A SERMON PREACHED At the Opening of the LECTURE AT MALDON in ESSEX Lately Established By the Lord Bishop of London In Vindication Of the Antiquity of the Doctrine of the CHURCH of ENGLAND By William Bramston Late Fellow of Queens-College in Cambridge and Rector of Woodhamwater in Essex Published at the Request of the Auditory LONDON Printed for R. Clavell at the Peacock in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCXCVII A SERMON PREACHED At the opening the Wednesday Lecture in All-Saints Church in Maldon Acts Chap. 24. Verse 14. But this I confess unto thee that after the way which they call Heresie so worship I the God of my Fathers IN the way to my Text I judge it a reasonable tribute of our gratitude to our Diocesan to observe how those blessed Effects and Influences of his paternal care and watchfulness which are conspicuous in all places of his Jurisdiction are in the most sensible manner made apparent to you the Inhabitants of this remote and almost forgotten corner of the Kingdom and that in the occasion of our present meeting wherein you have restored to you a most laudable Privilege which you have long wanted your Weekly Lecture In which you must needs acknowledge your engagements to your Bishop who hath made himself a debtor to many Brethren for your sakes Nor is the Benefaction its self more worthy of your Gratitude than the piety of his Lordships intention in this Lecture may be commanding of your Thankfulness Our Bishops Hopes and Counsels and Prayers are not only that you may have the gracious Arguments of Virtue Patience Righteousness and Holyness without which No Man shall see the Lord unfolded and recommended to your Practice in the most perswasive Applications but also that you may continue in all soundness of Doctrine and become armed against the arts and surprises of false Teachers who do either obtrude their own Traditions for the Commandments of God or attempt to withdraw the Affections of Men from our most excellent Church by false and unwarrantable misinterpretations of her Doctrines I say our most Excellent Church which is loaded by Rome with the imputations of Heresie because the endeavours to shrowd her Members from the taint of Rome's Defilements And has been reviled by another sort of mistaken Christians as being her self Popish because she labours to preserve the Holy Services of God clean from the unhallow'd violence of Man's Profaneness Now there cannot be a greater Service done to the Church of Christ than when his precious Depositum is kept unviolated or to the Edification of his Faithful than when the Instructions tendered to them proceed purely from Truth and Soberness This being our Bishops now Charitable intention in this Lecture which I am to open I have made choice of this passage of St. Paul who here answers the impeachment of the Jews who had censured his Labours in Christ his professing and propagating the Christian Religion just as our Adversaries of the Church of Rome do all our holy Ministrations and Services in the support of the Faith and truth of the Blessed Jesus as a work of Heresie with this Confession But this I confess unto thee that after the way that they call Heresie so worship I the God of my Fathers That which I shall endeavour at present shall be the vindication of the Doctrines and Measures of our Church as to some Matters of her Faith and Practice which are quarrelled at by our Roman Adversaries which in the most insolent Pomp and disdain are exploded by them as Spots and Deformities in our Reformation First then That wherewith they think they shake us most is this that we are of a new Religion a novel and up-start Church not able to make out a continuance for two of sixteen Centuries This I take to be the most gainful plea of the Crafts-men of their Diana that by which she most fatally allures many into the Labyrinth of her Delusions Certainly as to her Doctrines the Monstrosities of Transubstantiation Purgatory of the Sacrifice of the Mass and Prayers in a strange Language these can have no appearances so beautiful and tempting as to prove Charming in themselves and captivate our Souls enlighten'd by the wisdom of the Gospel But when they are told they embrace a new Religion a Religion not heard of in the Christian World till these last two Hundred Years this may possibly startle ignorant Men and justly requires our Consideration In answering therefore this Objection I doubt not to expose the vanity and disappoint the impressions of such light pretences and manifest them to be no other but Noise and Cant. First Then if by a new Church they mean a Church introducing a new Scheme of Faith and Belief methinks that main part of old essential Verities wherein they and we agree together with our explicit belief of all the known Doctrines of the Scriptures and our implicit belief of all things therein contained may in great measure declare the Antiquity of ours especially since we retain all that Faith and religiously adhere to all those Creeds which the third General Council held at Ephesus adjudged to be so material and comprehensive as positively to forbid the imposition or addition of any other if that was the Old Faith which was professed by the Primitive Fathers of that Council how can ours now be denominated a new one who have neither diminished nor added to the Articles of their Belief The Creeds confirmed and authorized in that Council were that of the Apostles and that of Nice and therefore methinks the Faith founded on them may with some face pretend to Antiquity Again if by a new Church they mean a National Church of but late Strength and Establishment we deny not the present Church of England to be a new Church in such a sense but then we answer withal that such a new Church may be said without a Paradox to contain as Old a Religion as the ancientest foundation of Christ though not for the Age of its Establishment yet for the Antiquity of its Truths and Doctrines which only properly speaking can Entitle any National Church a part of the ancient Church of Christ And this is the highest mark of Antiquity our Church pretends to assume that she now professes that very Faith which our Saviour taught which his Holy Apostles profess'd and propagated in the first Ages of Christianity And let Men pretend what they will the only Demonstration and Test of any particular Churches Antiquity as it is a true or a corrupted part of the Catholick Church of Christ must be the Antiquity of her Doctrines and Principles by reason as no Christian Church can be ancienter than Christ the Author and Finisher of our Faith So again no particular Church professing his ancient Faith and Truths can be said to introduce or embrace a Religion younger than that of Christ because it then professes that very truth of Christ which has been professed by his Faithful in all Ages So that
though the Church of England may be later than the Church of Rome in such respects as these either because our Conversion to the Faith might possibly have been after theirs or again because our particular establishment as it now stands was enacted many Ages since the first settlement of a Christian Church at Rome Yet our Religion now may be ancienter still than their's at present if they are now changged and degenerated as 't is demonstrable they are from that Christian Purity which anciently denominated them an uncorrupted part of the Catholick Church and we now faithfully adhere with all Uprightness and Integrity which we are ready to make appear we do to that Faith of Christ which was once delivered to the Saints and as by many other Churches so anciently maintain'd by the Church at Rome For as their new corruptions and additional definitions of Faith must fall short of those Ages wherein Christianity flourished with all Truth and Purity and those can be no other than the Days of Christ and his Apostles so the old truths retained and prosessed by us must have been then most triumphant and prevailing And therefore that which has puzzled so many weak and unlearned People of our Communion to wit the question about the Age of our Religion and our Church may easily be resolved if they distinguish the Antiquity of Seat and Place which is nothing to the business from the Antiquity of Truths and Doctrines and this distinction must be allowed good even by our Adversaries themselves if they consider that the dispute now is not about the Antiquity of particular Sees and national Constitutions but the Antiquity of Faith and Religion its self which I hope may be the same in a Church of Yesterday's Conversion as it was in Antioch which had the honour to give the first Name to Christians Did the Church of Rome at any time esteem her own Antiquity lessened upon such a Consideration as this that St. Peter erected his Apostolical Seat first at Antioch before ever he had arrived at Rome Or will she acknowledge a deference due to that Church in point of Faith and Purity because she had the happiness to be Christened before her I doubt the Mother and Mistress of all Churches as she delights to stile her self could never stoop to such a Condescension If my Faith be found and perfect now can it be believed the more new and up-start because not professed by my Fore-fathers who knew not the Truths Or does my late Conversion if good and upright diminish or derogate from the Antiquity of Truth its self The Antiquity of all other things is calculated from their Original and beginning in the World and why the same rule won't do in Faith and Religion I understand not Indeed if any particular Church cou'd make out a continu'd Succession in all circumstances of Doctrine and Discipline from the times of the Apostles unto this very day this wou'd no doubt be an incomparable Argument both of her Antiquity and of God's especial Goodness and Providence over her But the present Roman Church can no more make out such a Succession than the present Church of England and if she could still such a Succession is not to be esteem'd the only mark of Truth and Antiquity And this I think cannot be more clearly illustrated than from Matter of Fact to which we may appeal in this case for instance there can be no Question but the ancient Faith of Christ is now professed by the true Faithful of Christ and shall continue to be so professed till the Day of Judgment and yet there is now no particular Church of the Faithful that can make out such a Succession nor any one Church endowed with an assurance of continuing indefectibly in that very State in which she is now till the Day of Judgment I know the Church of Rome wou'd fain have us believe her inspired with these infallible Accomplishments but she must produce a better Scheme of her Perfections than what we meet in her Trent Definitions or she will never perswade us that she is any more like the Church Establish'd at Rome by St Peter than St. Peter himself was like the most changed and backsliding Apostle For as to her Magnificent Stile in writing her felt the Church Apostolick this must appear rather a Character of Ornament and Shew than any certain signification of her necessary continuance in Truth and Purity For were not the Apostolick Sees as liable to relapse and degenerate as any founded by their Successors Where is the glory of Antioch Ephesus and Alexandria which the Apostles themselves planted and watered with the Dew of Heaven which those Heavenly Shepherds nourish'd with the blessed Food of Evangelical Righteousness And notwithstanding all the applauses with which the present Romanists exalt themselves I doubt not but were St. Peter to arise this moment from the Dead and visit the Conclave or inspect the Councils of Rome but he wou'd be very much put to it where to find Faith on Earth I say therefore her being founded by an Apostle if we grant thus much can no more Entitle her indefectible in the Faith than it has the Churches of Antioch Ephesus and Alexandria which have either altogether failed and forsaken the Name of Christ or are at least according to their own Roman Tenents quite cut off for Schism or Heresie from the Communion of what they call the true Church let her shew when and where God has anointed her with this Oyl of Perfection above her Fellows But now then if an Apostolick Church may thus recoil and become impure nay since Christianity shall not fail why must not some Churches be most pure which yet are not Apostolical I mean taught and instructed by the lively voice of the Apostles If this be bad arguing what may we think of all the Churches Converted and founded many Ages since the days of the Apostles Or if this be a good Inference what Objection can it be against any particular Church which is sound and upright in all her Doctrines that she has not continued for ever that she is yet but of a very late Birth and Duration If her Doctrines are as Old as the Scriptures can the Religion of such a Church fall short of the Age of the Gospel If her holy Principles flourished in the ancientest Creeds and Councils can she reasonably be Reproach'd for an Innovation of Two Hundred Years ago This is the very case of the Church of England and for the truth of it we appeal to the Scriptures to the ancientest Creeds and Councils Indeed the Church of Rome makes a great noise and show with the flourish of her Succession but if she means a Succession in purity of Doctrines we may easily convince her of Vanity and Tattle if she means a Succession in the outward circumstances and appearances of a Church such as consists in true Pastors Bishops and the like I answer that there may be such
still he is to be sure that he is in the right But can any thing here touch the Proselytes of Rome who without troubling Scripture or Reason for the confirmations of their Evidence tell us they enjoy a far more insallible Rock and certainty of their Faith to wit the Voice and Testimony of the Church In truth if we search into this Rock it will appear no other than that Sandy Foundation which was the choice of the foolish Builder Let us reason the Case with some Roman Votary Does thy Church sayest thou tell thee thy Faith is true then let me ask thee how thou knowest that the Church which tells thee so is true her self doest thou appeal to the Marks and Notes of a true Church then I demand again how dost thou know what peculiar Marks and Notes are the Marks and Notes of the true Church Or again how is it become certain to thee that all these peculiar Marks and Notes do particularly fit and agree with thy particular Church in all respects He that gets over these Questions without Scripture and Reason must be Master of more than a Jesuitical slight and artifice for this must be to judge of Notes without Judgment to pronounce a conclusion without Premises for where the conclusion is the result of Premises there must needs be reasoning Indeed this can be no other than to reply Why she is true because she is true And yet I dare boldly affirm they shall never be able to get further in the certainty of Faith who shall first reject the Scriptures as too ambiguous and unintelligible and then renounce their Reason as a thing dangerous and reducing all to a private Spirit But they are not brought to a stand yet they have behind a glorious reserve they will still tell us they have Councils and Fathers on their side but to express the weakness of this hold how many Volumes of Learn'd Protestants are there extant which remain so many monuments of the groundless vanity of their Plea from Fathers and if the four first general Councils may be allow'd worthy of the name of Councils we defie the most Artificial Crafts men of them all to produce thence but one line which may appear serviceable to the cause of Popery But to leave this Contest with the Learned must it not be ridiculous in any unlearned Man to renounce the Scriptures which were written on purpose for his Instruction in Religion and which he may of himself be able both to read and understand as to all matters of belief and practice and betake himself to pleas from Fathers and Councils when he is not able so much as to tell the Letters of that Language in which those Fathers and Councils were written when he can be able to judge neither when those Fathers writ nor yet what one Opinion they have left behind them must there not be a much more rarional satisfaction from such a plain Text of Scripture as this Drink ye all of this to invite us to receive the Cup than a Thousand pretended Quotations from such Fathers and Councils which the unlearn'd are able neither to disprove nor comprehend to affright us from the Cup that we shou'd be deceived by the plain real truths of the Gospel 't is impossible but the real Doctrines of fallible Men will be liable to deceive us But after all is not this to relapse and be found tampering with the dangerous consequences of protestant reasoning thus to alledge Councils and Fathers For why does any Man appeal to Councils and Fathers fancies he makes them the measures of his belief at least of the truth of that point in which he appeals to them wou'd he believe as he does if he apprehended he had no reason from their authorities to believe so and then how does his Faith disser more from that of a private judgment than the Faith of a credulous Protestant who declaies he believes thus and thus because he judges the Scriptures enjoyn him to believe thus and thus all the difference that I can perceive between the two Churches here is this The one to wit the Papist Reasons from the Testimonies of fallible Men but the other namely the Protestant from the assurances of the infallible Dictates of God's Holy Spirit That which here determines the Belief in both is no doubt one and the same thing viz. Man's private Judgment which influences the one to believe so and so and the other to believe thus and thus because it appears most reasonable to them to believe so And I appeal to any one of that Church whether he wou'd thus absolutely give up his Faith to the Church did he not think he had great reason so to do and then again whether that Man which owns thus much does not in great measure acknowledge himself a Judge of the Principles of his Religion let them talk what they will the Papist judges for himself as well as the Protestant for if we are said to judge when we declare to believe the Scriptures upon the authority of an Universal Tradition may not they be said to judge when they declare they believe in the Church upon the single authority of her own assertion If they please they may deny what both they and we do practice and indeed what is not only undeniable but what the very Voice and Commandment of God has enjoyn'd us to perform in one place directing us to try all things and hold fast that which is good in another place believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they be of God or no Again be ye ready to render a reason of the hope that is in you nay lastly we have the express approbation of our Saviour himself telling us If the Blind lead the Blind they shall both fall into the Ditch and again why of your selves judge ye not what is right Can any thing be more clear than that the Holy Ghost in these places excites us to respect our own Judgment and Reason in the choice of our Religion For how shall that Man be able to render a Reason of his hope who makes a Profession of a hope upon no Reason at all How shall he judge the Spirits that tries them not Or again how shall he make tryals who professes to use neither Judgment nor Reason in matters of Religion Nay further how comes our Saviour to wonder so much why Judge not of your selves what is right if nothing be more disagreeable to true Righteousness than a Man 's own private Conclusions and Judgment I say again these Texts must refer to the tryals of Religion and therefore we may bid much good may do them with their implicit Faith which is as much as to declare as to my Religion I believe what I know not and I know not what I must believe which is to approve the Spirits without trying and to conclude them to be of God without so much as enquiring what kind of Spirits they are of
a visible Succession and yet that Church that enjoys it in many respects may be very corrupt and unwarrantable and this I think is sufficiently acknowledg'd by the Church of Rome her self which does so far acknowledge the Succession of the Greek Church as to receive those Ordained by her into her Communion with allowance of Orders received before and yet whoever considers the terms in which the Eastern Church now stands with that at Rome must see little reason to conclude much of its Perfection from the Argument of Succession indeed there cannot be a true Church without true Pastors and Bishops but there may be true Pastors and Bishops i. e. Pastors and Bishops rightly called and truly ordained without a true Church in other respects Such Succession will indeed prove the Antiquity of the Seat and Place and justly denominate it a part of the Catholick Church of Christ but it can be no convincing Demonstration of the purity of its Faith and Doctrines And therefore it must sollow that even from an erroneous Church may be derived a true Ministery and Ordination but yet it can be no greater Argument that such a particular Church namely as the Church of Rome is a pure Church now because an other to wit the Church of England who is really so owes her Orders or first Episcopal imposition to hers than it can be that because such a particular Man for his own personal Virtue and Integrity shall certainly go to Heaven therefore he also shall do so who made him a Christian And this I the gladlier mention because it plainly answers that Sophistical Induction of the Romanists which infer that because we say our Church derives her Orders from her therefore by proving our selves to be a true Church we must necessarily conclude their's to be so which is the same as if a Man in declaring his Opinion of their being Orthodox in some points and particulars shou'd be concluded positively to maintain them to be most regular in all others A more rational Inference from what has been said in this case of Succession must certainly be this that such a Local Succession of Pastors and a settled Establishment from the days of the Apostles to this time is not essential to the constitution of a true Church but rather on the other side whatever Church hath a lawful Ministry and a right Profession of sound Doctrine let her Succession be never so inconsiderable though not exceeding two years must have an equal Right and Title to a Membership in the ancient Body of Christ as any particular Church of the most venerable Succession And the reason of the thing is very plain for if a Church has a true Ministry and a right belief now what signifies it how long she has enjoy'd it she can then want no means to bring Souls to Heaven and what advantage can the ancientest Constitution in the World obtain above her The Seat where the Religion is sixed may be new but the Religion Establish'd as Old as Truth it self And thus I hope the Churches which were the earliest planted in the World were as true Churches the first day after their Plantation as when they had survived various Centuries So that it must be impertinent in our Adversaries to require us to produce a Succession of Protestant Bishops so long as there cou'd be no reason any Bishops shou'd be called Protestant i. e. Such Bishops who protest against Innovations and Corruptions in the Religion of Christ till they had defiled God's heavenly Truths with their Traditionary Pollutions or again so long as we prove our Protestant Faith and Church to be no other but a Professor of that Faith and a Member of that Apostolical Church which they have Corrupted or lastly so long as they are Corruptions introduced by them which we disavow and protest against Let them prove us defective in any one essential point of a true Church and we will yet thankfully receive it but this their own fruitless endeavour towards it may evince they cannot and therefore to talk of Novelty and Innovations where the Truths are as ancient as the Gospel and the Apostles must argue great Folly in them that urge it but more inconsideration in us shou'd we regard it As we are able to justifie our cause from all their foulest Imputations so shall they never be able to prove our Religion a Novelty though its Establishment were but of Queen Elizabeth for it is the Antiquity of true Faith only that we contend for which can never be obscured by the latest Profession because what was truth in the Apostles time must be so now and that Church which cleaves stedfastly to that be its Succession never so late must be both Catholick and Apostolick in the purest meaning After all this stir of Novelty and Antiquity I see no other difference in our case and that of the Romanists but this that our Religion is apparently conspicuous in the best and most Apostolical Centuries and their 's manifest enough in the flourishing Days of Ignorance and Superstition when Scriptures were banished and the least appearance of such Truth as seemed to thwart the progress of an aspiring Monarchy was silenced and disabled That which seems so much to take with inconsiderate Men to wit such Queries as this Had not God his true Church in these days of Blindness and Ignorance which you Protestants allude to if so Then which cou'd be this true Church but that at Rome may easily be removed if they observe First That a local and visible Establishment such as can be pointed to though we have many such to refer to in the Eastern parts of Christendom even in the blindest Ages besides that at Rome is not essential to the proving of a true Church because the true Church of Christ was most illustrious before it had enjoyed any Local Establishment whatever Secondly If we consider that though there were in those times true Christians yet it cannot be imagined that they should have appear'd forward to make Discoveries of themselves in such Seasons when they experienc'd the sharpest Eyes and heaviest Hands ready to destroy them So that though we must believe God had always a true Church yet we stand not necessitated directly to know what numerical and individual People made up that true Church much less to confess it to have been the present Establishment at Rome no we can no more be oblig'd to such a Confession as this than to acknowledge that the visible company of the Jews made up the true Church of God than when they were even swallow'd up of Idolatry and none but the All-seeing Eye of God able to discover the 7000 Knees which had never bowed to Baal it is no Tergiversation therefore it is no Shuffling I say though we can't point to it's individual Members to assert That God had even then a true Church because he has expresly told us he will have a true Church for ever but it must be a
most irrational consequence to conclude that it was the Roman when it was the Roman alone from whence arose all those misty Tempests and Darkness which had obscured the Truth nay which had most grievously then oppress'd and over-born her If we are not now able to name who those good Christians were that then made up the true Church we may thank their Furnaces Inquisitions and Expurgatory Subtilties which affrighted them from the Light and still took care to stifle the least occasions of their manifestations We confess God had always his true Church and this is agreeable to his Word but we acknowledge not that it was the Church of Rome for this reason because she was then as she is now most contradictory to the Truths of his Word And thus I proceed to another Principle of our Church impeached of Heresie by that of Rome and that is our ways and methods of finding out the Truth Now these are no other than what depend upon these two divine Principles Scripture and Reason which as they are the immediate Gifts of God flowing from the Excellency and Perfections of his own blessed Spirit so methinks they may not improperly be imploy'd in his Divine Service The Religious Man in Scripture is frequently Entituled the Wise and the Understanding Man and Wisdom and Religion are generally used to denote one and the same thing but how there can be the greatest Wisdom and Understanding where there must not be the least use or pretences to Reason I leave to these Despisers of Reason to illustrate The Wise Man tells us A blind Sacrifice is an abomination to the Lord and we often meet the Holy Ghost in the Scriptures lashing at the Sacrifice of Fools both which are demonstratively comprehended in that rebuke of our Saviour against the People of Samaria saying Ye know not what ye Worship and now what can all these Passages suggest to us but this that whosoever will pay a sit and suitable Worship to God ought throughly to know and understand the Nature and Excellency of the Divine Majesty as far as he has been pleased to reveal himself and then as one wou'd think nothing can more effectually instruct us in this Celestial Knowledge than the very Writings and express Revelations of God himself so it seems to me next door to a contradiction for any Man to aver that the most infallible way to come to a right Knowledge and Understanding of God is to set aside our Reason without which 't is impossible to know or understand at all or again to renounce the Scriptures which are the only Books in the World which his infallible Spirit has left us for our surer guidance and direction to that blessed Knowledge Perhaps it may be suggested here that the Mysteries and sublime Articles of our Religion such as the Incarnation the Trinity and the Resurrection which all infinitely transcend the highest Capacities of our Reason depend not on the use of our Reason but Faith which is of those things which are invisible even to the most piercing Eye of Man's Reason so that we must leave our Reason in the way to our embracements of them but this no way weakens the force of our Argument For these Mysteries surpass indeed the comprehension of our Reason yet the authority upon which we receive them into our Creed lies open to our Reason such as is the voice of the Scriptures and the example of the purest Ages of the Church of Christ which Reason recommends to us as the surest guides to direct us in all Matters of Religion And though indeed Reason cannot demonstrate to us the ineffable ways and explications of these Truths yet Reason furnishes us with this Demonstration that they ought to be received for the Truths of Christ upon this account because whatever is proposed to our belief upon such infallible Evidences as the Revelation of God's Word and the uninterrupted Authority of his Primitive Church in all Ages ought in reason to be believed as true I acknowledge were not these Articles of our Creed manifestly contained either in the express Words or in the necessary conclusions of Scripture or in the explications of the purest Ages of our Religion the belief of them wou'd be irrational and these unwarrantably crowded upon the belief of a Christian And therefore even in those very Articles which exceed our Reason it is still Reason which must justifie our Faith What is our Reason given us for no other end than to consult for the ease and satisfaction of our Bodies or must that most sublime faculty of our Souls be no ways interess'd or engag'd for its own Happiness and Salvation Again can we think the Divine Wisdom had no design in dictating the Scriptures or has he express'd his intention to reach only the Learned and the Wise Did not our Lord once make this the most expressive Argument that the Messiah was come viz. The poor have the Gospel Preached unto them And must it not seem very strange that Matters shou'd be so inverted since he is gone and this very Gospel left to us in Writing that it is to be inspected now only by Doctors and Philosophers Though the Poor have the Gospel still Preached unto them yet the use of the Scriptures may well be registred to make up those defects and imperfections which our Preaching now abounds with in respect of those more powerful and efficacious Institutions of Christ and his Apostles I know none of us who are able to Convert Three Thousand with a Sermon nor indeed can we pretend to enforce any thing worthy of belief in you that hear us but what we our selves fetch from that Fountain of heavenly Wisdom which is the written Word of God And then why every Man may not as well Read as hear the Gospel read to him I leave to that blessed Spirit to determine which exhorteth all Men to search the Scriptures No doubt as God has given us Reason to make us capable of Understanding and Glorifying his Divine Majesty so has he given us his Scriptures also on purpose to exalt and enlighten our Reason and convince us all of the reasonableness of our Religious Services and I confess I see not how that Man can be able to pay his reasonable Service to God who has taken up a belief in him without Reason for let the Religion professed by such a Man be never so Holy and Pure and true in its self still in respect of such a Professor this must be own'd rather to Chance and Fortune than such a choice and wisdom as may affirm with the Bless'd Jesus We know what we Worship For without Knowledge there can be no Belief and without Belief no true coming unto God But further what reasonable Satisfaction can this be to any Man to encourage him in his Perseverance in his Religion in times of Tryals and Temptations to consider he has taken up his Religion by Chance and though he knows not why yet
which belong to God Nay which is apparently to profess Doctrines which 't is impossible they shou'd render a Reason of for without knowledge there can be no Reason given and no Man will pretend to know that explicitly of which he professes purely an implicit Belief nay perhaps which he understands not that he does believe till the Church upon an occasion rubs up his Faith and Memory and tells him he must and he does believe it I am sure this is such a kind of Faith which Christ himself detested to impose for we may observe that he never recommended any thing to the belief of the Jews but what he still confirmed with such Tokens as might convince the meanest Spectators of its Truth nay we find he taught his Disciples many essential Doctrines before his Death which they believed not but did not Anathematize their incredulity till they became able to bear them till they had beheld that most convincing Demonstration then remaining even the irresistible sign of his Resurrection Nay that nothing of certainty might be wanting to the satisfying the Reason of Man even after that glorious Demonstration he humbly condescended to let mistrustful Thomas thrust his Fingers into the very holes of the Nails and behold the Prints in his Side Is here any thing like the imposition of an implicit Faith or such a groundless Belief as obliges us not only to abandon our Reason with all the strongest Convictions of our Senses but also to renounce the helps even of the inspired Writings of that blessed Comforter which was sent on purpose to lead us into all Truth Since Christ himself was pleased thus meekly to condescend in the giving satisfaction to our Infirmities what kind of relation can that Church bear to him which disdains a submission to an Examination either by Reason or the blessed Rule of God's own Word I am sure it must be a shrewd sign that that Church which makes this refusal is reconcileable neither to Reason nor Scripture for were she agreeable to either why shou'd she so imperiously decline a tryal by the two most Godlike Principles we are enriched with which certainly Scripture and Reason may be acknowledged to be neither can it be any great disgrace to the purest Church to be made appear conformable to them I confess I can't but admire the subtilty of the Church of Rome in usurping thus an Authority above all Examination since her Definitions of Faith are such as far transcend the Explications either of Scripture or Reason the clearest measures which God has left us to examine by Is it not much the wisest way to put off such Commodities by the Gross which we are satisfied won't bear a particular inspection Is there not much greater security to such a Cause in an implicit Faith which swallows down all at a lump than such an explicit one as may be curious and inquisitive and desire the satisfaction of Sense and Reason I see no false step here on their Churches side in point of Carnal Prudence and Worldly Policy but methinks that must be an unintelligible Devotion indeed which does thus contentedly ensnare his Soul for a Pig in a Poke for what he is neither to scruple nor yet to understand And thus you see upon what contradictory and irreconcileable positions the Church of England and the Church of Rome are founded at present that they are as far from one another as Scripture and no Scripture Reason and no Reason Antiquity and Innovations Truth and Falshoods and as the Churches stand at variance so have the faithful Members of our Church upon all occasions and opportunities appear'd in defiance of Rome's Corruptions it is not many years since most of us beheld and all of us heard with what steadiness and Devotion with what Resignation to the will of God and disdain to the pollutions of Men the Members of our Church like so many Illustrious Confessors withstood the attempts and sollicitations the threatnings and invitations of the Whorish Woman Withstood them I say even then when many of the Members of our separate Congregations who had before shew'd themselves most uneasie in their fears of Popery gave life and boldness to her growing hopes by their unseasonable Addresses and Compliances I speak not this with a desire to make advantages of the weakness or by way of insult over the inconstancy of our fellow Christians now in Charity I perswade my self they were rather outreach'd by the policies than debauch'd by the principles of Rome and there is nothing we ought all more heartily to pray for or more religiously endeavour than a mutual forgetfulness of all infirmities but I speak it with hopes that as such Protestants must acknowledge their error in siding with Popery then so they will blush when they upbraid our Church as a Daughter of Babylon now if Men wou'd but credit their own eyes or give place to the arguments presented to their own understandings we need not appeal to other than our adversaries themselves whether they can still believe our divine service to be what some people do ignorantly miscall it Popery in English who remember the toleration and liberty given to every Soul to run as far out of our Church and the sound of its divine service as they pleased managed by the artifice set on foot and carry'd on by the influence of the Papists if the way to Rome lies through a Communion with our Church as such Men dream how come the Romanists who are no strangers to their own interests to seduce Men out of our Communion as the readiest road to Popery had they seen with some Mens eyes amongst us and found any thing in our Communion which looks kind and serviceable to the cause of their own superstitions 't is not to be believed they wou'd so publickly have tempted all Men out of our Communion with the alluring promises of the royal favour I take that liberty and toleration then given by the Papistry to be so manifest an argument and declaration of that opposition which our Church in every particular of its constitution bears to Popery which as every eye might discern it so every well-meaning Man ought to be convinced by it and retract his censures The Papists knew well enough there wou'd be no enlarging their own without first thining our Churches that the Mass Book cou'd make no advances whilst the Common-Prayer stood in reputation that the only probability they cou'd have of making any Proselytes must be to get Men as far out of the bosom of our Church as possible Methinks the pretences of some in separation from us who reproach our service for Popish and the practices of the Papists who were for drawing all Men out of our Communion as a bar to Popery are very hard to be reconciled The Conclusion from such considerations must be this Either the Papists understand not what makes up the Popish Religion or the divine service of our Church which they appeared so
eager to suppress and disgrace can be no friend to Popery No be not deceived my Beloved the infamous names and characters such as Schismaticks Hereticks and the like which they fasten upon us and wherewith they attempt to blacken the brightest services of all our holy ministrations the continual succession of Plots Stratagems and Intrigues which from Age to Age we have heard and seen formed by Papists against our holy reform'd Church from the very first appearance of its establishment are and have been Arguments sufficient to convince all Generations of the irreconcilable distance between the Doctrines of Rome and the principles of the Church of England It must be astonishing therefore to consider what Sport and Pastime Rome makes of us after all when she still so far intoxicates our heads by her snares of Division wherewith she lyes in wait to deceive and shatters all the foundations of our wisdom and understanding by those winds of Doctrines which she has raised and let loose amongst us that we turn the wrath and disaffection we profess to Popery against that Church which has in so many in such illustrious instances manifested her self the noblest bulwork against Popery which we may with modesty express to be the only terror and envy of the Papists Is not this the most formidable master-piece of those deluders to work up a profess'd enemy to such a thoughtless zeal of indignation as to make him fall foul upon his friends and under the pretence of wounding his enemy give the mortal stroke to his own strongest defence which must be the accomplishment of all those shou'd they ever have their end which God forbid who labour to overthrow the Church of England whom Rome has ever treated as her most deadly foe in order to the reforming Religion in such a manner wherein it may remain out of all danger of Popery this is such an undertaking wherein I am sure the hearts and hands of Romanists will never be wanting The most weak and feeble Animals are seldom to be caught twice in the same Ginns neither will the silliest of Creatures run with open Eyes upon the naked Toil nay is it not a common proverbial Observation among us that even the burnt Child dreads the Fire and shall we with our singed Fingers catch at those flames of Disunion wherewith our Adversaries have so often reduced us to the most terrible Extremities wherewith in the last Age they had well nigh consumed both us and our Religion When we have so fatally smarted under the Sting and Poison shall we still hug and cherish the Viper that breeds it O no let not us who really wish well to the true Israel of God who have experienced and must be abundantly sensible of the Uncleanness and Abominations lodged in the inworks of Babylon let not us I say fortifie her Walls by the works of our Hands let us not protest against her Pollutions and at the same time do the Drudgeries of her Tyranny exclaim against her Superstitions and pull down the Holy Temple of God's Truth carry the name of Protestants and Reformists and apply all our Parts and Wisdom and Counsels in the undermining the sacred foundations of that Protestant Church which is the most solid and beauteous Pillar in the Reformation no I beseech you my Beloved in the name of our Lord Jesus that ye be rather cloathed with Meekness and like that glorious Author and Finisher of our Faith put on Bowels of Love and Reconciliation that this may appear before all the World to be the true natural and proper Character of an English Protestant That he is one who is more large in his Charities and humble in his Censures more compassionate to his Brethren and forgiving to his Enemies more devoted to God and inseparable from the Services of his Church than all other Sects and Professions of Christians whatever To conclude all let not us to whom God has vouchsafed the inestimable Blessing of a right Knowledge and Faith in Christ suffer so glorious a Treasure to lie dead and languid and fruitless in our Souls for want of Works Let us convince the World of the Excellency of our Faith and Religion in the Uprightness and Purity of our Lives always bearing in our Minds this Description of the Holy Apostle in which he explains to us the end and intention of our Christian Faith saying the Grace of God which bringeth Salvation hath appeared to all Men teaching us that denying Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts we shou'd live Soberly and Righteously and Godlily in this present World FINIS