of those unhappy widows and orphans who have nothing left them by their deceased husbands and fathers but their merits to administer But oh the disappointment Our Apost'l after his so great boast of the Galatians love quickly complains Where is the blessedness you spoak of And well may we demand Where is this great beauty that so descends to the very feet Hath age withered it to a deformity equal to its youthful loveliness Our very eyes are as loathsom as the primitive Preachers very feet were beatiful and the deformity descends to our posterity as their only sure inheritance yea som are so impios as to make God a party with themselvs in the entayl pretending that Clergy-mens children are equally hated of God and Man seldom or never attaining either worth in themselvs or prosperity in the world God be blessed we are henceforth secured from that malicios slander This conspicuos and perhaps matchless assembly having for ever rooted that fals toung out of its dwelling Yet thogh the Toung be rooted out the Heart is still the same so void of Love so full of ' spite against this once so honored caling that we must think it a great bargain if we can compound for ordinary charity and depose my Text to this poor plea The Preachers of the Gospel bring no evil tidings therefor they deserv not to be hated And since it is better to Cure an evil than to Complain of it I conceve I cannot do better service to my Text the Gospel and its Preachers than by removing the cause of the hatred we sink under which indeed is no other than that Epidemical mistake the root of all misery the taking things by wrong handl The Gospel hath two handls Threats and Promises its threats are Few and its promises Many its Threats shew us our danger only that we may rejoyce in our escape its Promises immediately raise our joys Threats therefor both in quantity and design sit upon the face of the Gospel as beauty-spots do upon that of a fair Lady here one and there another to this only end that by their vanquished blackness they may set off the lustre of the beauty which is to adorn the very feet but by the unhappy officiosness of melancholy messengers those spots have been enlarged to a visor which so cover the face of Religion that we cannot see its Joys for its Fears and the very grace of God which bringeth salvation appeareth like the inhumane Nero saying Let them Hate me so they Fear me This ugly visor shall I endeavor to pull off as my Text directs me by two Propositions 1. The Gospel doth not design to bring us to God by Fear but by Love For it is a Gospel of Peace glad tidings of good things 2. The mistake of this is the cause that the Gospel and its Preachers are so hated by the world For if Glad tidings make the messenger beautiful Evil tidings must make him loathsom I. THE Gospel doth not draw men to God by Fear but by Love This as it is clearly exprest in my Text so is it almost in every page of the New Testament I shall instance but in one or two places more which expresly offer one handle and reject the other In this same Epistle ch 8 v. 15. our Apost'l declareth as clearly as possib'l You have not receved the spirit of bondage again fear but the spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father And no less clearly 2 Tim. 1.7 God hath not given us the spirit of Fear but of Power of Love and of a Sound mind In the former place he opposeth the spirit of the Gospel to That of the Law and in the later he vieth with the Philosophers who pretend to exalt the mind to the highest freedom and perfection If this can be yet more clear St John hath made it so for with pomp unmatched by any other pen he ushereth his first Epistl with This proclamation These things we write unto you that your joy may be full and throghout the whole body of the following Epistl exalteth Love as the only way to this fulness of Joy ch 4. v. 18. There is no fear in Love but Love when it is perfected casteth out fear bicaus Fear hath Torment It is impossib'l to find Plainer and therefor needless to seek for More declarations of this truth Nothing can remain but that we reconcile them with such other words of Scripture as seem to contradict them Two such especially there are One spoken by our Lord and another by our same Apostl to which may be reduced all others of the same air These two therefore if we can reconcile we shall both State and Clear the truth 1. Our Apostl himself seemeth to contradict this Phil. 2 12. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling Doth not this offer salvation by that handl which but now he rejected That we may now or at any other time reconcile appearances of contradiction we must carefully consider which of the two Propositions may best be broght to compliance It is plain that what we have heard declared a-against Fear cannot be bent to any other sence we must therefor try whether the fear and trembling which he recommendeth to the Philippians may agree both with his declaration in two other Epistl's that we have not receved the spirit of fear or with his exhortation in the same Epistl ch v. Rejoyce in the Lord evermore and again I say rejoice To find out this it is necessary we look about us and see how he useth the same phrase upon other occasions possibly it may be an Idiom Twice more we find him at the same phrase and in both places his meaning will very well comply with Love and Joy Eph 6.5 Servants obey your Masters with Fear and Trembling What doth not a Servant please both God and his Master better if he Obey him with Love and Chearfulness And what shall we say to the 9 th verse And you Masters do the same things to Them Must Masters also treat their Servants with Fear and Trembling Yes but such as may circulate between the best Masters and the best Servants even such as himself explaineth by good will v. 7. This possibly will be plainer by 2 Cor. 7.15 His inward affection is more abundant towards you while he remembreth the obedience of you all how with Fear and Trembling you receved him Titus came in kindness to visit them and they welcomed him with such endearing caresses as made his already great inward affection more abundant than before Here certainly the Fear and Trembling which so welcomed and heightned Love must be so far from excluding it and Joy that they import an extraordinary mesure of them Yea we need look no farther for a good light whereby to see the meaning of this phrase in That his exhortation to the Philippians than the encoragement wherewith he quickneth them in the words immediately following For it is God which worketh in you
our own defence and so far to turn Atheists as to wish there were no God Such fear as this Love certainly must cast out and it cannot be our duty to help It to cast out Love but on the contrary to cherish the Antecedent of the Apost'ls argument for the Consequent's sake We love him bicause he loved us first and thence take spurr to serv him by the mesures of thankfulness i.e. without mesure II. WE HAVE seen what an enemy Fear is to Religion in general Consider we now how much it is so to our own in particular and we shall soon discover that our enemies on Both hands the Papists and Nonconformists are made such by the spirit of Fear I. THE PAPISTS it is plain have corrupted the Gospel from a doctrine according to Godliness to a doctrine according to Interest especially in its two great limbs Faith and Repentance Articls of Faith they have multiplied and in every one multiplied difficulties on purpose to make an infallib'l guide necessary to determin them and Conditions of Repentance they have multiplied and imbittered on purpose to fright men not out of their Sins but out of their Reason and their Mony They drive men To Repentance by fear of Damnation and From Repentance by fear of its Torments and allow them no quiet but by the Priest's Absolution If now there be This only difference between Us and Them that We Drive men to Repentance by the same Fear and Torment them in it with the same Grief but do not reliev them by the same Remedies we have much less reason to wonder that som half-considering peop'l run from us to them than that so many scape the temtation especially seeing how greedily Fear and Pain catch at any however improbab'l offer of help II. That the NONCONFORMISTS on the other side are possessed by the same evil spirit needeth no other evidence but this That they are frighted from our Communion by such things as themselvs acknowledge Indifferent Fears and Jealousies fill both pages both in their Religion and Polity Their whole constitution is sowred by the melancholy humor uneasy both to Themselvs and others especially their Governors It is not possib'l in fewer and plainer words both to Describe and Condemn this unhappy spirit than we have found do'n by our Apost'l You have not receved the spirit of Fear but of Power of Love and of a Sound mind Love is opposed to Fear Power to Weakness a Sound mind to a Pained one I wish he had never spoken worse who said that to be much and long troubled with any scruple is a certain indication of a weak and cowardly spirit bicause if the weight be considerably greater in either scale the suspens will soon be ended if not the cause of doubt must be very light and to be much troubled about light maters must needs signifie great weakness Objection What then must we think any sin litl or can we be too fearful of the least Answ Distinguish between Sin Known and Sin Suspected We must more fear the least Known sin than the most cruel death But to fear that which we only Suspect to be sin as much as that which God hath declared to be so This is it self a sin against God bicause it maketh our own Suspicion equal to his Laws and against our Selvs our Country and our Governors bicause we troubl them without competent reason Our Lord's parab'l will illustrate this The Gospel is a great Lord's Fest and at such a Tab'l you may easily discern the Welbred from the Clown by the frankness of his cariage He payeth all due deference to his great Inviter careful not to do or say any thing that may offer him the least disgust nor to neglect any thing that may in any degree please him specially to cary himself with such a decent mixture of Humility and Chearfulness as may speak his joy and thankfulness for the favor do'n him In the Other you find not the least air of chearfulness but a Fear to mis-behave himself in every motion of hand or ey every bit that he bringeth To his mouth and every word that he uttereth Out of it and thus by too much fear of misbehaving himself falleth into it Thus differ the truly Religios and Superstitios the One serveth God with a Careful yet Chearful spirit will rather incurr the worst death than the least sin yet despiseth litl scrupls as unworthy to discompose his frank spirit the Other disordereth the whole frame of his conversation by timorosnes in such maters as he Knoweth to be Indifferent yet Suspecteth to be evil a mere Spiritual Clown Which of the two is best manners in the Kingdom of God our Apost'l taght both the Corinthians and Romans Both those Churches were troubled with a scruple concerning meats offered to Idols a scruple the more considerab'l bicause himself had taght them that it is impossib'l to partake the Lord's tab'l and the tab'l of Devils How doth the Apost'l treat this great question Why he spurns it as no other way considerab'l but in the mischief it might do to the peace of the Churches The Kingdom of Heaven saith he is not meat and drink but Righteosness and Peace and Joy in the holy Ghost for he that in these things serveth Christ is accepted of God and approved of men Let us therefor pursue the things that make for Peace c. Apply this decision of that Great controversy to those pety ones that troub'l our peace it will Determin them them the best way by Destroying them The Kingdom of Heaven is no more Vesture and Gesture than it is Meat and Drink Righteosness and Peace and Joy in the holy Ghost are still the best manners in sight of God and Man and to pursue the things that make for peace is still the best cours in such litl questions as endanger it We have therefore nothing to enquire but this Who best conform to this Rule They who in such small maters submit to their Governors or they who disturb the peace of the Church However obvios the answer be it is more obvios what the spirit is that maketh men in such things troublesom to themselvs and their country Nothing certainly but fearfulness can make a man so to fly his own shadow as to run into the ditch We see the Apost'l thinketh no way better to preserv the peace than by settling our Fundamental Position Peace and Joy in the holy Ghost are the best manners in the Kingdom of Heaven most pleasing to God and man and the best preservative both of Publik and Private quiet which is in other words The Gospel designeth not our Fear but our Love I HOPE I have now effectually performed the task I undertook which was not to exhaust all the contents of my Text but to dig up that root of bitterness which so undeservedly troubleth the world and especially the Ministers of the Gospel and most especially those of our Own Church who are
Purgatory It was but lately proved that a poor Maid gave not only all she was worth but a Bond for a greater Summ to a greedy Priest who refused on any cheaper terms to free her father's soul and how often they meet such bargains in the fears of dying persons it is impossibl to compute God be blessed we have reformed from all the base gains which are gotten by the word Penance but we still retain too strong a tincture of its first princip'l in point of Fear and consequent Grief derived from the word Repentance the very sound whereof striketh so hard upon our minds that we cannot but believ the great Duty which is expressed by That Word must be performed by That Passion We do indeed well to distinguish between two kinds of Grief and we do well to declare that Grief which ariseth from Fear is nothing worth if it bring us not to that which issueth from Love But still we stick to This that Repentance is Grief and that however it be not accepted until it amount to Contrition yet doth it ordinarily begin at Attrition to which therefor we must first apply our selvs But 1. What reason have we to believe that Attrition will bring us to Contrition Do we conclude them neer of kin bieause they wear the same surname Let us not look so much to the Name as the Family Fear we know is no friend to Love and why shall we believ that Grief which issueth from the One must be our best mediator to the Other 2. Why must wee needs make our first addresses to Grief of either kind Grief is an Enemy but Love is a Friend It is the first mover in all our affections even those which seem most opposit to it We neither Hate nor Fear nor Griev but by the dictates of Love And the Love of God will constrain us to do what without it we can hardly obtein of our selvs griev when we have offended him If we perform this great duty in the proper sence of the words Turn to God with all our heart the weeping and mourning will not fail to follow nor hath the Scripture been deficient thogh it have not prescribed them This is not a bare contention about words but the most practical consideration in the world Holiness of life is highly concerned in it as having suffered more by This than All other errors For on One side men are Frighted by the apprehension of Grief as an enemy to our quiet and on the Other side they are encoraged to hope that this may with more ease and equal safety be undergon when the days com wherein we shall say we have no pleasure in them or when that hour cometh when we ean do nothing else but griev This conceit however discountenanced by Divines yea by Experience which sheweth that generally men dy as impenitent as they live yet so partial are we to our sins and sloth that the word Repent shall carry it against all the weight that can be laid against it And here I cannot but applaud the amendment our Church hath made in the first sentence of our Liturgy Of old it was At what time soever a Sinner shall Repent from the bottom of his heart I will put all his wickedness out of my remembrance saith the Lord which was wont to be pleaded in behalf of death-bed repentance But now the very words of the Prophet are set forth When the wicked man turneth away from wickedness that he hath committed and doth that which is lawful and right he shall save his soul alive which may infer that the promise is made not to Grieving but Turning and to such Turning too as proceedenh to contrary actions Were our Translation of the New Testament so reformed that in stead of Repentance we might read Turning Changing Amendment or som such honest word as would faithfully render the Original it would remove that unhappy tentation which hath so much discountenanced Conversion by representing it both Hard and Needless in Youth Easie and Safe on the Death-bed ANnot 3 I appeal to your Bibles We find one text that seems to look That way and for That reason as it makes much talk so doth it deserv our careful consideration It is in 2 Cor. 7.10 Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of but the sorrow of the world worketh death These words separated from the Context thogh they deny that Grief and Repentance be the same thing for if the One work the Other they must differ as the Workman doth from his Work yet bicause they seem to import a dependence of One upon the Other require our answer And 1. Tho these words seem to look this way they com short of the concept we contend against For the most they import is this that the Apostl's reproof had made them so sory that they amended their falt which certainly falleth very short of making That Repentance which the Gospel requireth of every sinner to be no more nor less but Sorrow 2 Those words do not look this way as we must needs perceiv if we look about us for Such was the Apostl's Evangelical spirit so unwilling to exercise Punishment upon offenders that he shunneth the very word and expresseth it by Grieving This appeareth most evident in the twelfth chapter of the same Epist'l vers 20. I fear lest when I com I shall not find you such as I would and that I shall be found unto you such as you would not lest there be debates wraths c. and lest when I come again my God will humb'l me among you and that I shall BEWAIL many which have sinned already and have not repented c. And chap. 12.2 I told you before and ' foretell you as if I were present the secund time and being absent now I write to them which heretofore have sinned and to all other that if I com again I will not spare He had in his former Epist'l reproved them for not censuring a most scandalous person 1 Cor. 5. It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles that one should have his fathers wife and ye are puffed up and have not rather mourned that he that hath do'n this deed might be taken away from among you i. e. in the sense now mentioned you have encouraged him and not punished him by excommunication In this Epist'l he taketh notice of that affair in the seeond chapter he justifieth himself for having grieved them approveth of their obedience and adviseth them to absolve the criminal now sufficiently punished And in this chapter taketh occasion to resume it as appeareth by v. 8. For tho I made you sory with a Letter I do not repent thogh I did repent and more plainly v. 12. thogh I wrote unto you I did it not for his cause that did the wrong i. e. the incestuous Son nor for his cause that suffered
of all others most unhappy because whether they they prevail or no they are sure to create themselvs enemies If they prevail not then are they treated by the impenitent as our Lord was by the Devils What have we to do with thee art thou com'n to torment us If they do prevail they do no better than journy-work either for the Papists to whom the Sanguin run for Anodynes of Absolution or for the Nonconformists to whom the Melancholy run for food for their unsatisfiab'l scruples So we are hated on All hands by our enemies in Religion bicause we will not torment our selvs with Their fears and by our enemies in Irreligion bicause they suspect we will betray them to that place of torment which others hate us for renouncing But in all that I have spoken to this too necessary purpose how short am I falen of the requires of my Text I have not be'n able to display any of the glad tidings of good things cannot say as St. John doth These things have I spoken that your joy may be full or as St. Peter We rejoice with joy unspeakable and glorios Yet have we made no slight advance toward all this if we have cast out Fear For this visor once pluckt off holiness will so display its beauty that we shall soon find Plato's aphorism verified in its charms And now I have mentioned Plato I shall vouch not only his Opinion but his Experience He spoke so much and so well of the excellences and powers of Love that the best Fathers of our Religion have not disdained to write after his copy stiling him the Christian Philosopher Dion the greatest Noble-man in Syracuse went to Athens to hear him and afteward prevailed with him to take a voyage to Sicily to convert his unhappy Prince miserably corrupted by ill education He came and his First labor was to encorage his hearers that they should not be afraid of vertu This he perpetually inculcated and having removed that prejudice he charmed the whole Court and especially the young Prince into such a love of virtu and himself that never was Lover more fond or jelos He would not endure that Plato should go out of his Palace hardly out of his sight was impatient that any beside himself should have any interest in Plato's love made Plato Lord of all his power and wealth and had he not be'n countermined upon reasons of State was in a fair way to have resigned up to the love of Plato and vertu that unjust Kingdom from which he was afterward banished For this Diogenes upbraided Plato saying he had flattered a Tyran and I doubt not but som of the same Cynical humor will object against me that I would have the Clergy flatter the Peop'l Plato owned the charge and so do I. It is our work to flatter our peop'l just as Plato did Dionysius not In their lusts but Out of them not for our Own benefit but Theirs We must out-flatter Epicurus yea we must out-flater Plato we must flater like our Apost'l the greatest flatterer in the world Read his Epistl's with application see if you can match them for tenderness in any of the Romances He saith in one of them that he had espoused his disciples to Christ and in that and all the rest he courted them with all the arts and insinuations of a wooer And he plainly telleth us that His and Our Commission require it We are saith he Embassadors for Christ as if God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christ's stead be ye reconciled to God Which is a great improvement of my Text and giveth us title to a nobler welcom We are not only Messengers to bring Tidings of peace but Embassadors to Negotiate for its acceptance to Negotiate as in the Person of Christ yet in the Posture of supplicants Christ again deposeth himself from his Majesty and creepeth to his rebellios subjects like a petitioner begging in most humb'l manner what that they would not again destroy him no but that they would permit him to save them and in this posture are we commissioned to represent him True Embassadors if they find it necessary may sharpen their importunities for peace by displaying the terrib'lness and unavoidabl'ness of That destruction which is to be the portion of the irreconcileab'l provided they do it with such tenderness as may speak their Master's goodness equal to his power more loth to destroy them than themselvs are to perish A preacher of the Gospel sure must not com short in kindness to a prophet vnder the Law yet in this posture doth Ezekiel represent God As I live faith the Lord I desire not the death of him that dieth but rather that he will turn and live turn ye turn ye why will ye dy ye hous of Israel Do ye say that he offereth salvation only to a few Elect Behold he saith yea he sweareth that he desireth not the death even of Him that dieth The difference is very observab'l which our Savior puts between the two sentences The blessed are invited to the Kingdom prepared for them from the beginning of the world but the cursed are dispatched to the fire that was prepared not for Them but for the Divel and his Angels There is therefore great difference between Election and Reprobation The one is a Positive act the other a mere reterition which doth not deprive men of Sufficient yea Abundant means of salvation The Reprobates are so far from prepared for hell-fire that the fire is not prepared for Them but only for the Divel and his Angels Many indeed will at last find it their portion but by their own carving God useth all the means that a Wise and Good father can to hinder them from it His Wisdom will not work miracl's except in cases extraordinary and in such cases possibly he may by irresistib'l grace qualify som few chosen vessels for som extraordinary service but in ordinary he offereth no such violence to Nature thogh he use all means suitab'l to it for the benefit of the creature whom he endeavoreth to make happy His Laws are far from grievos he requireth no Satisfaction for the past but Amendment for the futur and That Amendment too he requireth for This only reason that we may be as happy both now and hereafter as we are capab'l We are fond of our hedg-fruit bicause we know no better but he provideth for us bankets infinitly more delicios and he Inviteth he Intreateth if this will not prevail he Driveth us to this purpose only that we may be happy in his fellowship Plato broght the most dissolute to the love of vertu thogh he had no other motive but its mere beauty unendowed with any other reward than its self But we have commission to promise you a dowry great as its beauty and to embellish that beauty with most glorios additions The glory of God's love shineth infinitely brighter in the face of Jesus Christ than in
That of the Sun which was the best glass Plato had to see him in The earnest of our inheritance never heard of by Plato is infinitely more valuabl for the inheritance it secureth the joys of Hope being incomparably more ravishing than those which tast nothing but the present And is it not both very Sad and very Admirab'l that Plato under such disadvantages should so inamor a dissolute company with naked vertu and himself its preacher yet We with such great advantages prevail no otherwise than to drive our hearers into hatred both of our message and our selvs Can any thing be more worth our Consideration When we have duly eonsidered we shall find that Plato better deserved the title of a preacher of the Gospel than most have do'n for many ages For his preaching was in St. Paul's stile he preached not the spirit of Fear but of Love But the modern way hath be'n quite contrary we have heard litl of Love but much of Fear and our success hath be'n as different as our message Now should I apply all this to the service both of the Gospel and its Ministers but as I have not Time so if what I have said be well considered there will be no Need Not in behalf of the Gospel bicause if it be once freed from this vizor its beauty will need no other persuasive to draw us to its embraces Not in behalf of its Ministers bicause your very Presence upon this occasion deserveth applaus but supersedeth exhortation I shall therefor say no more but pray that as you have begun a good work you may go on prosperously in it that your kindness to those who have at least a dubl titl to it may return a thousand fold in blessings upon you and yours both in This world and the better that the peace of God which passeth all understanding may keep your hearts and minds c. ANNOTATIONS ANnot 1. To which may be reduced all others of the same air Such is that which we meet in the close of Heb. 12. Serv God acceptably with reverence and Godly fear for our God is a consuming fire This seemeth to contradict our Position both in Plain terms and with a potent Reason but if we carefully view the whole context it will appear otherwise For the words immediately ' foregoing say Wherefor we receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let us be thankful that we may serv God acceptably Where that we may reconcile Fear with Thankfulness we must look back to the premises whence the inference is drawn which is offered in the word Wherefor which are no less than a Rhetorical or rather Poetical Amplification of what we but now found plainly laid down We have not received the spirit of bondage again to Fear vers 18 19 20 21. but we have received the spirit of Adoption vers 22 23 24. whence the 25th verse immediately inferreth See that ye refuse not him that speaketh for if They escaped not who refused him that spake on Earth much more shall not We escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from Heaven which again is repeted with a threat which requireth us to look much further back to Deut. 4.23 where Moses warneth his Israelites in these words Take heed unto your selvs lest ye forget the Covenant of the Lord your God for the Lord thy God is a consuming fire even a jelos God The words then being mesured by the proper design of the whole discours must be a threatning of those that shall turn from Christ mesured by the Premises which they attend as a Conclusion they must import so much greater punishment to be due to those that desert the Gospel by how much the Covenant is more gratios so that the Threat is not leveled against those that Profess the Gospel but against those that Forsake it and it is so far from contradicting our Position that it is built upon its Amplification ANnot 2. We are miserably abused by a base Translation For upon no better ground than this wretched Translation is built the whole doctrine of Penance among the Papists and the dread of Repentance among the Reformtd The Papists having once taken the confidence to render the indispensab'l duty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Poenitentia proceed to improve this their precious word by straining it as much beyond its constant signification as That exceedeth the import of the word which it pretendeth only to translate For whereas Poenitentia in no other case signifieth any more than Repentance i. e. Grief of mind they have enlarged it to signifie Penance which signifieth a further punishment of Body or Purs and upon this dubly fals ground they have thus built their Sacrament He that is fallen into sin after Baptism cannot be restored but by the Sacrament of Penance which consisteth of three parts Contrition Confession and Satisfaction 1. Contrition is grief of mind in sence of guilt incurred Guilt importeth obligation to Punishment from which the sinner cannot be absolved but by the Priest to whom Christ hath given power to bind and loose This power the Priest cannot exercise without knowledge of the guilt wherewith the Penitent is bound therefor 2. The Penitent must humb'l himself before the Priests Tribunal it is the very expression of Trent with full and particular Confession of every sin and every circumstance submitting to such punishment as he shall prescribe in order to Absolution and 3. The Priest must not grant Absolution without such Penance as may bear som proportion to the crime For saith the Trent meeting Christ hath satisfied for the Crime but not for the Punishment which the B. of Condom hath made easier to be Vnderstood but not easier to he Believed by this explication That he hath changed a greater punishment into a lesser i. e. Eternal into Temporal If therefor the Penitent fail either of fully confessing every sin or of fully performing the penalty imposed Either of These or som other desects must be abundantly punished with the fire of Purgatory which cometh short of Hell only in duration If we look for Reasons for all this we shall find none in Scripture but abundanco in the world All the Abbies Priories Chantries c. in Christendom All the pomp and grandeur of the court of Rome c. are so many benefits of this Sacrament to the Clergy and assurance of Absolution upon easie Penance to the Laity For can it be but the Priest must be highly reverenced to who 's Tribunal the greatest must creep to who 's ears they must communicate their most shameful sins and from who 's mouth they must receiv their sentence without who 's help they cannot hope for pardon and by who 's help they are secure of it Or can any person of bowels think any cost too much to pay off the intolerabl torments wherein their own or their dearest friends souls may fry they know not how long in the flames of