disguise it with their giving them to such as will offer alms to the church; but really this whole contrivance is so base, so carnal, and so unlike the spirit of Christianity, that to repeat it is to refute it. Here was a brave device for enriching the church, when the making great donations to it was judged so effectual for delivering out of purgatory. Who would not, out of love to his friend's soul, if he believed him frying in these flames, give liberally of his goods? but much rather would a man give all that he had for his own security, especially when on his death-bed he were beset with persons who were confounding him with dismal apprehensions, and thus trafficking with him for the exchange of his soul. Hence sprung the enriching of abbeys and churches; for every religious order hath its own peculiar merits, which they can communicate to any one of their fraternity. If then a dying man had gained their favour so much, that he was received into their order, and died wrapped in one of their frocks, then was his soul secure from the grim tormentors below. And what an endless heap of fables had they, of souls being on the brink or in the midst of the flames, and of a sudden snatched out!

But now all this trade hath quite failed them, therefore indulgences are fallen in their rates, and instead of them there are prayers to be used, and especially to be said before privileged altars, or at such times, or before such relics, that it is no hard work for any among them to ransom the souls of others, or to preserve their own. In a word, doth not all this debase the spirit of true religion, and expose it to the jealousy of atheists, as if it were a contrivance for advancing base and secular designs? And doth it not eat out the sense of true piety, when the vulgar see the guides of souls making such shameful merchandise of them, and doing it with such respect of persons, that if a man be rich enough, he is secure; whereby our Lord's blessing of the poor, and passing a woe on the rich, is reversed? But above all, what indignity is by this done to the blood of the Son of God! And how are the people carried from their dependance on him, and their value of his sufferings, by these practices!

Another art, not very remote from this, for detracting from the value of Christ's death, and the confidence we should have

in it, is the priestly absolution; wherein, after the sinner hath gone over his sins, without any sign of remorse, and told them to the priest, he enjoins a penance, the doing whereof is called a satisfaction; and the vulgar do really imagine that the undergoing the penance doth fully serve for appeasing God's wrath against sin; but as soon as the priest bath enjoined his penance, without waiting that they obey it, he lays his hand on their head, and says, “I absolve thee;" and after this they judge themselves fully cleansed of sin, and that they may receive the sacrament, had their former life been never so bad. It is true, the practice of the priests, in their slight penances, and hasty absolutions, and promiscuous allowing of all the holy sacrament, is condemned by many in that church, who complain of these abuses with much honest zeal; but these complaints are so little regarded, that their writings are condemned, and the corruption continues unreformed. Now what can take off more from the value of the death of Christ than to believe it in the power of a priest to absolve from sin? all the power of the church being either ministerially to declare the absolution offered in the gospel upon the conditions in it, or to absolve from the scandal which any public trespass hath given. It was counted blasphemy in Christ, when he said, Thy sins are forgiven thee, Mark ii. 5. 10; of which he cleared himself, from the power which was committed to the Son of man on earth to forgive sins; which shews it to be blasphemy in all others to pretend to absolve from sin, it being an invasion of his prerogative.

To this I might add the scorn put on religion by many of the penances enjoined for sin, such as the abstaining from flesh for so many days, the pattering over so many prayers, the repeating the penitential psalms, the going to such churches and such altars; with other ridiculous observances like these, which cannot but kill the vitals of true religion, and lead away souls from these earnest applications to Jesus Christ for pardon and renovation. And who can have any sad apprehensions of sin, who is taught such an easy way of escaping pun

ishment?

I confess in this, as in all other parts of religion, the masters of that church have so contrived things, that their doctrines might, according to the fable of the manna, " taste plea

sant in every man's relish;" for if any be grave and melancholy, then silence, solitude, and retirement are enjoined them; if their tempers be more fiery and sullen, severe corporal mortifications and disciplines are tasked on them, such as cruel and perhaps public whipping, or other unspeakable austerities, with which the lives of the modern saints are full; but if one be of a more jolly temper, who desires heaven at an easy rate, then some trifling penance shall serve turn. These are a few of their arts for diverting souls from flying unto Jesus, as to the sure and safe refuge from the Father's wrath, in whom only we can find sanctuary, and whom the Father has sent into the world to seek and save lost sinners. Now whether the priests in the injunction of easy penances, and giving absolution, do not violate the prerogative of Jesus, and insensibly debauch souls from that affectionate and grateful duty they owe their Redeemer, into their trifling methods and appointments, I refer it to all who know them.

Another opposition made to the priestly office of Christ is, their conceit of the sacrifice of the mass, which they believe is a formal expiation of sins, both for the living and dead who are in purgatory. Christ once offered himself up for taking away sin, which he did by that one sacrifice; and this is by the apostle stated amongst the differences which are betwixt the sacrifices of Moses, which are to be daily and yearly renewed and repeated; whereas Christ offered one sacrifice in the end of the world, so that there was no need of more, Heb. x. 1–3. 12. 14. Now to imagine that the priest's going through the office of the mass, and his receiving the consecrated elements, can have a virtue to expiate the sins of others, especially of the dead, is a thing so contrary to the most common impressions, that it will puzzle a man's belief to think any can credit it. And yet this is one of the masterpieces of the religion of that church. It is true, in a right sense, that sacrament may be called a sacrifice, as it was by the ancients, either in general, as prayers, praises, and almsdeeds are called so in scripture; or as it is a commemoration of the sacrifice of Christ; but to imagine the action hath an expiatory force in it, is a visible derogation from the value of Christ's death; and all the value in any outward sacramental action can only be derived into the soul of the receiver: but it is absurd to think one man's

action can be derived to another; and it clearly appears from the institution of the Lord's Supper, that its end was the joint communicating of believers, which is perverted manifestly by the practice of those priests who communicate in the name of the spectators.

Finally, what a derogation is it from the priestly office of Christ, one branch whereof is his intercession, to join saints or angels with him in that work, nay, and prefer them to him! which will be found too true, if the office of the Virgin, and the prayers offered to her, be compared with those offered to her Son. Did Christ, by the merits of his passion, acquire this honour at so dear a rate? and shall we, for whom he suffered, rob him so injuriously and sacrilegiously of his honour, and bestow it on these who are our fellow-servants?

But having touched this in the former part of my discourse, I advance my inquiry to the opposition given the regal office of Christ. And first, how contrary is it to the glory wherewith even his human nature and body is refulgent in heaven, to believe that five words muttered out by the priest shall have the virtue to produce his real and glorified body, instead of the annihilated elements of bread and wine, and yet under their accidents and appearances! This is a new and strange kind of humiliation, if true, by which he who is now clothed with glory, must be every day exposed under so thick, so dark, and so contemptible a covering, as are the resemblances of bread and wine. What low thoughts of his person must it breed in such minds as are capable of believing this contrivance!

Again, he, as King of the church, hath given her laws and precepts, to whose obedience she is obliged; to which none can add without they acknowledge another head, and whose obligation none can untie or dispense with; for Christ's dominion consists in this authority he hath over our consciences, which he hath vindicated into liberty, by delivering us from the bondage of corruption. If then any pretend a power of obtruding new articles on our belief, or obligations on our consciences, these must be confessed to be injurious to the dignity wherewith Christ is vested. What then shall be said of him, who pretends an authority of dispensing with and dissolving the obligation of oaths, of dissolving the wedlock bond, of

allowing of marriage in the forbidden degrees? And as for their additions to the laws of Christ, they are innumerable. And here what I mentioned last calls me to mind of a pretty device to multiply the forbidden degrees of marriage, yea, and add the degrees of spiritual kindred, that is, of kindred with our godfathers or godmothers in baptism, which is done upon no other design but to draw in more to the treasure of the church by frequent dispenses. If I should here reckon up all the additions which by the authority of that church are made to the laws of Christ, I should resume all that I have hitherto alleged, they being visible additions to the doctrine and rules of the gospel, and imposed with such unmerciful cruelty, that an anathema is the mildest of the spiritual censures they thunder against such as comply not with their tyranny; and a fagot would be its civil sanction, were the secular powers at their devotion. I do not deny but there is an authority, both in the civil and ecclesiastic powers, of enjoining things indifferent; but no authority beside Christ's can reach the conscience. Besides, if these indifferent things swell so in their number, be vain, pompous, and useless, and be imposed without all regard to the tender scruples of weak consciences, they become tyrannical; and such as do so impose them, discover their affecting a tyrannical and lordly dominion over consciences; and that they prefer their own devices to the simpler methods of Christ, and the plainer and easier rules of his gospel.

But one instance of their abrogating the laws of Christ is more signal, in their violating the sacrament of the Lord's Supper; wherein, though he instituted it under both kinds, and did so distribute it, with the express command, that all should drink of it; yet they presumed, notwithstanding of that, and though the primitive church distributed it in both kinds, which is confessed in their canon, to snatch the cup from the laity, and engross it to the clergy. Now it is to be considered, that the value of the sacramental actions flowing only from their institution, the first appointment should be most religiously observed in them: besides, the universal extent of Christ's word, Drink ye all of it, which was not used in the distribution of the bread, hath a particular mystery in it, to guard against the foreseen corruption of that part of it; and the reason given in the distribution of the cup shews it must