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
Strifes might not be endless or such as are restrain'd to the Apostles themselves Such is that Mat. 16. 19. I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatsoever thou bindest on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou loosest on earth shall be loosed in heaven The plain meaning of which words seems to be only this I will give thee the the priviledg of first opening Vide Lightfoot in locum the Gospel frequently call'd the Kingdom of Heaven and whatsoever parts of Moses's Law thou bindest to the Observation of or takest off the Obligation for so the Phrases of binding and loosing are generally us'd in the Jewish Writers shall be observ'd and forborn God will ratifie and confirm what thou establishest Accordingly we know St. Peter did first Preach the Gospel to the Jews in Acts 2. and to the Gentiles Acts 10. And this priviledg of binding and loosing was peculiar to him and the other Apostles Lastly Their proofs are such as agree to every particular Church and faithful Christian Thus that of Matt. 18. 17. Speaks only of a Jurisdiction in every Church for quieting differences among the Members of it And that other of Matt. 16. 18. The gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church For by the Gates of Hell may be either understood the crafts and policies of Hell Councils using to sit in the Gates of Cities shall not totally prevail There shall be a body of Christians in the World or the Translation should be mended and the words read the Gates of the Grave or the invisible State Death which is frequently call'd among the Greeks by that name shall not gain Victory over the Church over the particular Persons of which it consists tho they dye yet Christ will rescue them by a glorious Resurrection Death shall not have Dominion over them nor over the Church notwithstanding it s many Enemies it shall not perish totally or irrecoverably These are the best proofs of their Infallibility I can find in the Scripture and while they are so easily and naturally applicable to a different sense I cannot think a Doctrine so obscurely deliver'd in the Christian Rule to be any Articles of the Christian Faith Besides what use do they make of this gift they pretend to Have they oblig'd the World by an infallible Comment on all the difficult places in Scripture and put a final end to all controversies among themselves On the contrary have not some Popes profess'd their no skill in Divinity and infallible Councils contradicted each other Are not there violent disputes between the Franscicans and Dominicans Jansenists and Jesuits French and Italian Clergy Surely the Pope must be very regardless of the Peace of the Church who will not give an infallible discovery of the truth And if ever God did give this gift since the Apostles days he may have long since justly taken it away because they have hid their Talent and made no use of it And now I have weaken'd this pretence the other of the Scriptures dependance on the Authority of their Church falls of it self for if their Church be not infallible why should I believe the Scriptures to be Gods Word meerly because they say so any more than Mahomets Alchoran 'T is true the Testimony of their Church jointly with all other Christians in the World and the Confession of Jews and Heathens handed down to us by the most unquestionable historical Tradition is a great Confirmation that these were the Books indicted by the Apostles that they were confirm'd by various Miracles and are not corrupted in any material Articles but we believe their Divine Authority not because the Church says so but because of those Seals which God hath affix'd to them We have convincing Arguments enough of the Scriptures Divinity and need not go to Rome to know what they mean Christ hath fully prov'd that his Message is from God by the excellence of his Doctrines the accomplishment of Prophecies and numerous miraculous Works and we will not forsake these firm foundations of our Faith and be so unreasonably credulous as to believe the same things meerly upon the Affirmation of a company of the worst sorts of Christians in the World Thus have they dangerously invaded the Offices of Christ I proceed to 3. They have corrupted the excellent Rules of an holy Life contain'd in the Gospel The great design of the Christian Religion is to purifie and amend the World and reduce it to its primitive Innocence And I wish there were less occasion to think that the design of these men is to Debauch the World and show that it is possible to be more corrupt than the very Heathens themselves for have not they by their nice distictions render'd a holy Life a very needless thing and overturn'd the very foundations of Virtue and Morality Repentance that first Introduction to an holy Life consisting in such a hearty Sorrow for every Sin as influences the practice and disposes us to forsake them they have made utterly unnecessary For while they distinguish Sins into Mortal and Venial and impose very easie Penances for those of the most purple dye Is not this the way to tempt their Proselytes to a continuance in their Sins and keep them from that severe hatred of them and those firm Resolutions of forsaking them they ought to take up Besides they maintain that a slight Attrition and imperfect Sorrow for Sin meerly from the consideration of some temporal inconvenience if join'd with the Sacrament of Penance is sufficient to fit a man for Heaven so that it is a very needless thing to hate or forsake our evil ways This is desin'd by their Council of Trent and generally maintain'd by their most famous Casuists And Morinus tells us as I find him quoted by Dr. Stillingfleet * Preface to Answer to several Treatises That the excellence of the Evangelical Precepts above the Legal chiefly consists in this That by them we are freed from the heavy yoke of Contrition and Love to God A Speech that would better become a Turk or Heathen than a Christian Thus we see they have hinder'd the first entrance into an holy Life and made the Gate to Heaven wider and the passage much more easie than our Saviour or his Apostles And if we run over all the parts of our Duty we may find too plain a Contradiction among their Casuists If we examine the Duties of Piety towards God How necessarily must they have low and irreverent thoughts of his imcomprehensible Majesty who behold such scandalous Pictures of him in their Churches and see the same Devotions and Gestures of Adoration us'd to those who were once perhaps equally sinful Creatures with themselves How have they incourag'd an abuse of his sacred Name by their Doctrine of Equivocation and prophan'd his Holy Day by allowing the remains of that time that is not spent at Mass to be imploy'd in idle Sports and foolish Mirth How
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