burn 1 Cor. 7. Formerly young Women were not admitted to take the Nun's Vail till they were forty years old as it may be seen Can. Sanctimoniales causa 20. 9. 1. And though St. Paul speaks thus I will that younger women marry bear children guide the house Let not a widow be taken in the number under threescore years old but the younger widows refuse for when they have begun to wax wanton against Christ they will marry 1 Tim 5. Yet those of the Church of Rome laugh now at this Ordinance and Custome For they shut up young Maids in Monastries before they have any true knowledge of God of the World and of Themselves So Rhea Sylvia Numitor's Daughter was shut up in the Monastry of Vesta by her Uncle Amulius who had expelled Numitor for fear she should marry and get Children able to revenge and re-obtain her Father's Estate They are shut up in Iron Cages as wild Beasts and mad Folks for fear they should commit any disorder By this Prison wherein they are shut up and by this Prohibition of Gregory That all Priests and Clerks ought not to converse nor dwell with Women nor so much as with their Mothers Sisters and Kindred lest it should happen to them as it happened to the Son of David It is clear that neither the one nor the other have the Gift of Continence for if they were endued with it for what end all these Iron Cages to the Nuns and all those strict Prohibitions to the Priests And if they have not the Gift of Continence St. Paul commands them to marry and consequently they are not bound to keep their Vows Therefore all Priests Monks and Nnus are obliged to them but upon this condition that God has endued them with the Gift of Continence As he that made a Vow to be a great Philosopher or famous Orator is not bound to the performance of that Vow but upon condition that God gives him a sufficient Wit and Strength for the obtaining of these two eminent Qualities I have the Gift of Continence therefore I make a Vow to keep a perpetual Chastity that Consequence is good But I promise unto God a perpetual Chastity therefore he shall give me the Gift of Continence this Consequence is not good For in the Contracts we make with Men our Promise doth not oblige us but as it is accepted by him to whom we make it And when a young Man and Maid at sixteen years old solemnly promise unto God a perpetual Chastity who told them that God did accept their Promise Therefore since many Monks Nuns and Priests have neither the Gift of Continence nor any assurance that they shall have it all the Days of their Lives it is a Rashness to them to promise what is not in their Power Therefore their Vow wanting the last Condition to make it good becomes void therefore they may and ought to Marry For it is better to Marry than to Burn and Marriage is Honourable in all but the Whoremongers and Adulterers God will Judge The Origine of Monastical Life came from several Christians who in the time of Persecution retired into desert Places And when Persecution ceased many of them rested there either because they were used to that Calm Innocent and retired way of Life or because they were afraid to fall again into Persecution But this Monastical Life was quite different from that which is now seen at this day For then they made no Vow of perpetual Chastity they lived with the Labour of their Hands and many of them were Married And St. Cyprian l. 1. Epist 9. c. 11. tells us that the Virgins who did Consecrate themselves unto God that they might relieve the Poor had the liberty of breaking their Vow of perpetual Chastity when they thought they might better serve God in the State of Marriage than in that of Virginity Let us then conclude since those who contrary to Christ's Doctrine and the Law of Nature persecute and cause Men to die merely because they are not of their Opinion and Religion are Cruel and Tyrannous since those that do Worship the Creature for the Creator are Idolaters and since those that do add to the Word of God and diminish from it several Articles both of Faith and Practice are Hereticks The Roman Church contrary to Christ's Doctrine and the Law of Nature Persecuting and causing Men to Die merely because they are not of her Opinion and Religion Worshiping the Creature for the Creator and adding to the Word of God and diminishing from it several Articles of Faith and Practice it doth evidently follow that she is Tyrannous Idolatrous and Heretick FINIS First Sermon of Repentance Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Luke 13. 3. IF Lucifer with all his proud and obstinate Companions if Dives Judas and many other wicked Men were cast into Hell and did all likewise perish it is because they did not repent of their Sins But there is this difference between Angels and Men that though God according to all Divines did not grant the grace of Repentance to the former yet he did not refuse it to the latter For speaking concerning Man he saith Ezechiel 18. 32. I will not the death of a Sinner but that he turn and live Repentance is called by St. Austin a second Plank after Shipwrack For when Men have made Ship-wrack to lay hold on a Plank is their only remedy so when in the vast Ocean of this World they are lost by Sin the only remedy left them that they may not eternally perish is Repentance If I begin to Preach unto you this excellent Virtue ye are not to wonder at me for I do nothing but what St. John the Baptist Jesus Christ the Apostles and Holy Prophets have done when they began to Preach and convert Sinners Repent ye for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand said Jesus Christ in his First Sermon and in the words of my Text he speaks thus except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish By these words ye shall see the necessity and utility of Repentance but because it is hard to Men first I will shew you its difficulty That Repentance is hard will be the first part of my discourse that it is necessary will be the second and that it is very useful will be the third 1. Part. I must confess that Repentance is very hard the Latin word Poenitentia does evidently shew it for it means nothing but pain and grief Indeed there is nothing in this World more difficult to Men than Repentance whether we consider it in respect of the Creator or in respect of the Creature If we consider it in respect of the Creator God must without forcing our wills make a change in our minds and Hearts He must change the mind and heart of him that feeds an Inclination for revenge Love must take the place of hatred meekness and clemency that of bitterness and cruelty God must without destroying
this day as that the Flies may fall into the Cup or that the Communicant's Beard may touch the Blood were in the time of Jesus Christ and his Apostles Had there been any Inconveniency Jesus Christ and his Apostles should have certainly remedy'd it Therefore since they have not forbidden the Cup to the common People who did then receive the Communion the Church of Rome ought not now to forbid it The Origine of taking the Cup from the common People proceeds from Transubstantiation which being believed produces Concomitancy and from this Concomitancy followed this conclusion that the Laics ought to be contented with the consecrated Bread because the Blood of Christ was therein contained as well as in the Cup. But I have already prov'd that there is no Transubstantiation in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper And though there were any the Roman Church ought not to take away the Cup from the People because Jesus Christ his Apostles and the Primitive Church did not take it from them and because St. Paul orders every one to take it when he saith Let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that Bread and drink of that Cup. 4. I say that the Roman Church diminishes from the Word of God when she forbids every one to Eat Flesh in certain times and days and all Priests Monks and Nuns to Marry For St. Paul writing to the Colossians 2. 16. speaks thus Let no man judge you in meat and drink And in his first Epistle to the Corinthians 10. 24. c. whatsoever saith he is sold in the Shambles that eat asking no question for Conscience sake If any of them that believe not bid you to a Feast and ye be disposed to go whatsoever is set before you eat And writing to Timothy he saith That every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving And concerning Marriage 1 Cor. 9. 6. he speaks thus Have we not power to lead about a sister a wife as well as other Apostles and as the Brethren of the Lord and Cephas And in the 1 to Timothy 3. 2. he saith That a Bishop can be the husband of one wife And in the 13 to the Hebrews that Marriage is honourable to all and the bed undefiled but whâ—â—â—mâ—â—gers and adulterers God 〈◊〉 judge And in the 〈◊〉 to Timothy 4. 3. he tells us that forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats is a doctrine of Devils And Jesus Christ himself honoured so much the Marriage of the Priests that he did chuse the Son of the High Priest Zacharias to be his Fore-runner To avoid Fornication saith St. Paul 1 Cor. 7. 2. Let every man have his own wife and let every woman have her own husband And notwithstanding all these Texts of the holy Scripture the Roman Church commands under the pain of Sin unto Death and consequently of Damnation to abstain from Flesh in certain times and days and forbids all Bishops Priests and Clerks to marry And though in the Council of Nice of which the Ecclesiastical Historian speaks thus It pleased some Bishops to introduce a new Law in the Church that those who were dedicated to holy Ministry namely the Bishops Priests Elders and Deacons should lie no more with their Wives But Paâ—hautius an Egyptian Bishop and who had one of his Eyes pluckt out for the Confession of Jesus Christ rose up and opposed them saying That they ought not to impose so heavy a Yoke because Marriage was honourable in all and the Bed undefiled and that this Prohibition would be hurtful to the Church because all men had not the Gift of Continence which did so much prevail that the Council consented to his opinion Hist tripart l. 2. c. 14. Yet Gregory the VII th with cruel Decrees of Excommunication deprived Ministers of their Wives and forced the Clergy to the Vow of Continence And the Council of Trent Sess 23. Can. 11. forbids Marriage to all Clerks that are in Orders and to all Regulers or Monks that have made a solemn Vow of Chastity and thundereth Anathema against those that say they may marry notwithstanding they feel they have not the Gift of Chastity And so this Council doth not only oppose the Primitive Church and the Apostles but even the Law which God himself has pronounced For when he said Thou shalt not commit Adultery thou shalt not be a Whoremonger it is as if he should say Thou shalt make use of Marriage which is a proper means to avoid these two great Sins It is an implicit Commandment of God made to all Men and Women that have not the Gift of Continence in what state and condition soever they be Objection The Monks and Nuns have made a solemn Vow of perpetual Chasttiy therefore they cannot marry I Answer that they cannot and ought not to make such a Vow For every Vow to be good according to the very Principles of the Church of Rome ought to have two Conditions It ought to be of a good thing and ought to be in our Power When the Jews made a Vow that they would neither Eat nor Drink till they had kill'd Paul that Vow was void and they were not obliged by it For had it been in their Power yet it was of a bad thing And when Jacob did Vow unto God if he could return in peace into his Father's House the Lord should be his God and would offer unto him the Tenth part of his Goods Gen. 28. 20. That Vow was good because it contained the two required Conditions for a good Vow It was of a good thing and in his Power When Monks and Nuns at sixteen years old Vow unto God Almighty to keep a perpetual Chasttiy that Vow doth not bind them because it is made of a thing which is not in their Power For Continence is a Gift of God He dâ—â—h not grant it to every body but to whom he pleases Matth. 19. 11. Therefore those only that are indeed with it are bound to keep it Therefore when he that has Vowed a perpetual Chastity finds by experience he is often troubl'd with the Lusts of the Flesh and though he has several times called upon God they still continue to torment him it is a certain sign that God has not granted him the Gift of Continence and therefore will have him to make use of Marriage which is honourable amongst all and which he has appointed as a means to keep Mankind and as a remedy to pacifie our inordinate Passions For when he made Man he speaks thus It is not good for a man to be alone I will give him a companion Gen. 2. 18. He made them male and female and for this cause he said that man shall forsake Father and Mother and cleave to his wife Matth. 19. And St. Paul saith That to avoid fornication every man ought to have his own wife and every woman her own husband for it is 〈◊〉 to marry than
go unto another he should be very Imprudent Jesus Christ Matth. 11. 28. Speaks thus Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest We must not have then another Advocate beside him By him saith St. Paul we have an access to the Father and we do not read that we have it also by the blessed Virgin or by St. Peter St. Anthony or any other Saint St. Chrysostome Hom. 2. de Cananea speaking of this Woman who though she were a Sinner was bold to come unto Christ saith thus Behold the Wisdom of this Woman she doth not Pray to James she doth not beseech John she goes not to Peter she looks not to the company of the Apostles neither request any of them but for all this she takes Repentance for her Companion and goes to the very Fountain it self St. Ambrose in Rom. c. 1. speaks thus They are wont to use a pitiful Excuse saying that by the Saints they may have access unto God as by the Earls there is Access to Kings by Officers and Earls Access is made to the King because the King himself is a Man but to come to God from whom nothing is hid there is no need of a Spokesman but a devout Mind for wheresoever such a one speaks to him he will answer him The Souls of Men say Tertullian and St. Austin do not take care of the Affairs of the Living The Saints are not our Mediators we do praise the Martyrs because they fought for the Truth but we do not Worship them For what end then are these Solemnities That by them we may thank God for their Victories and encourage others to imitate them and be partakers of their Palms and Crowns But that we may obtain them shall we implore the Assistance of the Saints No but we shall implore the help of that true God who made them Martyrs de cura pro mortuis c. 13. cont Parm. l. 2. c. 8. de Civit. l. 8. c. 27. Hereunto I may add that which is written in Ecclesiastes 9. 5. That the dead knew not any thing neither have any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the Sun Wherefore I may say that the Church of Rome intreats in vain the help of the Saints for God alone does know our Thoughts And the most Learned Doctors of that Communion cannot say how they may hear the Prayers of Men for they confess it is not a Property of their Happiness and some say they see only the things which belong to them some say that God discovers to them the Prayers of Men some say they see in the Face of God as in a Looking-glass all things here below Some assure that the Faithful which are upon Earth give notice of their Desires and Minds to to the Saints as the Angels do Communicate their Thoughts one with another To make it short the Roman Church is so uncertain concerning the Saints that oftentimes she Worships and Prays to them that are now burning in an everlasting Fire The Origine of the Intercession of the Saints proceeds from those publick Penitents which for their Crimes were Condemned to be separated from the Church for some years For Martyrdom being in a great Honour amongst Christians and the Church having a particular esteem for those that were Prisoners for the Gospel the publick Penitents did Write to these Martyrs that they would be so kind as to Intercede for them towards the Church that they might be admitted in her Communion before the time of their Penance were expired Such was the Intercession of Saints at that time they knew then no other in the second Age as it may be seen in St. Cyprian Secondly I say that the Church of Rome adds to the Word of God when she teaches and will have us to believe that there is a Purgatory wherein the Souls of the Faithful departing this Life are Afflicted and Tormented some for a short time some for a hundred years some for a thousand and upwards and others to the end of the World For this Doctrine is not found in the Holy Scripture but it is quite contrary to it as it appears by these Words of the 14th Chapter of the Revelations Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them As also by those of the Book of Wisdom Canonized by the general Council of Trent wherein it is written that the Souls of the Righteous are in the hands of God and there shall no torment touch them This appears also by St. Paul when he saith in his Epistle to the Romans that there is now no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Nevertheless Pope Pius the Fourth finding Purgatory very advantageous to his Kitchin speaks thus I certainly believe that there is a Purgatory and that the Souls detained therein are relieved by the Prayers of the Faithful And the Council of Trent Sess 25. gives Order to all Bishops to take care that the sound Doctrine of Purgatory which was delivered to us by the holy Fathers and sacred Councils be Believed and Taught and Preached every where And though Mr. Amelot who was a Papist and translated into French the History of the Council of Trent does confess that Purgatory cannot be prov'd and though the Church of Rome cannot declare whether this Purgatory be in the Air or in the Earth or in the place wherein Sins are committed yet she saith that the Pope with an Indulgence laid unto a Bead or Cross or Medal or with a Mass Celebrated upon certain days of the Week gives Power to deliver from this Purgatory whom he pleases and when he thinks it fit I say then in the first place since this Doctrine is not found in the holy Scripture the Roman Church addeth to the Word of God and thinks above that which is written 2ly I shew she does destroy her self when she will have us to believe under the Pain of Damnation that there is a Purgatory For if there be a Purgatory either it is to purge Sins or to purge the Pain due unto them It is not for the former because the Roman Church believes that Jesus Christ did by himself purge all our sins according to these words of St. John His Blood cleanses us from all sins and because they are to be purged before we be separated from this World it is then for the purgation of the Pain but the Pain is punished and not purged for a Gallows is not for the purgation of a Murder but for the punishment of it Therefore since Purgatory according to the Papists is only for the Pain due to sins they destroy themselves when they call it Purgatory It has no warrant in the holy Scripture for Jesus Christ shews but two places Heaven and Hell when he saith that the Rich Man's Soul which was unmerciful to Lazarus went