ANother principal end and intention of the Gospel was to cure the Degeneracy of Mankind and to advance Humane Nature to its utmost Perfection for as Man fell from his original Happiness by falling from the purity and integrity of his Nature so there was no restoring him to his lost Happiness much less no advancing him to a more perfect state of Happiness not to an earthly but to an heavenly Paradise without changing and transforming his Nature and renewing him after the Image of God. And therefore our very entrance into Christianity is a new Birth Except a man be born of water 3 Joh. 5 6. and of the spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit And such a man is called a new Creature and a Christian Life is a newness of Life and living after the Spirit 8 Rom. 1. and walking after the Spirit and this new Nature is the Divine Nature the Image of God the new man 4 Eph. 24. 3 Col. 10. which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness which is renewed in knowledge after the Image of him that created him So that there are two things wherein this new Nature consists Knowledge and Righteousness or true Holiness and I doubt it will appear that the Church of Rome is no great Friend to either I. Knowledge Now I suppose neither the Church of Rome nor any one for her will pretend that she is any great Friend to Knowledge She is so horribly afraid of Heresie that she endeavours to nurse men up in Ignorance of their Religion for fear they should prove Hereticks and indeed she has some reason for it for the Church of Rome was never so Triumphant as in the most ignorant and barbarous Ages but as Knowledge broke in upon the World so men turned Hereticks apace If there be any knowing Papists and it would be very hard if there should be none they are not beholding to their Church for it which deprives them of all the means of Knowledge for she will not allow them to believe their Senses which is one way of knowing things and the most certain we have and yet she commands us to believe Transubstantiation which no man can do who believes his Senses and if I must not believe my Senses in so plain a matter as what is Bread and Wine I know no reason I have to believe them in any thing and then there is an end of all Knowledge that depends on Sence as the proof of the Christian Religion itself does for Miracles are a sensible proof and if I must not trust my Senses I cannot rely on Miracles because I cannot know whether there be any such thing as a real Miracle The Church of Rome also forbids men the use of Reason in matters of Religion will not allow men to judge for themselves nor to examine the Reasons of their Faith and what knowledge any man can have without exercising his Reason and Understanding I cannot guess for to know without understanding sounds to me like a contradiction She also denies Christians the use of the Bible which is the only means to know the revealed Will of God and when men must neither believe their Senses nor trust their Reason nor read the Scripture it is easie to guess what knowing and understanding Christians they must needs be But it may be said that notwithstanding this the Church of Rome does Instruct her Children in the true Catholick Faith though she will not venture them to judge for themselves nor to read the Scriptures which is the effect of her great care of them to keep them Orthodox for when men trust to their own fallible Reasons and private Interpretations of Scripture it is a great hazard that they do not fall into one Heresie or other but when men are taught the pure Catholick Faith without any danger of Error and Heresie is not this much better than to suffer them to reason and judge for themselves when it is great odds but they will judge wrong Now this would be something indeed did the Church of Rome take care to Instruct them in all necessary Doctrines and to teach nothing but what is true and could such men who thus tamely receive the dictates of the Church be said to know and to understand their Religion How far the Church of Rome is from doing the first all Christians in the world are sensible but themselves but that is not our present dispute for though the Church of Rome did instruct her people into the true Christian Faith yet such men cannot be said to know and understand their Religion and to secure the Faith by destroying knowledge is a direct contradiction to the design of the Gospel which is to make men wise and understanding Christians For no man understands his Religion who does not in some measure know the reasons of his Faith and judge whether they be sufficient or not who knows not how to distinguish between Truth and Error who has no Rule to go by but must take all upon trust and the credit of his Teachers who believes whatever he is told and learns his Creed as School boys do their Grammar without understanding it This is not an active but a kind of passive knowledge such men receive the impression that is made on them as wax does and understand no more of the matter now will any one call this the knowledge and understanding of a man or the Discipline of a Child But suppose there were some men so dull and stupid that they could never rise higher that they are not capable of inquiring into the reasons of things but must take up their Religion upon trust yet will any man say that this is the utmost perfection of knowledge that any Christian must aim at is this the meaning of the word of God dwelling in us richly in all wisdom 3 Col. 16. is this the way to give an answer to any one who asks a reason of the hope that is in us the perfection of Christian knowledge is a great and glorious attainment to understand the secrets of God's Laws those depths and mysteries of wisdom and goodness in the oeconomy of Mans Salvation to see the Analogy between the Law and the Gospel how the Legal Types and ancient Prophecies received their accomplishment in Christ how far the Gospel has advanced us above the state of Nature and the Law of Moses what an admirable design it was to redeem the world by the Incarnation and Death and Sufferings and Intercession of the Son of God what mysteries of Wisdom and Goodness the Gospel contains the knowledge of which is not only the perfection of our Understandings but raises and ennobles our Minds and transforms us into the Divine Image These things were revealed that they might be known not that they should be concealed from the World or neglected and
than any Humane Discourses can do but this is denied to the People of the Church of Rome who are not allowed to read the Scriptures in the Vulgar Tongue for fear of Heresie which it seems is more plain and obvious in the Scripture than Catholick Doctrines but they should also have considered whether the danger of Heresie or Sin be the greater whether an orthodox faith or a good life be more valuable and if denying the people the use of the Bible be the way to keep them orthodox I am sure it is not the way to make them good True Piety will lose more by this than the Faith will get by it Thus constant and servent Prayer besides that supernatural grace and assistance it obtains for us is an excellent moral instrument of holiness for when men confess their sins to God with shame and sorrow when with inflamed Devotions they beg the assistances of the Divine Grace when their souls are every day possessed with such a great sence awe and reverence for God as he must have who prays devoutly to him every day I say it is impossible such men should easily return to those sins which they have so lately confessed with such shame and confusion and bitter remorse that those who so importunately beg the assistance of the Divine Grace should not use their best endeavours to resist Temptations and to improve in Grace and Vertue which is a prophane mockery of God to beg his assistance that he will work in us and with us when we will not work that those who have a constant sence and reverence of God should do such things as argue that men have no fear of God before their eyes But this is all lost in the Church of Rome where men are taught to Pray they know not what and when men do not understand their Prayers it is certain such Prayers cannot affect their minds what other good soever Latin Prayers may do them and thus one of the most powerful Instruments of Piety and Vertue is quite spoiled by Prayers in an unknown Tongue which can no more improve their Vertue than their Knowledge Sorrow for Sin is an excellent Instrument of true Repentance as that signifies the reformation of our Lives for the natural effect of Sorrow is not to do that again which we are sorry for doing but in the Church of Rome this contrition or sorrow for sin serves only to qualifie men for absolution and that puts them into a state of grace and then they may expiate their sins by Penances but are under no necessity of forsaking them The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper besides those supernatural conveyances of Grace which are annexed to it by our Saviour's Institution is a great Moral Instrument of Holiness it representing to us the Love of our crucified Lord the Merit and Desert of Sin the Vertue of his Sacrifice to expiate our Sins and to purge our Consciences from Dead Works and requiring the exercise of a great many Vertues an abhorrence and detestation of our Sins great and ardent Passions of Love and Devotion firm Resolutions of Living to him who Died for us Forgiveness of Enemies and an Universal Love and Charity to all Men especially to the Members of the same Body with us but in the Church of Rome this admirable Sacrament is turned into a dumb shew which no body can be edified with or into a Sacrifice for the living and the dead which expiates Sin and serves us instead of a Holy Life as I observed above External Mortifications and Severities to the Body Fastings Watchings hard Lodging c. are very useful Instruments of Vertue when they are intended to subdue the Flesh to the Spirit and to wean our Minds from Sensual Enjoyments but when they are intended to satisfie for our Sins not to kill them to punish our selves for our sins that we may commit them more securely again this is not a means to break vicious Habits and to conquer the love of Sin but only to conquer the fear of committing it This is enough to shew how far Popery is from promoting the great design of the Gospel to improve and perfect Humane Nature in Knowledge and Holiness and were there no other Argument against it this were sufficient to me to prove That it cannot be the Religion of the Gospel of Christ FINIS Books lately Printed for W. Rogers THE Doctrines and Practices of the Church of Rome truly Represented in Answer to a Book intituled A Papist Misrepresented and Represented c. Quarto An Answer to a Discourse intituled Papists protesting against Protestant Popery Quarto An Answer to the Amicable Accommodation Quarto A View of the whole Controversie between the Representer and the Answeter Quarto The Doctrine of the Trinity and Transubstantiation compared as to Scripture Reason and Tradition 1st and 2d Part. In two Dialogues between a Protestant and a Papist Quarto An Answer to the Eighth Chapter of the Representer's Second Part. Of the Authority of Councils and the Rule of Faith. By a Person of Quality With an Answer to the Eight Theses laid down for the Tryal of the English Reformation Sermons and Discourses The Third Volume By Dr. Tillotson Dean of Canterbury 8o. A Manual for a Christian Souldier Written by Erasmus A new and easie Method to learn to Sing by Book A Book of Cyphers or Letters Reverst Price bound 5 s. A Perswasive to frequent Communion in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper By Dr. Tillotson Dean of Canterbury In Octavo Price 3 d. A Discourse against Transubstantiation In Octavo Price 3 d. The State of the Church of Rome when the Reformation began A Letter to a Friend Reflecting on some Passages in a Letter to the D. of P. in Answer to the Arguing Part of his first Letter to Mr. G. The Reflecter's Defence of his Letter to a Friend In Four Dialogues A Discourse concerning the Nature of Idolatry in which the Bishop of Oxford's true and only Notion of Idolatry is Considered and Confuted The Protestant Resolv'd or a Discourse shewing the Vnreasonableness of his Turning Roman Catholick for Salvation Second Edition The Absolute Impossibility of Transubstantiation Demonstrated A Sermon Preached at the Funeral of the Reverend Benj Calamy D.D. A Vindication of some Protestant Principles of Church Unity and Catholick-Communion from the Charge of Agreement with the Church of Rome In Answer to a late Pamphlet Intituled An Agreement between the Church of England and the Church of Rome evinced from the Concertation of some of her Sons with their Brethren the Dissenters A Preservative against Popery being some Plain Directions to Unlearned Protestants how to Dispute with Romish Priests The First Part. The Fourth Edition These three last by William Sherlock D.D. Master of the Temple
seek for these heavenly Powers in senceless things which can no more receive nor communicate Divine Graces to us than they do Wit and Understanding to those who expect Grace from them For can Grace be lodged in a rotten Bone or a piece of Wood or conveyed to our Souls by perspiration in a kiss or touch 5ly The Christian Religion admits of no external or ceremonial Righteousness In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing 5 Mat. 20. nor uncircumcision but a new creature and obedience to the commandments of GOD and faith which worketh by love The great design of the Gospel and of all our Saviour's Sermons being to make us truly Holy that we may be Partakers of the Divine Nature having escaped the Corruption which is in the World thrô Lust There is nothing our Lord does more severely condemn than an External and Pharisaical Righteousness which consisted either in observing the External Rites of the Law of Moses or their own Superstitions received by Tradition from their Forefathers and expresly tells his Disciples Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven Now this cuts off every thing which is External in Religion at a blow because it cuts off all hopes and reliances on an External Righteousness and I believe men will not be fond of such Superstitions when they know they will do them no good 6ly And hence it appears that there can be no place for any thing that is External in the Christian Religion but onely for some Foederal Rites such as the two Sacraments of the Gospel are Baptism and the Lord's Supper the first of which is our admission into the new Covenant the second the exercise of Communion with Christ in his Gospel-Covenant And such Rites as these are necessary in all Instituted Religions which depend upon free and voluntary Covenants for since Mankind has by Sin forfeited their natural Right to God's favour they can challenge nothing from him now but by Promise and Covenant and since such Covenants require a mutual Stipulation on both sides they must be transacted by some visible and sensible Rites whereby God obliges himself to us and we to him but these being only the Signs and Seals of a Covenant are very proper for a Religion which rejects all External and Ceremonial Righteousness and Worship for it is not our being in Covenant with God nor the Sacraments of it that can avail us without performing the Conditions of the Covenant and therefore this does not introduce an External Righteousness Now whoever has such a Notion and Idea of the Christian Worship as this and let the Church of Rome confute it if she can will easily see without much Disputing how unlike the Worship of the Church of Rome is to true Christian Worship For whoever only considers the vast number of Rites and Ceremonies in the Church of Rome must conclude it as Ritual and Ceremonial a Religion as Judaism itself the Ceremonies are as many more obscure unintelligible and useless more severe and intollerable than the Jewish Yoke itself which St. Peter tells the Jews neither they nor their Fathers were able to bear it is indeed almost all Outside and Pageantry as unlike the Plainness and Simplicity of the Gospel-Worship as Show and Ceremony can make it It is true external and visible Worship must consist of external Actions and must be performed with such grave and decent circumstances of time and place and posture and habit as become the Solemnity of Religious Worship this Reason and Nature teaches and this the Church of England prudently observes whose Ceremonies are not Religious Rites but decent Circumstances of Worship few in number as the necessary Circumstances of Action are but few and grave and solemn in their use but this is not to place Religion in any thing that is external but only to pay an external Homage and Worship to God which differ as worshipping God in a decent Habit differs from the Religion of consecrated Habits and Vestments or as praying to God with an audible Voice differs from placing Religion in Words and Sounds which we do not understand or as Kneeling at receiving the Sacrament differs from a Bodily Worship of the Host in bowing the Knee But though the bear number of external Ceremonies which are always the seat of Superstition be a great Corruption of the Christian Worship yet the number of them is the least fault of the Ceremonies of the Church of Rome as will appear if we consider a little their Nature For 1st Most of their external Rites are professedly intended as Expiations and Satisfactions for their Sins This is the Doctrine and Practice of the Church of Rome that notwithstanding the Satisfaction made by Christ every Sinner must satisfie for his own Sins or have the satisfaction of other mens applied to him out of the Treasury of the Church by the Pope's Indulgences this is the meaning of all external Penances in Whippings Fastings Pilgrimages and other superstitious Severities their Backs or their Feet or their Bellies must pay for their Sins unless they can redeem them out of their Pockets too now it is plain that these are such external Superstitions as can have no place in the Christian Religion which allows of no other Expiation or Satisfaction for Sin but the Blood of Christ 2ly Those distinctions between Meats which the Church of Rome calls Fasting for a Canonical Fast is not to abstain from Food but only from such Meats as are forbid on Fasting-Days can be no part of Christian Worship because the Gospel allows of no distinction between clean and unclean things and therefore of no distinction of Meats neither for meat commendeth us not to God 1 Cor. 8.8 The Church of Rome indeed does not make such a distinction between clean and unclean Beasts as the Law of Moses did and therefore is the more absurd in forbidding the eating of Flesh or any thing that comes of Flesh as Eggs or Milk or Cheese or Butter on their Fasting-Days which is to impose a new kind of Jewish Yoke upon us when the reason of it is ceased For there is no imaginable reason why it should be an Act of Religion meerly to abstain from Flesh if Flesh have no legal uncleanness and if it had we must all turn Carthusians and never eat Flesh for how it should be clean one day and unclean another is not easie to understand I am sure St. Paul makes this part of the Character of the Apostacy of the latter days That they shall Command to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth 1 Tim. 4.3 4 5. For every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer And let no man judge you in meat or
design of the Gospel to improve and perfect Knowledge for if the Scripture be so obscure in the essential matters of Faith and Christian knowledge that we cannot have any certainty what the true sence and interpretation of it is without an Infallible Judge then the Scriptures cannot improve our knowledge because we cannot know what they are we cannot understand their meaning and therefore can learn nothing from them Yes you 'll say we may know their meaning when they are expounded to us by an Infallible Judge though the Scriptures are so obscure that we cannot understand them without an Infallible Judge yet we may certainly learn what the sence of Scripture is from such a Judge Now in answer to this I observe that though such an Infallible Judge should determine the sense of all obscure Texts of Scripture which neither the Pope nor Church of Rome have ever done yet this would not be to understand the Scriptures or to learn from the Scriptures but only to rely on this Infallible Judge for the sense of Scripture To understand the Scriptures is to be able to give a reason why I expound Scripture to such a sense as that the words signifie so that the circumstances of the place and the context and coherence of the words require it that the analogy of Faith and the reason and nature of things will either justifie such an interpretation or admit no other and an Expositor who can thus open our Understandings and not only tell us what the sense of Scripture is but make us see that this is the true sense and interpretation of it does indeed make us understand the Scripture Thus Christ himself did when he was risen from the dead He opened their understandings that they might understand the Scriptures 24 Luke 45. But to be told that this is the true sence of Scripture and that we must believe this is the sense though we can see no reason why it should be thus expounded nay though all the Reason we have tells us that it ought not to be thus expounded no man will say that this is to understand the Scriptures but to believe the Judge No man can learn any thing from a Book which he does not and cannot understand and if men neither do nor can understand the Scriptures it is certain they can learn nothing from them an Infallible Judge would teach as well without the Scriptures as with them and indeed somewhat better because then no man could have a pretence to contradict him and therefore if this be true the holy Scripture deserves all those contemptible Characters which the Romanists have given it for it is so far from improving and perfecting our knowledge that it self cannot be known and therefore is good for nothing So that the obscurity of the Scripture makes it wholly useless to the great ends and purposes of the Christian Religion viz. to improve and perfect the knowledge of Mankind in the necessary and essential Doctrines of Faith and therefore this can be no Gospel-Doctrine because it makes the Gospel it self considered as written of no use Thus if the Scripture be an imperfect Rule as the Romanists affirm that it does not teach us the whole mind and will of God but that we must learn even some necessary Doctrines of Faith from unwritten Traditions which no body has the keeping of but the Church of Rome This I say contradicts the great design of the Gospel which is to improve and perfect knowledge for an imperfect Rule of Faith is I think as bad as no Rule at all because we can never trust it If you say that though the Scripture in it self be an imperfect Rule yet we have a perfect Rule because the defects of the Scripture are supplied by unwritten Traditions and therefore we have the whole Gospel and all the Christian knowledge delivered down to us either in the written or unwritten Rule I answer 1. If the Scriptures be an imperfect Rule then all Christians have not a perfect Rule because they have not the keeping of unwritten Traditions and know not what they are and never can know what they are till the Church is pleased to tell them and it seems it was a very great while before the Church thought fit to do it For suppose that all the new Articles of the Council of Trent which are not contained in Scripture were unwritten Traditions fifteen hundred years was somewhat of the longest to have so considerable a part of the Rule of Faith concealed from the World and who knows how much of it is concealed still for the Church has not told us that she has published all her unwritten Traditions there may be a Nest-egg left still which in time may add twelve new Articles to the Trent-Creed as that has done to the Apostles Creed So that if the Scripture be an imperfect Rule of Faith the Church never had a perfect Rule till the Council of Trent for a Rule which is not known is none at all and no body can tell whether our Rule be perfect yet whether some more unwritten Traditions may not start up in the next Age to make our Faith more perfect than the Council of Trent it self has made it Now if the design of the Gospel was to instruct men in all divine knowlèdge can we think that our Saviour has given us such an imperfect Rule as needs to be supplied by unwritten Traditions in every Age especially when we consider that some of the greatest Mysteries and most useful Doctrines of the Christian Religion if the Church of Rome be in the right were not written or so obscurely that no body could find them in the Scriptures till they were discovered by the help of unwritten Traditions such as the Supremacy of the Pope the Infallibility of Popes and General Councils the Worship of Images the Invocation of Saints and the great Glory and Prerogatives of the Virgin Mary the Doctrine of Purgatory Indulgences the Sacrament of Penance c. as necessary Doctrines as any that are recorded in Scripture and the denial of which makes us all Hereticks and Schismaticks as the Church of Rome says Though thanks be to God as far as appears we are no greater Hereticks and Schismaticks than the Apostles were unless they are excused for not knowing these necessary Articles of Faith and we are Hereticks for denying them since the Church of Rome in the Council of Tyent has decreed and published them 2. These unwritten Traditions cannot supply the defects of a written Rule because they are of uncertain Authority and therefore not the Objects much less the Rule of a certain Faith and Knowledge What is not written but said to be delivered down from Age to Age by oral Tradition and kept so privately that the Church of God never heard of it for several hundred years can never be proved but by Miracles and they must be more credible Miracles too than the School of the Eucharist and the Legends
Church of Rome indeed has taken great care about the first of these and has found out more ways of expiating 〈…〉 making satisfaction for it than the Gospel ever taught us 〈…〉 ther they are so effectual to this purpose let those look to 〈…〉 trust in them but there is not that care taken to inculcâ—â—◠〈…〉 necessity of internal holiness and purity of mind and one 〈…〉 easily guess there can be no great need of it in that Church 〈…〉 has so many easie ways of expiating sin The true character of Gospel-Doctrines is a Doctrine 〈…〉 ding to Godliness the principal design of which is to 〈…〉 true goodness all the Articles of the Christian Faith 〈…〉 end to lay great and irresistible obligations on us to absâ—â— every sin and to exercise our selves in every thing that is good as we have ability and opportunity to do it and therefore all Doctrines which secretly undermine a good life and make it unnecessary for men to be truly and sincerely vertuous can be no gospel-Gospel-Doctrines That there are such Doctrines in the Church of Rome has been abundantly proved by the late Learned and Reverend Bishop Taylor in his Disswasive from Popery which is so very useful a Book that I had rather direct my Readers to it than transcribe out of it My design leads me to another method for if I can prove that the Doctrines and Practices of the Church of Rome naturally tend to evacuate the force of the Gospel it self to make men good and holy every one will easily see that that can be no Gospel-Faith and Worship which sets aside the Gospel it self The whole Doctrine of the Gospel either consists of the Rules of Holiness or of the Motives and Instruments of it for the Articles of the Christian Faith are all of them so many Motives to a good life let us then consider how the Faith and Worship of the Church of Rome has made void the Gospel of our Saviour as the Pharisees made void the Law of Moses by their Traditions First Let us begin then with the Gospel-Rules of Holiness It would be an endless thing here to take notice of the loose Determinations of their famed and approved Casuists of their Doctrine of probable Opinions of the direction of the intention by which means the very Laws and Boundaries of Vertue and Vice are in a great measure quite altered and it may be this would only make work for the Representer and furnish out a fourth part of the Papist Misrepresented if we venture to tell the World what has been the avowed Doctrines of their great Divines and Casuists But whether such Definitions be the Doctrine of their Church or not I am sure they are equally mischievous if they be the Doctrines of their Confessors who have the immediate direction of mens Conscience Those who have a mind to be satisfied in this matter may find enough of it in the Provincial Letters the Jesuits Morals and Bishop Taylor 's Disswasive It sufficiently answers my present design to take notice of some few plain things which will admit of no dispute I have already shewn what a great value the Church of Rome sets upon an external Righteousness which is much more meritorious than a real and substantial Piety and Virtue Now let any man judge whether this be not apt to corrupt mens notions of what is good to perswade them that such external observances are much more pleasing to God and therefore certainly much better in themselves than true Gospel-Obedience than Moral and Evangelical Vertues for that which will merit of God the pardon of the greatest immoralities and a great reward that which supplies the want of true Vertue which compensates for sin and makes men great Saints must needs be more pleasing to God than Vertue it self is and if men can believe this all the Laws of Holiness signifie nothing but to let men know when they break them that they may make satisfaction by some meritorious Superstitions Thus the Doctrine of venial sins which are hardly any sins at all to be sure how numerous soever they are or how frequently soever repeated cannot deserve eternal punishments is apt to give men very slight thoughts of very great Evils For very great Evils may come under the notion of venial sins when they are the effects of Passion and Surprize and the like Indeed this very Doctrine of venial sins is so perplexed and undetermined that the Priest and the Penitent may serve themselves of it to good purpose I am sure this distinction is apt to make men careless of what they think little faults which are generally the seeds and dispositions to much greater such as the sudden eruptions of Passion some wanton thoughts an indecorum and undecency in words and actions and what men will please to call little venial sins for there is no certain Rule to know them by so that while this distinction lasts men have an excuse at hand for a great many sins which they need take no care of they are not obliged to aim at those perfections of Vertue which the Gospel requires if they keep clear of mortal sins they are safe and that men may do without any great attainments in Vertue which does not look very like a Gospel-Doctrine which gives us such admirable Laws which requires such great circumspection in our Lives such a command over our Passions such inoffensiveness in our Words and Actions as no Institution in the World ever did before Whatever corrupts mens Notions of Good and Evil as External Superstitions and the distinction between Venial and Mortal Sins is apt to do is a contradiction to the design of the Gospel to give us the plain Rules and Precepts of a perfect Vertue Secondly Let us consider some of the principal Motives of the Gospel to a Holy Life and see whether the Church of Rome does not evacuate them also and destroy their force and power Now 1. The Fundamental Motive of all is the absolute necessity of a Holy Life that without holiness no man shall see God for no other Argument has any necessary force without this But the absolute necessity of a holy life to please God and to go to Heaven is many ways overthrown by the Church of Rome and nothing would more effectually overthrow the Church of Rome than to re-establish this Doctrine of the absolute necessity of a good life For were men once convinced of this that there is no way to get to Heaven but by being truly and sincerely good they would keep their Money in their Pockets and not fling it so lavishly away upon Indulgencies or Masses they would stay at home and not tire themselves with fruitless Pilgrimages and prodigal Offerings at the Shrines of some powerful Saints all external troublesome and costly Superstitions would fall into contempt good men would feel that they need them not and if bad men were convinced that they would do them no good there were an end of
will not speak out is evident to any considering man For will they say that Christ who became man for us who suffered and died for us who was in all things tempted like as we are yet without sin who did and suffered all this on purpose that he might be a merciful and compassionate High Priest and might give us the highest assurance of his tenderness and compassion for us I say can they suspect that such a High Priest will not undertake to plead our Cause if we be such as according to the terms of the Gospel it is his Office to interceed for No Christian dare say this which is such a reproach to our common Saviour who hath bought us with his own Bloud and therefore no Christian who thinks himself within the reach and compass of Christ's Intercession can need or desire any other Advocate but those who are conscious to themselves of so much wickedness that they cannot hope the holy Jesus will intercede for them for their own sakes have reason to procure some other Favourites to intercede for them with their Intercessor and to countenance the matter they must recommend it to the practice of all Christians and more than so make it Heresie to deny it There is but one Argument I know of against this that any man should be so stupid as to think that the Intercession of the Virgin Mary or the most powerful Saints can prevail with our Saviour to do that which according to the Laws of his own Mediation they know he cannot and will not do and this I confess I cannot answer but yet so it is And thus the Intercession of Christ is made a very ineffectual Argument to make men good for though Christ will intercede for none but true Penitents the Church of Rome has a great many other Advocates that will or at least she perswades people that they will. 5. Another great Gospel-Motive to a holy life is the hope of Heaven and the fear of Hell. As for the hope of Heaven that is no otherwise a Motive to holiness of life but upon a supposition of the necessity of Holiness that without holiness no man shall see God but this you have already heard is overthrown by the Church of Rome and if men may go to Heaven without holiness I know no need of it for that purpose in this World. But Hell is a very terrible thing to be condemned to endless and eternal torments with the Devil and his Angels but then the Doctrine of Purgatory does mightily abate and take off this terror for though Purgatory be a terrible place too not cooler than Hell it self yet it is not eternal and men who are mightily in love with their sins will venture temporal punishments though somewhat of the longest to enjoy their present satisfactions especially considering how many easie ways there are for rich men to get out of Purgatory those who have money enough to buy Indulgences while they live and Masses for their Souls when they die need not lie long there if the Priests are not out in their reckoning and yet it is so easie a thing for a good Catholick to get into Purgatory especially if he take care frequently to confess himself and receive absolution or do not die so suddenly as to be surprized in any mortal sin that Hell seems to be very little thought of or feared in the Church of Rome Now I desire no better Argument that all these are not Gospel-Doctrines than that they destroy the force of all those Arguments the Gospel uses to make men good that is they are a direct contradiction to the Gospel of Christ 6. I shall name but one Motive more and that is the Examples of good men 12 Heb. 1. To be followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises that being incompassed with such a cloud of witnesses we should lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us and run with patience the race which is set before us Now this is a powerful Argument because they were men as we are subject to the same temptations and infirmities and therefore their Examples prove that Holiness is a practicable thing that it is possible for men to conquer all the difficulties of Religion and all the temptations in this life and many times in them we see the visible rewards of Vertue in great peace of mind great assurances of the divine favour great supports under all adversities and such a triumphant death as is a blessed presage of a glorious Resurrection But now in the Church of Rome if there be any great and meritorious Saints as they call them their extraordinary Vertues are not so much for Imitation as for a stock of Merits The more Saints they have the less reason other men have to be Saints if they have no mind to it because there is a greater treasury of Merits in the Church to relieve those who have none of their own The extraordinary Devotion of their Monasteries and Nunneries for so they would perswade the World that there is nothing but Devotion there is not for Imitation and it is unreasonable it should because no body sees it and it is impossible to imitate that recluse life without turning the whole World into a Monastery but these Religious Societies furnish the Church with a stock of Merits out of which she grants Indulgencies to those who are not very religious and it is plain that if one man can merit for twenty there is no need there should be above one in twenty good Herein indeed the Members of the Church of Rome have the advantage of all other Churches especially if they enter themselves into any religious Confraternity to partake in the Merits of the Society that others can merit for them and then if we can share in the Merits of the Saints we need not imitate them a Church which has Saints to merit for them on Earth and to intercede for them in Heaven if she can but maintain and propagate a Race of such meriting Saints which is taken care of in the Institution and Encouragement of Monastick Orders and Fraternities may be very indulgent to the rest of her Members who do not like meriting themselves So that the principal Motives of the Gospel to Holy Life as appears in these Six Particulars lose their force and efficacy in the Church of Rome and certainly those cannot be gospel-Gospel-Doctrines which destroy the great end of the Gospel to make men Good. 3ly Nor do the Gospel-means and Instruments of Holiness and Vertue escape better in the Church of Rome as will appear in a very few words Reading and Meditating on the Holy Scriptures is one excellent means of Grace not only as it informs us of our Duty but as it keeps a constant warm sense of it upon our Minds which nothing can so effectually do as a daily reading of the Scripture which strikes the mind with a more sacred authority
part I declare I do not desire to be thus loved I should rather chuse to fall into nothing when I die than to endure a thousand Years torments to be happy for ever for Humane Nature cannot bear the Thoughts of that And is this that wonderful Love of God to Sinners which is so magnified in the Gospel to torment those who are Redeemed by the Bloud of Christ some hundred or thousand Years in the Fire of Purgatory which is not cooler than the Fire of Hell The Light of Nature I confess never taught this for Mankind never had any Notion of such an outragious Love they always thought that the Love of God consisted in doing good not in damning those whom he loves for so many Ages And if this be all the Discovery the Gospel has made of the Love of God we have no great reason to glory in it He who can believe that God who so loved the World as to give his only begotten Son for the Redemption of Sinners will torment a penitent Sinner so many Years in Purgatory till he has either endured the punishment of his Sins himself or is released by the Charity of his Friends or the Masses of some Mercenary Priests deserves to lie in Purgatory till he thinks more honourably of the divine goodness and be convinced that it is no such extravagant commendation of the love of God to send penitent Sinners to Purgatory There are two extravagant Notions whereon the Doctrine of Purgatory is founded which overthrow all the natural Notions men have of goodness and destroy all the hope and confidence of the most penitent sinners in the goodness of God. As 1. That God may forgive Sins and yet punish us for them for no man can go into Purgatory according to the Doctrine of the Church of Rome whose Sins are not already forgiven but though his Sins are forgiven he must make satisfaction for that temporal punishment which is due to them either in this World or in Purgatory Now how reconcilable these two are to forgive and to punish let all mankind judge I believe very few men think they are forgiven when they are punished for that which all men desire should be forgiven them is the punishment they have deserv'd What is it men are afraid of when they have sinned is it not that they shall be punished for it What is it men desire when they desire Pardon is it not that they may not be punished And is it any comfort to a Malefactor to be pardoned and to be hanged Does any man boast of his love and kindness or take any comfort in it who freely forgives him but exacts the payment of the Debt or the punishment of his fault And if this be so contrary to the very notion of goodness and forgiveness among men how comes it to be the notion of goodness and forgiveness in God How comes that to be love and goodness which the Sinner receives no benefit by for love and goodness I think signifies to do good or if this be goodness let those take comfort in it that can If it be said that it is an Act of goodness to exchange the Eternal Punishment of Hell which is due to Sin into the Temporal Punishment of Purgatory I grant this is something but only ask whether it would not have been a more perfect expression of love and goodness to have remitted the Temporal Punishment also of it may be some thousand years Torment in Purgatory whether this might not have been expected under a dispensation of the most perfect Love and from that God who sent his only begotten Son into the World to save Sinners Whether those sins are perfectly forgiven which shall be avenged tho' not with Eternal yet with long Temporal Punishments in the next World Whether any man thinks himself perfectly forgiven who is punished very severely tho' not absolutely according to his deserts And consequently whether the Doctrine of Purgatory be not a very great diminution of the Love of God and the Grace of the Gospel And whether that can be a true Gospel-Doctrine which represents the Love of God much less then the Love of a kind and good man who when he forgives the Injury forgives the whole Punishment of it Nay Whether that can be a Gospel-Doctrine which represents the Love of God less than infinite and I suppose an infinite Love may forgive true Penitents the whole Punishment of their Sins and then there is no need of Purgatory 2ly In Purgatory God does not only punish those whom he has pardoned but he punishes for no other reason but punishment-sake For thus the Roman Doctors tell us that the Souls in Purgatory are in a state of Pardon and in a state of Perfect Grace and they suffer the pains of Purgatory not to purge away any remains of Sin or to purifie and refine them and make them more fit for Heaven but only to bear the punishment due to Sin for which they had made no satisfaction while they lived Now I dare boldly affirm this is irreconcileable with any degree of Love and Goodness to make any Punishment just it must have respect to the guilt of sin to make it an act of goodness it must be intended for the reformation of the sinner but when sin is pardoned the guilt at least is taken away and therefore such punishments can have no relation to guilt and when the sinner is in a perfect state of Grace and needs no amendment such punishments can have no respect to the good and reformation of the sinner and therefore such punishments are neither just nor good and this is the exact Notion of Purgatory and methinks we should consider whether this agrees with that account the Gospel gives us of the love and goodness of God should a Prince have a Jayl of the same nature with Purgatory where for several years he torments those whom he pretends to have pardoned and who are grown very good men and good Subjects and need no correction or discipline I believe all the World would laugh at those who should call this love and goodness pardon and mercy Hell is very reconcileable with the goodness of God because it is prepared only for those who are the Objects of a just a righteous Vengeance and a very good God may be very just but Purgatory can never be reconciled with the superabundant goodness of God to sinners through Jesus Christ unless men think it a great kindness to suffer the pains of Hell for several Months Years or Ages for no reason which makes it either just or good to suffer them So that a Popish Purgatory is inconsistent with the belief of God's great Love and Goodness to sinners in Jesus Christ and destroys the hope and confidence of sinners for if they may lie in Purgatory for some thousand years as they may do notwithstanding the Love of God and the Merits of Christ if the Pope or the Priests or their Money be not
of the Saints furnish us with and yet I know of no better the Church of Rome has It is impossible to prove that a private Tradition cannot be corrupted it is unreasonable to think that any thing which concerns the necessary Articles of Faith or Rules of Worship should be a private and secret Tradition for several Ages Miracles themselves cannot prove any Tradition which is contrary to the written Rule and the Catholick Faith of Christians for several Ages as several of the Trent-Doctrines are nay no Miracles can prove any new Article of Faith which was never known before without proving that Christ and his Apostles did not teach all things necessary to salvation which will go a great way to overthrow the truth and certainty of the Christian Faith for Miracles themselves can never prove that Christ and his Apostles taught that which the Christian Church never heard of before which is either to prove that the whole World had forgot what they had been once taught which I doubt is not much for the credit of Tradition or that the Church for several Ages did not teach all that Christ taught which is no great reason to rely on the teachings of the Church or to prove against matter of fact that Christ and his Apostles taught that which no body ever heard of and I do not think a Miracle sufficient to prove that true which every body knows to be false or at least do not know it to be true though they must have known it if it had been true And does not every body now see how improper unwritten Traditions are to supply the Defects and Imperfections of the written Rule for they can never make one Rule because they are not of equal Authority A Writing may be proved Authentick an obscure unwritten Tradition cannot and can any man think that Christ would have one half of his Gospel written the other half unwritten if he intended to perfect the knowledge of Christians for they cannot have so perfect a knowledge because they cannot have so great certainty of the unwritten as they have of the written Gospel Writing is the most certain Way to perpetuate Knowledge and if Christ intended that his Church in all Ages should have a perfect Rule of Faith we must acknowledge the perfection of the written Rule The truth is I cannot but admire the great artifice of the Church of Rome in preaching up the Obscurity and Imperfection of the Scriptures for she has hereby put it into her own power to make Christian Religion what she pleases for if the Scriptures be obscure and she alone can infallibly interpret them if the Scriptures be imperfect and she alone can supply their defects by unwritten Traditions it is plain that Christian Religion must be what she says it is and it shall be what her interest requires it to be But whether this be consistent with our Saviour's design in publishing the Gospel or whether it be the best way of improving the knowledge of Mankind let any impartial man judge 5ly An Implicit Faith or believing as the Church believes without knowing what it is we believe can be no gospel-Gospel-Doctrine because this to be sure cannot be for the improvement of knowledge Some of the Roman Doctors think it sufficient that a man believes as the Church believes without an explicite knowledge of any thing they believe but the general opinion is that a man must have an explicite belief of the Apostles Creed but as for every thing else it suffices if he believes as the Church believes without knowing what the faith of the Church is that is it is not necessary men should so much as know what the new Articles of the Trent Faith are if they believe the Apostles Creed and resign up their Faith implicitely to the Church Now this is a plain confession that all the Doctrines in dispute between us and the Church of Rome are of no use much less necessary to salvation for if they were they would be as necessary to be known and explicitely believed as the Apostles Creed and I cannot imagine why we Hereticks who believe the Apostles Creed and understand it as orthodoxly as they may not be saved without believing the new Trent Creed for if we need not know what it is there seems to be no need of believing it for I always thought that no man can and therefore to be sure no man need believe what he does not know So that it seems we know and believe all things the explicite knowledge and belief of which by their own confession is necessary to salvation except that one single Point of the Infallibility of the Church of Rome believe but that and ye need believe or know nothing more but the Apostles Creed and yet go to Heaven as a good Catholick which makes an implicite Faith in the Church of Rome as necessary as Faith in Christ is But if the intent of the Gospel was to improve our Knowledge then Christ never taught an implicite Faith for that does not improve Knowledge and if the Faith of the Church of Rome excepting the Apostles Creed which is the common Faith of all Christians need not be known then they are no Gospel-Doctrines much less necessary Articles of Faith for Christ caught nothing but what he would have known and though the knowledge of all things which Christ taught is not equally necessary to salvation yet it tends to the perfecting our knowledge and Christ taught nothing which a man need not know which I think is a reproach to meaner Masters and much more to the eternal and incarnate Wisdom Secondly The improvement and perfection of Humane Nature consists in true Holiness and Virtue in a likeness and conformity to God and a participation of the Divine Nature and this is the great end of the Gospel to advance us to as perfect Holiness as is attainable in this life Christ indeed has made expiation for our sins by his own Bloud but then this very Bloud of Atonement does not only expiate the guilt of sin but purges the Conscience from dead works that we may serve the living God for no Sacrifice not of the Son of God himself can reconcile an impenitent and unreformed Sinner to God that is can move God to love a Sinner who still loves and continues in his sins which an infinitely holy and pure being cannot do Indeed the expiation of sin is but one part of the work of our Redemption for a sinner cannot be saved that is cannot be advanced to immortal life in the Kingdom of Heaven without being born again without being renewed and sanctified by the holy Spirit after the Image and likeness of God. For this new Nature is the only Principle of a new immortal life in us an earthly sensual mind is no more capable of living in Heaven than an earthly mortal body In both senses flesh and bloud cannot inherit the Kingdom of God neither can corruption inherit incorruption The