has been made to all sorts of Protestants to produce even Ten Papists I may say Two that in all that Confusion of Civil Wars ever drew Sword against him I shall not here offer him the Instances of Capt. Tho. Preston and Capt. Wright mentioned in Foxes and Firebrands both because they served under Oliver and also because it 's one of his Street-Pamphlets as he calls them but shall lay before him undeniable Authorities Such is that of the Royal Martyr himself who in a Declaration of his saith All men know the great number of Papists which serve in their Army Commanders and others We are confident a far greater number of that Religion is in the Army of the Rebels than our own The other shall be that of Rob. Mentet de Salmonet a Secular Priest who in his History of the Troubles of England saith That at the Battel of Edge-hill several Priests were found slain on the Parliament side For although in their Declarations they called the King's Army a Popish Army thereby to render it odious to the people yet they had in their Army two Companies of Walloons and other Roman Catholicks The Book perhaps may not lye in every ones way but the passage is transcribed into Sir William Dugdale's View of the late Troubles in England P. 564. An. 1642. As for the Authority of the French Preacher let it be as it will but I think it would have been a greater satisfaction to the World if they had accepted his Challenge Printed and Reprinted and questioned him for it when alive rather than after his death to appeal to Protestants whether it be not a Fable Third Character of a Pulpit-Papist The Papists were the Instruments in the Fire of London c. This he charges upon the Preacher as an Aggravation of his Misrepresentation That he should vent this almost Twenty years after 1683 when the whole matter had been throughly consider'd And tho there were no other grounds whereon to build this charge besides the clamour and affected jealousies of the people and the confession of a distracted man whose Religion was not much of any kind but still professedly a Protestant Yet upon these grounds c. I am not so well acquainted with the History of this as to know when this whole matter was througly consider'd And it 's likely the Preacher was as ignorant as I am Nor do I know upon what grounds he proceeded but tho it might be as our Author saith That the distracted Man's Religion was not much of any kind yet I have been assured upon good grounds that he did not dye a Protestant Fourth Character of a Pulpit-Papist The Papists have their Emissaries up and down to preach Schism and Sedition into the Peoples ears By such Arts as these they insinuate themselves among the poor deluded People of our separate Congregations and joyning with them in their Clamours against the Church of England crying it down for Superstitious and Popishly affected they pass for gifted Brethren and real Popery is carry'd on by such Disguises Here our Author first of all inveighs against the thing and then against the Pulpits for charging it upon them Here saith he the Papists are set forth in a Sermon before the Honourable the Judges as great Hypocrites Religious Cheats and Impostors A foul Crime and if true sufficient to cast the Papists he should say such spiritual Factors out of the number of Christians but if false and not as here set out as sufficient on the other side to bring the Pulpits under that as black Character of Misrepresenting This is indeed to come up to the point and I shall readily close with him upon it The Apologist to shorten his Work and to take down the Confidence of the Adviser without bearing too hard upon the Party contented himself with pointing his Adversary to three or four Authors for Information in this Case such as the Quaker Vnmask'd the New Discovery the false Jew and Foxes and Firebrands Now to this he replies Who would not have expected that the Answerer would have spent a few Lines in making good such Authorities and proving them to be Authentick beyond Exception And then after his manner breaks forth into a wonderful Exclamation Good God! that Men should pretend to teach their Auditory the Gospel and when they are thus challenged in a particular of this Moment then to fly to Foxes and Firebrands and laying by the Scripture take Refuge in Libels and Street-Pamphlets Now who would not have expected that he would have spent a few Lines in disproving these Authorities If he could have done this he had done somewhat but it 's easier to call a thing a Libel than to prove it Well! What is the proof he expects That it be Authentick beyond Exception But when shall it pass for Authentick beyond Exception Nothing less it seems than Scripture is sufficient For saith he when they are thus challenged laying by the Scripture they take refuge in Libels and Street-Pamphlets Here I must ingenuously confess that we are at a loss and that we read no more in the Scripture of such Emissaries as Faithful Commin and Thomas Heth than he does of the Miracles of Xaverius or the Revelations of St. Bridget and the Extasies of Magdalen de Pazzi But did ever any man in the World before our Author put a case upon this issue and require Scripture-proof for matters of Fact or charge his Adversary with laying aside Scripture because he brings not Scripture to prove it But supposing they have as good Authority as what they can produce for the Legends of their Church will it not be as Authentick Let us therefore proceed as he calls it to the Examen The first Book which he has a particular pique against is what is call'd Foxes and Firebrands which is full of Relations of this kind There we read of one Faithful Commin a Dominican who in the year 1567. came over to England pretending to be a Protestant refused to be present at the Prayers of the Church alledging that they were but the Mass translated had a separate Congregation prayed for hours together with much Groaning and many Tears and in his Sermons spoke as much against Rome and her Pope as any of the Clergy as he pleaded before the Queen and Council And yet all this while acted a part to delude the People and do Service to his Church This Narrative is an Extract out of the Memorials of the Lord Cecil and was transmitted to Bishop Vsher and among his Papers came into the hands of Sir James Ware late one of His Majesties Privy Council in Ireland and published by his Son Robert Ware Esq In the next year 1568. there was another of our Author's Impostors detected Thomas Heth a Jesuit who pretended much to spiritual Prayers declaiming against Set-Forms and when brought before the Bishop of Rochester said he thereby endeavoured to make Religion the purer and
conclude that this could not be giving leave to sin for so long time to come which so far exceeds the term of mans life But though it gives not leave to sin it 's sure a pardon for sin and he can no more have a pardon for a Thousand years past who has lived but fifty or sixty than have an allowance for a Thousand years to come And the Doctor said not that they grant by Indulgences leave to sin for many Thousand years to come but that they granted Idulgences for many Thousand years to come But what saith our Author to these prodigious numbers of years It 's saith he only the releasing of Penances which being assign'd in proportion to the sins for some sins three years penance for others five might with some careless Christians amount to that degree that for fifty years of life they might possibly have 5000 years penalties due to their sins And we shall add for him the 32000 of Sixtus the 4 th and the ten hundred thousand of John the 22 th Well supposing this account of it to be right and that an Indulgence is only a relaxation of such Penances as are due to the offence Yet what a leave or at least encouragement is here given to sin when a man that has deserved to undergo 5000 or 30000 or ten hundred thousand years of Penance shall by a Bull of a Pope be discharged from all this for saying three short Prayers or five Pater-Nosters five Aves and a Credo But supposing the Sinner is so careless also that after that he has run up the score to so high a sum he has not procured such an Indulgence and that the 5000 and the ten hundred thousand years Penalties remain due where is it that he is to undergo these Penalties And where is it that the Church in his notion appoints assigns and inflicts them After all methinks he had better have said with some of their own Church that the Relaxation doth not avail as far as is promised but it 's so declared that the Faithful might be excited to give and the Church deceives them Thirteenth Character of a Pulpit-Papist This he distributes into nine Particulars 1. If he be false and deceitful to Mankind yet Euge bone serve all is well and he in an instant is thought worthy of a better Kingdom This he saith is absolutely false For this he gives two Reasons 1. That Falshood and deceit are no where recommended or taught by his Church As if his Church would directly establish such Propositions And yet the Council of Constance comes near it when it asserts Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks 2. He saith I am certain no man of what Church soever so guilty can have admittance there but by a sincere repentance and restitution This is the received Doctrine of his Church and I hope in their dealing they practice it as much as any Here he turns off the case in hand from the publick to the private state of affairs and has not one word in vindication of what the Apologist laid to their charge especially in that notorious instance of the Pope's solemn Oration made in the Conclave in commendation of the Assassination of Henry the Third of France As our Author has here broke one sentence of the Preacher's from another and set in the midst what belongs to the Sermon of Alms So he has wholly omitted Assertion 14 th in the Apology viz. If the Pope and his Emissaries say the right hand is the left the Papists are bound to believe it which is there made good by four several Arguments But here our Author is modest and has left it to shift for it self and his Church under the heavy charge of it 2. No man can be a Papist but he whose eyes are blinded by Education or he who puts his own eyes out by Atheism It 's in the Sermon No man Therefore can be a Papist c. which refers to what was there before said and the description the Preacher had given of Popery viz. 1. That the Pope can dispence with the Laws of Nature and against the Old and New Testament 2. That the Word of God is a Nose of Wax a Dumb Judg and dead Ink. 3. That the Pope is another God upon Earth and that if he declares the right hand is the left we ought to believe him And then follows No man therefore can be a Papist but c. The Question here is not about the Lives of Papists as our Author would have it but about the character of Popery And then it remains to be considered whether the Preacher was right in his representation of it and in the Authorities he produces for it But instead of bringing the case to an issue our Author in his Good Advice left out what went before and the Marginal Quotations of what he cited from the Sermon and now has offer'd no manner of Reply to nor so much as taken notice of the Apologist's Argument 3. The Council of Trent expresseth its allowance of picturing the Divinity it self and accordingly the Pictures of the Trinity are ordinarily to be beheld in the Popish Churches This is a new point our Author has substituted perhaps thinking this look's somewhat better than an Answer to that he has omitted but yet I shall take it in my way Here the Preacher 1. Appeals to their Doctrine and for which he quotes the Council of Trent 2. To their practice and use As to the first our Author saith it 's false since the Council delivers just the contrary taking care that if it happens that the Histories of the Holy Scriptures be painted or figured that the people be taught the Divinity is not therefore figur'd or painted as if that could be seen with corporeal eyes or represented in colours Sess. 25. Now here I observe 1. Our Author represents the case as if the Picturing of God and the Trinity in their Churches was much like what Aaron pleads for the Golden Calf I cast it into the fire and there came out this calf as if it was what they find in their Churches have been placed there by they know not whom and are like those that are to be seen it seems in the frontispiece of some Bibles and common-prayer-Common-Prayer-Books of the Church of England that come from an obscure uncertain hand but what they themselves do not regard If it happens c. saith the Council thus far indeed our Author goes with the Council but why did he leave out what immediately follows and why did he not read it as the Council reads it If it happens that sometimes the Histories and Narrations of Scripture be Painted or Figured when that shall be expedient for the unlearned people So that it 's not an accidental thing but designedly done as an Expedient for instructing the unlearned people But however the Preacher saith that of the Council which the Council denies that they picture the Divinity
that he laboured to refine the Protestants and to take off all smacks of Ceremonies that in the least do tend to the Romish Faith and the better to conceal himself spoke against the Jesuits and declared that he was fallen from that Society And yet all this while was as much theirs as ever and did all by Allowance For he was discovered by a Letter drop'd out of his Pocket in the Pulpit at Rochester and written from one Samuel Malt a Jesuit of Note which after Directions given to him how to govern himself in these matters thus concludes This we have certified to the Council and Cardinals That there is no other way to prevent People from turning Hereticks and for the recalling of others back again to the Mother Church than by the Diversities of Doctrines There was besides found in his Boots a License from the Jesuits and a Bull dated the first of Pius Quintus to teach what Doctrine that Society pleased for the dividing of Protestants And in his Trunk were several Books for denying Baptism to Infants c. This was a Cause openly heard and he openly punish'd for it and in our Author's Opinion very deservedly for as he well observes upon this occasion Tho Dissimulation and Delusion be abominable every where yet never more than in spiritual Matters and concerns of the Soul. So much for this Book and its Authority Proceed we to the next the False Jew this Book contains the History of one Thomas Ramsey Son to Doctor Ramsey Physician to the King who being bred up in the Jesuits College in Rome and well instructed in the Hebrew Tongue was sent forth and became a pretended Jew under the name of Joseph Ben Israel having been also Circumcised and coming for England at Newcastle professed himself a Christian Convert but soon struck in among the Anabaptists and was baptized by them at Hexham The whole cause after the Discovery was heard before H. Dawson the Mayor 1653 where this was partly prov'd against him and partly confest The Narrative was published by the Ministers of Newcastle at that time The two other Books The Quaker Vnmask'd and the New Discovery were publisht by Mr. Pryn 1656. In which he gives an account of one Coppinger a Franciscan that with others of the same Order were chief Speakers among the Quakers this was deposed upon Oath If our Author is curious this way I shall soon furnish him with other Authentick Testimonies of this kind But I suppose this may be more than he desires For if this be true how will he reconcile this to Christianity and who are they that in his opinion deserve to be cast out of the number of Christians As for his long Excursion about Legends I shall reserve it to its proper place Fifth Character of a Pulpit-Papist The different Orders of Religion amongst the Papists are neither better nor worse than so many Sects and several Casts of Religion only they have that advantage in managing their Divisions which we have not to pack up their Fanaticks in Convents and Cloysters and so bring them under some kind of Rule and Government Here the Apologist had charged the Adviser with a Falsification but he is so kind to himself as to pass it over and truly so will the Apologist in consideration of the kindness he hath now done in giving him a further account of the Sermon here quoted which for want of direction as to Author or Bookseller he could not procure The Preacher being desirous saith our Author to take off that foul blemish of so many Sects and Divisions rending the Protestant Church it seems there is now in his opinion another Church of England inconsistent with the unity of Christ's true Church and so often objected against them by Catholicks falls into that common Topick of covering the defects of his own Church by calumniating that of his Neighbour and therefore he boldly makes up to his Auditory and tells them That the Vnity the Papists boast of in their Communion is but a pretence whereas they have really more Divisions in their Religion than they charge ours with and then goes on in the words of the Character above cited Out of this Discourse of the Preacher our Author draws three Particulars pag. 27. 1. That in the Church of Rome there are more Divisions than they charge ours with 2. That their Religious Orders are neither better nor worse than so many Sects and several Casts of Religion 3. That they have their Fanaticks packt up in Convents And he should have added another from the Apology 4. That thus to pack them up in Convents is an advantage their Church makes of it Our Author having thus drawn out the sense of the Preacher and made what he will of the sense of the Apologist concludes He must give me leave to set down these three Assertions of the Pulpit for so many clear Instances of most foul Misrepresenting But by his leave I shall review his account of this matter I am not obliged in strictness to concern my self in the first Head being neither charged upon the Preacher in the Good Advice nor so much as mentioned in the Apology but yet he shall find me a fair Adversary and not willing to stand upon my Terms but take the work as he has cut it out for me 1. The Vnity the Papists boast of is but a pretence whereas they have really more Divisions in their Religion than they charge ours with This our Author saith is a Calumniating of them and is one of his Foul Misrepresentations And yet after all I doubt it will return upon himself For if there be a real and perfect Union it 's surely to be seen in their present obedience to the same Church-Authority as our Author words it pag. 26. or in a perfect Union of Members among themselves in charity Or in being of the same belief as our Author suggests And yet if we come to examine it in this Method we shall find Breach upon Breach For 1. What Schisms have there been in that Church-Authority no less than thirty as Onuphrius reckons in the Papacy some of which continued ten some twenty and one fifty years 2. What actual Disobediences to that Authority in the times of Innocent 4 th Vrban 8 th and at this season are in the Gallican Church 3. What infinite Quarrels betwixt the Bishops and the Friers the Friers and Parish-Priests in the times of Gregory 9 th Innocent 4 th Alexander 4 th Martin 4 th Boniface 8. Clement 5 th Benedict 10 th c. from age to age even to that infamous one in the last age here betwixt the Seculars and Regulars One Pope revoking anothers Decrees and oftentimes annulling their own as did Innocent Martin and Boniface c. 4. Come we to their Union in Doctrine and we shall find that but a pretence For where have there been sharper conflicts than among them about the Seat and Extent of Infallibility Predetermination