POPERY A Great Mystery OF INIQUITY PROVED In a Sermon Preached in the Parish Church of Newland in the County of Glocester on Wednesday the 22d of December 1680. being the Fast-Day appointed by the Kings Proclamation AND Now Published for the sake of such secure Protestants that will hardly believe there is a Popish Plot or that ever it should take effect By THOMAS JEKYLL M. A. Preacher of the Gospel there Mat. 10.25 It is enough for the Disciple that he be as his Master and the Servant as his Lord If they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub how much more shall they call them of his houshold Gal. 4.16 Am I therefore become your Enemy because I tell you the Truth LONDON Printed for Jonathan Robinson at the Golden Lyon in St. Paul's Church-yard 1681. TO THE Right Reverend Father in God ROBERT Lord Bishop Elect OF GLOCESTER May it please your Lordship ALthough the preaching of this Sermon occasioned very great Clamors against me by those from whom I little expected any such thing and of whom I thought I had deserved better yet I am not in the least sorry for it upon my own account not only because I am well enough assured of my own innocent and Just intentions in it but also because it hath given me an opportunity of being known to your Lordship in which tho' at the first I may perhaps appear under the notion of a Criminal yet I do not in the least question but that your Lordship 's great Judgment and Integrity will easily acquit or justly Convince and Censure me either of which I hope I. shall bear with Modesty and Submission and therefore I am the more bold to appeal to your Lordship as my proper Ordinary by whom alone I ought to be ordered and to whom as I have already sworn so I am resolved to perform Obedience in all things that relate to the Dignity of your Lordships Place in the Church or the Duty of my own and therefore am My Lord Your Lordships obedient Son and Servant in the Gospel THO. JEKYLL Newland Jan. 29 1681. To the Right Worshipful the Master and Wardens and Assistants of the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers in London May it please your Worships SInce I had the honour of being presented by your Worships to be Mr. Jones's Preacher at Newland I have had the opportunity and satisfaction of being fully assured of the faithfulness and integrity in the management of all his Trusts in these parts and not only so but I have also had the profitable experience of many great and extraordinary kindnesses from you in somuch that as I have always admired and commended your Justice in the one so I hope I shall ever with all gratitude acknowledg your goodness in the other as a particular Testimony of which I beseech your Worships to accept of this present Dedication of the following Sermon which tho' it was baited into the World by the loud Clamors that were rais'd against it yet it comes voluntarily to your Worships to make an humble offer of it self to your serious perusal and Service and the Author is the more bold to send it on that particular errand that you who are his worthy Patrons may at once have some account how he spends his time and what grateful apprehensions he hath of your noble Favours too and if in this he may be any ways serviceable to your Faith he will be the less concerned at what others say of himself for tho' his Credit and Reputation are always dear to him yet he is well contented to be reviled and reproached so the interest of Christs Truth and Gospel may be advanc'd especially if he may any ways contribute thereunto on your Worships behalf for he is resolv'd always to endeavour and Pray for the Peace and Prosperity of all your worthy Society because he is Your Worships most Obliged and most Humble Servant in the Gospel THO. JEKYLL THE PREFACE WHen Craesus's Dumb Son saw a private Soldier about to kill his Father his Affection and Loyalty forc'd him thro' all the Difficulties of a natural Impediment to cry out in his defence No wonder then if in far greater dangers one who Blessed be God hath no such defect cannot hold his Peace especially too when the Duty of his Place would make it highly Criminal to be Silent I had been sufficiently assured by all the publick Testimonies of the Nation both in Church and State that there had been a damnable Plot Contrived and carry'd on by the Papists for many Years to destroy the King Subvert the Government and Root out the true Protestant Religion and when at the opening of this last Parliament the King was pleased to recommend the farther Discovery and Prosecution of the Plot unto them as one chief thing for which he called them together and for the encouragement of their zeal in it told them that he thought not himself as yet safe from the dangers of it I thought I had no longer any reason to believe what I heard a Gentleman then and now too in Authority say about two years since to above an hundred People whom he had gathered about him to that purpose That tho' there had been a Damnable Plot yet it was then so far discover'd and prevented that it was impossible it should ever take effect and therefore next to the imploring the Divine aid I thought it my Duty as the most proper business of my Calling and the best service I could do my Country to Preach up Loyalty to the King and to assert the truth and Justice of that Royal Supremacy that is yielded to him by this Church and Realm and to give such an account also of the pernitious Principles of Popery as should both arm and caution the minds of those I had to do with against the taint and dangers of it and I was the more encouraged in this design not only from what I had heard abroad but also from what I had seen and observ'd my self about home how much the men of that perswasion were indulg'd and coutenanc'd and those that appear'd zealous and brisk against them Brow-beaten and threatned and therefore the last Fast-day I took occasion to lay open and discover those depths of Satan that Mystery of Iniquity from whence both our Fears and Dangers did proceed and because I hinted at some particular things that had been done to the incouragement of that Faction I was in a very rude manner clamour'd against about the Country and very severe remarks were made behind my back both upon my Person and Sermon all which I heard of but took little notice being very unwilling to believe any such things till at last the Vicar of the Parish came to me and told me he was sent by a Justice of the Peace to ask me whether I did not mean him by two expressions in that Sermon Of fetching away Arms by night and giving Oaths in a Chimney-corner I must confess
giving their Kingdoms to such as the Pope pleaseth and making of it meritorious to Depose and Murder them as if when our Saviour told his Disciples what kind of Power the Princes of the Gentiles exercised over their Subjects he gave them Authority to exercise the same over Princes themselves whereas it is sufficiently evident from Math. 20.25 26. that he did really intend the quite contrary This part of Antichrist's work I confess was not so publickly known in the Apostles days as it hath been since however some beginning of it there were then to be seen in that Ambitious Desire of Preheminence which Diotrephes and the rest of his Temper discovered about that time But 2. If by that which is called God and which Antichrist opposeth himself against we understand God himself and what comes from him such as are all the Principles of his Religion the Obligation of his Laws and the Methods of his Worship or what ever else he is pleased to make himself known unto the World by the Case will then appear to be as plain as it was before since the Popes have made as much bold with the Laws of God as ever they did with those of any private Prince whatsoever Have not they oftentimes arrogated to themselves a Power not only to dispense with the Divine Laws but even to change the very nature of Goodness it self not only like the Pharisees in our Saviours time making the Laws of God of none effect by their Traditions Math. 15.6 but making other Laws in Opposition to them Is 5.20 and yet blasphemously pretending to give them as great a Sanction How do they put light for darkness and darkness for light call evil good and good evil in making moral Evils become Vertues and Meritorious such as Perjury Murder Treason and Rebellion or any other Wickedness whatsoever that the practice of shall make for their Interest and Advantage And what is all this but an Arrogant Assumption of the Title and Power of God well therefore may the Pope be stiled as by his flatterers he often is Lord of Lords and King of Kings yea and God too alter numen in terris Dominus Deus noster Papa But 3. Let us consider the way and means of the Growth and Increase of this Mystery of Iniquity and that in the 9th verse is said to be by the Power of Signs and Lying-Wonders and if so where shall we find more of these than in the Church of Rome what a just Veneration we ought to have for true and real Miracles I need not tell you since by these we have the strongest Confirmation of our Faith and Religion that can be but now to pretend to these when the very reason of them is taken away is to engage the Power of God to needless things which is a very high piece of Confidence and Presumption indeed but to do it at the rate of that Church is to engage that Almighty Power to do not only vain but ridiculous things yea and impious things too the Miracles which they pretend to are not only Counterfeit and False but Wicked and Blasphemous for in many of them they engage God Almighty against himself and frequently make his Saints to do the Devils work They talk highly of the great Esteem they have for the Blessed Virgin and yet they sometimes tell such Stories of her Apparitions and Miracles as make but very little for her Credit One of them tells us how she came and acted the part of a Midwife to a certain Abbess that had plaid the Whore and was got with Child and that she sent the Bastard away presently by two Angels to a certain Hermit to be brought up Another tells us that she supplied a Nuns place for twelve years together whilst she went every night to play the Whore in the Stews What strange Stories do they tell us of the Bones and Garments of Martyrs what Cures they have done what Miracles they have wrought not only upon the living but the dead too too tedious for me to mention or you to hear at this time and one would think too Ridiculous and Absurd for any Rational Creatures to pretend to believe and admire but that the Apostle tells us verse 11th 1 Tim. 2.2 of some to whom God shall send strong Delusions that they should believe Lies and of others whose Consciences are sear'd with an hot Iron whose Character which he also there gives doth so well agree to these Persons and Principles I am speaking of that nothing can do it more besides which there 's another Text of Scripture that doth so plainly agree to this Mystery of Iniquity that I cannot pass it by It is Rev. 17.5 where St. John in his Description of the great Whore Riding upon a Beast with seven Heads which he explains to signifie seven Mountains agreeable to the Situation of Rome tells us amongst other things that do also agree to the Rise and Growth of the Papal Sovereignty That upon the Forehead of the great Whore the word Mystery is written which may very well be understood of the Pope himself since upon his Mitre the word Mystery was also written 2. How did this Mystery of Iniquity work in the Apostles days It 's true Popery was not then what it is now then it was but in its Infancy now it is arrived to a fuller growth then it was only the Spawn or Child of the Devil but now it is grown to the Stature of the Man of Sin and this it hath arrived to by certain Steps and Degrees for nemo repente fit turpissimus nothing is at the worst all at once therefore the Phrase already work shewed only its begining to act whereby afterwards it was able more strongly to put forth it self It appear'd to the Apostle in those Errors and Heresies which then crept into the Church even in his time which were indeed the forerunners of Antichrist such as were that Emulation amongst Pastors and the Factious siding with them mentioned 1 Cor. 1.11 12. Chap. 3.3 4. 21 22.3 John 9.10 for this desire of soveraign Supremacy was a strong savor of the Spirit of Antichrist indeed insomuch that when John Patriark of Constantinople challenged to himself the Title of Universal Bishop he was strongly opposed in it by Gregory the Great who is esteemed the last of the good Popes and the first of the bad and that so stifly too as that he affirms that whoever should offer to take to himself that Title was the forerunner of Antichrist and yet Boniface the Third that succeeded him next but one did Usurp it and his Successors have endeavoured to keep it ever since Another thing that this Mystery of Iniquity began to discover it self by was a Voluntary Humility which hath since improved it self into so many Pennances and Pilgrimages the Worshipping of Saints and Angels forbidding to Marry and distinguishing of Meats Col. 2.18.23 1 Tim. 4.1.3 to these also may be added
that an Ingenuous and truly Generous Spirit that will be at the pains to consider it aright cannot but cast it off with Loathing and Indignation I might instance in several particulars wherein the Truth of this will manifestly appear but I shall confine my self only to four 1. It 's a Sordid and Slavish Religion It exercises not only a Cruel but an Unmanly Tyranny over its chiefest Votaries putting them upon the poorest and basest Imployments that can be and requiring from them such a blind Obedience to all things that are impos'd upon them as is absolutely contrary to that noble freedom of Mind that the Laws of Nature and the Principles of Christianity do allow and encourage True Religion is generous and free all the Precepts and Principles of it are most agreeable to the highest and most refin'd Reason it never in the least Abridges us of the most perfect Liberty that is in the World its greatest Restraints are only from slavish and unmanly things it confines us to nothing that doth not help to make up a perfect Freedom therefore well saith the Psalmist uphold me with thy free Spirit Psal 51.12 or as it is in the Margent let the free or princely Spirit uphold me but now Popery is of another Temper there is but little of a free or princely Spirit in it it 's a perfect Usurpation and Tyranny over all that a man is or hath in the World neither his Person nor his Purse no nor his most secret Thoughts and Conscience are free but all subjected to its Vassalage What an absolute Soveraignty it exerciseth over mens Persons is sufficiently discover'd in those long and tedious Pilgrimages which they have been sent upon in those severe and bloody Pennances which they have been enjoyn'd as if every Priest was an Ecclesiastical Centurion and had a command like his that could but say to one go and he goeth tho' it be never so far Math. 8 9. to another come and he comes tho' it 's from never so remote a place and to a third do this and he doth it tho' it be never so sordid and barbarous a thing Nor are they less sparing of mens Estates witness their costly Oblations large Mortuaries their chargeable Masses for the dead their Purse-Pennances to save the Carkasses of the Living and the dear Purchases to redeem Souls out of Purgatory but all this is nothing to that Tyranny they exercise over mens Thoughts and Consciences These now have been in all Ages look'd upon as free and subject unto none but God till these Lordly and Insulting Priests pretended tended a Commission from him to inspect and command them since which they have impos'd new Articles of Faith that were never thought of by Christ or his Apostles such as are the Worshipping of Images Invocation of Saints the Papal Supremacy and Infallibility together with that great Hobgoblin of all Transubstantiation and the rest that are injoyn'd by that Church after which they may impose what they please since for ought I can see at this rate all is their own 2. It is a cheating Religion Gain is indeed the greatest part of its Godliness according to that old and true saying Omnia Romae venalia any thing may be had at Rome for Mony there you may buy Pardons for sin Jesus Christ Heaven and Happiness yea God himself and indeed any thing but Sanctifying Grace we read that the Redemption of a Soul is Precious Psal 49.6 7 8. and that none tho' ever so rich can by any means redeem his Brother or give to God a Ransom for him but these men tell us that if you have but Mony enough you may redeem Thousands Math. 19.24 Our Saviour says that it is easier for a Camel to go thro' the Eye of a Needle than for a rich Man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but they say it 's much harder for a poor man to do it St. James tells us that God hath chosen the Poor of this World Jam. 2.5 Is 55.1 but they tell us that God hath rejected them The Prophet Isaiah makes a free and liberal offer without Mony and without Price of spiritual Blessings and Graces to all that shall in a due and right manner come for them but this sure is Old-Testament Divinity nay down-right Apocripha at Rome It 's this therefore that makes them so outragious against Protestants more than against Turks and Jews because they have discover'd these Cheats and will not be impos'd upon any longer by them Acts 19.23 c. our Case being much like that of the Apostles at Ephesus where the fierce Clamor was rais'd against him was by Demetrius and the Craftsmen who upon the prevailing of the Gospel were like to want Imployment and to lose all the Wealth that came in by their Trade of making Silver Shrines or Cabinets of silver for the lesser Images of Diana and so indeed do these men who have the greatest part of their Livelyhood from such kind of crafty Devices as these and are therefore angry with us because we will not take their false Wares off their hands And indeed who can be so sottish as to think that mony has this Power none sure but those who as the Apostle tells us are given up to strong Delusions to believe Lies They call these I kno ' piae Fraudes 2 Thess 2.11 pious Cheats how pious they are I cannot say but I am sure they are as great Cheats as any are in the World but they alledge St. Pauls Example and Expression for their Justification 2 Cor. 12 16. for he tells the Corinthians that being crafty he caught them with Guile but certainly he never meant this kind of profitable Guile this spiritual sleight of hand this devout way of picking of Pockets for in the next words he freely acquits himself of any such Design or Practice v. 17 18. Did I or Titus or any that I sent unto you make a Gain of you no I was so far from it that I would rather spend and be spent for you St. Peter also was of another mind tho' his pretended Successors think it not fit to follo ' his steps 2 Pet. 2.3 for he forewarns the Church of Christ of those false Prophets that should thro' Covetousness make Merchandise of them but to these I may say as he did to Simon Magus when he offer'd Mony for the Gifts of the holy Ghost their Mony Perish with them Acts 8.20.21 3. It 's a wicked and licentious Religion giving the greatest Encouragement to sin that can be witness the publick Stews that are tolerated in Rome it self paying yearly a Tax of many thousand Ducats to the Pope Paul the Third had a List of 45000 Courtezans in pay under him at one time and therefore Pope Sixtus built large and noble Lodgings for them and indeed no wonder if such a sort of Cattle be encourag'd and provided for many of the Popes
themselves being notoriously Guilty of shameful Adulteries and foul Incest all which is necessarily encourag'd in them in forbidding their Priests to marry and rather allowing them to keep as many Whores as they can maintain the deepest Guilt of which is easily wip'd off by a Pardon if not Anticipated by an Indulgence nay the truth on 't is these Pardons and Indulgences give the greatest encouragement to Sensuality and vile Lust that can be And this Roger Holland a Martyr declar'd to Bishop Bonner himself Whilst says he I was of your Religion I never cared what sins I committed trusting to the Priests Pardon and Absolution Drunkenness and Uncleanness were no sins with me And the like might be said of many others too who I am confident had never been so bad if the Principles of their Religion and the hopes of easie Pardons had not made them so Our Saviour bids the man that he had heal'd go his way and sin no more lest a worse thing come unto him John 5.14 but the Language of these Pardon-Mongers is sin as often as you please you kno ' the Price it is but the same again and all 's well Many other Instances I could give to confirm this were it needful and the time would give leave but I shall summ up all under this general head which you may Report where you please and I 'll justifie the Truth of it out of their own Authors whenever I am required to do it That there is no sin whatsoever but if it tend to Advance the Interest of the Church of Rome it shall be Pardon'd and Indulg'd yea and made Meritorious and that this is the Principle and Practice of that Church I say again I shall be ready at all times to make it appear out of their own Authors whenever they shall deny it 4. It is a Treasonable and Bloody Religion That Subjection and Loyalty to the Supreme Civil Powers is a Christian Duty that Magistracy is of Divine Institution and that Kings have an undoubted Right of Supremacy even in Causes and over Persons Ecclesiastical I have already and very lately in several Sermons at large prov'd unto you but now Popery is a Religion that opposes all these Principles of Loyalty so clearly and plainly laid down and so constantly practic'd by Christ and his Apostles It sets the Mitre above the Crown nay above all the Crowns in the World yea and very insolently tramples them under foot regarding the Dignity of Princes no more than the meanest things in the World and for the Truth of this the History of all Christian Kingdoms and States do furnish us with plain and sufficient Examples With what Luciferian Pride did Alexander the Third set his Foot upon the Neck of Frederick the Emperor blasphemously repeating the words of the Psalmist super Aspidem Basilicum Psa 91.13 thou shalt tread upon the Lion and the Adder the young Lion and the Dragon shalt thou trample under feet to which when the Emperor answer'd non tibi sed Petro I do this Homage not to thee but to Peter the Pope as insolently reply'd to him again mihi Petro thou dost it to us both to me as well as Peter making himself therein the Emperor's Master and St. Peters equal and Fellow It was this Pope that made our Henry the Second a Potent Prince in his time to go three Miles barefoot whilst the Blood ran from his tender Feet to offer at T. Beckets Shrine and there to suffer his Back to be lash'd before he could be absolv'd from his Excommunication and enjoy his Crown and Dignity in quiet And whosoever shall oppose this Power that the Popes do still claim shall be cursed with Bell Book and Candle and if that fails shall be perseouted with Fire and Sword till they be ruin'd and destroy'd hence are all those Treasons and Rebellions those Murders and Villanies that have been set on foot and acted in this Kingdom since the Reformation by the men of that Hellish and Treasonable Perswasion But 2. Let us detest this Mystery of Iniquity because we have known better and indeed in our Case this ought to be as convincing an Argument as any for tho' it be a bad thing to be a Papist yet it is a great deal worse to turn Papist because that 's an Apostacy from God and Christ indeed how merciful God may be to those that were born and bred such that suck'd in these Principles in their Education I kno ' not but for those that have been otherwise taught and kno ' better for these to fall off to it must needs make their Condition very dangerous if not desperate indeed and therefore we shall always find in Scripture the Expressions of Gods Anger against Israel sharpned by nothing more than by their sinning against those Gracious Manifestations of his Spirit and Presence to them hence is that of the Prophet Amos 2.3 you only have I known of all the Families of the Earth therefore will I punish you for all your Iniquities therefore it is that our Saviour represents the Condition of Corazin and Bethsaida as worse than that of Sodom and Gommorrah Math. 11.20 c. of Tyre and Sidon because of those powerful Means of Grace which they had more than the other nay our Saviour goes on farther and tells them that if he had not come they had not had sin John 15.22 nay St. Paul makes the Recovery of such as difficult as any thing in the World can be and St. Peter I am sure tells us That it had been better for them not to have known the way of Righteousness Heb. 6.4 5 6. than after the knowledge of it to turn from the Heavenly Commandement and he gives this reason for it 2 Pet. 2. 〈…〉 because the latter End will be worse with them than the Beginning their former Ignorance might have strongly pleaded their Excuse or at leastwise extenuated their Fault whereas now the knowledge they have had increaseth their Guilt and adds weight to their Condemnation and so it will also do in our Case if we should now return and lick up that Vomit which our fore-Fathers cast out and which we have hitherto pretended such a Loathing of Apostacy hath been always esteem'd one of the worst kinds of Wickedness because it hath in it so much of the malicious Resolution of the Will Errors in Judgment may plead a defect in the Understanding for their Excuse Transgressions in the Life and Conversation may urge the power of inbred Corruption and the strength of a Temptation for theirs but the Apostate that sins against Light and Conscience can have nothing to say for himself let not us then by any Inducements whatsoever be led away with the Error of the Wicked 2 Pet. 3.17 Heb. 10.23 and so fall from our own and the Gospel's Stedfastness but whatever we do let us hold fast the Profession of our Faith without Wavering 2.