Idolaters by Marrying their Daughters least they should prove a snare to them and draw away their hearts after their Gods with them Exod. 34.12 13 14 15 16. Deut. 7.3 4. But too many now adays forget and willfully overlook such warnings not reguard such threatnings as that in Math. 2.11.12 Where after he had said Judah hath dealt treacherously and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem for Iudah hath profaned the holyness of God which he loved by Marrying the Daughter of a strange God he adds the Lord will cut of the Man that doth this the Master and the Scholer out of the Tabernacles of Judah yea the making friendships and but contracting familiarities with Persons of corrupt principles or practises the Scripture notes and warns of as infectious and dangerous see to this purpose Prov. 13.20 and 22 24 25. and 23 29 20 2 Cor. 6.14 15. But such warnings are in this case too much slighted 4. To which we may add a particular subtlety craft of in the Romish Factors in that to ensnare people they raise and scatter reports among them that great persons in authority favour and underneath approve their Religion Church and Doctrine as knowing that the multitude too generally and especially the looser sort and those that are ambitious of honour and of the favour of great Persons are apt to resolve their Religion into the wills and pleasures of Princes and great Persons and will be ready to comply with their judgments and steer their course by what they take to be their Compass to any point whither right or wrong towards Hell or Heaven as is to be seen in all Nations where the Religion of the Princes and their Courts bears the greatest sway among their subjects they being as was said before the Gods that are by multitudes supreamly Worshiped or if it be mens own bellies their case honour wealth pleasure or the like that is the highest and chief God with them yet Kings Princes and great Persons they look at as the most powerful Mediators by whose means or favour those other things are most probably and fully to be compassed and enjoyed and so their highest God may be most satisfyingly served That the Priests and Jesuits take such a course now adays to perswade the people by such an Argument to comply with their Principles we have it made publick in Print by the confession of the late converted Fryar Mr. Anthony Aegan in his Book wherein his Recantation Sermon Preached at London is Printed where we meet with words to this effect That after his Conversion to the Protestant Religion several of the Papist Priests and others living about Loughreats in Ireland whom he saith he is ready to name and did thereby accuse did publickly report that his Majesty his Royal Highness and all the Nobility and Gentry of the Kingdom of England were privately of their Religion using it as an argument to make or move him to fall back again to Popery See here what notorious falsehoods they fear not to report to the scandal of Authority yea and of our Nation it self to carry on their own designs for thanks be to God the contrary hereunto hath been and is abundantly evidenced as to such a general overflowing of their Religion over all those persons whom they have so traduced Surely that cause is naught that the maintainers of stick not to manage by so vile and indirect Mediums as so to bely and slander their Superiors there is no question but it is what they desire would gladly effect to make both the Kings Majesty the Court all the Nobility Gentry of their mind Religion but God forbid that ever they should prevail upon them or draw them or any of them into so great a mischief and so certain a way to their own everlasting destruction But no doubt but by such suggestions they may prevail upon no small party of men whose Faith and Religion lies in the wills and practises of the Great ones to listen and consent unto them being too apt to take things upon trust of their that is these mens honesty and not duly weighing what is said by them and that questionless is one thing that proves an effectual Engine to draw away disciples after them Upon these and such like accounts this Church though so corrupt keeps up her self yet in the world and gets too much credit with too many who are either not able or not willing to search into matters to find them out with a diligent and impartial search with such her Paints pass for excellent beauty and comeliness especially her pretty frames and forms of Devotion in her Prayers and Croisons partly to God and Christ and partly to Saints really or supposedly such Her abstinences and penances or other austerities which have such a shew of excellency as the Apostle saith of the commandments of men Touch not taste not handle not That they have a shew of wisdom indeed in will-worship and humility and neglecting or as the Margin reads it punishing and not sparing the body Col. 2.21.23 As draws in unstable Souls and beguiles them as the Apostles phrase is in vers 18. of their reward which things divers of them I mean Devotion Abstinence Mortification yea and Almsdeeds if rightly done and upon right and sound principles are in themselves very good and may be and are by some exercised upon Protestant Principles more worthily and acceptably than they can be upon those of Rome and in conjunction with their corruptions by which all their bests deeds are marred though indeed I could wish they were more upon good and right principles and in a good way practised among us than they are but it is too often found that men are apter to do more in and for a false way than they or others are in and for a true as our Saviour saith Luk. 16.8 The children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light So it may be said also that the worshippers of Idols are more forward in their worship than they that worship the true God are in his worship for so we find it noted of the Idolaters that they lavish gold out of the bag and weigh Silver out of the ballance and spare for no cost to make an Idol or false God and then bear him upon their Shoulder and carry him to his place Isa 46.6 7. And as the Prophet Jeremy notes they deck it with Silver and Gold and fasten it with nails yea Silver spread in Plates is brought from Tarshish and Gold from Vphaz the work of the workman and of the hands of the Founder blue and purple is their cloathing c. Jer. 10.4.9 that is they spare for neither cost nor pains nor matter how they burthen themselves to carry on a false Religion and Worship when God in and by Jesus Christ the former of all things and our Redeemer who proffers to carry and bear us and work all
rather argues them guilty of being a lying Church 4. There is a brief character of the true Church and her Children in the book of the Revelations by which we may better judg of the truth and rightness of any Church than by any or all those fair Pleas that Rome makes for her self namely that the true Church and its Children are that society and company of men that keep the commandments of God and the faith or Testemony of Jesus Rev. 12.17 and 14.12 But now if we bring the Church of Rome to this test I am sure she will be cast only let us mind that by keeping the Commandments of God is meant both the careful observation of them to walk after them and also the holding them forth sincerely and purely without corrupting them that others may know and walk after them also and by keeping the faith and testimony of Jesus is meant the keeping it without spot or mixture of corruption with it either by adding to or taking from it And surely if we take a little view of their carriage in either of them we shall find them not a little faulty in both 1. First as to the keeping of Gods commandments which of them do they keep in the sences above mentioned not the first for they have other Gods in the Scripture Language beside the only true God the maker of all things in Scripture Language they are called other Gods to whom men give that adoration that belongs to God and unto whom they perform religious worship or service asking of and expecting from them what is proper to God to give so the Calves made by Jeroboam to be sacrificed to though intended as mediums to worship the true God by yet they are called Gods that he made to himself 2. King 14.9 and so the golden Calf in the wilderness though it was to Jehovah they pretended to Sacrifice keep a feast by it yet they were charged with changing their glory that is their God therein into the similitude of an Ox that eateth grass and so intimately of making a new God to themselves Exod. 32,4.5 Psal 106.19.20 now how many there are in the Roman Church that according to those Notions they make Gods to themselves it is not easy to determin The host in the Sacrament they stick not to own as God God-man to give divine adoration unto insomuch as one of their own Doctors acknowledges that the errors of those that worship some Golden or Silver Statues or some Images of any other materialls for their God as the Heathen worshiped their Gods or a Red Cloth hung upon the Top of Spear as is reported of the Laplanders or some live Animal as of old the Egyptians did Fran. Coster Enchir. contro vers Cap 12. were more tollerable than of those who worshiped a piece of Bread as hitherto the Christians have done all over the World for so many hundred years if the Doctrine of Transubstantiation be not true And that that Doctrine is not true we have as good evidence as Christ gave to his Disciples that he was not a Spirit that is we may handle and see it yea and tast and smell it too as was said above yea we have the same that we have that the Cup is not transubstantiated into the New Testament and we have no more authority from the Scripture that the Bread is Transubstantiated than that the Cup is so Transubstantiated nay rather we have more ground to believe that the Cup is changed into a divine writing than that the Bread is changed into the Body the very real and substantial Body of Christ For it is expresly said this Cup is the New Testament but it is not said this Bread is my Body nor this that was Bread is become my Body and for ought that appears to the contrary in the Text his Body being visibly present he might point to or speak of it in saying this is my Body as he speak of the Temple of his body when walk-in the Temple he said to the Jews Destroy ye this Temple and in three days I will raise it up again as our sences tell us the Cup is not the New Testament but a Silver or Golden Cup or Challice so the very same sences tell us as plainly that the Bread still remains in the nature of Bread non substantiâ aut naturâ mutatus not changed in substance or nature into God or into the person of God-man the Lord Jesus besides it is their own Doctrine that the change of the Elements depend upon the Intention of the Priest so that if the Priest intend not in saying the words to make the body of Christ it is not the Body of Christ but Bread still and then they are Idolaters that worship it as God and who can be certain of the Priests Intentions not to mention again the many Saints both Hees and Shee s that they give such adorations to as belongs only to God and ask such things of as God only can give so that they are notorious transgressors of the first commandment of God and keep it not and as to the second they are so far from keeping it and act so grosly contrary to it that they expung it out of their Catechisms The third also they grosly violate in their Doctrine and practice about sacred oaths dispenceing with them and loosing men from the obligation of them enacting them by mental reservations and breaking solemn Oaths and promises as in their breaking their promises with John Hus and in the Popes dispensing with the Oath given by Ladislaus King of Poland to Amurath the Turkish Emperour or grand Sultan and causing him to break his Truce with him to the great scandal of Christian Religion and slaughter of the Christians The Turk himself appealing to Christ if he were indeed God to revenge the perfidious Perjury of the Christians towards him which he also did in the ensuing slaughter and destruction of them but such abuse of Gods name in dissolving and dispensing with religious and solemn Oaths yea and with mens rash swearing they give allowance of in their Doctrines and treatises as well as in their practices yea it was a thing that the above cited Fryer Aegan tells us gave him one of his first disgusts at their Religion that when at his first being made a Fryer he took one and twenty Oaths and among them that he would never come on Horseback that he would never ware shoes that he would obey his superiours in what ever he commanded never examining the lawfulness of his commands not to be ashamed to beg never to be out of his Fryers habit c. yet after all these oaths taken his superiour told him that he must take his former garments and return in the same Posture that he came in which was on Horseback with Sword and Pistols and gay Apparrel and go see his friends though quite contrary to his oaths from which he would absolve him If
and the too many miscarriages found among us especially in some transactions of the late times which those Emissaries want neither skill nor will to improve to the furtherance of their designs and also the fair flourishes that she by them makes especially in these Countries where being in the midst of oppositions they put on greater appearances of Piety Patience Charity as they call their Almsdeeds and pretensions of greater Unity and Prosperity and what was lastly said also of her wiliness in accommodating her Doctrines and carriages toward them to mens different humors But besides these things there may be other causes that are more principal assigned which in conjunction with these are of great power and influence so as there is great danger of the fall of many into her embraces As for instance 1. Mens own former and hitherto Carelesness to acquaint themselves with and seek to be established in the truth and to walk in it according to its Instructions and that hath been and is the case of too many both of our Gentry and of others of both Sexes that though they have for many years had the Scriptures and Gospel Doctrines among them and many Learned and Solid disocurses published to discover the deceits of the Romanists yet they have not set their hearts toward God and Christ seriously to know and walk in and be obedient to his truth but have rested in a bare form of Godliness denying the power of it more minding the World and the things of it their Estates Riches Honours Pleasures Ornaments Gallantry or Intemperancy and what their corruptions lead them to than how to serve and please God and make such right improvements of his truths made known to and among them as wherein they might be fitted for and accounted worthy of its utmost Benefits especially in these late and present days in which loose and licentious principles and practises of Atheism infidelity and debauchery take great place and have wonderfully in a few years thriven so as to overcome the Nations Now God is marvailously jealous of his glory and the glory of his Name and truth and will not hold them guiltless that take or receive them in vain that is so as not to be made good by them and therefore will punish them that so do for this cause it was that he gave over the Gentiles to vile affections and to gross Idolatry because when he had in and by his works of creation and providence made known himself to and among them they did not glorify him as God nor were thankful to him but became vain in their Imaginations and their Foolish Hearts were darkened so as professing themselves to be wise they became fools c. Rom. 1.21 22 23 24 25. For this cause God also threatned us Christians that he would give way to the man of Sin to come in upon the World with power and signs and lying wonders after the manner of Sathan and send strong delusions that men might believe lyes and be Damned even because God had first sent the truth of the Gospel among us and men received not the love thereof that they might be saved namely from their Sins nor believed it heartily so as to obey it but had pleasure in unrighteousness 2 Thes 2 8 9 10 11 12. Which horrible threatned judgment he hath sadly executed in the World after the Christian faith being spread abroad in it hath not been duly entertained partly by leting loose Mahomet and seting up a Kingdom in the World as to its Eastern parts that received and propagates his delusions what they can and partly by suffering Rome in these Western parts so to exalt her self with all her corruptions and abominations and surely this is one and the main cause of the falling off of so many to her bad communion after such detection of her so fully made to which way hath also been the rather made by 2. The sad debauchings of the Nations and filling them with Profaneness uncleanness irreligion from the one end to the other thereof which hath doubtless been the project and work of some that hold the Doctrine of Balaam and follow his pernicious ways who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the Children of Israel to eat things sacrificed to Idols and to commit Fornication Rev. 2.14 Or rather as Jezabel that painted Strumpet who seduced Gods People to commit fornication first and then to eat things sacrificed to Idols first to commit Fornication and then as a fruit thereof to which they might that way be the easier drawn to eat things sacrificed to Idols Rev. 2.20 According to some Machivillian principles to make men first of no Religion and then they may easily be drawn to embrace any false Religion how much bodily Whoredom and Fornication overspreads the Land is too sad as well as easy to observe and surely its just with God when men give up themselves to that to give them over to Spiritual Fornication also that they might fill up the measure of their Iniquities and his greater and severer wrath might come upon them and especially it s the direct way to promote the Popish Religion and its spiritual Whoredoms because it gives such indulgences to and dispensations for the beloved Sins of bodily Fornication promising to those that practice such Sins Pardon and impunity at least after some penances and Purgatory Pains for their Sins and Heaven and Happiness to at last if they will but joyn themselves in fellowship with that Church and uphold its claims and Pretentions though for others of a devouter complexion as we have noted she can take some precious truths of God compared in Scripture to Gold yea fine Gold or to Silver seven times Purifyed in the fire and his precious promises which are as precious Pearls more precious than Rubies and mixing them with her own superstitions make up pretty taking medals and formes or Images of devotion and composures of Croizons and religious exercises to allure and bewitch them 3. Yea the familiarity and Friendship with Persons of that Religion or being yoked up with them especially in Marriage proves a great inducement to diverse to turn to them for even such correspondencies and conjunctions with any false worshipers have been allways pernicious as may appear even in Solomon who though a wise man and of an exceeding large understanding so as that as Nehemiah observes among many Nations there was no King like him who was beloved of God yet even him did outlandish or strange women of a corrupt Religion cause to Sin Neh. 13.26 1 King 11.3 4 5 6 7. For his Women inclined or turned away his Heart so that it was not right with God but he followed other Gods and built high places for them and who may presume to stand under a temptation when he voluntarily casts himself into it that Solomon could not stand upright under though so wise a man therefore God forbad Israel to joyn themselves in affinity with