Man And is the scene so much chang'd that now it is become the black mark of a damnable Heretick The Prophets permitted the People to judg by the Scriptures which were true and which were counterfeit messengers from Heaven crying out to the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this word 't is because there is no Isa 8. 20. light in them And must we acknowledg these men for the Pillars of Truth and the Lights of the World without being allow'd the same liberty When our Saviour was ask'd by that young man what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life Our Lord answers him what saith the Law How Readest thou And shall ignorance be now accounted the surest Road to Heaven Search the Scripture was his precept but is the prohibition of the Romish Church Timothy and the Bereans were indeed commended by St. Luke and St. Paul as noble persons for their diligence in the Scriptures But if they had liv'd in the days of our Modern Saints this would have been thought a crime deserving the lash of the inquisition An Anathema would have been their spiritual reward and fire and faggot their civil recompence Certainly such a practice as this had need be back'd with good Apologies or else they will never be able to justify so great an abuse of the Lord Jesus But how weak are their pleas and how insignificant the excuses they make Is it because the People may wrest the Scripture to their perdition that they are forbidden their use Alas because some may abuse it must all therefore be depriv'd of it because some may make Scripture the support of their errors must it not therefore be the foundation of truth Because some dogs have trampled on the Bread of Life Must the Children therefore be withheld from their Spiritual Food Because Hereticks have taken too large draughts of the new Wine of the Gospel must all therefore be denied to tast of it Because some know not the worth of these Pearls must those therefore who know how to value them be hinder'd from their possession By the same reason the Scriptures should not be permitted in the Learned Languages for Learned Men have been generally the first broachers of Heresy and are most capable of perverting the Holy Writings Is it because Scripture is so obscure that if the common people did injoy it they could not understand it 'T is acknowledged there are mysteries in our Religion and God hath for wise ends left some things more dark and obscure to awaken our industry abate our Pride and show the most Learned his ignorance and infancy in knowledg and create in us all earnest longings after that Happy state where all the Riddles shall be unfolded and the mysteries clearly reveal'd But there is so much perspicuously laid down as is necessary to Salvation and every man that Reads it and sincerely endeavours to understand it shall with the help of Divine Grace arrive at so much Knowledg as if improv'd into practice will bring him to Heaven The great end why the Scripture was written was that we might have a constant Monitor of our duty and guide 2 Tim. 3. 16. to happiness now if the Scripture were so obscure that it answer'd not this end this would reflect upon the Divine Wisdom as if he had chosen an insufficient means and were defeated in his methods and expectations And it would equally reflect upon his goodness as if he envied his creatures happiness if after our sincere and humble endeavours we could not understand the things that are necessary to our Salvation The essentials are clearly reveal'd tho there be some obscure passages yet the Divine Goodness hath left them not that we should be debar'd from Reading but to prevent our loathing and contempt and the darkest phrases are incomparably more intelligible than the cloudy obscurities of their admired Authors The pious nonsence of Mother Juliana and the sanctifi'd gibberish of their mystical Divines are infinitely less perspicuous than the Prophecies of Daniel or mysteries of the Revelations And yet those which reflect on Christianity as if it consisted only in Enthusiastick heats and raprures are allow'd while the Scripture which gives so lovely a description of the Christian Religion must be shut up from the sight of the multitude But whatever slender pretences may be us'd to delude perverse Hereticks we have good ground to think that the true cause of this Restraint is the same which our Saviour mentions Joh. 3. 19. They love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil Should the Scriptures be read by all their Proselytes would be few and their Altars would no longer smoke the Grandeur of the Church must be abated the infallible Chair would totter and Rome would be no longér the Mistress of the Earth 2. Their pretence of Infallibility and the Scriptures dependance on the Authority of their Church This is another Invasion on Christs Prophetical Office For if Infallibility be lodg'd in either Pope or Council for they are not agreed where it is plac'd then tho Christ hath never so clearly explain'd his mind they may make what Expositions of his words they please and obtrude them on our belief Their great Champion Bellarmine asserts That if the infallible Head should condemn Vertue for Vice and commend Vice as Vertue we are bound to believe Vice as morally good and Virtue evil but if this be Gospel our great Master hath deceiv'd us and we have been led by our Saviour into an Error Then if that impure Cardinal that writ a Book in praise of the scarlet Sin of Sodom had been exalted to the Papal-chair and from thence proclaim'd that unnatural Vice to be morally good we should have been bound to believe it And tho some pretend that such a Supposition is not to be made because the Spirit of truth will guide the unerring Head into all truth yet sad experience hath taught us that the broadest Impieties have been canonized and miscal'd Virtue and Justice at Rome Besides what possible reason is there they should be secur'd from Error more than from Sin How can it be imagin'd that that Holy Spirit which is griev'd with impurity and will not dwell in the Habitations of uncleanness did infallibly assist those Monsters for Villany which are acknowledg'd by Baronius and Platina to have worn the Triple Crown in the ninth and tenth Centuries Surely if such a gift as this was ever given to the Guides of the Church How obscure soever the Scripture be in other things it will be highly necessary it should plainly lay down this important Doctrine But alas How impertinent are the Proofs they bring They are either such as will equally prove the Civil Magistrates and Judges in Westminster-Hall infallible Such is that Deut. 17. 10 11 12. Where Judges are appointed to decide matters of Difference between man and man to whose Decisions the People are bound to agree that their
Strifes might not be endless or such as are restrain'd to the Apostles themselves Such is that Mat. 16. 19. I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatsoever thou bindest on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou loosest on earth shall be loosed in heaven The plain meaning of which words seems to be only this I will give thee the the priviledg of first opening Vide Lightfoot in locum the Gospel frequently call'd the Kingdom of Heaven and whatsoever parts of Moses's Law thou bindest to the Observation of or takest off the Obligation for so the Phrases of binding and loosing are generally us'd in the Jewish Writers shall be observ'd and forborn God will ratifie and confirm what thou establishest Accordingly we know St. Peter did first Preach the Gospel to the Jews in Acts 2. and to the Gentiles Acts 10. And this priviledg of binding and loosing was peculiar to him and the other Apostles Lastly Their proofs are such as agree to every particular Church and faithful Christian Thus that of Matt. 18. 17. Speaks only of a Jurisdiction in every Church for quieting differences among the Members of it And that other of Matt. 16. 18. The gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church For by the Gates of Hell may be either understood the crafts and policies of Hell Councils using to sit in the Gates of Cities shall not totally prevail There shall be a body of Christians in the World or the Translation should be mended and the words read the Gates of the Grave or the invisible State Death which is frequently call'd among the Greeks by that name shall not gain Victory over the Church over the particular Persons of which it consists tho they dye yet Christ will rescue them by a glorious Resurrection Death shall not have Dominion over them nor over the Church notwithstanding it s many Enemies it shall not perish totally or irrecoverably These are the best proofs of their Infallibility I can find in the Scripture and while they are so easily and naturally applicable to a different sense I cannot think a Doctrine so obscurely deliver'd in the Christian Rule to be any Articles of the Christian Faith Besides what use do they make of this gift they pretend to Have they oblig'd the World by an infallible Comment on all the difficult places in Scripture and put a final end to all controversies among themselves On the contrary have not some Popes profess'd their no skill in Divinity and infallible Councils contradicted each other Are not there violent disputes between the Franscicans and Dominicans Jansenists and Jesuits French and Italian Clergy Surely the Pope must be very regardless of the Peace of the Church who will not give an infallible discovery of the truth And if ever God did give this gift since the Apostles days he may have long since justly taken it away because they have hid their Talent and made no use of it And now I have weaken'd this pretence the other of the Scriptures dependance on the Authority of their Church falls of it self for if their Church be not infallible why should I believe the Scriptures to be Gods Word meerly because they say so any more than Mahomets Alchoran 'T is true the Testimony of their Church jointly with all other Christians in the World and the Confession of Jews and Heathens handed down to us by the most unquestionable historical Tradition is a great Confirmation that these were the Books indicted by the Apostles that they were confirm'd by various Miracles and are not corrupted in any material Articles but we believe their Divine Authority not because the Church says so but because of those Seals which God hath affix'd to them We have convincing Arguments enough of the Scriptures Divinity and need not go to Rome to know what they mean Christ hath fully prov'd that his Message is from God by the excellence of his Doctrines the accomplishment of Prophecies and numerous miraculous Works and we will not forsake these firm foundations of our Faith and be so unreasonably credulous as to believe the same things meerly upon the Affirmation of a company of the worst sorts of Christians in the World Thus have they dangerously invaded the Offices of Christ I proceed to 3. They have corrupted the excellent Rules of an holy Life contain'd in the Gospel The great design of the Christian Religion is to purifie and amend the World and reduce it to its primitive Innocence And I wish there were less occasion to think that the design of these men is to Debauch the World and show that it is possible to be more corrupt than the very Heathens themselves for have not they by their nice distictions render'd a holy Life a very needless thing and overturn'd the very foundations of Virtue and Morality Repentance that first Introduction to an holy Life consisting in such a hearty Sorrow for every Sin as influences the practice and disposes us to forsake them they have made utterly unnecessary For while they distinguish Sins into Mortal and Venial and impose very easie Penances for those of the most purple dye Is not this the way to tempt their Proselytes to a continuance in their Sins and keep them from that severe hatred of them and those firm Resolutions of forsaking them they ought to take up Besides they maintain that a slight Attrition and imperfect Sorrow for Sin meerly from the consideration of some temporal inconvenience if join'd with the Sacrament of Penance is sufficient to fit a man for Heaven so that it is a very needless thing to hate or forsake our evil ways This is desin'd by their Council of Trent and generally maintain'd by their most famous Casuists And Morinus tells us as I find him quoted by Dr. Stillingfleet * Preface to Answer to several Treatises That the excellence of the Evangelical Precepts above the Legal chiefly consists in this That by them we are freed from the heavy yoke of Contrition and Love to God A Speech that would better become a Turk or Heathen than a Christian Thus we see they have hinder'd the first entrance into an holy Life and made the Gate to Heaven wider and the passage much more easie than our Saviour or his Apostles And if we run over all the parts of our Duty we may find too plain a Contradiction among their Casuists If we examine the Duties of Piety towards God How necessarily must they have low and irreverent thoughts of his imcomprehensible Majesty who behold such scandalous Pictures of him in their Churches and see the same Devotions and Gestures of Adoration us'd to those who were once perhaps equally sinful Creatures with themselves How have they incourag'd an abuse of his sacred Name by their Doctrine of Equivocation and prophan'd his Holy Day by allowing the remains of that time that is not spent at Mass to be imploy'd in idle Sports and foolish Mirth How
their Obligation of making new Articles of Faith and condemning things plainly commanded by him If any shall pretend without sufficient Proof a Vicarious delegated Commission from him and usurp the place of the Universal Law-giver of the World These must be acknowledg'd to be invaders of his Regal Office and in how many Instances the Church of Rome hath been thus bold and Jaringly guilty is too well known How many new Articles have they obtruded on our belief since the Canon of Scripture was sealed And how doth their Faith increase and decrease like the Moon Tho the Apostle pronounces an Anathema against the highest pretended Saint or Angel that should Preach any other Doctrine than what he had deliver'd to the Galatians Gal. 1. 8. Yet the Conventicle of Trent those professed Angels and Guardians of the Church have levell d their curses against all that will fear the threatnings of the Apostle and will not receive their supplemental and corrupt Traditions with the same reverence and pious Affection that they do the Holy Scriptures I need not tell how they have claim'd a power of dissolving the Obligation of the most Solemn Oaths and Covenants and of allowing Marriages in forbidden degrees How they have made Fornication a lesser Sin in a Clergy-men than Marriage tho the one be the Ordinance of God and never prohibited to any company of men and the other forbidden by the very Law of Nature I need not tell how the Pope hath usurp'd the Office of Universal Bishop and Vicar of Christ tho Pope Gregory severely reflected upon John of Constantinople for affecting such a Titile and call'd it the badg of Antichrist I need not tell how they have added five other Sacraments to those two instituted by our Saviour what a number of Church-Officers they have instituted unknown in Scripture and the purest Ages of the Church Nor how they have Lorded it over the Consciences of men by rigorously imposing numerous burdensome Ceremonies which change the spiritual Worship of the Gospel and alter its very Nature 'T is confess'd that Governours have a Power of imposing indifferent things and whatever tends to the more orderly and decent Administration of the Worship of God may be the object of their command But when these are either vain and useless or indecent in their number when they are impos'd as parts of Worship and necessary to Salvation When they obscure the Worship of God and are more like the shadows of the Law than becoming the light of the Gospel such Impositions are Acts of Tyranny and Usurpation I shall conclude this head with the mention of one more bold tho acknowledg'd Invasion of the Regal Office of Christ and that is their half Communions They have snatcht away the Cup in the Eucharist from the People and ingross'd it to the Clergy This was establish'd as an Article of the Romish Faith at the Council of Constance and afterwads confirm'd at Trent The chief remarkable Causes are these Seeing that in divers parts of the World there be some who rashly presume to say That Christian People ought to receive the Eucharist under both kinds this present Holy General Council being desirous to provide for the safety of the faithful doth decree That tho Jesus Christ did Administer the venerable Sacrament in both kinds and tho in the primitive Church the faithful did so receive it yet notwithstanding this custom ought to be kept i. e. that the Priest that says Mass shall communicate under both species of Bread and Wine but the Lay people under that of Bread onlyâ— and they that say the contrary let them be expell'd as Hereticks and grievously punish'd by the Bishop and his Officials How horrible a Canon is this and what a notorious Usurpation of Christs Prerogative They accuse of Rashness Error and Heresie all who dare by their own Confession imitate Christ and his Apostles and the Primitive Church for this only reason some have been burnt at a Stake and it was an occasion of cruel Wars and Bloodshed in Germany They indeed pretend this to be an indifferent circumstance to be continued or remov'd at the Churches pleasure But why should this be more indifferent than the Bread Hath not Christ more expresly commanded the drinking the one than receiving the other Drink ye all of it says he as if he foresaw and design'd to prevent this great Corruption And to argue ad hominem our Saviour tells us Joh. 6. 53. Except ye drink the blood of the Son of man ye have no life in you These words if understood of the Eucharist as the Romanists pretend prove the absolute Universal necessity of communicating under both kinds So that either this great prop of Transubstantiation must be deserted or their half Communion condemn'd 2. They have invaded Christs Priestly Office By this he hath fully satisfi'd Divine Justice by giving himself a compleat Sacrifice for our Offences and procur'd for us the pardon of Sin the Graces of the Spirit and eternal Happiness upon Condition of sincere Obedience to his Laws and now is enter'd into Heaven and is by vertue of this Sacrifice our powerful Intercessor at the Right hand of God This Office also is shamefully invaded by those of the Romish Church and that in these following instances 1. By their proud doctrine of Merit Tho the Scriptures fully declare that by grace we are saved and eternal life is the free gift of God tho our reasons may convince us that a Creature how innocent soever can deserve nothing at his Creators hands tho a little reflection upon our selves will discover many spots in our fairest vertues many blemishes in our best duties many imperfections in our most religious exercise many sinful mixtures in our most unpolluted actions and great defects in our best obedience yet do these men boast of their good works and account them not only spotless but meritorious too but if all this zeal for good works as one well observes were designed to advance an holy life the nobleness of the design might a little excuse the fault but alas those works which they most extol are either pieces of will-worship that tend only to advance the Secular interest of their Church as Pilgrimages building Abbys enriching Monasteries c. or else are such actions as we think to be daring sins as murdering Hereticks and persons coldly affected to the Catholick Cause Thus 't is storied concerning Cardinal Richelieu that great Politician of France that when he lay upon his death-bed his Consessor came to him to perform the last offices of charity and urged him to a full confession of all his sins the Cardinal mention'd only some little petty crimes and told him those were all he could recollect at which the Confessor started saying Surely this sickness hath rob'd your Grace of your memory for we who have been plac'd in a lower sphere have observ'd many actions of a far deeper Dye and then mention'd many Murders committed by his
to convince Hereticks and that was to call for express words of Scripture and absolutely deny whatever reason said against any of the Articles of their new Belief And now since their Doctrines are thus confessedly unreasonable we may be assur'd they came not from Heaven or the God of Reason 2. Are their Doctrines warranted by any Prophecies concerning them The Apostles compleated those Prophecies that had been long before made God had foretold his abolishing the Ceremonial Law and establishing a perfect standing-rule for Jews and Gentiles But doth he any where foretell That after the expiration of so many Years Judaism and Paganism should be mix'd together by his appointment On the contrary the Gospel is call'd an everlasting Gospel and at the closing of the Canon of Scripture a Rev. 22. 18. terrible curse is denounc'd against those who should dare to make any additions to Scripture There are some Prophecies indeed in Scripture which seem to concern them St. John and St. Paul have spoken many things concerning Antichrist and the Man of Sin which many think are clearly applicable to the Roman Church But I know she will say concerning these as Ahab of Micaiah I hate these men for they Prophecy not good but evil concerning me 3. Can they attest the truth of their Doctrine by Miracles Here I know they will make their boasts There is not a Saint among them but is famous for incredible wonders The Apostles were but puny Miracle-workers in comparison of their Modern Saints And the great St. Francis St. Bridget St. Catharine and St. Thomas of Canterbury far exceeded St. Peter or St. James or St. John or any of the other Disciples Who can question the lawfulness of Worshipping the Virgin Mary when he hears that the Angels brought wood and stone cross the Sea to Loretto and built her a Chappel there Who can forbear falling prostrate and crying St. Thomas help me when those very words from the mouth of a Sparrow struck a cruel Sparrow hawk dead that had almost fastned upon her as his prey Have not the wild beasts of the wood fallen down before the Host when casually let fall and the very Asses cast themselves into a worshipping posture And is it not mighty strange that men will still trust their own senses and remain Hereticks after such wonderful evidence I might instance in manyother pretty tales out of their Legends but they are so ridiculous and extravagant as plainly speak out their forgery and the wiser among them are forc'd to confess them Pious Frauds and Godly Cheats Our Saviour and his Apostles did their mighty works openly in the sight of their greatest enemies But these are all transacted in corners before friends and those that have already entertain'd their doctrines And surely there must be some Legerdemain in the business that so many Miracles should be done in Italy and Spain and none in England But the true reason why they can do no mighty works in our Country is because of our unbelief Protestants would soon discover their cheats and they were once so baffled in that intended miracle of the Boy of Bilson a known story that they have hardly ventur'd the exposing themselves since Their Miracles when they are not plain forgeries are either the curing of melancholly sumes or Hysterical-Distempers which frequently create fancies in persons as if they were possess'd of which instances have been given by Protestants particularly as I remember by Mr. Baxter who have cur'd such and might have gain'd the name of Miracle-workers as well as they Or if any of their Indian Apostles as Xavier and had a true miraculous power it was to confirm the truth of Christianity to the Heathens and not their additional corruptions Finally if God do permit them to do some strange unaccountable actions to confirm their errors 't is but as a trial to our faith to see whether we will forsake the true Doctrine confirm'd by greater miracles when we are fore-arm'd against such aslaults by being told that Antichrist shall come with lying wonders and we need not fear the sin against the Holy Ghost if we say that by Beelzebub do these men cast out Devils But I had almost forgot one great Miracle which is daily perform'd and that is Transubstantiation But those who believe this must live by faith or rather unreasonable credulity and not by sight And the greatest Miracle of all is That men who are Wise and Rational enough in common matters should swallow such an heap of Contradictions And thus have I made good the Charge against the Romish Church in the first Sense and tho much more might have been said yet this fully proves that they have corrupted Christianity with their impure mixtures and cover'd the excellent Foundations of our Faith with the Hay and Stubble of their own Inventions And thus I proceed to make good the Charge against them in the second Sense 2. Whether they have desturb'd the World by Principles of Religion This hath been so common a Theme of late years ' that I need not spend much time in proving it The Miter is by them exalted above the Crown and Peter's pretended Successor is so far from Preaching up his Doctrine of Subjection to the Civil Powers that he requires Kings and Emperors to stoop to him I need not laboriously prove this by Quotations out of their Authors If the Decrees of their Councils the Bulls of their Popes the Determinations of their Canon-Law the Assertions of not only Jesuits those known Enemies to Monarchy but of the most approv'd Doctors of all Orders among them may be taken to be the Sense of their Church the Learned Bp. of Lincoln hath lately Collected them together and thereby fully confirm'd the Title of his Book That Popish Principles are destructive to Protestant Princes There we may find such dangerous Assertions as these That Emperors and Kings are the Popes Subjects That they may be depos'd by him for Schism Heresie Laziness or unprofitableness and that he is the sole Judg of the Crime and Condemnation That Statutes made by Laymen bind not the Clergy That the Pope is the Vicar of God and every creature is subject to him That he that prefers the King before the Priest prefers the Creature before the Creator In a word He hath given such convincing Demonstration That King-killing Doctrines are authoriz'd at Rome that we may justly wonder at the daring-Impudence of the late Tyburn-Saint who pretended that none but Mariana ever publish'd such Doctrines But what truth can be so plain which the Confidence of a Jesuit dare not deny Neither have these been the idle Speculations of the Schools or the entertainment of the Cells and Cloysters but have been practically maintain'd many hundred Years and the History of the Church for some Centuries is nothing else but a Tragical and Bloody Comment on this Doctrine 'T is hardly possible to mention one King since Rome's rise to her greatness that hath been but