THE LATIN SERVICE. 459
of inveterate prejudices and carnal interests against the liglit of tlie truth as I think was ever given in the workl.
These are my apprehensions concerning tlie customs of yoiu" church in this matter, with their nature and tendency. I shall now try whether you, who blame my misunderstanding of them, can give me any better information, or reason for the change of my thoughts con- cerning them. But " carbones pro thesauro/' instead of either far- ther clearing or vindicating your customs and practice, you fall into encomiums of your church, a story of a Greek bishop, with some other thing as little to your purpose.
" Fur es, ait Pedio. Pedius quid ? crimina rasis Librat in autitlietis. Doctas posuisse figuras Laudatui'." Pei's. i. 85.
You are accused to have robbed the church of the use of the Scrip- ture, and the means of its edification in the worship of God; and when you should produce your defensative, you make a fine discourse quite to other purposes. Such as it is, we must pass through it.
First, you say, " I have heard many grave Protestant divines m- genuously acknowledge that divine comfort and sanctity of life requi- site unto salvation, which religion aims at, may with more perfec- tion and less inconvenience be attained by the customs of the Roman church than that of ours. For religion is not to sit perching upon the lips, but to be got by heart; it consists not in reading, but doing: and in this, not in that, lives the substance of it ; which is soon and easily conveyed. Christ our Lord drew a compendium of all divine truths in two words; which our great apostle again abridged into one." Ans. First, I hope you will give me leave a little to suspend my assent unto what you affirm; — not that I question your veracity as to the matter of fact related by you, that some persons have told you what you say, but I suppose you are mistaken in them; for whereas the gospel is the doctrine of truth according unto godliness, and the promotion of holiness and consolation (which cannot at all be promoted but in wa3^s and by means of God's appointment) is the next end of all religion, they can be no Protestant divines who ac- knowledge this end to be better attainable in your way than their own, because such an acknowledgment would be a virtual renuncia- tion of their Protestancy. The judgment of this church, and all the real grave divines of it, is perfectly against you; and, should you con- descend unto them in other things, [they] would not embrace your communion whilst you impose upon them a necessity of celebrating the worship of God in a tongue unknomi unto them amongst whom and for Avhose sake it is pubhcly celebrated. The reasons you subjoin to the concession you mention I presume are your own ; they are like to many others that you make use of The best sense of the entrance
460 A VINDICATION OF THE ANIMADVERSIONS ON FIAT LUX.
of your words that I ccji make is in that description they afford us of the worship of your church, as to the people's concernment in it. The words of it may sit 'perching upon your lips, as on the tongue of a parrot, or, it may be, may be^ro^ hy heart, or as we say, without book, when the sense of them affects not your minds nor understandings at all. If in these vain, loose expressions you design any thing else, it seems to be an opposition between reading and studying the Scrip- tures, or joining with understanding in the prayers of the church, — the things under consideration, — and the getting of the power of the word of God to dwell in the heart; which is skilfully to oppose the means and the end, and those placed in that relation not only by their natural aptitude, but also by God's express appointment and com- mand. So wisely, also, do you oppose reading and doing in general, as though reading were not doing, and a part of that obedience which God requires at our hands, and a blessed means of helping and fur- thering us in the remainder of it; for certainly that we may do the will of God, it is required that we know it. And what better way there is to come to the knowledge of the will of God, than by read- ing and meditating in and upon the word of truth wherein he hath revealed it, with the advantage of the other means of his appointment for the same end, in the public preaching or proposition of it, I am not as yet informed. And I wish you had acquainted us with those two words of our Saviour, and that one of the apostle, wherein they give us a compendium of all divine truths ; for if it be so, I am per- suaded you will be to seek for your warrant in imposing your long creeds, and almost volumes of propositions, to be believed as such. But you cannot avoid mistakes in things that you might omit as not at all to your purpose. Our Saviour, indeed, gives us the two general heads of those duties of obedience which are required at our hands towards God and our neiglibours, and the apostle shows the perfec- tion of it to consist in love, with its due exercise ; but where in two or three words they give us the compendium of all divine truths which we are to believe, that we may acceptably perform the obe- dience that in general they describe, we are yet to seek, and shall be so, for any information you are able to give us.