drink wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world why as though living in the world are ye subject to ordinances touch not tast not handle not which all are to perish with the using 2 Col. 16.20.21 22. after the Commandments and Doctrines of men And yet though they do not own the legal distinctions between clean and unclean things their Consecrations would perswade one that there were something more than a meer legal uncleanness in all Creatures viz that they are all possessed by the Devil and wicked Spirits for when they Consecrate Salt and Water to make their Holy-water they first exorcise both the Salt and Water to cast the Devil out of them and if such innocent Creatures are possessed I doubt none can escape which has made me sometimes wonder that they durst eat any thing before it was first exorcised for fear the Devil should take possession of them with their meat It is certain if the Christian Religion takes away all such distinctions between Meat and Drinks the meer abstaining from Flesh can be no part of Christian Worship much less so satisfactory and meritorious as the Church of Rome pretends when such Abstinence is appointed as a satisfactory Penance 3ly As for the Religion of Holy Places Altars Vestments Utensils the Church of Rome has infinitely out-done the Jewish Laws instead of one Temple at Jerusalem they have thousands to the full as Holy and Sacred as that as may appear from their Rites of Consecration Though herein I consess they differ that the Temple of Jerusalem was only God's House and that alone made it a Holy Place because God was there peculiarly present but the Popish Churches derive their Sanctity not so much from the Presence of God for then they would be all equally Holy as from some great and eminent Saint who is peculiarly Worshipped there It is a great argument of the opinion men have of the Holiness of any Place to go in Pilgrimage to it not meerly in Curiosity but Devotion as if either going so far to see the place were in itself an act of Religion or their Prayers would be better heard there than if they prayed at home Thus they Travel to Jerusalem to visit the Holy Land and the Sepulchre and this may be thought in honour of our Saviour who Lived and Died and was Buried there but otherwise I know not any Church or Chappel which the most devout Pilgrims think worth visiting meerly upon the account of God or Christ The several Churches or Chappels of the Virgin especially those which are the most famed for Miracles or the Churches where the Reliques of some great and adored Saints are lodged have their frequent Visits for the sake of the Virgin or of the Saints but without some Saint Churches lose their Sacredness and Veneration which I suppose is the reason why they always take care of some Reliques to give a Sacredness to them without which no Church can be Consecrated that is its Dedication to the Worship of God cannot make it Holy unless some Saint take possession of it by his or her Reliques This I confess is not Judaism for under the Jewish Law all Holiness of things or places was derived from their relation to God now the Names and Reliques and wonder-working Images of Saints and the Blessed Virgin give the most peculiar and celebrated Holiness and whether this be not at least to ascribe such a Divinity to them as the Pagans did to their Deified Men and Women to whom they erected Temples and Altars let any impartial Reader judge Those must have a good share of Divinity who can give Holiness to any thing else But since they must have Holy Places and something to answer the Jewish Superstition who cried The Temple of the LORD the Temple of the LORD I cannot blame them for making choice of Saints to inhabitate their Churches and sanctifie them with their presence since under the Gospel God is no more present in one place than in another He dwelt indeed in the Temple of Jerusalem by Types and Figures but that was but a Type of God's dwelling in Humane Nature the Body of Christ was the true Temple as he told the Jews Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up which he spake of the Temple of his Body And now Christ is ascended into Heaven there is no Temple on Earth and therefore if they will have Temples they must have the Temples of Saints for the Presence of God is now no more confined to a House than his Providence is to the Land of Judaea as it was in a very peculiar manner while the Temple stood there God dwells not on Earth now as he did among the Jews but his Presence viz. our Lord Jesus Christ is removed into Heaven and therefore he has no House on Earth to answer to the Jewish Temple as the Ancient Fathers asserted that the Christians had neither Temples nor Alters The Christian Church indeed is a holy and living Temple wherein the Holy Spirit dwells but that is built not with Stones or Brick but of living Saints and therefore the Holiness of Places and Altars and Garments c. which makes up so great a part of the Roman Religion is a manifest Corruption of the Smplicity of the Christian Worship The Jewish Temple made that Worship most acceptable to God which was offered there because it was a Type of Christ and signified the acceptance of all our Prayers and Religious Services as offered up to God only in the Name of Christ but to think that any place is so Holy now that the bear visiting it or praying in it should bestow a greater holiness upon us and all we do should expiate our Sins or merit a Reward is no better than Jewish or Pagan Superstition 4ly That the Church of Rome does attribute Divine Vertues and Powers to senseless and inanimate Things is so evident from that great Veneration they pay to the Reliques and those great Vertues they ascribe to them from their Consecrations of their Agnus Dei their Wax-candles Oyl Bells Crosses Images Ashes Holy-water for the Health of Soul and Body to drive away evil Spirits to allay Storms to heal Diseases to pardon Venial and sometimes Mortal Sins meerly by kissing or touching them carrying them in their hands wearing them about their necks c. that no man can doubt of it who can believe his own eyes and read their Offices and see what the daily Practice of their Church is Whoever has a mind to be satisfied about it needs only read Dr. Brevint's Saul and Samuel at Endor Chap. 15. These things look more like Charms than Christian Worship and are a great Profanation of the Divine Grace and Spirit indeed they argue that such men do not understand what Grace and Sanctification means who think that little Images of Wax that Candles that Oyl that Water and Salt that Bells that Crosses can be
concealed from the Peoples sight for I believe the World never heard before of worshipping invisible Images The original intention of Images is to have a visible Object of Worship for an invisible Image can affect us no more than an invisible God and if our Author had consulted all the Patrons of Image Worship whether Pagan or Popish he would have found most of the Reasons they alledge for this Worship to depend on sight and therefore whatever he thought are all lost when a man shuts his eyes A man who directs his Worship to an Image may be an Idolater in the dark and with his eyes shut but as blind as Idolaters are there never had been any Image-Worship had their Images been as invisible as their Gods and therefore sight has more to do in this matter than our Author was aware of But it seems the High-Priest once a year did see these Cherubims and adore and worship them But this is another mistake for the Jews did believe that the High-Priest never saw the Cherubims or Mercy-seat even when he went once a Year into the Holy of Holies and they have great reason for what they say since God expresly commanded That when he went into the Holy of Holies he should take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the Lord and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small and bring it within the veil And he shall put the incense upon the fire before the Lord that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy-seat that is upon the testimony that he die not 16 Lev. 12 13. which shews that the Cherubims and Mercy-seat were to be covered with a Cloud of Incense and to become as invisible to the High-Priest within the Veil as to the People without it But suppose the High-Priest did see the Cherubims when he entred within the Veil I have one plain Argument to prove that he did not worship them not only because no act of Worship was commanded him when he went into the Holy Place but because as the Holy of Holies was the figure of Heaven and the Cherubims the types of Angels who stand about the Throne of God so the High-Priest entring into the Holy of Holies was the type of Christ ascending into Heaven with his own Bloud and therefore the High-Priest must do nothing in the Holy of Holies but what was a proper figure and type of what Christ does in Heaven and then he must no more worship the Cherubims which covered the Mercy-seat or the Typical Throne of God than Christ himself when he ascended to Heaven was to worship the Angels who stand about the Throne So that notwithstanding God's command to make two Cherubims and to place them at the two ends of the Mercy-seat in the Holy of Holies all Image-Worship was strictly forbid by the Law of Moses and God has provided the most effectual remedy against it by the Incarnation of his Son Mankind have been always fond of some visible Deity and because God cannot be seen they have gratified their Superstition by making some visible Images and Representations of an invisible God now to take them off from mean corporeal Images and Representations which are both a dishonour to the Divine Nature and debase the minds of men God has given us a visible Image of Himself has cloathed his own eternal Son with Humane Nature who is the brightness of his Father's glory and the express image of his person 1. Hebr. 3. And therefore St. John tells us That the word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth 1 John 14. And for this reason when Philip was desirous to see the Father Shew us the Father and it sufficeth Christ tells him that the Father is to be seen onely in the Son who is his visible Image and Glory Jesus saith unto him Have I been so long time with you and yet hast thou not seen me Philip He that hath seen me hath seen the Father and how sayest thou then Shew us the Father 14 John 8 9. This was one end of Christ's Incarnation that we might have a visible Deity a God Incarnate to represent the Father to us who is the living and visible Image of God and there could not be a more effectual way to make men despise all dead material Representations of God than to have God visibly represented to us in our own Nature It is true Christ is not visible to us now on Earth but he is visible in Heaven and we know he is the only visible Image of God and that is enough to teach us that we must make and adore no other He is as visible to us in Heaven as the Mercy-Seat in the Holy of Holies was to the Jews and is that true Propitiatory of which the Mercy-Seat was a Type and Figure 3 Rom. 25. Him hath God set forth to be a propitiation through Faith in his blood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Mercy-seat as that word is used 9 Heb. 5. He is the natural Image of God and his Mercy-Seat or Presence and Throne of Grace he is his visible Image tho' he cannot be seen by us for the Typical Mercy-Seat in the Holy of Holies did prefigure that his residence should be in Heaven and therefore invisible to us on earth but there we may see him by Faith and there he will receive our Prayers and present them to his Father Now then to sum up this Argument since it was one main design of Christ's appearance to root all the remains of Idolatrous Worship out of the World is it credible that the. Worship of Saints and Angels and the Virgin Mary the Worship of Images and Reliques as it is practised in the Church of Rome should be any part of Christian-Worship or allowed by the Gospel of our Saviour If Creature Worship and Image Worship were so offensive to God here is the Worship of Creatures and Images still and therefore all the visible Idolatry that ever was practised in the world before All that they can pretend is that they have better Notions of the Worship of Saints and Angels and Images than the Heathens had but whether they have or no will be hard to prove The Pagan Philosophers made the same Apologies for their Worship of Angels and Daemons and Images which the Learned Papists now make and whether unlearned Papists have not as gross Notions about their Worship of Saints and Images as the unlearned Heathens had is very doubtful and has been very much suspected by learned Romanists themselves But suppose there were some difference upon this account can we think that Christ who came to root out all Idolatrous Worship intended to set up a new kind of Creature-Worship and Image-Worship in greater pomp and glory than ever and only to rectifie mens Opinions about it Suppose the Idolatry of Creature-Worship and
curse of the Law and saved from wrath But if such a man may go to Purgatory why not to Hell Or if the Curse of the Law and the Wrath of God be in Hell but not in Purgatory though the torments are equally great why may not he lie for ever in Purgatory as well as a thousand Years with this comfort that though he be infinitely tormented yet it is not the curse of the Law nor the wrath of God Well but Christ has promised That those who believe in him shall not perish but have everlasting life And that proves that the pains of Purgatory cannot be for ever for then Christ could not make good his promise of bestowing everlasting Life on them so I consess one would think and so I should have thought also that when Christ promised that such Believers should not perish and should never die that he meant such men should not go to Purgatory in the next World but if falling into Purgatory be not perishing and not dying it may be everlasting life too for ought I know and then the pains of Purgatory may be eternal Whoever would not forfeit all the assurance the Gospel has given us of our Redemption from Hell and a glorious Immortality must reject the Popish Doctrine of Purgatory as a flat contradiction to all the gracious Promises of the Gospel for Hell or an Eternal Purgatory is as reconcilable with the Promises of Forgiveness and Immortal Life as the Popish Purgatory is 2. This Doctrine of Purgatory destroys our Hope and Confidence in the Mediation and Intercession of Christ and that for these two plain reasons 1. As it represents him less merciful and compassionate And 2. less powerful than the wants and necessities of Sinners require him to be For I. After all that is said in Scripture of his being so merciful and compassionate an High-Priest a Sinner who hears what is told him of Purgatory could wish him a great deal more compassionate than he is for it is no great sign of tenderness and compassion to leave his Members in Purgatory-fire which burns as hot as Hell. Could I believe this of our Saviour I should have very mean thoughts of his kindness and not much rely on him for any thing We should think him far enough from being a merciful and compassionate Prince who can be contented to torture his Subjects for a year together and it is a wonderful thing to me that when a merciful Man cannot see a Beast in torment without relieving it it should be thought consistent with the mercy and compassion of our Saviour to see us burn in Purgatory for Years and Ages To be sure this destroys all our hope in him in this World for why should we think he will be concerned what we suffer here who can contentedly let us lie in Purgatory to which all the calamities and sufferings of this life are meer trifles O Blessed and Merciful JESU pardon such Blaspemies as these For II. If he be compassionate he must want Power to help us and that destroys the hope of Sinners as much as want of Compassion It must be want of Will of Power in him that he does not deliver us from Purgatory as well as Hell and if he want Power to deliver us from Purgatory for my part I should more question his Power to deliver from Hell for that is the harder of the two if his Bloud could not expiate for the Temporal Punishment of Sin which the Merits of some supererogating Saints or the Pope's Indulgence or the Priests Masses can redeem us from how could it make expiation for Eternal Punishment If his Interest in the Court of Heaven will not do the less how can it do the greater There is no Doctrine more irreconcilable with the perfect Love and Goodness of God and the Merits and Intercession of our Saviour which are the Fundamental Doctrines of the Gospel which is a Dispensation of Love and Grace than this of Purgatory and therefore we may safely conclude that this is no Gospel-Doctrine 2. Let us now examine the Doctrine of Invocation of Saints and Angels as our Mediators with God and see whether it does not disparage the Grace of the Gospel the Love of God and of our Mediator and Advocate Jesus Christ to penitent sinners Now a very few words will decide this matter 1. With respect to God now can that man believe that God is so very gracious to Sinners for the sake of Christ who seeks to so many Advocates and Mediators to intercede for him with God. To imagine that we want any Mediator to God but only our High-Priest who mediates in Vertue of his Sacrifice is a reproach to the Divine Goodness The Wisdom and Justice of God may require a Sacifice and a High Priest to make Atonement for Sin but Infinite Goodness needs not any Entreaties and meer Intercessions to move him A truly good man who knows a proper Object of his kindness needs not to be asked to do good The use of such Advocates and Mediators among men is either to recommend an unknown Person to the favour of the Prince or fairly to represent his cause to him which has been mis-represented by others or to procure favour for an undeserving person or among equal Competitors to procure some one to be preferred this is all the use of Intercession among men for a good and wise and just Prince will do what is wise and just and good not only without Intercessors but against all Intercessions to the contrary Now I suppose no man will say that God wants Mediators and Advocates upon any of these accounts for he knows every man understands perfectly his cause will never be perswaded by any Intercessions to shew kindness to unfit Objects that is to impenitent Sinners and his Goodness is so unconfined and so extensive to all that there can never be any competition for his Favour and therefore to multiply Advocates and Mediators to God must argue a great distrust of his Mercy and Goodness which a kind and good Prince would take very ill of us God indeed has commanded us to Pray for one another in this World as he has to pray for our selves but this is not by way of Interest and Merit as the Church of Rome pretends the Saints in Heaven pray for us but by humble Supplications which is very reconcilable with the goodness of God to make Prayer a necessary condition of granting Pardon and other Blessings we want but as the use of Prayer for our selves is not to move God meerly by our importunities to do good to us for we must pray in Faith that is with a humble assurance and confidence that God will hear us which includes a firm Belief of his readiness to grant what we pray for so neither are our Prayers for others to move God by our interest in him that is they are not the Intercessions of Favourites but of humble Supplicants There was great reason why God
should make Prayer the condition of our receiving though he wants not our importunities to move him because there are a great many excellent Vertues exercised in Prayer such as great sorrow for Sin great humility of Mind faith in God's Promises the acts of Love and affiance and trust in God and a constant dependance on his Grace and Providence for all spiritual and temporal Blessings and there was great reason why he should command us to pray for others thô he wants none of our Intercessions for them because it is a mutual exercise of Charity of Love to our Brethren and Forgiveness to our Enemies and is a mighty obligation to do all other acts of kindness for those who know it to be their Duty to pray for one another will think themselves bound to do good to one another also This becomes those who live and converse together in this World because it is a great Instrument of Virtue and that is a reason why God should encourage the exercise of it by promising to hear our Prayers for each other But as far as meer goodness is concerned the Gospel represents God as so very good to Sinners that there is no need of any Intercessor for them For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life 3 John 16. This was an act of goodness antecedent to the Incarnation and Death of Christ and the highest act of goodness that God could manifest to the World and therefore secures us of God's love and goodness to Sinners without a Mediator and Advocate for that love which provided a Mediator for us was without one and proves that it was not for want of goodness or that he needed entreaties that he gave his Son to be our Mediator And therefore hence S. Paul proves how ready God is to bestow all good things on us He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things 8 Rom. 32. And our Saviour himself represents the goodness of God by the tenderness and compassion of an earthly Parent If ye then being evil that is less good than God is know how to give good things to your children how much more shall your heavenly Father give good things to them that ask him 7 Matth. 11. especially in the Parable of the Prodigal where our Saviour describes the goodness of God to sinners by that passion and joy wherewith the Father received his returning Prodigal nay he assures his Disciples that there was no need of his own Intercession to incline God to be good and kind to them At that day ye shall ask in my name and I say not unto you that I will pray the Father for you for the Father-himself loveth you because ye have loved me and believed that I came out from God 16 John 26 27. God is so infinitely good that he needs no Mediators or Intercessors to incline him to all acts of goodness but as he is the wise and just Governour of the World he requires a Sacrifice for Sin and a High-Priest to make Atonement for it and to intercede in vertue of the Sacrifice Such a Mediator Christ is who alone is both our Sacrifice and our Priest and therefore our only Mediator not to incline God to be good for that he was before infinitely good or else he had not given his Son to be our Sacrifice and our High-Priest but to make Atonement for our Sins and thereby to reconcile the exercise of God's goodness with his wisdom and justice in governing the World. Such a Mediator and High-Priest does not lessen the Divine goodness for the intention of his Mediation is not to make God good and kind but to make it wise and just in God to do good to Sinners but all other Mediators in Heaven whose business it is by Prayers and Entreaties and Interest and Favour to incline God to be good to such particular persons as they intercede for is a real disparagement to the Divine goodness as if he would not be good unless he were conquered by Entreaties and over-ruled by the prevailing Intercessions of some great Favourites and yet such Mediators as these the Saints and Angels and Virgin Mary are if they be Mediators at all and therefore to pray to them as to our Mediators argues such a diffidence and distrust of God's goodness as does not become the Gospel of our Saviour this can be no Gospel-Doctrine because it is irreconcileable with that account the Gospel gives us of the Love of God. 2. Nor is it less injurious to the Love of our Saviour to flie to the Prayers and Aids of Saints and Angels and the Virgin Mary her self I shall not now dispute what encroachment this is upon the Mediatorship of Christ to make our Addresses and Applications to other Mediators but whoever does so must either think that Christ wants Interest with God without the joynt Intercession of Saints and Angels or that he wants Kindness to us and either will not intercede for us at all or will not do it unless he be prevailed with by the Intercession of Saints or the Entreaties or the Commands of his Mother I suppose they will not pretend that he wants power to do what we ask of him when he himself has assured us That whatsoever we ask of the Father in his name he will give it us 15 John 16.16 John 23 24. Does our Mediator then need other Mediators to intercede with him for us What! he who became man for us who lived a laborious and afflicted life for us who loved us so as to give himself for us who is a merciful and compassionate High-Priest and touched with a feeling of our infirmities being in all things tempted like as we are yet without sin What a change does this make in the whole Gospel Had not the Church of Rome found out some better security for Sinners in the Mediation of Saints and Angels and the Blessed Virgin what a hopeless state had we been in For all that the Gospel tells us is That God in great love and goodness to Sinners sent his Son to be our Saviour and that we might have the greater assurance of his pity and compassion for us he became Man Flesh of our Flesh and Bone of our Bone and not only so but submitted to all the weaknesses and infirmities of our Natures to the greatest shame and reproach to the sharpest pains and the most infamous Death that he might the better know what our temptations and sufferings are in this World and might be more sensibly affected with our condition in all our sufferings This one would have thought should have given the greatest security to Sinners of his readiness to help them who did and suffered all this for them and this is the only security which the Gospel of our Saviour gives us But it seems
Spirit may be so absurd as to worship him in an Image yet an Image cannot represent a Spirit to him and therefore either he must not think at all of the Image and then methinks he should not look on an Image when he worships God for that is apt to make him think of it or if he does think of the Image while his mind is filled with such gross and sensible representations it is impossible in the same act to address to God as to a pure invisible and infinite Spirit Which shews how unfit and improper Images are in the Worship of God for they must either be wholly useless and such as a man must not so much as look or think on which is very irreconcileable with that Worship which is paid to them in the Church of Rome or while he is intent upon a Picture or Image his mind is diverted from the contemplation of a pure and infinite Spirit and therefore cannot and does not worship God as a Spirit And the same is true of the Images of Saints and the Blessed Virgin for though to make Pictures of Men or Women is no reproach to the Divine Nature since they are not the Pictures or Images of God who is a Spirit but of those Saints whom they are intended to represent yet if all Christian Worship be the Worship of God it is evident that the Worship of Images though they be not the Images of God but of the Saints can be no part of Christian Worship because God must be worshipped as a Spirit and therefore not by any Image whatsoever Now the Church of Rome will not pretend that the Worship of Saints and their Images is a distinct and separate Worship from the Worship of God but to justifie themselves they constantly affirm that they worship God in that Worship which they pay to the Saints and their Images for they know that to do otherwise would be to terminate their Worship upon Creatures which they confess to be Idolatry since all Religious Worship must terminate on God and therefore should they give any Religious Worship to Creatures distinct and separate from that Worship they give to God it were Idolatry upon their own Principles Now if they worship God in the Worship of Saints and their Images then they worship God in the Images of Saints and that I think is to worship him by Images the Worship of a pure infinite and invisible Spirit will admit of no Images whether of God or Creatures as the Objects or Mediums of Worship But it may be said that this is to graft our own Fancies and Imaginations upon Scripture for though Christ does say that God is a Spirit and must be worshipped in Spirit he does not say that to worship God in Spirit is not to worship him by an Image but to worship God in Spirit in our Saviour's Discourse with the Woman of Samaria is not opposed to Image-Worship but to confining the Worship of God to a particular place such as the Temple at Jerusalem and Samaria was as I observed above Now to this I answer 1. To worship God as a Spirit does in the nature of the thing signifie this for to worship God by any material or sensible Representations is not to worship God as a Spirit for an infinite Spirit cannot be represented by Matter nor by any Shape and Figure because it neither is material nor has any figure 2. If God will not have his peculiar Presence confined to any place under the Gospel much less will he be worshipped by Images and Pictures for it is not such a contradiction to the nature of an infinite Spirit to shew himself more peculiarly present in one place than in another as it is to be worshipped by sensible Images and Pictures Though God fills all places there may be wise Reasons why he should confine the Acts of Worship to some peculiar place and such typical Reasons there were for it under the Law but there never can be any Reason why a Spirit should be represented and worshipped by an Image which is such a contradiction and dishonour to the nature of the Spirit and therefore when God confined his symbolical Presence to the Temple at Jerusalem yet he strictly forbad the Worship of Images and much less then will he allow of Image-Worship when he will not so much as have a Temple 3. For we must observe farther that what our Saviour here says God is a Spirit and will be worshipped in Spirit is not a particular Direction how to Worship God but a general Rule to which the nature of our Worship must be conformed and therefore it is our Rule as far as the plain reason of it extends Under the Law they were not left to general Rules but God determined the particular Rites and Ceremonies of his Worship himself for under the Law God had not so plainly discovered his own Nature to them as he hath done by his Son in the Gospel For no man hath seen God at any time but the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father he hath declared him And therefore the Nature of God was never made the Rule of Worship before Thô God was as much a Spirit under the Law as he is under the Gospel yet this was never assigned as a reason against Image-Worship that God is a Spirit but either that they saw no Likeness or Similitude in the Mountain when GOD spake to them 4 Deut. 15 16. or that he is so great and glorious a Being that nothing in the World is a fit Representation of him To whom then will ye liken GOD 40 Isa 18 c. or what likeness will ye compare unto him It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth and the inhabitants thereof are as grashoppers that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in c. But that God is a Spirit who has no shape and figure is a much better Argument against Image-Worship than all this but this God had not so plainly declared to them and if God forbad the Worship of Images when he thought fit to give no other reason for it But that he had never appeared to them in any Likeness or Similitude or that he was too great to be Represented we our selves may now judge how unfit it is to Worship God by an Image since our Saviour has declared that he is a Spirit who has no Likeness or Figure and that now he expects to be Worshipped by us as a Spirit and therefore without any Image or sensible Representation 4. And yet some learned men think that our Saviour in these Words had as well respect to the Worship of God by Images as to his Worship in the Temple for that he had respect to the Object as well as Place of Worship is evident from what he adds Ye worship ye know not what we know what we worship 4 Joh. 20. for
salvation is of the Jews wherein he informs the Woman that though she inquired only of the place of Worship the Samaritans were guilty of a greater sault than setting up the Temple at Samaria in opposition to the Temple at Jerusalem viz. in a false Object or an Idolatrous manner of Worship they Worshipping a Dove as the Symbol and Representation of God and thus to Worship God in Spirit is expresly opposed to Worshipping God by Images 5ly However this comes much to one for if God being a Spirit his Worship must not be confined to any Place or Symbolical Presence then he must not be Worshipped by an Image for an Image is a Representative Presence of God or of the Saints for the use of Images is to represent that Being whom we Worship as present to us and therefore if men consider what they do they go to Images as to Divine Presences to Worship Images which as set up in Churches and Chappels for the Worship of God or of the Saints are confined to places and make those places as much appropriate and peculiar places of Worship as the Jewish Temple was excepting that the Temple was but one and they are many Heathen Temples were the Houses of their Gods or of their Images which were the Presence of their Gods and if we must not appropriate the Presence of God to any place then we must not Worship him by Images which are of no use but to represent God as sensibly present with the Image or in the place where the Image is If God be better Worshipped before an Image than without one then the Worship of God is more confined to that place where an Image is than to those places which have no Images I cannot see how to avoid this that if God must be Worshipped by Images then there must be appropriate places of Worship viz. where the Image is if there be no appropriate places of Worship under the Gospel like the Temple at Jerusalem then God must not be Worshipped by Images for an Image must be in some place and if God must be Worshipped at or before his Image then that is the proper and peculiar place of Worship where his Image is nay though the Image be not fixt to any place but be carried about with us yet if we must Worship God by Images the Image is not only the Object but makes the place of Worship for there we must Worship God where his Image is if we must Worship him before his Image It is impossible to separate the Notion of Image-Worship from the Notion of a peculiar and appropriate place of Worship for the Image determines the place as the presence of the Object does and as under the Gospel we may Worship God any where because he is an infinite Spirit and fills all places and is equally present with all devout Worshippers where-ever they Worship him So where the Image is Consecrated for a Divine Presence it is not only the Object but the peculiar place of Worship because God is peculiarly present there or more acceptably worshipped there than where there is no Image So that if a peculiar and appropriate place of Worship be contrary to the Notion of an Infinite Spirit the Worship of Images is much more so for besides that they are gross and corporeal representations of a Spirit they are Divine Presences too and appropriate places of Worship Secondly As God must be worshipped under the notion of a Spirit so under the character of a Father as our Saviour expresty tells us The hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and Truth 4 Joh. 23. for the Father seeketh such to worship him and therefore he taught his Disciples to pray Our Father which art in heaven Under the Law God was worshipped as a King and that not so much as the King of the whole World but as in a peculiar manner the King of Israel The Lord reigneth let the people tremble he sitteth between the Cherubims in his Temple at Jerusalem let the earth be moved 99 Ps 1 2. The Lord is great in Zion and he is high above all people But under the Gospel the peculiar character of God is a Father and that not only as he is the maker of all men and so the Father of all but as he is the Father of Christ and in him the Father of all Christians Now this makes a vast difference in our Worship from what is daily practised in the Church of Rome For 1. When we pray to God as our Father we must pray to him as dwelling in Heaven as our Saviour teaches us to say Our Father which art in Heaven For as a Father Heaven is his House and Habitation In my Fathers House are many mansions that is 14 John 2. in in Heaven which is his House as a Father as the Temple at Jerusalem was his Palace considered as the King of Israel and this is one reason our Saviour intimates why the presence of God shall no longer be confined to any particular Place or Temple because he shall be worshipped as the universal Father not as the King of Jury Now when he is to be worshipped as a Father from all Parts of the World he must have such a Throne and Presence to which all the World may equally resort and that can be no other then his Throne in Heaven whither we may send up our Prayers from all Corners of the Earth but had he confined his Presence to any place on Earth as he did to the Temple of Jerusalem the rest of the World must have been without God's peculiar Presence could have had no Temple nor Place of Worship but at such a distance that they could never have come at it for though God fills all places it is a great absurdity to talk of more Symbolical Presences of God than one for a Symbolical Presence confines the unlimited Presence of God to a certain place in order to certain ends as to receive the Worship that is paid him and to answer the Prayers that are made to him and to have more than One such Presence as this is like having more Gods than One. So that all our Worship under the Gospel must be directed to God in Heaven and that is a plain argument that we must not Worship God in Images on Earth for they neither can represent to us the Majesty of God in Heaven nor is God present with the Image to receive our Worship there if God must now be Worshipped as dwelling in Heaven it is certain there can be no Object of our Worship on Earth for though God fill all places with his Presence yet he will be Worshipped only as sitting on his Throne in Heaven and then I am sure he must not be Worshipped in an Image on Earth for that is not his Throne in Heaven This the Mercy-seat in the Holy of Holies was an Emblem of for the Holy of
will not speak out is evident to any considering man For will they say that Christ who became man for us who suffered and died for us who was in all things tempted like as we are yet without sin who did and suffered all this on purpose that he might be a merciful and compassionate High Priest and might give us the highest assurance of his tenderness and compassion for us I say can they suspect that such a High Priest will not undertake to plead our Cause if we be such as according to the terms of the Gospel it is his Office to interceed for No Christian dare say this which is such a reproach to our common Saviour who hath bought us with his own Bloud and therefore no Christian who thinks himself within the reach and compass of Christ's Intercession can need or desire any other Advocate but those who are conscious to themselves of so much wickedness that they cannot hope the holy Jesus will intercede for them for their own sakes have reason to procure some other Favourites to intercede for them with their Intercessor and to countenance the matter they must recommend it to the practice of all Christians and more than so make it Heresie to deny it There is but one Argument I know of against this that any man should be so stupid as to think that the Intercession of the Virgin Mary or the most powerful Saints can prevail with our Saviour to do that which according to the Laws of his own Mediation they know he cannot and will not do and this I confess I cannot answer but yet so it is And thus the Intercession of Christ is made a very ineffectual Argument to make men good for though Christ will intercede for none but true Penitents the Church of Rome has a great many other Advocates that will or at least she perswades people that they will. 5. Another great Gospel-Motive to a holy life is the hope of Heaven and the fear of Hell. As for the hope of Heaven that is no otherwise a Motive to holiness of life but upon a supposition of the necessity of Holiness that without holiness no man shall see God but this you have already heard is overthrown by the Church of Rome and if men may go to Heaven without holiness I know no need of it for that purpose in this World. But Hell is a very terrible thing to be condemned to endless and eternal torments with the Devil and his Angels but then the Doctrine of Purgatory does mightily abate and take off this terror for though Purgatory be a terrible place too not cooler than Hell it self yet it is not eternal and men who are mightily in love with their sins will venture temporal punishments though somewhat of the longest to enjoy their present satisfactions especially considering how many easie ways there are for rich men to get out of Purgatory those who have money enough to buy Indulgences while they live and Masses for their Souls when they die need not lie long there if the Priests are not out in their reckoning and yet it is so easie a thing for a good Catholick to get into Purgatory especially if he take care frequently to confess himself and receive absolution or do not die so suddenly as to be surprized in any mortal sin that Hell seems to be very little thought of or feared in the Church of Rome Now I desire no better Argument that all these are not Gospel-Doctrines than that they destroy the force of all those Arguments the Gospel uses to make men good that is they are a direct contradiction to the Gospel of Christ 6. I shall name but one Motive more and that is the Examples of good men 12 Heb. 1. To be followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises that being incompassed with such a cloud of witnesses we should lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us and run with patience the race which is set before us Now this is a powerful Argument because they were men as we are subject to the same temptations and infirmities and therefore their Examples prove that Holiness is a practicable thing that it is possible for men to conquer all the difficulties of Religion and all the temptations in this life and many times in them we see the visible rewards of Vertue in great peace of mind great assurances of the divine favour great supports under all adversities and such a triumphant death as is a blessed presage of a glorious Resurrection But now in the Church of Rome if there be any great and meritorious Saints as they call them their extraordinary Vertues are not so much for Imitation as for a stock of Merits The more Saints they have the less reason other men have to be Saints if they have no mind to it because there is a greater treasury of Merits in the Church to relieve those who have none of their own The extraordinary Devotion of their Monasteries and Nunneries for so they would perswade the World that there is nothing but Devotion there is not for Imitation and it is unreasonable it should because no body sees it and it is impossible to imitate that recluse life without turning the whole World into a Monastery but these Religious Societies furnish the Church with a stock of Merits out of which she grants Indulgencies to those who are not very religious and it is plain that if one man can merit for twenty there is no need there should be above one in twenty good Herein indeed the Members of the Church of Rome have the advantage of all other Churches especially if they enter themselves into any religious Confraternity to partake in the Merits of the Society that others can merit for them and then if we can share in the Merits of the Saints we need not imitate them a Church which has Saints to merit for them on Earth and to intercede for them in Heaven if she can but maintain and propagate a Race of such meriting Saints which is taken care of in the Institution and Encouragement of Monastick Orders and Fraternities may be very indulgent to the rest of her Members who do not like meriting themselves So that the principal Motives of the Gospel to Holy Life as appears in these Six Particulars lose their force and efficacy in the Church of Rome and certainly those cannot be Gospel-Doctrines which destroy the great end of the Gospel to make men Good. 3ly Nor do the Gospel-means and Instruments of Holiness and Vertue escape better in the Church of Rome as will appear in a very few words Reading and Meditating on the Holy Scriptures is one excellent means of Grace not only as it informs us of our Duty but as it keeps a constant warm sense of it upon our Minds which nothing can so effectually do as a daily reading of the Scripture which strikes the mind with a more sacred authority
design of the Gospel to improve and perfect Knowledge for if the Scripture be so obscure in the essential matters of Faith and Christian knowledge that we cannot have any certainty what the true sence and interpretation of it is without an Infallible Judge then the Scriptures cannot improve our knowledge because we cannot know what they are we cannot understand their meaning and therefore can learn nothing from them Yes you 'll say we may know their meaning when they are expounded to us by an Infallible Judge though the Scriptures are so obscure that we cannot understand them without an Infallible Judge yet we may certainly learn what the sence of Scripture is from such a Judge Now in answer to this I observe that though such an Infallible Judge should determine the sense of all obscure Texts of Scripture which neither the Pope nor Church of Rome have ever done yet this would not be to understand the Scriptures or to learn from the Scriptures but only to rely on this Infallible Judge for the sense of Scripture To understand the Scriptures is to be able to give a reason why I expound Scripture to such a sense as that the words signifie so that the circumstances of the place and the context and coherence of the words require it that the analogy of Faith and the reason and nature of things will either justifie such an interpretation or admit no other and an Expositor who can thus open our Understandings and not only tell us what the sense of Scripture is but make us see that this is the true sense and interpretation of it does indeed make us understand the Scripture Thus Christ himself did when he was risen from the dead He opened their understandings that they might understand the Scriptures 24 Luke 45. But to be told that this is the true sence of Scripture and that we must believe this is the sense though we can see no reason why it should be thus expounded nay though all the Reason we have tells us that it ought not to be thus expounded no man will say that this is to understand the Scriptures but to believe the Judge No man can learn any thing from a Book which he does not and cannot understand and if men neither do nor can understand the Scriptures it is certain they can learn nothing from them an Infallible Judge would teach as well without the Scriptures as with them and indeed somewhat better because then no man could have a pretence to contradict him and therefore if this be true the holy Scripture deserves all those contemptible Characters which the Romanists have given it for it is so far from improving and perfecting our knowledge that it self cannot be known and therefore is good for nothing So that the obscurity of the Scripture makes it wholly useless to the great ends and purposes of the Christian Religion viz. to improve and perfect the knowledge of Mankind in the necessary and essential Doctrines of Faith and therefore this can be no Gospel-Doctrine because it makes the Gospel it self considered as written of no use Thus if the Scripture be an imperfect Rule as the Romanists affirm that it does not teach us the whole mind and will of God but that we must learn even some necessary Doctrines of Faith from unwritten Traditions which no body has the keeping of but the Church of Rome This I say contradicts the great design of the Gospel which is to improve and perfect knowledge for an imperfect Rule of Faith is I think as bad as no Rule at all because we can never trust it If you say that though the Scripture in it self be an imperfect Rule yet we have a perfect Rule because the defects of the Scripture are supplied by unwritten Traditions and therefore we have the whole Gospel and all the Christian knowledge delivered down to us either in the written or unwritten Rule I answer 1. If the Scriptures be an imperfect Rule then all Christians have not a perfect Rule because they have not the keeping of unwritten Traditions and know not what they are and never can know what they are till the Church is pleased to tell them and it seems it was a very great while before the Church thought fit to do it For suppose that all the new Articles of the Council of Trent which are not contained in Scripture were unwritten Traditions fifteen hundred years was somewhat of the longest to have so considerable a part of the Rule of Faith concealed from the World and who knows how much of it is concealed still for the Church has not told us that she has published all her unwritten Traditions there may be a Nest-egg left still which in time may add twelve new Articles to the Trent-Creed as that has done to the Apostles Creed So that if the Scripture be an imperfect Rule of Faith the Church never had a perfect Rule till the Council of Trent for a Rule which is not known is none at all and no body can tell whether our Rule be perfect yet whether some more unwritten Traditions may not start up in the next Age to make our Faith more perfect than the Council of Trent it self has made it Now if the design of the Gospel was to instruct men in all divine knowlèdge can we think that our Saviour has given us such an imperfect Rule as needs to be supplied by unwritten Traditions in every Age especially when we consider that some of the greatest Mysteries and most useful Doctrines of the Christian Religion if the Church of Rome be in the right were not written or so obscurely that no body could find them in the Scriptures till they were discovered by the help of unwritten Traditions such as the Supremacy of the Pope the Infallibility of Popes and General Councils the Worship of Images the Invocation of Saints and the great Glory and Prerogatives of the Virgin Mary the Doctrine of Purgatory Indulgences the Sacrament of Penance c. as necessary Doctrines as any that are recorded in Scripture and the denial of which makes us all Hereticks and Schismaticks as the Church of Rome says Though thanks be to God as far as appears we are no greater Hereticks and Schismaticks than the Apostles were unless they are excused for not knowing these necessary Articles of Faith and we are Hereticks for denying them since the Church of Rome in the Council of Tyent has decreed and published them 2. These unwritten Traditions cannot supply the defects of a written Rule because they are of uncertain Authority and therefore not the Objects much less the Rule of a certain Faith and Knowledge What is not written but said to be delivered down from Age to Age by oral Tradition and kept so privately that the Church of God never heard of it for several hundred years can never be proved but by Miracles and they must be more credible Miracles too than the School of the Eucharist and the Legends
of the Saints furnish us with and yet I know of no better the Church of Rome has It is impossible to prove that a private Tradition cannot be corrupted it is unreasonable to think that any thing which concerns the necessary Articles of Faith or Rules of Worship should be a private and secret Tradition for several Ages Miracles themselves cannot prove any Tradition which is contrary to the written Rule and the Catholick Faith of Christians for several Ages as several of the Trent-Doctrines are nay no Miracles can prove any new Article of Faith which was never known before without proving that Christ and his Apostles did not teach all things necessary to salvation which will go a great way to overthrow the truth and certainty of the Christian Faith for Miracles themselves can never prove that Christ and his Apostles taught that which the Christian Church never heard of before which is either to prove that the whole World had forgot what they had been once taught which I doubt is not much for the credit of Tradition or that the Church for several Ages did not teach all that Christ taught which is no great reason to rely on the teachings of the Church or to prove against matter of fact that Christ and his Apostles taught that which no body ever heard of and I do not think a Miracle sufficient to prove that true which every body knows to be false or at least do not know it to be true though they must have known it if it had been true And does not every body now see how improper unwritten Traditions are to supply the Defects and Imperfections of the written Rule for they can never make one Rule because they are not of equal Authority A Writing may be proved Authentick an obscure unwritten Tradition cannot and can any man think that Christ would have one half of his Gospel written the other half unwritten if he intended to perfect the knowledge of Christians for they cannot have so perfect a knowledge because they cannot have so great certainty of the unwritten as they have of the written Gospel Writing is the most certain Way to perpetuate Knowledge and if Christ intended that his Church in all Ages should have a perfect Rule of Faith we must acknowledge the perfection of the written Rule The truth is I cannot but admire the great artifice of the Church of Rome in preaching up the Obscurity and Imperfection of the Scriptures for she has hereby put it into her own power to make Christian Religion what she pleases for if the Scriptures be obscure and she alone can infallibly interpret them if the Scriptures be imperfect and she alone can supply their defects by unwritten Traditions it is plain that Christian Religion must be what she says it is and it shall be what her interest requires it to be But whether this be consistent with our Saviour's design in publishing the Gospel or whether it be the best way of improving the knowledge of Mankind let any impartial man judge 5ly An Implicit Faith or believing as the Church believes without knowing what it is we believe can be no Gospel-Doctrine because this to be sure cannot be for the improvement of knowledge Some of the Roman Doctors think it sufficient that a man believes as the Church believes without an explicite knowledge of any thing they believe but the general opinion is that a man must have an explicite belief of the Apostles Creed but as for every thing else it suffices if he believes as the Church believes without knowing what the faith of the Church is that is it is not necessary men should so much as know what the new Articles of the Trent Faith are if they believe the Apostles Creed and resign up their Faith implicitely to the Church Now this is a plain confession that all the Doctrines in dispute between us and the Church of Rome are of no use much less necessary to salvation for if they were they would be as necessary to be known and explicitely believed as the Apostles Creed and I cannot imagine why we Hereticks who believe the Apostles Creed and understand it as orthodoxly as they may not be saved without believing the new Trent Creed for if we need not know what it is there seems to be no need of believing it for I always thought that no man can and therefore to be sure no man need believe what he does not know So that it seems we know and believe all things the explicite knowledge and belief of which by their own confession is necessary to salvation except that one single Point of the Infallibility of the Church of Rome believe but that and ye need believe or know nothing more but the Apostles Creed and yet go to Heaven as a good Catholick which makes an implicite Faith in the Church of Rome as necessary as Faith in Christ is But if the intent of the Gospel was to improve our Knowledge then Christ never taught an implicite Faith for that does not improve Knowledge and if the Faith of the Church of Rome excepting the Apostles Creed which is the common Faith of all Christians need not be known then they are no Gospel-Doctrines much less necessary Articles of Faith for Christ caught nothing but what he would have known and though the knowledge of all things which Christ taught is not equally necessary to salvation yet it tends to the perfecting our knowledge and Christ taught nothing which a man need not know which I think is a reproach to meaner Masters and much more to the eternal and incarnate Wisdom Secondly The improvement and perfection of Humane Nature consists in true Holiness and Virtue in a likeness and conformity to God and a participation of the Divine Nature and this is the great end of the Gospel to advance us to as perfect Holiness as is attainable in this life Christ indeed has made expiation for our sins by his own Bloud but then this very Bloud of Atonement does not only expiate the guilt of sin but purges the Conscience from dead works that we may serve the living God for no Sacrifice not of the Son of God himself can reconcile an impenitent and unreformed Sinner to God that is can move God to love a Sinner who still loves and continues in his sins which an infinitely holy and pure being cannot do Indeed the expiation of sin is but one part of the work of our Redemption for a sinner cannot be saved that is cannot be advanced to immortal life in the Kingdom of Heaven without being born again without being renewed and sanctified by the holy Spirit after the Image and likeness of God. For this new Nature is the only Principle of a new immortal life in us an earthly sensual mind is no more capable of living in Heaven than an earthly mortal body In both senses flesh and bloud cannot inherit the Kingdom of God neither can corruption inherit incorruption The