she can fulfil the Royal Law and so brave God in the face as if she needed no pardon from his hands O how sweet a Lesson is this to flesh and bloud even enough to make her run mad of Self-conceit 3. That of commending Ignorance as the Mother of Devotion And thus when they had taken away the Scriptures they set up Pictures in their room All their Religion is no other than a pack of Complements meerly outward and sensible adapted to the humour of their ignorant and sensual Votaries for homo est magis sensus quam intellectus to worship God in Spirit and Truth can no more be understood by them than an Eye can see Spirit How ridiculous are their superstitious Cuâ—toms Yet not to do what Fathers and Grandfathers have done is to profane their Canonized dust And indeed had not the Scripture foretold what an Eclipse would be upon the whole Church we should think it impossible that such ridiculous things should be taken up Because Christ is the Light therefore they have Light at Noon-day and because Christ said We must be like little Children therefore the Monks wear Cowls like childrens Swadling-clouts And one Pope made a serious Motion in the Conclave That he and his Cardinals might ride in a solemn day on Asses in imitation of Christs humility but the Conclave thought that the As too much rode the Pope already And thus you have had the several Instances and Causes of Rome Defection from her Primitive Purity and Integrity I now proceed to the third thing proposed to be shewn viz. III. The grounds of our Separation from and the impossibility of Reconciliation to that Church This I will consider 1. More generally 2. More particularly More generally and that by asserting these three things 1. The lawfulness of the Church of England's Separation from the Church of Rome 2. That this Separation the Romanists themselves cannot justly charge as Schismatical 3. That our Compliance with that Church is dangerous and borders on Ruine and Destruction I. The lawfulness of the Church of England's Separation from the Church of Rome The Church of Rome is confessed to be antient but not her Errours neither do we in any thing differ from her wherein she hath not departed from her self Here consider these two things 1. That the Church of Rome was never a Mother to our Church and we never had such dependance on her as the Romanists pretend we had Our Christian Faith came not from the seven Hills neither was it derived from Austin the Monk or Pope Gregory Britain had a worthy Church before either of them look'd into the world built on the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles And the account that Historians give of it is thus viz. That Christianity was propagated here immediately after the death of that Proto-Martyr St. Steven Which appears by divers passages out of Origen and Tertullian Gildas the Historian of our own Nation called Sapiens affimeth That in the time of Tiberius who died thirty seven years after Christ was crucified this Island of Britain received the Faith Some there are and not improbably who conjecture that St. Paul himself preached the Gospel here after his first Imprisonment at Rome which was quinto Neronis This is confirmed by a Passage of Venantius Honorius viz. Transit oceanum vel qua fuit Insula pontum Quasque Britannus habet Terras atque ultima Thule Beronius himself one of their own Authors cells us That he found it in a Manuscript in the Vatican Library that the Gospel was first preach'd in this Nation by Simon Zelotes and Joseph of Arimathea In what state Christianity stood afterwards appears not in any footstep of History till King Luoius time who is said to send to Eleutherius the then Bishop of Rome for some Pastors to instruct his People in the Christian Religion Fugatius and Damianus were the persons sent over with his Letters to the King which acquainted him That as Christ's Vicar he might settle matters for Religion a thing which his Successors will not now allow within his own Dominions And thus Christianity flourished for several hundred years here And notwithstanding all the affrightments of Pensecution that was then on the Church and the Heathen Princes spilt the bloud of the Christians like water yet those sanguine showers have ever since made the Church the more fruitful And in the Borders of this Island the Primitive Christian Religion had publick encouragement and profession even to the time of Austin the Monk who found here at his entrance one Archbishop seven Bishops and a Monastery at Bangor with twenty one hundred Monks in it So that several hundred years did intervene between the first planting of Christianity and Austin's coming hither I should not be so large in 〈◊〉 Historical Narrative but that I know 't is objected to us by the Romanists That we had our Religion from them and the Conversion of the English Nation was by Rome and her Agents We own that the Antient Roman Church was Sister to ours but no Mother there was neer Kindred but no Dependance But 2. Though we should grant them such a Dependance yet still we assert our Separation lawful because they have separated and departed from their first Purity We hold with the Antients from whom they are departed and we hold with them as far as they hold with Christ This will evidence it self if you consider these four things 1. That the Modern Papists maintain sundry Articles opposite to that which hath been formerly believed by the most eminent Doctors of the Roman Church as that of the merit of Condignity opposed by St. Bernard and Anselme and now defended by the Modern Jesuits Images at first were onely motivum objectum an inducing means to move people to adore the Samplar and no material Object of adoration which now is opposed by their present Church 2. Sundry Popish Assertions now obtruded are manifestly repugnant to the Teners of the Primitive Church as That the Popes Judgment is infallible That he is Lord over the whole World That publick Service doth bost edifie in an unknown Language That Lay-men must not read Scriptures c. 3. Many of their Opinions are improbable unreasonable and absurd as That the Scripture hath no greater authority to binde or loose the Faithful than the Church will That the definition of the Pope is as authemtiek as the facred Scripture That Fornication in the Clergie is a smaller offence than Marriage That to worship Images is meritorions With innumerable other such-like Absurdities 4. Some of our Adversaries more ingenuous than their fellows confess That we believe and hold the fundamental Truths of the Gospel the main and vital matter of Religion And if we do thus who is to be faulted the Church of Rome or the Church of England But herein she discovers her self to be that body of which Antichrist is the Head and that Whore and Mother of
Sun when she appears in her Meridian glory If you do but cast your eye on the former Chapter you will finde enough and I shall need no more to prove it Then 1. The Woman that is the Whore of Babylon is said to be a City which reigneth over the Kings of the Earth and this was onely the Roman Monarchy at that time there being no other City in the world but this that had such a Jurisdiction And so it is expounded not onely by some Greek Authors but by most Latine Writers as Iraeneus Tertullian St. Ambrose St. Jerome St. Augustine and others Prosper also a Latine Writer saith Who cannot understand what City it is that carrieth a cup full of Abominations of Vncleanness and fornication of the whole Earth when that is called Eternal which is but Temporal Verily it is a name of Blasphemy when mortal men are called Divi Gods and their Suppliants say unto them To your divine Power to your Altars and to your Eternity This the Learned know to be the City of Rome which was called Vrbs AEterna and wherein the Emperours were called Gods and the People flattered them with Altars and Titles of divine Power and Eternity as now they do their Popes with the like Antichristian terms of The most Holy and Your Holiness Who have also as blasphemous tokens of Divinity as any of the heathen Emperours had in their Triple-Crowns riding on mens shoulders their being attended on by Kings and Emperours their Thrones in Churches higher than Altars and such-like magnificent Pomps of Heathenish and Antichristian pride Ambrosius Ansbertus a Latine Writer also 850 years since calls Rome the second Babylon who sitting aloft on her seven Hills rules the Scepter of the whole world and in the name of that City is figured the power of the whole earthly Dominions Hence II. In the seventh verse she is said to sit on a beast having seven heads and ten horns which seven heads be seven hills whereon the woman sitteth Now 't is well known not onely to learned Christians but to Heathens themselves that Rome alone is a City builton seven hills This is thought to be a very silly Argument by that Renegado Sanders and others by the seven hills to prove the See of Antichrist to be at Rome because the City is now gone from the Hills and standeth in the Plain of Campus Martius and the Pope sitteth on the other side of the River To which it is well answered That though the greatest part of the City be not now on the seven Hills and his Unholiness his Palace of Pleasure be on the other side the River yet on these hills stand Churches Abbeys and Monasteries where the Papal Authority is put in execution and there is never an one of those hills whereon the present Religion of Rome is not practised Being galled with this they make two Romes Rome Pagan and Rome Christian The Whore spoken of is they say Heathenish Rome which was ruled by those Monsters of mankind Nero Domitian Calignla c. who writ their Laws and rouled their Garments in the bloud of Christians but the Christian Rome is not here meant Whereas 't is obvious to every one that hath but common rational notions alive within him whose Conscience is not quite vitiated and Minde putrified with noisome Lusts but must see that the present Rome in respect of State Princely Dominion and Cruelty in persecuting the Saints of God is all one with the Heathenish Empire the See of the Bishop being turned into the Court of the Emperour and Shambles of the Butcher To avoid this they farther say That Babylon is drunk with the bloud of the Saints and Martyrs shed not in Rome but in Jerusalem where the Lord was crucified and the two Prophets being slain lie there in the streets This is excellently answered by St. Hierome who saith That it is not meant of Jerusalem but of Rome and Christ is said to be crucified there either 1. Because the Authority whereby he was crucified was from the Roman Empire or 2. Because Christ in his Members was and is dayly there crucified though locally in his own person he was crucified at Jerusalem But besides the Authority of Scripture in this case it were easie to adde in the third place 3. The favour and defence which this Exposition hath received from a multitude of Antient and Modern learned men Hence St. Bernard saith That the Beast spoken of in the Apocalypse to which a mouth is given to speak blasphemies and to make war with the Saints is now gotten into St. Peter's Chair as a Lion prepared for his Prey And in another place speaking of the Romish Priesthood They are called saith he the Ministers of Christ yet serve Antichrist And Petrarch saith Once Rome but now Babylon And Joachim Abbas Antichrist was long since born in Rome and now strives every moment to get higher and higher 4. And lastly I answer That it was such a Babylon that for a while Gods people were lawfully in her but when her Corruptions did increase they were commanded to depart which cannot be affirmed of Rome Pagan but of Rome Papal and therefore Come out of her my people This brings me to the second thing viz. the great defection this Church hath made from her Primitive Purity and Integrity The Spouse is now become an Harlot and the chast Virgin a Mother of Fornications her Apostacy is now as infamous as ever her Faith was glorious Some things she is confessed to hold right as a true God in three Persons true Scripture though with additions a true Christ though mangled with foul and erroneous consequences true Baptism though shamefully deformed with rotten Traditions and if you compare Rome Christian with Rome Roman you will see her defection in these five grand instances thereof 1. In the unlimited Jurisdiction of the Triple-Crown The Councils of Basil and Constance decreed that a general Council was of greater Authority than the Pope and that he ought to be subject to it The Council of Nice appointed him his bounds and limits and the Council of Chalcedon made the Bishop of Constantinople equal with him in Authority and Jurisdiction And Gregory himself who sate in the Papal Chair writes That whoever stiles himself Universal Bishop or desires to be called so is the forerunner of Antichrist and many learned Papists believed this to be true But since that time the case is much altered for the Councils of Lateran and Trent have determined the contrary insomuch that he whose Primitive stile was Servant of servants doth now exalt himself above all that is called God The beginning of this Supremacy over other Bishops was in Boniface the third's time who with great ado obtained of Phocas a fit Master to prefer such a Servant to be made Oecumenical Bishop Which Authority his Successors have enlarged and now his Janizaries the Jesuits tell us he is that Statue in Daniel which shall
and lose their name in this Thus much as to the Doctrinal part From what hath been said may naturally be inferred I. The impossibility of Reconciliation to such an Apostatiz'd Church I know there are some who think that there is little difference between the two Churches of England and Rome and undertake to shew us the several Advances the one hath made towards the other and these are either 1. Some Politick Romanists who hereby would extenuate the foulness of Popery or 2. Some ignorant and loose Protestants who live void of the knowledge and conscience of all Religion men who live tanquam poeniterent non pecudes natos as if they repented they were not made Beasts whose Reason is their burden and light of mind their offence who are so given up to their sensual Appetites as if they were all flesh and had no Spirit who rake up those heavenly Sparks their Souls in ashes never considering their original capacity and end or that Viaticum Aeternitatis provision that is to be made for them unto Eternity These men are moulded for Heathenish as well as Popish Impressions But if we rightly consider the Purity of our own Church and the Apostacy and Corruptions of the Church of Rome you will finde an impossibility of Reconciliation For rebus sic stantibus as the case is that Church must put off it self and cease to be what it is ere it can begin to be once again what it was for Substance Credit Fame Vertue and Honour have at once forsaken her and by long disuse have left her worse than naught Neither can we see how these houses can be repaired but they must be pulled down to the very foundations and then built from the ground But if there be any possibility it must come either from her self or others not from her self because she obstinately defends her Errours not onely with Tongue and Pen but with Fire and Sword and will not yield so much as that she can erre refusing to amend those notorious Abuses which by the moderate Verdict of her elect Cardinals are condemned and by the palpable Flatteries of her last and worst Parasites the Jesuits is grown not onely secure but more proud and arrogant than ever she was Can it be then from others How oft hath this been endeavoured to no purpose Rome may be sacked and battered as it hath often been by Military Forces but purged by Admonitions Convictions and Censures it will never be Now the impossibility of our Reconciliation besides these things I have already named ariseth from the pride and usurpation of the Head of their Church being armed with that Position That he cannot Erre This without hope of Reconciliation divideth Christendom and many other Doctrinal Controversies are subtilly kept on foot to be a Stalking-horse for this Adde to this their hatred against our Religion above all others Jews and Grecians are tolerated in Rome it self their Ceremonies Synagogues Services yea and Circumcision it self administred to the dead as well as to the living by which the Romanists declare themselves to be better friends to the Turks and Jews than to the Protestants not to insist on that detestable Virulence of their Tongues and Gall in their Ink against our first Reformers which hath not stayed there but broken out into their most barbarous Butcheries and cruel Bloud-sheddings They oblige the Consciences of Catholicks to a Separation from all our Ecclesiastical Assemblies are afraid that any of our Books especially our Translations of the Bible should be read in any of their Dominions and where they cannot turn will be sure to burn Protestants O the many miserable Massacres Canibal-like Conspiracies and tragical Murders that they have been guilty of Who are ignorant what Fierceness Fears and Fires were raised to consume the innocent bodies of the Saints living and dead and that in such sort as every corner of the Land seemed as hot as Nebuchadnezzar's Furnace even seven times hotter than it used to be wherein were to be cast whosoever would not fall down and worship the Image which that Romish Nebuchadnezzar had erected Now what Arguments can be used to perswade us of their Reconciliation to us either in the whole or in part of our Religion since they deem it no other than a peccant humour necessary to be purged out every few years either by Murder if it prevail in the Head or by Massacre if in the Body of any Nation And rather than it should not they will not stick with Blassius at the Commandment of their great Gracchus to set on fire the Capitol it self to lay hands on sacred Majesty and to imbrue them in his Royal bloud to subvert Religion to sacrifice our Lives Liberties and all to their ambitious Lusts and Revenge When then you are willing that your Souls shall be damned and Bodies destroyed then think of Reconciliation II. Let us now see our duty which is first to hate and oppose the Popish and to embrace and keep close to the Protestant Religion First Hate and oppose the Popish Religion Let the high praises of God be in our mouths and a two-edged sword in our hands to be avenged on that Scarlet Whore that Mother of Fornications that hath made her self drunk with the bloud of the Saints and Martyrs of Jesus They must be punished by us or we shall be so by them Let 's make no friendship with angry men much less with bloody men 'T is the greatest honour that can be put upon us to be Instruments of their destruction This duty respects us in whatever relations we are be we either Magistrates Ministers or private Christians The Magistrates by repressing those Perverters of our Faith and encouraging Protestant Principles and Practices 'T is not Reason of State but Ruine of State to gratifie those men who would rejoyce to see our Glory in the dust Ministers by preaching up the excellency of this way preserving the pattern of wholesome words and speaking the things which become sound Doctrine to take heed of their own mixtures and not adulterate the Doctrine of Faith to please men The beauty of heavenly Truths wants not the paint either of Humane or Heretical Additions The Babes of Christ must be fed with sincere Milk and the soreness of mens eyes must not hinder the Lights of the Church from shining And next by confuting Gain-sayers not onely have a voice to call their Sheep but to drive away Wolves one to establish Truth and another to oppose Errour one of their hands must work the other hold the weapon Their breasts should be Store-houses of Spiritual Armour be furnished with skill in Scripture in which they should be mighty and in the writings of men even of Hereticks themselves to beat them with their own weapons to kill Goliah with his own sword Are we in the lower Orb of private Christians We must oppose this many-headed Monster and that 1. By confuting the debauched Romanists with the Language of our heavenly
THE GRAND APOSTACY OF The Church of Rome From her Primitive Purity and Integrity WITH A VINDICATION OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND In her SEPARATION from Her AND The hazard of Salvation in Communion with Her Discoursed in a SERMON Preached at St. Mary le Bow London On Sunday the 28th of December 1679. By JOHN HILL Rector of St. Mabyn in the County of Cornwall LONDON Printed for Samuel Heyrick at Greys-Inne-gate in Holborn 1680. Rev. 18. vers 4. Come out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues c. I Am not ignorant how much revelation is necessary to understand this book of the Revelation and that Interpreters themselves need interpretation It was the modest and ingenuous Confession of the learned Arias Montanus That after thirty years studying the Scriptures with the help of the most Judicious Expositors yet he understood onely two or three Chapters of this Book and hence was wont to say That the Expositors were as difficult to be understood as the Text there being many Comments that may be more properly termed Obscurities than Expositions on the Revelation Yet though some things are laid down mystically in abstruse terms to exercise the Judgment of the wisest yet others are more familiarly expressed to succour the infirmity of the weakest Some indeed are such Depths wherein Elephants may swim but there are others such Shallows wherein Lambs may wade My Text is one of those through which an ordinary Ingenuity may wade neither are the words cloathed with those difficulties which are originally incident to other places of this book The preceding Chapter gives you a description of that Mother of Fornications the Whore of Babylon as she was represented to the Apostle in a Vision In the 16th verse he foretels her ruine and propounds the method of Gods severity therein in the certainty suddenness and inevitability of her destruction And in my Text cautions all Gods people to avoid her sins lest they smart by her punishment to come out of her idolatries lest they be wrapt up in her destruction In the words you have two things considerable 1. A Command Come out of her i. e. out of Babylon 2. The ground and reason thereof and that is twofold 1. lest ye be partakers of her sins 2. of her plagues The words need not much explication and I love not to make Truths plain in themselves difficult by my obscure handling of them It was the unhappiness of the School-men to ravel and ensnarl the plainest truths of the Gospel with their nice distinctions and perplexed abstruse notions wherein as Quintilian Orators Multa loquuntur sed nihil dicunt which otherwise might be wound off by an ordinary Understanding But what Explication they need you shall have in this short Paraphrase Come out of her Exite ex illâ mi popule 'T is not to be so much understood of a bodily departure in regard of a cohabitation and Presence as of a spiritual separation in respect of Faith and Religion Come out of her Judgment and Doctrine her Faith and Worship The words seem to be taken out of Jer. 51.6 Flee out of the midst of Babylon and deliver every man his soul be not cut off in her iniquity And Jer. 50.8 Remove out of the midst of Babylon and go forth And Isai 48.20 Go forth of Babylon flee from her i. e. depart from her Communion Recedite recedite as Junius and Tremellius read the words depart quickly come not near this Pesthouse as you would avoid Infection My people i.e. By singular care respect and affection my people by special favour and covenant you that have owned my Name professed Religion in the power and purity of it O go out of her defile not your garments by Babylon's Idolatries for if you touch her you will pollute your selves Out of her i. e. Babylon We finde particular mention of three Babylons in History 1. Babylon of Assyria standing on the River Euphrates where was the confusion of Languages and where the Jews were in Captivity which place is taxed in Scripture for Idolatry and other Heaven-daring Iniquities 2. Babylon in Egypt standing on the River Nilus and for distinction called Babylon Aegyptiorum thought to be aimed at by St. Peter 1 Epist 5.13 vers Out of the ruines of this arose that great City Cayr 3. Babylon mystical whereof Babylon of Assyria was a type and this is Rome which though the great Favourers of that corrupt Church have endeavour'd to cast all obscurities imaginable on this Interpretation yet without the least shadow of scruple is here to be understood and the Whore of Babylon is by all circumstances that State or Regiment of a People that were then the Inhabitants of Rome or did belong thereto But of this more anon That ye be not partakers of her sins Contract not her guilt which you may do by contriving for her complying with or conniving at her Idolatries Though you act not with them yet if you like love and approve of her Villanies 't is enough to make you partakers with her That you receive not of her plagues Ne in eâdem involvemini ruinâ lest you be involved in the same destruction For there are three things in every sin 1. There is actus qui transit 2. Macula quae manet And 3. Poena quae debetur The act is transient but yet reflects guilt and guilt bindes over to punishment And hence in the Original sin and punishment have one and the same name to note to us that where sin is in the Premises there destruction will be in the Conclusion From the words thus explained there result these four Doctrinal Conclusions 1. That Christians must be very careful lest they communicate with idolatrous persons 2. That those persons of all others who have owned and professed the Name of God asserted his Cause and born testimony to his Truth should be most careful of defiling themselves with idolatrous practices 3. That the Idolatry practised in the Church of Rome is a sufficient ground for our separation from her 4. That to partake of a peoples fin is to be involved in that peoples ruine I shall wrap up all these in this one Proposition That it must be the great care of all Christians who would not run the hazard of their Eternal Salvation to come out of Babylon to separate themselves from the Faith and Religion of the present Church of Rome In the prosecution whereof I shall do these three things 1. I shall shew that Babylon here is meant of Rome 2. What defection this mystical Babylon hath made from her Primitive Purity and Integrity 3. The Grounds of our Separation together with the impossibility of a Reconciliation For the first that Babylon here is meant of Rome is most excellently done to my hand both by Ancient and Modern Writers So that to say any thing after them were but to light a Candle to the
to Lord it over Scriptures Fathers Councils Church and all the World What possibility is there that the Kingdoms of the world should be subject unto him What probability that Images should be worshipped Our Works merit Heaven That the body of Christ should be in a thousand places at one time That the Priest hath Judicial Power to forgive sins That the Saints in Heaven should be Mediators for us to God He that will but indifferently compare these shall finde them manifestly repugnant not onely to the Principles of Religion but offer violence to the Law of Nature 4. Consider farther that in this Church the most horrid Cruelties are not onely tolerated and approved but rewarded and accounted meritorious It teacheth Equivocation to murder Kings to undermine States and to blow up Parliaments it dispenseth with Murder Incest Sodomy and all this accounted Licitum Solenne From hence proceeds such Conspiracies against our King such Plots against our Church and State 't is not Religion they strive for but Soveraignty and this they will have or they will make all Protestant Nations their Shambles and swim to it through Oceans of Blood and they will this way if others fail reduce the Consciences of Subjects and the Crowns and Scepters of Princes to their Devotion This brands them with the Indelible Characters of the Ministers of Antichrist who being but Priests and confined to their Books having no other Commission than to go and preach the Gospel should thus creep into Thrones filling the world with Anarchy and Confusion and those whose Souls they should win to God by ministring the Word and Sacraments their Bloud they sacrifice to the Devil by stirring them up to Treason and Rebellion perswading them that they shall be Canoniz'd at Rome though they be hang'd at Tyburn and be glorious Saints in Heaven though they died great Rogues and Rebels on Earth These things duely considered in general will tell you that there is hazard not onely of Temporal Safety but of Eternal Salvation in our Communion with such a Church and therefore Come out of her c. This will the better appear if you consider secondly and more particularly this one Argument drawn from the Religion it self practised in that Church And this I will consider two ways 1. As the Jesuits have painted and adorned it 2. As 't is stript naked of all those adventitious Ornaments First As they have painted it and thereby recommended it to the view of their ignorant admirers We read of strange things of certain Painters how admirably they cast and shadowed their works but the skilfullest Painters that ever were are the Jesuits and School-men the workmen of the Church of Rome not the famous Zeuxis or antient Polignotus or Phidias did ever bestow such pains on their Images as these have done on their Idol the Papacie They have made choice of the most exquisite devices that all the Heresies in the world could afford to put the same into their Religion No Policy in Machiavel no Sophistry in Aristotle or Eloquence in Tully but they have contrived it into their Image and save Truth and Sincerity there is nothing wanting The Evangelical Prophet Isai 44.11 c. sets down a lively description of this matter whereby deriding the folly of the Gentiles he fitly shews us the Idolatry of Rome and the manner how the Idol-Religion thereof was framed and set on foot For at the first you see it was but a rude Block rough-hewn by bungling Workmen that were not their Crafts-masters till the Smith Carpenter and Painter came every one in his place and shewed his skill This is ingeniously applied by a very learned man of our own to the Church of Rome 1. The Canonists like Black-smiths blew with the Bellows of their Decrees and heated and hammered it in the Coals of the Popes Constitutions These were Gratian Pope John Gregory and Boniface with their Apprentices that served them Hostiensis Innocent Panormitane and others of that black and smutty Profession Secondly The Carpenters that took it in hand were the Fryars and School-men These stretched their line of Method over it planed it with Distinctions where it was rough and by their Logick and Philosophy brought it into better shape and form These were T. Aquinas Scotus Bonaventure Alexander Hales and others Having thus gotten an handsome shape and fashion the Council of Lateran polished it over again gave it Joynts to stand upon The Councils of Constance and Basil altered the fashion of it in some particular parts for Senensis and Cusanus thought the head stood too high above the shoulders and would have it bowed down a little lower At last they brought it to Trent to the hands of their best Workmen who moulded it à capite ad calcem and set it up again when the worms had well-nigh consumed it Since which came in the third sort of Workmen viz. Thirdly The Painters i. e. the Jesuits and there is no colour which they have not tried to render it beautiful Some with Varnish and Plaister stop up the cracks and Bellarmine was happily born to do them this service Others as Baronius and Surius cast a shadow over it with other colours Sextus Senensis and Possevine brag of the Workmanship flatter the Workmen and extol the Idol And thus at last they have polished their Idol and set it before the Lord's Ark And by this means they have attracted the eyes and hearts of their deluded followers insomuch that all that worship not this Image must into the fiery Furnace and be offered as a Sacrifice to the fury of their Romish Moloch Now that which they are so fond of in this Religion is its suitableness to their sensual interests and affections the greatest part of which easeth them from taking any pains in spiritual things As for Example They must serve God but there be ways to dispence and turn the Spiritual Service into a Corporal which is much easier Sinners must have Gods pardon or they cannot be saved but the dispensation hereof is committed with the Keys to Christs Vicar who hath power to release them by the Sacraments of the Altar and Penance Hence the Pope hath mens Consciences at his devotion into which he slides under the pretence of being St. Peter's Successor then blindes their eyes by taking away the Scriptures and stops their ears by perswading them to hear none but himself And hereby thousands are betrayed into the hands of Eternal Ruine This is the first thing shewn viz. that part of their Religion as set forth with Romish Glosses and Varnishes I am next to shew it you in its native Complexion as stript naked of all adventitious Ornaments and then you will easily perceive it to be the most monstrous and ridiculous the most bloudy and blasphemous Religion in the whole world 1. Ridiculous in it self 2. Blasphemous towards God and Christ 3. Bloudy to all that have and do oppose her I. The most ridiculous Religion as
so many Places at one time and yet no Place Flesh and no Flesh several Members without distinction a substance without quantity and other accidents or substance and accidents that cannot be seen felt or perceived So that they make their saviour either a Monster or Nothing 2. In overthrowing the Perfection of Christs Satisfaction for if all be not paid how hath Christ satisfied If temporal punishments in Hell be yet due how is all paid And if these be paid by us how are they satisfied by Christ 3. In presumptuously mangling Christs sacred Institution by which they sacrilegiously rob his people of one half of that heavenly Provision which he left as his last and dearest Legacy to his Church As if Christs Ordinance were superfluous or any shaveling Priest could be wiser than his Redeemer 4. In imposing heavier burdens than ever Christ designed Hence the conscience of their Proselytes are overladen with infinite unnecessary Traditions far more than ever Moses commented on by the Jewish Rabbies they imposing them with no less Authority and exacting them with far more Rigour than any of the Royal Laws of their Maker And this brings me to the third thing considerable viz. As III. It is a bloudy and cruel Religion to all that have and do oppose her Even since Cain set the Knife to Abet's throat the Churches Veins have bled Rome was first of all founded in Bloud and still endeavours to erect its self by the same method of Serpentine Designes and Dragon-like Rage and Gruelty This will clearly appear unto you by taking a view of her either in her Principles or Practices First her Principles in these seven things 1. In asserting the Power of the Pope over all Temporal Princes and Kingdoms for he like his Father the Devil will shew all the glory of a Kingdom and give it to some Creature of his own if he will fall down and worship him They account it not onely lawful but meritorlous to murder a Protestant Prince whom they call heretical hereby to introduce a Popish Successor and advance the interest of their own Cause throughout the world 2. That an Heretick for Heresies sake and in point of Conscience though he troubles not the State ought to be put to death This also causeth the effusion of much Bloud and when the Pope hath anathematiz'd a Nation or Person nè brut a essent fulmine they inflame Kings and provoke them to destroy all with Fire and Fagot And these we have sadly found to be their Arguments both to enlighten our Vnderstandings and inform our Judgments in the Popish Religion For as one ingeniously observed They convince by a Dagger and enlighten by a Faggot Hence they call an utter Desolation a Restauration and the subversion of three Kingdoms no other than the conversion of them How much Protestant Bloud this Doctrine hath shed in France and Germany and how many English throats have bled by this Knife is not easie to judge 3. That no publick Faith is to be kept with Hereticks as if Christiana Fides and Punica were all one The Heathens by the Rush-candle of Nature could perceive that Truth in mens words and promises is the best Ligament in a body politick and the very joynts and nerves of all Civil Constitutions How much admired is that Roman who kept his Faith with Carthage though he knew it would be his very ruine But Johannes a Roman Priest could say That in the destruction of the Lutherans Judges were not bound to follow either Law Promise or Reason How sad is it that Romana Fides might be depended on when Rome was Heathenish but not now it is become Christian ‑ and that the moral Honesty of the poor blinde Heathens should so much exceed the Piety of these Catholick Pretenders 4. That mental Reservations and Equivocations are lawful This must needs overthrow Civil Constitutions were they almost Adamantine For what delusions of Magistrates what evasions of righteous Judgments what ensnaring of innocent men what doubting in Oaths will there be by this means How can an Oath be the end of Strife and Controversie if this be allowed O ye holy Martyrs lay aside your glorious Robes of Immortality You died like fools and were guilty of your own Blood whenas you might have denied and forsworn all by mental Reservations and Equivocations 5. A fifth bloudy Position of theirs is An absolute necessity of concealing all things revealed in Auricular Confession This Doctrine hath been a private back-way to let in the most horrible Conspiracies and Murders Hence 't is a received Maxime amongst them That Nullum lantum malum esse potest cujus vitandi causa Confessionem prodere liceat That Confession is not to be revealed whatever punishment be endured Bellarmine praiseth Garnet the Jesuit that would not reveal the Gunpowder-Treason because as he saith Confession is Jure Divino and Temporal Authority Jure Humano And Casanbon tells us That it was a Jesuits Speech to him De Jure humano leviori damno Reges omnes quot-quot sunt occiderentur quam vel una Confessio revelaretur That it was a far less Offence to destroy many Princes than to reveal one Confession I wonder whether they would hide it if there were a Conspiracy against the life of their Triple-crowned Monarch But there was one that escaped well in this matter of Confession viz. Father Aubigney who in the bloudy fact of Ravilliack being called in question and demanded what was revealed to him in Confession he replied That God had given him this grace That whatsoever was revealed to him in Confession he presently by a miracle forgot it and for all the world could not remember it again I think if this Answer saved him it was the best Grace that ever God bestowed on him 6. That the Clergy are exempted from subjection and so cannot be guilty of treasonable practices Clerici rebellio in Regem non est Crimen bâ—â—sae Majestatis quia non est Subditus Regi The rebellion of a Priest against his Prince is not Treason because he is not his Subject for they are by her affirmed to be so the Inheritance and Portion of God that they are exampt from all Temporal Jurisdiction to Civil Princes and States If so what wickedness may not be committed by such men How doth the Pope herein oppose the Apostle Rom. 13.1 Let every soul be subject to the higher powers And it is a known Explication of Chrysostom's Every Soul though he be a Monk a Priest though he be never so Spiritual as they call it is here understood and cannot draw his shoulder from the yoak of Allegiance 7. That blinde obedience unto Governours is necessary And let in this once upon a People and you let in the Trojan Horse full of armed Enemies in his bowels For whatever the Pope and his Officers shall command to be done be it to destroy a whole Kingdom nay subvert three Kingdoms at one time must not be disputed but