serious examination of all these things that there can be nothing more contrary than these two things the ancient Christian Rome and that which appears now the Church then with the modern the Faith and Christian Religion under the Popes Government with that Faith and Religion which the Romans first embraced and professed a long whiles under the Teachers and Bishops which the Apostles left them Let any man read over the Gospel and the Records of the Primitive Christians since the time of the Apostles until the fourth or fifth Centuries to seek what Church Jesus Christ established upon the unmoveable foundation of His Word and Merits let him take notice of that which St. Luke describes better with his Pen than with his skilful Pencil of that which all the approved Writers of the Ecclesiastical Affairs immediately succeeding do represent unto us which professed no other belief but in Jesus Christ which had rejected an Angel from Heaven if he had preached any other Doctrine but that which is contained in the Holy Gospel and in the other Books of Sacred Scripture This Church acknowledged no other but Christ looked upon such as named themselves of Apollo's Party of Peter's or Paul's as so many Sectaries and allowed of no other Judge of Controversies and Governour but Jesus Christ Call but to mind all that you have ever read or heard of this Church since its beginning until the time of the Bishop of Rome's usurpation of the Sovereign Power under the name of Pope and compare that Church of Rome with this in our days examine the Tenents Maxims Laws Behaviour and Customs of both and you will be forced to confess that they are not the same but two Churches as much differing the one from the other as the day from the night We must not therefore mention the Antiquity of this Church but as of a languishing and decayed Body we may say she is ancient in the same manner as we say of women that shamefully yield themselves to pleasure in their old age whilst they were young chast and beautiful they were worthily esteemed and admired of every one but since age and lechery time and debauchery seises upon them they become so strangely altered that they seem not to be the same persons We must look upon the Church of Rome in this manner She is no longer that beautiful Wonder that ravishing Spouse whose Picture Solomon labours to draw in chap. 4. of the Canticles but an old Whore the Mother of fornications and abominations of the earth mentioned by St. John Revel chap. 17. She is old I confess like unto those old Palaces which time and want of repair have brought to ruin I may express this by another resemblance She is ancient as are the old Bodies infected with Leprosie and abounding with vicious humours which putrefie the older they grow and corrupt the more with age the continuance of the disease having so changed their constitution that they are not to be known by the former idea's of their persons In this manner the Romish Church may be said to be ancient Antiquity doth but discover her shame reveal her Apostacy and declare her grievous Corruptions Let us say something more to the purpose Men are known by their speech the home-born Inhabitants of a Country are distinguishable from strangers by their language and pronunciation I desire no more to shew that the Church of Rome is not the true Church of Christ and that the present Church is not the same as that which was first established Listen to the language of both and you shall find a vast difference hearken to the Popes language and to that of Jesus Christ to what the one commands and the other forbids to what the first affirms and the latter denies to what Christ with his Apostles preach and the Pope with his Doctors declare and publish We need but read the Holy Gospel and the Decretals of Rome the Scripture and the Canons of the Council of Trent the Books of the ancient Fathers and the Belief of the Jesuits and of modern Authors to understand that the Church which stiles her self Christian Catholick Apostolick and Roman is nothing of all that and deserves none of those glorious Titles for she is neither Christian nor Catholick nor Apostolick nor Roman if we take the Roman Church for what she was anciently She cannot be properly named Christian because she acknowledgeth another Lord and Superiour besides Jesus Christ and denies Him to be the only Saviour of Men ascribing this honour to the Virgin Mary and others by saying that she may and doth save many by her interceding for them that the Pope is able to do the like by pardoning their sins and granting unto them his Indulgences and that they themselves may contribute to their own salvation by their good works c. She is not Catholick in that sense which the Romanists give to this word because she preaches a Doctrine not agreeable to that which God hath revealed to us by His Son and Ministers and prefers her own Traditions before the Oracles of the Holy Scripture because she invents many superstitious Laws which occasion grievous sins She is not Roman like unto that Church which was anciently so called for besides that primitive Church as we shall further take notice never did claim an universal Dominion for she did acknowledge the Churches of Antioch Alexandria and of Jerusalem and others to be her equals in all respects therefore her Bishops never believed themselves to be their superiours but their brethren and companions The Christians of those days understood nothing of Indulgences of Fraternities of Holy-water of Consecrated Crums of Relicks and Repositories of Medals and Beads and other such like Baubles in which the Church of Rome placeth the Holiness of Christianity They knew nothing of Holy Bread kept in little Tabernacles to be there worshipped they never had in their Churches Images like to those of Rome as may appear by the words of Epiphanius who lived in the fourth Century and writ to John the Patriarch of Jerusalem an Epistle which St. Jerome hath translated into Latin and therefore declares the Judgment of those two Eminent Persons In this Epistle he saith that when he went into a Church situate in a Country Village he perceived upon the door a veil where there was an Image to be seen therefore he caused it to be taken down and to be torn in pieces for saith he by this means men may introduce Idolatry amongst Christians By this passage we may understand that the Worship of Images was a strange thing in that Age as other Historians and after them Baronius are forced to confess Christians of those days did rather chuse to be burned alive and tormented than to suffer the least grain of Incense to fall from their hands into that fire which was intended to burn it in honour of an Image or Idol which they were required to worship Those wise and couragious Christians did
Sovereign Power not only over Spiritual Affairs but also over the temporal in all Christian Kingdoms How blind or rather how malicious must the Popish Divines be to employ all their learning and skill in maintaining of this Doctrine I am perswaded that there are but few that commit this sin out of ignorance Do you judge if it be not a grievous blasphemy to extol the Pope as those Doctors do and to appropriate unto him these Titles and Praises given him by some Councils for example that which Pope Nicholas II. said of himself Can. omnes dist 22. That be was invested with the Empire of Heaven and Earth And Martin V. named himself The Light of the World and the Father of Kings c. The modestest of them all have suffered themselves to be called without renting their garments as Paul and Barnabas once did in a like occasion The King of Kings the Sovereign of the World the Judge of all Controversies from whose Sentence there is no appeal to God's Tribunal for it were to appeal from one to the same Being for God's Authority and that of the Popes is but the same as if the Father the Son the Holy Ghost and the Pope were but one God They name him also the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world God's Majesty on earth the Brightness of God's Presence the Bridegroom of the Christian Church the Lion of the Tribe of Juda God's Vicegerent the Holy of Holies Infallible Almighty c. The Popes have claimed these and many other Titles which I am ready to shew not only in the Writings of the Roman Doctors but also in their Rubricks if any man shall question what I now say They have claimed them both by word and deed requiring the Kings themselves to kiss their slippers and with their feet they have cast down the Crowns of Emperours from their heads as Pope Celestin treated Henry the Sixth They have trampled them under their feet as Alexander did the Crown of Frederick Barbarossa What may be more said of Jesus Christ to put a difference between him and the Pope Here is the fulfilling of all the Impieties which St. Paul did foretell 2 Thess 2. v. 3. The man of sin shall be revealed the son of perdition who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God on that is worshipped so that he as God sitteth in the Temple of God § The pretended Succession of the Roman Bishops so much spoken of in their Writings and in the Pulpits of that Church did seem to me to be very well grounded in Holy Scripture and by the continued Catalogue of all the Popes which the modern Popish Authors have gathered from the ancient Historians I did judge that this was but the consequence of Christ's promise to St. Peter when He told him that his faith should never fail and that the gates of hell should never prevail against his Church I was perswaded that this was plainly to be seen in the Church of Rome that above sixteen hundred years no Schism hath been so great as to hinder the Popes to succeed one after another There is no place in the world where so long and noble a Catalogue is to be seen and a Succession of so many lawful Bishops But since I have curiously examined the Truth since I have look'd into the Histories to find out this continued Succession of Roman Bishops for so many years I have found the Writers so perplex'd upon this Subject nay the Papists themselves are so obscure and ambiguous that we may justly say that the most part of them speak they know not what for most of them are guilty of contradiction for how can they agree this continued Succession without interruption with what Onuphrius saith in his Chronicle where he mentions no less than six and twenty Schisms in the Church of Rome the twentieth lasted forty years and the twenty sixth continued since Urbanus VI. until the Council of Constance as Genebrard saith Chron. lib. 4. an 1378. the one and twentieth lasted six and thirty years as the same Author affirms during all this time the Church of Rome had two Popes that did excommunicate one another Ann. 1389 How can we agree this Succession with what Baronius saith for he is forced to acknowledge it after so many Historians that at Rome there have been no less than three Popes together whom he names tricipitem bestiam portis inferis emergentem tom 11. and ann 1044. sect 5. a beast with three heads ascending out of the bottomless pit All three saith Bellarmin namely Gregory XIII Benedictus XIII and John XXIII had the same apparent right to the Popes Miter de pontif lib. 4. c. 14. How can we also agree this Doctrine with Baronius an 912. sect 8 He saith That the Clergy were not admitted to the Election that the Canons were not observed and all ancient Customs of chusing Popes set aside what Cardinals think ye saith he that these Monsters did create for according to the usual course of nature every thing begets its likeness c. Lechery saith Platin. in vita Benedicti brought forth these Monsters these Prodigies who by ambition and gifts have intruded themselves in and not lawfully enjoyed St. Peter's Chair See what the Historians of the Church of Rome have been forced to acknowledge although they have endeavoured to palliate its imperfections and hide them from the knowledge of the world How can any have the impudency to maintain that the Faith of this Church hath never failed that the gates of hell could never prevail against it and that there was never any discontinuance in the succession of its Bishops c Yet this is impudently affirmed with allowance in the Schools of the Papists This Doctrine I have also heretofore defended in Theses which I published amongst them That although the Election of the Roman Bishops hath passed almost at every time by bribes fraud violence murder c. Although the Church of Rome hath been frequently and for a long while divided into Sects and Factions and that much disorder hath happened in it nevertheless we ought to believe and affirm that the Holy Ghost did govern these Elections and that they were by Gods appointment and that the Faith of this Church hath never failed because I did suppose there hath always been a wonderful agreement between all its Members c. Let any man judge if ever Arius Pelagius Marcion or any other Heretick did ever teach such impudent Doctrine as this in Mahomet's Alcoran there is no absurdity found like unto it § The great crowd of Martyrs and the multitude of other Noble Saints who have performed so many Miracles and are challenged by the Papists as their own was another powerful motive to perswade me of the Truth of their Faith and of the Sanctity of their Religion Who is it said I to my self that dares deny that a Religion where so many Martyrs appear that have laid down
chuse rather to behold their own Arms and Members consume in a fire and endure the most sensible pains and tortures than to behold the Smoak of Incense fallen from their hands mount up to the nose of a senseless Idol They did rather chuse to expose themselves to the fury of the fires and of drawn swords and undergo the torments of the wheels of the wild beasts c. than to bow their knees before a graven Image and yield unto it the least respect O Romans of our days if any of the ancient Christians could but rise out of their graves to come amongst you into your Churches on some Festival day what would they say or think when they should see the accomplishment of Ezekiel's Prophecy chap. 8. so many abominations in the midst of God's Sanctuary the worship due to God alone paid to dumb Pictures which stand about the walls of your Temples when they should see that your Christian Devotion consists chiefly in such apish tricks in the kissing of Altars in cringings stretching out of your arms and signs of the Cross often made sometimes three or five times in kneeling before an Image with hands lifted up in offering to it frankincense in numbring a few beads in casting holy water upon the bones of the deceased in burning a wax candle put out and lighted again as many times as you have things to desire from a Saint c. How many tears would these ancient Catholick Roman Christians shed when they should see this Church practising such foolish things so much contrary to the Truth of Christian Religion How many sighs groans and lamentations should we hear from their pious Souls Jeremiah never uttered so many over the Ruins of Jerusalem O Rome Rome would they say what change is this what are these impertinencies what wonderful metamorphosis Heretofore the Truth did command in thee over Errour the Laws of God over the Inventions of men the Precepts of the Gospel over the Traditions of the people and true Piety over Superstition and God's Worship was chiefly regarded but now we see the contrary Therefore the Church of Rome which is now is not the same as that Christian Church of Rome first established there but a shadow of it which hath nothing of its likeness I would desire the Papists never to boast of the Age and Antiquity of their Church they have no reason to glory in that Rome was anciently one of the most famous Churches of Christendom for it is not like what it was heretofore Miserum istud verbum fuisse saith Seneca It is but a sad comfort and a bad cause of glory to say we have been if we cannot say also we are yet This the Papists should endeavour to make good unto us They ought to shew us by their Doctrine and Works that the Church of Rome at present is the same as it was of old which cannot be done but by a reformation of all the abuses and a reducement to the first estate whilst they continue as they are they shall never discover what their first fathers have been The most learned of all their Doctors who have undertaken to shew their conformity with the ancient Church of Rome seem to be much perplex'd in the proving of this matter very weak in their arguments and so contrary to one another that we need but their own Books to find out the falshood of their Doctrine This every one may take notice that will peruse them without partiality I might here name an hundred passages out of their Books to prove the truth of what I say but I think I have said enough to make the Papists apply unto themselves Tertullians reproach directed to the Heathens Apol. adv Gent. cap. 6. Tell me where is your Religion where is that respect that ye owe to your forefathers you are not like to them in your habits in your manner of living in your customs opinions and in your language You praise antiquity but every day you admit new inventions You differ much from the worthy institutions of your predecessors You declare by your behaviour that you retain nothing of those things that deserve to be retained but observe that which deserves it not This is a true representation of the Church of Rome § In the next place that Sovereign Authority which this Church claims did seem to me to be very well grounded when I did consider that which Jesus Christ saith to St. Peter in many occasions especially in that where He tells him immediately after the Confession of his Faith Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose in earth shall be loosed in heaven Matth. 16. By these words Christ seems to give unto him and his Successors a full power and more than to the rest There are other passages of Holy Scripture that make for the same purpose and St. Austin and several other Interpreters seem to favour this opinion and Reason it self seems to teach us the necessity of a visible Head over Christ's Church on earth answerable to its estate In this manner I did argue with my Comrades having been instructed in the Schools of Thomas Aquinas Suarez and others that gather from thence many reasons to prove the Pope's Authority and Sovereignty But when I had a little better examined these passages perused the Writings of the Fathers to understand their judgment of this matter I have found that there is nothing more false than the Doctrines of the Popish Schools in this occasion for Christ's words to St. Peter were not said to him alone as may appear if we look into the Gospel for Jesus Christ asked not only Peter but all His Disciples and Peter answers not only in his own name but also in that of the rest of the Apostles in persona omnium Apostolorum saith St. Ambrose St. Chrysostome and the other ancient Interpreters which words the Papists have inserted into their Breviarum or Rubrick speaking of this passage When therefore the Son of God returns unto St. Peter as a reward of his confession the power of binding and loosing and the keys of heaven c. it is not to him alone that He speaks and grants all these priviledges but to the rest in whose name St. Peter did answer therefore a few days after He repeated unto them the same thing and confirm'd the same priviledge to all the rest of His Apostles Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven c. Matth. 18. vers 18. He addresseth Himself to them all and not to one alone And if after His Resurrection Christ speaks to St. Peter only Feed my sheep this was as St. Cyril and other wise Interpreters have taken notice with an intent to confirm and re-admit him into the office
their Lives for Christ's Cause where so many Saints have observed the Rules of the Gospel and made such a glorious profession of all Christian Virtues a Religion where so many pious Souls do yet live a very exemplary and a holy life having forsaken the World to confine themselves to a Convent Who dares deny such a Religion to be the best the securest and the holiest of all In this manner I did argue and many judicious Persons suffer themselves to be thus deceived with a false appearance But such as will as I have done look more narrowly to this particular and weigh every thing in the Scales of the Sanctuary shall find by experience that the Church of Rome hath no cause to glory so much in them There are many Martyrs reckoned in the Church of Rome I confess but this is no infallible proof of its excellency There have been many also in the Churches of Jerusalem of Antioch of the Georgians Muscovites Greeks c. yet the Papists esteem them not the more But they say that many Saints in this Profession have and do yet perform notable Miracles I have cause to question the truth of this Assertion for many false ones are published but when they should be real they are no infallible signs of the Truth of their Faith for the Magicians of Egypt by Gods permission did also work Miracles Exod. chap. 7. God whose Secrets and Judgments are not to be searched out may suffer the Devil to keep men in ignorance by this means But the Papists say that amongst them many Religious Persons are to be seen that lead a most holy life I answer that they are for the most part but whited Sepulchres and that this is the Devils cunning to deceive Souls I shall say something more in this Chapter But what advantage do they expect from this Argument There are men of honesty every where amongst the Heathens and Hereticks as well as amongst the Christians and Catholicks there are persons of good behaviour or at least appear so to the world This is therefore no infallible sign of a true Religion but suppose it were so that the holiness and integrity of life were an infallible sign of the Truth the Papists will never be able to better their Cause by this reason unless their Chief and Governours who are to be look'd upon as the Paterns of the rest change their manner of living The Church of Rome is not so holy as it is said to be to the simple people ignorant of the Affairs of that City Examin the Transactions there now and within this eight or nine hundred years If we did but see the disorders of this Church plainly presented unto us we should have cause to wonder at the things related by the Papists themselves of their Popes I shall here mention some of them and that I may not be traduced as a Lyar I shall bring two or three of their own famous Writers speaking of the Court of Rome such I mean who endeavour to cover its imperfections and have never made use of their Pens but in its defence The first is devout St. Bernard Ser. 1. de Convers Pauli This man's integrity can never be suspected In this manner he speaks of the Court of Rome Iniquity proceeds from the grave Judges who are named Christ's Vicegerents and who seem to govern His people Of them we cannot say As is the People so is the Priest for the people were not like or so bad as the Priest And elsewhere de Consid ad Eugen. lib. 1. cap. 4. From all parts of the world the ambitious the covetous and persons guilty of symony sacriledge debauchery and incest and such like Monsters did flock to Rome to get the Ecclesiastical Honours or to keep them by the Pope 's Authority About the year 897 Cardinal Baronius affirms That there were the most wicked Varlets brought in to sit in St. Peter 's Chair men of most infamous lives most fearfully debauch'd of a corrupt and filthy behaviour every where and in every respect And when he speaks of the year 900 he intreats the weaker sort of Christians not to be offended from thenceforth if they see sometimes the abomination of desolation in the Temple of God Afterwards he cryes out What horrible Monsters were introduced into this See which the Angels respect O disgrace O grief how many evils have proceeded from them how many grievous tragedies have been acted by them what villanies have been here committed in this glorious See what filthy and base actions have appeared here c. In the year 912 he saith sect 8. this Church was so debauch'd and swimming in vice That the filthiest and the noted whores did govern all at Rome At their pleasure the See was disposed of the Bishops were created and their Favourites and Gallants were chosen in St. Peter 's Chair to be Popes This is what Baronius hath been forced to acknowledge after many other Historians who have recorded the disorders of the Roman Church Let any man read Genebrard Chron. l. 4. ad ann 902. Isidor Peleus l. 3. epist 323. Baptist Mantuan de calam suorum temp l. 3. Alvar. Pelag. de planctu Ecclesiae Or let any man go to Rome to see how such behave themselves who pretend to be established of God to govern His Church on earth and they shall find there more wickedness than ever was in Sodom or in Nineveh Let Rome be therefore ashamed saith a Learned Man who beheld these abominations Claud. Espens in Epist ad Tit. c. 1. Let her never offer to shew a Catalogue of her shameful Crimes I would advise her to not mention nor produce this Calendar of so many Saints whom she hath canonised and in whom she glories so much for all those former Saints discover her shame seeing that the Lives of the present Popes and Governours are quite contrary to theirs therefore she hath no cause to challenge them as her own Those former Worthies are her reproach and condemnation because she doth not imitate their Example Nevertheless the Popish Doctors are so impertinent to boast of these disorders vices and abominations and to gather from thence reasons to prove the truth and holiness of their Religion Who would believe that Baronius after that he had filled his Annals with the filthy debaucheries of many Popes should gather from thence a conclusion to the advantage of his Church Yet this he doth very boldly for when he hath taken notice of the debauch'd and abominable Lives of some Popes declared their vices in a most horrible manner and acknowledged all that hath been written of them by his predecessors to be very true that there have been Popes very ambitious covetous symoniacal impious Murderers lecherous incestuous Atheists and Sodomites which things the Papists cannot deny because their own Historians declare them Nevertheless when Baronius hath said all this of the Popes he concludes as boldly as if he had to prove the Divinity of Jesus
Christ That all these Vices by which St. Peter's Chair hath been dishonoured are proofs of its Holiness Excellency and Infallibility because saith he God hath permitted all these debaucheries and wickednesses in such as were the Governours of His Church without punishing them this discovers that this Estate is more sacred more holy and more regarded of God than that of Kings whom God commonly chastiseth as soon as they are unfaithful and abuse their Authority I must needs confess that I was never more astonished than when I found this Argument made use of by this Learned Man and heard it approved of in the Popish Schools Me thinks I could as easily prove the union of Contraries to be found in the same Subject as to shew the union and correspondency of this Conclusion with the Principles from whence it is drawn In this Church most abominable Popes have been seen Alvar Pelag. a Portugues Bishop tells us lib. 2. art 15. of many Popes who have crept into that See by their factions agreements covenants and large promises and when they have got in all their endeavour was to enrich and raise their Relations to promote their friends to the chief Offices to live themselves in pleasure and to dignifie their Kindred building Towers and Palaces in Babylon I mean Rome so called by St. Jerome These Popes have fomented the Wars and Factions in Italy instead of maintaining the unity of the Church They have wasted the sacred Revenues advanced most unworthy persons and gloried in their chariots elephants horses rich garments numerous train guards and noble attendants They have by the power of the sword often endeavoured to enlarge their own Borders and seize upon the Territories of their neighbouring Princes never minding the salvation of souls but have been addicted to the pleasures of the flesh c. These Men for money have sold as Judas did Christ's Body consecrated the Sacraments and celebrated Orders for silver c. We have seen saith the same Author lib. 2. art 2. fol. 104. men that have made this City like Sodom and Nineveh by letting in and countenancing all manner of vices publick and private as covetousness ambition symony usurpations uncleanness vain glory envy tyranny and other crimes which cannot nor ought not to be named We have seen in God's sanctuary saith the Bishop of Bitonte in the beginning of the Council of Trent orat hab in concil Trid. sess 1. shameless monsters rotten vessels full of infection publick plagues c. so that there remains no appearance nor hopes of good life but an immoderate and extraordinary debauchery a not able impudency more crimes than can be well credited We have seen according to the testimony of some Cardinals chosen by Pope Paul III. for the Reformation of the Church Concil delect Cardin. tom 3. pag. 823. Whores walking about the streets of Rome as honourable Dames carried upon Mules attended and waited upon by Noblemen and Cardinals Chaplains such like scandals have never been seen elsewhere but in this City We have seen saith Guischardin Hist of Italy lib. 1. sect 2. Rodericus Borgia who was afterwards Pope Alexander VI. buy the priviledge of disposing of the Holy Treasury And Platina and Baronius relate that there have been some Popes introduc'd by violence who have clapp'd in prison such as were before in possession of the See of Rome as Christopher did Leo VIII Some have been so base and furious that they have taken up the Bodies of their Predecessors whose Fingers wherewith they had given their blessing to the people they have cut off and cast into the Tybur as Stephen VI. treated Formosus In short we have seen men more covetous ambitious impious lecherous cruel and wicked than in the most licentious Courts than amongst the most barbarous Nations And Genebrard Chron. lib. 4. saith that these disorders have lasted sometimes 150 years together During this time saith Baronius ann 912. sect 8. Jesus Christ slept very soundly in the bottom of the ship and wink'd at all these mischiefs Therefore from hence he gathers this conclusion for this cause the Church of Rome must needs be the truest the holiest and best beloved of God infallible and the only Church that may be named Catholick c. Let any man judge if this be not the most impudent and unjust reasoning in the world The Heathenish Philosophers have taught these Popish Doctors to argue in this manner for their Religion from this ancient Maxim of theirs Ex quolibet fit quodlibet That from any Principle we may draw any Conclusion either good or evil They care not so they can but maintain their Thesis and Opinion but these kind of Reasons discover their weakness For any Understanding may perceive from thence the feebleness of their Doctrine the falshood of their Religion seeing that they are driven to draw such Conclusions as are quite contrary to the nature and truth of the things themselves If any man say that this Reason is not in Baronius word for word as I have expressed it the premises are there and the Conclusion not in two or three words and in such a plain and succinct manner as I have here related it but it is laid down in a more ample and more florid Discourse which tends to no other end but to prove the Truth Holiness and Excellency of of the Popish Religion from the Vices and Debaucheries of its Priests and Popes This cannot but be look'd upon as very ridiculous by any man of Judgement For if their Reasons were good I might as well say that Pharaoh's Kingdom was holy because God suffered it to continue so long without punishing him and did many Miracles for his sake and that the Turkish Religion must needs be the holiest and the best at present because God hath suffered it to abide so many years and increase every day although its Chieftains lead most filthy lives These and such like Considerations which I have had by reading the Books of the Popish Doctors and Historians have lessened that vast esteem that I had formerly for that Church and made me to understand that all its excellent Priviledges which it claims and which they assign to her are but whimseys and Chimaera's begot in their fancy by their fondness for their Religion the Popes ambition and the credulity of silly minds who are ready to believe any thing the greatest absurdity if boldly asserted Let us proceed next to our other Considerations THE SECOND PART THE Second Reason that hath so long time kept my Mind in a ballance was grounded upon the Faith and Articles of that Church I did seriously examine all those things which she engageth us to believe as infallible Truths the Pope's Infallibility the real and corporal presence of Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of the Altar the Sacrifice of the Mass Purgatory the Invocation of Saints and the certain damnation of all those who acknowledge not the Pope for their Superiour c. I thought all this
her shame and disgrace as the Antiquity of a Noble Family is a reproach to a degenerated Son I have found that the Authority which she claims hath no other foundation nor beginning but the pride and tyranny of such Popes as have succeeded Gregory the Great for neither he nor any of his Predecessors have ever thought it lawful for them to challenge or pretend to an universal Dominion or Authority in the Church I have found this Succession which is said to be without interruption to be an abyss where the most learned Historians lose themselves they can find no sure footing so that they themselves are forced to confess that they flote upon the waves of a Sea subject to calms and tempests to ebbing and flowing if I may make use of their own expressions Sometimes they see this Ship of St. Peter without Helm or Pilot overwhelmed with the billows without hope of a recovery or expectation of salvation for such as are there imbarqued I have found that the Holiness wherewith this Church was adorned under the Conduct of its ancient Bishops is at present much degenerated an universal corruption hath spread it self into all the Members of this politick Body so that where grace did formerly abound there at present sin and heresie abound to the shame and disgrace of Christianity This I have found as soon as I could open my eyes to take notice of such matters without prejudice or partiality which we must banish from us if we will give a true judgment This I have learned in the study of Holy Scripture in the reading of the ancient Fathers of the Church and from the Records of Antiquity without the assistance of Protestant Books or any information from Ministers § Antiquity hath always had a Command over the minds and judgments of men We look commonly with a great deal of reverence and respect upon a head which time hath loaden with gray hairs and which discovers the number of its years by the many wrinkles of its face we see many times the ruins of an old Dwelling encompassed about with a few rotten Oaks is more looked upon than the noblest Palaces reared up according to the newest and most regular form of Art a Brass Medal shall be more esteemed than ten others of a more precious Metal if it can but shew forth the Image and Name of some ancient Monarch or of a Conquerour of former Ages This respect which Nature and Custome discover for things of a long continuance is not disagreeable to the directions of Moral and of Christian Policy We are to have more esteem for a State that hath subsisted a thousand years than for another that hath continued but one or two hundred and we are advised to have most regard for that Religion which can produce the ancientest Records and prove its establishment to be the first This hath always been my judgment As therefore I did look upon the Church of Rome as the most ancient as that which had been founded by the Apostle St. Peter as the Romanists would perswade us I have for a long while entertained the greatest esteem for her and judged such as were not agreeable to her Principles to be but hasty productions of Nature in comparison of an ancient Tree or as Bastards in comparison of the Child well born I did wonder how men could harbour any other thoughts My Mind being thus filled with partiality for my ancient Religion I could not imagin how any man of wit and ability without being grievously blinded could embrace any other I did oft-times argue with my self in this manner Is it possible that there should be some men so silly and ridiculous to prefer a Religion which we have seen in its Cradle to another which hath continued sixteen hundred years a Church formed by the wit of Calvin and Beza and some others to that which Christ and His Holy Apostles have established c. Thus it is saith Lactantius in his Book of the Rise of Errour l. 2. c. 7. Thus Antiquity commands the judgments of men Its authority is so great that we look upon it as a crime to inquire into the qualities of that which is ancient and to question its rights credit is given to it at the first sight as to a most known truth In the same manner saith that Author l. 2. c. 8. some imprudently neglect the advice of wisdom approving without any examination the inventions of their forefathers suffering themselves to be lead as beasts whithersoever others please and not whither they should go In this manner they are deceived and are willing to be so by taking for the rule of their faith the belief of their forefathers out of a strong conceit that they cannot be wiser than they were before because they have succeeded them and that it is not probable that they were deceived seeing that they have preceded them and are named their ancestors These words of this wise man and some passages of others made me think that it was not so great a crime as is declared in the Church of Rome to examin the Antiquity of the Religion of our Forefathers and to consider from whence it proceeds whither it tends what it hath been what it should be what are its Priviledges Duties Doctrine Laws Conduct if that which is professed to day be the same as that of yesterday that of this age be like to that of the first times or whether it be not differing or a strange Bastard put into the room of the true Child whether it hath not robb'd the lawful Heiress of her Titles of Honour usurped her Rights by counterfeit Letters seised upon her Demesnes driven her from her Inheritance banished her out of her Dominion by a disguise under the most beautiful habits and whether by this means the Romish Church hath not seated her self in the seat of the lawful to procure unto her self a greater esteem amongst men who have so much respect for things that appear with a grave and ancient countenance I have seriously examined these things I have sought for the Rights and Titles of the Church of Rome amongst its pretended Ancestors Christ St. Peter and St. Paul who have been saith she my Founders and Apostles I have read over the Priviledges that they ascribe to her and the Duties that they require from her that which she hath received from them and that which they command her to have the language which they teach her and the Laws that they have given her and how they behaved themselves that succeeded immediately after her first Founders When I had thus compared the one with the other the present Rome with the ancient the World that is now with that which was the Children with the Father that which is believed and preached at present with that which was believed and preached heretofore that which was practised and that which is now done that which is seen with that which was anciently I have found after a
of an Apostle which he had renounced by his Apostacy from Christ He had denied his Master thrice therefore the Son of God proposes this question Lovest thou me three times All this is noted in the Roman Rubrick Thrice saith St. Cyril lib. 12. chap. 64. He commands him to feed His sheep to renew unto him the dignity and confirm him in the office of an Apostle for fear that the denial of his Lord which he had been guilty of through the weakness of the flesh should seem to have cashier'd him For it is to contradict what Jesus Christ said to all His Apostles when He appointed them to preach the Gospel to Mankind to teach and baptize c. to say that none but St. Peter had this power granted to him But a great many passages of Holy Scripture do expresly contradict this Doctrine You have but one Master but one Father which is in heaven saith Jesus Christ Matth. 23. vers 8. I am the good Shepherd I know my Sheep and lay down my life for them He saith not I am an hired Shepherd but the true Shepherd John 11. As there is but one Flock there can be but one Shepherd now who is this Shepherd Christ or the Pope My Father hath given me all power in heaven and in earth Matth. 28. I have power to pardon sins on earth Mark 2.10 God hath committed all judgment unto me and power to execute judgment John 5. How can these passages agree with the Popes Sovereign Authority Is it not a grievous affront offered to Jesus Christ to set this Divine Saviour aside as Bellarmin doth secluso Christo to help up the Pope to his Throne and invest him into his usurped Sovereignty If we are to acknowledge but one Shepherd but one Master but one Lord but one only Heir of the Fathers Power and Authority shall we not rob Christ of these His Divine Prerogatives if we should offer to bestow them upon the Pope I am not ignorant of all the distinctions made use of in this occasion to justifie the Pope from this Usurpation but they are but philosophical and aiery distinctions of the same nature as are commonly invented by the wit of man to justifie Aristotle from his Belief and Doctrine of the Worlds Eternity Thomas Aquinas and others from their saying that the Virgin Mary was conceived in sin Tertullian Origen St. Bernard and others from teaching that the Souls of Saints are not admitted to the Vision of God before the day of Judgment They are such like distinctions as the Pirrhenians invented to prove that white was black that a hat was the same as a slipper and an Ape like a Lion c. All these arguments and distinctions might be well resented from the mouth of Aristotle of Plato Pythagoras or from a Cartesian Philosopher but not from a Catholick Christian who ought not to mind what he might say but what he should believe in conscience not what he can maintain but what he is bound to embrace When an Article of our Faith is concerned such a one must set aside his disputing humour and the quirks and tricks of Logick taught him in the Schools to make a plain and sincere profession of the Truth For my part I think it is the best to declare ingenuously that there can be no solid reason found out to authorize our ascribing to a man that which belongs to Jesus Christ alone by his own words No man can justly condemn me for having denied to the Pope that which I read in the Gospel to be Christs Prerogative only It is not possible faith an ancient Father to give too much to God especially when man enters into competition with Him But listen I pray to what the Apostles and primitive Fathers say upon this Article There is one sovereign or great Shepherd of our Souls saith St. Peter Ep. 1. chap. 5. with whom when He shall appear we shall appear also with Him in glory such as feed the flock of Christ committed to their charge taking the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy lucre but of a ready mind neither as being lords over Gods heritage but c. Doth St. Peter establish here the Popes Monarchy doth not he rather undermine the foundation of it No man saith St. Paul can lay another foundation but that which is already laid Jesus Christ There is one Lawgiver Who art thou saith St. James that judgest another He hath the Keys of David that opens and none can shut that shuts and no man can open Revel 3. How doth this agree with that which the Papists would perswade us of St. Peter and of the Pope Ought we not to gather from these passages Doctrines contrary to their belief No man can lay another foundation c. They are therefore much deceived that affirm that St. Peter is the foundation of the Christian Church and that the Pope is the head There is but one Lawgiver the Pope therefore hath no authority to command and appoint Laws He is to be looked upon as a Deceiver when he would perswade us that they are all out of the Church that will not acknowledge his power Jesus Christ hath the Key of Heaven He opens and no man can shut c. I must therefore seek an entrance from Him if He opens me the door I shall be admitted maugre the Pope his Priests and Excommunications if He shuts it to me the Pope hath no Absolution nor Indulgence of a sufficient efficacy and power to open it All the primitive Doctors confirm this Doctrine they ascribe to Jesus Christ only that which the Papists ascribe to St. Peter and to the Pope whom they have made his Successor When Jesus Christ saith St. Chrysostome Tom. 3. Ser. de pent hath said upon this Rock I will build my Church He did not say upon Peter for He hath not built His Church upon a man but upon this Faith What means saith St. Austin Tract 10. in Epist Joan. what means He by these words upon this Rock I will build my Church He means upon this Faith because he had said Thou art Christ the Son of the living God St. Ambrose St. Hilary Theophylact and many others affirm the same thing Optat. Millevitanus speaking of Pope Siricius he doth not call him Master or Holy Father c. but Noster Socius our Companion Contra Parmen lib. 2. Art thou bordering upon Achaia saith Tertullian de Praet cap. 36. thou art near to Corinth if thou art joyning to Macedonia thou hast Philippi Thessalonica if thou canst go over into Asia thou shalt find Ephesus and if thou neighbourest upon Italy thou art not far from Rome where we have authority Thus the Primitive Fathers discourse unto us of the Church of Rome They never ascribed unto her any more power or priviledge than to all the other Churches Let any man therefore judge what impudency and presumption the Popes are guilty of in that they claim a
the Wine his Blood c. all this is well and very true we are not ignorant that St. Ambrose St. Chrysostome St. Austin St. Cyril of Jerusalem and many other ancient Doctors name it so But how can the Papists shew by the Holy Scripture that Christ is there in the same manner as they affirm by a real presence which is not only spiritual but material and corporal That he is there in the same manner as he was of old in the Virgins womb in the manger of Bethlehem upon Mount Tabor and upon the Cross and nevertheless that he is in the highest Heavens at the right hand of God the Father Where can they find in all the four Evangelists any Text that mentions this prodigious Miracle of the Transubstantiation or transmutation of the bread into the real Body of Jesus Christ and of the wine into his Blood with a destruction of the first and a creation of the latter by the efficacy of four words uttered by a Priest Where is there a Writer of the Greek or of the ancient Latin Church that speaks of this Mystery in the same manner as Thomas Aquinas who maintained a corporal presence multiplied without division accidents sustained without their proper substance a discontinuance of a being without corruption a production of the same effects by a cause that is not an humane and divine substance under the appearance of a Wafer a God made man where nothing of his manhood is to be seen a body without extension a life without motion an infinite number of equal parts proportionable to their totum in a Mathematical point a relation from the same to the same from the first to a second who are but one a situation without space an abiquity without place a general destruction of all Predicaments by this supposed Mystery or Manhu as he calls it a word which expresseth the admiration of the Israelites when they saw the Manna fall amongst them Did ever St. Ambrose St. Chrysostome or any of the four chief Doctors of the Christian Church speak in this manner they did never imagine that so many absurdities could enter into the minds of men I am perswaded that if this Doctor stiled by them the Angelick Doctor because of the rare Inventions of his Wit had lived in the days of St. Austin and had spoken unto him in these terms that Primitive Father would never have understood him although he understood the Predicaments of Aristotle without Tutor doubtless he had taken him for a man faln from the Clouds dwelling in the Globe of the Moon or for one that maintains that there is there another World Where have they seen in Holy Scripture or amongst the ancient Fathers That the Lay-men must not communicate in both kinds that the Mass is a Sacrifice where the Passion of our Saviour is really renewed that Jesus Christ will be there worshipped in a visible manner by an adoration that relates to the substances as God himself if he were to be seen according to the Command of the Council of Trent I have been several years reading and perusing the Holy Scriptures and its Interpreters but I have found nothing there like to these Doctrines unless it be in the Popish Authors for I have met with an hundred passages contrary to this belief I confess we find in Holy Writ that Christ hath said This is my Body but he hath said also I am the Door I am the Stone I am the Vine and the Shepherd of the Sheep c. If we are to take all these expressions in a literal sonse we must believe that he is a Door a Stone a Vine a Shepherd of Sheep But the Scripture saith that Jesus Christ is ascended up into Heaven and that he sits there at the right hand of God the Father Therefore he is no longer upon Earth for it is not possible that the same Body should be in two distinct places at once If that were likely as the Philosophers tell us the same Body might be in twenty in an hundred in a thousand and in ten thousand places in the same moment From hence we might conclude that it is possible to make one man become a great Army that one man should kill himself a thousand times and yet continue alive that he should be a Saint in one place and a Devil in another damned in one place and saved in another the object of Gods wrath and goodness at the same time these are impossibilities and plain contradictions Christ commands us to do this in Remembrance of Him therefore he is not there really and bodily for we do nothing in remembrance of a man present before us in a corporal manner The Papists instance the Manna which was kept by God's command in the Ark in remembrance of that which God sent down from Heaven which was both the remembrance and the thing remembred the representation and the thing represented This is one of the most plausible Examples of the Papists but it is to little purpose for besides other Reasons that may be alledged against it I think they are mightily mistaken to compare a totum integrans with an individual one and the same may be divided and the parts carried into several distinct places where they may be look'd upon in divers manners but the other is altogether repugnant to division and separation The Manna that was in the Ark I confess was a memorial of that Manna which the Israelites had fed upon in the Wilderness but it was not the same How can they therefore from hence conclude that Christ's body must be in several places under distinct notions Christ informs us That His words are spirit and life and that the flesh profiteth nothing that it is the spirit that quickens It is not possible to speak any thing more contrary than this to the Papists Doctrine for these words assure us that Christ is there really and in truth but spiritually not corporally nor substantially that He is there by his Spirit virtue and efficacy to produce the same effects in us as if he were there in a sensible manner This was taught by the Primitive Fathers and thus the Protestants believe it He commands us also To eat his Flesh and drink his Blood in both kinds St. Paul repeats the words and the Council of Constance which is esteemed by the Papists as highly as a fift Evangil saith that since the Apostles time Communicants did receive in both kinds wherefore did they then take away the Cup why did they establish this Law that forbids Lay-men to drink of the Cup They acknowledge that Jesus Christ hath appointed it to be so that the Apostles did practice and command it and that it had been an universal custom amongst Christians for all men to communicate in both kinds Nevertheless this Council was so insolent to forbid it and command the World to believe that this Prohibition proceeds from the Holy Ghost although it be contrary to Christ's Institution
their own Kitchin If I might argue in the same manner I might say with more reason that Judas Macchabaeus never thought to speak of Purgatory in the foregoing passage but of the Resurrection of the dead I am perswaded that from St. Paul's words Heb. 1.3 He hath by himself purged our Sins we may conclude a Doctrine contrary to this of the Papists For seeing Christ hath purged our Sins what need of any other Purgatory seeing that he hath done this by himself that is by his Blood as St. Paul saith Revelat. 1.6 there is no need of the Fire of Purgatory But pray tell me which of all the first Doctors of the Christian Church mentions Purgatory and how was that Festival established in the Church of Rome to pray to God for the deceased I have many times been ashamed when I have been questioned because I was forced to alledge a Dream as the cause and ground of one of the chief Articles of that Religion The Abbot of one of the Monasteries of St. Benedictus as the Roman Legend declares heard upon the top of a Mountain from whence certain flames did proceed not much unlike to those of Aetna and Vesuvius a confusion of voices occasioned by the strugling of the flames with the air round about as the Philosophers inform us as many times it happens when the Air is shut up in Rocks and concavities this brain-sick Abbot fancied that these voices came from the departed Souls burning in those flames to desire his Prayers Therefore he appointed in his Convent a Festival-day to pray to God for the deliverance of these poor Sufferers The next night it is said that he had a vision of these Souls which to his seeming were mounting apace towards Heaven at the same time that his Monks were praying in their Church for them Afterwards he published his Dream and Vision which was look'd upon as a Divine Revelation when the Pope came to understand it he soon established a Festival like that of the Abbot and Monks in their Convent to be observed all over Christianity The design succeeded very happily the silly women that believed that their husbands Souls were frying in Purgatory gave vast summs of Money and great Revenues that Prayers might be said for the happiness of the deceased About this time some Dreamers had Visions in their sleep the Priests asssured them that their departed Friends did require from them Prayers this Doctrine was proclaimed in the Pulpits and believed every whereas an undoubted Truth it pass'd for an Article of Faith for which the Priests were more willing to dye than for the Faith of one God or for the belief of the Incarnation of the Son of God This was the first beginning of that Festival and of that mode received for currant in the Church of Rome to pray to God for the deceased Souls From hence we may judg of the thing in it self and whether it is not to the abuse of mens credulity to deliver upon these grounds this as an Article of Faith But that we may refute the Papists Errours from their own confessions and belief If we may obtain a full Indulgence to be exempt from the flames of Purgatory if by wearing a little Scapulary a Medal of five Saints or by repeating three times in our sickness Jesu Maria before a Crucifix or by being of the Fraternities of the the little Habit of the Virgin or of the Rosary or of the Dying What reason have they to be so earnest with the Widows that Prayers may be said for their Husbands c. when they have seen them perform all these duties which they impose upon the negligent as weighty Cases of Conscience especially at the time of Confession what need of any Mass to be said for their deliverance from Purgatory They affirm at Rome that one Mass said before a priviledged Altar is able to bring up a Soul from the very bottom of Purgatory although it hath been condemned to remain there one hundred or a thousand years or till the day of Judgment Wherefore then do they oblige Children to buy daily Masses for many years in all the Churches of a City and give away their Revenues for ever for the repose and happiness of their Parents Souls If one Mass be sufficient what need is there of so many thousands wherefore do they condemn them as Atheists that will have but One because they trust upon the Priviledge of such Altars And if the Pope hath the power to let the Souls go out of Purgatory when he pleaseth as the Papists say why does he not free them Is it not for want of Charity to suffer them there in Torments to release but one when he may release a thousand or all Is it not pity to see needy wretches labour and sweat all the Week long poor Widows take the Bread out of their Childrens mouths before they come to be of age and give it to a fat Priest on the Sunday that he might say a Mass and deliver by that means from Purgatory the Soul of a Wife or of an Husband when the Pope may perform this with two words by granting an Indulgence From hence we may plainly discover that the chief design of this was to enrich the Clergy with the spoils of the Orphelin and of the poor Widows and with the Estate of the deceased § The Invocation of Saints is another sensless and groundless Doctrine for there is no Text of Holy Scripture that mentions any thing of it it is there neither commanded nor allowed of nay several passages prohibit this Idolatry There is one God saith St. Paul and one Mediator between God and men the man Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 2.5 there he confirms the Faith of one God and of one Mediator If any should offer to maintain to a Popish Doctor that there are many Gods he would exclaim in a rage upon him as upon a wicked Idolater Fair and soft Mr. Doctor you have little cause to suffer your wrath to kindle against a person as innocent as your self you are no less guilty in regard that you affirm that there be many Mediators although St. Paul protests that there is but one as there is but one God The King of Samaria was punished with death because he had sent to enquire of the god of Ekron as if there had been no God in Israel The Papists deserve as great a punishment because Christ hath been pleased to invite us unto himself and oblige us to seek to him alone Come unto me all ye that travel and are heavy laden and I will refresh you learn of me for I am meek and lowly Matth. 11.28 No replies a Papist I will not go to thee I will not address my self directly to thee for thou art a rigorous God thou wilt not suffer Sinners to be so bold to speak to thee only Saints are allowed to offer up unto thee their Prayers Doth not this language of a Papist contradict Christ's command
Priest in his Mass often perfuming the nose of the Image with Incense they shall see a Deacon appointed to read the Gospel reading that appointed for the Saint's day over the head of such diseased persons as they imagin that the Saint can cure they shall see many others as well Priests as other Clerks singing upon their knees the Litanies of that Saint before the dumb Image and such like abominations they shall see What think ye in conscience that these Primitive Doctors would say if they beheld all this foppery would they not cry out against that which God hath prohibited You are in the Errour would they say to the Papists for ye do what God hath forbidden in express words He forbids you to make Images and your Churches are full of them He forbids you to make any Likeness of any thing that is in Heaven above and nevertheless you make unto your selves the Likeness of those men whom you fancy to be in Heaven He forbids you to Bow down to them and yet you Kneel to them He forbids you to Serve them and behold all your Priests are employed in their Service and Worship one saith Mass another smoaks the Idol's nostrils with Perfumes another reads unto him his Gospel another is busie to light Wax-candles about him all the rest are singing his Praises What think ye Papists will not God that declares himself to be a jealous God be offended to see you pay unto such senfless Idols that Honour and Service which he hath expresly forbidden Will not he punish you according to his threatning to the third and fourth Generation There is no person of the least reason will have this thought for the thing of it self is very plain we need not much Logick to discover this Errour and to condemn it Therefore it is not without good cause that the Church of Rome forbids the reading of the Holy Scripture nourishes her people with a strong and indisputable respect for the Pope and his Oracles although he commands things contrary to God's Word they believe nevertheless that they are obliged to obey and credit whatsoever he saith as an Article of their Faith and to curse as Hereticks all such as follow not their example The Reasons that they pretend to justify their Superstitions are very frivolous and unlikely They commonly tell us That they worship not the Image nor the Saint that is thereby represented but God in that Saint shewed unto us by the Image This Reason is very impertinent seeing that God forbids not only the worshipping of Images in the same manner as we believe the Heathens did but he forbids us to make them to make any likeness to carry it abroad to serve and fall upon our knees before it which the Papists do daily Besides this Reason hath no likelihood for we see by our experience every day that the Saint or rather the Image of the Saint is worshipped and reverenced and not God in the Saint as the Papists would fain perswade us For if they worship only God in the Saint wherefore do they esteem more a graven Image than a painted one We can never see the people going out of their Parishes and Precincts to pay their homages to an Image painted in another place wherefore is this If they only seek in the Image the resemblance of the Saint to call to their minds his virtuous behaviour and actions wherefore do the Papists beyond the Seas trot a-foot an hundred leagues from their own homes to cringe and bow to a monstrous Image which in some places hath not the appearrance of a man who should be represented decently about six foot high for this Image is like a mishapen Dwarf ugly and ill-favoured having the Virgin Mary standing by him in the shape of a Onild about seven or eight years of age whereas these persons leave their own Parish-Churches next to their houses where the Image of the same Saint more decent more like to the Original and more beautiful stands without receiving the like respect Wherefore do we see in the Church of St. Anna of Auray in Britany fifty or sixty thousand Pilgrims in her Festival-day whereas it may be not ten shall be found in other Chappels dedicated to the same Saint at that time Wherefore is there such a vast number of silver and golden arms legs hearts heads and little children hanging there rather than in the other Churches consecrated to the same Saint where it may be we shall find no other Ornaments but those which have been dedicated to and left her by the devout Snails behind them I mean their silver-colour'd slime with which they beautifie her walls and paint the face of this worthy Saint it may be we shall find there nothing but a crazy Shrine broken in many places and one before the great Altar made up with the tayl of some old Gown and so tatter'd that many times it is no easie task to tell of what stuff and colour it was of c. Wherefore do the common people throng to this Church only their hands loaden with Crosses Beads Medals and other baubles to have them touch the Image of St. Ann which to my knowledge is but a block of decayed wood almost rotten and which was found in a puddle lying in the mud over head and ears if they believe not in this wood any divine virtue more than ordinary and more than in other Images of this Saint Wherefore have the Carmelits the Keepers of this Church been so careful to preserve so long every morsel and crum of this rotten wood which they have been forced to cut off to mend the Image and wherefore have they offered it about the Countrey in little bits to the Noble persons and Gentry that have desired it to sanctifie their Closets if they did not believe in this crazy wood some holy quality some wonderful virtue like to that which the Heathens affirmed to be in their Idols Let them not therefore tell us that they seek nothing else in the Image of a Saint but the representation and likeness to call their Virtues to remembrance For they take all men to be fools and Idiots whom they would perswade to admit of this excuse by doing what they do A Heathen might with as much reason tell us that he is a Christian that he believes and that he acknowledgeth and and worshippeth but one only God when I see him upon his knees before his Idols offering to them his perfumes To say the truth I think that there is but little difference between the ancient Heathens and the modern Papists if there be any it is only in their names for at present the Papists speak in the same Idolatrous language as the Heathens did for without exception nor reservation they say now in the Popish Dominions that the Images themselves may be worshipped I am certain that the Heathens never shewed more respect to their Gods than the Papists do at present to their Images This
careful to oblige her domesticks to live well according to the Laws of God I cannot believe that such a person can be damned nor I neither said I to my self I am of your mind nevertheless it was then my interest to dissemble the inward perswasion of my mind Don't let that trouble you I was about to say to such if you have not committed a more grievous sin than that I shall not load you with an heavy penance I am certain that many are of my mind in the Church of Rome It is a cheat and a design to force people to believe it as confidently as the most holy mysteries and a great error to tell them that they cannot have any hopes of salvation if they are not perswaded that the others are assuredly damned although God commands us to the contrary by his Apostle not to judge others Rom. 14.3 Jam. 4.12 and assures us in his Gospel that there needs nothing else to attain unto salvation but the keeping of his Commandments which the Protestants profess to do and perform Therefore I did often argue in this manner It is not possible to be damned without sin for sin is that alone that shuts heaven and draws upon us the wrath of God Now there is no sin but is against his commandments either we must omit what he enjoyns or commit what he forbids Every one therefore that believes what God hath revealed unto us by his Prophets and Apostles and by Christ and shall keep the commandments of God shall infallibly be saved the Scripture declares it He that believeth in me although he were dead yet shall he live saith our Saviour Joh. 11.25 and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never dye He don't tell us we must believe in the Pope to be saved but we must believe in him He repeats these words in several passages of the Gospel Verily verily I say unto you if any man keep my word he shall never see death he speaks the same to that man which enquired of him what he was to do to be saved If thou wilt enter into life keep the commandments Matth. 29.16 when he enquired which Christ answered Thou shalt not kill thou shalt not commit adultery thou shalt not steal c. Now the Protestants profess and observe these two things to believe in God and to obey his commandments This is their Faith and the principles of their Religion to believe all that God hath revealed and to do all that he hath commanded Wherefore should they be damned Because they don't believe in the Pope answers a Papist and because they don't keep the commandments of the Church of Rome But my friend from whence hast thou that these two things are also necessary for thy salvation is it from God or from man can you find in any passage of the Holy Scripture or in the three Creeds of your Religion any thing of this doctrine It is true you shall find I believe in God the Father Almighty Creator of heaven and earth and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord c. You shall not find there that you must believe in the Pope that the Bishop of Rome is the Head of all the Christian Church that he is infallible and that he must be obeyed as God himself You shall not find there any mention made of the Sacrifice of the Mass of Purgatory Indulgences the Worshipping of Images nor of the other Articles of the Popish Religion And the two other Creeds made about two or three hundred years after the first to explain and paraphrase it speak of no such things Listen attentively at your Morning Prayers or when Mass is sung in your Churches publickly you shall hear nothing of the Pope nor of his Church you shall only hear of the Articles which Protestants believe with less additions than you for they credit them only because God hath revealed them they will have no mixture of humane authority with the divine Look over all the commandments of God's Law you shall not find there any thing of praying to Saints of worshipping of Images of abstinence from meats of fasting in Lent of confession of sins to men but there you shall find that we must worship God that we must not make any graven Image c. All these commandments are kept more religiously by the Protestants than by the Papists what reason therefore can we find for their Damnation how come they to be so bold as to thrust this into their Creed as an Article of Faith ambition and antichristian rage against them hath perswaded them to it But I wonder how they can offer to maintain this doctrine with this addition that there is no salvation but by an union with the Pope whom they affirm to be the Head of the Church and by consequence to influence and give life to every one of its Members Suppose the Pope is a wicked man as many such have been according to their own confession if he be covetous profane lechrous an Heretick a Negromancer or a hellish Monster how can any relation and union with such a one do me any good can he make me partaker of that holiness which he himself wants I have good cause to fear that he will infect me with his vices Is it not a grievous mistake and a ridiculous fancy to say that I cannot please God unless I communicate with and be related to his enemy and that I must not expect salvation but by a communion with him that is assuredly damned Nevertheless this is one of the Articles of the Popish Creed and Faith § Their Doctrine concerning Traditions is also contrary to the Holy Word of God It tends to withdraw us from our faith and belief in it If Jesus Christ did now live in the world he might with reason treat the Papists in the same manner as he did the Pharisees In vain do they honour me teaching for doctrines the commandments of men for laying aside the commandment of God ye hold the tradition of men as the washing of pots and cups and many other such like things you do transgress the commandment of God by your tradition Mark 7.7 13. Matth. 15.3 The most part of the Papists Principles and Articles of Faith are nothing but Doctrines and Commandments of men which have altogether changed the appearance of Christ's Church in all those Kingdoms where they have been admitted I might make this appear more plainly if I did but run over all the grievous impertinencies that are by this means received as so many Articles of Faith in the Church of Rome if I did but make an enumeration of all the false Miracles published for true but I should exceed the narrow limits prescribed to my self I shall therefore confine my self to one thing that hath very much scandalised me in this Doctrine it is the reason and expedient that they have to maintain it which tends to the total subversion of Christian Religion and to the destruction
to degrade him and cast him into a Prison where I think he remains yet We may judge by this what to think of all the other Miracles noised abroad in the Church of Rome § The last Article relates to the Indulgences I don't here question whether the Pope hath power to pardon sins when he pleaseth Jesus Christ can do no more the Pharises would never allow him that power I desire therefore that the Divines of the Church of Rome would resolve me these Questions which I have often proposed to my self Wherefore do the Popes proclaim their Universal Jubilees which causes â—o many thousand people to trot to Rome or to some other great City where the place is appointed to gain them For if they answer that it is to obtain the forgiveness of our sins I may reply that there is no need to go so far to obtain this forgiveness there is no Parish but a full Indulgence may be bought every year several times There is scarce a noted Town but it may be purchased every day only one being concerned and initiated into the Fraternity of the little habit of the Virgin many times obtains for us above one hundred and fifty every year I shall not speak of the other means to get these priviledges and advantages Now those Indulgences as the Popish Divines affirm free us as well from the punishment as from the guilt of all manner of sins if therefore this is to be had in every parish-Parish-Church what need is there of a Pilgrimage to Rome if all our sins are pardoned what will the Pope's or his Agents Absolution profit us Is not this to make a sport of mens credulity and to deal with them as with blind men and fools It may be they will answer that at such solemn occasions the Pope absolves from grievous sins reserved to himself which are not forgiven every day but if I have not been guilty of such horrid crimes wherefore am I sollicited and press'd upon to go and purchase a Jubilee wherefore am I obliged otherwise to make a general confession of my sins and if I don't wherefore am I look'd upon as an Atheist From hence we might conclude that their Church is never perfect but in the time of the Jubilee because at that time only it hath a power to forgive all manner of sinners But Bishops and Priests are to be found in every corner that have power granted to absolve these grievous and horrid sins there is scarce a petty Monk but will say he hath that priviledge four or five sins excepted which scarce happen in an hundred years in a Province If none but such as are guilty of these sins did go to Rome the Roads of Italy would not be so populous as they are at this time I might here mention the other Indulgences that may be obtained every day The abuses are so great and ridiculous that if you please to view the instruments of a Popish Zealot you shall see stuff and trinkets enough to set up a Shop You shall see Beads of all sizes shapes and numbers fifteen in a string fifty in another thirty in another ten in another all this is full of mystery you shall see little garments like childrens babies attire some white others red others brown you shall spy Medals of all sorts Cords with knots of several magnitudes and Crosses of all fashions The Papists are become so ridiculous to cause their Zealots to wear two pins a-cross upon their sleeve of breast assuring them that they shall obtain the forgiveness of several days sins as often as they kiss this Cross or pronounce over it two or three hard conjuring words I was never more astonished and scandalized than I was the last year when I was sent about the time of the Festival of the holy Sacrament to preach in the City where I made my abode I found every body stored with these Indulgences wearing pins a-cross they inform'd me that the devout and right Reverend * These Knaves and Cheats of that bloody Society play a thousand such tricks in those Kingdoms and Cities that are at their devotion as in Spain Italy and France Father of the Jesuits called Father Huby had recommended this notable piece of devotion to them By this means he disposed of above ten millions of pins which he had the conscience not to sell he gave them out of an excess of charity but in requital his charity did require for every two pins a summ of money to help his Brethren the Jesuits travelling in China and in far Countries to say Mass for in those places they cannot meet with such fools that will encourage them by contributing to their subsistence If we did but run over all the other Tenents of the Romish Faith we should find as many errours mistakes and abominations as we have done in these But it is not my design to mention all I intended to be more succinct and I look not upon my self as able to make this description so well as others who have more studied the Disputes and Controversies THE THIRD PART THE Third Reason that hath so long kept me in the Romish Religion was grounded upon the practices and Laws of that Church the solemn Festivals the Auricular Confession Abstinence from Meats the Forty days of Lent the Priests Vows of Chastity and the austere Lives of the Monks All these things did present themselves as it were in a body together in my mind and caused me to entertain so high an esteem for Popery where I saw so many holy and religious customs observed that I could not look upon the rest but with disdain hatred and aversion because I could not find the same things But when against my will I was forced to open my eyes and being engaged by my Office to seek into the beginning of all the abominations that I saw acted in the world I found that these things proceeded from the Laws invented to deceive the most subtil wits and intice the devoutest souls into the broad road of hell by the Devil who sometimes appears as an Angel of Light § What a vast number of disorders have been occasioned by the many Festivals of the Church of Rome There were so prodigious a multitude lately observed in France that the King was forced about seven years ago to get a Dispensation for the ease and benefit of his People from the Pope who abolished a great many But this Dispensation hath caused a strange deformity in all the Bishopricks of France Some were willing to obey the Popes order by casting out of the Calendar such Festivals as were abolished other Bishops would not admit it some cut off a few keeping still the rest others were offended that the King did incroach upon their priviledges therefore instead of diminishing the number of their Festivals they established new Feast-days some fast in the Saints Eve and keep not the day others regard neither the fast nor the day others cause them
Brethren but by the principles of conscience and the more rational motives to salvation On the other side those that are acquainted with the Reasons that retain the Romanists in the Religion which they profess will not wonder that there are so few of them made Proselytes They know well enough that the Nobility and the Commonalty the Learned and the Unlearned the Zealots and the Libertines have an hundred invisible chains by which they are held fast Never expect that a rich Abbot of 5000 Livres per ann should quit such a preferment to become a Minister or that a man in favour at Court should incur the displeasure of his Prince by renouncing the Pope Nor can you with any more reason hope for the conversion of the Learned for you must look upon them in their Schools as Disciples to no other but Aristotle for they learn to dispute before they are taught to believe and become Philosophers before they are Christians If at any time they read the Holy Scripture it is not with any intent to satisfie themselves which doctrine is most agreeable to that divine Rule but that they may find therein some Text or other to be wrested in favour of themselves and their perverse opinions I read the Scripture my self for a long time with this very design when I met with any thing in it different from my principles I thought my self obliged to encounter it and applied my self forth with to the finding of Arguments which might serve as an answer to it And this is that which renders the conversion of the Learned so difficult nor is that of the Ignorant any less for these are the people that will have no other Faith but that which they deposite with their Curate and yet so great an abhorrence for all such as follow not their superstitions that come not to Mass carry not their Rosaries about them make no use of the Office of the Virgin nor pray to other Saints that they are always ready to attempt their extirpation and believe that they should therein do God good service I have heretofore my self had such unchristian intentions and desires as these wherewith the Papists are imbued and amongst the rest those of the Order of the Jesuits I became once so tractable a Scholar by the charitable instructions of these Masters that I was one of the first that rais'd the Tumult at Rennes and set fire to a Protestant Church at such time as it was believed that they were immur'd within it and these reverend Fathers were so far from discountenancing the outrage that they declared their sorrow and regret that we had not at least burnt the Minister there alive Judge therefore if there be any hopes of their Conversion who from their Cradle have imbibed such sentiments as these But the Zealots are yet further removed from it being blinded and kept close to their Principles by erroneous Maxims and superstitious Principles in which they are made to believe the truth and purity of the Christian Religion to consist They perswade them that they must at a venture believe what the Church believes that is what their Director tells them that they ought not to raise the least dispute about what is preach'd to them out of the Scripture as being uncapable to comprehend those Mysteries that to doubt in the least of the truth of Miracles Traditions Indulgences the Power of the Pope and his Priests or to entertain the least thought of the possibility of being saved in any other Religion is a most enormous crime So that that very light which by the special favour of God is afforded them for their conversion is look'd upon by them as a machination of the Devil against which they are obliged to engage This renders it in a manner impossible that they should ever be reclaimed As for the Libertines they have no thoughts of the well fare of their future state and therefore all Religions are to them indifferent carrying always about them some pernicious principles wherewith they are provided to combat against whatsoever shall oppose their sensual inclinations and wherewith they extinguish the light of the Spirit which is afforded them for their relief Amongst these I may rank the giddy and inconstant that out of a principle of Libertinism abandon the Romish Religion and a while after upon the like motives return to their former estate a mercenary sort of people that are ready to enroll themselves in the service of any that will hire them at a dearer rate Such men as these having inconsiderately shut themselves up in a Cloister where they are obliged to lead a regular life grow quickly weary of their first design the Cowl is burdensom to them and the Religious Yoke becomes insupportable hereupon they fancy that if they sally out and go over to the Protestant Party they shall be received after the same manner that they are wont to entertain the revolting Ministers in France who are usually complemented like Princes With such imaginations as these and without any other motive or being able to render any solid reason of their actions one of them presents himself to a Consistory which they presume to be with a good intention and being unwilling to be so injurious as to send him back they receive him in hope that he is sincere in his profession and will prove a good man nor is the assistance of some charitable persons wanting But the man finding himself free from all subjection begins to give the reins to his inordinate appetite frequents Brothel-houses and gives himself over to a scandalous and sensual life hereupon they summon him to the Consistory that he may have the punishment inflicted on him which he deserves the charity lately extended to him is with-held and the Papists again by their sollicitations and promises of a Dispensation from Rome for the future and an Act of Oblivion for what is past they assure him of all possible incouragement and thereby prevail with him to return to his former state without any conviction wrought upon his conscience or any other true motives of his change than the inconstancy of his mind and his propensity to his lusts and pleasures We need not marvel then that such as these should forsake the communion of the true Church since we seem hereby the rather to be confirmed that that Church is the true Church from which they revolt according to their own argument which infers the holiness and good discipline of a Religious Order from the number of such as do renounce it They went out from us saith St. John Ep. 1. c. 2.19 but they were not of us for if they had been of us they would have remained with us but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us By their works we may judge of the sincerity of their conscience and the truth of their faith as the goodness of the tree is judged by its fruit § There are several