finne against the Holy-Ghost shall not be forgiven neither in this world nor in the world to come But I answer that this world to come cannot be Purgatory for they say that Purgatory is now already but by this world to come is truly meant the day of judgement and our Saviours meaning is that he that sinneth against the Holy-Ghost shall be punished both in this life and also after this life eternally in hell-sire Likewise to that in the 3d. Chapter of the 1. Epistle to the Corinthians where it is spoken of gold wood precious stones hay stubble c. I answer that it is also an Allegoricall speech and that it is not meant of the torment of the soule after death So then we see plainly that this their Purgatory is but imaginary and and cannot be proved out of the word of God wherein there is not so much as any mention made thereof only forged by them to maintaine and uphold the Popes dignity who by this invention finds quicke sale for his pardons and Indulgences CHAP. IX Of merits and justification by Works THe Church of Rome teacheth that a man by his good works may merit eternall salvation and that a man is justified before God by the workes of the Law and thereupon to make the Protestant Religion seeme the more odious they lay to our charge that we teach that good workes are altogether unprofitable and no way conducing to salvation and that it is faith alone that justifieth without any need at all of performing any other duties of Christianity An abhominable doctrine it is indeed and worthy of most severe punishment as abolishing all honesty and vertue and setting loose the reines to all manner of wickednesse and impiety To the contrary we of the Protestant Religion purged from Popery hold that good works are absolutely necessary to salvation and that there is no other way to obtaine everlasting life that faith without works is dead and cannot justifie that good works serve to glorifie God to edifie our brethren and to bring us to eternall salvation onely we deny that good workes can merit salvation they are the way indeed whereby we come to everlasting happinesse but not the price whereby we purchase it which is already sufficiently purchased by the free redemption of our Lord Christ Jesus We say moreover that although faith alone and without good works cannot justifie yet faith hath the propriety to justifie us before God as the eyes cannot see without the help of the eares and yet the eyes alone have the gift of seeing Now that we cannot merit any thing at Gods hands I shall plainly prove by these five reasons following First because it is our duty to doe any good worke whatsoever we doe as our Saviour himselfe telleth us Luk. 17. When ye shall have done all those things which are commanded say we are unprofitable servants we have done all that which was our duty to doe Secondly the good which we doe comes from God and consequently cannot merit any thing for us at Gods hands for we doe but give him that which is his owne already Thirdly our good works profit him nothing he hath no need of our service although we have great need of his grace Fourthly our good works at the best are but imperfect and have alwayes some infirmity in the performance of them Fifthly and lastly there is no proportion at all betwixt our good works and the kingdome of heaven To gaine such an excellent purchase there needs a price insinitely excellent such as the merits of our Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus Likewise the holy Scripture saith that eternall life is the gift of God and not to be purchased by mans merits as the Apostle witnesseth in the 6 h Chapter of Rom. The wages of sin saith he is death but the gift of God is eternall life through Jesus Christ our Lord and Ephesians the 2d Chapter by grace we are saved through faith and that not of your selves It is the gift of God not of workes lest any man should boast Wherefore God calleth us his children and by consequent heires Rom. 8. to the end that we may know that we can lay no right to the kingdome of God as a purchase which we have merited by good works but as children and in Jesus Christ lawfull heires hereunto Surely then those that goe about to purchase eternall salvation in a mercinary way by their owne merits renounce the title of being Gods children and consequently lose their labours Some there be who to sweeten this their hodge-podge say that we merit by the grace of God who gives us grace to merit a tenet altogether as false as hypocriticall and absurd for the chiefe and principall cause why our good workes are not meritorious is because they proceed from the grace of God I pray what doth that man merit of me that gives me that which is mine owne already I confesse indeed that the holy Scripture saith that God doth recompence our good workes and that our reward is great in heauen and that even for a cup of cold water we shall not lose our reward but this reward is no way merited by us as a father gives his childe some reward it may be for writing a line or two out of a Copy or such like which he doth not because the worke deserves it but because it is his childe So God accepteth of us freely in Christ Jesus not for our works sake but rewards our works though never so imperfect and unworthy only because we are his children It is no marvell then if those of the Church of Rome professe that they doubt of their salvation for it is impossible to build a stedfast assurance thereof on so weake a foundation as our owne merits whereas indeed we ought to ground it onely on the immoveable foundation of Gods promise in Christ Jesus Let us conclude then with the Apostle Saint Paul in the 3 Chapter to the Romanes that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the Law and that we are iustified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ I doe not say but that before men we are justified by workes that is to say knowne to be just for men cannot judge of our faith because they cannot discerne it And thus Saint James chap. 2. teacheth that Abraham was justified by works but he was not justified by that meanes before God As Saint Paul teacheth in the 4th Chapter of his Epistle to the Romanes If Abraham saith he were justified by workes he hath whereof to glory but not before God Heare likewise what the same Apostle saith in the 2d Chapter to the Galathians verse the 16th We have beleeved in Jesus Christ that we might be iustified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the Law for by the works of the Law shall no flesh be iustified And in the 2d Tim. Chap. 1. God hath saved us and called us
notwithstanding enough left which needs no interpretation which is sufficient to make us wise unto Salvation as the Apostle Saint Paul saith 1 Tim. 3. CHAPTER II. Of the Popes power THe Bishop of Rome calleth himselfe Saint Peters Successour not only as being Bishop of Rome but as being also the Head of the universâ—ll Church Which power he extends so farre as to give and take away Kingdomes to distribute of crownes to dispence with Christians from keeping their oathes and vowes to canonize Saints to give Lawes to the universall Church to forgive sins to take soules out of Purgatory to judge soveraignly and without controle of all points and differences in Religion vaunting that it is impossible for him to erre in faith and for these considerations qualifying himselfe god on Earth the Spouse of the Church and a divine Majesty causing Kings to kisse his feet and making himself a religious worship terming himself Gods Vicar For this cause I have read very carefully Saint Peters Epistles and have compared them with the Popes Buls wherby he thunders down Kings and degrades them publisheth grand pardons but I can finde no concordance at all the one with the other for Saint Peter in his Epistles speaks not any wise of his Superiority not of his power neither is there one word spoken of his Soveraignty or as being head of the Church which is a very strange thing that a Soveraigne should write unto his subjects without mentioning one word that might intimate his Soveraignty I finde also that the Apostles did contest among themselves concerning the priority and that Jesus Christ did decide the controversie not telling them that he had made Saint Peter chiefe over the rest but forbidding them all not so much as to speake of the priority any more Luk. 22. The Kings of the Gentiles saith he exercise Lordship over them but it shall not be so with you Saint Peter having confessed our Saviour to be the Christ the son of the living God our Saviours answer to him is not Tu es Petrus super te Petrum adificabo ecclesiam meam but tu es Petrus super hanc petram c. which rock is Christ Iesus himselfe as it is said 1 Cor. 10. That rocke was Christ and in the second chapter to the Eph. he is called the corner stone and S. Peter 1. cp 2. cals him a living Stone The reason why our Saviour spake to S. Peter alone was because S. Peter had there alone confessed him to be the Christ but the same power that he gave to S. Peter to binde and to loose and to remit sins he gives elswhere also to the rest of the Apostles Mat. 18. 18. c. John 20. 23. Likewise in the second chapter to the Ephesians all the Apostles are set for the foundation of the Church being built upon the foundation of the Apostles and of the Prophets See also Revel 21.14 And certainly if the Apostles had understood that Iesus Christ had given S. Peter the Superiority never would they again after that have contested betweene themselves for the preheminence as they do in Luk. 22. one day before the death of the Lord. The Apostle S. Paul also in Galat. 2. saith that he withstood St. Peter to the face which sheweth sufficiently that he was nothing subject to S. Peter and in the same Chapter a little before he saith That the Gospell of uncircumcision was committed to him as the Gospell of circumcision was unto Peter here we see them fellow-labourers together Saint Peter was to preach to the Jewes and Saint Paul to the Gentiles In that same chapter also S. Paul sets the Apostle S. James before S. Peter saying James Cephas and John who seemed to be pillars So also S. John in the first chapter of his Gospell sets Andrew before Peter where he saith Philip was of Bethsaida the city of Andrew and Peter and in the 1 Cor. 9. The Brothers of the Lord and Cephas and in the 8. of the Acts of the Apostles the Apostles send Peter and Iohn to preach in Samaria Oh what a brave thing it were now a dayes to see many Bishops assemble together and send the Pope to preach in England or elswhere They object that our Saviour said to St. Peter three times Feed my sheepe true but they cannot inferre from thence that he made him the head of the universall Church for our Saviour said not to S. Peter feed thou my sheep alone or as a Soveraigne and indeed the same commission is given to all the Ministers of Gods Word in the 20. of the Acts Take heed therefore saith S. Paul unto your selves and to all the flocke over the which the Lord hath made you over-seers to feede the Church of God which he hath purchased with his owne bloud and in the 1 Pet. 5. Feede the flocke of Christ which is among you Jesus Christ then speaks to S. Peter alone because that a little before he had denied him and he only had need to be restablished in his commission that had failed in it Another reason why our Saviour repeats the words thrice is because that he had denied him thrice he draws from him three confessions to remedy his treble denyall which done he did againe establish him in the charge of a Shepheard of his flocke from the which he might plainly perceive that he had fallen Neverthelesse I will not deny but that S. Peter might be the chiefest among the Apostles in age zeale cloquance c. but by no meanes in superiority of jurisdiction wherby to have power to command them However put the case that S. Peter had beene the chiefe of the Apostles and their Superiour what doth that make for the Pope of Rome They say S. Peter died at Rome which is indeed very doubtfull neverthelesse put the case he did dye there for I may say then that the Bishop of Jerusalem ought to be the head of the Church for our Saviour Christ farre greater than St. Peter dyed at Ierusalem Where is the least mention in all Gods Word that S. Peter did leave one to succeed him in the charge of his Apostleship and as the head of the Church And when S. Peter was dead in all reason and conscience if any should succeed him ought it not to be the Apostle S. Iohn that excellent Apostle which Iesus loved rather then Linus S. Pauls Disciple Moreover by all the Histories of the lives of the Popes it appeares that the people of Rome did choose their Bishop who seeth not hereby that the Bishop of Rome was not the head of the universall Church for who gave the people of Rome power to give a head to the Church of the whole world and to set up Linus above the Apostles In an elective Kingdom when a King is to be chosen every quarter of the Kingdome and every commonalty sends it's Deputies to make the election the voyces of one city cannot conclude of any thing wherin the
all which is a thing most necessary in every sacrifice and more especially in a sacrifice newly instituted for a president and example for the future Moreover the Apostle Saint Paul in the 10th Chapter to the Hebrewes saith that we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Iesus Christ once for all We see then plainly that the death of our Lord and Saviour Christ Iesus is the onely sacrifice which he himselfe offered up unto God for all our sinnes so that it is meere foppery in us to presume to sacrifice that body againe in such a tragicomaediall manner as that of the Masse which hath already been received as a sufficient sacrifice for all our sins Likewise in every sacrifice that which they sacrifice ought to be consecrated that which they pretend to sacrifice is the Lords body which cannot be consecrated for who can consecrate the Sonne of God so likewise the thing consecrated which they sacrifice in the Masse cannot be the bread for they say that it is no more bread after the consecration and although they should say that it were bread after the consecration yet so it is that neither bread nor any other creature can be thought a reasonable sacrifice for our redemption Certainly this was invented onely for the maintenance of a company of lazie lubbers which they call Priests for take away the sacrifice of the Masse and they have no imployment and truly by this meanes I thinke they get as much as might competently maintaine them were it not for the Popes bawdy houses which consume most part of their revenues CHAP. XIV Of the taking away the cup in the Sacrament THere are yet many errours in the Church of Rome but the most abusive and injurious errour in my opinion is the taking away of the cup in the Sacrament from the Laity contrary to our Saviours institution and to the practise of the Apostles who gave the people the holy Communion under both signes The first institution of the Sacrament was when our Saviour tooke the cup and blessed it and gave it to his Disciples saying drinke ye all of this Now if in these words drinke ye all of this our Saviour speaks to none but the Pastors or Ministers of the Church it must consequently follow that the commandement to eat which is in the aforegoing words appertaine also to the Pastors onely and then there is no commandement at all whereby the Laity is commanded to receive the bread And it is cleare that the Apostles receiving the Sacrament of our Saviour received it not then as Pastors but as Sheep and Disciples And though they had received it as Pastors and Ministers of the Church did not our Saviour thanke you when he said unto them doe this as oft as ye doe it in remembrance of me intimate unto them that they ought to administer it unto the people in the same manner as he did administer it unto them The Apostle Saint Paul understandeth it so as you may see by that commandement which he gives the Corinthians in his 1. Epistle Chap. 11. Let a man examine himselfe and so let him eat of that bread and drinke of that cup. It is manifest that this commandement both to eat of that bread and drinke of that cup is made unto those that ought to examine themselves but every one ought to examine himselfe before he come to receive that holy communion therefore every one ought to receive both that bread and that cup whereof Saint Paul speaketh And in the beginning of that same 1. Epistle to the Corinthians it appeareth that Saint Paul did write to all the people of Corinth excepting none that did call upon the name of the Lord Jesus These are the words Vnto the Church of God which is at Corinth to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be Saints with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. And surely it is somewhat considerable that the Church of Rome seemeth by this meanes to labour to deprive the people of eternall life For the Doctors of the Church of Rome conceive those words of our Saviour in the 6th of Saint Johns Gospell Except ye eat the flesh of the sonne of man and drinke his bloud ye have no life in you to be spoken of the Sacrament of the Eucharist And if it be so it is manifest that in taking away the cup from the Laity they deprive them of eternall life Their excuse for this is that the bread is in the body so that in eating the body they drinke the bloud also To the which I answer that to receive the bloud so in the Sacrament is not to drinke it but our Saviour saith expresly Except ye drinke c. And if in eating the body they drinke also the bloud the Priest doth by this reckoning drinke twise once when he swallowes downe the body and againe when he drinks off the cup. They produce likewise certaine passages of the Scripture wherein it is spoken of the breaking of the bread without mentioning the cup I answer that in those passages as it is not said that the people should receive the cup so neither is it said that the Priests should receive it If then by these passages they will gather that the people are not obliged to take the cup I may also from thence gather that the Priests are not obliged for there is no more spoken of the one then of the other Besides we reade in the 2d of Sam. chap. 9. that Mephibosheth did eat bread at Davids table may we conclude from thence that he never dranke because it is not expressed The manner of the celebration of the Lords Supper ought to be taken from our Saviours first expressed institutions and formall commandement The originall spring of this grosse abuse proceedeth from pride and ambition for by this meanes those of the Clergy raise their dignity farre above the people whom they exclude from one halfe of the Sacrament and doe hereby make themselves in this respect equall unto Kings who together with them receive the Sacrament under both signes And the Pope hath a prerogative above all men else in that he doth sucke the wine out of the Calice with a quill Thus have we briefly discovered the manifold and great abuses of the Church of Rome and how strangely they delude the common people with their imaginary and idolatrous services how absolutely contrary to Gods holy word are all their tenets and how through the whole profession of their Religion they seeke infinitely Gods dishonour and are wholly bent for the advancement of the Popes dignity I beseech Almighty God to give us his blessed Spirit to discern betwixt good and evill and so to relye upon the merits of our Saviour Christ Jâ—sus by a lively faith that at length we may obtaine that immortall crowne of glory prepared fâ—r all faithfull persons in Christ Jesus our Lord to whom with the Father Almighty and the glorious Spirit be ascribed and given all possible praise thanksgiving and obedience for ever and ever Amen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 FINIS