rejoyee in my own Light and Glory and of my Kingdom there shall be no end This is the stile of Rome of Mystical Babylon let us then discern the true Babylon in the language of Rome and hear the voice of Rome in the stile of Babylon The second fault to be found with this pretence of Infallibility and eternal Duration is the multitude of gross Absurdities contained in it which we are here to lay open Absurdities contain'd in the doctrine of Infallibility First 't is supposed without any show of Reason that God hath divided the Infallibility necessary to salvation into two parts and cut off one half of it There are two ways which lead to Heaven Faith and Charity sound Belief and Good Works First an Infallibility in matters of Faith and not of Charity 'T is in vain to pretend to be infallible in the one if without being so in the other a man may perish and fall short of Heaven The Church of Rome hath not the Impudence to say she is infallible in the point of Charity and yet she would be thought so in matters of Faith. But on what foundation doth she build this Pretence Where do we read that God hath divided Faith from Charity as if the latter were less necessary than the former as if men might be saved who sinn'd against the Laws of Charity but might not be so if they offended against the Rules of Faith As if these two ways were not equally certain to guide us to eternal Life as if God might dispense with Crimes against Charity but could not bear with Errors against the Truth All or nothing both or neither The Church must be infallible in both or it is so in neither Whence comes this extravagant Division why dae not the Roman Church pretend to be infallible in Charity as well as Faith but because she is convinc't of an abominable Defection and Disorder in Manners and Practice but ought she not to be equally convinc't that she is fallen into Error because she worships Images An Error in the Faith every whit as palpable and notorious as the Sodomies of the Popes is against Charity Infallibility in points of Right and not in matters of Fact is ridiculous Another division of Infallibility is with respect to matters of Fact and those of Right The Church of Rome dares not pretend to the former but challengeth the latter at this rate she will not be infallible in the most important Articles All the Christian Religion is founded on matters of Fact. 'T is a question of Fact to know whether Jesus Christ be risen from the Dead whether the Apostles wrought any true Miracles whether there have been any Prophets and inspired writers who were the penmen of such and such books or not 'T is concerning a matter of Fact to enquire whether such a Proposition be recorded in the H. Scriptures or not If the Church of Rome be not infallible in matters of Fact in general she cannot be so in these and if she may err in matters of Fact wherein lies her Infallibility Lastly there is yet another division of Infallibility viz. as to Discipline and Doctrines The Roman Church pretends not to Infallibility concerning the latter What is that Discipline wherein she saith she is infallible 'T is in every thing that concerns the Government of the Church The Roman Hierarchy the constituting of a Pope to be the Head of the Church is a point of Government she may err concerning that which is a Principal point and why then may she not err in other matters The seat of this Infallibility connot be found This Infallibility is no less absurd if we consider the subject of it in whom it resides Where and in whom is this Infallibility plac't they know not what reply to make If it be said in the Pope we can produce an hundred Popish Witnesses who depose the contrary and maintain that the Popes may err We can produce with them numberless Instances wherein several Popes have actually err'd we can bring undeniable proofs to manifest that neither the Scripture nor the ancient Christian Church did ever imagine the Bishops of Rome or any other Bishop to have been infallible One part of the Romanists assert that this Infallibility is seated in the Councills We confute this Party with the reasons of the other for those Gentlemen are Infallible when they confute one another but speak nothing to the purpose when they go about to establish their own opinion for when they oppose one another they argue for the Truth but when they endeavor to prove their own Opinion concerning the seat of Infallibility they maintain a falshood So that the Pope is not Infallible neither the Councills their infallibility then is no where for if it be said it is in the Pope and a Councill united together we shall make use of their Arguments who say it is not in the Pope and their Reasons who deny it is in a Councill and will therupon argue that if it be not in either separated it is not in both when joyn'd together for both united are the same they were in the time of their separation they act by the same spirit make use of the same Tricks to deceive the same Injustice and Violence as when considered severally We know not where to stop as to the point of Infallibility Infallibility then is foolish and absurd whether we consider the subject about which it is imploy'd or the subject in whom it is thought to reside But let us view it a little in the general notion of it and in the general term of the Church which they make use of The Church is Infallible they say but how shall I be assured of this for should the Church be never so Infallible if I know it not and have no way to ascertain my self about it it can be of no use to me Is it a Principle so self-evident as needs no other proof to manifest and evince it Is it as plain that the Church is Infallible as that two and two make four or that the whole is greater than a part That is an Absurdity too gross and palpable to be affirm'd by any Romanist 'T is so far from being evident that the Church is infallible that on the contrary we must proceed against all appearances of reason to believe it For we see the Church of Rome doth judge by humane methods debate contest urge sollicit equivovate and deceive and imploy all the arts of Human Craft and Policy to overcome such or such an Opinion We see her oftentimes to change her sentiments and say that at one time which she did not and would not at another we see her contradict the H. Scriptures forbid that which is there commanded and command that which is there forbidden at least she seems to do so This appearance of opposing the H. Scripture will at least refute the evidence of her Infallibility and tell us
Spouse of Christ always young and beautifull without spot or blemish This is the Language of the Popish Church who calls herself fair beautifull tho it be the most hideous deformed Society that bears the Christian name and calls herself Infallible in the midst of numberless Errors which make a Night of darkness wherein she hides herself IV. 'T is the Enemy of God of his Religion and his H. Word that endeavours not a conformity to the rules he hath given in his Word making to themselves another word of God which they call Tradition which is altogether and directly opposite to the true Word of God. Vnder pretence of making use of the H. Scripture they wretchedly abuse and wrest it Applying Scripture to all their false and foolish Mysteries without either reason or Conscience and by ridiculous and impious applications of Scripture exposing it to the derision of the Profane to the contempt and scorn of Infidels They maim and curtail it and impudently falsifie and pervert it and lest all this be not enough they speak as ill things of it as can be said of any book This Book they say is Imperfect 't is obscure 't is full of snares 't is the source of Heresies it abounds with Contradictions it contains an hundred things whose out side is proper to scandalize the weak it is insufficient one half of it is lost it hath no authority without the Church any more than the History of Titus Livius Lastly the Papacy makes use of the Scripture as if it were its own they abrogate the Laws of God laid down in the Scripture they grant dispensation contrary to those Laws they command that which the H. Scripture forbids and forbid that which it enjoyns and to make it evident that the Papacy is indeed the Enemy of God it always stands upon its guard to resist the force of Scripture defend themselves against the word of God by their Distinctions V. 'T is a Prodigy of Filthiness and Impurity whereas Christianity should be a Miracle of Holiness The Head of that Religion hath discovered such a train of Impieties and disorders that for enormity or continuance the like hath never been seen Some of their Popes have been seen wallowing in the pollutions of the flesh in drunkenness and all manner of filthiness and debauchery not only as to women but even Sodomy and Brutality and the most unnatural Lusts Some of 'em have been Magicians and Sorcerers Some have been seen who were Profane Atheistical without God without Religion bathing themselves in Blood Assassins Poisoners Murderers Traitors and oftentimes putting the whole world in a flame Their Priests and Ministers have been seen plung'd into the same disorders following the Example of their Head and treading in the steps of their Leader Ignorant Impious debaucht neglecting the service of God and intent only on their dishonest gain and fleshly Lusts Their Convents of men and women which they call Retirements from the world and little forts and castles of Holiness these I say have been observed to be as bad as the most infamous places of prostitution for all manner of debauchery Lastly their People also were carried away with this fearfull Torrent of corruption having lost the Spirit and power of Religion and retained nothing of Christianity but the name All this may be seen in the history of former ages VI. 'T is a Prodigy of Pride all whose doctrine Theology and Religion is proud and tends to destroy that Spirit of Humility which is the Spirit of the Gospel Pride discovers it self every where in the Papacy in its actions conduct words outside and inside It speaks loftily and magnificently of it self boasting that she is the only Body of J. Christ the only way to Heaven treating all other Communions as Heretical Sects Schismaticks Reprobates Damned Excommunicate as people that deserve to be condemned to the Fire and to be burnt in both worlds The Head of the Papacy is a monster of Pride who as God sits in the Temple of God who gives out his orders as if they were Oracles who makes himself be plac't upon the Altar and there to be worshipt who makes Kings and Emperors kiss his feet and will be carried on the shoulders of Nobles and great Men who holds the Keys of Hell of death and of Paradise in his hand who pretends to the Right of deposing Kings giving away their Crowns who will have homage paid him by all Christians who will be called God upon Earth his Holiness and the Holy Lord Who saith he is the Sun of the world and that all other Princes are but as the Moon and Stars His Ministers under him are Earthy Princes who will not give place to Soveraigns The meanest of their Priests exalt themselves above all other men and crowned Heads must kneel at their feet in Confession and they magisterially give sentence concerning the Eternal Life or Death of men VII 'T is a Merchandise a Trade of forgery lying covetousness and deceit The Papacy by innumerable unrighteous methods hath gained prodigious wealth not only in money and moveables but in lands not only in Lands but in Cities not only Cities but Provinces not particular Provinces only but whole Kingdoms It hath then pillaged and cheated the world and therfore is the worse of the two and by this means hath acquired extraordinary Riches to maintain and augment their abundance every thing in the Papacy is exposed to sale Offices Benefices Churches Sacraments Sins Adultery Incest Murder Parricide Sodomy Brutality and dispensations for any for every thing Paradise and God himself are to be sold but 't is their unhappiness not to be able to deliver 'em into the possession of the Purchasers VIII 'T is a great and vast Body which hath the Spirit of Impurity and Reprobation as a soul to animate it And these imprue Spirits come forth out of the mouth of the Papacy as so many frogs These unclean Spirits are diffused by the mouth of their Schoolmen who amuse the world with a silly obscure and bold Theology by the mouth of their Canonists who have given the Christian World such rules and laws as are obscene wicked and impure and filled volumes with their decisions of Cases full of absurdities extravagant and contradictory stuft with pride and filthiness of all sorts by the mouth of their Casuists and directers of Conscience who have vended such Morals that Pagans would be ashamed of who make nothing of the vilest Crimes and lay men under no obligation to love God who permit men to kill to steal to eommit adultery fornication and any other wichedness only as inconsiderable Venial Faults by the mouth of their Legendaries who have compiled an heap of frightfull and silthy Fables by the mouth of their Masters of Devotion who direct the People to pay that Honour to Saints and Angels which is due only unto God and speak such things in the praise of the Creature which are
Pag. 251 CHAP. XXIV The thirteenth and last Character of Antichristianism that is found in the Papacy viz. a long Peace Abundance and Prosperity Pag. 261 CHAP. XXV The Conclusion In all Ages it hath been foreseen or known that Rome and her Bishop are the Seat and Empire of Antichrist Pag. 267 A Confirmation of the Exposition of the sixteenth Chapter of the Revelation concerning the pouring out of the Vials ADVERTISEMENT There is newly Printed this Year 1688. A New Systeme of the Apocalypse or Plain Methodical Illustrations of all the Visions in the Revelation of St. John. Written by a French Minister in the year 1685. and finisht but two days before the Dragoons plundred him of all except this Treatise To which is added this Authors Defence of his Illustrations concerning the Non-Effusion of the Vials in Answer to Mr. Jurieu's Confirmation of his Exposition of the 16. Chapter of the Revelation for the Pouring out of the Vials all faithfully Englished In 12. A CONTINUATION Of the ACCOMPLISHMENT Of the SCRIPTURE PROPHECIES Or a Large Deduction of HISTORICAL Evidences Proving that the PAPACY Is the Real ANTICHRISTIAN KINGDOM CHAPTER I. The First Character of the Antichristian Kingdom which is found in the Papacy viz. a Temporal Dominion hid under the Appearance of a Spiritual One. WE have found Antichrist and the Antichristian Kingdom in the Scripture-Prophecies at present we must find them in History and prove somewhat exactly and largely that what was foretold by the Prophets concerning Antichristianism is by History found to be exactly accomplished in the Papacy We will reduce these Evidences unto some general Characters and will begin with that which is in the Title of this Chapter A singular character of the Papacy a mixâ—ure of the civil state and of Religion The Kingdom of Antichrist hath a very peculiar character upon this account that in it Religion the Church and the State are mingled and jumbled together and hid one under another This I say is nowhere else to be found neither in Mahumâ—tanism nor in Paganism nor in Judaism nor in true Christianity As for Judaism the Empire or Civil State and Religion were so widely different that the Kings durst not perform any Sacerdotal act Because Vzziah attempted to burn Incense he was stricken with a Leprosy 'T is true during the Government of the Asmoneans or Maccabees the Priesthood and Kingly Power were united but this was by a mere Accident and the Jewish Religion did not require it Mahometism is a Religion they who establisht it in the World likewise establisht Empires or civil States but these are not the same thing with that Religion the Mufâ—i and the Grand Seignior at Constantinople are two very different persons Paganism had both a Religion and a Civil State The Roman Emperors were High-priests but they did not exercise the Kingly Power under a pretence of Religion and the obedience which they challenged as Emperors was not accounted any piece of that Worship which was due to the Gods. Nay in substance this Name of High-priest was nothing but an empty Title yea so insignificant that the Christian Emperors did bear it untill Gratian who refused it Lastly nothing is so contrary to the genius of true Christianity as this Union of the Civil state and Religion Jesus Christ saith expresly My Kingdom is not of this world Joh. 18.36 if my Kingdom were of this world then would my servants fight c. The Kings of the Gentiles exercise Lordship over them but ye shall not be so St. Peter said Luc. 22.25 26. Feed the flock of God which is among you not as being Lords over Gods Heritage Jesus Christ when on earth refused to perform any office of a Prince a Judge or a King. Who said he made me a Judge or a Divider betwixt you He styles the acts of his Ministers Feeding Guiding Exhorting Entreating but never Reigning Appointing Commanding And if Christ is called a King and his Ministers the Embassadors and Agents of this great King 't is a Kingdom wholly spiritual a Goverment that hath nothing Temporal in it But that which is nowhere else to be found is found in Antichristianism It is an Empire and a Religion a State and a Church atemporal Kingdom hid under the name of a Church a Tyranny raging under the appearance and comely name of Religion Let us see how this was noted in Scripture Prophecies and afterward we will see it verisyed in History Evidences that Antichristianism must be a Religion First we find this in that famous Oracle of Prediction in the second Chapter of the second Epistle of St. Paul to the Thessalonians Antichristianism is there called a Mystery for the Mystery of iniquity doth already work Now Mysteries do belong to a Religion Every body hath heard of the Mysteries of Ceres of Bacchus and a hundred others which made up the Pagan Religion In the same place Antichristianism is styled a falling away or an Apostacy that day shall not come except there come a falling away first and the Man of Sin be revealed Now all Apostacy in sacred matters does import a Religion a false Religion And the same Apostle in the fourth chapter of the first Epistle to Timothy saith more expresly that this Apostacy must be a Religion in which shall be taught Doctrines of Demons and in which the Teachers shall recommend themselves by their Abstinences and unmarried state In the latter times 1 Tim. 4.1 2 3. some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits doctrines of Devils or Demons * V. Medes Apostacy of the latter times speaking lyes in hypocrisie having their Conscience seared with a hot iron Forbidding to Marry and commanding to Abstain from Meats There is no Controversie about this that Antichristianism must be a Religion That it must be a Civil State according to the Prophecies And 't is not less evident by the Predictions in scripture that it must be a Civil state for 't is said that Antichrist exalts himself above all that is call'd God or that is worshipped so that he as God sitteth in the Temple or throne of God Which signifies that he must exalt himself above all other Principalities and challenge divine Honours as if he were a God upon earth In the Prophetick Visions Beast signifies a Monarchy or State as all do agree Now Antichristianism is thus represented V. 1. And I saw a Beast rise up out of the sea having seven Heads and ten horns c. V. 11. And I beheld another Beast coming out of the Earth and he had two horns like a Lamb c. V. 12. And he exerciseth all the power of the first Beast before him c. V. 14. Saying to them that dwell on the Earth that they should make an Image to the Beast which had the wound by a Sword and yet did live This plainly signifies that Antichristianism must exercise a Temporal Power resembling that of
the Greeks in another we read that Fornication and having Concubines is that which ought to be allow'd 'T was the Canon Law and the Canonists that establisht the Rules of that horrible Simony we mention'd in the foregoing Chapter 'T was they who regulated and confirm'd all the Rites of Popery whereof their vain superstitions and Idolatrous worship is composed 'T is they who have made all the Corruptions of Doctrine and worship to pass into a Law. 'T is they who have made a God of the Pope and spoken so many Blasphemies concerning him a part whereof hath been mention'd in that Chapter where we treated of the Pride of the Popes that he is a God that he can make any thing of nothing and that he is above Emperors and Kings and can dispence contrary to the Law of God that he is the sun of this world and the only Soveraign that he can be judged by no man that if he should lead multitudes of People to Hell or give them over to the Devill no man hath any right to hinder him The stupidity and blindness of men that can fall into this extravagance is not to be exprest or imagin'd Impurities of the Caâ—â—â—â—â—â— The third sort of Doctors who speak for the Papacy and manifest what Spirit it is of are the Casuists In this order of men an impure and diabolick Spirit is very notorious the Spirit of the Beast and of the Dragon for this we have no need of proofs One part of the Roman Church will testifie against the other The writers of Port Royal in our age have laid open the unclean Spirit of Popery in their morals Fully to understand the Filthiness of this spirit you must read the Books which have been writ to instruct the Directors of Conscience and teach them what Questions to put to the Penitents who come to Confession and the works of Burchard Sanchez de Matrimonio Emanuel Sa Tolet and several others and you will find those Instructions can teach a man more Abominations than are known by practice in the most infamous places of Debauchery After this you must read the Decisions of their Casuists upon cases of Conscience and concerning the nature of mortal and venial Sins And you will soon perceive that there are no Crimes which they do not excuse tolerate and make light of According to these men Simple Fornication implies no guilt or malice that to kill an infant in his mothers womb by causing Abortion is no Murder that an unmarried Woman may be made to miscarry to save her credit that it is not Adultery to lye with a married Woman if her Husband consent that a Backbiter who doth calumniate you may be kill'd to prevent reproach A man is not obliged to put away his Concubine if she be necessary to him for his diversion and delight 'T is lawful to desire the death of a Father to enjoy his Estate 't is not necessary to Salvation to believe either Paradise or Hell but only in the general to believe in God the command to love God is not at all obligatory the sin of Luxury Sodomy and Buggery are sins of the lowest rank no one act of Love to God is necessary to Salvation Contrition is sufficient that is the Fear of Hell. Are not these the unclean Spirits coming out of the mouth of the Dragon the Beast and the False Prophet The vanity of their Excuses of their ill Morals The Church of Rome must not think to acquit her self from this Charge on the account of some modern Writers few in number persecuted by the rest and overcome by the multitude of a contrary sentiment For this moral Divinity is allowed of What Sollicitations and incredible pains hath it cost to procure the condemnation of some few of these and the like propositions Even Pope Alexander VII who condemn'd some of those maxims by his decree of the 5th of May 1667. did ratifie the toleration of one of the most frightful of all those Doctrines viz. that Attrition alone caus'd by the fear of Hell without any act of the love of God is sufficient unto Salvation This is a piece of the most monstrous Theology that ever came out of the mouth of the Devil For it destroys the necessity of the first and great Command which is the soul of all Religion Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart 'T is to overthrow the whole of Christianity from top to bottom and open the door of Salvation to those who liv'd and dyed as bad as Devils Alexander VII left all this abominable Morality of the Casuists compleat and all that he condemn'd in 45 Propositions is of little moment except two or three articles Innocent XI whom they make a Saint hath gone somewhat farther I confess but besides that he hath spared all those Maximes that are fatal to the lives of Princes and the safety of their Kingdoms he hath only condemn'd those doctrines that are exprest in the Bull and forbad the teaching of 'em but neither the Books or the Authors are made liable to any Punishment and therfore this kind of Morality doth obtain as much as ever and by this the sect of the Jesuites is risen to that point of grandeur where we now see them Because of their insâ—uence in all the Popish Courts of Europe and 't is to be observ'd that they are the great sticklers for these Morals which are no better than Infernal the Iesuites I say who are fully possest with the spirit of Popery who are the great Bulwark of that Religion and have preserv'd it from ruin for one hundred and fifty years They are the true Mouth of the false Prophet We can never sufficiently describe how many unclean spirits have come out of this Mouth of the Jesuites Popish Authors themselves have taken the pains to keep a register of 'em the many Books which complain of their Theology and cry out of their Morals and Doctrine would make a considerable Library Alphousus de Vargas a Spaniard hath wrote a Book intitl'd the Stratagems of the Jesuites Among other things he there tells us that about the year 1625. the Spanish Jesuites had the impudence to compose a Systeme of Divinity which overthrew the whole Christian Religion one of them named John Baptista Poza made a book in honour of the Virgin and of her immaculate Conception called Elucidarium Deiparae Wherein he utters so many Prodigies and Blasphemies that the other Monks tho sufficiently drencht in Superstition could not but abhor it This deserves to be considered in the Original or in the relation we have given of it in our Legall Exceptions Part. I. chap. 3â— the Spanish Jesuites were so far from condemning their Brother for this that they undertook the desence of him and his Book In the same place we find a Censure of the Apostles Creed composed by the same Spanish Jesuites which is the most scandalous piece that ever saw the light For
an absolute and totall Apostacy from the Christian Religion 'T is sufficient if it Symbolize with Paganism and very much resemble it This is also signified by what is said 13th chapter of the Revel that the Beast which was struck dead should revive again This Beast is the Roman Empire as Pagan There were two things considerable in that Beast His Kingdom and his Paganism the first had been struck dead by the Goths the other the Paganism had receiv'd a mortal Wound from the time of Constantine untill that of Theodosius but both must revive and recover again The Empire of the Beast in the Papal Domination and the Paganism in the Papal Religion The Papacy ressembles Paganism First in General because its Worship is neither Spirituall nor Rational as neither was the Religion of the Heathens Secondly in particular that the doctrines and worship of the Papacy are an imitation of the Pagan Religion by these two Articles of Conformity between Popery and Paganism I intend to prove the Paganism of the Romish Religion And in the first place I 'le prove that the Worship of the Papacy hath this in common with that of the Gentiles that it is neither Spiritual nor Reasonable The two Characters of Christian Worship are that it is Spiritual and National This is undeniable that the two great Characters of the Service and Worship of the Christian Religion are these two That it is Spiritual and that it is Rational By Spiritual I understand a Service freed from Ceremonies and bodily Observances By Reasonable I understand a Worship that is holy in its Institution full of Wisdom and Reason and proper to impress a lively sense of its Divinity by elevating the Soul unto God. Our Lord Jesus told the Samaritan Woman Woman believe me the hour Cometh John 4. c. v. 21 22 23 24. and now is that neither in this Mountain nor at Jerusalem shall ye worship the Father The true Worshippers are they who worship in Spirit and in Truth God is a Spirit and they who worship him must worship him in Spirit and in Truth c. 'T is plain that the Spirit and a Spiritual Service are there appos'd to the Carnal Bodily Ceremonial Service of the Ancient Church S. Paul speaks in like manner to the Romans I beseech you Brethren by the Mercies of God that you present your bodies a living Sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your Reasonable Service That is the other Character of the worship of Christian Religion 'T is true Judaism had a corporal worship bodily exercise but it was reasonable being full of deep mysteries of types and lessons of piety but the worship of the Heathens had neither Spirituality nor reason Christian worship is altogether both Spiritual and Rational Nothing can be more Rational than to pray to God to sing his praise to offer him thanksgivings to hear his word and preach it to keep his commandments to receive the sign of our washing in Baptism and of our Spiritual nourishment in the Sacrament of the Eucharist In the Popish Religion there is just as much of Spirituality and of Reason as there is of Christianity therfore we find there prayers to God and Thanksgivings and Sacraments But so far forth as Popery hath made additions to Christianity there is nothing that is either Spiritual or Rational Popish worship neither Spiritual nor Reasonable First their worship is covered under an unknown Language a dead and barbarous one which the People understand not and that alone were enough to take away all the reason and spirituality of any such worship For tho all that is contain'd under that language convered under that vaâ—l should be Spirit and Reason to the highest degree tho all should be devout pious full of unction and able to raise the soul to the third Heaven of what use could it be to what purpose could it serve we could perceive but the outside a frightfull carnal bark and cover that were only for the eye wherin even the ear can have no part but with respect to the symphony and Harmony of sounds Secondly All that we see is meerly corporeal viz. Churches adorn'd with extraordinary pride and pomp wherin is a glimmering Light mixt with darkness but inlightned with Lamps and candles with niches in the walls where we see Images of a Curious sculpture in rich and magnifick habits They who serve at their Altars have extraordinary garments both for matter and form and sometimes for cost too the service is not said but sung with Musick and the Masses of Great and Festival days accompanied with instrumental and vocal Musick The Body of the Clergy with all the People march often in great pomp a Cross lifted up and banners displaid and so walk thro the streets and sometimes the fields with this equipage The shrine of a Saint is sometimes carried in this manner before which one cries that all must kneel and all the people are presently on their knees Every year The God made by a Priest is carried in great pomp all the streets eccho with joy all places thro which they pass with this Ceremony are adorn'd with Tapistry and Pictures and the streets covered with Flowers nothing can be more like the pomp of Isis a part whereof is described by Apuleius Is this a spiritual and Rational worship Is not this like the Heathen worship who carried their Gods in procession upon sacred Chariots which they called Thensae Deorum Is not this to make Religion a meer spectacle a kind of Comedie In short all the devotion of the People comes to this to look upon Processions the shrines and Reliques of Saints the Ciborium where they put the H. Sacrament Altars Ornaments Tapistrys Pictures Images Crucifixes Priests Habits Canopies and the magnificence of the Train which follows according to Ceremony The Imagination and the Heart likewise are fill'd with this glittering outside and gawdy show which is so far from elevating the soul to God as is pretended that it stops and hinders it from mounting higher than to what is meerly external and earthly They pretend that this worship of theirs is very spiritual and full of Mysteries The Priest puts the Amict upon his head which is the name of his hood this signifies they tell us the Divinity of Jesus Christ which was hidden and concealed under his Passion He puts on the Albe or white surplice over his other cloaths because it is written thy garments shall be white and this to denote the Innocence of those who serve at the Altar The Subdeacon in some places kisses the right hand of the Priest who doth officiate because the right hand of the most High hath done valiantly The Priest or the Bishop doth sit down after the prayer in remembrance of our Lord Jesus Christ's fitting in the Temple to dispute with the Doctors of the Law. In a word there is not the most minute and trifling Ceremony of their worship but hath its
much more freely and say that these Visions are the Illusions of the Devil and these Miracles are the Cheats of the Monks Hear with what heat and zeal the good Father replyes 'T is an intolerable rashness says he to give the name of Tales and Fables to those Histories that are related by Authors eminent for Learning and Holiness and to reckon as the Mistakes of a weak understanding such Revelations as have merited the approbation of the Council of Basil of the Popes Gregory II. Urban VI. and Martin V. In the next Page the Reverend Father addeth For my part saith he I shall not think that I wrong the Historians of our Age if I give as much credit to St. Antonin who relates that Vincent Ferrier raised eight and thirty men from the dead as I do to all the stories in Gazetts out of which they make their Histories These grave Authors eminent for learning and Piety as F. Crasset calls'em are St. Antonin Arch-Bishop of Florence Bartholomew of Pisa Author of the Book of Conformities Pelbart of Temiswar the Speculum of Vincent Bernardin de Bustis the Monk Caesarius the Annalists of the Monks and in a word all the Authors out of which we have taken our proofs Our new Converts as they are called ought to be very wary as to this point They persuade'em that all these Extravagancies these Cheats these Fables and Legends are at this day out of date We shall see that in a little time In the mean while they ought to know that F Crasset who asserts the credit of those Books which some despise and decry is esteemed and approved by the whole Gallican Church it self What ought to be said to the superstitious and credulous as to the matter of Legends and that those of his sentiment are still the bulky part of the Papacy What is to be done with such people 'T is best I think to leave 'em to their evil Genius as those Patients whose case is desperate and say to 'em well even remain Fools without judgment and without conscience seeing you have a mind to be so believe that Vincent Ferrier raised 38. from the dead and Jacynthe 52. Take for Gospel the horrible Lyes collected by your Batholomew of Pisa by your S. Antonin by your Caesarius c. But give us leave to look on you as persons given up to a reprobate mind This in my opinion is all that can be said to these wretched creatures If they were capable of hearing reason we might thus bespeak them Consider in the name of God whether it is likely that your Monks and their Disciples have wrought more Miracles in ten years time than all the Prophets the Apostles and Iesus Christ himself have wrought in two thousand years We might add Reflect upon the impertinence of these Miracles which we have proved and judge if it be probable that the Wisdom of God should expose his Power to be turn'd into ridicule by doing mean sottish things and altogether unbecoming his Majesty The Famous Maimonides a Jewish Doctor in his Book of the Foundation of the Law makes an important and judicious remarque The Israelites saith he did not believe Moses because of his Miracles for one that would not believe unless there be Miracles might suspect lest the Miracle should be wrought by Sorcercy and Enchantment But all the Miracles that Moses did in the Desert he wrought them as it were out of necessity and not directly to confirm his Prophecy Thus it was necessary to divide the Red Sea to make a passage for the Israelites and to drown the Egyptians we wanted food therefore he brought down Manna from Heaven c. Indeed this deserves to be remarqu't God scarce ever hath wrought Miracles meerly to work them i. e. such kind of Miracles as are properly prodigies and serve only to discover the power of the Speaker All the Miracles of Iesus Christ and his Apostles were miraculous Cures raising of the Dead multiplying of Bread to feed the people There was always some profit and they were not meer prodigies And this is another evidence of the Falsehood of Popish Miracles that their Saints make impertinent prodigies which are good for nothing change pounds of Butter or heaps of Flegme into Gold make Light to stream out of their fingers make use of the Sun-beams or of the shadows of Trees to hang their Garments on Never any of the real Saints wrought such like Prodigies that are of no use and good for nothing in the world We might further say to these superstitious Creatures examin the Character of those Authors whom you style Eminent for learning and holiness Read their Writings and see if they deserve not very well those titles Men of leaden Hearts of Iron Months of Brasen Foreheads as some of your own Catholicks have called 'em on the account of their stupidity their barbarous style and their impudence in venting notorious Falsehoods for Truths We might also say to them Examin the Authors of the five first Centuries you will find in 'em some relations of Miracles especially in the fifth Century But is it the thousandth part of what is to be read in the Chronicles of Saints who have liv'd in the last seven or eight hundred years The Fathers and the Authors in whom we find the Narratives of these true or pretended Miracles wrought none themselves How comes this to pass Was the Jacopin Vincent Ferrier who raised 38. from the dead a greater Saint than S. Augustin who never rais'd one St. Athanasius the famous Champion of the Son of God and of the Holy Spirit St. Cyprian the glorious Martyr St. Polycarp the famous Disciple of the Apostles wrought no Miracles at all but St. Jacynthe a Polonian Dominican and Father d' Aviano a Capucin shall have the Priviledge to do that which the great Lights of the Church for Learning and Sanctity never did A man must have lost his reason if he believeth this When the Church was sorely assaulted by persecution and Heresie there was little talk of Miracles We might also say to these Gentlemen the Devoto's Pray tell us when the Church was cruelly persecuted by Heathens her Doctrine openly attacqu'd by Hereticks had she not more need to be supported by Signs and Miracles than in the time of S. Francis of S. Dominick of S. John Vincent Ferrier when she reign'd triumph't and was without Enemies And yet we hear of few or no Miracles when one would judg the Church stood in most need of 'em afterward we hear of millions when the Church did not want ' em But these Miracles they 'le say were wrought to authorize the new Religions i. e. the new Orders of Franciscans of Dominicans of Begging-brothers c. This is ingenious and well contrived that God should work a hundred fold more Miracles to establish the Order of St. Francis than he had wrought to establish the Christian Religion Observe well the design of these Miracles
of which you have whole heaps in the Legends 'T is to set on foot the Adoration of the V. Mary Invocation of Saints the Worship of Images of Reliques Purgatory and such like stuff Now is it probable that God should work no Miracles to confirm the Divinity of his Son and of his Holy Spirit which fundamental Articles were once cruelly opposed by the Arrians and afterwards should work Miracles without number to confirm some Devotions which 't is granted are not necessary Cheats discovered even in our Age. We might further say to these Devoto's who would have us believe all the stories of Miracles that are read in the Legends that if in so learned an Age as ours and in places where the Priests have so many Eyes to watch 'em they yet have the boldness to counterfeit Miracles they could surely do so in an Age when they acted behind the Curtain i. e. the ignorance and stupidity of the people who took pleasure in such Cheats And here we might relate to them a hundred Cheats of the Monks in the last Age and in the present one We might instance in the very late and famous Miracle of St. Florent very night Saumur where the Wafer appeared in the form of a little Child for the confounding of the Hereticks who had an Academy i. e. the nursery of their Heresy very nigh the place We might entreat 'em to remember that the Bishop of Anger 's after he had approv'd of this Miracle was ashamed of it when the Cheat came to be known We might produce to 'em the Saint of Troye a Nun that liv'd on consecrated Wafers and felt all the torments of the Martyrs when ever the days of their Passions return'd people flockt from all parts of France to see her but she was found out to be a Cheat by the Bishop of the place in the year 1673. what is acted at this day without doubt might be very well acted formerly Lastly we might tell these Gentlemen that in case God were obliged to be so prodigal of Miracles he ought to have laid 'em out in the Indies where men go to convert the Heathens Notwithstanding we do not find that he hath done so or at present doth so 't is true the Jesuites have publisht a vast number of pretended Wonders wrought by Francis Xavier their Apostle But 't is pretty strange that none knew any thing of these Miracles till after Xavier was dead yea that Xavier himself knew nothing of ' em We have his Letters among those written from Japan wherein the relates every thing he did in that Country excepting his Miracles if God had granted him the Gift of Miracles among the rest he ought to have had the Gift of Tongues But we find that he often complains that he could not edify these Indians because he could neither understand them nor make himself understood by them since Francis Xavier a vast number of Missionaries have gone into those Countreys who have not been able to work Miracles tho they would very fain have done so And yet I suppose the design which carrieth 'em thither viz. to plant the Christian Religion among the Indians is at least as important as the design to establish the Orders of S. Francis or of S. Dominick This is what we might say to such as Father Crasset and their Devoto's What is pleaded by the Papists who would not have us believe the stories of the Legends But there is another sort of men who do us a great deal more mischief These are the Luke-warm with respect to Popery your Libertines in the opinion of Father Crasset but as they account themselves Christians of a Finer-spun Religion These are our Converters in France who have had the best success in seducing those wretched Protestants who had a mind to be deceived These have told 'em you ought not to regard what your Ministers cite out of these rascal Legendary Writers sorry Monks Fabulous Authors who have neither wit or judgment This is not the Religion of people of Fashion The Reign of these Fables in expired you are not obliged to believe these impertinent Tales This is a most dangerous Snare which those who have any care of their Souls ought to take heed of For this end they ought to know that this filthy shameful lying History of Legends hath been the Popish Gospel The Legends have been the Popish Gospel for 7. or 8â—0 years for the space of seven or eight hundred years and a Gospel receiv'd with so universala consent that not one man hath been so bold as to question muchless to oppose it The common people sunk into a profound ignorance nourisht their false Piety only with these kind of Fables This already is enough to prove that Popery is Antichristianism for 't is impossible that God should suffer the true Church to sink into so horrid a degeneracy that all the bread they had for their Souls should be only a monstrous heap of ridiculous Fables But further the new Converts ought not to suffer themselves to be deceived this Gospel of the Father of Lyes is at this day in vogue as it was formerly all Italy all Spain have no other Spain and Italy even at this day have no other Gospel but Legends All the devout Clients of the Monks are fed with no other Nourishment The Hero's of the Papacy are the Patrons of these enormities Bellarmin and Baronius both learned men both Cardinals both of great reputation the Possevins the Vasques's the Snares's in a word all that are eminent and considerable in the Papacy do take the part of these fabulous Histories if some few confess that there are some Fables which may be cashier'd this scarce signifieth any thing Have we not an evidence of this in those vast Gollections of the Lives of the Saints begun by the Jesuit Rosweyd and continued by his Successors in that work They are already come to the fourteenth Volum in Folio and other three are every day expected and yet this Martyrology is come hitherto but to the moneth of May so that this Body of Fables will be about forty Volums Vast Volums of Legends printed at this day if the remainder be proportionable And will be the most prodigious work both for matter and bulk that was ever seen since the beginning of the world Ask the Carmelites if they are willing to lose any one of the Priviledges of their Order which were founded on meer Fables Know of the Franciscans and Dominicans if they be in the humour to correct their Annals and blot out those passages which we call Impieties and impure Fables Is it not Father Bouhowrs an Author of great Reputation at this day in France among persons of note who translated the Panegyrick of S. Rose in which we see all the Follies of the old Legends revived Lastly who is the person that hath dar'd openly to oppose and condemn the Book of F. Crasset excepting Mr. Arnaud
Feudatories If we believe the Pope and Court of Rome almost all the Princes of Christendom are Vassals of the Church of Rome Vassals of the Antichristian Monarchy A bout the tenth Century there was forged at Rome a shameless Instrument call'd the Donation of Constantine in which 't is sayd That that Emperor gives to the Popes the East and West the North and South Thrace Grece Jewry Asia Africa Italy c. By virtue of this donation all the Kings of Europe are the Popes Vassals and hold their Kingdoms only as his Feudatories But the Court of Rome is since that time grown more cunning Baron in ann 324. and 1192. sect 52. Baronius asserts that this Piece is forged because Constantine was farr from giving away the Empire to Pope Silvester and his Successors And Silvester was farr from accepting it under that notion For the Empire belongs to the Pope not by virtue of any human Donation but by that of Jesus Christ In Sermone de Sto. Sylâ—cstro S. Sylvester saith Vincent of Ferrara pleaded his own Cause so well that he gained a sentence importing that all the Possessions of the World which had been in the hands of Tyrants who call themselves Emperors and Kings should be restored to their Lawful Administrators viz. the Pope and the Prelates But besides this General Title there is not a Kingdom in Christendom which the Popes do not or have not claimed upon some particular Rights as the Vicars and Lieutenants of Christ Gregory VII declares that the Kingdoms of Spain belong to the Church Baron ad ann 1073. §. 34. and 1077. §. 63. From the very beginning saith he the Kingdom of Spain is the Territory of St. Peter and the Right of it is in no Mortal The same Pope makes the like declaration to the Lords and Bishops of Corsica concerning that Island That it belongs to none but to the holy Church of Rome and that those who have possessed it without paying homage to her are guilty of Sacriledge Steuchus Bishop of Eugubium proves that the Kings of Arragon Portugal and Sardinia depend and ought to depend upon the Church of Rome as proper Feudatories England for a long space of time was reckon'd the Popes feudatorie Innocent III. forced King John to make over himself and his Kingdom to the Church of Rome And if we believe Polydore Virgil Lib. 4. Hist Angl. long before that time Ina King of that Isle made himself a Tributary of Rome laying the Tax of a penny Sterling upon every fire-hearth The same Polydore Virgil reports Lib. 3. that Pope Boneface VIII wrote to Edward I. King of England that he could not make war against Scotland because that Kingdom belonged to the Pope who alone had power to bestow and take it away If any Heathen Kingdom was Converted to Jesus Christ and the Christian Religion upon this account it hath been challenged as a Territory of the Church of Rome Upon this ground Baron ad ann 1074. Gregory VII wrote to Solomon King of Hungary that King Stephen and the Emperor Henry had given that Kingdom to the Church and that since that time it had depended upon his Apostolick Majesty The Kingdom of Poland was converted in the year 966. and was made Tributary to the Pope as soon as it was subjected to Jesus Christ And things were brought to that pass that not only were the Polonians obliged to pay Poll money without exempting the Gentry but to make their slavery visible to the whole World Benedict IX appointed them to go dressed almost like Monks Baron 1013. §. 2 3. to have their heads shaven their ears bare to wear on great Festivals a linnen garment like a Surplice Gregory VII procured a surrender of the great Empire of Muscovy by Demetrius to whom he gave it back again to hold it in Feè of the Pope The Popes have had the same pretensions to the Kingdoms of Sweden Denmark Norway and Bohemia Above all they have counted the Empire of Germany as their proper Demesnes and have done their utmost to have the same Jurisdiction over France For Boniface VIII had the insolence to write to Philip the Fair We will have thee know That thou art subject to Vs both in Spirituals and in Temporals I know nothing that this Monarchy wants to make it like those other Monarchies which are represented in the Prophecies under the Emblems of Ravenous Beasts Lyons Leopards and Bears It hath a Metropolis a Monarch a Senate a Council Senators Emhassadors Allyances Leagues Governours of Provinces Courts Judges Vassals Subjects Feudatories It receives Hommages Oathes of Allegeance Tributes in First-fruits Provisions of Benefices Tythes and a hundred other wayes It hath further its Canon Law its Laws its Codex exactly as Emperors have their Pandects their Novelles and their Civil Law. The Papists boast that their Church is a Civil state But what need so much proving of a thing which is not denyed yea is boasted of Read but Steuchus Bishop of Eugubium about the Donation of Constantine Blondus in his Roma restaurata Thomas Aquinas on the 2 Chap. of the 2 Epistle to the Thessalonians Lipsius in the Preface of his Book de Magnitudine Romana They all confess take a pride in saying that the Majesty of the Roman Empire is restored in the Papal power that this new Monarchy is made up of a Religion and an Imperial Power that by means of the Church of Rome is accomplisht the Oracle which was given to old Rome Imperium sine fine dedi That the Pope is a perpetual Dictator that the old Senate is found in the Colledge of Cardinals c. That Rome still to this day receives Tributes from the whole World. Is it possible that the eyes of men should not be open'd at last to discern this How is it that God will suffer such a vail to remain on the minds of men Will men never discern that the Papacy is the head that was wounded to death which is healed again Apoc. 13.3 Will not men perceive that it is the Image of the former Beast or of the old Empire and that speaks acts commands and performs all the Actions of the old Empire What have men seen in Christ and his Apostles what have they read in the Gospel that gives any pretext to imagine that the Kingdom of Jesus Christ ought to be a Temporal one and have a Monarch a Metropolis Governours Officers about secular things Tributes Subjects and Vassals How is it possible that men should not see a Mystery of such shameful Iniquity which under the appearance and names of a Spiritual Kingdom and Ecclesiastical Power excercises a Carnal Worldly Earthly Dominion that is pompous vain and devilish and directly opposite to the Genius of Christianity Our French men with their Liberties of the Gallican Church do miserably blind themselves with the vain distinctions of the Holy See and of the Court of
their Princes when 't is for the Interest of the Court of Rome And to bind them more firmly to her self she grants them Priviledges which exempt them from the Jurisdiction of their Bishops This makes these Monks take part with the Pope against the Bishops which assists the Design which he hath ever had to bring down Episcopal Authority to make himself the only Bishop and to make all other Bishops to be his Subdelegates The Monks draw all manner of Advantages from these exemptions They have none near them to order and correct them they enjoy the greatest impunitie indulge themselves in Licentiousness Among the Monks the Jesuites Order is the product of as hellish Policy as the world ever knew The Prince of darkness sent it out of the bottomless Pit exactly at the time of the Reformation to support the Papal Monarchy which had felt some shaking Blowes After so many Books written on this matter men cannot but understand the Maximes of the Policy of this detestable Society But the corrupt and Antichristian Moral Doctrine of it is not the least of the Tricks of its Policy Which leads us to consider a new Evidence of the Carnal Policy which prevails in the Papacy 6. Policy a care to flatter the flesh and the senses 'T is the great care which it takes to flatter by all wayes imaginable the Flesh the Passions and Senses by making easy Laws and suting them to corrupt Inclinations by sending out every where loose Directors of Conscience and by furnishing Sinners with means of flattering themselves in their Disorders Hence have proceeded the Simonaical Laws of the Court of Rome Dispensations to marry within the prohibited Degrees to enjoy Bishopricks without having the Age or qualities which are required Indulgences for the most horrid crimes Relaxations of Pennances and the setting a rate upon all sins Lastly from hence 't is that care hath been taken to provide all the Pleasures for the Flesh which it desires Cardinal Pallavicin in this History of the Council of Trent saith that the Form must be suted to the Matter and such Lawes made as agree with Times and Places and that we must not deal with men wholy in the dreggs of Adam as if they were still in a state of Innocence V. The new Gospel Therefore they must be Indulged as to Idleness Excessive Eating and Drinking Playes yea Stewes which are allowed at Rome And that the Church may be able to triumph over Paganism which held men by the Pleasures of Sense she must furnish them with those that are more exquisite and delicious than those of Paganism 'T is from the same design of pleasing the Fleth and the Senses that the External Pomp in Worship proceeds Because men love Playes Theaters and the Pleasures of Sense the Policy of Rome hath introduced all these into Religion that She may engage them to herself by those things of which alone they are sensible Churches are splendidly adorn'd they glitter with Gold their Lights are ordered with great care those that serve at the Altars draw mens Eyes by the pomp of their Vestments in them Musiek sounds and flatters the ears They make Processions which are a marching in Triumph after the mode of the Pagan Romans Yea their very Funerals have Pomp that so even death itself may afford pleasure 'T was once a very difficult matter to reconcile Religion and Lust together But the Papacy hath found out this wonderful Secret by bringing into Religion whatever gratifieth Lust 7 Policy the Tribunals of Confession The Mysteries of the Chairs of Confession are the most profound in the Policy of Rome Nothing could be imagined more effectual and proper to reign over the Consciences of men than to oblige them to come and discover themselves even to the bottom to the Agents of the Papacy Scire volunt secreta domus atque inde timeri A Marryed Woman looking upon a Priest as the Confident of her Disloyalties and the Witness of her Disorders trembles at his Presence and can refuse him nothing A husband that hath disclosed to a Confessor all the Violations of his Promise to his Wife is a fraid lest something should come out which might trouble the quiet of his Family and to avoid this mischief he becomes the Slave of him who knows his secrets A Merchant who hath cheated in Trade will part with some of his Gain to assure himself of the Fidelity of him who is privy to his Crimes But above all on such Occasions when there are but two heads together the Priests say what they please they wind about the Conscience according to their own designs and Interests they rack they loose they bind they terrify they astonish they flatter it And by these different Methods they lead it where it had no Intention to go God knows and Experience hath told us somthing how many dismal effects have proceeded from this mysterious Policy All men are not made alike some are cholerick others are Melancholy and serious these are willing to live austerely others are sanguine and will have pleasure whatever it costs There are Confessors of different Characters according to these different humours Some who will endure nothing at all others who will endure every thing By this means they hold fast all sorts because every one is gratifyed 8 Policy a great external austerity This human Policy which so indulgeth Inward Licentiousness at the same time requires a great External Severity and Rigour For men are willing to give something to God and not being able to give him Fruit they are willing to pay him in Leaves Therefore they love those Customs which have a great shew of Mortification You cannot rid men of this notion that the Christian Religion is a serious thing and an Enemy to the Pleasures of the World. Therefore if the Papacy was licentious in all respects and held no correspondence with the Temper of Religion it would be impossible but men would quickly see through it Therefore it endeavours to keep up a great Appearance of Seriousness in the midst of its innumerable Villanies It ordains above a hundred and sixty Fasts in a year men eat and drink on these Fasts as at other times provided they choose such a diet But no matter they are always call'd Fasts and this makes a great Figure in the Outside of Religion From the same Policy we have the Penitents and Whippers of the Roman Church who tear themselves with Blowes of a Whip when they are hired to do it Thence come the Cloisters Frocks Hair-shirts Whippings Discipline Confinement Silence Solitude and all the strict and severe Rules of the Monks Such Rules and Orders as in show and appearance are very considerable and gain them Reputation with the people but in reality they are not much incommoded by 'em and suffer little by their observance as to any thing of that severity and mortification they pretend to because they are Masters of their own
true sense of Scripture one sect interpreting it one way and another sect in a different manner So that I cannot be discharg'd from the obligation to inquire after the true Church among the many differing Sects and to search for it in some way different and independant from that of the Scripture Upon all that I have said I would make these two Reflections First that this pretence of Infallibility on the one hand is the character of Mystical Babylon who boasts of her being alway Queen and that she shall never see sorrow on the other hand that 't is full of Absurdities and Inconsistencies Secondly that this Antichristian false and inconsistent Principle according to the Church of Rome is the great fundamental Principle of Christianity I wish men would reason a little upon these two Reflections in some such manner as this If God hath bestowed on the Church the priviledge of Infallibility 't is one of the best and greatest advantages that can be 't is the Basis of Christianity now it is not plain or probable that God should give for the ground of his Religion such a principle loaded with so many difficulties on the one hand and on the other containing a pretention which the Scripture speaks nothing of save in the mouth of the false Prophet and Antichrist This pretended Infallibility should have been as clear as a Sun upon an high Mountain to give light to all the Faithful at the greatest distance But instead of being so 't is an ocean of impassible Darkness The wisdom of God would not have suffer'd such a Truth to be clog'd with so many absurdities which being the principal and foundation of all others ought to have been the clearest and discernable by the most Ignorant It must not be said that 't is the fate of the Christian Articles to show great Depths and Mysteries in the difficulties which attend 'em and produce the Articles of the Trinity and Incarnation for Examples For we must carefully distinguish those Truths which we are to believe from the Principle for the sake whereof we ought to believe ' um It is not necessary that the Truths we are to believe should be disintangl'd from Difficulties 't is sufficient if the Authority or Testimony on which we give credit to 'um be not obscure or at least have sufficient light to manifest it self to a free and unprejudic'd mind Such is the H. Scripture whose Divinity and true Meaning are visible to all those whose eyes are inlighten'd by the Grace of God. Whereas this Principle of the Infallibility of the Church is visible to none but such whose eyes are shut by their own Prejudices CHAPTER IV. The fourth Character of Antichristianism that is found in the Roman Church is the manner of their dealing with the H. Scriptures the common Rule of all Christians WHile we are on the subject of Blasphemy 13 Exception part 2. chap. 5. which is the proper Character of the Antichristian Beast who carries written on its Heads the Name of Blasphemy and to whom is given a mouth speaking great things and Blasphemies we must go on to show after what manner she treats the H. Scriptures Her carriage in this respect is an exact accomplishment of what was foretold concerning her And she shall open her mouth in Blasphemies Revel 13. v. 6. even to Blaspheme against God and his Tabernacle and those who dwell in Heaven This pretence of Perpetuity and Infallibility which she bears on her forehead is the name of Blasphemy that is writ on the head of the Beast But the manner after which she vilifies and annuls the H. Scripture is in words full of Blasphemy 1. Against God for the H. Ghost who inspired those sacred Writings is infinitely affronted and provoked by it 2. Against his Tabernacle for this H. Scripture is the Dwelling-place of God and his H. Spirit the Ark from whence he speaks between the Cherubims the Temple whence he gives forth his Oracles 3. And against those who dwell in Heaven for the Blessed Prophets and H. Apostles who were the Organs of the H. Spirit are greatly affronted by her treating their Writings after such a manner This Antichristian proceeding of the Papacy against the H. Scripture may be reduc't to three Articles 1. Their Contempt and neglect of the Scripture 2. Their Abuse and ill use of it 3. The out-rage they commit against it by False Accusations for Popery neglects and slights the word of God and hath no esteem or value for it They miserably abuse and wrest it and lastly they accuse it of many faults Popery endeavours to avoid any conformity to the H. Scripture I say then in the first place that 't is the true Character of Antichrist to take no care to comply with the Rule of Christianity Every Religion hath its proper Books the Jews have Moses and the Prophets for theirs the Mahumetans have their Alchoran and the Pagans had their sacred Books and Rituals and accounted it their duty to be exactly Conformable to ' em If the Jews should rebuild a Temple and therein practise such Customs and Ceremonies as had no agreement at all with the Law of Moses we might with justice tell 'em you are not of the Religion that you profess for your Worship and Doctrines have no agreement with the Religion prescribed in Your Law. If among the several sects into which the Mahumetans are divided there should be any that pretending to receive the Alchoran should yet have nothing like it but altogether depart from it would it not be evident that such a Sect were not of the Religion of Mahomet Ought we not to argue after the same manner against the Papacy You call your selves Christians let us see how you prove it if you say true you ought to have some conformity with the sacred Books receiv'd by all Christians But if there be no kind of Conformity and Agreement between your Doctrines your Worship your Religion and that of J. Christ you are certainly Christians only in name but in Truth and reality are Antichristian Now I dare assert that there is no kind of Conformity between Popery and the Laws of J. Christ which to me is an undoubted Character of Antichristianism Paganism 't is true hath no agreement with the Rule of Christians and the Law of Christ but it doth not pretend to have any and therefore cannot be charged with Antichristianism But for men to call themselves Christians and yet neglect the Laws of Christ and have no agreement with the Christian Rule this is to be Antichristian For the Antichristian Church is a false Church an Harlot who pretends to be the Spouse of Christ who saith I am no Widow and shall never see sorrow Therefore to confirm this Character there needs nothing more than to prove that Popery hath no agreement with the H. Scriptures In the Roman Religion Popery must be distinguisht from Christianity To prove that their Religion is
conformable to the common Rule of all Christians let them not instance in the Unity of one God the adorable Trinity of Persons in the Godhead the Incarnation of the second person in our nature who is call'd J. Christ His death which was the Ransom and Redemption of mankind his Resurrection which hath ascertain'd ours his Ascension which hath open'd Heaven and made way for our admission his sitting at the Right hand of his Father who hath constituted him Lord and King of the Church and of the World his Intercession which procures for Believers all the good that is necessary to their Eternal Blessedness the Efficacy of the Redeemer's blood with respect to men The Life Everlasting the Resurrection of the dead and the last Judgment Let them not I say instance in any of these to prove the agreement of their Religion with the H. Scripture for 't is not to the purpose All that is Christianity and not Popery 't is my Religion as well as theirs We know very well that Christianity hath continued in the Papacy but we know likewise that Paganism hath been built upon it in the Church of Rome and this is that which makes it truly Antichristian Popery is that which constitutes a particular Sect and distinguisheth it from all others and this we assert hath no kind of Conformity to the Law of J. Christ The Sacrisice of the Mass hath no foundation in Scripture Let us instance in the Sacrifice of the Mass a point of very great importance if in any Religion there be any such because it concerns the sacrifice of a God unto God thereby to obtain Eternal Life the remission of sins and all the blessings of Heaven and Earth for mankind Because it treats of establishing a new Priesthood and new Priests and such as in the act of sacrificing are superior to their own God who is but a meer victim Now in making this Sacrifice I assert that they have altogether neglected and slighted the H. Scripture and had no regard at all to the revelation and Law of J. Christ After the establishment of this Sacrifice it was thought fit to search the Scripture for arguments to prove it but antecedent to such an establishment this was not thought of insomuch that the passages brought to prove the Sacrifice of the Mass seem to be collected and produc'd for no other end than to expose the Christian Religion to the scoffs of the Profane and the raillery of Infidels From the old Testament these words in the book of Genesis are quoted Genes 14. 1 Sam. 2.34 that Melchisedeck brought forth or offer'd unto Abraham bread and wine those words of God to Eli I will raise me up a Faithfull Priest who shall do according to that which is in my mind and in my heart And that which the wise man saith in the book of Proverbs Chap. 9.1 Wisdom hath built her an house c. she hath furnished her Table and the words of the Prophet Malachy In every place Incense shall be offer'd unto my name and a pure offering 1. C. 11. From the new Testament are alledged the words of our Lord to his Apostles Do this in Remembrance of me 26. Matth. And these of our Lord to the Samaritan Woman Believe me the hour cometh 4 John 21. when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father but they that worship him shall worship him in Spirit and Truth And those words of S. Luke 13 Acts. v. 2. And as they ministred to the Lord and those of S. Paul to the Corinthians You cannot drink the Cup of the Lord and the Cup of Devills you cannot partake of the Table of the Lord and the Table of Devills and in another place we have an Altar whereof they could not partake who served at the Tabernacle One would wonder how these Texts should be produc't as Proofs in this case Where is the Victim where is the Priest where are the Ceremonies the Consecration Elevation Adoration and Oblation of the Sacrifice where are the Introitus the Gradual the Canon the Offertory used by the Romanists If the Jews to maintain their worship their Sacrifices and the different orders of their Ministers who serv'd at their Altats their High Priest their Feasts their Pascal Lamb their Continual Sacrifice Morning and Evening their Scape-Goat their Ark their Mercy-seat their Cherubims their Distinction of Meats their Circumcision if I say to justifie these things the Jews had produced such Texts of Scripture and said these contain the Proofs of our Religion this is our Authority for it I 'am confident they would have past for Mad-men and if the World were once cured of their Prejudices they would say as much concerning the Papists This is one great point wherin Popery is not sollicitous to keep any agreement with the Scripture the common Rule of all Christians There is no Scripture Evidence for the Pope There is another Instance no less notorious than the former After the Sacrifice it naturally followes that we consider the Priest now Popery hath an High Priest and Head of the Universal Church a Vicar of J. Christ a Lieutenant of God on Earth This is the binding stone of the Arch 't is the Center of the Union So capital an Affair that there is no salvation without adhereing to this High Priest and must we be put off to Tradition for the proof of such an Article as this what Title is there in the scripture to this great Office what Call to such a Charge This is alledged Thou art Peter and on this Rock will I build my Church and what thou hast bound on earth shall be bound in Heaven feed my sheep I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not All this is spoken by our Ld. to the Apostle Peter and this is the establishment of the office and Imployment of High Priest which the Pope claims as his peculiar I would that a meer Turk who is not prepossest with the sentiments of a particular sect might be our judge in this case Let him look upon the Infallible man at Rome with his Triple Crown on his head who pretends to be the Judge the King the Spiritual Soveraign of all Christians even of Kings themselves and examin those passages cited out of our Law in savour of his Pretentions 'T is manifest that this Turk would believe you mockt him Where is there any thing here would he say of the City of Rome where are the Cardinals where is there any appointment of this Soveraign Tribunal to which all the World must appeal If those words bestow any special priviledge upon S. Peter is it said he must have a Successor in those Prerogatives and if he was to have a Successor is there any one syllable that should make us imagine that this Successor must have his Seat at Rome 'T is certain they may say that S. Peter was at Rome that He did
that kindled the flame which burns to this day 'T is a prodigious blindness in which there is somthing supernatural that men should come so far as to utter such Blasphemies and that at this day men should not be afraid to repeat them Scripture insufficient The Third Affront tho Papists offer to the Scriptures is their asserting them to be insufficient and imperfect and that they cannot serve as a Rule of Faith. They employ their greatest Engins to establish this Principle Councill of Trent Ses 4. that Traditions ought to be regarded with the same reverence and veneration that is given to the Scripture Yea that Traditions excell the Scriptures because the H. Scriptures cannot subsist unless confirmed by Tradition Baron Tom. â— Annal. whereas Traditions keep their strength intire without the H. Writings We stand more in need of Tradition than of Scripture for the Scriptures only furnish us with a dead and dumb letter But Tradition as the Church holds it forth helps us to the true sense which is not indeed distinctly layd down in the Scripture yet is the real word of God. W. Bayly Nothing is more injurious to the Scripture than this Nothing is more contrary to the intention and wisdom of God than to suppose that he hath given a Rule of Faith which cannot regulate Faith which is too short by more than three quarters which is crooked dubious flexible and altogether useless without the aid of another Rule that is unknown to all Christians excepting a small number of Learned men who alone are capable of consulting it Scripture hath no Authority The fourth Affront that Popery offers to the Scriptures relates to their Authority They have no Authority without the testimony of the Church Without the Authority of the Church Bayly we should have no more Obligation to believe the Scriptures than the History of Titus Livius The Scripture Hosius if deprived of the Churches testimony have no more Authority than Esops Fables How know we say they that the Writings which go under the name of Moses are his seeing we never had a sight of the Originals And if we should who could assure us that they were writ by Moses's own hand Again if we could be assured of this what certainty have we that what Moses writ is true Who shall assure us that the Evangelists were Witnesses to all that they report But tho we should believe that they saw and heard all the Actions and Discourses of J. Christ which they report yet they might forgett and lye as every man may deceive and be deceived How can we again know with certainty Pighius that what goes under their names are their true Writings and not corrupted or forged I know not what kind of Temper a man must be of who can read and hear such things without trembling He that should speak at this rate of the Alcoran at Constantinople would be impaled alive An Infidel cannot say more to destroy all the Authority of the Holy Scriptures The several ways used by Papists to take away the Credit of the scripture 'T is not enough to these Gentlemen to affront the Scriptures by these four Accusations 1. That they are not necessary to the Church 2. That they are obscure 3. That they are defective 4. That they have no Authority as to us without the Church there is no Method imaginable which they employ not to dishonour them They tell us that they were writ only Occasionally and not at all with any design to make them a Rule of Faith. An Evangelist or an Apostle wrote a Gospel or an Epistle at random by chance and on particular private designs Afterward the Church collected those loose writings into one Book But seeing these were not writ by one or several persons writing in concert we cannot find in them a System of Faith. Can any thing be said more affronting to the H. Spirit who ordered the pens of these Writers and the occasions that obliged them to write The Papists talk just as if the Apostles had writ meerly on their own designs without any Inspiration But did not the H. Spirit who moved them to write design their writings collected together should be the true Rule of Faith To lessen the Credit of the Canonical books that are truly divine Popery hath joyn'd with them fabulous books a tale of Tobit a Romance of Judith of Bel and the Dragon of Susanna This tends to dispose the minds of men to believe whatever they have a mind to propose seeing the veriest Fables when authoriz'd by the Church ought to be received as Truth and the greatest Truth destitute of the Churches Testimony may be rejected as a Fable This is not yet enough the more effectually to abolish the holy Books and their Authority they affirm that at this time we have not the H. Scriptures compleat Many Books say they are lost we have not the Book of the Wars of the Lord mention'd in the Book of Numbers We have not the Books of Gad and of Iddo Solomon wrote concerning plants from the Cedar even to the Hyssop and I know not how many thousand Parables and Songs which we have not S. Paul wrote a third Epistle to the Corinthians which is lost one to the Church of Laodicea and perhaps many others which are not to be found and who knows whether in all these writings that we have not there were not innumerable things which would have made the Rule of Faith more compleat Perhaps what is come down to us are only some Planks escap'd from a Shipwrack which hath swallowed up the Vessel All the sacred Books of the Old Testament were burnt at the sacking of Jerusalem under Zedekiah Afterward Ezra gather'd what he could of the scatterd pieces There are Popish Authors who discourse at this rate Yea they go further Those Books of Holy Scripture that are preserved are yet corrupted and alterd The Jews out of hatred to the Christian Religion have corrupted the Originals at the best these Originals are lost and the Copies have felt the injuries of Time and the fate that is inevitable to all antient Books having for above three thousand years past thro the hands of so many ignorant persons many things may have been changed in them Besides they are dead Languages in which these Books are written such as we understand not we are not skill'd in their Grammar we know not the signification of their words This is what they discourse at this day Lastly to compleat the Affront they pull away these books out of the peoples hands they affright them with these as if they tended to ruin their souls They tell men that it never was the intention of God to abandon his Scriptures to the indiscretion of the Laity And on this pretence the Scripture is become a secret Book hid under a barbarous Language to which none is allowed to approach unless he is aforehand initiated in their
that this occasion'd the revolt of Zuinglius and Luther and disposed the spirits of the people to separate from a Clergy that was guilty of such dismal Disorders Besides we have the Confessions of the Papists of the same Age of Pope Adrian VI. of Cornelius Musse Bishop of Bitonto who in the midst of the Council of Trent said That there was no Filthyness how monstrous soever no Villany no Impurity with which the People and Clergy were not defiled We have the Testimony of the famous Mantuan and of the learned Espensaus who make such dismal and affrighting descriptions of the manners of the Roman City and Church in general that one cannot forbear trembling as he reads them After this we need not the testimony of the Lutherans and of the Hundred Grievances which were drawn up at the Diet of Norimberg 1522. wherein the Abominations of the Clergy of that time are set down with exact Fidelity The Priests and Monks have always been guilty of the greatest Corruption Observe I pray you that this dismal Corruption of Manners in all the Ages which we have been mentioning hath always been charged more particularly on the Clergy than on the People And this is a sensible Character of Antichristianism that is found in the Papacy We know that the Clergy and Monks are the principal Members of the Papacy its Spirit and Soul resides in them so that if Popery were Christianity the spirit of this later would be found in these two Orders of men we should perceive some marks of the Christian Religion to shine forth in them But by a righteous Judgment God hath permitted them to contract the very greatest corruption to convince those whom God will save that the Papal Empire cannot be the Kingdom of J. Christ The Corruption of the Priests Monks and Nuns hath always been worse than that of the Laity that so it might appear that the farther a man goes in Popery the more he partakes of the spirit of Antichrist We may view over again Alvares Pelagius Petrach Nicholas de Clemangis Fasciculus Temporum and add to them Walter Mapes an English Doctor Arnold de Villâ novâ Leonard Aretine and an infinite number of others and we shall see that their most bitter Invectives the lively Descriptions and affrighting Representations of the Corruption they speak of do principally relate to the Court of Rome the Priests the Clergy the Monks and Nuns This is not a matter that needs to be proved 'T is notorious even in our dayes for all who have had a mind to collect filthy and obscene stories even among the Papists themselves scarce relate any thing besides the enormous Crimes of the Priests and Monks this hath made the Name of a Fryar odious and the Proverbs which are in use among the vulgar make these the Instances of impurity such a one they say is Lazy fat and leacherous as a Friar Hence those who write Satyrs fall especially on the Monks as may be seen in the writings of Rablais and the Apologie for Herodotus Nor are they only obscure writers who have attacht them with violence The Bishop of Bellay in the present age hath omitted nothing that might make them odious And yet not one passage in him can be cited where he hath spoken without truth Consequences that ought to be drawn from â—â—nâ—e Here I conjure those who have any care of their own salvation to bestow their attention on this subject For in my judgment 't is the most proper to awaken those who have not quite lost even Common sense How can it possibly enter into the mind of any man that the only true Church should be found in a Society which for eight hundred years together hath been guilty of so abominable a corruption of manners that that of the Heathens has not equall'd it I grant indeed that we may find in Heathen History some passages as dismal as those which are seen in the History of the Papacy But I am bold to say that we cannot find such a long series of Villanies and abominable Practices so long continued For about a thousand years a Church is made up of Drunkards Whoremongers Incestuous Wizzards Magicians Sodomites Luxurious Unclean Wretches without Shame without Virtue without Modesty without Bounds without Masque These are the main body and community there are scarce honest men enough to complain of the Disorders of the rest A man I say must be resolved to damn himself in cool Blood if he digests this Absurdity and is persuaded that 't is possible for Jesus Christ to abandon his true Church at this rate and suffer her to sink into such a Corruption What can be replyd to this The Vanity of the Papists excuses 'T will perhaps be reply'd that in all Ages of the Church the H. Fathers have complain'd of Corruption of Manners and that we must not condemn the whole for the Faults of some particular men But 't is an intolerable Affront to the Primitive Church to make the Comparison between some Disorders that the Fathers complain'd of and the horrid Enormities of the Papacy At least the Clergy of those times complain'd therefore they were not guilty of the Disorders that they reproacht in others Some will say That there were great Corruptions sometimes in the people of Israel which was the only people of God. 'T is true but then they did not last so long God never sufferd this people to persevere constantly for seven or eight Ages in the Vices of the Heathen and in the Abominations which they borrowed from the Gentiles 'T is sayd that however these Disorders are past and that we cannot any longer justly charge the Church of Rome with them But First if this were true it doth not contradict the Truth of what I have alledg'd 'T is a certain Truth that the Church of Rome for seven or eight Ages was sunk into this extreme Corruption And I say it over again There is none who retains any Liberty of Mind who can possibly believe that the true Church could lye under this dismal Infamy for so long a time thro the permission of God. But besides where is this Reformation of Manners which they so much glory in In all the Countreys where there are no Protestants to inspect the Deportment and Manners of the Papists things are almost at the same pass We have Historians Travellors and Writers of Travells who tell us that in Italy and Spain Convents are places of Prostitution the Monks are employ'd to execute the worst of Villanies and the Priests are the most notorious Pimps We may consult A Relation of the Commonwealth of Venice writ by M. de S. Didier a Papist and a thousand other Books that are in every ones hands 'T is true in some Countries the outside is somewhat alter'd especially in France where for these twenty years past the Court being set upon the design of Reunion hath judg'd it necessary in order to gain the Protestants
mystical and spiritual reason assign'd for 't But First these are meer Chimaera's and fancies which the first Inventers of these Ceremonies never dreamt of we are told of a learned man in the Church of Rome a Canon of Clugny who hath prepared a book for the press that will confute and shame the Durand's the Biels the Innocent's and the Disciples of such as have wrote of the Mysteries of the Mass for he will prove that all these Ceremonies are without any mystery and that they were only instituted upon motives of commodity and convenience or by meer hazard and occasion but suppose there were a mysterious Intention hidden under these Ceremonies were the service any whit the less carnal for this who allmost is there that understands these Mysteries A man must have been for a long time in a dream to have imagin'd those impertinent reasons which are brought by the mystical Authors of the Roman Church for all the parts of their external worship The Priests themselves do not know them and the People never heard one word concerning them so that they never see any thing but bodily exercise and a worship meerly corporeal and external The most important piece of worship in the Church of Rome is the Mass let us examin it a little whether it hath those two Characters of being Spiritual and Reasonable which are certainly two properties of every Service in the Christian Religion In the Mass the Priest being cloath'd with his Sacerdotal Habit begins with that which they call the Judica the Introitus and the Confiteor There some words taken out of the Psalms are thrust in and mixt with some words of prayer The Priest makes confession of his sins to God to the Virgin and to the Saints he demands absolution and he bestows it on the People he ascendes to the Altar he stoops down below it and mutters some prayers to himself of which no body understands either the sense or the sound He says to the People Cantate Domino i. e. sing to the Lord and yet no man dares sing He repeats several times Kirie Eleison Christe Eleison Greek words whose meaning he knows not for 't is very common that he scarce understands the Latine of the Mass The Gradual is the second part of the Mass in which he sings some kind of songs that are different according to the time and Days on which Mass is read the Deacon prepares himself to read the Gospell he prays to God in Latin that he would purify his Lips the Priest gives him his blessing and makes many signs of the Cross over him The Deacon kisseth the hand of the Priest and makes the sign of the Cross with the thumb of his right hand over the Book over himself upon his forehead his mouth and stomach he perfumes the Book with Incense and being thus well armed against the charms of the Devill by his Grimace and wry-faces he reads the Gospell of the day but the poor People in the mean while understand nothing The reading being over the Priest returns the Book saying these words Per Evangelica dicta deleantur nostra Delicta i. e. by the sayings of the Gospell may our sins be blotted out The Deacon burns Incense the Priest reads the Creed and turning towards the People he says Dominus vobiscum After the Gradual comes the Offertory in which the Priest taking the dish wherin are the unconsecrated wafers he offers them unto God with these words Holy Father God Almighty and Eternal receive this immaculate sacrifice which I thine unworthy servant offer unto Thee my living and true God for my innumerable sins offences and negligences and for all those who are here present round about and for all faith full Christians Living and Dead that it might be profitable to their salvation in Eternal Life Observe that 't is all this while but meer bread But what kind of Bread think ye little loose leaves of paper made with a little flower and bak't between two Irons This is the propitiatory oblation that is offer'd for the Living and the Dead After this the Priest takes the Chalice and offers it likewise unto God he makes many Prayers that God would bless this sacrifice that he would accept it and that it may be gratefull and well-pleasing to him You must know that this was the sacrifice of the Mass before Transubstantiation was found out plain Bread and wine was then offer'd Judge then whether any man could believe that this was a true propitiatory Sacrifice In this part of the Mass every thing that can be imagin'd is done to make this bread and wine to be a propitiatory Sacrifice They offer it to God they offer it to the honour of the Saints and of the Virgin and say unto the People Pray to God that this Sacrifice which is yours and mine may be acceptable to him 'T is in this part that the Secrets are said they are short Prayers spoken with a low voice but are concluded with a per omnia saecula saeculorum which breaks forth in a voice of Thunder after a deep silence Lastly comes the Canon of the Mass which is an additional peice in favor of Transubstantiation There begins the Consecration and the Body of Jesus Christ then comes upon the Altar There the Priest changes postures and makes an hundred grimaces he speaks and then holds his tongue he stoops down then raiseth himself up and kisses the sides of the Altar He makes many signs of the cross he prays for the Popes for Kings and for him in particular on whose account that Mass is said He offers to the honour of God of the Virgin of the Apostles and of the Martyrs when the consecration is over he rises up and worships After this he proceeds to the true propitiatory Sacrifice He offers the Body of J. Christ praying God that it may be as agreable to him as the Sacrifice of Abel i. e. they compare the Body of our Lord to that of a dead Beast The Priest strikes upon his breast several times he uncovers the chalice and makes many signs of the Cross over the Blood of J. Christ to drive the Devil from it He sings he prays and then sets down the chalice and the consecrated wafers upon the corporal that is to say upon the linnen of the Altar He again takes up the Dish wherin the wafers are he makes over himself a great sign of the Cross and breaks the wafer into three pieces He throws one back into the chalice with the other he makes the signs of the cross over the chalice touching the foot of it the middle and the brim and then he stroaks his eyes with it He covers the chalice again he prays and returns to the side of the People and makes them kiss the Pax so they call a Trenchar or a little board on which is painted a Crucifix or the image of the Virgin. Then he puts himself in a posture to eat the wafer and
into France After the Ascension of Christ they tell us that the Jews his Persecutors who resolved to destroy all his Friends and Disciples took Martha and Mary Magdalen Lazarus their Brother Marcella their servant and Maximin one of the seventy Disciples whom our Lord before his death had sent forth to preach the Gospel and imbark't them all upon one vessel without Sails Rudder Pilot Marriners or Oars but God was pleased to steer the vessel and safely landed'em at Marseilles These Saints thus delivered from the Sea finding none that would entertain 'em were forc't to sit down in the porch of an Idols Temple Magdalen preaches the Gospel to all that came Particularly to the Governor and his Lady They not profiting in the day by her sermons she appears to 'em in the night in Visions and at last by Promises and Threatnings with much ado makes them Christians She obtain'd a very particular favor from Heaven for 'em viz. that having no Children which they passionately desired the Lady is with child of a son by the intercession of S. Magdalen The Father and Mother resolv'd in gratitude to make a Voyage to Rome to be farther confirm'd in their Christianity by S. Peter himself They set forward in a Ship but are overtaken by a Tempest the Lady big with child and near her time is delivered of a Son but a little too soon by reason of the violent Tempest insomuch that it cost her her Life The disconsolate Father not knowing what to do with the dead body of his Wife in the Ship or with the Infant that might live but there was no nurse to be had for it he perceives a smal Rock in the midst of the Sea he causeth both to be carried there and puts the living Child by the dead Body of the Mother covering them with a coat after this he proceeds in his Voyage to Rome and perform'd what he intended there and receives assurance from S. Peter that his Wife and Child should both be restor'd to him Returning from Rome after two years stay there and the ship passing near that Rock He cast his eyes on that side of the Rock and perceives a little Child on the shore playing with Cockle-shells He makes towards it and finds it was his own son who had suckt the breasts of his dead Mother and always found milk there They remove the coat and find the body not in the least to be corrupted yea at that very instant it rose up and his Wife also was alive so both are brought back with him to Marseilles after this you may judge whether Mary Magdalen did not make mighty progress in the ruin of Idolatry in Marseilles The whole City was converted to the Christian Religion by her means and she gave them Maximin her fellow Traveller to be their Bishop and bestowed on him some of our Saviours Blood which she had brought with her in a Vial. As for her she hid her self for thirty years in the hole of a Rock where she was attended and serv'd by Angels who carried her every day up into Heaven where she heard the Heavenly Consorts and Hymns of the Blessed Spirits and on this she liv'd In all likelyhood this Saint had continued to this day in that rock if she had not been taken notice of by a certain holy Priest who seeing her thus mount into the Air came to the Rock and discourst with her The Saint finding she was observ'd had a mind to live no longer she therfore sends for Maximin the Bishop of Marseilles she receiv'd the Communion from his hands and was carried by the Angels into Paradise no more to return to the Earth I should think that those learned men have little to do with their time or imploy it very ill who give themselves the trouble seriously to confute such impertinent Fooleries as these are However we will be at the pains to repeat some of those many Miracles which the Papacy makes their Saints to work that they may oblige men to invoke and Worship ' em God hath permitted that there are two Characters by which they may be distinguisht viz. the Impertinence and the Multitude of them First their Impertinence for the most part they are ridiculous mean and ludicrous shameful and trifling For Example Ridiculous Miracles attributed to S. Francis. Is it not a Miracle unworthy of the Majesty of God that of S. Prancisd ' Assise when he preacht to the Birds and they held out their Bills and clapt their Wings in testimony of their Attention and Joy At another time he took a Woolf by the Ears that had done great mischief and ravage in the fields of Agobio and made a compact with him that henceforward he should devour or hurt no man but that the Inhabitants should provide him what was necessary to his livelyhood Upon a certain day the Devil tempted this Saint he makes his escape but the Devil after him and would have thrown him head-long from a Rock but the Rock split of it self in several places that he might be able to take fast hold with his hands Oftentimes the Devil tempted Brother Ruffinus but by the advice of St. Francis he one day spake thus to the Devil Aperiostuum stercorisabo in illud Open thy mouth and it shall serve me for a Closestool this frighted the Devil and away he goes in a mighty rage Brother Andrew of Annania had a mind to have some little Birds for his dinner he gets some to be roasted for him but when they were upon the table he bethinks himself and was ashamed of his being so delicate he therefore makes the sign of the Cross over the dish and dismisseth the little Birds away they fly as well as ever before they were taken and roasted Brother Antony preacht one day to the Fishes as S. Francis had done to the Birds these Fishes that we take to be a dull sort of Animales came all to the top of the Water and held up their Heads to listen to his Sermon and when he had done preaching some of 'em gave a loud cry of Approbation thus humming the preacher to the great dishonour of the proverb as mute as a Fish. When any sort of Animals were sick they had only to sprinkle them with a little of that water in which S. Francis did wash his wounds and they were presently Cured 'T was a rare Fellow this S. Francis 't is of him that the Legend saith nihil Christus fecit quod non ille fecit imò plura fecit quam Christus J. Christ did nothing but what St. Francis did as well as he yea much more was done by him than ever Jesus Christ did For certain J. Christ never did so many wonderful things as they ascribe to S. Francis If a Wall were crackt and ready to fall they needed only to thrust into the crevice a little of the Hair of this Saint and it proved more effectual than the best cement in the
run out in great quantity the patient would have been quickly dead But in favour of the Devout God did so multiply the Blood of Christ that at this day one may find as much as if made liquid would fill the veins of a hundred men and above They have also even the Tears of Christ Witness the Holy Tear at Vendome a very choice Relique For 't was necessary that a Devoto should be present at the nick of time and very dextrous to save a small drop of water which falls from the eye upon the cheek and is commonly lost After this we must not wonder that they have taken care to collect solid things as the Nails of the Cross there were but three but by the blessing of God the Latin Church hath fifteen of them besides the filings and little pieces of these Nails And perhaps who ever would make an exact search in the East would find as many there or more The Holy Thorns of the Crown that was put on our Saviours Head were planted in so fertile a Soyle that they are encreased a hundred for one The Gentlemen of Port-Royal who are no great Favorites of Holy Mother the Church have not withstandingly by some means gotten one of them which they order to be devoutly adored and which did abundance of Miracles in confirmation of Jansenism Monsieur the Bishop of Tournay a great Jansenist but an honest man dareth not assert that this very Thorn is one of our Saviours Crown But he hath found an expedient for this and concludeth that God worketh Miracles by false Reliques as well as by true ones Perhaps he speaks more truly than he is aware of for 't is certain that the Bone of some Rogue yea or of a Horse worketh more Miracles then the Reliques of Saint Paul. How can the Church complain that she wants Reliques of our Lord Jesus Christ since she hath his Cross which is the Glory of Christendom The Devoto's of the three first Centuries were very negligent in not seeking out this Cross and in suffering it to ly buryed under a heap of Earth and rubbish But St. Helena was very happy that the discovery of this pretious Treasure was reserved to her God hath so blessed her Endeavours that this Cross would at this day fill the whole Palace of this Princess were she still alive You have every where the wood of the true Cross all the world hath some and in certain places there are large pieces to be seen Besides this pretious Cross which had the honour to touch the bleeding Body of our Saviour they shew you at Rome the Manger where he was layd when he was born they have his Cradle his Swadling-bands his Shirt his Shoes the Altar of presentation on which he was layd when he was first brought to the Temple pieces of his Hankercheif some Fragment of his Sepulchre they have the Stone upon which he trod when he ascended into Heaven the print of his Foot is on it a certain proof that the story is true they have some of the Bread used at his last Supper and of that which he multiplyed for the five thousand they have some of the Wine which our Lord made at Cana in Galilee they have the Iron Head of the Lance of St. Longin who pierc'd his side his Seamless Coat is at Argenteuil at Triers and at St. Salvador in Spain They have his Hair the Parings of his Nails But they have but one of the Teeth which he cast in his Childhood it is at Laon. 'T was an unpardonable negligence of those honest Devoto's who went about to gather up the cuttings of his Hair why not rather take care to seek up 25. or 30. Teeth which he cast between the seventh and fourteenth year of his Age These might have been at this day the Treasures of so many Churches that should have had the honour of possessing them Shameful Idolatry as to Reliques In truth 't is impossible to speak of these things without passion a man must laugh or weep But alas there is far more cause to weep than to laugh at that which exposeth the Christian Religion to the just raillery of the Profane and Infidels and which is the object of the most horrible Superstition in the world I speak not now only to Papists I speak to Protestants The greatest part of them do not look on this with due abhorrence they do not sufficiently perceive that this is one of the great Abominations wherewith Popery hath defiled Christianity They think it enough to look on this Worship as a sottish Superstition But at the bottom 't is far worse 't is a shameful Idolatry They fall down they kiss they worship dead things Ashes Bones Linnen Toyes Excrements they carry these in Procession they expect rain and fair wheather from them they work Miracles by them This Church will never wash off these stains but by Fire these Nehustans must be broken in pieces and burnt in the Fire and she must be ashamed of her Idols Fabulous History of Images Images do naturally follow Reliques the Worship of the former is a great part of the Popish Devotion And this Worship is founded on fabulous Histories not less ridiculous than the preceding yea is much more so than the fabulous stories of the Pagan Images The Pagans have reported only of two or three of their Images that have spoken with an intelligible Voyce But among the Papists formerly nothing was more common than these speaking Images instances of this kind are very many One Crucisix spoke to S. Thomas Speaking Images and said to him Thomas thou hast written well concerning me what reward wilt thou have Another spoke to St. Brigit a third Crucifix made Responses at the Mass said by a Priest who had not a Clerk. An Image of our Lady spoke to St. Jacynthe a Polonian that he should save it from being burnt by some barbarous Souldiers who burnt every thing they found A certain Scotch Image used to speak and give answers as an Oracle At Affligen three Miles from Brussels there is a V. Mary which spoke Latin to St. Bernard At Bernarde vale But fareavel Bernard A Crucifix decided the Controversy that was in England between the Monks and Secular Priests the Priests desired to have Liberty again to marry a Crucifix that stood there cryed out Non Fiet non Fâ—et judicastis bene mutaretis male It shall not be c. Another Crucifix spoke to St. Francis and said to him Go and build up my House There was one day a long dispute between a Stone Statue of the Virgin and a little one of Jesus Christ which she held in her Armes The Virgin had a mind to shew mency to a Penitent who lay there before them The little Image of Christ was against it in conclusion the Virgin got the better because she was the Mother and her Statue was bigger than that of her Son. The Pagans to procure veneration to some
who writing in a Country of Liberty styleth it the Pitiful Book of F. Crasset For one man who dareth to censure the Impieties of this Book there are numberless multitudes who canonise it and we see in the Instance of the Bishop of Agen and his carriage towards the Monk who preached at Duras at that rate which we related above how those who disapprove the fabulous Theology of the Monks are notwithstanding obliged to treat them with civility even in the places where they have a Jurisdicton over ' em Are not every day such kind of Books printed even under the Nose of the Bishops And are there not modern Saints which exactly resemble the antient ones Witness St. Mary of the Valleys whose life F. Eude hath written and cryed up her Sanctity Witness Magdelen Vigneron whose life written by F. Bourdin in the year 1678. and approved by the Chancellor of the University of Paris and the gravest Doctors contains all the Follies and impieties of the most fabulous Legends Popery is founded on the Fables of the Legends Lastly 't is replyed that we ought not to stumble the ordinary people with the Lying Histories of Popery because that Religion is not founded on ' em Take away all these will they say and 't will not be less true that men ought to adore the B. Virgin invoke the Saints worship the Cross Images and Holy Reliques because these Services are founded on the Authority of the Church I answer 'T is false that these fabulous Histories are not the Foundation of the false Worship and Idolatries of the Papacy This Spirit of Lying and Superstition begun in the Church exactly at the same time The People could never have been perswaded to worship Ashes and Bones if they had not been perswaded that these Reliques did work Miracles The people had never been brought to these wicked Services that make the Virgin Mary equal to Christ if they had not been disposed to them by the high-sounding Fables concerning the Miracles of her Conception her Birth her Life and her Assumtion The Worship of Saints could never have come to that prodigious excess as it now is without the assistance of Monks of their Legends their Cheats their false Miracles and their Fables So that we may say to these refin'd Papists that which St. Augustin said to the Pagans about Cicero This wise Pagan did himself turn into ridicule the Fables and Theology of the Poets yea accused the Poets that they had made such to be Gods who could not have been reckon'd among honest men if they had been men Many of the Heathens made use of this sentiment and driven to it by the Christians condemn'd their own Theology as foolish and impertinent pretending that their Religion was not founded on it But St. Augustin lets 'em see how weak this Entrenchment was and how Pitiful and false this Excuse was And proves particularly to 'em that all their Services the Mysteries of Ceres of Bacchus and Vesta their solemn Playes and in a manner all their practical Religion were built upon the Poets Fables and referr'd to ' em The case of Popery is the very same at this day the wise Papists reject the Romance of the Virgin Mary but notwithstanding their Devotion towards the Virgin the Festivals of her Conception of her Nativity of her Assumtion are founded on these Fables All the Titles which they bestow on her all the Prayers that they address to her all the Offices that they assign to her refer to her fabulous History CHAP. XXIII The Twelfth Character of Antichristianism that fitteth the Papacy is Cruelty and Shedding of Blood. 'T Is past all doubt that Antichrist must be a furious Beast and Antichristianism a cruel and persecuting Empire This Character is joyn'd with the preceding The two principal Characters of the Devil are a Lyar and a Murtherer our Lord Jesus Christ saith that he was such from the beginning Now seeing Antichristianism is the Master-piece of this Murthering and Lying Spirit it must be stampt with this impression of its Author This was layd down in the Prediction V. 1. And I saw a Beast rising up out of the Sea Apoc. 13. having Seven Heads and Ten Horns c. V. 2. And the Beast which I saw was like unto a Leopard and his Feet were as the Feet of a Bear and his Mouth as the Mouth of a Lyon. These are three most ravenous and destroying Beasts The Leopard overtakes his Prey with the greatest swiftness the Bear holds it fast and never lets it go the Lyon is the strongest Beast and whose Teeth are most terrible The Mouth of Antichrist is to be the Mouth of a Lyon always dyed red with Blood. V. 7. And it was given to him to make War with the Saints and to overcome them c. V. 15. And he had power to give life to the Image of the Beast and cause that as many as would not worship the Image of the Beast should be kill'd V. 6. And I saw the Woman drunken with the Blood of the Saints Chap 17. and with the Blood of the Martyrs of Jesus V. 24. And in her was found the Blood of Prophets Chap. 18. and of Saints and of all that were slain on the Earth V. 6. For they have shed the Blood of Saints Chap. 16. and Prophets and thou hast given them Blood to drink for they are worthy Behold one of the principal Lineaments of Antichristianism let us see if there be a Kingdom on Earth to which this doth agree better than to the Papacy It is a Lyar like its Father it is a Source of Fables It is not less a Murtherer The Antichristian Idolatry began about the end of the fourth Century and the beginning of the fifth 'T was also exactly at the same time that the Church began to lose the characters of Gentleness Clemency and Patience which are the Characters of the Gospel and turn'd Persecutor She had always been persecuted and had always condemn'd Persecution yet she had contrary to her own principles begun to persecute the Donatists But when Antichristianism which then was only in the bud was come to its full shape 't was then that its Persecuting spirit did fully discover itself I mean in the Wars between the Image-worshippers and the Image-breakers The Image-worshippers opposed the Orders of their Emperors who had a mind to banish this Abomination out of the Church This resistance forced the Emperors to exercise some Severities on the Idolatrous party But when Idolatry had got into power it retaliated its Enemies double The Image-worshippers made all Italy and the rest of the Western Provinces to cast off their Allegiance to the Emperors and in the East they kill'd and massacred all who would not conform to ' em Irene the Mother of Constantin put out the Ey 's of her own Son and after put him to death that she might reign alone Theodora another Empress who made the worship
that such a bright Light should shine forth in so dark a night to shame those of after-ages who should Idolize this Antichristian Power 'T is a great reproach to the Princes of our days that they see not that which was so plainly seen by their predecessors in an age of ignorance and of superstition After this Passage I shall mention no other because I can produce none so good That light was not extinguisht but continued and increast till it broke forth with a more than ordinary lustre in the beginning of the last Century This famous passage of Eberard is as the Text to which every thing ought to be referred that hath since or then been said by others for instance the remarkable passage of Honorius of Autun who in the same age passing thro all the orders and degrees of people in the Church Princes Judges Ecclesiasticks Priests Men Women c. discovers the marks of Babylon every where even in his time In the same Age William de St. Amour a Parisian Doctor disputing against the Mendicant Friars the creatures of the Pope and the Court of Rome makes no scruple to say and prove that they are the Ministers of Antichrist and serve the Beast which hath seven heads and ten horns In the fourteenth Century Marsilius of Padua who vindicated the Emperor Lowis of Bavaria against the Court of Rome and the famous Petrarque whose reputation is to this day so considerable in the Roman Church have plainly proved by the very same predictions which we make use of in our time and Eberard the Bishop of Saltsbourg did in his that the Court of Rome is the Kingdom of Antichrist An Historian of that age tells us that a certain Carmelite had the courage to paint the Court of Rome and its Cardinals with all the colours of the Beast and of the Whore in the Apocalypse it was written to the Pope himself and affixt on the most publick places of Rome and Avignon You may see these Testimonies cited in our Legall Exceptions with those of S. Brigit of Nicholas of Clemangis Gregory of Heymbourg and many others So that we may say this light hath from age to age been diffused in all places men have allways either foreseen or seen it that Rome is the seat of Antichrist and that the Bishop of Rome who calls himself the Prince of Priests is the Man of Sin and the Apocalyptical Beast I here conclude what I intended to say to prove the Papacy to be Antichristianism and I repeat what I have said in other places that they who endeavour to darken this Truth are criminal against Christianity it self and they who see it not are prodigiously blind and stupid No wonder if Grotius and such as he be of that number these Gentlemen seem to design to overturn the Holy Scriptures and the Christian Religion Ought we to think it strange that those men who can find the Prophet Jeremy instead of Jesus Christ in the 53 Chapter of Isaiah cannot find the Pope in the book of the Revelations or in the Prophesies of Daniel I have said it elsewhere and I say it again that they who cannot discern the Pope in the Prophesies of the New Testament will never be able to find our Messiah in the predictions of the Old. Experience confirms this for the same men who exclude the Papacy from being intended in the Apocalypse do exclude Jesus Christ from almost all the Prophesies and Types of the Old Testament I would fain know how any man can make it out to a Jew that Jesus is the Messiah if he yeilds to him that all that which is spoken of the Passion of Christ in the 53. Isaiah may be applied to the Persecutions and sufferings which the Prophet Jeremy endur'd Where are there any Prophecies that may not as easily be turned to another sense as those If it be granted that he saith nothing for our opinion in this point shall any wonder that we are offended at so learned a man Who can with any justice complain of it since we have so much reason to complain of him who hath as much as he could by his Commentaries taken from us the strongest Arguments we had to confute both the Jews and Socinians He is the Patriarch and the Master of those Literal Interpreters of our days who undervalue all the Mysteries of the Bible and destroy the very Spirit and Spirituality of the Holy Scriptures Because they have taken some pains to discover some parts of Jewish or Pagan learning that their labors may not be lost all the Sacred Texts of the Old or New Testament must be understood with a relation to some Pagan rites or some Customs of the Synagogue and have nothing in 'em of spirit Mystery or depth Every one of these Gentlemen hath his own Idol one of 'em finds that the Gnosticks began to discover themselves in the time of the Apostles and for that reason we must meet with the Gnosticks in all the Apostolical Writings Another hath studied the Egyptian Antiquities and to prove that his time was well imploy'd we must find some of the Egyptian Rites in all the Mosaick Institutions Another believes he hath good Skill in the Traditions of the Jews and therefore the most spiritual part of the New Testament must be interpreted with respect to some of the Dreams and Fancies of the modern Jews We know very well that this sort of Learning Jewish and Pagan is not unuseful for the understanding of some part of Scripture but 't is in such places where some Heathenish Customs are treated of or in Historical matters But by going too far this way much mischief is done to Religion we shall soon abolish all the Types and destroy the Spirituality of the Law and make nothing to be contained in it but a bare Superficies We nevertheless respect and honour the learning and merit of the men we speak of but it were to be wish't that they had better imployed their parts and learning and we hope that they themselves will at length be sensible of it and perceive that their writings are not at all to edification However far be it from us to impute the particular Errors and Fancies of some few to any of the Protestant Churches to which they join themselves we know of no Christian Church in the West except the Church of Rome that doth not discern the Papacy to be the Antichristianism that is Prophetically described in the New Testament Therefore let it not be said that such or such a Church is not of this opinion for the sentiments of a few particular men here and there are not the Sentiments of the Church in which they live We must seek for those in their Confessions of Faith and the Annotations of the Bible authoriz'd by the Laws Now among all the Reformed Churches there is none we are so much obliged to for the discovery of the Mystery of Iniquity as to that 〈◊〉 England The most
Roman Empire reviving under a new Form and under the name of the Roman Church it being still future and yet to begin he was to give us the History of its growth as well as of its decay which as we shall see he hath also done 5. The Prophet then considering the whole continuance of the Roman Empire as well with respect to that which remained of it as Pagan as in reference to that which was to rise and subsist under the Name of the Roman Church to the time of the arrival of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ he doth divide it first into Seven Seals And under the six first Seals he predicts all that should befal it under the Heathen Emperors till the time of Constantin's overthrowing Paganism and his advancing the Christian Religion to the Throne 6. Now this Revolution having made a great change on the stage of the World the Holy Spirit therefore makes a stop here and suffers the Roman Empire now become Christian to enjoy a little Rest while the Successors to Constantine should finish the subversion of Paganism And then the seventh Seal is opened which being subdivided into seven Trumpets these Trumpets run along with and divide the whole remaining duration of the Roman Empire as well Civil as Ecclesiastical Whereof the six first Trumpets reach unto the tenth Age and bring forth six Plagues that afflict overthrow and totally destroy the Worldly or Civil Roman Empire These Plagues are 1 The Inundation of the Empire by the Barbarous Nations under Theodosius the younger 2. The taking and desolating of Rome and Italy and almost all the Western Provinces under Honorius and Alaricus 3. The Invasion of the Provinces by the Goths Huns and Vandals and their erecting several Kingdoms in Spain Africk upon the Rhosne and in Panonia 4. The fourth Plague was the total destruction of the Western Roman Empire under Valentinian by Gensericus King of the Vandals in Africk 5. The fifth Plague is the Rise of the Sarrasin Empire which destroyed the Roman Empire in the East 6. Lastly the sixth of the first Plagues is the Empire of the Turks which wholly subverted and overthrew the Oriental Roman Empire 7. Now while the providence of God was destroying the Grecian Empire under the fifth and sixth Trumpets the Roman Empire revived in the West under the Name of the Roman Church The Beast with two Horns exerciseth all the power of the first Beast he makes an Image resembling the first Empire he makes it to be worshipped he worketh Signs and Wonders causeth Fire to come down from Heaven and deceiveth the Inhabitants of the Earth He giveth life to this Image of the Beast causeth it to speak and maketh this Image of the Roman Empire which he re-established under the name of the Roman Church to act with power and efficacy So that he causeth all those to be killed that will not yield a homage to this Image of the Empire And he will have all the Inhabitants of the Earth to bear his Name and his Mark and his Number and that they call themselves Members of the Roman Latine Church And this contains the History both of the Birth and of the Progress of this new Empire under the fifth Trumpet and under the beginning of the sixth 8. The sixth Trumpet having brought the Worldly Roman Empire to its final Ruin there remains nothing more for it to do with respect to that and therefore it is that it comes to be subdivided into 7. Vials which are designed for the ruining of the Roman Empire as Ecclesiastical And these Vials do precisely begin at the sounding and at the beginning of the 6th Trumpet Which Trumpet runs paralel with and reacheth unto the last and universal destruction of the Ecclesiastical Roman Empire until the manifestation of the Kingdom of J. Christ having under it the seven Vials Now the seven Trumpets and the seven Vials do signify seven Periods of Time according as the seven Seals of the Book do The Seals denote Periods of Time by vertu of an Allusion to Tables and to Chronological and Historical Books wherein Times are marked The Trumpets intimate Periods of Time by an Allusion to Iubiles which by the Law of Moses were to be opened and proclaimed by the sound of a Trumpet And from thence Iubile comes being derived from Iovel which signifieth a Hunters Horn or Trumpet These Iubiles falling out every fiftieth year and these Periods of Time being published by the sound of a Trumpet it becometh thence a very natural figure for the pen of a Iew such as St. Iohn was to express Periods of Time by Trumpets Finally the Vials which are poured forth signify Hour-glasses seeing at the season when S. Iohn wrote Hour-glasses were nothing but Vials full of Water having a narrow and strait mouth which was turned downward So that this Figure is also clear and intelligible And the reason why the Holy Spirit useth these three different Images of Seals Trumpets and Vials for the designation of Times is that he may thereby avoid confusion It being evident that if he had all along used only one of these Figures there would have been much more obscurity and less distinction in the Intimation which he gives of Times Carrying then the remembrance of this with us the first Seal beginneth at the Time of S. Iohn and the seventh Seal openeth and commenceth after the death of Theodosius the Great and comprehendeth thirteen Plagues which are contained under the sounding of six Trumpets and under the Effusion of seven Vials â—â—x Plagues under six Trumpets which destroy the Roman Empire as worldly and purely Temporal The sixth Trumpet is subdivided into seven Vials as the seventh Seal was into seven Trumpets And these seven Vials are the seven last Plagues which bring the second Period of the Roman Empire that is to say the Empire of the Church to its end as the six Trumpets had brought the worldly Roman Empire to its end I would now after this think that no man should find any difficulty in the objections of these Gentlemen and that every one should easily comprehend why the Vials and the plagues which continue near eight hundred years come to be called the last They are thus stiled 1 because they serve to distress and ruin the second and last period of the Roman Empire which carries the name of the Roman Church whereas the six first plagues were employed for the ruining of the first Period of the Roman worldly Empire and which still retains the name of the Roman Empire 2 Because these seven Plagues did really in the order of Time follow the six first and all successively fell the six first as well as the seven last upon one and the same Empire upon one and the same Beast in their two Periods So that by reason of the relation of the one to the other they ought to be stiled the first and the last Finally they are called the last plagues because