to shew how little she befriends it in that she makes her own Authority the onely foundation of that Belief That of Hearing his Word we have now seen how Ineffectual she makes it That of Prayer she makes so as much as she can both by her foresaid Doctrine of the Non-necessity of imploying the Mind therein and her suitable Practice of enjoyning the Reading of Prayers in an unknown Tongue As also by defiling them with Superstitious Rites and even gross Idolatry And by joyning many Mediators with Iesus Christ. That of the Observation of the Lords day for which we have uninterrupted Tradition from the Apostles times she hath made as effectual to the business 't is designed for as the rest of her Holy-days That of Denying our sensitive Appetites she is a wonderful Friend to as appears by the foresaid Doctrine concerning simple Fornication and the forementioned Liberty she allows and the Indulgences her Popes have granted And lastly Those of the Sacraments how unserviceable hath she made them to their intended End by her Doctrines of opus operatum and of making their Efficacy dependent on the Priests Intention And that of the Lords Supper by Robbing the People of half and converting the whole by her prodigious Doctrine of Transubstantiation into the most Shameful Idolatry and by her Doctrine of the Sacrifice of the Mass into a daily Crucifying our Lord afresh and putting him again to an open shame Thirdly Whereas we have shewed that our Lord hath purchased for us a rich supply of Grace to enable us to use these and the like Means with happy success I need not say what an Enemy Popery is to this Grace and the Efficaciousness thereof having now shewn what an Enemy it is to these Means Fourthly Whereas we have likewise presented several most powerful Motives which our Lord hath given us to prevail with our Wills to comply with this Grace Popery is apt greatly to weaken and deaden every one of them to all its Proselytes As for instance 1. That of the Vnconceiveable Love of God expressed in sending his onely Begotten Son upon the Errand of our Deliverance c. Wherein we said are implied two wonderfully exciting Motives to comply heartily with the Method Christ hath taken to set us free from the Dominion of Sin viz. First Gods extremest Hatred of Sin in that he would not propose Terms of Reconciliation to Sinners without the intervention of such a Sacrifice as that of his Dear Son Secondly His as wonderful love to Sinners Now as to the former of these two Motives what influence can it have upon those who are made to believe that a company of little sleight Penances will satisfie for great and enormous Crimes Can they think that God doth account Sin so heinous and intolerable an evil when they presume Him so willing to be reconciled to great Sinners upon the most easie terms and conditions The foresaid Gentleman who was conversant among them tells us that their Penance doth ordinarily consist but in Ave Maries and Pater Nosters with some easie Alms to them that are able and some little Fasting to such as are willing And that he himself hath known when the Penance for Horrible Blasphemy and that frequent too besides much other lewdness hath been but the bare saying of their Beads thrice over which in Italy such good Husbands are they hinders no business but as he also observes they dispatch their Beads as they walk the Streets or rid business at home making it two lips and one fingers work But were the Penance imposed by the Priests never so sharp he shews that the Fathers plenary Pardon sweeps all away at a blow And that of these they have granted especially the Pope that lived in his time so huge a number that he believed there were few Churches of note in Italy which had not purchased or procured a perpetual plenary Indulgence by virtue whereof whosoever at certain days being Confessed and having Communicated pours out his Devotions at some Altar in that Church or gives Alms to the behoof thereof had forthwith free Remission of all sin and punishment Which I say is the most effectual course that can be devised to make people think that the greatest sins are no greater evil in God's than they are in their own account And then as to the latter Motive how is the Love of God to sinners lessened by this Doctrine of theirs viz. That by the Sufferings of Christ true Penitents are indeed delivered from Hell but not from the direful pains of Purgatory which as was said may be equal in all respects to those of Hell except in the duration of them which yet may endure too for many Ages but that they have invented means to shorten them And their eaking out the satisfaction which Christ hath made to the Divine Justice for sinners with satisfactions of their own making doth also not a little disparage his and his Fathers love in what he hath suffered in their behalf 2. As to the Motive of Christ's Admirable Example we have shewed of what little Efficacy this is made by the Vile Examples of his Vicars and Vicegerents and their Spiritual Guides Whereunto I will add this passage of the said Sir Edwin's That the Iniquity of their Chief See hath been so exorbitant as to have raised amidst themselves this Proverb or saying That the worst Christians of Italy are the Romans of the Romans the Priests are Wickedest the Lewdest Priests are preferred to be Cardinals and the baddest Man among the Cardinals is preferred to be Pope 3. As for this Motive viz. The assurance Christ hath given us that he will not take such advantage of our Frailties as to cast us off for them it is even quite taken away by their Doctrine of even Venial Sins being so severely punisht in Purgatory 4. For that of our Saviour's Mediation and Intercession what a little Motive have they made it by making so many Co-Mediators with Iesus Christ as if his Mediation were far from sufficient And nothing hath been more observed than that for one Pater Noster they say very many Ave Maries And the Virgin Mother of God as they call her is Caressed after that rate by them that 't is scarcely uncharitable to suspect that they lay far more stress upon her's than upon her Son's Merits Lastly To joyn together the Motives of the Glorious Reward promised to the subduing of Corrupt Affections and the most Dismal Punishment those are threatned with who gratisie them it appears abundantly from what hath been already said that they have made these exceedingly weak and insignificant But that one Doctrine is enough to do it alone which we find backt with the Authority of the Council of Trent viz. That Imperfect Contrition or Attrition although by it self it cannot bring a sinner to Iustification without the Sacrament of Penance nevertheless it disposeth him for the obtaining of the Grace of God in that
by himself the true Riches By the Salvation which he is the Author of is meant that from the worst of evils principally and everlasting Salvation So proportionably whenas the Son is said to make us free the meaning is free with the best of Freedoms viz. that from sin as also we have seen is manifest from the Context Whenas Christ is said to be Anointed according to the Prophecy of Esay concerning him to preach deliverance to the captives and to set at liberty them that are bruised with being long fettered and shackled we are likewise to understand the same most desirable of all Liberties and Deliverances Whereas S. Iames calls the Gospel the law of Liberty Chap. 1. 25. and the perfect law of Liberty Chap. 2. 12. we are primarily to understand it as will be further shewn of this same Liberty which infinitely surpasseth all other In which sence the Apostle S. Paul understood it to be The perfect law of Liberty when he called it The law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ Iesus adding that it had made him free from the law of Sin and death Rom. 8. 2. Secondly We find this Liberty was that the instating us wherein our Saviour when he was in the World and his Apostles after him were altogether bent and intent upon The business of making men holy and obedient to the Laws of Righteousness they had not only mostly in their Eye but all they did was subordinated thereunto All those powerful means that were used to perswade the world that Iesus is the Christ were in order to this end For the Son of God was manifested to take away our sins and to destroy the works of the Devil 1 John 3. 5 8. Therefore is Faith so highly commended and so much ascribed thereto and men so excited to believe in Christ or to believe his Gospel because the Doctrine Precepts Promises and Threatnings therein contained have a great aptness and tendency are of mighty force and efficacy to the thorough Reformation of our Lives and the cleansing our Natures from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit Because that Faith which is terminated upon those Objects is such a Shield as whereby we shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one Because it is most effectual to the purifying of the heart and the overcoming of the world In short Christ gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Titus 2. 14. He died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves to the drudging service of their Lusts but unto him that died for them and rose again 2 Cor. 5. 15. Or that they should be his Servants that is his Free-men according to that of S. Paul 1 Cor. 7. 22. He that is called being a Servant is the Lords Free-man He gave himself for the Church that he might sanctifie and cleanse it by the washing of water by the word That he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish Ephes. 5. 26 27. He his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead to sins should live unto Righteousness 1 Pet. 2. 24. Or as S. Paul saith Rom. 6. 7. That being dead we might be freed from sin That is that being dead to it we might be freed from the Bondage we were in under it Or as we have it ver 18. That being made free from sin we might become the servants of righteousness Our Saviour required nothing of us forbad nothing to us but what was apparently designed in order to our deliverance from sin the making us pure in heart and holy in all manner of conversation He gave us not a Promise but what was to encourage us hereunto nor yet a Threatning but what was intended to scare us from the serving of one Lust or other And the Apostle tells us that the whole of the Gospel or The grace of God that brings salvation is designed to teach us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Tit. 2. 11 12. 'T is sufficiently evident from this little that hath been said that the setting us free from Sin and the making us Free to Righteousness was the business which took up our Blessed Saviour's time and thoughts when he was upon the Earth and wherein his holy Apostles were employed after his departure And therefore this must necessarily be our grand Christian Liberty Abundantly more might have been said upon this Argument but we have heretofore copiously handled it in another Treatise Thirdly Our Saviours abrogating the Ceremonial Law his freeing from that yoke was mainly designed in order to the thorough effecting this Freedom and Liberty This was a yoke which the Apostle Peter saith neither they nor their Fathers were able to bear Acts 15. 10. It was a yoke of bondage as S. Paul calls it Gal. 5. 1. Stand fast in the Liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not intangled again with the yoke of bondage This Liberty as appears by his discourse both before and after was that which Christ had given them from the burdensome services of the Mosaical Dispensation And diverse other places there are which speak of this Liberty as an effect and fruit of the death of Christ. Now it is worthy our Observation that the great reason wherefore our Saviour did put an end to the Obligation of this Law and why the Apostles especially S. Paul insisted so much upon it and so earnestly cautioned the Jewish Believers against intangling themselves again with this yoke was because it became very highly injurious to the Grand Evangelical Design of setting men perfectly free from their Lusts Because it gendered to that spiritual bondage in deliverance from which consisteth our best Liberty For this Law understood Carnally and according to the letter only which it ought not to have been was very apt to beget a sordid and low spirit a temper of mind very much estranged from true Piety and Goodness And it is too unquestionable that the Iews generally had no higher a sense of it The Law the Author to the Hebrews saith made nothing perfect Chap. 7. 19. It gave no man Freedom from the power of Sin no power to subdue corrupt Affections was obtainable thereby it did not make men truly and internally Righteous but only Ritually and Externally As the most eminently Good men under the Law did fall far short of the Apostles of our Saviour and those whose lives have been most answerable to the Christian precepts so those degrees of Virtue and Goodness they did attain to were not owing the Law but to the Covenant made with Abraham which was the same for substance with the Gospel Covenant The Law is
account of such Disgrace Contempt and ill usage from Rude People as is not to be compared with that which He underwent When we consider how our Blessed Saviour Forgave those who Thirsted after his Bloud and were never satisfied till they had put him to the most shameful and most cruel Death and not only Forgave them himself but Entreated his Father and that even in the midst of his Torments when his Spirit one would think should be most highly exasperated to forgive them too I say when we consider this how can it be difficult to disswade our selves from Meditating Revenge upon any Provocations whatsoever Surely we must needs be very powerfully inclined to forgive our Enemies When we call to mind how He exprest his love to his very Murderers even so as to design the greatest good to them by the means of that whereby they designed the greatest evil to him can we be averse to the bearing Good will to those who are ill affected towards us to the Blessing of those that Curse us and Praying for those that despightfully use us When we consider how this Mighty Person humbled himself even to the washing his Disciples Feet and declared that He came not to be ministred unto but to minister can We contemptible Wretches cherish the least spark of Pride in our Souls Can We despise the meanest of our Fellow-creatures or think our selves too Great or too Good to condescend to the lowest Offices of Love whereby we may serve our Brethren When we consider with what submission to the Divine Will our Blessed Lord indured the most exquisite Pains both of Soul and Body though He never deserved them by the least offence but was always most perfectly obedient to his Father can this be other than a most forcible motive to us who have Merited so ill at the Hands of God quietly to submit to his good Pleasure in Afflicting us whenas in so doing he doth always punish us far less than our iniquities deserve When we consider how well satisfied our Saviour was to be in poor low Circumstances and not to have so much as a Cottage of his own to put his Head in though he was Lord of all Is it imaginable that We should aspire at High and Great things and having Food and Raiment not be Content who are less than the least of all God's mercies And lastly Will not the Consideration of our Saviour's being such a Man of sorrows and so acquainted with griefs exceedingly deaden our desires after Sensual Pleasures Surely it must necessarily so do Thus we see how greatly exciting the Example of our Saviour is to the perfect Mortifying of those Lusts which are most strong and vigorous to the loathing and abominating those which are naturally very dear to us and to the most restless endeavours to get our Souls possessed of those Virtues and Graces which are most supernatural Thirdly Another very prevalent Motive is the Assurance our Lord hath given us that He will not take such Advantage of our Frailties and Weaknesses or Sins we fall into by mere surprize and want of due Watchfulness as to cast us off for them so long as we allow not our selves in any evil way and it is the principal design of our lives to be conformed in all things to the Laws of Righteousness There is a Prophecy concerning the Messiah Isaiah 42. 3. which our Saviour applieth to himself Matth. 12. 20. A bruised reed shall he not break and smoaking flax shall he not quench c. He will not crush under foot those who fall through weakness but whatsoever good he seeth in them he will still cherish My little children saith S. Iohn these things I write unto you that ye sin not But what if through the weakness of their Flesh they should at any time be overtaken is their state then desperate No by no means for it follows And if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the Righteous c. 1 Epist. 2. 1. As there are Sins unto Death so there are Sins not unto Death according to that of the same Apostle 1 Epist. 5. 17. All unrighteousness is sin and there is a sin not unto death Though all Unrighteousness be sin and the deserved wages of sin be Death yet such is the Goodness of God through Christ that all Sins shall not be unto Death but only Wilful and Presumptuous Sins And I add not these neither if not persevered in but throughly forsaken If we were liable to Eternal Ruine for such Faults as considering all our Circumstances in this state it is scarcely to be hoped we shall constantly avoid we should necessarily live in great Bondage through continual fear anxiety and disquieting thoughtfulness But on the other hand it conduceth exceedingly to the chearful pursuing our Great Work to be satisfied that it is not every Failure that shall endanger our final miscarrying And it is no small inducement to ingenuous Tempers to be so much the more solicitous to avoid Deliberate and Wilful sins because God through Christ is so ready to forgive and graciously pass by those that are not such Because he is pleased in his infinite Goodness to grant a pardon of course for these upon condition of their being in the general and habituals repented of And it is a great Motive also to such Tempers to be the more vigilant and watchful against all sins whatsoever against sins of daily incursion and infirmity as well as those which waste the Conscience And those are very ill natured and obdurate Sinners who can find in their hearts to Encourage themselves by this indulgence to sin the more freely Fourthly Another wonderful Encouragement to the careful use of the Means we are directed to for the subduing of our Lusts is our Saviours Mediation and Intercession There is one God and one Mediator between God and men the man Christ Iesus His oblation was begun on Earth but perfected in Heaven where He appears in the presence of God for us Heb. 9. 24. Those Prayers we put up in His name for things Agreeable to the Divine Will with honest and sincere hearts our Saviour inforceth with his own Intercession He ever lives to make intercession for us Heb. 7. 25. And for this reason as the Apostle saith in the former part of that Verse He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him That is to give them a full and complete Deliverance from the Slavery of sin and all the evil Consequents thereof Now we know that we ask what is according to the Will of God when we pray for his Grace to Mortifie our Corruptions and to set us more and more Free from their Dominion This is the Will of God even our Sanctification c. 1 Thess. 4. 3. There are many Temporal good things which God in his infinite Wisdom may see not to be good for us but He knows that whatsoever hath a necessary influence into
than giving this Liberty and which will prevent all need of it namely to Repeal those Laws as soon as ever it appears they are displeasing to God and so to make the doing contrary to them no Disobedience But if this be not done the Commissionated person ought not to expect that Authority should give him this Liberty but he ought to take it and to be confident that God will stand by him in so doing Prop. 7. Those Laws that enjoyn or forbid things in their own nature Indifferent ought not to be inforced with as severe Penalties as those which are made for or against those things which are good or evil in themselves which are commanded or prohibited by the Divine Laws Or the Transgressors of the Majora jura the Laws of Heaven should be more severely punisht than the Transgressors of mere Humane Laws 'T is certain that the former sort of offenders do deserve worse than the latter do Their crimes are of an higher nature and more intolerable and therefore it is highly fit that they should be greater sufferers than the other offenders for the more effectual scaring of others from following their Example or doing like them All offences against the State are not alike punished neither should all those which are against the Church No good man will question but that 't is a greater Sin to be a Separatist than a mere Dissenter in some things and also not to worship God at all than to worship him in an illegal way To make no Conscience of Receiving the Lord's Supper than to scruple the Gesture he is obliged to receive it in Or that Profaneness is more hateful than unaffected Scrupulosity or Superstition And therefore I think the self-same or equal Penalties should not belong to both Common Equity requires this and according to this Rule our Judge hath foretold us He will at the last day proceed with the Disobedient And by this means will no pretence be left to those who take all occasions to censure their Governours for the reproaching of them as laying too great weight upon things little in themselves as placing Religion in them and equalizing their own Traditions with and much less preferring them Pharisee like before the Commandments of God and as having less Zeal for Gods Glory than for keeping up the Reputation of their own Authority And for the same as well as an higher reason it is necessary that as great care at least should be taken to bring the open immediate Transgressors of God's Laws to condign punishment as those who only are Transgressors of mere Humane Laws But there is one thing more that I would not have forgotten that the dreadful Censure of Excommunication ought not to be past upon any but the greatest offenders among which that I may not be mistaken I account as the Primitive Church did all Schismaticks as well as Prophane persons To make the smaller offenders liable to it be it done upon what pretence it will is the readiest way to make it contemptible And nothing is more contrary to the practice of the Apostles or the first Ages than so to do Prop. 8. Most favour may be reasonably expected by such Dissenters as give the greatest reason to judge that they are really Conscientious in their Dissenting If any Liberty be left by Law to the Magistrate to shew favour in pitiable circumstances whatsoever it is such Dissenters ought to have the benefit of it And those may be presumed to be Conscientious in reality as well as pretence who First Are observed to make Conscience of the great and indisputable duties of Religion And Secondly Who comply with the Establishment as far as they can for ought that appeareth to the contrary These we are bound in charity to believe are sincerely Conscientious in stopping where they do This proposition needs no proving and this other is as clear viz. Those who give greatest evidence of their being Conscientious have most right to favour But although it be not an indisputable case that he makes no Conscience in some smaller things who makes none in certain great ones or that he who goes not as far as he declares he can is a mere pretender to Conscience in what he saith he cannot do yet there is no injury done him if his Governours have a strong suspicion of him and he fare the worse upon that account He must then thank himself for it and not blame them Prop. 9. Those have least reason to ask or look for Liberty of Conscience or any thing of Indulgence who are for no bodies having it besides themselves and give great reason to presume by their behaviour in their present circumstances that were they in Authority they would give none to those from whom they now expect it Such are all those who are not contented to Disobey the present Laws nor to draw others to their Party as much as in them lies but cannot forbear Railing at and passing the severest and most uncharitable Censures in their Common discourse and in the Pulpit and Press too upon their Spiritual Governours especially and those who are Conformable to the Constitution 'T is not at all to be questioned but such People would Persecute otherwise than with their Tongues or Pens if ever they should be furnisht with more dangerous Weapons He who shews his teeth at me I have reason to suspect would make them meet were he able to bite in so doing he shews his good will and what he would gladly be at had he an opportunity I wish the Papists were the onely people I could now reflect upon Such too are all our peremptory Dogmatizers in Disputable points of Religion who cannot bear to be contradicted though never so modestly as if they had gotten the Popes chair from him and their judgments were the standard of Orthodoxy From whose Sentiments you may not depart scarcely one hairs breadth but you immediately fall under suspicion of Heresie or some dangerous error I should be very loth these Stiff and Supercilious men should ever live to be my Masters if they should I doubt not â—ut I should soon feel that they have Cruâ—â—ty answerable to their Pride as much â—s some of them now cry out for Liberty â—f Conscience The men I have now in my thoughts â—re not onely as I said of the other â—he Roman Gentlemen but certain proâ—â—ssed Protestants as like Papists as they â—ook and those of more than one Mode and Form Such again are those who as impaâ—ent as themselves are of all Restraints â—re very angry that the Conformable Clergy are no more restrained that is â—n Doctrinals Who would have the â—hirty Nine Articles more than Nine â—nd Forty and are not a little grieved that several Points are so expressed as to admit of a latitude of Interpretation Who can believe but that these men would be far more severe Restrainers of Liberty than those whom they so complain of I say far more severe for there is
God Almighty with pronouncing five words must needs Conciliate Veneration from the People to them And also what a mighty Awe and Reverence their taking of Auricular Confession from People of all Ranks lying prostrate before them must necessarily beget in their minds towards them And to other Instigations to pride too many to be now instanced in may be added their priviledge of taking the Sacrament in both kinds whereas the greatest men of the Laity may not presume to touch the Cup. And then for the Monks and Friers what a Gratification of Pharisaical Pride is the Opinion that the Silly Vulgar have of their Extraordinary Sanctity by means of the many Ceremonies of which some are peculiar to one and some to another Order which are devised for no other purpose but to make up a Mock-shew of wonderful Humility Contempt of the World and Mortification And to the Lust of Pride we next add that of Covetousness this is no less gratified by the Popish Religion than the other And no wonder for Covetousness is a Pander and Pimp to Pride Indeed the whole Systeme of Popery is mainly contrived for the heaping up of Wealth This is manifestly designed in their Doctrine of Purgatory Of the Merit of good Works The Popes Indulgences and his prodigious Grants of Pardons The prohibition of Marriage to Priests Their many Spiritual Fraternities c. But I must not take liberty to enlarge here for innumerable are the Ways and Methods of the Papacy and that are interwoven with the Popish Religion for scraping together the Wealth of the World So notoriously guilty is that Church of the crime which S. Paul charged the Seducers with Tit. I. II. viz. Teaching things that they ought not for filthy lucres sake She hath infinitely out-done all Societies and Bodies of men that ever were in the World in the Politick Trade of Grasping and Accumulating Riches and that which makes it far the more abominable varnisht over with a Form and mighty shew of Godliness though in the mean time She sticks at no means though never so unrighteous and abominably wicked to accomplish her End The Sect of the Pharisees her famous Predecessors Who made long Prayers to devour Widows houses were in comparison of Her very silly Novices at this Artifice and sorry Bunglers Which should I make out by proceeding to Enumerate the rest of the Particulars as hath been now intimated I should hardly know where to make an End Then for the Lust of Vncleanness what greater encouragement can a Beastly Creature have to give it its full Swinge and Liberty than Holy Church gives him As also what dangerous and next to unavoidable snares doth she lay in the way of those mens Chastity who would be glad to live honestly As to the Encouragement she gives to the satisfaction of this Lust what can be greater than to make simple Fornication a Venial Sin That is in the Popish sence of that phrase a mere Peccadillo all of which kind put together Bellarmin will tell you cannot equal one Mortal Sin nor destroy Charity Nor deprive us of Gods favour etiamsi nullum pactum esset de Remissione although there were no Covenant of Grace And whereas it will be replied that though such sins expose not to the torments of Hell yet they do to those of Purgatory which are sufficient to scare a man from them and particularly from this of Fornication I add this as another great Encouragement to the commission of it viz. The exceeding light Penances that are ordinarily imposed for it such as going a little way bareâ—â—â—â— A little piece of Money So often Repeating so many Prayers c. But can there be greater Encouragement given than his Holiness his not bare Connivence at but Toleration of publick Stews or Bawdy-houses even at his own door and Sharing with them in their wicked Gains Nay Chemnitius tells us for which he quotes the Authority of Sleidan that the Popes Legat himself had lately in a publick Writing both defended in his own behalf and commended to others that horrid Wickedness for which Sodom with the neighbouring Cities was destroyed by Fire In short there is a thousand times greater discouragement given in and by the Church of Rome to Holy Wedlock the special means appointed by God for the preservation of Chastity than to Vncleanness of what kind soever and even the most Vnnatural as might largely be shewed The Holy Fathers of the Council of Trent have the impudence to oppose Chastity to Matrimony in their Ninth Canon of the Eighth Session Which leads me to shew likewise what Snares are laid by that Church and what next to invincible Temptations to the sin of Uncleanness she exposeth innumerable People to As imposing Vows of perpetual single Life upon all Priests Monks Friers and Nuns most of which live idly and fare plentifully And giving the Priests the most inviting Opportunities for the commission of Fornication and Adultery that can be There being not a Female of ripe years but is obliged once a year at least to be alone with a Priest for Auricular Confession And whensoever they please to apply themselves to them upon that pretence 't is a Sin for Parents Husbands c. to prohibit them By which means there is no sort of men scarcely in all Christendom so infamous for Filthiness as the Popish Priests And what a snare their Example must necessarily be to the Laity I need not say I might instance in other high provocations to Lust and Wantonness which the Clergy and Laity of that Church must thank her for As her excessive number of Holy days whereon the Laity at least must be idle whether they will or no. And which considering how they are observed as well within the Church as out of it do generally not at all serve the purposes of Religion and considering the Liberty that is allowed are only opportunities for making provision for the flesh to fulfil it in the Lusts thereof And as for the Carnivals the business of them is to commit all manner of Wickedness with greediness and with the greatest Secrecy and Security And therefore I need not distinctly shew what Liberty that Church gives to the Sin of Intemperance the highest provocative to Lasciviousness Lastly For that of the grossest Injustice and Vnrighteousness no men in the world have such Encouragement to make no bones of it as have the Children of the Church of Rome Diverse of whose Practices and Principles are exactly fitted for so Execrable a Design as the extirpating out of mens Minds all sense of Justice or Common Honesty As particularly the Pope's claiming a Power to dispense with the most Solemn Oaths and frequent exercise of that Power in Absolving Subjects from their Allegiance to Heretical Princes and otherwise That truly Catholick principle that Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks which a Council of Constance put in practice upon poor Iohn Husse The Doctrine of Equivocation and Mental