had not the necessity of dying been expresly excepted out of this Redemption for in Adam all die and it is appointed by a Divine Decree for all men once to die and could they show where Purgatory is excepted too then I would grant that those who are redeemed from the Curse of the Law might fall into Purgatory if that be any comfort to them and yet the case is vastly different between Death and Purgatory for though Death be the Curse of the Law yet we may be delivered from Death as a Curse and Punishment without being delivered from the necessity of dying and thus good men are redeemed from Death for their Sins are expiated and pardoned and then the Sting of Death is gone for the sting of death is sin and therefore when our Sins are pardoned Death cannot sting us can do us no hurt because it does not deliver us over to Punishment but transplants us into a more happy state The fears of Death are conquered by the promises of Immortal Life and Death itself shall at the last day be swallowed up in Victory when our dead Bodies shall be raised immortal and glorious so that thô good men still die yet they are redeemed from the Curse of the Law from Death itself as a Curse and a Punishment But the Popish Purgatory is a place of Punishment and nothing but Punishment and therefore is not reconcilable with the remission and forgiveness of sin Again I ask Whether there are two kinds of Punishments due to sin Temporal and Eternal of such a distinct nature and consideration that the Promise of forgiveness does not include both Nay that God cannot forgive both that only the Eternal Punishment can be forgiven but the Temporal Punishment must be satisfied for or endured by the Sinner if this were the case indeed then I would grant the Promise of forgiveness could extend only to Eternal Punishments because God can forgive no other and the forgiveness of Eternal Punishment does not include the forgiveness of the Temporal Punishment But if the Curse of the Law be Eternal Death and all other Punishments which can properly be called the punishment of sin for Correction and Discipline is not the Wrath of God and the Curse of the Law are only parts of the Curse and a partial execution of it if the only thing that makes Sinners obnoxious to Temporal Punishments is that they are under the Sentence of Eternal Death which God may execute by what degrees he pleases then to forgive Eternal Punishment must include the forgiveness of Temporal Punishments as parts or branches of it As suppose there were a Law that no man should suffer any Bodily Punishments but such a Malefactor as is condemned to die but when the Sentence of Death is past upon him it should be at the Prince's pleasure to defer the Execution of this Sentence as long as he pleased and in the mean time to inflict all other Punishments on him whatever he pleased in this Case to pardon the Sentence of Death would deliver such a man from all other Punishments too which by the Law are due only to that man who is under the Sentence of Death and in such a Constitution for any man to say that the Prince's Pardon extends only to Life but does not excuse from Whipping and Pilloring and perpetual Imprisonment would be to make the Pardon void since no man by the Law can suffer those other Punishments but he who is Condemned to Die and therefore he who is pardoned the Sentence of Death in consequence of that is pardoned all other Punishments too Thus it is here the original Curse against sin was In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die which by the Gospel of Christ is expounded of Eternal Death and there is no other threatning in all the Gospel against sin but Eternal Death and therefore all other Punishments are inflicted by Vertue of this Law and consequently he who is delivered from this Curse of the Law from Eternal Punishments is delivered from the whole Punshment due to sin unless they can find some other Law in the Gospel besides that which threatens Eternal Death which obliges a sinner to punishment Again since they acknowledge that Christ by his Death has delivered us from Eternal Punishments I do not think it worth the while to Dispute with them whether those Sufferings and Calamities which good men are exposed to in this World may properly be called Punishments or only Correction and Discipline but I desire to know Why they call Purgatory which is a place of Punishment in the other World a Temporal Punishment for this is an abuse of the Language of Scripture which makes this World Temporal and the next World Eternal as St. Paul expresly tells us The things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal 2 Cor. 4.18 And therefore Temporal Punishments signifie the Punishments in this World but the unseen Punishments as well as the unseen Rewards of the next World are eternal which is a demonstration that there is no Purgatory unless it be Eternal and then it is but another Name for Hell and therefore the state of the next World is called either Life or Death Eternal Life or Eternal Death those who believe in Christ shall never die 11 Joh. 25 26. Now I desire to know the difference between Living and Dying and Perishing in the next World for bad men do not cease to be nor lose all sence in the next World no more than good men and therefore Life can only signifie a state of Happiness and Death a state of Misery which is much worse than not being now if good men must not perish must not die but live in the next World they must not go to Purgatory which is as much perishing as much dying as Hell though not so long but if they must never die never perish they must never suffer the pains of Purgatory which is a dying and perishing that is a state of Torment and Misery while they continue there Let us then see how a Papist who believes a Purgatory-sire in the next World wherein he shall be tormented God knows how long for his Sins can prove that a penitent Sinner shall not be eternally damned Oh! says he Christ has died for our Sins and made atonement for them and we are pardoned and justified through Faith in his Bloud and what then may we not still be punished for our Sins If not what becomes of Purgatory If we may prove that we shall not be eternally damned for Sin which is the proper punishment of it For if to be pardoned and justified signifie to be delivered from punishment it signifies our deliverance from the whole punishment of Sin since the Scripture does not limit it if they do not signifie our deliverance from punishment then we may be eternally punished for Sin though we are pardoned and justified But we are redeemed from the
them for the only use of them is to excuse men from the necessity of being good But this is most evident in their Doctrine about the Sacrament of Penance that bare Contrition with the Absolution of the Priest puts a man into a state of Salvation I do not lay it upon Attrition which is somewhat less than Contrition though the Council of Trent if I can understand plain words makes that sufficient with the Absolution of the Priest but because some men will unreasonably wrangle about this I shall insist only on what is acknowledged by themselves that Contrition which is only a sorrow for sin if we confess our sins to a Priest and receive absolution puts us into a state of Grace now contrition or sorrow for sin is not a holy life and therefore this Doctrine overthrows the necessity of a holy life because men may be saved by the Sacrament of Penance without it and then I know no necessity there is of mortifying their Lusts for if they sin again it is only repeating the same remedy confessing their sins and being sorry for them and receiving absolution and they are restored to the favour of God and to a state of salvation again Nay some of their Casuists tell us that God has not commanded men to repent but only at the time of death and then contrition with absolution will secure their salvation after a whole life spent in wickedness without any other good action but only sorrow for sin and if men are not bound by the Laws of God so much as to be contrite for their sins till they find themselves dying and uncapable of doing any good all men must grant that a holy life is not necessary to salvation 2. More particularly The love of God in giving his own Son to die for us and the love of Christ in giving himself for us are great Gospel Motives to Obedience and a Holy Life but these can only work upon ingenuous minds who have already in some measure conquered the love of sin for where the love of sin prevails it is too powerful for the love of God but the holiness and purity and inflexible justice of the Divine Nature is a very good argument because it enforces the necessity of a holy life for a holy God cannot be reconciled to wicked Men will not forgive our sins unless we repent of them and reform them which must engage all men who hope for pardon and forgiveness from God to forsake their sins and reform their lives but the force of this Argument is lost in the Church of Rome by the judicial absolution of the Priest for they see daily the Priest does absolve them without forsaking their sins and God must confirm the sentence of his Ministers and therefore they are absolved and need not fear that God will not absolve them when the Priest has which must either destroy all sence of God's essential holiness and purity and perswade them that God can be reconciled to sinners while they continue in their sins or else they must believe that God has given power to his Priests to absolve those whom he could not have absolved himself To be sure it is in vain to tell men that God will not forgive sinners while they continue in their sins if they believe the judicial authority of the Priest to forgive sins for they every day absolve men who do not forsake their sins and if their absolution be good God must forgive them too and thus the holiness and inflexible justice of God loses its force upon good Catholicks to reform their lives and therefore were there no other arguments against it it is not likely that the judicial absolution of the Priest as it is taught and practised in the Church of Rome should be a Gospel-Doctrine 3. The Death and Sacrifice of Christ is another Gospel-Motive to Holiness of Life not only because he has now bought us with his own Blood and therefore we must no longer live unto our selves but to him who died for us but because his Blood is the Blood of the Covenant and the efficacy of his Sacrifice extends no farther than the Gospel-Covenant which teaches us to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world That is no man can be saved by the Blood of Christ but those who obey the Gospel which obliges all men who hope to be saved by Christ to the practise of an universal righteousness This the Church of Rome seems very sensible of that none but sincere Penitents and truly good men can be saved by the Sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross which gives no hope to Sinners who do not repent of their sins and amend their lives and therefore she has found out a great many other ways of expiating Sin which give more comfort to Sinners The Sacrifice of the Mass has a distinct vertue and merit from the Sacrifice upon the Cross it is a propitiatory Sacrifice for the living and the dead to expiate especially the sins of those for whom it is particularly offered and thus those sins which are not expiated by the Death of Christ upon the Cross are expiated by the Sacrifice of the Mass and that by the bear opus operatum by the offering this Sacrifice of the Mass itself without any good motion in the person for whom it is offered and thus the Sacrifice of the Mass destroys the vertue of Christ's Sacrifice upon the Cross to oblige men to holiness of life for though none but sincere and reformed Penitents are pardoned by the Sacrifice of the Cross the Sacrifice of the Mass will expiate the sins of unreformed Sinners and then there is no need to reform our lives Thus I am sure all men understand it or they would never put their confidence in the Mass-Sacrifice for if it does no more for us than Christ's Death upon the Cross it might be spared for it gives no new comforts to impenitent Sinners They are very sensible that holiness of life is necessary to intitle us to the Pardon and Forgiveness purchased by the Death of Christ but then the Sacrifice of the Mass Humane Penances and Satisfactions and Merits and Indulgences seem on purpose contrived to supply the place of Holiness of Life for no body can imagine else what they are good for Christ has by his Death upon the Cross made a perfect Atonement for the sins of all true penitent and reformed Sinners and therefore a true Penitent who according to the terms of the Gospel denies all ungodliness and worldly lusts and lives soberly righteously and godly in this present world needs no Expiation but the Death of Christ Will they deny this by no means They grant that all our sins are done away in Baptism meerly by the application of Christ's Death and Passion to us and therefore the Death of Christ is a complete and perfect satisfaction for all Sin or else Baptism which derives its whole
vertue from the Death of Christ could not wash away all sin What use can there be then of the new propitiatory Sacrifice of the Mass of humane Satisfactions and Merits and Indulgences Truly none but this that when our sins are expiated by the Death of Christ and the pardon of all our sins applied to us in Baptism the Gospel exacts a holy life from us and therefore men forfeit the baptismal Pardon of their sins by the Bloud of Christ unless they either live very holy lives or make some other satisfaction for their not doing so And for this purpose the Sacrifice of the Mass humane Penances and Satisfactions serve It will not be unuseful nor unpleasant to draw a short Scheme of this whole matter which will explain this great Mystery and make it intelligible which now appears to be nothing but nonsence and confusion Christ then has made a perfect Atonement and Expiation for sin this is applied to us at Baptism wherein all our sins are forgiven and while we continue in this state of Grace we cannot be eternally damned though we may be punished for our sins both in this World and Purgatory But every mortal sin puts us out of the state of Grace which we were in by Baptism and till we be restored to the state of Grace again we must be eternally damned because we have no right to the Sacrifice and Expiation of Christ's Death the only way in the Church of Rome to restore us to this state of Grace is by the Sacrament of Penance and the Absolution of the Priest which restores us to the same state which Baptism at first put us into and therefore very well deserves to be thought a Sacrament And thus we recover our interest in the Merits of Christ's Death and therefore cannot be eternally damned for our sins but still it is our duty to live well for the Death of Christ does not excuse us from Holiness of Life which is the condition of the Gospel and therefore if we are in a state of Grace and thereby secured from eternal damnation yet if we live in sin we must be punished for it unless we can find some other expiation for sin than the Death of Christ upon the Cross which still leaves us under the obligations of a holy life and therefore cannot make such an Expiation for sin as shall serve instead of a holy life Now here comes in the Sacrifice of the Mas Humane Penance Satisfactions Indulgencies For the sacrifice of the Mass as I observed before does not serve the same end that the Sacrifice of the Cross does the Sacrifice of the Mass is a propitiatory Sacrifice for the living and the dead But what sins is it a Propitiation for For such sins for which men are to satisfie themselves that is for all sins the eternal punishment of which is remitted for the Sacrifice of the Cross This is evident from their making the Sacrifice of the Mass a propitiatory Sacrifice for the dead that is for the Souls in Purgatory who suffer there the temporal punishments of sin when the eternal punishment is forgiven the Souls in Hell are capable of no Expiation and therefore an expiatory Sacrifice for the dead can be only for the Souls in Purgatory and that is for the temporal punishment of sin for which the Sacrifice of the Cross is no Expiation and the Mass is in no other sence made a Sacrifice for the living than for the dead and therefore is not to expiate the eternal but the temporal punishments of sin as appears from hence that the saying Masses or hearing Masses or purchasing Masses is reckoned among those Penances men must do for the Expiation of their sins and yet they can by all they do only expiate for the temporal punishment of sin and therefore Masses for the living are only for the Expiation of those temporal punishments of sin for which the Sacrifice of the Cross made no Expiation And I shall be so civil at present as not to inquire how the Sacrifice of the Cross and the Sacrifice of the Mass which are the very same Sacrifice of the Natural Body and Bloud of Christ come to serve such very different ends that when Christ was Sacrificed upon the Cross he expiated only for the eternal punishment of sin when Sacrificed in the Mass only for the temporal I need add nothing to prove that Humane Penances Satisfactions Merits Indulgencies are onely to expiate temporal punishment of sin because it is universally acknowledged Now if these temporal punishments be only in lieu of Holiness and Obedience which the Gospel requires to intitle us to the Expiation of Christ's Death upon the Cross as I have already shewn then it is evident to a demonstration that the Church of Rome has overthrown the Death and Sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross consider'd as an argument of a holy life by setting up the Sacrifice of the Mass Humane Penances Satisfactions Merits Indulgencies instead of the Gospel-terms of obedience and holiness of life 4. The Intercession of Christ for us at the right hand of God is another powerful motive to Holiness of Life It gives all the encouragement to true penitent Sinners that can be desired For if any man sin 1 John 2.2 we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous who is also a propitiation for our sins But then Christ mediates only in vertue of his Bloud that is only upon the terms and conditions of the Covenant of Grace which was sealed by his Bloud that is he mediates and intercedes only for true penitent sinners which obliges us as we hope to be heard by God when we pray in the Name of Christ truly and heartily to repent of all our sins and to live a new life This the Church of Rome also seems very sensible of that Christ of his own accord will not intercede for impenitent and unreformed sinners that he who is the great Example and the great Preacher of Righteousness will not espouse the Cause of incorrigible sinners who are very desirous of pardon but hate to be reformed and therefore they seem to think it as hopeless a thing to go immediately to a holy Jesus as to appear before the Tribunal of a just and righteous God without a powerful Advocate For this reason they have found out a great many other Advocates and Mediators a great deal more pitiful and compassionate than Christ is who by their interest in him or their great favour with God may obtain that pardon which otherwise they could not hope for such as the Virgin Mary who is the Mother of Christ and therefore as they presume has as great interest in and authority over him as a Mother has over her Son besides those vast numbers of meritorious Saints whose Intercessions cannot but prevail for those sinners whose Cause they undertake And that this is the true reason of their Addresses to Saints and the Virgin Mary though they
Image-Worship does consist only in mens gross Notions about it yet we see under the Law to prevent and cure this God did not go about to rectifie their Opinions of these things but absolutely forbids the Worship of all Images and of any other Being but himself which methinks he would not have done had there been such great advantages in the Worship of Saints and Angels and Images as the Romanists pretend and when God in the Law of Moses forbad all Creature and Image-Worship can we think that Christ who came to make a more perfect Reformation should only change their Country-Gods into Saints and Angels and the Virgin Mary and give new names to their Statues and Images Which whatever he had taught about it instead of curing Idolatry had been to set up that same kind of Worship which the Law of Moses absolutely forbad and condemned as Idolatry When God to cure the Idolatrous Worship of inferiour Daemons as their Mediators and Advocates with the Supreme God sent his own Son into the World to be our Mediator can we think that he intended after this that we should worship Angels and Saints and the Virgin Mary as our Mediators When God has given us a visible Image of himself his Eternal and Incarnate Son whom we may worship and Adore did he still intend that we should worship material and sensible Images of Wood or Stone By the Incarnation of his own Son God did indeed take care to rectifie mens mistakes about Creature-Worship and to cut off all pretences for it Those who pleaded that vast distance between God and men and how unfit it was that Sinners should make their immediate approaches to the Supreme God and therefore worshipped inferiour Daemons as middle Beings between God and man have now no pretence for this since God has appointed his own Son to be our Mediator Those who worshipped Images as the visible Representations of an invisible God have now a visible Object of Worship a God Incarnate a God in the nature and likeness of a Man and though we do not now see him yet we have the notion of a visible God and Mediator to whom we can direct our Prayers in Heaven which is satisfaction enough even to men of more gross and material Imaginations without any artificial and senseless Representations of the Deity And was all this done that men might worship Creatures and Images without Idolatry or rather was it not done to cure mens inclinations to commit Idolatry with Creatures and Images Whoever believes that the Gospel of our Saviour was intended as a Remedy against Idolatry can never be perswaded that it allows the Worship of Saints and Images which if it be not Idolatry is so exactly like it in all external appearance that the allowance of it does not look like a proper cure for Idolatry SECT II. Concerning the great Love of GOD to Mankind and the Assurances of Pardon and Forgiveness which the Gospel gives to all Penitent Sinners which are much weakned by some Popish Doctrines 2. THE Gospel of Christ was intended to give the highest demonstration of God's Love to Mankind and the greatest possible Security to all humble penitent Sinners of the Forgiveness of their Sins Hence the Gospel is called the Grace of God and the Gospel of Grace as being a Dispensation of Love and Goodness and therefore whatever lessens and disparages the Gospel-Grace can be no Gospel-Doctrine As to consider this particularly The Gospel magnifies the Grace of God in giving his own Son for us God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life 3 John 16. In this was manifested the love of God towards us because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins 1 John 4.9 10. And St. Paul assures us that this is such a glorious manifestation of God's love as will not suffer us to doubt of any other expressions of his goodness He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things 8 Rom. 32. So that the Gospel of our Saviour gives us much higher demonstrations of God's love and goodness than either the Light of Nature or the Law of Moses did Love is the prevailing Attribute of God under the Gospel-dispensation For God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him 1 John 4.16 Thus the Gospel of Christ gives a humble Penitent as great assurance of Pardon as his own guilty Fears can desire for Repentance and Remission of Sins is preached in the Name of Christ He has expiated our Sins by the Sacrifice of his Death God commendeth his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us much more then being justified by his bloud we shall be saved from wrath through him for if when we were enemies we were reconciled unto God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life 5 Rom. 8 9 10. For as he was delivered for our Offences so he was raised again for our Justification And him hath God exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance unto Israel and remission of sins 1 John 2.1 2. So that if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous who is able to save all them to the uttermost that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them 7 Heb. 25. These are the fundamental Doctrines of Christianity and therefore nothing can be a Gospel-Doctrine which weakens or overthrows them Let us then examine the Popish Doctrine of Purgatory and the Invocation of Saints and Angels as our Mediators with God and see how they are reconcileable with the Gospel notion of God's love and that security it gives us of Pardon through the Merits and Intercession of Christ 1. Let us consider the Doctrine of Purgatory which is but the outward Court or Region of Hell where the Punishments are as severe as in Hell itself only of a less continuance and yet as short as they are they may last many hundred nay thousand Years unless their Friends and the Priests be more merciful to them or they themselves have taken care before Death to pay the Price of their Redemption This is a barbarous Doctrine and so inconsistent with that mighty Love of God to penitent Sinners as it is represented in the Gospel of Christ that it is not reconcileable with any notion of Love and Goodness at all you may call it Justice you may call it Vengeance if you please but Love it is not or if it be it is such a Love as no man can distinguish from Hatred for my
should make Prayer the condition of our receiving though he wants not our importunities to move him because there are a great many excellent Vertues exercised in Prayer such as great sorrow for Sin great humility of Mind faith in God's Promises the acts of Love and affiance and trust in God and a constant dependance on his Grace and Providence for all spiritual and temporal Blessings and there was great reason why he should command us to pray for others thô he wants none of our Intercessions for them because it is a mutual exercise of Charity of Love to our Brethren and Forgiveness to our Enemies and is a mighty obligation to do all other acts of kindness for those who know it to be their Duty to pray for one another will think themselves bound to do good to one another also This becomes those who live and converse together in this World because it is a great Instrument of Virtue and that is a reason why God should encourage the exercise of it by promising to hear our Prayers for each other But as far as meer goodness is concerned the Gospel represents God as so very good to Sinners that there is no need of any Intercessor for them For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life 3 John 16. This was an act of goodness antecedent to the Incarnation and Death of Christ and the highest act of goodness that God could manifest to the World and therefore secures us of God's love and goodness to Sinners without a Mediator and Advocate for that love which provided a Mediator for us was without one and proves that it was not for want of goodness or that he needed entreaties that he gave his Son to be our Mediator And therefore hence S. Paul proves how ready God is to bestow all good things on us He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things 8 Rom. 32. And our Saviour himself represents the goodness of God by the tenderness and compassion of an earthly Parent If ye then being evil that is less good than God is know how to give good things to your children how much more shall your heavenly Father give good things to them that ask him 7 Matth. 11. especially in the Parable of the Prodigal where our Saviour describes the goodness of God to sinners by that passion and joy wherewith the Father received his returning Prodigal nay he assures his Disciples that there was no need of his own Intercession to incline God to be good and kind to them At that day ye shall ask in my name and I say not unto you that I will pray the Father for you for the Father-himself loveth you because ye have loved me and believed that I came out from God 16 John 26 27. God is so infinitely good that he needs no Mediators or Intercessors to incline him to all acts of goodness but as he is the wise and just Governour of the World he requires a Sacrifice for Sin and a High-Priest to make Atonement for it and to intercede in vertue of the Sacrifice Such a Mediator Christ is who alone is both our Sacrifice and our Priest and therefore our only Mediator not to incline God to be good for that he was before infinitely good or else he had not given his Son to be our Sacrifice and our High-Priest but to make Atonement for our Sins and thereby to reconcile the exercise of God's goodness with his wisdom and justice in governing the World. Such a Mediator and High-Priest does not lessen the Divine goodness for the intention of his Mediation is not to make God good and kind but to make it wise and just in God to do good to Sinners but all other Mediators in Heaven whose business it is by Prayers and Entreaties and Interest and Favour to incline God to be good to such particular persons as they intercede for is a real disparagement to the Divine goodness as if he would not be good unless he were conquered by Entreaties and over-ruled by the prevailing Intercessions of some great Favourites and yet such Mediators as these the Saints and Angels and Virgin Mary are if they be Mediators at all and therefore to pray to them as to our Mediators argues such a diffidence and distrust of God's goodness as does not become the Gospel of our Saviour this can be no Gospel-Doctrine because it is irreconcileable with that account the Gospel gives us of the Love of God. 2. Nor is it less injurious to the Love of our Saviour to flie to the Prayers and Aids of Saints and Angels and the Virgin Mary her self I shall not now dispute what encroachment this is upon the Mediatorship of Christ to make our Addresses and Applications to other Mediators but whoever does so must either think that Christ wants Interest with God without the joynt Intercession of Saints and Angels or that he wants Kindness to us and either will not intercede for us at all or will not do it unless he be prevailed with by the Intercession of Saints or the Entreaties or the Commands of his Mother I suppose they will not pretend that he wants power to do what we ask of him when he himself has assured us That whatsoever we ask of the Father in his name he will give it us 15 John 16.16 John 23 24. Does our Mediator then need other Mediators to intercede with him for us What! he who became man for us who lived a laborious and afflicted life for us who loved us so as to give himself for us who is a merciful and compassionate High-Priest and touched with a feeling of our infirmities being in all things tempted like as we are yet without sin What a change does this make in the whole Gospel Had not the Church of Rome found out some better security for Sinners in the Mediation of Saints and Angels and the Blessed Virgin what a hopeless state had we been in For all that the Gospel tells us is That God in great love and goodness to Sinners sent his Son to be our Saviour and that we might have the greater assurance of his pity and compassion for us he became Man Flesh of our Flesh and Bone of our Bone and not only so but submitted to all the weaknesses and infirmities of our Natures to the greatest shame and reproach to the sharpest pains and the most infamous Death that he might the better know what our temptations and sufferings are in this World and might be more sensibly affected with our condition in all our sufferings This one would have thought should have given the greatest security to Sinners of his readiness to help them who did and suffered all this for them and this is the only security which the Gospel of our Saviour gives us But it seems
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
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-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