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
First of these That known Doctrine of the Dependence of the Efficacy of Sacraments upon the Priests intention Such as Baptism the Lords Supper Absolution which is a grand Popish Sacrament c. Can it be other than a great disturbance and distraction to a considering person whether there be any dash of Melancholy in his Temper or no to think with himself thus What if after all my care and all my expence the Priest should either from a principle of Malice or non-advertency not direct his Intention as he ought to do Then if I am not remedilesly damned I am at least in eminent danger of damnation But then as to the Second relating to Confession This ushers in this perplexing difficulty viz. How shall I in enquiring after my particular sins in deed word and thought assure my self that I have used my utmost diligence Which if I have not done my Absolution will signifie nothing to me And as to Confessing the Circumstances of sins the Questions and Scruples which naturally arise from thence are too many to be recited But I 'le transcribe some passages of the Learned Bishop Taylor ' s concerning Auricular Confession which are greatly to our present purpose Saith he in his Disswasive from Popery the First Part How this can be safely done and who is sufficient for these things and who can tell his Circumstances without tempting his Confessor or betraying and defaming another person which is forbidden and in what cases it may be done and in what cases omitted and whether the Confession be valid upon infinite other Considerations and whether it be to be repeated in whole or in part and how often and how much These things are so uncertain casual and contingent and so many cases are multiplied upon every one of these and these so disputed by their greatest Doctors by Thomas and Scotus and all the School-men and by the Casuists that as Beatus Rhenanus complains it was truly observed by the famous John Geilerius that according to their Cases Enquiries and Conclusions it is impossible for any man to make a right Confession And thus he concludes that Section So that although the shame of private Confession be very tolerable and easie yet the Cases and Scruples which they have introduced are neither easie nor tolerable And though as it is now used there be but little in it to restrain sin yet there is very much danger of encreasing it and of receiving no benefit by it But yet for all this the Trent Gentlemen in the fore-cited Session and Chapter call it an impious thing to say that this their Auricular Confession is Carnificina Conscientiarum a Racking and Torturing of Peoples Consciences But it would be a wonder if the greatest Wickedness should be unaccompanied with the most shameless impudence As for the Third Doctrine I named viz. That of their distinction of Sins into Mortal and Venial that is in their own nature so the intanglements it brings men into are inextricable For they cannot be satisfied from their Casuists what Sins are Venial and what are not so in very many instances And much less can they distinguish between the greatest Venial Sins and the least Mortal ones Now considering this little that hath been said as the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 3. 17. Where the Spirit of the Lord is or the true Spirit of Christianity there is Liberty so may we say Where the Spirit of Popery is there is Slavery much worse than Egyptian Slavery No Papist who is disposed to be Devout and Religious can be better than a poor Superstitious Creature Nor can scarcely serve God after a better sort than a Turkish Slave doth his cruel Patron or than the poor Indians Worship the Devil But that those of them who make Conscience of their ways and are Religiously inclined are not beholden to their Popery for being so will be fully made to appear in the next Chapter CHAP. XVIII The Third Particular discoursed on viz. That the Admirable Method our Lord hath taken to Instate us in our Christian Liberty is made lamentably Ineffectual by Popery This shewed as to each of those four Particulars that Method consists of The Second Head briefly spoken to viz. That Popery is also the greatest Enemy to that Liberty Christ purchased for the Jews in Particular A Pathetical Exhortation to a higher valuing of the Priviledges we enjoy in the Church of England concludes the Chapter THirdly The Admirable course and Method which our Lord hath taken to instate us in our Christian Liberty is made lamentably Ineffectual by Popery For First Whereas we have shewed that He hath fully informed us concerning all the parts and particulars of our Liberty what can the Romish Church do more than she doth to keep men in Ignorance of them The Holy Scriptures as hath been said She hath locked up And though as that excellent Gentleman Sir Edwyn Sandys saith as well to beat back the irksome out-cries of their Adversaries as to give some content and satisfaction to their own that they might not think them so terribly afraid of the Bible they were content to let it be translated by some of their Favourers into the Vulgar as also some number of Copies to be saleable a-while at the beginning yet since having hushed that former clamour and made better provision for the Establishment of their Kingdom they have called all Vulgar Bibles straitly in again yea the very Psalms of David which their famous Preacher Bishop Panigarola translated as doubting else the unavoidableness of those former inconveniences And such base blasphemous Reflections upon the Holy Scriptures have been published both from their Pulpits and Presses as speak them exceedingly dangerous by reason of their extreme obscurity even in points necessary to Salvation though the Apostle saith If our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost as well as not worth the reading as being fitted to serve all turns a dead letter and at best an insufficient Rule and not signifying any thing unaccompanied with their paltry Traditions though S. Paul saith The Scriptures are able to make us wise to Salvation Nor do their Preachers make any great amends for this intolerable abuse for as they are too generally most sottishly ignorant and know little more of the Scriptures than the poor people so the most Knowing of them for the most part stuff their Sermons with Legends and Idle tales make as little use of Scripture as they can and feed their Flocks with sorry Trash nay with rank Poison mingled with the sincere milk of the Word and the Saving Doctrines of the Gospel Secondly Whereas we have shewn that our Lord hath furnisht us with the most potent Means for the gaining of our Christian Liberty this Church hath also taken a course to make these unsuccessful We will instance in some of them As for that of Believing himself to be the Son of God c. we need add nothing to what hath been said
Reservation which takes away all Security and Confidence in one anothers words and tends to the destruction of Humane Society This Doctrine is not proper to the Iesuits but as Father Parsons saith in his Treatise tending to Mitigation hath been received in the Roman Church for Four hundred years And if you take in the professed Principles of that their most Renowned Order which improve that Doctrine so far as in some cases but especially in those wherein their Religion is concerned to make it Lawful or at least Venial to back Equivocations with Sacred Oaths and horrible Imprecations and that before a Court of Judicature at least if it consists of Hereticks of the practising upon which we have had among our selves of late most Amazing Instances If I say you take in these principles which are now collected out of their Books into Pamphlets and exposed to the View of every Body as also those very many other which are to be seen in the Iesuits Morals you will say that should we rake Hell for Doctrines to make men Devils there can none be found more Effectual for the purpose than those wherewith we are furnished by the Church of Rome And so much shall suffice to be spoken to the First Particular viz. That Popery tendeth as much as is possible to the debauching our Souls by bringing them into subjection to Vile Affections in discoursing on which we have studied to be as brief as can be Secondly Popery no less tendeth to Disquiet mens Minds with certain troublesom and tormenting Passions We have shewed in the First Section that all Corrupt Affections and therefore the forementioned to which all may be reduced are of a very tormenting nature In saying therefore now that Popery tends to disquiet men with certain troublesom Passions I design a distinct head of Discourse viz. That the better and wiser any man of that Religion is the more will his Mind be disturbed by a many Points thereof particularly with Fear Shame Anxiety and Solicitude And First For the Passion of Fear what can so excite this or make a man so much a Slave to it as the Popish Doctrine of Purgatory Whosoever doth really believe that there is a life after this must needs be more or less solicitous about his state in that life and according to the degrees of that his Faith will his solicitude be greater or less Now the belief of that Doctrine must necessarily be accompanied with great fear of Death which as the Apostle saith makes those who are under the power of it all their life-time subject to Bondage For as the pains of Purgatory are taught to be so dreadful and terrible as to equallize those of Hell except onely in the duration of them and how long each particular person may lie there before he be released whether scores or hundreds of years as also what degrees of Torment shall be allotted to him is the greatest uncertainty so no man can have any rational assurance let him lead never so strictly holy a life of escaping this place of Torment No nor the least hope neither from such a life if it be short of absolute Perfection as whose is not And as for the Efficacy of Penances and Indulgences it is impossible for any one who ever thinks seriously about the concerns of his Soul and understands any thing of Religion at least not to be full of diffidence what it may amount to Those are such monstrous Cheats the former for the most part of them and the latter all of them that such as are not much short of Brutes for Folly or of Devils for Wickedness can never be so blinded as to promise to themselves the least benefit or advantage from them and much less that which is promised by the Pope and the Priests Again what a Slavish Fear and Dread of God as a Revengeful Being must needs possess the Minds of those who have imbibed the Church of Rome's Doctrine concerning Whippings and Scourgings and other severe Penances viz. That they are necessary not onely for Mortification but likewise for Satisfaction in the Popish sence of that word But what a Spirit of Bondage are they under then from Dread of God's Vengeance in believing as they are bound that God will not Remit the punishment of Sin where the Guilt of it is washed away with the Bloud of Christ upon the performance of the conditions of the New Covenant which is as Nonsensical as False that he will not Remit it I say to such so far as to excuse them from intolerable Temporary Torments in the other World except he hath other satisfaction given him in this life by themselves nor from Torments of a Vastly long duration except it be given him by others after their decease Their Church is so well aware with what horrible Dread and Fear this Doctrine must necessarily affect poor credulous Fools that she hath invented it for that very reason because by this means she brings them into the most Slavish subjection makes her self Mistress of their Purses and is enabled to have her fill of Tyranny over their Consciences their Souls and Bodies What tongue can express the Devilishness of such Practices Next for the Passion of Shame The necessity of all People's of both Sexes Confessing to the Priest which is enjoyned by the Council of Trent to be done once a year at least and that of all their Actual sins and not onely so but also of all their purposes and desires to commit them nay and inclinations too what violence is hereby done to the Modesty of all such as have not arrived to the height of impudence This is to use the words of the Learned Doctor More as if all the modest Maids and grave Matrons in the Parish should strip themselves stark naked and in that manner humble themselves before their Priest once a year Which would look like a piece of unsupportable Tyranny And yet as he proceeds this extorted Confession upon pain of Damnation not to conceal any thing is not the stripping of a man to his naked body but the stripping him of his body that they may see his naked Heart and so by the force of this Superstition break into those secrets which it is onely the due priviledge of God Almighty to be acquainted with c. And Lastly What Anxiety and Solicitude must those Papists minds needs be tormented with who are at all concerned about their Eternal State by reason of these following Doctrines viz. That of the Dependence of the Efficacy of Sacraments upon the Priests intention That of Confession now mentioned decreed in the Trent Canons viz. That the Penitent must not onely confess every Mortal sin which after the strictest search he can call to mind but even his particular sinful thoughts his secret desires and every circumstance which changeth the nature of the sin And that of their distinction of sins into Mortal and Venial to pass by many others As for the
and particular concerns And the Opposites to these do give the Soul great Enlargement and Liberty viz. That Confidence that is opposite both to Fear and to Shame Delight and joy which are opposite to Trouble and Dejection of Mind and Generosity and Nobleness of Spirit whereby a man is carried forth to the loving of God the Chief Good in the first place and a hearty concern for the general welfare of his Fellow-Creatures which is opposite to immoderate Self-love First The Observance of the Rules of Righteousness casteth out Fear This is a most servile Passion the Apostle speaketh of some who through fear of â—â—ath were all their life-time subject to bondage By Fear I mean that which is expressed by the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a cowardly and dispiriting Fear None can imagine I mean 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Awful and Reverential Fear such as is called Heb. 12. 28. a Godly fear Nor yet do I mean such a Fear as awakens and excites the Soul to the use of means for the shunning and keeping off evils Such a Fear as this doth not at all inslave or put a man out of his own power but is highly serviceable to the maintenance and preservation of Liberty And therefore it is commended to us by the Apostle Heb. 4. 1. Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest any of you should seem to come short of it But as was said the Fear which is enslaving is a Cowardly Dispiriting Fear and this the Righteous and Good man is freed from He hath not received the spirit of bondage again to fear in this sence but the spirit of Adoption whereby he crieth Abba Father Rom. 8. 15. He is not afraid of God as a poor Slave is of his fierce Master or as a wicked Servant of his justly provoked and incensed Lord but not being under the guilt of wilful sins his Conscience being privy to no other guilt than that which upon good grounds he believes is expiated by the Bloud of Iesus he can go to God as a child to his loving and tender Father And as he hath no tumultuary confounding or disheartening fear of God so neither hath he of the Devil or Men or any worldly evil as knowing that all these are subject to the restraint of that good Providence which ever chargeth it self with the care of good Souls and all their concerns God hath not given him the Spirit of fear or timidity and fearfulness but of power of love and of a sound mind 2 Tim. 1. 7. This man is an affectionate Lover of God and therefore cannot question God's love to him and is assured that all things shall work together for his good for his good both in this life and in the life to come Herein is our love made perfect saith S. Iohn in his 1 Epistle 4. 17. because as he is so are we in this world because we follow the example of our Blessed Saviour in the conscientious observance of the Rules of Righteousness there is no fear in love but perfect love casteth out fear because fear hath torment he that feareth is not made perfect in love That is he that is affected with such a fear as hath now been described He who is not under the power of Cowardizing dismaying Fear his Spirit is at great Liberty but a care to keep an inoffensive Conscience both towards God and men to adhere to the Rules of Righteousness and Goodness and never to swerve from them will banish this Fear The wicked saith the Wise man fleeth when no man pursueth but the righteous is bold as a Lion Prov. 28. 1. He that walketh uprightly walketh surely or confidently and securely Prov. 9. 10. To which great truth the Poet gives his Testimony in those known Verses Integer vitae scelerisque purus Non eget Mauri jaculis nec arcu c. He that 's in life upright and pure in heart Is too secure to need the Bow or Dart. hic murus aheneus esto Nil conscire sibi nullâ pallescere culpâ The strongest Bulwark's not so sure a Fence As is an inoffensive Conscience Secondly True Goodness begets that confidence which is opposed as to Fear so to Shame too There is a highly commendable shame which is proper to a Good man namely that which is expressed by the Latine Verecundia Which is a quick sense of whatsoever is indecorous and misbecoming No man can have too much of this for the more any one hath of it the better man must he necessarily be But there is another sort of Shame expressed by Pudor which is a troublesome passion arising from a sense of disgrace upon consciousness of Guilt Of this Shame the most learned Doctor Henry More observeth in his incomparable Ethicks that it neither falleth upon the worst nor the best of men For he who is conscious to himself that he constantly exerciseth his liberty in doing the best things knows that he ought not to be contemned and thereupon being above all contempt contempt it self is contemned by him which is a great instance in good men of Generosity but in bad men is the very height of improbity This Shame is a good effect of a bad cause for though it be an evil yet 't is a necessary evil and tends to the deterring men from unworthy actions for the time to come and doth actually produce this good effect where the great uneasiness and perturbation of mind which was caused thereby upon past commissions of sin is seriously and consideratively reflected upon For where this Shame is there is great Bondage where there is consciousness of guilt the mind of a man is miserably pent up confined and straitned so that he dares many times neither to look abroad into the world nor to look up to Heaven nor reflect upon himself And therefore Liberty and Confidence are expressed by the same word viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek language But while a man is careful in the observance of the Laws of Righteousness to be Righteous before God and to walk as it is said of Zacharias and Elizabeth in all the Commandments and Ordinances of the Lord blameless he is not affected with this kind of Shame and consequently enjoys a mighty Freedom by this means Upright Iob had the happy experience of this effect of uprightness as we find Chap. 31. 35 36 37. Oh that one would hear me saith he behold my desire is that the Almighty would answer me and that mine Adversary had written a book Surely I would take it upon my shoulder and bind it as a Crown unto me I would declare to him the number of my steps as a Prince would I go near unto him Which is as much as if he had said Oh that mine Adversary instead of secretly whispering evil things of me had drawn up a charge in writing against me I would be so far from endeavouring to have it concealed
hearts of all those who will take the pains seriously to consider them To which consideration likewise the Spirit fails not to Excite men till by long Grieving him and very frequent rejecting his good Motions and Suggestions he is as it were forced to desist and depart from them CHAP. VII Wherein is discoursed the First of those Motives and Arguments which are offered in the Gospel to perswade us to use the Means prescribed for our deliverance from the Power of Sin Namely The love of God in sending his Son upon the errand of our Redemption And two most powerful Motives implied in this NOW the chiefest of those Motives and Arguments are these that follow First The unconceivable Love of God expressed in sending his only and Eternal begotten Son ultimately upon this errand of Redeeming us from the Power of Sin And the never to be sufficiently admired Love of Christ in so readily taking our Nature upon him condescending to such extremely low circumstances here in the World and at last submitting to so Vile and Ignominious so Cruel and Tormenting a Death and all this ultimately I say for this very End that of Sins and Satans Slaves we might become his and his Fathers Free Subjects For he died the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God 1 Pet. 3. 18. Here we have a two-fold most exciting and wonderfully powerful motive to comply most heartily with the Method our Saviour hath taken for the setting us free First God's sending his own Son to be a Sacrifice for our Sins without the interposition of which he would not propose Terms of Reconciliation to Sinners sheweth his infinite hatred of Sin and consequently that it is a most deadly Evil and hath excessive Malignity in it This is expressed in the most Emphatical manner by our Saviour's shedding his most precious Bloud upon the Cross for the expiating of it And can we have a more constraining Motive to do our utmost to be delivered from the Dominion of Sin than this that it is thus demonstrated to be an unspeakable Evil It hath been shewed that the Death of Christ was designed to set us free from the Power as well as Punishment of Sin and it is apt to effect that end partly as its extreme hatefulness is thereby discovered and made manifest By this Sacrifice for Sin is it condemned in the flesh as the Apostle saith Rom. 8. 3. It is condemned as the Vilest and most Intolerable thing The immediate end of Christs sufferings was to make Atonement for Sin but this way of Atonement is a means a most effectual means to this farther End the making us out of love with Sin and perswading us to Abandon it as the worst of all Evils Of which I say we cannot desire greater evidence than this that no meaner Sacrifice might be accepted for the making expiation for Sin than that of the only begotten Son of God Secondly This is as wonderful an Expression of the Divine love to Sinners as of the Divine displeasure against Sin God commendeth his love towards us in that when we were yet Sinners Christ died for us Rom. 5. 8. And herein did he commend his love in the most wonderful manner that it was possible to commend it He shewed the exceeding riches of his grace in his Kindness towards us through Iesus Christ as we read Ephes. 2. 7. Was that an ordinary Love in God the Father think we that moved him to send no less a person upon the business of our Redemption than him who was the Brightness of his own Glory and the express Image of his Person by whom also he made the Worlds Was that an Ordinary Love in God the Son that prevailed with him to take the Humane nature and to humble himself in that Astonishing manner and to undergo such direful Sufferings for our sake Or was it not such a Love as passeth knowledge So S. Paul saith it was and it can be no less This is such a love indeed as is rather to be silently Admired than much discoursed of How hard must needs be that heart which will not be broken by the force of such love as this Nothing can be imagined to be of such irresistible power over Persons not forsaken of all ingenuity as the consideration of this Love This is the Other way whereby the Death of Christ was designed for the Destroying of Sin And in respect of either of these ways but much more of both our Saviour had good ground for the uttering those words Iohn 12. 32. When I am lifted up from the Earth I shall draw all men unto me He spake of his dying on the Cross for Mankind as it follows This he said signifying what-death he should die And he here supposeth this his Death to contain such Forcible Arguments to perswade men to cast off the Drudgery of sin and exchange it for his Free service that it must necessarily be happily successful to this End wheresoever it is seriously thought on and laid to heart CHAP. VIII A Seasonable Digression concerning the Doctrine of Vniversal Redemption The Antiquity and Catholicalness of this Doctrine Large Citations out of Bishop Latimer and Bishop Hooper expressing their sense of it And full proof thereof presented out of the H. Scriptures BY the way It is of great importance to be fully satisfied that no man in the World is excluded from having his share in this Propitiatory Sacrifice and that the Redemption designed by the Death of Christ is Universal For if each individual Person cannot be assured that he is his Saviour and that he died for him if he died not for all nay but for a few comparatively as those say who deny that he died for all then what influence can the consideration of his Death have upon the Wills of men Surely the weakest influence that can be if any at all Indeed how it can rationally have any seems unintelligible since those who assert that Christ died but for a few comparatively assert also that those few shall be infallibly at one time or other drawn to him and Christ will not lose any one of them If this be so what inducement can we have either from the Death of Christ or any other Consideration to concern our selves at all about leaving our Sins and using the means prescribed for our deliverance from the power of them For if it so happen that I am one of those few for whom Christ died what need is there of my being concerned about that which is so effectually secured What is this but to take Christ's work out of his hand But if Christ died not for me as 't is very many to one he did not if he died for so few then all my care is to no purpose I say if every one of us cannot be certain that Christ died for him and consequently for all what motive to obedience can his Death be to us And if he died but for some and those some
prayed not for the World Iohn 17. 9. From whence some would infer that surely he would not shed his Precious bloud for those on whom he would not vouchsafe to bestow a Prayer But 't is apparent his meaning was that at that time he peculiarly prayed for his Disciples They only as appears by the Context are meant by those that his Father had given him out of the World But afterwards ver 20. He proceeds to pray for all that should believe on him through their word And at his death he prayed for his very Crucifiers And that he could not refuse to pray for the World is apparent from ver 21. where he prayeth that Believers might be one in him and his Father for this reason That the World may believe that He had sent him or might be converted to the Faith of the Gospel These two Objections as weak as they are are the chief ones that are taken out of Scripture against the most Ancient and Catholick Doctrine we have been asserting But I must needs say I have often wondred at their Boldness who have used their utmost endeavours to run down a Doctrine that not only for so many Ages together hath stood unshaken but is also so Abundantly and in the Clearest manner imaginable asserted by Truth it self and those who were Guided into all truth And how they are able not to perceive how grosly they wrest the Holy Scriptures so that if they should use the same Artifice in interpreting all other Texts they would make the Bible to look like a thing that is contrived for the service of every Humour and every Phancy and for both the proving and disproving every thing Certainly if we should take the same liberty in understanding our own and other mens sayings that they take in Expounding the forementioned and the like sayings of our Blessed Saviour and his Apostles Speech would signifie nothing nay be of very pernicious consequence and serve only to abuse and put tricks upon one another If so many plain Texts as can be to all Appearance should require so much labour and pains to be rightly understood 't will be impossible to defend the Holy Scriptures from that Obscurity which the Papists most injuriously charge them with and to preserve the Bible from that Contempt which the higher to advance the Authority of Holy Church it suffers from their prophane Tongues and Pens and wicked Practices But this Doctrine of Vniversal Redemption being so strongly fortified could never have been assaulted were it reconcileable with that of Absolute Reprobation either in the Supra or Sublapsarian way as it is impossible it should be which the too great Admirers of the otherwise very judicious and pious Calvin are so exceedingly tenacious and fond of But 't is much to be wondred at what these men should see in this Doctrine which is so severe in it self and horrid in its necessary Consequences that they should be contented to buy it at so dear a Rate as the Parting with that other most Comfortable Doctrine Especially since this hath no Antiquity to commend it and is not so much as seemingly befriended but by a very few Texts of Scripture and those very fairly capable of quite another sence than at first sight may seem to belong to them but is contradicted by innumerable plain Texts and the concurrent strain both of the New and Old Testament But I must not forget that this Chapter is a Digression from our Main Business And I have thus long insisted upon this Argument that the great Motives contained in the Death of Christ to exchange the Slavery of Sin for his Free service might have their full weight and cogency which would be in danger not only of being weakned but even quite lost by limiting the Design of Christ's Death to some particular persons where the Consequences of such a Limitation are apprehended And I appeal to every Considerative Person whether it be not a mighty Motive and Encouragement to the engaging all the powers of our Souls in this great work of using the Means prescribed for the subduing our Lusts to be assured that every individual person of us is one of those for whom Christ gave himself to redeem them from all iniquity CHAP. IX Wherein are contained Five more Evangelical Motives which are of wonderful Power to excite us to diligence in using the Means of our Deliverance from the Dominion of Sin viz. Our Saviours excellent Example The assurance he hath given us that he will not take such advantage of our Frailties and Weaknesses as to cast us off for them Our Saviours Mediation and Intercession The Glorious Reward he hath purchased for and promised to those who by the Assistance of his Grace overcome their Lusts. And the most dismal Threatnings he hath pronounced against those who receive that Grace in vain and will not be delivered from the Dominion of Sin HAving presented you with the First powerful Motive to diligence in using the Means of our Deliverance from the Dominion of Sin namely The unconceivable Love of God in sending his only Begotten Son upon this Errand of Delivering us and of Christ in so readily taking our Nature upon him and dying a cursed Death for that End And having also fully Demonstrated that no man in the World is excluded from the Benefit designed by the Death of Christ in order to our giving that Motive its full force and strength I proceed to shew that Secondly Another singular Motive is our Saviour's Example As we are by his Example Directed in the several parts of our Duty as hath been shewed And as the frequent Eyeing thereof is a Means as hath been intimated whereby we may be more and more transformed into his Likeness so is it to be considered as a Wonderfully Exciting Motive to comply with those Rules of Righteousness and Goodness which we have naturally the greatest Aversation of Will towards As particularly those which oblige us to the Meek bearing of Indignities the Forgiving the greatest and most Provoking Injuries the Loving our Enemies whereby we shall be set free from the Cruel Tyrants of Revenge and Malice Those also that oblige us to Humility Patience and intire Resignation to the Will of God under the severest Dispensations of his Providence and Contentation with a mean Fortune and low Circumstances in the World which will free us from the inslaving Passions of Pride Anger immoderate Grief Covetousness c. When we consider with what Admirable Evenness of Mind this Great Prince of the Kings of the Earth indured the Contradiction of Sinners against himself How when he was reviled he reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not but committed himself to him who judgeth righteously When we consider with what strange Sedateness of Spirit he bore the Mockings Buffettings and most Contumelious and insolent Behaviour of vile Creatures towards himself It is then hardly Possible that We despicable Worms should Rage and be inflamed upon the
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
our Soul's welfare and the making us partakers of his own image and likeness can by no Circumstances whatsoever become unfit to be bestowed on those that heartily and sincerely seek it And therefore we are assured that those prayers that are put up for such things with a true heart and full assurance of faith in his Power and Goodness are seconded in Heaven by our Blessed Lord And him the Father heareth always John 11. 42. We have shewed that our Saviour hath purchased a Rich supply of Grace to help our Weakness and that his Holy Spirit is promised to those that ask him who will not fail to assist them whilest they carefully exert that power they are already in possession of But the most Honest Souls have so frequent experience of Heaviness Dulness and Distractions in their Addresses to God that they would be in great danger of despairing of the Success of their Prayers but for this Consideration that they have a no Less Friend in Heaven than the Only Begotten Son of God who is most powerful with his Father and supplies all the Defects of their Prayers by his own Intercession in their behalf I need not say what a marvellous incouragement this is of our Faith and Hope in the Divine Goodness which are so necessary to Animate us and to put Spirit and Life into all our Endeavours And the Mediation and Intercession of our Blessed Saviour conduceth exceedingly to the overcoming those inslaving Passions of Fearfulness and Shame which arise from Guilt and do naturally cause a great Averseness in Sinners from going into the Presence of God and disable them when they are there to behave themselves as they ought before him S. Paul tells the Ephesians that In Christ Iesus they have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him That is through Christ's Mediation those Believing Gentiles of whose Calling he was discoursing as great Sinners as they had been even dead in Trespasses and Sins have liberty of Approach to God with Confidence of a kind Reception and a Gracious Acceptance And the Author to the Hebrews Chap. 10. 19 c. doth thus encourage Sincere Souls to draw near to God Having therefore Brethren boldness or Liberty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to enter into the holiest by the bloud of Iesus by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us in opposition to the dead shadows under the Law through the veil that is to say his Flesh Breaking through the veil of his Flesh being fain to die before he ascended into Heaven And having an High Priest over the House of God Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of Faith Having our Hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience and our Bodies washed with pure Water That is being sincerely resolved against all sins both of Heart and Life As none that had touched any unclean thing under the Law till the Priest had sprinkled them with pure Water had Liberty to enter into the Congregation Fifthly The Reward which our Saviour hath purchased for and promised to those that shall get free from the power of their Lusts is another Motive than which a more Powerful one is not to be imagined He hath promised that such shall be with him where he is That because he lives they shall live also Hath assured them that He is gone to Heaven before to prepare a place for them That He is entered thither as their Forerunner That they shall behold the Glory there which his Father hath given him and that they shall be sharers also with him in that Glory That they shall sit with Him upon his Throne Rev. 3. 21. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me upon my Throne even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father on his Throne That the Righteous shall shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of the Father Matth. 13. 43. That their dead Bodies also being raised again shall be fashioned like to his own most Glorious Body according to the Mighty working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself Phil. 3. 21. Of this Glory it is impossible we should speak much in this state worthily of it it far surpasseth our most Elevated Conâ—eptions and therefore our highest Expressions must needs fall excessively short of it It doth not yet appear what we shall be saith S. Iohn 1 Epist. 3. 2. only we know so much of the Heavenly Bliss as to be assured that it is astonishingly Great for as it follows this we know that when he appears we shall be like him like Him the infinitely Holy and Happy Being in his Holiness and Happiness for we shall see him as he is Which implieth such a clear distinct and vigorous knowledge of his most Glorious Perfections as will transform the Soul into His own Nature and fill it with His own Blessedness to the utmost extent of its capacity Could we now apprehend this Blessedness in any proportion to its transcendent Greatness and Excellency we should have no more Spirit left in us as it is said of the Queen of Sheba when she beheld the Magnificence of Solomons Court Indeed there is such an Account given us of the Happiness prepared for Good men that we should find it impossible to believe it but that God which cannot lye hath promised it and that it is the purchase of a most inestimable price the Bloud of his Eternally Begotten Son And we have so great Evidence of its being promised by his Father and purchased by Himself given us by our Blessed Lord that our own Hearts can't wish for greater nay such as we could not have asked any comparable to it might we have had our own choice of Evidence viz. His innumerable Miraculous works His Resurrection from the Dead His Ascension into Heaven And afterwards exactly according to his promise His sending the Holy Ghost We have not more Evidence that Iesus is the Son of God than we have that All his sincere Disciples shall live with him in unspeakable and Eternal Blessedness for we have the self same for both The same Arguments which have abundantly demonstrated the truth of the former Proposition do equally prove the latter for they depend mutually upon each other As S. Paul hath shewed in 1 Cor. 5. 13 14. If there be no Resurrection of the Dead then is Christ not risen And if Christ be not risen then is our Preaching vain and your Faith is also vain That is there will be no Resurrection of the Dead Now of what mighty force and efficacy are the exceeding great and precious promises of such a Glorious state as this to engage all the Powers of our Souls in the pursuance of that Holiness which is not only an indispensable Condition to precede the obtaining of it but like a necessary Qualification for it The Happiness which will naturally by proper Efficiency and necessary Consequence result from our
is abridged of his Liberty who is kept from running his Head into the fire or from Cutting his own Throat as that He is so who is forbidden to be Unjust and Unrighteous in any kind or to be Malicious or Uncharitable or Intemperate or Lascivious That is who is forbidden to play the Beast or the Devil Or who is Commanded to Love God above all to Fear Him to Trust in Him to be Thankful to Him in all his ways to Acknowledge Him and to Love his Neighbour as himself But if we will believe the Great S. Paul in these particulars is comprehended all that for Substance which the Grace of God that bringeth Salvation reacheth men to forbear or practise To summ up all in short that needs to be said about this matter There is nothing required of us but it is either an Essential part of our Liberty of our Highest and most Excellent Liberty to be Free to it or is a Means to the obtaining and Maintenance of it What an Unreasonable Brutish Creature therefore art Thou whosoever thou art that darest repine at the Restraints which thy Creator and Redeemer have laid upon thee whenas these Restraints if they may be called so are necessary to thy greatest Enlargement And let me tell thee thou that thinkest much of being held within the Limits which the Gospel hath set thee thou affectest a Liberty which God himself hath not and Abhors to have CHAP. XI The Second Inference viz. That such a Freedom of Will as consists in an Indifferency to good or evil is no Perfection but the Contrary SEcondly We may observe from the abovesaid Discourse That such a Freedom of Will as consists in an Indifferency to Good or Evil as much as it is magnified by some for a great Perfection of the Humane Nature is indeed no better than a Diminution and Disparagement Nor is it otherwise Commendable than as a less Evil. This must necessarily be so if the most Excellent Liberty consisteth in an entire Compliance with the Laws of Righteousness and Goodness as it hath been fully proved it doth Seneca hath somewhere a most Impudent and Blasphemous saying to this purpose That a Wise or Virtuous man is in some respect Superior to God himself because God is Good by necessity of Nature but he by his own free choice 'T is to be confessed that comparing this indifferency to Good or Evil with the Determination of the Will to Evil so it is desirable but then it is so only as 't is a less Evil than the other as was said But comparing it with the Determination of the Will to Good from an inward Principle viz. from a quick Vigorous Sense of the infinite Loveliness of Virtue and monstrous Deformity and Ugliness of Vice so on the other hand 't is a great imperfection and consequently by no means desirable The Divine Nature will be acknowledged to be the Great Standard and Measure of Perfections We cannot question but that the more like to God any one is the more perfect he will be and the more unlike to God the more imperfect But the being Free to Evil and Undetermined to Good makes a man less like God because God is as hath been shewn necessarily from his own Nature Determined to Good and from Evil And his Infinite Wisdom Holiness Righteousness and Goodness cannot consist with Peccability or a Possibility of doing or approving the least Evil. And therefore the more any one is from within himself from a good Temper of mind determined to that which is Good the more like must he needs be to the Best of Beings and the more he partakes of a Divine Nature That saying of S. Ierome doth need a Paraphrase viz. God is the only Being that is uncapable of sinning but all Creatures having Free Will in them may turn their Will to Good or Evil. Namely that God alone is Absolutely Imâ—eccable not but that by the Divine Grace Creatures may be made so as without doubt the Angels and Saints in Heaven are And whereas the Father seems to exclude Free Will from God and to give it to all Reasonable Creatures he must mean such a Free Will as consisteth in Indifferency to Good or Evil or Undeterminedness from within to Good and against Evil and so on the contrary This kind of Freedom cannot belong to God because it speaks great imperfection For it supposeth him who hath it to be without such a Sense of the Excellency and Loveliness of Goodness and the Hatefulness and Intolerableness of Wickedness as he ought to have He that can in the least Deliberate whether it be more Eligible to be Just or Unjust Chaste or Impure Intemperate or Sober to speak Truth or to Lye to Love God or the World to Forgive or Revenge to be Pitiful or Cruel to be Niggardly or Charitable c. He I say that can perswade himself to Deliberate about these things doth manifestly declare that he understands neither the one nor the other as he ought to do I mean that he hath nothing so lively a Sense of the Goodness of the one or the Evil of the other as it becomes him to have If we had such a Sense it would be as impossible to perswade us to any Vile Action as it would be to prevail with a man in his right Mind to pour melted Lead down his own Throat to pluck out his Eyes or to dash out his Brains You cannot deliberate whether it be better for you to be Healthy or Sick to be at Ease or in Torment to have a Good Name or a Bad to be Beggarly or in Plentiful Circumstances to be a Wise man or a Fool to be a Mad-man or in your Wits to be a Slave or a Freeman c. You will say that Bedlam is the fittest place for him that shall in the least consider which of these he shall chuse Now if we had as great a Sense of the Evil of the infinitely worst of Evils Sin as we have of those Evils it would be as impossible that our Wills should incline to the Commission of a known Sin as that they should prefer Sickness before Health and refuse Ease and embrace Torment As for those that contend that It is more Praise-worthy to do Good and forbear Evil having a Power to do otherwise than to be under a necessity of so doing Supposing they mean by necessity such as is not from without or from an inward blind instinct but from an Understanding Principle and Perfection of Nature I must needs tell them there is no Proposition in the World more false or absurd For is God Almighty the less to be Admired Loved or Praised for his Goodness because his Nature is so Good as that He cannot but be ever doing good Surely He is much the more to be Loved Adored Admired and Praised upon this account I will not therefore stick to say that to have the Will necessarily determined to all Good and from all
Evil from an Overpowering Sense of the Becomingness and Excellency of the one and the Vileness and Odiousness of the other is the very Perfection of Liberty And this is so far from being impossible to be obtained by Creatures or by our Selves that by the help of God's Grace it is in a large measure even in this life Attainable I mean such a Sense of Good and Evil as shall certainly determine us to Good and against Evil in most of the instances of each There are some immoralities and wicked Actions that they who have attained to but very mean and ordinary degrees of Goodness cannot perswade themselves so much as to endeavour to reconcile their Minds to Nay there are some that no man can easily be supposed able to consent to but an extraordinarily Depraved and Wicked Wretch let the Motives that are used to perswade him be what they will Such as Blaspheming of God Contriving the Murther of our Parents or of a most obliging Friend Torturing of innocent Babes and the like Horrid Villanies Surely then a man is capable of such a Vivid sense of the Hatefulness of Sin in general as will whilest it lasts render it impossible for him to Will deliberately to commit any known Sin whatsoever 'T is confessed that we cannot hope to get past all danger of sudden Surprizals so long as we inhabit these Bodies and remain in our present Unhappy Circumstances but I say so powerful a Sense of the Infinite Unrighteousness Disingenuity Unreasonableness Folly and Madness of opposing the Holy Will of our Great Creator and Blessed Redeemer may by the Divine Assistance be acquired even on this side Heaven as shall Determine us effectually against all Deliberate and Wilful Violations of the Divine Laws For this we have the Authority of a Great Apostle S. Iohn saith in his 1 Epist. 3. 9. Whosoever is Born of God doth not commit Sin for his Seed remaineth in him neither can he Sin because he is Born of God He here affirms not only that those who have attained to extraordinary Measures of Goodness cannot Sin that is cannot will to sin deliberately but likewise that no Regenerate or truly Good man can He cannot thus Sin because he is born of God because he is a Child of God by the inward Renewing of his Holy Spirit And because his Seed remaineth in him that is the Divine Seed Which Divine Seed I take to be the same thing with the several times mentioned Quick Powerful and Pungent Sense of the Horrid Nature and most dreadful Effects and Consequents of Wilful Sinning It is more than Morally impossible that whilest this Sense abideth in its Strength and Vigour the Good man should lapse into such Sins Have we not such a Sense of the Vileness of some Actions as to say frequently I could not for all the world find in mine heart that is in my Will to do so or so And if we had the same Sense of all Sins which it is unreasonable not to have considering them as Sins or Transgressions of the Everlasting Rules of Righteousness for considering them under that notion all sins are alike I say had we the same Sense of all Sins we should as truly say concerning each I cannot find in mine heart I cannot will to consent unto it CHAP. XII Which Treats of one Branch of the First Inference from the Argument of the Second Section That in Freedom from the Dominion of Corrupt Affections doth that Liberty Principally or rather Wholly Consist which Christ hath purchased for us Namely that several Notions of Christian Liberty which have too much prevailed are false and of dangerous Consequence The First of which is That which makes it to consist wholly or in part in Freedom from the Obligation of the Moral Law Certain Texts urged by the Antinomians in favour of it vindicated from the sence they put upon them And the extreme wildness and wickedness of it exposed in Five Particulars WE proceed now to the Inferences from the latter Argument viz. That in Freedom from the Dominion of Corrupt Affections and all the sad Consequents thereof our Christian Liberty doth Eminently consist and wholly too the Liberty which Christ hath purchased for us Gentiles And First We infer from hence that several Notions of Christian Liberty that have too much prevailed are False and of dangerous Consequence We will speak to First That which makes it to consist in Freedom from the Obligation of the Moral Law Secondly That which makes it to consist in Freedom from those Laws of Men which Enjoyn or Forbid indifferent things Thirdly That which makes Liberty of Conscience a Branch of Christian Liberty First For that Notion of Christian Liberty which makes it to consist either wholly or in part in Freedom from the Obligation of the Moral Law This is extremely Wild and Wicked as will appear from what hath been discoursed It is the Doctrine of the Antinomians and they produce in favour of it all those Texts wherein we are said to be delivered from the Law As particularly Rom. 7. 6. Now we are delivered from the Law that being dead wherein we were held c. Gal. 2. 19. I through the Law am dead to the Law c. Rom. 6. 14. Ye are not under the Law but under Grace Gal. 4. 4 5. When the fulness of time was come God sent forth his Son made of a Woman made under the Law to Redeem them that were under the Law c. To this it is Answered That there are indeed many Texts which Assert our being freed from the Law but the Question is What Law they mean Or rather 't is out of Question that they mean not the Moral Law For there is no need of doing more than reading throughout the forementioned Verses to satisfie us that the Apostle understood in each of them nothing less than that Law Nay we need do no more to be assured that he Abominated this Notion of Christian Liberty For whereas he saith Rom. 7. 6. Now we are delivered from the Law that being dead wherein we were held it follows that we should serve in Newness of Spirit and not in the Oldness of the Letter That is That we should no longer be merely Externally Obedient but also Inwardly and Spiritually Whereas he saith Gal. 2. 19. I through the Law am dead to the Law he immediately adds this as the reason why he was so that I might live unto God Or be in all things conformed to the Rules of Righteousness and Goodness which He hath prescribed all which are comprehended in the Moral Law Again whereas he tells the Romans Chap. 6. 14. Ye are not under the Law but under Grace This comes in as a proof of what he said immediately before in the same Verse viz. Sin shall not have dominion over you Lastly In saying Gal. 4. 5. That Christ was made of a Woman made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law he gives this in
the next words as the reason or design hereof that we might receive the Adoption of Sons But doth not the Relation of a Son necessarily infer Obligation to Obedience It doth so no less than that of a Servant For where God saith If I am a Master where is my Fear he saith also If I am a Father where is mine Honour The Law therefore which is to be understood in these and the like places is the purely Iewish Law the mere External and Drudging Observances of the Mosaical Dispensation which the Iewish Believers thought themselves to be still under the Obligation of and Condemned the Gentile Converts for not submitting their Necks to the same Yoke And the Apostle takes a great deal of pains in his Epistles to the Romans and Galatians to confute that mistake and to convince the Iews that that Law was made by Christ null and void that He had Cancelled it and taken away its Obliging power And in each of those places the Apostle as plainly affirms this to be the Law they were delivered from as that it is not the Moral Law We will therefore a third time go them over again Rom. 7. 6. Now we are delivered from the Law that being dead wherein we were held that we should serve in Newness of Spirit and not in the Oldness of the Letter That is We are delivered from that Law that considered literally required nothing but a company of Bodily Washings Outward Services and Carnal Performances which the Iews generally rested in and thought no more was to be done to render them Acceptable in the sight of God And the reason why we are delivered from this Law is that so we may be the more intent upon the Great Substantial Duties and the Purification of our Hearts Souls and Spirits Gal. 2. 19. I through the Law am dead to the Law that I might live unto God Or I by virtue of the Law of Christ am dead to the Law of Moses that I may have all impediments taken out of my way to the being intirely devoted as to the Inward as well as Outward man to the Service of God And it hath been shewed how injurious this Law did Accidentally become to the great Design of the Gospel viz. The making us Spiritually Obedient the enduing us with Inward Real Substantial Righteousness or the Divine Likeness Rom. 6. 14. Sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the Law but under Grace That is There is no necessity of your continuing under the power and dominion of Sin because you are not under the weak Dispensation of Moses which made nothing perfect and gave no strength to mortifie Lust but under the Gospel Dispensation which is accompanied with Promises of Plentiful Supplies of Grace and Strength Gal. 4. 5. God sent forth his Son made of a Woman made under the Law to Redeem them that were under the Law that we might receive the Adoption of Sons Or That we might no longer drudge like Servants of the inferior Sort in such Employments as are mean and low having no Internal Goodness in them and that from the hope only of some sleight Reward from the hope of some mere Earthly good things such as are Gratifications only of the Animal and Sensual life and from the Fear of mere Temporal Evils and the present Lash that Law containing no other express Promises or Threatnings but Temporal as was shewed but may be dealt with as Sons be Honourably employed viz. in such services as are of the most Excellent nature and do recommend themselves by their own Goodness and Agreeableness to our Rational and Intellectual Faculty And be acted also by a more Noble Principle viz. Love and encouraged by an Infinitely more Noble Reward which consisteth in a perfect Likeness to God and an Everlasting Enjoyment of him And thus we see these very Texts that are made use of by the Antinomians to prove this mad Notion of Christian Liberty from the Obligation of the Moral Law are so far from signifying any thing to this purpose that they give manifest and clear proof of the Contrary As they are far from asserting that any such Liberty as this belongs to Christians so they assure us that no such Liberty belongeth to them Tertullian hath a good saying to our present purpose The Yokes of Works meaning the Drudgeries of the Ceremonial Law are cast off not those of Rules to walk by Liberty in Christ is not injurious to innocence The intire Law of Piety Holiness Humanity Vâ—rity Chastity Righteousness Mercy Bâ—nâ—volence Purity is still of force And indeed should we find this Doctrine in those Texts that our Saviour hath procured for us Freedom from this Law then First The Blessed Apostle would have most expresly contradicted his Great Master and so have proved himself no Apostle For our Saviour plainly saith Matth. 5. 17. Think not let not such a wild fancy enter into your Heads that I am come to destroy the Law and the Prophets I am not come to destroy but to fulfil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to fill it up or Preach it fully I am so far from such a Design as that of destroying or Abolishing the Moral Law that on the contrary I am come to Preach it more fully and perfectly than ever it was before my Coming And this he presently sets upon doing Vers. 21 22 27 28 c. Ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time thou shalt not Kill and whosoever shall Kill shall be in danger of the judgment but I say unto you that whosoâ—vâ—r is Angry with his Brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment c. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time Thou shalt not commit Adultery but I say unto you that whosoevâ—r shall look upon a Woman to lust after hâ—r hath committed Adultery already with her in his heart And so He goes on to Perfect and Fill up Law in the following Verses Again our Saviour saith vers 18. Verily I say unto you that till Heaven and Earth pass one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the Law till all be fulfilled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 till all be done or till all things come to an End according to Doctor Hammond He hath not here respect to the Universal Conflagration saith Grotius upon the place but it is a Proverbial speech as if it were said in Latine Vsque dum Coelum ruat Till the Heavens fall Which is thus expressed Luke 16. 17. And it is easier for Heaven and Earth to pass than one tittle of the Law to fail In which manner of speaking as saith the same Learned Expositor He hath respect to the Order of Nature and not to the Power of God But according to Nature it seems impossible that Heaven and Earth should pass away or perish So that the meaning of these Texts is plainly this viz. The Obligation of the Law
we find concerning Obedience to Kings and the Higher Powers S. Peter saith 1 Epist. 2. 13. Submit your selves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as Supreme or unto Governours as unto them that are sent by him c. Again Every Soul is commanded to be Subject to the Higher Powers because there is no Power but of God the Powers that be are ordained of God Rom. 13. 1 2 c. And Ver. 5. 't is said We must needs be Subject and that not onely for Wrath but also for Conscience sake But there is not the least syllable either in these or any other places of such a limitation as might Reconcile these Injunctions with this Notion of Christian Liberty And we may be confident that if by virtue of that Liberty Christians were disobliged from Obedience to their Governours whensoever they required things indifferent though very unreasonably enjoyned yet in their own nature not Evil and no where forbidden by God to be done the Apostle would have put in this Exception in the last mentioned place The Emperor being a great Tyrant and rather a Monster than a Man that then Reigned Thirdly If Governours can oblige us to nothing but what Antecedently to their Laws we ought to do there is no formal Obedience at all due to them I am then no more bound in Conscience to obey them than those who have no power over me that are invested by God with no Authority For if such say to me Do not Kill Do not Steal Do not commit Adultery c. I shall greatly sin in not hearkening to them And whereas it will be replied that though such Injunctions of Persons not placed in Power ought to be observed yet not as theirs but as Divine Injunctions I must needs profess that I do not believe it neither to be at all my Duty to obey such Laws of our Governours under the nâ—tion of theirs My obligation to obey all the Laws of God being as strong and indispensable every whit by virtue of His immediate Authority as if they were backt and inforced by never so many and never so severe Laws of his Vicegerents Nor can any of their Laws make what God Almighty hath obliged me either to or from one iot a greater Duty or Sin than it was before For the Divine Authority hath made whatsoever it hath commanded or prohibited as great a Duty or Sin as it is capable of being made that is considered in it self It is so evident that we are not obliged to obey a Law of the Land as such which onely requires or forbids what is required or forbidden by an express Law of God that the less respect any one hath to Humane Laws in such things in doing Iustly in being Temperate and Chaste in attending upon the solemn Worship of God and the like supposing he makes Conscience of them upon the account of the Divine Laws the better Man is he and the more sincere Christian. And therefore such Laws of Men as are Enacted against what God's Law hath forbidden or do enjoyn what was before commanded by God are not made for a Righteous man as the Apostle speaks even of the Law of Moses but for such Wretches as live under no Sense of the Divine Sovereignty and would not have any regard to God's Laws were they not inforced with Men's having severe penalties annexed to them So that if I am disobliged by my Christian Liberty from Doing or Forbearing any thing in Obedience to Humane Laws but what I ought to Do or Forbear though there were no Laws of Men about it that which I now said is very easie to be believed viz. That no Formal Obedience is due to Magistrates and they have no Power to make any New Laws of their own but onely to take the best care that the Old ones viz. the Laws of God be observed And if it be so what becomes of all those Texts wherein Obedience to Governours is with such strictness required of Christians This Opinion that Rulers have no Power over us in regard of our Christian Liberty in matters of an Indifferent Nature doth make the Fifth Commandment and all those Injunctions perfectly insignificant And the Apostle might well have spared his charge to Titus To put those under his care in mind to be subject to Principalities and Powers to obey Magistrates c. Tit. 3. 1. This Monstrously wild Notion of Christian Liberty I should not have taken thus much notice of as little as I have said but that of late days Multitudes by their behaviour would make us suspect they are infected with it who yet will not professedly own it It is come to that sad pass that preaching Obedience to Authority is become as unacceptable Doctrine as can be to even many great Pretenders to Christianity although it be done never so prudently and agreeably to the express Doctrine of our Saviour and his Apostles And the Notion of Obedience for Conscience-sake seems almost lost among not a few Which is one of the great Sins for which we have too good reason to fear there 's a Heavy Scourge near us Secondly As for that Doctrine which limits our disobligation by the means of Christian Liberty from the Laws of Men that impose indifferent things to those that onely relate to Religion and the Worship of God That this is Wild too though more Sober than the other will appear by these Considerations First This Notion of Christian Liberty tends to introduce sad Disorder and Confusion into the Churches of Christ and will certainly do it if practised upon I need not go about to prove that the Order of Ecclesiastical as well as Civil Societies consisteth principally in the due Regulation of things in their own Nature Indifferent S. Paul hath enjoyned that in the Church All things be done decently and in order 1 Cor. 14. 40. But how shall they be so done if it be a Violation of our Christian Liberty to have any thing imposed upon us by our Governours for Decencies and Orders sake Particular Rules being not given us in Scripture about this matter which to be sure would have been were they not left to the Determination of the Governours of each Church upon supposition that 't is possible to give such as would well suit all Churches Calvin upon those words of S. Paul 1 Cor. 11. 2. Now I praise you Brethren that you remember me in all things and keep the Ordinances as I delivered them to you doth thus express his Sense about this matter Saith he We know that every Church is left free to appoint a Form of Polity for it self because our Lord hath prescribed nothing certain And he speaks this you see not as his own sense onely but as the sense and that undoubted too of his other Brethren of the Reformation Whose judgment were it needful we might largely produce to the same purpose But there is no need of it those very
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
Cruelty Pride and Ambition Covetousness Uncleanness Intemperance and the greatest Injustice and Unrighteousness As for Malice and Cruelty as now we intimated they are the Natural and Genuine Off-spring of that most Horrible Uncharitableness that is proper to Popery When men have once conceived such an opinion of any of their Fellow-Creatures as that they are hated of God and damned Reprobates they think themselves obliged to Hate them too and Hatred and Cruelty are never separated We have already given Instances of Popish Cruelty in Butchering Protestants and shewed what a vast Sea of Bloud hath been shed by the Papists which hath been at the command of their Holy Father and the instigation of his cursed instruments the Iesuits And I now add that they have not satisfied themselves with the mere shedding of Bloud but have devised the most exquisitely tormenting Methods of doing it such as can hardly be recited without great Horror and Consternation of mind To pass over the inexpressible Tortures of the Holy Inquisition what say you to long protracting the torments of those whose Bodies have been committed to the merciless Flames by letting them down by degrees with Pullies that the lower parts might be consumed before the Fire could reach the Vitals What say you to Roasting alive To Flaying off mens skins alive To Boiling of the Young Children of Hereticks alive and casting them alive to be devoured by Swine What say you to Ripping up the Bellies of Women Great with Child their hands and feet being first nailed down To Hanging men at their own doors by their privy Members To Burying men alive and young Children making holes in the Ground out of which they have put their hands and made sad moan for their Mothers What Heart is so hard as not to bleed at the mere Reading or Hearing such things as these But these and innumerable such like nay far more horrible things we might shew are Instances of Popish Cruelty And those inâ—licted upon the account of no greater Offences than Refusing to be Idolaters and not daring to be partakers of Rome's Sins lest they receive of her Plagues But how should those think that these Devilish Barbarities do not well become them who presume the poor Wretches they so torture to be Accursed of God Devoted to destruction and to far more grievous and intolerable Torments and that the Hatred God bears to them doth cause him to accept it as an Excellent piece of Service at their hands to be their Destroyers and Tormenters that is the Executioners of His Wrath Moreover the Absolute Obedience they owe to Christ's Vicar imposeth a Necessity upon them not to boggle at the greatest Cruelties whensoever his Holiness shall please to imploy them in such Services which his Pride and Malice will never permit him to fail to do whensoever he thinks it consistent with his interest And that a power to employ his Vassals in such work as this was conferred by Christ upon S. Peter and his Successors Pope Pius the Fifth tells you in the beginning of his Bull against Queen Elizabeth Saith he Regnans in excelsis c. He that Reigneth on High to whom is given all Power in Hâ—â—â—en and in Earth hath committed the one Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church to one alone on Earth viz. Peter Prince of the Apostles and to his Successor the Bishop of Rome to be governed with a plenitude of Power This one hath he constituted Prince over all Nations and Kingdoms but what to do The next words tell us Qui evellat destruat dissipet disperdat plantet aedificet That he may pluck up destroy break in pieces waste Blessed work plant and build i. e. upon those Ruines And Pope Innocent the Third applieth to the Popes in a literal sence those words in the Prophecy of Ieremy See I have set thee over the Nations and over the Kingdoms to root out and to pull down and to destroy and to throw down to build and to plant And it would be a most tedious piece of work to shew what use the Popes have made of this their pretended power and how they have menaced with Excommunication those good-natured or prudent Princes whom they have not found forward to obey their Commands in destroying Hereticks So necessary is it that a Papist if he will be true to his principles should be either actually Cruel or in a ready preparation to be so And where is the Lust of Pride and Ambition so gratified to the height as in the Church of Rome As for the Head of this Church can there be a prouder or so proud a Creature upon Gods Earth Who claims as Universal and Unbounded an Empire over Mankind as the Father hath invested his Son Iesus withal Who pretendeth his Authority to exceed as much the Royal Power as the Sun doth the Moon Which are the words of the now mentioned Pope Innocent in the place cited Who assumes to himself as great a Power over Kings and Emperors as over the meanest of Peasants and Authority to dispose of their Crowns and Kingdoms at his own pleasure And whensoever he hath been strong enough hath made them feel it Who claims as great a power over Mens very Consciences their Minds and Understandings as we have seen in matters of Religion as God himself can Nay usurpeth such a Power as God himself abhors to have as shall be shewn anon So that if the Man of Sin who sitteth in the Temple of God and Exalteth himself above all that is called God be not to be found in Rome no part of the World ever was or will be able to shew him And how is it possible that such prodigious Pride in the Head should not affect and influence the Members both Clergy and Laity and that there should be none or little contagion in such an Example Surely the Example of the profoundly Humble Iesus cannot have a more powerful influence upon his Disciples than that of his Diabolically proud and haughty pretended Vicars must needs have upon their Proselytes especially considering the great propensity of Humane Nature to this Sin of Pride But as for the Popish Clergie they have infinite temptations to the gratifying to the height this Lust and as great Opportunities for it To pass by the Cardinals and Bishops the former of which have the stile and go in the Equipage of Princes and are co-partners with their High and Mighty Lord in his forementioned vast Rule and Government And the latter not inferior to the greatest of the Nobility and have been Censured for going too much out of their way to meet Princes I say to pass by these their Common Priests Monks and Friers have the greatest incentives to Pride haughtiness and Contempt of others that the most Ambitious of them all can well wish to have As for the Priests I need not say how much their pretended Power of Transubstantiating the Elements in the Eucharist which is no less than making a
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