good the forementioned charge of Idolatry and of other Impious Practices and Principles against them that it is unimaginable how it should be possible that any who are not stark-blind or resolved that they will not see should not acknowledge them And as for the elaborate tricks whereby they endeavour to justifie themselves from those Accusations and to perswade the World that they are undeserved they may doubtless whensoever they shall have a mind to it devise others no less plausible with as little pains to make forcing of Virgins no Rape lying with other folks Wives no Adultery cutting of Purses no Theft Robbing of Churches no Sacrilege and in one word they may with as little exercise of their brains invent ways to do whatsoever is most flatly forbidden in the ten Commandments without being guilty of transgressing any one of them I might proceed to instance in very many other Doctrines of the Romish Church which by what we have said of the Christian Religion we may be perfectly assured are Anti-Christian but I will onely adde two or three more As their asserting the Insufficiency of the holy Scriptures for mens salvation and denying them to be the Sole Rule of Faith and joyning with them their own paltry Traditions as equally necessary to be believed and this against the express words of S. Paul to Timothy 2 Epist. 3 Chap. where he tells him that the holy Scriptures are able to make him wise unto Salvation through faith which is in Christ Iesus And that All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in Righteousness That the man of God may be perfect thorowly furnished unto all good works And their teaching that the Gospel is obscure and difficult to be understood even in things necessary to be believed and practised Which as it makes it greatly inefficacious for the purpose which we have proved it is designed for so doth it open a gap for vile interpretations of any part of it and exposeth it to the power of Heretiques and especially of the Romish ones to make it a mere Nose of Wax Which none can doubt that consider also therewith their Doctrine of Implicite Faith and that other upon which it is grounded viz. That of the Infallibility of their Church which as the Iesuites define is seated in the Pope's Chair But whether it be asserted that the Popes have an unerring faculty or they and their General Councils together this Doctrine being received as by them it is without the least ground for unquestionably true doth greatly hazard nay and even necessitate the betraying of men to the very worst both of opinions and practices whensoever this pretended infallible guide shall be pleas'd to propose them to them And whosoever believes it must to use the words of M r Chillingworth be prepared in mind to esteem vertue vice and vice vertue Christianity Anti-christianism and Antichristianism Christianity if the Pope shall so determine And this Doctrine without doubt is that which causeth those of the Papists to stick so fast in silthy 〈◊〉 and to persist so obstinately in their foul errours who are not detained therein by the love of gain with which their Popes and other Ecclesiasticks by the means of diverse of them are mightily enriched or by the dear affection they bear to their other lusts which they are so exactly fitteâ—… for the satisfaction of Their Doctrines being very many of them so ridiculously absurd plainly false and of such dangerous consequence I say nothing else certainly could hold the sincerer sort of Papists in the belief of them but this consideration that any one of them being let go their great Dagon of the Churches Infallibility must necessarily to the ground with it I might also instance in their Doctrine of the Dispensableness of the most Solemn Oaths which is no less destructive to Humane Society than it is to Piety And in that of the Popes power to absolve Subjects from their Allegiance to their lawful Sovereigns And to them adde a great number of Maximes of the most famous order among them the Iesuites and Resolutions of Cases of Conscience which are as wicked and destructive of a holy Life as the Devil himself can well devise But to be employed with Hercules in emptying the Augean stable would be as acceptable a work as stirring so far in this nasty Sink Whosoever shall peruse the Mystery of Iesuitism may find more than enough there to turn his stomach though it should be none of the most squeamish and quezy and to make him stand astonished and bless him that ever such loathsome and abominable stuff should come from persons that derive their name from the Holy Iesus But to hasten to the conclusion of this Chapter the most pure and holy Religion of our Saviour hath the Church of Rome defiled with as impure and unholy opinions and practices and hath taken the most effectual course not only to render it a feeble and insignificant thing for accomplishing the Design for which it was intended by the Blessed Founder of it but also to make it unhappily successful in serving the directly contrary The great Mystery of Godliness hath she transformed into a grand Mystery of Iniquity and by that means most excessively confirmed its professed enemies the Iews and Mahumetans in their enmity against it And for my own part I should not stick to say as did Averroes when he observed that the Popish Christians adored that they ate Sit anima mea cum Philosophis Let my soul take its fate with the Philosophers in the other world did I think Christianity to be such a Religion as she makes it As much as I admire it now I should then prefer that of Socrates Plato and Cicero very far before it Though I abhor so far to imitate the Papists in the Devilishly cruel uncharitableness as to pronounce them all in a state of damnation yet I dare assert with the greatest and most undoubted confidence that all that continue in Communion with that degenerated and Apostate Church run infinite hazards And moreover that it is impossible that any sincere persons should give an explicite and understanding assent to all her Doctrines but that whosoever can find in his heart to practise upon them can be nothing better than a shamefully debauched and immoral wretch Nor is it conceivable what should induce any to exchange the Reformed for the Popish Religion as too many have of late done that have but a competent understanding of both besides the desire of serving some corrupt interest And we plainly see that the generality of those that turn Apostates from the Church of England to that of Rome are such people as were a Scandal to her while they continued in her And that Atheism and Popery are the common Sanctuaries to which the most abominably vicious and profane of this Age do betake themselves CHAP. XVIII The Third Inference That these two sorts
extensive holiness 2. The most intensive An Objection answered pag. 18. Chap. 4. That holiness is the onely design of the promises of the Gospel shewed in two particulars And of the threatnings therein contained pag. 28. Chap. 5 That the promoting of holiness was the design of our Saviour's whole life and conversation among men both of his discourses and actions And that he was an eminent example of all the parts of vertue viz. Of the greatest freedom affability and courtesie The greatest candor and Ingenuity The most marvellous gentleness and meekness The deepest humility The greatest contempt of the world The most perfect contentation The most wonderful charity and tenderest compassion stupendious patience and submission to the Divine Will The most passionate love of God and devoutest temper of mind towards him Mighty confidence and trust in God An objection answered The most admirable Prudence pag. 36. Chap. 6. That to make men truly virtuous and holy was the design of Christ's unimitable actions or mighty works and miracles And that these did not onely tend to promote it as they were convincing arguments that he came forth from God but were also very proper to effect it in a more immediate manner pag. 8. Chap. 7. That to make men holy was the design of Christ's Death proved by several texts of Scripture And how it is effectual thereunto discovered in six particulars pag. 78. Chap. 8. That it is only the promoting of the design of making men â—…oly that is aimed at by the Apostles insisting on the doctrines of Christ's Resurrâ—…ction Ascension and coming again to Iugdement pag. 93. SECT II. Upon what accounts the business of making men Holy came to be preferred by our Saviour before any other thing and to be principally designed by him Chap. 9. Two accounts of this The first That this is â—…o do the greatest good to men And that the blessing of making men holy is of all other the greatest proved by several Arguments viz. Firâ—… that it containeth in it a deliverance from the worst of evils and sin shewed so to be pag. 99. Chap. 10. The second Argument viz. That the Blessing of making men holy is accompained with all other that are most desireable and which do best deserve to be so called particularly with the pardon of sin and God's special love And that those things which sensual persons are most desirous of are eminently to be found in that blessing pag. 108. Chap. 11. The third Argument viz. That whatsoever other blessings a man may be supposed to have that is utterly destitute of holiness they cannot stand him in so much stead as onely to make him not miserable And all evil and corrupt affections shewed to be greatly tormenting in their own nature and innumerable sad mischiefs to be the necessary consequents of yielding obedience to them pag. 115. Chap. 12. The fourth Argument viz. That holiness being perfected is blessedness it self and the glory of heaven consists chiefly in it This no new notion some observations by the way from it pag. 123. Ch. 13. The second account of our Saviour's preferring the business of making men holy before any other viz. That this is to do the best service to God An objection answered against the Author's Discourse of the Design of Christianity pag. 127. SECT III. An Improvement of the whole Discourse in diverse Inferences Chap. 14. The first Inference That it appears from the past Discourse that our Saviour hath taken the most effectual course for the purpose of subduing sin in us and making us partakers of his holiness Where it is particularty shewed that the Gospel gives advantages infinitely above any those the Heathens had who were privileged with extraordinary helps for the Improvement of themselves And 1. That the good Principles that were by natural Light dictated to them and which reason rightly improved perswaded them to entertain as undoubtedly true or might have done are farther confirmed by Divine Revelation in the Gospel 2. That those principles which the Heathens by the highest improvement of their Reason could at best conclude but very probable the Gospel gives us an undoubted assurance of This shewed in four instances 3. Four Doctrines shewed to be delivered in the Gospel which no man without the assistance of Divine Revelation could ever once have thought of that contain wonderful inducements and helps to holiness The first of which hath five more implyed in it pag. 133. Chap. 15. That the Gospel containeth incomparably greater helps for the effecting of the design of making men inwardly righteous and truly holy than God's most peculiar people the Israelites were favoured with Where it is shewed 1. That the Gospel is infinitely more effectual for this purpose than the Mostical Law was 2. And that upon no other accounts the Iews were in circumstances for the obtaining of a thorow reformation of life and purification of nature comparable to those our Saviour hath blessed his Disciples with pag. 157 Chap. 16. An Objection against the Wonderful â—…fficacy of the Christian Religion for the purpose of making men holy taken from the very little success it hath herein together with the prodâ—…gious wickedness of Christendom An Answer given to it in three particulars viz 1. That how ill soever its success is it is evident from the foregoing Discourse that it is not to be imputed to any weakness or â—…nefficacy in that Religion The true causes thereof assigned 2. That it is to be expected that those should be the worse for the Gospel that will not be bettered by it 3. That there was a time when the Gospel's success was greatly answerable to what hath been said of its Efficacy And that the Primitive Christians were people of most unblameable and holy Lives The Gâ—…ostiques improperly called Christianâ—… in any sence The Primitive Christians proved to be men of excellent lives by the Testimonies of Fathers contained in their Apologies for them to their Enemies and by the acknowledgements of their Enemies themselves An account given in particular of their meek and submissive temper out of Tâ—…rtulitan The Admirable Story of the 〈◊〉 Legion pag. 167. Chap. 17. The second Inference That we understand from what hath been said of the Design of Christianity how fearfully it is abused by those that call themselves the Roman Catholiques That the Church of Rome hath by several of her Doctrines enervated all the Precepts and the Motives to holiness contained in the Gospel That she hath rendered the means therein prescribed for the attainment therof extremely ineffectual That she hath also as greatly corrupted them Diverse Instances of the Papists Idolatry Their Image worship one Instance Their praying to Saints departed another Other Impieties accompanying it mentioned Some account of their Blasphemies particularly in their Prayers to the Blessed Virgin Their worshipping the Hoast the third and grossest instance of their Idolatry Some other of their wicked and most Anti-christian Doctrines pag. 193. Chap. 18. The third Inference
revenge our selves upon you for we are so great a part of the Empire that by but departing from you we should utterly destroy it and affright you with your own Solitude and leave you more enemies than loyal Subjects And so far were they from making use of the advantages they had to deliver themselves by the way of violence That as not long after he saith to them they prayed for the Emperours and those in Authority under them for peace and a quiet state of affairs among them and as some where he adds very ready also to give them assistance against their enemies The story of the Thebaean Legion is wonderful to astonishment it consisted of just six thousand six hundred sixty and six men and all Christian. These when Maximianus Caesar went about to compel them to offer Sacrifice to the heathenish Gods at a place called Octodurum they fled to another called Agaunum when he sent after them to require them to obey that his command they drew up together into a Body and with one voice professed that they could not do it Maximianus thereupon commanded that every tenth man of them should be slain upon the place which accordingly was immediately done without the least resistance Mauritius the General of this Legion thus addressed himself to the Souldiers Quà m timui ne quisquam quod Armatis facile est c. How fearful was I lest any of you being in Arms and therefore no hard matter to do it should attempt the defending of your selves and by that means prevent a happy and most glorious death And so goes on most excellently to encourage them rather to submit to death than resist their Emperour When every tenth man was slain the Emperour repeated his command to the survivers and they all thus answered Milites quidem Caesar tui sumus c. We are it is confessed thy Souldiers O Caesar for the defence of the Roman Republique nor have we ever proved either traytors or cowards but this command of thine we cannot obey For know we are all Christians yet all our bodies shall be subject to thee c. At last Exuperius their Ensign concludes thus Non nos adversum Te Imperator armavit ipsa quae fortissima est in periculis desperatio c. Despair it self hath not armed us against thee O Emperour behold we have all our weapons in our hands and yet resist not because we had rather die innocent than live nocent And thereupon they were all put to the slaughter not a man of them once offering to defend himself You may find the Relation of this more at large taken out of Fucherius by Grotius and set down in his Book De jure Belli Pacis Origen also tells Celsus that he or any of his party were able to shew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing of Sedition that the Christians were ever guilty of And yet what Tertullian said of the Roman Empire in General this Father elsewhere in the same book speaketh of Greece and Barbary viz. That the Gospel had subdued all that Country and the greater part of this and had brought over to Godliness souls innumerable Thus you see how far the Primitive Christians were from the tumultuous fiery and boisterous Spirit that Christendom above all other parts of the world hath been since infested with And thus we have shewn that there was once a time God grant that the like may be again when the success of the Christian Religion in conquering mens lusts and rectifying their Natures was greatly answerable to the efficacy that it hath for this purpose And so we pass to the second Inference CHAP. XVII The Second Inference That we understand from what hath been said of the Design of Christianity how fearfully it is abused by those that call themselves the Roman Catholiques That the Church of Rome hath by several of her Doctrines enervated all the Precepts and the Motives to Holiness contained in the Gospel That she hath rendered the Means therein prescribed for the attainment thereof extremely ineffectual That she hath also as greatly corrupted them Diverse Instances of the Papists Idolatry Their Image worship one Instance Their praying to Saints departed another Other Impieties accompanying it mentioned Some account of their Blasphemies particularly in their Prayers to the Blessed Virgin Their worshipping the Hoast the third and Grossest instance of their Idolatry Some other of their Wicked and most Anti-christian Doctrines SEcondly By what hath been said concerning the Design of the Christian Religion we easily understand how fearfully it is abused by those that call themselves the Roman Catholiques Nor need we any other Argument to prove Popery to be nothing less than Christianity besides this viz. That the Grand Design of this is to make us holy and also aimeth at the raising of us to the most Elevated pitch of Holiness and is admirably contrived for that purpose But the Religion of the Papists as such doth most apparently tend to carry on a Design that is diametrically opposite thereunto To serve a most carnal and corrupt interest to give men security in a way of sinning and pretendeth to teach them a way to do at one and the same time effectually the most contrary and inconsistent works That is to deprave their natures and save their Souls and even in gratifying their wicked inclinations to lay a firm and safe foundation for eternal happiness So that if this as they pretend it alone is be the Christian Religion we must needs ingenuously acknowledge that what we said in the Introduction was by Celsus and Iulian charged upon it is no calumny but an accusation most just and well deserved For as the Church of Rome hath rendred diverse excellent Precepts of Holiness contained in the Gospel very in-effectual by making them Counsels onely not Commands and also not a few of its Prohibitions unnecessary by her Distinction of sins into Mortal and Venial understanding by Venial sins such as for the sake of which no man can deserve to lose the Divine favour and therefore making them really no sins So hath she enervated all the Evangelical Commandments both Positive and Negative and made them sadly insignificant by a multitude of Doctrines that are taught by her most Darling-sons and decreed or allowed by her self That one Popish Doctrine of the Non-necessity of Repentance before the imminent point of Death and that though the Church requireth it upon Holy-days yet no man is bound by the Divine Law to it until that time is of it self without the help of any other sufficient to take away the force of all the holy Precepts of our Saviour and to make them utterly unsuccessful to the Embracers of it And this other goeth beyond that in aptness for this purpose viz. That mere Attrition or sorrow for sin for fear of Damnation if it be accompanied with Confession to the Priest is sufficient for Salvation For as the former maketh a Death-bed-repentance onely necessary
person of the most holy Trinity must needs be false As also those that make Religion to be a mere Passive thing wholly God's work and not at all ours or that cramp men and perswade them that they are utterly void of the least ability to co-operate with the grace of God or to do any thing towards their own salvation or any way whatsoever discourage them from the diligent prosecution of Holiness or deprive us of any help afforded us towards our gaining and growth in grace either by putting a slur upon the written word in advancing above it the light within men and in Enthusiastical pretences to immediate Revelations c. Or else by teaching men to sleight any one Ordinance of the Gospel c. Or such Doctrines as tend to introduce confusion into the Church of Christ and to deprive it of all Government and Order or in short that give countenance to any Immorality whatsoever I say as sure as the Christian Religion is true and that what we have proved to be the Design thereof is so such Doctrines as these must needs be false What our Saviour saith of false Prophets is as true of most Doctrines By their fruits you shall know them we may understand whether they have any relation to Christianity or no by the Design they drive at and their evident consequences And I may adde that we may make a shrewd guess what those particular wayes and modes of Religion are which the various Sects we are cantonized into have espoused to themselves and are so fond of by the proper and most distinguishing effects of them If we perceive that they make the great sticklers for them to differ from others chiefly in unconcernednes about the most important substantial duties of Morality and in laying the greatest weight upon certain little Trifles and placing their Religion in mere externals or that the things whereby they are most peculiarly discriminated from other folk are spiritual pride and fond conceitedness of themselves and a scornful and fierce behaviour towards those that approve not of their way uncharitableness morosity and peevishness a seditious ungovernable and untameable spirit c. I say if we observe such as these to be the most distinguishing effects of their several Modes and Forms we have sufficient reason from thence alone greatly to presume that they have not the stamp of Ius Christianum upon them that they are not of Christ but of their own invention The wisdom that is from above is quite another thing and begets perfectly other kind of effects as shall be shewn hereafter But to return The Design of the Gospel is as was said the Great Standard by which we are to judge of the Truth of Opinions Those that seem to us to oppose this Design we are bound to suspect because they do so but those which apparently do this we must with heartiest indignation reject And though we should meet with some places of Scripture that at first sight may seem to favour them we may not be stumbled upon that account but be confident that whatsoever is their true meaning as sure as they have God for their Author they cannot possibly patronize any such Doctrines And lastly in examining which of two opinions is true that oppose each other and do seem to be much a like befriended by the holy Scriptures it is doubtless a very safe course to consider as impartially as we can which doth tend most to serve the great End of Christianity and to prefer that which we are perswaded doth so CHAP. XXI How we are to judge of the Necessity of Doctrines either to be embraced or rejected A brief discourse of the Nature of Points Fundamental How we may know whether we embrace all such and whether we hold not any destructive and damnable Errours SEcondly The Design of Christianity is the great measure whereby we are to judge as of the Truth so also of the Necessity of Doctrines either to be embraced or rejected First We may thereby understand in what degree we ought to esteem those Necessary to be by all received which we our selves are convinc'd of the Truth of or which of such are Fundamental Points of the Christian Faith and which not First It is plain That in the general those and those only are primarily and in their own nature Fundamentals which are absolutely necessary to accomplish in us that Design Such as without the knowledge and belief of which it is impossible to acquire that Inward Righteousness and true Holiness which the Christian Religion aimeth at the introduction of It is in it self absolutely necessary not to be ignorant of or disbelieve any of those Points upon which the effecting of the great business of the Gospel in us doth necessarily depend The particulars of these I shall not stand to enumerate because as will appear from what will be said anon it is not needful to have a just Table of them And besides any one that understands wherein the nature of true Holiness lyeth may be able sufficiently to inform himself what they are Secondly It is as evident That those points of Faith are secondarily Fundamental the disbelief of which cannot consist with true Holiness in those to whom the Gospel is sufficiently made known although they are not in their own nature such as that Holiness is not in some degree or other attainable without the belief of them And in the number of these are all such Doctrines as are with indisputable clearness revealed to us Now the belief of these though it is not in it self any more than in higher or lower degrees profitable yet is it even absolutely necessary from an external cause though not from the nature of the Points themselves viz. In regard of their being delivered with such abundant perspicuity as that nothing can cause men to refuse to admit them but that which argueth them to be stark naught and to have some unworthy and base end in so doing But we must take notice here that all such Points as these are not of equal necessity to be received by all Christians because that in regard of the diversity of their capacities educations and other means and advantages some of them may be most plainly perceived by some to be delivered in the Scriptures which cannot be so by others with the like ease And in the second place what hath been said of Fundamental Truths is applicable by the Rule of Contraries to the opposite Errours as I need not shew Now then would we know whether we embrace all the Fundamentals of Christianity and are guilty of no damnable and destructive errours among the great diversity and contrariety of Opinions that this kingdom abounds with I think I may say above all other parts of Christendom our onely way is to examine our selves impartially after this manner Am I sincerely willing to obey my Creatour and Redeemer in all things commanded by them Do I entertain and harbour no lust in my