had not the necessity of dying been expresly excepted out of this Redemption for in Adam all die and it is appointed by a Divine Decree for all men once to die and could they show where Purgatory is excepted too then I would grant that those who are redeemed from the Curse of the Law might fall into Purgatory if that be any comfort to them and yet the case is vastly different between Death and Purgatory for though Death be the Curse of the Law yet we may be delivered from Death as a Curse and Punishment without being delivered from the necessity of dying and thus good men are redeemed from Death for their Sins are expiated and pardoned and then the Sting of Death is gone for the sting of death is sin and therefore when our Sins are pardoned Death cannot sting us can do us no hurt because it does not deliver us over to Punishment but transplants us into a more happy state The fears of Death are conquered by the promises of Immortal Life and Death itself shall at the last day be swallowed up in Victory when our dead Bodies shall be raised immortal and glorious so that thô good men still die yet they are redeemed from the Curse of the Law from Death itself as a Curse and a Punishment But the Popish Purgatory is a place of Punishment and nothing but Punishment and therefore is not reconcilable with the remission and forgiveness of sin Again I ask Whether there are two kinds of Punishments due to sin Temporal and Eternal of such a distinct nature and consideration that the Promise of forgiveness does not include both Nay that God cannot forgive both that only the Eternal Punishment can be forgiven but the Temporal Punishment must be satisfied for or endured by the Sinner if this were the case indeed then I would grant the Promise of forgiveness could extend only to Eternal Punishments because God can forgive no other and the forgiveness of Eternal Punishment does not include the forgiveness of the Temporal Punishment But if the Curse of the Law be Eternal Death and all other Punishments which can properly be called the punishment of sin for Correction and Discipline is not the Wrath of God and the Curse of the Law are only parts of the Curse and a partial execution of it if the only thing that makes Sinners obnoxious to Temporal Punishments is that they are under the Sentence of Eternal Death which God may execute by what degrees he pleases then to forgive Eternal Punishment must include the forgiveness of Temporal Punishments as parts or branches of it As suppose there were a Law that no man should suffer any Bodily Punishments but such a Malefactor as is condemned to die but when the Sentence of Death is past upon him it should be at the Prince's pleasure to defer the Execution of this Sentence as long as he pleased and in the mean time to inflict all other Punishments on him whatever he pleased in this Case to pardon the Sentence of Death would deliver such a man from all other Punishments too which by the Law are due only to that man who is under the Sentence of Death and in such a Constitution for any man to say that the Prince's Pardon extends only to Life but does not excuse from Whipping and Pilloring and perpetual Imprisonment would be to make the Pardon void since no man by the Law can suffer those other Punishments but he who is Condemned to Die and therefore he who is pardoned the Sentence of Death in consequence of that is pardoned all other Punishments too Thus it is here the original Curse against sin was In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die which by the Gospel of Christ is expounded of Eternal Death and there is no other threatning in all the Gospel against sin but Eternal Death and therefore all other Punishments are inflicted by Vertue of this Law and consequently he who is delivered from this Curse of the Law from Eternal Punishments is delivered from the whole Punshment due to sin unless they can find some other Law in the Gospel besides that which threatens Eternal Death which obliges a sinner to punishment Again since they acknowledge that Christ by his Death has delivered us from Eternal Punishments I do not think it worth the while to Dispute with them whether those Sufferings and Calamities which good men are exposed to in this World may properly be called Punishments or only Correction and Discipline but I desire to know Why they call Purgatory which is a place of Punishment in the other World a Temporal Punishment for this is an abuse of the Language of Scripture which makes this World Temporal and the next World Eternal as St. Paul expresly tells us The things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal 2 Cor. 4.18 And therefore Temporal Punishments signifie the Punishments in this World but the unseen Punishments as well as the unseen Rewards of the next World are eternal which is a demonstration that there is no Purgatory unless it be Eternal and then it is but another Name for Hell and therefore the state of the next World is called either Life or Death Eternal Life or Eternal Death those who believe in Christ shall never die 11 Joh. 25 26. Now I desire to know the difference between Living and Dying and Perishing in the next World for bad men do not cease to be nor lose all sence in the next World no more than good men and therefore Life can only signifie a state of Happiness and Death a state of Misery which is much worse than not being now if good men must not perish must not die but live in the next World they must not go to Purgatory which is as much perishing as much dying as Hell though not so long but if they must never die never perish they must never suffer the pains of Purgatory which is a dying and perishing that is a state of Torment and Misery while they continue there Let us then see how a Papist who believes a Purgatory-sire in the next World wherein he shall be tormented God knows how long for his Sins can prove that a penitent Sinner shall not be eternally damned Oh! says he Christ has died for our Sins and made atonement for them and we are pardoned and justified through Faith in his Bloud and what then may we not still be punished for our Sins If not what becomes of Purgatory If we may prove that we shall not be eternally damned for Sin which is the proper punishment of it For if to be pardoned and justified signifie to be delivered from punishment it signifies our deliverance from the whole punishment of Sin since the Scripture does not limit it if they do not signifie our deliverance from punishment then we may be eternally punished for Sin though we are pardoned and justified But we are redeemed from the
more merciful unto them they have no great reason to glory much in the Goodness of God though they should go to Heaven at last so that our Protestant need not dispute much about Purgatory Let him only ask a Popish Priest How the Doctrine of Purgatory can be reconciled with that stupendious Love of God declared to penitent sinners in his Son Jesus Christ for it is a contradiction to the Notion of Goodness among men to inflict such terrible Punishments in meer Grace and Love even when the sin is pardoned and the sinner reconciled and no longer in a state of Discipline and Tryal Secondly The Doctrine of Purgatory destroys or weakens that Security the Gospel hath given Sinners of their Redemption from the Wrath of God and the just Punishment of their Sins One great Security is the Love of God declared to the World by our Lord Jesus Christ but if the Love of God to penitent Sinners who are Redeemed by the Bloud of Christ be consistent with his tormenting them in Purgatory so many thousand years as you have already heard it will be a very hard thing to distinguish such Love from Wrath and a Sinner who is afraid of so many thousand years punishment can take no great comfort in it but besides this the Doctrine of Purgatory destroys mens hope and considence in the Merits and Intercession of Christ and in the express promises of Pardon and Remission of Sins in his Name 1. It destroys mens hopes in the Merits of Christ and the Atonement and Expiation of his Bloud For if the Bloud of Christ does not deliver us from the punishment of Sin what security is this to a Sinner Yes you 'll say Christ has Redeemed us from Eternal tho' not from Temporal Punishments and therefore penitent Sinners have this security by the Expiation of Christ's Death that they shall not be eternally Damned This I know the Church of Rome teaches but I desire to know How any man can be satisfied from Scripture that Christ by his Death has delivered us from Eternal Punishments if he have not delivered us from Temporal Punishments of Sin in the next World I thankfully acknowledge and it is the only hope I have that the Gospel has given us abundant assurance of the Expiation and Atonement made for Sin by the Bloud of Christ but what I say is this that if these Texts which prove our Redemption by the Death of Christ do not prove that Christ has redeemed us from the whole punishment due to Sin in the next World they prove nothing and then we have not one place of Scripture to prove that Christ by his Death has redeemed us from Eternal Punishments which is enough to make all Christians abhor the Doctrine of Purgatory if it destroy the Doctrine of Salvation by Jesus Christ As to shew this briefly The hope and security of Sinners depends upon such Scripture-expressions as these that Christ has died for our sins that he has made atonement for sin that he is a propitiation through faith in his blood that he has redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us that remission and forgiveness of sins is preached in his name that by him we are justified from all those things from which we could not be justified by the Law of Moses that being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ that we are reconciled unto God and saved from wrath by him Now I desire to know Whether all these expressions signifie that for Christ's sake and through the atonement and expiation of his Blood a penitent Sinner shall be delivered from the punishment due to his sins If they do not signifie this how is a Sinner secured that though his sins are pardoned and he is justified and reconciled to God and redeemed from the Curse of the Law and saved from Wrath he shall not after all this be damned for his sins since that is the punishment of sin which it seems is not removed when the sin is pardoned and the Sinner justified and reconciled to God If these expressions do not signifie taking away the punishment of sin I desire one Text of Scripture to prove that a Sinner who is pardoned and justified shall not undergo the eternal punishment of his sins If to be pardoned and justified c. does signifie to be delivered from the punishment of sin I desire to know How a sinner who is pardoned and justified can be punished for his sins that is How a sinner who is released from the Punishment of his sins should be bound to suffer the punishment of his sins in Purgatory Our Roman Adversaries do indeed distinguish between the Temporal and Eternal Punishment of Sin the Eternal Punishment of Sin they say Christ has made satisfaction for and that is removed by his Death that no penitent Sinner shall be eternally damned but a Sinner must make satisfaction for the temporal punishment of Sin himself either in this World or in Purgatory and consequently that forgiveness of Sins signifies the remission of the Eternal Punishment of Sin but not of the Temporal now I shall not put them to prove this distinction from Scripture which is a very unreasonable Task because there is nothing in Scripture about it but yet I would gladly be secured that I shall be saved from Eternal Punishments and therefore I would gladly know how Forgiveness of Sins and our Redemption from the Curse of the Law signifies our deliverance from Eternal Punishments if they do not signifie our deliverance from the Punishment of our Sins And how they can signifie our deliverance from the Punishment of our Sins if notwithstanding this we must suffer the punishment of our sins in Purgatory If they signifie that we shall not be punished for our sins then indeed they may signifie that we shall not be Eternally Punished but they cannot signifie that we shall not be Eternally Punished unless they signifie that we shall not be punished and therefore not in Purgatory neither if that be the Punishment of sin The truth is this is a very senceless distinction between the Temporal and Eternal Punishment of sin for I desire to know Whether the Temporal Punishment be not the Punishment of sin be not the Curse of the Law if it be then forgiveness of sin if it remits the Punishment remits the Temporal Punishment for that is the Punishment of sin then our Redemption from the Curse of the Law redeems us from Purgatory for that is the Curse of the Law too if you add and from Death for that is the Curse of the Law too and yet those who are redeemed and justified die still which shows the fallacy of this Argument for it seems Redemption from the Curse of the Law does not signifie our Redemption from the whole Curse for then a justified Person must not die since bare dying is part of the Curse I answer this had certainly been true
Christ is not merciful and pitiful enough his Virgin Mother has softer and tenderer passions and such an interest in him or authority over him in the right of a Mother as some of them have not without Blasphemy represented it that she can have any thing of him and thus they suppose the other Saints to be much more pitiful than Christ is and to have interest enough to protect their Supplicants or else it is not imaginable why they should need or desire any other Advocates Now let any man who understands the Gospel and finds there how the love of Christ is magnified not only in dying for us but in his being a merciful and compassionate High-Priest that this is the only hope of Sinners That if any man sin we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous who is also a propitiation for our sins think the Invocation of Saints as our Patrons and Advocates to be a Gospel-Doctrine if he can SECT III. Concerning the Nature of Christian Worship 3. ANother manifest design of the Gospel was to reform the Worship of God not only by extirpating Idolatry but by purging it from all Pagan and Jewish Superstitions and to appoint such a Worship as is more agreeable to the Nature both of Gad and Man. And whoever will take the pains to compare the Worship of the Church of Rome with that Worship which our Saviour has prescribed in the Gospel will easily discover how unlike they are Let us then consider what Christ has reformed in the Worship of God and what kind of Worship he has prescribed to his Disciples I. What he has reformed in the Worship of God and that may be comprehended in one word he has taken away all that was meerly External in Religion By which I do not mean that our Saviour has forbid all External Acts of Worship or such External Circumstances as are necessary to the decent and orderly performance of Religious Worship which the nature and reason of things requires under all Dispensations of Religion but that he has laid aside all such External Rites as either were or were thought to be in themselves Acts of Religion and to render such Worshippers very acceptable to God. A great many such Rites there were in the Pagan Religion and a great many in the Jewish Worship of God's own Institution and a great many more which the Tradition of the Elders and the Superstition of the Scribes and Pharisees had introduced We know the Jewish Worship consisted of External Rites in their Temple and Altars and Sacrifices and Washings and Purifications in New Moons and Sabbaths and Festival Solemnities in consecrated Garments and Vessels for the Service of the Temple in distinction of Meats c. the very external observance of these Rites were Acts of Religion and necessary to make their Worship acceptable to God and the wilful and presumptuous neglect or contempt of them was punished with Death Now our Saviour has abrogated all these Jewish Rites and has instituted nothing in the room of them excepting the two Sacraments Baptism and the Lord's Supper which are of a very different Nature and Use as we shall see presently He did not indeed while he was on Earth blame the Observation of the Law of Moses which till that time was in full force and which he observed himself but he blamed the External Superstitions of the Pharisees in washing Cups and Platters and making broad their Phylacteries and thinking themselves very righteous persons for their scrupulous observation even of the Law of Moses in paying Tithe of Mint and Cummin c. while they neglected the weightier matters of the Law judgment mercy and faith 23 Mat. 23. But when our Saviour was Risen from the Dead and had accomplished all the Types and Shadows of the Law then the Apostles with greater freedom opposed a Legal and External Righteousness and though they did for a time indulge the Jews in the Observation of the Rites of Moses yet they asserted the Liberty of the Gentile Converts from that Yoke as we may see in the first Council at Antioch and in St. Paul's Disputes with the Jews in his Epistles to the Romans and Galatians and elsewhere And indeed whoever considers the Nature of the Christian Religion will easily see that all those ends which such External Rites served either in the Jewish or Pagan Religion have no place here and therefore nothing that is meerly External can be of any use or value in the Christian Worship As to shew this particularly 1st There is no expiation or satisfaction for sin under the Gospel but only the Bloud of Christ and therefore all External Rites are useless to this purpose Him 3 Rom. 25. and him only God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his bloud Death was the punishment of sin and Death is the only expiation of it and none else has died for our sins but Christ alone and therefore he only is a propitiation for our sins and yet we know how great a part both of the Pagan and Jewish Religion was taken up in the expiation of sin all their Sacrafices to be sure were designed for this purpose and so were their Washings and Purifications in some degree and many other voluntary Severities and Superstitions this being the principal thing they intended in their Religious Rites to appease God and make him propitious to them since then Christ has made a full and compleat satisfaction and atonement for sin and there is no expiation or satisfaction required of us all external Rites for expiation and atonement can have no place in the Christian Worship without denying the atonement of Christ and this necessarily strips Christian Religion of a vast number of external Rites practised both by Jews and Heathens 2ly Nor does the Gospel admit of any legal Uncleannesses and Pollutions distinction between clean and unclean Meats which occasioned so many Laws and Observances both among Jews and Heathens so many ways of contracting legal Uncleanness and so many ways to expiate it and so many Laws about Eating and Drinking and such Superstition in Washing Hands and Cups and Platters but our Saviour told his Disciples Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth the man but that which cometh out of the mouth 15 Matth. 11 17 18 19 20. this defileth the man. For whatsoever entreth into the mouth goeth into the belly and is cast out into the draught but those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts murders adulteries fornications thefts false witnesses blasphemies these are the things which defile a man but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man. And this also delivers Christian Religion from all those Rites and Observances which concerned legal cleanness which were very numerous 3ly Nor is there any Symbolical Presence of God under the Gospel which puts an end
them for the only use of them is to excuse men from the necessity of being good But this is most evident in their Doctrine about the Sacrament of Penance that bare Contrition with the Absolution of the Priest puts a man into a state of Salvation I do not lay it upon Attrition which is somewhat less than Contrition though the Council of Trent if I can understand plain words makes that sufficient with the Absolution of the Priest but because some men will unreasonably wrangle about this I shall insist only on what is acknowledged by themselves that Contrition which is only a sorrow for sin if we confess our sins to a Priest and receive absolution puts us into a state of Grace now contrition or sorrow for sin is not a holy life and therefore this Doctrine overthrows the necessity of a holy life because men may be saved by the Sacrament of Penance without it and then I know no necessity there is of mortifying their Lusts for if they sin again it is only repeating the same remedy confessing their sins and being sorry for them and receiving absolution and they are restored to the favour of God and to a state of salvation again Nay some of their Casuists tell us that God has not commanded men to repent but only at the time of death and then contrition with absolution will secure their salvation after a whole life spent in wickedness without any other good action but only sorrow for sin and if men are not bound by the Laws of God so much as to be contrite for their sins till they find themselves dying and uncapable of doing any good all men must grant that a holy life is not necessary to salvation 2. More particularly The love of God in giving his own Son to die for us and the love of Christ in giving himself for us are great Gospel Motives to Obedience and a Holy Life but these can only work upon ingenuous minds who have already in some measure conquered the love of sin for where the love of sin prevails it is too powerful for the love of God but the holiness and purity and inflexible justice of the Divine Nature is a very good argument because it enforces the necessity of a holy life for a holy God cannot be reconciled to wicked Men will not forgive our sins unless we repent of them and reform them which must engage all men who hope for pardon and forgiveness from God to forsake their sins and reform their lives but the force of this Argument is lost in the Church of Rome by the judicial absolution of the Priest for they see daily the Priest does absolve them without forsaking their sins and God must confirm the sentence of his Ministers and therefore they are absolved and need not fear that God will not absolve them when the Priest has which must either destroy all sence of God's essential holiness and purity and perswade them that God can be reconciled to sinners while they continue in their sins or else they must believe that God has given power to his Priests to absolve those whom he could not have absolved himself To be sure it is in vain to tell men that God will not forgive sinners while they continue in their sins if they believe the judicial authority of the Priest to forgive sins for they every day absolve men who do not forsake their sins and if their absolution be good God must forgive them too and thus the holiness and inflexible justice of God loses its force upon good Catholicks to reform their lives and therefore were there no other arguments against it it is not likely that the judicial absolution of the Priest as it is taught and practised in the Church of Rome should be a Gospel-Doctrine 3. The Death and Sacrifice of Christ is another Gospel-Motive to Holiness of Life not only because he has now bought us with his own Blood and therefore we must no longer live unto our selves but to him who died for us but because his Blood is the Blood of the Covenant and the efficacy of his Sacrifice extends no farther than the Gospel-Covenant which teaches us to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world That is no man can be saved by the Blood of Christ but those who obey the Gospel which obliges all men who hope to be saved by Christ to the practise of an universal righteousness This the Church of Rome seems very sensible of that none but sincere Penitents and truly good men can be saved by the Sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross which gives no hope to Sinners who do not repent of their sins and amend their lives and therefore she has found out a great many other ways of expiating Sin which give more comfort to Sinners The Sacrifice of the Mass has a distinct vertue and merit from the Sacrifice upon the Cross it is a propitiatory Sacrifice for the living and the dead to expiate especially the sins of those for whom it is particularly offered and thus those sins which are not expiated by the Death of Christ upon the Cross are expiated by the Sacrifice of the Mass and that by the bear opus operatum by the offering this Sacrifice of the Mass itself without any good motion in the person for whom it is offered and thus the Sacrifice of the Mass destroys the vertue of Christ's Sacrifice upon the Cross to oblige men to holiness of life for though none but sincere and reformed Penitents are pardoned by the Sacrifice of the Cross the Sacrifice of the Mass will expiate the sins of unreformed Sinners and then there is no need to reform our lives Thus I am sure all men understand it or they would never put their confidence in the Mass-Sacrifice for if it does no more for us than Christ's Death upon the Cross it might be spared for it gives no new comforts to impenitent Sinners They are very sensible that holiness of life is necessary to intitle us to the Pardon and Forgiveness purchased by the Death of Christ but then the Sacrifice of the Mass Humane Penances and Satisfactions and Merits and Indulgences seem on purpose contrived to supply the place of Holiness of Life for no body can imagine else what they are good for Christ has by his Death upon the Cross made a perfect Atonement for the sins of all true penitent and reformed Sinners and therefore a true Penitent who according to the terms of the Gospel denies all ungodliness and worldly lusts and lives soberly righteously and godly in this present world needs no Expiation but the Death of Christ Will they deny this by no means They grant that all our sins are done away in Baptism meerly by the application of Christ's Death and Passion to us and therefore the Death of Christ is a complete and perfect satisfaction for all Sin or else Baptism which derives its whole
vertue from the Death of Christ could not wash away all sin What use can there be then of the new propitiatory Sacrifice of the Mass of humane Satisfactions and Merits and Indulgences Truly none but this that when our sins are expiated by the Death of Christ and the pardon of all our sins applied to us in Baptism the Gospel exacts a holy life from us and therefore men forfeit the baptismal Pardon of their sins by the Bloud of Christ unless they either live very holy lives or make some other satisfaction for their not doing so And for this purpose the Sacrifice of the Mass humane Penances and Satisfactions serve It will not be unuseful nor unpleasant to draw a short Scheme of this whole matter which will explain this great Mystery and make it intelligible which now appears to be nothing but nonsence and confusion Christ then has made a perfect Atonement and Expiation for sin this is applied to us at Baptism wherein all our sins are forgiven and while we continue in this state of Grace we cannot be eternally damned though we may be punished for our sins both in this World and Purgatory But every mortal sin puts us out of the state of Grace which we were in by Baptism and till we be restored to the state of Grace again we must be eternally damned because we have no right to the Sacrifice and Expiation of Christ's Death the only way in the Church of Rome to restore us to this state of Grace is by the Sacrament of Penance and the Absolution of the Priest which restores us to the same state which Baptism at first put us into and therefore very well deserves to be thought a Sacrament And thus we recover our interest in the Merits of Christ's Death and therefore cannot be eternally damned for our sins but still it is our duty to live well for the Death of Christ does not excuse us from Holiness of Life which is the condition of the Gospel and therefore if we are in a state of Grace and thereby secured from eternal damnation yet if we live in sin we must be punished for it unless we can find some other expiation for sin than the Death of Christ upon the Cross which still leaves us under the obligations of a holy life and therefore cannot make such an Expiation for sin as shall serve instead of a holy life Now here comes in the Sacrifice of the Mas Humane Penance Satisfactions Indulgencies For the sacrifice of the Mass as I observed before does not serve the same end that the Sacrifice of the Cross does the Sacrifice of the Mass is a propitiatory Sacrifice for the living and the dead But what sins is it a Propitiation for For such sins for which men are to satisfie themselves that is for all sins the eternal punishment of which is remitted for the Sacrifice of the Cross This is evident from their making the Sacrifice of the Mass a propitiatory Sacrifice for the dead that is for the Souls in Purgatory who suffer there the temporal punishments of sin when the eternal punishment is forgiven the Souls in Hell are capable of no Expiation and therefore an expiatory Sacrifice for the dead can be only for the Souls in Purgatory and that is for the temporal punishment of sin for which the Sacrifice of the Cross is no Expiation and the Mass is in no other sence made a Sacrifice for the living than for the dead and therefore is not to expiate the eternal but the temporal punishments of sin as appears from hence that the saying Masses or hearing Masses or purchasing Masses is reckoned among those Penances men must do for the Expiation of their sins and yet they can by all they do only expiate for the temporal punishment of sin and therefore Masses for the living are only for the Expiation of those temporal punishments of sin for which the Sacrifice of the Cross made no Expiation And I shall be so civil at present as not to inquire how the Sacrifice of the Cross and the Sacrifice of the Mass which are the very same Sacrifice of the Natural Body and Bloud of Christ come to serve such very different ends that when Christ was Sacrificed upon the Cross he expiated only for the eternal punishment of sin when Sacrificed in the Mass only for the temporal I need add nothing to prove that Humane Penances Satisfactions Merits Indulgencies are onely to expiate temporal punishment of sin because it is universally acknowledged Now if these temporal punishments be only in lieu of Holiness and Obedience which the Gospel requires to intitle us to the Expiation of Christ's Death upon the Cross as I have already shewn then it is evident to a demonstration that the Church of Rome has overthrown the Death and Sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross consider'd as an argument of a holy life by setting up the Sacrifice of the Mass Humane Penances Satisfactions Merits Indulgencies instead of the Gospel-terms of obedience and holiness of life 4. The Intercession of Christ for us at the right hand of God is another powerful motive to Holiness of Life It gives all the encouragement to true penitent Sinners that can be desired For if any man sin 1 John 2.2 we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous who is also a propitiation for our sins But then Christ mediates only in vertue of his Bloud that is only upon the terms and conditions of the Covenant of Grace which was sealed by his Bloud that is he mediates and intercedes only for true penitent sinners which obliges us as we hope to be heard by God when we pray in the Name of Christ truly and heartily to repent of all our sins and to live a new life This the Church of Rome also seems very sensible of that Christ of his own accord will not intercede for impenitent and unreformed sinners that he who is the great Example and the great Preacher of Righteousness will not espouse the Cause of incorrigible sinners who are very desirous of pardon but hate to be reformed and therefore they seem to think it as hopeless a thing to go immediately to a holy Jesus as to appear before the Tribunal of a just and righteous God without a powerful Advocate For this reason they have found out a great many other Advocates and Mediators a great deal more pitiful and compassionate than Christ is who by their interest in him or their great favour with God may obtain that pardon which otherwise they could not hope for such as the Virgin Mary who is the Mother of Christ and therefore as they presume has as great interest in and authority over him as a Mother has over her Son besides those vast numbers of meritorious Saints whose Intercessions cannot but prevail for those sinners whose Cause they undertake And that this is the true reason of their Addresses to Saints and the Virgin Mary though they