see Christ and his Apostles as if that were a Priviledge restricted to Church-men What shall be then said of these who call the Scriptures a Nose of Wax the Sourse of all Heresies a Book written not on Design but upon particular Emergents and do assert its incompleatness unless made up by the Traditions of the Church Is not this to add to the Words of that Book and to accuse the faithful Witness of Unfaithfulness But worse than all this is held by these who will have all the Authority of the Scriptures to depend on the Church which must be believed in the first place But here a great difference is to be made betwixt the Testimony of a Witness and the Authority of a Judg the former is not denied to the Church and so the Jews had the Oracles of God committed to them but that doth not prove the Authority of their Sanhedrim infallible or superior to Scripture and in this case more cannot be ascribed to the Christian Church than was proper to the Jewish in our Saviour's Time. But further if the Scripture be to be believed on the Testimony of the Church then upon what account is the Church first believed It cannot be said because of any testimony in Scripture for if it give Authority to the Scriptures it cannot receive its Authority from their Testimony How then shall it be proved that the Church must be believed or must it be taken from their own word and yet no other Reason can be given to prove the Church Infallible For to say that they have continued in a Succession of Bishops from the Apostles days concludes nothing unless it be first proved that the Doctrine of the Apostles was of God otherwise the Mahometan Religion is as much to be believed since for many Ages a Succession of Priests have believed it Further the Greek Churches drive up the Series of their Bishops to the Apostles Days as well as the Roman why then should not their Authority be likewise acknowledged infallible In fine must the Vulgar go and examine the Successions of the Bishops and judg about all the dubious Elections whether the Conveyance have been interrupted or not Certainly were this to be done it were an impossible Atchievement and harder than the study of the Originals of both Testaments Therefore the Vulgar must simply believe the Authority of the Church on her own Testimony which is the most absurd thing imaginable and this to every Individual will resolve into the Testimony of their Priest Behold then a goodly Foundation for building our Faith upon Christ's Prophetick Office is also invaded by pretence of the Churches Infallibility in expounding Scriptures for if this be granted the whole Authority will be devolved on the Church for by this Doctrine she may teach what she will and were the Scripture-Evidence never so full to the contrary yet whatever wrested Exposition she offers though visibly contrary to the plain meaning of the words must be believed But with whom this Power and Authority is lodged is not agreed to among themselves some yielding it to the High-Priest of the Church when in his Chair others to the great Sanhedrim of Christendom in a General Council others to both jointly but all this is asserted without proof for that of Christ's of telling the Church Matth. 18.17 so often repeated by them is meant of particular Offences and so is restricted to the Case of Differences among Brethren and relates not to Points of Doctrine Besides the Context of these Words doth clearly shew them applicable to every Parochial Church and yet their Infallibility cannot be asserted So it is clear that Christ doth only speak of a Jurisdiction for quieting of Differences among the Brethren That of the Gates of Hell their not prevailing against the Church Mat. 16.18 proves not the Pretence of Infallibility And indeed the Translation of that place deserves Amendment and instead of Hell that word is to be rendred Grave so that the meaning of the Phrase is Death which is the Mouth and Gate through which we pass into the Grave and is so used by Greek Writers shall never prevail against the Church that is the Church shall never die Neither will that of the Spirit of Truth leading out into all Truth John 16.13 advance the Cause a whit since that Promise relates to all Believers and it is a part of the happiness of the new Dispensation that all in it shall be taught of God. And the Promise of founding the Church on St. Peter Matth. 16. saith as little for suppose the Rock on whom the Church were to be built were St. Peter himself which I shall not much controvert that is not peculiar unto him since we are all built on the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets and on the twelve Foundations of the New Jerusalem are written the Names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb. But what will that prove for a Series of the Bishops of Rome And finally for the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 16.19 their being given to St. Peter that saith no more but that he was to open the Gospel which is usually called the Kingdom of God or of Heaven in the New Testament Now the use of Keys being to open the Door this was peculiar St. Peter's Honour who did first publish the Gospel both to Jews and Gentiles and in particular did first receive the Gentiles into the New Dispensation But this hath no relation to the Bishops of Rome nor to the pretended Infallibility of that See. That which hath the fairest appearance of reason is that if there be no absolute unerring Court on Earth for deciding of Controversies there shall be no end of them but every private Man may upon the pretence of some ill-understood place of Scripture break the Unity of the Church and so the Peace of the Church is in hazard of being irrecoverably lost But how specious soever this may appear it hath no weight in it For it is certain that Vice as well as Errour is destructive of Religion and it will be no imputation on our Religion that the one be no more guarded against than the other is if then there be no Authority for repressing Vice but the outward discipline of the Church it is not incongruous there is no other Authority for suppressing of Error but that same of the Discipline of the Church It is certainly a piece of Humility for a Man to suspect his own Thoughts when they lye cross to the Sentiments of the Guides and Leaders of the Church But withal a Man ought to be in all he does fully perswaded in his own Mind and we are commanded to try the Spirits and not to believe every Spirit 1 Joh. 4.1 Now Reason being the chief excellency of Man and that wherein the Divine Image doth mainly consist it were very absurd to deny Man a rational judging and discerning of these things wherein his eternal Interest is most concerned Besides
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
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
really imagine that the undergoing the Penance doth fully serve for appeasing God's Wrath against Sin but as soon as the Priest hath enjoined his Penance without waiting that they obey it he lays his Hand on their Head and says I absolve thee and after this they judg themselves fully cleansed of Sin and that they may receive the Sacrament had their former Life been never so bad It is true the practice of the Priests in their slight Penances and hasted Absolutions and promiscuous allowing of all the Holy Sacrament is condemned by many in that Church who complain of these Abuses with much honest Zeal but these Complaints are so little regarded that their Writings are condemned and the Corruption continues unreformed Now what can take off more from the value of the Death of Christ than to believe it in the Power of a Priest to absolve from Sin All the Power of the Church being either Ministerially to declare the Absolution offered in the Gospel upon the Conditions in it or to absolve from the scandal which any publick Trespass hath given It was counted Blasphemy in Christ when he said Thy Sins are forgiven thee Mar. 2.5 10. of which he cleared himself from the Power was committed to the Son of Man on Earth to forgive Sins which shews it to be Blasphemy in all others to pretend to absolve from Sin it being an Invasion of his Prerogative To this I might add the Scorn put on Religion by many of the Penances enjoined for Sin such as the abstaining from Flesh for so many Days the pattering over so many Prayers the repeating the penitential Psalms the going to such Churches and such Altars with other ridiculous Observances like these which cannot but kill the Vitals of true Religion and lead away Souls from these earnest Applications to Jesus Christ for Pardon and Renovation And who can have any sad Apprehensions of Sin who is taught such an easy way of escaping Punishment I confess in this as in all other parts of Religion the Masters of that Church have so contrived things that their Doctrines might according to the Fable of the Manna taste pleasant in every Man's relish for if any be grave and melancholy then silence solitude and retirement are enjoined them if their Tempers be more fiery and sullen severe corporal Mortifications and Disciplines are tasked on them such as cruel and perhaps publick Whipping or other unspeakable Austerities with which the Lives of the modern Saints are full but if one be of a more jolly temper who desires Heaven at an easy rate then some trifling Penance shall serve turn These are a few of their Arts for diverting Souls from flying unto Jesus as to the sure and safe Refuge from the Father's Wrath in whom only we can find sanctuary and whom the Father hath sent into the World to seek and save lost Sinners Now whether the Priests in the injunction of easy Penances and giving Absolution do not violate the Prerogative of Jesus and insensibly debauch Souls from that affectionate and grateful Duty they owe their Redeemer into their trifling Methods and Appointments I refer it to all who know them Another Opposition made to the Priestly Office of Christ is their Conceit of the Sacrifice of the Mass which they believe is a formal Expiation of Sins both for the Living and Dead who are in Purgatory Christ once offered himself up for taking away Sin which he did by that one Sacrifice and this is by the Apostle stated amongst the Differences which are betwixt the Sacrifices of Moses which were to be daily and yearly renewed and repeated whereas Christ offered one Sacrifice in the end of the World so that there was no need of more Heb. 10.1 2 3 12 14. Now to imagine that the Priests going through the Office of the Mass and his receiving the consecrated Elements can have a virtue to expiate the Sins of others especially of the Dead is a thing so contrary to the most common impressions that it will puzzle a Man's Belief to think any can credit it And yet this is one of the Master-pieces of the Religion of that Church It is true in a right sense that Sacrament may be called a Sacrifice as it was by the Ancients either in general as Prayers Praises and Almsdeeds are called so in Scripture or as it is a Commemoration of the Sacrifice of Christ but to imagine the Action hath an expiatory force in it is a visible derogation from the value of Christ's Death and all the value is in any outward Sacramental Action can only be derived into the Soul of the Receiver but it is absurd to think one Man's Action can be derived to another and it clearly appears from the institution of the Lord's Supper that its end was the joint communicating of Believers which is perverted manifestly by the practice of these Priests who communicate in name of the Spectators Finally What a derogation is it from the Priestly Office of Christ one Branch whereof is his Intercession to join Saints or Angels with him in that Work nay and prefer them to him Which will be found too true if the Office of the Virgin and the Prayers offered to her be compared with those offered to her Son. Did Christ by the Merits of his Passion acquire this Honour at so dear a rate and shall we for whom he suffered rob him so injuriously and sacrilegiously of his Honour and bestow it on these who are our Fellow-servants But having touched this in the former part of my Discourse I advance my Enquiry to the Opposition given the Regal Office of Christ And first how contrary is it to the Glory wherewith even his Humane Nature and Body is refulgent in Heaven to believe that five words muttered out by the Priest shall have the virtue to produce his real and glorified Body instead of the annihilated Elements of Bread and Wine and yet under their Accidents and Appearances This is a new and strange kind of Humiliation if true by which he who is now cloathed with Glory must be every day exposed under so thick so dark and so contemptible a covering as are the resemblances of Bread and Wine What low thoughts of his Person must it breed in such Minds as are capable of believing this Contrivance Again he as King of the Church hath given her Laws and Precepts to whose Obedience she is obliged to which none can add without they acknowledg another Head and whose Obligation none can untie or dispense with for Christ's Dominion consists in this Authority he hath over our Consciences which he hath vindicated into Liberty by delivering us from the Bondage of Corruption If then any pretend a Power of obtruding new Articles on our Belief or Obligations on our Consciences these must be confessed to be injurious to the Dignity wherewith Christ is vested What then shall be said of him who pretends an Authority of dispensing with and dissolving the Obligation
that produced a Monster that attempted Heaven it self by writing in defence of that Impiety which it avenged by Fire and Brimstone and yet had no Censure passed on him for it Whereas for the least tincture of Calvinism or Lutheranism he had been condemned to the Fagot Some of them do also teach that Fornication is not forbidden by the Laws of Nature and only by positive Precepts so that it may be dispensed with For the eighth Command those profane Casuists have made such shifts for it that none needs to be guilty of Theft for they teach it to be no sin to take that from another which he made no use of but may well want and that in such a case he who steals is not obliged to restitution Others of them teach That he who stole a great Sum is not obliged to the restitution of the whole but only of so much as may make the theft not notable But they teach that small thefts even though often repeated are but Venial sins which is an excellent Doctrine for warranting Servants insensibly to purloin their Masters goods They also teach Arts of escaping just Debts beyond all the subtilties of false Lawyers which the Jesuits themselves have often put in practice and have found out Arts for justifying oppressive Usury defrauding of Creditors ruining of Commerce and making Havock of our Neighbours Goods without Injustice For the ninth Command though it be so contrary to Nature that the worst of men count it a reproach to be charged with Falshood and Lying yet they have favoured it avowedly For by their Doctrines of Equivocating and using Mental Reservations the greatest Falsities in the World may be averred and sworn without sin And the value they set on a strict observance of Promises and candor in them appeared at Constance where a whole Council required Sigismund the Emperor to burn John Hass and Jerom of Prague though he had given them his safe Conduct for they taught him that Faith was not to be kept to Hereticks Another such like trip of one of the Popes proved fatal both to Ladislaus and the Kingdom of Hungary at Varna where they breaking the Truce they had sworn to the Turk upon the Popes Warrant were signally punished for their treachery The Doctors of the forementioned School do also teach that he who hath born false Witness in a matter that may cost another his Life is not bound to retract it if that retractation may bring great evils upon him They also propose methods for suborning Witnesses and falsifying of Writs and Records without any sin and that all this may be done to defame a person with some horrid imputation who is led as a Witness to prove any thing against one that thereby he may be cast from witnessing And as for the tenth Command they have struck out all the first motions of the mind to Evil from being accounted Sins and by their division of sins into Venial and Mortal they make sure enough work of this Command that it shall not be broken mortally It were an endless work to go and make out all these particulars of their dissolving the Moral Law by clear proofs but he who desires satisfaction in that will find it in the Provincial Letters or the Morals of the Jesuits But if we pass from the Law to the Gospel we shall find they have made no less bones of it We are all over the Gospel called to be heavenly-minded to despise the World and to set our affections on things above and particularly Church-men are taught not to seek the riches splendor and vanities of a present World which was most vigorously enforced by the Example of Christ and his holy Apostles But how contrary to this is that Religion whose great design is the enriching and aggrandizing of the Teachers and Pastors of it chiefly of him who pretends to be the supreme and sole Pastor I need not here re-mind the Reader of the Trade of Indulgences by which that Church rose to its riches and pomp nor need I tell what a value they set on outward actions of piety the chief of these being the enriching of Churches and Abbies and how these were commended to the World as the sure means of attaining eternal life Shall I add to this the visible and gross secularity and grandeur in which the Head and other Prelates of that Church do live The Head of it being in all things a temporal Prince perpetually busied in intrigues of State and ballancing the Princes of Europe and chiefly of Italy and what base and Simoniacal practices abound in that Court all who have written of it with any degrees of Ingenuity do acknowledg all things are venal there Money being able to raise the basest and unworthiest to the highest promotions the Cardinals are also named either upon the Interests of Princes and chiefly of the two great Crowns or to make the Popes Nephews have a greater stroke in the next Conclave or upon some such carnal account And perhaps for good manners sake a Scholar or a person famous for devotion may get a red Hat but such are always the least esteemed in the College all affairs being governed by the Popes Nephews or the Protectors of the Crowns And who shall expect that such a company of secular ignorant I mean in matters of Religion and oftentimes licentious men should be the great Sanhedrim by whose advice all that belongs to Religion must be managed These must be likewise the Electors of the Pope when the See is vacant whom they chuse out of their own number who is always elected by the prevailing Interests of one of the Crowns or by the Faction of the former Popes Nephews And what Caballings what bespeaking of Suffrages and what impudent ambitus is commonly practised in the Elections of Popes is well enough known nor can it be denied Now what man of common sense can imagine that a Pope thus elected by Simoniacal Arts and carnal Interests can be Christs Vicar on Earth or have the Holy Ghost always affixed to his Chair that he shall never err in any of his Decrees Truly he that can believe this may believe any thing that is gross and absurd Is not the whole frame and contrivance of that Court turned so entirely Secular that not a vestige of the Character of a Church or of Church-men remains And to this shall I add all the splendor of their Apparel the state of their Processions and the Ceremonies of their Coronation and how they wear a Triple Crown which being so well known to all whoever were at Rome need not be descanted on by me But the mention of the Crown calls me to mind of the literal accomplishment of that of Mystery being on the forehead of the Whore since the word Mystery was for a great while the Inscription on the front of their Triple Crown though it be now altered which being proved by others I may not stay to make it good From this
without warrant from Christs Institution who said take eat this is my Body thereby shewing he intended the virtue and benefit of that Ordinance only for those who received it And in a word let any read and compare the Institution of the Lords Supper as it is in the three Gospels and the Epistle to the Corinthians together with the whole office of the Mass as it is in the Roman Church and then let him on his Conscience pass his verdict whether they have adhered to or departed from Christ's Institution in that piece of their worship Finally one great end of all solemn worship being the Communion of Saints in their joint adorations and mutual concurrence in divine services What union can they have with God Or what communion can they hold one with another who perform all their Worship in an unknown Tongue which is the rule and constant practice of that Church beyond Sea tho for the better venting of their sophisticated stuff among us they give the people Books of devotion in their vulgar Language yet continue to say the Office of the Mass in Latin. And thus far I have run a round that great Circle I proposed to my self in the beginning of this Discourse And have examined the chief Designs of the Christian Religion and have found the great and evident contradictions given to them in all their branches by the established and authorised Doctrines and Practises of that Church in which I have fully justified the wise mans observation that he who increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow and have said enough to evince to all rational and considering minds how unsafe it is for any that would keep a good Conscience to hold Communion with them But I have not finished my design till I likewise examine the Characters of the Christian Religion and compare them with these that are to be found in the Synagogue of Rome The first Character of our Faith is That it was delivered to the world by men sent of God and divinely inspired who proved their Mission by Miracles Now these Doctrines about which we differ from that Church can pretend to no such divine original Let them tell us what inspired man did first teach the worship of Images of the Mass of Angels and Saints and of Reliques What man sent of God was the first Author of the belief of the Corporal Presence of the Sacrifice of the Mass of the Pope's Supremacy of Puagatory of Indulgences and of all these innumerable Superstitions of which the Scripture is absolutely silent for if these Doctrines were not the off-spring of Revelations they are none of the Oracles of God nor can we be obliged to believe them as such It is true they vouch Scriptures for proof to some of these but these are so far stretched that their sure Retreat is in the Sanctuary of the Churches Traditions but till a clear Warrant be produced for proving it was impossible that any Falshood could have that way crept into the World we must be excused from believing these Neither is it possible to know what Traditions came from the Apostles for as the Vulgar are not capable of pursuing the Enquiry so the loss of most of the Writings of the first two Ages makes it impossible to know what Traditions came from the Apostles But this I say not that we need fear the Trial for the silence of the first and purest Ages about these things which are controverted among us is evidence enough that they were not known to them especially since in their Apologies which they wrote to the Heathens for their Religion and worship wherein they give an abstract of their Doctrines and a Rubrick of their Worship they never once mention these great Evils for which we now accuse that Church It is true a late ingenious Writer whose sincere zeal and candor had much offended the Roman Court and drawn censures on himself and his Book took a way to repair his Reputation by a new Method of proving the truth of the Opinions held in the Roman Church which was that since the present Church held them that shews that they had them so from their Ancestors and they from theirs till you run backwards to the days of the Apostles alledging that a change in the worship was unpracticable since it could not be done in a corner but in the view of all the World who it is not to be imagined were capable of suffering any great or considerable change to be made in that which was daily in their view and much in their esteem therefore he concludes that every Generation adhered to that belief in which they were born and so no change in any great substantial and visible part of worship could be made It is true he applies this only to the belief of the corporal Presence which he attempts to prove could never have been introduced into the Church had it not been conveyed down from the Apostles He hath indeed set off this with all the beauties of wit and elegancies of stile and much profound reading But with how great and eminent advantages both of reason and learning this pretence hath been baffled I leave it to the judgment of all who have been so happy as to read Mr. Claud his incomparable Writings And the common sense of mankind will prove this but an Imposture how fairly soever adorned for if we find it certain that any Doctrines or main parts of Worship are now received into that Church and if from the undeniable Evidences of History and Writings of Ancients it appear that these things were not received in the ancient Church then it is certain there hath been a change made from what was then to what is now though an ingenious Invention may make it appear very difficult to imagine how and when the change came in especially when it was insensibly and by pieces advanced If then it be proved that the Fathers believed the Elements in the Sacrament were really Bread and Wine and not changed from their own nature but only Types and Figures of the Body of Christ then we are sure a change must have been made though the ignorance of some Ages makes it a hard task to clear all particulars about it It is true the Fathers did highly magnifie this Sacrament with many Expressions which though the vehemence of Divine Rhetorick can well justifie yet will not bear a Logical Examen but when they speak in a cooler stile nothing can be more clear than that they believed not the corporal Presence But may not that reasoning of the impossibility of a change in a worship be as well applied to the taking the Chalice from the People who in reason should be imagined so tenacious of so great a Priviledge that no consideration should have obliged them to part with it And yet we know nor do they deny how it was wrung from them about 250 years ago What may seem less credible than for the People to consent to have their
worship in an unknown Tongue and yet we know that all once worshipped in their Mother Tongue but that after by the overthrow of the Roman Empire the Latin Tongue decayed the barbarous worship was obtruded on the world And what piece of worship is both more visible and more contrary to the clearest Evidence of Scriptures especially to the Commandments in which the people were always instructed than the worshipping of Images And though we know well enough that for the first seven Centuries the Christian World abhorred them yet within a hundred years after that we find a great part of it bewitched with them And what can be thought more uneasie for the world to have received than the Popes absolute Authority over all the Churches and States of the world One should think that though Religion and Reason had lien out of the way yet Interest and Ambition had withstood this Yet we see clearly by what steps they crept up from being Bishops of the Imperial City in an equality of power with their neighbouring Bishops into that culminating height to which they have now mounted In a word we refuse not to appeal to the first four Ages of the Church in these matters that we quarrel the Roman Church for We deny not but humane infirmity began soon to appear in the Church and a care to gain on the Heathens made them quickly fall upon some Rites and use some terms which after-ages corrupted But the ruin of Religion was when the Roman Empire being overturned by the incursion of the Northern Nations in the beginning of the fifth Century both Piety and Religion being said to sleep instead of the Primitive simplicity of the faith and worship of the Christians they turned all their zeal to the adorning of the outwards of Religion and hence the corruptions of the Church took their rise But I had almost forgot to name some Revelations which that Church pretends to even for some of her most doubtful opinions Which are the Visions and extraordinary Inspirations of some of their Saints from which they vouch a divine confirmation to their Doctrines I confess there is a great deal of extraordinary Visions Rapts and Extasies to be met with among the lives of their Saints and I fear a great deal more than truth For really whoso will but read these writings he must confess they are so far from being probable or well contrived that they speak out their forgery Alas whereas St. Paul being put to glory of Visions and Revelations was to run back fourteen years for one their Saints are found in them every day Are they not very credible Stories they tell of Christ's appearing to some of their She-Saints and kissing them giving them Rings being married to them and celebrating nuptial Rites making them drink out of his side and leaving on them the prints of his wounds with many other such like apparitions of the Virgin and other Saints which were either forgeries dreams or the effects of melancholly or histerical distempers and yet these extravagant Fables are given out to the people as sacred pieces of Divine Revelations But the inspiration of the holy Writers on which we found our Faith was proved by their Miracles which they wrought publickly in the sight of many and in the presence of their Adversaries many of whom were convinced by them and it is certain that whosoever offers any thing to anothers belief pretending he comes to him in the Name of God must have some evident proof of his Divine Mission since none are bound to believe him barely on his own testimony otherwise there should be no end of Impostures if every pretender to Divine Inspiration were to be believed without proof Now the way it must be proved is by some evidence of God's extraordinary assisting such a person which appeared always either in Prophesies or Miracles but chiefly in Miracles under the New-Testament and therefore both Christ and his Apostles appeal to the mighty works they wrought as the great confirmation of their Doctrine If then there be new Doctrines brought into the Church they must have the like confirmation otherwise they are not to be believed But here those of that Church think they triumph for Miracles they have in abundance not a Relique they have but hath wrought mighty wonders nor a Countrey-Saint but the Curate of the place can gravely tell a great many deeds of his Puissance nor want the Images their marvellous Atchievements but wondrously wondrous are the Feats the Hosty hath performed Here I am upon a sad subject of that trade of lies and fictions wherewith the Merchants of that Babylon have so long traffiqued of which the sincerer among themselves are ashamed How ridiculous are many of their miraculous Narrations Was it a worthy piece of the Angelical Ministration for Angels to go trotting over Sea and Land with a Load of Timber and Stones of the Virgins House till at length they set it down at Loretto that great Devotions might be shown to it It is a goodly story for to tell of a Saint that walked so far after his Head was cut off with it in his Arms resting in some places to draw breath yet he will pass for an Infidel that should doubt of this at St. Denis-Church Who can look on the Lives of the late Saints of that Church without nausea Gregories Dialogues begun this trade which indeed hath thriven well since The Miracles of the Christian Faith were grave and solemn actions but what ridiculous scenical stories not to say blasphemous ones meet us about the Miracles of their Saints He that would know this may read the Lives of St. Francis and St. Dominic St. Bridgit and the two St. Catherines and he will be satisfied to a surfeit The Miracles also of Christ and his Apostles were acted publickly in the view of all but most of these Narrations of their Wonders were transacted in corners none being witnesses but persons concerned to own the Cheat And the Doctrine of Equivocating was a good Cordial for the ease of their Consciences though they swore what they knew false according to the natural sense of the words which they uttered Thus we have many Fables of Christs appearing in the Hosty sometimes as a Child and sometimes as crucified when but a very few of the whole company present were honoured with that amazing sight Further The Miracles of the Christian Faith were written in the times in which they were acted that so enquiries might have been made into their Falshood and the Powers that then governed being enemies to the Faith it was safe for its opposers to have proved and discovered their Forgery had any such been But many of the Miracles of Rome are not heard of till some Ages at least Years be past whereby they are secure from the after-game of a discovery and he were a stout man that would adventure to question the verity of these pretences at Rome where it is the interest of that
Church to have them all believed without once questioning them But how comes it that in Heretical Countries as they call them where there is more need of those Miracles and where they might be more irrefragably proved if true since the Examiners of them were not to be suspected yet none of these mighty works do shew themselves forth Certainly that they are to this day so rife in Italy and Spain and so scant in Britain is a shrewd ground to apprehend Legerdemain and forgery in the accounts we get of their later Saints And indeed the Contrivers of these Stories have not managed their design by half so well as need was for they have bestowed as many of them on one person as might have Sainted the half of an Order But the gain that is made by new Saints and new Reliques is well enough known not to speak of the general advantage that Church pretends to draw from it In end tho some things among them did seem to surpass the known powers of Nature these ought not to prevail upon us for departing from the truth since though an Angel from Heaven Preached another Gospel he is to be accursed Gal. 1.8 If then they have so changed the Christian Doctrine by their Additions and Inventions that it is become thereby as another Gospel none of the seemingly Seraphical Appearances they may have among them tho true ought to reconcile us to it and that the rather since we were expresly guarded against this Imposture by St. Paul who gave it as an Indication of the Son of Perdition that his coming was after the power of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness 2 Thess 2.9 10. And it is a part of their curse that they are given up to strong delusions to believe lies the Beast also that appeared to St. John Rev. 13.13 did great wonders so that he made Fire come down from Heaven in the sight of men and deceived many that dwelt on the Earth by these Miracles which he had power to do But to conclude this my greatest quarrel at these forgeries of Miracles is that the People being taught to believe them and the Miracles of the Gospel with an equal certainty since they have the Testimony of the Church for both and they seeing such evident Characters of fraud and forgery on these supposed Miracles whereby they are convinced of their falshood are thereby in danger of suspecting all the Miracles of the Gospel as the tricks of subdolous and crafty men whereby they run head-long to an Atheistical disbelieving the truth of all alike And thus far we have found how opposite that Church is to the Spouse of Christ since her Doctrines are so ill founded and look so like cunningly devised Fables without the authority of Divine Inspiration or the proof of true Miracles The next Character of our Faith is its perspicuity and simplicity all being called to the clear light of the day in it and every part of it being so genuine that it is apparent it was not the contrivance of designing men that by the belief of it they might obtain the power and possess the riches of the World And therefore there are no secret Doctrines in our Faith which must be kept up from the Vulgar whereby the Pastors of Christendom may have dominion over their Souls But what must we conclude of them who by all means study to keep all of their Communion ignorant as if Devotion were thereby nourished and allow them not the use of the Scriptures in their Mother-tongue nor a worship which they can understand whereby it is that they who occupy the room of unlearned cannot say Amen at the giving of thanks since they understand not what is said To this might be added their implicite Faith to all the Doctrines of the Church without further inquiries and their blind obedience to the Confessarius be he never so ignorant and carnal These are certainly darkening opinions and practises and far different from the methods of the Apostles in preaching the Gospel who withheld from the People nothing of the Counsel of God and studied the enlightening their understandings as well as the enlivening of their wills But further how much of interest appears in the Doctrines of Rome which tend to the exalting or enriching the Papacy and inferiour Clergy for it is visible what a trade they drive by them and all the contrivances all the projectors in Europe ever fell upon for enriching their Master's Treasury falls short of the projects of Purgatory the Treasure of the Church Indulgences and the Pope's absolute authority in making abrogating and dispencing with all Positive Laws Neither is there more of design to be found in the Alcoran than in the Mysteries of that Caliph of the Spiritual Babylon And we may guess of their concernedness in these matters since a gentler censure may be hoped for upon the violation of the greatest of the Laws of God than upon the least contradiction to their idolized Interest The one is the constant subject of their Studies and Sermons whereas the other is seldom minded The third Character of our Faith is that it is rational and suitable to our Souls God having fitted it and framed them so harmoniously that they are congenial one to another It is true the Mysteries about God and Christ are exalted above the reach of our faculties but even reason it self teacheth that it must be so since if there be a God be must be infinite and incomprehensible and therefore it is not to be wondered if the Scriptures offer some Mysteries to us about God and Christ which choak and stifle the impressions we are apt to take of things But in these it is visible that the Object is so disproportioned to our faculties that it is impossible we can reach or comprehend it but as for the other parts of Religion they are all so distinctly plain that the reasonableness as well as the authority of them serve to commend them to us but how void are they of this who have made one of the chief Articles of their Faith and the greatest matter of their Worship that which is not only beyond but contrary to the most common impressions of Nature which teacheth us to believe our Senses when under no lesion and duly applied to a proper object For indeed in that case we cannot really doubt but things are as they appear to us for we cannot believe it mid-night when we clearly see the Sun in the Meridian nay and our Faith rests on the evidences our Senses give since we believe because Miracles were clearly seen by these who first received the Faith And Christ said believe me for the very works sake John 14.11 And so their sight of these Works was a certain ground for their belief therefore the Senses unvitiated fixing on a proper object through a due mean are infallible therefore what our sight our taste and our touch
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