on earth to see his miracles and hear his doctrin the same is also to bâ—… said of the Acts and Epistles of the Apostles Now to bar the Vulgar from this is to hinder them to hear and 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 Iudge the former is not denied to the Church and so the Iews had the Oracles of God committed to them but that doth not prove the Authority of their Sanhedrim infallible or superiour to Scripture and in this case more cannot be ascribed to the Christian Church than was proper to the Jewish in our Saviours 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 judge 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 Prophetick Office is also invaded by the 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 offer 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 Christs of telling the Church Mat. 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 Parochiaâ—… 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 tâ—… be rendred grave so that the meaning of the Phrase is Death which is the mouth and gate through which we pass â—…nto 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 Joh. 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 â—…ittle for suppose the Rock on whom the Church were to be built were St. Peter himself which I shall not much contravert 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 Ierusalem 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 keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven Matth. 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. Peters 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 â—…mputation 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 be no other authority for â—…uppressing of errour but that same of the Discipline of the Church It is certainly a peece of humility for a man to suspect his own thoughts when they lye â—…ross to the Sentiments of the guides and â—…eaders of the Church But withal a man ought to be in all he does fully perwaded in his own mind and we are commanded to try the spirits and not to believe very spirit 1
to examine the Sacraments of which so much being said already little remains to be added By their dividing the Cup from the Bread they destroy Christs Institution and so make it no Sacrament and the hearing of Mass without communicating though it make up the greatest part of their worship yet is purely a service of their owâ—… devising without warrant from Christâ—… Institution who said take eat this is my Body thereby shewing he intended the vertue and benefit of that Ordinance only for those who received it And in a word let any read and compare the Institution of the Lord 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 Christs 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 occurrence 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 though 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 Latine 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 authorized 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 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 Popes supremacy of Purgatory 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 this 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 Rubric 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 elegencies 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 imagin 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 then 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 MYSTERY OF INIQUITY UNVAILED IN A DISCOURSE Wherein is held forth The Opposition of the Doctrine Worship and Practices of the Roman Church TO The Nature Designs and Characters of the Christian Faith By GILBERT BURNET Chaplain in Ordinary to His MAJESTY LONDON Printed by W. Godbid and are to be sold by M. Pitt at the Angel over against the Little North Door of St. Pauls 1673. THE Mystery of Iniquity UNVAILED HE that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow is an observation which holdeth true of no part of knowledge so much as of the knowledge of Mankind It is some relief to him who knows nothing of foreign wickedness to hope there are other Nations wherein Virtue is honoured and Religion is in esteem which allays his regrates when he sees Vice and Impiety abound in his Country but if by travelling or reading he enlarge his Horizon and know Mankind better his regrates will grow when he finds the whole World lyes in wickedness It argues a cruel and in humane temper to delight in beholding scenes of horrour and misery and certainly none who either honours his Maker and Redeemer or is a lover of Mankind can without sorrow look on and see the indignities done to God and his Son Christ and see the Enemy of the humane race triumphing over the World with such absolute authority and so much enraged cruelty and that not only in the dark Regions of it which the Sun of Righteousness hath not yet visited with his Gospel but that where Christ should have a Throne Satans Seat should also be is justly surprising and astonishing That almost all Christendom hath fallen from their first love is what none whose eyes are open can deny and it is little less evident that the greater part of it hath made shipwrack and erred from the Faith and that the Church whose Faith was once spoken of throughout the World is now become the Mother of the Fornications of the Earth It is true the Scriptures warned us of a falling away of a mystery of iniquity of an Antichrist to be revealed in due time and of a Babylonish Rome which should bewitch the Earth with her Sorceries but should be varnished over with fair colours and specious pretences so that mystery should be on her forehead Being then warned of so much danger to the Christian Religion it is a necessary though painful enquiry to see if this Antichrist be yet come or if we must look for another But because some have stretched the Notion of Antichristianism so far that things harmless and innocent come within its compass and others have so much contracted it that they might scape free we are to take a view of the Nature and Designs of the Christian Religion and to conclude from that what must be Antichristianism It being not only a bare contradiction to some branches or parts of the Gospel for then every errour or heresie were Antichristianism but a design and entire complex of such opinions and practices as are contradictory to and subversive of the power and life of Christianity And if we find any such thing to be broached and received in the World we may with the least hazard of uncharitableness pronounce it to be Antichristianism and if it be acted or animated by any Head he may be concluded Antichrist The Designs of the Christian Religion run betwixt these four heads The first is to give us right apprehensions of the Nature and Attributes of God that we may conceive aright of him and adore him sutably to his Nature and according to his Will and thereby be admitted to a free converse with him and become partakers of the Divine Nature How little of God was known by the twinklings of Natures Light even to the better and wiser part of the World Tullies Books of the Nature of the Gods do sufficiently inform us But if the Philosophers were so much to seek in it what shall we expect from the Vulgar And indeed Homers Iliads and Ovids Metamorphosis were wretched Systems of Divinity and yet such and such like were the sentiments of the Nations about the Godhead It is true the seed of Abraham were delivered from that darkness and knew God by his Name Iehovah and had Laws and Ordinances given them by God yet their Worship was so carnal and did so strike upon and affect the senses that we will be soon satisfied it was not so sublime and free as became the Spirituality of the Divine Nature and so was only fitted for the Infancy of the People of God but by Christ the mystery that lay hid from ages and generations was revealed for he declared the Father and revealed him and taught us to renounce Idols and vanities and to serve the living God commanding all men every where to repent the times of ignorance wherein God winked at Idolatry being then over That so Mankind being Gods Off-spring might feel after him and not worship him any more in the blinding grossness of Idolatry but in a pure spiritual manner and whereas the Law came by Moses by Christ came Grace and Truth Grace in opposition to the severity of the Law and Truth as opposed not to Falshood but to the Figures and Shadows of Moses his Law and therefore God is to be worshipped in Spirit and Truth in opposition to the Carnal Ordinances and Typical Rites which shadowed out the Truth in the Law The second branch of the Christian Religion is to hold forth the method of mans reconciliation with his Maker For the sense of all mankind agrees in this that sin is an indignity done to God which deserveth punishment and cannot be expiated by any service man can do It was therefore necessary there should be a mean found for incouraging sinners to imbrace a Religious life of which all had reason to despair without pardon were offered to penitents upon the change of their lives Now this was that the Heathen could not dream how to procure It is true the Iews had sacrifices for expiating of sin but these could never quiet their consciences since the common sense of mankind tells that the blood of beasts cannot appease God The mystery therefore of the reconciliation of sinners to God is the proper character of the Christian-Religion which holds forth to us how the eternal Word was made man and endured unspeakable sufferings for the sins of men even to the death of the Cross and was raised up by God and carried to Heaven where he is vested with all power and authority and by the merits of his death hath a right to grant pardon give grace and confer eternal life on all that believe on him by whom God conveys all things to us and through whom we are to offer up all our worship to God he being the Mediator betwixt God and man The third head of the Christian-Religion is to teach the perfectest clearest and most divine rules for advancing of the souls of men to the highest perfection of their natures
It is true noble pieces of morality were acknowledged and taught by the Heathen Philosophers and the Books of the Old Testament have the Doctrin of virtue purity humility and meekness laid open very fully but without derogating from these it must be acknowledged that as the Doctrin of Christianity teacheth all these precepts with clearer rules and fuller directions so they were in it recommended by the example of its Author backed with the strongest Motives and enforced with the greatest Arguments In these are the lessons of purity chastity ingenuity humility meekness patience and generosity so clearly laid down and so fully evinced that no man who is so much a man as to love these things whereby his mind may be improved to all that is truely great and noble but must be enamoured of the Christian-Religion as soon as he is taught it The fourth design of Religion is to unite mankind in the closest bonds of peace friendship and charity which it doth not only by the rules prescribed for the tempering our passions forgiving of injuries and loving our Enemies and by the Doctrin of obedience to those in authority over us but likewise by associating us into one Body called the Church wherein we are to worship God jointly and to be coupled in one by the use of the Sacraments which are the Ligaments of the Body Having thus viewed the great designs of the Christian Religion in the several branches and parts thereof I shall add to this the main distinguishing Characters of our Religion which are also four The first is its verity that it is not founded on the tattles of Persons concerned nor on the reveries of Dotards nor received with a blind credulity being founded on the Authority of the great God which appeared visibly in those that published it chiefly in the Person of Iesus Christ who by his Miracles that were wrought in the sight of all the People even his enemies looking on and not being able to deny them but chiefly by his resurrection from the dead was declared to be the Son of God which was seen and known by many who followed not cunningly devised fables but were the Eye-witnesses of his Majesty who went in his Name and published it to the World confirming it by miracles and mighty wonders attesting it notwithstanding of all the persecutions they met with most of them confirming it with their blood And this Doctrine was received and believed by the better part of Mankind though it being contrary to all the interests of the flesh whose mortification it teacheth its reception cannot be imputed to credulity or interest The second Character of our Religion is its genuine simplicity and perspicuity that all its Doctrines and Rules are clearly and distinctly held out to us not like the Heathen Divinity much whereof lay in dark Oracles in the Books of the Sybils and in other pretended Mysteries which none but the Priests might handle and expound The Iewish Religion was also vailed with Types and Figures so that it was not easie to see the substance and truth through all these foldings and shadows But the glory of the Christian Religion as to this particular is nobly laid out by St. Paul in these words 2 Cor. 3. 18. But we all with open face as in a glass beholding the glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord. The third Character is the reasonableness of the Christian Religion it containing none of these absurd incredible things which abounded among the Heathens nor of these Rites of Judaism the reasons whereof beside the Will of God in enjoyning them could not be assigned but both the Doctrines and Precepts of the Christian Religion are fitted for Mankind and so congenial to his Nature that they well deserve the designation of reasonable service or rational worship God having made our Souls and them of a piece And the fourth Character of our Religion is its easiness Christs yoke is easie and his burden light Mat. 11. 30. Wherein we are freed from all the barbarous and cruel Rites of Gentilism and from the oppressive Bondage of Iudaism which was a Law of Ordinances and a yoke that our fathers were not able to bear but that we are called to by Christ is so simple so easie and so plain that well may we say his Commandments are not grievous 1 Ioh. 5. 3. Having given this hint of the Design and Characters of the Christian Religion I hold it not necessary to dwell on a further deduction of those generals into more particular branches nor to make this scheme of Religion good by any longer proof the position I have laid down being so obvious to the reason of every considering person wherefore I go on to examine if there be any such system of Doctrins or Opinions among pretenders to Christianity which tends to the overthrowing and enervating of this whole design and whose Characters are directly opposite to these I have mentioned and the less avowed and the more disguised that Society be as it is more likely to prevail since Error and Vice are not so formidable in their own colours as when vailed with the pretences of Truth and Virtue so it will better agree with that great Character the Prophecies give of this defection that it was a Mystery and had Mystery on its fore-head Rev. 17 15. And here remains the sad part of my discourse for what lover of mankind can with pleasure either satisfie his own reason or convince the judgment of others in a matter the issue whereof is to prove so great a part of the Christian Societies to be Antichristian and adulterate and certainly if my love to truth and the honour of my Redeemer and his Gospel and by consequence a zeal for souls did not engage me to this search I could easily quit the Task and chuse more easie and pleasant subjects for the exercise of my thoughts but the wisdom of God having declared it a part of wisdom to observe the characters of the Antichristian beast I therefore though not without pain engage in the survey of it And first in the entry it will be a bad Omen of no good to be expected from any society that shall study to keep her members in ignorance and to barr them the study of the holy Scriptures which being the Revelation of the whole counsel of God and written by plain and simple men and at first directed to the use of the rude illiterate vulgar for teaching them the Mysteries of Godliness and the path of Life it is a shrewd indication that if any studie to hide this light under a Candlestick and to keep it in an unknown Tongue or forbid the Body of Christians the use of it though its native tendency be to enlighten the understanding and to enflame the will it being given out by God for that end that those must be conscious to themselves of great deformity to that
Ioh. 4. 1. Now reason being the chief excellency of man and â—…hat wherein the Divine Image doth â—…ainly consist it were very absurd to â—…eny man a rational judging and discering of these things wherein his eternal â—…terest is most concerned Besides the nature of Religion it being a thing sutaâ—…e to the powers of the soul shews that man must have a conviction of the truth of it on his mind and that he cannot be bound in contradiction to his own apprehensions to receive any opinions â—…rly upon the testimony of others If to confirm all this I should add all can be brought from History for proving General Councils to have erred in matters of Faith or that Popes have beeâ—… Hereticks or that they have been ana thematized as such by other Popes and General Councils I should be too tedious But in end how shall the Vulgar know the definitions of Councils or the De crees of Popes Or must they be blindly determined by the Priests assertion Certainly this were to expose theâ—… to the greatest hazards since they aâ—… not suffered to found their Faith upoâ—… the Scriptures Nor doth the Churâ—… reveal her Doctrines to them so thâ—… their Faith must be resolved upon tâ—… bare Testimony of a Priest who is peâ—…haps both ignorant and licentioâ—… And by this we may judge to whâ—… a pass the souls of the people a brought by this Doctrine In a woâ—… we are not the servants of men nor bound to their Authority for none can be a Judge but where he hath power both to try and to coerce Now none but God can either search our hearts or change them for as no humane power can know our thoughts so neither can it turn them which are not in our own power much less in the power of others therefore our Consciences can and must only fall within Gods jurisdiction And since the renovation of the Image of God consists in Knowledge and Religion designs an union of our souls to Divine Truth that we may freely converse with it it will follow that all these pretences of absolute authority and infallibility in Teaching are contrary to Christs Prophetick Office who came to reveal the Father to us The second of Jesus Christs Offices was the Priestly without which the former had never been effectual for had we known never so perfectly the Will of God without a method had been laid down for reconciling sinners to him it was in vain to think of Religion since nothing sinners could do was able to appease God or expiate sin but this was fully done by the Sacrifice of that Lamb of God Who became sin for us and bare our sins on his own Body In whom we have redemption even forgiveness of sin through his Blood 2 Cor. 5. 21. 1 Pet 2. 24. Ephes. 1. 7. If then any have derogated from the value of this satisfaction they have offered the utmost indignity to the highest love and committed the crime of the greatest ingratitude imaginable who would requite the most inconcieveable love with such a Sacrilegious attempt But how guilty are they of this who would set the Merits and works of men in an equality with the Blood of God as if by these we were justified or owed our title to Glory to our own performances whereas we are taught by the Oracles of God that by grace we are saved that God only hath made the difference betwixt us and others and that he hath freely chosen us in his Son Christ Iesus Ephes. 2. 5. 1 Cor. 4. 7. And alas where are we or what is all we do that it can pretend to the lowest degree of Gods acceptance without he freely both help us in it and accept of us for it so that when he rewards us for our services with Eternal Life he freely crowns his own free gifts to us For when we consider how great a disproportion there is betwixt our best Services and Eternal Glory when we also remember how all our good actions flow from the Principles of Divine Grace freely given but withal reflect on the great defects and imperfections that hang about our best performances we will not be able to entertain any thoughts of our meriting ought at the hands of God And certainly the deeper impressions we have either of the evil of sin or the goodness of God we will be further from a capacity of swelling big in our own thoughts or of claiming any thing on the pretensions of justice or debt It is true this Doctrine of Merit is so explained by some of that Church that there remains no ground of quarrelling it except for the Terms sake which is indeed odious and improper though early used by the Ancients in an innocent sense But many of that Church acknowledge there can be no obligation on God by ouâ—… Works but that which his own promise binds upon him which none who believe the truth of the promises of the Gospel can question but still we must remember that we owe all to the love of Jesus and nothing to our selves which as it is the matter of the Allelujahs of glorified Saints so should be the subject of our daily acknowledgements wherefore we must abominate every thing that may seem to detract from this But alas were all this zeal many of that Communion own for Merits and good Works meant for the advancing a Holy and Spiritual Life it would carry a good apology with it and its noble design would very much qualify the severity of its censure but when these good works which for so many ages were highly magnified were the building of Churches the enriching of Abbeys Pilgrimages and other trifling and voluntary pieces of Will-worship advanced for the Secular interests of the Church what shall be said of all that pains was used by the Monks for advancing them but that they were willing to sell the value of the Blood and Merits of Christ for advancing their own Secular interests and divised practices Alas how far are these from that Holiness and Sanctity which must qualify us for the Kingdom of God and the inheritance of the Saints And to end this matter let me add one thing which is most evident to all who have observed the methods of the directours of Consciences in that Church that with whatever distinctions this matter be varnished over among them yet the Vulgar do really imagine they buy and sell with Almighty God by their undergoing these Laws of the Church and penances imposed by their Confessour Which as it nourisheth the life of Pride and Self-love so it detracts from the value they ought to set on the blood of Christ as their only title to Heaven and Glory And to this I must add that distinction of the temporary and eternal punishments sin deserves The latter whereof they acknowledge are removed by the Blood of Christ but the former must be expiated by our selves either by sufferings in this Life or those we must endure in Purgatory unless by
mention no more will sufficiently convince any who will be at the pains to read them as they are written by these who lived in that Communion And Matthew of Paris will at length inform his Reader how much and how often England smarted under this Tyranny And all this is so far from being denied that it is defended avowedly by noâ—… a few of the Canonists and Iesuits and is a Doctrine dearly entertained in the Court of Rome to this day as appeared from the late attempt of Pope Paul the fifth upon Venice But the World is now a little wiser than to be carried away by these Arts and therefore that pretence is laid to sleep till haply the â—…east be healed of the wound was given â—…t at the Reformation But I cannot leave this particular without my sad regrates that too deep a tincture of this spirit of Antichristianism is among many who pretend much aversion to it since the Doctrine of resisting Magistrates upon colours of Religion is so stiffly maintained and adhered to by many who pretend to be highly reformed though this be one of the Characters of the scarlet-coloured whore But thus far have we gone through the second part of Antichrists Character and have discovered too clear â—…ndications of a difformity to the spirit and truth of the Christian Religion in all the branches of the Honour and Worship due to Jesus the only Mediator of the new Covenant From this I proceed to the third part of my enquiry which is the opposition made to the great design of Christian Religion for elevating the souls oâ—… men into a participation of the divine Nature whereby the soul being inwardly purified and the outward conversation regulated the World may be restoreâ—… to its Primitive innocence And men admitted to an inward and intimate fellowship with their Maker The firsâ—… step of this renovation is repentance for God commands men every where to 〈◊〉 and repentance and remission of 〈◊〉 are alwayes united And this being 〈◊〉 horrour at sin upon the sense of its native deformity and contrariety to the Law of God which makes the soul apprehend the hazarâ—… it hath incurred by it so as to study by 〈◊〉 means possible to avoid it in all time coming nothing doth prepare the mind morâ—… for faith in Christ and the study of 〈◊〉 new life than repentance which 〈◊〉 needs be previous to these But what devices are found to enervate this sins must be divided into venial and mortal the former deserving only some temporal punishment and being easily expiated by some trifling piece of seeming Devotion and hereby many sins are struck out of the Penitents consideration For who can have a great apprehension of that which is so slightly expiated And this may be extended to the easie Pardons given for acknowledged mortal Sins For he who thinks that God can be appeased for them with the saying by rote so many Prayers cannot possibly have deep apprehensions of their being either so displeasing to God or so odious in themselves But shall I to this add their asserting that a simple attrition which is a sorrow flowing from the consideration of any temporal evil God hath brought upon the sinner without any regard had either to the vileness of the sin or the offence done to God by it that this I say can suffice for justifying sinners and qualifying them for the Sacrament whereby the necessity of contrition and sorrow flowing from the principle of the love of God is made only a high degree of perfection but not indispensibly necessary In the next place all these severities they enjoyn for Penances do but tend to nourish the life of sin when sinners see a trade set up by which they can buy themselves off from the wrath of God To this is to be added the Doctrine oâ—… Indulgences which is so direct an opposition to Evangelical repentance as if 〈◊〉 had been contrived for dispossessing the World of the sense of it That which is next pressed in the Gospel for uniting the souls of mankind to God is that noble ternary of Graces Faith Hope and Love by which the soul rests in God by a holy affiance in him believing the truth of his Gospel expecting the accomplishment of his Promises waiting for the full fruition of him and delighting in his glorious perfections and excellencies Now how much all this is shaken by these carnal and gross conceptions the Roman Doctrine offers of God in their Image and Mass-worship and by their Idolatry to Saints is apparent Are they not taught to confide more in the Virgin or their Tutelar Saints than in the holiest of all Doth not the fear of Purgatory damp the hopes of future blessedness And finally what impious Doctrine hath been publickly licensed and printed in that Church of the degrees of the love we owe to God Some blasphemously teaching that we are not at all bound to love him others mincing it so as if they were afraid of his being too much beloved In a word there is an impiety in the Morals of some of that Church particularly among the Disciples of Loyola beyond what was ever taught amongst the worst of the Heathen Philosophers which hath been fully discovered by some of the honester and more zealous of that communion And though these corruptions have not been avowed by the head of that Church yet by their being publickly vented by the deaf ear he gives to all the complaints against them and by the constant caresses and priviledges he heaps upon that Order which teacheth them he discovers either his great satisfaction in that corrupt Doctrine or that upon the account of other interests he is content to betray the souls of Christians into the corruption of such impious and 〈◊〉 godly leaders since the Order that 〈◊〉 owned all these corruptions is yet 〈◊〉 of the Consciences of the greater 〈◊〉 of them that own that Communioâ—… they being the universal 〈◊〉 And since they license the publick 〈◊〉 of so much corrupt Doctrine printed Writings what reason have 〈◊〉 to suspect their base compliance 〈◊〉 sins in their more secret and 〈◊〉 Practisings with such poor deluded 〈◊〉 as trust to their conduct of which 〈◊〉 proofs are brought by others of 〈◊〉 same Church But I pursue my enquiry into the 〈◊〉 traces of the Antichristian corruption of the purity and power of our 〈◊〉 holy Faith Solemn Worship and 〈◊〉 Devotion are the great means of 〈◊〉 souls to God and of deriving the sistance of his Spirit and Grace to us when these are performed in an 〈◊〉 tongue How uncapable are they of 〈◊〉 that end And the Doctrine of efficacy of the Sacraments for coming of grace by the work wrought looks like a design against all serious preparation for the worthy receiving of them since by that doctrine a man be he never so ill prepared yet is sure of their efficacy for if his Priest absolve him and he have a simple attrition for sin without any
thing of the love of God he is by their Doctrine and Conduct qualified for receiving worthily were his heart never so much united to sin or averse from all Devotion or application to Divine matters And what complaints shall be here made of these who teach that the sure way of gaining the favour of God which they phrase by the keyes of Paradise is to say the Ave to bid the blessed Virgin good-morrow every day or to send our Angel Guardian to salute her or finally to wear a Meddal or Rosary in devotion to her though from the first time we begin to wear it we never again think of her Doth not all this look like a conspiracy against the power of Godliness But shall we next consider the Moral Law which though Christ said hâ—… came not to dissolve but to fulfil Mat 5. 17. Yet they have found out distictions and Doctrines to destroy it It true what may be said here cannot directly as to every particular be chargâ—… on the Roman Church since it hath â—… been decreed by Pope or Council bâ—… when prophane Casuists have printâ—… Doctrines which tend to the subvâ—…sion of the most common principles virtue and morality and these are licâ—…sed according to the rule of that Churcâ—… And for as publick as they are and for â—… the censures and complaints others haâ—… passed upon them yet they continâ—… without any censure from the chair Rome it is a shrewd presumption that thâ—… are not unwelcome to that See Thouâ—… for good manners sake they have givâ—… them no other owning but a connivanâ—… joyned with an extraordinary cherishiâ—… of that School which vents them Two general Doctrines they have which at two stroaks dissolve all tâ—… bonds of Virtue The one is 〈◊〉 Doctrine if probability the other good intention By the first they teach â—…hat if any approved Doctor of the Church have held an opinion about any â—…ractical thing as probable any Christian â—…ay with a safe conscience follow it were it never so much condemned by others and did it appear with the blackâ—…st visage And by this it is that scarce â—…here is a sin which may not be safely â—…azarded on since there have been of â—…he approved Doctors of that Church who have made a shift by distinctions â—…o represent the worst actions not only â—…s probable but as really good The next Doctrine is of good intention whereâ—…y they teach a man to commit the grossest â—…egerdemain with God and his own conscience maginable by which he may act any sin he will provided he intend not that but some â—…ther good design or motive And any that will read the Provincial Letters or the Mystery of Iesuitism and compare â—…heir Citations with the Authors whence they take them will soon be saâ—…isfied of the truth of this We have already seen how that Church violates the two first Commandments by her Idolatry Whereby in opposition to the first she worships Saints and Angels with those acts and expressions of adoration only due to God The second is also palpably violated by their Image-worship and adoring God under sensible and external representations The third is made void by the Popes pretending to dispence with Oaths and to annual their obligation as also by their Doctrines of equivocation and mental reservations in all Oaths both assertory and promissory besides the impious Doctrines of some Casuists that justifie the prophaning of Gods Sacred Name iâ—… rash and common swearing Their contempt of the fourth Precept is not denied it being usually among them a day of mercating dancing and foolish jollity Many among them teaching that to hear Mass that day doth fully answer the obligation for its observance Their contempt of the fifth follows upon the Doctrine of the Popes power of deposing Princes and freeing the Subjects from their obligation to them by which they are taught to rebel and rest the Ordinance of God Besides their Caâ—…uists allow it as lawful to desire the Parents â—…eath provided it be not out of malice to him â—…ut out of a desire of good to themselves That they may enjoy their inheritance or be â—…id of their trouble Yea some of their â—…mpious Casuists say that Children may lawfully intend the killing of their Parents and may disown them and Marry without their consent For the sixth Command their Casuists do generally allow to kill in defence of Honour Life or Goods even though the hazard of losing them be not near and evident but afar off and uncertain And they teach that a man is not bound to stay till another smite him but if he threaten him or if he offend with his words or if one know that he hath a design upon his Honour Life or Goods he may with a good Conscience prevent and kill him And this they extend to all sorts of persons both Secular and Religious allowing it to Sons against their Fathers And they leave it free to them to execute this by whatever means they judge most proper whether by force or supprize or by the service of others if they dare not attempt to kill by their own hands which they stretch to the case of one who knows another guilty of a crime and intends to pursue him for it and they allow the guilty person if he know no other way of escape to kill him who intends his accusation that he may thereby preserve his life in order to which they also allow it lawful to kill the witnesses that may prove the crime As for the seventh Command modesty cannot name their polluted Doctrines about it They barred the Clergy the lawful use of Marriage but did allow them Concubinate and the publick licenses given to base houses in the Popes dominions prove that See a Mother of Fornications even in the letter the Religious Houses being likewise full of Irreligious intanglements into a course of life which many times they are not able to bear but being restrained from the honourable Ordinance of God many of these houses have proved either nests of filthiness or of secret impurities which it seems by the rules of confession and the questions their Confessours puts to them are known to abound among them And any that have read these will confess that it defiles a chast mind to read them but what must it be to ask them especially at those of a different Sex Shall I also here mention the frequent dispensing with Marriages within degrees forbidden and their as frequent dissolving of that sacred knot though as if they had resolved on a contradiction to all the rules of the Gospel they refuse to dissolve the bond on the account of adultery which Christ hath made the only ground than can justifie the dissolution of it But shall I add to this the base impieties of which not only these of purple and scarlet Livery among them have been notoriously guilty but even the villanies of some that have worn the Triple Crown As I should grow too tedious so I must
any attempt upon that liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free he changeth the authority of the Church into a tyrannical Yoke much more if all the new articles of belief and rules for practice be imposed under the severest certificats But here we are to consider that all these things which that Church hath imposed on all of her Communion for which we withdrew from her are additions to our faith for in this we mainly differ from that Church that whatever we acknowledge they acknowledge 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 our 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 since 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 these 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 grossly 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 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 these who attempted the reforming her to her first purity and finding that not to be hoped for did unite among themselves for serving and worshiping 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 all their strange Doctrines or concur in their unhallowed worship Thus they are the Schismatiques 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 Persecuters cannot match the practices of that Whore that hath been so often drunk with the blood of the Saints and of the Martyrs of Iesus What enraged cruelty appeared against the poor Waldenses for the separating from their Corruption 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
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 then 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 Latine 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 then the worshipping of Images And though we know well enough that for the first seven Centuries the Christian World abhorred them yet within a hundredth 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 then 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 hight 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 begun 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 laid 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 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 then 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 Christs 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 melancholy 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 Gods extraordinary assisting such a person which appeared alwayes 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 Curat of the place can gravely tell a great many deeds of his puissance nor want the Images their marvellous atchievments 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 Countreys 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 though 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 though 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 unrighteouseness 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 〈◊〉 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 with-held 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 projectours in Europe ever fell upon for enriching their Masters Treasury falls short of the projects of Purgatory the Treasure of the Church Indulgences and the Popes 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 Interests 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 he 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
furnished for their work Such Houses might also be retreating places for old Persons after they had served their Generation and were no more able to undergo toil and fatigue they might be also Sanctuaries for devout Persons in times of their greater afflictions or devotions But for all this want it fixeth no imputation on our Church her Doctrine or Worship that she is so poor as not to be able to maintain such Seminaries But on the way it is no great character of the Piety of their Church that she abounds so with great and rich dotations when we consider the Arts they used for acquiring them by making People believe themselves secure of Heaven by such donations Indeed had we got our People befooled into such perswasions the cheat might have prospered as well in our hands but we are not of those who handle the Word of God deceitfully nor will we draw the People even to do good with a crafty guile or lye for God But now as a conclusion to this Discourse I must consider if all things among us be so sound and well grounded that with a quiet Mind and good Conscience every one may hold Communion with our Church and hope for Salvation in it I shall therefore briefly run over the Nature and Characters of the Christian Faith to see if any contradiction to them or any part of them be found among us And first of all we worship God in Spirit as a Spiritual Being with suitable Adorations which we direct to no Image nor Symbol of the Divine Presence but teach that we ought not to figure God to any corporeal being no not in our thoughts neither do we worship any beside God the Father Son and Spirit We also worship Christ but as he is God and hath the fulness of the God-head dwelling in him bodily Angels indeed we honour but knowing them to be our fellow-servants we cannot pray to them or fall down before them We count the holy Virgin blessed among women but dare give her no share of the glory due to her Son All the Saints we reverence and love but knowing God to be a jealous God we cannot divide that honour among them which is only due to him and therefore do neither worship them their Images nor their Reliques We desire also to offer up to God such Sacrifices as we know are well-pleasing to him Prayers Praises broken and contrite Hearts and our Souls and Bodies but reject all Charms and Enchantments from our Worship as contrary to the reasonable service which is acceptable to God and do retain the genuine simplicity of the Gospel-worship in a plain and intelligible stile and form without any mixtures drawn from Judaism or Gentilism And thus there is nothing among us contrary to the first design of Religion And as little will be found against the second which is the honour due to Christ in all his Offices We teach our People to study the Scriptures and to examine all we say by them and exhort them to depend on God who by his Spirit will teach them as well as us neither do we pretend to an authority over their Consciences but acknowledge our selves men of like infirmities with the People who are all called to be a Royal Priesthood and thus we honour Christs Prophetical Office by founding our Faith only on the Divine Authority of the Scriptures We also believe there is no Name given under Heaven by which we can be saved but the Name of Christ who laid down his Life a ransom for our Souls that by his Cross we might be reconciled to God and it is to that one Sacrifice that we teach all to fly for obtaining remission of sins and the favour of God trusting only to it and to nothing we have done or can do knowing that when we have done all we can do we are but unprofitable servants much less do we hope for any thing from any of our fellow-creatures We apply our Souls to no Intercessour but Christ and trust to no Satisfaction but his and we acknowledge him the only King of his Church whose Laws must bind it to the end of the World Neither do we acknowledge any other Authority but his over our Consciences It is true in things indifferent he hath left a power with his Church to determine in those Matters which may tend to advance order edification peace and decency but as the Church cannot add to our Faith so neither can it institute new pieces of Worship which shall commend us to God or bind any load upon our Souls We own a Ministerial Authority in all the Pastors of the Church which they derive from Jesus Christ and not from any visible Head on earth and therefore they are only subject to Christ. We also hold that the Civil Powers are of Christ whose Gospel binds the duty of obedience to them more closely on us and therefore if they do wrong we leave them to Christs Tribunal who set them up but pretend to no power from his Gospel to coerce or resist them and thus we honour Christ in all his Offices and so are conform to the second branch of the design of our Faith We also receive the third with the same fidelity and whatever the practices of too too many among us be yet there is no ground to quarrel our Doctrine we preach repentance to all and study to convince them of their misery and lost estate that they may mourn for their sins and turn to God by a new course of life we preach Faith through Christ in God as that which unites our souls to him by which we are in Christ and Christ is in us We stir up our people to love the Lord their God with all their heart strength soul and mind and to wait for his Son Christ Iesus who is the hope of glory and shall change our vile bodies into the likeness of his glorious Body And from this great motive do we press our people to the study of holiness without which they shall never see God We send them to the ten Commandments for the rule of their lives whose exposition we chiefly take from Christs Sermon on the mount neither can we be charged for having taught the People to break one of the least of these Commandments We exhort all our hearers to make the life of Christ the pattern of theirs and to learn of him who was meek and lowly in heart neither can our Church be accused of having taught any Carnal Doctrines for gratifying the base Interests of the flesh or for ingrossing the power or treasure of the World the subsistance of our Church-men being but a lively-hood and not a treasure In a word we preach Christ and him Crucified and all the rules of his Gospel for ordering the conversation aright without adding or taking from it and thus our conformity to the third branch of Christianity appears We teach also according to the fourth branch of Christianity the Doctrines of
Charity neither do we condemn any who holds the foundation though in some lesser matter they differ from us but hope they may be saved as well as we We abhor the Doctrine of cruel persecuting of any for their Consciences The outmost we allow of or desire of that nature being the preservation of our own Societies pure from the contagion of 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 hold 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 perswasions 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 â—…ine 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 â—…erusal and considering of these things â—…o the serious Reader to whom I â—…ope they may give some satisfaction â—…f 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 Errata PAge 16. line 6. for formerly read formally l. 24. Abuses r. Abases p. 30. l. 14. forewarnes r. warneâ—… â—…â—…1 l. 1. where r. what p. 52. l 9. but r. yet p. 54. â—… 24. dele a. p. 64. l. 18. betwixt add that p. 91. a r. â—…is p. 99. l. 5. enhansing r. engrossing l. 8. transmitâ—…ng r. transmuting p. 103. l. 16. since r. for p. 110. â—… 18. or r. for p. 138. l. 13. unity r. purity These Books are to be sold by Moses Pitt at the Angel near the Little North Door of St.