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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

Scripture and all other Christian Mysteries and Duties respectively necessary to Salvation VIII This Church thus Spread thus Guided thus visibly continu'd in One Vniform Faith and Subordination to Government is that Self-same which is term'd the Romau Catholick Church the Qualifications above-mentioned viz. Vnity Indeficiency Visibility Succession and Vniversality being applicable to no other Church or Assembly whatsoever IX From the Testimony and Authority of this Church it is that we Receive and Believe the Scriptures to be God's Word And as She can assuredly tell Us This or That Book is God's Word so can she with the like Assurance tell us also the True Sense and Meaning of it in Controverted Points of Faith The same Spirit that Writ the Scripture Enlightening Her to understand both It and all matters necessary to Salvation From these Grounds it follows X. All and only Divine Revelations deliver'd by God unto the Church and propos'd by her to be believ'd as such are and ought to be esteem'd Articles of Faith and the contrary Opinions Heresie And XI As an Obstinate Separation from the Vnity of the Church in known declar'd Matters of Faith is Formal Heresie So a wilful Separation from the Visible Vnity of the same Church in matters of Subordination and Government is Formal Schism XII The Church proposes unto us matters of Faith First and chiefly by the Holy Scripture in Points plain and intelligible in it Secondly By Definitions of General Councils in poins not sufficiently Explain'd in Scripture Thirdly By Apostolical Traditions deriv'd from Christ and his Apostles to all Succeeding Ages Fourthly By her Practice Worship and Ceremonies confirming her Doctrine SECT II. Of Spiritual and Temporal Authority I. General Councils which are the Church of God Representative have no Commission from Christ to Frame New Matters of Faith these being sole Divine Revelations but only to Explain and Assertain unto Us what anciently was and is Receiv'd and Retain'd as of Faith in the Church upon arising Debates and Controversies about them The Definitions of which General Councils in Matters of Faith only and propos'd as such oblige under pain of Heresie all the Faithful to a Submission of Judgement But II. It is no Article of Faith to believe That General Councils cannot Err either in matters of Fact or Discipline alterable by circumstances of Time and Place or in matters of Speculation or Civil Policy depending on meer Humane Judgement or Testimony Neither of these being Divine Revelations deposited in the Catholick Church in regard to which alone she hath the promiss'd Assistance of the Holy Ghost Hence it is deduc'd III. If a General Council much less a Papal Consistory should undertake to depose a King and absolve his Subjects from their Allegiance no Catholick as Catholick is bound to submit to such a Decree Hence also it follows IV. The Subjects of the King of England lawfully may without the least breach of any Catholick Principle Renounce even upon Oath the Teaching or Practising the Doctrine of deposing Kings Excommunicated for Heresie by any Authority whatsoever as repugnant to the fundamental Laws of the Nation Injurious to Sovereign Power Destructive to the Peace and Government and by consequence in His Majesties Subjects Impious and Damnable Yet not properly Heretical taking the Word Heretical in that connatural genuine sense as it is usually understood in the Catholick Church on account of which and other Expressions no-wise appertaining to Loyalty it is that Catholicks of tender consciences refuse the Oath commonly call'd the Oath of Allegiance V. Catholicks believe That the Bishop of Rome is the Successor of S. Peter Vicar of Jesus Christ upon Earth and the Head of the whole Catholick Church which Church is therefore fitly stil'd Roman Catholick being an universal Body united under one visible Head Nevertheless VI. It is no matter of Faith to believe That the Pope is in himself Infallible separated from a General Council even in Expounding the Faith By consequence Papal Definitions or Decrees though ex Cathedra as they term them take exclusively from a General Council or Vniversal Acceptance of the Church oblige none under Pain of Heresie to an interior Assent VII Nor do Catholicks as Catholicks believe that the Pope hath any direct or indirect Authority over the Temporal Power and Jurisdiction of Princes Hence if the Pope should pretend to Absolve or Dispence with His Majesties Subjects from their Allegiance upon account of Heresie or Schism such Dispensation would be vain and null and all Catholick Subjects notwithstanding such Dispensation or Absolution wouldbe still bound in Conscience to defend their King and Countrey at the hazard of their Lives and Fortunes even against the Pope himself in case he should invade the Nation VIII And as for the Problematical Disputes or Errors of particular Divines in this or any other matter whatsoever the Catholick Church is no wise responsible for them Nor are Catholicks as Catholicks justly punishable on their account But IX As for the King-killing Doctrine or Murder of Princes Excommunicated for Heresie It is an Article of Faith in the Catholick Church and expresly declar'd in the General Council of Constance that such Doctrine is Damnable and Heretical being contrary to the known Laws of God and Nature X. Personal Misdemeanors of what Nature soever ought not to be Imputed to the Catholick Church when not Justifiable by the Tenents of her Faith and Doctrine For which Reason though the Stories of the Paris Massacre the Irish Cruelties or Powder-Plot had been exactly true which yet for the most part are notoriously mis-related nevertheless Catholicks as Catholicks ought not to suffer for such Offences any more than the Eleven Apostles ought to have suffer'd for Judas's Treachery XII It is an Article of the Catholick Faith to believe that no Power on Earth can License Men to Lie to forswear and Perjure themselves to Massacre their Neighbours or Destroy their Native Countrey on pretence of promoting the Catholick Cause or Religion Furthermore all pardons and Dispensations granted or pretended to be granted in order to any such Ends or Designs have no other Validity or Effect than to add sacriledge and blasphemy to the above-mention'd Crimes XII The Doctrine of Equivocation or Mental Reservation however wrongfully Impos'd upon the Catholick Religion is notwithstanding neither taught nor approv'd by the Church as any part of her Belief On the contrary simplicity and Godly sincerity are constantly recommended by her as truly Christian Virtues necessary to the conservation of Justice Truth and Common-security SECT III. Of some Particular controverted Points of Faith I. EVery Catholick is oblig'd to believe that when a Sinner Repents him of his Sins from the bottom of his Heart and Acknowledges his Transgressions to God and his Ministers

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

his Communion it having been their Custom ever since Oaths were first devis'd against them rather to suffer the loss of their Goods Banishments Imprisonments Torments and Death it self than Forswear themselves or protest the least Untruth And 't is not out of the memory of Man that several might have saved their Estates and Lives too would they have subscrib'd to and own'd but one Lie and yet refus'd it chusing rather to die Infamously than prejudice their Conscience with an Vntruth So that it seems a great Mystery to him that those of his Profession should have Leave and Dispensations to Lie and Forswear themselves at pleasure and yet that they should need nothing else but Lying and Perjury for the quiet enjoyment of their Estates for the saving their Lives for the obtaining Places of highest Command and greatest Dignity such as would be extraordinarily advantagious for their Cause and the interest of their Church And yet that they should generally chuse rather to forego all these so considerable Conveniences than once Lie or Forswear themselves And is it not another great Mystery that these Dispensations for Lying and Swearing should be according to the Receiv'd Doctrine of his Church and yet that he or any of his Communion were never instructed nor inform'd of any such Diabolical Point nay had never come to the knowledge of it had it not been for the Information receiv'd from some Zealous Adversaries such as relate either meerly upon Trust or else such as have receiv'd a Dispensatiou of Lying from the Devil that they might charge the like Doctrine on the Church of Rome and the Pope XX. Of the Deposing Power HE believes that the Pope has Authority to dispence with his Allegiance to his Prince and that he needs no longer be a Loyal Subject and maintain the Rights Priviledges and Authority of his King than the Pope will give him leave And that if this Mighty Father think fit to thunder out an Excommunication against him then he shall be deem'd the best Subject and Most Christian that can first shed his Prince's Blood and make him a Sacrifice to Rome and he 's but ill rewarded for his pains who after so Glorious an Atchievement has not his Name plac'd in the Kalendar and he Canoniz'd for a Saint So that there can be no greater Danger to a King than to have Popish Subjects he holding his Life amongst them only at the Pope's pleasure 'T IS no part of his Faith to believe that the Pope has Authority to dispense with his Allegiance to his Sovereign or that he can Depose Princes upon any account whatsoever giving leave to their Subjects to take up Arms against them and endeavour their ruin He knows that Deposing and King-killing Power has been maintain'd by some Canonists and Divines of his Church and that it is in their Opinion lawful and annex'd to the Papal Chair He knows likewise that some Popes have endeavour'd to act according to this Power But that this Doctrine appertains to the Faith of his Church and is to be believ'd by all of that Communion is a malicious Calumny a down-right Falsity And for the truth of this it seems to him a sufficient Argument that for the few Authors that are Abettors of this Doctrine there are of his Communion three times the number that publickly disown all such Authority besides several Vniversities and whole Bodies that have solemnly condemn'd it without being in the least suspected of their Religion or of denying any Article of their Faith Those other Authors therefore Publish their own Opinions in their Books and those Popes acted according to what they judg'd lawful and all this amounts to no more than that this Doctrine has been or is an Opinion amongst some of his Church but to raise it to an Article of Faith upon these grounds is impossible Let his Church therefore answer for no more than what she delivers for Faith let Prelates answer for their Actions and Authors for their own Opinions otherwise more Churches must be charg'd with Deposing and King-killing Doctrine besides that of Rome The Vniversity of Oxford having found other Authors of Prenicious Books and Damnable Doctrines destructive to the Sacred Persons of Princes their State and Government besides Jesuits as may be seen in their Decree publish'd in the London Gazette July 26. 1683. In which they condemn'd twenty seven false impious seditious Propositions fitted to stir up Tumults overthrow States and Kingdoms to lead to Rebellion Murder of Princes and Atheism it self Of which number only three or four were ascrib'd to the Jesuits the rest having men of another Communion for their Fathers And this Doctrine was not first condemn'd by Oxford What they did here in in the Year 1683. having been solemnly done in Paris in 1626. Where the whole Colledge of Sorbon gave Sentence against this Proposition of Sanctarellus viz. That the Pope for Heresie and Schism might depose Princes and exempt the Subjects from their Obedience the like was done by the Vniversities of Caen Rhemes Poictoirs Valence Bourdeaux Bourges and the Condemnation subscrib'd by the Jesuits And Mariana's Book was committed publickly to the flames by a Provincial Council of his own Order for the discoursing the Point of King-killing Doctrine problematically Why therefore should this distoyal Doctrine be laid to his Church when-as it has been writ against by several hundred single Authors in her Communion and disown'd and solemnly condemn'd by so many famous Vniversities And why should the Actions of some few Popes with the Private Opinions of some Speculative Doctors be so often and vehemently urg'd for the just charging this Doctrine upon the Faith of the Church of Rome which to a Serious Impartial Considerer are only meer Fallacies capable of Libelling all Societies in the World of overthrowing all States and Kingdoms and only fit Arguments for Knaves to cheat Fools withal There Being no Government in the World which might not be easily proved Tyrannical No Religion Perswasion or Society which might not plausibly be indicted of Atheism If the Actions Pretences Claims and Endeavour of some few of their Governours and Leading Men the Opinions Writings Phansies of some Authors be allow'd as sufficient Evidence for the bringing in the Verdict of Guilty upon the whole When Malice therefore and Envy have done their worst in this point to render the Papists bloody and barbarous to the World yet 't is certain after all that Popish Princes sit as safe in their Thrones enjoy as much Peace and Security as any other Princes whatsoever And that the Papists in England can give as good proofs of their Loyalty as the best of those that clamour so loud against them They can bid defyance to their Adversaries to shew any one Person of Honour and Estate amongst them or even four of any condition whatsoever that bore Arms against Charles the First during the whole time of his Troubles They can make good that there was scarce any amongst

of idle Stories and ridiculous Inventions in favour of his Saints which he calls Miracles that nothing can be related so every way absurd foolish and almost impossible but it gains credit with him and he is so credulously confident of the truth of them that there 's no difference to him betwixt these Tales and what he reads in Scripture 'T is a pretty Romance to see what is recounted of St. Francis's Cord the Scapular St. Anthony St. Bridget and other such Favourites of Heaven He that has but read the Atchievements of these may excuse the perusal of Bevis of Southampton the Seven Champions or Quevedo ' s Dreams For these are nothing to compare to the former either for the rare invention wonderful surprises or performance of impossibilities HE is not oblig'd to believe any one Miracle besides what is in the Scripture and for all others he may give the credit which in prudence he thinks they deserve considering the Honesty of the Relator the Authority of the Witnesses and such other circumstances which on the like occasions use to gain his assent And if upon the account of meer History and the consent of Authors few make any doubt but that there was such a one as Caesar Alexander Mahomet Luther c. Why should he doubt of the truth of many Miracles which have not only the like consent of Authors and History but also are attested by great numbers of Eye-witnesses examin'd by Authority and found upon Record with all the formalities due to such a Process St. Augustine relates many Miracles done in his time so does St. Jerom and other Fathers and if they doubted nothing of them then Why should he question the truth of them now He finds that in the time of the Old Law God favour'd many of his Servants working Miracles by their hands and he thinks now that God's hand is not shortned that the Disciples of Christ are no less Favourites of Heaven than those of Moses and that the new Law may be very well allow'd to be as Glorious and as particularly priviledg'd as the Old especially since Christ promised that his Apostles should do greater Miracles than ever He himself had done And what if some Miracles recounted by Authors are so wonderfully strange to some they seem Ridiculous and Absurd are they the less true upon this account Is not every thing Ridiculous to Vnbelievers The whole Doctrine of Christ is a Scandal to the Jews and Folly to the Gentiles And what more Absurd to one that wants Faith than the Miracles recounted in the Old Testament Might not such a one turn them all into Ridicule and Buffoonry Take but Faith away and see what becomes of Balaam and his Ass Sampson and his Jaw-bone Elias and his Fiery-Chariot Elijah's Mantle Ax-head and Dead-Bones Gideon's Pitchers Lamps and Trumpets in demolishing the Walls of Jericho Moses and his Burning-Bush his holding up his hands for the Victory over his Enemies his parting of the Red-Sea and Joshua's commanding the Sun to stand still c. Might not these and all the rest be painted out as Ridiculous as any supposed to be done since Christ's time and be put in the same List with the History of Bevis or Guy of Warwick A little incredulity accompanied with a presumption of measuring God's Works by Humane Wisdom will really make the greatest part of them pass for Follie● and Absurd Impossibilities And though he is so far from giving equal assent to the Miracles related in Scripture and the others wrought since that the former he believes with a Divine Faith and the rest with an inferiour kind of assent according to the Grounds and Authority there is in favour of them like as he does in Prophane History Yet the strangeness of these never makes him in the least doubt of the Truth of them since 't is evident to him that all the Works of Heaven far surpass all his reasoning and that while he endeavours but to look even into the very ordinary things daily wrought by God Almighty the Motion of the Sun Moon and Stars the Flowing of the Sea the Growing an Ear of Corn the Light of a Candle the Artifice of the Bees c. he quite loses himself and is bound to confess his own Ignorance and Folly and that God is Wonderful in all his Works a God surpassing all our knowledge Whatsoever therefore is related upon good grounds as done by the extraordinary Power of God he is ready to assent to it although he sees neither the how the why nor the wherefore being ready to attribute all to the Honour and Praise of his Maker to whose Omnipotent Hand most of poor Man's impossibles are none XXXIII Of Holy Water HE highly approves the Superstitious use of many inanimate things and attributes wonderful effects to such Creatures which are but in a very inferiour rank and able to do no such things Holy Water is in great esteem with him so are Blessed Candles Holy Oyl and Holy Bread in which he puts so much confidence that by the Power of these he thinks himself secure from all Witchcraft Inchantment and all the power of the Devil nay that by the help of these senseless Mediators he may obtain remission of his Venial or lighter sins And in the use of these things he is taught by his Church to be so obstinately positive as if he had the Authority of Fathers and Scripture to back it when-as there is not the least grain of Reason no hint of Antiquity no Text throughout the Word of God for the defence command or even permission of it HE utterly dis-approves all sorts of Superstition And yet is taught to have an esteem for Holy-Water Blessed Candles Holy Oyl and Holy Bread not doubting but that as such Men who have Consecrated themselves to the Service of God in the Preaching the Gospel and Administration of the Sacraments have a particular respect due to them above the Laity As Churches Dedicated to God are otherwise to be look'd on than other dwelling Houses So likewise these other Creatures which are particularly deputed by the Prayers and Blessing of the Priest to certain uses for God's own Glory and the Spiritual and corporal good of Christians ought to be respected in a degree above other things And what superstitions in the use of them Has not God himself prescrib'd such in-animate things and Holy Men made use of them for an intent above their natural Power and this without any Superstition Was there Superstition in the Waters of Jealousie Numb 5. 17. In the Shue-Bread in the Tables of Stone in the Salt us'd by Elijah for sweet'ning the infected Waters in the Liver of the Fish taken by the Angel Raphael for expelling the Devil Was it Superstition in Christ to use Clay for the opening the eyes of the Blind or in the Apostles to impose hands for the bringing down the Holy Ghost upon Christians or to make use of Oyl for the curing of the Sick