And here you may take notice, what a fond and vain delusion it is, by which the Priests do persuade the poor people that their Religion is a safer way to heaven then ours, even because that we confess a ⟨p. 89⟩Papist may be saved, but they affirm that a Protestant cannot be saved. For 1. Some Protestants think they may be saved, and some deny it. 2. Those that think they may be saved do withal think that it is not by Popery, but against it and fro• it. 3. And they think that its very hard, and therefore that they are very few that are saved among them, in comparison of the number saved among us. And is not this a fair and comfortable encouragement to their poor seduced followers, that some among us confess that as its possible for here and there one to escape of a raging Pestilence, so may some Papists be saved. 4. Their condemning of all Protestants doth make themselves worse, but it makes us never the worse, nor our case ever the more dangerous. Christ hath told us that all men shall know us to be his disciples, by Loving one another, and hath bid us, judge not that we be not judged, for with what judgement we judge, we shall be judged: and Paul tells us, that charity thinketh not evil, but hopeth all things: Is it then a good & Christian arguing to say that they are safer then we, because they are more censorious, and rash condemners of others? Then he that hath least Charity is of the safest Religion. Suppose that a company shut up in a Pesthouse, being raging mad with the Plague, or otherwise distempered in their brain, should cry out, that all the Town are sick and will certainly dye, except themselves. Were it wise reasoning now to say [You confess that some of those that are sick in the Pesthouse may escape; but they say that none of you that are out can escape, therefore it is safer to be with them then with you.] Even such is the reasoning of the Popish Priests in the present case. It is the disease of Popery that of ⟨p. 90⟩its own nature causeth them to condemn all the world except themselves: And it is because we are free from their disease, that makes us not so rash and hasty in condemning them: But yet as charitable as we are to them, we are so charitable withal to our selves, that we would not be in their case, for all the world.
And here you may take notice, what a fond and vain delusion it is, by which the Priests do perswade the poor people that their Religion is a safer way to heaven then ours, even because that we confess a ⟨p. 89⟩Papist may be saved, but they affirm that a Protestant cannot be saved. For 1. Some Protestants think they may be saved, and some deny it. 2. Those that think they may be saved do withall think that it is not by Popery, but against it and fro• it. 3. And they think that its very hard, and therefore that they are very few that are saved among them, in comparison of the number saved among us. And is not this a fair and comfortable encouragement to their poor seduced followers, that some among us confess that as its possible for here and there one to escape of a raging Pestilence, so may some Papists be saved. 4. Their condemning of all Protestants doth make themselves worse, but it makes us never the worse, nor our case ever the more dangerous. Christ hath told us that all men shall know us to be his disciples, by Loving one another, and hath bid us, judge not that we be not judged, for with what judgement we judge, we shall be judged: and Paul tells us, that charity thinketh not evil, but hopeth all things: Is it then a good & Christian arguing to say that they are safer then we, because they are more c•nsorious, and rash condemners of others? Then he that hath least Charity is of the safest Religion. Suppose that a company shut up in a Pesthouse, being raging mad with the Plague, or otherwise distempered in their brain, should cry out, that all the Town are sick and will certainly dye, except themselves. Were it wise reasoning now to say [You confess that some of those that are sick in the Pesthouse may escape; but they say that none of you that are out can escape, therefore it is safer to be with them then with you.] Even such is the reasoning of the Popish Priests in the present case. It is the disease of Popery that of ⟨p. 90⟩its own nature causeth them to condemne all the world except themselves: And it is because we are free from their disease, that makes us not so rash and hasty in condemning them: But yet as charitable as we are to them, we are so charitable withall to our selves, that we would not be in their case, for all the world.
