procurement Oh says the Cardinal those persons were disaffected to the Catholick Interest and these are my good deeds with which I intend to present my Saviour A story that needs no other invective than the bare relation But I would not willingly accuse all while some only are liable to this charge For many Romish Doctors mean no more by merit than that obligation God hath by promise laid upon himself to reward our good works And this I think none that understand the Nature of the Divine Promises can gainsay These men we accuse only for the use of a proud improper term tho once us'd by the ancient Fathers in an innocent sence 2. By their Doctrine of penance and Purgatory Whereas the Scripture tells us that Christ hath pai'd down a compleat Ransom for our sins and it is through his Blood alone we can expect a freedom from the punishments we have deserved yet this Church hath Coind new distinctions between the temporary and eternal punishments of sin as if tho the latter be remov'd by the Blood of Christ the former must be satissi'd for by our selves either in this Life or in Purgatory To this end they have given the Priests a commission to injoyn penances for sin as satisfactions to Divine Justice and preventive of surther punishment Penances so Ludicrous and Trifling that it is a sign of great infatuation in any that can believe by such cheap and easy performances to appease the anger of an offended Deity Penances consisting of little observances such as numbering their Prayers by their Beads saying so many Avemaries at some priviledg'd Altars in abstaining from Flesh for so many days in whipping their bodies in wearing hair-shirts and the cords of the particular Orders and numerous other little pieces of solly and superstition By these means do they take off sinners from their grateful love and duty to the Redeemer and earnest believing-applications to the Lord Jesus who is appointed by the Father as the sole Mediator of his Church and through whom alone we can expect deliverance from punishments whether temporal or eternal Of the same nature is their Doctrine of Purgatory a state of torments in the other world equal in degree tho not in continuance to those of Hell wherein those souls must sry who have not satisfi'd for their sins here till their friends give money to the Priest to pray them thence By this means the interests of the Clergy are advanc'd and the grandeur of that Church promoted This hath enrich'd their Abbies adorn'd their Chappels fill'd their Coffers and made good provision for all the begging Orders among them For while they scar'd the people with such a terrible Doctrine and yet pretended a power of Praying them thence who would not give liberally to those who were able to deliver them from such extremity of torment A Doctrine which the honester of their Doctors acknowledg is not to be found in cripture and these who pretend to prove it thence have brought such lame and farfetch'd proâ—â—s as are as easily refuted as mention'd the only Text that can with the least probability be stretch'd to this sense is that of 1 Cor. 3. 15. He himself shall be sav'd yet so as by fire But this is but a proverbical speech and by the context the meaning plainly appears to be that he who holding the essentials of Christianity shall corrupt it by additions of other disagreeing Doctrines is in a very hazardous condition and tho his salvation is possible yet it is but as a mans whose house is on fire about his ears extreamly dubious and very uncertain which how applicable to the Romanists hath been excellently showed by others and will further appear by this discourse But were there such a place as this what a derogation is it to the blood and prerogative of Christ to think that money can procure a Release from thence The Psalmist I am sure tells us that they who trust in their wealth and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches none of them can redeem his brother or pay to God a Ransom for him Psal 49. 6. 7. But this is but Old-Testament-Divinity and Purgatory hath been built since that time or rather the infallible Head of the Church will not be guided by the Laws of the Bible For tho St. Peter would not sell the gifts of the Spirit for Money yet a fair purchase of eternal Life may be bought of his Successor if God would as willingly consent as he And we may invert St. Peters words and apply them to the Romanists 1 Pet. 1. 18. They are bought with corruptable things and redeem'd by silver and gold from the imaginary flames of Purgatory tho not from that vain conversation receiv'd by tradition from their Fathers But we have not so learn'd Christ Scripture mentions but two places Heaven and Hell if we lead Pious and Holy lives we may receive death with a joyful welcome and need not allay our comforts by the fears of an after-reckoning in another world And tho we may have been guilty of many venial sins in a Gospel-sense through infirmity surprise and sudden temptation or of any more mortal ones of a deeper die yet upon our sincere repentance the Blood of Christ without the fire of Purgatory will cleanse us from all these and present us pure and spotless to the Father But if we die in an impenitent state we shall be presently doom'd to endless remediless torments and all the wealth of the Indies will never procure us a deliverance thence I might further mention their practice of selling Indulgences for money which happily occasioned the reformation by Luther By this they they have made easy composition for sins and the Taxa Cameroe Apostolicoe a book publickly printed amongst them sets down at what easy rates an absolution may be obtained for the most unnatural vices Now what a direct tendency hath this to make men set light by their sins tread under foot the blood of the Son of God and account the death and sufferings of the Lord Jesus perfectly unnecessary 3. By their doctrine of the sacrifice of the Mass as a formal expiation of the living and dead Tho the Apostle to the Hebrews makes the great excellence of Christs sacrifice above those of the Levitical Law to consist in this That it was so full and compleat that it needs no repetition Heb. 10. 12 14. Yet the Romanists have made it a great part of their Religion to offer him every day in the Mass as a propitiatory proper sacrifice and thus make his former sacrifice on the cross incompleat and imperfect or rather wholly unnecessary for Christ instituted the Sacrament before his passion and if he then offer'd up himself as a propitiation for our sins what need was there at all of his bloody death and passion It is acknowledged that the Eucharist may be called a sacrifice in the same improper sense as our prayers and alms-deeds and repentances
tells us they made no Images and Pictures at Rome till 170 Years after the Building of that City but afterwards they carv'd him out in Wood and Stone and still worship'd inferior Deities with the same external reverence they paid to their Jupiter To thâ—se they dedicated Temples consecrated Altars burnt large portions of Incense and ador'd with the same outward expressions of Devotion and thus they debased his Infinite Power as if he needed a rabble of petty pigmy Deities to rule the World To him the common people being influenced by the tales of the wanton Poets Ascrib'd the most enormous Vices the Murders and Adulteries Sodomies and Rapes which are related of ' Jupiter of Crete were appli'd by them to him whom they call'd Supreme And tho many Philosophers entertain'd more refind Notions yet they dared not contradict the vulgar Follies without incurring the Odium of the Rabble and join'd in the same Rites and vile Ceremonies and observ'd the same Customs with them Indeed among the common people reason was debas'd below common sense the idle Fables of their iustful Poets were readily receiv'd Orvids Metamorphosis and Homers Iliads and the Divine Theology of the great Virgil were their Systems of Divinity The vilest of men who deserv'd publick Punishment on Earth were ador'd as Gods in Heaven and those whose memories ought to be loath'd and detested were reverenc'd with Divine Adoration in some places they worship'd bruit Beasts Cows and Dogs were deifi'd Serpents and Crocodiles were devoutly ador'd Apes and Monkeys receiv'd their submissive Prostrations so that it was very questionable which were more ridiculous the gods or their worshippers The Sun Moon and Stars Rivers and Elements the Fruits of their Trees Flowers in their Gardens Herbs in their Fields and the vilest inanimate things in nature were the objects of their religious worship they paid a Divine Veneration to the Diseases of their Bodies the Passions of their Minds and the Accidents of their Lives Nay further the cursed Fiends of Hell were treated with awful Reverence and the sworn Enemies to mankind had Temples and Altars consecrated to their honour thus vile were the Gods they ador'd and the Rites wherewith they worship'd them were equally abominable What were the Mysteries of their Religion but mixtures of the most extravagant folly and filthiness Their Eleusinia Sacra Floralia and Bacchanal Solemnities were compos'd of Antick tricks and such pieces of uncleanness as cannot be spoken without a blush nor thought of without polluting the mind with immodest Idea's What more Fantastick than their Auguries by the flight of Birds Presages by the smoak of Incense Fat of Sacrifices Intrails of Beasts and all the other Charms and Sorceries in their Worship these were the Notions the Gentiles entertain'd of God this was the Worship they paid unto him but the Christian Religion overturn'd the whole Fabrick of their Worship demolish'd their Altars silenc'd their Oracles brake down their Images and shew'd them the Folly and Superstition of which they had been so long guilty A Religion that gives us the best and most compleat Character of the Divine Attributes and represents him as a Being insinitely perfect in whom all the scatter'd excellencies of the creatures are concenter'd without any of their Imperfections A Religion that declares the Greatness of his Majesty the Infinity of his Power the unsearchableness of his Wisdom the Invariability of his Truth the Purity of his Nature and Boundlesness of his Goodness A Religion which gives us the most lovely Description of his Nature and naturally tends to work in us the most awful reverence and lowly humility silial fear and dependent confidence the most ardent Love and unspotted Purity chearsul Obedience to every Command and ready Submission to every Providence A Religion whose Mysteries are grave and serious becoming the Solemnities of Divine Worship without any mixtures of folly and prophaneness A Religion which declares Gods severe Indignation against Sin and love to vertue and goodness and strictly charges us to imitate the Divine Purity and thus become partakers of a Divine Nature And now no wonder that such a discovery as this was a terrible Alarm to that World that lay in wickedness No wonder that they who could injoy their Lusts without controul and plead the example of their gods in justification of their crimes were so hotly enrag'd against such as gave them a quite contrary discovery of the Divine Nature The light of the Gospel was hateful to them who were unwilling to be rous'd from their pleasing Slumbers and had rather have continued in their delusions Thus were the Apostles disturbers of the Heathen World by rectifying their gross Apprehensions concerning the Nature of God and calling them from Worshipping they knew not what to the Service of the only living and true God The Jews indeed had clearer discoveries of Gods Nature to them were committed his Oracles and in Judah was his name known But they had not such clear and satisfying light as we injoy under the Gospel they saw his back parts only but we behold his Face To them he was discover'd through a darkning veil but to us through a more perspicuous Glass His confining the special Testimonies of his Love to such a narrow spot of Ground as Judea did seem to represent him less amiable and diffusive in his goodness than WE have reason to apprehend him His so rigidly insisting on ceremonial Services and positive Institutions and connivence at many Breaches of moral Duties such as Polygamy Divorces upon light occasions and the Laws of Retaliation and Revenge did tend to beget a less awful sense of his Holiness and Purity than is due unto him In the Christian Religion the Divine Wisdom is displai'd in more lively Colours the Divine Goodness is written in more legible Characters his hatred to Sin his love to Piety is more perspicuously discover'd Never was there so lovely a Manifestation of all his Attributes as in the Redemption of the World by our Saviour the vastly extended Heavens and all the beauteous splendid Lights that thence dart down their Influences on the World and all the Flourishes of Divine Power and Wisdom which may be seen upon the Earth and all the admirable Acts of Providence whereby God hath startled his Enemies or sav'd his People afford not such exalted discoveries of the Divine Wisdom and Omnipotence as is legible in the Incarnation Life and Death of our Saviour The deluge of the old World the Flames of Sodom the Plagues of Egypt and all the Tremendous Judgments recorded in the Old Testament were not so sensible a Declaration of Gods Indignation against Sin as the anguish and direful Agonies of the Lord Jesus The miracles of Mercy extended to Noah and Abraham and Joseph and David and all the other Worthies of Israel give us not such elevated transporting Apprehensions of the depths of Divine Love as may be drawn from the consideration of that great My stery of Godliness God manifested
is Mysterious and the Doctrine of the Trinity is Incomprehensible to humane Reason but yet it is not repugnant to it The Unity of the three Persons of the Godhead transcends indeed our conceptions but reason connot prove it to be an impossibility or to include a contradiction for altho among creatures one nature is still join'd with one subsistence yet the Divine Nature being not of the same condition with created substances it can never be prov'd impossible that three Divine Persons should subsist in one Nature the manner indeed is incomprehensible to reason and it is not to be expected that a finite creature should be able fully to comprehend an infinite being In a word The Christian Religion gives us the most exalted lovely apprehensions of the Divine Nature without any of those jarring notions which the Heathens entertained and tho there be some mysteries in our Faith yet they tend only to exalt God and debase Man and 't is our duty to believe what God says of himself and to fall down and worship what we cannot comprehend But further the manner of worshipping God prescrib'd by the Apostles is highly suitable to his Majesty and becoming his Spiritual Nature not with the follies and extravagancies of the Heathens nor pompous and gaudy Ceremonies of the Jews but with a modest magnificence and comely simplicity with prayer and praise and singing and other solemn exercises of Devotion with a reverent celebration of its mysteries without I dolatry or Superstition on the one hand and without contempt of a Being so worthy of the most humble adoration on the other This is the method of Devotion in the Christian Church much more comely and decent and agreeable to the Nature of God and Reasons of Men than the butchery of Sacrifices and numerous gay solemnities among the Jews which except they had prefigured the great undertakings of the Messiah would never have been injoyn'd Much more then the ridiculous charms and impure rites of the Heathen Worship which the wisest among them were asham'd of and only join'd therein ut legibus jussa non ut diis grata as commanded by their laws not as pleasing to their Gods 2. Their Doctrine concerning mans reconciliation with God by the Lord Jesus tho it was above the sphere of reason to invent yet when once reveal'd appears highly satisfactory to reason for when man had wilfully broke the Divine Law and exposed himself to the threatned punishments of infinite justice God that he might signalize his mercy and fill the hearts and mouths of Men and Angels with the most ardent love and admiring Hallelujahs was pleas'd to dispence with his threatning and show himself ready to be reconcil'd Now what imaginable way can we think of more agreeable to reason whereby man may be restor'd to the divine favour shall he meerly pardon sinners this clemency would be but weakness and foolish pity for it would argue either that he wanted Power to effect what he threatned or was defective in Wisdom as if he thought his law unadvisedly made and foresaw not the inconveniences it would occasion Or that he was not infinite in Holiness who could so easily be reconcil'd to sinful rebels Besides this would weaken his Government over Angels and Men and encourage them to sin for the future in hopes of the same mercy and compassion Thus we see how unreasonable it is to imagine God should meerly pardon sinners It was necessary therefore that some satisfaction should be made and except this be proportionable to the offence the same inconveniences will still follow the repute of the Law will not be kept up God will still labour under the dishonourable reflections of Levity Impotence and Impurity and Men will be encouraged to sin for the future with hopes of an easy remedy This burden was too weighty for the shoulders of any creature such is the Malignity of sin and so great a dishonour to the Divine Male sty that it is impossible the services and sufferings of a meer creature should compensate for the affront It was necessary that God should satisfy Himfelf and because those satisfactions do most secure the ends of satisfaction which come as near the threatned penalty as may be 't was necessary he should become man live a life of misery and dye an accurfed death and endure such agonies and torments of Body and Soul as might represent more livelyly to the sons of men what their sins had deserved and come as near the penalty as the dignity and innocence of his Nature would permit Thus Gods hatred of sin is most clearly display'd and men are mosâ— effectually deterr'd from continuance in any iniquity Thus the Divine Wisdom and Power and Holiness and Mercy shine in their brightest lustre and conspire together in a most admirable harmony and agreement and that men might still be more apprehensive of their own vileness God not withstanding all the wonders of his love testifies his hatred to our sins by refusing to admit any immediate applications to him and resolving to accept of no services nor hear any prayers that are not perfum'd by the intercession of his beloved Son This is the admirable Gospel-method of propitiating the Divine Favour which we indeed dar'd not once to have thought of till God had reveal'd it but now it is made known appears to be only satisfactory to reason What the Sacrifices and Offerings and other contrived methods of satisfaction among the Jews and Gentiles were too weak to effect this this is done by the great Sacrisice of our Lord Redeemer 3. Their precepts and rules of Life were all reasonable and advantagious to our interest conducive to the health of our bodies the tranquility of our minds the peace of our consciences the sweetning of our tempers the exalting our natures the improvement of our estates the advancement of our reputation and the comfort of our lives By the practise of them we shall consult our private interest obtain the good will and respect of men and promote the publick benefit of all We shall act worthy of our selves and becoming our reason obtain the Divine Favour and resemble the Divine Nature What more comely and decent than a profound admiration of him who is so Glorious and excellent in himself An ardent love of him who is so kind and beneficial to us An awful reverence of him who is so Powerful Holy Wise and Just and a cheerful obedience to all his Laws who is our Soveraign and our Father our Friend and best Benefactor What more reasonable than prayer to him who is able to supply our wants and praise and thanksgiving to the same God who gives all the comforts of this life and from whom we expect the rewards of a better What more just and fit and conducible to our interest than that we should be upright in our dealings with our neighbour veracious in our words faithful in our trusts sincere in our contracts innocent and inoffensive in our