R. 88, 89. The apostle, on the contrary, saith, Marriage is honourable in all,' Heb. xiii. 4, and gives a hard character of that doctrine which forbids it. 1 Tim. iv. 1-3. And how lawful it was the direction of the apostle about it, 1 Tim. iii. 2, doth show. And how convenient it is, is manifest from the mischiefs attending the prohibition of it in the Romish church, which wise men among themselves have lamented.*

Polyd. Virg. de invent. 1. 3. c. 4. and Cassander. Consult. Art. 23.

THE CONCLUSION.

I might have added the 5th section about jurisdiction, which the church of Rome challenges over princes, and about their canonization of saints, their consecration of Agnus Dei, and beads, &c. and the use these and the like are applied to. I might have further considered their notes of a church, and showed how many of them are not true, or however do not belong to the church of Rome: but that would be too large a subject to enter upon : and what has been said will be sufficient to show how far that church hath erred from truth and reason. For if we set their councils, missals, breviaries, rituals, and catechisms on one side, and Scripture and antiquity on the other, we shall find their doctrines and practices as truly opposite to those as they are opposite to ours: and may be assured that persons may sooner lose their eyes, than find there such a primacy of St. Peter as they contend for, or their vicarship of the Pope, the invocation of saints, the worship of images, service in an unknown tongue, transubstantiation, purgatory, and the rest that we contend against. Scripture and indubitable antiquity are the authority we appeal to, thither we refer our cause, and can heartily conclude with that of Vincentius Lyrin, That is to be held, which hath been believed every where, always, and by all. Contr. Hær. c. 3.

POPERY

CALMLY CONSIDERED.

TO THE READER.

IN the following Tract I propose, First, To lay down and examine the chief Doctrines of the Church of Rome: Secondly, To show the natural tendency of a few of those Doctrines: and that with all the plainness and all the calmness I can.

SECTION I-Of the Church, and the Rule of Faith.

1. THE Papists judge it necessary to salvation, to be subject to the pope, as the one visible Head of the Church.

But we read in Scripture that CHRIST is the Head of the church, "from whom the whole body is fitly joined together," Col. ii. 19. The Scripture does not mention any visible head of the church: much less does it mention the pope as such and least of all does it say, that it is necessary to salvation, to be subject to him.

He

2. The Papists say, The pope is Christ's vicar, St. Peter's successor, and has the supreme power on earth over the whole church. We answer, Christ gave no such power to St. Peter himself. gave no apostle pre-eminence over the rest. Yea, St. Paul was so far from acknowledging St. Peter's supremacy, that he withstood him to the face, (Gal. ii. 11,) and asserted himself, "not to be behind the chief of the apostles."

Neither is it asserted that St. Peter was the bishop of Rome: no, nor that he ever was there.

But they say, "Is not Rome the mother, and therefore the mistress of all churches?"

We answer, No. The word of the Lord went forth from Jerusalem. There the church began. She, therefore, not the church of Rome, is the mother of all churches.

The church of Rome, therefore, has no right to require any person to believe what she teaches on her sole authority.

3. St. Paul says, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works."

The Scripture therefore being delivered by men divinely inspired, is a rule sufficient of itself: so it neither needs, nor is capable of any farther addition.

Yet the papists add tradition to Scripture, and require it to be received with equal veneration. By traditions they mean, "Such points of faith and practice as have been delivered down in the church from hand to hand without writing." And for many of these they have no more Scripture to show, than the Pharisees had for their traditions.

4. The church of Rome not only adds tradition to Scripture, but several entire books; namely, Tobit and Judith, the Book of Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, the two books of Maccabees, Esdras, and a new part of Esther and of Daniel: "Which whole books," says the church of Rome, "whoever rejects, let him be

accursed."

We answer, We cannot but reject them. We dare not receive them as part of the Holy Scriptures. For none of these books were received as such by the Jewish church, "to whom were committed the Oracles of God," Rom. iii. 2. Neither by the ancient Christian church, as appears from the sixtieth canon of the council of Laodicea: wherein is a catalogue of the books of Scripture, without any mention of these.

5. As the church of Rome, on the one hand, adds to the Scriptures, so, on the other, she forbids the people to read them. Yea, they are forbid to read so much as a summary or historical compendium of them in their own tongue.

Nothing can be more inexcusable than this. Even under the law, the people had the Scriptures in a tongue vulgarly known. And they were not only permitted, but required to read them; yea, to be constantly conversant therein, Deut. vi. 6, &c. Agreeably to this, our Lord commands to "Search the Scriptures:" and St. Paul directs, that his "Epistle should be read in all the churches." 1 Thess. v. 27. Certainly this epistle was written in a tongue which all of them understood.

Even

But they say, "If people in general were to read the Bible, it would do them more harm than good." Is it any honour to the Bible to speak thus? But supposing some did abuse it, is this any sufficient reason for forbidding others to use it? Surely not. in the days of the apostles, there were some unstable and ignorant men, who wrested both St. Paul's Epistles and the other Scriptures to their own destruction. But did any of the apostles, on this account, forbid other Christians to read them? You know they did not: they only cautioned them, "Not to be led away by the error of the wicked." And certainly the way to prevent this is, not to keep the Scriptures from them: (for "they were written for our learning :") but to exhort all to the diligent perusal of them, lest they should "err, not knowing the Scriptures."

6. "But seeing the Scripture may be misunderstood, how are we to judge of the sense of it? How can we know the sense of any scripture, but from the sense of the church?"

We answer, 1. The church of Rome is no more the church in general, than the church of England is. It is only one particular branch of the Catholic, or Universal church of Christ, which is the

whole body of believers in Christ, scattered over the whole earth. 2. We therefore see no reason, to refer any matter in dispute to the church of Rome, more than any other church; especially as we neither know the bishop nor the church of Rome, to be any more infallible than ourselves. 3. In all cases, the church is to be judged by the Scripture, not the Scripture by the church. And Scripture is the best expounder of Scripture. The best way therefore to understand it is, carefully to compare scripture with scripture, and thereby learn the true meaning of it.

SECTION II-Of Repentance and Obedience.

1. The church of Rome teaches, "That the deepest repentance or contrition, avails nothing without confession to a priest: but that with this, attrition, or the fear of hell, is sufficient to reconcile us to God."

This is very dangerously wrong, and flatly contrary to Scripture. For Scripture says, "A broken and contrite heart, thou, O God, wilt not despise." Ps. li. 17. And the same texts which make contrition sufficient without confession, show that attrition even with it, is insufficient. Now as the former doctrine of the insufficiency of contrition without confession, makes that necessary which God has not made necessary; so the latter, of the sufficiency of attrition with confession, makes that unnecessary which God has made necessary.

2. The church of Rome teaches, "That good works truly merit eternal life."

This is flatly contrary to what our Saviour teaches; "When ye have done all those things that are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do," Luke xvii. 10. A command to do it, grace to obey that command, and a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, must for ever cut off all pretence of merit from all human obedience.

3. That a man may truly and properly merit hell, we grant; although he never can merit heaven. But if he does merit hell, yet, according to the doctrine of the church of Rome, he need never go there. For "the church has power to grant him an indulgence, which remits both the fault and the punishment."

Some of these indulgences extend to so many days, some to so many weeks, but others extend to a man's whole life; and this is called a Plenary Indulgence.

These indulgences are to be obtained, by going pilgrimages; by reciting certain prayers: or (which is abundantly the most common way) by paying the stated price of it.

Now can any thing under heaven be imagined more horrid, more execrable than this? Is not this a manifest prostitution of religion to

the basest purposes? Can any possible method be contrived, to make sin more cheap and easy? Even the Popish council of Trent acknowledged this abuse, and condemned it in strong terms. But they did not in any degree remove the abuse which they acknowledged. Nay, two of the Popes under whom the council sat, Pope Paul III. and Julius III. proceeded in the same course with their predecessors, or rather exceeded them. For they granted to such of the fraternity of the holy altar, as visited the church of St. Hilary of Chartres, during the six weeks of Lent, seven hundred and seventy-five thousand, seven hundred, years of pardon.

4. This miserable doctrine of indulgences is founded upon another bad doctrine, that of works of supererogation. For the church of Rome teaches, That there is "an overplus of merit in the saints; and that this is a treasure committed to the church's custody, to be disposed of as she sees meet."

But this doctrine is utterly irreconcileable with the following scriptures: "The sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us." Rom. viii. 18. And "every one of us shall give an account of himself to God." 2 Cor. iv. 17. For if there be no comparison betwixt the reward and the sufferings, then no one has merit to transfer to another. And if every one must give an account of himself to God, then no one can be saved by the merit of another. But suppose there were a superabundance of merits in the saints, yet we have no need of them, seeing there is such an infinite value in what Christ hath done and suffered for us seeing he alone hath, "by one offering, perfected for ever them that are sanctified." Heb. x. 14.

5. But where do the souls of those go after death, who die in a state of grace; but yet are not sufficiently purged from sin, to enter the kingdom of heaven?

The church of Rome says, "They go to purgatory, a purging fire near hell, where they continue till they are purged from all their sins, and so made meet for heaven."

Now, that those who die in a state of grace, go into a place of torment, in order to be purged in the other world, is utterly contrary to Scripture. Our Lord said to the penitent thief upon the cross, "To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." Now if a purgation in another world were necessary for any, he that did not repent and believe till the last hour of his life, might well be supposed to need it and consequently ought to have been sent to purgatory, not to Paradise.

6. Very nearly akin to that of purgatory is the doctrine of Limbus Patrum. For the church of Rome teaches, that, "Before the death and resurrection of Christ, the souls of good men departed, were detained in a certain place, called Limbus Patrum, which is the uppermost part of hell. The lowermost, they say, is the place of the damned: next above this, is purgatory; next to that Limbus infantum, or the place where the souls of infants are."