3. Secular interests and advantages, accommodated unto all sorts of persons, are another means of their prevalenc}^ There are no sorts of persons, from the highest to the lowest, that come within their walk and compass, or unto whom they can have access with the least probability of success, unto whom they have not in a readiness to propose some secular advantages suited unto their state, condition, inclinations, and abilities. Great men shall have favour and cori'e- spondences with potentates abroad, besides a principal interest in that alteration in national affairs which they doubt not but they shall introduce. Scholars shall be used and preferred ; at least, Avhen they have any eminency in abilities, they shall not want esteem and ad- vancement. Mechanics shall be employed, and the poorest one way or other provided for. And for all sorts of discontented persons who may be of any use unto their interest, they have the refuge of their monasteries for their entertainment. And is it any wonder if, in this degenerate age, wherein the most of men do openly and visibly de- clare a predominancy in their minds and affections of things carnal and temporal, above those that are spiritual and eternal, many be ensnared by these promises, which either shall be made good unto them, or at least are sufficient to keep them in expectation until they are engaged beyond recovery ?
THE CLAIM OF THE CHURCH OF EOME TO BE SUSFECTED. 495
4. Many, it is feared, fall under the dreadful account given of God's righteous dealings with those who obstinately live in sin, under the profession of the truth, 2 Thess. ii. 10-12: "Because they re- ceived not the love of the truth, that they might be saved, God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie ; that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unriahteousness." This is that which we have more cause to fear, with respect unto this nation, than all the artifices of the Roman church.
Lastly. How powerful and prevalent the last voice of this chiu'ch may prove I know not. The motto of some potentates on their great guns is, " Vox ultima regum," — " The last voice of kings :" that of this church is, " Fire and fagot;" wherewith I pray and hope that tliey shall never more be heard to sj)eak in England.
Allowing them these advantages, I shall now prove that no wise or sober man, who takes care of his own salvation, can give up him- self to the conduct of the church of Rome in his choice of religion, then when there are the most abounding contests about the trath and the right way of its profession, which is supposed [to be] our present case.
In my first reason I shall proceed no farther but to render this pretended guide suspected with all wise and sober men; for it will be granted, I suppose, that we ought thoroughly to consider who or what that guide is whereunto we do absolutely resign the disposal of all our spiritual concernments, without power of revocation.
If any men were to make such an absolute trust of their lives, estates, and liberties into the hands of another man, or of other men, putting them all absolutely out of their own power, certainly they would think it their wisdom and interest to consider aright who and what they are unto whom they do so fiilly and absolutely resign themselves and all that they have. And if they have any just sus- picion of their honesty or faithfulness, or that they seek themselves, or their own advantage, in taking this trust upon them, they will not easily be induced to resign up their all unto them ; yea, the more earnest they are to persuade them, the more will they suspect that there is knavery in the cause. How much more careful ought we to be in the choosing a guide into whose power and disposal we must resign all the eternal concernments of our souls! — which all men do who absolutely give up the conduct of themselves unto the church of Rome in all matters of religion ; for, notwithstanding all their pleas of a sure and safe bank for the consciences of men, there are great presumptions that they will break at last, and leave them who have intrusted them unto eternal beggary.
I shall give but one reason, which renders this pretended guide so
496 ' THE CHURCH OF ROME NO SAFE GUIDE.
justly suspected as that no wise man can commit himself thereunto in things of this importance. And this is, the prodigious worldly secular advantages which the church of Rome hath made unto itself by this pretence of being the only guide of all Christians in matters of religion; for this pretence is the sole foundation of the whole Papacy, which, when the sand of it is removed, must fall to the ground. And we may consider both what they have obtained by it, and how they use their acquisition. For, —
1. By virtue of this pretence alone they have erected their popedom, obtained principalities and sovereignties, possessed them- selves of tlie principal revenues of most nations of Europe, have heaped up huge treasures of wealth, wherewith they maintain innu- merable persons who have nothing to do but by all arts to promote their interest, especially that numerous society which is grown at this day the pest and terror of the world. These things are evident in other nations ; they were so formerly in this. And in all the zeal which of late they have pretended for the conversion, as they call it, of this nation, it is legibly written in all the parts of their design and the whole management of it, that it was power, dominion, wealth, and revenue unto themselves, that they intended ; this place, that dignity, and the other revenue, and the carnally-sweet dominion over the consciences of all sorts of persons, were in their eye.