of Christ's Church For to perswade people the more that their Traditions are necessary they exalt them above the Authority of the Holy Scriptures and advance such doctrines and propose such questions as might make any man an Atheist that will hearken to them How do you know say they that these Writings that bear Moses's name have been written by him How do you know that St. Matthew St. Mark St. Mark St. Luke and St. John are Authors of the Gospel that St. Paul St. James and St. Peter have written the Epistles unless it be by Tradition Have you seen the first Originals of these Writings that you credit so much And if you did see them who is it can affirm that they were written by these great Apostles that have been dead so long unless you believe the men of our days who have received what they affirm either by writing or otherwise from the hear-say of their Forefathers This we name Tradition Pighius argues in this manner Hierarch Eccles l. 1. c. 2. This was also my reason and argument that I have often made use of but when I had seriously examined its strength its veracity and design I found it to be but weak and tending to undermine the foundations of our Faith of our Laws and Religion for if I might have the liberty to propose such questions I might as well make others which shall intangle them in as great a difficulty as theirs do us How know you may I say that your Tradition is good and true How do you know that such as affirm St. Peter to have been Bishop of Rome speak truth How came you to be perswaded that there is a Bishop of Rome have you seen him How are you certain that the Pardons and Indulgences that you receive came from him that he hath confirmed them with his signature could not the persons that have delivered them to you counterfeit his hand May not an Atheist make use very well of this argument and ask How do you know that there is any other God besides the Sun have you ever seen him have you ever spoken with him How do you know that there are three Persons in the Godhead How do you know that Jesus Christ hath lived upon earth that there have been Apostles c. This is the drift and end of these questions which we must reject as the Devils cunning to ensnare our Faith Hearken not to those that will speak in this manner saith St. Austin Confess l. 6. c. 5. How knowest thou that these Books proceed and are derived unto men from the Spirit of a true God for this we must believe above all things And Tertull. contra Hermogen I acknowledge the fulness of the Scripture Hermogenes cannot find there any pretence for his errours therefore he and his fellows flye to the assistance of Tradition And elsewhere he saith Take away from Hereticks that which is common to them with the Heathens and confine them to the Holy Scriptures and they can no longer subsist De Resur carnis I think this answer is a sufficient reply to the Papists Many others have been given which are to be read in the Books of Controversie It is my judgment that God hath fully as much power as men and that his voice is as efficacious and perfect as ours We are to be distinguished by our voices and speeches as when a Son hears his Fathers voice he needs not that a Servant should inform him that his Father speaks likewise our Saviour Christ assures us that his sheep hear his voice and know it We need no other but Christ's voice to know that it is His that He speaks unto us in the Holy Scriptures Let not the Papists propose any such questions for the future and let them take notice of what St. Jerome tells us upon Hagg. That the things that are invented are false as for example such as are said to be the Apostles traditions which have no authority nor testimony from the Holy Scriptures are mark'd by God's sword § From this Doctrine of Tradition proceeds their Faith of Miracles a Faith as ill grounded and ridiculous as the Traditions themselves that are but old wives tales We may judge of such as are related to us of former ages by them that are published and performed in our days of a thousand there is scarce one that hath the least appearance of reality if we will but seriously consider and examin them Nevertheless they are as boldly delivered for truths in the Popish Pulpits as the Gospel I have declared many being forced thereunto by my Office that I knew to be very false Several persons of the common people have related to me accidents that have happened in places of devotion which they look'd upon as notable Miracles but when I have examined them well I have understood that they were but natural effects If they had addressed themselves to some other persons their belief and declarations had passed as currant as Christ's Resurrection from the dead and Lazarus rising out of the Sepulchre they had been recorded and laid up for posterity to read For example A Country fellow comes to me with two or three of his neighbours assuring me that his wife had been at the last gasp and that because he had offered her to St. Mathurin or St. Anne the very next day she recovered of her distemper But he did not tell me that the Physitian that had judged her sickness so desperate was but a Country Chyrurgeon who hath scarce seen the outside of Physick Books and therefore knew not how to judge of a disease by the symptoms I have healed many in this manner by prescribing to them no other receipt but patience I did not discover to them that the dangerous distemper which had taken from the Patient speech proceeded from a Crisis or the turning of the blood or from the working of some violent physick Another comes to me and tells me that his child hath been thought to be dead for several hours but when in time he comes to take notice that it was a Convulsion-fit or the Falling-sickness he don't go back to acquaint the Priest that what he thought to be death is but a disease Who is it that would not have really believed to be true what the Bishop of Anger 's published in print he is a person not easily to be perswaded he caused an exact enquiry to be made and was certainly informed that Jesus Christ had visibly appeared in the Parish-Church of Ulmes in the Priests hands as he was saying Mass Yet he hath been forced to acknowledge to the shame of the whole Church that it was but a fiction of the Priest and a few Parishioners who thought to enrich themselves by that means If this Priest had but dyed a few days after he had been Canonized for a Saint but he hath lived and declared by his Life what manner of man he is the Bishop hath been forced for his scandalous behaviour
serious examination of all these things that there can be nothing more contrary than these two things the ancient Christian Rome and that which appears now the Church then with the modern the Faith and Christian Religion under the Popes Government with that Faith and Religion which the Romans first embraced and professed a long whiles under the Teachers and Bishops which the Apostles left them Let any man read over the Gospel and the Records of the Primitive Christians since the time of the Apostles until the fourth or fifth Centuries to seek what Church Jesus Christ established upon the unmoveable foundation of His Word and Merits let him take notice of that which St. Luke describes better with his Pen than with his skilful Pencil of that which all the approved Writers of the Ecclesiastical Affairs immediately succeeding do represent unto us which professed no other belief but in Jesus Christ which had rejected an Angel from Heaven if he had preached any other Doctrine but that which is contained in the Holy Gospel and in the other Books of Sacred Scripture This Church acknowledged no other but Christ looked upon such as named themselves of Apollo's Party of Peter's or Paul's as so many Sectaries and allowed of no other Judge of Controversies and Governour but Jesus Christ Call but to mind all that you have ever read or heard of this Church since its beginning until the time of the Bishop of Rome's usurpation of the Sovereign Power under the name of Pope and compare that Church of Rome with this in our days examine the Tenents Maxims Laws Behaviour and Customs of both and you will be forced to confess that they are not the same but two Churches as much differing the one from the other as the day from the night We must not therefore mention the Antiquity of this Church but as of a languishing and decayed Body we may say she is ancient in the same manner as we say of women that shamefully yield themselves to pleasure in their old age whilst they were young chast and beautiful they were worthily esteemed and admired of every one but since age and lechery time and debauchery seises upon them they become so strangely altered that they seem not to be the same persons We must look upon the Church of Rome in this manner She is no longer that beautiful Wonder that ravishing Spouse whose Picture Solomon labours to draw in chap. 4. of the Canticles but an old Whore the Mother of fornications and abominations of the earth mentioned by St. John Revel chap. 17. She is old I confess like unto those old Palaces which time and want of repair have brought to ruin I may express this by another resemblance She is ancient as are the old Bodies infected with Leprosie and abounding with vicious humours which putrefie the older they grow and corrupt the more with age the continuance of the disease having so changed their constitution that they are not to be known by the former idea's of their persons In this manner the Romish Church may be said to be ancient Antiquity doth but discover her shame reveal her Apostacy and declare her grievous Corruptions Let us say something more to the purpose Men are known by their speech the home-born Inhabitants of a Country are distinguishable from strangers by their language and pronunciation I desire no more to shew that the Church of Rome is not the true Church of Christ and that the present Church is not the same as that which was first established Listen to the language of both and you shall find a vast difference hearken to the Popes language and to that of Jesus Christ to what the one commands and the other forbids to what the first affirms and the latter denies to what Christ with his Apostles preach and the Pope with his Doctors declare and publish We need but read the Holy Gospel and the Decretals of Rome the Scripture and the Canons of the Council of Trent the Books of the ancient Fathers and the Belief of the Jesuits and of modern Authors to understand that the Church which stiles her self Christian Catholick Apostolick and Roman is nothing of all that and deserves none of those glorious Titles for she is neither Christian nor Catholick nor Apostolick nor Roman if we take the Roman Church for what she was anciently She cannot be properly named Christian because she acknowledgeth another Lord and Superiour besides Jesus Christ and denies Him to be the only Saviour of Men ascribing this honour to the Virgin Mary and others by saying that she may and doth save many by her interceding for them that the Pope is able to do the like by pardoning their sins and granting unto them his Indulgences and that they themselves may contribute to their own salvation by their good works c. She is not Catholick in that sense which the Romanists give to this word because she preaches a Doctrine not agreeable to that which God hath revealed to us by His Son and Ministers and prefers her own Traditions before the Oracles of the Holy Scripture because she invents many superstitious Laws which occasion grievous sins She is not Roman like unto that Church which was anciently so called for besides that primitive Church as we shall further take notice never did claim an universal Dominion for she did acknowledge the Churches of Antioch Alexandria and of Jerusalem and others to be her equals in all respects therefore her Bishops never believed themselves to be their superiours but their brethren and companions The Christians of those days understood nothing of Indulgences of Fraternities of Holy-water of Consecrated Crums of Relicks and Repositories of Medals and Beads and other such like Baubles in which the Church of Rome placeth the Holiness of Christianity They knew nothing of Holy Bread kept in little Tabernacles to be there worshipped they never had in their Churches Images like to those of Rome as may appear by the words of Epiphanius who lived in the fourth Century and writ to John the Patriarch of Jerusalem an Epistle which St. Jerome hath translated into Latin and therefore declares the Judgment of those two Eminent Persons In this Epistle he saith that when he went into a Church situate in a Country Village he perceived upon the door a veil where there was an Image to be seen therefore he caused it to be taken down and to be torn in pieces for saith he by this means men may introduce Idolatry amongst Christians By this passage we may understand that the Worship of Images was a strange thing in that Age as other Historians and after them Baronius are forced to confess Christians of those days did rather chuse to be burned alive and tormented than to suffer the least grain of Incense to fall from their hands into that fire which was intended to burn it in honour of an Image or Idol which they were required to worship Those wise and couragious Christians did
of an Apostle which he had renounced by his Apostacy from Christ He had denied his Master thrice therefore the Son of God proposes this question Lovest thou me three times All this is noted in the Roman Rubrick Thrice saith St. Cyril lib. 12. chap. 64. He commands him to feed His sheep to renew unto him the dignity and confirm him in the office of an Apostle for fear that the denial of his Lord which he had been guilty of through the weakness of the flesh should seem to have cashier'd him For it is to contradict what Jesus Christ said to all His Apostles when He appointed them to preach the Gospel to Mankind to teach and baptize c. to say that none but St. Peter had this power granted to him But a great many passages of Holy Scripture do expresly contradict this Doctrine You have but one Master but one Father which is in heaven saith Jesus Christ Matth. 23. vers 8. I am the good Shepherd I know my Sheep and lay down my life for them He saith not I am an hired Shepherd but the true Shepherd John 11. As there is but one Flock there can be but one Shepherd now who is this Shepherd Christ or the Pope My Father hath given me all power in heaven and in earth Matth. 28. I have power to pardon sins on earth Mark 2.10 God hath committed all judgment unto me and power to execute judgment John 5. How can these passages agree with the Popes Sovereign Authority Is it not a grievous affront offered to Jesus Christ to set this Divine Saviour aside as Bellarmin doth secluso Christo to help up the Pope to his Throne and invest him into his usurped Sovereignty If we are to acknowledge but one Shepherd but one Master but one Lord but one only Heir of the Fathers Power and Authority shall we not rob Christ of these His Divine Prerogatives if we should offer to bestow them upon the Pope I am not ignorant of all the distinctions made use of in this occasion to justifie the Pope from this Usurpation but they are but philosophical and aiery distinctions of the same nature as are commonly invented by the wit of man to justifie Aristotle from his Belief and Doctrine of the Worlds Eternity Thomas Aquinas and others from their saying that the Virgin Mary was conceived in sin Tertullian Origen St. Bernard and others from teaching that the Souls of Saints are not admitted to the Vision of God before the day of Judgment They are such like distinctions as the Pirrhenians invented to prove that white was black that a hat was the same as a slipper and an Ape like a Lion c. All these arguments and distinctions might be well resented from the mouth of Aristotle of Plato Pythagoras or from a Cartesian Philosopher but not from a Catholick Christian who ought not to mind what he might say but what he should believe in conscience not what he can maintain but what he is bound to embrace When an Article of our Faith is concerned such a one must set aside his disputing humour and the quirks and tricks of Logick taught him in the Schools to make a plain and sincere profession of the Truth For my part I think it is the best to declare ingenuously that there can be no solid reason found out to authorize our ascribing to a man that which belongs to Jesus Christ alone by his own words No man can justly condemn me for having denied to the Pope that which I read in the Gospel to be Christs Prerogative only It is not possible faith an ancient Father to give too much to God especially when man enters into competition with Him But listen I pray to what the Apostles and primitive Fathers say upon this Article There is one sovereign or great Shepherd of our Souls saith St. Peter Ep. 1. chap. 5. with whom when He shall appear we shall appear also with Him in glory such as feed the flock of Christ committed to their charge taking the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy lucre but of a ready mind neither as being lords over Gods heritage but c. Doth St. Peter establish here the Popes Monarchy doth not he rather undermine the foundation of it No man saith St. Paul can lay another foundation but that which is already laid Jesus Christ There is one Lawgiver Who art thou saith St. James that judgest another He hath the Keys of David that opens and none can shut that shuts and no man can open Revel 3. How doth this agree with that which the Papists would perswade us of St. Peter and of the Pope Ought we not to gather from these passages Doctrines contrary to their belief No man can lay another foundation c. They are therefore much deceived that affirm that St. Peter is the foundation of the Christian Church and that the Pope is the head There is but one Lawgiver the Pope therefore hath no authority to command and appoint Laws He is to be looked upon as a Deceiver when he would perswade us that they are all out of the Church that will not acknowledge his power Jesus Christ hath the Key of Heaven He opens and no man can shut c. I must therefore seek an entrance from Him if He opens me the door I shall be admitted maugre the Pope his Priests and Excommunications if He shuts it to me the Pope hath no Absolution nor Indulgence of a sufficient efficacy and power to open it All the primitive Doctors confirm this Doctrine they ascribe to Jesus Christ only that which the Papists ascribe to St. Peter and to the Pope whom they have made his Successor When Jesus Christ saith St. Chrysostome Tom. 3. Ser. de pent hath said upon this Rock I will build my Church He did not say upon Peter for He hath not built His Church upon a man but upon this Faith What means saith St. Austin Tract 10. in Epist Joan. what means He by these words upon this Rock I will build my Church He means upon this Faith because he had said Thou art Christ the Son of the living God St. Ambrose St. Hilary Theophylact and many others affirm the same thing Optat. Millevitanus speaking of Pope Siricius he doth not call him Master or Holy Father c. but Noster Socius our Companion Contra Parmen lib. 2. Art thou bordering upon Achaia saith Tertullian de Praet cap. 36. thou art near to Corinth if thou art joyning to Macedonia thou hast Philippi Thessalonica if thou canst go over into Asia thou shalt find Ephesus and if thou neighbourest upon Italy thou art not far from Rome where we have authority Thus the Primitive Fathers discourse unto us of the Church of Rome They never ascribed unto her any more power or priviledge than to all the other Churches Let any man therefore judge what impudency and presumption the Popes are guilty of in that they claim a
to be very true when I look'd upon it with the Popish Spectacles which they give to all that read their Writings or study in their Schools and judged this Church to be the best and holiest Hath not Jesus Christ said I have promised to St. Peter that his Faith should never fail doth not he mean that his Successors should be always Infallible hath he not said in celebrating his Holy Supper that the Bread was his Body and the Wine his Blood expresly and in proper terms c. In this manner I did argue upon all the Articles of the Popish Faith concluding always to its advantage But when I had more narrowly Examined these matters alone without partiality I found that I was very far from Truth that all these Articles of Faith were not conformable to Holy Scripture but altogether contrary and the Popish Religion opposite to that of Jesus Christ of the Apostles and of the Primitive Fathers § For where shall we find any thing of the Pope's Infallibility in the Holy Scripture shall not we find rather that the holiest of men are liars Psal 115. 11. and 61.10 That we fail all in many things and that if any man fails not in word he may boast of being a perfect man Jam. 3. and St. John informs us that we are all Sinners Moreover this Infallibility is according to the judgment of the Popish Doctors one of its Divine Attributes stiled by them Uncommunicable how can they therefore say that God hath given it to a man and why to the Pope of all other men seeing that according to the Papists confession he is many times a very wicked man And St. Peter himself unto whom the Son of God had promised that his Faith should never fail from whence they would establish this Doctrine was guilty of a great mistake concerning the Circumcision of the Jews and Gentiles as St. Paul affirms I have resisted him to his face saith he for he was to be blamed Is it possible that the Pope chosen by a company of men who know not whom they pitch upon and promoted many times by Legerdemain by Bribes subtilty temporal Interests Princes favours Is it possible that these Popes who are to be all Italians born elected out of the number of Cardinals and so aged that they can scarce do any good but by others Is it possible that these Popes promoted by the assistance of Whores and the Cardinals Courtizans as Paronius and Bellarmin and others acknowledge should be more infallible than St. Peter chosen by Christ himself How can we imagin that such a man should be a Treasury intrusted with Divine knowledge and the will of God that his voice pronounced out of his Chair should be the voice of Heaven that he should be able to cause the Holy Ghost to go and come at his pleasure and to oblige God to ratifie and confirm all his Laws in the World to command when he commands to prohibit when he prohibits to damn when he damns and to save when he saith the word Before we can believe this they must deprive us of our judgments and make us become beasts before we can become Christians and deal with us worse than Mahomet deals with his Mussulmans The Pope being assisted by some of his Brethren hath pronounced the Sentence which they say is ex Cathedra and condemned Jansenius and his followers he hath declared them to be Hereticks must I believe it as an Article of Faith because he saith that in the Book of this Learned Bishop there are five Propositions the same as were condemned heretofore in Calvin and that only from the information of the holy Fathers the Jesuits Must I take all this as an Article of my Faith although Mr. Arnaldus and other Doctors of the Port-Royal have proved to all that can but read that these Propositions are not be found in his Books The Pope saith that Peter d'Acantara Francis de Sales and Pius V. are He-Saints in Heaven that Mary Magdelen of Pazzi Mother Rose and others are She-Saints he commands us to pray to them If I doubt of it and speak as the wise Son of Sirach Eccl. 9. whose Book is received amongst the Canonical That no body knows whether he be worthy of love or hatred much less doth he know this of others if I should say as the Gospel that it belongs to God to judge men and that all Judgment is left unto Jesus Christ or as St. Paul that the Judgments of God are unsearchable and that therefore I leave it to him I am an Heretick amongst the Papists Since these He and She-Saints have been Canonized it is become an Article of Faith to believe them in Heaven Before I was at my own choice to credit what I pleased but since that time I am no longer free the Pope hath said it we must therefore believe it if I despise their Mediation if I neglect to pray to them out of a distrust of their happiness and credit with God I am an Infidel and an Athiest in the judgment of the Papists Is not this to mock God and men Some of them answer that the Pope may erre in matters of fact but not in matters of right Bellarmin de Po. l. 4. cap. 2. But we all know that most of their questions of right depend upon matters of Fact and that the judgment of right which concerns not only the Doctrines of the Holy Scripture but an infinit number of other things received by Tradition proceeds from the testimony and information which they have received of several matters of Fact Suppose therefore that all these informations should be false as they may be for the Pope who only is to be look'd upon as Infallible according to the Papists Doctrine hath not seen all these things he believes it from the testimony of others For Example It is an Article of Faith amongst them that St. Peter hath been twenty five years Bishop of Rome that he hath added the word enim to the words of the Consecration saying Hoc est enim corpus meum and not as it is in the Gospel Hoc est corpus meum that he did mingle Water with the Wine in the Mass If these things that are all matters of fact which cannot be proved by Holy Scripture be false as we have cause to imagin what certainty can we have of the right and truth which depends upon it § Moreover I find the Papists Sacrament of the Lords Supper differing very much from the description which Christ and his Apostles have left us It is the bread of life say the Romanists the bread of Angels the Heavenly bread the Body and Bloud of Jesus Christ I have always believed it to be so I think there is no good Christian that doubts of it We all know that it is no common Bread no body will contradict them in this St. Justin shall not be condemned for affirming it That the Bread becomes the Body of Christ and
to the Apostles Doctrine and the Practice of the first Christians we must have a notable Faith to believe this The inconveniencies which they mention to colour their Change are ridiculous They tell us that some men wear long Beards and that a drop of Christ's Blood may chance to drop upon them and that some that are sick may by this means give their Diseases to others c. But how comes it to pass that Jesus Christ did not foresee all these inconveniencies were the Bishops of this Council wiser than Christ himself Did not the men of our Saviour's days and in the Primitive time wear long Beards were they not as subject to spreading Diseases as well as in the time of this Council St. Paul tells us that Jesus Christ hath offered himself up once for all as a Sacrifice but they affirm that he offers himself not only once but every day and a thousand times a day and in a thousand distinct places in every corner where the Mass is sung which is say they a true and real Sacrifice of the Body of Jesus Christ Whom must we believe what the Papists say or what St. Paul But suppose the Mass were a true and real Sacrifice of Jesus Christ a second death and his very Passion as they teach are not their Priests Murderers and Executioners from whence proceeds this effect is it not from a real cause that is in them Whence is this Sacrifice is it not from a true and real Sacrificator Moreover according to their own Doctrine three conditions are chiefly required in every Sacrifice the Offering the Consecration and the Destruction where shall they find the latter in this Sacrifice of the Mass Do they destroy the Body of Jesus Christ if they answer that they destroy the Bread and the Wine they don't answer to the question for it must be the Sacrifice that must be consumed and destroyed for either we must say that only the Bread and the Wine are sacrificed or that the Body of Jesus Christ is there destroyed and consumed Hence we must conclude that he is both dying and immortal dead and risen and worshipped by the Angels and at the same time eaten by Men things altogether inconsistent and impossible But where do they find that we must worship the Bread and the Wine as being united to the Body of Jesus Christ that we must kneel at every time that we see them as before God himself if he were visibly present Doth not Jesus Christ command the contrary when he saith that the time is come that we must worship God in spirit and in truth How in spirit if we worship the Bread and the Wine How in truth if Jesus Christ be not there really present as we have good cause to question it and as it may happen according to their own saying For in case the Priest be not a true Priest in regard of some Canonical impediment or if his intention be elsewhere in celebrating Mass what kind of Mass will it be and what shall the People adore Some young men come to receive Orders very much unprepared whom the Lord Bishop saith that he hath no design to receive and admit to the Priesthood as for example when they send other persons in their stead that are more Learned to be examined for them when they make use of false and supposed Letters when they are mentioned in a Decree or deserve an Excommunication All these persons according to the Popish Doctors are not really Priests they have not the power to make the Body of Jesus Christ although they may pronounce the words of the Sacrament Others have not a right intention out of negligence or design these cannot cause Jesus Christ to come down under the species of the Bread and the Wine although they pronounce the words of the Consecration I have known a Priest that caused a noble Dame to Receive almost every day at the end of his Mass to hide from her Husband the secret correspondency that was between them and to cover it over with a fair shew of Devotion and for four or five years he never gave unto her a consecrated Wafer for fear of committing Sacriledge by causing her to receive in an evil disposition And about six months ago some Priests of a Town where I have dwelt to satisfie a devout Woman faln into Frenzy that did earnestly desire them to admit her to the Communion resolved amongst themselves to put an unconsecrated Wafer into the Chalice which should be separate from the rest In such a case I desire you the Divines of the Church of Rome to tell me if you believe that Jesus Christ is not present in the Bread and Wine but when the Priest pronounceth his words with an intention to make him come down from Heaven whether the people that assist there and worship the Wafers don't commit a grievous Idolatry Yes you will say they commit a material Idolatry But pray tell whether the Priest and the penitent Woman the Whoremaster and the Whore did not commit a crime in your judgment was not this as great and as formal an Idolatry as ever was seen I shall not mention many other stories of the baseness Sacriledges and Idolatries of the Romish Priests which they are guilty of in this occasion for I intend not to make a satyrical Libel of this serious Discourse I shall only say in general terms that if the Father-Confessors of the Church of Rome would but speak truth and declare what I have heard there is no reasonable man of any perswasion but will say that which we cannot utter without blasphemy that Jesus Christ would be extravagant and mad if he were in the Mass as the Papists believe § Purgatory is another new Article of their Creed which hath no ground nor appearance in Holy Scripture The Papists mention a certain place out of the Maccabees Book 2. ch 12. v. 43. but this Book St. Jerom praefat in Proverb and many more as Cajetan in fine Comment in hist Esther and Cardinal Hugo in Prolog Hier. in lib. Regum declare to be Apocrypha Another passage is cited out of St. Matth. 12. where Jesus Christ saith that there are some Sins that shall not be pardoned neither in this world nor in the world to come From hence the Papists conclude by a Maxim of Right Exceptio firmat regulam in contrarium that there are some Sins that shall be pardoned in another world that is to say according to their meaning in Purgatory But we may easily perceive that they miserably wrest this passage and argue very impertinently to make this conclusion Some Sins shall neither be pardoned in this world nor in the world to come ergo There is a Purgatory A Chymist would sooner extract ten ounces of Oyl out of a Pumice-stone than to gather this conclusion from the premisses But there is nothing impossible to the Popish Divines they can make a fire with any wood when they are to warm
careful to oblige her domesticks to live well according to the Laws of God I cannot believe that such a person can be damned nor I neither said I to my self I am of your mind nevertheless it was then my interest to dissemble the inward perswasion of my mind Don't let that trouble you I was about to say to such if you have not committed a more grievous sin than that I shall not load you with an heavy penance I am certain that many are of my mind in the Church of Rome It is a cheat and a design to force people to believe it as confidently as the most holy mysteries and a great error to tell them that they cannot have any hopes of salvation if they are not perswaded that the others are assuredly damned although God commands us to the contrary by his Apostle not to judge others Rom. 14.3 Jam. 4.12 and assures us in his Gospel that there needs nothing else to attain unto salvation but the keeping of his Commandments which the Protestants profess to do and perform Therefore I did often argue in this manner It is not possible to be damned without sin for sin is that alone that shuts heaven and draws upon us the wrath of God Now there is no sin but is against his commandments either we must omit what he enjoyns or commit what he forbids Every one therefore that believes what God hath revealed unto us by his Prophets and Apostles and by Christ and shall keep the commandments of God shall infallibly be saved the Scripture declares it He that believeth in me although he were dead yet shall he live saith our Saviour Joh. 11.25 and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never dye He don't tell us we must believe in the Pope to be saved but we must believe in him He repeats these words in several passages of the Gospel Verily verily I say unto you if any man keep my word he shall never see death he speaks the same to that man which enquired of him what he was to do to be saved If thou wilt enter into life keep the commandments Matth. 29.16 when he enquired which Christ answered Thou shalt not kill thou shalt not commit adultery thou shalt not steal c. Now the Protestants profess and observe these two things to believe in God and to obey his commandments This is their Faith and the principles of their Religion to believe all that God hath revealed and to do all that he hath commanded Wherefore should they be damned Because they don't believe in the Pope answers a Papist and because they don't keep the commandments of the Church of Rome But my friend from whence hast thou that these two things are also necessary for thy salvation is it from God or from man can you find in any passage of the Holy Scripture or in the three Creeds of your Religion any thing of this doctrine It is true you shall find I believe in God the Father Almighty Creator of heaven and earth and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord c. You shall not find there that you must believe in the Pope that the Bishop of Rome is the Head of all the Christian Church that he is infallible and that he must be obeyed as God himself You shall not find there any mention made of the Sacrifice of the Mass of Purgatory Indulgences the Worshipping of Images nor of the other Articles of the Popish Religion And the two other Creeds made about two or three hundred years after the first to explain and paraphrase it speak of no such things Listen attentively at your Morning Prayers or when Mass is sung in your Churches publickly you shall hear nothing of the Pope nor of his Church you shall only hear of the Articles which Protestants believe with less additions than you for they credit them only because God hath revealed them they will have no mixture of humane authority with the divine Look over all the commandments of God's Law you shall not find there any thing of praying to Saints of worshipping of Images of abstinence from meats of fasting in Lent of confession of sins to men but there you shall find that we must worship God that we must not make any graven Image c. All these commandments are kept more religiously by the Protestants than by the Papists what reason therefore can we find for their Damnation how come they to be so bold as to thrust this into their Creed as an Article of Faith ambition and antichristian rage against them hath perswaded them to it But I wonder how they can offer to maintain this doctrine with this addition that there is no salvation but by an union with the Pope whom they affirm to be the Head of the Church and by consequence to influence and give life to every one of its Members Suppose the Pope is a wicked man as many such have been according to their own confession if he be covetous profane lechrous an Heretick a Negromancer or a hellish Monster how can any relation and union with such a one do me any good can he make me partaker of that holiness which he himself wants I have good cause to fear that he will infect me with his vices Is it not a grievous mistake and a ridiculous fancy to say that I cannot please God unless I communicate with and be related to his enemy and that I must not expect salvation but by a communion with him that is assuredly damned Nevertheless this is one of the Articles of the Popish Creed and Faith § Their Doctrine concerning Traditions is also contrary to the Holy Word of God It tends to withdraw us from our faith and belief in it If Jesus Christ did now live in the world he might with reason treat the Papists in the same manner as he did the Pharisees In vain do they honour me teaching for doctrines the commandments of men for laying aside the commandment of God ye hold the tradition of men as the washing of pots and cups and many other such like things you do transgress the commandment of God by your tradition Mark 7.7 13. Matth. 15.3 The most part of the Papists Principles and Articles of Faith are nothing but Doctrines and Commandments of men which have altogether changed the appearance of Christ's Church in all those Kingdoms where they have been admitted I might make this appear more plainly if I did but run over all the grievous impertinencies that are by this means received as so many Articles of Faith in the Church of Rome if I did but make an enumeration of all the false Miracles published for true but I should exceed the narrow limits prescribed to my self I shall therefore confine my self to one thing that hath very much scandalised me in this Doctrine it is the reason and expedient that they have to maintain it which tends to the total subversion of Christian Religion and to the destruction
to be kept only 'till noon others to prevent all inconveniencies have appointed all Feast-days to be observed on the Sunday and their Fasts on the Saturday So that yet we may see two men of the same Village or of the same Family of a different perswasion one obliged to keep a Festival-day for fear of a mortal sin and the other not nay the same person is ingaged to this observation if he stays at home but if he steps over a gutter or rivulet to go into another Parish he commits no such sin and may do what he pleaseth Can any man think that these practices proceed from God Yet this they believe and the Casuists amongst the Papists affirm § Auricular Confession is another Invention of man's brain The Romish Clergy have imposed it out of policy as a necessary means to keep men in their duty and to hinder them from mischievous attempts The design was good but the means imployed is unjust and tyrannical I may safely name it so without fear for I know sufficiently what I am to think and say upon this subject I have read over and over the Holy Scriptures and the Fathers concerning this matter and because I did not trust to my own judgment I intreated the assistance of some Learned Men of my acquaintance to see whether they could find any thing out of St. Ambrose St. Austin or other Fathers to assist and confirm my Meditations that I was to deliver in Sermons which I composed upon this Subject but I could never see nor find any passage there that confirms this politick Institution as it is practised in the Church of Rome We may find that we must confess our sins unto God but not to men we may also find that it is well done to declare and discover the troubles of our consciences to them that have the rule over us and are appointed by God to instruct us that we may understand and receive from them seasonable comforts and instructions This is very useful to us and sometimes absolutely necessary But it is not required that we should reveal all our weaknesses mention all our sins small and great to particularise their number and quality and all their circumstances and aggravations to a sinful man as vicious as my self who ought to confess also it may be to me as the Priests of the same Church confess their sins to one another it is not required that I should make this confession as it is practised with so many ridiculous questions that teach us to commit sins that we knew not before The Casuists are of opinion that when a Priest should be inclinable to the most abominable sins of lechery and in danger to be tempted to them by every apprehension yet when he receives the Confession of a Virgin he had better omit nothing than to cause her to pass over any thing and to commit by this act a material sin in their opinion This can never be proved unless the Papists offer to do it by a new Bible by other Evangelists and other Interpreters than have yet written upon the Holy Scriptures I could never digest the doctrine of the Popish Divines that teacheth us two kind of sorrows required in true repentance the one they name Contrition which is say they when we are grieved to have offended God for his sake because he is so infinitely good and because sin displeaseth him this grief is sufficient to obtain from God the forgiveness of our sins in case we cannot conveniently go to confess them for if a Priest be present we cannot be dispensed from this duty The other grief or sorrow named Attrition is when a man is grieved to have offended God out of worldly interest and selfishness because sin deprives us of the hopes of Heaven and condemns us to Hell c. This sorrow say they is not sufficient of it self to obtain the absolution of our sins but only when it is accompanied by the Priest's absolution That is to say that although a man upon his death-bed shall confess all his sins if the Priest will be so hard-hearted to deny him absolution in case he departs in that estate with such a sorrow in his heart he shall be damned for all that Let any of the Popish Divines tell me which of the holy Evangelists have taught them this distinction which of the Apostles did ever preach such doctrine as this Nevertheless I think they have reason to recommend it because the salvation or the damnation of souls is so highly concerned according to their teaching and many times of ten thousand souls in one Church This bastard Sacrament is not of the number of the Sacraments of which we are never to be partakers but once for it is commanded every year at Easter and some persons are partakers of it almost every day as is usually practised in the Church of Rome What is the reason that neither Christ nor his Apostles have ever mentioned it Or rather how came these persons to be so bold as to impose these distinctions as Articles of Faith Is it possible that the Priest's presence or absence or the opportunity of Confession makes our repentance true or false according to such trivial circumstances If I am at a distance from a Romish Priest am I therefore to be look'd upon as if I were at as great a distance from God and in a worse estate than another from whose sides the Priest is not to be drawn Doth this cause my sorrow to be less or more able to prevail upon God's mercy Doth true repentance depend upon the Priest's good pleasure And Attrition which is but an imperfect sorrow of no validity of it self in God's sight is it more considerable more perfect and more able to save me when a Priest shall have mark'd me with the sign of the Cross upon my forehead when he shall have whispered two or three words in my ear What am I the better for all this Is God's Justice thereby satisfied and his Mercy more inclinable to pardon me According to this ridiculous Doctrine suppose I should weep and lament for my sins as bitterly as St. Peter with as many expressions of holy love as Mary Magdalen if I do not confess them to a Priest I shall be nevertheless damned for them And suppose I should be guilty of the most horrid crimes if I can but imitate this imperfect sorrow a superficial displeasure to have offended God for the love that I bear to my self if I reveal them to a Priest I shall be saved notwithstanding Wretched Judas hadst thou had but a Romish Priest at the foot of thy Gibbet thy Soul might have gone streight to heaven for he performed all the conditions required by the Popish Doctors in a true Penitent for they say that three particulars are to be observed the compunction or pricking of the heart the confession and satisfaction compunction in the soul confession of the mouth and satisfaction of the hand Judas was