Rome's Additions TO CHRISTIANITY Shown to be Inconsistent with the True Design of so Spiritual a Religion.  
IN A SERMON Preached at EDINBURGH,  
IN THE East-Church of St. Giles. Feb. 14. 1686.  
To which is prefixed A LETTER, Vindicating it from the Misrepresentations of some of the ROMISH-CHURCH.  
By JAMES CANARIES, D. D. and Minister of the Gospel at Selkirk in Scotland.  
EDINBURGH, Printed in the Year 1686.   

THE LETTER.  
SIR,  
IN compliance with your desire, (to which I can hardly refuse any thing) I have sent you this Sermon. I know 'tis the noise has been made about it that prompts your curiosity to seek after it. It had indeed the good fortune to be favourably received by an Auditory, which (I need not tell you) is one of the most learned and judicious perhaps in the whole World. But yet on the other hand it has met with as ill luck, to be most unjustly misrepresented by some of the Romish Communion, who have been pleased upon its account to tax me as guilty of some seditious design to amuse the people with Fears and Jealousies of Popery, and thereby dispose them for those evils that are ordinarily consequent upon such prepossessions.  
I was indeed much surprised and troubled to see such a strange gloss put upon it and me. And had I but foreseen that it could have been liable to any such misconstruction, I had rather chus'd even to suppress a Zeal, which otherwise was certainly very seasonable, and altogether necessary for my own particular circumstances, than have given the very remotest occasion for any to entertain such bad thoughts of me; my Loyalty being as dear to me as my Religion, because I reckon that I cannot have the one without the other.  
But there cannot be any thing more visible, than that the exhortatory part of that Discourse (at which the great Scandal was taken) was leveled merely against a voluntary defection; I mean, such a falling away from the true Religion, as it wrought by other enticements than those which Truth itself uses to propose. For it is mostly expressed in the words of the Apostle, applied in his very sense and meaning, and upon the like occasion. And sure none will say that he had any seditious Design when he wrote his Epistles. Besides, are not all the Arguments upon which it is founded, evidently of such a nature that they suppose the whole affair to depend upon the Liberty of every bodies own Will, without the least syllable that can insinuate or suggest any external violence to be done unto our Religion, or any thing to be imposed upon us as to it? And he would have treated his Theme very impertinently, that had such a wicked design in his view, had he spoke at no other rate than I did. Why then should such an exhortation be reputed apt to alarm the People, and prepare them for Tumulis and Rebellion, when thereby they could not be rendered jealous of any person, but their own selves; since none else was supposed to deprive them of their Religion? And if Ministers cannot exhort their Auditory constantly to adhere to their Religion, without becoming criminal upon that account, then why should they be allowed to preach against Popery at all? For the Use must needs always follow the Doctrine.  
But farther, You'll see that the Sermon is as bitter against the Fanatical Principles and Methods, as against Popery itself; and that it does commend our Religion as much for its Loyalty, as for its Truth. So that unless People would be so very disingenuous, as to follow their Preacher only where he seems most to please and tickle their Humours, (and so not he, but they only would be to blame,) there could be no fear of any disloyal apprehensions to be raised by such a Discourse. Why then should the most uncharitable sense be made of one part, and such too as it flatly contradicted by another? This is truly to take things by the wrong handle.  
But especially since, as you can bear Witness, I have always been as much an Enemy to all manner of Fanaticism, as ever I was to Popery. And I bless God I was educated in such Principles by a Father, who in the late Troubles was a considerable Sufferer for them, that to this very hour I never knew what it was to have the least Kindness for any thing that but looked disloyal. And it has been much my business in my present Charge to preach up Loyalty, and to persuade my Hearers to rest securely in the Royal Promise for their Religion. My great Zeal in this, and particularly expressed in that Sermon I preached on the twenty ninth of May last, and allowed to be printed in the very time of those infamous Rebellions that then were raging, did expose me so much to the fury and malice of that bloodthirsty and murdering Crew, as that ever since I have been thought unsafe even in my own house. Why should I then be represented as any-wise ill affected to the Government, or disposed to espouse the Popular humour? And must now one Sermon against Popery make me be suspected to be so? Should not rather the whole tenor of my life be the Expositor of that Discourse, than any other considerations that are but extrinsic to it, and relate only to the timing of the thing; whereas the Apostle bids us preach in season and out of season? And especially when one of the chief grounds for which I am dissatisfied with Popery, is, because I certainly know that it is of disloyal Principles, and vastly prejudicial to the Rights of Princes, how much soever the contrary be alleged by those among us, who in their present circumstances find it their interest to juggle in the matter?  
Neither can it ever be imagined that now to Preach against that Religion, does practically contradict those Principles. For his Majesty himself (whom God bless and long preserve) has been so far from showing that he thinks so, that in his Gracious Letter to his Parliament among us, he assures us, that, as nothing has a greater tendency to secure our Privileges and Properties, than the aggrandizing his Power and Authority; so he proposes no other end for maintaining it in its greatest lustre, than to be the more enabled to defend and protect our Religion as established by Law, and all our Rights and Properties. So that to assert and vindicate our Religion, and to show the falseness of that which now stands most in competition with it, seemed to me exactly to comply with the design of the King; for which we have the greatest reason in the world to be grateful and loyal.  
But they go farther than this, and, according to what is objected by a late Pamphleteer, say that the preaching against Popery, so as to render it odious to the People, is ill service done to his Majesty, because manifestly tending to alienate the hearts of his Subjects, and incense the Rabble, whose ungracious temper cannot love the Person, whilst they hate the Religion of the Prince.  
Sure I am, I never raised any more odious consequence against Popery, than this is against us. But we never thought that any, who pretend to be his Majesty's Subjects, would have dared to do him so ill service, as to drive the affair to this height. For at this rate they render it Leasing-making and Lese-Majesty, to speak against Popery at all. Because no Protestant can speak against it, but he must call it such a Religion as is not the safe way to Salvation. Otherwise he behoved to embrace it, and be Papist himself. Since there is but one Religion, that as such can lead one to Heaven, and he is obliged to be of that. But according to that Author, the charging Popery with any odious thing, (beyond which nothing can be more so than what is damnable) tends to alienate the hearts of his Majesty's Subjects from him, and to beget in them a hatred of his Person. And sure to do any thing that has such a tendency, is as horrid a Treason and Villainy as is imaginable. Wherefore I do appeal to all the World, if ever there was any thing of a greater tendency to alienate the hearts of his Majesty's Subjects from him, than for the Papists thus to screw up the quarrel about Religion, till it become one of the Crown, and to muzzle up our Mouths from uttering one syllable against Popery, whatever the busy Emissaries of Rome should say in behalf of it? For if the fears of Popery be very apt to produce the greatest mischiefs, as certainly they are, then questionless the drawing such consequences from our owning our Religion, and showing how false that great Rival Popery is, (which necessarily we must do if we own our own Religion) must be very apt to produce these evils; there being nothing more apt to engender those fears, than thus to carry the matter to so dreadful an event.  
But, blessed be God, we know abundantly that these pragmatical Gentlemen do run without a Commission, and that his Gracious Majesty himself has no such thoughts of us, as they have. And we hope there is no ground for any to have them. For the reason why that Gentleman imagines, that the hearts of his Majesty's Subjects are thus alienated from him, is, because they cannot love the Person, whilst they hate the Religion of the Prince. Truly I would not have thought that any Papist should have been so little considerate, as to own and declare that Principle, That the People cannot love the Person, whilst they hate the Religion of the Prince. For this is a plain confession, and not Auricular either, that since Queen Mary's days there has not been a Prince among us loved by his Popish Subjects; and that in all times coming no Protestant Prince can ever expect any of their affection or kindness. And it is certain, that, as the Priests and Jesuits have made it their business to render Protestanc as yodious and abominable as it was possible for them to do, so they will always continue to do so. What then has become of all the Popish Loyalty that has been so much talked of? And are not Protestant Kings in a brave and glorious condition, when they have Popish Subjects? But what if Britain were as much Popish as now it is the contrary, and a Protestant King were ruling over it, would he not have a pretty Tenure for his Crown? And would these Gentlemen speak so in such a case? Indeed too much fondness, without any ground at all, has made them very far alter their Dialect of late. Though at least Policy and Prudence should restrain them from such Arguments. For we hope they will not be so bold as to say but that their present circumstances may be changed, and that Britain may have a Protestant Prince again; although it is our Prayers (as fervently and zealously as 'tis any Papists) that we may enjoy our present Great One reigning over us, till he shall have outgone all his Predecessors, as much in Years, as in Glory. But moreover, I would ask these Gentlemen whether or no they think that the Primitive Christians were but very cold to their Princes, nay that they went so far as even to hate their Persons, because they were not of their Religion? Sure I am they will not say but that it was their Duty to do otherwise. And if it was their Duty, sure they will be so charitable to them, as to think they did not prevaricate in it. So that Christian Subjects not only aught to love the Person of their Prince, even out of mere Duty, whatever be the difference of Religion between them; but we must presume that they have actually done so, there being nothing to recommend those Princes unto them, but only that they were such.  
But when we have a King whose Personal Excellencies are as vast as his Title is, and whose Goodness to us (and especially manifested in allowing us the free exercise of our Religion, according to the full extent of all the Laws we have in the behalf of it,) is as great as either: And so when the Ingenuity of our rational Nature, and the most pressing gratitude, together with the highest Duty, ties us as with a threefold cord, that cannot easily be broken, to love and admire him, and to devote our Lives and Fortunes to His Service: His Protestant Subjects (and these are all the three Nations almost) must be first represented as worse than Canniblas' and Devils, before they can be imagined to be guilty of the contrary; And the Ministers must be looked upon as the basest and ugliest Monsters that ever deserved that Name, before they can be supposed to design the preaching them into the being so.  
Wherefore notwithstanding all that these Gentlemen can do or say, we will love him as our Happiness, as our Glory, as our Defence, as the very breath of our Nostrils, and as the Anointed of the Lord, and as much as they for their Hearts and Souls can do, though we have reason to con them our Thanks for having extorted this competition from us.  
But, Sir, their mistake in all this lies here, that it is supposed that whatever is charged on the Religion, as it is abstractly considered, is likewise directed to the Persons of those who profess it. And as nothing can be more malicious than to suggest this, so neither could any thing be more unjust: For whoever among us said, that all of the Church of Rome will inevitably incur those consequences whereof we challenge the Religion itself? God forbid that we should. And I am very certainly persuaded that there are many good and just, virtuous and devout persons in that Communion; and that those circumstances which I presume they do invincibly lie under, are not prejudicial to that sincere intention for the Manner, and those fundamental Doctrines and Laws for the Matter, of their Piety, which they may enjoy in that Church. But yet we must say that all this good comes not by virtue of any thing of Popery as such. And that thus to distinguish is very reasonable, appears from this, that the Papists themselves do follow the same Method in dispensing their Charity towards us. So that in this case we form a twofold judgement; one directed to the Religion itself, which is the judgement of strict arguing; and another to the Persons of those who are of that Religion, which is the judgement of Charity. And the Consequences of the one do neither infer, nor clash with, those of the other. And thus the way of speaking of Things, without involving the Persons to whom they belong, has obtained to be common in the World. And without a new regulation of Speech were first indtroduced, such a Construction of speaking against Popery, as these Gentlemen fancy, can never be made, nor such consequences follow upon it.  
And here I would have you take notice that there is a great difference between the preaching what has any proper tendency to possess the people with Fears and Jealousies of Popery, (which without all doubt is very prejudicial to the Government, and as such aught to be utterly abstained from;) and what only represents Popery, as a thing false and odious in itself, without any direct or indirect insinuation that it will be imposed upon us. For the first does palpably reflect upon the Governors themselves, and levels all that is odious, not at their Religion so much as at their Temper and Persons: whereas the second abstracts wholly from the Person, and strikes merely at the Religion; and does only intend by way of Argument and Persuasion to prevail with those who are of that Religion, to forsake it, and with those who are not, never to embrace it.  
Wherefore it would seem that these Gentlemen do principally aim at this, viz. To have our People led back again to as great an ignorance as was that from which the Reformation rescued them, and as is altogether necessary for their designs of wheedling them over to Popery. For either they understand their Religion sufficiently already, and need not be instructed by any Preacher; and then, though there were never a word of Popery in all Britain, but what the Papists themselves do speak, yet (according to that Principle which these Gentlemen make use of) they would be as much disposed to hate the Person, because of the Religion of the Prince, as when the Pulpits did thunder never so loudly against it; because in that case they would understand and know all the ill things of it, that were requisite to render it odious unto them. Or else there is need that the Preachers should both instruct and exhort their Hearers, and as the Apostle says, tell the same things over and over again; and then to have them silenced from preaching against Popery, as these Gentlemen would have them, were to have the People left quite to themselves, till by degrees they should become ignorant enough for their purpose. And so in a few years' Protestancy would wear out of its own accord.  
But after all this, I am very far from thinking that Ministers should treat the Popish Religion more harshly than mere necessity requires them to do; especially since they see that some people are pleased to make such misconstructions, and to draw such consequences. It is true I have endeavoured in this Sermon to show how far the consequences of Popery in some cases do amount. But never having heard that this gave offence, I thought I had the liberty to manage my Subject to the best advantage I could. And unless those who are content that we should preach against Popery, would stint and limit the scope of our Consequences, how should we know where to stop? For 'tis rare to find any Man undertake the refutation of a thing, but he will even naturally be led on to impeach it of all the evil that can render it odious, provided he sees himself sufficiently furnished with evidence to make out his charge.  
But I bless God, that as there is no Man upon earth that I entertain any malicious thought against, so I never found myself much inclined to render things more odious than I was convinced that really they were. And with all my heart I could wish that the differences between the Popish Religion and ours were brought to as narrow a compass, and to as fair an accommodation, as is possible. Neither shall it ever be my design to widen them. But the truth on't is, how to make up one of both, is a thing I could never understand, the Extremes being at too great a distance to be ever brought to one Point.  
But what shall we say of the Consequences which the Papists do endeavour to draw from our Religion? That forecited Pamphlet, entitled, Popery Anatomised, expressly charging all the Rebellions that have been since the Forty-one, upon this blessed Principle, (as in his Drollery he is pleased to call it) that every Man must be allowed a judgement of Discretion to read and understand the Scripture for himself, so as not to pin his Religion on the sleeve of the Church. I wonder what can be more odious against Popery in all my Sermon. But how very gross, and absurd, and ridiculous, and monstrous, and abominable the Writers for Rome have studied to represent our Religion, is as well known, as is the Sun in the firmament.  
As for the alleged virulency of my style, you'll see, Sir, by the Sermon itself, that there is not one expression in it but what has been commonly used by the Writers of these Controversies upon which it treats. And the Author of the Papist Misrepresented is in several places content to take with as hard language, if such or such things be made out against him: which I think clearly done already. So that if the Reasons be good, they justify the severity of the Terms, for then things are only called by their proper Names. And who should be angry that they are so?  
Yet I am so far from approving any scurrilous or scolding Language in the handling of Controversies, or in public Sermons, that I have ever been much prejudiced against those Books and Discourses that are loaded with it. And so long as good manners can be kept up without any injury done to the Truth, certainly there can be no such ingenuous pleasure in venting some Satirical wit, as to be more prevalent with any sober Man than they can be. And therefore in all the occasions I shall have to deal with Popery, I am resolved never to assault it so much with hard Words, as hard Arguments, being too well furnished with the one to need run for any recourse unto the other.  
But, Sir, what touched the Loyalty of the Sermon was not all. For it is also said to be wholly stuffed with Lies and Calumnies. It is good luck I stand not here alone, it being now the common cry that Popery is Misrepresented. And we no sooner unveil the Mystery, but the Papists protest against Protestant Popery. And it is called our ordinary artifice to keep up our People, to draw the most ugly, and so most false characters of that Religion, which we can only scold at, but not refute. It is pretty indeed to see the chase so turned. For the piae frauds were wont to be as much the professed as peculiar Doctrine and Practice of their own Church. We thank God ours needs no such Supporters. And our Auditors are not so much kept in ignorance as to be easily imposed upon. And now, Sir, you have the Sermon. And if it appear not by it, that whatever I have charged them withal, is, if not the direct Doctrine of the Council of Trent, yet at least the most common sentiment of their Doctors, and that all my Deductions are truly consequential and just, than I shall willingly submit to your censure, which will be more severe to me than any that my avowed enemies can inflict.  
Now, Sir, to complete all, it is said that I should have been civil to a Religion I was once of. 'Tis true, I went abroad about nine years ago, scarcely being then of Age, and very unsettled in my judgement, and unripe in my Reason: and then I was abused by the Sophistry of some Jesuits, several unlucky circumstances concurring to favour their ill designs upon me. And thus I continued with them till towards three years, that through the mercy of God I was brought back again to that pure and reasonable Religion from which I had so foolishly Apostatised. And indeed I was not long at Rome when I began to discover what a lamentable change I had made. For to any ingenuous Man there can hardly be a more convincing demonstration, than that Ocular one which is daily to be seen there. So that if Papists will deal prudently with their new Proselytes, they'll be very wary to send them too soon unto that place.  
But in all this my case was but such, as if one in a violent Fever should through his raving distemper cry out that he was a Papist; but so soon as he recovered his senses and judgement again, would scarcely believe he was ever so wonderfully transported by his disease, and was mightily astonished, that even in those Paroxysms he could run so far beside himself. Now why should either they have any thing to brag that one in a very resembling condition was so greatly deluded; or should I owe any other civility to that Religion now, but to let all the World see how much ground I had to forsake it. But sure I am, I was never uncivil to any person of that Religion, but have ever made it my business to acquit myself toward them of all the obligations they ever laid upon me.  
But, Sir, you'll perhaps wonder that, after there was no more to be said against the Sermon, or directly against me, because of it, they should come at last in the general to vent themselves against my having abandoned their Communion; alleging, that I was influenced by other Motives, than those which are proper for Religion. I am not to fix measures to any body's charity. But God is the searcher of all hearts, and I have a Soul to answer unto him for whatever I do here in the Body, when that great day of accounts shall come, wherein the Motives upon which all Men do embrace their Religion, will be laid open and made manifest.  
But, Sir, to satisfy the World I have this to say, that I am ready upon all occasions to give a reason for the hope that is in me to every body that shall ask about it. So that I doubt not to show (and I promise myself that this Sermon will partly do it) that, whatever were my Motives; yet I have done what was just and reasonable in itself, and what I ought to have done however.  
Yet nothing they can say shall ever trouble or surprise me; for I know that it is through good report and evil report that I must enter into the Kingdom of God. And it is my comfort, that there is a blessing annexed to us, when men shall revile us, and persecute us, and shall say all manner of evil against us falsely for Christ's sake.  
But, in fine, Sir, to return to the chief occasion of this long Letter (which I had never ventured upon without your express Command) so long as those Jesuits and Priests, and other truckling Emissaries of Rome, continue to busy themselves so extraordinarily in promoting their Faith, as they have done of late, they will always furnish their Ministers with Apology enough for preaching against Popery. For how can we betray our trust so grossly, as to suffer our People to be shamm'd away from us by the crafty insinuations of a Set of Men, who are incessant upon all occasions to advance their design, without doing what in us lies to prevent any inconsiderable mischief that may happen to our Church that way, as if we were no farther concerned than to be mere Spectators of the affair? So that it is not out of the least apprehension that Popery will ever be imposed upon us by our King, that we Preach and Exhort against it. No certainly. For we look upon ourselves as no less secure upon that head, than it is possible for us to be; having all our Laws in favour of our Religion confirmed to us by his Gracious Sanction, and being fully encouraged in that Royal Promise, of which we cannot doubt before we be heinously guilty of a very great wickedness and sin. But because some eminent defections give us, alas! but too good ground to fear, that the endeavours of these our restless Enemies may prove too successful with many, whose pliant inclinations (upon what Motives themselves know best, and I will not presume to determine) sufficiently disposeth for that Religion. And that my Sermon did but too luckily hit the juncture of that day wherein it was preached, you will certainly acknowledge when you know that on that very day a Presbyter of our Church abjured its Communion. Had therefore the Ministers of Christ's Gospel ever more reason to bestir themselves in maintaining and defending the truth of it, than in these our circumstances? That therefore we have since these few Months appeared somewhat more zealous than ordinarily against Popery, others than we ought to be thanked for it; these having forced us either to be perfidious to our God, and his Son, whose Ministers we are, or else to preach against that Religion, which we saw was like to become so common and alamode.  
Thus, Sir, I do endeavour to vindicate myself and Sermon; and I have written more largely to you, not only to approve myself to one of my best friends, but also because I know that you'll represent these things in my behalf wherever you hear these Objections made against me. But whatever those Gentlemen shall say, I am resolved to shelter myself in the peace of a good conscience, and the protection of the justest King on this side Heaven.  
After all this, Sir, I must beg   
Galat. v. 6. For in Jesus Christ neither Circumcision availeth any thing, nor Uncircumcision: but Faith which worketh by Love. 
THat which through the assistance of God I intent to pursue from this Text is, That the Christian Religion is of the most spiritual Frame and Constitution, the most exactly fitted and proportioned, as to the immaterial Being of the Object which it regards, so to the reasonable Nature of the Subject in which it ought to reside; That it is of a more noble and elevated Design, than were any of those course Models, which either Wickedness or the Necessity of Affairs did ever introduce among Men: And so, that it does not consist in outward performances and bodily gestures, in certain Schemes of Sacrifices, or a ceremonial Worship, in solemn Pageantries and pompous Shows, in external Rites and Usages, or carnal Ordinances and a sensible Oeconomie; but in a holy and virtuous Life and Conversation, in Faith, Love, Devotion, Humility, Patience, Contentment, Sobriety, Temperance, Chastity, in Righteousness, Charity, Sincerity, Meekness, Generosity, and all those other Graces which concur to renew the Image of God in the Soul of Man, and to dispose him for that purest Fruition of the Original itself in Heaven, which is equally apt to encourage him in the diligent practice, and to teach him what should be the peculiar Kind of his Obedience upon Earth: For in Jesus Christ, etc.  
And indeed this Character I have given of the Religion which is acceptable to God through Christ Jesus, is so obviously held forth to us in these Words, that it ought rather to be reckoned as a Paraphrase of, than any formal Deduction from, them.  
For by Circumcision must be understood the whole ceremonial Institution of the Jewish Law; that word being ordinarily used in this sense by our Apostle in all his Epistles: because the Circumcision was the most eminent Ceremony of that Dispensation, and so most proper to give a Name to the whole. And by Uncircumcision we must also mean any other kind of carnal Worship, of a like nature unto that of the Jews, and which was either customary among the Heathens, or should afterwards be invented by any of those who should pretend to follow the Doctrine of Jesus Christ. For by it the Apostle could not intend any other form of Religion but what was animal, and was chiefly consummated in corporeal Observances, and outward Formalities; since there is none of a middle kind, which could be directed to the true God, that can imaginably fall between the notion of such a one, and that genuine sort which is expressed by the subsequent part of the Text, Faith which worketh by Love; as is palpable. And therefore it is certain that he could not use both these two, Uncircumcision, and Faith which worketh by Love, as but different Phrases for the same thing; because than he had really contradicted himself, by saying, that the former availeth not in Jesus Christ, when immediately he did insinuate the contrary of the latter. And so by Uncircumcision he must needs have meant that kind of Religion which stood in contradistinction to this other; and consequently that which I have now described as the true importance of that word. So that the Exposition of the Text runs most naturally thus; Neither such an Administration as was that of the Jews, nor any other whatsoever, of no finer Essence nor Intent, can signify any thing to those who look for Salvation through the Holy Jesus; for the main design and scope of that Religion, whereof he was the Author, is only Faith which worketh by Love.  
Now by this we can only understand that generous and suitable temper of mind, whereby the Nature of Man is exalted to the greatest height of Perfection that it is capable of on this side of its glorious Estate. For 'tis not possible to conceive a more emphatic or comprehensive account of all that is requisite for making up the most spiritual and divine Religion, than what is implied in Faith working by Love; all that can be called Sanctity or Goodness, being fully comprised in that Grace, thus operative and prolific. It were easy to show this, both from the complexion of such a lively Faith, and from the dependence which all that is truly great or noble has upon it. But that lies out of my present Road; and so it shall suffice to vouch it by those two other places, where the Apostle repeats this same Text, and only altars the Expression here; in the one calling it the keeping of the Commandments of God, and in the other a new Creature. Christianity then, or that which availeth in Jesus Christ, is a complete Systeme of the most refined and improved Morality, such as wholly tends to accomplish and adorn the Souls of Men. And therefore it is such an ingenuous and spiritual Religion, so reasonable a service, as equally excludes, and does transcend all those low and carnal Schemes, which either Childishness or Superstition did reconcile to those fond and doting Creatures that have ever been wheedled with them.  
Thus you see that I have not raised any other Doctrine from this Text, but what the Apostle himself did directly intend when he wrote it, and so what is the immediate sense of the Words; and that I have not ventured so much upon Inferences, as Interpretations, in making it afford a Subject patly enough accommodated for that which this Discourse has still in its view. And now that I may go on the more methodically with it, I shall,  
First, Give a short account of Religion before Christ. And, Secondly, What was the special and principal Design of that which he preached to the World.  
As to the First, It is certain that in the State of Innocence our first Parents were wholly employed in gratitude and love to their Maker, in admiring the beautiful Frame of this World, and reflecting the Glory of such a Workmanship upon him by whose fingers it was fashioned, in mutual love to, and complacency in, each other; and such like pure and suitable Virtues. And all this without any external Ceremonies or Formalities, any outward Schemes of Religion, or Models of Devotion, save only that they, being lodged in Flesh as well as we, could not but use those gestures and postures which were necessary for them in any public Worship; so, to wit, as the Saints will do in Heaven after the Resurrection. And the reason is, because God being a Spirit, and so not capable to be the direct Object of material Motions, those which formally respect him must needs proceed from a Spirit too. And therefore all corporeal Actions come in but by accident into Religion, and cannot be pertinent to it, but so far as either they tend to occasion some proportionable ones in the Soul, (as when one in a prostrate posture is thereby moved to thoughts of Humility,) or else for the mutual subserviency and decent administration of public Worship among many. Now in that blessed Estate there could not but be so very little need of any outward Observances, upon either of these respects, that it were very unreasonable to increase them beyond what was absolutely necessary and indispensible.  
But when Sin had overturned all things, and subjected the supreme and leading Faculties in Man, to those low and carnal Members wherein he was but a sharer with the Beasts that perish, then Almighty God, to upbraid his fall, did enjoin him a Religion as gross and carnal as himself was become, and appointed him to make Atonement by the Blood of Beasts, for that beastly Nature he had degenerated into. Not that those material Sacrifices were capable to afford any congruous satisfaction to that infinite Being, the very Kind of whose Nature, as well as the Perfection of it, did infinitely transcend and undervalue them. Neither was there any thing intrinsic in those animal performances to proportion them for such an end. And therefore it was not merely these that were exacted, but also, and especially, the inward Sacrifice, and offering up of the Mind. Thus though both Cain and Abel did equally acquit themselves as to the outward part of the Oblation, yet not doing so as to the spiritual too, the one was accepted, and the other not. So that the external observation had no other excellency to recommend it, but what it borrowed from the ingenuous and devout Intention of those by whom it was performed; and whatever was done by the Body, could not pretend to any kind of Worthiness in the sight of God, as it did proceed from it, but only as it was informed with the pious affection of the Soul. And consequently all those outward Ministrations did concur to the true design of Religion, but materially at best; and it was still those Principles of inward Honesty and Religion, which were preserved after the Fall, that gave the formal value to them, which were the Salt that seasoned all the Sacrifices, and the Altar which sanctified the Gifts.  
However that great enemy of Mankind, who was but the more enraged to a fresh assault by that New Covenant of Grace, whereby all the success of his former was so much defeated, did now look upon himself as furnished with a favourable enough opportunity to attempt his old project once again, and to make an essay how he might inveigle poor Man into a second Fall. For finding that an external and sensible Religion was allowed him, he plies himself with all the dexterity of his Nature to improve that while it should supplant itself, and by the numerous crowd of its performances, either quite smother that Mark whereto such a shower of Arrows were directed, or else tear it in pieces by the several and various points which should fix in it. And thus by degrees he got Superstition, and Idolatry, and Atheism, so to overwhelm the face of the earth, as to need even a deluge to wash it from so much filthiness and abomination.  
The like strategeme did succeed too well also in that new World, which by seeing the ruins of the old, should at least have kept off those rocks that it was dashed upon. But the Adversary was cunning, and they were frail; so that the thing that prevented a second deluge was not the want of a second occasion for one, but the mere promise of God, who was resolved not to strive any more with such backsliding creatures. And therefore thought fit to form a peculiar Church and People to himself.  
But yet such was the natural complexion and genius of that same Race which he made choice of, that at the Institution of their Law, their fondness to that carnal and sensible Worship, to which they had been enured among the Egyptians, was so very invincible, as in a manner even to constrain him to humour them in the very kind of that service they were to pay to him, and so to indulge them a Religion symbolical to that of Egypt, though applied to a better purpose; their Ceremonies being an allowance that proceeded from no other motive than did their liberty to divorce their Wives; namely, because of the hardness of their hearts.  
But yet even this Condescension had not its due effect. For as their Law was at first occasioned by their froward and carnal disposition, with which the infinite goodness of God chused rather for a time to comply, than perpetually contend. So having once obtained a Religion so grateful to those fulsome inclinations which did thus closely stick to them, they soon perverted that gracious condescension to which they owed it, and looking upon it, as if it had been to be the main and principal design of that Covenant whereof their Moses was the Mediator; they foolishly imagined that their God was altogether such a one as themselves, and so more apt to be pleased with the sparkling grandeur and magnificence of a flaunting and gaudy devotion, than all those ghostly and invisible motions, which reach not beyond the dark retirement of that breast wherein they are performed. And thus did they run so far in advancing the credit and reputation of bodily performances, as at last to become wholly possessed with the opinion of an abundant sufficiency in them, and that upon their account they became righteous in the sight of God, so as that by the very opus operatum of those Sacrifices and Lustrations which he appointed, their sins and offences were fully expiated, and he sufficiently attoned for them.  
And as for the Moral Law, they owned no farther concernment in it, than merely to let it alone; that is, being it wholly consisted in Negatives, not to break forth into any outward commission of those things which were forbidden by it: looking upon it rather as an extrinsical Circumstance, than any constituent part of their Religion.  
Yea so vastly did this prevail, that nothing happened to their Works, but what became the very fate of their Faith too. For the hopes they had of that happiness, which should accrue to them from the coming of the Messias, did chiefly respect that worldly honour, glory and greatness which they imagined was to attend him. And when so great and learned a part of their Rabbis were so much immersed in Matter, as to deny even the being of any thing else, we may easily guests how little they were disposed to spiritual things, and how great influence their ceremonial Worship had upon them.  
Thus you see the original and progress of a ceremonial Religion, upon what account it was first condescended unto, and what were the ill effects it produced.  
Let us now come to the other thing proposed, the special design of the Christian Religion. And that, as S. John 1 Ep. 3. 8. tells us, was to destroy the works of the Devil; namely, those that either were directly suggested by him, or which he had been the first occasion of. For the Son of God took upon him the form of a Servant, not only to be obedient unto the death of the Cross, and be a propitiation for the Sins of the World; But also to be a Preacher of Righteousness, and to reduce affairs as near as possible to that posture they were in, when there was no need of one under his Office and Character. And therefore when he went up to the Mount, in imitation of Moses 'tis like, to publish that New Law whereby he would have the lives of Men to be governed, there was nothing he propounded but what was of an exact Morality and goodness, of an absolute and intrinsic rectitude and excellency, and which was altogether congruous and suitable to our Rational Nature, and no less fitted to defecate and refine us from sense and corruption, than to render us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light; the one being really the other. So that his Religion appeared rather to be calculated for those unbodied spirits, that are not encumbered with the propensions of flesh, than for such as are even sunk in matter, and heavily clogged with those earthly Tabernacles they carry about with them.  
And as for the Ceremonies of the Jewish Law; Since he was the Truth and Substance of which they were but the Type and Shadow, his very Being, without any more ado, did fully evacuate and abolish them; as is clearly demonstrated by S. Paul in several of his Epistles, and especially in that to the Hebrews. Nay moreover, our Lord himself did expressly show us so much, Joh. 4. 21, 23. and he gives the reason thereof, vers. 24. For God is a Spirit, and he must be worshipped in spirit and in truth. Add to this, that he did institute new Sacraments in lieu of the old ones, which, by consequence at least, was an entire abrogation of those, and of that Law to which they did pertain. So that the whole essence and design of that Religion did consist in true holiness and virtue, in the improvement of the Soul, and renovation of the inward Man.  
Neither did he join those new Sacraments unto it, as if he intended to introduce one Ceremonial Religion in place of another, or to give encouragement thereby to any to load it with all the arbitrary inventions their fondness could put them upon. No certainly. 'Tis true indeed, he saw that the present circumstances of our frail condition did necessarily require some external and sensible means, to distinguish us from the rest of the world in an outward profession; the better to keep us in mind of the import and obligation thereof; and to prompt us to a severe examination of our ways, a high gratitude to our Redeemer, and an Universal Love among ourselves. But yet those which he did appoint were of so simple a nature, and so common an use in the ordinary course of our life, that in reason it could never be presumed they would furnish occasion for any accessionary throng of pompous Ceremonies, at once to smother their original simplicity and design too. Wherefore in all the New Testament there is not the least footstep of any thing that looks like the giving countenance unto such. And it was in consequence to the contrary that our Text was written, when several persons that said they were Christians, would have had That Religion profaned with them. For the Apostle knowing, not only that it was dangerous to trust those, who had been trained up from their infancy amidst a crowd of Ceremonies, with any thing that might lead them back to these again, or at least divert them from that inward Righteousness whereof already they were become so shy; But also, that even in the nature of things an outward and splendid Religion did afford matter of tentation to draw aside the most of Men from paying that due attention to those unseen and retired exercises, which are only proper to a spiritual piety and devotion; the Apostle, I say, perceiving these, did therefore by the bulk discharge them all manner of such observances and customs, and universally remove all these or the like Ceremonies from Christianity, as wholly inconsistent with, and prejudicial to such a spiritual dispensation: For in Jesus Christ, etc. So that no Ceremonies but such as mere necessity, or a discreet decency and order, does require, can be at all allowable unto those who expect any good from that Religion, which is to be measured by the Will of Jesus Christ, and not by the fancies of bold and designing Men.  
Now that during the first Ages of that holy Religion its first and main design, which was so very visible and conspicuous, was carried on with a candour and integrity suitable to itself, is more certain than that it can well be doubted of. And I shall clearly evince it by the two following Arguments.  
First, Because it could be nothing else but the strictness of its commands, and that exemplary purity of life which these did enjoin, that occasioned all the persecution that was raised against it.  
And secondly, because the Primitive Christians exercised their Religion in the most simple manner that was possible.  
First then, 'Twas certainly upon the account of the Excellency of that Morality, and of that sublime Obedience which the Gospel introduced, that it met with so bad entertainment in the world, and was persecuted with all the rigour and cruelty that enraged Tyrants could invent. For the believing and speculative part of the Christian Religion, in so far as it has no influence upon the life and conversation of Men, was of no such provoking nature, as to have embroiled the world so sadly, and raised the most disturbing commotions that ever set its people in a flame. Since the appearing wildness and paradoxy of its most abstruse and unexplicable Mysteries, could at worst have been but resembling to that of those frantic opinions, which in the greatest part of Religions were admitted with the profoundest reverence and veneration; and which had given a precedent for the highest extravagances to gain credit and regard, were they but once shrouded with the common pretext of pertaining to things sacred. And so as the no less absurd and inconsistent, than unworthy and ridiculous fancies about the Heathen Deities, were so far from incensing or offending the Higher Powers, that on the contrary they became the Objects of their adoration; So it is never to be presumed that any Doctrine or Tenants whatsoever could have wrought that effect, so long as they went no farther, than merely to be such, and did not exact any other observance but the credulous assent of an easy understanding.  
Neither could it be the external Worship and Devotion whereof it made a show, that could give so much offence. For supposing that it had made its appearance in the world with the greatest pomp and splendour; Yet how can it be imagined that those who had abandoned themselves to all the sopperies and trumpery that fond Idolary could inspire Men withal, should have ever been so zealous of their own madness, as rather than to suffer others be possessed with a greater, to persecute them with nothing less than fire and sword, destruction and ruin? This, I say, could never have been, had there not been some other thing of a nearer concern at the bottom of it. Nay so far was it from this, that That very Rome which rose up against the Name of Jesus with all the violence and fury that was possible, was yet as much accustomed to enslave herself to all the Deities of other Nations, as to enslave these unto herself: Not seeming more ambitious to have her Empire and the World of the same confines, than to have her Pantheon well crowded with all its Idols too; as if nothing could have satisfied her, but to have all the Gods, as well as Men, to be wholly her own. So that when Cats and Crocodiles, and the ugliest shapes that could be contrived were advanced in her Temples, surely, had not the God of the Christians been more ungrateful upon some other account, than that he would have engaged her to some new superstition; she had rather took it as a kindness, than any injury, to have got him mounted upon some of her Altars. And therefore it seems very obvious from all this, that it was chiefly the preceptive and practical part of Christianity, which was so much the stumbling-block, and for which it came to be more inveterately hated, than any Religion that had ever before been proposed to the consciences of Men.  
For all Mankind being deeply immersed in the corruption of flesh and blood, and universally addicted to indulge themselves in those lusts and pleasures, whose fulsome nature did best suit with such degenerate creatures, it was not to be expected but that when so heavenly and divine a Religion came down from above the clouds, to insinuate itself into their practice and conversation, it should encounter with all the spite and opposition that such an unwelcome, though generous, project could be persecuted withal; when the more excellent and losty design it carried along with it, the more directly did it contradict those natural inclinations, in whose satisfaction all the reputed happiness of the world was formerly placed. And upon that score the Religion of the Holy Jesus was looked upon as some malevolent and insiduous design, to despoil the world of all that was dear unto it; and to be as cruel an attempt, as if that had been even literally directed to rob every body of his nearest Relations, nay to deprive him of his right eye, and right hand, and leave him no more but the passive trunk of a mutilous body to breathe into. This is undoubtedly the most rational account that can be given, wherefore, of all the Religions that ever set foot in the World, the Christian only was that which looked so terrible and surprising, as to raise all the Power and Wit of Mankind to the greatest enmity and violence against it.  
Yea, not only is it thus evident that the signal and grand design of Christianity was to reform and improve the lives of Men; But also on the other hand it is palpable that in those Primitive Ages, all who made profession thereof were as simple in the garb of their Religion, as they were in that of their Bodies; and that was simple enough. Indeed their circumstances were such, that they were glad to have but any corner to assemble themselves into. And they were so ill provided of what could advance any external grandeur, that it became one of the charges laid against them, that their Religion behoved to be some mean and skulking thing, since of all the Religions that had ever appeared in the world, it only had no Temples wherein solemnly to worship its God. And till the days of Constantine, that Churches were built in a Magnificent manner, they had scarcely Huts to preach in; and the best they ordinarily made use of, was but some upper Room in some private house or other. What therefore could be the other pomp of that Service which was so ill lodged, and which for the most part was brought forth, as was he to whom it was directed, in an Inn or a Stable?  
But though they wanted those outward advantages, yet as to the genuine part of their duty, there was never any thing more heavenly and devout, more zealous and fervent; and they were frequent in Prayer and Exhortation, and in receiving the Holy Eucharist, without any noise or splendour, or any thing that could look like vanity or superstition; being so extremely intent upon the substance of the thing, as never to suffer one thought to be diverted about the external form of it.  
Hitherto then did the Christian Religion preserve its native Temper and Institution. But, alas! not long after that, things began to put on another face. For when once they got an Emperor to be as much Christian, as before him all of that Title were the contrary: And so when Liberty and Riches, those two dangerous things, if not cautiously made use of, began to flow in upon them apace; then they quickly became proud and wanton, ambitious and fanciful; and began to vie grandeur and pomp with all the world, and from one extreme running into another, to busk every thing that related to their Religion in as gaudy a dress, as that was simple and mean it had wont to be accoutred withal: As if they had imagined, that since their Religion was the most sublime and excellent that ever adorned any society of Men; therefore it ought to be the most splendid and magnificent too. So that the Fathers began to pray for the Persecutions again, to purge the Church of all those supervenient deckings, and to force those who did haunt it unto their old humility and charity, and unto that ingenuous and plain manner of Devotion, which was only suitable for so sacred a place.  
But still they went on, until at last the Visage of the Church became to be so painted and patched over, as that one who had seen it before, should not have now known it for his old and modest acquaintance. And thus at length affairs came up to that height wherein they are in the Church of Rome at this day. A Church that has been so much infected with the contagious superstition of other Religions, as to render her own but a Mongrel composure of them all. A Church that has perverted the most noble design into the worst purposes, that has daubed the most beautiful Religion with the most ugly and preternatural inventions, and that has transplanted the very Being of it from the Soul to the Body, from a Spiritual to a Carnal Soil. But should I once launch out into this Subject, so vast and spacious is it, that the whole day would not serve to go over it. I shall therefore only touch at some few things in general.  
And first, What shall be said of the Rites and Ceremonies of their Worship and Sacraments, and that outward pomp wherein they are performed? They are now become altogether Theatrical, and their grand Mass, especially if said by the Pope himself, is certainly one of the most bombast pieces of Pageantry the world ever saw. The thing is too well known that I should insist upon it; And therefore I shall only refer those who are not sufficiently informed, to the 2d and 3d Chapter of the first Book of the Famous Mr. Claude his Historical Defence of the Reformation; where, though the Subject be not more lively than truly described, yet it comes short of what really it is; as any body who has been at Rome especially can attest; and as may be gathered from the Description of a Roman Service, written by a Jesuit in a Letter to a Friend of his. It runs thus: We are sure (says he) that the Society did employ 9000 Florins in the late Solemnity. They caused to raise a great Machine in our Church of Farnese at Rome, in honour of the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist: It was 120 Palms high, and 80 in breadth; wonderfully adorned with excellent Statues, with delicate Images, with rarely painted Histories, and Emblems, which did ravish the Eyes of all the Beholders; and having burning upon it upwards of four thousand Flambeaux, the light did shine so very radiantly all about in the Church, as that one durst hardly look up, for fear of being quite dazzled. They did celebrate the Service with so much Pomp, and with such a transporting Consort of the Pope's Musicians, that there wanted nothing but the Presence of the Pope himself to make up the most magnificent Show that ever was upon the Earth. The Archbishop of Rhodes said the Mass; there were twenty two Cardinals present, and the whole Prelates almost of the Roman Court, with all the Ambassadors of Kings and Princes, and the greatest part of the Religious Orders of Rome. We may conjecture from this, as ex ungue leonem, what is the superstition of that Church.  
But, Secondly, there is nothing more visible than that it has been its great study and endeavour to take off all the burden of Religion from the Soul, and lay it upon the Body. For if this but trudge and smart sufficiently, the other will have but little to do. And that is evident,  
First, By their Doctrine about the Sacrament of Penance; where not only they have fitted the word for the purpose, but also have so ordered the matter, that there is no more inward sorrow required in the mind, but what is animal, and what every Beast has when it is dragged to the Shambles, that is Attrition, or Sorrow proceeding merely from the fear of Danger. And if the Penance enjoined be but exactly gone about, than all is well enough. So that at this rate one needs never to be at the pains so to wean his Soul from the World, as by a pure and benevolential Love, or even complacential either, to fix it upon God; which to do is certainly both the greatest Difficulty and Design of our Religion. Because he has no more to do, but to be afraid of Hell, and to run to a Priest for Absolution, and then to perform such corporeal Exercises, as he shall prescribe; and these, no doubt, will not be too severe. Who then would not be encouraged to sin by this Doctrine, when they are taught by it how to redeem the offence so easily? And though they require a purpose of sinning no more, yet that being founded upon the same motive, namely, the Fears of Hell, one may be in Heaven, or at least in Purgatory, before he begin to learn how he should love his God as he ought.  
But this may be proved, not only by their Doctrine, about this particular Sacrament, but even about them all in general. For what can do it more, than that the very opus operatum of the Sacraments, produces Grace in the receiver of them? And therefore they need not seek for Holiness itself, and a fully form piety, before they approach them, since they expect that from them as their proper and formal effect; but only for certain Dispositions and Perquisites to it. And who knows not that the one is much more easily acquired than the other?  
Nay, they go farther than all this, and to the Sacraments they add the Sacramentalia; and these come swarming in upon Religion, as the Locusts did upon Egypt. For they hold, that by pattering over the Lord's Prayer, by casting the sign of the Cross, by a dash of Holy Water, by having a bit of an Agnus Dei about one, or the Relic of any Saint, nay, or even a Medal of one, by being in such a Confraternity, or Sodality, or by wearing such a Scapulary, or Frock; in a word, by doing any thing they have a mind to, Grace is still ready waiting on, and the Soul is thereby sanctified, and made holy.  
But moreover, their Doctrine of a general intention concurs mightily to help up all: For if at the beginning of any duty they shall but in the general intent to do it for such an end, than there is no more required; and if the Body do but go about it, the Soul needs not be at the fatigue of a constant attendance with its Intention. So that the Soul gives out the orders at first to the Body, to march there, or there, and after that itself goes a wand'ring where it pleases. Thus though the Office of their Church takes up a considerable time, yet if a Priest address himself to it with a general intention, and his Lips but mutter it over, he may be thinking all the time he says it, as he lists. It is just the same case with that of those lewd kind of people, who being bid say Grace before Meat, answer, that they did it in the morning for all the Day.  
I shall instance another Doctrine more, and that is their Tenent, that the inherent Righteousness whereby one is justified, does not consist in any temper or frame of the Soul; but in a certain physical Quality which they call habitual Grace. So that it is not upon the account of any Holiness or Virtue resident in the Soul itself, as contradistinguisht from that Quality, that one is justified; but merely by it, as that sanctifying form by which only we are acceptable to God. Besides the Nonsense of this, which is as great as may be, certainly there is much prejudice in it to the true intent of Religion, especially considering that it is produced, not by the Soul itself, but by the opus operatum of the Sacraments. I do not deny that many of them hold, that Faith which worketh by love does formally justify in the sight of God. But first, this is but the opinion of some, and very far from being that of all of them. Then secondly, there is none of them but he looks upon it as an extraordinary case, and so must maintain that there is no necessity at all for one to be justified upon these terms. So that if ever there was a carnal and external Religion in the World, sure that of Rome is much more so; for never was there any so exquisite and learned in the art of carrying it on so far as this.  
Now for improving what has been said to our own use, I shall only recommend that Exhortation wherewith the Apostle addresses the Galatians in the beginning of this Chapter, upon the like occasion, Stand fast in the Liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again in the yoke of bondage; For in Jesus Christ, etc. Ye have heard what is the peculiar Design of our most holy Faith, and how much that is perverted and imposed upon by that Religion which the Church of Rome has endeavoured to shuffle in in its stead. And therefore if ye have any regard to your Souls, ye'll never abandon so holy, so rational, so generous a Religion, and embrace so gross and carnal a Superstition in place of it.  
I presume I need not use any more Arguments from the competition of these two, after what has been already discoursed, having all along so manifestly shown how destructive and ruinous any such Religion, as the Roman, is to the main and special Design of true Religion in the general, and far more of that which availeth in Jesus Christ. So that having so fully discovered the precipice, it were to suppose an equal want of sense both in the Speaker and Hearers, to press you with any Reasons not to leap over it, when none but such as really are uncapable of any, can ever be guilty of the Folly.  
Yet I hope it will not be impertinent to offer some more general Motives to your consideration, that those who either could not follow the thread of the Discourse closely enough, or who, having done this, yet perhaps are not so nearly touched with it, as they ought to be, may meet with what may happen to be both more plain and convincing unto them, if indeed any thing can be more so.  
Now our Saviour does aggravate the Infidelity of the Jews with this, that if he had not come and spoken to them, they had not had sin; but now they have no cloak for their sin: If he had not done the works among them that no other Man did, they had not had sin, John 15, 22. 24. So say I to you; If ye had not been educated and trained up in the true knowledge of the Son of God; if ye were not furnished with all the means necessary for being fully convinced of the Excellency of our Religion, infinitely beyond all the false pretending ones that ever inveigled the World, than perhaps ye would have no sin, that is, not so great a degree of it, though ye should have been of the Communion of Rome. But now if ye shall fall away, and turn your back upon that Church wherein ye have been bred, and which comes as near to the primitive truth and simplicity of the Christian Religion, as that of Rome does to the Jewish and Pagan, and that is as near as may be; if, I say, now ye shall make Shipwreck of your Faith, than you will have no Cloak for your sin. 'Tis sad Language in the 6th of the Hebrews, and fourth Verse; It is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and tasted of the heavenly Gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and tasted of the good word of God, and of the powers of the world to come, if they once fall away, to be renewed again unto repentance, seeing they have crucified the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. An Expression which quadrates, even in the literal sense, but too well to the Church of Rome, her Mass equally performing both these.  
And indeed if we be mistaken in our Religion, as it stands in opposition to Popery, we may justly use S. Victor's Argument, and tax God himself with it, saying, That it is He that hath deceived and deluded us. For since we have got all our Faculties from him, both those of our Reason, and of our Senses, it is evident that whatever these do necessitate us unto, and do unavoidably force us to admit, must be refounded upon him from whom that necessity was at first derived. But sure it is impossible for any (abstractly speaking) to advert unto the native Dictates and Principles of his Reason, or ever consult the certainty which his senses afford him, and yet be Popish too. And of this the greatest Champions for Rome have been so conscious, as not finding any imaginable way how to reconcile their Religion with the Faculties of Man, to cut the troublesome knot they could not lose, and cry down all Reason as the greatest Heretic in the World. And had but that ever been at Rome, or in Spain, in such a concrete manner, as that Fire or Rack could have got hold of it, we should long e'er now have heard of the sad tortures it had endured in the Inquisition. And that I may not be thought to say this gratis, I do appeal to Gonterius, Perronius, Arnoldus, and that Jesuit Verronius, who triumphed mightily in his bold Method, to confound all the Protestants, which was by denying and renouncing all the Principles of Reason with an open Mouth, and brazen Brow, and never to deign an Answer to any Argument drawn from it against any of their Tenants, but directly and downright to deny it. So that he maintained that these Maxims of Reason, Impossibile est idem simul esse & non esse, Quidquid est, quamdiu est, necessario est, Non entis nulla sunt accidentia neque attributa, and such like, ought utterly to be refused. And let no Papists say that these were but private Authors, and they are not concerned in them. For this Book of Verronius had all the approbation that their Church could give it, unless a general Council had been called for that end. For the Pope himself hugged it very kindly; the King of Spain backed it with his Authority; Cardinals, and Archbishops, and Bishops, and the whole Clergy of France recommended it; Nay the very Sorbon put its Seal to it also. Sure the Bishop of Condom's Book, that makes such a noise, was never better vouched.  
But we need not run to this. For I defy them to show me any of their Writers upon Transubstantiation, who has not some whining kind of Language or other against our Reason and Senses. And the Author of that late pretended Answer to the Funeral of the Mass, addresses himself to his Reader thus, pag. 4. Here I humbly entreat the Protestant Reader (says he) to reflect, that in the Mysteries of Religion we must captivate our Understanding (that is to say, suspend it from asserting what it might judge, had it nothing to rely upon, but the sole relation of our senses) to obey Christ. God will have, as an Homage due to him and his Veracity, this proud faculty of Man, which is earnest to judge of all, submit to his word. Thus he; and surely very like the Wolf to the Sheep in the tender of peace between them. For the first Article he proposed to them, was, that they would lay aside all the Mastiffs by which they were guarded from him. For well he knew, that if once they were rendered so defenceless, they would soon become his Prey. Just so, if the Protestant Readers of that Book, would but once lay down the certainty of their Reason and their Senses, he would find it no difficult task indeed then to persuade them of Transubstantiation, if then they could be persuaded of any thing at all.  
I shall not stay any longer to confute this: Only I must say, that either we have certainty in the due exercise of our Faculties, so that whatever we clearly and distinctly perceive to be true, must necessarily be so; or else we are but Sceptics, without the certainty of any Thing, or Religion, imaginable. And I would ask any of the Church of Rome, how, or by what principles he comes to be persuaded of that Infallibility they boast so much of? For either he believes it rationally, and upon sufficient grounds, or not? If not; than whatever He does, yet we presume he must not take Us to be the Fools to be irrational too. But if he yields his assent, because of evident conviction, founded upon certain Arguments, than I ask him how, or by what means he comes to be assured of their certainty? Here he must either run on in infinitum; or at last must acknowledge an entire confidence in his own Faculties, and that by an inward Conscience and persuasion of Mind, arising immediately out of the bright evidence which shines from a clear perception. Now if his Church, that pretends to so much Infallibility, should define any thing that contradicts the certainty of those Faculties; then I would desire of him, how he would behave himself: For it is an undoubted Maxim in nature, That no Consequence can be more firmly established, than is the Antecedent upon which it is built. Wherefore no Definition of that Church can be more certain, than it is that she is infallible. But the certainty of her Infallibility depends entirely upon the certainty of his Faculties, as I have demonstrated: But now, by the very virtue of that Infallibility, his Faculties are rendered uncertain, according to his own Concession; What then shall he do? For now he must either hold this contradiction, that his Faculties are both certain and not certain; or else he must reject that Infallibility which supplants itself, by thus overturning and undermining that very ground upon which it was reared.  
From all which it follows, that since the Arguments for which the Infallibility is pretended, do equally involve the certainty both of our Reason, and of our Senses: And since the Doctrine of that Church does not only really contradict both, but is also acknowledged to do so; therefore that Infallibility, as considered to have actually interessed itself in those Definitions, is the most absurd and self-murthering Chimaera that ever was dreamed of in the World. And if any Papist will answer me this Argument, then I'll dare to say, we should indeed turn Papists, but then also we should turn any thing else: For than we behoved to renounce all the certainty of our Faculties, to admit the greatest contradictions and nonsense imaginable; and if we were once at that pass, what ought we not to do? Ye see then how far the certainty that we have of our Religion amounts; to wit, to no less than to that we have of the Being of a God, that that God is not a cheat, and that we ourselves are reasonable Creatures; and he that would desire any more would not know what he were desiring. Reflect therefore well upon that forecited passage out of the Hebrews; and consider seriously with yourselves what a degree of illumination you have for your Religion, and what will be your doom, if having such, ye fall away from it.  
But though this be sufficient to found the most pressing Exhortation to adhere with constancy unto our Religion; Yet there is another secondary reason which I'll presume to recommend to you; and that is, That our Religion is the most loyal Religion in the World; so that the more closely we stick to it, the more ground we give our King to trust us, and to be assured of our honesty to him. For by our Religion we cannot fear our God, but we must honour our king, and obey him for Conscience-sake. We own a Religion that is both pure and gentle, meek and peaceable; that teaches us all the suitable qualities that can make us as good Subjects as Christians. And for those wild and unaccountable Fanaticisms that at every turn makes Religion their pretence for Sedition, Tumults and Rebellion, we hate and detest them, and look upon them as the scandal of Christianity, and plague of humane Society.  
But should we once become Papists, then let them talk what they will, our Religion would oblige us to other things. It is true the French have much shaken off that Yoke of bondage to the Pope. And our British Papists do now begin to be ashamed of the deposing Power. But certain it is that the Pope himself is as tenacious of the pretence as ever he was. And when he has the Thunder of Heaven in his Hand, and all his Clergy so entirely his vowed Slaves, there is not too much security to be had; but especially when all the Clergy pretend to an exemption from the Jurisdiction of the Civil Magistrate, and that by Divine Right; an opinion very proper to embolden them unto all the villainy imaginable; and when all the Laics do so hang at the Clergy-man's Belt by their auricular Confessions; an artifice ten thousand times more apt to blow up the People withal, than ever was the whining tones of a Tub-preacher, though the World has even sadly enough experimented the influence of this: For suppose that general Orders were given out by the Pope to all the Confessors to instill the Deposing Doctrine into the Consciences of their Penitents, and to deny absolution to those who would not be prevailed upon, or at least to manage it so warily as to make it depend much upon that; supposing this, I say, would not the Loyalty of a Nation be much in hazard? Assuredly it would, unless in such a Kingdom as France, where 200000 Soldiers is the only Counterpoise against such a mischief. And therefore a King in a Popish Country, must always either live at his Holiness' Beck, or else, as if he had made but a new Conquest of it, upon the confidence of an Army still on foot. And he must be a great stranger to the intrigues of the Court of Rome, who sees not that it is but waiting for a favourable occasion to pay back the dealing of France in its own coin; and that so soon as that shall ever arrive, it will not fail to do so, even to the uttermost farthing.  
Wherefore as ye love your Reason, and your Souls, as ye love your God, and eternal Happiness, as ye love your King, and your Country, hold fast the profession of your Faith without wavering, stand fast in the Liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again in the Yoke of Bondage, of a superstitious, and unreasonable, and disloyal Religion. For in Jesus Christ, etc.  
Now unto God the Father, etc.  
FINIS.