convinced of their falsehood, are thereby in danger of suspecting all the miracles of the gospel as the tricks of subdolous and crafty men; whereby they run headlong to an atheistical believing the truth of all alike. And thus far we have found how opposite that church is to the spouse of Christ, since her doctrines are so ill founded, and look so like cunningly devised fables, without the authority of Divine inspiration, or the proof of true miracles.

The next character of our faith is, its perspicuity and simplicity, all being called to the clear light of the day in it, and every part of it being so genuine, that it is apparent it was not the contrivance of designing men, that, by the belief of it, they might obtain the power, and possess the riches of the world: and therefore there are no secret doctrines in our faith, which must be kept up from the vulgar, whereby the pastors of Christendom may have dominion over their souls. But what must we conclude of them, who by all means study to keep all of their communion ignorant, as if devotion were thereby nourished; and allow them not the use of the scriptures in their mother tongue, nor a worship which they can understand, whereby it is that they who occupy the room of unlearned cannot say Amen at the giving thanks, since they understand not what is said. To this might be added their implicit faith to all the doctrines of the church, without further inquiries; and their blind obedience to the confessarius, be he never so ignorant and carnal. These are certainly darkening opinions and practices, and far different from the methods of the apostles in preaching the gospel, who withheld from the people nothing of the counsel of God, and studied the enlightening their understandings, as well as the enlivening of their wills.

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But further, how much of interest appears in the doctrines of Rome, which tend to the exalting or enriching the papacy and inferior clergy; for it is visible what a trade they drive by them and all the contrivances, all the projectors in Europe ever fell upon for enriching their master's treasury, fall short of the projects of purgatory, the treasure of the church, indulgences, and the pope's absolute authority, in making, abrogating, and dispensing with all positive laws. Neither is there more of design to be found in the Alcoran, than in the mysteries of that caliph of the spiritual Babylon. And we may

guess of their concernedness in these matters, since a gentler censure may be hoped for upon the violation of the greatest of the laws of God, than upon the least contradiction to their idolized interest. The one is the constant subject of their studies and sermons, whereas the other is seldom minded.

The third character of our faith is, that it is rational and suitable to our souls, God having fitted it, and framed them so harmoniously, that they are congenial one to another. It is true, the mysteries about God and Christ are exalted above the reach of our faculties, but even reason itself teacheth that it must be so, since if there be a God, he must be infinite and incomprehensible; and therefore it is not to be wondered if the scriptures offer some mysteries to us about God and Christ, which choke and stifle the impressions we are apt to take of things. But in these it is visible that the object is so disproportioned to our faculties, that it is impossible we can reach or comprehend it; but as for the other parts of religion, they are all so distinctly plain, that the reasonableness, as well as the authority of them, serve to commend them to us: but how void are they of this, who have made one of the chief articles of their faith, and the greatest matter of their worship, that which is not only beyond, but contrary to, the most common impressions of nature, which teacheth us to believe our senses when under no lesion, and duly applied to a proper object. For indeed, in that case, we cannot really doubt but things are as they appear to us; for we cannot believe it midnight, when we clearly see the sun in the meridian; nay, and our faith rests on the evidences our senses give, since we believe, because miracles were clearly seen by these who first received the faith and Christ said, Believe me for the very works' sake, John xiv. 11. And so their sight of these works was a certain ground for their belief; therefore the senses unvitiated, fixing on a proper object, through a due mean, are infallible; therefore what our sight, our taste, and our touch tell us is bread and wine, must be so still, and cannot be imagined to have changed its substance upon the recital of the five words. Shall I add to this that throng of absurdities which crowd about this opinion? For if it be true, then a body may be in more places at once, triumphing in glory in one, and sacrificed in a thousand other places: and a large body may be crowded into

the narrow space of a thin wafer, they holding it to be not only wholly in the whole wafer, but also entirely in every crumb of it: a body can be without dimensions, and accidents without a subject: these must be confessed to be among the highest of inconceivables; and yet these miracles must be believed to be produced every day, in above a hundred thousand places. Certainly he hath a sturdy belief who can swallow down all these absurdities, without choking on them.

It is little less inconceivable to imagine, that a man of no eximious sanctity, (nay, perhaps of noted impiety,) nor extraordinary knowing (nay, perhaps grossly ignorant) in theological matters, shall have the Holy Ghost so absolutely at his command, that whatever he decrees must be the dictates of the Spirit. And what an unconceivable mystery is the treasure of the church, and the pope's authority to dispense it as he will! No less inconceivable is the efficacy of the sacraments, by the work wrought; nor is any thing more affronting to reason than the barbarous worship. And of a piece with this is the blind subjection pleaded for the confessarius his injunctions, and their opinions of expiating their sins by a company of little trifling penances, which tend not to the cleansing the soul, nor killing of the life of sin, much less can be able to appease God, either of their own inbred worth, or by reason of any value God is pleased to set on them, either by command or promise. But should I reckon up every thing among them that chokes reason, I should dwell too long on this, and reckon over most of the things that have been through the whole discourse hinted, which seem to stand in the most diametrical position to the clearest impressions of all men's reason.

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But to bring my inquiry to an issue. Easiness and gentleness are by Christ applied to his yoke, laws, and burden; and whatever opposition or trouble they may give to the carnal man, by mortifying his lusts, and contradicting all his inordinate and unlimited desires, yet by the rational faculties and powers they are both easily understood and practised. Indeed, religion lies in few things, and its chief work is the reforming and purifying the inward man, where it mainly dwells and exerts its force and virtue; but these who have added so much, both to be believed and done, beyond what our Lord prescribed, as they accuse his unfaithfulness, so bring unsup

portable burdens on the consciences of Christians. These therefore who lead out the mind, by presenting a great many foreign objects to it, do introduce superannuated Judaism, instead of that liberty Christ brought with him into the world. But shall I number up here all the impositions of that church, whose numbers are great as well as their nature grievous? for it is a study to know them all: but what a pain must it be to perform them! It is a work which will take up a great deal of time to understand the rubrics of their missals, breviaries, rituals, and pontificals. In a word, they have left the purity and simplicity of religion, and set up instead of it a lifeless heap of ordinances, which must oppress, but cannot relieve the consciences of their disciples.

Shall I add to this the severity of some of their orders, into which, by unalterable vows, they are engaged their whole lives? Now whatever fitness might be in such discipline, upon occasions for beating down the body or humbling the mind, yet it must be very tyrannical to bind the perpetual observance of these on any by an oath; for thereby all the rest of their lives may become insupportably bitter to them, wherein they stand obliged, under perjury, to the perpetual observance of some severe discipline; which, though at first in a novitious fervour, might have had its good effects on them; yet that drying up, it will afterwards have no other effect but the constant dejecting of the soul, and so their life will be a rack to them by their perpetual toil in these austerities. This I speak of those who seem the chief ornaments of that church, whose devotion doth for the most part turn to outwards, and rests in the strict observance of their rules, not without voluntary assumed mortifications, which they add to them, but wherein they for the most part glory, and so the life of pride and selflove (the subtlest of all our enemies) is fed and nourished by them. Neither can we think that these, whose exercises are so much external, can be so recollected for the inward and serene breathings of the mind after God and Christ, without which all externals, though they seem to make a fair show in the flesh, yet are but a skellet of lifeless and insipid things. But indeed they have studied to remove this objection of the uneasiness of their religion, by accommodating it so, that the worst of men may be secure of heaven, and enjoy their lusts

both, according to the corrupt conduct of some of their spiritual fathers. But what I have hinted of the uneasiness of their religion, is taken from the nature of their devotions, in their highest altitude and elevation.

And thus far I have pursued my design, in the tract whereof I have not been void of a great deal of pain and sorrow: for what pleasure can any find by discovering so much wickedness, and so many errors in the christened regions of the world; and see the holy and beautiful places, wherein the former ages worshipped God in the spirit, turned to be habitations of idols and graven images, by which God is provoked to jealousy. God is my witness how these thoughts have entertained me with horror and regret all the while I have considered them; and that I am so far from being glad that I have found so much corruption in the Roman church, that it is not without the greatest antipathy to my nature imaginable that I have paid this duty to truth, by asserting it with the discovery of so many impostures, which have so long abused the Christian world; and if any heat or warmth hath slipped from my pen, I must protest sincerely it is not the effect of anger or passion, but of a tender and zealous compassion for those souls, who are either already blinded with these delusions, or do incline towards those paths which lead to the chambers of death.

I am none of those who justify rage or bitterness against those in errors; for if we had the Spirit of Christ in us, we should mourn over and lament their misery, who lie under so much darkness. And this is a sure character to judge if our zeal for God and his truth be divine and evangelical, if it makes us pour out rivers of tears for those that have gone out of the way, rather than streams of fire against them. That zeal which raiseth melting sorrow, tender compassion, and fervent prayers for those we see erring, is Christ-like, and worthy of that meek and charitable spirit which the gospel so much recommends: whereas that which boils into rage and foam against such as err, and designs their ruin and mischief, and studies how to persecute rather than convert them, and kindles in men a bitter aversion to their persons, together with rude harshness in their behaviour to them, is all antichristian and carnal. My design therefore in this discourse is to provoke pity rather