Unto such as these come persons in the name and on the behalf of this pretended guide; and a compass of plausible words they will use, fit to distract and amuse weak and unstable minds. But the plain sense of what they say in this case is, " Cast away this Bible, this book; it doth but perplex you and disturb your minds with things that are above you, which you cannot understand, and is therefore an occasion of almost all the pernicious errors that are in the world." Will not any such person be ready to say, " Hath God given this book, this alone, as the only revelation of his mind and will unto us, as the guide and rule whereby we may come unto the eternal enjo3rment of him (which you dare not directly deny) ; hath he commanded me to read, study, meditate, and be conversant in it continually ; have I found the benefit of the light, counsel, and con- solation administered by it in my own soul; and shall I now forsake it, cast it away, to betake myself unto your guidance and direction ? Shall I forsake God, and Christ, and the Holy Spirit, all the prophets and apostles, who daily speak unto me in and by this word, to com- ply with you V The very horror of the proposal is enough to secure the minds of any who have the least spark of spiritual light or grace from a compliance with it. Wherefore, whether it be reasonable to leave the word of God, which is full of light, shining like the sun in the firmament, to follow the glimmerings of this wandering meteor, which arose out of a horrible pit, and there will end, is left unto their consideration who take care of the eternal salvation of their own souls.
2. The solemn worship of God, by the guides of the church, in a tongue and language which the people do not understand, is another of their proposals. This they are bound to attend unto, on pain of damnation. But how any thing can be more contrary unto the com- mon sense of them who know what it is to pray in a due manner, no man can conceive. As unto them who do not, yet is it not hard to convince them, where the}'^ are not obstinate on other prejudices, how irrational this proposal is, hoAv inconsistent with that reasonable ser- vice that God requireth of us. Others will say that they find hinder-
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ances and difficulties enough from and in this duty, from the weakness of their faith and instabiUty of their minds, the suggestions of Satan, with diversions from outward objects ; if you add thereunto that they shall not understand a word of what is spoken in prayer, and they know Avell enough tliey sliall never pray at all. And the truth is, did we not know whence they took occasion for this strange con- trivance, so contrary to the nature of all religion, and what advantage they make of it unto themselves, it could never be sufficiently admired how such a senseless imagination should befall their minds. I do not design to show how contrary it is to Scripture precepts and examples, to the practice of all the saints under the Old Testament and the New, with that of the primitive churches, and, on all accovmts, what an abominable sacrilege it is so to rob the church of its chiefest trea- sure; it hath been done by others sufficiently. I only give it as an instance how unmeet this pretended church is to be such a guide as whereunto we are to make an absolute resignation of our understand- ings and consciences in all concerns of religion ; and there is nothing that can make them who have any regard unto their own souls to reject its gnidance with more detestation. Shall they accept them for their guide in religion, who, under pain of damnation, confine them, in all the public worship of the church, unto the use of a lan- guage that they do not vmderstand ? [so] that, instead of j^raying with their understandings, they must be content with a diunb show, with postures and gestures, with altars and pictures, the antic actings of a priest, and a noise of words whose sense they know not at all? If a man would seek for an infallible guide to hell, it is hard to find one more likely and better qualified unto that purpose than is this church of Rome.
S. There is, at the same instant, proposed unto us by this guide, the doctrine of transuhstantiation, with the sacrifice of the mass thereon depending. This, they say, we must believe, at least avow that we do believe, on pain of eternal and temporal destruction also. But herein they require of us, that, on the mere credit of their con- duct, we must renounce the use of our senses, the exercise of our reason, and actings of faith on divine revelations, all things whereby we are either men or Christians, that we may become blind idolaters. But they who, pretending to be our guides in religion, do thereon impose this monstrous imagination on our credulity, with the idol- atrous practice vv^herein it issues, had need give us better security of their divine infallibility than the angels in heaven can do ; for if an angel from heaven should preach this doctrine unto us, we may safely esteem him accursed, Gal. i. 8.