Capel. Hazelwood. CHARITY AND TRUTH: OR, Catholicks not uncharitable in Jaying, that none are fav'd out of the Catholick Communion. Because The RULE is not univerfal, We are willing the People fhould examine what we teach, and bring all our Doctrines to the Law and to the Testimony; that if they be not according to this Rule, they may neither believe them nor us. 'Tis only Things false and adulterate, which fhun the Light and fear the Touchstone. We have that Security of the Truth of our Religion, and of the Agreeableness of it to the Word of God, that honest Confidence of the Goodness of our Caufe, that we do not forbid the People to read the best Books our Adverfaries can write against it. Archbishop Tillotson, Sermon xxx. Fol. 359. By H. E. Edw! Hawarden Behold, I am with you always, even to the End of the World. S. Matth. xxviii. v. 20. PRINTED In the Year of our LORD, MDCCXXVIII. PREFACE. T HE only great, I might fay, the only Bufinefs of a Chriftian in this Life, is Salvation. In this we are all equally and infinitely concern'd. And there cannot be a more fignal Inftance of the prodigious Corruption of the prefent Age, than that an univerfal Concern of the highest Nature should be almost univerfally neglected. Religion, they say, is the Parfon's Bufinefs; be maintains his Wife and his Family by it. But is Confcience the Parfon's Bufinefs too? If the People lofe it, and Heaven with it, is it the Parfon's Lofs? Are they no Sufferers by it? 2. But God is infinitely good and it is hop'd, that Men may live as they please in this World, A 2 and and yet may enjoy a better when they die. God iş infinitely good, but he is also true to his Word. He has reveal'd his Will; and will infinitely reward all those who do it. But he never promis'd Heaven to fuch, as either will not take true Pains to find it, or will not facrifice their most darling Paffions to procure it, or who are not afraid to wreft his Words to their own Perdition. Let bis Word be our Rule, and his Church our Guide, and we have nothing to fear. 3. S. Paul gives us, more than (1) once, a large Catalogue of Sins, which, without Repentance, exclude Men from the Kingdom of God. And yet into how many Follies do we fee them run in this licentious Age? It is a rakish Opinion, that all Men go to Heaven: And I am willing to believe, that none but Rakes and Infidels can entertain a Fancy, fo directly oppofite to the Word of God. For if all Men go to Heaven, how came the (2) rich Man into Hell? Why is Capernaum to be cast down (3) into it? Why is be, who calls his Brother, Fool, lyable to (4) Hellfire? 4. To this they tell us, that no one is damn'd to Eternity: that after a certain Time, all Sinners, bow wicked foever, will be releas'd from Hell, and carried into Heaven. It feems, eternal Torments are the only Things, which Rakes and Infidels dread. But it is not plainer in the Scripture,that there is either a Heaven or a Hell, than that (1) I Cor. vi. v. 9, 10. (2) S. Luke xvi. v. 23 Gal. v. v. 19, 20, 21. (3) S Matth. xi. v. 23. S. Luke x. v. 15. (4) S. Matth. v. v. 22. But fee Gal. iii. v. 1. and S. Luke xxiv. v. 25. For in fome Cafes to call one, Fool, is an Act of Juftice, and no Sin at all. that the Torments in the latter fhall indure to Eternity. For how do the Sins, mention'd by S. Paul, exclude Men from the Kingdom of God, if all Men fhall at length be plac'd in it? And how does this agree with the Account, which the Fudge himself gives us of the last Trial? For (5) when the Son of Man fhall come in his Glo ry,all Nations fhall be brought before him,and he will separate them one from another, as a Shepherd divides his Sheep from the Goats. And he will set the Sheep on his right Hand, and the Goats on his left. To thofe on his right Hand, he will give the Poffeffion of his Kingdom; and will fay to thofe on his left, Depart from me, you accurfed, into everlafting Fire. And left Sinners might think, that the Fire is eternal, but not the Punishment; be adds, (6) And these fhall go into everlasting Punishment; but the Righteous into everlafting Life. So that either the Gospel is falfe, or the Punishments of Vice are as endless as the Rewards of Virtue. 5. But leaving Rakes and Infidels: There are fill vulgar Errors, relating to Salvation, which deferve our Notice. FIRST VULGAR ERROR. The firft is, that it is Charity to fuppofe all Men fav'd, whofe Life is morally honeft. True, if Chriftian Religion acknowledges nothing necefJary to Salvation, befides moral Honesty. But, A 3 (5) S. Matth. xxv. v. 31, &c. (6) Ib. v. 46. if |