by him on that publick and charitable Design as the Lands they call Commons are left to certain Parishes who are never to be fenced in for private use but still left open for publick Benefit Nor did I ever hear of any Man that valued Mony the less because it passed thorow many hands before it came to his nor a good Receipt the worse because 't was given him by another and not found out by himself and therefore since you now find your self infected with a foul malignant Inclination to Popery and since I can here give you a Sovereign Medicine against it never trouble your self to examin who found it out where the Drugs grew or from whence they came or from whom I had them so they can cure you And this I am sure I can truly say That what I have taken out of Doctor Tillotson's Sermon was not to shew my own good reading but to set out your bad Religion which is chiefly made up of Ceremony and Shew But the Papist bids the Protestant Hereticks hold their prating for they have an Argument and a Questio that 's able to knock them all in the Head sure they mean only such a have no Brains in them Their Argument is as very common as 't is highly irrational which is this The Protestant Church holds a Papist may be saved the Roman Church denies that a Protestant can therefore 't is wiser and more safe to be of that Church to which Salvation is granted on both sides But this is a weak sophistical kind of reasoning and only fit to take such as have no Reason for by this Argument the then Donatists that held the Baptism of the Catholicks was not good and the Catholicks that held the Baptism of the Donatists was good shou'd make it reasonable to infer that therefore St. Austin and the other Catholicks ought according to this Rule to have gon and been re baptized by the Donatists because both sides acknowledged their Baptism to be good St. Paul also owned a Possibility of Salvation tho' with great Difficulty to those who built with Straw and Stubble on the Fouudation of Christianity that is who built upon the Jewish Ceremonies and Observances but they denied a Possibility of Salvation to St. Paul and his Followers saying Vnless they were circumcised and kept the Law of Moses they could not be saved so that by this worthy Argument St. Paul and his Followers ought to have gon over to those Judaizing Christians because it was acknowledged by both sides that they might be saved but St. Paul was too wise to leave a certain way of Salvation only for a meer Possibility of being saved Their Question is a Twin-Brother in Ignorance to this their Argument for the Papists ask the Protestants Where was their Church before Luther who answer Where their Church was never since the Council of Trent in the Bible where I am sure the Papist will find none of the Councils Twelve New Articles of Faith recorded as being never taught by our Blessed Saviour or ever so much as mentioned by any of his Apostles in any of their Epistles or Writings and yet forsooth these are the Old Apostolical Doctrins which none who does not believe can be saved yet I shall beg your Patience to give me leave to name and look a little into some of these new Trent Articles of Faith The first shall be on that Unchristian Doctrin as Doctor Tillotson justly stiles it called Transubstantiation and the reason the Reverend Doctor names it Unchristian is because 't is a Doctrin that undermines the very Foundation of Christianity as will plainly appear says he if we but consider the grand Argument the Apostles used to convince the World of the Truth of Christianity and that was this That our Blessed Saviour the Author of this Doctrin wrought such and such Miracles and appeared to them and conversed with them after his Death which they confirm by an Infallible Testimony which the Papist will not allow as such because they will believe no Infallibility out of their own Church That they themselves were Eye witnesses both to his Miracles and Resurrection So that 't is absolutely necessary to rely on the Testimony of the Senses for if the Apostles Eyes had failed them then they were not sure they saw his Miracles or himself after his Resurrection and then the main Assurance of Christ's being risen falls to the Ground and all the Christian Doctrin was buried with him in his Grave for if there be no assurance in the Testimony of the Senses there 's no Assurance of Christianity because no assurance of Christ's being risen from the Dead so that the Buisiness is brought to this fair Issue If the Testimony of the Senses are to be trusted then Transubstantiation is false and if they are not to be trusted then no man can say that Christian Religion is true for the Apostles seeing Christ after his Resurrection is the great proof we have that he is risen Farther granting the Scripture to be a Divine Revelation and that these words This is my Body must be necessarily taken in a strict literal Sense I ask the Papist What greater Evidence has any Man that these words are in the Bible than every Man has that the Bread is not changed in the Sacrament Nay none has so much for we have only the Evidence of one Sense that these words are in the Bible but that the Bread is not changed into the Body of Christ we have the concurring Testimony of several of the Senses together How erroneous then must the Doctrin of the Church of Rome be in this point that holds it to be a principal Article of the Christian Faith and so preached by the Apostles by which they throw a great Contradiction and Absurdity on their Doctrin that they should give for the great proof of the Truth of Christianity That the Senses are to be trusted and at the same time give it for one of the Articles of the Christian Faith that the Senses are not to be trusted as the Apostles must do if they did Preach the Doctrin of Transubstantiation which is an utter denying that the Testimony of the Senses are to be relied on In a word if it once be admitted that the Senses of all Men may be deceived in the most plain and sensible Matters that can be for there can be no greater difference than between a little bit of a Wafer and the whole Body of a Man there 's no way left to convey or prove a Divine Revelation But the Papist in answer to this ask's us Whether God cannot impose upon the Senses of Men and represent to them things otherwise than they are Yes surely if he has revealed that he wou'd we are undoubtedly to believe him but then we ought to be assured that he hath made such a Revelation which assurance no Man can have the certainty of Sense being taken away But to shew you that this Doctrin
of Transubstantiation is far from being Apostolical it was brought into the Roman Church by the Lateran Council under Pope Innocent the Third and with it that Reverend Doctrin of deposing Kings in case of Heresie and absolving their Subjects from their Allegiance These are two Twin-Doctrins that hunted in Couples and for the last tho' they are now asham'd to own it yet the Popes were not formerly shy to practise it Next their worshipping of Images which practice notwithstanding all their subtle Distinctions and Evasions about it is but the very same the Heathens us'd in the same Case and is as point blank against the Second Commandment as wilful Murther is against the Sixth which the Popish Teachers are so sensible of and so afraid the People should be so too that therefore in their ordinary Catechisms and Manuals of Devotion they leave out the Second Commandment and divide the Tenth into two to make up the Number That the Infallible Church of Rome might not appear so fallible as to act so contrary to the Commands of God I shall pass by their taking away the Cup in the Sacrament from the Laity tho' our Saviour ordered it to be given in both kinds and they might as well take away the Bread as the Cup and both as either And for the Papists praying in an unknown Tongue do but read St. Paul on that Subject as to the great Errour of doing it and he will satisfie you tho' he cannot convince them Next let us refiect a little upon that part of the Romish Doctrin of praying to and worshipping of the Virgin Mary which hath been now for some Ages past a principal Part of their Religion for they build Chappels erect Altars and sanctify Holy-days to her in short she makes the greatest Part both of their Publick Worship and private Devotions they praying to her more than either to God or our Saviour the Papist using ten Ave Maries for one Pater Noster Indeed one who considers this and had never read the Bible might well have concluded that there had been more said of her in the New Testament than of God or Christ and that it had been full from one End to the other of Precepts and Exhortations for the worshipping of her yet I defy any Papist to shew me as to this Doctrin of praying to the Virgin Mary where she 's so much as once named by the Apostles in any of their Epistles or where there 's one Verse in the whole Bible that savours in the least of paying Worship to her but rather the contrary our Saviour seeming to take all Occasions to restrain us from it as when they told him Your Mother and your Brethren are without who says he are my Mother and my Brethren he that doth the Will of my Father the same is my Mother my Sister and my Brother And when the Woman broke out in a Rapture concerning the blessed Mother of the Lord blessed is the Womb that bare thee and the Paps that gave thee suck our Saviour diverts it to another thing by saying Yea rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it does our Saviour or his Apostles in any of their particular Directions and Precepts concerning Prayer and the Manner of it and by whom we are to address our selves to God give the least hint or intimation of praying to the Virgin Mary or making use of her Mediation for us or is there one Verse in the whole Bible that orders us in the least to pay her Worship In short did God ever command it did ever our Saviour teach it did ever the Apostles Preach it or did ever the Primitive Christians practise it Nay did any of the Writers of the first three hundred Years ever name any such thing as paying her Worship or making her any part of their Religion Indeed about the middle of the fourth Century it begun to creep in among some superstitious Persons and therefore Epiphanius who lived about that time call'd it the Heresie of Women And since 't is so much taught and commonly practised in the Roman Church without the least Colour of a Command in God's Word for it give me leave a little to reflect on the Infallibility that the Roman Church pretends to because I am sure this is a Doctrin that 's able to bring into her as many Errours as she thinks convenient to receive which is more than a few and yet this infallible Church cannot yet tell where this Infallibility is seated whether in the Pope alone or in a Council alone or in both together or in a diffusive Body of Christians but they are sure they have it tho' they know not where it is Indeed I can't imagin how they or any can think it reasonable that this Infallibility was confirmed on the Church of Rome and that all the primitive Christians did believe it and had recourse to it and yet that this very Roman Church should be still at a loss where 't is and that should make a difference which should be the End of all Differences That not one word should be intimated in all the Bible of this high and peculiar Priviledge above all other Churches and that the Apostles in all their Epistles should give no notice or caution to Christians to appeal to the Bishop of Rome for determining any Difficulties which even in those Times hapned among them and that they should then never speak of it tho' there were so many occasions for it Nor that the Ancient Fathers in all their Disputes with the Hereticks should never appeal to this Judge nay that they should not do it in all Cases of difference it being such a sure and speedy way of ending them all among Christians And so I have done with Doctor Tillotson's Arguments and 't were well for the Papist he had done with their Religion too for his Reasonings and Arguments like skrew'd Guns they carry farther and pierce deeper than any others which are of the ordinary level among us And now by this Infallible Churches leave tho' I pretend not in the least to be a Scholar much less a Divine yet I doubt not without being either to prove the Roman Church since her adding twelve New Articles of Faith to the Old Apostolical Creed which were coyn'd in the Mint of Trent and published by Pope Pius the Fourth to be very false and erroneous in her Principles tho' she does with so much Confidence but no Truth say that she holds at this time the old true Catholick and Apostolical Faith and yet declares her self to believe at the same time the new Trent Creed to be the true Catholick Faith without which no Man can be saved which are the very words in that Creed But before I make any farther Progress on this Subject I will recommend to you two Remarks well worth your Observation on this worthy Council The first is its heedless contradicting and forswearing in the very first Article The
second is the want of Christian Charity by damning all the Churches before Trent Council Two foul Crimes very unbecoming a General Council whose business is not to perform but reform Sin Now you must first know that the Observance of the twelve Trent Articles of Faith are bound upon all by Oath and in the very first Article they declare to embrace the Apostolical and Ecclesiastical Tradition and yet at the very same time swear to observe all that 's decreed by that Council which orders that the Holy Communion shall be administred to the Laity but in one kind when for above a thousand Years after Christ it was given to them in both in all the Christian Churches over the whole World and the Roman Church cannot deny but that it was our Saviour's Command as well as all the Churches practice for so many years Nay in the fourth Article of the Trent Creed they use these very words That they receive and approve the Rites of the Catholick Church in the solemn Administration of the Sacraments and yet tho' the receiving it in both kinds is both Apostolical Tradition and Ecclesiactical Practice yet they positively forbid it to the Laity The Conclusion makes it self My second Observation is how uncharitable this Council is and all its Disciples in their condemning all other Churches for surely these Trent Creed-makers have not so much Impudence tho' I know they have a great deal as to pretend to follow our Blessed Saviour's charitable Doctrin who commands us to pray for our Enemies but this worthy Council is so very far from praying for their Enemies as they damn their very Friends the old Roman Church with all the Christian Churches dispersed over the Face of the whole Earth for she no more than the rest did ever hear before the Council of Trent that its twelve New Articles was the old true Catholick and Apostolical Faith without which no Man can be saved all I shall say to this is that as Charity covers many Faults so the want of it discovers many Vices which is apparent in the Church of Rome more than all because she shews less Charity than any My next business is to shew you that from the days of the Apostles to the Time of the Trent Council among the many Creeds named by Athanasius Eusebius and others none of them ever made the least attempt of altering or much less of adding any one new Article of Faith but only explain'd the Old esteeming the Apostles Creed to be fully sufficient being as Tertullian elegantly stiles it A Little Body of great Truths The Rule of Faith instituted by Christ and transmitted from him to his Apostles I could here for the Confirmation of this Truth produce you the Testimonies of all the Eminent Fathers of all Ages of the Christian Church but that would not only tire your Patience but swell this Letter above the moderate Bounds of one to prevent which I shall only quote you some few of the many which will be enough to justifie that all acknowledged this great known Truth that there was never added any new Article of Faith to the old Apostolical Creed before the Trent Council Therefore I shall only here name you the first four General Councils those of Nice Constantinople Ephesus and Chalcedon And as to the first of these Councils when the Nicene Fathers met to settle the Controversie about the Son of God they were so far from making any new Creed or adding any New Article to the Old that they expounded only the meaning of one of the Articles the Sense of which the Arians had perverted and had therefore little Design of changing or adding to the Christian Faith contain'd in the Apostles Creed when at their meeting they read no other Creed but it And St. Austin before he began his Explication on the first Book of Genesis sets down what the Catholick Faith is which he says is nothing else but what is contain'd in the Nicene Creed But what need I alledge more than the words of the great Athanasius on this Subject in the Letter which he and some other Bishops with him writ to the Emperour Jovian where they tell him that the Faith professed by the Nicene Fathers was the very same which was Preach'd from the beginning and unto which all the Churches every where consented to whether in Greece Africk Spain France Italy c. with all the Churches of the East a few Arians excepted and then setting down the Nicene Creed they conclude in this Faith 't is necessary for all to remain as being Divine and Apostolical and therefore not to be changed which is a most plain Declaration by the Council of Trens's leave that the Faith contained in this Creed is not at all defective and short as the Trentonians did believe it was by their adding more to it And Irenaeus says that the true Church throughout all the World hath but one and the same Faith she had from the beginning which I 'm sure plainly concludes that the now Roman Church cannot be the true Church because it holds not the same Faith now she did in the beginning having enlarg'd her Creed by twelve new Articles of Faith coyn'd in the Council of Trent and never heard of in any Christian Church in the whole World before that late worthy Council For the second general Council of Constantinople I shall not need name here since it contain'd the same of the first general Council of Nice And for the third general Council assembl'd at Ephesus all the Fathers of it were so fast united together in this Perswasion that the Apostles Creed contain'd all things necessary to be believ'd as that Council decreed that it should not be lawful for any to write compose offer or produce any other Article of Faith than those defined by the Nicene Council and if any were so bold as to dare the doing of it if they were-Lay-men they should be Anathematiz'd and if they were Clergymen or Bishops they should be deposed which plainly informs us what would become of the present Pope and his Clergy if he and they had attempted then what they profess to do now which is to add no less than twelve new Articles of Faith as if the old Apostolical Creed was not sufficient and compleat enough to make up the new Romish Church Faith without the new Trent Addition And for the fourth general Council of Chalcedon it renewed this Canon of the Council of Ephesus decreeing in a manner the very same words only with this difference to Lay-men is added Monks against whom the Synod decreed an Anathema if they pretended to teach any other Faith I could also here name the fifth general Council held at Constantinople under the Emperour Justinian which Council professed in their third Session that they embraced the same Faith with the four foregoing Councils of Nice Constantinople Ephesus and Chalcedon and so did all the other general Councils sing the same Note that
it to be too short and defective by their adding twelve new Articles of Faith to it since 't is gross folly to add to a thing what one believes does not want any Addition And now I have given you a Lease of Popes against one Pope and four General Councils against one only pretended one for I can esteem that of Trent no other being made up of a Pack of Italian Bishops and so in effect was no more general than the single Roman Church is Catholick and Universal And tho' the Papists know there was a Catholick Church before a Roman yet they will now include the Catholick in the Roman and upon that account call themselves Roman Catholicks a singular Universal Church But Popish Bulls are so very common in Rome as they are to be the less wondred at for it And so I hope I have sufficiently prov'd that this Question of the Papist to the Protestants is very impertinent Where was your Religion before Luther To which Question we can truly answer as we did before Where I am sure the Popish Creed never was since the Council of Trent in the Bible And therefore since the Papists will attempt casting Novelty on the Protestant Religion they ought not to wonder I here speak Truth of theirs For this their Question to us will but prove to them like a Gun very much overcharg'd which instead of hitting the Mark 't is shot at flies about the Ears of him that shoots it For I can safely say because truly that the present Roman Church with her Train of Trent Additions cannot be the same true Old Catholick and Apostolical Church that she was before the Time of that Council because she has taken a New Creed and a New Creed must make a New Church as well as a New Faith must make a New Religion and therefore she cannot be altogether the Old Catholick and Apostolical Church she now so confidently pretends to and vainly boasts of as being the Mistress and Mother of all Churches when in truth she 's far from being so to any one of them except that of Trent of which we yield her to be the true Mother as will here appear upon a short Examination into this Matter First the Roman Church cannot justly call her present Faith to be altogether Old because a great part of it is altogether New as only taking its Date from the Birth of the Council of Trent and all know 't is not much more than a hundred Years since that Council was hatch'd so that the Trent Creed making now a main part of the Romish Faith which is a Truth the Papists dare not deny without denying a main part of their present Faith how is it possible she can pretend her Faith is altogether Old when she must yield at the same Time that no less than twelve Articles of the now Roman Church Faith is in a manner altogether New and how well new Cloth agrees with an Old Garment the Scripture tells us Nor has the Roman Church any better reason for stiling her self altogether Catholick because a main part of the Faith of her Church is not universally believ'd no not by half the Christian Churches I wonder for my part 't is by any so that until the Papists can make the lesser part to contain the greater they must not expect to make the Protestants believe the single Roman Church can contain the Catholick that is the universal Church And for the Roman Church stiling her self altogether Apostolical I cannot at all find she has the least Colour of Reason for it since the Date of the Trent Creed which is the present Romish Faith for 't is most certain that Creed was never so much as heard of much less taught by any of the Apostles in any of their Epistles or Writings or ever nam'd in any Christian Church over the whole World for more than fifteen hundred Years after Christ so that an Infant may as well pretend to be as old as Methusalem as the New Trent Creed can to be the old Apostolical Faith Therefore to sum up all in a word Since the Trent Creed makes a main part of the Romish Faith all the Reasons the Papists can give in my opinion for their Faith being altogether Apostolical and their Church the Mother of all Churches is but that poor weak Womanish kind of reasoning She is so because she is so But for the Protestant Religion I can here easily and truly prove it to be altogether Old altogether Catholick and altogether Apostolical The Protestant Religion is truly altogether Old because we believe the old Apostolical Creed which contains the Doctrins of our Blessed Saviour given by him to his Apostles and confirmed by the first four General Councils which Creed we continue stedfast to without the least taking from it or adding to it which the Papists with their additional New Trent Creed cannot justly nay so much as pretend to So that 't is most certain that unless the Papists will deny the Apostolical Religion to be the Old Religion they cannot truly say the Protestants is the New And let the Papists but seriously reflect on the Trent Creed they believe now and on that of the first four General Councils which was the Faith the Romish Church held then and I am sure they may as reasonably attempt to prove a Son may be elder than his natural Father as to pretend to justifie that the Trent Creed of not much more than a hundred Years standing to be elder than the Apostles Creed which was made above fifteen hundred Years before it And therefore surely the Roman Church cannot or least ought not to deny that since the Protestant Faith is still contain'd intire in the Apostles Creed it must be so many degrees elder than the Roman Faith as the Roman Church hath built new Stories on the old Protestant Foundation since at the Time of the first four General Councils for then Protestant and Papist were all one Faith so that if the Roman Church will allow what they dare not deny that their Religion was good at that Time they cannot justly say the Protestants is bad at this Time since we profess the very same Creed now they did then the Protestant Church having as I said before not in the least taken from or added to the Apostolical Creed as I am sure the Papists cannot deny but that they themselves have And tho' the Court of Rome has caus'd the Church of Rome to differ much from what she then was yet praised be God the Protestants have not alter'd from what they then were and therefore we cannot be truly said to differ more from the Church of Rome at this Time than she has differ'd from her self since that Time I mean of the first four General Councils Next I say the Protestant Faith is altogether Catholick because 't was the Faith that all the Christian Churches over the whole World professed a few Arians in the East only excepted for above fifteen hundred Years together as the Papists themselves can no more justly deny than they can truly prove that the new Roman Creed with its Trent Addition was the Faith of all the Christian Churches in the World for so much as one day no nor what 's worse is ever like to be to the last day And lastly for the Protestant Church being now altogether Apostolical the Papists may with the same reason and Justice deny the Apostles Creed to be Apostlical as to deny our Faith is not so since the Protestant Faith is contain'd in the Apostles Creed which we never at all varied from but continued altogether firm to without the least Alteration or Diminution a hapyy Truth which I 'm sure the Roman Church dares not now pretend to without having no less than twelve new Articles of Faith to flie in her Face and giving her as many Times the Lye for pretending to it And now there remains only to add That if the Church of Rome has any Inclination to bring the Protestant Church into a hearty Unity and firm Community with her the best and only way will be to take the first four General Councils as the Judge and Standard to measure all our present Differences by and if the Protestants have deviated in the least from them to reform in what they have differed and let the Papists but do the same and retrench all their idle new supernumerary Trent Articles of Faith and disband all their vain superstitious Ceremonies neither of which was ever taught or indeed heard of by the Apostles or primitive Christians and reduce their Creed to the same it was in the Time of the first four General Councils and then the Papist as well as Protestant will become of the same Apostolical Faith now as we were both of us then that is be again both of one and the same Religion But the Pope's Power is too high and his Revenue too great to admit this mortifying Spirit light Mony can never agree with true Scales nor Deformity like a true Glass no more can the new Additions of the Romish Creed endure the true Touch-Stone of the old Apostolical Faith Therefore to conclude in a word unless you are resolv'd to choose superstitious Doctrin before Gospel Truths a false Religion before a true one Darkness before Light the Trent new Articles of-Faith before the old Apostolical Creed Never chuse the Popish Religion before the Protestant FINIS