and Jesuits and is a Doctrine dearly entertained in the Court of Rome to this day as appeared from the late Attempt of Pope Paul the Fifth upon Venice But the World is now a little wiser than to be carried away by these Arts and therefore that Pretence is laid to sleep till haply the Beast be healed of the Wound was given it at the Reformation But I cannot leave this Particular without my sad Regrates that too deep a tincture of this Spirit of Antichristianism is among many who pretend much aversion to it since the Doctrine of resisting Magistrates upon colours of Religion is so stiffly maintained and adhered to by many who pretend to be highly reformed tho this be one of the Characters of the scarlet-coloured Whore. But thus far have we gone through the second part of Antichrist's Character and have discovered too clear indications of a difformity to the Spirit and Truth of the Christian Religion in all the Branches of the Honour and Worship due to Jesus the only Mediator of the New Covenant From this I proceed to the third part of my Enquiry which is the Opposition made to the great Design of Christian Religion for elevating the Souls of Men into a participation of the Divine Nature whereby the Soul being inwardly purified and the outward Conversation regulated the World may be restored to its Primitive Innocence And Men admitted to an inward and intimate fellowship with their Maker The first step of this Renovation is Repentance for God commands Men every where to repent and Repentance and Remission of Sins are always united And this being an horrour at Sin upon the sense of its native deformity and contrariety to the Law of God which makes the Soul apprehend the hazard it hath incurred by it so as to study by all means possible to avoid it in all time coming nothing doth prepare the mind more for Faith in Christ and the study of a new Life than Repentance which must needs be previous to these But what Devices are found to enervate this Sins must be divided into Venial and Mortal the former deserving only some temporal Punishment and being easily expiated by some trifling piece of seeming Devotion and hereby many Sins are struck out of the Penitents consideration For who can have a great apprehension of that which is so slightly expiated And this may be extended to the easy Pardons given for acknowledged mortal Sins For he who thinks that God can be appeased for them with the saying by rote so many Prayers cannot possibly have deep apprehensions of their being either so displeasing to God or so odious in themselves But shall I to this add their asserting that a simple attrition which is a sorrow flowing from the consideration of any temporal Evil God hath brought upon the Sinner without any regard had either to the vileness of the Sin or the Offence done to God by it that is I say can suffice for justifying Sinners and qualifying them for the Sacrament whereby the necessity of Contrition and Sorrow flowing from the Principle of the Love of God is made only a high degree of Perfection but not indispensibly necessary In the next place all these Severities they enjoin for Penances do but tend to nourish the Life of Sin when Sinners see a Trade set up by which they can buy themselves off from the Wrath of God. To this is to be added the Doctrine of Indulgences which is so direct an opposition to Evangelical Repentance as if it had been contrived for dispossessing the World of the sense of it That which is next pressed in the Gospel for uniting the souls of Mankind to God is that noble ternary of Graces Faith Hope and Love by which the Soul rests in God by a holy affiance in him believing the Truth of his Gospel expecting the accomplishment of his Promises waiting for the full fruition of him and delighting in his glorious Perfections and Excellencies Now how much all this is shaken by these carnal and gross Conceptions the Roman Doctrine offers of God in their Image and Mass-worship and by their Idolatry to Saints is apparent Are they not taught to confind more in the Virgin or their Tutelar Saints than in the Holiest of all Doth not the fear of Purgatory damp the hopes of future blessedness And finally what impious Doctrine hath been publickly licensed and printed in that Church of the degrees of the love we owe to God Some blasphemously teaching that we are not at all bound to love him others mincing it so as if they were afraid of his being too much beloved In a word there is an impiety in the Morals of some of that Church particularly among the Disciples of Loyola beyond what was ever taught amongst the worst of the Heathen Philosophers which hath been fully discovered by some of the honester and more zealous of that Communion And though these Corruptions have not been avowed by the Head of that Church yet by their being publickly vented by the Deaf Ear he gives to all the Complaints against them and by the constant Caresses and Priviledges he heaps upon that Order which teacheth them he discovers either his great Satisfaction in that corrupt Doctrine or that upon the account of other interests he is content to betray the Souls of Christians into the corruption of such impious and ungodly Leaders since the Order that hath owned all these Corruptions is yet possessed of the Consciences of the greater part of them that own that Communion they being the universal Confessors And since they license the publick vending of so much corrupt Doctrine in printed Writings what reason have we to suspect their base compliance with Sins in their more secret and unknown Practisings with such poor deluded Souls as trust to their Conduct of which many proofs are brought by other of that same Church But I pursue my enquiry into the other traces of the Antichristian Corruption of the Purity and Power of our most Holy Faith Solemn Worship and secret Devotion are the great means of uniting Souls to God and of deriving the assistance of his Spirit and Grace to us but when these are performed in an unknown Tongue how uncapable are they of reaching that End And the Doctrine of the efficacy of the Sacraments for conveying of Grace by the Work wrought looks like a design against all serious preparation for the worthy receiving of them since by that Doctrine a Man be he never so ill prepared yet is sure of their efficacy for if his Priest absolve him and he have a simple Attrition for Sin without any thing of the Love of God he is by their Doctrine and Conduct qualified for receiving worthily were his Heart never so much united to Sin or averse from all Devotion or Application to Divine Matters And what Complaints shall be here made of these who teach that the sure way of gaining the Favour of God which they phrase by the Keys of
to be their God and the conjugal Duty they owe him is Adoration When therefore other Creatures have any share of that bestowed on them spiritual Whoredom is committed Now how sad the Application of this to the Christian Church must be all may judg who know how great a part of Christendom worship God by Images and how the adored and incomprehensible Trinity is painted as an Old Man with a Child in his Arms and a Dove over the Child's Head tho no Man hath seen the Father at any time John 6.46 And the Son as God can no more be represented by an Image than the Father and the Holy Ghost though once appearing in the symbolical representation of a Dove cannot without Idolatry be represented and worshipped under that Figure Neither can any Apology be offered for this which could not with the same Reason have cleared both Jews and Gentiles of Idolatry And whatever more abstracted Minds may think of these Images yet none that considers the simplicity of the Vulgar the frailty of Man and his inclination to apprehend all things as sensible can doubt but that the Rabble do really conceive of God as like these Figures and do plainly worship them It is further to be considered that though the Son of God was Man yet as Man he is not to be worshipped and therefore the setting out of Figures and Statues for his Humane Nature which on the way are no real Adumbrations but only the Fancies of Painters and worshipping these as the Images of the Son of God is no less Idolatry than to worship the Father as an Old Man. And further the Worship of the Mass is Idolatry as evidently as any piece of Gentilism ever was For if it be certain that Christ is not in the Hostie which shall be afterwards made out then to adore him as there must be Idolatrous Neither will it serve for excuse to say that Christ is truly worshipped as present and if he be not there it is only a mistake about the Presence but no Idolatry can be committed the Worship being offered to a proper Object who is God. But if this Apology free them of Idolatry it will also clear those Heathens who worshipped some Statues or Creatures in which they conceived God was present so that they might have pleaded it was the Great and True God they adored believing him there present as their Fathers had formerly believed But he were very gentle to Idolaters who upon such a Plea would clear them of that Crime What then is to be said of that Church that holds it the greatest piece of her Religion to adore the Bread with the same devotion they would pay to Christ were he visibly present who call the Bread God carry it about in Processions and worship it with all the Solemnity imaginable And finally the Worship they give the Cross is likewise an adoring of God under a Symbol and Representation And thus we have seen the Parallel of Rome-Heathen and Rome-Christian runs but too too just But the next kind of the Heathens Idolatry was their worshipping of others beside God whom they held of two ranks Some that were so pure that they never dwelt in Bodies Others they judged to be the Souls of deceased Men after their Death acknowledged and honoured with Divine Honour And this kind of Idolatry was first begun at Babylon where Ninus made the Statue of his Father Belus be set up and worshipped it And from him all these lesser Gods were called Belim or Baalim Now concerning these the Heathens believed that they were certain intermedial Powers that went betwixt God and Men by whom all good things were conveyed to Mortals by whom also all our Services were offered to the Gods. Thus the Nations had Gods many and Lords many 1 Cor. 8.5 And these lesser Deities or Daemons they adored by erecting Statues to them about their burial Places where they built Temples for them and worshipped them And from this Hint of Babylon's being the Mother of this kind of Idolatry we may guess why the Apostacy of that City which in St. John's days did reign over the Kingdoms of the Earth Rev. 17.18 is shadowed forth under the Name of Babylon to hold out that the Corruption it was to fall into was to be of a kind with that begun in Babylon and the Character of the Whore doth likewise agree well with this Now if we compare with this the worship of Angels and Saints in the Roman Church we shall find the parity just and exact For after the Conversion of the Roman Empire it is not to be denied but that in order to the gaining of the Heathen World to a complyance with Christianity the Christians did as near as was possible accommodate themselves to the Heathenish Customs And therefore in stead of their Gods they set up the Daemon and Baal-Worship to the Apostles and other Saints and Martyrs which Theodoret doth most ingenuously acknowledg to have been set in the stead of their Gods. They became afterwards so exact in the parallel that as the Heathens had of these lesser Gods for every Nation so there was a Saint appointed for every Nation St. Andrew for Scotland St. George for England St. Patrick for Ireland and many more for other Nations And as every House among the Heathens had their houshold God so every Person was taught to have a tutelar Saint and Angel. And as among the Heathen there were Gods for all Trades for all Sicknesses and for every Vertue so in Antichristianism there were Saints for every Disease for every Profession and for all the Graces And as the Heathens built Temples for them so did also Babylonish Rome And here an odd Remark is in my way of this conformity that the Pantheon at Rome dedicated in Augustus his time to Cybele the Mother of the Gods and to all the Gods was afterwards consecrated to the Virgin and all the Saints And as the Heathens offered Prayers made Vows observed Days brought Presents used Processions in honour to these lesser Gods and worshipped their Statues and Images so all this by degrees crept into Rome-Christian as might be branched out in more particulars than the nature of so short a Discourse will allow of It is true the Worship of Images came not in before the eighth Century but after that time it engaged all that received it into a high degree of madness for advancing that Heathenish piece of Worship And shall I here tell what is known to all who have seen the forms of that Church how you shall find their Churches all over dressed up with Images and Statues gorgeously apparelled and well adorned where the poor vulgar are lying prostrate before them saying their Devotions and perhaps washing the feet of their Shrines with their Tears and with great affection kissing the Hem of their Garments And if through the tricks of the Priest the Image seem to nod or smile on them which is not unfrequent with
spot or wrinkle And much more of this Nature meeting us in Scripture declares how plenary his Satisfaction was nothing being left undone by him for removing the Guilt and Demerit of Sin. And what comfortless Doctrine this is we may soon apprehend how it takes away that Joy in God at the approches of Death since there is such hazard of direful Miseries following Now this was no small part of the Mystery by which the World was brought under their Dominion and therefore great pains was taken for rooting the belief of it deep in all Mens Hearts many Visions and Apparitions were vouched for its Proof and all the Lives of the Saints that were written for divers Ages were full of such fabulous Narrations some Souls were said to be seen standing in burning Brimstone to the Knees some to the Middle some to the Chin others swimming in Caldrons of melted Metal and Devils pouring the Metal down their Throats with many such afrighting Stories But for all this the Proof from Scripture was only drawn from one wrested place of the Apostle Paul 1 Cor. 3.12 13 14 15. who saith That in the Day of the Lord such as built upon the Foundation of Christ superstructures of Wood Hay and Stubble should be saved because they kept the Foundation yet so as by Fire But this was only a proverbial form of Speech to express the risque they run to be such as of one that escapes out of a Fire such proverbial Speeches being usual in Scripture as that of the Prophet Zech. 3.2 Is not this a Brand plucked out of the Fire Or of the Apostle Jude 23. Some save with fear pulling them out of the Fire And any considering Person will at first view see how slender a Foundation this was for the Superstructure built upon it But the way was contrived for preserving Souls from or rescuing them out of Purgatory will discover what were the Inducements of advancing the belief of it with such Zeal which was thus framed It is believed by that Church that beside the Commands that necessarily oblige all Christians there are many Counsels in the Gospel in order to the attaining a higher pitch of Perfection such as the Counsels of Poverty and Chastity or the like and they teach that such as did not obey these cannot be said to have sinned but on the other hand those who have obeyed them shall not want a Reward by their so supererrogating beyond what was strictly bound upon them and the Reward of them is their meriting both for themselves and others an exemption from the Pains of Purgatory And of all these Merits there is a common Treasure of the Church wherein for good manners sake the Merit of Christ is the chief Stock and this is committed to the Successors of St. Peter to whom the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven are believed to be given who can communicate of that Spiritual Treasure as they will either for preserving Souls from Purgatory or for delivering them out of it This could not but work wonders for the exaltation of the Papal Dignity when he was conceited to be honoured of God with so high a Trust This was also made an Engin for advancing all the Papal Designs for upon any Quarrel he had with any Prince the Popes proclaimed a Croisade promising exemption from Purgatory to all who hazarded their Lives for the Service of the Holy Church And the contrivance of Purgatory being universally believed this could not fail to draw great numbers about his Standards And by this means he brought most Princes into that servile subjection to him under which they groaned for many Ages Another practice yet more base and sordid was the selling of Indulgences and Pardons for Mony. Certainly here was Simon 's Crime committed by the pretended Successors of him who had of old accused him that thought the Gift of God might be purchased with Mony and thereupon did cast him out of the Church It were endless to tell the base Arts and blasphemous Discourses of the Monks who were sent through the World to sell these Indulgences which in the end proved fatal to that Church since the excessive magnifying of them did first provoke Luther to examine their Corruptions It is true they will not hear of the harsh word of selling Indulgences but disguise it with their giving them to such as will offer Alms to the Church but really this whole Contrivance is so base so carnal and so unlike the Spirit of Christianity that to repeat it is to refute it Here was a brave Device for enriching the Church when the making great Donations to it was judged so effectual for delivering out of Purgatory Who would not out of love to his Friend's Soul if he believed him frying in these Flames give liberally of his Goods but much rather would a Man give all that he had for his own Security especially when on his Death-bed he were beset with Persons who were confounding him with dismal Apprehensions and thus trafficking with him for the exchange of his Soul. Hence sprung the enriching of Abbeys and Churches for every Religious Order hath its own peculiar Merits which they can communicate to one of their Fraternity If then a dying Man had gained their favour so much that he was received into their Order and died wrapped in one of their Frocks then was his Soul secure from the grim Tormentors below And what an endless heap of Fables had they of Souls being on the brink or in the midst of the Flames and of a sudden snatched out But now all this Trade hath quite failed them therefore Indulgences are fallen in their Rates and in stead of them there are Prayers to be used and especially to be said before priviledged Altars or at such Times or before such Reliques that it is no hard work for any among them to ransome the Souls of others or to preserve their own In a word doth not all this debase the Spirit of true Religion and expose it to the jealousy of Atheists as if it were a Contrivance for advancing base and secular Designs And doth it not eat out the Sense of true Piety when the Vulgar see the Guides of Souls making such shameful Merchandise of them and doing it with such respect of Persons that if a Man be rich enough he is secure whereby our Lord's blessing of the Poor and passing a Woe on the Rich is reversed But above all what indignity is by this done to the Blood of the Son of God And how are the People carried from their dependance on Him and their value of His Sufferings by these Practices Another Art not very remote from this for detracting from the value of Christ's Death and the confidence we should have in it is the Priestly Absolution wherein after the Sinner hath gone over his Sin without any sign of remorse and told them to the Priest he enjoins a Penance the doing whereof is called a satisfaction and the Vulgar do
Paradise is to say the Ave to bid the blessed Virgin Good-morrow every day or to send our Angel Guardian to salute her or finally to wear a Medal or Rosary in devotion to her though from the first time we begin to wear it we never again think of her Doth not all this look like a conspiracy against the Power of Godliness But shall we next consider the Moral Law which though Christ said he came not to dissolve but to fulfil Matth. 5.17 Yet they have found out Distinctions and Doctrines to destroy it It is true what may be said here cannot so directly as to every particular be charged upon the Roman Church since it hath not been decreed by Pope or Council but when prophane Casuists have printed Doctrines which tend to the subversion of the most common principles of Vertue and Morality and these are licensed according to the Rule of that Church And for as publick as they are and for all the Censures and Complaints others have passed upon them yet they continue without any censure from the Chair of Rome it is a shrewd presumption that they are not unwelcome to that See Though for good Manners-sake they have given them no other owning but a connivance joined with an extraordinary cherishing of that School which vents them Two general Doctrines they have which at two stroaks dissolve all the bonds of Vertue The one is the Doctrine of Probability the other of good Intention By the first they teach that if any approved Doctor of the Church have held an Opinion about any practical thing as probable any Christian may with a safe Conscience follow it were it never so much condemned by others and did it appear with the blackest Visage And by this it is that scarce there is a Sin which may not be safely hazarded on since there have been of the approved Doctors of that Church who have made a shift by distinctions to represent the worst Actions not only as probable but as really Good. The next Doctrine is of good Intention whereby they teach a Man to commit the grossest Legerdemain with God and his own Conscience imaginable by which he may act any Sin he will provided he intend not that but some other good Design or Motive And any that will read the Provincial Letters or the Mystery of Jesuitism and compare their Citations with the Authors whence they take them will soon be satisfied of the truth of this We have already seen how that Church violates the two first Commandments by her Idolatry Whereby in opposition to the first she worships Saints and Angels with those acts and expressions of Adoration only due to God. The second is also palpably violated by their Image-worship and adoring God under sensible and external representations The third is made void by the Pope's pretending to dispence with Oaths and to annul their Obligation as also by their Doctrines of Equivocation and mental Reservations in all Oaths both assertory and promissory besides the impious Doctrines of some Casuists that justify the prophaning of God's Sacred Name in rash and common swearing Their contempt of the fourth Precept is not denied it being usually among them a Day of mercating dancing and foolish jollity Many among them teaching that to hear Mass that day doth fully answer the Obligation for its observance Their contempt of the fifth follows upon the Doctrine of the Pope's Power of deposing Princes and freeing the Subjects from their Obligation to them by which they are taught to rebel and resist the Ordinance of God. Besides their Casuists allow it as lawful to desire rhe Parents Death provided it be not out of malice to him but out of a desire of good to themselves that they may enjoy their Inheritance or be rid of their Trouble Yea some of their impious Casuists say that Children may lawfully intend the killing of their Parents and may disown them and Marry without their consent For the sixth Command their Casuists do generally allow to kill in defence of Honour Life or Goods even though the hazard of losing them be not near and evident but afar off and uncertain And they teach that a Man is not bound to stay till another smite him but if he threaten him or if he offend with his Words or if one know that he hath a design upon his Honour Life or Goods he may with a good Conscience prevent and kill him And this they extend to all sorts of Persons both Secular and Religious allowing it to Sons against their Fathers And they leave it free to them to execute this by whatever means they judg most proper whether by force or surprize or by the Service of others if they dare not attempt to kill by their own Hands which they stretch to the case of one who knows another guilty of a Crime and intends to pursue him for it and they allow the Guilty Person if he know no other way of escape to kill him who intends his Accusation that he may thereby preserve his Life in order to which they also allow it lawful to kill the Witnesses that may prove the Crime As for the seventh Command modesty cannot name their polluted Doctrines about it They barred the Clergy the lawful use of Marriage but did allow them Concubinate and the publick Licenses given to base Houses in the Popes Dominions prove that See a Mother of Fornications even in the Letter the Religious Houses being likewise full of Irreligious Intanglements into a course of life which many times they are not able to bear but being restrained from the honourable Ordinance of God many of these Houses have proved either Nests of Filthiness or of secret Impurities which it seems by the rules of Confession and the questions their Confessors puts to them are known to abound among them And any that have read these will confess that it defiles a Chast Mind to read them but what must it be to ask them especially at those of a different Sex Shall I also here mention the frequent dispensing with Marriages within degrees forbidden and their as frequent dissolving of that Sacred Knot though as if they had resolved on a contradiction to all the Rules of the Gospel they refuse to dissolve the Bond on the account of Adultery which Christ hath made the only ground that can justifie the dissolution of it But shall I add to this the base Impieties of which not only these of purple and scarlet Livery among them have been notoriously guilty but even the Villanies of some that have worn the Triple Crown As I should grow too tedious so I must needs tell things which to a pure mind were both nauseating to write and to read Those that have been in that Spiritual Babylon know that is a Sodom even in the letter none being more guilty of that crying Wickedness than those that bear the character of Religious or Sacred Orders And what shall we think of the Scarlet Fraternity
I should descend to the Cardinals Bishops and Abbots and shew how secular they are become all their design being to engross the Power and monopolize all Riches which contagion is also derived into the Inferiour Orders of the Clergy who by the magnifying of their Images Saints and Reliques use all the Arts they can devise for enriching of themselves and their friends And even those Orders that pretend to mortification and abandoning the world and talk of nothing but their poor and austere manner of Life yet have possessed themselves of no small part of the Riches and glory of the World. It is true there is a young Brotherhood among them which though the youngest yet hath outstripped the elder and made them stoop to it and serve it And what base and sordid ways that Society hath pursued for arriving at the highest pitch of greatness and riches and how successfully they have managed their designs is sufficiently cleared what through the Zeal of some of the honester of that Communion what through the envy of other emulating Orders All these things do fully prove how unlike that Church is to the poor and pure simplicity of Christ and his Apostles and of the first Ages of the Church If we further examine the Characters of Evangelical purity we have them from the mouth of our Saviour when he commands us to learn of him for he was meek and lowly in heart and he made it the distinguishing badge of his Disciples that they loved one another Now for humility it is true the Head of that Church calls himself the servant of the servants of God but how far such humility is from his Design his aspiring pretences do loudly declare All the World must stoop to him not only must his fellow-Bishops swear obedience to him and become his Vassals but the Kings of the Earth must be his footstool and all must pay him that servile homage of kissing his foot an ambition as insolent as extravagant His power must be magnified with the most blasphemous Titles of his being God our Lord God on Earth Omnipotent with a great deal more of such servile Adulations offered to him from the Parasites of that Court. in a word a great part of that Religion when rightly considered will be found on design contrived and abetted for exalting him to the highest degrees of insolence But so many proofs of this were already upon other occasions hinted that it is needless to go over them again and that same leven levens the whole lump of their Clergy who all pretend that by their Ecclesiastical character they are only subject to their Head and so enjoy an immunity from the Civil Authority be their crimes what they may be And an in-road on this pretence of late from the State of Venice when they seized two Churchmen that were highly guilty drew out so much of their most holy Fathers indignation that he thundred against them and finding the weakness of the spiritual sword resolved to try the edge of his temporal one upon them in patrociny partly of these Villains and partly of the covetousness of the Clergy to which the Senate had set a small limit by a Decree but finding they were like to prove too hard for him he was willing to put up his sword rather than to kill and eat as one of his Cardinals advised him Shall I with this also tell the instances of the ambition of Cardinals who from their first original of being Presbyters of Rome have risen up to the height of counting themselves the companions of Kings and in their habits affect a Princely splendor but have unluckily chosen the Liveries of the whore for they wear Scarlet as the Bishops do Purple the foretold colours of the Whores Garments Shall I next shew to what a height of pride the exaltation of the Priestly dignity among them hath risen as if it were equal nay preferrable to the condition of Princes The Priest giving absolution is a sure device to make his power be much accounted of since he can forgive sin The gorgeous and rich apparel they wear in worship serves also to set off their Dignity And what a goodly device is it that their spittle must make one of the sacred Rites in Baptism Certainly that must be esteemed a marvellous holy creature whose very excrements are so sacred Their engrossing the Cup to themselves from the people was another trick for raising of their esteem But above all things their power of transmuting the substance of the Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of Christ by uttering five words was a marvellous device to make all the World admire them who can so easily and every day work a miracle compared to which all the miracles of the Gospel may pass for ordinary actions What a great piece of wonder must such a man be held to be who can thus exercise his authority over the very person of Jesus Christ notwithstanding of all the glory to which he is now exalted And it was no contemptible Engine for that same design to possess the people with a belief of the Priests offering in the Mass an expiatory Sacrifice for the sins both of the dead and living which proved a Stock for them to trade on both for their ambition and covetousness and from these evidences we may infer how little of the humility of Christ appears in the Church from the highest to the lowest The next branch of the Evangelical spirit is Meekness and Charity which leads me unto the consideration of the fourth Design of the Christian Religion which was the uniting of Mankind under one Head and into one Body and this it designed to effectuate not only by these sublime Precepts of the highest love and the utmost extent of the pardoning of injuries and of returning them with the best offices of love and prayer which the blessed Author of our Faith did enact but by the associating of the Faithful into one Society called the Church which was to be united with the closest bonds of brothely love and charity and was to be governed by Pastors and Teachers who should feed the flock with the sincere milk of the Word and was also to be cemented together by the Ligaments of the holy Sacraments by which as by joynts and bands they are both united to their Head and knit together Now we are from these things to consider what opposition that Church we are now considering gives to this branch of the end of Christianity And first whereas the Gospel pronounceth us free and that we are no more the servants of men but of God if any attempt upon that liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free he changeth the authority of the Church into a tyrannical yoke much more if all the new articles of belief and rules for practice be imposed under the severest certificates But here we are to consider that all these things which that Church hath imposed on all of her communion for
which we withdrew from her are additions to our faith for in this we mainly differ from that Church that whatever we acknowled they acknowledg likewise but with a great many additions We believe the Scriptures are a rule for Christians and they believe the same but they add Traditions and the authority of the Church to the Scriptures We believe that God is to be worshipped spiritually they believe the same but add that he may be worshipped by images and sensible Figures We believe Christ to be the Mediator betwixt God and Man they believe the same but add to this the intercession of Saints We hold that God and Christ are to be worshipped they hold the same but add Saints and Angels to their worship We believe Heaven and Hell to be the several States of the future life they believe the same but add Purgatory betwixt them to the day of Judgment We believe Baptism and the Lords Supper to be the Sacraments of the new Covenant they believe the same but add five more We believe Christ is spiritually and really present in the Lords Supper this they believe but add the unconceivable Tenent of his corporal presence In a word it might be instanced in many other particulars how they have driven us from their Communion by their additions to the truth and sincerity of the Gospel which they have adulterated by their Inventions and not only have they imposed all these things but thundered out Anathema's on all that question them and have so wreathed all their fopperies with that main and fundamental article of their belief of the infallibility of their Church that it is impossible to hope for their recovery till they renounce that Principle which is so dear to them For if their Church be infallible then in no matter of faith or practice can she decree amiss and therefore the lawfulness and sanctity of all her Decrees must be maintained with an equal vigor and zeal for if in one of them she step aside her infallibility is for ever gone And by this we may see to how little purpose it is to treat of accomodating matters with that Church since there is no possibility of our Union with them without we turn over entirely to them For they cannot part with one of their errors without they first renounce that which is the dearest of them all to wit the unerring authority of their Church How cruel then is that Church which addeth the severe sanction of an Anathema to all her decrees even about the most trifling matters and about things that are by their Confession of their own natures indifferent And a consectary to this is that cruel opinion they hold that none can be saved out of their Communion pretending there is no Salvation without the true Church which they restrict to those who are under the obedience of the Roman Bishop and this is what they usually frighten all with But it is to be considered what the true notion of the Church is that so we may see through this frightful Vizar The Church then is a Society of Christians united in the same faith for worshipping of God jointly And another definition of a Church cannot be proved from Scripture for the Church being called the Body of Christ its union with him as its Head is held forth by the Apostle in these words Col. 2.19 The head Christ from whom the whole body by joints and bonds having nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the increase of God. From which words we see what constitutes a man a member of the true Church which is first his union to Christ as his head together with a dependance on him for growth and nutriture and next his being knit to all others who are thus united to Christ which is first the inward union of divine charity by which he loves all who cleave to Christ as their Head and next his associating himself with them in outward visible acts of worship which every Christian is bound to do with all that worship God in Spirit and Truth But if a Society of Christians do visibly swerve from Christ in many great and signal contradictions to the honour due to his Person and to the obedience due to his Laws and do grosly adulterate the worship so that communion cannot be had with that Church without departing from the Head Christ then it can be no departing from the Church to adhere to Christ and his true worship and to separate from the corruptions which are brought in upon the Christian Religion If then it appear that the Church of Rome hath departed from the truth and simplicity of the Gospel in so many great and main points those who attempted the reforming her to her first Purity and finding that not to be hoped for did unite among themselves for serving and worshipping God aright cannot be charged with separation from the true Church But by that cruel Tenent of theirs they breed up all their Children in the greatest uncharitableness imaginable condemning all who cannot believe their strange Doctrines or concur in their unhallowed worsh p. Thus they are the Schismaticks who have departed from the true Church and who force from their Communion all who adhere to it but this cruelty rests not in uncharitable censures but hath extended it self to as much bloody and barbarous rage as ever sprung from Hell for all the cruelty of the heathen Persecutors cannot match the practises of that Whore that hath been so often drunk with the blood of the Saints and of the Martyrs of Jesus What enraged cruelty appeared against the poor Waldenses for the separating from their Corruptions How many of all Sexes and Ages were cruelly butchered down by the procurement of the Rulers of that Church and because the Albigenses lived under the protection of Princes that favoured them how did the Popes depose their Princes and instigate other ambitious invaders to seize on their dominions Which to effectuate a Croissade was proclaimed that had been formerly practised against the Enemies of the Christian Faith and Heaven was promised to such as went against these poor innocents whereupon they were killed by thousands without all mercy Never was there any who had the zeal or honesty in these dark ages to witness against the apostacy of the Church but the Pope and Clergy used all means to get his zeal rewarded with a Faggot And when the time of Reformation came with what rage and spite did the Pope by his Letters and Legates instigate all the Princes of Europe to cruelty against them But as these things were not done in corners so they are still so fresh in our remembrance by the copious accounts we have of them that I need not tell what Arts the Popes and other Ecclesiasticks used to set all Germany on fire upon this account Nor need I tell the cruelty was exercised in the Netherlands in Charles the Fifth his time in which more than an hundred thousand are
other Traffiquers and the driving from us those who do so disturb us All the authority we give the Church is Paternal and not Tyrannical our Church-men we hold to be the Pastors but not the Lords of the Flock who are obliged to feed them sincerely both by their Doctrine Labours and whole Conversation but we pretend to no blind obedience due to their directions and count them noble Christians who search and try all they say by that Test of the Scriptures We send the People to confess their sins to God from whom only we teach them to expect their pardon and pretend to no other keys but Ministerial ones over publick and known Scandals In our Worship as all do understand it so every one may joyn in it And in the number use and simplicity of our Sacraments we have religiously adhered to the Rules of the Gospel we holding them to be solemn federal Rites of our Stipulation with God in which if we do worthily partake of them we are assured of the Presence of the Divine Spirit and Grace for uniting our Souls more intirely to God and advancing us in all the ways of the Spirit of Life and if the Institution of them in the Gospel be compared with our Administration of them it will appear how close we have kept to our Rule And thus we see how exactly conform the Doctrine of our Church is to the whole Branches of the Christian Design upon which it is not to be doubted but the Characters of the Christian Religion will also fit ours We found our Faith only on the Scriptures and though we pay a great deal of venerable esteem to the Churches of God during their purity which continued above four Centuries and so be very willing to be determined in Rituals and Matters that are external and indifferent by their Opinions and Practices yet our Faith settles only on the Word of God and not on the Traditions of Men neither do we believe every Spirit that pretends to Rapts and Visions but try the Spirits whether they be of God or not and though an Angel should preach to us another Gospel we would ho d him accursed The Miracles we trust to as the Proofs of the Truth of that Revelation which we believe are only those contained in the Scriptures and though we believe there was a wonder working power continued for some time in the Church yet we make a great difference betwixt what we historically credit and what we religiously believe neither will we for supporting our Interest or Authority have recourse to that base trade of forging lying Wonders but we rest satisfied with the Miracles Christ and his Apostles wrought for the proof of the Religion we own since what we believe is no other than what they taught and therefore we leave the trade of forging new Miracles to them who have forged a new Religion And for the plain genuines of the Gospel we have not departed a step from it since we call upon our People by all the motives we can devise and with all the earnestness we are Masters of to receive full and clear Instruction in all the Matters of our Religion which we distinctly lay open to them And nothing of Interest or Design can be charged on us who pretend to nothing but to be the Stewards of the Mysteries of God nor have we offered to sophisticate the simplicity of our Worship by any additions to it for the determining about some particular forms is no addition to Worship but only the following forth of these Precepts of doing all things to edification peace and order But an addition to Worship is when any new piece of Divine Service is invented with a pretence of our being more acceptable to God thereby or of our receiving Grace by that conveyance and therefore any Rites we have as they are not without some hints from Scripture so we pretend not to become any way acceptable to God by them Further We teach no irrational nor unconceivable Doctrine It is true there are Mysteries in our Faith and even reason it self teacheth that these must be unconceivable but for all our other persuasions they are such as may be well made out to the rational faculties of Man therefore we do not betake our selves to that Sanctuary that we must be believed assert what we please but we assert nothing but what we offer to evince by the clearest proofs And in fine we add nothing to the burdensomness of the Laws of Christ but teach and propose them as we have them from his Gospel without adding changing or altering a tittle from the first Institution And so far have I considered the Doctrine and Worship of our Church wherein if I could justify all our Practices as well as I can do our Principles there were no grounds to fear hurt from all the Cavils of Mortals But for bad practices whatsoever matter of regrate they may furnish us with they afford none for separation Therefore there is no ground that can justify a separation from our Church much less warrant the turning over from us to the Communion of Rome And thus far have I pursued my designed Enquiry which was if with a safe Conscience any might adjoin themselves to the Popish Religion or if Communion with our Church was to be kept and continued in and have found great grounds to assert the evident hazards of the former so that no man to whom his salvation and welfare is dear can or ought to joyn himself to that Church on the other hand without renting the Body of Christ none can or ought to depart from our Churches But I leave the perusal and considering of these things to the serious Reader to whom I hope they may give some satisfaction if he bring with him to the Enquiry an attentive serious and unbyassed mind And I leave the success of this and every other attempt of this nature for the clearing of Divine truth with him who is the only Fountain of Blessings who is over all God blessed for evermore Amen FINIS BOOKS Printed for Joseph Watts SUre and Honest Means for the Conversion of all Hereticks and Wholesome Advice and Expedients for the Reformation of the Church Writ by one of the Communion of the Church of Rome with a Preface by a Divine of the Church of England 4 to Dialogues between Philerene and Philalethe concerning the Popes Supremacy The first Part. 4 to A Treatise of the Corruption of Scripture Councils and Fathers by the Prelates Pastors and Pillars of the Church of Rome for maintenance of Popery by Thomas James Library-keeper of Oxford In five Parts 8 vo The True Nature of the Divine-Law and of Disobedience thereunto in Nine Discourses tending to shew in the one a Loveliness in the other a Deformity By Samuel Dugard sometime fellow of Trinity College in Oxon now Rector of Horton in Staffordshire 8 vo Reform'd Devotions in Meditations Hymns and Petitions for every day in the Week and every Holiday in the Year in two parts Second Edition 12 s. An Earnest Invitation to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper with Devotions c. By Joseph Glanvil Chaplain in Ordinary to his Late Majesty The Seventh Edition with Additions A Compleat Discourse of the Nature Use and Right-managing of that Wonderful Instrument the Baroscope or Quicksilver Weather-glass in Four parts by John Smyth C. M. To which is added the true Equation of Natural Days drawn up for the use of the Gentry in order to their more true adjusting and right managing of Pendulum Clocks and Watches