are most eagerly promoted by such as deride those great Truths which they all own to be fundamental They that jointly believe the Truth and the Divine Authority of the Holy Scripture are set to wrangling among themselves about some of its most obscure and unnecessary Places by them that believe none of it and for not mutually embracing and practising upon those most important Points whereon we are agreed we expose those Doctrines of our common Salvation which we all profess to the Contempt of the prophane and incredulous World Secondly The other Pillar which together with the Holy Scripture strongly Supports of our Faith is the Christian Creed We find also for this the same Consent of all Christian Churches they are unanimous in the Belief and Profession of it and hold all its Articles to be those great and necessary Truths without which none can be saved Whereas the several Contents of the Bible although equally true yet are not of an equal Concern and are too numerous to be carried in mind There was a Collection of those principal Points which are necessary to all drawn and appointed from the Beginning as a Form of sound Words or a Summary of the Christian Saving Faith This we call the Apostles Creed and this I say in all Ages of the Church and in the full Extent of it hath been received as a Confession of that Faith without which none can be saved Go to Rome or to Geneva or among the Lutherans or the Moscovites or the Greeks or Ethiopians as many as call on the Saving Name of Jesus do thus make Confession of their Faith in him Besides that each Article is very expresly and in many Places revealed in the Holy Bible here is the unanimous Agreement of the whole Church from first to last in every Nation and every Period of Time from the Days of Christ that this is the Badge and Cognizance of a Christian Believer and that the Profession of this Belief is the Faith once delivered to the Saints which shall endure to the End of the World Into this Faith and none other all Christians are baptized in all Communions thereby to be made Members of Christ's Catholick Church and Heirs of everlasting Life if they keep it unto the End whole and undefiled Thus for the believing any of those Points contained in the Apostles Creed or any of the Histories Promises or Commands deliver'd in Holy Scripture a Christian hath the best Warrant he can have for the Belief of any thing upon Earth even the joint Attestation of the whole Church of every Age who testified publickly and sometimes sealed their Testimony with their Blood that the Bible is the Word of God and the Creed is the Faith of Christ However Christians have fal'n out about other things as to these they are at one The Belief of this engageth you into no Dispute with any Here is a very great Number of most marvellous Transactions and gracious Promises and righteous Laws and important Predictions which are own'd by all to be Divine and infallibly true Your Belief and Profession of these depend not upon your Fancy or the Opinions of private Guides or the Tradition of your Countrey or of your Party but upon the unanimous Witness of millions of wise and good Men Apostles Martyrs Confessors and all those numerous Christian Societies dispers'd over the World which make up the universal Church Here is enough owned of all sides to make up an happy Agreement betwixt all Churches The having the same Bible and the same Creed is a very firm and large and lasting Foundation for Peace Here are all things that are of the greatest Moment for Faith and a good Life for the Service of God and the Salvation of our Souls every where receiv'd and profest He that should weigh the Importance of each of those Truths which are acknowledged by all would wonder what it is that can divide Christians and make them so fierce and uncharitable one against another We see Bigots of different Communions damn and destroy one another as if they were not Partakers of the same Nature and joyned together by owning the same God and the same Saviour and all the chiefest Articles of the same Religion Besides Mens Ignorance and Malice and intemperate Zeal no account can be given of the unbeseeming Contentions of Christians among themselves but that the things wherein they differ are of a present Concernment for Wealth or Dominion Secular Interest and humane Passions no doubt have made the Breach and they that secretly laugh at all Religion and neither regard the Creed nor the Word of God set on the Zealots to dispute and for their own Ends make use of the Contention when all this while there is a vast Collection of Truths for Comfort and Contempt of the World for Meekness and mutual Love profest to be firmly believ'd by all Parties engag'd But as Men are always craving and pursuing new things rather than they will make an Estimat of what they have receiv'd because they love to extend their Desires rather than to be satified and to be thankful so they rather chuse to wrangle and dispute about the meanest Punctilios wherein they are at odds than to rest in the greater things wherein they are agreed because they love to talk and to contend better than to practise and embrace each other This unsettles some Men that they know not what to believe and gives great occasion to the prophane to despise Religion as if all the Talk about it were arbitrary and uncertain they magnifie the Variety of Opinions and make as if the whole were matter of Contest when they see the Contenders act as if they were agreed about nothing Whereas I say all the great Articles have always been unquestioned notwithstanding the Peevishness of some and the ill Designs of others still the same Rules of Holiness and the same Points of Belief have remained constant and embraced by all The same Divine Revelation and the same Christian Faith have every where prevail'd and in the midst of all Disputes been preserved and acknowledged So that the whole Substance and all the necessary Parts of Religion have always been sacred confest and reverenc'd by all Christian Churches The twelve Articles of our Creed and all the uncontroverted Truths revealed in Holy Scripture make up a Body of Divinity so full so excellent and so comprehensive that if we compare it with the Uncertainties and Dissentions that were every where in the Heathen World at the first preaching of Christianity we shall look on its Professors as very harmonious and very well agreed There were never so many things so Great so Wonderful of so infinite a Concern to Mankind so strongly attested or so firmly believed by such infinite Multitudes of civiliz'd and knowing Men in all Parts of the World for so many Ages together Here is a Foundation whereon every good Christian may build Peace and Charity towards all his Brethren of
Noise of Damnation dashing against them and therefore I will pursue things no further than to shew That neither the Judgment of our Adversaries nor any thing wherein both Churches disagree any ways endangers our future Happiness But that as to the securing the eternal Welfare of our immortal Souls ours is to be preferred before the Roman Communion A DISCOURSE shewing c. THE Concerns of Eternity being so tremendous and many not so well instructed as they should 't is no wonder if some Men are frighted with the fearful Sentence pronounced against them by the Zealots of the Roman Party To any Man serious or timorous Threats of Damnation are terrible even in the Mouth of a Mortal Creature Though it only betrays the Presumption of any sinful Man that dares sit on the Tribunal of his Almighty Judg yet because some are so tender and so weak in this Point as to be much disordered and dismayed to see themselves adjudged to Hell though it were but a Dream or a melancholy Fancy therefore it may be worth the while briefly to state the Case and consider on what Grounds they proceed that so freely pronounce our Doom And I doubt not but to make it appear that we want only their good Word or also their good Will when for Safety and a sure Foundation we are at least as well as they It may surprize and startle to see one stare and with great Confidence denounce that you are a dead Man that cannot live an Hour but having recovered your self and reflected upon 't you pass by without further Harm and smile at the Humour There is one Law-giver who is able to save and to destroy Who art thou that judgest another Our intire dependence is upon God as well for the state of Eternity as for the present We do not fall when we go hence under a new or an unknown Power neither are left to Mens Mercy but the same God by whom we were taken out of our Mother's Womb and to whom we were left when we hang'd yet upon her Breasts he that took care of us and provided for us here upon Earth is still to dispose of us in our future State And we shall be judged by him by whom we were made and redeemed This God whom we now serve and under whose Almighty Dominion we must ever remain is infinitely good He would have all Men to be saved and to come to the knowledg of the Truth Therefore he doth not seek Advantages against them nor lay Snares in their Way nor wrap up his Saving Light in Obscurity but deals with them in much Mercy making that Grace of his which bringeth Salvation appear unto all Men that they may know the Way to Life and clearly see what they must do to obtain Eternal Happiness This God shews Men by that Revelation he hath made of his blessed Will how they ought to walk and to please him Therein all things necessary are very plainly exprest that they may be understood of all And for a further Help and a greater Security to Men of all Capacities a Summary of Divine Truths such as are fundamental and needful was by times made and propagated together with the Christian Religion over all the World So that we have the Word of God and the Apostolick Creed both of them always attested by the whole Christian Church as two firm Pillars whereon to repose our selves That we might be strong and immoveable in the Faith assured that we are not imposed upon by our Guides and that length of Time hath made no Alteration but that we hold now the same things which were taught by Christ and received of his Church and that we make nothing necessary to Salvation which from the Beginning was not so First then The Word of God contained in the Holy Bible is by Consent of all that Saving Truth of God by which we must live and by which we shall be judged so that whatsoever is there written is to be embraced as certain and as coming from God Whether it relates to the Creation and the Government of the World or to the many Wonders which God wrought in former Ages to deliver his People and to confirm and attest his Revelation or to the Fall of Man and the Promise of a Saviour or to his Mission into the World and his accomplishing the great Work of our Redemption or to the Gospel-Promises and Doctrines and Mysteries or to Laws and Rules of Righteousness and Institutions of Divine Worship whatsoever it relates to it is to be embraced with an humble and obedient Faith Nothing is to be questioned that is contained in the Bible all humane Authorities and humane Reasonings must submit to it for the Bible is the Word of God Go into all the World and you shall find all Churches every where assert the same as well as we The Jews concur with us in the Divine Authority of the ancient Oracles before our blessed Lord's Coming But all Christians in every Part and in every Age of the Church embrace and reverence both the Old and New Testament as the Book of God wherein are contained the Declarations of his Will and the Words of eternal Life If you enquire what they thought of it in the first or second Ages after our Saviour or at any other time or if you go to the Eastern or African Churches or any the most remote Place where Christianity is profest you shall find all agreed in this that the Bible contains the Doctrine of eternal Salvation and is the Word of God This is not a thing wherein the Greeks differ from the Latins or Protestants from the Papists but is the firm Belief of all This is a most constant and invariable Tradition which for Extent of Time and Place is universal and therefore of the greatest Credit altogether unquestionable So here is a very great Number of Divine and undoubted Truths agreed upon by all the Christian World even all the plain and clear Propositions contained in Holy Scripture Although they be of things not seen that are past or to come yet being there revealed they are assented to by all And he that should deny any of them would be condemned by Christians of all Communions his refusing to acknowledg the Truth of any Contents of the Bible would be interpreted a Denial of God's Veracity because they are all perswaded that the Bible is the Word of God written by the Guidance and the Inspiration of his Holy Spirit He that rejects this Foundation on which all Christians are grounded ought never to concern himself in the Differences among them nor pretend to be of any Church for by his denying the Truth of that Revelation which they all own to be Divine and whereon they rely he makes himself an Infidel and a Party against them all And yet if we could see to the bottom of Things I doubt not but it would appear that the Disputes and Contentions which are among Christians
whatever Countries or Communions they be and may establish a sure Hope of eternal Happiness to his own Soul if he doth heartily profess and obey those undoubted Truths which are embrac'd and acknowledged by all Christian Churches He that is fully persuaded of the Truth of Christianity and willing to depend for his Salvation upon that plain and essential Part of it which is confessed by all and to lay the great Stress of his Hopes and of his Obedience upon his Creed rather than upon controverted Points he hath what will comfort his Soul and encourage him to live well and he is safe peaceable and unmoveable in the midst of all Divisions he may be doom'd and called Names by them that would impose their Opinions as Articles of Faith but it doth him no harm whilst he stands firm upon the Rock of the Christian Creed and the Christian Life together These two are acknowledged of all sides to be both requisite and sufficient to Salvation Faith and Works together making up the whole Condition of that Gospel-Covenant to which is annexed the Promise of eternal Life Therefore in enquiring why they are all condemn'd as Reprobates that are not of the Roman Communion we must consider what are the Advantages peculiar to that Party I. Whether their Faith be more ancient and Catholick II. Whether their Worship be purer more conformable to God's Word III. And whether their Righteousness exceeds that of all others I. I begin with that Faith which is peculiar to Rome and is at large set down in the Introduction It indeed contains more Articles than that of any other Church and it may still receive further Encrease whilst their Popes and Councils can make and impose new Definitions as necessary but we believe that Saving Truths are neither made by Mens Authority nor evidenced by Number We are contented with that Faith once delivered by Christ and his Apostles and from the Beginning received by the whole Church and for this are declared Hereticks and adjudged to Perdition That Roman Faith about which we differ is made so essential and so necessary that their Converts are appointed by the Roman Pontifical in answer to the Bishops Questions that reconciles him to make an express Profession of it and if he were a noted Heretick even to swear to it condemning all to Damnation that embrace not the same and promising that if ever he acts or believes any thing contrary to that Oath he takes with both his Hands on the holy Evangils he will submit himself to the Severity of the Canons Although we be so far agreed with the Church of Rome as hath been seen before yet they lay so great a Stress upon their new Creed and derive so much of their Devotions from it That it is an astonishing and formidable Change to pass from our Church into theirs Besides the Surprise of their publick Worship which by a great Variety of Ceremonies Images and the Latin Tongue appears very strange They have a prescribed Form of reconciling Hereticks to which none can submit but they that are fully persuaded that those Opinions which became a Creed since the Council of Trent are Part of that Saving Truth of God which must be believed and profest under Pain of eternal Damnation It is not as some may fancy or perhaps are told when solicited to change that they shall find it very easy and be received upon what Terms they please But the Church of Rome as all other wise Societies hath its fixt Rules and Forms and follows them without taking Notice of the Talk or Thoughts of private Persons There is nothing can justify the Change or make it tolerable to a Man of Conscience but the being convinc'd of the Truth and Necessity of these Roman Doctrines which thitherto were no Part of his Creed When he hath search'd and us'd all proper means to understand the Points in Dispute and to satisfy himself and finds himself thoroughly persuaded that there is no Salvation in our Church and that the Belief and Worship peculiar to the Church of Rome are truly Christian and the necessary Terms of our Acceptance with God then is he oblig'd to follow his Light and to make Profession of what he believes to be Truth But till a Man be thus convinc'd his forsaking ours to joyn with the Church of Rome is a great Prevarication against God and Men that will make him odious to both and be inexcusable here and hereafter The formal Abjuration of all that the Roman Church doth condemn and the solemn Profession with a sacred Oath of all her Religious Doctrines and Practices in their full Latitude as is pretended in the Roman Pontifical should make every doubting Person amonst us very serious and very inquisitive cleerly to know what he doth leave and what he must embrace if he resolves to forsake ours and embrace the Roman Communion The case will be much more tolerable with them that were born and educated in that Persuasion if they are in a Mistake they having never profess'd nor perhaps had means to know any thing else is a Plea of which they are not capable who grown to Years of Discretion turn from one Church to another These had need take great Care that they deal uprightly and examine to the Bottom of things otherwise they mock God and Men and must expect to fare accordingly I do not deny but that Persons of Understanding and Sincerity may be prevail'd upon to pass from ours into the Roman Church for whilst Men are mortal they may err and be impos'd upon And may they all obtain Mercy that truly fear God and embrace what they judg to be his Truth though they be mistaken I only say that no Man educated amongst us that really believes his Christian Creed and would not throw his Soul away can make Profession of the Roman Faith till he becomes fully convinc'd of its Truth and Necessity For now it is not as it was before the Council of Trent when the Church of Rome it self had no other Confession of Faith but only the Christian which is common to all Churches and those Opinions which have since become Articles of the Roman Faith needed not be explicitly profest if they were but let alone and not disputed against Whereas now since Pius the 4th Hereticks so called that become Proselytes must make a solemn and express Declaration that they believe every thing that the Church of Rome doth either teach or practise and that they will submit and conform intirely to all that she prescribes either for Faith or for Divine Worship This I say no Man of Conscience or Honour can do till he become equally persuaded of the Truth and Necessity of the Roman as of the Christian Creed Confidence proves nothing and makes nothing to be really Divine and we all know that Religion is not what some Men will call so neither can we believe as we would or as we are bid we must have sufficient Reasons
IMPRIMATUR Septemb. 19. 1687. JO. BATTELY Rmo in Pri. ac Domino Wilhelmo Archiepiscop Cantuar. Ã Sacris domesticis A DISCOURSE SHEWING That Protestants are on the Safer Side notwithstanding the uncharitable Judgment of their Adversaries AND That THEIR RELIGION is the Surest Way to Heaven LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCLXXXVII The PREFACE COming accidentally into a Family always frequented and of late much disturbed by some Roman Catholicks who by fulminating Damnation against all Protestants had terrified some Friends I applied my self to clear their Doubts and to remove those Fears wherewith the Noise and Threats of Hell-fire had affected their Minds This engaged me into a long Debate with one of the Parties who was very positive and earnest in maintaining the utter Impossibility of being saved out of the Church of Rome And upon that it came to be enquired Whether it be their Relation to Rome or their Relation to Christ that Men are to be saved by Whether our State of Eternity depends upon the Talk or Confidence or hard Censures of Men or or upon the Truth of our Religion and our Sincerity in professing of it Whether it be the ever-living God or any mortal Men that make true Religion Whether that be not the Best which best agrees with the Divine Revelation And whether our Saviour had referr'd us to Rome and the Papal Authority for the knowledg of Saving Truth or plainly taught by Himself and by his Apostles all that is requisit and sufficient to Salvation About these we differ'd but yet agreed upon the whole that the great odds in point of safety which they apprehend to be betwixt them and us must be grounded upon the Excellency of their Religion above ours and must therefore appear in their Faith Worship and Morals which are the essential parts of Religion and make it right or wrong according as they are themselves The Talk I then had about this Subject and the occasion of it put me upon writing the ensuing Discourse Wherein my chiefest Aim hath been to fix my Reader upon that which is positive with us and is maintained on all sides that being altogether requisit and of it self sufficient to make a Man a good Christian And then to consider those Points in belief and practice about which we differ and to shew on which side lies the Advantage for means of Grace and certainty of Salvation The INTRODUCTION THE Church of Rome would not only have all her Dictates received as Divine and true but would likewise have nothing received as such but what she delivers insomuch that her Writers would persuade us that we can have no Assurance of the Truth of our common Christianity because we receive it not from the Infallible Chair and rely not on its Authority for the proving of it As if a Man could not know and firmly believe that Jesus Christ came into the World to save Sinners without so much as having heard any thing of a Roman Church and her Infallibility And as if those great Truths which God hath revealed were not to be embrac'd and assented to because they are his but depended upon the good Pleasure of a Party of Men who can no more add greater Authority to what God hath declared than they can make their own Sayings of an equal Authority with God's We can admit that Church for a joint Witness with other Christian Churches that the Bible is the Word of God and that the Christian Creed is the Catholick Faith But there is no reason to think that any thing is the more true or the more necessary meerly because she saith it That which is equally attested by all Christian Churches who were all Depositories of the Divine Oracles and of the Christian Religion hath a cogent and a clear Evidence But that wherein she stands divided from all the rest and bears witness only to her own Prerogatives is either true because she asserts it which none will dare to say or ought to be proved by the Testimony of the whole Christian Church and of Divine Revelation which she can never do So we have this great Advantage in those things which we assert as Points of Saving Faith that we have the plain and express Words of Holy Scripture and the Concurrence of the whole Church whereas those things which we reject are made a Creed only by one particular Church not above one hundred Years agone and have no Ground in Holy Writ Some may dispute with us about our Rites or Discipline or some abstruse and disputable Points But for that Faith whereon we ground our Hopes of Salvation nothing can be objected against it It is the same wherein every Christian is baptised the same which was before the Reformation and before the Want of it in Times of greatest Purity the same Faith was profest and in the worst of Times under the greatest Corruptions it was still preserved and that not in one Kingdom or only here in the West but in all Patriarchates and in all Christian Churches in the World We have neither added nor diminish'd nor made any Alteration in that Rule of Faith which is the Badge and the Ground of Christianity So that as to this Point our Religion is now as it was long before Luther We have no other Creed than that which was universally profest all along Our Dispute with the Church of Rome is about their new one made since Luther and profest no where else but in her Communion that we cannot embrace It hath neither the same Authority from God nor from Men as hath the Catholick Belief To make this plain here I set the two Creeds at large to be consulted as the Reader finds occasion The Catholick and Apostolick Creed explained by the Nicene and the Athanasian in what concerns our Saviour's Divinity but never enlarged until the Council of Trent I Believe in God the Father Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord. Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary Suffered undâ—r Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried He descended into Hell the third Day he arose again from the Dead He ascended into Heaven and sitteth on the Right Hand of God the Father Almighty From thence he shall come to judg the Duick and the Dead I believe in the Holy Ghost The Holy Catholick Church The Communion of Saints The Forgiveness of Sins The Resurrection of the Body And the Life everlasting The Roman Creed I Most stedfastly admit and embrace the Apostolical and Ecclesiastical Traditions with the rest of the Constitutions and Observations of the Roman Church I also receive the Holy Scripture according to that sense which the Holy Mother Church whose it is to interpret it hath held and doth hold nor will ever understand or interpret it otherwise than acccording to the unanimous Consent of the Fathers I profess also that there are seven true
they use none but the Apostles Creed and to make them Members of Christ and of his Church and Heirs of his Kingdom oblige them to the Profession of no other Articles but those that are the ancient Confession of Faith common to all Christian Churches Nay more whilst they live in that Communion in all Acts of Worship and when they die in it and are to make the last Confession of that Saving Faith of which they soon expect the End and Consummation they use none but the three Catholick Creeds the Roman serves only to tie all Power and Government to St. Peter's Chair and to persecute Hereticks withal So that this Roman Creed being for Temporal Advantages being not contain'd in the Word of God nor proved by the Testimony nor by the Miracles of the Primitive Church nor received by former Ages nor by any Church but the Roman nor by that but very lately and only in some cases profest we have great reason to believe that it is in no wise necessary to Salvation The Christian and universal Creed having been esteemed sufficient without any other for more than fifteen hundred Years ought to be so esteemed still without this Addition which is proved but by very unlikely and uncertain Miracles and by the Attestation of but that one particular Church for whose Wealth and Grandeur it so intirely makes These things considered we ought no ways to be dismayed with the frightful Words or Countenance of any that pronounce us accurs'd and damn'd because we hold not nor can believe what Pius the 4th did lately declare to be de Fide requisite to Salvation We shall find saving Instructions and Comfort enough in the Christian Creed which God's Word expresly confirms and the whole Church hath ever own'd if we embrace and study more and more the Divine and invariable Truths it contains and sincerely endeavour to lead our Lives accordingly II. What I have affirmed of the Roman Faith is to be understood also of the Roman Worship That Part of it which is not approved by us is very bad palliated or reproved by the cunningest or wisest of their Church or however no ways necessary which is all I am at present concerned in Indeed as to the Essentials of Divine Worship all Christians are agreed That God should have our Prayers and Praises in the Name of Jesus Christ our Mediator even the matter of our Requests is fixt and uniform amongst all that own the Lord's Prayer so far the Church of Rome hath many excellent and ancient Composures very unlike those new ones we reject That part of their publick or private Worship which is grounded upon the Christian Creed is very good and if they went no further we might as lawfully joyn with them as they might with us We have inserted nothing doubtful or controverted in our Offices of Religion nothing but what as to the sense is used and approved by all Churches Had they done so and extended their Worship no further than could be justified by that Christian Belief which is common to all the Differences betwixt them and other Christians had been much less and more reconcileable But they have turned all the Points of their new Creed into Exercises of publick Religion and these we do not think to be acceptable to God nor requisite to acquit us of that Adoration and Service which we ow to his Divine Majesty We are persuaded that without making or worshipping Images of God we may pay him that Homage which he requires of us that if we devoutly commemorate our Saviour's Passion and with thankful Hearts put our Trust in the Merits of it we shall not need to worship the Figure of his Cross and that if we lift up our Hearts to Heaven to adore him on the Right Hand of God we need not worship the Host here on Earth which many Christians believe to be only the Sacrament of his Death and none can be sure to be the Substance of his natural Body no not according to the Tenents of the Church of Rome Likewise that Part of their Worship which relates to Creatures the solemn Blessing or consecrating Images that being hallowed they may be fit to be set up to receive Incense and Oblations and many Honours and to excite their Devotion to Saints and Angels their manifold Pilgrimages and Prayers to those beatified Creatures The great dependence they express to have upon their Intercession their Merit and their Power The many Miracles and Mercies they are said to receive from them And the high Celebrations and Returns of religious Gratitude which they render to them All these which make too great a Part of their publick and private Devotions we have great reason to believe to be inconsistent with God's revealed Will and with our Duty and Obligations to him or however no ways necessary I appeal to them that have either read the New Testament or learned the Creed the Lord's Prayer and the ten Commandments which all Churches teach to be the Principles of the Christian Religion whether our calling upon him in whom we believe and serving him alone that hath declared himself jealous of his Honour and using no Images in our Addresses to him that hath forbid them and approaching to God by that one Mediator whom he hath appointed and who died and merited all for us and bad us come to him and use his Name alone in all our Requests Whether this Worship which is paid to God amongst us be not more conformable to his holy Word and to the Grounds of our common Christianity than that which is established in the Church of Rome Whatever they may think of us where the Inquisition reigns and under it blind Ignorance and a terrible Aversion against them that are called Hereticks yet elsewhere Men of better Sense and greater Instruction though of the same Church can hardly pronounce us to be God's Enemies and the Objects of his Wrath because we are afraid to give his Glory to others and to transgress his Laws or however their Thoughts will not alter the case and can do us no Harm we having a Rule of God's own prescribing to believe and to worship by and whilst we render to God the things that are God's we need not fear the rash Censures of uncharitable Men. We have the Warrant of Holy Scripture and the Concurrence and Approbation of all Christian Churches for the Worship establish'd in our Church if accordingly we serve God with Sincerity and Devotion we shall have the Reward of them that diligently seek him however we transgress no Law of his and we run no Risk But if the worshipping of Saints and Images should prove unacceptable the Papists run a great Danger they having neither Antiquity nor Scripture for the same whilst the Admonitions of their Fellow Christians and some Divine Prohibitions are point-blank against it III. As for the Necessity of a good Life our Church recommends it at least as much as the Roman All
Christians believe a Judgment to come and a Retribution to Men according to their Works so we have all the same Promises of God and the same Rewards propounded to encourage us to do good we believe the same Threats and the same Punishments to deter us from Evil we all think our selves obliged to Morality and to be truly vertuous knowing that without Holiness no Man shall see God and I make no doubt but that in other Christian Communions as well as in ours there are many who truly fear God and work Righteousness The Difference betwixt us and the Roman Church is not whether or no we ought to be good but every one in either Church according to his Sincerity and his firm Perswasion of the Truth of Christianity endeavours to approve himself to the Searcher of Hearts so far we are agreed They have many things in their Roman Creed and in their Worship which we cannot approve but we have the same Rules of Life the same Divine Laws to direct our Obedience And I would to God we did all join in those things which admit of no Dispute and wherein we are all agreed and did lay the great Stress of our Hopes and of our Endeavours on them viz. the hearty Profession of the same Christian Creed the sincere Worship of the same God Father Son and Holy Ghost and a serious Earnestness to follow the Example and the Precepts of our common Saviour and to live in this present World soberly righteously and godly These that are the great things of God and the Foundations of Christian Religion and of true Goodness being owned on both sides if they were minded as our Interest in them and their Certainty do require would go near to compose our Differences in other things and to restrain that uncharitable Zeal which hath doom'd to Damnation Millions of good Christians However they that truly believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith and worship God according to his Will and our Saviour's Institutions and are careful to live like Christians worthy of the Gospel need not regard those Devices nor fear those Judgments which proceed only from Men they may be true and happy Saints both here and hereafter that have for Faith and the Service of God and for a Holy Life all that is of Divine Appointment without the Roman Additions Our rejecting what the Church of Rome hath for her Interest imposed where her Power doth reach will in no wise exclude us from Heaven if we be true to what we own If by our Life and Profession we confess Christ here before Men and are not ashamed of him nor of his Words we need not fear he should hereafter disown us because of their Anger that would have us take for Gospel whatever they dictate Damnation shall not be inflicted according to Mens Passions and Uncharitableness we ought to run from the Danger of it as far as is possible by preserving that Faith we were baptized into pure and undefiled and by living according to it But had the Promises of Mercy and Salvation been annexed to our Submission to Rome either the unversal Church would have clearly expressed it in making Men Members of Christ and Heirs of his Kingdom or to be sure God would have revealed it And seeing none of these is done it doth plainly demonstrate that such a Submission is designed for Temporal Power but no ways requisite to bring Men to Heaven and that consequently the hard Sentence of Roman Bigots against us may be prejudicial to them but can do us no Harm This might suffice to shew that we are safe notwithstanding their Outcries of Damnation against us that Part of their Religion which is called Popery being no Part of God's revealed Will and Saving Truth nor of the Primitive and Catholick Christianity embraced by the whole Christian Church In point of Faith or of Divine Worship what is peculiar to them is far enough from being necessary and for Rules of Conversation we have the same Precepts and believe the same Promises and the same Punishments So that though we reject many of their own Inventions yet still we want nothing necessary to Salvation and in order to it they have no Advantage over us But I may not stay here The Interest of Truth and human Souls obligeth me to say farther that we are safer in our Church and have several Advantages for the obtaining Comfort and eternal Happiness of which they are destitute in the Church of Rome First I say that we are safer What we believe as an Article of Faith is undoubtedly true owned by all Christians in all Ages of the World and plainly revealed in God's Word whereas those Traditions which the Church of Rome hath tack'd to the ancient Faith are newly coyn'd yet more newly made a Creed are not warranted by Divine Revelation nor embraced by Christians of other Communions And what a Presumption is it to change the Terms of Salvation and make those things necessary which God hath not prescribed and the Christian Church for many hundred Years hath not owned as a Part of her Saving Faith This is so like adding to the Book of God preaching another Gospel and teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of Men that we think our selves much safer within the ancient Boundaries and look upon it as a very dangerous Attempt to make new Creeds and impose them upon Mens Consciences especially when those Additions are not only beyond what is written but also of another Nature and even contrary The Christian Creed is for Life everlasting the Roman for the Roman Greatness the Christian expresseth our Obligations to God and our dependence upon him the Roman is a Profession of Subjection to Rome the Christian engageth Men to serve God only the Roman to worship Creatures also the Christian makes our Blessed Redeemer to be our only Mediator the Roman joyns to him the blessed Saints and the Blessed Virgin There are so many things in all Appearance very irreconcileable betwixt these two Confessions of Faith that the Roman cannot be safe and that we may conclude without Uncharitableness that they of that Persuasion that shall attain to Heaven shall not come thither by the Help of the Roman Doctrines but by discharging their Baptismal Engagements which are the same with ours and by professing the ancient common Creed of all Christians The Points of their own Creed are so far from conducing to Mens Salvation that they rather will prove great Hindrances to it They engage Men in a Worship very unlike to what we read in the Apostolical Writings or the antient Fathers Besides the unknown Tongue and the maim'd Communion there is so much of it that is meerly humane and ceremonious so much of it that relates to the Souls in Purgatory or the Saints in Heaven that we wish it may meet with Pardon but cannot think it should find Acceptance There are so many strange Exorcisms and Consecrations in their Rituals and Pontifical that after
by joyning with the publick Worship whilst they attend and understand what the Church saith to God and what he saith to us are much improved in those great Principles of Religion which they learn'd in their Catechism and are made to grow in Grace and in the knowledg of the Lord. They have in these two what perpetually informs their Judgment and excites their Will to cleave to God and Goodness and after their best Endeavours to rely upon those infinite Mercies of God in Christ our Redeemer on which the greatest of Roman Champions confessed that it is most safe to repose our whole Trust and Confidence Answerable to those are the publick Exhortations of our Church by the Mouth of her Ministers and the Books of Religious Instruction wherewith she entertains her Children Their Time and Zeal and Attention are not taken up in Sprinklings Kissings of Reliques going in Pilgrimage visiting of Shrines paying devout Veneration to Saints and Images and reciting Beads and Rosaries and the Offices of St. Bridget or the like Neither these things nor any of this Nature which can neither instruct nor reform the World nor give Comfort to Christian Souls are recommended to our People They are clearly taught wherein true Religion and substantial Goodness consist and exhorted to lay on them the great Stress of their Hopes and of their Endeavours and devoutly to make use of those means of Grace which are of Divine Appointment and thereby to establish their Hearts in the Love of God and a chearful dependence upon the infinite Merits and Mercies of our dear Saviour Nothing of the whole Counsel of God is by our Church kept back from us our Belief is unquestionable being truly Primitive and Universal our Worship of God is according to his Will and his most blessed Nature and our Rule of Life and Conversation comprehends all Duties To fear God and honour the King and love one another and continue patient in well-doing Ours is indeed a Doctrine according to Godliness and of it it may be testified in the Words of St. Peter that it is the true Grace of God wherein we stand If we are not wanting to our selves we want nothing that can either shew us the Way to Happiness or help and forward us in it we ought to express our Charity to them that err and want many of those Blessings and Advantages which we have for the obtaining eternal Salvation we should earnestly pray for them and what we can promote their Instruction but by no means fear their Threatnings and Sentences of Damnation He that in earnest would go to Heaven and professeth Christianity not to obtain Favour with Men but to please God and to save his immortal Soul can be no where safer than in our Church Therein he professeth that Faith which all Christian Communions hold to be truly Divine and therein he may make his Calling and Election sure if he will but practise answerably to his Belief add to his Faith Vertue and not be unfruitful in the knowledg of our Lord Jesus Christ The more he understands his Religion the more he will love it and be convinc'd that he is in the right And the more carefully he lives according to his Profession with a Conscience void of Offence towards God and towards Men the more assurance will he have that he shall be happy All other Grounds of Hope besides Truth and Righteousness will prove vain But he that stands upon the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner-Stone He that studies and minds his Duty and earnestly begs for the Divine Assistance that he may live to God and remain faithful unto Death he shall receive the Crown of Life though some presumptuous Men dare condemn him to Death Whatever Confidence or high Pretences some may have whatever Ways and Devices they invent for to gain Heaven Christ is the Way the Truth and the Life no Man cometh unto the Father but by him there is no other Name under Heaven given unto Men whereby they can be saved but only the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ He that calleth and believeth on him shall not be confounded Here let us fix and not regard what Men say nor what they can do But look unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith firmly relying on his Almighty Goodness who is able to save them to the uttermost that come to God by him being ever living to make Intercession for them FINIS BOOKS lately Printed for Richard Chiswell THE Pillar and Ground of Truth A Treatise shewing that the Roman Church falsly claims to be That Church and the Pillar of That Truth mentioned by S. Paul in his first Epistle to Timothy Chap. 3. Vers 15. 4o. The Peoples Right to read the Holy Scripture Asserted 4o. A Short Summary of the principal Controversies between the Church of England and the Church of Rome being a Vindication of several Protestant Doctrines in Answer to a Late Pamphlet Intituled Protestancy destitute of Scripture Proofs 4o. Two Discourses Of Purgatory and Prayers for the Dead An Answer to a Late Pamphlet Intituled The Judgment and Doctrine of the Clergy of the Church of England concerning one Special Branch of the King's Prerogative viz. In dispensing with the Penal Laws 4o. The Notes of the Church as laid down by Cardinal Bellarmin examined and confuted 4o. Preparation for Death Being a Letter sent to a young Gentlewoman in France in a dangerous Distemper of which she died The Difference between the Church of England and the Church of Rome in opposition to a late Book Intituled An Agreement between the Church of England and Church of Rome A PRIVATE PRAYER to be used in Difficult Times A True Account of a Conference held about Religion at London Sept. 29 1687 between A. Pulton Jesuit and Tho. Tennison D. D. as also of that which led to it and followed after it 4o. The Vindication of A. Cressener Schoolmaster in Long-Acre from the Aspersions of A. Pulton Jesuit Schoolmaster in the Savoy together with some Account of his Discourse with Mr. Meredith A Discourse shewing that Protestants are on the safer Side notwithstanding the uncharitable Judgment of their Adversaries and that Their Religion is the surest Way to Heaven 4o. Six Conferences concerning the Eucharist wherein is shewed that the Doctrine of Transubstantiation overthrows the Proofs of Christian Religion