Man And is the scene so much chang'd that now it is become the black mark of a damnable Heretick The Prophets permitted the People to judg by the Scriptures which were true and which were counterfeit messengers from Heaven crying out to the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this word 't is because there is no Isa 8. 20. light in them And must we acknowledg these men for the Pillars of Truth and the Lights of the World without being allow'd the same liberty When our Saviour was ask'd by that young man what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life Our Lord answers him what saith the Law How Readest thou And shall ignorance be now accounted the surest Road to Heaven Search the Scripture was his precept but is the prohibition of the Romish Church Timothy and the Bereans were indeed commended by St. Luke and St. Paul as noble persons for their diligence in the Scriptures But if they had liv'd in the days of our Modern Saints this would have been thought a crime deserving the lash of the inquisition An Anathema would have been their spiritual reward and fire and faggot their civil recompence Certainly such a practice as this had need be back'd with good Apologies or else they will never be able to justify so great an abuse of the Lord Jesus But how weak are their pleas and how insignificant the excuses they make Is it because the People may wrest the Scripture to their perdition that they are forbidden their use Alas because some may abuse it must all therefore be depriv'd of it because some may make Scripture the support of their errors must it not therefore be the foundation of truth Because some dogs have trampled on the Bread of Life Must the Children therefore be withheld from their Spiritual Food Because Hereticks have taken too large draughts of the new Wine of the Gospel must all therefore be denied to tast of it Because some know not the worth of these Pearls must those therefore who know how to value them be hinder'd from their possession By the same reason the Scriptures should not be permitted in the Learned Languages for Learned Men have been generally the first broachers of Heresy and are most capable of perverting the Holy Writings Is it because Scripture is so obscure that if the common people did injoy it they could not understand it 'T is acknowledged there are mysteries in our Religion and God hath for wise ends left some things more dark and obscure to awaken our industry abate our Pride and show the most Learned his ignorance and infancy in knowledg and create in us all earnest longings after that Happy state where all the Riddles shall be unfolded and the mysteries clearly reveal'd But there is so much perspicuously laid down as is necessary to Salvation and every man that Reads it and sincerely endeavours to understand it shall with the help of Divine Grace arrive at so much Knowledg as if improv'd into practice will bring him to Heaven The great end why the Scripture was written was that we might have a constant Monitor of our duty and guide 2 Tim. 3. 16. to happiness now if the Scripture were so obscure that it answer'd not this end this would reflect upon the Divine Wisdom as if he had chosen an insufficient means and were defeated in his methods and expectations And it would equally reflect upon his goodness as if he envied his creatures happiness if after our sincere and humble endeavours we could not understand the things that are necessary to our Salvation The essentials are clearly reveal'd tho there be some obscure passages yet the Divine Goodness hath left them not that we should be debar'd from Reading but to prevent our loathing and contempt and the darkest phrases are incomparably more intelligible than the cloudy obscurities of their admired Authors The pious nonsence of Mother Juliana and the sanctifi'd gibberish of their mystical Divines are infinitely less perspicuous than the Prophecies of Daniel or mysteries of the Revelations And yet those which reflect on Christianity as if it consisted only in Enthusiastick heats and raprures are allow'd while the Scripture which gives so lovely a description of the Christian Religion must be shut up from the sight of the multitude But whatever slender pretences may be us'd to delude perverse Hereticks we have good ground to think that the true cause of this Restraint is the same which our Saviour mentions Joh. 3. 19. They love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil Should the Scriptures be read by all their Proselytes would be few and their Altars would no longer smoke the Grandeur of the Church must be abated the infallible Chair would totter and Rome would be no longér the Mistress of the Earth 2. Their pretence of Infallibility and the Scriptures dependance on the Authority of their Church This is another Invasion on Christs Prophetical Office For if Infallibility be lodg'd in either Pope or Council for they are not agreed where it is plac'd then tho Christ hath never so clearly explain'd his mind they may make what Expositions of his words they please and obtrude them on our belief Their great Champion Bellarmine asserts That if the infallible Head should condemn Vertue for Vice and commend Vice as Vertue we are bound to believe Vice as morally good and Virtue evil but if this be Gospel our great Master hath deceiv'd us and we have been led by our Saviour into an Error Then if that impure Cardinal that writ a Book in praise of the scarlet Sin of Sodom had been exalted to the Papal-chair and from thence proclaim'd that unnatural Vice to be morally good we should have been bound to believe it And tho some pretend that such a Supposition is not to be made because the Spirit of truth will guide the unerring Head into all truth yet sad experience hath taught us that the broadest Impieties have been canonized and miscal'd Virtue and Justice at Rome Besides what possible reason is there they should be secur'd from Error more than from Sin How can it be imagin'd that that Holy Spirit which is griev'd with impurity and will not dwell in the Habitations of uncleanness did infallibly assist those Monsters for Villany which are acknowledg'd by Baronius and Platina to have worn the Triple Crown in the ninth and tenth Centuries Surely if such a gift as this was ever given to the Guides of the Church How obscure soever the Scripture be in other things it will be highly necessary it should plainly lay down this important Doctrine But alas How impertinent are the Proofs they bring They are either such as will equally prove the Civil Magistrates and Judges in Westminster-Hall infallible Such is that Deut. 17. 10 11 12. Where Judges are appointed to decide matters of Difference between man and man to whose Decisions the People are bound to agree that their
lest ye corrupt your selves and worship Graven Images If the Heathen Idolatry were only forbidden of what inconsequent arguing would Moses here be guilty Take heed lest ye worship the Images of false gods for ye never saw any Representation of the true God But if all Worship of Images be here forbidden then the Argument is very pertinent and forcible Take heed how ye Worship God in any outward Representation for if such a thing were pleasing to him he would not have left it to your choice to do it in what form you pleas'd but would have appear'd in such a likeness as best pleas'd himself Besides the golden Calf which the Israelites worshipp'd as a resemblance of God was a breach of this Commandment and is called an Idol Acts 7. 41. For that the Israelites did make this as a resemblance of the true God is Exodus 32. clear from the Story Aaron says these be thy Gods O Israel that brought thee out of the Land of Egypt and Proclaims a Feast to Jehovah for either we must suppose the Israelites to be so stupidly sottish as to suppose this Calf to be really that God that brought them out of Egypt before it was made or if we cannot find in our hearts to believe them so absurd we must believe they fell back to the Egyptian Idolatry or worshipt the true God under this representation That it was not a resemblance of the Egyptian Gods is evident from hence that he is call'd Jehovah and is represented as the God that brought them out of Egypt for could they once imagine that the Egyptian Gods had destroy'd their own most zealous worshippers and wrought such wonders for them who abhor'd their worship and would give them no adoration is it not much more rational to suppose that the Israelites expected some symbol of the Divine Presence going before them as they might expound that promise Exod. 23. 20. And Moses being See more of this in Stillingsleets Defence of the Idolatry of R. C. Page 747 absent for 40 Days they doubting whether ever they should see him more devise with themselves what token to have of Gods presence with them and the most part being sway'd by their Education in Egypt where they worship'd their chief god Osyris in the form of a Bull compel Aaron to make a Golden Calf And if this be in them accounted Idolatry must not the same title be given to our Romish worshippers of Graven Images Of the same sin was Micah guilty in Judg. 17. who to ease himself of the trouble of travelling so often to Sbiloh to worship there made a molten and graven image as a representation of the Lord Jehovah builds a Chappel in his house and hires a Levite to be his Priest and in this rejoyces exceedingly now know I says he that the Lord will do me good seeing I have a Levite to my Priest Judg. 17. 13. Of the same nature was that great sin of Jeroboam for which he is branded with so black a Character in Scripture he made two Calves in Dan and Bethel as a representation of God 'T is plain he design'd not to draw the Israelites from the Worshipping God but from going up to Jerusalem to Worship lest their converse with the Two Loyal Tribes should revive their principles of Loyalty also and reduce them to their subjection to their Lawful Sovereign and therefore his successors were look'd upon as worshippers of Jehovah Thus Jehu was zealous for the Lord 2 King 10. 16. Jehovah though he departed not from this sin of Jerobcam Thus it appears how plainly God hath forbidden all worship of him by images And that this Law was not only positive and temporary but unalterâ—bly obliging all men appears from the reason of the Law The unsuitableness of an image to the Divine Nature Isa 40. 18 25. The Prophet rhere after a stately and majestick description of the Divine Greatness concludes with this inference To whom then will ye liken God Or what likeness will ye compare unto him As if he should say Seeing God is so immensly Glorious a being your own reasons may convince you of the folly of making any representations of him John 4. 24. God is a Spirit and will be worship'd in spirit and truth That is as some interpret the words not in the Image of a Dove as the Samaritans Worship'd him on Mount Gerizim nor with the Typical Sliadows of the Jewish Law St. Paul when arguing with the Athenians bends his discourse against their Worshipping the Sovereign God in the likeness of silyer or gold or stone Acts 17. 29. and in Rom. 1. 23 He disputes against the wiser Philosophers and accuses them that when they knew God to be an Immensly Glorious being they fashion'd him like a man and Worship'd him by Images and the accusation will equally concern our present Romish pretenders to Wisdom The same apologies the wise men of Athens and Rome made to excuse their Heathenish Idolatry are adapted by the Popish Schools to justify their worshipping Images Plutarch and Celsus and Julian and Maximus Tyrius and many others tell us they look'd upon Images only as helps to remembrance and means of exciting their devotions nay the worshippers of the Sun and Moon and Stars might better apologize for themselves For these natural Images are great Monuments of the Divine Wisdom and Power and Goodness but the present artificial ones express only the Gravers skill and imperfect cunning Nay further the very same pleas might be us'd by the Priests of Egypt to justify their most ridiculous follies Leeks and Onions may as well draw forth my penitential tears deified Apes and Monkeys may as well be the objects of my adoration as the Monstrous Pictures of the Trinity in their Temples But how contradictory soever this practise be to Scripture Images may well agree to that Church which retains little more than the faine image and shadow of a Religion 2. Their Adoration of Saints and Angels and giving them the same Worship the Heathens gave to their Daemons or inferior Deities By Daemons the Heathens understood an inferior sort of deified powers as middle Beings between the Sovereign God and mortal men and because they thought the higher God too pure and sublime to meddle with Earthly affairs they placed these as Mediators to prefent the prayers of Men to God and convey the benefits of God to Men thus Plato and Hesiod and others that describe them To this opinion the Apostle seems to allude in 1 Cor. 8. 5. 6. As there be Gods many and Lords many yet to us there is but one God the Father and one Lord Jesus Christ i. e. Tho the Heathens Worship'd many Supreme See this confirm'd in Mede's Apostacy of the later times Gods and inferior powers as Presidents and Mediators in Earthly things yet we Christians acknowledg but one sovereign Deity and one Mediator who presents our Prayers to the Father and brings us back the rewards
of our Devotion from Heaven These the Heathens divided into two sorts such as were too pure to inform a body and such as were the souls of deceased benefactors To these they erected Temples and Altars made Images and Shrines and gave them all external expressions of Religious adoration The latter sort were call'd Baaline or Belim because the first that was thus Canoniz'd was King Belus at Babilon by Ninus his Son and well may the Holy Ghost call that Church Babilon which hath reviv'd that Idolatry which was first set up in that City For is not the worship of Saints and Angels exactly parallel to this Are not they exalted into the same place and the same services directed to them Are not Temples dedicated to their honour Images set up and shrines consecrated before which their Votaries may pray unto them Are not they worship'd with solemn invocations and alloutward signs of the lowest reverence How do the ignorant Vulgar prostrate themselves before their Statues Wash their feet with tears and wipe them with their hair And if the Image chance but to nod or smile how do they go away rejoycing as if they had met with their good Genius or some Angel had saluted them from Heaven I need not here tell what a number of Saints they have Canoniz'd and how they have symboliz'd with the Heathen in assigning them their particular offices how they have Saints for every particular Nation and Country Trade and Calling for every state and condition for every disease of the body and all the accidents of humane life I need not tell how they worship some who probably had never any other being than in their own imagination How notoriously wicked persons have been Canoniz'd how Rebellion and Treason hath been accounted worthy an Apotheosis and very few have receiv'd that honour for their Religion and Loyalty I need not tell what notorious blasphemies are contain'd in their Prayers especially to the Virgin Mary how she is exalted to the Throne of God and call'd the Mother of Grace the Fountain of Salvation the Queen of Heaven and the Mother of the Holy Trinity How Bonaventure hath Printed the Psalter of the Blessed Virgin being nothing else but the Psalms of David wherein whatever is spoken concerning God or Christ either by way of Prayer or of Praise is appli'd to her These things are publickly known and cannot be contradicted And we may well challenge the Heathen World to present us with more daring usurpations on the Divine Prerogative the same arguments which prove the Pagans Idolaters for their worship of Daemons will equally prove the Romanists such who have exactly written after their Copy and transcrib'd that I say not exceeded their iniquities the same pleas which Julian and Celus and the other defenders of the Pagan Worship us'd are made by these pretenders to Christianity and the same answers which Tertullian and Arnobius and the other primitive Fathers gave may be very well re torted by us upon them as will appear to any one that will but consult Dr. Stillingsleet in his defence of the Idolatry of the Romish Church But to go no surther than Scripture Did not our Saviour repel the Devils temptation with Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve And shall a far less consideration than the Kingdoms of the Earth prevail with us to fall down before Creatures and pay them a Religious Adoration How smartly doth St. Paul Argue against all Worshipping of Angels without any of those distinctions which our Voluminous School-men have invented Col. 2. 18. Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voli ntary humility and worshipping of angels intruding into those things which he hath not seen It seems by his discourse there were some Hereticks crept into the Church who out of a pretence of their unworthiness to make immediate addresses to the invisible God sued to the Angels his Courtiers and Favourites to plead their Cause This Heresy continued a long time in Pisidia and Phrygia where Oratories and Chappels were built to Michael and the Angels which was at last forbidden in one of the Canons of the Council of Laodicea I know Cardinal Perron hath a very witty and singular evasion of this Text That by the worship which was given by Angels is meant the Mosaical Law and he Translates the words Let no man tempt you to become prosyeltes of the Jews But why should the Apostle use such dark expressions if this were the meaning and what pretences of humility did they use who perswaded to comply with the Law of Moses Or how did they intrude into things they had not seen Whereas if the words be understood properly these words have a very good connexion these Hereticks pretended humility to be the occasion of their worship and were puffed up with a conceit of their knowledg of all the Orders and Offices of Angels nor can we imagine they worship them as Supreme Gods but only as Gods by participation and Advocates with the Father as the Church of Rome also calls them and therefore is equally concern'd in this prohibition Besides did not the Angel correct St. John when out of a sudden transport he was about to give him that reverence which border'd too near upon what the jealous God hath reserv'd to himself with a see thou do it not I am thy fellow Rev. 19. 10 servant worship God And shall we be fearless of the same Idolatry The distinction of Latria and Dulia will by no means salve the matter for why could not the Angel have appli'd it as well as the Angelical Doctor can Or why could not this inspir'd Apostle have pleaded that he gave him only an inferior subordinate worship as well as the most illuminated Schoolman 'T is of these Idolaters the Apostle seems to speak in 1 Tim. 4. 1 2. Now the spirit saith expresly perhaps in Dan. 11. 36 37 38. That in the latter times some shall revolt from the faith Revolt by Idolatry which is eminently call'd by that Title Giving heed to seducing Spirits i. e. attending to erroneous Doctrines Doctrines of Divels or Daemons Not of which they are the Authors but the objects Doctrines concerning Daemons i. e. inferior Deities Speaking lies in hypocrisy or as the Greek runs through the hypocrisy of liars i. e. Through the Deceit of Iying persons who should seign miracles and invent fabulous stories to support this worship The event hath so exactly answer'd the Apostles description Monks the admirers of single life being the first Authors of Saint-Worship which they brought in by lying-Legends and Fictitious Miracles that if this prophecy doth not particularly concern them they are very unhappy to come so near the description 3. Their adoration of the Host upon pretence of Transubstantiation This is another part of Romish Worship not to be paralIell'd for absurdity throughout the whole Gentile world For to fancy that every ignorant Priest can with Five words speaking
their Obligation of making new Articles of Faith and condemning things plainly commanded by him If any shall pretend without sufficient Proof a Vicarious delegated Commission from him and usurp the place of the Universal Law-giver of the World These must be acknowledg'd to be invaders of his Regal Office and in how many Instances the Church of Rome hath been thus bold and Jaringly guilty is too well known How many new Articles have they obtruded on our belief since the Canon of Scripture was sealed And how doth their Faith increase and decrease like the Moon Tho the Apostle pronounces an Anathema against the highest pretended Saint or Angel that should Preach any other Doctrine than what he had deliver'd to the Galatians Gal. 1. 8. Yet the Conventicle of Trent those professed Angels and Guardians of the Church have levell d their curses against all that will fear the threatnings of the Apostle and will not receive their supplemental and corrupt Traditions with the same reverence and pious Affection that they do the Holy Scriptures I need not tell how they have claim'd a power of dissolving the Obligation of the most Solemn Oaths and Covenants and of allowing Marriages in forbidden degrees How they have made Fornication a lesser Sin in a Clergy-men than Marriage tho the one be the Ordinance of God and never prohibited to any company of men and the other forbidden by the very Law of Nature I need not tell how the Pope hath usurp'd the Office of Universal Bishop and Vicar of Christ tho Pope Gregory severely reflected upon John of Constantinople for affecting such a Titile and call'd it the badg of Antichrist I need not tell how they have added five other Sacraments to those two instituted by our Saviour what a number of Church-Officers they have instituted unknown in Scripture and the purest Ages of the Church Nor how they have Lorded it over the Consciences of men by rigorously imposing numerous burdensome Ceremonies which change the spiritual Worship of the Gospel and alter its very Nature 'T is confess'd that Governours have a Power of imposing indifferent things and whatever tends to the more orderly and decent Administration of the Worship of God may be the object of their command But when these are either vain and useless or indecent in their number when they are impos'd as parts of Worship and necessary to Salvation When they obscure the Worship of God and are more like the shadows of the Law than becoming the light of the Gospel such Impositions are Acts of Tyranny and Usurpation I shall conclude this head with the mention of one more bold tho acknowledg'd Invasion of the Regal Office of Christ and that is their half Communions They have snatcht away the Cup in the Eucharist from the People and ingross'd it to the Clergy This was establish'd as an Article of the Romish Faith at the Council of Constance and afterwads confirm'd at Trent The chief remarkable Causes are these Seeing that in divers parts of the World there be some who rashly presume to say That Christian People ought to receive the Eucharist under both kinds this present Holy General Council being desirous to provide for the safety of the faithful doth decree That tho Jesus Christ did Administer the venerable Sacrament in both kinds and tho in the primitive Church the faithful did so receive it yet notwithstanding this custom ought to be kept i. e. that the Priest that says Mass shall communicate under both species of Bread and Wine but the Lay people under that of Bread onlyâ— and they that say the contrary let them be expell'd as Hereticks and grievously punish'd by the Bishop and his Officials How horrible a Canon is this and what a notorious Usurpation of Christs Prerogative They accuse of Rashness Error and Heresie all who dare by their own Confession imitate Christ and his Apostles and the Primitive Church for this only reason some have been burnt at a Stake and it was an occasion of cruel Wars and Bloodshed in Germany They indeed pretend this to be an indifferent circumstance to be continued or remov'd at the Churches pleasure But why should this be more indifferent than the Bread Hath not Christ more expresly commanded the drinking the one than receiving the other Drink ye all of it says he as if he foresaw and design'd to prevent this great Corruption And to argue ad hominem our Saviour tells us Joh. 6. 53. Except ye drink the blood of the Son of man ye have no life in you These words if understood of the Eucharist as the Romanists pretend prove the absolute Universal necessity of communicating under both kinds So that either this great prop of Transubstantiation must be deserted or their half Communion condemn'd 2. They have invaded Christs Priestly Office By this he hath fully satisfi'd Divine Justice by giving himself a compleat Sacrifice for our Offences and procur'd for us the pardon of Sin the Graces of the Spirit and eternal Happiness upon Condition of sincere Obedience to his Laws and now is enter'd into Heaven and is by vertue of this Sacrifice our powerful Intercessor at the Right hand of God This Office also is shamefully invaded by those of the Romish Church and that in these following instances 1. By their proud doctrine of Merit Tho the Scriptures fully declare that by grace we are saved and eternal life is the free gift of God tho our reasons may convince us that a Creature how innocent soever can deserve nothing at his Creators hands tho a little reflection upon our selves will discover many spots in our fairest vertues many blemishes in our best duties many imperfections in our most religious exercise many sinful mixtures in our most unpolluted actions and great defects in our best obedience yet do these men boast of their good works and account them not only spotless but meritorious too but if all this zeal for good works as one well observes were designed to advance an holy life the nobleness of the design might a little excuse the fault but alas those works which they most extol are either pieces of will-worship that tend only to advance the Secular interest of their Church as Pilgrimages building Abbys enriching Monasteries c. or else are such actions as we think to be daring sins as murdering Hereticks and persons coldly affected to the Catholick Cause Thus 't is storied concerning Cardinal Richelieu that great Politician of France that when he lay upon his death-bed his Consessor came to him to perform the last offices of charity and urged him to a full confession of all his sins the Cardinal mention'd only some little petty crimes and told him those were all he could recollect at which the Confessor started saying Surely this sickness hath rob'd your Grace of your memory for we who have been plac'd in a lower sphere have observ'd many actions of a far deeper Dye and then mention'd many Murders committed by his
are called so in Scripture and if they will call it a commemorative sacrifice as it is a memorial of Christs once perfect offering up himself on the crose Or even a Propitiatory sacrifice as it is a means of propitiating the Divine favour and seals and exhibits to us the real benefits purchased by his death we need not quarrel about words if this be their only sense And indeed as Bishop Andrews somewhere speaks take away Transubstantiation and the conceit of Purgatory and this wordy controversy would quickly be ended 4. By their formal Invocation of Saints The Scripture teaches us that there is but one Mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus and that none might pretend there may be other Mediators of intercession tho not of Redemption the Apostle hath prevented that distinction 1 Tim. 2. 1. 4 compar'd where the Apostle urges us to pray for all men because all of whatsoever Nation or Condition in the world are interested in Christs intercession He is the only Mediator that prevailingly intercedes for us in Heaven To make creatures the objects of our formal invocation what is it but to make them competitors with Christ and share in his prerogative We may as well ascribe redemption to others as intercession Besides what a disparagement is it to his Love that when he hath given us the largest assurances of his kindness and ready acceptances of our prayers and graciously promis'd that if we put our considence in him he will be our Advocate and we shall have a gracious answer from Heaven Nay when God the Father hath declar'd that whatever we ask in the Name of the Lord Jesus shall be granted I say how do we disparage his love by begging others to plead our Cause Can we imagine that the servants of God can do more for us than his beloved Son Or the blessed Virgin than the Lord Jesus He that looks into the Roman Rituals indeed may be tempted to think so where ten Avemaries are prescrib'd to one Paternoster and they have pictur'd Christ as frowning upon sinners and driving them away from him but the Virgin Mary inviting them with her smiles and lending a willing ear to their Devotions But he that looks into Scripture there finds nothing of this nature We are never directed to put our confidence in man but curses denounc'd against those that do so The Saints in Heaven are there never made the objects of our Prayers and it was always thought by the Primitive Church a good Argument against the Arriant that Christ is God because we are directed to address our selves to him Whether the Saints Pray for us or no in Heaven is not the question and while we understand not the extent of their knowledg it will remain a doubt Luk. 15. 7. Those who rejoyce at the conversion of a sinner may perhaps as far as they know our condition pray for their militant fellow-members Rev. 6. 9 10. And those who so passionately desire that vengeance may be executed on the Churches enemies may reasonably be thought as earnest for the salvation of their friends But this their intercession is not as the Romanists pretend like the Lord Jesus's by presenting their merits in our behalf nor hath God given them power to pardon our sins heal our diseases supply our wants or save our Souls and yet for such things as these are prayers directed to them nor is there any warrant from hence for us to make them our Mediators and pray unto them For tho they may know such things concerning us whereby their own happiness and comfort may be increas'd yet that they should understand all the particular grievances and concernments of our lives hear our prayers or know our hearts is not to be imagin'd And when we use the same gestures of external adoration to them that we do to our Saviour we thereby make them copartners with him in the same honour and rivals to him in his dignity 3. They have invaded Christs Prophetical office By this he hath reveal'd the whole will of God unto us and that we might not be deceiv'd by the subtilties of seducers Commission'd his inspir'd Apostles to commit his precepts to writing in the Holy Scripture that this might be our standing rule According to this we are bound to walk and whatever Doctrines or practices are not agreeable to it must be disown'd This Office is also invaded by the Roman Church and most eminently by these following ways 1. By hiding the Scripture from the common people and to justify this practise accusing it of obscurity 'T is well known how they have forbid the Scriptures to be Read in the vulgar language and by terrible curses and Anathema's have scar'd their Lay-proselytes from this admirable guide to happiness How have they lock'd up this bread of life and ingross'd this facred Manna to themselves How have they inclos'd this well of Salvation and churlishly refus'd their Laity so much as a tast of the purer streams except they will take in the mud and filth and their own impure mixtures also Their people must be content with the crumbs which the Clergy are pleas'd to let fall and be satisfi'd with only a glimmering of that light which would clearly direct them to the paths of Life The Scriptures like the rising Sun would quickly dispel the darkness of error and their former ignorance and therefore the proud Prelates resolve to stop this Giant in his race and hinder him from scattering his Beams in the World But alas what an high affront and daring in dignity is this to the great Prophet of the Church That when he descended from his Fathers Bosom for this very end that he might discover the mind and will of God unto us took such unwearied pains to publish his Doctrine strengthend it by such amazing Miracles and inspired his Apostles that they might commit to writing this his last Testament and admirable Legacy I say what â— Monstrous piece of Ingratitude is it to hide it from the sight of those to whom it is consign'd by our Lord And that by them who pretend to be the Guardians of it and the Executors of their departed Saviour Such an Action might be more excusable in Julian or Dioclesian but for the Vicar of Christ to be Guilty of it is a crime sufficient to forfeit his Title and tempts us to believe him Antichrist Was the Scripture first Preach'd and afterwards written in a Language capable of being Universally understood And is there not as much necessity it should be so continued Did God command the Jews to be frequent in the Meditation of the Law To lodg it in their thoughts to make it their daily companion and the subject of their constant entertainment And hath Deut. 11. 18 19 20. he any where forbidden the use of the Gospel To delight in the Law of the Lord and to Meditate therein day and night was once the Character Psal 1. 1 2. of a Blessed
to convince Hereticks and that was to call for express words of Scripture and absolutely deny whatever reason said against any of the Articles of their new Belief And now since their Doctrines are thus confessedly unreasonable we may be assur'd they came not from Heaven or the God of Reason 2. Are their Doctrines warranted by any Prophecies concerning them The Apostles compleated those Prophecies that had been long before made God had foretold his abolishing the Ceremonial Law and establishing a perfect standing-rule for Jews and Gentiles But doth he any where foretell That after the expiration of so many Years Judaism and Paganism should be mix'd together by his appointment On the contrary the Gospel is call'd an everlasting Gospel and at the closing of the Canon of Scripture a Rev. 22. 18. terrible curse is denounc'd against those who should dare to make any additions to Scripture There are some Prophecies indeed in Scripture which seem to concern them St. John and St. Paul have spoken many things concerning Antichrist and the Man of Sin which many think are clearly applicable to the Roman Church But I know she will say concerning these as Ahab of Micaiah I hate these men for they Prophecy not good but evil concerning me 3. Can they attest the truth of their Doctrine by Miracles Here I know they will make their boasts There is not a Saint among them but is famous for incredible wonders The Apostles were but puny Miracle-workers in comparison of their Modern Saints And the great St. Francis St. Bridget St. Catharine and St. Thomas of Canterbury far exceeded St. Peter or St. James or St. John or any of the other Disciples Who can question the lawfulness of Worshipping the Virgin Mary when he hears that the Angels brought wood and stone cross the Sea to Loretto and built her a Chappel there Who can forbear falling prostrate and crying St. Thomas help me when those very words from the mouth of a Sparrow struck a cruel Sparrow hawk dead that had almost fastned upon her as his prey Have not the wild beasts of the wood fallen down before the Host when casually let fall and the very Asses cast themselves into a worshipping posture And is it not mighty strange that men will still trust their own senses and remain Hereticks after such wonderful evidence I might instance in manyother pretty tales out of their Legends but they are so ridiculous and extravagant as plainly speak out their forgery and the wiser among them are forc'd to confess them Pious Frauds and Godly Cheats Our Saviour and his Apostles did their mighty works openly in the sight of their greatest enemies But these are all transacted in corners before friends and those that have already entertain'd their doctrines And surely there must be some Legerdemain in the business that so many Miracles should be done in Italy and Spain and none in England But the true reason why they can do no mighty works in our Country is because of our unbelief Protestants would soon discover their cheats and they were once so baffled in that intended miracle of the Boy of Bilson a known story that they have hardly ventur'd the exposing themselves since Their Miracles when they are not plain forgeries are either the curing of melancholly sumes or Hysterical-Distempers which frequently create fancies in persons as if they were possess'd of which instances have been given by Protestants particularly as I remember by Mr. Baxter who have cur'd such and might have gain'd the name of Miracle-workers as well as they Or if any of their Indian Apostles as Xavier and had a true miraculous power it was to confirm the truth of Christianity to the Heathens and not their additional corruptions Finally if God do permit them to do some strange unaccountable actions to confirm their errors 't is but as a trial to our faith to see whether we will forsake the true Doctrine confirm'd by greater miracles when we are fore-arm'd against such aslaults by being told that Antichrist shall come with lying wonders and we need not fear the sin against the Holy Ghost if we say that by Beelzebub do these men cast out Devils But I had almost forgot one great Miracle which is daily perform'd and that is Transubstantiation But those who believe this must live by faith or rather unreasonable credulity and not by sight And the greatest Miracle of all is That men who are Wise and Rational enough in common matters should swallow such an heap of Contradictions And thus have I made good the Charge against the Romish Church in the first Sense and tho much more might have been said yet this fully proves that they have corrupted Christianity with their impure mixtures and cover'd the excellent Foundations of our Faith with the Hay and Stubble of their own Inventions And thus I proceed to make good the Charge against them in the second Sense 2. Whether they have desturb'd the World by Principles of Religion This hath been so common a Theme of late years ' that I need not spend much time in proving it The Miter is by them exalted above the Crown and Peter's pretended Successor is so far from Preaching up his Doctrine of Subjection to the Civil Powers that he requires Kings and Emperors to stoop to him I need not laboriously prove this by Quotations out of their Authors If the Decrees of their Councils the Bulls of their Popes the Determinations of their Canon-Law the Assertions of not only Jesuits those known Enemies to Monarchy but of the most approv'd Doctors of all Orders among them may be taken to be the Sense of their Church the Learned Bp. of Lincoln hath lately Collected them together and thereby fully confirm'd the Title of his Book That Popish Principles are destructive to Protestant Princes There we may find such dangerous Assertions as these That Emperors and Kings are the Popes Subjects That they may be depos'd by him for Schism Heresie Laziness or unprofitableness and that he is the sole Judg of the Crime and Condemnation That Statutes made by Laymen bind not the Clergy That the Pope is the Vicar of God and every creature is subject to him That he that prefers the King before the Priest prefers the Creature before the Creator In a word He hath given such convincing Demonstration That King-killing Doctrines are authoriz'd at Rome that we may justly wonder at the daring-Impudence of the late Tyburn-Saint who pretended that none but Mariana ever publish'd such Doctrines But what truth can be so plain which the Confidence of a Jesuit dare not deny Neither have these been the idle Speculations of the Schools or the entertainment of the Cells and Cloysters but have been practically maintain'd many hundred Years and the History of the Church for some Centuries is nothing else but a Tragical and Bloody Comment on this Doctrine 'T is hardly possible to mention one King since Rome's rise to her greatness that hath been but