not we degenerate into the lower Rank of Animals and very deservedly pull God's vengeance upon us for disappointing the end of our Creation which was to serve our Creatour in all Faithfulness and Truth it being a fault never to be forgiven for any Creature to say that he is not beholding to God for giving him a Being unless he may be freed from the dreadfull apprehensions of that everlasting punishment which is due against all such as wilfully offend so good and wise so holy and just a God Wherefore let no vain expectations of escaping the wrath to come betray us into so great a sottishness as to put off our Repentance or to defer making provision for Eternity to be throughly regenerate is a harder task than to mumble over so many Pater Noster's or Ave-Mary Prayers I fear those ignorant People whose Religion hangs on a string of Beads and whose Prayers are set upon Tallies understand very little what true Sanctification imports what reconciliation with the nature will and mind of God signifies unless we are thus qualified for the enjoyment of God no Flames of Purgatory will ever prepare us for it Now therefore is the time of working out our Salvation the next World will be the time of giving an account of what we have done either good or evil as this Life leaves us so eternal Life will find us what advantages then we have to day of knowing the will of God and of learning his statutes let us make use of them that we may be able to stand before his Judgment Seat and receive the rewards of good and faithfull Servants in order to the acquitting our selves well at this Bar we have the direction of holy Scripture which we may search as curiously as we please we have all God's institutions to guide us we have the assistance of God's Spirit to help and encourage our endeavours and the promises of the Gospel to assure us that our labour shall not be in vain These are the benefits of the present time but what warrant have we from Scripture that those duties may be performed hereafter which are now neglected No we are told the quite contrary because I called saith God and ye would not answer I will then laugh at your destruction and mock when your fear cometh so St. Luke 15. The rich Glutton is tormented who was always for spending his present time in Riot and Luxury he applauds himself in his wisedom and foresight when he had made such plentifull provisions for many years ease and pleasure but alas how soon is his unprepared Soul surprized with a sad arrest of Death how blank did the Fool then look when he heard the fatal News that that Night should put an end to all his hopes How was he confounded with the terrours of the other World poor wretch how did he tremble when he found himself beset with Devils and damned Spirits On the other side Lazarus is comforted because he did his work in this World through much poverty and hardship he got at last to Heaven This is the case of all Men an eternity of happiness or misery awaits them hereafter there is no other state of things so great and so unalterable the Divine Providence hath made use of all the best and wisest methods to disabuse the enchanted reason of Man that he may not be miserable but happy for ever and if Men could be brought to reflect seriously on the dismal and astonishing events of a wicked Life they would never suffer themselves to be so much imposed upon by Cheats and Impostours who recommend to them an implicite Faith and a belief in such a state as Purgatory whereby their eyes are shut that they may not be affrighted by the sight of their misery The fears of one Parâ—y betray Men into Superstition the vices of another into Atheism the covetousness of a third draws them into the most pernitious mistakes about the World to come But if Men would be at the pains to enquire into the affairs of Religion and be not indifferent whether their condition hereafter be happy or miserable they will easily discover its principles to be highly reasonable and the keeping of its Commandments to be their highest interest they will plainly see the paths of Truth and Blessedness for it sets down the most easie rules both for living well and for believing right because errours in Belief are no less destructive of Christianity and the ends thereof than a general viciousness of manners is But if Men will be Fools and follow trifling opinions no wonder if they perish by their own folly do they believe the immortality of the Soul a future state or a judgment to come if they believe all this to what a degree of madness do they act that will venture the fury of an Almighty vengeance for the sake of obeying one sort of Men who have contrived New and Antiscriptural Articles of Faith who will run the hazard of forfeiting an eternal Happiness and of being cast into an eternal Flame because they fansie their Church is an infallible guide whereas St. Paul writing to the Romans speaks not one word of their privilege of infallibility but rather puts them in fear in the 11. Chap. that they aswell as the Jews were in danger of falling way St. Peter also in his Catholick Epistles doth not once acquaint the Christians whom he writes to what Guide they were to follow after his departure there was no need for any such thing for they had all along told them that by following the Scripture they may be saved having then an infallible way there was no use at least no necessity of an infallible Guide But as the Church of Rome without any colour of reason sets up for an infallible Guide in points of Controversie so with like boldness she may lay claim as some of her disciples do to demonstration in matters of Faith whereas if we will define Faith to be that assent by which we receive the word of God as such and upon account thereof give our assent to all things which therein are propounded to us to be believed then there are to be assigned two several acts of Faith one of which is that judgment by which we acknowlege that word to be truly divine the other is that assent which we give to all those things that are contained therein Faith in the former respect is less certain than Science but in respect of adherence is more certain than the other Now there cannot be so great a certainty in Faith as in Science the Mathematicks for instance because Faith is more lyable to doubting than Science is if any Man perceives the strength and force of a Geometrical Demonstration he cannot in the mean while doubt of the conclusion but now a true Believer doth often struggle with doubting and unbelief wherewith his Faith is assaulted and yet it ceaseth not to be true Faith We must confess that the mind doth less
clearly perceive this to be the word of God than it doth those things which are self-evident and the conclusions logically deduced from them there is no reason therefore that any one should fear to acknowledge that assent to be also less certain notwithstanding it follows not upon this account that Faith is uncertain for That which arises not to the certainty of Science is not therefore uncertain for although that certainty which is called Moral be of an inferiour degree to Demonstration yet it is a true certainty leaves the mind satisfied and free from doubt But how can a Man be said to have a certainty greater than that of Science when he hath not that certainty of evidence from the Arguments upon which the matter is grounded It may be answered that no Man can deny but there may be just cause why a Man may adhere to the objects of his Faith more strongly than the Arguments brought for the truth thereof do require for when a Man is sufficiently perswaded by due reasons and arguments that what is propounded to him for Divine Revelation is indeed such this Man if he duly attends and seriously considers that it is God who speaks he will be wholly bent to yield obedience thereunto he will entertain the word of God with the highest veneration he will closely adhere to it and he will be fully resolved to suffer and renounce all things rather than withdraw his assent from those matters of Faith which are contained in it and confirmed by it From thence there arises in his mind a greater or at least a more effectual adherence to the Articles of his Faith than there is in Science for the mind so affected and disposed doth more affectionately embrace and more firmly hold that word of God than any thing else by what light soever it be propounded or by whatever strength of demonstration it be confirmed neither is there any knowledge which he doth so carefully retain nor is there any assent which he will suffer so hardly or with such difficulty to be forced from him which firmness of Faith and strong adherence of mind to the objects of it is not produced by the evidence thereof but by the great weight and moment of it for the mind being enlightned by the holy Spirit understands that any other speculative scientifical Doctrine doth little or nothing conduce to a happy and blessed life but that on This our everlasting happiness doth depend and that we cannot reject This without certain Ruine Therefore we ought to take heed that cunning Men do not deceive us that we do not hearken to the Teachers of New Doctrines which have no foundation in the Scripture their pretences to infallibility and demonstration in matters of Faith are false and unreasonable for they assume these great and unwarrantabe privileges onely to deceive the Ignorant and to obtrude fictitious articles of Faith upon Mankind Wherefore all that now remains is to make some short Reflexions upon the Authours of Purgatory and other new-invented Doctrines in the Church of Rome First They may be charged for imposing upon our belief things contrary to reason self-inconsistent and incongruous of this I will give but one instance which is their asserting that the Bread and Wine in the Sacrament is changed into the real and substantial Body and Bloud of Christ For this is the hardest thing that ever was put upon Men in any Religion because they cannot admit it unless their reason be laid aside as no competent Judge in the matter unless also they give the lye to the report of their senses And if we do this how shall we think that God made our Faculties true which if he did not doe we are absolutely discharged from all duty to him because we have no faculty that can resolve us that This is of God for if our reason must not be trusted we must cease to be Men if our senses are not to be believed the chiefest proof of Christianity falls to the ground which was the sight of those who saw our Saviour after he was risen from the Dead Now if I may not believe the reason of my mind in conjunction with three or four of my senses how shall I know that any thing is this or that therefore I say that this Doctrine is a gross invention of Men contrary both to reason and sense Secondly The Truths they do acknowledge are made void subtile distinctions or equivocations as for example their Doctrine of probability and of directing the intention if a Man can find any Doctour among them that held such an opinion it makes that Doctrine probable and there is nothing so contrary to the rules of vertue and conscience but what some Romish casuistical Doctour hath resolved to be good and practicable just as Tully says there is nothing so absurd or ridiculous which some Philosopher or other hath not maintained and asserted So by directing their intention they may declare that which is false and deny that which is true because they intend the credit of their Church and Religion this mere intention shall excuse them from the guilt of downright falshood and lying They are so well practised in equivocations that you cannot confide in any words they speak they are so ambiguous and of such doubtfull meaning in their evasions their Speech shall bear a double sense whereas no Man ought to use wit and parts to impose upon another or to make a Man believe That which he doth not mean For the Christian Law is plain and obvious void of all ambiguity or ensnaring speeches free from all Sophistications and windings of Language never flies to words of a dubious or uncertain signification but plainly declares the truth to Men therefore these practices are contrary to that simplicity and plain-heartedness which ought to be in the conversation of every Christian Thirdly They super-add to Religion things altogether unlikely to be true and dishonourable to God which will appear in these following particulars I. The use of Images in the Worship of God an Idolatry they are too guilty of otherwise they would never leave out the Second Commandment and divide the Tenth into two to conceal it from the People We find better Doctrine than this among the Philosophers who say God is to be Worshipped by Purity of Mind for this is a rational service and a worship most suitable to an immaterial Being it being the use of that in us which is the highest and noblest of our Faculties II. the veneration of Reliques a very vain and foolish thing for there can be no certainty at this distance of time what they are and if they were indeed what they are taken for what veneration is or can be due to them For inanimate things are far inferiour to those that have life and for the living to worship things that are dead is unaccountable and irrational III. The Invocation or Worship of Angels and Saints our Fellow-creatures particularly of the Virgin Mary
to whom they make more Prayers than to our Saviour himself although her Name be not mentioned in all the Epistles of the Apostles although Christ himself as foreseeing the degeneracy of the Church in this thing did ever restrain all extravagant imaginations of honour due to her yet the adoration of her is the most considerable part od their Religion But why should a Man so prostitute himself as to Worship those I am sure God would not have me Worship for he would not have us adore any Creature as the Apostle argues Col. 2.18 it is but a shew of humility to worship Angels who are placed in the highest order of Creatures and if they are not to be Worshipped sure none below them are and God hath declared there is but one supreme self-existent Being and one Mediatour between God and Man the Man Christ Jesus IV. They withhold the use of Scripture from the People because they say Knowledge of the very Oracles of God will make them contentious and disobedient to Authority if this be true then the blame of all this must be laid upon our blessed Saviour for revealing such a Doctrine to the World as this is and thereby we should condemn the Apostles for making known such a Doctrine to Men in a Tongue they understand but I suppose the Papists are not willing to lay all the miscarriages of the World upon Christ and his Apostles Although Men may abuse the Knowledge of the Scripture yet the abuse of a thing that is usefull was never accounted a sufficient reason for the taking it away therefore Men are not to be hindred from the Knowledge of the Scriptures for fear they should become proud or rebellious for this would be as if one should put out a Man's eyes that he might the better follow him or that he might not loose his way for there is nothing in the whole Doctrine of our blessed Saviour which is unfit for any Man to know but what is plainly designed to promote holiness and the practice of a good life the Romanists do indeed pretend that the unity and peace of the Church cannot be maintained unless the People be kept in ignorance then the mischief will be that for the end of keeping Peace and Unity in the Church Church and Christian will be both lost which would be as if a Prince should knock all his Subjects on the Head to keep them quiet 'T is true this would be an effectual way to procure it but by these means he must lose his Kingdom and make himself no Prince into the bargain 'T is no doubt but if Men were ignorant enough they would be quiet but then the consequences of it would be that they would cease to be Men. Lastly They frustrate the effects of real Religion by their Pretences to extraordinary Power and Privileges that is they pretend to make that lawfull which is unlawfull Bellarmine saith that the Pope may declare vice to be vertue and vertue vice by this practice they attempt to change the reason of things which all Mankind agree to be unalterable By this pretended Power they can turn attrition into contrition that is they can make such a consternation of mind as fell upon Judas when he went and hanged himself to be contrition by the Priest's Absolution they can make bodily Pennance to be of equal validity with an inward change of mind and true Repentance they pretend they can produce by I know not what magical force strange spiritual effects by vertue of Holy Water and the Cross they are also much puff't up with a Power they assume of Absolving Men from solemn Oaths and Obligations they boast much of the Efficacy of Indulgences for the pardon of sin and for the delivery of Souls out of Purgatory by which Invention they detract from the efficacy of God's Grace as if it were not sufficient to prepare us for and at last to bring us to Heaven unless we pass through this imaginary Purgation after Death by which also they themselves are deceived whilst they couple Prayer for the Dead and Purgatory together as if the one did necessarily suppose or imply the other But they do not for though the sins of the Faithfull be privately and particularly forgiven at the day of Death yet the publick promulgation of their pardon is to come at the day of Judgment Christians then may be allowed to Pray for this consummation of Blessedness when the Body shall be reunited to the Soul so we pray as often as we say Thy Kingdom come or come Lord Jesus come quickly this is far enough from being a Prayer to deliver them out of Purgatory besides the Roman Church is not able to produce any one Prayer publick or private nor one Indulgence for the delivery of any one Soul out of Purgatory in all the Primitive times or out of their own ancient Missals or Records All these things before mentioned are not to be justified but thus the Papists have endeavoured to spoil the best Religion that ever was made known unto Men. Whereas the Christian Religion as it is professed in the Reformed Church is quite another thing for it doth neither persecute nor hold any principles of faction or disturbance but onely those of peace and obedience to the Laws of God and Man if there be any agitatours of Mischief and Treason it is the fault of particular Parties and not to be charged upon the Reformed Church which Church holds the Worship of God and all other offices of Religion to be performed in the Vulgar Tongue so that Knowledge may be thereby had and promoted which Knowledge of Religion if any Man doth abuse for the ends of Pride Rebellion or Heresie he doth it at his own peril and God will judge him for it But St. Paul is so far from allowing any Service to God in an unknown Tongue that he calls it a piece of madness 1 Cor. 14.23 If the whole church be come together into one place and all speak with divers tongues and there come in the unlearned will not they say that you are mad that is they may justly say so Now a Man would wonder that any society of Men retaining the Name of Christians should zealously press that to be necessary for the Christian Church which St. Paul hath said to be a piece of madness The same Reformed Church owns the free use of the Scriptures both in publick and private calls upon Men as our Saviour did to search them for these make the man of God perfect and do richly furnish him for every good work and by their help we are able to render a reason of the hope that is in us We do declare that the Preachers of the Church ought not to take away the Key of Knowledge from the People as our Saviour charges the Pharisees or as St. Augustine saith They do not command Faith in Men upon peril of Damnation to shew their superiority but they appear as Officers to
direct and give Counsel not with Pride to rule but in Compassion to lead others into the way of Truth and to recover them out of mistakes In short we tell the People that the Scripture is the onely rule of their faith that it is full and perspicuous in all matters necessary for good life and practice so that if the use diligence and mind them well they may easily understand them and be satisfied we never demand any implicâ—te Faith from them neither do we expect that they should resign up their Faculties as others believe blindfold and without Reason Therefore the Reformed Church is honest in all its dealings doth not deceive Men by any ways of fraud or falshood such as the whole Doctrine of Merit is and the Relieving of Souls out of Purgatory by Masses But there is a place in the World where coelum est venale Deusque Heaven and God himself is set to sale The premisses considered we may conclude that the Church of England had good reason to declare in her twenty second Article that The Romish Doctrine concerning Purgatory Pardons Worshipping and Adoration aswell of Images as of Reliques and also Invocation of Saints is a fond thing vainly invented and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture but rather repugnant to the word of God For the whole Scripture is against Purgatory wherein we reade 1 Joh. 1.7 That the bloud of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin that the Children of God who dye in Christ do rest from their labours that as they are absent from the Lord while they body they are present with the Lord Joh. 5.24 they come not into Judgment but pass from Death to Life The same Doctrine is taught by the ancient Fathers of the Church Tertullian says it is an Injury to Christ to maintain that such as be called from hence by him are in a state that should be pitied Thus St. Cyprian affirms the Servants of God to have Peace and Rest assoon as they are withdrawn from the storms of this lower World And Hilary observes in the Gospel of the Rich Man and Lazarus that every one is sent either to Abraham's bosome or to torments assoon as this Life is ended St. Basil declares this World to be the time of Repentance the other of Retribution this of Working that of receiving a Reward So Nazianzen in his Funeral Orations plainly denies that after this Life there is any purging to be expected and therefore he tells us that it is better to be purged now than be sent into torments where the time of punishing is and not of purging St. Hierome also comforts Paula for the Death of her Daughter after this manner let the Dead be lamented but let us whom Christ cometh forth to meet after our departure be the more grieved because so long as we remain here we are Pilgrims from God I could cite more Fathers to this purpose but the Testimonies of these may suffice to shew that all were not of Bellarmine's mind as he pretends by his precarious assertion that Antiquity constantly taught there was a Purgatory Whereas the Grecians are so far from being of his Faith that they do not believe it at this day The oldest and best Authours that I know to be on his side are Plato in his Gorgias and Phaedo Tully in the end of the Dream of Scipio and Virgil in his sixth Eneide Tertullian likewise when he was an Heretick seemed to favour his opinion and Origen was very much of that Belief who acknowledges no other punishment after this life but Purgatory-pains onely Notwithstanding the Romish Clergy have the confidence to impose this extravagant Doctrine upon the World now it was never heard of in the Church for the space of a thousand years after the Birth of our Saviour when Thomas Aquinas and other Fryars had framed the cheat the Doctours of the Greek Church did publickly oppose it afterwards the Pope and his Agents prevailed so far in the Council at Florence that for Peace sake they were contented to yield That the middle sort of Souls were in a place af Punishment but whether that were Fire Darkness and Tempest or something else they would not contend But as I have said the Greek Church the Muscovites and Russians the Cophtites and Abassines the Georgians and Armenians could never be brought to submit to it But this opinion with some others no less absurd and ridiculous came into the World when Ignorance and Interest had fatally depraved the Primitive purity of the Christian Faith and Worship The Broachers of these Fictions are very crasty and industrious in contriving ways how they may fasten them upon credulous People and although it is more than an hundred years since our Ancestours threw off the Pope's Tyranny yet if he doth not meet with a proportionable zeal in their Posterity to oppose his designs it will not be hard to conjecture the success of a vigorous attacque and a faint defence As therefore we are Members of a Christian Church in which we may assuredly find Salvation if we continue in it let us be firmly united among our selves against all innovatours in Religion As we have no other rule of Faith and practice than the Holy Scripture let us reject all notorious innovations that are obtruded upon us for fundamentals As we are taught to be obedient to the supreme Magistrate not onely for Wrath but Conscience sake so we are bound to avoid the Communion of that Church which claims a Power of deposing him and of knocking those on the head who keep close to the Faith once delivered to the Saints What obligations then have we to the Church we are of and to the Religion we profess which hath deliverd us from the Laws of the Roman Religion that are written in Bloud that hath recovered us from the Idolatrous practice of the heathen World that will not suffer us to Worship Images or fall down to the stock of a Tree that doth not rob us of the benefit of publick Prayers by putting them into an unknown tongue that doth not enjoin an implicite Faith or blind obedience but allows to every Christian a judgment of Discretion who keeps within the bounds of due obedience and submission to his lawfull Superiours that he may prove all things hold fast That which is good a Church that hath no pardons at a set price for guilty persons no forged miracles to amuse the credulous and ignorant no pompous shews Beads Tickets Agnus Dei's Rosaries to please the Vulgar or to gratifie the Superstitious If therefore we have any love of our Religion or any concern for the happiness of our Church and Nation if we have any desire to hold the freedom of our Consciences or any care for the eternal safety of our Souls it behoves us to beware of the Emissaries of Rome in whose success we must expect to forfeit all these interest every one of which ought to be dearer to us than our lives Let us not be imposed upon by the specious Name of Roman Catholick it is a mere contradiction one of the Pope's Bulls as if he should say universal particular a Catholick Schismatick Let us not be afraid to encounter this pretended Catholick with the Councils and Fathers though these are a Labyrinth an intangled Wood which Papists love to fight in not so much with hope of victory as to hide the shame of an open overthrow which in this kind of combat many of our Divines have given them But let them bound their Disputations on the Scripture onely and an ordinary Protestant well read in the Bible may turn and wind their ablest Doctours for as among Papists their ignorance in the Scripture chiefly upholds Popery so among Protestants the frequent and serious reading thereof will soonest baffle it And we need not doubt of an entire conquest if we add to this the amendment of our lives with all speed lest through impenitency pride luxury bold and open Atheism uncharitable jarring and pelting at one another through stubborn disobedience to the Laws of God and Man we run into that sottishly which we seek so warily to avoid the worst of Superstitions that enervates and destroys the whole design of Christianity FINIS Advertisement of Books A Learned Treatise of the Pope's Supremacy To which is added a Discourse Concerning the Unity of the Church By Isaac Barrow D.D. late Master of Trinity College in Cambridge may be had alone In Folio Now in the Press Five Sermons of Contentment one of Patience and one of Resignation to the Divine Will By Isaac Barrow D. D. Never before Published In Octavo A Discourse against Transubstantiation Printed for Brabazon Aylmer in Cornhil Tertul. lib. de patien ch 9. Cyprian de Mortali sect 2. edit Goulart Hilar. in Psal 2. St. Basil Prooem in Regulas c. Nazianz. orati 9. ad Julianum Hierom. Epist 25. Concil Florentin Sess 25.