the true Religion chap. 55. if they have lived Godâ—ily they have no such property as to seek such honors but they will worship him by whose illumination their deserts are Praised by us that we be their Fellow-servants therefore they are to be honored for imitations sake not for Religions sake but if they have lived all wheresoever they are they are not so to be honored Augustine also in his first Tomb in his Book of the Manners of the Catholick Church chap. 30. Cyril of Alexandria in his second Book of Treasure in his first chapter against Eunomius Ambros in his first Book of Faith to Gratianus Augustus chap. 7. and many others do say the like Fifthly Against the Adoration of Images IT pleaseth The Councel of Eliber celebrated in the time of Constantine the great Can. 36. Tertullian in his Book of the Crown of a Warrier c. 10. that Pictures ought not to be in the Church nor that any thing should be Painted upon the Walls least the same should be Worshipped and Adored John the less hath said keep you from Idols not now from Idolatry as from a duty but from Idols that is from the very Effigies of them for it is an unworthy thing that there should be an Image of the Living God an Image of an Idol and dead thing there may be It is not to be doubted Lactantius in his second Book of Divine Institutions c. 19. but there is no Religion where there is an Image for if Religion be of Divine things there is nothing Divine unless in Celestial things Images therefore want Religion because that nothing Celestial can be in that thing which is made of the Earth which truly may appear to a Wise-man by the very name for whatsoever is feigned must needs be false neither may that ever receive the name of a true thing which feigneth the truth like a Drone and for imitation but if there be any imitation it is not chiefly a serious thing but is as it were a Play and a Jest Religion is not in Images but in Images is the least of Religion The true one therefore is to be preferred before the false and we must tread under foot Earthly things that we may follow Heavenly Take heed to your selves that you observe the Traditions which you have received Epiphanius Cyprius as he is Cited by Gregory Neocaesariensi in the sixt action of the second Nicen Councel that you do not decline either to the right hand or to the left for the doing of which bear away these things Be you mindful my beloved Children that you do not carry Images into the Church nor set them in the Burial places of the Saints but perpetually carry about you God in your Hearts Moreover do not suffer them in your common house for it is not a Christian right to he held suspended by the Eyes but by the Cogitation of the Mind God forbiddeth an Idol as well to be made as to be worshipped and by how much it goeth before that it may be that which may be worshipped Tertullian in his Book of Idolatry ch 4. by so much it is before that it may not be if it be not lawful to be worshipped For this cause the Divine Law Proclaimeth the very matter to wit of Idolatry to be rooted out you shall not make saith the same an Idol adjoyning neither the likeness of them which are in Heaven and which are in Earth and which are in the Sea and strictly forbiddeth the Servants of God the Arts of this sort throughout the whole world Enoch also had gone before foretelling this that all the Elements and every Sense of the World which are contained in Heaven which are contained in the Sea and which are contained in the Earth should be turned Devils unto Idolatry and that the Spirits of Desert Angels should be Consecrated for God against the Lord. Every thing therefore that a humane worshippeth besides him who is the Maker and Creator of all things is an error their Images are Idols and the Consecration of Images is Idolatry whatsoever a worshipper of Images committeth without doubt it shall be deputed to whatsoever Artificer and of whatsoever Idol Lastly the said Enoch precondemneth in Commination both the makers and worshippers of an Idol I swear to you Sinners Tertullian again in the same place that in the day of the Blood of Perdition there is prepared a Penance for you you which serve stones and which make Golden Silver Wooden and Stony Images and Fictils and serve Phantasmes and Devils and infamous Spirits and every error not according to knowledge shall find no help from them Isaiah truly saith be you witnesses if there be a God besides me And there were not then which do counterfeit and carve out every vain thing which they make at their pleasure which cannot profit them And afterward that whole saying detesteth as well against the makers as the worshippers whose clause it is Know you that the heart of them is Ashes and they erre and not one of them can deliver his own Soul When David also saith the like and such are they become which make them but what do I a Man of a mean Memory shew beyond what I can reckon up or what I can recollect of the Scriptures as though a word of the Holy Ghost may not be sufficient or beyond what may be deliberated whether the Lord will Curse and Condemn them in the first place the makers of them the Worshippers of whom he Curseth and Condemneth Justin Martyr in his Dialogue with Tryphon a Jew pag. 251. Clement of Alexandria in his Oration adhortory to the Gentils pag. 25. of the Latin florentine Edition Tertullian in his Scorpiaco against the Gnosticks chap. 2. And many others also say the like 6ly Against the Adoration of Holy Reliques Hierome in the Epistle to Riparius against Vigilantius in his second Tomb folio 119. and following Vigilantius called by Hierome a Holy Priest in his 1st Tomb in the Epistle to Paulinus follo 106. which also Caesar Baronius confesseth Aâ— Eccl. Tomb 5. in the year of our Lord 406. thus writeth as it is quoted by Hierome himself in the second Tomb in his Epistle against vigilantius fol. 123. I do not say that we may not Worship and Adore the Reliques of Martyrs but also that we may not Worship and Adore the Sun and Moon not Angels not Archangels not Cherubim not Seraphim nor any Name which is Named both in this World and the World to come for we may not serve Creatures rather than the Creator which is Blessed in the World What need is there that thou with so much honor not only dost Honor but also Adore that which is I know not what which bearing about in a little Vessel thou Worshippest * in the same Book also What Dust inclosed in Linnen Adoring doest thou Kiss †And afterwards We seem near to the custome of the Gentils
satisfaction Augustine in his ninth tome in his second Treatise upon the first Epistle of John Sins are forgiven you by his name and not by the name of any Man or of any thing of Man Cyprian in effect also saith the same in his Sermon of washing the Feet in the last Section Thirteenthly Against Pilgrimages NOt that we have been at Jerusalem Hierome in his Epistle to Paulinus about the Institution of a Monk tom 1. fol. 103. but that we have lived well at Jerusalem is to be praised that City is to be wished for not which hath killed the Prophets and poured forth the Blood of Christ but which the violence of a River maketh glad which being Scituated upon a Mountain cannot be hid which an Apostle proclaimeth to be the Mother of the Saints and in which there is gladness that it self hath a freedom with the Saints I do not in saying this reprove my self of inconstancy or condemn what I do or that I may seem to have left both mine and my Country after the Example of Abraham in vain but I dare not confine the Omnipotency of God in a strait corner and keep it in a little place of the Earth which containeth not Heaven for each one of the Believers are not profited by the diversities of places but by the merit of Faith And the true Adorers neither at Jerusalem nor on Mount Gazarim do Adore the Father for God is a Spirit and his Adorers ought to Adore him in Spirit and in Truth the Spirit Breatheth where it listeth The Earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof After that the whole World was watered with Celestial dew and made dry by the fall of the Jew many coming both from the East and the West sate down in the Bosome of Abraham It is to be noted that God ceased in Judea and his great Name in Israel but into every Nation went forth the sound of the Apostles and their words unto the Ends of the Earth Our Saviour speaking to his Disciples when he was in the Temple Said arise let us go hence and to the Jews your house shall be left to you desolate if Heaven and Earth shall pass away verily all things which are Earthly shall pass away Therefore both the Cross and the place of Resurrection are profitable to those which bear their Cross and rise dayly with Christ and shew themselves worthy for such a Habitation But they which say the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord let them hear from the Apostle you are the Temple of the Lord and the Holy Ghost inhabiteth in you Both at Jerusalem and at Britain the Celestial Court is equally open for the Kingdom of God is within you Examine Anthony and all the Monks of Egypt of Mesopotamia of Pontus of Capadocia and of Armenia and they have not seen Jerusalem and it is manifest to them that without this City is the Gate of Paradise Blessed Hilarion when Palestina was and he lived in Palestina one only day saw Jerusalem that he might seem neither to contemn the Holy Place for its neerness nor again inclose the Lord in a Place Towards what place Hierome in the same place a little afterward canst thou say that these things were reiterated from a long beginning surely thou dost not think that any thing of thy Faith is wanting because thou hast not seen Jerusalem neither do we therefore esteem our selves the better that enjoy the Habitation of this place but whether here or elsewhere thou hast an equal reward by our Lord for thy works Claudius Taurinensis a Bishop of the Church against Theodemirus Abbot concerning Pilgrimage for Religion sake to the City of Rome in his fifth Tomb of Orthodox writing referred to Jonah Bishop of Aurelianensis in the third Book of the Worship of Images pag. 1570. Saith plainly also the like 14ly Against Sacrifice HE did not say Chrysostom upon the first ch of John Homil. 17. of the words of John the Baptist behold the Lamb of God he which taketh away the Sins of the World which shall take away or hath took away but which taketh away the Sins of the World that he may be understood dayly to take away the same for not only when he Suffered did he take away our Sins but from that time hitherto he taketh them away he is not always Crucified for he offered for our Sins one Sacrifice but always by that one he Purgeth us He hath indeed by his Death that one true Sacrifice offered for us Augustine in his third Tomb and fourth Book of the trinity ch 13. purged abolished and extinguished whatsoever there was of faults wherewith Principalities and Powers did detain us by the Law for to pay Punishments and by his Resurrection unto a new life hath called us that are predestinated hath justisied us that are called and hath glorified us that are justified Augustine also in his Enchiridium to Laurentius chap. 62. Plainly saith the like 15ly Against St. Peter's being the Head of the Apostles and the Pope's being the Head of the Church THis truly which was Peter Cyprian the Martyr in his Book of the Unity of the Church S. 3. and the other Apostles were endowed with an Equal consort both of Honor and Power Christ after his Resurrection gave to all his Apostles an equal Power In the same a â—ittle before Whosoever hath desired Primacy on Earth Chrysostome in his forty third Homily of imperfect works upon the twenty third Chapter of Matthew shall find confusion in Heaven neither shall he be accounted amongst the Servants of Christ that treats of Primacy Wheresoever a Bishop shall be whether at Rome or at Eugubium or at Constantinople or at Regium or at Alexandria or at Tanis Hierome in his Epistle to Evagrins he is both of the same merit and of the same Priesthood The power of Riches and humility of Poverty or loftiness or inferiority maketh not a Bishop but they are all the Successors of the Apostles None of the Patriarchs ever used universal in his denomination Pelagius the second Bishop of Rome in his Epistle to all the Bishops unlawfully called together by John of Constantinople for if any one Patriarch be said to be universal the name of the rest of the Patriarchs is diminished But bet his far from us let the faithful of whatsoever kind be far from the mind that any one should snatch or covet to himself this from whence it may seem that the honor of their Brothers by how little or small a part soever is diminished Wherefore your charity no Man ever nameth in his Epistles universal lest he diminish to himself a debt seeing he bestoweth upon another a honor being not due Let that name of Blasphemy be far from the hearts of Christians Gregory the Great in his fourth Book of Epistles from the Register Epist 32. which is to Mauricius Augustus in which the
THE REASONS OF THE CONVERSION OF Mr. John Sidway FROM The Romish to the Protestant Religion Together with what usage he hath since received in the Church of England As also a brief Account of his Travails Humbly Communicated to the High Court of PARLIAMENT LONDON Printed for Nevil Simmons at the Three Golden Cocks at the West end of St. Pauls and Langley Curtis on Ludgate Hill 1681. TO THE HIGH COURT OF PARLIAMENT JOHN SIDWAY wisheth Grace Mercy and Peace through Jesus Christ GReat and manifold were the Blessings most Noble and Magnificent Assembly which Almighty God the Father of all Mercies bestowed upon the People of England when your most Wise and Honorable Ancestors by a most impartial and happy Reformation expelled from the Church those Thick and Palpable Clouds of darkness that for many years had overshadowed this Land And as it yet giveth unto all that are well affected an exceeding great cause of comfort so the fruit thereof doth extend it self not only to the time spent in this Transitory World but to our safe conduct to that Eternal Happiness which is above in Heaven The occasions most August Assembly of my relinquishing the Romish way of Worship were the many exceeding gross Errors and most wicked Practices which I found I must necessarily be daily guilty of continuing therein And the Motives that enduced me to imbrace the Reformed Religion and be Reconciled to Protestancy were the most Sacred Scriptures and Antient Fathers unto whom I found the same agreeable both which having here exhibited I humbly Present to your High Court Humbly craving since things of this Nature have ever been Subject to the censures of ill meaning and discontented persons the same may receive Approbation and Patronage from so Learned and Judicious an Assembly as your High Court is That so although I am exposed hereby on the one side to the undeserved Calumniations of the Popish party who strive to keep the World in ignorance and darkness and on the other side to the Foolish Malignity of self-conceited Brethren who like of nothing but what is done by themselves or at leastwise framed after their own fancy I may rest secure supported within by the Truth and Innocency of a good Conscience having walked in the ways of Simplicity and Integrity as before the Lord and sustained without by the Powerful Protection of your most August Assemblies Grace and Favour which no doubt will ever give Countenance to honest and Christian endeavours against bitter Censures and Uncharitable Imputations The Lord of Heaven and Earth grant to this our Nation that by your wise endeavours Popery may be utterly Extirpated and Protestancy firmly established to all generations So that Peace and Happiness Truth and Justice Religion and Piety may ever flourish THE Printers Epistle TO THE READER Courteous Reader SInce he that is Cured of a most dangerous Distemper may do very good service in Relating to others the means of his Recovery The Author hath here exhibited to thy most Candid View and Serious Consideration what as may hereby easily be gathered with very great Cost hard and diligent Study long and tedious Travel and most eminent Danger he was several years in coming to the knowledge of The Book thou wilt find although but little is of very great and universal use For the Grace of God cooperating therewith art thou a Heathen Jew Turk or Infidel it will bring thee to the Faith of Christ art thou a Christian it will greatly confirme thee in thy Sacred Faith and exceedingly incourage thee in thy Religious Practice More particularly art thou a Papist it will cause thee to Relinquish thy Errors Idolatries Blasphemies and Superstitions and to adhere to the most Catholick Faith and most pure Practice of the Antient times Art thou a Protestant it will greatly fortifie and strengthen thee in thy most Renowned Primitive Christian Faith and Orthodox Profession In fine whatsoever thou art it will bring thee to imbrace the Commands of God and to avoid the Darts of the Devil if thou reapest the benefit thereby intended give God the Glory Vale. WHereas there is joy in the Presence of the Angels over a Sinner Converted and that we are Commanded to let our Light so shine before Men as that they may see our good Works and Glorify our father which is in Heaven I have here shewed to the World the Reasons of my Conversion from the Romish to the English Church I was Born at Dublin in Ireland but of an English Extract was Educated in a Jesuits Colledge at Bologna in Italy where I remained until I had not only Commenced Master of Arts but was by standing Batchelor of Divinity At my first coming to Bologna several Protestants often told me that the Roman Religion was not good and greatly indeavored to perswade me from it but perceiving their design herein was to bring me to their own I desired to know of them whether the Protestant Religion were Catholick had Antiquity Succession of Chairs Perpetual continuance wrought Miracles and had the greatest number of Christians which I looked upon being so instructed to be the Marks of the true Church but they being not able to shew it to be thus in the Romish sense I was so obstinate against Protestancy that I gave them such a repulse they never after troubled me The Jesuits in the next place after I had been a while there set upon me to enter into their order and did so assault me with such allurements and perswasions in order thereunto that I was so streightned to overcome their Temptations that many a time I have spent all the time allotted for recreation in Prayer to Almighty God that of his great mercy he would give me his assistance to defend me from them And as often as they tempted me thereunto I told them what I might have hereafter I knew not but as yet I had no inclination to enter into a Religious order but if I had ever such an inclination I would sooner enter into their order then any other And with this they seemed to be well satisfyed nevertheless it was but a meer put off for I did not at all approve their ways When I came to study Divinity reading the Fathers I often in the same observed divers passages which in my opinion made as exceedingly against both the Faith and Practice of the Church of Rome as might be which whether they do or no let the World Judge I have quoted them exactly as they are in their works making First against Purgatory Limbus Infantium THe just are called to refreshment Cyprian in his Book of Mortality Sect. 11 and the unjust are snatched away to Punishment there is presently given rewards to the Faithful and Punishments to the Wicked The Faith of the Catholicks by Divine Authority believeth the first place to be the Kingdom of Heaven Augustine in his 7th Tomb and 5th Book Hipognosticôn against the Pelagians p. 957. from whence as I
verily believing there was a God for indeed I could believe no other for Heaven and Earth and all things therein shewed me as much I considered that though I could not believe them in all things all in regard of their Disagreement yet in those things in which they all agreed I had reason to do no other but to believe them all I sought therefore next to see in what they agreed and finding they all agreed in these things and no other viz. That there was a God to be adored here for which there was a Heaven for the Righteous and a Hell for the Wicked the one as a Reward and the other as a Punishment for the fame hereafter I concluded I had reason to believe them in these things and no other So that now I doubted even of Christianity it self Next therefore being at Sery there being a whole Parish of Christians in which there was three Franciscans all Priests one of which seemed very Learned and Ingenious I had a great desire to have some Private Discourse with him And the better to have his Advice and safer to Relate my Doubts I went to him to Confession in which I declared that by reason of my Travels I had been brought even to doubt of the Truth both of Christ and Christianity The Franciscan Father was greatly surprised to hear me relate this and the better to regain me to the Faith asked me Whether I believed there was a God I told him that that I did not only believe but was very sensible of He then asked me Whether I believed the Holy Prophets the Writers of the Old Testament were of God To this I answered I greatly questioned whether they were or no. He then shewed me divers Reasons to prove they were of God and that therefore whatsoever was contained in their Prophesies must needs be true Which Reasons especially those which were most convincing to me I have here inserted to wit First That amongst their Prophesies many of which foretelling things many years and sometimes Ages before they were to happen being such as in all probability were never likely to come to pass nor could be conjectured by any Natural Causes as were generally the things foretold by the Heathens and their Oracles were notwithstanding afterward most certainly fulfilled As first The Prophesie and Prediction made to Abraham of his Issue when he had neither any nor was ever like to have Gen. 12.2 Gen. 13.16 Gen. 15.5 Gen. 17.2 Gen 18.11 12. Of his inheriting the Land of Canaan and above all of his Posterities descent into Egypt of their time of Servitude and manner of deliverance thence the same being foretold more than four hundred years before it was fulfilled Gen. 15.13 14. And when no likely hood thereof did at all appear and yet how exactly the same was fulfilled and at the very time appointed by the Prophesie is declared in Exod. 12.31 32. 2dly Jacobs Prophesie of the Kingly Government of Judah Gen. 42.8 9 10. where there is mention made of his Brethrens bowing down to him and withal of his Scepter the Circumstances whereof if we seriously consider are exceedingly to be wondred at For first When these words were uttered by Jacob there was no probability at all of any Scepter to be among the Jews or Israelites for they were poor and few in number and never like to be a distinct Nation of themselves or to depart forth of Egypt again And 2dly If any such thing should come to pass as that they might be a People and have a Scepter of Government of their own yet was it not that Judah and his Posterity should possess the same for that he had three elder Brothers to wit Reuben Simeon and Levi who in all likely hood were to have it before him And 3dly When Moses recorded and put in writing this Prophesie which was divers hundred years after Jacob had spoken it it was much less likely that ever it should be true in regard that Moses then present in Government was of the Tribe of Levi and Joshua designed by God for his Successour was of the Tribe of Ephraim and not of Judah which makes greatly for the certainty of this Record For that it is most apparent that Moses would never have put such a Prophesie in writing to the disgrace of his own Tribe and to the prejudice and offence of Reuben Simeon Ephraim and other Tribes neither would they have suffered such a Derogation but that it was evident to them by Tradition that their Grand-Father Jacob had spoken it although then there was no great likely hood that ever after it should come to be fulfilled Nevertheless this was for the time of Moses whereas if we consider that from Moses to Samuel that was the last of all the Judges there passed four hundred years more and yet was there no appearance of the fulfilling of this Prophesie in Israel for that the Tribe of Judah was not established in that Government it is the more to be wondred at At length they came to have Kings to Rule and then was there chosen Saul to the Place who was not of the Tribe of Judah but of Benjamin and he was endued with divers Children to succeed him who therefore would have then thought that this Prophesie could have ever been fulfilled Nevertheless when no man thought thereof there was a poor Shepherd chosen out of the Tribe of Judah called David to be King 1 Sam. 16.13 which Government of Judah held out more than 1200 years together even until the time of Herod Euseb in Chron. 3dly The Prophesie of the same Jacob for the greatness of Ephraim above Manasses Gen. 48.19 20. which afterward was fulfilled for that Ephraim was always the greater and stronger Tribe Josh 16. Josh 17. and became afterward the Head of the Kingdom of Israel or of the Ten Tribes Isai 7.2 9. whereof there was no suspition or likely hood when Jacob spake this or when Moses recorded it 4thly The Prophesie of Moses of the Jews forsaking of God and of the many and great evils they should incur thereby Deut. 31.16 17 18. which afterward came to pass 5thly The Prophesie of the Birth and Acts of Josiah more than 300 years before he was born 1 King 13.2 which afterward was exactly fulfilled 2 King 23.15 6thly The Prophesie of Isaiah of the Destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians and of the grievous Captivity the Jews should be in under them 2 King 20.17 Esai 5.26 As also the Destruction of Babylon by Cyrus King of Persia Esai 13.1 6. which Prophesie was almost 200 years before the said Cyrus was born in which he declared his Name and how although a Heathen he should rebuild the City and Temple of Jerusalem Isai 44.28 Isai 45.1 which others of his own Religion had destroyed all which accordingly came to pass and he nominateth two Witnesses thereof Esai 8.2 Urius and Zacharias which were not born of many years after the one being a
to the Passion of Christ held up to be seen as the Jews were to pass by which was no sooner thus held for view but all the Christians there present fell down upon their Knees bowing their Faces to the Earth to adore it and the Jews standing at a distance and looking thereupon laughed and grinned one to another thereat and I for my own part to avoid its adoration took an Alley where whilst I loytered to see when it might be over three of the said Jews taking notice thereof came to me into the Alley and desired to know of me whether or not I was well satisfied in my Religion I told them to speak the truth I was not very well satisfied with what I saw there and that made me to avoid it and take the Ally they answered so they perceived and asked me if I had a mind to speak with one of their Rabbies if I had they said they would immediately help me to the speech of one I gave them thanks and desired they would upon this they consulted together some small time to know to whom they had best to bring me which having concluded upon they took me to Rabbi Salvator in via flumina a man exceeding well Learned and of a very courteous obliging Behaviour who having first privately acquainted him with the occasion of their bringing me to him leaving me with him immediately departed The Rabbie inviting me to come in and caused me to sit down after some small discourse with me caused me to go with him into his Study where desiring to know of me what it was in which I was disatisfied I told him I was disatisfied in divers things but the chiefest was the Adoration of Images And since the Adoration or not Adoration of Them depended altogether upon the Sence of the Command of God given to the Israelites upon Mount Sinai which saith Thou shalt not make to thy self any Graven Image nor the likeness of any thing in Heaven above or in the Earth beneath Thou shalt not bow down to them nor worship them c. I desired to know in what Sence both he and other Jews understood the same He told me that in this Commandment not only the Adoration of Images but the very making of them with an intent to adore them was Idolatry and altogether forbidden As for Latria and Dulia he said they were humane distinctions and had no Ground from Almighty God I then argued that this Cmomandment might forbid Idols but not Images and if so the Adoration of Images was no doubt allowable He then asked me what both I and other amongst us looked upon to be the difference betwixt an Idol and an Image I answered an Idol was a Thing adored as a God whereas an Image was not a Thing adored as a God but as a thing Representing God to this he said that an Idol and an Image let the Image represent what it would being adored were the same thing The which I not granting he desired to know of me what the Golden Calf was an Idol or an Image That the Israelites for Adoration caused Aaron to make in their Return from Egypt I answered an Idol He told me that unless I would grant that an Idol and an Image were the same thing that was mine and others mistake for what they adored then they adored only as a Representative I desired to know where he found that he told me in one of the Psal shewed me the words where 't is said speaking of the same People That they turned their Glory to wit the True God into the likeness of a Calf that eateth Hay Psal 106.20 So that said he we did not Adore this Calf for a God but for a Similitude Representing God and yet it was punished by Almighty God for Idolatry Exod. 32. This did convince me very much nevertheless I desired for my further satisfaction that he would yet be pleased to give me if he could some other Testimony he then shewed me how the Samaritans when they revolted from the other Jews set up Two Calves the one at Dan and the other at Bethel and how notwithstanding they always afterwards adored them yet they adored them not as Gods but as Things Representing God This he proved out of Ezra where 't is said that when the Jews were permitted by King Cyrus to Rebuild their Temple at Jerusalem the Samaritans came and would have joyned with them in the Rebuilding thereof and would for the future have Adored at Jerusalem but the Jews not permitting them they would know the reason why say they may we not build with you we adore the same God that you do Ezra 4.2 which said he could not have been said had they Adored these Calves for Gods and therefore they adored them not as Gods but as Things only representing God He Next made me sensible of the great Plagues and Punishments that Almighty God had often inflicted for this kind of Worship all which could not but manifest his exceeding great dislike thereof This Discourse did so fully convince me and brought me into such a great dislike of the Adoration of Images that I perfectly loathed all such Adoration And seeing thereby that the Roman Church was fallible and had erred in one thing I believed it might have erred in more And now it growing towards Evening and the Rabbie being sent for to reconcile some Neighbours that were fall'n out the Rabbies being as far as I could understand Judges in all such Cases rendring him thanks for his good Instructions I for that time took my Leave of him who told me that at any other time did I please to come to him he would very willingly and gladly satisfie me in any other thing Upon this I came to him several times afterwards but all he convinced me of besides was 1st That there was no Limbus Infantium 2dly That Saints Angels and Holy Reliques were neither to be adored nor prayed to And 3dly that a very great part of the Roman Religion was perfect Magick all which with many other things I design e're long to manifest to the world After this being not very well in health and feigning my self much worse than I was I desired leave of Cardinal Howard for change of Air to go into the Countrey either to or some where near Bologna my design being to go to the Protestants and having obtained the same of him I was no sooner taking order for my Journey thinking therein to steer my Course towards some Protestant Country but fearing the Inquisition being Pursued by certain Fryars who reported they had often seen me in Company of the Jews I immediately to prevent it made an Escape by Sea to Naples thinking from thence to get by Sea into France Being at Naples seriously reflecting upon the many and great Friends I had then in Italy and the great Probability I was in of coming there to very great Preferment whereas if I went I knew not whither viz.