her shame and disgrace as the Antiquity of a Noble Family is a reproach to a degenerated Son I have found that the Authority which she claims hath no other foundation nor beginning but the pride and tyranny of such Popes as have succeeded Gregory the Great for neither he nor any of his Predecessors have ever thought it lawful for them to challenge or pretend to an universal Dominion or Authority in the Church I have found this Succession which is said to be without interruption to be an abyss where the most learned Historians lose themselves they can find no sure footing so that they themselves are forced to confess that they flote upon the waves of a Sea subject to calms and tempests to ebbing and flowing if I may make use of their own expressions Sometimes they see this Ship of St. Peter without Helm or Pilot overwhelmed with the billows without hope of a recovery or expectation of salvation for such as are there imbarqued I have found that the Holiness wherewith this Church was adorned under the Conduct of its ancient Bishops is at present much degenerated an universal corruption hath spread it self into all the Members of this politick Body so that where grace did formerly abound there at present sin and heresie abound to the shame and disgrace of Christianity This I have found as soon as I could open my eyes to take notice of such matters without prejudice or partiality which we must banish from us if we will give a true judgment This I have learned in the study of Holy Scripture in the reading of the ancient Fathers of the Church and from the Records of Antiquity without the assistance of Protestant Books or any information from Ministers § Antiquity hath always had a Command over the minds and judgments of men We look commonly with a great deal of reverence and respect upon a head which time hath loaden with gray hairs and which discovers the number of its years by the many wrinkles of its face we see many times the ruins of an old Dwelling encompassed about with a few rotten Oaks is more looked upon than the noblest Palaces reared up according to the newest and most regular form of Art a Brass Medal shall be more esteemed than ten others of a more precious Metal if it can but shew forth the Image and Name of some ancient Monarch or of a Conquerour of former Ages This respect which Nature and Custome discover for things of a long continuance is not disagreeable to the directions of Moral and of Christian Policy We are to have more esteem for a State that hath subsisted a thousand years than for another that hath continued but one or two hundred and we are advised to have most regard for that Religion which can produce the ancientest Records and prove its establishment to be the first This hath always been my judgment As therefore I did look upon the Church of Rome as the most ancient as that which had been founded by the Apostle St. Peter as the Romanists would perswade us I have for a long while entertained the greatest esteem for her and judged such as were not agreeable to her Principles to be but hasty productions of Nature in comparison of an ancient Tree or as Bastards in comparison of the Child well born I did wonder how men could harbour any other thoughts My Mind being thus filled with partiality for my ancient Religion I could not imagin how any man of wit and ability without being grievously blinded could embrace any other I did oft-times argue with my self in this manner Is it possible that there should be some men so silly and ridiculous to prefer a Religion which we have seen in its Cradle to another which hath continued sixteen hundred years a Church formed by the wit of Calvin and Beza and some others to that which Christ and His Holy Apostles have established c. Thus it is saith Lactantius in his Book of the Rise of Errour l. 2. c. 7. Thus Antiquity commands the judgments of men Its authority is so great that we look upon it as a crime to inquire into the qualities of that which is ancient and to question its rights credit is given to it at the first sight as to a most known truth In the same manner saith that Author l. 2. c. 8. some imprudently neglect the advice of wisdom approving without any examination the inventions of their forefathers suffering themselves to be lead as beasts whithersoever others please and not whither they should go In this manner they are deceived and are willing to be so by taking for the rule of their faith the belief of their forefathers out of a strong conceit that they cannot be wiser than they were before because they have succeeded them and that it is not probable that they were deceived seeing that they have preceded them and are named their ancestors These words of this wise man and some passages of others made me think that it was not so great a crime as is declared in the Church of Rome to examin the Antiquity of the Religion of our Forefathers and to consider from whence it proceeds whither it tends what it hath been what it should be what are its Priviledges Duties Doctrine Laws Conduct if that which is professed to day be the same as that of yesterday that of this age be like to that of the first times or whether it be not differing or a strange Bastard put into the room of the true Child whether it hath not robb'd the lawful Heiress of her Titles of Honour usurped her Rights by counterfeit Letters seised upon her Demesnes driven her from her Inheritance banished her out of her Dominion by a disguise under the most beautiful habits and whether by this means the Romish Church hath not seated her self in the seat of the lawful to procure unto her self a greater esteem amongst men who have so much respect for things that appear with a grave and ancient countenance I have seriously examined these things I have sought for the Rights and Titles of the Church of Rome amongst its pretended Ancestors Christ St. Peter and St. Paul who have been saith she my Founders and Apostles I have read over the Priviledges that they ascribe to her and the Duties that they require from her that which she hath received from them and that which they command her to have the language which they teach her and the Laws that they have given her and how they behaved themselves that succeeded immediately after her first Founders When I had thus compared the one with the other the present Rome with the ancient the World that is now with that which was the Children with the Father that which is believed and preached at present with that which was believed and preached heretofore that which was practised and that which is now done that which is seen with that which was anciently I have found after a
serious examination of all these things that there can be nothing more contrary than these two things the ancient Christian Rome and that which appears now the Church then with the modern the Faith and Christian Religion under the Popes Government with that Faith and Religion which the Romans first embraced and professed a long whiles under the Teachers and Bishops which the Apostles left them Let any man read over the Gospel and the Records of the Primitive Christians since the time of the Apostles until the fourth or fifth Centuries to seek what Church Jesus Christ established upon the unmoveable foundation of His Word and Merits let him take notice of that which St. Luke describes better with his Pen than with his skilful Pencil of that which all the approved Writers of the Ecclesiastical Affairs immediately succeeding do represent unto us which professed no other belief but in Jesus Christ which had rejected an Angel from Heaven if he had preached any other Doctrine but that which is contained in the Holy Gospel and in the other Books of Sacred Scripture This Church acknowledged no other but Christ looked upon such as named themselves of Apollo's Party of Peter's or Paul's as so many Sectaries and allowed of no other Judge of Controversies and Governour but Jesus Christ Call but to mind all that you have ever read or heard of this Church since its beginning until the time of the Bishop of Rome's usurpation of the Sovereign Power under the name of Pope and compare that Church of Rome with this in our days examine the Tenents Maxims Laws Behaviour and Customs of both and you will be forced to confess that they are not the same but two Churches as much differing the one from the other as the day from the night We must not therefore mention the Antiquity of this Church but as of a languishing and decayed Body we may say she is ancient in the same manner as we say of women that shamefully yield themselves to pleasure in their old age whilst they were young chast and beautiful they were worthily esteemed and admired of every one but since age and lechery time and debauchery seises upon them they become so strangely altered that they seem not to be the same persons We must look upon the Church of Rome in this manner She is no longer that beautiful Wonder that ravishing Spouse whose Picture Solomon labours to draw in chap. 4. of the Canticles but an old Whore the Mother of fornications and abominations of the earth mentioned by St. John Revel chap. 17. She is old I confess like unto those old Palaces which time and want of repair have brought to ruin I may express this by another resemblance She is ancient as are the old Bodies infected with Leprosie and abounding with vicious humours which putrefie the older they grow and corrupt the more with age the continuance of the disease having so changed their constitution that they are not to be known by the former idea's of their persons In this manner the Romish Church may be said to be ancient Antiquity doth but discover her shame reveal her Apostacy and declare her grievous Corruptions Let us say something more to the purpose Men are known by their speech the home-born Inhabitants of a Country are distinguishable from strangers by their language and pronunciation I desire no more to shew that the Church of Rome is not the true Church of Christ and that the present Church is not the same as that which was first established Listen to the language of both and you shall find a vast difference hearken to the Popes language and to that of Jesus Christ to what the one commands and the other forbids to what the first affirms and the latter denies to what Christ with his Apostles preach and the Pope with his Doctors declare and publish We need but read the Holy Gospel and the Decretals of Rome the Scripture and the Canons of the Council of Trent the Books of the ancient Fathers and the Belief of the Jesuits and of modern Authors to understand that the Church which stiles her self Christian Catholick Apostolick and Roman is nothing of all that and deserves none of those glorious Titles for she is neither Christian nor Catholick nor Apostolick nor Roman if we take the Roman Church for what she was anciently She cannot be properly named Christian because she acknowledgeth another Lord and Superiour besides Jesus Christ and denies Him to be the only Saviour of Men ascribing this honour to the Virgin Mary and others by saying that she may and doth save many by her interceding for them that the Pope is able to do the like by pardoning their sins and granting unto them his Indulgences and that they themselves may contribute to their own salvation by their good works c. She is not Catholick in that sense which the Romanists give to this word because she preaches a Doctrine not agreeable to that which God hath revealed to us by His Son and Ministers and prefers her own Traditions before the Oracles of the Holy Scripture because she invents many superstitious Laws which occasion grievous sins She is not Roman like unto that Church which was anciently so called for besides that primitive Church as we shall further take notice never did claim an universal Dominion for she did acknowledge the Churches of Antioch Alexandria and of Jerusalem and others to be her equals in all respects therefore her Bishops never believed themselves to be their superiours but their brethren and companions The Christians of those days understood nothing of Indulgences of Fraternities of Holy-water of Consecrated Crums of Relicks and Repositories of Medals and Beads and other such like Baubles in which the Church of Rome placeth the Holiness of Christianity They knew nothing of Holy Bread kept in little Tabernacles to be there worshipped they never had in their Churches Images like to those of Rome as may appear by the words of Epiphanius who lived in the fourth Century and writ to John the Patriarch of Jerusalem an Epistle which St. Jerome hath translated into Latin and therefore declares the Judgment of those two Eminent Persons In this Epistle he saith that when he went into a Church situate in a Country Village he perceived upon the door a veil where there was an Image to be seen therefore he caused it to be taken down and to be torn in pieces for saith he by this means men may introduce Idolatry amongst Christians By this passage we may understand that the Worship of Images was a strange thing in that Age as other Historians and after them Baronius are forced to confess Christians of those days did rather chuse to be burned alive and tormented than to suffer the least grain of Incense to fall from their hands into that fire which was intended to burn it in honour of an Image or Idol which they were required to worship Those wise and couragious Christians did
about ten or twelve foot high which they baptize by the name of St. Saviour now this Saint distinguishable from their other petty Saints by his great stature and large bulk is worshipped by them for the preservation of Corn and of the Vines from the cold and frost for the curing of their Cows of a disease called the Swelling and for the healing of the Horses of the distemper named the Staggers this Saint is prayed to for to keep their Sheep from the Rot their Bees from dying and their Lambs from the fury of the Wolves c. Therefore on his Festival-day at Nantes and at Tours and other places where these great Images are erected you might see an infinit number of Pilgrims of all ages conditions and estates bringing their gifts to these Statues one brings thred another wool this man corn another butter and some sucking pigs or pieces of bacon others bring grapes or pots of honey or other commodities but all bring wax-tapers to burn all the while that Mass is saying at his Altar all come with money or some other thing so that about the Altar of this good Saint at such a Solemnity you may find coffers full of wheat barrels filled up with butter tables loaden with great pieces of meat and such a prodigious number of little wax candles that one time when I had the charge to gather up the remains which the people did cast yet lighted at the foot of the Statue although each end of the candle was so short that I could not hold it in my hand any longer I gathered up in five hours full threescore and ten pounds of wax It may be that some ingenious Papists will turn all this to the advantage of their Church as they do the other abuses and abominations committed in it They will say that this is an expression of the wonderful Faith of their people therefore they are apt to blame a Religion where they cannot spy so much Zeal amongst the Professors and accuse it as if she had neither Faith nor Devotion But we may very well suffer them to speak in their own defence for this is a most palpable Idolatry the Heathens were never guilty of so much I do not think that it is possible to do more to Jesus Christ if he did return into the world But I may say they are to be excused if they entertain their people in these Idolatries for a thousand Crowns which they receive in one day by the credit of one of these Images may satisfie for a mortal Sin and free them from the penalty that it deserves There is but one thing more required to make them perfectly like to the Heathenish Idolaters which is to have an universal Idol proper to represent several Saints which might serve in many Festivals The Emperor Trajan had an Idol of this nature he had a golden head of an Idol kept secretly in his Closet which he caused to be put upon the body of the Statues that he had a mind to worship in this manner he did take off the head of his Gods as he thought fitting I have seen amongst the Papists something like to this in a little Town of Britany in the Bishoprick of Vannes if it were not for the respect that I bear to some persons concerned I would name all the circumstances which I shall be forced to do and many other things that I now conceal I shall declare to the World if any offers to accuse me of lying and falshood in that place I have seen a mutable Saint carried up and down wearing several apparels according to the peoples devotion it was the Image of St. Maurice who was prayed unto in his day that he might heal the sucking Babes of a disease called by the Countrey-people Carrel a benumming disease or the Rickets On St. Giles's day they carried the Image to another place and of a Bishop that it was before they made it an Abbot cloathing it accordingly and seeking unto it for another distemper called the Disease of St. Giles On St. Yves's day they chang'd his Abbot's attire into that of a Lawyer they put a corner-cap upon the Image's head and a bag full of Writings in its hand instead of a Croche in this manner it continued to be St. Yves until another Festival-day and the people did pray unto it not only to get the better of their Suits in Law but also that St. Yves might kill and destroy such as were thought to be the authors and inventers of calumnies cast upon them For the Papists there when they are injured by any slanderous discourse or by another they summon the supposed offendor to appear before St. Yves within a year for they confidently believe that he that hath done the wrong shall surely dye before the limited time Let any man judge if it be likely that a Saint should destroy a man for a trifle We may from hence perceive what grievous abuses errors superstitions and mistakes reign in the Church of Rome There is therefore no difference between this Church and the Heathens I relate not here the follies and abominations that have been heretofore practised but these that are now visible I intend not to recollect the passages of the time past but only to make mention of the present I speak not by hear-say but that which I have often seen to my unspeakable grief and confusion because I was in reason forced to condemn a Religion which I was engaged to support and maintain and to preach up a Worship which I knew in my soul to be pure Idolatry I did often wish that the Papists would but confine themselves to the limits of Reason in their Zeal and Devotion for these petty Saints and would have shewn more to St. Peter St. Paul or to the other Apostles but they are not so much esteemed because they are not in such reputation for their Miracles I did often observe their Churches forlorn their Images without ornaments all covered with dust and the Spiders hanging by their lips and noses I did not see so many sacks full of wax so many arms legs dugs of silver and of gold crutches hoods shirts and garments of little Children hung up in their Chappels as are round about the Churches of these Saints so much in vogue for their pretended Miracles The Festivals of those great Saints unto whom we are next unto Christ most obliged for our Religion are celebrated with little or no solemnity there are no more Chappels built for their sakes and such as are erected are decaying every day they are put out of their places and grow out of credit and other new Saints put in as I took notice their Images are cast behind the Church doors amongst the sweepings and lie along with the besoms because they cannot get their expences their Chappels and Altars cost more to keep them than they bring profit whereas if it be but generally credited that the rotten Image of a little
reason to be afraid of this kind of persecution I mean of their Tongues for I may say I have lived amongst them without blame as may be conjectured from the considerable Employments which I have had in the Church of Rome for their Bishops never admit a person into their Cathedrals to preach unless they know him to be of an honest and good behaviour And the Religious of that Order of which I have made profession the Carmelites which doubtless is one of the most exemplary of the Romish Church if these had not had a good opinion of me they would never have promoted me to that degree of honour amongst them which I have held having been three times the Priors Deputy in the same Convent which Office is given to none but to such as are very regular and exemplary in their lives It is therefore needless that any person should trouble himself with an inquiry for the place from whence I came and of my carriage while I have remained in the Church of Rome to discredit this little Book I am not afraid in the least of any such thing I am rather fully perswaded that there is no man in those Towns where I have made my abode nor in the Convents where I have dwelt but will give me the reputation of an honest and just man blameless in my carriage until now as much as is possible in case the change of my Religion be concealed from them I think therefore that thou hadst best peruse this Treatise with a calm and unprejudiced mind that thou may'st be better able to judge of the things therein declared and gather from thence the instructions needful to undeceive thy judgment if thou art yet in the same errours as I have been Those that will read over these lines with that good disposition will approve of my change and of this publication and will be constrained to confess that there are causes and reasons strong enough to oblige any man to forsake the Romish Church and embrace the Profession of the Protestant Religion The Prayer before Sermon O Lord God infinite in goodness and mercy who hast by the gracious hand of thy divine Providence taken and lead me as Abram out of the superstitious Ur of the Caldeans as Lot out of the filthy flames of Sodom and Gomorrha as Israel out of the bondage and tyranny of Egypt as Joseph from his dungeon as Daniel out of the Lions den and as the blind Man of the Gospel out of that fearful blindness which hath since my infancy hindred me from the discovery and acknowledgment of thy Sacred Truth O God who hast preserved me from all perils and conducted me safe out of the hands of enemies with thy powerful and stretched out Arm here I am prostrate at the foot-stool of thy Divine Majesty convinced in judgment with a contrite and an humble spirit here I am in the midst of thy Elect of thy Royal Priesthood of thy Holy Nation of thy People purchased with thy Blood in the midst of Believers not with an intention to offer up unto thee their prayers for I am not worthy of so holy a Ministry my Tongue is not yet able to speak so loud as their sighs and my Lips are too much defiled but I am here to beseech Thee O'Searcher of the Heart to hearken to their vows and the prayers of their Souls for the advance of thy Glory the accomplishment and preservation of thy Church especially for this which worships Thee in spirit and in truth in these three Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland for the prosperity of the King that Commands here for his Spouse Queen Catherine for James Duke of York and for all the Royal Family for the Arch-bishops Bishops and other Teachers of thy Church that it may please Thee to enlighten them with the Spirit of thy Truth and enflame them with an holy zeal for the Salvation of Souls for the Lords and others of the Kings Council for the Magistrates and other Inhabitants of these three Kingdoms that it may please Thee to supply and succour them in all their wants whether they be spiritual or corporal But more especially we pray Thee for all such as are yet engaged and plunged in errour take them out of the same depths of sin from whence Thou hast drawn me open their eyes whether they will or no that they may perceive the truth of thy Gospel open their hearts by the divine power of thy Holy Spirit that thy Blessed Word may be received as in a good and fruitful field that it may bring forth an hundred fold In this occasion be pleased to accept of my prayers with thy peoples for I know by experience that Thou alone art able to turn and convince a Soul brought up in errour and change a heart nourished from its infancy with an abhorrency of thy Holy Word Therefore I pray Thee or rather we all pray Thee together to open the eyes of so many blind persons whom I leave behind me in the regions of darkness and touch with the efficacious finger of thy Holy Spirit so many stony hearts that resist the motions and offers of thy Grace with so much obstinacy Lord Thou hast performed in me a blessed change for which I offer up unto Thee my hearty thanks and praises beseeching Thee to pardon my unworthiness and graciously to accept of the thanks which thy faithful people here assembled do render unto Thee for my sake But O merciful God at this same time that I find my self obliged to offer unto Thee my thanks for a favour received from thy hand I find my self in a necessity to beg another favour and mercy of granting unto me the power and ability to declare unto this numerous Congregation the great mercy that Thou hast shewed me by bringing me to my Conversion I am desired O my God! it is but just that I should give glory to thy Holy Name Justice and Reason require that I should declare thy Goodness where iniquity hath so long appeared with impudency that I should employ the members which have been abused in warring against Thee to discover thy wonderful mercy in me these lips this tongue and this voice which hath uttered so many lyes and errours against the light and suggestions of thy Holy Spirit these members that have declared so many falshoods preached up so many abuses confirmed so many blasphemies committed and caused so many sins to be committed it is just that they should glorifie thy Holy Name Forgive O my God! forgive me the sin of having so long detained thy truth in unrighteousness against my conscience and thy secret motions Grant me the grace that I may this day be able to make an honourable amends that I may give the same testimony to thy Blessed Truth which I have given to Heresie and that I may bring forth fruits suitable to my repentance For this purpose O good God purifie my unclean lips touch them with a
coal from thine Altar clense this tongue yet venomous which hath so often conveyed a poison into many hearts inflame it with some of those cloven tongues of fire which lighted upon thy Holy Apostles and which caused them to be no more dumb but eloquent Change the accent of this voice which hath been heard in the Pulpits of the Romish Religion make it never to be heard any more in vindication of errour and that it may never accent and pronounce any thing but that which is altogether conformable to thy Word These are the petitions that I now present unto Thee O good God especially at this time beseeching Thee also so to prepare the ears and hearts of my Hearers that they may be the better by my discourse more confirmed and settled in their Faith and more resolved in an obedience to Thee These mercies we beseech Thee to grant us O merciful God by the merits and only mediation of Jesus Christ in whose Blessed Name we continue to pray unto Thee as He Himself hath taught us Our Father which art in Heaven c. ROM 5. vers 20. Where sin abounded grace did much more abound HEre I am my Brethren in this Pulpit to acquaint you at present with the causes of that which you have seen me do this morning I am here to express unto you a repentance suitable to the hainousness of my sins by a publick abjuration of those grievous errours which I have formerly professed in the Church of Rome that I might shew forth the accomplishment of this holy Oracle pronounced by St. Paul Where sin abounded grace did much more abound You may be fully perswaded my Brethren that Gods grace hath obliged and constrained me to what I have done for my Change of Religion proceeds not from the unconstancy of my mind I have done nothing suddenly I have been seven years in a continual deliberation struggling with my self convinced in my judgment but could never resolve until now You must not therefore look upon my alteration as the effect of some calamity or the consequence of an unworthy behaviour or a disgrace I never wanted bread I have always had too much at command and have ever met with more happiness in my undertakings than I could expect Neither is this Change the product of any miscarriage no blessed be God I am not ashamed of any thing that I have done those Honourable Persons unto whom I have been recommended in this place may bear witness from the information of such as are worthy of credit The greatest crime that I have committed is that which I have been guilty of this day by forsaking a superstitious Religion and embracing a purer by leaving the broad road to Hell and turning into that of Heaven God out of his infinite goodness and mercy hath obliged me to it notwithstanding all the natural perswasions of worldly interest for I have left the assurance of a sufficient provision for my maintenance to embarque my self and rely wholly upon Gods good providence I have caused my best friends to become my most deadly enemies I have made of my parents and relations my persecutors and sworn adversaries I have left forever a Country where I enjoyed as much worldly happiness as was possible to come to live and dye in another where I have no other expectation nor means to advance my self but only from your kindness and favour God knows how strong these reasons have been to detain me so long and what difficulty I have had to command my self to a final resolution but at last grace hath overcome God hath had in me more power than the world and humane reason and the hopes of my salvation more than the advantages of this life That I might declare this unto you I have now the liberty to appear in this Pulpit I shall therefore do it as briefly as I am able I shall give you an account of some of those disputes which I have maintained in my mind before I could resolve to do what I have at last done I shall therefore begin to declare the reasons that have kept me so long in the profession of the Romish Religion and that as far as I am able to judge do detain the rest of its Professors I shall afterwards discover to you the reasons that have destroyed the first groundless reasons and that have caused me to forsake the Romish Religion and embrace the Protestant to renounce errour for faith heresie and idolatry for the truth the babylonish Rome for the celestial Jerusalem my Country for Haven and all for my God By this Discourse you shall perceive the greatness of Gods mercy towards me in that he hath been pleased of a stone to raise up a son to Abraham and hath caused his grace to abound where sin abounded before THE FIRST PART THe first and chief cause which hath so long detained me in the Church of Rome is that venerable Antiquity which is ascribed to her alone I did sometimes consider her gray hairs her pretended Founder the Apostle St. Peter who as it is said governed her during the space of five and twenty years I did sometimes look upon her Sovereign Authority which she saith Christ himself gave unto her in the person of that Apostle which since hath continued successively in all the Popes who have commanded in that See This Succession of the Popes and Bishops of Rome hath never been violated nor interrupted as they pretend but they have immediately succeeded to one another the like is not to be seen in any other Church Besides I did sometimes view a long Catalogue of Martyrs and other Saints who are said to have lived in an obedience to the Church of Rome and to be dead in the profession of that Faith which is there now and hath been always taught as is pretended I did examin all these plausible Titles these glorious Attributes and her divine Prerogatives as I found them recorded in the Books and Schools of that Church which could not but oblige me to an high esteem of her excellency and to wonder how men could be so blind and irrational as to deny her to be the only true Catholick and Apostolick Church In this manner my Brethren I have continued about the space of six or seven years seriously considering these advantages that were given to this Church At last I took that liberty which is not granted to any of that profession and that is to open my eyes and examin more narrowly from whence proceeded these magnificent and glorious Attributes and what reasons Rome hath to claim them to her self alone For that purpose I perused the Holy Scriptures and its most ancient Interpreters as the most worthy of credit and by them I was constrained to alter my judgment and to entertain perswasions contrary to that received from my Forefathers from my Masters and from the Reading of the Romish Divines I have found that Antiquity in which Rome boasts so much discovers
chuse rather to behold their own Arms and Members consume in a fire and endure the most sensible pains and tortures than to behold the Smoak of Incense fallen from their hands mount up to the nose of a senseless Idol They did rather chuse to expose themselves to the fury of the fires and of drawn swords and undergo the torments of the wheels of the wild beasts c. than to bow their knees before a graven Image and yield unto it the least respect O Romans of our days if any of the ancient Christians could but rise out of their graves to come amongst you into your Churches on some Festival day what would they say or think when they should see the accomplishment of Ezekiel's Prophecy chap. 8. so many abominations in the midst of God's Sanctuary the worship due to God alone paid to dumb Pictures which stand about the walls of your Temples when they should see that your Christian Devotion consists chiefly in such apish tricks in the kissing of Altars in cringings stretching out of your arms and signs of the Cross often made sometimes three or five times in kneeling before an Image with hands lifted up in offering to it frankincense in numbring a few beads in casting holy water upon the bones of the deceased in burning a wax candle put out and lighted again as many times as you have things to desire from a Saint c. How many tears would these ancient Catholick Roman Christians shed when they should see this Church practising such foolish things so much contrary to the Truth of Christian Religion How many sighs groans and lamentations should we hear from their pious Souls Jeremiah never uttered so many over the Ruins of Jerusalem O Rome Rome would they say what change is this what are these impertinencies what wonderful metamorphosis Heretofore the Truth did command in thee over Errour the Laws of God over the Inventions of men the Precepts of the Gospel over the Traditions of the people and true Piety over Superstition and God's Worship was chiefly regarded but now we see the contrary Therefore the Church of Rome which is now is not the same as that Christian Church of Rome first established there but a shadow of it which hath nothing of its likeness I would desire the Papists never to boast of the Age and Antiquity of their Church they have no reason to glory in that Rome was anciently one of the most famous Churches of Christendom for it is not like what it was heretofore Miserum istud verbum fuisse saith Seneca It is but a sad comfort and a bad cause of glory to say we have been if we cannot say also we are yet This the Papists should endeavour to make good unto us They ought to shew us by their Doctrine and Works that the Church of Rome at present is the same as it was of old which cannot be done but by a reformation of all the abuses and a reducement to the first estate whilst they continue as they are they shall never discover what their first fathers have been The most learned of all their Doctors who have undertaken to shew their conformity with the ancient Church of Rome seem to be much perplex'd in the proving of this matter very weak in their arguments and so contrary to one another that we need but their own Books to find out the falshood of their Doctrine This every one may take notice that will peruse them without partiality I might here name an hundred passages out of their Books to prove the truth of what I say but I think I have said enough to make the Papists apply unto themselves Tertullians reproach directed to the Heathens Apol. adv Gent. cap. 6. Tell me where is your Religion where is that respect that ye owe to your forefathers you are not like to them in your habits in your manner of living in your customs opinions and in your language You praise antiquity but every day you admit new inventions You differ much from the worthy institutions of your predecessors You declare by your behaviour that you retain nothing of those things that deserve to be retained but observe that which deserves it not This is a true representation of the Church of Rome § In the next place that Sovereign Authority which this Church claims did seem to me to be very well grounded when I did consider that which Jesus Christ saith to St. Peter in many occasions especially in that where He tells him immediately after the Confession of his Faith Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose in earth shall be loosed in heaven Matth. 16. By these words Christ seems to give unto him and his Successors a full power and more than to the rest There are other passages of Holy Scripture that make for the same purpose and St. Austin and several other Interpreters seem to favour this opinion and Reason it self seems to teach us the necessity of a visible Head over Christ's Church on earth answerable to its estate In this manner I did argue with my Comrades having been instructed in the Schools of Thomas Aquinas Suarez and others that gather from thence many reasons to prove the Pope's Authority and Sovereignty But when I had a little better examined these passages perused the Writings of the Fathers to understand their judgment of this matter I have found that there is nothing more false than the Doctrines of the Popish Schools in this occasion for Christ's words to St. Peter were not said to him alone as may appear if we look into the Gospel for Jesus Christ asked not only Peter but all His Disciples and Peter answers not only in his own name but also in that of the rest of the Apostles in persona omnium Apostolorum saith St. Ambrose St. Chrysostome and the other ancient Interpreters which words the Papists have inserted into their Breviarum or Rubrick speaking of this passage When therefore the Son of God returns unto St. Peter as a reward of his confession the power of binding and loosing and the keys of heaven c. it is not to him alone that He speaks and grants all these priviledges but to the rest in whose name St. Peter did answer therefore a few days after He repeated unto them the same thing and confirm'd the same priviledge to all the rest of His Apostles Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven c. Matth. 18. vers 18. He addresseth Himself to them all and not to one alone And if after His Resurrection Christ speaks to St. Peter only Feed my sheep this was as St. Cyril and other wise Interpreters have taken notice with an intent to confirm and re-admit him into the office
Christ That all these Vices by which St. Peter's Chair hath been dishonoured are proofs of its Holiness Excellency and Infallibility because saith he God hath permitted all these debaucheries and wickednesses in such as were the Governours of His Church without punishing them this discovers that this Estate is more sacred more holy and more regarded of God than that of Kings whom God commonly chastiseth as soon as they are unfaithful and abuse their Authority I must needs confess that I was never more astonished than when I found this Argument made use of by this Learned Man and heard it approved of in the Popish Schools Me thinks I could as easily prove the union of Contraries to be found in the same Subject as to shew the union and correspondency of this Conclusion with the Principles from whence it is drawn In this Church most abominable Popes have been seen Alvar Pelag. a Portugues Bishop tells us lib. 2. art 15. of many Popes who have crept into that See by their factions agreements covenants and large promises and when they have got in all their endeavour was to enrich and raise their Relations to promote their friends to the chief Offices to live themselves in pleasure and to dignifie their Kindred building Towers and Palaces in Babylon I mean Rome so called by St. Jerome These Popes have fomented the Wars and Factions in Italy instead of maintaining the unity of the Church They have wasted the sacred Revenues advanced most unworthy persons and gloried in their chariots elephants horses rich garments numerous train guards and noble attendants They have by the power of the sword often endeavoured to enlarge their own Borders and seize upon the Territories of their neighbouring Princes never minding the salvation of souls but have been addicted to the pleasures of the flesh c. These Men for money have sold as Judas did Christ's Body consecrated the Sacraments and celebrated Orders for silver c. We have seen saith the same Author lib. 2. art 2. fol. 104. men that have made this City like Sodom and Nineveh by letting in and countenancing all manner of vices publick and private as covetousness ambition symony usurpations uncleanness vain glory envy tyranny and other crimes which cannot nor ought not to be named We have seen in God's sanctuary saith the Bishop of Bitonte in the beginning of the Council of Trent orat hab in concil Trid. sess 1. shameless monsters rotten vessels full of infection publick plagues c. so that there remains no appearance nor hopes of good life but an immoderate and extraordinary debauchery a not able impudency more crimes than can be well credited We have seen according to the testimony of some Cardinals chosen by Pope Paul III. for the Reformation of the Church Concil delect Cardin. tom 3. pag. 823. Whores walking about the streets of Rome as honourable Dames carried upon Mules attended and waited upon by Noblemen and Cardinals Chaplains such like scandals have never been seen elsewhere but in this City We have seen saith Guischardin Hist of Italy lib. 1. sect 2. Rodericus Borgia who was afterwards Pope Alexander VI. buy the priviledge of disposing of the Holy Treasury And Platina and Baronius relate that there have been some Popes introduc'd by violence who have clapp'd in prison such as were before in possession of the See of Rome as Christopher did Leo VIII Some have been so base and furious that they have taken up the Bodies of their Predecessors whose Fingers wherewith they had given their blessing to the people they have cut off and cast into the Tybur as Stephen VI. treated Formosus In short we have seen men more covetous ambitious impious lecherous cruel and wicked than in the most licentious Courts than amongst the most barbarous Nations And Genebrard Chron. lib. 4. saith that these disorders have lasted sometimes 150 years together During this time saith Baronius ann 912. sect 8. Jesus Christ slept very soundly in the bottom of the ship and wink'd at all these mischiefs Therefore from hence he gathers this conclusion for this cause the Church of Rome must needs be the truest the holiest and best beloved of God infallible and the only Church that may be named Catholick c. Let any man judge if this be not the most impudent and unjust reasoning in the world The Heathenish Philosophers have taught these Popish Doctors to argue in this manner for their Religion from this ancient Maxim of theirs Ex quolibet fit quodlibet That from any Principle we may draw any Conclusion either good or evil They care not so they can but maintain their Thesis and Opinion but these kind of Reasons discover their weakness For any Understanding may perceive from thence the feebleness of their Doctrine the falshood of their Religion seeing that they are driven to draw such Conclusions as are quite contrary to the nature and truth of the things themselves If any man say that this Reason is not in Baronius word for word as I have expressed it the premises are there and the Conclusion not in two or three words and in such a plain and succinct manner as I have here related it but it is laid down in a more ample and more florid Discourse which tends to no other end but to prove the Truth Holiness and Excellency of of the Popish Religion from the Vices and Debaucheries of its Priests and Popes This cannot but be look'd upon as very ridiculous by any man of Judgement For if their Reasons were good I might as well say that Pharaoh's Kingdom was holy because God suffered it to continue so long without punishing him and did many Miracles for his sake and that the Turkish Religion must needs be the holiest and the best at present because God hath suffered it to abide so many years and increase every day although its Chieftains lead most filthy lives These and such like Considerations which I have had by reading the Books of the Popish Doctors and Historians have lessened that vast esteem that I had formerly for that Church and made me to understand that all its excellent Priviledges which it claims and which they assign to her are but whimseys and Chimaera's begot in their fancy by their fondness for their Religion the Popes ambition and the credulity of silly minds who are ready to believe any thing the greatest absurdity if boldly asserted Let us proceed next to our other Considerations THE SECOND PART THE Second Reason that hath so long time kept my Mind in a ballance was grounded upon the Faith and Articles of that Church I did seriously examine all those things which she engageth us to believe as infallible Truths the Pope's Infallibility the real and corporal presence of Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of the Altar the Sacrifice of the Mass Purgatory the Invocation of Saints and the certain damnation of all those who acknowledge not the Pope for their Superiour c. I thought all this
their own Kitchin If I might argue in the same manner I might say with more reason that Judas Macchabaeus never thought to speak of Purgatory in the foregoing passage but of the Resurrection of the dead I am perswaded that from St. Paul's words Heb. 1.3 He hath by himself purged our Sins we may conclude a Doctrine contrary to this of the Papists For seeing Christ hath purged our Sins what need of any other Purgatory seeing that he hath done this by himself that is by his Blood as St. Paul saith Revelat. 1.6 there is no need of the Fire of Purgatory But pray tell me which of all the first Doctors of the Christian Church mentions Purgatory and how was that Festival established in the Church of Rome to pray to God for the deceased I have many times been ashamed when I have been questioned because I was forced to alledge a Dream as the cause and ground of one of the chief Articles of that Religion The Abbot of one of the Monasteries of St. Benedictus as the Roman Legend declares heard upon the top of a Mountain from whence certain flames did proceed not much unlike to those of Aetna and Vesuvius a confusion of voices occasioned by the strugling of the flames with the air round about as the Philosophers inform us as many times it happens when the Air is shut up in Rocks and concavities this brain-sick Abbot fancied that these voices came from the departed Souls burning in those flames to desire his Prayers Therefore he appointed in his Convent a Festival-day to pray to God for the deliverance of these poor Sufferers The next night it is said that he had a vision of these Souls which to his seeming were mounting apace towards Heaven at the same time that his Monks were praying in their Church for them Afterwards he published his Dream and Vision which was look'd upon as a Divine Revelation when the Pope came to understand it he soon established a Festival like that of the Abbot and Monks in their Convent to be observed all over Christianity The design succeeded very happily the silly women that believed that their husbands Souls were frying in Purgatory gave vast summs of Money and great Revenues that Prayers might be said for the happiness of the deceased About this time some Dreamers had Visions in their sleep the Priests asssured them that their departed Friends did require from them Prayers this Doctrine was proclaimed in the Pulpits and believed every whereas an undoubted Truth it pass'd for an Article of Faith for which the Priests were more willing to dye than for the Faith of one God or for the belief of the Incarnation of the Son of God This was the first beginning of that Festival and of that mode received for currant in the Church of Rome to pray to God for the deceased Souls From hence we may judg of the thing in it self and whether it is not to the abuse of mens credulity to deliver upon these grounds this as an Article of Faith But that we may refute the Papists Errours from their own confessions and belief If we may obtain a full Indulgence to be exempt from the flames of Purgatory if by wearing a little Scapulary a Medal of five Saints or by repeating three times in our sickness Jesu Maria before a Crucifix or by being of the Fraternities of the the little Habit of the Virgin or of the Rosary or of the Dying What reason have they to be so earnest with the Widows that Prayers may be said for their Husbands c. when they have seen them perform all these duties which they impose upon the negligent as weighty Cases of Conscience especially at the time of Confession what need of any Mass to be said for their deliverance from Purgatory They affirm at Rome that one Mass said before a priviledged Altar is able to bring up a Soul from the very bottom of Purgatory although it hath been condemned to remain there one hundred or a thousand years or till the day of Judgment Wherefore then do they oblige Children to buy daily Masses for many years in all the Churches of a City and give away their Revenues for ever for the repose and happiness of their Parents Souls If one Mass be sufficient what need is there of so many thousands wherefore do they condemn them as Atheists that will have but One because they trust upon the Priviledge of such Altars And if the Pope hath the power to let the Souls go out of Purgatory when he pleaseth as the Papists say why does he not free them Is it not for want of Charity to suffer them there in Torments to release but one when he may release a thousand or all Is it not pity to see needy wretches labour and sweat all the Week long poor Widows take the Bread out of their Childrens mouths before they come to be of age and give it to a fat Priest on the Sunday that he might say a Mass and deliver by that means from Purgatory the Soul of a Wife or of an Husband when the Pope may perform this with two words by granting an Indulgence From hence we may plainly discover that the chief design of this was to enrich the Clergy with the spoils of the Orphelin and of the poor Widows and with the Estate of the deceased § The Invocation of Saints is another sensless and groundless Doctrine for there is no Text of Holy Scripture that mentions any thing of it it is there neither commanded nor allowed of nay several passages prohibit this Idolatry There is one God saith St. Paul and one Mediator between God and men the man Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 2.5 there he confirms the Faith of one God and of one Mediator If any should offer to maintain to a Popish Doctor that there are many Gods he would exclaim in a rage upon him as upon a wicked Idolater Fair and soft Mr. Doctor you have little cause to suffer your wrath to kindle against a person as innocent as your self you are no less guilty in regard that you affirm that there be many Mediators although St. Paul protests that there is but one as there is but one God The King of Samaria was punished with death because he had sent to enquire of the god of Ekron as if there had been no God in Israel The Papists deserve as great a punishment because Christ hath been pleased to invite us unto himself and oblige us to seek to him alone Come unto me all ye that travel and are heavy laden and I will refresh you learn of me for I am meek and lowly Matth. 11.28 No replies a Papist I will not go to thee I will not address my self directly to thee for thou art a rigorous God thou wilt not suffer Sinners to be so bold to speak to thee only Saints are allowed to offer up unto thee their Prayers Doth not this language of a Papist contradict Christ's command
and slight his call and gracious design When the Son of God came into the World he had no other intention but to banish out of it all Idolatry and to establish the Worship of the true God Because saith an Eloquent Bishop of Ravenna that wonderful Majesty in which God appeared unto Moses and the dreadful threatnings and punishments of his Law did hinder his people to make their addresses to and trust in him and did encourage Idolatry by causing them to seek to other gods more tractable and of a more easie access he hath been pleased to become Man like unto us To win them by the expressions of his kindness and to hold them fast bound to his service by the testimonies and declarations of his Goodness Petr. Chrysol Ser. 147. This was God's design But by that strange propensity of men to Idolatry they hinder its accomplishment for instead of looking up to him and receiving from him grace and mercy they have run to others and sought for other Mediators and Protectors other visible Gods whom they implore in their indigency This alienation from God proceeds from their fancying him who is their Brother and like unto them and who is become their Friend armed with severity and justice by this means they are frighted away from his service and cannot with so much confidence as they ought rely upon his Mercy In this manner God's divine Wisdom is disappointed and his Design frustrated by the ignorance baseness and blindness of men The Intent of the Son of God saith Tertullian in his ordinary strain when he took upon him our nature was totally to abolish Idolatry he knew that men were very inclinable to this vice that few in the world would be content to worship God in spirit and in truth he had seen them bow down to a golden Calf to mortal Men to Statues of stone Onions c. This is an Impudency saith likewise St. Austin which was unsufferable to him he had an intent to bring a remedy to these disorders by condescending a little to mens inclinations therefore he took upon him a Body that men might have a God according to their own mind and desires and that they might adore a Man without offence Ut pro impudentia idololatriae satis Deo fieret per impudentiam fidei How did men answer so great a Mercy I confess they prayed unto and worshipped this God-Man very faithfully for several Ages but at last the Spirit of darkness crept in amongst them and hath drawn some away to their former Abominations instead of being governed by that holy Impudency which Faith furnishes them with and prompts them to to adore God in a Saviour-Man and worship a man as God they have substituted others in whom they confide to whom they present their Vows and offer their Sacrifices This is the Papists Crime Jesus Christ is not properly their God they worship and pray to the Saints they forsake the Lord that calls and invites them to come to him to go and make their Prayers to and worship the Servants Look but into their Chappels and Churches you shall scarce see ten persons kneeling to the Crucifix when you may perceive several hundreds before the Altars of the Virgin Mary and of the other Saints I have often taken notice of this when I was amongst them I am perswaded that if the Papists had not their Idol of the Mass I mean the Sacrament to present to the people to receive their homages Jesus Christ whom this Sacrament signifies would be quite forgotten they would scarce think upon him if they did it would be with much indifferency You shall see something more of this in the next Article § The Worshipping of Images is one of those things that was most offensive to me in the Church of Rome since I took the liberty to read the Holy Scripture for I never found any one passage that seems to allow this Superstition but have met with many that represent it as the most grievous of all other crimes I know that their ingenious Wits have distinguished their Worship into that of Latria which is only due unto God and into Dulia and Hyperdulia which may be paid to the Creature But how can the ignorant Vulgar make this distinction And doth not God in express words prohibit in one of the Ten Commandments written with his divine finger in the Tables of stone delivered to Moses upon the Mountain To make any Image or likeness of things which are in Heaven or elsewhere and command us not to fall down to them nor serve them Do not the Papists by their daily practices violate this Sacred Law To what purpose are their cunning distinctions and the right direction of their intentions their elevations of their mind from the Image to the Saint and from the Saint unto God seeing they do what God hath expresly forbidden I desire to convince the most obstinate of all the Papists by their own thoughts and the reflexion of their minds for this consideration hath been very powerful to undeceive me When I did consider the continual disputes between Protestants and Papists about the worshipping of Images I thought upon St. Austin's words to Petil. and the rest of the Donatists and that his direction was the best means to end the controversie and to understand which of them was in the right To. 7. de unit Eccles contr Epist Petil. c. 3. Non audiatur haec dico haec dicis sed haec dicit Dominus c. we must not heed what the Protestants say nor what the Papists affirm but only what God declares according to the exposition of those Doctors that were of neither side let us take one of them or if the judgment of one is not sufficient let us take ten put into their hands that by which we shall all be judged the two Tables delivered to Moses the ten Commandments of God let us intreat them to read over that which concerns the Worshipping of Images Thou shalt not make unto thy self any graven Image or the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth thou shalt not how down thy self to them nor serve them for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity c. Exod. 20. Let us lead these indifferent men into a Church of the Papists and into another of the Reformed Religion let us desire them to tell us which of these Perswasions is to their seeming most conformable and obedient to this Law will they not say that it is the Reformed and Protestant For amongst the Papists they may see several Churches and Chappels and in each of them eight or ten Saints or rather Images of Saints and before every one of these Images they shall find above twenty men and women kneeling with lighted Tapers in their hands they shall see others carrying their Offerings up to the Saints Altars and a
careful to oblige her domesticks to live well according to the Laws of God I cannot believe that such a person can be damned nor I neither said I to my self I am of your mind nevertheless it was then my interest to dissemble the inward perswasion of my mind Don't let that trouble you I was about to say to such if you have not committed a more grievous sin than that I shall not load you with an heavy penance I am certain that many are of my mind in the Church of Rome It is a cheat and a design to force people to believe it as confidently as the most holy mysteries and a great error to tell them that they cannot have any hopes of salvation if they are not perswaded that the others are assuredly damned although God commands us to the contrary by his Apostle not to judge others Rom. 14.3 Jam. 4.12 and assures us in his Gospel that there needs nothing else to attain unto salvation but the keeping of his Commandments which the Protestants profess to do and perform Therefore I did often argue in this manner It is not possible to be damned without sin for sin is that alone that shuts heaven and draws upon us the wrath of God Now there is no sin but is against his commandments either we must omit what he enjoyns or commit what he forbids Every one therefore that believes what God hath revealed unto us by his Prophets and Apostles and by Christ and shall keep the commandments of God shall infallibly be saved the Scripture declares it He that believeth in me although he were dead yet shall he live saith our Saviour Joh. 11.25 and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never dye He don't tell us we must believe in the Pope to be saved but we must believe in him He repeats these words in several passages of the Gospel Verily verily I say unto you if any man keep my word he shall never see death he speaks the same to that man which enquired of him what he was to do to be saved If thou wilt enter into life keep the commandments Matth. 29.16 when he enquired which Christ answered Thou shalt not kill thou shalt not commit adultery thou shalt not steal c. Now the Protestants profess and observe these two things to believe in God and to obey his commandments This is their Faith and the principles of their Religion to believe all that God hath revealed and to do all that he hath commanded Wherefore should they be damned Because they don't believe in the Pope answers a Papist and because they don't keep the commandments of the Church of Rome But my friend from whence hast thou that these two things are also necessary for thy salvation is it from God or from man can you find in any passage of the Holy Scripture or in the three Creeds of your Religion any thing of this doctrine It is true you shall find I believe in God the Father Almighty Creator of heaven and earth and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord c. You shall not find there that you must believe in the Pope that the Bishop of Rome is the Head of all the Christian Church that he is infallible and that he must be obeyed as God himself You shall not find there any mention made of the Sacrifice of the Mass of Purgatory Indulgences the Worshipping of Images nor of the other Articles of the Popish Religion And the two other Creeds made about two or three hundred years after the first to explain and paraphrase it speak of no such things Listen attentively at your Morning Prayers or when Mass is sung in your Churches publickly you shall hear nothing of the Pope nor of his Church you shall only hear of the Articles which Protestants believe with less additions than you for they credit them only because God hath revealed them they will have no mixture of humane authority with the divine Look over all the commandments of God's Law you shall not find there any thing of praying to Saints of worshipping of Images of abstinence from meats of fasting in Lent of confession of sins to men but there you shall find that we must worship God that we must not make any graven Image c. All these commandments are kept more religiously by the Protestants than by the Papists what reason therefore can we find for their Damnation how come they to be so bold as to thrust this into their Creed as an Article of Faith ambition and antichristian rage against them hath perswaded them to it But I wonder how they can offer to maintain this doctrine with this addition that there is no salvation but by an union with the Pope whom they affirm to be the Head of the Church and by consequence to influence and give life to every one of its Members Suppose the Pope is a wicked man as many such have been according to their own confession if he be covetous profane lechrous an Heretick a Negromancer or a hellish Monster how can any relation and union with such a one do me any good can he make me partaker of that holiness which he himself wants I have good cause to fear that he will infect me with his vices Is it not a grievous mistake and a ridiculous fancy to say that I cannot please God unless I communicate with and be related to his enemy and that I must not expect salvation but by a communion with him that is assuredly damned Nevertheless this is one of the Articles of the Popish Creed and Faith § Their Doctrine concerning Traditions is also contrary to the Holy Word of God It tends to withdraw us from our faith and belief in it If Jesus Christ did now live in the world he might with reason treat the Papists in the same manner as he did the Pharisees In vain do they honour me teaching for doctrines the commandments of men for laying aside the commandment of God ye hold the tradition of men as the washing of pots and cups and many other such like things you do transgress the commandment of God by your tradition Mark 7.7 13. Matth. 15.3 The most part of the Papists Principles and Articles of Faith are nothing but Doctrines and Commandments of men which have altogether changed the appearance of Christ's Church in all those Kingdoms where they have been admitted I might make this appear more plainly if I did but run over all the grievous impertinencies that are by this means received as so many Articles of Faith in the Church of Rome if I did but make an enumeration of all the false Miracles published for true but I should exceed the narrow limits prescribed to my self I shall therefore confine my self to one thing that hath very much scandalised me in this Doctrine it is the reason and expedient that they have to maintain it which tends to the total subversion of Christian Religion and to the destruction
perswaded that in his conscience he cannot blame me for what I now write nor will he think that this is a stayrical Libel or that these are unjust or ill-grounded accusations for whosoever hath been a Father Confessor amongst the Papists knows an hundred times more than I dare reveal He knows that the greatest vice of Priests is the breach of their Vow and that this is such an ordinary sin amongst them that a Priest is look'd upon as a notable Saint if he be never guilty of other sins but of drunkenness and if he can command his unruly self so much for a week only so as not to let a lecherous thought escape towards a woman At least if they would allow a time sufficient to to try our own strength and to experience the effects of God's Grace within us But far from this they determin their Children to the Cloister while they are yet in the Cradle The eldest Son as is most usual being designed for Marriage the second must be a Knight of Malta the third appointed for a Church-man into whose hands they often thrust the Breviary before he can yet pronounce the Title of the Book and complement him with the reverent stile of Abbot while he is as yet un-acquainted with his Alphabet and what reluctancy soever he shall hereafter have against it yet must he necessarily still continue an Ecclesiastick But if the elder Brother chance to fail the Vocation then ceaseth and the Spirit that bloweth where it listeth seems to have with drawn its influence he throws of his purple robe and the Gentleman who was but since yesterday changed from a Clergy-man is now as ready for the Nuptial as he was before for the Religious Vow and all this say they proceeds from God which those may believe that think fit but I for my part never could As for the Daughters if there happen to be three they do usually enter two of them into the Covent and here it is observable that God is wont to call the most deformed whilst the other is born for the enjoyments of the world The Peasants indeed do cause their eldest Sons to apply themselves to their studies but after they have performed their Exercises and spent a considerable sum in their Education it is no longer at their choice whether they will become Priests or not but are compell'd to it for fear of incurring the displeasure of their Parents Thus it is that they betake themselves to the practice of this Law and from hence proceed so many disorders which might easily be prevented if the Church were left to its primitive liberty But that which makes these Constitutions of the Church of Rome to seem unto me the more strange and extravagant is this that they commonly prefer them to the Commandments of God Let a young man have given himself over never so much to the sin of the flesh yet when he comes to take Holy Orders this shall create no necessity of taking out a Dispensation but if he shall chance to have married two wives or but one if she hath been married before to another man which they call Bigamy this woman being dead he cannot take Orders without a Dispensation from the Pope for which he must pay sauce Although a man should never so often have taken the Name of God in vain and uttered a thousand blasphemies yet even for such offences will any Priest very readily give his absolution and he shall be freed from his guilt and penalty by putting himself to the charge of two or three Masses But if he should at any time in Lent happen to eat a morsel of flesh there is no absolution to be obtained for such a crime but from the hands of the Bishop who will inflict so severe a penance that he shall have cause to remember it all the rest of his life Let a woman be never so notoriously guilty of fornication and prostitute her self as often as Lais or Messalina there is no Confessor so inconsiderable but can give her an absolution But if by extraordinary misfortune she shall on a Friday have tasted but one spoonful of soupe which was left the day before she must necessarily apply her self to the Bishop and shall if it be possible be sent to the Pope himself By these means it comes to pass that such disorders have crept into the Romish Church and that at present they prefer humane laws to the Commandments of Almighty God § Before I conclude it is necessary to answer an Objection that the Romanists are wont to make to any person that shall upbraid them with the abuses and disorders whereof we have before treated Whence proceeds it then say they that there are so few persons that forsake the Romish Religion and that in lieu of those few that go over to the Protestant party we see great numbers return to the bosome of the Church and make as they call it their Recantation whereas of all those that have abandoned the Protestant Religion we see scarce any that return unto it after they have once forsaken it To this I might answer several ways and I could give many particular reasons why several Protestants in France of great worth and quality have shifted their Religion which is there no longer in fashion and accommodated themselves to that of the Church of Rome I shall only say this in general which may be observed in the case of every particular person that it is Interest which first invites and then detains them this is that which first causeth them to change and then obstinately to adhere to what they have embraced They act many things against the dictates of their conscience to avoid a private persecution which is often more severe than that which is more open and avowed The Charges which they offer the Preferments which they bestow upon persons of Quality on condition that they shall change their Religion and a Pension of a thousand Crowns promised to a Minister provided that he quits his Party are very powerful motives and arguments for the Romish Church and I have often admired at such as could resist so great Temptations A Lady of quality whil'st as a Messenger sent from God I sollicited and exhorted her to acts of Charity and compassion caused me once to make an offer of 8000 Franks to a Maid-servant of the Reformed Religion and at such a time as she had received some ill usage from her Mistress to try if I could by that means make her become a Proselyte I attempted it with all the Rhetorick and Philosophy that I could make use of for such a purpose but she still remained constant and slighted us both for the vanity of our attempt This is no common virtue and I believe there are few servants of the Romish Religion in this City but might be prevail'd with by so considerable a reward But it is not by such means as these that we ought to endeavour the conversion of our
other things which from my own experience I could speak to in laying open the Abuses of the Romish Church which I have not at present thought necessary to mention But I am perswaded that what I have said already may be sufficient to convince you that I have not without good reason forsaken the Papists that I might embrace the Religion of the Church of England I will conclude therefore with my request to you that you would reflect on what I have done and said I have not I hope in this act of mine discovered any thing of blind ignorance or any unruly passion which I trust I may say without vanity for by the grace of God I am free from it I know very well that I am rather exposed to the pity than to the envy of the world but this I have done that I might give glory to God and assert that which I am perswaded is the truth All that I have said concerning the Abuses of the Romish Church are things whereof I am very well assured and such as I have not without a great deal of study and industry discovered I have for six or seven years diligently search'd for Reasons whereby I might defend them sometimes applying my self to the Holy Scripture sometimes to the ancient Fathers and modern Authors I sometimes seriously proposed my Objections to a great number of most accomplish'd men with whom I had been long conversant and never could receive any satisfactory return Wherefore after all these Essays being perfectly convinced of the truth of your Religion I am constrain'd to renounce the Religion of my Ancestors and to take up a resolution to forsake it But how and at what time I must to the glory of God acknowledge it that it was at such a time as there was not the least probability that I should attempt it for certain reasons which some are not unacquainted with and which are not fit to be published It will be sufficient to declare in general that I have forsaken Popery in a time in which I had the strongest and natural engagements to keep me in my predecessors Religion and in my former Profession How so Because a change must needs cause me to run many hazards bring upon me the hatred of my Friends and the displeasure of my Kindred make me appear to them as a declared Rebel and an Apostate So that according to the Laws of the Land that I have forsaken I am to be punished in an exemplary manner for embracing the truth These and the following Considerations did long retard my design as that by this alteration I should purchase to my self nothing but misery and in the judgment of some the esteem of a vagabond or of a licentious person guilty of some offence or scandal and that I must never expect to be entertained and live in the world but as little better than a Beggar Notwithstanding all these obstacles and Panick fears my Christian Brethren you see that I have freely and confidently engaged my self in the profession of your Religion I forsake without regret or apprehensions that of my Forefathers to embrace the Protestant This act ought to be look'd upon as an encouragement of such as are doubting and wavering in their minds whether that which they profess is the best and the furest without doubt it is You may believe me upon my word which I have confirmed by my deeds for God be praised in this matter I am not ignorant I have been long enough deliberating and weighing the Reasons of both Parties of Protestants and Papists I know from whence I come what I forsake and what I embrace Besides you may well look upon and esteem me to be no mad man that runs wilfully into his own damnation There is none more careful in the Church of Rome than I am to avoid the causes of damnation If I did but doubt of my salvation in the Reformed Religion or if I could believe that it were possible for me to be saved in the Church of Rome I here swear and protest unto you before God that I would never do what you see I have done I would rather undergo the most bitter torments and whatever might happen to me I would never wrong my conscience This consideration therefore and my example should settle and confirm every one of you in the Protestant Religion should appease the troubles and doubtings of your mind fix your resolutions in the profession of the Truth And you my beloved Brethren that are sufficiently grounded in your Religion and whose lives are conformable my example should oblige you to rejoyce in that God is pleased to grant your private and publick requests and the prayers of your Congregation by sending to you from time to time Proselytes and bringing into your Flook the straying Sheep or rather the lost Sheep such whereof the salvation was so difficult that there was scarce any appearance or likelihood that it should be brought to pass St. Anstin was named the son of Monica 's tears because his religious Mother shed so many that at last she obtained her request and her Son's conversion from God's goodness I may this day stile my self in the same manner for I look upon my self as the return of your religious and charitable prayers and the Son of your sighs and tears I would therefore now express unto you my hearty thanks but you desire that I should render them only to God I have nothing else to request from you but the continuation of the same prayers for all those whom I yet leave behind me especially for such as I have confirmed in their errours and mistakes help and joyn with me in my duty in endeavouring their conversion But especially I must entreat your prayers to God that I may for the time to come lead a life answerable to that holy profession which I hâ—â—e this day made that I may not be unworthy of your Communion here and may attain with you hereafter to the fruition of that Crown of Glory which God hath promised to his faithful Servants To One God and Three Persons the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost be ascribed all Honour Glory and Praise now and for evermore Amen FINIS