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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41608	A papist mis-represented and represented, or, A two-fold character of popery the one containing a sum of the superstitions, idolatries, cruelties, treacheries, and wicked principles of that popery which hath disturb'd this nation above an hundred and fifty years fill'd it with fears and jealousies and deserves the hatred of all good Christians : the other laying open that popery which the papists own and profess : with the chief articles of their faith, and some of the principal grounds and reasons, which hold them in that religion / by J.L. ; to which is annexed, Roman-Catholick principles, in reference to God and the King.	Gother, John, d. 1704.; Corker, James Maurus, 1636-1715. Roman-Catholick principles.	1685 (1685)	Wing G1334; ESTC R8084	89,548	131

Mark 6. 13. And tho' there be no express Command in Scripture for Blessing Water Bread c. yet there is this assurance that every Creature is sanctified by the Word of God and Prayer 1 Tim. 4. 5. and frequent Promises That God would hear the Prayers of the Fai●hful Why therefore should he doubt but that these Creatures on which the Blessing of God is solemnly implor'd by the Word of God and the Prayers of the Priest and People for their sanctification are really sanctified according to the assurance of the Apostle and the Promises of God St. Cyril of Jerusalem who liv'd in the Third Century made no question but that as those things which are offer'd to Idols tho' pure in their own nature are made impure by the Invocation of Devils So on the contrary simple Water is made Holy and gets a Sanctity by virtue receiv'd from the Invocation of the Holy Ghost Christ our Lord and his eternal Father Cyr. Catech. 3. St. Augustine was of the same Judgment touching the Benediction of Bread affirming that the Bread which the Catechumens did take tho' it was not Christ's Body yet it was holy yes and more holy than the Meat wherewith we are nourish'd Aug. Tom. 7. l. 2. de Pecc Mer. Remis c. 26. The like is to be seen in the Epistle of St. Alexander who govern'd the Church but fifty years after St. Peter where he declares the Custom even at that time of blessing Water and confirms the Practice of it by his Command And that Water thus bless'd was capable by virtue receiv'd from Heaven of working effects above its own Nature was the Sentiment of Christians in the Primitive times Epiphanius makes early mention Tom. 2. l. 1. cont haer 30. where he relates a passage at length how that Water being blessed in the Name of Jesus and sprinkled upon Fire which by witchcraft was made unactive and hindred from burning immediately the Enchantment ceas'd and the Fire burn'd As also that a Possess'd person being besprinkled with bless'd Water the Party was immediately cured Theodoret has the like Narration of the Devil hindring fire from burning and how that he was chaced away and the Charm dissolv'd by blessed Water being thrown on it lib. 5. Eccleshist c. 21. And does not St. Hierom in vit Hilarion p. 323. Paris print make this relation how that Italicus took Water from blessed Hilarion and cast it on his bewitched Horses on his Chariot and the Barriers from whence he us'd to run and that the Charm or Witchery did cease upon the sprinkling this Water so that all cryed out Marnas victis est a Christo Christ hath conquered Marnas the Idol And now there 's no jeering and Ridiculing these things will ever make them look like idle Superstitions to one that considers seriously how much they are grounded upon Reason the Word of God Antiquity and the Authority and Practice of the Catholick Church which though it approves the use of them yet it teaches plainly that there is no Confidence to be put in any thing but only in Jesus Christ and what power these things have they have not of themselves but only from Heaven and by the invocation of the Name of Jesus who as by his heavenly Blessing he enables us to do things above the power of Nature so also by the Prayers of his Church he blesses these things in order to the working effects above their own natural qualities that by them his Fatherly Benefits may be applied to us and that so the Faithful may more particularly honour and bless him in all his Creatures XXIV Of Breeding up People in Ignorance HE is train'd up in Ignorance and 't is the chief means made use of by his Church for preserving Men in that Communion to hide from them her manifold Mysteries of Iniquity her sottish Superstitions her un-christian Doctrines by performing all in un-known Tongues and not permitting the poor missed People to look into or understand any thing that they Believe or Profess And by this blindness they are perswaded to embrace such infinite numbers of gross Errors that were but the vail taken from their eyes but for one half hour and they but permitted to have one fair prospect of their Religion thousands and thousands would daily desert her and come over to the Truth HE has all the liberty encouragement and convenience of becoming learned of any People or Perswasion whatsoever And none that has ever look'd over any Library and found that the greatest numbers and choicest Books of all Sciences have men of his Communion for their Authors None that in his Travels has taken a thorough view of the Vnivers●●ies in Popish Countries of the Sorbon Louvain Salamanca Boloign c. and consider'd their laborious studies in Philosophy Divinity History the Fathers Councils Scripture c. and besides the Students here has seen how many thousands there are in Religious Houses who free from the disturbances of the Word make Virtue and Learning the business of their whole Life will ever lay Ignor●nce to the charge of the Papists but must in justice confess that amongst them are to be found as many and as great Scholars as amongst any People or Societies in the World And tho' the Vulgar and common sort of that Profession understand not Latine yet are not they train'd up in ignorance of their Religion nor led along in blindness but are so provided of Books in their own Mother-tongue of Instruction and Devotion wherein is explicated the whole Duty of a Christian every Mystery of their Faith and all the Offices and Ceremonies perform'd in the Chruch that they must be very negligent or else very meanly parted who do not arrive to a sufficient knowledge of their Obligation in every respect And whosoever has seen the great pains and care some Good Men take abroad in Explicating on Sondays and Holy-days in their Churches and on Week-days in the Streets the Christian Doctrine to the crowds of the ignorant and meaner sort of people not omitting to reward such as answer well with some small gifts to encourage Youth and provoke them to a commendable emulation will never say that the Papists keep the poor people in Ignorance and hide from them their Religion but rather that they use all means for instructing the Ignorant and omit nothing that can any ways conduce to the breeding up of Youth in the knowledge of their Faith and letting them see into the Religion they are to profess Neither does it seem to him even so much as probable that if the Church-Offices and Service c. were perform'd in the Vulgar-Tongue that upon this the now-Ignorant and blindled people would immediately discover so many idle Superstitions sensless Devotions and gross errors that they would in great numbers upon the sight become deserters of that Communion in which now they are profess'd Members For since there is nothing done but in a Language which the Learned Judicious and Leading Men

Adversaries the obstinacy of a byas'd Education render a performance in this kind a just Task for a Tertullian's or St. Augustin's hand yet because I find no such eminent Pen engag'd in this design at present and the shewing the true Religion in its own Colours seems a Duty incumbent on every one that 's a lover of Truth I 'le endeavour to pull off the Vizor from suffering Christianity and Apologize for the Catholick Faith that Faith I mean maintained by those Primitive Fathers with so much Vigour and Zeal which being first planted in the Head City of the World by St. Peter hath been propagated throughout the Universe and derived down to us by many Christian Nations in Communion with that See under the Protection of the Holy Ghost and the charge of A Chief Pastor which beginning in that great Apostle has continued in a Visible Succession to these our days This Faith it is for which at present I design to make an Apology which having been in all ages violently oppos'd does at this time most wrongfully suffer under Calumnies and false Imputations I 'le endeavour therefore to separate these Calumnies and Scandals from what is really and Faith and Doctrine of that Church I 'le take off the Black and Dirt which has been thrown upon her and setting her forth in her genuine complexion let the World see how much fairer she is than she 's painted and how much she 's unlike that Monster which is shewn for her And because the Members of this Church are commonly known by the name of Papists I think I cannot take a more sincere open and compendious way in order to the compleating this design than by drawing forth a double Character of a Papist The one expressing a Papist in those very colours as he is painted in the imagination of the Vulgar Foul Black and Antichristian with the chief A●ticles of his imagined Belief and reputed Principles of his Profession The other representing a Papist whose Faith and exercise of his Religion is according to the Direction and Command of his Church That so these two being thus set together their difference and disproportion may be clearly discerned and a discovery made how unlike Calumny is from Truth and how different a Papist really is from what he 's said to be The former Character is of a Papist Mis-represented the other of a Papist Represented The former is a Papist so deform'd and monstrous that it justly deserves the hatred of as many as own Christianity 'T is a Papist that has disturb'd this Nation now above an hundred years with Fears and Jealousies threatning it continually with Fire and Massacres and whose whole design has been to rob the Sovereign of his Crown and the Subject of his Liberty and Property 'T is a Papist that is so abominable so malicious so unsufferable in any Civil Government that for my part I detest him from my heart I conceiv'd an hatred against him and all his from my Education when as yet a Protestant and now being a Roman Catholick I am not in the least reconcil'd to him nor his Principles but hate him yet worse I am so far from thinking the Laws too severe against such Popish Recusants that I could wish a far greater severity were executed against them their Favourers and all such as make men so sottishly Religious And if to be a Protestant nothing more be requisite than to protest against such Popery to hate and detest it I think my self and all Roman Catholicks as good Protestants as any whatsoever throughout his Majesties Dominions And I dare engage that not only as many Roman Catholicks as under the name of Papists have severely smarted in this Nation for being the Professors of such kind of Popery but also that all Roman Catholick Nations in the World shall subscribe to the condemnation of all such Popish Principles and Doctrines shall joyn with all good Protestants for the extinguishing it with all that Profess or Practice it and utter rooting it out from his Majesties three Kingdoms and the whole Universe The other Papist is one that lives and believes according to what is prescrib'd in the Council of Trent in Catechisms set forth by Catholicks and other Spiritual Books for the Direction and Instruction of all in their Communion whose Faith and Doctrine I have here set down with some Grounds and Reasons of it and will so leave it to Apologize for it self In drawing out the Character of the former I have quoted no Authors but have describ'd him exactly according to the Apprehension I had of a Papist fram'd by Me when I was a Protestant with the addition only of some few points which have been violently charg'd against Me by some intimate Friends of late to shew the unreasonableness of my choice after the quitting of that Communion The latter is wholly copied out from the Papist that I am now being the Sum of what I was taught when reconcil'd to the Church of Rome and which after sixteen years conversation with Men of that Communion in hearing their Sermons in being present at their Catechising in reading their Books and discoursing with them I have found to be their Doctrine I have done both I hope with Sincerity and Truth and without Passion For as my endeavours have been that my Religion should lose nothing by Lies so neither do I desire it should gain by them And did I but know of any thing in the following Papers that has any relation to that unchristian Artifice I would strike it out immediately And do here oblige my self upon information either from Friend or Adversary to acknowledge the mistake as it shall be made appear and make a publick Recantation But it is time we should see what these Papists are A PAPIST Mis-represented and Represented I. Of Praying to Images A Papist Mis-represented Worships Stocks and Stones for Gods He takes no notice of the Second Commandment but setting up Pictures and Images of Christ the Virgin Mary and other his Saints He Prays to Them and puts his Trust Confidence in them much like as the Heathens did in their Wooden Gods Jupiter Mars Venus c. And for this reason He erects stately Monuments to Them in his Churches adorns them sumptuously burns Candles offers Incense and frequently falls down prostrate before them and with his Eyes fix'd on them cries out Help me Mary assist me Anthony remember me Ignatius A Papist Represented believes it damnable to Worship Stocks Stones for Gods to Pray to Pictures or Images of Christ the Virgin Mary or any other Saints as also to put any Trust or Confidence in them He keeps them by him indeed to preserve in his mind the memory of the things Represented by them as People are wont to preserve the memory of their deceased Friends by keeping their Picture He is taught to use them by casting his eye upon the Pictures or Images and thence to raise his heart to the Prototypes

the observance of any in particular they teach that it is the Duty of the Flock to Obey Things indifferent after such Commands being no longer of choice but necessary and no less obliging than the Commands of a Father to his Child where in case the thing be not apparently sinful 't is no perswasion of the thing being superfluous can excuse an obstinate denyal from Disobedience It being more safe and Christian-like for all that are under any Government whether Natural Ecclesiastical or Civil to perform and comply with such things as they judge in their own private Sentiments Vnnecessary meerly upon the account of being Commanded than upon such considerations to disturb the order of Government and fly in the Face of Lawful Authority than which nothing is more opposite to the Principles of Christianity and destructive of all Humane Society And upon these grounds it is that the Papists founding themselves upon the sure foundation of Humility and Obedience have in all Ages acknowledged Overseers and Rulers over them to watch and feed the Flock to whom God hath given Power there being no power but of God and that whosoever resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation Rom. 13. 1 2. XXXVII Of Innovations in Matters of Faith HIS Church has made several Innovations in Matters of Faith and howsoever she lays claim to Antiquity with a pretence of having preserv'd the Doctrine of the Apostles inviolable and entire Yet 't is evident to any serious Observer that the greatest part of the Belief is meer Novelties that bearing date from Christ or his Apostles but only from some of her own more modern Synods There scarce having pass'd any Age yet wherein there has not in these Ecclesiastical Mints been coyn'd New Articles which with the counterfeit stamp of Christ and his Apostles are made to pass for Good and Currant amongst his credulous and undiscerning retainers And besides these what a great number of Errours have been introduc'd at other times how many did Pope Gregory bring in and how many the Ignorance of the Tenth Age So that if we compare the Church of Rome now with the Primitive times of the first three or four hundred years there are no two things so unlike she is a Garden now but quite overgrown with Weeds she is a Field but where the Tares have perfectly choak'd up the Wheat and has little in her of Apostolical besides the Name HIS Church has never made any Innovation in Matters of Faith what she believes and teaches now being the same that the Catholick Church believ'd and taught in the first three or four Centuries after the Apostles And tho' in most of her General Councils there has been several Decisions touching Points of Faith Yet can no one without an injury to truth say that in any of these has been coin'd new Articles or Christians forced to the acceptance of Novelties contrary to the Scripture or antient Tradition These have only trodden in the Apostles steps as often as they have been in the like circumstances with them doing exactly according to the Form and Example left to the Church by those perfect Masters of Christianity And therefore as the Apostles in their Assembly Acts 15. determin'd the Cortroversie concerning the Circumcision and proposed to the Faithful what was the Doctrine of Christ in that point of necessity to be believ'd of which till that decision there had been rais'd several Questions and Doubts but now no longer to be questioned without the Shipwrack of Faith So in all succeeding ages the Elders of the Church to whom the Apostles left their Commission of watching over the Flock in their Councils have never scrupled to determine all such Points which had been controverted amongst the Brethren and to propose to them what of necessity they were to believe for the future with Anathema pronounced against all such as should presume to preach the contrary Thus in the year 325. the first Nicene Council declar'd the Son of God to be Consubstantial to his Father against the Arians with an obligation on all to assent to this Doctrine though never till then propos'd or declar'd in that Form Thus in the year 381. the Holy Ghost was declar'd to be God against Macedonius and his Followers in the first Constantinopolital Council And in the first Ephesin Anno 431. Nestorius was condemned who maintain'd two Persons in Christ and that the blessed Virgin was not Mother of God with a Declaration that both these Tenets were contrary to the Catholick Faith In the second Nicene Council Anno 787. Image-breakers were Anathematiz'd And so others at other times and at last in the Council of Trent was declar'd the Real Presence Transubstantiation Purgatory the lawfulness of the Invocation of Saints of keeping Holy Images c. against Luther Calvin Beza c. And now though in all these and the other General Councils the persons condemned took occasion from these New Declarations to cry out Novelties Novelties to fright the people with the noise of new coin'd Articles and that the inventions of Men were impos'd on them for Faith Yet 't is evident that these New Declarations contain'd nothing but the Antient Faith and that there had never been any such Declarations made had not the Doctrine propos'd in them being oppos'd and contradicted by some seducing Spirits who going out from the Flock endeavour'd by making Divisions to draw numbers after them So that the new Proposal of a Tenet is but a fallacious proof of the Doctrine being lately invented but a good Argument of its being lately oppos'd 'T is certain from Scripture Act. 15. that the Apostles had never declar'd the non-necessity of Circumcision had not certain men come down from Judea and taught the Brethren the contrary And that Consubstantiality of the Son had never been defin'd by the Nicene Fathers had not Arius with his Followers oppos'd this Catholick Doctrine And as certain it is that the Council of Trent had been altogether silent as to Transubstantiation Praying to Saints Purgatory c. had not Luther Calvin and their Disciples once professors of this Doctrine gone out from the Flock and upon the presumption of a New Light endeavour'd to perswade the Faithful that these Tenets then believ'd by the whole Christian World were no longer to be own'd but to be quite thrown by as Antichristian and Diabolical 'T was this oblig'd the Pastors to watch and take care of their Flock and therefore not flying away as the Hireling does when the Wolf catcheth and scattereth the Sheep they assembled together in a Body and declar'd to all under their charge that they ought not to follow strangers that howsoever these came pretending to the Shepherd's voice yet since they came not by the dore into the Sheepfold but climbing up some other way they were no Shepherds but Thieves and Robbers such whose business was not to feed but to steal kill and

should he doubt that Saints want this Priviledge in some manner granted to sinful Men and to wicked Spirits who tho' departed this life are not so properly dead as translated from a mortal life to an immortal one where enjoying God Almighty they lose no Perfections which they enjoy'd while on Earth but possess all in a more eminent manner having more Charity more Love and being more acceptable to God than ever becoming like Angels And as these offered up their Prayers for Jerusalem and the Cities of Judah Zach. 1. 12. so undoubtedly they likewise fall down before the Lamb having every one of them Harps and golden Vials full of Odours which are the Prayers of the Saints Apoc. 5. 8. 3. Of Addressing more Supplications to the Virg. Mary than to Christ HE believes the Virgin Mary to be much more powerful in Heaven than Christ and that she can command him to do what she thinks good And for This reason he honours her much more than he does her Son or God the Father For one Prayer he says to God saying ten to the Holy Virgin HE believes it damnable to think the Virgin Mary more powerful in Heaven than Christ Or that she can in any thing command him He honours her indeed as one that was chosen to be Mother of God and blessed amongst all Women And believes her to be most acceptable to God in her Intercession for us But owning her still as a Creature and that all she has of Excellency or Bliss is the Gift of God proceeding from his meer Goodness Neither does he at any time say even so much as one Prayer to her but what is directed more principally to God because offered up as a Thankful Memorial of Christ's Incarnation and an acknowledgment of the Blessedness of Jesus the Fruit of her Womb. And this without imagining that there 's any more dishonouring of God in his reciting the Angelical Salutation than in the first pronouncing it by the Angel Gabriel and Elizabeth Or that his frequent Repetition of it is any more an idle Superstition than it was in David to repeat the same words over twenty six times in the 136 Psalm IV. Of paying Divine Worship to Relicks HE believes a kind of Divinity to remain in the Relicks of his reputed Saints and therefore Adores their Rotten Bones their corrupted flesh their old Rags with Divine Honour Kneeling down to them kissing them and going in Pilgrimage to their Shrines Sepulchres And he is so far possess'd with a conceited Deity lying hid in those senseless Remains that he foolishly believes they work greater Miracles and raise more to life than ever Christ himself did HE believes it damnable to think there 's any Divinity in the Relicks of Saints or to Adore them with Divine Honour or to Pray to their rotten Bones old Rags or Shrines or that they can work any strange Cures or Miracles by any hidden Power of their own But he believes it good and lawful to keep them with a Veneration and give them a Religious honour and respect And this he thinks due to them in as much as knowing himself oblig'd to respect and honour God Almighty from his heart he looks upon himself also oblig'd to respect and honour every thing that has any particular Relation to him But this with an inferiour honour as the Jews did to the Ark to the Tables of of the Law to Moses's Rod to the Temple to the Priests So we generally allow to the Bible because it contains God's Word to the Church because it is God's House to Holy Men and Priests because they are God's Servants And so he does to Relicks because they appertain to God's Favourites and being insensible things are yet very sensible Pledges and lively Memorials of Christ's Servants dead indeed to us but alive with him in Glory And more especially because God himself has been pleas'd to honour them by making them Instruments of many evident Miracles he has visibly work'd by them as is manifest upon undeniable Record And this he believes as easie for God Almighty now and as much redounding to the honour of his Holy Name as it was in the Old Law to work such Miraculous effects by Moses's Rod by Gideon's Trumpets by Elia's Mantle after he was taken up into Heaven 2 Kings 2. 14. Eliseus's Bones 2 Kings 13. 21. and infinite other such like insensible Things And also in the New Law by the Hem of his own Garment Mat. 9. 21. by the Shadow of St. Peter Acts 5. 15. by the Napkins and Handkerchiefs that had but touch'd the Body of St. Paul casting out Devils and curing Diseases Acts 19. 12. and such like And thus by having a Veneration and Respect for these he honours God And does not doubt but that they that contemn and prophane these do the like to God as much as they did who prophan'd the Bread of Proposition the Temple and Vessels that belong'd to it V. Of the EUCHARIST HE believes it lawful to commit Idolatry and makes it his daily practice to Worship and Adore a Breaden God giving Divine Honour to those Poor empty Elements of Bread and Wine Of these he asks Pardon for his sins of these he desires Grace and Salvation These he acknowledges to have been his Redeemer Saviour and hopes for no good but what is to come to him by means of these household Gods And then for his Apology he alledges such gross contradictions so contrary to all sense and reason that whosoever will be a Papist must be no Man Fondly believing that what he adores is no Bread or Wine but Christ really present under those appearances and thus makes as many Christs as many Redeemers as there are Churches Altars or Priests When according to Gods Infallible Word there is but one Christ and He not on Earth but at the right hand of his Father in Heaven HE believes it unlawful to commit Idolatry and most damnable to Worship or Adore any Breaden God or to give Divine Honour to any Elements of Bread and Wine He Worships only one God who made Heaven and Earth and his only Son Jesus Christ our Redeemer who being in all things equal to his Father in Truth and Omnipotency he believes made his words good pronounc'd at his last Supper really giving his Body and Blood to his Apostles the Substance of Bread and Wine being by his powerful Words chang'd into his own Body and Blood the Species or Accidents of the Bread and Wine remaining as before The same he believes of the most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist consecrated now by Priests That it really contains the Body of Christ which was deliver'd for us and his Blood which was shed for the remission of Sins Which being there united with the Divinity he confesses Whole Christ to be present And him he adores and acknowledges his Redeemer and not any Bread or Wine And for the believing of this Mystery he does not at all think it