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
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
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
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
change a piece of Bread into God and by virtue of such a strong fancy to give it Divine Worship is an instance of such egregious folly as exposes Christianity to the scorn of infidels and hardens them in their unbelief a Doctrine that would make a Monster of our blessed Redeemer and give him 10000 bodies at once A Doctrine that subjects our Saviour to the will of every Priest and daily renews his humiliation A Doctrine that makes the Covenant of Grace much more severe than the Law of Innocence while it threatens damnation to all that will not disbelieve the agreeing sences of the whole world of Animals A Doctrine that destroys the very Foundations of human Converse and tends to the most unreasonable Scepticism imaginable For if our Senses are deceiv'd in so plain an instance how know we but that we may be all very Phantasms and a bundle of Accidents without any substance A Doctrine that hath a natural tendency to Infidelity and is the ready road to the most damnable unbelief For the miraculous Works of our Saviour were the great convincing Evidences of the truth of Christianity What we have seen and heard as one speaks was the Apostles Logick and an appeal to Miracles the surest Demonstraion of the Spirit So that if our Senses deceive us in this instance our Religion it self may be false The Resurrection of Christ and all his wonderful Works might for ought we know be Impostures and Deceits Thus we see how naturally the Papist lends his Assistance to the Atheist and Unbeliever A Doctrine that calls God himself a Deceiver for he plainly tells us by the most certain kind of Demonstration to our Senses That here is bread when if this be true there is really none at all In a word A Doctrine so full of unreasonable Contradictions that had not an infallible Council curs'd all deniers of it I am perswaded it would have long ago been renounc'd A Doctrine contradictory to Sense inconsistent with Reason and overthrown by express words of Scripture For St. Paul expresly calls it Bread after Consecration 1 Cor. 10. 15 16. 11. 26 27. A Doctrine bottom'd only upon one Metaphorical Expression This is my Body Which how it can prove this prodigious Transmucation is not very easie to imagine for did not Christs natural Body speak this while sitting at the Table And could his Disciples apprehend they eat the same Body or that the substance of the bread was vanish'd and only the Accidents remaining Did they so hardly believe his Resurrection and would they without one question about it digest this miracle far more amazing Doth he not say Do this in remembrance of me And if the Popish Comment were true would it be sense to say Eat me in remembrance of me Are not the terms Metaphorical in one part of the Sacrament This Cup is the Nâ—w Testament in my Blood And why should this rather than the other be taken according to the literal meaning Besides the same word is us'd concerning the Passover to which the Eucharist succeeds And the Jews had no term more proper to express signifie by than this word is It is the Lords passover Exod. 12. 11. i. e. a Memorial and Signification of the Lords passing over the houses of the Israelites when he destroy'd the first-born of Egypt and why should not the same Sense be given of this Sacrament of the new Covenant It is a Memorial of that Body of Christ which was once Offer'd for our Sins Thus we see how unreasonable the Roman Exposition of this Text is and yet they cannot pretend any clearer proof of this great absurdity but it is the great design of this Church to conquer those three mischievous Enemies Sense Reason and Scripture and when they have once done that they may impose what they will upon those reasonable Beasts their followers Sense they continually represent as subject to many Illusions and unfit to be trusted to in any weighty matters Reason they Tragically exclaim against as a dangerous Weapon and the mortifi'd Father Cressy somewhere tells us That it is the Wit and Judgment of Catholicks to renounce their own Judgment and depose their own Wit Scripture setting aside the Authority of their Church is of no more Validity with them than Aesops Fables or Mahomets Alchoran And tho they pretend the unanimous consent of the Fathers to their Doctrines yet because the Testimonies of Irenaeus Justin Martyr Theodoret Pope Galasius are so plain against them they pretend that the Fathers being obscure the present Church must be the Judg of their meaning but if we joyn issue here also and agree to be judg'd by the majority of Votes in the Christian World then they very charitably damn all the World but themselves and assume the proud title of Catholick and Universal so that the result of all is this If we will not upon their bare Affirmation swallow this heap of Contradictions we must infallibly fall under the Council of Lateran's Anathema and be ipso facto excommunicate But it is better to bear their curses here than by our sinful compliance with their grossest Idolatry to endanger our Salvation for ever For if there be no Transubstantiation of what tremendous Idolatry are they guilty who pay Divine Honour to a piece of Bread and give that Adoration to a Waser-cake which is due to God alone who outdo the grossest Idolatry of the Heathens and justifie the most ridiculous Superstitions of the Infidel world They only believ'd that some invisible Deity incorporated it self in the Creature they worshipp'd but never imagin'd that the whole substance was chang'd into God A Metamorphosis more strange than the most poetical Invention could ever contrive nor can they save themselves harmless by pretending they believe the Bread to be God and therefore if they err it is the fault of their Judgments not of their Wills For when men will maintain such an Error in spite of their own Sense and Reason and Scripture and the plain Doctrine of the Ancient Church they are certainly guilty of not only material but wilful formal Idolatry But supposing this Doctrine sometimes yet so many contingencies happens that it is impossible to know whether this particular Bread be Transubstantiated or not For if the Priest have not a right Intention and be not duly ordain'd the Miracle will not follow so that it is confessed by Bellarmine that no man can have any other than a conjectural certainty that he receives the Body of Christ because it depends upon the Priests intention which no man can know And now can it consist with our duty as Bishop Taylors speak certainly Disswas page 149. to give Divine Worship to that thing which we cannot certianly know to have a Divine Being But further if we should suppose by virtue of a strong faith such as is able to swallow Mountains that this miracle were always perform'd yet will not this justifie our Adoration For we are not bound