294 Oftbé:great Errors, Sin and Danger merited falvationour (elves byChrift , or that no a&of faith is Justifying but the. acceptingof his righteoufnefs,or that faith Juftifieth' only as the efficient inftrumental caufe, or that we have no righteoufnefs which hath anything to do inour Jufification, but only Chrifis imputed Merits , or that mans faith, Love or obedience are not rewardable, &c. how eafily will a Papift open the falfhood of fuch an opinion to thehearers, and theft teU them that theymay fee by this who is in the right. And, alas, what workwouldone Learned Papift makein Londonby publick difputing, if we had no wifer men to deal with him than thefe over-doers e They may call Truth andSobriety Antichriftian, and talk nonfence as againft Popery fuc- cefsfully to their ownparty but I hope never to fee the caufe managed by their publick difputes, left half theCongregationturn Papifts on it at once. If Chillingworthhad not been abler to confutea Papift than thofe that ufed to calumniate him as Popifhor socinian, he had done lefs fervice of that kind thanhe did. r4. And it isanodious injury that thefe Over-doers do to the ancient and theuniverfal church, while inmanycafes, they ( ignorantly or wilfully ) reproach andcondemn them, as if theywere all thefavourers of Popery, and call their ancientdoctrine andpractice Antichriftian. Some of themigno- rantly falfifie the Fathers dottrine, and upon truft from their Leaders avert that they held that which they plainly contradict: and that which they held indeed, they cry out againft as Popery. Such an inftance we have newlyin a Souldier, Major Danvers, anAnahaptii, which I have dere6ted: And will Chrift take it well to have almoft all his Church condemned as Antichriftian r 15, And herebywhat an honour is done to Popery; and what a difhoj nour to the Reformed, Churches, when it flail be concluded that all the Churches heretofore, even next after theage of the Apoftles, and almoft all the prefent Churches, were andareagainft the doârine of the Proteftants, andonthe Papifts fide t And yet howmany dous this injury, and the Ro- man Church this honour ? About the nature of Juftifying faith, and its office to Juftification, and about the nature of Juftification it Pelf, and Im- putation of Righteoufnefs, and free-will, and mans Works and Merits, and about affurance of falvation and perfeverance, howmany do call that Popery, which the whole current of GreekandLatineFathers do affect, and all theancient Churches owned, and molt of all the prefent Churches in the world t And thofe that call all forms of prayer, Popery, or the Englifh Liturgie at leali, when almoft all the Chriftianworld have forms, and mofi fuch as are much worfe, do but tell men that the Chriftian world is on the fidethat theyoppofe, and againft their way. 16. And it is a crime of infamy to be taken for Separatifbs from the univerpl church ; And in do trines and forms of Worfhip, not only to avoid what we take to have been a common weaknefs, but alfoto condemn them asAntichriftian, or as holdingpernicious errours, is but to perfwade men that we are not of the fame body, and to own a finful difhonourable feparation. r7. And by all thefe means thereOver-doers dogreatly increafe ,Athei goo and Infidelity and prophanenefs among us, while their zeal againft Truth and reproaches of founddoctrine, do make men think that our Religion is nothing but proud humour and felf-conceit ; and while they fee us fo boldly condemn almoft all the world except our feives, they will thinkthat fo few, as we drferve not to be. excepted. I8. By this injurious extremityagainft the Papifts, we do but kindle in thema bitterer enmity to us, andhatredof thembreedeth hatred in them of us,
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=