222 The L IFE of the i I B. j. I (hall fendor bring you). 2. My Preface before the Difputation with Mc3ohn- ` fen and the Letters in the end, and the Second Part, and then the firfl. 3. My ` two firft Books againft Popery (TheSafe Religion'and The Key): For your for- mer reading of.thera ; before any doubting had made you ohfarve the ftrefs of ` Arguments, is nothing ; ifyou will butnow read them again impartially after ` your contrary Conceptions, continue aPapift ifyou can. And truly ifyou will ` not do thus much for your own Soul , becaufe Men engage you to the contrary; ` that dare not appear to make good their own Caufe, I muff be a Witnefs againit you before the Lord, that you wilfully refuted Initruûion, and fold your Soul at `.too cheapa rate. I tried when I was last with you, to revive your Reafon, by:propofing to you the Infallibility of the Common Senfes of all the World ; and I could not pre- ' vail though you had nothing to anfwer that was not againft Common Senfe. And ` it is impoflible anything controverted can be brought nearer you , or made `.plainer than to bebrought to your Eyes and Tafte and Feeling : and not yours ` only, but all Mens elfe. Senfe goesbefore Faith. Faith is no Faith but upon ` Suppofition of Senfeand Underftanding ; if therefore Common Senfe be fallible, ` Faithmuff needs be fo. But methinks yet I Ihould have hope of reviving your Charity : You cannot `be'a Papift indeed, but you mutt believe, that out of their Church ( that is out ` of the Pope's Dominions) there is no Salvation ; and confequently no Juftifica- ` tion and Charity, or faving Grace : Antl is it poffìble'you can fo eafily believe ` your religious Father tobein Hell ; your prudent, pious Mother to be void of the Love óf God, and in a flare of Damnation ; and not only me ( that am a Stran- g ger to you ) but all the Millions of better People in the World, tobe in the fame ` State (ofGracelefnefs and Damnation ) and all becaufe we believe not that the ` Pope is Chrift's Vicar General, or Deputy on Earth, and dare not ftbjéâ out ` felves tohis ufurped Dominions ? Whenwe are ready to proteft before the Lord, as we Mall anfwer it at his Bar, that we would be his Subleâs but for Fear of the high Difpleafure of the true Head and King of the Church, and for fear of fin- ' ning and Damning our own Souls : And that weareheartily willing to read, and fludy and pray, and hear all that canbe faid for them ; and force of us read as ` much of their Writings as ofour own and more; and would nom flick at Colt or '.Pains, or Lofs or Shame; were it to travail over Land and Sea to find out that ` they are in the Right (if that would doit, and they be fo indeed). But the more we ttudy, the more we pray to God for his Aflìftance, the more diligentlÿ we `fearch, we are the more refolved and convinced, that their way, as it differerh ` from ours, is falte; and that they are the molt Superflitious, Tyrannical, Leprous ' part of the Catholick Church,condemning the main Body,becaufe theywill not be ` under theirabominable Dominion and will not fin as much as they. We hold all ` that was held neceffary by the Apoftles and the ancient Church; and we darenot ` make a new Faith to our felves, as the Papal Seâaries have done : Mull we re., ` nounce both our Senfe and Reafon, and put out the Eye of Natural Underftand- ` ing, and alfo renounce the Catholick Church and Chriflian Charity, and flep ` intotheThrone, and pronounce Damnationnot only upon all the Saints of God that we have been acquainted with our felves , but allo on the Body of Chriff ` which he died for, even on the far greatett part of the UniverfalChurch; and all this becaufe they will not depart from the Word of God, to corrupt his Doetrine; , ` Difcipline and Worship, and herein obey an ufurping ViceChrilt ? muff wedo c all this, or elfe be judged to Damnation by the Seetariesof Rome ? For my part, I Mall be fofar from fearing their Sentance, that I appeal to Chrilt, whole Body they condemn ; and I had rather be torturedin their Inquifition, andcut as fmall ` as Herbs to the Pot, and be accounted the odioufeff Wretch on Earth, than be ` guilty of being a Papift at all, but efpecially on filch hellilh Terms as thefe. If ' the greater part of the Church muff be damned as no part of the Church , it will be impoflible toprove your Seht or Fragment to be the Church , any more ` than any-other. Chrilt is theSaviour ofhis Body, Eph. ç. 2 ;, and to him, as to ` its Head, it's fubjell, ver. 24. and this Body is that which is fanâified by him, ` ver. 26. And by one Spirit all his Members are baptized into one Body, r Cor. 22. 22, c ;. Didyou never note, where the Unity of the Body is fullieft defcribed , that Apoltles themfelves are made but Members, and Chrift only the Head, x Cor. ` 27, 28, 29. EPh 4. 4, ç, 7, rr There is but one Lord, &c. but diverftty ofgifts, of whom the Apo/lies are the chief. And when Tboufands were added to ,the Church, ' (even flab aJhouldbefamed, Ads 2.47.). what made them Chriftiansbut tho Bap- '
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