Qui sunt in Carne non possunt placere Deo Vide Chronicon Carionis in the third Century 72. In the year 336. Pope Marcus brought in the singing of the Nicene Creed and the superstitious Vestment called the Pall which was to be of Wool not of Silk or any other Stuff to signifie the Skin of the lost Sheep in Luk. 15. And in the year 367. Gloria Patri was brought in by Damasus to close up every Psalm In the year 398. Anastasius brought in the standing up at the reading of the Gospel 73. In the year 417. Pope Zosimus brought in Tapers into the Church In the year 461. Pope Hilarius brought in the Letany and the Rogation week In the year 526. Foelix the fourth brought in extreme Unction to be ministred to dying people and in the end of this fifth Century Pope Gregory the Great brought in Candles for Candlemas and added four days to Lent with many other superstitious orders Fuit enim superstitionum tanquam Monachus egregius Patronus ac ceremoniis ritibus plusquam Judaicis Ecclesiam Christi mirum quantum eneravit (z) Pareus Medull Histor Eccles p. 210. 74. Thus we see in the first 600 years how the man of sin prevailed in bringing all those Superstitions one after another before his full Revelation as appears at large in Osiander's Epitome Pareus Medulla histor Eccles And our own Dr. Prideaux's Introduction who makes this Gregory the last of the good and the first of the bad Popes to be signified by the Angel flying between Heaven and Earth for he gave his Testimony against Antichrist though he brought in many Superstitions of Antichrist 75. After the sixth Century commenced Superstition came not by drops as before but whole floods of it and that in Doctrine too as well as Ceremony Then entred in Invocation of Saints Prayer for the dead and Purgaory the Doctrine of Justification by the merit of works of Traditions of worshipping Reliques and Images of the Mass c. Transubstantiation c. all which be supra Statutum 76. Thus were those Cockatrice Eggs hatched by degrees out of which at length came forth Antichrist That Fiery Flying Serpent into the world and 't is a seasonable caution which the Prophet gives us in this case Isaiah 59.5 They that Eat of those Cockatrice Eggs shall dye As men would therefore shun death so let them avoid those Eggs of Superstition in the Romish Church because Mors in ollâ Death is in them CHAP. II. The Second Property is the Idolatry of the Romish Religion 77. AS the Romish Religion is a Superstitions Religion exceeding all divine warrant in those forecited Customs and Practices which neither Christ nor any of his Apostles but such and such Popes in several Ages brought into the Church so 2. it is an Idolatrous Religion also Plato himself could say that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Mother of all Superstitions in lib. 10. de legibus So Polanus affirms that Superstition is the Mother of Idolatry and that this Daughter is found in the Romish Church is evident because she is called the great Whore and spiritual Whoredom is in Scripture Phrase Idolatry Ezck. 16. oft and Isa 1.21 78. 'T is a very honourable undertaking of Mr. Thorndike and other Reconcilers to Rome to wipe the Whores mouth of this Sin of Idolatry But when those men have said all they can they can never unsay what the Champions of our Religion have said to prove it as Rivers the nearer they come to the Sea the more brackish tast have they so those men coming so near the See of Rome discover but a brackish Spirit 79 That the Romish Church disowns the Paganish Idolatry they may warrantably justifie for the worships not those heathen Gods such as Jupiter Apollo Mars Mercury c. yet the spirit of whoredom is among them as Hos 5.4 She goes a whoring after other Idols as Ezek. 6.9 and commits Adultery with stocks and stones as Jer. 3.9 and Isa 16.17 Her Idolatry in worshipping of Images Reliques Crosses and the Host is altogether as abominable as that of the Pagans 80. It is laid to Mr. Mountague's Charge by those Informers against him supposed to be Mr. Ward and Mr. Yates that in his gagging of the Gagger he says touching Images they have these uses assigned them by your Popish Schoolmen Institutionem Rudium commonefactionem Historiae et excitationem devotionis Stay there saith he to the Jesuit go no farther and we charge you not with Idolatry you and we also give unto them these 81. And yet this same Mr. Montague in his Appeal to Caesar pag. 249. ingeniously says I do not I cannot I will not deny that Idolatry is grosly committed in the Church of Rome The ruder sort at least go to it with downright Idolatry without any relative adoration worshipping that which they behold with their eyes as the Image of the Virgin c. and the Crucifix as if Christ himself was present 82. But Mr. Perkins more solidly and fully says that the Romish Religion which he calls the great Italian Diana is Idolatrous in many respects (a) Perk. Idolatry of last times pag. 673.1 Vol. 1. As it presents to us a deformed Christ spoiled both of his Manhood and of his Offices Of his Manhood as if it could be made of the substance of Bread as well as of the substance of the Virgin and as if a solid Body of many foot long could be contained in a small round Cake of two or three Inches 83. He goes on to shew how it spoils him of his Offices as of his Priesthood by their own satisfactions the Sacrifice of the Mass c. Of his Kingly Office by giving power to the Pope to pardon Sin and to make binding Laws to the Conscience Lastly of his Prophetical Office by adding and detracting from Christ's word and making the Pope an Infallible Judge The Popish abuses herein he calls notorious and detestable Idolatry Perk. Idol of last Times pag. 673 674. 84. The second Respect wherein the Church of Rome is Idolatrous is her worshipping God otherwise and by other means than he hath revealed in his Word as in Images Crucifixes Host c. seeing spiritual Adoration is now only required John 4.21 22 23. (b) Babylon is a Worshipper of Idols Rome is Babylon Ergo. And that worship which is tyed to either place or thing on Earth is by that Scripture utterly abodished and forbidden Then in a third Respect she is Idolatrous in giving Gods property to Creatures as to the Virgin Mary to Saints and Angels in her Invocating of them and to the Pope in her flattering Titles to him of Infallible Universal c. 85. For the better understanding of this we must know there is a two fold Idolatry as Peter Martyr saith loc commun cap. 4. pag. 197. Vnaest quâ nobis Deum qualem volumus pravis doganatis in animo fingimus altera verò quâ externum
Gods decree Revel 18.2 and that with a double Fall then 't is both unreasonable and unseasonable for any Reconcilers to lend their Shoulders for supporting that which God will have to fall who hath resisted his Will Rom 9.19 Rome shall fall certò citò penitùs certainly speedily utterly Their own Jesuits Ribera and Corn. a Lapide confess it Yea Cotton the Jesuit acknowledges 't is now falling for he saith the Popes Authority is incomparably less than it was and that how their Catholick Church is but a diminutive and Bellarmine saith also that ever since the Pope hath been called Antichrist the Church of Rome hath been losing ground as before Yea 't is evident what a cold Sweat lyes upon the Limbs of the Beast from the growing greatness of the Protestant Religion Roma diu titubans variis erroribus acta Corruit et Mundi desinit esse Caput And had those Reconcilers the Shoulders of Sampson they cannot shore up this falling Temple of Dagon 12. To those Scripture Arguments I might add many more had I room for it As the tenth Argument Those Reconciling Modelators would set up a Linsey Woolsey Religion and would sow Gods Field with Miscelane or mingled Seeds Levit. 19.19 and would teach to swear by God and Malcham Zeph. 1.5 The eleventh Argument That which ought to be rejected and Renounced ought not to be Reconciled to but Popery ought to be so because of its Heresie Tit. 3.10 2 ep John v. 10. Leprosie in the Head made the Leper utterly Vnclean and to be thrust out of the Camp Levit. 13.43 44 45. Yet those Reconcilers would not have such Lepers to live alone they dare adventure among them or meet them the half way The twelfth Argument if such as have only a Form of Godliness but deny the power of it must according to Gods Command be turned from 2 Tim. 3.5 then they ought not to be turned to by way of Reconciliation but the Romish Church hath only a Form c. The thirteenth Argument If Hâ—â—red be the Affection that is due to the Romish Church then 't is not Reconciling Love but the Antecedent is true Revel 17.16 They shall hate the Whore The fourteenth Argument If we must beware the Leaven see Dr. Humphrey of this Leaven his Conclusion ut supra of the Pharisees Luke 12.1 then we may not embrace it c. To all these Scripture Arguments some Reasons may be adjoyned As 1. If she be Incurable no Reconcilers can mend her and she is so as Infallible so she calls her self and says she cannot err Peter should not have said I perceive now c. Act 10.34 Should she yield up one pin of her Opinion to the Reconcilers she loses her Pillar of Infallibility 2. She is Irreconciliable to her self such discord 'twixt Thomists and Scotists c. so that their own Binnius who was employed to take it up saith the foundation of their Faith was shaken thereby then less Reconciliable to those Reconcilers 3. Religion is a brittle thing 't will break saith Dr. Preston not bend it cannot be Accommodated to those Reconcilers Dr. Prest Pillar and Ground p. 16.4 All Protestants protest against it so not to Reconcile to it 5. Who dare take this Beast this horned Beast into his Bosom 6. So long as the Pope hath Paul's Sword as well as Peter's Keys he scorns it 7. He will not write in black but in Blood as Draco did concluding all his Arguments in Barbara and Ferio or Blood-letting THE CONCLUSION THus I have drawn a summary Representation of the seven cursed Characters of the Romish Religion that as by the Print of Hercules Foot was guessed the Stature of his whole Body so by this scantling Landskip or Compendium all sober Minds may judge whether this be a Religion safely to be embraced by any true Englishman that truly desires to be holy here and to be happy hereafter seeing it is a Religion which is 1. Superstitious and who will can or dare forsake the Substance for a mere Shadow He that makes a Bridge of the shadow of a Tree shall be sure to fall down into the Deep 2. 'T is Idolatrous and who may can or dare own its Dunghil Deities which provoke the Great and Terrible God to the highest Jealonsie against Man as the second Commandment which the Romish Catechism leaves out as none of the Ten plainly declareth 3. 'T is a Bloody Religion The Romanists would eat up Gods people as Bread Psal 14.3 and they would tear in pieces as if there were none to deliver Psal 50.22 But blessed be the Lord God of Mercy when those wicked ones our Enemies came upon us to eat up our Flesh they stumbled and fell Psal 27.2 Had those bloody Romanists any power over our Bodies they would send away our Souls in Chariots of Fire Their own Bannes speaks plainly saying English Papists are excused for not Rebelling only because they have not sufficient strength God Almighty grant they may ever want it Cursed is their wrath for it is Cruel c. Gen. 49.7 Every true lover of the Land of his Nativity should hate this Religion as Rebellion it self the very Collect for Gunpowder Treason day calls that Religion no better than Rebellion Yea 't is a Religion that is not only cruel to others that oppose it but also to themselves that profess it putting them upon Whippings Scourgings and self-Macerations like to those Priests of Baal who cut and slashed their own Flesh 1 Kin. 18.28 How may can or dare any good man love this Religion 4. 'T is Desperate and Damnable its whole Doctrine is a Doctrine of Desperation and can never afford any solid comfort to any Sin-sick Soul because it sends them to Hepher and Arpad Rivers of Damascus or Babylon to wit unto their Pennances and Pilgrimages it sends Souls from Christ to Works from Scripture which they do scornfully call Ink and Paper-Divinity unto Tradition c. Thus Popery which is but a foppery altogether walks like the unclean Spirit wherewith she is possessed Matth. 12.44 in dry places and is not only cruel to the Body as before but 't is no less to the Soul by its leaving it always in doubt and despair Oh! who may can or dare love this Desperate Religion which is Damnable as well as desperate Though some may be saved in the Popish Church yet none can be so by the Popish Faith Purus-putus Papist a non potest salvari saith Dr. Willet And 't is universally affirmed that a learned English Apostate Papist cannot be saved 5. 'T is a Novel Mushroom Religion that springeth out of the Earth Bevel 13.11 like a Mushroom or Toadstool called by the Poets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Earth born gradually and by little and little from Phoca's time ascending out of the Earth from small beginnings not descending down from Heaven ab initio It was not so from the beginning Matth. 19.8 Porphury indeed calleth Toadstools Deorum
opposes Religion on the left hand I come now to the second Thief upon its Right Hand to wit Superstition which spoils Religion of its Native Beauty and puts it into such a painted gaudy dress as makes it a ridiculous Puppet and more meretricious than Matron-like 19. Plutarch makes this right-hand Thief the worst of the two saying that Atheism is better than Superstition for the Superstitious do Worship sordid base and cruel Gods Insomuch that it were far better there were no Gods at all than such as they worship 't is lest impiety to say there is no God than to give divine honour to bloody Devils and senceless Stocks or stones 20. And so he concludes that Superstition is the cause of Atheism because men looking upon the ridiculous Gestures practised in their Temples that are superstitious Worshippers they conclude it were better to have no Gods than to give Gods facred honour to such abominable Deities I had rather saith he men should say there is no Plutarch than that they should say that Plutarch is what he is not Plutarch de superstit Whether Plutarch be mistaken in this assertion altogether I shall not here determine Such Problems as utrùm prastat non esse quà m malè esse belongs to the Schools to decide and whether Superstition which is a Nimiety (l) Paul the second Pope ob nimiam Religionsm factus est Cardinalis Pasciculus Temporis and excess in Religion be worse than Atheism which is a defect therein is not much (k) Plutarch de superst in Moral to our purpose 't is enough to discover them both as Thieves to Religion 22. However there is not much difference 'twixt nequam and nequaquam the Proverb is as good never a whit as never the better betwixt making Sin a duty and making a duty sin Superstition makes sin a duty (m) Supperstition will by all means hew the Stones of Gods Altar as if whole Stones were not fine enough for God though he command it so Exod. 20.25 and Deut. 27.6 Superstition despises those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 septuag which the Hebrew calls perfect Stones 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Abanim Shelemoth in worshipping the true God after a false manner Act. 26.9 11. I verily thought with my self that I ought to do many things contrary to the Name of Jesus and Atheism makes a duty sin in not worshiping God at all as if it were a sin to do it 23. Thus Religion with the Lord and Founder of it suffers hard things betwixt two Thieves and 't is not very easie to determine which of those two is more injurious to Religion and the Author of it whether that which makes the Principles of it to be question'd or that which makes the practice of it to be despised as the superstitious worship of the Romish Church makes the Jews at this day to contemn the Christian Religion 24. This is a most certain truth and taken pro confesso of all that Superstition is a Reproach to Religion and without a Vail is a very deformed thing though the Church of Rome would not willingly own any such deformity in her but like the Adulterous woman Prov. 30.20 Eats and wipes her mouth and saith I have done no wickedness yet will be found guilty 25. Superstition Grace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a Vice opposite to Religion according to excess Thus Aquinas in his Sec. Secundae quaest 92. Art 10. or thus Superstition is when worship which is only due to God is not exhibited to him in that manner as it ought or when it is exhibited to him to whom it ought not Thus Mich. de Obellis Or 't is a superfluous and vain devotion which God alloweth not 1. Neither by his Command 2. Nor by any Apostolical Rule for indifferent things 't is called also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a false Religion 26. Polanus defines it thus 'T is a Vice inhering in the Mind arising through Satan's craft by which men departing from the word of God contained in the writings of the Prophets and Apostles take up erroneous Opinions of God and false ways of worshipping him Polanus Syntag. Theol. lib. 9. cap. 3. pag. 579. and Szegedin thus Est opinio quae nec habet mandatum Dei nec physicam rationem vel est nimia et superabundans pietas sen Religio Virgil brands this Vice thus Vana superstitio veterumque ignara Deorum 27. Superstition is caused 1. from the pravity of our Nature which is over-desirous of forbidden evils whereby man is become inversus decalogus a diametrical opposite to God's holy will 2. from the wisdom of the Flesh which loves to be wise above that which is written 3. Servile fear for the Superstitious do fear where no fear is Psal 53.5 4. The insinuations of Satan and 5. the false Romish Church as the Devil begets them so the Mother of Harlots brings them forth 28. Sometimes it is falsely applied to true Religion (n) Beza in Act. 25.19 as Act. 25.19 but truly 't is that Worship which God commanded not nor came into his mind Jer. 7.31 A worshipping after our own hearts Numb 15.39 or a doing that which is right in our own eyes Deut. 12.8 Judg. 17.16 Or 't is a worshipping of that which God commanded not Deut. 17.3 and 29.26 'T is an observing of times Deut. 18.10 14. Gal. 4.10 Levit. 19.26 or of Mans traditions Math. 15.3 9. Marks 7.4 7. or 't is Will-worship that hath more of mans Will than of God in it Col. 2.18 21 23. 29. The Gentiles were guilty of Superstition Act. 17.22 (o) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Fearers of evil Spirits Act. 17.22 The Apostle saith they were too superstitious So were the Israelites in not eating of the sinew of common meat because the sinew of Jacob's Thigh shrank Gen. 32.32 So were the Philistims in not daring to tread upon the Threshold of Dagon's house because Dagon brake his Neck upon it (p) 1 Sam. 5.4 5. So was Naaman in carrying two Mules load of Earth out of Canaan into his own Country to make an Altar of (q) 2 Kin. 5.17 And lastly so were the Scribes Pharisees and Jews not only in straining at the Gnat of entring into the Judgment Hall when they swallowed the Camel of murdering Christ Joh. 18.28 but also in all their Traditions 30. As there is a Pagan Superstition which I shall not speak to here as being beside my present purpose so there is a Papagan Superstition whereby Papists think it a greater Crime to eat flesh on Fryday than to commit Adultery this is a being Righteous or Religious overmuch Eccles 7.17 31. This Papagan Superstition consists either in the worship of the Creator or of the Creature 1. In the worship of the Creator a superstitious man doth frame to himself a worship of God out of his own Will and not out of Gods will which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Col. 2.23 and 't
say that those which live and dye in Popery be damned we know how durus (u) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sermo was replied to Christ himself John 6.60 I shall discuss its harshness 140. As it may be presumption in us to pry too much into the book of Life that is sealed from us and into the decrees of Heaven about Salvation and Damnation for it is not given to the Sons of men to know infallibly who are Elect and who Reprobate who be for Hell and who for Heaven So it is pusillanimity and a putting off that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that becomes the Ministers of God to strengthen the hands of the wicked That he cares not to return by promising him life Ezek. 13.22 141. 'T is true the Patrons of the Reformed Religion do affirm that some in the Church of Rome may be saved to wit such as do expect Salvation by Christ and not by the merit of their own works as the Trent Papists do None amongst the Judicious ever taught that a Papist universally owning the Trent Faith and Religion living and dying so could be saved 142. The Romanists indeed make some advantage of our charitable Judgment concerning them saying that some of our Reformed Religion acknowledg that the Papists hold all things necessary to Salvation then it will follow by necessary consequence that a Papist quà talis may be saved They especially improve that saying of Luther that the Kernel of true Faith remains yet in the Church of Rome inferring from thence that we take only the Shell of Religion 143. (w) Dr. Sclater 's Exposition on 2 Thess 2.10 pag. 153. Dr. Sclater tells us of his meeting once with a wandring Star to wit a Traveller that had been foraging France Italy to seek his Religion and bewraying his Inclination to Popery by preferring it in his choice upon this ground that a man may be saved holding the Faith and Religion of Rome quoth he our selves confess that any can be saved in our heresie as they term it Papists confidently deny thus he argued 144. But the Learned Dr. thus answered the Argument of this Planetick Sophister 1. That argues not that the Papists have more verity but that we Protestants have more Charity 2. But who amongst our judicious Divines ever did confess that a Papist universally joyning to the Tridentine Faith and Religion can be saved nisi fortè detur Regressus in viam unless he make an honourable Retreat 145. Let the Romanists obferve that our own Mr. Perkins that Romanistarum malleus hath solidly proved that a Papist cannot go beyond a Reprobate yea and Hunnius hath writ a book to prove them no Christians and 't is the concurring Opinion of all our profoundest Writers that where Popery prevaileth against the practical points of Christianity and is predominant even in Fundamentals there can be no Salvation for such without Conversion 146. We distinguish also betwixt affected and invincible Ignorance that of purae negationis and pravae dispositionis there is a simple Ignorance to wit where means of knowledge are wanting as Act. 17.30 This God winks as the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 over-looked it this may excuse a tanto but not a toto it may extenuate Sin but cannot annihilate it one Sin cannot excuse another totally but rather in some sense doubles the Crime 147. Not to do Gods Will is sin and not to know Gods Will as it were doubles the sin for Ignorance is a sin of it self as well as Disobedience Yet Knowledge in conjunction with Disobedience is a greater aggravation to it than Ignorance is Luke 12.47 Jam. 4.16 17. and where Ignorance is affected among means of Knowledge this is worse with God than where 't is invincible for want of means 148. There must a difference be put betwixt Papists in Spain and Papists in England those in Spain have indeed an Ignorance but we call it Ignor antiam purae negationis non praevae dispositionis they are not guilty of that Ignorance which hath a perverse disposition in it as those in England that live in the midst of blessed means of Knowledge yet shuts their eyes willingly lest the light of the glorious Gospel should shine unto them those are Devils to themselves 2 Cor. 4.4 149. The Papists in England have an affected Ignorance because as those Peter speaks of 2 Pet. 3.5 they are Willingly or wilfully ignorant Quando habent a quo discant et tamen non discunt They put away knowledge though God offer it them far from them and as Bernard saith excellently libenter ignorant ut liberiùs peccent light would stare in their faces and controul them in their unwarranted fooleries and Popish transgressions 150. Indeed the Papists every where call Ignorance the Mother of Devotion and do embrace it with some affectation as Children do a Mother yet as 't is no Mother in Israel if it be in Babylon 't is none in Sion The Prophet tells us Hos 4.6 'T is a Mother of Destruction not of Devotion my People are destroyed for want of knowledge So English Papists be the worst 151. English Papists are not willing to know what they should and might do lest they should do what they would not and what their Popish principles may not allow of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They have winked Act. 28.27 They stubbornly shut their Windows lest the light of knowledge should spring in upon them The word is nigh them they need not cross the Seas for it Rom. 10.6 7 8. the Spanish Papists have no such advantages How then can they escape if they neglect such great Salvation Heb. 2.3 152. Spanish Papists have that Ignorance which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ex negatione because the word of God is not nigh them in the preaching of the Gospel they may wander from Sea to Sea and not meet with means of knowledge as Amos 8.11 12. That Country is like the Mountains of Gilboa that had neither Dew nor Rain discending on them 2 Sam. 1.21 Gods Doctrine doth not drop as the Rain upon it nor bis Speech distil as the Dew Deut. 32.2 153. But English Papists have that Ignorance which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is of an evil disposition and which excuses not but aggravates God rains down Manna at their Tent doors and they will not vouchsafe to go out to gather it but rather loaths it as light bread and prizes their own foolish trash before Christs precious Treasure 154. Indeed (x) Francise de Sancta Clara Deus Natura et Gratia probl 15. pag. 122 123. Franciscus de Clarâ alias Damport that quirking Scotist and Reconciler to Rome would confound these two kinds of Ignorance and make them in some cases aqui Reatus quoting Vega lib. 6. cap. 18. in Trid. who says as Ignorantia purae Negationis about many Articles of Faith may be without fault so there is the same reason of that Ignorance which is pravae
Scriptures to be the word of God because God their Author gives such a Testimony but only because their Church says so which at the best begets but an Humane Faith can be saved The formal object of their Faith is not veritas prima but the Testimony of their Church now 't is not any humane Faith that makes a true believer he is no better than an Infidel in respect of Divine Faith and he that believes not is damned (q) Mark 16.16 247. Let none wonder why I call them Infidels for notwithstanding their belief of the Creed which they profess in Words yet they deny it in their Principles and Practises and though total Infidelity be not found in them yet there is a partial Infidelity whereby part of the Gospel and the full sense of sundry Articles of the Creed are denyed by them they are guilty of But the Book entituled Paganopapismus goes further than I do proving that Papism is flat Paganism and that the Papist resembles Pagans in sevenscore several particulars Thus he accounts them Pagans 248. As they are Hereticks Infidels so are they impenitent ones which seals them up for damnation for the sin of Impenitency is inflicted on them as a judgment of God Revel 9.20 The Turks this Scripture shews us were sent for a Plague of the Romish Idolatries and this Character together with the prediction holds Congruity with the Romish Church 249. For as the Romanists are great Fornicators Murtherers Idolaters and worshipers of Devils in their Images none like them in late days so they obstinately and impenitently persist in their Whoredoms Massacres and Idolatries Notwithstanding God hath laid desolate the Eastern Church by the Turks for Idolatry yet Rome the Western Church repents not of the same Sin Proximus ardet Vcalegon the Eastern Idolaters are laid waste and can stupified impenitent Rome hope to be saved CHAP. IV. The Fourth Property 'T is a Bloody Religion 250. AS the Romish Religion is a Superstitious Idolatrous and Damnable Religion so in the fourth place 't is a Bloody Religion which makes the fourth Property All its laws like those of Draco's have been writ in Letters of Blood the Romish Church hath not only breathed out threatnings in all Ages against those of the Reformed Religion like Wolves greedy of their Prey but like so many devouring Cannibals have eaten their Flesh and drunk their Blood even to an Inebriation 251. The representation of this Romish Church to John in a Vision caused in him great admiration especially for her bloody cruelties Joh. 17.6 He wondred with great Admiration There is a gradation in the words 1. That a woman should be drunk that is a greater shame than for a man to be so 2. That no liquor would serve her to find sweetness in and to be drunk withal but blood And 3. That no Blood must inebriate this Whore but the blood of Saints 252. Luther says Cain shall be killing his Brother Abel to the end of the World but he is most bloody in his old days Malice is commonly hereditary and runs in the blood and as we use to say of Runnet the older it is the stronger Mr. Jenkins shows at large how the Spirit of Cain is in the Romanists and what a murthering Religion it is to the true Abels See his second part on Jude in quarto pag. 179 180. 253. Rome hath ever been the Slaughter-house and Shambles of the Saints of God in this latter Age of the world as Jerusalem was before her Matth. 23.35 As it was not possible that a Prophet should perish any where but in Jerusalem so in Rome is found the blood of Prophets and of Saints and of all that were slain upon the Earth Revel 18.24 Rome hath had a long hand and has stretched it out into all Lands to butcher the Saints by her Authority (r) 'T is credibly related that in the space of eight hundred years Rome hath been the death of twelve Millions Idaea Reform Antichr tom 1. part 2. sect 2. cap 6. One Pope Julius the 2 in seven years time of his Papacy destroyed two hundred thousand Christians Baleus de Actis Rom. Pontif lib. 7. 254. Rome Heathen hath indeed done much against the Church slaying its Thousands but Rome Antichristian hath done more slaying its Ten Thousands And as Rome Heathen exceeded all the other Beasts in Daniel for fierceness and cruelty so Rome Antichristian is made up of all those Beasts The Feet of a Bear the mouth of a Lyon himself like a Leopard and the Dragon giving him power Revel 13.2 as if all cruelties were concentred in him (ſ) See more of this in my Treatise of Antichrist 255. The Romish Religion then is but a beastly Religion not only for all manner of brutish uncleanness both practised and palliated in it but especially for that belluine cruelty that hath evermore been found in it Nothing of the meekness of the Lamb that came down from Heaven but all of the bloodiness of the Beast that ascended out of the deep nothing of that wisdom from above that is first pure then peaceable but all earthly sensual and devilish in its whole Platform Jam. 3.15 17. 256. 'T is worth our observation that of all the Enemies of the Church those that are Apostates be the cruellest Thus it appears in the Devil himself who is an Apostate Angel and he hath great wrath against the Church Rev. 12.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sublimest Indignation containing in it both perturbation of mind and the highest inflammation of Spirit Satan is a malevolous Adversary he was of the Church but left his first habitation Jude 6. and now has a malignant Rage against it 257. So the Jews were of the Church a peculiar people in Covenant with God but when they did Apostatize and Ammi became loammi unchurching and uncovenanting themselves then they did degenerate into the cruellest Enemies that Christ and his Apostles had and therefore the Holy Ghost hath stigmatiz'd them with this brand They please not God and are contrary to all men 1 Thess 2.14 as if they had lost all sense both of Deity and common Humanity and become rather Ishmaelites than Israelites Gen. 16.12 Against every man 258. Thus also what a Monster of Men became Julian after he Apostatiz'd and drunk in a persecuting Principle like that unrighteous Judge (t) Luke 18.2 he feared not God nor reverenced Men but blasphemed our Redeemer calling him a Carpenters Son and a Galilean and made more havock of the Church though in subtler ways than any of his Predecessors 259 Such an Apostate is Antichrist as I have abundantly proved in my treatise of Antichrist a degenerate plant who Contrary to that great Caesar Romam Invenit marmoream sed reliquit lateritiam hath changed Romes gold into dross And the Philosophical Axiom holds good in this case also that Corruptio Optimi est Pessima Rome degenerating from Christian to Antichrstian hath done the
Star falling by degrees so far as to adore St. Ignorance so much that the works of Bellarmine their great Champion and of Gregory de Valentia were not allowed to be sold in Italy because the Arguments which the Protestant Authors use in their own defence are rehearsed in them The longest look the Romanists can take is at this blazing Star that Lieutenant General to the Dragon who sent forth whole bands of Locusts to wit Monks Fryars Priests and Jesuits both numerous and voracious Rev. 9.3 9. Even their own Bellarmine speaks something that hath a tendency to the gradual falling of this Star Wormwood saying Ab eo tempore quo per vos papa Antichristus esse capit non modo non erevit ejus imperium sed semper magis ac magis decrevit Bellarm. do Pap. Rom. lib. 3. cap. 1. Since saith he you Protestants began to call the Pope Antichrist he did not only not increase but a great part of his Command and Commodity hath decreased and is lost Whence I note by the way 't is not cautelously done by any of our Divines in my judgment so much as to doubt at this day who is the Antichelst Seeing we have here their own great Champion quasi Reum penè si non planè confitentem as if guilty almost if not altogether confessing the thing and the rather because he doth so ingeniously acknowledg that the very calling the Pope Antichrist hath been an Ordinance in Gods hand to bring down the Kingdom of the Beast and to make this bitter Star fall gradually And how probable it is that the Key of the bottomless Pit was given to this falling Star falling from the heavenly doctrine of the Christian Church at Rome in the Apostles time and after down into the Carnal and Earthly Religion of the now Romish Antichristian Church with which Key he lets into the bottom less Pit Souls innumerable insomuch that in the days of Hildebrand that Pope which was called The Brand of Hell alluding to his Name some Letters were set forth as sent from Hell wherein the Devil and his Angels give the Popish Clergy many thanks for sending them in so many Souls as they never had in any Age before Now if Popery began at this Star then it cannot be accounted an ancient thing 10. I know the Romanists use to beguile people by telling them that men of their Religion built all the Churches Colledges Hospitals c. in all the world To which I answer 't was not men of the Popish but of the Christian Religion that did most of those things Constantine built a Church on Mount Calvary and Justinian built another at Constantinople and our Ethelbert built Paul's here at London These were all done before the fall of the Star Wormwood or before Popery was heard of in the World and before the man of Sin that mistery of Iniquity was revealed 'T is true indeed Dolman alias Parsons doth labour in the very fire to defend the Antiquity of the Romish Religion here making all the three Conversions of England to be from Rome and to the Romish Faith but the absurdity hereof appears out of their own Baronius Who 1. confesses that Joseph of Arimathea came into England nine years before Peter went to Rome from whence it necessarily follows that our Church must be ancienter than that at Rome by nine years 2. The Christians here kept their Easter after the Eastern manner upon the fourteenth day which they would not have done had they received the faith from the Western Church from Rome 3. Pope Victor in the second Century would have altered this custom had this Land been then under his Jurisdiction 4. The Mother of Constantine Helene one of this Island did not hold any such points of Popery as the Romish Church now holdeth 11. To these add 5. Pelagius one of this Island also differed not from Augustine in the Third Century only in Freewill and Original Sin no other Popish points were known to them or discussed between them 6. Pope Elentherius did acknowledge our King Lucius to be Gods Vicar in his own Land which was far from those Ambitious Popes his Successors who make themselves Gods Vicars in all Lands As to that pretended Conversion by Austin that Arrogant Monk which Dolman would defend 't is answered that factious fellow found much opposition here about his imposing upon our Ancestors those Romish Rites of Easter day Church-musick Letany single life of Priests processions c. though at that time we read not a word of Pardons Indulgencies Transubstantiation the Sacrament in one kind c. all of them upstart things Hereupon Austin the Monk thus opposed doth conspire with King Ethelfred to cut off 1200 of his Opposers to wit the holy Monks of Bangor who were altogether unlike the Monks in after Ages for they lived by the sweat of their brows and by the labour of their hands and gave themselves to Fasting and Prayer not only lest the Christian Britains should be overrun by the heathen Saxons but also lest they should be corrupted by the Romish Superstitions which this insolent Austin whom they discerned and disowned as no man of God by his pride and ambition would have from Gregory in the sixth Century intruded upon them hence Gregorii Vicarius was justly stiled Gregis Sicarius and his Reformation so called was rather a Deformation yea his Conversion as Dolman terms it was rather a Perversion and which is worse as much as in him lay a plain Eversion in the slaughter of those holy men so that instead of a Prophet's Reward he better deserved the Punishment of a Murderer Beda lib. 2. cap. 2. Isaac Chronol pag. 406. Fuller's Chur. Hist 2. b. 10. Anno Dom. 605. 12. I might add many other Witnesses which all do witness that the Christian Religion which is the same that we Protestants do protest to profess and practice was long before the Romish Religion as now it is found any footing amongst us and that many in this Island suffered Martyrdom for it in the time of Diocletian the Emperor long before this Austin Beda hist lib. 3. Bishop Vsher De Primord Eccles Britan p. 102 and De Ecclesiae statu Successu at large and Aicentinus in his Annals lib. 3. to say nothing of Pareus Osorius or of the Magdeburg Centurists whom Dolman scornfully calls a Quadrilio or round Table because writ by four men Illyricus Vigandus Judex and Faber because prejudiced against them Their own Gregory of Monmouth confutes that fond opinion of Pope Gregory's sending this Austin to plant the Christian Faith in this Island seeing it had been planted here above four hundred years before Austin's time saying In patria Britonum adhuc vigebat Christianitas qua ab Apostolorum tempore nunquam inter cos defecerat it had never failed amongst them since the Apostles times And that Austin found many great places all furnished with good religious men Greg. Monmouth de Britan. Gestis
lib. 8. To say nothing of look beyond Luther at large and of Dr. Humphrey in his Prax. Jesuitismi fol. 17. who shews how many witnesses Oxford hath afforded against the Romish Religion which I speak largely of in my Appendix to the Treatise of Antichrist I shall conclude this Paragraph with setting Dolman against Dolman who confesseth ingeniously in his pag. 19. that either Simon Zelotes the Apostle or Joseph of Arimathaea the Disciple brought Religion into this Land from Jerusalem Hence I Argue if it came hither first from Jerusalem then it came not hither first from Rome as he elsewhere saith 13. Moreover if we consider either the name or the thing the Novelty hereof will be more evident 1. Consider the name Papist 't is but a novel name and not found among the Ancients What need any further Testimony of this when their own Father Bristow doth confess it saying in his eighth Demand that the name Papist was never heard of till the time of Pope Lee in the fifteen hundredth year of Christ Habemus reum Confitentem 't is enough The Testimony of an Adversary against himself is unquestionable Secondly Consider the thing Popery in its Popish Points which are all novel Points and not known to the ancient Church We are able to shew the first Authors of their corrupt Doctrines which were not received into the Church for six hundred years after Christ and though we could not do this yet would it not follow that the Romish Church is the true ancient Church For first Many Heresies did spring up after the Apostles time yet none knew how 1 Joh. 2.18 and 4.1 yea Popery it self began to work at that time 2 Thes 2.7 Secondly The Head of some Errors may be as hard to discover as the Head of the River Nilus and the rather because Satan that Super-Seminator sows his Tares in the night while men slept Mat. 13.15 They are so privily and so creepingly brought in Gal. 2.4 2 Tim. 3.6 2 Pet. 2.1 and Jude 4. But above all that Grand Error of Popery in as much as it is called a Mystery of Iniquity was foisted in less discernably Thirdly The Romanists themselves do acknowledge that there are many Errors crept into the Church the first Authors whereof cannot be named And Fourthly It would be enough to discover the Novelty of Popery by demonstrating that it cannot be found in the Holy Scriptures which is the truest Antiquity 14. I have already discovered the Novelty of many Popish Points of the Romish Religion in pag. 26. Paragraph 65 66. c. of this Treatise That they were not from the beginning but are all additions by the man of sin and therefore accursed Revel 22.18 My Additions therefore thereunto shall be such only as my brevity proposed can admit to say but little to their inferior practick Points as of their Popish Beads Holy Water Missal Vestments Latin Service c. 1. The use of their Beads in their blind devotion came not from Peter the Apostle but from Peter the Hermit that Trumpet to the Holy War so called who taught them the manner of praying with Beads that thereby they might reckon their Prayers as if God should be verily in their Debt for their so many Pater Nosters and Ave Maries whereas true Devotion is not so much Numeranda ut Ponderanda numbered as pondered with the Lord he will have weight and worth in right Prayer and not Vain babbling Mat. 6.3 Battilogia Pentificia vel ipsum Satanam pudeat Their vain Repetitions are so gross and shameless that the Devil himself had he any shame in him would be ashamed of them faith learned Beza 2. Their Holy Water Polidor Virgil makes Pope Alexander the first to be its Author Anno Domini 118 or 121. see Prideaux his Introduction pag. 69. I confess they may go to Nama Pompilius and other Heathens for consecrated Water long before this Pope Alexander for they had their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at their Idol-Temple doors and their Baronius alledges Juvenal's sixth Satyr for their Lustral Water Surely this is not an Antiquity for the Romanists to boast of to borrow from Devil-worshippers 15. It must not be denied that if their Holy Water be derived from Numa Pompilins it hath Antiquity in it because Numa was seven hundred years before Christ a good Warrant for Christian Holy Water and in nothing better than in this that Numa was a reputed Conjurer and so a fitter Author of that conjured Water It is truly called so from their own form of consecrating this Holy Water which is as followeth I conjure thee O thou Creature Water in the Name of God †the Father Almighty and in the Name of Jesus †Christ the Son and by the power of the Holy †Spirit with certain Prayers mumbled over it then they blasphemously equal it to the blood of Christ for purging away sins you may suppose 't is only such Sins as have no deep rooting in us that a few drops of this Holy Water can wash away I wonder they should overlook that Holy Water mentioned Numb 5.17 there 's Antiquity indeed better than Baronius's sixth Satyr of Juvenal Baron Annal. ann 44. but the mischief is that was an Holy Water that caused the Curse Num. 5.21 Water is indeed an Element that God hath given us both for Natural and Celestial use the first in Household Affairs the second in the Sacrament of Baptism these are truly ancient things but the Romanists converting it beyond all Divine Ordination by their Exorcisms and Inchantments to other Magick and Idolatrous Uses This is a mere Novelty and Nullity The words of their Exorcisms run thus Exorcizo te Aqua Benedicta ut fias aqua exercizata c. that thou maist have power to drive away Devils Oh ridiculous Much more might I say to this point but my Book intended little swelleth much already 16. So I must be abrupt in it as likewise 3. In their Missal Vestments wherein they do plainly Judaize yea more than so or rather Heathenize it therein For 1. They cannot plead the Garments of the Levitical Priesthood seeing this were to send the Messiah to Moses School and so to deny that Christ is come in the Flesh Which is the spirit of Antichrist 1 Joh. 4.2 3. for Christ by his coming changed the Law of the Levitical Priesthood Heb. 7.11 and together with it the Rites and Apparels which glittering Garments could not congruously correspond with the Simplicity of the Gospel 2. Popish Priests do more than Judaize in as much as they abound more in their Holy Garments than ever the Mosaical Priests did for the High Priests had but seven Garments appointed them and the other Priests but two yet the Popish Priests have six their Popish Prelates nine more Ration Divin Offic. lib. 3. cap. 1. and Bellarm. lib. 2. de Miss cap. 14. And the Popes in their Pontificalibus said Erasmus may better be compared to Julius Caesar
A PROTESTANT ANTIDOTE Against the POYSON OF POPERY CLEARLY Proving the Religion of the Church of Rome to be 1. Superstitious 2. Idolatrous 3. Damnable 4. Bloody 5. Novel 6. Inconsistent with the Publick Peace 7. Irreconciliable to true Christianity Published for the Publick Good By Christopher Nesse Minister of the Gospel in Fleetstreet London Every Plant which my heavenly Father hath not Planted shall be rooted up Matth. 15.13 LONDON Printed for Dorman Newman at the King's Arms in the Poultrey 1679. To the Right Honourable the Lords and Commons of England Right Honourable c. 'T IS a most Conspicuous and undeniable Truth that You are the grand Patriots and present Patrons of all that is near and dear to us both as we are Men and as we are Christians You are our blessed Zerubbabels which signifies Born in Babel or far from Confusion the good Lord grant that however ye might be born in it ye may be graciously removed far from it Or our sweet Shezbazzars which signifies Joy in Tribulation the good Lord make you no less to these three Nations whom God hath raised up in this critical conjuncture of Babylonish Confusion as Saviours upon Mount Sion to judge the Mount of Esau or Romish Edom that the Kingdom may be the Lords Obad v. 21. Even a Kingdom of Righteousness and true Holiness wherein the Crown may be placed upon our Lord Christs not Antichrists Head Cant. 3.11 1 Chron. 29.11 Isai 33.22 that there may be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a divine or holy Government and that the Temple of the Lord which hath been burnt and broken down may be built again that the Lord our God may dwell amongst us It must be acknowledged that as Zerubbabel or Shezbazzar had in his way so you have in your way great Mountains Zech. 4.7 Mountains of Prey Psal 76.4 5. Yea destroying Mountains Jerem. 51.25 Though Babylon be called there a destroying Mountain and seated upon a Rock that is unaccessible and not underminable yet God hath promised for your encouragement that he will level it and lay it low enough v. 28. This destroying Mountain God will make a burnt Mountain like a great heap of Rubbish and Ashes as this City lately was when burned down by Babylonish hands the Lord will Retaliate and pay Rome with her own Coin as it is foretold of her that Radix omnium malorum Rev. 17.16 17. Tota eris in Cineres quasi nunquam Roma fuisses Wo wo wo to her God will make Rostmeat of her Flesh and burn her for an old Bawd with fire this destroying Mountain shall be destroyed when God cometh to Thresh those Mountains and beat them as small as Dust before him Isa 41.15 Oh that you may be a new sharp Threshing Instrument having Teeth in the hand of the Lord to mash in pieces those mighty Mountains and to level the loftyest of them that are set aloft and overtopping the poor feeble Jews Nehem. 4.2 the Seed of God and to bring them to the lowest place which is fittest for them to wit the Footstool of Christ Surely every Mountain though never so great shall become a Plain or a Champiagne Passable Path the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it saying Who art thou O Great Mountain before Gods Zerubbabels thou shalt become a Plain Zech. 4.7 which is the Virgin Daughter of Sion's lofty Interrogation insulting over the defiled and defiling Daughter of Babylon notwithstanding her Greatness and Haughtiness 2 Kin. 19.21 There is no Mountain so strong but it may be moved if not removed by an Earthquake when God terribly shaketh the Earth Hag. 2.6 Nah. 2.3 Babylon meddles not with her match in meddling with a matchless God who is more glorious and excellent than all Mountains of Prey Psal 76.4 All Mountains melt at his Presence Nah. 1.5 Psal 114.3 6 7. He that giveth the gift of Miracles whereby to remove Mountains 1 Cor. 13.2 must needs have that power much more himself A quo aliquid tale est illud est magis tale The Rabbins say that the Pillar of Glory which was Israel's Conduct from Aegypt to Canaan stubbed up every Bush and levell'd every Mountain that lay in their way to the Land of Promise Right Honourable The Lord of Hosts be with you and the like Pillar of Providence to do the like Offices of Love for you in your difficult Work go before you As the Temple lately burnt cannot be built again until those Mountains of Rubbish which lyes upon the ground be removed so the Temple of God cannot be Repaired by you our Zerubbabels untill this work be done Your Present and Primary Work is to remove Mountains of Rubbish the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which now Letteth will Let until it be taken out of the way 2 Thess 2.6 7. The Spirit of the Lord be upon you that as you have already given many hearty lifts at the Rubbish so you may not only effectually remove it but be able also to cast it all into the Brook Kidron 2 Chron. 29.16 and 30.14 and 2 Kin. 23.12 Oh! what good man will not assist you in casting such Trash into the Town-ditch such a sordid place was Kidron that you may go on and Prosper as Asah Hezekiah and Josiah did in the Name of the Lord. What true Englishman will not say The blessing of the Lord be upon you Psal 129. ult And say God speed your Plough that hath so much fallow ground to break up before you that you may not sow among Thorns Jer. 4.3 Alas you do meet with much Fallow Ground a Mispah with its Snares a Tabor with its Nets Hos 5.1 A Beth-Aven much Land of darkness all Fallow Ground in England although it was ploughed up in Edward the Sixths and in Queen Elizabeth's time c. The Plough of the Gospel must go oft over the Land before it be fit Soil for the Celestial Seed from the best of Sowers the blessed Seedsman the Lord Jesus 'T is for Wo and Lamentation that our Land is grown fallow again and should it not by your Plough be broken up our Nation would soon be broken up The breaking up of those bloody Romanists may prevent the breaking up of this blessed Nation should those cursed Thorns be suffered to grow up again with their sharp Pricks as they did after the first Ploughing by Edward the Sixth in the Marian days Oh! what dreadful Flames Burnings and bloody Cruelties would fall upon us Witness that Praelibamen or Foretast thereof not only in those frequent Fires but also in that Barbarous Murther of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey before the Power of the Nation was made over to them My Lords and Gentlemen Ploughing Work is a Work of great difficulty especially among tall overgrown deep rooted and churlish Thorns rending and tearing up of Fallow Ground and turning it upside down is a Work of great Difficulty yet the Removens prohibens removing Remora's hath most hardness in it when this is done the
Religion will be found there although the same Dr. Hammond would help to wipe her mouth in saying that there can be no superstition in a bad sence in any unprescribed Ceremonies Could this be made good it would prove a notable medium for wiping the Harlots mouth of Superstition 46. The Dr. makes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Superstition to be Daemonum cultus a worshipping the Poetical Gods or of Angels or dead men and yet he calls it a creditable word as also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How these things can be I cannot understand for as it is a deifying of Daemons it cannot be a word that is creditable But to say so belongs rather to the doctrine of Daemons which the Apostle condemns in 1 Tim. 4.1 2. 47. And though the word may have an Euphemismus or good sence after the Pagan Construction for with them (t) Explicat Plutarchus esse nimium Deorum metum unde exortae sunt superstitiosae Ceremoniae Beza 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is one that fears the Gods but if we consider that the Pagan Gods were no other but Devils Moses called them so Lev. 17.7 Deut. 32.17 and David Ps 106.37 And more plainly the Apostle 1 Cor. 10.20 The Gentiles Sacrifice to Devils I see not how a word that indeed signifies a worshipper of Devils should be a creditable word in any Christian though it may in Pagan construction 48. The large Annotator on the 17 of the Acts v. 22. saith that there as commonly 't is taken in the evil sence and he quotes Clemens Alexandr for signifying a superstitious man by this word such an one as Lactantius describes a worshipper of the Images of his Ancestors the Penates or houshold Gods this Virgil calls Vana Superstitio c. and not creditable 49. Although the worshipping of Daemons be indeed a Superstition as it is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a false Religion practised amongst Pagans yet the Superstition properly so called quasi supra statutum more than is appointed in the Law of God will upon enquiry be found among the Papagans which the soundest Divinity defines to be a Vice opposite to Religion (u) Yea Aquinas himself gives it this Definition ut supra according to excess and a superstitious man to be rather Gods flatterer in circumstantials than his Friend inSubstantials 50. Yea there is a superstitious worship of the true God as well as of false Gods when man either chuses a worship for God or those things whereon divine worship depends or when he exceeds the measure in worshipping and as Polanus saith Serviliter Muliebriter Pueriliter se gerit Syntag. Theol. lib. 9. cap. 3. pag. 580. To the same purpose speaks the Author of the (w) Polyanthaea Polyanthaea though a Papist that Superstition is not called an excess in Religion because it gives more to divine worship than the true Religion doth but more than it ought to do de superst 51 This superstitions worship of God is when a certain singular force and efficacy is ascribed ex opere operato to external Rites prescribed of God As when a power of driving away Devils and healing of Diseases is attributed to some words repeated or writings hung about the Neck whereas those words and writings have no such power neither from their own Nature nor from any divine Institution 52. To ascribe that to any thing which it hath no natural power unto nor divinely enabled for is notorious Superstition as to attribute to the Sacraments a power of themselves both of Sanctification and Salvation from the work done or to so many prayers and vows a vertue of well deserving at Gods hand or to give to some meats or days more sanctity than others beyond any divine warrant Yet all this Superstition and much more is found in the Church of Rome as will appear more plainly in the sequel of this Treatise 53. Dr. Hammond acknowledges that Superstition is a nimiety or excess in Religion then are not those Romish Rites and unprescribed Ceremonies which are of a mystical signification to use his own word a nimiety and is not a placing of vertue in the sign of the Cross c. an excess in Religion why doth he then say 't is a dogmatizing to abstain from unprohibited Ceremonies as well as from unprohibited Meats Col. 2. for to argue from a non-prohibition suppose they were not prohibited is an argument ab authoritate negative and so of no force 54. However this Dr. gratifies the Romanists in his charitable glosses upon Superstition and Will-worship or worshipping of Daemons I am sure learned Mede does not so in his Doctrine of Daemons who applies it wholly to the Popish Church in her bowing to breaden Idols and Crosses like Daemon pillars c. all which make a lively Image of the Gentiles Theology of Daemons 55. Thus we see as Atheism is a defect in Religion so Superstition is an excess 't is a going super statutum as Isidore saith beyond the precepts of God which commands us to do only those things that he biddeth us do whatsoever thing I command you observe to do it thou shalt not add thereto nor diminisb from it Deut. 12.32 with Ch. 4.2 If any man shall add unto those things which God bath commanded God shall add unto him the Plagues that are written in the Book and if any man shall take away from them God will take away his part out of the book of life Rev. 22.18 19. as Atheists are guilty of the latter so the Superstitious of the former 56. Superstition is a being righteous or religious overmuch Eccles 7.16 as Atheism is a being righteous or religious over little as when men do hot only believe that Christ is our satisfaction for sin but also there is need of Alms Prayers Fastings Vows c. to satisfie for our sins this is an addition of our own merit to the merit of Christ as if the righteousness of Christ were not complete enough without the beggarly Eeke of our filthy righteousness This nimiety or excess is found in the Church of Rome 57. Tertullian condemns all things to be vacuae observationis et superstitioni deputanda quae fine ullius Dominici aut Apostolici praecepti autoritate facta sunt Tertul. de oratione Chap. 12. V. It seems he was not of the Dr.'s Opinion that thinks it enough that Ceremonies though they be not commanded if not prohibited may be embraced Tertullian was for a divine warrant and I have shewed in my Tractate of Ceremonies that they are prohibited in thou shalt not add 58. All divine Worship must have divine Warrant and whatsoever exceeds divine warrant is Superstition the Commands of God ought diligently to be observed Matth. 28.20 Act. 1.2 Revel 12. last v. But to observe more than God commands is to be superstitiously wise above that which is written Such were the Pharisees in the Jewish Church that Taught for Doctrines the Commandments if Men Matth. 15.9 that their
the Child viz. Truth or Worship because she is for dividing it but God accounts it an abomination when any part of his Worship is imparted to Idols or Images God will have all or none at all and all Will-worship devised out of mans brain whereby men warp either to the Right Hand or to the Left from Gods prescribed Will the Lord abhors 115. The Just and Jealous God hateth and plagueth all Lukewarmness and Neutrality in Religion all dough-baked Duties or mixtures of Religion a mingling of the Cup of the Lord with the Cup of Devils 1 Cor. 10.21 The Religion of the house of Micah mixed Gods worship ship with the Devils Judg. 17.5 The Ephod resembling that of the High-Priests for the true worship of God and the (h) The Teraphim was the Image of a mans head wrung from the Body salted and spiced and under the Tongue spake the Unclean Spirit The King of Babylon had his Teraphim to consult with Ezek. 21.21 or Images Teraphim or Images in mans shape to divine by for the worship of the Devil 116. It was not lawful to mix Judaism with Gentilism Lev. 19.27 Ye shall not round the corners of your heads nor make any cutting in your flesh for the dead c. These were the Ceremonies of the Heathen therefore the Lord prohibits his people from the observation of them Such a practice had the Aegyptian Priests who worshiped the Idols Isis and Anuhis shaving round their heads or as others say had their Crowns shaven as the Popish Priests have at this day 117. Thus the Religion of the Gergasites was a mixt Religion who learned many things of the Heathen as to eat Swines flesh hence we read of herds of Swine which the Jews abhorred in their Country and not to circumcise c. And such is the Religion of the Ebionites who observe both the Jewish and the Christian Sabbath 118. Neither is it lawful to mingle Judaism with Christianism as the Galatians did who would observe the Ceremonies of the Law in times of the Gospel Those Ceremonies were in their own time mortales in Christs time after he had said consummatum est they were mortal but in following times they were mortiferae and a denying of Christs coming in the flesh for if the substance be come those shadows must vanish away yet those Galatians joyned a dead Law the Law of Ceremonies with a living Gospel 119. The Church of Rome is the speckled Bird that hath mingled Ceremonies with Gospel worship above all that went before her and surely Religion is past the Meridian in that Church where she can hardly be seen for the length of her own shadow The shadows of her Evening have been long a stretching out and her day is going away Jerem. 6.4 (i) Fuller Abel Redivivus pag. 72. Erasmus in his time found Doctrine turn'd into Sophistry and Discipline into Ceremony 120. The Romish Church hath sowed divers seeds in Gods Vineyard she hath plowed with an Ox and an Ass in Gods Husbandry She hath worn Linsey-woolsey Garments in the Temple of God contrary to Levit. 19.19 She hath set up Dagon with the Ark of God and though the Apostle forbid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to play the huckfter with the word and worship of God 2 Cor. 2.17 yet hath she adulterated both 121. Her Bastard Devotion ought not to be admitted as Co-partner with the true worship of God for 't is opposite to the Nature of God to wit his Unity Soveraignty and Al-sufficiency as if there were more Gods than he more hearers of Prayer more pardoners of Sin and more Saviours from trouble than he And 't is opposite also to the Nature of Religion which is called a Bond the Reubenites may not build another Altar without warrant Josh 22.10 't is a spiritual marriage so must be chast or God will be jealous 2 Cor. 11.2 122. But the Romish Church hath played the Harlot and in the Revelation is called the great Whore with whom the Kings of the Earth have committed Fornication and who knows not but that by spiritual Fornication is always in holy Scripture understood Idolatry And though indeed some of the Fathers say Antichrist shall be an hater of Idolatry they must mean only Paganish Idolatry for his worshipping a piece of Paste for Christ c. is as abominable Idolatry as Paganism was 123. That place in Dan. 11.38 literally meant of Antiochus but Analogically agrees to Antichrist Junius and Tremel reads it thus As for the God of Forces he to wit Antiochus shall in his Seat worship with Gold Silver c. a God which his Fathers knew not Thus the Pope hath set up a new God in the Church (k) To their breaden God they ascribe power to forgive sins to protect from evil and to bring to Heaven namely a piece of bread in the Mass which none of the Apostles knew and dedicates Gold c. to it yea burns all that will not bow to it 124. 'T is true the Romanists have found out sundry fine shifts to clear themselves of this Idolatry as their absolute and respective Adoration and their objectum quod and objectum quo Absolute Adoration is when the worship is terminated in the Creature as objectum quod Adorationis and the worship is limited to the Creature Respective Adoration is this when worship is given to dead and senseless things for the Examplar's sake 125. Then the Exemplar or Pattern is the objectum quo and the dead senseless thing or Portraiture is the objectum quod that is they adore the Portraiture for the Patterns sake the dead and senseless thing for the sake of it which is its Exemplar As when homage is done to the Viceroy for the King the Viceroy is the objectum quod and the King is the objectum quo thus the most modest of the Papists of old made but their Image objectum quod Adorationis and God himself objectum quo 126. But now they go further and maintain that Images are not only to be worshiped accidentally or improperly but also by themselves and properly so that they end and terminate their worship as they are considered in themselves and not only as they are Pourtraitures of the Pattern represented (l) Gregor di Valen. disput 6. quast 11. punct 6. and Greg de Val. saith that the same worship which is due to God is due to the Image too which he calls coâ—dâ—ratio or conjunct-worship 127. Plutarch tells us of Sysigambis Darius's Mother coming before Alexander the Great and mistaking Haephestion for Alexander she fell down before Haephestion but perceiving her mistake she began to blush but Alexander said to her Be not ashamed Non errâsti Mater nam Hephaestion est etiam Alexander (m) Thou art not mistaken Mother for Hephaestion is also Alexander But if a Papist falling down before an Image and mistaking the Image for Christ himself Christ will not say to him Be not ashamed thou
dispositionis This par ratio is defended by him against the judgment of Gerson in lect 4. de vitâ spirituali and of Hugo de Sacram. p. 6. c. 5. 155. And de Clara confesses that there are others Qui asserebant Deum non permissurum ut aliquis decipratur in aliquâ veritate fidei absque suâ culpâ and then adds his opinion Ego ut ingenuè meum sensum hâc in parte aperiam c. to speak my own sence freely I think that the common people committing themselves to the instruction of their Pastors trusting their knowledge and goodness if they be deceived it shall be accounted invincible Ignorance 〈◊〉 saltem probabilis which truly excuses from fault 156. He goes on and says Imâ—… aliqui Doctores tantum tribuunt instructioni 〈◊〉 quibus incumbit cura ovium c. that if those Pastors on whom the care of the Flock dependeth do teach hic et nunc that God would be hated the rude Parishioner is bound to believe them Azorius also saith Rusticus et Imperitus qui parocho suo fidem babens credet diquid contra articules fidei excusatur a peccate where he cites Scotus and Gabriel to be of the same Opinion 157. 'T is true If their Priests did infallibly keep knowledge as they falsely sense those words in Mal. 2.7 saying further that the Law given is not a Law but in the mouth of the Priest then would it be the less sin to pin their faith upon the Sleeves of their Priests and the ignorance of their Laity would be invincible ignorance for want of information from their Clergy but we find in Story how notoriously their Priests have fallen short of keeping infallibly the knowledge of the Law of God 158. It is manifest in Ecclesiastical History that the Popish Priests like the Sons of Eli are Sons of Belial that knew not the Lord 1 Sam. 1.12 nor the Law of their God witness that (y) Acts and Monuments Fox Popish Bishop of Dunkelden in Scotland who boasted yea thanked God that he never knew what the Old and New Testament were and that he would care to know nothing but his Portuise and his Pontifical As likewise that Popish Priest in Germany who being asked by the Visitors whether he taught his people the Decalogue answered that he had not the Book so called 159. And of our own Popish Priests in England that were notorious Ignoramuses our Martyrology gives many examples as that Priest that told Justice Leland that the New Testament of Tindal's Translation was plain Heresie and none worse than it and bloody Bonner burning of Bibles and his Kinsman Darbyshire that said the Scriptures were sufficient to Salvation but not to Instruction but I would not rake in this Kennel Those Priests lips kept knowledge well 160. Chrysostom had long before discovered and lamented Multi Sacerdotes et tamen pauci multi in Nomine pauci in opere and Petrarch complained in his time that the stench of that Sink the Romish Clergy was come up to heaven this Ribera bewails also But above all Famous Luther speaks home to this affirming that Hell is paved with the Skulls of those prophane Popish Priests and Erasmus likewise lays them open in their colours who did them more mischief jocando than Luther did stomachando how can sober minds hang (z) As Luke 19. last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Ears at such lips as those 161. But the Romanists falsifie that Text in Mal. 2.7 reading it The lips of the Priests keep knowledge making it a plea for their Infallibility as if all things knowable were locked up in the Cabinet of their Breasts whereas in the Hebrew it is the Priests lips should keep knowledge which is not a prophesie but a Commandment by those words God doth not foretell that the Priests should never turn from the true Doctrine but forbiddeth them to turn from it 'T is equally absurd to make Commands Prophesies as to make Prophesies Commands (a) Moulin's Buckler of Faith pag. 65. as if Christs foretelling One of you shall betray me had been a bidding them betray him 162. And the following Verses in Mal. 2. plainly shows how those Priests lips had not preserved knowledge but had seduced the people and corrupted the Covenant of God They had forsaken the way and caused many to stumble v. 8. and must the Law be only a Rule in their mouths as if God were beholding to them for owning it (b) Cajetan Com nent on Matth. Cardinal Cajetan confesses thus much of the Popish Priests that they which should have been by their places the Salt of the Earth had lost their savour and minded nothing but the Rites and Revenues of the Church 163. Now are such Priests fit to be confided in in matters of knowledge and goodness as de Clara would bear us in hand must the people only believe as they believe must they look after no other knowledge and goodness but what is to be found in those doltish prophane Priests Our Lord gives us better direction than this quirking Fryar in bidding us try the Spirits 1 John 4.1 and prove all things 1 Thess 5.21 as those noble Bereans did Act. 17.11 and in telling us that if the Blind lead the Blind both falls into the Ditch Math. 15.14 164. Those blind guides indeed shall lye lowermost and have the worst of it but wo to them that follow their pernicious ways hoodwinked and blindfold This is their implicit faith believing as the Church believes and their blind Obedience walking in darkness and they know not whither but can never be judged invincible Ignorance to excuse from blame although Franciscus de Clara do affirm it especially here in England where so many Bibles godly Books and so much powerful Preaching may be easily come to 165. The holy Scriptures were written that we might believe John 20.31 and we are commanded to search them John 5.39 that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a more sure word 2 Pet. 1.19 upon the testimony of which we must depend primariò and not upon the Church as they say for this is to leave the Fountain and a going to broken Cisterns and 't is a damnable Religion that keeps ignorant of the Scriptures They have Moses and the Prophets c. Luke 16.29 31. 166. It is worth our observation to take notice what difference there is betwixt the Apostolical and Antichristian Spirit the Apostolical Spirit saith thus Moreover Brethren I would not that you should be ignorant 1 Cor. 10.1 he would not have them ignorant in spiritual things but would have them zealous according to knowledge but the Antichristian Spirit is well content that the Brethren should remain ignorant and continue in blind Devotion 167. This Popish Religion is therefore a blind Religion so dangerous and damnable because it puts out the eye of knowledge Thus Antichrist saith to the Inhabitants of the World just as Nahash the Ammonite said to the men of Jabesh-Gilead On
their uncharitableness to us and to all other Christians be the better sign 194. And whether it be safer to joyn with the charitable or uncharitable yea with them that are so notoriously uncharitable as to condemn the far greatest part of the Church of Christ merely because they are not Papists Thus we see how their Principles and Practises be not Relatives but interfere with their professions for while they cry up the Grace of Charity as the most splendid grace of their Religion yet in the mean time they are the most uncharitable people in the world 195. Indeed the Romanists argue point blank to this drawing this general conclusion from the charitable opinion of some well disposed Protestants (n) Answer to Mr. Fisher's Relation of a third Conference at the end of Dr. White 's Reply to Fisher pag. 68. We see the Protestants at least some confess there may be salvation in our Church we absolutely deny there may be salvation in theirs therefore 't is safer to come to ours than to stay in theirs to be where almost all grant Salvation than where the greatest part of the World deny it 196. 'T is great pity that our Charity towards them which is a grace they cry up so much for the lustre and glory of their own Church and which is a grace that hopeth all things believeth all things c. 1 Cor. 13.6 7. should be so wrested to the hardning of their hearts in their evil way 't is pity our charitable opinion of them should give any Papist occasion to live and dye in the bosom of that damnable Religion whereas we should rather warn them in the Name of God to come out of Babylon left they be partakers of her Plagues (o) Rev. 18.4 197. But when we say a Papist may be saved (p) Baxter's Key for Catholicks p. 262. Mr. Baxter shews in loco supradicto that it is with all those limitations As 1. We say that a Papist may be saved as a Christian but not as a Papist as a man that hath the Plague may live but not by the Plague 2. We say that Popery is a great enemy and hindrance to mens salvation and therefore those among them that are saved must be saved from Popery and not by it 198. And 3. We say that therefore Salvation is a rarer thing among the Papists than among the reformed Protestants Where it is most difficult there it must be most rare many more of the Protestants are like to be saved than of the Papists And 4. we say where Popery prevails against Christianity and so much mastereth the Heart and Life that the Christian Doctrine is not practically received such cannot be saved without Conversion 199. Thus with those and the like limitations the charitable opinion concerning them on our part which they improve so to their advantage must be restrained which doth not amount to such a judgment of safety in their way as they pretend Our learned (q) Whitaker ad Camp Rat. 10. Whitaker sends this Summons to their great Champion Survey Heaven and all the Heavenly host look well into all the Parts and Coasts of it while you list and you shall not find there upon my word one Jesuit or one Papist 200. For saith he none shall stand upon Mount Sion with the Lamb that have receiv'd the mark of the Beast or belong to Antichrist Thus this great Scholar even in Bellarmine's own Judgment who kept his Picture by him and wrote under it Quanquà m Hareticum doctum tamen habeo adversarium had not an over-charitable opinion of Jesuits which have the mark of the Beast and are their Ring-leaders into Error and of Papists to wit such as hold the doctrine of the Modern Church of Rome and Council of Trent 201. And our famous (r) Hooker in his Discourse of Justification Hooker also saith when we say that a Papist may be saved we do not propose to you a Pope with the Neck of an Emperor under his feet or a Cardinal riding his Horse up to the Bridle in the blood of Saints but a Pope or Cardinal penitent disrobed and not only stripped of his usurped power but also reclaimed from his Error Let them and their Proselytes abjure all their pervertings of the truth and be converted let them fall down prostrate at Christs feet and he will not kick them 202. Although many Protestants have this charitable opinion toward such Papists as fall under the foresaid Qualifications yea and also towards all such as by an invincible and compelled Ignorance resign up their own understandings to their Priests and Jesuits and look through such Spectacles as those temper for them not daring to contradict the dictates of their Teachers but are led on hood-winked in an implicit Faith and blind Obedience 203. Such Papists I say so long as they hold fast the true faith of Christ without opposing any fundamental point of the Christian Religion and furthermore do according to the light and Grace given them with purpose of heart cleave unto the Lord and rely wholly and solely on the merits and mediation of Christ both for safety here and Salvation hereafter such as those may find mercy because they adhere to the Romish Church in other things ignorantly 1 Tim. 1.14 204. This is the most candid Construction that our Charity can afford them and yet here be two things very observable 1. That such as those though they live Papists yet they dye Protestants to wit in the principal foundation of our Faith Justification and Salvation by Christ This Bellarmine himself their great (ſ) Bellarm. de Justif lib. 5. cap. 7. Tutissimum est t is safest to rely wholly on the mexits of Christ though he had taught in his health that partly our own merit and partly the merit of Christ gives right to heaven Champion was driven to for succour when the terrors of death were upon him 2. In our Charity there is no certainty for them only a possibility barely stated They may be saved 205. Yet we have no such Charity for such Papists as live in States and Kingdoms where the word of God is power fully preached and the Sacraments of Christ be purely administred where also much care is taken for their better information and means used for reclaiming them from their Error and instructing them in the knowledge of Christ and his ways Such Papists I say being willingly ignorant and wilfully shatting their eyes against the light their state is more desperate and damnable 206. Those Papists are guilty before the Lord of an affected Ignorance and of a wilful despising of the knowledge of the Lord when they might attain to it 'T is not a bare want of the means of Grace but the contempt of them that damus saith Ambrose Those say in effect unto God (t) Job 11.14 15. depart from us as if God were below them and with the Swinish Gergasites desire him to depart out of their
be in a perishing State in them that perish those whom god maketh no account to save he gives them up to the strong delusions of this under-working beast But as for those whom god hath ordained unto life be reserves them as his Remnant according to the Election of grace from bowing of the knee to Baal Rom. 11.4.5 So that none of Gods elect are given up to this perishing State Math. 24.24 221. Thus popery is call'd here Deceivableness because it 't is a grand Imposture a Farrago of all kind of falsities as their feigning Apparitions of Angels and Spirits their forging decrees of Councils for countenancing their Supremacy of the Romish Church their corruptions of the antient Fathers for defence of their lying Doctrines their Piae fraudes as they call them and dissembling of piety for advancing their Religion and many more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arts of consenage and Legerdemain Tricks 222. Popery is a Circle whose Circumference is all kind of Imposture and whose center is nothing but unrighteousness So 't is call'd the deceivableness of unrighteousness and this Religious cheat Captivates only perishing Souls such as are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jude v. 4. men destinated to damnation God justly giving them up to vile affections and of belief of lyes because they received not the truth in the love of it that great Gospel sin brings just Damnation 223. (z) The 4. Scripture Evidence The 4. Scrip. Evidence is 2. Thess 2.11.12 because Papists generally are despisers of the truth God sends them strong delusions that they should believe a lye that they all May be damned who believed not the truth but had the pleasure of unrighteousness They blind their own eyes sinfully and god blind their eyes penally and because of this wilful obduration he gives them over to Satan to Captivate both their Judgments and persons as he will and at his pleasure 2. Tim. 2. last 224. Look what a besotted Infatuation was Iudicially inflicted upon the Idolatrous Jews God Shut their eyes that they could not see and their hearts that they could not understand and a deceived heart turned them aside Isai 44.18.20 they hewed the tree warmed themselves and rosted their meat with the Chips and of all of it and the Residue thereof they make a god of worships it and prays to it saying deliver me for thou art my god c. 225. Such like sottish Dotage is found among the Idolatrous papists in their prostrating before their breaden God They know it to be the fruit of the Earth the workmanship of the Baker they behold it touch it tast it to be bread that for the substance of it Perishes in the useing and is cast out into the draught as Math. 15.17 Yet do they fall down before it and prays unto it saying deliver me for thou art my god The like stupidity is in them to their Crucifixes Roods and Images of Saints 226. These and many more strong delusions which the holy Ghost calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Efficacy of errour are the Romanists given up to The time would faile in producing the many Instances that may be found hereof and which indeed more Properly belongs to the 2. Part of this Diatribe about their Relicks and miracles I shall give but one here under what strong delusion are those Papists of Geneva (a) Wolph mem lect That show the asses taile whereon Christ rode as a divine Relique and perform Divine worship to it 227. (b) Dr. Sclater on 2 Thess 2. pag. 167 168. Dr. Sclater upon this Scripture shews very Solidly how Popery is a pack of lyes as that God loves to be suited unto by saints and Angels mediators that our works are meritorious being done in grace that a man may Supererogate and exceed in duty what he owes to god That baptism takes away whatsoever hath the proper nature of sin that Souls pass hence to pains of Purgatory that Christs death takes only away mortal sins all these he confutes substantially And to those I speak in my 2. Part of this treatise 228. And would we know the reason why Papists are given up to believe those lyes the Apostle tells us it is that they all may be damned who believed not the truth where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Judged for condemned frequent in Scripture as John 3.17 and in others places the penall issue then is damnation not only because they despise the truth but also they delight in unrighteousness which is the highest pitch of impiety they can dispense with all Sins 229. (c) The 5. Seripture Evidence 5. Scrip. Evidence is Revel 19.21 that shews not only the Pope himself but all his obstinate followers also and sworn Sword-men and servants shall be destroyed and though they shall not be so deeply damned as the beast and the false prophet yet shall they be slain even the Kings that asist him and uphold his tottering Kingdome as to be made a prey to the infernal vultures and the greatest Sinners shall be the greatest sufferers there shall be no reasoning of any with mony as Isa 13.17.18 230. 'T is said there the Sword of Christ shall slay the Remnant not any shall escape but a severe execution shall be on all that take part with Antichrist in this his last battel at Armageddon And seeing this Sword is said to come out of the mouth of him that sitteth upon the horse it must not be taken for a material Sword but for the breath of his mouth wherewith he will destroy Antichrist 2. Thess 2.8 and for that Sentence of death that he will pass upon all his followers saying go ye Cursed 231. This place of Scripture is an allusion to Ezek. 39.4.17.20 where the destruction of Gog and Magog the grand enemies of the Chruch before Christs coming into the flesh is recorded Now as that Prophecy was fulfilled literally on them being made a feast for the fowls of the aire both great and small So shall this be fulfiled Allegorically upon all the worshippers of the beast which shall be made a feast to the fiends of Hell and then that Prince-fowl of the Air the Devil and his Spirits shall be glutted with them 232. (d) The 6. Scripture-Evidences The 6. Scrip. Evidence is 2. Pet. 2.1 where heresie is call'd a damnable thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heresies of destruction or damnation 'T is an Hebraisme as a man of bloods Ps 5.6 is a bloody man Now heresie is a doctrine Contrary to the truth which men chuse to follow and will not be Recalmed from it If such doctrine be Simply held it is only etrour but if obstinately and pertinaciously persisted in of this more fully in my treatise of Heresie then 't is damnable Heresie 233. Heresie is Leprosy in the head which is utterly incurable Lev. 13.29 And because it therefore destroys the soul this Epithet damnable is joyned to it not so much
restrictive as intimating that there be some heresies which are not damnable and so 't is to be restrained to the worst sort of Heresies only but rather descriptive as describing what heresie is in Suo Genere that it hath in it a downing nature Especially when there is a Concatenation of them as in this place 234. The holy Ghost uses the word here in the plural number to point out to us that there should be many of them linked together and indeed one heresie persisted in with an obstinate mind ushers in others dato vno absurdo mille sequntur Thus some Etymologists derive the word Heresie ab Haerendo because of ' its Glutinous property men do pertinaciously cleave to it but 't is rather a Greek word so cannot have a d Latin Thema but comes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to chufe an Opinion 235. (e) 'T is a choice that cannont be reclained Such be the Heresies of the Romish Religion as they are damning in nature so they are many in number as justification in part by the works of the law This is a damning heresie If Paul say true Gal. 5.4 such are faln from Grace and Christ shall profit them nothing as their doctrine of merits de Congrue et Cendigno which is not holding of the head Col 2 19. But a despoiling of Christ his plenteons Redemption and becoming Saviouts to themselves 236 As also their congruent merits afforded by nature their freedome and innate power of will excited to apply and determine it self to Gods gracious perswasion Their expiation of Sins both of quick and dead by the unbloody Sacrifice of their Masses And many others ejusdem forma Which are both tanght and believed of the Romanists whereof I shall speak more particularly in the 2. part 237 (f) The 7. Scripture Evidence The 7. Scripture Evidence is Tim. 4.1 Popery teaches many Doctrines of devils as I have shewed in my treatise of Antichrist their forbidding of meats and marriages their teaching the lawfulness of Committing fornication which is the divelifh Doctrine of the Nicolaitans Revel 2.15 Or worshipping Idols of murthering Princes and of massacring Protestants and that because they are Hereticks Now these Doctrines of Devils must needs carry them to the Devil 238. The Apostle in this 1. Epistle to Timothy speaketh of latter times and in his 2. to Timothy 3.1 of the last times In the latter times those Doctrines of devils are broached to wit in the times of Antichrists rise and revelation when the Antichristian leaven shall be spreading it self over all christian Churches as 2. Thess 2.8.10 but in the last times which he says shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to wit about Antichrists destruction the harvest of those devil Doctriners shall be ripe and God will cut them down with his sharp sickle and cast them in bundles to the devil in Hell from whence they came 239. Thus both those times in both those Epistles have relation to Antichrist and the older Antichrist grows the worse and more perilous times shall be For those Doctrines of Devils shall like an Epidemical and vniversal Pestilence be so Contagious and catching that men yea good men will be put hard to it how to secute themselves from that overspreading Abomination then the Righteous should scarcely be saved were not their Names writ in the Lambo book of Life 240. But as for those dwellers upon the Earth whose Names are not found written in that Book these doctrines of Devils prevails with them and brings in that black bedroll of Sin whereof sinful self Love is the first of 19 as the Root of them all and love of pleasures the last all which lead directly to damnation and are found most predominant in the Romish Church above all others which hath a form of Godliness but denies its power 2 Tim. 3.1 to 6. 241. Having thus from Scripture Evidences made this clear demonstration how dangerous a Religion the Popish Religion is to live and dye in how can we but conclude that the Romanists are in a damnable State For 1. (g) Revel 13.8 Their Names are not found in the Lambs book of life 2. (b) Revel 14.9 10 11. They must drink of the Wine of the Wrath of God 3. (i) 2. Thess 2.10 They are in a perishing State 4. (k) 11 12. And believe lyes to be damned 5. (l) Rev. 19.21 Depart ye cursed shall be denounced against them 6. (m) 2 Pet. 2.1 They hold damnable Heresies And 7. (n) 1 Tim. 4.1 They â—uch and believe doctrines of Devils 242. But some will object here and say this is to pass the same uncharitable censure of them that they do of us and this is to conclude all that ever have dyed in Popery to be in a state of damnation To which I answer 1. Their censure of us may truly be termed uncharitable because it is unwarrantable being not grounded upon any clear Scripture Evidence but arising from their obstinate blindness which causeth them to (o) Jude v 10. speak evil of what they know not 243. And 2. I answer 't is not we but the Word of God that judges them by which they must be judged at the last day John 12.48.3 As we do not conclude all Pagans whom God suffered to walk in their own ways Act. 14. 16. to be damned for God might have vessels of mercy among them some became Proselytes so nor all those Papagans for some have held the head Col. 2.19 (p) 1 Cor. 3.11.15 and been sound in the Foundation although they lose their stubble yet not their Souls neither did Popish Errors come to their height at first but now their Heresies be more damnable than ever 244. I might have added several other Scripture Evidences as 1 Cor. 6.9 No Idolater shall inherit the Kingdom of God And Revel 21.8 All Idolaters and all lyars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death Now that Popery is Idolatry and a Compound or Cento of many lying Doctrines I have shewed before why then should we be afraid to say that Papists living and dying in the Trent Faith without Repentance are Castaways and destinated to damnation Why strengthen we the hands of the wicked that he cares not to return by promising him life Ezek. 13.22 245. What warrant from the Word of God can be found of any hope that such damnable Hereticks as hath been made apparent they are can be saved or such plain Infidels in as much as they believe not either the Al-sufficiency of Christs meritorious Passion or the incommunicable Propriety of his mediatory Office in which two points lies the very life and soul of true Faith and Religion and thus far they are Infidels in saying that men must satisfie for their own venial sins and that Saints and Angels meritoriously intercede for us 246. What probability is there that such Infidels as believe not the holy
Slaughter-house of the Saints and if the blood of men cry for Vengeance the blood of Saints doth roar for it yea and the blood of Kings Emperours some of which they have actually murthered more intentionally and some of which they have poysoned with the Bread in the Sacrament As she hath done so God will do unto her Obad. v. 15 16. God loves to Retaliate and to give severity for cruelty Psal 18.26 Levit. 26.18 21. Prov. 14.14 Revel 6.10 and 13.10 and 18.6 c. If the Blood of one Abel had so many tongues as drops and every drop a Voice to cry for Vengeance Oh! then how loud is the cry of those many Thousands yea Millions murthered by her Tot ora quot vulnera God will not pardon her murthers 2 Kin. 24.4 but fill her with the evil of her own ways Prov. 14.14 Rome's Ruine hastneth who dare shake hands with her hands so imbrued in blood horrible to God and Man CHAP. V. The Fifth Property is The Novelty of Popery 1. THe Fifth Character of the Romish Religion is the Novelty of it for which it ought to be abhorred The Romanists do indeed but unjustly impeach us of Novelty which in truth is their own Crime The Maxim is Actori non Reo incumbit probatio the Plaintiff that affirms not the Defendant that denyes should prove his Plea they complain of our Novelty we defend our Antiquity they do scornfully call us Novellers and ask where our Religion was before Luther we answer our Religion was always in the Sacred Scriptures where their Religion could never be found We can look beyond Luther even to the true Catholick and Apostolical doctrine wherewith ours holds consonancy in all points but their brags and boastings of Antiquity is no better than that Cheat which the Gibeonites put upon Israel with their old Shooes and mouldy Bread Josh 9.5 As they did work wilily teaching their Tongues to lye and covering their Falshood with Rags of Antiquity even so do the Romanists in our day with their old Shooes and clouted with their old Sacks old Bottles and old Garments to delude the World with their lying Doctrines for when they are put to prove the Antiquity of their Religion they can go no higher than about a thousand years ago and such an upstart Original as this made great Athanasius to deride Arrianism the elder Sister to Antichristianism for its Novelty because it had no higher a Rise than in such an Emperors Reign non erat sic ab initio It was not so from the beginning Matth. 19.8 2. 'T is a Romish Scoff that Turkeys Hops and Heresie came into England all together in one bottom to wit when Luther's Books and Tindal's Translation of the Bible were brought hither as if no such Man as blessed Wickliff with many other faithful Witnesses to the Truth had ever been heard of and as if the Writings of that holy Martyr John Husse had never been brought hither and wrought much good here above an hundred years before Luther's time and might not the mockers of the Jewish Religion take up the same Taunt against the godly Jews after the great defection in their Captivity of Literal Babylon saying Where was your Religion before Ezra and where was your Church before him It might have been answered then Our Religion is in the word of God in the five Books of Moses but our Church hath been in the bondage of Babylon from which God hath mercifully delivered it by his Servant Ezra So we may answer Our Religion hath been ever in Gods holy Word and will ever remain so but our Church hath been in the Bondage of Babylon Mystical as they of Babylon Literal which the Lord hath been delivering out of this many Years by many of his Servants in many Ages Yea and might not the Scribes and Pharisees have made the same Objection against our Lord Christ himself and his Gospel for an upstart Religion This is well Anticipated 1 Joh. 2.7 This is the old Commandment which was from the beginning 3. 'T is true the Scribes and Pharisees might have pleaded for their Traditions to be of more account than Christs own Instructions just as the Romanists do against us because of their Antiquity Universality c. for assuredly their Traditions had been received in the Jewish Church and had an universal Approbation amongst that degenerate Generation long before Christ was born Yea and during his whole life all the Jewish Clergy the Priests Levites Scribes and Pharisees consented together as one man to maintain their own Superstitions and to suppress the Religion of our Lord Jesus they having been with the people that were their Proselytes time out of mind the visible Church Yet were these men nothing so profound in their speculative Questions as the Romanists are in our day to require a Catalogue from Christ of all the Names of such as had from time to time professed that same Religion which he preached so contrary to theirs to his own time Had they required this Christ must have confessed to them that for the last three hundred years at the least no such Succession could be demonstrated and yet our Lord rectifies the Extravagancies of those blind Guides by reducing them to the first Institution which is the best Rule of all right Reformations telling them that from the beginning it was not so Matth. 19.8 Yea and the beloved Disciple which lay in Christs Bosom seems studiously to decline all suspicion of Novelty in saying I write unto you no new Commandment 1 Joh. 2.7 as if he would have us to have a jealous eye upon new Notions seeing Truth is like Wine the Older the Better Luke 5.39 Gods people are called the Antient People Isa 44.7 that stand in the old way Jer. 6.17 and walk in the antient Paths Jer. 18.15 but Idolaters are said to sacrifice to New Gods such as came newly up Deut. 32.17 And whether those many he-Saints and she-Saints which the Romanists do worship be not so many new Gods that be newly come up the Sequel may discover 4. The Romish Religion being brought to the touchstone of the Word cannot justly become a Loadstone unto any Souls after a true tryal of it to draw them after it we should prove all things and hold fast that which is good 1 Thess 5.21 Now the best Religion is that which is truly the oldest Religion according to that Axiom Illud verissimum quod Antiquise simum that Religion is the truest which is the ancientest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 new things are nothings or at the best vain things saith the Greek Proverb Of Witnesses Aristotle witnesseth that the more Ancient they are the more Credible and Creditable they are because less corrupted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Rhet. lib. 1. Antiquity if it be right is of great Authority and hence Moses sends the Israelites to Antiquity Remember the days of Old Consider the years of many Generations Ask thy Father and he will shew
filios the Product of the Gods because they spring up without Seed yet are they but the sweat and superfluity of putrefyed Earth and therefore never can continue many Months Weeks or Days but soon shrivles into Fuz-balls This is the exact Resemblance of the Beast with seven Heads to Plot with and ten Horns to Push with ascending out of the Earth or Sea or Hell Revel 13.1.11 and Revel 11.7 and of his Beastly Religion that Smoke which ascendeth out of the bottomless Pit Revel 9.2 with abundance of Craft and Cruelty Though the Romanists say of it as the Town-Clerk said of Diana's Image that it fell down from Jupiter or as the Syriack reads it which descended down from Heaven Act. 19.35 yet Christ saith to them as John 8.23 Vos Infernales estis ye are from beneath Earth-sprung as so many Mushrooms and born from base Beginnings God grant they may dwindle away into Fuz-balls yea into nothing when their forty two Months the Beasts Lease are expired Assuredly Christ will smite Antichrist that Earthy one that lump of Earth which is both cold and dry heavy and bearing downward toward Hell as Earth with the Rod ef his Mouth Isa 11.6 And if John Baptist could say Christ must increase but I must decrease much more may this Earthy Antichrist this Toadstool Beast that only speaketh of the Earth not at all minding Heaven say so John 3.30 31. 6. 'T is Inconsistent with Rublick Peace in its Principles and Practices Insomuch that the very Collect for Gunpowder-Treason day in the Comon-Prayer Book calls the Romish Religion no better than absolute Rebellion How then can may or dare any sober mind do but hate this Religion as Rebellion it self which is as the Sin of Witchcraft 1 Sam. 15.23 Yea Dr. Davenant and Dr. Prideaux the two worthy Professors of our famous Universities have both determined that an absolute Papist living under a Protestant Prince and standing up to his own Principles must be an absolute Traitor And Mr. Fuller of later date affirms that an absolute Papist living under a Protestant King is battered with this two horn'd Dilemma of being either a Traitor if he walk up to his own Popish Principles or an Heretick if he deny them he cannot serve two Masters Matth. 6.24 This cursed Achan with his Babylonish Garment c. hath troubled Israel's peace in all Lands and therefore is to be stoned and burn'd Josh 7.15 to 25. with Rev. 17.16 Lastly 'T is Irreconciliable Implacable Rom 1.31 that admits not of a Truce much less of a peace like the old hatred of the Philistins to Israel Ezek. 25.15 or like the inveterate Enmity of the Seed of the Serpent against the Seed of the Woman that can never be reconciled but will last as long as the World lasts When you hear that the Devil is reconciled to God then may you have the Romish Religion reconciled to the Reformed 't is not any Amicable Reconciliation with Rome our Lord hath foretold but an utter extirpation Oh! then let not my Countrymen now Court the Whore which hath been so long Carted for a Whore the affection that is due to the Beast and his beastly Religion is hatred and not love Revel 17.16 I conclude this first Part with a lightsome story of a French Gentleman that being asked merrily which was the best Religion the Romish or Reformed Answered I may best know for I have been of both and surely saith he the Reformed which I left is the better for when I changed I had this Romish Religion and three hundred Crowns per year to boot Oh! pray that those seven unclean Spirits with the Romish Religion may be cast out of England for ever and never to return Mark 9.25 FINIS Books newly Printed for Dorman Newman at the King's Arms in the Poultrey THe Sinners last Sentence to Eternal Punishment for Sins of Omission where is discovered the Natuee Causes and Cure of those Sins by George Swinock price 2 s. 6 d. 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is a Wonder how pleasing those forms of worship are that be of mans devising when that which the wise God himself prescribes is displeasing to men but that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination to God (r.) Luk. 16.15 32. Or 2. In the worship of the Creature which is either the Creature of Gods making as Saints or Angels or the Creature of mans making as Images of Wood or Stone c. of this see Infrà at large (Å¿) In the 2d part about Image-worship 'T is clear that the Romanists do worship Saints and Angels with divine honour in dedicating Temples to them which Augustine makes Sacrilege Sacrilegium est cuicunque Creaturae Templum extruere upon 1 Corinth 6. And on Psal 94. he saith Templa sacrificia Iustituti Sacerdotes non nisi uni Deo haec omnia debentur 33. Besides their dedicating of Temples and Altars to them they call upon the Saints and upon their Images whereas Invocation is due to the only true God Cyril saith Sanctos Martyres neque deos esse dicimus neque eos adorare consuevimus c. Contra Julian lib. 6. This is Popish Superstition to make Images of Saints departed and to worship them with Masses Fastings Prayers Pilgrimages c. 34. As there is Superstition in Religious things so likewise in civil affairs as 1. In seeking after the event of things As how long a Man or Woman shall live or when they shall dye what Prosperity or Adversity shall befal them in their lives or what manner of Wife or Husband they shall have c. This is enquired after among the Superstitious either by Chiromancy which is a viewing the Tablelines of the hand or by Physiognomy which is a considering the Countenance and other parts of the Body or by Necromancy consulting with Ghosts Dreams Visions c. 35. They likewise that undertake to foretell by judiciary Astrology contingent future things are guilty of this sin of Superstition For they enquire after hidden things by unlawful means attributing to the Stars what belongs to God and reducing men to mere Gentilism for the same things that the Gentiles ascribed to Saturn Jupiter Mars Venus and Mercury they do to the Stars of the same Name and audaciously prognosticate the fates of Persons Families and Empires such as God hath reserved to himself Act. 1.7 36. Superstition also carries men into Sorcery and into all unlawful Arts about healing the sick with some charms hung about the (Å¿) Cùm ergò in auribus Evangelia nihil prosunt quomoao possunt circa collum suspensa salvare Chrysost on Matth. 23. The imperfect Work Neck c. And about finding lost goods quick or dead all which may be done by collusion God alone must be our healer in the use of all lawful things Exod. 15.26 Ps 103.3 and such practices are contrary to the word of God as Levit. 20.27 and Deut. 18.10 11. c. 37. Of the same Alloy be those superstitious practices of driving away Devils by the Sign of the Cross practised by Julian the Apostate in the Year of Christ 356. who consulting with a Magician about obtaining the Empire and Devils appearing at the Magician's Conjuration being stricken with fear signed his Forehead with the Sign of the Cross whereupon the Devils presently disappeared But his Magician told him that the Devils fled not away for his Cross but for hatred of his so doing Osiand lib. 3. cap. 12. Histor Eccles Cent. 4. pag. 295. 38. I leave the Reader to judge concerning the truth of this miracle Suppose a truth in it surely God would not teach us hereby that a wicked and profane wretch such a one as Julian was could drive away Devils or that the Sign of the Cross hath any such power in it to destroy the works of the Devil For the Scripture no where ascribes any such thing to the Sign of the Cross nor can it be imagined that the Devil is afraid of it 39. It may rather be concluded that this was one of the Devils cheats and that those Devils by this counterfeit flight would confirm the superstition of the Vulgar as if by the Sign of the Cross the Devils might be driven away Non enim Diaboli saith Osiander in loco praedicto crucis vel effigiem vel signum sed crucifixum metuunt Et Christus crucifixus fide apprehensus Satanae terrori est non autem signum crucis It is Christ crucified apprehended by Faith that is a terror to Satan not the Sign of the Cross 40. And the same Osiander tells us there is no less than foul Superstition in those Bonefires that are kindled upon St. Johns day and in leaping through the Flames of them as if they were purged hereby from I know not what sins This he saith is an honour done to Pluto the God of Hell as the heathen Poets feigned and such like wicked Ceremonies ought to be abolished in every Christian state Osian Epitome Cent. 7. lib. 1. cap. 21. pag. 52. 41. He relates also the 65 Canon of the Council at Constantinople that was held under Justinian the Second which is express against this superstitious practice saying Qui rogos ante suas officinas accendunt supra quos ineptè delirè sâ—â—tare solent jubemus deinceps cessare quisquis ergò tale quid fecerit si sit Clericus deponatur sin autem Laicus segregetur Osiand Epit. Leut. 7. lib. 4. cap. 13. pag. 162. This Council degrades Clergymen and excommunicates Lay-men for this superstition 42. He tells moreover in the same place how such wicked customs were used in Germany upon the Feast of St. John Baptist but their Godly Magistrates put out those Fires and drove out of the Streets all such superstitious people It were to be desired that good Magistrates in all Countries professing the Reformed Religion might suppress this and all other Superstition 43. There be many more foolish Customs and Observances wherein Superstition consists as the choice of lucky days either for solemnizing Marriages or for building of houses or for beginning of Journeys on as also the falling of Salt towards one at the Table the crossing of a Traveller by a Hare in his way the chattering of Magpyes near a mans dwelling house Cum multis aliis quae nunc perscribere longum est It would be too tedious to enumerate them 44. I shall add but one instance more as that of saying God bless you at ones sneezing Athenaeus speaks of this Custom of crying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God help when a Neighbour sneez'd and says there was some that hereby thought that either sneezing it self or the Brain from which it came to be a God and so were worshiped in this custom by men See for this Dr. H. Hammond of Idolatry pag. 171. in his practical Catechism c. 45. All those and many more superstitious observances are found in the Romish Church and therefore this Right-Hand Thief and Enemy to Christ and