put his hand upon (a) Mar. 8.24 he did see truly but yet he was not able to distinguish Men from Tree the Word of God had restored my Eyes but they were but weak and subject to a great many dimnesses it was need to have some time to strengthen me in the Truth which I had but a glimpse of and to take away the Ignorance of Divinity under the pretences of which the Devil would cloak the Word of God Therefore the Divine Providence that took care for my Conduct disposed all things to hasten my Conversion it brought to pass several incidents which the Profane would call chance but the Saints stile The hand of the Lord. First I was destinated for the study of Divinity four years before all my Companions let the Flatterers and Profane say what they please those who judge holily of things that come to pass understand very well that the design of the Lord in that was no other but to take away as soon as it could be the fair Pretences wherewith Error would have offuscated Truth Secondly the Lord permitted I should come to an able man learned in Divinity both Scholastical and Positive perfect in Right Canon which is the Decrees of Fathers Councils and Popes in a word a man who was marvellous in Study of Controversies and in every thing which can contribute to make an absolute Divine But He permitted also that there might be in so excellent a man the fair Dealing and the Sincerity of a Child that was the reason that some Years after when he had known the Truth of God and the Errors of Rome because he knew not how to disguise Truth he published it every where he could not forbear to say that Indulgences Purgatory and the Obligations of Believing the Articles of Faith of the Pope and of keeping his Commandements upon â—ain of a mortal Sin were so many â—rafty Tricks of Rome to get Money He could not forbear to tell every Body the Mysteries the Factions the Impostures of the most part of those last Councils which are accounted General and Oecumenical by the Church of Rome he defended generously all the Truths which we profess in the Church of England wherefore he drew upon himself all the Persecutions he suffered for Truth so that afterward he died a Martyr for the Gospel by the severity of the Laws of Rome Oh! had he been in the time that I conversed with him as much lightned as he has been since he had saved me many troubles and perplexities he had doubtless delivered me out of that Suspension of Spirit whereunto I was reduced by the subtilty of his Answers and the height of his Resolutions But in that time the Lod did but begin his Conversion as well as mine and lighten us both by degrees yet with these two differences First the Lord destinated him to suffer all kinds of Persecutions to make him a Witness of his Holy Word a Martyr of the Gospel and he has not yet judged me worthy of Persecutions nor of Martyrdom Secondly he would have him raised up to the number of those great Saints whom the World afflicts and torments Ch. 1. §. 4. (a) Heb. 11.38 Of whom the World is not worthy Therefore the Lord ravished betimes that innocent Soul in the liveliness of his Years and speedily was he taken away (b) Wisd 4.11 as saith Solomon Lest Wickedness should alter his Understanding or deceit beguile his Soul Whereas the Divine Justice has looked upon me as a grievous Offendor who am suffered to live that I might Mourn and Weep longer for my Sons §. 4. The Conclusions of this Chapter How I came to know that the Articles of faith of Rome cannot be proved by Scripture IT was under the Conduct of that learned and holy Man that I began to give my self to the Study of Divinity I read what Authors do write concerning those Questions but specially and more exactly concerning the Questions which are controverted which are for the most part the Doctrines the Church of Rome hath received out of pride and covetousness without any ground in the Scripture I found in those Questions several difficulties I came to propound them to my Master there is said he what Bellarmin Answers there is for this matter the Exposition of Cardinal du Perron there is what Bonaventure what Thomas Aquinas what Scotus what Suarez what Valentia what Boivin what Herincx what others say touching that difficulty But when I asked him Tell me I beseech you freely what do you think He Answered me almost to every one of those Questions To tell you the truth said he the Doctrin of Purgatory of Indulgences of Worshiping Images and Reliques the Doctrin of Transubstantiation c. I do not find all these Doctrins very evident in the Scripture I do not see neither how they can be drawn very directly out of those places of the Bible th Authors of Rome are wont to produce to prove them by I give them you said he only to alledge to those who would have a place of the Bible he brought forth in every matter to have some pretence to say seasonably or unseasonably the Scripture speaks of that Matter and to content the Hereticks But to speak plainly I do sincerely confess it is not the Scripture which obliges or perswades me to believe all those Articles but the true and the only reason why I do hold them is because the Church teaches them so There are said I in self at once a great many difficulties abridged it is a great deal more just and more reasonable to deal after this manner than to consume all our brain to find in the Scripture with great pains of false discoursing what the Holy Ghost had never intention to teach therein Let us acknowledge then freely that all the Articles of the Faith of Rome are not in the Scripture nor grounded upon any thing else but upon the Authority of the Church After that all these difficulties may be very easily resolved All the business will be but to know whether or no I am obliged to believe as an Article of Faith what the Roman Church teaches without any ground from the Scripture This was the pass to which I was reduced to this I thought all the Theologie of Rome was to be reduced I did but loose my labour in consulting other Professors of Divinity in Conferring with those Friends of mine who were some Bachelors some Licentiates some Doctos of Sorbon and Curates of some chief Parishes in Paris They spoke but Gibbrish or some Latin words contrary to the good common Secne and Reason when they would have grounded the Doctrin of the Church of Rome upon the Scriptures and they never spake with reason but when at last they reduced themselves as to a Principle to the infallible definitive and final Judgement of the said Church in such matters CHAP. II. Chap. 2. How I understood the Articles of Faith of the
them with the Zeal of their Salvation and to turn away their hearts out of Error as he did yours Ah! how many thanks are you to give to God Almighty that he has drawn you out of the Tyranny where you were born But we should be very glad to hear the particularities of your Conversion And it is to rehearse them that I undertook this Discourse to engage you to joyn your Thanksgivings to mine for to thank Him to praise Him and to glorifie Him admiring the Greatness of his Goodness and the Wonders he doth work in the Souls of those whom he has 〈…〉 § 2. The Conversion of a Man who did live in the errors of the Roman Church is a very great Miracle SAint Peter's Chains broken by themselves many Blind men recovering their Eyes many Sick bodies healed many Dead rais'd up again these are very great Miracles and marvellous Deeds of the Highest's Mighty Hand But the Divine alterations which Grace works in our Souls are a great deal more marvellous more worthy of God's Majesty better becoming his Almightiness The Man whom the Finger of God has touched to work the Miracle of his Conversion doth not know himself any more so considerable is that change he feels his Soul entirely perswaded of certain Truths which God has revealed which he regarded heretofore as so many lies and he finds himself delivered from a multitude of errors which he worshipped as the Truth it self Peradventure you would have supposed that the prejudications of Error which he found in his mind from his Child-hood might be like so many petty Tyrants and young Devils who perplex him who vex him who trouble the quietness of his Conscience and raise up in him dimness and darkness stealing from his Eyes the very light of Truth You are mistaken Grace gives him strength to dissipate the evil Spirits and to withstand Error He doth enjoy the light of the Gospel with a peace and quietness which cannot be expressed and as the dawning of the Day which comes first after Night is received by all Creatures with more pleasant and more delightful wellcome than the very Light of Noon so I dare say there happens sometimes the same thing in the state of Grace A Soul newly lightened enjoys sometimes the Light with more pleasure and sweetness than do those who have been all their life long in the broad day-light of the Gospel That a man should live in such a Tranquillity of Conscience as the Saints themselves enjoy in Heaven That he should find pleasure and sweetness in being perswaded of a Truth which he lookt upon before as an Heresie and did not think of without Horrour it is a prodigious work of the Highest it is Almighty Gods mighty hand A Christian who has prostituted himself to all his Passions who has dived into all kinds of Vices and Deboachments who has transgressed all the Commandements of God when Grace touches and Converts him it is a great Miracle yet that man who prostituted himself to all kinds of Vices did never conceive any horrour against those who follow Virtue He did consider Virtue as a very hard thing but not as an Abomination and in the very same time wherein he broke all the Commandements he thought not that it was a great sin to keep them He did not look upon those who observed them as so many Monsters as so many Franticks as a people who deserving the malediction of God and the execration of Men ought to be exterminated out of the World with Sword and Fire But a Man who did live in the errors of Rome before God had hightened him by his Grace he looked upon the Reformed Church as a Church full of Abomination he never spoke of those who follow that Church but with Imprecation and Cursing he never read any proposition of their Doctrin but presently he added an Anathema and damned them to the pit of Hell he had rather have the conversation of Devils than that of a Protestant In a word all the Invectives Raylings Imprecations Maledictions Anathematizations he could heap up were to be poured out upon those who do profess the purity of the Gospel When after all those Repugnancies and Estrangements which seemed to be an obstacle to Truth you see a Man mollified opening his Eyes to the Grace of God changing his Dispositions his Notions his Thoughts and all his Manners Is not that a prodigie of Grace Have I not reason to say that this Miracle is not only greater than that whereby God gives again Eyes to the Blind Life to the Dead but even a great deal more marvellous than that which Grace works in the Conversion of the greatest Sinners § 3. After what manner the Spirit of God made me understasnd my Errors THe Lord our God doth not always shew altogether at once the effects of his mighty Power nor doth he work always after the same manner in all the Conversions of Sinners He speaks sometimes with a thundering Voice which altogether at once beats down dazles and converts a Sinner And it was with such a Voice he spoke to (a) Act. 9. St. Paul when in a minute of time he turned him from the most furious Enemy of the Gospel into a very Zealous Preacher of the same Gospel Other times he begins to speak to a Sinner softly and a great way off He prepares him he prevents him and he puts him in the Dispositions he judges fit for his Conversion It is after this manner he converted the (b) Act. 8. Eunuch of great Authority under Candace Queen of the Aethiopians he doth not overturn him out of his Chariot he doth not cast him to the ground to Convert him suddenly as he did afterwards St. Paul but he dispoes him by the reading of the Scripture to receive the light of the Gospel And it is after this manner the Lord has been pleased to draw me out of the Errors of Rome and to bring me through his great Mercies to profess here freely the purity of his Holy Word This is that which I intend to rehearse in all this Discourse in the First Part whereof I will recite how I understood that the Doctrin of the now Roman Church is grounded neither upon the Authority of the Holy Scriptures nor upon the belief of the Primitive Church nor the Authority of the Holy Fathers And in the Second Part how I understood that the Church of Rome is not the True Church that its Authority is not Infallible and that it is full of Corruptions and Errors FIRST PART The Doctrin of the Roman Church is grounded neither upon the Scripture nor upon the belief of the Primitive Church nor the Authority of the Holy Fathers CHAP. I. How I understood the Doctrin of the Roman Church to be not grounded upon the Scripture §. I. The Reading of the Scripture disposed me before-hand to acknowledge the Errors of Rome BEing in the Ecclesiastical Orders of the Church of Rome I thought
Article de Foy. Et dire la même chose de bonne foy du Purgatoire des Indulgences de l' Invocation des Saints et des autres Articles et non pas s'oppiniâtrer à vouloir trouver dans la Primitive Eglise des Articles de Foy dont elle n'◠jamais eu la moindre connoissance De cette maniere il ne reste plus qu'à examiner s◠l'Authorité de l'Eglise Romaine est Infaillible ou si elle ne l'est pas Voilà le Point indivifible sur lequel je fixois toute ma Religion c'est là où je riduisois toutes les Questions de Controverse et le lien que me tenoit attaché à l◠Communion de l'Eglise Romaine J'exeminay dont cette question de l'Infaillibilite de l'Eglise Romaine mais soit que j'eusse peur de trouver cette Infaillibilité auss◠mal fondée que la Doctrine de la Transubstantiation soit que l'Ambition que j'avois de soûtenir avec honneur le Traité de l'Eglise que l'on m'engageoit en ce temps là de soûtenir dans des Theses Publiques◠m'esbloüist et m'aveugla pour m'empécher de découvrir la Verité soit que la Grace ne trouva pas à propos en ce temps là d'achever l'ouvrage de ma Conversion et qu'elle voulut laisser meurir et enraciner bien avant dans mon esprit les Raisons que j'avois meditées afin de m'affermir davantage dans la Verité de sa sainte Parole Je trouvay des Preuves et des Raisons tant bonnes que mauvaises je me persuaday le premier afin de persuader plus aisément les autres et je soûtins dans mes Theses que l'Eglise Romaine et même que le Pape seul estoit Infaillible quand il détermine quelque chose de Foy. Cette Persuasion me retenant dans l'Eglise Romaine je commançay à m'adoucir et à changer de discours et au lieu que j'avois consideré les Articles de Foy de cette Eglise comme des Erreurs parcequ'elles n'estoient pas Conformes à la Doctrine de la Primitive Eglise et à la Creance des Peres je ne les considerois plus que comme des Nouvautés qui n'estoient pas Criminelles puisque je supposois l'Eglise de Rome entant qu'Infaillible dans le Droit de produire tous les jours ou de déclarer de Nouveaux Articles de Foy. Dans cette Pensée lorsque quelque personne d'Estude me demandoit mon sentiment en particulier sur quelque Question de Theologie je répondois simplement selon mon opinion et je r◠duisois toutes les Questions à l'Authorit Infaillible de l'Eglise Romaine mais quand j'estois obligé de parler en Public e◠devant le Peuple je me eroyois obligé de peur de scandaliser les Foibles de me servi◠de la Methode dont tous les autres o◠coûtume de se servir et d'apporter quoyq◠contre ma propre persuasion des Passages d◠l'Escriture et des Authorités des Ancien◠Peres de l'Eglise pour prouver les Article de Foy de l'Eglise de Rome Voilà quelle estoit ma maniere d'agir e◠ce temps là auquel la seule persuasion 〈◊〉 l'Infaillibilité de l'Eglise de Rome 〈◊〉 retenoit dans sa Communion FIN de la PREMIERE PARTIE MEMOIRES INTRODUCTION § 1. The Reasons wherefore I have been engaged to write these Memoirs I Do consider my self as a publick Sinner since I did profess in the Roman Church a Doctrin contrary to the Gospel I look upon the life that I led there as an express Apostasie from the true Faith And I look upon all the Errors which I Taught as so many publick and scandalous Heresies But after I have considered my self as a scandalous Heretick I consider also that I made against all my Heresies a solemn Recantation After I have looked upon my self as one that was naturally engaged to be an Apostata from the Gospel I consider I have been raised up from that Apostasie by the profession that I made two Years since of the purity of the Gospel In a Word after I have considered my self as a publick Sinner engaged by my Profession to seduce the People and to darken the Light of the Gospel in deceiving those whom I was to Teach I do consider my self as a publick Penitent who having been two Years in the first degree of Penitence in the Order of Hearers as it was ordained by the Holy Canons (a) Concil Nicen can 11. St. Basil Epist ad Amph. cap. 26. of the Primitive Church comes to present himself to my Lords the Bishops beseeching them to receive him into the Church that he might by the Steps which are marked in the same Canons get up into the state of Light and Faith at which he was to aim after his Baptism and from which his Errors drove him far away And whereas I regard the Bishops as my natural Superiours and as so many Judges appointed to declare unto me the Will of God I find my self obliged to give them an account of my conduct and to tell them plainly the means which God has used to bring me to the Truth of his holy Word This is the first Reason which obliged me to write Another Reason is that I do consider my self as a Man taken out of a great Captivity and delivered out of a very dark Prison When God had delivered St. Peter out of Prison by the means of an Angel whom he sent to him the Scripture makes me understand that the Faithful compassed him round about to hear him to whom St. Peter (a) Act. 12.17 rehearsed the marvellous means which God had used to deliver him out of Captivity I do not Question but that the godly People zealous for the Honour of God for the Purity of his Gospel and for the Salvation of all Men as soon as they hear say that God has been pleased to deliver one of their Brethren out of the Captivity of the Devil out of the Prison of the Pope will come presently to meet him to enquire the means which God hath used in bringing him out of so great a Captivity Ah! tell us a little saith that People holily curious which were the motives of your Conversion Was it not a very great trouble to you to part from all the Friends you had to forsake all your Acquaintance to come to live in a Foreign Country I think the common People under the Pope's Dominion live without any knowledge of the word of God Ah! that his Divine Majesty would be pleased to lighten them with his marvellous Truths I make no Question but that all the learned Men and all the Priests who enjoy the liberty of Reading the Scripture may take a perfect notice of the Errors of Rome ah that God would be pleased to inspire
my self engaged upon pain of a mortal Sin to recite every day the 119th Psalm wherefore I did read it every day with as much application as I could Ch. 1. §. 1. The obligation to recite it so often did never make me to loath and though I were weary oftentimes to Read or to hear Read I do not know how many fabulous Stories which are to be found in the Roman Breviary several thwart applications of the Scripture several Orisons and Litanies wherein they Pray to all the Saints one after another to obtain of them the things which we are to hope only from God Almighty yet I was never loath to hear the Scripture especially this Psalm whereunto I had some most peculiar Attractions I went to Church with joy I opened my Breviary with pleasure to Read that Psalm and I discovered therein every day some new glimps of Light which inticed me to have a great deal of Esteem for the Word of God Psalm 119. It is in that Psalm I learned that the Wor of God is an excellent remedy to Cure all the Diseases of our Souls (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 9. drawing them out of their Deboachments and a miraculous Preservative (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 11. to keep them from falling again into Sin Therein I learned that an infallible mark to be sure whether a man fears God or no is to know whether he be glad (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 74 to see and frequent those who put all their trust in his Holy Word Therein I learned that a very good way to become (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 98. Wiser than all our Enemies to have more * 99. understanding than all our Teachers * 100. to be Wiser than the Ancients is to love the Scriptures so that our Study be in them all the day long Therein I learned that the Word of God is an Holy Contract full of a great many very obliging Promises wherein the Lord has been pleased to agree with men (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 50. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 82. to comfort them in their afflictions (d) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 107 to strengthen them in their troubles to fulfil them (e) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 41. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 58. with his loving Mercies to save them (f) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 81. to deal well with them (g) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 65. to take them in his Protection and to deliver them Therein I learned that the Saints are to love the Word of God (h) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 154. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 170. above all Silver and Gold in the World that (i) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 72. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 127. it is their Meditations all the day long That the cause of their grief and trouble is to see that their Enemies which are no others than the Enemies of God (k) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 97. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 148. have forgotten his Holy Words despised them and banished them out of their hearts therein I learned that the Word of God (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 139. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 158. is sweeter than any thing that it is (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 103. a LAMP unto our Feet and a LIGHT unto our Path that (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 105. the entrance of the word of God gives LIGHT that it gives understanding unto the simple that this holy Word is (d) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 130. very Pure that it is (e) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 140. true from the beginning and that it (f) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 160. endureth for ever These Holy thoughts of a Prophet full of the Holy Ghost presented themselves every day unto my eyes with some new inticements and made me conceive so high an esteem of the word of God that I fully resolved to make the Holy Writings my peculiar Study I read first many times that Translation of the Bible which is called the Vulgar Translation then having obtained the permission of Reading the Scripture in a Vulgar Tongue knowing that one 's own Tongue prints in his mind more pure and more lively Notions I read the Translation of the Bible by the Doctorsof Louvain But whereas I heard say every day by those I conversed withal that the Bible was a Book full of Darkness that the Translations thereof had been corrupted by the Hereticks I read the New Testament in the Togue in which every body confesses it has been first written and as for the Old Testament the places which they say have been corrupted by those of the Reformed Church I conferred with the Translation of the Sventy Interpreters which I thought free from Corruption since it was done about 272 Years afore the Birth of our Lord Jesus Christ Good God! how marvellous are the means thou art pleased to use to act thy Miracles would some body had told me at that time Oh you are plunged in many Errors and all that Study of the Scripture to which you give your self with so great an application it is the work of God who begins to pluck you from the Errors of Rome Alas I should have been amazed very much Yet for all that it is very true for if I had been altogether Ignorant of the Original Tongues of the Scripture I should have had some Reason or at least some pretence to mistrust that the places of the Scripture which are directly contrary to the Doctrine of the Church of Rome Ch. 1. §. 2. had not been Translated according to the Originals or that the Interpreters had changed the sense and the signification of them as it is cried out so often by those of the Roman Church § 2. The Errors of the Roman Church whereof I was perswaded made me find in the Scriptures many difficulties many insufficiencies and many contradictions THe reading of the Scripture raised in my mind many difficulties Difficulties of the Scripture not that the Scripture is dark in it self but because I had my understanding full of the Errors of Rome and I did endevour to find those Errors in the Scripture in the places from whence the Roman Writers are wont to draw them This place of (a) Matth. 16.18 St. Matthew Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will Build my Church and the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it c. That of (b) Luke 22.32 St. Luke I have prayed for thee that thy Faith fail not and that (a) John 21.16 of St. John Feed my Sheep c. If all these Words do signifie nothing but what every body conceives by the natural notions which they do picture in our Soul these Words are very easie but if they do signifie that the Pope is the true Successor of St. Peter the Vicar of Christ the High-Priest the Head
Augmentation of the Sacraments of that Church the Ignorance of the Holy Scripture and the Invocation of Saints which in the Roman Church is gone as far as Idolatry are all grounded and lest some body should believe that I charge falsely the Church of Rome when I accuse it of Idolatry or lest some body should believe what the Papists use to say that it is but the common people that ground their hope upon the merits of the Saints and that the learned men who are lightned do not fall in so gross errors do but read the Psalter of the blessed Virgin Mary in the works of St. Bonaventure and you shall see that this Cardinal attributes to the blessed Virgin Mary all that which is attributed to God Almighty in Davids Psalmes and every where where the name of God should be he puts in the room the name of the Blessed Virgin pray can any thing be more impious and more wicked Neither can you say that that error is an error of a private man for I answer that it is a publick error in that Church and the error of the Church it self since in the book of the Mass upon St Nicolas's day (b) Decemb. 6. the Priest who says the Mass hath an order from the Church whereby he is engaged under the pain of a Mortal sin to pray God that by the merits and prayers of St. Nicolas they may be delivered from the fire of Hell Vt ejus precibus meritis à gehennae incendiis liberemur a Church which makes that prayer doth it not believe that it is by the prayers and merits of St. Nicolas that we are delivered from Hell and to believe that is it not to believe an horrible Impiety In the same book of Mass on the day (a) The 6th of July of St. Peter and St. Paul all the Roman Church prays to God that by the merits of these two Saints all men may obtain Eternal Glovy Vt amborum meritis aeternitatis gloriam consequamur then it is the errour of all the Roman Church and not of a private man to believe that it is by the merits of Saints we are to obtain eternal life And on the day (b) The 14 July of St. Bonaventure the Church of Rome prays God he would be pleased to absolve all men from their sins by the merits of that Saint ejus intercedentibus meritis ab omnibus nos absolve peccatis Now a Church which believes that it is by the merits of Saints that we are delivered from Hell that it is by the merits of Saints that we obtain eternal life that it is by the merits of Saints that our sins are forgiven is that a Christian Church could the Mahometans and Idolaters hold or think any thing more destructive of the merits and more opposite to the Glory of Jesus Christ could they invent an error more contrary to the truth of Christianity GENERAL CONCLUSION That I was engaged to go out of the Church of Rome whereof God Almighty made me know the errors by the degrees I have rehearsed in the two parts of this discourse AFter I had made that examination of the principles whereupon is grounded the Authority of the Roman Church after I had discovered the falsehood and the nullity of the reasons which she alledges to oblige the world to commit it self into her hands after I had found that Antiquity Multitude and Succession are not priviledges which the Church of Rome possesses above all other Churches after I had known that if the Church of Rome should enjoy all those priviledges above other Churches yet it would not be a good consequence from thence that it be the true Church and a Church freed from errors after I had discovered that all the infallibility of the Roman Church was grounded only upon the Authority of the Popes and that the greatness and Authority of the Popes was grounded but upon Ambition and Covetousness I understood that there was no other foundation of the true Religion but the word of God I acknowledged the truth of those Axiomes of St. Chrysostome (a) Homil. de Lazaro That the Ignorance of the Scripture procreates Heresies and that (b) Homilia 38. sup Joann the Scriptures bring us to God Almighty drive away Heresies and keep us from falling into error that thought imprinted it self upon my mind very strongly and made an end of scattering away the Clouds which Truth seemed to be wrapped in I knew manifestly that all points which are called Articles of Faith in the Roman Church but are not grounded upon the Scripture are indeed Articles of the Interest and of the Ambition of those who rule it and not Articles of Faith which are to be no other than Articles of the Word of God I understood well that that which was taught in that Church was the word of man not the word of God and that having no foundation in the Scripture they could not be sufficient Articles to oblige all men to believe them moreover in examining particularly and without preoccupation the Articles of Rome I knew them to be contrary to the Scripture so whereas at that time I acknowledged nothing but the word of God for the true rule of my Faith I concluded that all those Articles of Rome were so many errors and that having a natural obligation to forsake error assoon as we know it I was obliged to go out of the Roman Church to forsake altogether and faithfully all the errors which it stands for §. 1. The occasion of a Sermon about the Sacrament called again in my mind all the notions I had of the Errours of Rome THus I discussed the Articles of the Belief of Rome when the time of my obedience being finished I left the Monastery where I was near Saumur to come again to Paris there the F. Provincial who had disposed of his Secretary to send him to govern one of the Monasteries of our province spoke of making me his Secretary but the Divine Providence ordered it another way for the F. Provincial seeing that the F. General had taken upon himself all the care of our Province for the while he was to stay at Paris thought that it should be needless to take a Secretary that was the reason why he commanded me to go to preach at the Parish of Meudon which is a Borough six miles out of Paris That Place where God Almighty had begun some years before to lighten me with the light of his Truth seemed to me the place of all the world the most pleasing and the most well liked I preached every Sunday and every Holy-day which is kept by the Church of Rome till at last about the time that they Celebrate the days which are called Corpus-Christi-days being engaged to preach as I us'd to do I read again what I had written afore upon the matter of the Sacrament and I was troubled in reading what I had written What! said I must I abuse
all kind of gainful Bulls whereupon Pope Sixtus IV. was wont to say That he should never want mony if so be that he should never want Pen and Ink to write Do but open the Historians and you shall find there the crafty tricks which the Popes have used to draw huge sums of mony out of the Kingdoms that have acknowledged his jurisdiction About the year 1216 whilst England overcharged and almost opprest groaned still under the tyranny of the Pope the Pope sent his Legates into this kingdom they Preached a Crosadoe against the Turks and the Bull of the Pope granted those who would make a voew to go into the Holy land to recover the holy Sepulcher the forgiveness of their sins and a degree of Glory in Heaven above the rest upon this a great multitude of Gentry sold and mortgaged their Lands and Estates for the charge of that journey but as they were armed and furnished for their journey another Legate came that dispensed the English from their vow and gave them the same graces and indulgences without budging from their own houses provided they would give to the Pope as much mony as was necessary to have been spent in their journey These are the fine devices which the Pope used to draw mony out of England never a year past but the Popes sent over into this Kingdom some new Commissions some new pretenses to raise mony in so much that the Pope called England his garden of pleasure and his bottomless treasure It is by the means of Bulls Indulgences Forgivenesses Dispensations and other such stuffes the Pope has used to draw from other Kingdoms as well as from England innumerable summes of mony In the time of Martin V. they brought out of France to Rome 9000000 nine millions of Crowns which are 2250000l two millions two hundred fifty thousand pounds sterling and at this time the Popes are wont to complain of France and the Italians stile it Heretick or at least Semiheretick because the Pope has now out of that Kingdom every year but 28 Tuns of Gold which are 560000l five hundred sixty thousand pounds sterling and 1690000l sixteen hundred ninety thousand pounds sterling less than they had used to receive Do but judge from thence what he has what he had and what he intends to have out of all the other Kingdoms which are submitted to his dominion Conclusion of the second Part. That the Roman Church being founded upon the principles which I have rehearsed is fallen into Corruption and Error §. 1. Horrid Corruptions in its Manners WHat can we expect of a Church which is grounded upon Ambition and Covetousness but that it must fall into abundance of Errors and prostitute it self to all kind of corruption and so it is happened to the Church of Rome Do but read the lives of the Popes who have ruled it since its fall you shall find there such dreadful and horrid stories as scarcely could you find amongst Turks and Idolaters Pope John XI who was Bastard to Pope Sergius governed the Roman Church about the year 931. he was a Monster as Baronius himself relates yet for all that he was the chief of the Roman Church Do but judge now what could that Church be whose head was a monster Pope John XII had the government of the Roman Church about the year 955. he was but 18 years old when he was made Pope Baronius speaks of that Pope with horror and execration and if you would know the particularities of the life of that Pope you are but to read Luitprandus (a) Lib. 6. cap. 11. Sygebert (b) An. 963. and Antonin (c) In his Cronicl Tom. 2. tract 16. §. 16. and you shall learn that that Pope was worse than a Turk or an Idolater he took Children to make them Bishops he conferred the Sacred Orders in a Stable he drank to the Devils good health his occupation all the day long was to spend the time in playing at Dice or other sorts of games and it was in those pastimes he used to call upon the name of Jupiter and Venus after which the death of that Pope was conformable enough to the life he had led for whilst he was in the middle of his dissolutenesses the Devil beat him so much that he dyed of it was not the Roman Church well grounded upon the Authority of such a Pope and is it not a thing well contrived to say that a Pope who calls upon the name of Devils enjoys an infallible Authority and that a Church which is grounded upon such an Authority is unable to receive or conceive any error We are but to read Platina Onnphrius and others who are Historians of the Roman Church to discover the wickednesses of the Popes Pope Boniface murthered (a) Baron an 985. two Popes to be their Successor in the Chair of Rome and Benedict IX who was but ten years old when he was made Pope by the faction of his Father lived a monstrous life all the while he sat in the Chair of Rome witnesses Baronius Platina and others There has been a time that they have seen three Popes at a time excommucating one another they have seen in that Chair Popes Murtherers Popes Adulterers Popes Sorcerers perjured persons simoniacal and full of all other crimes that can be imagined and to say that such Popes are infallible that they be governours of the Church of Christ truly if we speak strictly there is not an evident Metaphysical contradiction no more than there is an evident Metaphysical contradiction in saying that Jesus Christ might take even the Devils to make them the ordinary preachers of his Gospel and the Organs of the Holy Ghost and that he might chuse Sathan to make him the governor of his Church Nevertheless though those propositions contain not a strict impossibility yet we may say that they contain an infinite number of inconveniences and impossibilities in Morality and men can hardly believe that God almighty should have chosen Sathan among all his creatures to make him the governor of his Church I say the same of the Popes Men can hardly believe that God should have chosen the good friends of the Devil those creatures which the most moderate among the Papists call monsters to make them the Organs of the Holy Ghost and the Chiefs of the true Church Judge of the members by their Chief and enquire from those who have travelled into Italy what life lead the most part of the Cardinals and other Princes of that Church or else read what Honorius of Authun Sygebert and St. Bernard have written this is for corruption of manners §. 2. Some extreamly gross errors in the doctrine of Rome AS for the errors that are built upon those principles which I have rehearsed I should write a great volume if I should relate them all and shew that it is upon those principles that the discovery of a Purgatory the Doctrine of the Mass the Corruption and