you in the first place to her Doctrine of Infallibility Which speaks her uncapable of erring in any of her Decrees and Determinations Which Infallibility the Iesuits will have seated in the Popes Chair others in the Pope in conjunction with a General Council that is a Number of Bishops and Priests packt together of his own Faction For there is nothing he hates more than a Council truly General I call this not only a false but a wicked Doctrine because of the infinite mischief that it doth in the world For the Romish Church's pretence to Infallibility is that which enables her to Lord it at that intolerable rate over the minds and Consciences of her Subjects and to make them the greatest of Slaves and Vassals And 't is this also that makes her utterly incurable of her gross corruptions her other notorious Heresies and the ungodly and horrid practices founded upon them So that so long as she continues to assume to herself the Title of Infallible there is no hope to be conceived of her being ever in the least Reformed either in her Principles or Practices But never was a Doctrine more shamefully baffled than this hath been as easily it may there being nothing but Interest to uphold it nor one syllable in all the Bible to befriend it As for that promise of our Saviour that the gates of hell shall never prevail against his Church the most that can be concluded from thence is that he will ever have a Church upon earth in spight of all the endeavours of Hell to destroy it But thanks be to God this Promise would be no whit the further from being performed although the Devil should be permitted totally to extinguish the Church of Rome though to be sure he understands his own interest better than once to attempt it But if the meaning of this Promise be as the Romanists would have it that the gates of Hell shall never so prevail against the Church as to occasion her falling into errors of Iudgment why may we not as well extend it so far as to secure her also from errors of Practice these being no less dangerous or destructive than those of Iudgment But I retain so much Charity for the Romish Church still as not to think her so forsaken of all Modesty as to deny that in this sense the Gates of Hell have prevailed against her with a vengeance And as for the other Promises which they lay any stress on they are either such as 't is manifest the Apostles only and first planters of the Gospel were concerned in or else such as belong to all Christians without exception thus far as that while it is their sincere endeavour to know the truth and to live up to their knowledge they shall be secured from pernicious and damnable errors Again What say you to the Doctrine of the Popes Supremacy over all other Churches and Kingdoms too and his having a Grant of as vast Dominions upon Earth next and immediately under Christ as Christ himself hath under God the Father his being King of all Kings and Lord of all Lords and that both in Spirituals and Temporals I might easily tire you upon this head of Discourse but all I will say to it shall be this that the Charter pretended for so mighty an Empire is much too obscurely exprest to be ever understood by any other people than the Pope and his Vassals There is not a tittle in the Holy Scriptures for it though we know what a noise and fluster they make with two Texts Pasce Oves meas and Dabo tibi Claves c. as if this Supremacy were as plainly legible in each of them as the Doctrine of the Creation in the first verse of Genesis But which is worst of all how many thousands of honest people have been barbarously butcher'd merely because their eyes would not serve them to read this Doctrine of theirs in those two Texts And this is that Doctrine which gives them a pretence for their restless and unwearied endeavours to get these Kingdoms again within their Clutches and for all their desperate and hellish designs against us What say you to their Doctrine of Image-Worship with which I will joyn that other of Praying to Saints and Angels In their Adored Council of Trent it is decreed that The Images of Christ the Virgin mother of God and other Saints be especially kept in Churches and that due Honor and Veneration be given unto them And afterward this Council expresseth its allowance of Picturing the Divinity it self and accordingly Pictures of the Blessed Trinity Oh hateful sight are ordinarily to be beheld in the Popish Churches Now would we know what the Council means by Debitus honor veneratio the due honour and veneration that is to be given to Images this appears by these following words We decree doing honour to them because the honour which is done to them is referred to the Prototypes which they represent So that in the Images which we kiss and before which we uncover our heads and fall down we adore Christ and Worship the Saints which they represent c. So that the Honour and Veneration which they determine should be given to Images do imply all external Acts of Adoration and that the Image of our Saviour is to have the self same Adoration paid to it that would be due unto himself were he personally present And the Universal Practice of the Romish Church wholly to pass over the Vile stuff of their Doctors Schoolmen and Casuists will tell you the meaning of their debitus honor veneratio The consent of Nations saith the Learned Grotius have made Sacrifices Oblations and Incense proper signs of Divine Worship but though I had time I need not stand to shew that the Images of Christ Angels and Saints especially that of the Blessed Virgin are every where Worshipped with these signs and with all the Rites of the most solemn Invocation in Sacred Offices and in places set apart for Divine Worship And they do all the external honour to the Saints and Angels in the Addresses they make unto them whether immediately or as represented by Images that 't is imaginable they should do to our Saviour himself or the Blessed Trinity Nay They pray unto them not only for Temporal or Ordinary Blessings but for Spiritual and Supernatural such as the Pardon of their sins and the Holy Spirit and eternal life as might be shewn at large Now what is Idolatry if such doings are not why they tell us and we cannot blame them that the true Notion of Idolatry is only the Worshipping some Creature for the most High God supposing it to be the most High God But if so the Worshippers of the Golden Calf to be sure were no Idolaters for they can be little better than mad themselves who are able to imagine that the Israelites were so mad as to believe that the Calf which they saw made and that of their own
them but the more miserable if they did not believe so truly they would not tremble as they do The Devils also believe and tremble Iames 2.19 In short we are not more assured from the Holy Scriptures that God made the Heavens and the Earth than we are of the truth of this Proposition that the most sound belief will not do us the least service while it is accompanied with a naughty life That the most Orthodox Sentiments will nothing avail us while joyned with an Heretical Conversation Thirdly We proceed to shew that mens making shipwrack concerning the Faith is occasioned by their having first put away a good Conscience Which good Conscience some having put away concerning Faith have made shipwrack The Apostle speaking of some that resisted the truth calls them men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the Faith 2 Tim. 3.8 Thereby intimating that their being reprobate concerning the Faith proceeded from the corruption of their minds or naughtiness of their hearts and the prevalence of evil and corrupt Affections And the same Apostle speaking of certain Hereticks attributes their erring from the Faith to their gratifying particularly that last of Covetousness 1 Tim. 6.10 The love of money is the root of all evil which while some coveted after they have erred from the Faith And S. Peter speaking of wicked Seducers saith that they had eyes full of Adultery and hearts exercised with covetous practices And intimateth that this is the cause of their forsaking the right way and their beguiling unstable Souls 2 Ep. 2.14 15. Now would we be satisfied how this putting away a good Conscience occasioneth mens making shipwrack of the Faith It is evident that it doth thus these three ways First As mens addicting themselves to the satisfying of some lust or other puts them upon devising shifts and tricks to still the disquieting clamours of their Consciences The wrath of God being revealed from Heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men 't is no easie thing for any one willingly to transgress the Rules of Righteousness without being frequently tormented with fearful expectations and the Horrors of an Accusing and condemning Conscience Now the most effectual way to be rid of these next to sincere Repentance and Reformation is either for a wicked man to perswade himself if he be able that there is no God or nothing after this Life and consequently that the Bible is a cheat and all its threatnings mere scare-crows Or if this he cannot do in regard of the abundant evidence of the Being of a God and the Authority of the Holy Scriptures the course must be so to wrest and pervert the Scriptures as to make them give liberty to certain evil practices or to promise forgiveness of sin to certain performances that are short of forsaking it Thus those Hereticks in the Primitive times wrestâ—d the places wherein the Gospel is called the Law of Liberty and wherein we are said to be delivered from the Law so as to take off the Obligation of the Moral as well as the Ceremonial Law and to give liberty to sin and to oppose Faith to Obedience in the business of Justification and acceptance with God Many other instances may be given both of Ancient and Modern Hereticks perverting of passages of Scripture so as to make them great encouragements to sin and discouragements to a Holy life perfectly contrary to the whole strain and tenor of the Gospel But I must not enlarge farther upon this Argument because the main thing I intended in the choice of this Subject is yet behind Secondly The putting away of a good Conscience occasions making shipwrack of the Faith through the just judgment of God The former particular gave us an account of wicked mens being strongly enclined to make shiwrack of the Faith and of their endeavouring it this of their putting their inclinations into practice and succeeding in their endeavours Men that are wedded to any lust are very forward for their own ease to endeavour either the embraceing of Atheistical Principles or so to abuse the Scriptures as to take encouragement from them to live in sin but they could hardly so extinguish the light of their own minds as to succeed in their endeavours were it not for the judgment of God upon them in giving them up into the Deceivers hands To this purpose observe what the Apostle saith 2 Thess. 2.10 11. Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved or they did not so receive it as to suffer it to have any good effect upon their hearts and lives for this cause God shall send them strong delusions or give them up to be deluded by the tricks of the Devil the signs and lying wonders before mentioned that they should believe a lye that they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness Thirdly The putting away of a good Conscience occasions making shipwrack of the Faith as wicked Professors of Christianity do find it a most successful course to promote their corrupt and naughty designs by foisting into the Christian Religion such Doctrines and Practices as favour and encourage such designs I have shewed that those who corrupt the Christian Religion with such Doctrines or Practices as contradict the Design of it do truly make shipwrack of the Faith and whereas there may be given too many instances of such Hypocrites as have so done I shall make it the whole business of what remains of the Doctrinal part of this Discourse to shew that the Church of Rome as she is now Constituted is most shamefully guilty in this particular It is to be acknowledged that she retains the Profession of all the Fundamental and Essential Articles of the Christian Faith a summary of which is that Creed which we call the Apostles and she professeth a Reverence for the whole New Testament If she in express terms rejected any Doctrine that is of the Essence and a vital part of Christianity her members may not be called Christians in any sense and we then do very ill to say the Church of Rome We do not stick at calling them a Church though a most corrupt and degenerate Church as to use the similitude of Bishop Hall a thief is truly a man though not a true man A woman may retain the name of a wife till she 's formally divorced though she be an adulteress The Church of Rome may as truly be called a Church as the Iewish Nation the People of God after their foul Revolt from him and Lapse into Idolatry and other wicked and impious practices But this hath been abundantly made good against this Church that though she holds the Foundation yet she builds Wood Hay and Stubble upon the Foundation that is she mixeth many impure Doctrines of her own with the most holy and undefiled Doctrines of the Gospel Of which I will present you with some instances but must be very brief upon most of them What say
A SERMON Preached before the JUDGES c. In the time of the ASSIZES IN THE CATHEDRAL CHVRCH AT GLOUCESTER On Sunday Aug. 7. 1681. Published to put a stop to False and Injurious Representations By Edward Fowler D.D. LONDON Printed for R. Royston Bookseller to His most Sacred Majesty and Walter Kettilby 1681. A PREFACE TO THE READER THE desire of many Worthy Gentlemen who were pleased to think this Sermon seasonable could not have prevailed with me to make it thus publick were it not for the Entertainment it hath met with from another sort of Auditors who have represented it as Fanatical and almost all that 's naught But as I have not I thank God so little of a Christian in me as to return Cursing for Cursing or Reviling for Reviling but on the contrary do most heartily pray for these men who express the greatest enmity against me so will I no longer trouble the Reader with complaints of their most injurious and provoking behaviour upon the account of the following Discourse but only intreat him to be Impartial in the perusal of it and then to judge between them and me whether I have given them any other cause to be so inraged than what the blessed Apostle gave the Galatians viz. Telling them the truth And I appeal to the most Censorious and Captious of those that heard me whether I have been guilty of the least Vnfaithfulness in this Publication God is my Witness that I had the best of Designs in Penning and Preaching this Sermon viz. A sincere and earnest desire to do some service to the Protestant Religion His Majesty and the Church of England as by Law establisht Nor am I conscious to my self of any crime in the pursuing of this Design unless honest impartiality in exposing the Doings which are apparently most highly prejudicial to the interest of all these than which nothing in this world should be dearer to us ought to render me blame-worthy But I am not in the least solicitous about what defects may be found in the Discourse that are not of a moral nature for as the ingenuous will easily overlook them especially in a Discourse not design'd for the Press so 't would be a great piece of weakness to be at all concerned at the Censures of those that lye at the catch and who if they find no faults will be sure to make them But the main thing I intended this Preface for is yet behind viz. A faithful Narrative of a matter of Fact which hath had the ill fortune to be as falsly and injuriously represented as this Sermon It is this There lately stood in the West-window of the Quire of Gloucester Cathedral a most scandalous Picture viz. Of the Blessed Trinity Which had it been much observed could never have outstood the first year of the Reformation and much less continued till about two years since I was first shewed it by one of my Brother Prebendaries about four years since After which time the sight of it when I read at the Communion Table did often discompose me And thinking my self obliged to do my endeavour to have it taken down though no great notice that I knew was taken of it I made no haste for that reason but some time after my return from my Residence I advised with one who is a most learned and eminent Prelate of our Church about it and he expressing high offence at it told me we were all bound in Conscience not to suffer such a thing now we had observed it to stand longer Hereupon I resolved to complain of it in Chapter at my next Residence but there being not above two or at the most three of us upon the place all that time I put off the doing it till my Residence the following year And then having a good opportunity there being about the Conclusion of that Residence our whole number except one present at a Chapter that was called about other business the very last day of my stay which was Mid-summer Eve 1679. having all of us viewed it before I moved my Brethren in Chapter the officers that were present being first desired to withdraw because I would have the matter carried as privately as might be that it might be taken down Representing the hatefulness of such a Picture and what scandal it would give should it happen to become more publick as it quickly might it being known to more than our selves and that not by my means and the great seasonableness of doing it at this nick of time seeing through oversight it had been omitted thus long it being not long after the discovery of the Plot and many Factious people then at work in vilifying the Church of England as advancing apace towards Popery This motion of mine was readily entertained by the Chapter and the Idol most chearfully voted down and the Act of Chapter afterwards Recorded in the Register Book by some of the Prebendaries where it now stands I moved as I said that it should be taken down that is by a Glasier but for a great reason which I think fit to conceal till provoked to publish it it was as readily consented to that it should be immediately broken as 't was before that it should be taken down and new glass set up in the room of it Whereupon the greater number of the Chapter went together to the place to countenance the action and it was done by my hand We could not in the least doubt but that this was done very regularly it being a hard case if the Governours of a Cathedral should not be invested with as much Authority as this comes to But when it came to be known abroad there was a hideous noise and clamour made by some few people who are I dare say the first Protestants that ever so concern'd themselves about such a vile Relique of Popish Superstition The Clamour continues to this very day and after I had Preached this Sermon complaint was made of the high misdemeanor to the Judges and some further to vent their spleen against me for my Sermon did what lay in them to have it presented by the Grand Iury of the City though a thing of above two years standing Which doughty attempt as well it might made sport enough But that which necessitates my publishing this Narrative is the several shameful Vntruths they have made to pass for current far and near among those who have little knowledge of them and me for those that know either of us cannot easily believe them Particularly First they represent this Action as done by me upon my own head They say not one word of a Chapters being concerned in the case and so expose me for a Rash and furious Zealot Secondly To lay still greater load upon me they have given it out by themselves and their Agents particularly a little Agent they have in London a most disingenuous Creature of whom I have deserved as he can't forget much better things that it was