast holding of such a corrupt Interest as could not be upheld but by corrupting the Christian Religion And if the Holy Apostles who were extraordinarily assisted in delivering and speaking Truth and who had their Doctrine extraordinarily confirmed with Signs and Wonders and divers Miracles could not for all that prevail with the false Apostles to confess and relinquish their Errors so long as a Worldly Interest was upheld by those Errors and was dearer to them than the Truth it self 't is then no wonder at all if our Protestant Advocates who do not pretend to compare with the Apostles have prevailed no more neither than they have done though their Cause be never so good and so well managed to bring Popish Guides to acknowledge and relinquish those Errors of theirs by which their corrupt Interest is supported and maintained if that Interest is dearer to them also than that Truth that opposeth it and fights against it is as there is too much ground to suspect it is Some perhaps may be under a temptation to have the more favourable opinion of Popery for that there have been men of great Parts and Learning of that way who upon that account may perhaps be thought as able as their Adversaries to discern Truth from Error But if those who so think will but consider that those Learned men have still had a strong byas of a corrupt Interest to draw them aside they may easily relieve themselves against such a temptation For the greater parts such men have as have espoused a corrupt Interest and are strongly bent to defend it the less likely are they to be overcome meerly by Truth Because it hath always been too common with such men to imploy all their Parts and Learning to the uttermost not indifferently and impartially to seek Truth for Truths sake but to make the best they can of the Cause they have undertaken and with all possible Art to dress it up that neither they nor any of their party may fall into dislike of it Which was the reason why the learned Scribes Lawyers Pharisees and Rulers among the Jews stood it out against Christ when the more illiterate and meaner sort that were not under such a temptation of a worldly interest as the others were nor had such parts to strengthen themselves in their opposition as the others had were sooner brought to receive Christ and submit to his Doctrine Of such as the former sort our Saviour said how can ye believe which seek honour one of another and seek not the honour which comes from God only Joh. 5.44 The experience of such a thing as this doubtless occasioned that saying of St. Paul 1 Cor. 1.26 You see your calling brethren how that not many wise men after the flesh are called nor many mighty nor many noble Besides as the Love of a corrupt Interest in men calls off their thoughts from an impartial enquiry after Truth especially such Truth as opposeth it so it corrupts the mind and clouds the understanding of Learned as well as Vnlearned in making a Judgment of what 's Truth and what 's Error in those things wherein such an Interest is concerned 'T is said a Gift blindeth the wise and perverteth the judgment of the righteous Exod. 23.8 It hinders a man from enquiring impartially into the right of the others cause against whom he hath received a bribe and causeth him with as much partiality to consider his from whom he hath received it and is a byas as well as a cloud upon his mind in forming a judgment upon the Cause before him by reason of all which he gives judgment against the truth and equity of the Cause And there is the same reason why a corrupt Interest otherwise should hinder a right judgment and determination in matters wherein that Interest is struck at as there is why the corrupt Interest of a bribe should hinder it in a man otherwise knowing and wise Our Saviour saith if thine eye be evil thy whole body shall be full of darkness if therefore the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness Mat. 6.23 If the governing principle in man be corrupt as it is when that which is predominant is covetousness or the love of the world of which he there speaks the issues of it can be no more pure than the streams that flow from a corrupt Fountain that corrupt governing principle will still be turning men aside in particular actions of their Lives and in making
Christians as if they had not been Spiritual enough for their Communion They went out from us saith St. John 1 Joh. 2.19 These are they who separate themselves sensual not having the spirit saith St. Jude ver 19. And yet in this state of Separation they were so far from becoming a more pure and Spiritual Community as that they were indeed the Synagogue of Satan as they are stiled Rev. 2.9 as being most impure both in principle and practice and were really Spots in the Christian Feasts of Charity before they separated Jude 12. And therefore it seems somewhat strange that they should fancy themselves to be more Spiritual than the Orthodox Christians But it seems they esteemed themselves more knowing than others in Evangelical Mysteries and valued themselves by that knowledge and so came to arrogate to themselves the Title of Gnosticks or the Knowing men For they to reconcile that which was indeed their corrupting the Christian Religion with that Religion it self would needs understand the Christian Doctrine in a more mystical sense than the Apostles Orthodox Christians did By which and by wresting the Scriptures of the Old Testament to an undue sence they perverted the Gospel of Christ making it another thing another Gospel as St. Paul phraseth it than it was in it self Gal. 1.6 And by reason of these Mystical Speculations which they esteemed for Divine Illuminations they conceited themselves to have fellowship with God even then when in point of practice they walked in ways of darkness as we may perceive by what S. John suggesteth concerning them when he saith If we say we have fellowship with him God and walk in darkness as they did we lie and do not the truth 1 Joh. 1.6 Which plainly intimates that they grounded this perswasion of their having fellowship with God upon somewhat abstracted from a good and holy life which is the proper end and use of Divine Knowledge without which it will do them that have it no more good than it doth the Devils when they have it and what could that be but an opinion that their bare knowledge and belief of things invested them with that priviledge As too many in like manner now a days hope to enjoy partnership or fellowship in the righteousness of Christ meerly upon account of their belief or Orthodox opinion though of impure lives And truly well might St. Paul say in reference to these Gnosticks and in this very respect if any man think that he knoweth any thing and values himself by that knowledge he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know 1 Cor. 8.2 These mystical and unintelligible speculations they called Science though falsly as St. Paul saith and these they opposed to the plain and intelligible doctrine of the Apostles as the Quakers in like manner do theirs in doing of which they erred from the faith as we are told in 1 Tim. 6.20 21. avoiding profane and vain babling and oppositions of Science falsly so called which some professing have erred concerning the Faith Now when they had obtained a reputation among simple people of being the Ministers of Christ the Apostles of Christ and of being for holiness and righteousness and more strict and abstmeious in some things than the true Apostles were and more sublime and spiritual how easie a matter was it then for them to mould the poor simple and deluded people into what form they pleased especially in things that tended to their ease in the flesh And no doubt but as they pretended to Apostolical Authority and to greater strictness of life in some things than they would acknowledge in the holy Apostles themselves So they would pretend likewise that such complyances with the Jewes on the one hand and with the gentiles on the other as they advised to and practised did tend to the propagating of the Christian Religion and that by such complyances they might gain upon their neighbours and friends to come more easily over to them in the acknowledgment of Christ and profession of the Christian Religion And therefore as it seems they taxed St. Paul with imprudence in preaching the Gospel and managing his Ministry in so blunt a manner as they thought he did to the exasperating of all sorts against him For St. Paul represented the thoughts that such had of him as had been corrupted by the false Apostles when he said We are fools for Christs sake but ye are wise in Christ i. e. in professing Christ or the Gospel of Christ 1 Cor. 4.8 They thought it seems that he had not been so prudent in managing the Christian cause as their new Teachers had taught them to be For since they had met with those wiser methods as they were taught to esteem them to be they had reigned as Kings free from those disturbances oppositions and sufferings which Pauls way of professing the Gospel had exposed them to And thus by good words and fair speeches they deceived the hearts of the simple and caused divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine they had once learned Rom. 16.17 18. S. 13.3 When they had gained the reputation aforesaid among the simple and carnal minded Professors of the Gospel they could by virtue thereof easily incline them without any great scruple to do any thing they would have them to procure fair quarter from the Unbelievers among whom they lived And therefore to give themselves and their seduced adherents the greater liberty and ease in their minds to do such things as they did in prosecution of their worldly design without any great scruple they broached among them the doctrine of licentiousness under the notion of Christian liberty They turned the grace of God into lasciviousness as S. Jude speaks ver 4. Of these and the course they took in this kind St. Peter likewise speaks thus in 2 Pet. 2.19 While they promise them liberty they themselves are the servants of corruption By these and other Scriptures it should seem they spread some such Doctrine as this That the Grace of God in Christ was so large that if men did but believe in Christ they were in no danger of damnation though they used a greater liberty than such as Paul would allow of They thought it seems that faith without works would have saved them a conceit which St. James opposed them in saying What doth it profit my brethren though a man say he hath faith and hath not works can faith save him Jam. 2.14 And St. Paul gives this character of those false Teachers who did resist the Truth preached by the Apostles just as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses viz. that they were men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the Faith 2 Tim. 3.8 They held and taught corrupt notions concerning the doctrine of being saved by Faith in Christ And when once they perswaded the people to believe such a doctrine as tended to Liberty and Licentiousness and yet undertook to secure them of Salvation all the while upon account of a notional Faith
in Christ what would they stick at and what would they not do under the notion of furthering and promoting the Christian the Catholick Cause either to secure or procure their worldly enjoyments and to gratifie their various lusts Many when they perceived that by the doctrine of Faith in Christ men were freed from the Law of Moses in many of those things which before Faith came the Jews were bound to observe they were willing to understand that this doctrine of the Faith of the Gospel gave them a greater Latitude in other things also than indeed it did And this opinion as we may well suppose occasioned such cautions as these Brethren ye have been called unto liberty only use not liberty as an occasion to the flesh Gal. 5.13 As free and not using your liberty as a cloak of maliciousness 1 Pet. 2.16 Nay some it seems went so far as to think they might do things in their own nature evil so long as they did them for good ends to sin that grace might abound and would have fathered this opinion on the Apostles also Rom. 3.8 As we be slanderously reported saith St. Paul and as some affirm that we say let us do evil that good may come From such Libertine doctrines as these false Apostles broached under the notion of Evangelical priviledges and to procure the more Converts to the Christian profession sprang as it is very probable those cursed practices which turned to the reproach of Christianity and to the hindrance of its progress of which we read in 2 Ep. of St. Peter and in the Ep. of Jude and other places It 's true they were not probably so bad at first as they were at last but were led from one error to another till they arrived at last to monstrous heights of wickedness as we have also seen some in our days have done who began but in Antinomianism at first Evil men and seducers saith St. Paul speaking of those false Teachers shall wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived 2 Tim. 3.13 2 Thes 2.10 11. S. 14. Shall I now need after all that I have said touching the design the false Apostles drove and the manner how to say any thing farther to unfold the working of the Mystery of Iniquity in the Apostles daies Seeing all upon the matter which I have hitherto said tends as I apprehend it to shew what we are to understand by those words of St. Paul in the 2 Thes 2.7 For the Mystery of Iniquity doth already work However take this farther account briefly In a Mystery there is one thing hid under another So that the inward and more secret part is hardly discernable but to considering men So it was here in the business before us The worldly design of the false Apostles and their corrupting the Christian Religion to accomplish it were obscured and hid under a show and profession of Christianity and Religious pretences as that the Gospel did allow of what they did and stood in need of some things they did to promote it Before the Gospel came the Iniquity of the Gentiles abominable Idolatries and gross impurities both in worship and manners was openly profest and practised But when the Gospel by coming among them had prevailed against these things and had turned them from dumb Idols to serve the living God Then Satan who as St. Paul saith can transform himself into an Angel of Light did by his ministers labour to corrupt and entangle again those who were once clean escaped from them who lived in errour the errour of Gentilism but not so as to profess Gentilism again but under a show of Christianity to return to it in part The Devil was too subtile to appear so openly as to tempt them to return to downright Gentilism again in the grossest kind For the Gospel had come among them with such demonstration and power by the signs and wonders and mighty deeds which did accompany it and by that means had so triumpht over the Religion of the Gentiles that the Devil could have little hope of prevailing with them to return to downright Gentilism again who had been but lately so convinced of the truth and excellency of the Christian Religion as to be brought to renounce Gentilism and to profess Christianity But he thought it best as the case stood to go another way to work with them and to put them upon corrupting the Christian profession by degrees by mixing something of Gentilism with it under the notion of being consistent with it yea as tending to promote it by reconciling the heathen to it by meeting them half way And that wherewith the Devil in temptations of this kind baited his hook was by insinuating that by this means they might keep fair quarter with their Infidel neighbours render themselves in some sort friends to the world stave off persecution and retain their worldly possessions together with their Christianity This I apprehend to be the Mystery of Iniquity of which the Apostle speaks as then already working But when the Apostle saith the Mystery of Iniquity doth already work referring to the time then present he implies that the spreading and more eminent prevailing of it was to be expected afterwards in time then to come and to this agrees the scope of the place as well as the form of words and manner of speaking there used For when he saith only he who now letteth will let untill he be taken out of the way it 's evident that the more general spreading and prevailing of this Mystery was for the present hindred by that which in time would be removed and that then it should get up to its height I will not undertake positively to determine who or what is meant by the he which the Apostle saith now letteth But this I say that if the false Apostles corrupting the Christian Religion for worldly advantage under pretence of that Religion was not a Mystery of Iniquity and such a Mystery of Iniquity as was then working then I confess I cannot imagine what was But if it were then that which then hindred all such as profest the Christian Religion as the corrupt Christians did from rising to any considerable greatness in the world must in all probability be it which did then lett or hinder that mysterious design managed under pretence of that profession from coming to that growth which afterwards it came to when that impediment was removed out of the way And what did or could so much hinder such as profest Christianity from rising to worldly greatness as the then Roman power as Heathen which was so far from preferring men for the Christian profession sake that it did depress and keep them under upon that very account And if that were it which did lett and you see what reason there is to think it was Then the first Bishop of Rome as Popish and those that succeeded him who when the Roman power as heathen was removed and now become Christian did by
ditch it is not their saying they were led thither will help them out S. 20.5 Furthermore although Christ upon occasion of the two disciples desiring of him that they might sit the one on his right hand and the other on his left in that temporal Kingdom they fancied he was to have said to Peter and all the Apostles Ye know that the Princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them and they that are great exercise Authority upon them but it shall not be so among you I say though this be so express as you see yet notwithstanding the Pope as pretended successour to St. Peter claims a Supremacy over Kings and a priviledge to be appealed to as the last and highest Tribunal upon earth And in case any Kings turn hereticks to him in denying his Claim and casting off his yoke he takes upon him a power to chastise them to excommunicate them and then to depose and dethrone them and to dispose of their Kingdomes and to absolve their subjects from the duty of their allegiance to their natural Prince And for what reason is this swelling power of overtopping Kings assumed The pretence is that the Pope as head of the Church being Superiour to all Christian Kings as being but members of that body whereof he is head they upon that account are under his conduct and government in using their secular power for the interest of the Christian Religion and Catholick cause and for the chastising of such as are heretical or undutiful and disobedient This is the Pretence But the true design is to render the Pope the more magnificent and venerable the more awful and terrible in the eyes of all and to lift him up to the highest pinnacle of worldly Pomp and greatness attainable in this world and to use the power and interest of such Kings to support and secure him in his Pontifical Chair of State and as executioners of his wrath and displeasure against all that shall but peep and mutter any thing against him or any of his decrees or orders or give him the least disturbance That this is the design tho' the other be pretended appears in that the Pope is well enough contented that these Kings should tolerate or connive at any wickedness in their Dominions though never so dishonourable to Christ and Christianity and destructive to his Religion in the power of it provided they be but tender of his Interest and will not connive at any Affronts put upon his Government as Papal Men may do what they will provided they meddle not with the Popes Crown or the Monks bellies was the saying of Erasmus S. 21.6 Again as the Popes do claim a supremacy over Temporal Princes for themselves so they do a priviledge and exemption for their subordinate Clergie from the Temporal power Concil Trid. Sess 25. as holding immediately under their Ecclesiastical Head the Pope which is another device to strengthen their Interest For hereby all his Clergy are the faster tied and engaged to their grand Master the Pope and at the greater liberty act securely in abetting his Interest and serving his designs as occasion and opportunity serves S. 22. 7. As the false Apostles broached Doctrines tending to Licentiousness to increase their party and strengthen their Interest so the Authors and Founders of Popery have set on foot certain corrupt doctrines good for nothing but to increase their party and wealth thereby and to strengthen their Interest Such is that of a pretended power vested in the Pope and from him derived to every Priest of absolving men and forgiving their sins upon such easie terms as the confessing them to the Priest and doing such slight Penances as he out of his Indulgence to them if they please him is pleased to appoint And which is yet worse if worse can be viz. the Doctrine of the Popes power not only of granting Indulgences for Sins past but also Dispensations to commit them for time to come And that such a power is pretended to we learn from Authors of their own Espenseus hath told us that They allow not only the Laity but also their very Clergie-men to dwell with Whores and Harlots and to beget Bastards for a certain Tax Comment on Tit. p. 478 479. Also De Continentia Lib. 2. Cap. 7. And the Princes of the Roman Empire assembled at Noremberg in the years 1522 1523. complained that the Popes sucked the marrow of the peoples Estates by Indulgences and that they heightened the imposture by their hireling Cryers and Preachers and that Christian piety was banished while to advance their Market they cried up their Wares for the granting of wonderful peremptory pardons not only of Sins already committed but of Sins that shall be committed So that by the Sale of these Wares as they said together with being spoiled of their money Christian Piety is extinguished while any one may promise himself impunity upon paying the rate that is set upon the Sin he hath a mind to commit Fasciculus rerum experendarum fol. 177 178. And if the people can believe that the Pope hath power by his Dispensations to bear them out for money in such Immoralities they may as well believe also that he hath power to dispense with their taking of such Oaths and entering into such Obligations which they never intend to keep or to do any other thing as bad especially if it any way tend to the advancing of the Catholick Cause And if so by what Test can they be discovered to be really what they are when they have a mind to conceal it or what security can such Oaths or other Obligations be to Protestant Princes of their true allegiance to them And what is said in this is the more considerable it we add thereto those other two loose Doctrines of theirs the one touching the lawfulness of their breaking Faith with Hereticks such as they esteem Protestants to be and the other the Jesuitical Doctrine of Equivocation with mental Reserves Wherein also they exactly follow their Leaders the false Apostles For they as I have shewed thought or at least taught that in some cases they might deny Christ in word so they did but retain a belief in him in their hearts and partake with Idolaters in their Idol Sacrifices so they did but retain in their minds a belief that there were no other Gods but one and intended not any honour to the Idol The very complexion of these and such like Doctrines shews them to be calculated not to promote Religion and Virtue but to hook in filthy lucre to gratifie any that will but be for them in giving scope to their Lusts and to set men free from all ties of Religion and Conscience when they stand in the way of their Cause and Interest That which the Prophet of Old from the Lord charged upon the Priests then when he said They eat up the sin of my people and set their heart on their Iniquity Hos 4 8. falls upon
follow the steps of the false Apostles as in any of those other things I have instanced in For although they the false Apostles could not stand before the powerful conviction of the faithful Apostles but found their hearts to sink within them as to the Cause they maintained as knowing in their consciences they were not able by the strength of truth to defend it against the assaults of the holy Apostles yet then they would in face and outward appearance glory and boast as if they had the victory and all because they had no other way to hold their party to them and to carry on their design which they were resolved to stick to whatever was said against it and also because they found that this course of theirs would do them as much service as a demonstration would do among their credulous followers who hung upon their lips and were willing to take all they said upon trust as suiting most with what they liked best See for this the 2 Cor. 5.12 We commend not our selves again unto you saith St. Paul but give you occasion to glory on our behalf that you may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance and not in heart meaning the false Apostles All that I shall add is only to observe from what was last delivered That the false Apostles even then when they set the best face upon their Cause and gloried over their opposers and carried it outwardly with never so great confidence and boasting yet since their own corrupt Interest was concerned in the Contest there was just cause for their followers to suspect what they pleaded in their own defence and that it was wisdome in them that did so and folly and unhappiness in those that suffered themselves to be imposed upon and deluded thereby without looking more narrowly into the matter themselves as those did who tryed them that said they were Apostles but were not and found them liars Rev. 2.2 And if so then in as much as a Corrupt self interest of Popish Guides is also concerned in and depends upon the cause they labour to defend as I have shewed those who have committed themselves to their Conduct have no more reason to be confident of the goodness of their Cause upon the account of the confidence and boasting of those who undertake to defend it than the followers of the false Apostles had in reference to their cause But in point of greatest prudence are concerned to look upon all they say with a jealous eye and with the greatest care and diligence to scan the matter themselves and to search the Scriptures themselves and impartially to consider as well what is said against them and their Cause as what is said for it and them and not carelesly or desperately to venture their souls upon such mens confident pretences whose Corrupt interest it is to deceive them APPENDIX WHat you shall find in this Appendix was first intended to be brought in by way of Digression at the close of the Answer to an Objection from St. Paul's Compliances at the end of the 9th Section of the foregoing Discourse to which it properly relates But it s running out to such a length as it hath done hath altered that intention as tending to too great an interruption in the line and method of that Discourse And I have the rather thought it meet to add this to the whole Discourse lest any should think a compliance in the use of some undetermined circumstances in the administration of Gods Publick Worship should be of like nature with the corrupt compliances of the false Apostles and their party discovered in the said Discourse That which I have to add therefore upon the foresaid occasion take as follows From what hath been said in the foresaid Section touching St. Paul's Compliances somewhat may be observed which may be of good use to Christians in many dubious Cases There I have shewed how that St. Paul sometimes withstood the use of Circumcision and sometimes yielded to it The reason of which did arise from the different circumstances that did attend the use of the same thing upon different occasions When it was urged upon the Gentiles as necessary to their salvation St. Paul withstood it But to avoid stumbling in the believing Jews who were not as yet satisfied touching its cessation and to prevent a breach in the Church and to gain the more upon such as were inclinable to Christianity he yielded to the use of that and other like things among them I think we may safely suppose that St. Paul knew well enough when he did so that Circumcision was not in it self or by positive command necessary to the Jews under the Gospel by the taking place of which it was abolished for he said Circumcision is nothing 1 Cor. 7.19 Nor was it simply unlawful in it self for if it had no Circumstance could have sanctified it or made it lawful So that when he yielded to it it was upon account of Expediency by reason of circumstances attending it which made it expedient such as was the Peace of the Church and the better propagation of the Gospel And yet when he yielded to it upon the account of Expediency we may well suppose it was not wholly and altogether expedient without any inexpediency at all but only more expedient than inexpedient For otherwise it may well be thought that his yielding to the use of it somewhat tended to nourish the opinion the Jews had of its perpetuity under the Gospel and to minister some advantage to those who taught a necessity of it unto Salvation and could not be very grateful to the believing Gentiles who opposed it nor to St. Paul himself neither So that in some respect it was inexpedient to yield to it when he did yield to it but in other respects more inexpedient to withstand it and not to yield to it From all which we may observe that when two Inexpediencies come in competition the one attending the doing and the other the not doing of the same thing so that there is a necessity to yield to one of them in doing or not doing of it then that which is least inexpedient is to be yielded to Or which is the same that when all circumstances are considered then that which hath more of expediency than inexpediency in it is to be chosen Just as on the other hand when two Precepts the one moral the other but positive come in competition the less is to give place to the greater To fit these general Rules to particular cases requires some skill but if these things were well considered and practised it would go a great way towards the lessening those undue distances which are among us As for instance Suppose some circumstances in the external form of our Publick Worship establisht by Law were so inexpedient as some deem them to be Yet if they would but lay aside Prejudice Partiality Passion and Interest of Parties in making a judgment of