a judgment of those things wherein their corrupt Interest is opposed or immediately or remotely struck at For men cannot serve God and Mammon as there it follows they cannot be faithful to God and his Truth where a love to him and a care to please him do not bear a greater sway than love to Mammon or any other worldly concern doth Add we yet to all this one consideration more and that is That when men have more love for and pleasure in unrighteousness for worldly advantage sake than love to Truth for Truths sake and what attends a sincere receiving of it the Scripture hath told us that for that very cause God shall send such learned men not excepted strong delusions that they should believe a lie to think and believe verily they have fast hold of Truth when yet they have but a lie in their right hand 2 Thes 2.10 11 12. God in just judgment giving them up to an injudicious mind to call evil good and good evil These things shew how little in reason the consideration of the learning and parts of any of the Popish party ought to weigh with those who upon the account of them are inclined to entertain any whit the more favourable opinion of their way when they consider as they ought that their Learning and Parts are in conjunction with a corrupt Interest As for the Laity or Common people of the Popish perswasion I will not say that a worldly corrupt Interest doth so much prevail on them immediately to be or to continue to be what they are in point of Popery as it doth with their Clergie but at the Second hand it doth prevail on them also For they acting by an Implicite faith believing as their Church-men believe and seeing not with their own but with their eyes and taking all on trust from them and giving up themselves intirely to their Conduct it follows necessarily that if a corrupt Interest misguide their Guides they also must needs become seduced by means of it So that what was said to the people of Israel of old is truly applicable unto them O my people they which lead thee cause thee to err But that will be no excuse to them who suffer themselves to be so misled For if the blind lead the blind you know who hath said they both shall fall into the ditch Now if Popery shall be found indeed to be founded in a like secular carnal corrupt Interest as the corrupt Doctrine and Practice of the false Apostles was and whether it be or no I leave you to judge by what the following discourse offers you then that alone would be enough to blast the Reputation of it for ever in the minds of all such as have judgment in Spiritual things For by this very thing did St. John discriminate the false Teachers and Degenerate Christians and their way from the Orthodox and Sincere and their way They saith he are of the world therefore speak they of the world and the world heareth them 1 Jo. 4.5 6. They are of the world i. e. they were men of worldly minds and such as chiefly designed a worldly Interest they were such as did mind earthly things as it is elsewhere exprest Phil. 3.18 therefore they speak of the world i. e. the Doctrine which they taught so far as it was False was calculated to promote a worldly corrupt Interest And the world heareth them that is earthly minded men pretenders to Religion received their Doctrine as falling in with their worldly design But we saith St. John are of God he that knoweth God heareth us i. e. received their Doctrine which drew men off from the world to God He that is not of God heareth not us Hereby know we the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of error behold here a plain Discrimination of who and whose way is of God and whose is not with whom the Spirit of Truth is found and with whom the Spirit of Error If the Authors of Popery then and their followers have adopted into their Religion as a part of it any corrupt Doctrine or Practice for worldly advantage sake as the false Teachers of old did then they we see as well as those false Teachers are markt out by St. John as being not of God but of the world and as men that are misguided by a Spirit of Errour And although by wresting the Scriptures and corrupting the Word of God they think to colour over and patronize their corrupt Doctrines and Practices just as the false Apostles before them did yet their Arguings thence are but of the same nature with the Reasonings of the false Apostles in like cases which were as St. Paul calls them but perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds destitute of the truth supposing that gain is godliness 1 Tim. 6.5 I have in the following Papers shewed how St. Paul's Complying with the Jews in some Rites of the Jewish worship upon account of Expedience was quite of a different nature from the corrupt Complyances of the false Apostles and their party And from that prudential and expediential complyance of his I have in an Appendix by parity of Reason argued the expediency of yielding to the use of some things in or about the external form of Gods Worship which are neither directly commanded nor forbidden by God when circumstances render such a yielding necessary to prevent Divisions in the Church and the bad Consequences of them and to preserve Peace and Charity in it and the better to further the free course of the Gospel And this I have done the rather lest any should think that such a yielding as aforesaid should be of like nature with those corrupt compliances of the false Apostles and their Party which are represented to view in the following Discourse As for those who have hitherto escaped the snares of Popery the proper use of the ensuing Tract for them is to fortifie them against all Temptations of turning Papists of what nature soever the Temptation may be Always remembring that such as follow the false Apostles in corrupting the Christian Religion to avoid Persecution or for any worldly advantage whatsoever must expect to share with them in their fate also of whom it is said their end shall be according to their works 2 Cor. 11.15 And since you will find by the process of the Discourse before you that the Corruptions both in Faith and Practice first in the false Apostles and their followers and after them in the Papists did arise and spring out of an inordinate love of the world the consideration thereof may serve as a Sea-mark to warn us to take heed of that Rock upon which so many professours of Christianity have made shipwrack of it This running into the Spirit of the World hath always been fatal to the Churches As it laid waste at last the once famous flourishing Churches of the Apostles own planting so it hath since deprest and kept many others very low in their
their carnal and corrupt designs it is not unusual for God then to give up such men to other absurd opinions and practices though not serviceable to them in any such way Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved but the love of some errors instead and under pretence of truth that they might compass and bring about their worldly design therefore and for this cause God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a lie that they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness saith St. Paul 2 Thes 2.10 11 12. I intend not to dispute the several points in difference between Papists and Protestants or to prove them to be such additions and corruptions as I term them to be for that hath been done many a time over sufficiently and abundantly already by Reformed Authors But methinks it should go as far and signifie as much with the Popish Laity if not much more as a just and full confutation of those additions as erroneous would do when they shall come to see how they have been abused and imposed upon by their Leaders and Guides and made to believe and do such things for the saving of their Souls as have no such tendency but the contrary and by dancing after their Pipe have been made use of as Engines meerly to work their ends and to serve their carnal design by them to squeez and drain them to fill themselves or as men make use of horses to carry them out of the dirt and to ease themselves by their labour Which puts me in mind of the woman that sate upon the Beast having upon her forehead a name written Mystery Babylon the great c. Rev. 17.3.5 All that I would desire of the Laity is that they would see with their own eyes and use their own reason in the things I shall now lay before them and not suffer their Clergie to blow out the Candle or to hoodwink them while they play tricks and pick their pockets In giving instances of the Popish corruptions by which the design of domination and worldly greatness hath been begun and carried on by the Romish Bishops and their Seconds and assistance under a Religious pretence I shall begin with that which was laid as the foundation of the Papal fabrick S. 16. First then they would bear the world in hand that the Bishops of Rome successively are St. Peter's successours and as such are invested with a kind of Apostolical Authority and their See the Apostolical See and that as St. Peter was superiour to all Bishops and Presbyters in jurisdiction so they as his successours are so too Yea that the Bishop of Rome for the time being is Christs Vicar on Earth and visible Head of the Church Which claim of theirs puts me in mind of those who said they were Apostles but were not but were found liars Rev. 2.2 And if it shall be affirmed that the Bishops of Rome are successours of these in their design and pretence they themselves have given a more cogent proof of it than ever they did of being St. Peter's successours in such headship and power as they pretend to But as the false Apostles by pretending to be Apostles indeed when they were nothing less did procure to themselves such a reputation with those that were deluded by them as did greatly advantage them in that worldly design which they undiscernedly carried on under that pretence just so have the Popes by making their deluded adherents believe that they are St. Peters successors Christs Vicars and head of the Church raised to themselves such a reputation as is greatly advantagious to them also in the like but greater worldly design of theirs For as the Proselytes of the false Apostles were by their delusive persuasion made not only plyant but even zealously active in serving them in their design so have the deluded adherents of the Popes been in like manner in serving them in theirs Into what mould may not such men cast the people when they have insinuated themselves into their opinion to be such marvellous men as they pretend themselves to be The Galatians though after the false Apostles had corrupted them began to look upon Paul with a jealous eye as if he had been their enemy by exposing them to that trouble in professing the Gospel which the other taught them how to avoid yet so long as they retained that veneration for him which sometime they had while they esteemed him the undoubted Apostle of Christ they could if it had been possible have pluckt out their very eyes to have given him as he saith Gal. 4.15 16. And when the false Apostles were taken for true ones they had such an interest in the deluded people thereby as that they did even what they would with them Which made St. Paul say ye suffer if a man bring you into Bondage if a man devour you if a man take of you if a man exalt himself 2 Cor. 11.20 Words doubtless applicable to the Popish Laity upon as great reason as ever they were to the deluded Corinthians So great is the power of false opinion when men whether false Apostles or Popes are taken to be what they least are Besides as this lofty claim and high pretence of supremacy and headship over the whole Christian world prepared the Popes way for commanding and doing what he pleased among them that received and owned him in that capacity So it was the direct road to the highest pitch of Vain Glory that is of being esteemed and honoured for what he is not since all mâ—n are wont to proportion the honour they give to men according to what they esteem them to be And honey is not sweeter to the mouth than honour and glory is to ambitious minds And therefore if Diotrephes loved to have the preheminence and the false Apostles thought it a prize worth striving for to be counted the head of a small party when but low and kept under in the world how was his Holinesses fancy tickled may we think with the contemplation of being Vniversal Head of the whole Christian World And what would not ambitious men give or do for such a purchase and to keep it when they have it Simon Magus we know would have purchased the power of working Miracles as the Apostles did with money but for what end but that he might not be outdone by the Apostles and so lose that high esteem he had among the people whom he had deceived with his Magick as if he had been the great power of God even as the Popes have done by their Arts. I appeal to the Papists themselves is it not apparent that honour from men was a great part of the prize for which the Bishop of Rome ran when he first laid his design for Universal Bishop and to bring all others under him And hath it not been a sweet morsel to his successors for the time
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
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
the vast sums of money which we may reasonably conceive this device will bring into the Popes Exchequer from age to age Another Engine for the same purpose is Shrine Oblations that is the Offerings which the people make when they go on Pilgrimage to visit the Shrine of such or such a Saint whether voluntarily or in a way of Penance And the Treasuries of the Shrines of some eminent Saints are upon this account so rich as that it 's said they may vie it with the Treasuries of Great Princes Another Screw is Commutation of Penances that is the buying off the doing of such or such Penance for so much money as the Confessor or Ghostly Father shall be pleased to excuse them for and he knows well enough how to put the price according to the ability of the purchaser and so he doth also how to make the Penance greater or lesser as he pleases And this falls out so often and with so many in all Popish Countries that the Income thereby must needs be very great besides the ordinary Tithes they receive The fictious doctrine of Purgatory to name no more is I assure my self none of the least of the Artifices of the Founders of Popery to accumulate a prodigious mass of wealth of which Doctrine and device take this brief account First The people are made to believe that though God pardons Mortal Sins to the truly penitent so as to free them from Eternal Torments Yet since they have much Venial Sin and Corruption in which oft-times they die not having made sufficient satisfaction by Penances enjoyned them here they must expiate these and satisfie for them by suffering the pains of Purgatory And farther they must believe also that the Church hath a Treasure or stock of Merits arising out of Works of Supererogation done by such as have merited more than enough for themselves the over-plus still running into the common stock and that the Pope and Priests from him have the power of disposing and applying these out of the common stock to particular persons that need them And farther they are taught to believe that this Treasure of the Church is not drawn out and distributed but by Indulgences and that since these Indulgences are for the relief of the Churches Indigences they are not to be obtained without being purchased Now when the poor deluded people are made to believe all these idle Fictions for real Truths and come to have their Consciences awakened on their Death-beds what will they not give to obtain these Indulgences and for Masses to be said and Prayers to be made that they may be delivered from Purgatory a place of Torment little less than Hell Skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his Life how much more for his Soul So that the fruit and effect of this device as we may well conceive is no small or inconsiderable thing And therefore it was no less truly than wittily said The fire of Purgatory keeps the Popes Kitchin warm and makes his Pot to boyl I shall instance in no more but these I have named are some of the Arts and part of the Craft in the Mystery of Iniquity by which Demetrius like they get their wealth And truly so vastly great hath been the Annual Income of the Court of Rome from all Nations of their Communion that according to the account given from amongst themselves by Matthew Paris for one M. Par. Hist. An. 1252. its yearly Revenue from England alone by one way and another more than I have named amounted to no less heretofore than twice so much as the then Kings Revenue No marvel then if the Bishops of Rome and their Cardinals formerly poor Priests and Deacons are now become Illustrious and for Pomp and Magnificence able to vie it with great Princes and to raise their Families Nephews and Nieces to Dignities and Fortunes very great as is well known to the World S. 25. And now I having made this Comparison between the salse Apostles and Founders of Popery in their worldly design and cursed means of accomplishing it all that I shall desire of the Lay Catholicks as they call themselves is that they would but bestow so much consideration upon what is here offered as by which they may come to make an impartial judgment whether or no I have wronged the latter by comparing them to the former And if I have not as I doubt not but they will find I have not if prejudice and prepossession do not make them err in judgment as too frequently it is wont to do Then methinks I should not need to use one word to persuade them to desist from following their guides any longer blindfold by an implicite faith for their own Interest both spiritual and temporal which useth to be most prevalent with men will prompt them to this Can they possibly think it safe for them to commit themselves to the conduct of those who directly follow the track and tread in the steps of the false Apostles who for self ends and worldly advantage Avarice and Ambition betrayed the Religion of the holy Jesus and the Souls of men Solomon sayes In vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird And will they be more silly than the fowles of the Air in not endeavouring to make their escape when the Snare is discovered to them Remember this and shew your selves men may be said to them as once it was by the Prophet to others But we know the manner of these mens Guides either they will not suffer them to read discourses which detect their fraud or if they happen to hear or see any thing of that nature they can as they would have them think blow off all with one blast of their mouth I do therefore heartily wish that the Laicks I speak of would at last be so wise for their souls as to consider That when their Clergie whom they follow by an Implicite faith do make their defence against us in what we charge them with they are then concerned in point of a Carnal self interest and where that rules and is predominant it still obliges men to put the fairest colour they possibly can upon their Cause though never so bad without regard to truth that not being the thing they strive for but their selfish interest And it is the manner of such men when they have done so to glory over their Adversaries from the teeth outward as if they had laid them dead at their feet When at the same time inwardly they feel themselves struck to the very heart by the clear evidence and unresistable force of their Adversaries reasonings And the reason of their doing so is because they find that thereby they can preserve their interest among the people that have given up themselves to them and pinn'd their faith upon their sleeves this course of theirs serving their end as effectually as a real confutation would do And herein also they as evidently
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
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