Chriftian notwithstanding, if the priest had malice enough to defign he should not. Of the fame bad tendency is their burying every part of religion under a load of rites and ceremonies, that turn it into outward fhew, and giving it the appearance of art magic, by an infinity of abfurd fuperftitions, many of them the undeniable remains of Heathenifsm very lit tle disguised; their engaging fuch multitudes of people in Vows of celibacy and ufelefs retirement from the world; their obliging them to filly aufterities and abftinences, of no real value, as matters of great merit; their exceffive veneration of relics, most of them fictitious and unfit to be thus honoured, were they ever fo genuine; their inventions of romantic legends and lying miracles, which make weak and unlearned perfons believe any thing; and too many of thofe, who fee through them, believe nothing. And befides these and other errors in fpiritual matters, there are many more of most weighty confideration in temporals, which they zealously maintain; their claim of punishing whom they please to call heretics with penalties, imprisonments, tortures, death; their excommunicating and depofing kings; their forbidding divine worship through whole nations at once; their annulling the moft facred promifes and engagements, when made to the prejudice of their church; their drawing, by wicked artifices, the wealth of all countries to the fupport of their own tyranny. But many of thefe things I have fet in a proper light to you on other occafions, and dwelling on all would be endless, as well as unneceffary. Enough, I hope, hath been said to fhew you which are in the right; and that this is the true grace of God wherein ye ftand. For obferve; as the whole claim of the church of Rome depends upon her being in all points infallible, fo, if in any fingle point the proves to be miftaken, her pretence of being believed in the reft falls entirely to the ground. But indeed, though for your fuller fatisfaction I have confuted many of her doctrines, yet any perfon may have fufficient fatisfaction of his own being in the right way, without fo much as knowing or having heard what any one of her doctrines is. For let him but keep close to the creed and the commandments; believe those things which feripture bath made neceflary to be believed; and do thofe things which fcripture hath made neceffary to be done;

ours.

We are

and he is under no manner of obligation to inquire, what any church on earth thinks fit to believe or do befides. Many opinions may be true and useful; many practices may be innocent and edifying; but nothing can be matter of neceflity, except what Chrift and his apoftles have required as terms of falvation. Every perfon, that complies with these, is a true Christian; every church that teaches these, is a true church: and neither ignorance nor error, about any other matters, can forfeit our title to everlasting life. Search then the scriptures and fee is there any one thing made neceffary there which our church forbids? Is there any one thing declared finful there which our church requires? If not, let other churches prohibit or enjoin as they please at their own peril. no way bound to inquire what they do, or why. Letting alone their peculiarities, we are fure is fafe. Whether making use of them be or not, is their business to confider, not So that were tranfubftantiation, for inftance, and purgatory true; were the worship of images and praying to faints lawful, which, God knows, they are far from being; yet as there is no pretence that they are neceffary doctrines and practices, the mistake of rejecting them could have no harm in it; but the uncharitableness of condemning and accurfing those who reject them may have great harm. For when once Chrift hath said, believe and do fuch and fuch things, and you fhall be faved; who is it that shall dare to fay, believe and do more, or you fhall not be faved? It is dreadful arrogance, therefore, which the church of Rome fhews in this refpect; coining new articles of faith, fome of which they own were not articles of faith from the beginning; and fentencing men to hell for not believing what, before that fentence, themselves acknowledge nobody was bound to believe. This, you fee, is changing the terms of the Chriftian covenant arbitrarily, and making a new gospel at their own pleasure. But in oppofition to their decifions and anathemas, hear one of St. Paul: Though an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we, the apostles of Chrift, have preached, let him be accurfed. Truft then yourfelves on this foot: for other foundation can no man lay, than that which they laid*. Nor indeed did the primitive church,

for feveral hundreds of years, attempt it, or make any doctrine neceffary which we do not, as the learned well know from their writings, and the unlearned may know from the moft ancient of their creeds, which we now use in our conftant fervice. Afterwards indeed needlefs additions first crept in, then false ones: but, had they begun ever so much sooner, our caufe had received no prejudice. To the law and to the teftimony, as the prophet directs, we appeal: if they Speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them*.

• If. viii. 201

SER

SERMON CII.

THE SACRED SCRIPTURES THE ONLY INFALLIBLE Rule of FAITH AND PRACTICE.

I

-Exborting and teflifying that this is the true grace of God wherein ye fland.

COME now to conclude the subject on which I have been

fo long employed. A fufficient number of the doctrines of the Romanifts have been confidered, and what they plead for them examined. But befides the pleas they make for each in particular, they have others for all in general. Should they, when they want to make a convert, fairly propose to him each of their notions feparately, and give him proofs, first that it is true, and then that it obliges him to quit our communion for theirs; this, they are fenfible, would be a hopeless undertaking: and therefore, very wifely, they are for fhorter work; and have general arguments, it feems, to prove that, let their doctrines or ours be what they will, we must be in the wrong, and they in the right.

One of thefe arguments is their infallibility; but this, I hope, was fully confuted in my first difcourfe, and indeed in every one fince. For it is in vain for them to pretend they cannot be mistaken, if it appear but in any fingle inftance that they are.

Another is, that Proteftants, not being of the Roman church, are not of the catholic church; for the catholic church is but one, and, out of it, there is no falvation. Now, we acknowledge it is but one body under one head, Chrift Jesus; but then in this one body there are many members; and why are not the churches of Greece, Afia, and Africa; why is not ours

25

as true a member of it as theirs? On what authority, if names were worth difputing about, do they ingrofs that of Catholic to themfelves? Do not we profefs the true catholic faith, that faith which the univerfal church received from the apofiles? We profefs it much purer than they. Are the facraments more duly adminiftered by them than by us? Far from it: For of the facrament of the Lord's Supper, one half they have taken away from the laity; and concerning the other half, they have taught the most monstrous abfurdities, and built on them the most fhocking idolatry. Then, for that of baptifm, we adminifter it with water alone, juft as Chrift appointed, whereas they have added oil, falt, fpittle, and I know not what, as if it were on purpose to make it as unlike his inftitution as they can. Is then the appointment or ordination of their clergy more valid or more regular than ours? On no account whatever. For if they brought down the fucceffion uninterrupted to the reformation, we have certainly preserved it uninterrupted fince; which now they may be ashamed to deny, fince a learned man of their own communion hath fully proved it. And confequently, for them, who are but a very unfound part of the catholic church, to call themselves the whole of it, is quite as abfurd as for a diseafed limb (though perhaps the larger for being difeafed), to be called the whole body. But they will fay, we feparated, and fo cut off ourselves from the catholic church at the reformation. I anfwer, we did not. We only caft out, as was our duty, the errors that were crept in; and we did it by the lawful authority of our fuperiors, both ecclefiaftical and civil. Upon which the church of Rome, inftead of imitating our good example, commanded all they could influence to quit our communion. It is they then who made the feparation, and it is they that continue it. We are ready ftill to join in communion with them, upon the terms of the gofpel; and they refuse to join with us, but upon terms of their own devifing. Now, when two churches break communion with one another, though it is always a fault, yet it does not always follow, that either of them is thereby broken off from the catholic church, any more than it follows, that when two men break off acquaintance, one of them is broken off from. the civil fociety to which they belong. But when one church fhall

VOL. III.

N