Ioh. 4. 1. Now reason being the chief excellency of man and â—…hat wherein the Divine Image doth â—…ainly consist it were very absurd to â—…eny man a rational judging and discering of these things wherein his eternal â—…terest is most concerned Besides the nature of Religion it being a thing sutaâ—…e to the powers of the soul shews that man must have a conviction of the truth of it on his mind and that he cannot be bound in contradiction to his own apprehensions to receive any opinions â—…rly upon the testimony of others If to confirm all this I should add all can be brought from History for proving General Councils to have erred in matters of Faith or that Popes have beeâ—… Hereticks or that they have been ana thematized as such by other Popes and General Councils I should be too tedious But in end how shall the Vulgar know the definitions of Councils or the De crees of Popes Or must they be blindly determined by the Priests assertion Certainly this were to expose theâ—… to the greatest hazards since they aâ—… not suffered to found their Faith upoâ—… the Scriptures Nor doth the Churâ—… reveal her Doctrines to them so thâ—… their Faith must be resolved upon tâ—… bare Testimony of a Priest who is peâ—…haps both ignorant and licentioâ—… And by this we may judge to whâ—… a pass the souls of the people a brought by this Doctrine In a woâ—… we are not the servants of men nor bound to their Authority for none can be a Judge but where he hath power both to try and to coerce Now none but God can either search our hearts or change them for as no humane power can know our thoughts so neither can it turn them which are not in our own power much less in the power of others therefore our Consciences can and must only fall within Gods jurisdiction And since the renovation of the Image of God consists in Knowledge and Religion designs an union of our souls to Divine Truth that we may freely converse with it it will follow that all these pretences of absolute authority and infallibility in Teaching are contrary to Christs Prophetick Office who came to reveal the Father to us The second of Jesus Christs Offices was the Priestly without which the former had never been effectual for had we known never so perfectly the Will of God without a method had been laid down for reconciling sinners to him it was in vain to think of Religion since nothing sinners could do was able to appease God or expiate sin but this was fully done by the Sacrifice of that Lamb of God Who became sin for us and bare our sins on his own Body In whom we have redemption even forgiveness of sin through his Blood 2 Cor. 5. 21. 1 Pet 2. 24. Ephes. 1. 7. If then any have derogated from the value of this satisfaction they have offered the utmost indignity to the highest love and committed the crime of the greatest ingratitude imaginable who would requite the most inconcieveable love with such a Sacrilegious attempt But how guilty are they of this who would set the Merits and works of men in an equality with the Blood of God as if by these we were justified or owed our title to Glory to our own performances whereas we are taught by the Oracles of God that by grace we are saved that God only hath made the difference betwixt us and others and that he hath freely chosen us in his Son Christ Iesus Ephes. 2. 5. 1 Cor. 4. 7. And alas where are we or what is all we do that it can pretend to the lowest degree of Gods acceptance without he freely both help us in it and accept of us for it so that when he rewards us for our services with Eternal Life he freely crowns his own free gifts to us For when we consider how great a disproportion there is betwixt our best Services and Eternal Glory when we also remember how all our good actions flow from the Principles of Divine Grace freely given but withal reflect on the great defects and imperfections that hang about our best performances we will not be able to entertain any thoughts of our meriting ought at the hands of God And certainly the deeper impressions we have either of the evil of sin or the goodness of God we will be further from a capacity of swelling big in our own thoughts or of claiming any thing on the pretensions of justice or debt It is true this Doctrine of Merit is so explained by some of that Church that there remains no ground of quarrelling it except for the Terms sake which is indeed odious and improper though early used by the Ancients in an innocent sense But many of that Church acknowledge there can be no obligation on God by ouâ—… Works but that which his own promise binds upon him which none who believe the truth of the promises of the Gospel can question but still we must remember that we owe all to the love of Jesus and nothing to our selves which as it is the matter of the Allelujahs of glorified Saints so should be the subject of our daily acknowledgements wherefore we must abominate every thing that may seem to detract from this But alas were all this zeal many of that Communion own for Merits and good Works meant for the advancing a Holy and Spiritual Life it would carry a good apology with it and its noble design would very much qualify the severity of its censure but when these good works which for so many ages were highly magnified were the building of Churches the enriching of Abbeys Pilgrimages and other trifling and voluntary pieces of Will-worship advanced for the Secular interests of the Church what shall be said of all that pains was used by the Monks for advancing them but that they were willing to sell the value of the Blood and Merits of Christ for advancing their own Secular interests and divised practices Alas how far are these from that Holiness and Sanctity which must qualify us for the Kingdom of God and the inheritance of the Saints And to end this matter let me add one thing which is most evident to all who have observed the methods of the directours of Consciences in that Church that with whatever distinctions this matter be varnished over among them yet the Vulgar do really imagine they buy and sell with Almighty God by their undergoing these Laws of the Church and penances imposed by their Confessour Which as it nourisheth the life of Pride and Self-love so it detracts from the value they ought to set on the blood of Christ as their only title to Heaven and Glory And to this I must add that distinction of the temporary and eternal punishments sin deserves The latter whereof they acknowledge are removed by the Blood of Christ but the former must be expiated by our selves either by sufferings in this Life or those we must endure in Purgatory unless by
THE MYSTERY OF INIQUITY UNVAILED IN A DISCOURSE Wherein is held forth The Opposition of the Doctrine Worship and Practices of the Roman Church TO The Nature Designs and Characters of the Christian Faith By GILBERT BURNET Chaplain in Ordinary to His MAJESTY LONDON Printed by W. Godbid and are to be sold by M. Pitt at the Angel over against the Little North Door of St. Pauls 1673. THE Mystery of Iniquity UNVAILED HE that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow is an observation which holdeth true of no part of knowledge so much as of the knowledge of Mankind It is some relief to him who knows nothing of foreign wickedness to hope there are other Nations wherein Virtue is honoured and Religion is in esteem which allays his regrates when he sees Vice and Impiety abound in his Country but if by travelling or reading he enlarge his Horizon and know Mankind better his regrates will grow when he finds the whole World lyes in wickedness It argues a cruel and in humane temper to delight in beholding scenes of horrour and misery and certainly none who either honours his Maker and Redeemer or is a lover of Mankind can without sorrow look on and see the indignities done to God and his Son Christ and see the Enemy of the humane race triumphing over the World with such absolute authority and so much enraged cruelty and that not only in the dark Regions of it which the Sun of Righteousness hath not yet visited with his Gospel but that where Christ should have a Throne Satans Seat should also be is justly surprising and astonishing That almost all Christendom hath fallen from their first love is what none whose eyes are open can deny and it is little less evident that the greater part of it hath made shipwrack and erred from the Faith and that the Church whose Faith was once spoken of throughout the World is now become the Mother of the Fornications of the Earth It is true the Scriptures warned us of a falling away of a mystery of iniquity of an Antichrist to be revealed in due time and of a Babylonish Rome which should bewitch the Earth with her Sorceries but should be varnished over with fair colours and specious pretences so that mystery should be on her forehead Being then warned of so much danger to the Christian Religion it is a necessary though painful enquiry to see if this Antichrist be yet come or if we must look for another But because some have stretched the Notion of Antichristianism so far that things harmless and innocent come within its compass and others have so much contracted it that they might scape free we are to take a view of the Nature and Designs of the Christian Religion and to conclude from that what must be Antichristianism It being not only a bare contradiction to some branches or parts of the Gospel for then every errour or heresie were Antichristianism but a design and entire complex of such opinions and practices as are contradictory to and subversive of the power and life of Christianity And if we find any such thing to be broached and received in the World we may with the least hazard of uncharitableness pronounce it to be Antichristianism and if it be acted or animated by any Head he may be concluded Antichrist The Designs of the Christian Religion run betwixt these four heads The first is to give us right apprehensions of the Nature and Attributes of God that we may conceive aright of him and adore him sutably to his Nature and according to his Will and thereby be admitted to a free converse with him and become partakers of the Divine Nature How little of God was known by the twinklings of Natures Light even to the better and wiser part of the World Tullies Books of the Nature of the Gods do sufficiently inform us But if the Philosophers were so much to seek in it what shall we expect from the Vulgar And indeed Homers Iliads and Ovids Metamorphosis were wretched Systems of Divinity and yet such and such like were the sentiments of the Nations about the Godhead It is true the seed of Abraham were delivered from that darkness and knew God by his Name Iehovah and had Laws and Ordinances given them by God yet their Worship was so carnal and did so strike upon and affect the senses that we will be soon satisfied it was not so sublime and free as became the Spirituality of the Divine Nature and so was only fitted for the Infancy of the People of God but by Christ the mystery that lay hid from ages and generations was revealed for he declared the Father and revealed him and taught us to renounce Idols and vanities and to serve the living God commanding all men every where to repent the times of ignorance wherein God winked at Idolatry being then over That so Mankind being Gods Off-spring might feel after him and not worship him any more in the blinding grossness of Idolatry but in a pure spiritual manner and whereas the Law came by Moses by Christ came Grace and Truth Grace in opposition to the severity of the Law and Truth as opposed not to Falshood but to the Figures and Shadows of Moses his Law and therefore God is to be worshipped in Spirit and Truth in opposition to the Carnal Ordinances and Typical Rites which shadowed out the Truth in the Law The second branch of the Christian Religion is to hold forth the method of mans reconciliation with his Maker For the sense of all mankind agrees in this that sin is an indignity done to God which deserveth punishment and cannot be expiated by any service man can do It was therefore necessary there should be a mean found for incouraging sinners to imbrace a Religious life of which all had reason to despair without pardon were offered to penitents upon the change of their lives Now this was that the Heathen could not dream how to procure It is true the Iews had sacrifices for expiating of sin but these could never quiet their consciences since the common sense of mankind tells that the blood of beasts cannot appease God The mystery therefore of the reconciliation of sinners to God is the proper character of the Christian-Religion which holds forth to us how the eternal Word was made man and endured unspeakable sufferings for the sins of men even to the death of the Cross and was raised up by God and carried to Heaven where he is vested with all power and authority and by the merits of his death hath a right to grant pardon give grace and confer eternal life on all that believe on him by whom God conveys all things to us and through whom we are to offer up all our worship to God he being the Mediator betwixt God and man The third head of the Christian-Religion is to teach the perfectest clearest and most divine rules for advancing of the souls of men to the highest perfection of their natures
our Consciences which he hath vindicated into liberty by delivering us from the bondage of corruption If then any pretend a power of obtruding new articles on our Belief or obligations on our Consciences these must be confessed to be injurious to the Dignity wherewith Christ is vested What shall then be said of him who pretends an authority of dspensing with and dissolving the obligation of Oaths of dissolving the Wedlock-bond of allowing Marriage in the forbidden degrees And as for their additions to the Laws of Christ they are innumerable And here what I mentioned last calls me to mind of a pretty device to multiply the forbidden degrees of Marriage yea and add the degrees of spiritual Kindred that is of kindred with our God-fathers or God-mothers in Baptism which is done upon no other design but to draw in more to the Treasure of the Church by frequent Dispenses If I should here reckon up all the additions which by the Authority of that Church are made to the Laws of Christ I should resume all that I have hitherto alledged they being visible additions to the Doctrine and Rules of the Gospel and imposed with such unmerciful cruelty that an Anathema is the mildest of the spiritual Censures they thunder against such as comply not with their tyranny and a faggot would be its civil Sanction were the secular Powers at their devotion I do not deny but there is an Authority both in the Civil and Ecclesiastick Powers of enjoyning things indifferent but no Authority beside Christs can reach the Conscience Besides if these indifferent things swell so in their number be vain pompous and useless and be imposed without all regard to the tender scruples of weak Consciences they become tyrannical and such as do so impose them discover their affecting a tyrannical and lordly dominion over Consciences and that they prefer their own Devices to the simpler Methods of Christ and the plainer and easier Rules of his Gospel But one instance of their abrogating the Laws of Christ is more signal in their violating the Sacrament of the Lords Supper wherein though he instituted it under both kinds and did so distribute it with the express command that all should drink of it yet they presumed notwithstanding of that and though the Primitive Church distributed it in both kinds which is confessed in their Canon to snatch the Cup from the Laity and engâ—…oss it to the Clergy Now it is to be considered that the value of thâ—… Sacramental Actions flowing only from their Institution the first Appointment should be most religiously observed in them Besides the universal extent of Christs word drink ye all of it which was not used in the distribution of the Bread hath a particular mystery in it to guard against the foreseen corruption of that part of it and the reason given in the distribution of the Cup shews it must reach to all that need the Blood of Christ for the remission of sins which not being restrained to the Priests shews that the Cup without a direct opposition to the Mind and Command of Christ ought not to be taken from the People and any that will read the goodly reasons given for this Sacriledge wil see what a low account they have of the Commands of Christ when upon such trifling pretences they will violate them And with how much cruelty they backed this invasion of Christs Authority the History will declare they beginning it with a perfidious burning of two witnesses who opposed it at Constance And occasioning so much War and Blood-shed against those who adhered to the rule of the Gospel in this matter and refused to stoop to their Tyranny But I advance to another invasion of Christs regal authority commited by him who pretends to be the Universal Bishop of the Church and to have authority over all Church-men whom he makes swear obedience to him and looks on them but as his Delegates It was unluckily done of Gregory the great to be so severe on this head as to condemn the title of Universal Bishop as Antichristian But little dream'd he in how few years his Successour would aspire to that height of ambition Now by this pretence all these Officers whom Christ hath appointed to Rule and Feed his Church are turned out of their authority and made subject to him And with how much pride he treads on his Fellow-Bishops the Histories of many ages do declare It is true at first as being Bishop of the Imperial City the Bishops of Rome were highly esteemed but Pride and Ambition began soon to leaven them yet they were for the first four ages looked upon by the other Bishops but as their Fellow-Bishops and by the Decrees oâ—… two General Councils the Bishops of Constantinople were in all things except the precedency make equal to them And by the Decree of the Council of Nice other Metropolitans are levelled with them And here I must tell of a shameful forgery of three Bishops of Rome who one after another would have obtruded on the African Churches a Decree allowing of appeals from them to the Roman See as if it had been made at Nice which they of Africk rejected and upon tryal found it to be none of the appointments at Nice but a Decree of the Council of Sardice But by degrees the Bishops of that City got up to the height they are now at and not content with their usurping over their Brethren and Fellow-Church-men their next attempt was upon Princes who deriving their authrity from Iesus Christ the King of Kings by whom Kings do reign it was an invasion of his power to attempt against his Vice-Gerents on Earth But the Popes made no bones of this for being now held Christs Vicars on earth with other blasphemous titles as Vice-God yea and Lord God they thought their power was limited as long as Kings and Emperours were not even in temporals subject to them And therefore from the days of Pope Gregory the 7th they pretended to a power of deposing Princes disposing of their Dominions to others and dispensing with the Oaths of fidelity their Subjects had sworn to them and it was easie for them to make Crowns change their Masters as they pleased For there were always other ambitious Princes ready for their own ends to invade the Dominions of these deposed Kings upon the Popes warrant and the generality of the People were so possessed with the Popes power of releasing souls from Purgatory and from the punishments due to sin that they were easily prevailed upon to follow his thundersâ—… And by that time the Popes had swarmâ—… of Emissaries of the begging Orders who under shews of austere Piety gained much reverence and esteem in the World and so got all subjected to the Papal Tyranny Now should I instance this in particulars I should transgress the limits of a short Discourse by a long History but the lives of Gregory the 7th Alexander the third Boniface the 8thâ—…nd Iulius the second to