The Abuse of Gods Grace, Chapter 5 · Section 19
SECT. 19.
4. TEmptation that hath much contributed to the abuſe of 19. Diviſions and contentions about Chriſtian Religion, ecauſe abuſe of grace Bona pars Chriſtiani orbis, hoc tempo re, potius videtur eſſe buſtū quam Chriſtianae gregis domicilium. Otho Caſmannus. Miſeram Chriſtianitatem wiſeram Eccleſiam. Sententiarum & animorum divortia.Gods grace, is diviſion and contention about Chriſtian Religion: That in Chriſtian Churches, there are too ſad contentions, Mens ſpirits, pens and tongues, being dipt in Gall, and that Victory moſtly is more contended for then verity, wants not truth nor proof. Wrangling warring Divinity, hath made the Church to be rather like a Bon-fire, then the Houſe of God: One ſpeaking of Chriſtianity, and the Church, affixeth to them a ſad Epithete: Miſerable Chriſtianity, miſerable Church. Indeed Scriptureleſs rending diviſion is not her glory, but miſery: Diviſions of opinion and practices beget divorce of affections; yea 'tis too much a fault, a ſiding Opinion is cryed up above a Saint, and the ſhriller the voice is for higheſt diſcovery in point of Doctrine and Diſcipline, ſometimes the lower and calmer, the truer and ſafer is more to be attended too: 'Tis ſad experience, in our Conteſts our Moderation is not known; there is running from extreams to extreams: While Satan hath the boldneſs and ſucceſs to get into Chriſts Quarters, and in the viſible Kingdom of Chriſt, not in all his Subjects infallibly true nor holy, but a part of the Devils Kingdom is ſlily admitted; ſtanders by, ſeeing divided Sects and different Opinions in Religion yea, each party entitling its Tenent and Practice, to the Scripture, the Truth, the Spirit, the Glory of God, conclude in this duſt, they cannot ſee their way to Heaven. In this ſeaſon, Satan the Arch Heretick, Divider, Deceaver and Libertine, plies his Market to perſwade to diſſolute life; ſome he tempts to be of any Religion, ſome none; to be ſtark Atheiſts, and debauched prophane ones, and many in the true Religion to be cold and formal, much heat and ſtrength being ſpent upon the out-ſide, that ſhould have been beſtowed upon the in-ſide, the vitals of Chriſtianity: In the Pro and Con Diſputes about out-works, the inward Guards have been neglected: Sound Chriſtians holy walking is not ſo lively, and wicked Libertines ſit down contented and reſolved, to allow and follow the pretended felicities of their unmortified Luſts. Satan through Church contentions tempts to believe, that Religion is a bottomleſs Pit, not to be ſounded, a meer fancy: And while men of piety and learning cannot agree, there is in ſome a pleaſing agreement, about Whoredom, Drunkenneſs, railing at all Miniſters, contempt of Ordinances; yea the bloody ſubtile Jeſuit, and his blinded Popiſh Votaries, ſtand behinde the Curtain, and cry Hereticks, Schiſmaticks, Libertines: Among Proteſtants, no Miniſtery, no Ordinances, no Church, no Salvation: Happy had it been in our ſinning days, if Unity, Truth and Peace, had prevented this great temptation: Put though the healing of our deplorable diſeaſed Zion, be rather to be wiſhed then to be hoped for, yet two ſorts of abuſers of Gods grace, diſcontented Proteſtants, and ſeducing Papiſts, that warm their hands by our fires, will not finde the leaſt real Sanctuary for their injurious reflexions upon the Goſpel of grace, in paſt and preſent Diviſions and Contentions: I ſhall apply my ſelf to both the parties, that it is to be feared, are glad to ſee the offenſive diſhonors to the grace of God, yea are much injurious to it themſelves.
1. To diſcontented exceptious Proteſtants: O you Sons and Daughters of Belial, Ignorant, Prophane, Irreligious! Have you reaſon about differences of Religion to grow ſecure wantons, to Sleep, Drink, Game, Swear away your time, prophane the Sabbath, keep the worſhip of God out of your Families, and the fear of God our of your hearts, to live a bruitiſh, ſenſual, voluptuous life, to reſent the thoughts of Heaven and Hell as idle Fables, to live as if there ſhould be no reſurrection of the Body and Judgement to come; to miſ-ſpend your precious hours in carnal viſits, no way relating to Gods glory, and your everlaſting ſalvation; to neglect proviſions for Eternity, to be as great ſtrangers to the beneficial practical thoughts of Religion, as if you were born and brought up among Heathens: Did the Corinthians make this uſe of their Diviſions and Erronious Opinions, to juſtifie and ſupport a Godleſs, Graceleſs converſation? Can you prove that every different Opinion in Religion, is a different Religion? May not you finde in unhappily divided Chriſtians among us an Harmony of Religion, in the vitals, eſſentials thereof, referring to the life of Chriſt and the power of godlineſs? May not diſſenting ones, tune in a thouſand places of ſacred Scripture, which teach ſoundneſs in the Faith, neceſſary renewing grace, and godly life? Will not common acknowledged Principles of Believing, Repenting, Obeying, Perſevering, arraign and condemn your looſneſs? If you Object, Some Sects are Heretical and Blaſphemous, deny Chriſt, the Scripture, the Reſurrection: Let theſe Apoſtates that hold not the head, Col. 2. 19. Jeſus Chriſt un-chriſtian'd, and become Heathens themſelves, anſwer if they can for themſelves: Theſe Renegado's, ſad Revolters from Chriſts colours to the Devils Camp, have a worſe Judgement on them then Priſons and flaming Stakes: They have denyed the Lord, whom they profeſſedly owned to be their Redeemer, and in the Judgement of the Apoſtle Peter, have brought upon themſelves ſwift deſtruction. Theſe do not onelyonly bring themſelves into the Order of Heathens, but are worſe then they, for they have cut themſelves off from the way of ſalvation; there is not another Chriſt to be their Mediator, and there remains no more ſacrifice for ſin: Do you that declaim againſt the errors of the time, know any ſuch? Carnal mirth becomes not ſuch a notice, you ſhould go into your Chambers, and bitterly mourn over their Apoſtacy: They are the black marks of Spiritual Judgement, are fitteſt Objects for Chriſtian compaſſion: I beſeech you, after you are ſomewhat off the hears of purſuing in an Helliſh Chaſe, your ungodly Luſts; after your fiery tongues, ſcorching the precious name of ſound Chriſtians, with the hot charge of Hypocrites, Hereticks, Perſons unfit to live in the common Air; In cool blood and ſerious earneſt, conſider whether Contentions and Diviſions, about Truth in Religion, will be a Cloak broad enough to cover your exceſs of Riot, contempt of the Laws, Requiries, and Goſpelduties, your Heatheniſh, and worſe then Heatheniſh practical Atheiſm, whereby you live in your Families without Prayer to God: Hath natural Religion taught Pagans Devotion to their apprehended Deities? The Mariners in the tempeſt called upon their gods, Jonah 1. 5. yea probably at other times alſo: Can your Chambring and wantonneſs, your Oathes and Scoffs, at the ſhining preſidents of practical Piety, your deſperate ſecurity in ſin, without the leaſt remorſe of conſcience, and leaſt hearkning to the motions of the Spirit, now and then ſhaking you by the conſcience, if it be not cauterized and dead; your Graceleſs devouring the Creatures, without ſerious thoughts of your deep Engagement to your abuſed Benefactor, The bleſſed God; your dreadful careleſneſs of your own ſouls, not much mattering whether they be ſaved or damned; your caſting off the thoughts of Gods ſtrict recording of your thoughts, words and actions, in the Book of his Remembrance; your diſſolute ill good-fellowſhip; your treaſuring up of wrath againſt the day of wrath; your ſlight thoughts of the laſt Judgement: Will this and other ſad Bills of Indictment be anſwered and croſſed out by Chriſtians diſ-agreements in controverſal Points? If you ſhall be ſo blinde and bold, as to conclude, in your Death-bed, and in the accounting Day, different Judgements about Religion will Apologize for your Libertiniſm: Will not the Judge of all the world convince and condemn you, out of the Ten Commandments, the rules of the Goſpel, the Wiſdom and Piety of ſtanding Saints in evil tempting times, whoſe ſoundneſs in the Faith, Lamps burning, Loyns girt, Garments kept clean, upright Converſation, have been an Antidote againſt publick Infection? Will not God finde plentiful matter of your damnation from your own ſins? Yea further, which is a ſad Quaere; ſhould not you who ſport in ſin, and ſcoff at holineſs and holy Ones, live without God and Chriſt in the World, rather make another conſtruction of Errors, Janglings, and intemperate heats about Religion! What if God ſuffer theſe ſcandals and ſtumbling-blocks, to ruine us for our contempt of the Law and Goſpel, that we ſhould ſecurely fall into an Heatheniſh looſe life, that he might finde more abundant and effectual Arguments for our everlaſting deſtructions? O I beſeech you reaſon more wiſely, and thus ſpeak to your ſelves! Though others contend about doctrine, worſhip, government: Shall I rebell and contend againſt God? Though chriſtians are divided among themſelves, ſhall I divide from the profeſſion and power of Chriſtianity? Becauſe there is no viſible Religious Unity among profeſſed Chriſtians, ſhall I have no Unity with the inviſible Church of Jeſus Chriſt? Becauſe I cannot finde Peace in the Church, ſhall I have no true peace of conſcience, nor peace with God? Becauſe Reconciliation, as to ſerving God in one way, with one ſhoulder, and in points of Faith is fled away from the jarring Congregations of Chriſtian people, ſhall I live in an irreconciled Eſtate with an angry God? When every day his wrath hangs over me; and if I die without a Chriſt and true converſion, I am damned for ever. I could heartily wiſh, and O that I could fervently pray for it, that ſuch ſober and ſerious thoughts, in order to the converſion, and extraordinary repentance, of the diſcontented diſſolute ones of the times, were the happy product of the obſerved Diviſion and Debates of the diſ-joynted age, in and about the things of God, and not a fooliſh, ſenſeleſs, mad arguing into Libertiniſm, and undoing of the precious ſoul.
2. To the ſeducing, triumphing Papiſts, I ſhall next give a ſeaſonable Hortative: Do you fear and tremble in the ſenſe of your high diſhonors, to the grace of God and Goſpel of Chriſt? Though you hope the Fires of divided Proteſtants, will make way for the Priſons, Chains, Faggots, Flames of your Spaniſh Inquiſition, though you ſee ſome wantons among us; though you diſcern the want of that Scripture-charity, Unity, Peace, and in ſome things Truth, that ſhould be among us: Will this excuſe you in the wanton dalliance of your Religion? An Whore is wanton: The Scripture ſtiles the Papal Antichriſt, A great Whore; ſhe is richly and gaudily attired in her pompous worſhip, glorious out-ſide, to take her Lovers. The Church of Rome, at Rome, looks more like the Court of Rome, then the Church of Rome: …er Temple-ſervice is more like a Theater, a Stagedelight, then the ſober, chaſte, humble, yet reverent worſhip of God; ſhe hath an inchanting, bewitching Love-cup in her hand, that hath intoxicated the greateſt part of Chriſtendom: 'Tis ſtiled a cup of Fornication; ſhe hath drunk an health to her ſpurious, ill begot, and bred children, and whether their pledging of the Church-mens adulterated, ſpiced Cup, with fleſhpleaſing, will be health or death, will infallibly appear in the other World. O you Jeſuitical obſervers of our Diviſions, that congratulate and bleſs your ſelves in your Union! Have you no Diviſions? What mean your multiplyed Sides and Sects of Popery, your party-coloured different Votaries in Error? your Franciſcans, Dominicans, Carmelites, Capuchins, Benedictins? Are there no Jars in your Schools between Thomiſts, Scotiſts? Do all your Chairs and Pulpits ſing Even Song? If you ſay, In many Rites and Points of Worſhip and Doctrine, Laws of your Monaſteries, you differ; but in the main, your Trent Counſel, your Traditional Religion, you agree: I ſay the ſame, We Proteſtants have the ſame Eſſentials and Vitals of Religion, though we differ in ſundry ſuperſtructures; as the Body is the ſame, though it wear different Apparel; the Bulk and …ody of our Religion, as to practicals and ſaving things, is the ſame, though it be cloathed with different Adminiſtrations: But ſuppoſe you were perfectly United, Are you not Brethren in Evil, and Confederates in Error? Unity in ſin is but a more fortified Satanical combination: Is the Harmony of Devils among themſelves to to murther Bodies and Souls, amiable and excuſable? Nor will the falſhood, diſſoluteneſs and danger of your Religion finde Apology, from your holding many Truths, in which we concur with you, for which the Churches of Chriſt never ſeparated from you, nor call you Papiſts; we divide from you, where you have divided from Chriſt, his Evangeliſts and Apoſtles: We rather believe you the Apoſtatical, then Apoſtolical Church: What is more frequent and …loud in your mouthes, then Hereticks, Hereticks, Schiſmaticks, Schiſmaticks: And what are you? Monſieur de Croy hath proved, That your Papal Unity is a Miſcellany of Judaiſm, Heatheniſm, and ancient Here…ies: Are you not proved to be the greateſt Schiſmaticks and Sect-maſters in the World? Do not you make Schiſms from the worſhip Purity, Piety, of Primitive Apoſtolick times, the great temptation of multiplyed offenſive Rents among Proteſtants; many tender conſciences, ſo much fearing the corrupt leaven of your Government, Worſhip and Doctrine, in a too timerous indiſcreet and ignorant Jealouſie, never thinking they can go far enough from you (ſo far have you gone from Chriſt) till they have gone beyond truth and ſobriety, into ſome error and diſſoluteneſs, calling that Popery that is not: You are pleaſed to confine true Chriſtianity and Salvation, within the Pale of your Roman Catholiciſm, as if you were the onelyonly vineyard and garden of God, and all Proteſtants were a vaſt Common, a deſolate Wilderneſs; but in the Pupper-Plays of your Religion, your richly arrayed Sainted Idols, your vail'd heads before them, cringing, bowing, kneeling, making vows unto them, who are as ſenſeleſs of your Devotion, as the ignorant beſotted Votaries are of the true nature of a Religious Vow and Invocation: How do you, and Idolatrous Heathens, kiſs each other? Nor will the ſhuffling diſtinction of your Schools clear you from groſs Idolatry: You ſay your Religious Worſhip is not terminated in your Images, 'tis relative onelyonly, to carry your Devotion off from them, to the Adoration of God and Chriſt: Doth not this juſtifie the Iſraelites Idolatry, when they ſaid, Theſe are thy Gods, O Iſrael, which have brought thee up out of the Land of Aegypt, Exod. 32. 8. Can we think they had ſo much forfeited ſenſe and reaſon, as to terminate this high Religious acknowledgement of Deliverance from Aegypt, on an artificial, ſenſeleſs, irrational, weak Idol? Surely they meant the living God, repreſented by the Molten Calf: Will not this diſtinction alſo colour Heathens palpable Idolatry? Worſhip is not ultimate, but mediate; not terminative, but relative, ſo taught the Heathens in their Writings: Their Religious worſhip did not ſtay and dwell in their Idols, but they uſed them as a Chariot to carry their Devotion to their Gods repreſented by them. How Summus Mariae Honor, ipſe eſt filius Chriſtus. Zwinglius de Caſta Virgine Maia.do you wantonly court the Virgin Mary, to the ſacrilegious diſhonor of Chriſt, her Lord and Saviour, without her knowledge and thanks? Her greateſt honor is Chriſt her Son, yet Lord: How will ſhe abor your ſenſeleſs School Diſtinction, at the great day of foreign: The firſt you give to God, the ſecond to the Saints, the third to her: when you are told that in the new Teſtament, foreign and foreign, are words indifferently uſed for divine worſhip, what then do you make of the Bleſſed Virgin, to give her more then divine Adoration? will ſhee beare your wanton and ſawcy addreſſes to her, to pray her to command her ſon? Doth ſhe now admire and adore him as her Redeemer, and doth her being the miraculo…s Mother of his ſacred ſinleſſe fleſh, give her the leaſt part in Redemption? Do you not embolden one another to ſin, by your truſt in Popiſh Indulgencyes, may not the moſt profligate Libertines of your way ſhrowd themſelves ſecure in a wicked life, from your rich pardon Office? Is not your abſurd Doctrine of Merits an high injury to the Merits of Chriſt? do we not read in your Writers, the Termes Aequivalence, commenſuration to the Reward, if any of you ſay merits, eſpecially on a death Bed, are diſowned? yea your Bellarmine teacheth, For the uncertainty of Salvation, and the perill of vain glory, tis ſafer to truſt to the merits of Chriſt. Why is there ſuch jugling in your Schooles and Pulpits, about merits, are not the ignorant people undeceived & told, there are no merits of an infinite reward, but thoſe of Jeſus Chriſt: How do you abuſe the infinite ſatisfaction madeto the Juſtice of God by Jeſus Chriſt? as if an All-ſufficient Surety had not payd the utmoſt farthing, as if his ſufferings need the ſupplement of the Saints, further toſatisfy the demands of angry Juſtice. Wil your diſtinction of Mediatorſhip of Redemption and Interceſſion, cloak your Idolatrous Prayers to Saints and Angells? Is not Chriſt the only Mediator of Interceſſion and Redemption? Is not the prevalency of interceſſion founded on Redemption? what elſe cryes for peace and pardon, Grace and Glory but the bloud of Chriſt? Heb. 12. 24. Jeſus Chriſt the Righteous, that is an Advocate with the Father, is the propitiation for Beleevers ſins, Totus Papatus eſt ipſiſſima Crucis Chriſti inimicitia id que multo amplius quam Judaiſmus. Muſculus in Phil. 3.1 Joh, 2. 1. Yea therefore an Advocate, becauſe a propitiator. Could holy Creatures be proved Redeemers, they might be argued ſpeeding Interceſſors. The Croſſe of Chriſt hath not only had Turkes and Heathens, and falſe Apoſtles, who oppoſed themſelves to the Doctrine of the Croſſe, the Doctrine of the Law and Circumciſion, but Papiſts alſo: The whole Papacy ſaith Muſculus, is the worſt enmity of the Croſſe of Chriſt, yea worſe then Judaiſme. Although it ſet up the Wood, and the forme of the Croſſe in all its Temples, ſhew it and carry it in publick ſtreets, adorn it with gold, ſilver, and precious ſtones, yet none of theſe things befriend the Croſſe of Chriſt, but the beleeving of Chriſt crucified in the word; the true heart and life crucifix, by Geramus crucem non in ve ſte aut pallio, ſed intus, in corde & carnē nostraā, dum hic vitam agimus, carnem noſtram clavis ſeu ſpiritualibus armis in cruce agamus. Otho Caſmannus.which the true Chriſtian is crucified to the world, and the world to him, Gal. 6. 14. The fleſh is crucified with its Affections and Luſts, Gal. 5. 24. Is not the power of the Goſpell crucifixion denyed, evacuated, made nothing by your Artificial Crucifix? Is Crucifying grace given out but to Gods own Inſtitutions? Is God wont to bleſſe mens ſuperſtitious inventions, are not your ſingle lived Prieſts and Nuns, by your Church-Lawes denyed Marriage in conſtant Temptations to inward, wanton, burning flames, and outward impurities? unleſſe in rare Heavenly …unuchiſme: Is it not the Ordinance of God rather To marry then burne? 1. Cor. 7, 6. Are not Prieſts Fornication in your account more tollerable then Marriage? Have not publick ſtewes too much favour at Rome? Is not the mutteting over ſome Roſaries to the bleſſed Virgin, an Atonement of filthy ſins: yea, are not your Holy dayes, your Saints dayes, unholy allowances to the wanton fleſh? Nor will ſome Lent, Good-Friday, will worſhip ſeverities, clear you from carnall Libertiniſme. To conclude, the whole Maſſe of Popery, as it ſtands contradiſtinct to ſound proteſtant confeſſions, as it doth appear, to our ſolid, Orthodox, examining Writers, to it will appear in the great day, a body of carnall Wantoneſſe, a meer politick Engine for worldly glory, a product of proud, erring, ſelf-admiring fleſhly mindes. If though Providence, popiſh eyes may read this partition, I humbly requeſt the ſelfe-applauding, obſerving Romiſh children of error, that have the fearfull Judgment on them, of ſtrong deluſions to beleeve lies, and have departed form the Faith that was once delivered to the Saints, to ſtudy and be aſhamed of the wanton principles, and practices of their own Religion, before they triumph in the looſeneſſe of carnall proteſtants and falſe Chriſtians, who by the principles of our Religion, are taught more regular, acceptable Goſpell-ſtrictneſſe, then their traditionall, and moſt religious, ſeverities pretend unto. I again humbly requeſt the proteſtant, unſetled, diſcontented Reader, who it may be hath too favorable thoughts of Popery, to take heed leſt he in heart turn back to ſpirituall Egypt, & hearken to thoſe Engliſh Jeſuit Captaines, that (in different diſguiſe of their Names and Habits, tempt Wantons in opinion and Practiſe, diſſavouring the Heavenly Manna of our pure faith, and lingring after the onions and leeks, the poor food of popiſh Traditions) would lead them from the fatneſſe of Gods houſe, to Romes unwholeſome proviſions. If, O unwary Reader, thou doſt abuſe the unvaluable Treaſure of that goſpell grace that is taught among us, that doth not only require faith in Chriſt, but a neceſſary and ſevere mortification of worldly Luſts, of abſolute neceſſity to obtaine Salvation, and be fit for Heaven, thou haſt a wanton heart, and doſt live a diſſolute life, beleeve not the Jeſuits nor the Papiſts among us, that thou art like to prove a better chriſtian, if thou once prove an Apoſtate ſon or daughter of the church of Rome. If thou doſt ſeriouſly weigh this Section, and meditate on the wanton Principles and practiſes of the Mother of Harlots, thou art not like to better thine heart and life, by being a child of ſpirituall Whoredomes, but ruine thy ſelfe by drinking off the Whores cup of Fornications.