says it for they do deceive their hearers and therefore Paul silenced them though they spake truth Acts 16. 18. lest taking occasion from thence they might mingle false things again with those truths and get credit And in another place If this once were setled in mens minds that many of those that are departed did come again to us for this cause God has shut up the doors and doth not suffer any of the deceased to return lest he taking occasion from thence should bring in all his own Devices Who can digest such Relations as are made of St. Theclae that she may be yearly seen driving a Fiery Chariot c Such was the pleasantness of Dalisandus Scituation as both she in that and other Saints deceased rejoyced much in the like solitary places That she was after her Death much delighted with Oratory and Poetry rewarding Alipius a Grammarian for aptly answering her in a Verse of Homer which seemed to ascribe to her an all-discerning and universal knowledge with the present cure of his desperate sickness Can these be lookt at any otherwise than as the froth of an idle brain writ on purpose to help forward those superstitions whereof the Pope has since made very advantagious uses The Primate of Ireland hath evidenced how clear the first Ages of the Church were herein by what steps the errors received growth and how much and how long the difference was betwixt the former even when declining times and the stupendious height the Romanists now have flown to in these later days When Bonaventure in his Psalter amongst his works printed at Rome Anno 1588. could think it reasonable where David advances the honour of our Lord to turn all by a simple conversion indeed unto the honour of our Lady Out of which I thought to have given you a long bead-rowel but this Letter having out-grown my first purposes I 'l only call out some of the most notorious expressions We will begin with the first Blessed is the man that loveth thy Name O Virgin Mary thy Grace shall comfort his Soul Judge me Lady for I have not departed from mine innocencie but because I will trust in thee I shall not be weakned Blessed are they whose hearts do love thee O Virgin Mary their sins by thee shall be mercifully washed away Have mercy upon me O Lady who art called the Mother of Mercie and according to the Bowels of thy mercie cleanse me from all mine iniquity Lady the Gentiles are come into the Inheritance of God whom thou by thy Merits hast confederated unto Christ. God is the Lord of revenges but thou the Mother of mercie dost bow him to take pitty And what will you say to him that quotes the places in your own Authors which affirm that the blessed Virgin appear'd twice in the place of two Nuns the fruit of whose wantonness would not suffer them to endure the probation 'T is Dr. Du Moulin in his Accomplishment of Prophecies Till you disprove him suffer me to stand amazed at so prodigious a relation If here be not enough to fright away your affection I shall think that Religious love is blinder than we use to term Carnal LETTER V. WHat hath been said as to the Invocation of Saints will necessarily lead us on to make some Enquiries into the lawfulness of the Adoration of Images a Practice which seeing it is every where spoken against in the Old Testament and has not so much as one syllable to countenance it in the New we may justly wonder how it could gain so much ground even as to set a foot on in the Christian Church especially since the ancient Champions and Defenders of the Faith did so strenuously oppose it When Adrian the Emperour had commanded that Temples should be made in all Cities without Images it was presently conceived he did prepare those Temples for Christ as the Primate of Ireland noteth out of AElius Lamprid. in the life of Severus which is an Evidence That it was not the use of Christians in those days to have Images in their Churches And soon after in the time of the great Constantine the voice of a whole Council that of Illiberis in Spain decries them which hath so troubled the Minds of our late Romanists that Melchior Canus sticks not to charge them not only with Imprudence but also with Impiety for making such a Law as this Ambrose in his Epistles to Valentinian tells him and us That God would not have himself worshipped in Stones In another place That the Church knoweth no vain Idaeas nor divers figures of Images but the true Substance of the Trinity What Amphilochius said to this purpose is memorable We have no care to figure by Colours the Visages of the Saints in tables because we have no need of such things c. What Epiphanius did more remarkable take it in his own words I found there viz. in the Church of Anablatha a Veil hanging in the door dyed and painted having the Image as it were of Christ or some Saints for I do not well remember whose Image it was When therefore I saw this that contrary to the authority of the Scriptures the Image of a Man was hanged up in the Church of Christ I cut it and gave counsel to the Keeper of the Place that they should rather wrap or bury some dead man in it And afterwards he entreats the Bishop under whose government that Church was that no such Veils might be suffered That we may not leave Epiphanius alone let us joyn to him Serenus Bishop of Marseiles who brake down the Images in his Church because he found they drew the People to Idolatry and then view the fierce Contentions that arose about this matter Three hundred thirty and eight Prelates at Constantinople solemnly condemning all Image Worship anno 754. And about Thirty three years after something more in Number that advanced it at Nice though to the dissatisfaction of the best part of the Christian World as was demonstrated by the Resolutions of the Council at Franck ford An. 794. In France the Doctors declared as much An. 824. as our English had before done We cannot here sufficiently wonder at the frontless impudence of that double Renegado Mar. Anton. de Dominis aliàs the Bishop of Spalato who would bear the World in hand that the Christian Church even the most ancient the whole and the universal without any opposition or contradiction did with wonderful Consent worship Images By many passages as well as this you may if you please or to speak better and more near the Truth of the Case for it 's a strange slavish Credulity under which the Church of Rome would yoke up her Disciples if you dare easily see they care not with how many Untruths they temper the Lime wherein they mean to catch their deceived Proselytes If yet you will plead for the use of Images as not Worshiping them but God or the
suprà and by Davenant de Justitia habituali actuali Paul declares his whole Justification both in his first Conversion and in the time of his writing and at the Resurrection to be wholly absolved in Faith Phil. 3. 9. Disp. 222. cap. 3. If the Works of Righteousness which we have done must be our Justification though Grace received from above be conceived to enable us thereto yet are we under the Covenant of Do this wholly purely constantly and live Which if any man say he deceives himself 1 Jo. 1. 8 9 10. Bernard de Verbo Esa. Serm. 4. Disp. 204. cap. 2. The Phariseo himself by thanking God that he was not as other men may seem to acknowledge his works to have been from Grace infused yet we know how he was dismist Cap. 3. Primate of Ireland's Answer to the Jesuite In Tim. 1. 13. It is not said He has made us wise just and holy but He is made unto us Wisdom c. which is as if he had said He hath given himself unto us So Chrysost. on 1 Cor. 1. 30. Homil. 2. on Colof De Compunct Tom. 6. In Rom. 4. Hom. 8. * Viz. Abraham Annotat on Heb. 6. In Isa. lib. 17. Enchirid. cap. 41. Math. 5. 6. and 1 Cor. 1. 30. Expounded by Gregor Nyssen Serm. 61. in Cantic Quoted by the incomparable Davenant de Justitia habituali actuali cap. 28. fol. 369. Why must Jacob stand before his Father in the Garments of his elder Brother before he could have the blessing but to typifie the necessity of our being covered with Christ's righteousness who is the first born of his Father Serm. 1. de Annunciatione Tom. 3. de Sacra cap. 7. Primate of Ireland ut suprá Johannes Piâ—us the Bishop Interpreter of Mareus the Eremite rendring Not by the Proportion of works of Nature where the Original is Not by the Proportion of works of Faith is a gross falsifier Primate of Ireland pag. 502. Simpson of the Church Cent. 5. So Zosimus pretended a Decree of the Council of Nice which could never be found Davenant de Justit habituali cap. 29. Noted by Bellarmine himself lib. â—2 de Justifie cap. 1 2. pag. 124. Idem ut suprá Dr. Twisse his Resolutions of Conscience c. De Meritis bonorum operum Leofwin a Noble man gave two Towns in Essex to the Church of Ely to Expiate and make Satisfaction for the Murther of his own Mother Cambden fol. 440. The large English Impression So Alfrida the Relict of King Edgar built a Nunnery near Ambursbury haveing murthered Edward Cambden ut suprá fol. 254. The. Trent Faith is That Sacraments cause Grace not by the Devotion of him that worketh nor of him that receives the work but by virtue of the work it self Hist. of that Council fol. 230. Matrimony Absolution and Ordination Confirmation and Extreme Unction no Sacraments Primate of Ireland's answer to the Jesuit And since we find our Saviour himself Joh. 6. 63. affirming that the flesh profiteth nothing I shall not at all fear to say We ought to be satisfied with a spiritual Manducation Idem ibidem Qui discordat à Christo nec Carnem ejus manducat nec Sanguinem bibit c. Prosper ex Aug. Sent. 341. Tract 26. This must needs be a figurative speech why then not the other Epist. 23. Quaest. 37. in Levit Upon Matth. 15. Primate of Ireland pag. 67 68 69 70 In the time of Innocent 3. who made Otho Emperour and put by Frederick left to his Care by Henry his Father Simpson's Hist. fol. 371. Fol. 44. c. Davenant in Col. â—â— naturâ amore nobis conjunctior Tome 3. câ—nra Hâ—lvidium Origen bids us not to doubt but when we commit our selves to him who is God over all through Jesus Christ and desire of him the help and protection of those ministring Spirits that do his pleasure they shall all be propitious unto us In Col. 2. 18. Recorded by Famianus Strada de Bello Belgico Strada de Bello Belgico Letter 1. Psalt Bonavent Edict Paris 1596. Tom 5. in Rom. 1. See many more and very pregnant proofs in the Primate of Ireland p. 377. c. In Josue Hom. 16. Idem ibidem pag. 239. St. Hierom assures that the power of Miracles may be permitted to them that profess not the truth of the Gospel In Epist. ad Galat. Tom. 9. Tertullian in Praescriptionibus cap. 24. Du Moulin in his accomplishment of the Prophecies De cura pro mortuis cap. 10. De Lazaro conc pag. 235 236. Primate of Ireland pag. 396. How common is the conceipt now that departed souls do appear Basil. Seleuc. de miraculis Theclae cap. 10. Idem cap. 21. Idem cap. 24. all quoted by the Primate of Ireland in his Answer to the Jesuit pag. 397. Chapt. 9. pag. 337. Answer to the Jesuit's Challenge pag. 504. Loc. Theol. lib. 5. cap. 4. prope finem Epist. ad Johan de Hierusalym Tom. 1. Oper. Hieronym Epist 60. He had sure been instructed out of such Catechisms who refused to shoot at Buts on May day because it was he said a dear holy day and yet I found him the next Lords day with others at Slide-Groat Upon Tho. in his 3d. part quoted by the Primate pag. 499. De Bello Belgico lib. 5. Allen's Antidote pag. 13. Lib. 4. Cap. 26. Lib. 6. cap 24. In his Prefaces before the Kings and Proverbs De Civitate Dei In his Scholastical Hist. c. Epist. to the Reader Chrysost. upon 2 Cor. Homil. 13. Sin is not a Being but rather a defect of what should Be and hath for its efficient Cause nothing but a deficient Will Preston of Converting Grace pag. 15. If our Saviour knew that Sodom and Gomorrah had they enjoyed the same means as Chorazin and Bethsaida would have repented what can be said but their Final impenitencie was according to God's Will The Fall of Adam was not praeter Voluntatem Dei that were to make a lame Providence nor contra that were to make a weak Omnipotence but it was juxta and that leaves all the Attributes of God wrapt up by his Wisdom in their full power Augustin John 5. 21. That is the Will of the Creature failing in Obedience Mr. Case in a Sermon on Rom. 8. 28. And this is it which frees our Doctrine from all danger of working in men a secure or careless Presumption as it is no less ignorantly than maliciously aspersed by some since our evidence doth so much consist in the sincerity tho not in the perfection of Obedience Election may at length come to be known and thence assurance but Reprobation never Mr. Sheffeild Primate of Ireland in an Epistle publisht by Dr. Bernard Mr. Birkbeck in his Protestants Evidence Man is not active but passive in regeneration In repentance man is the doer complies with God in it and turns himself Ephes. 2. 1. Phil. 2. 13. That power of God which subjects a man to Christ comes not by moral perswasion only or violent impulses but is tempered to the disposition of the Will Lib. de gratia libero arbitr cap. 27. Mr. Gurnal's Christian in Compleat Armour part 2. pag. 526 527. 530. De Praedest Sanctorum Cyrus who was Christus Domini and therein but a shadow of Christus Dominus in this manner published his Proclamation Who is amongst you of all his people the Lord his God be with him let him go up Ezra 1. 3. Now they alone did follow this Call whose Spirits God had raised to go up But could those that stay'd still behind plead any thing but their love of slavery and idleness why they also went not up Vers. 5. This instance is by the Primate of Ireland brought in and applyed to our purpose in a Letter published by Doctor Bernard Jer. 32. 40. Rom. 8. 15 16. 2 Cor. 1. 22. 5. 5. Gal. 4. 6. Ephes. 1. 14. 1 John 2. 19. 2 Pet. 1. 5. 1 Joh. 5. 10. Rom. 8. 15. Jude vers 1. A late Treatise published by Mr. Calamy Doctor Sibbs at Grays Inn Chappel Vasquez Disput. Sasbout upon the place confesseth it 's meant of Abraham's second Justification that is of his Works done in Faith See Selater pag. 29. Or the Eyes and Judgments of others History of that Council fol. 197. In his Observations upon Religio Medici History of that Council fol. 237. Fol. 349. Faith does not consist in a belief that we do believe but in an affiance bottomed upon such Trials as Scripture holds out Progeny of Catholicks and Hereticks lib. 2. cap. 21. pag. 80. For we will expect from them proofs both full and legitimate beyond those usually brought Ambrose on Rom. 1.
has long since been observed that in the Original there is an apparent Distinction betwixt the name and the person interwoven in Christ's answer Tu es Petrus leads up the Van but then not in te Petrum but super hanc Petram marches next and so that Interpretation which would seem to interess the Pope in the Place is left in some disorder But it may be you are apt to think this a new sence put upon the words I will therefore bring you Doctors ancient enough that were satisfied with this Exposition St. Hillary thus This Faith is the one unmoveable Foundation the alone happy Rock confessed by the mouth of Peter Thou art the Son of the living God And again This is the Foundation of the Church by it the Gates of Hell are made weak against her Ambrose in his Epistles is of the same mind so is Hierom in many Places as upon Psal. 40. Math. 18. and Amos 9. So is St. Augustin on John in his 6th Sermon de Verbo Dom. And having in a certain place slipt into the other acception of the meaning he solemnly retracts the same and notes besides the it seems then usual mistake in singing the Verses of St. Ambrose concerning the Cock The Truth is when any of them seem to favour that sence which we oppose they do it in a certain Rhetorical way whereby they were accustomed to give high applauds to the Bishop of Rome sitting in the then Imperial City and therefore accounted Chief rather than seriously and dogmatically Yet will it not at all disadvantage us to grant that St. Peter was a Rock that is a main Pillar and a Master-builder in the Church of God Nay what would it harm our Cause if we should confess that it was promised to Peter he should become the Founder of an eminent Church And that the Faith he was to Preach should surmount the power of Hell Yea let us further suppose what we will not grant That there is some particular Place or Succession of men whereto by vertue of the Promise made to Peter perpetual Truth were to be affixed Why may not Antioch in Syria within the Verge of his peculiar Charge or Babylon in AEgypt the first Place of his residence amongst the Gentiles put in for a right of Succession to that Grand Privilege rather than Rome since whether ever he came there or no at most whether any otherwise than to suffer is a Controversie not yet decided but that he could sit 26. years Bishop as some of them affirm is a thing utterly impossible if we regard the Computation of times and reflect upon those years he must necessarily have spent in other places Vid. Bunting's Itinerarium totius Scripturae pag. 496. As for that other place weakly enough urged by some I prayed for thee that thy faith fail not It 's clear that was spoken only to fortifie St. Peter against the approaching time wherein Satan had desired to winnow him and cannot with any front be transferred beyond his own person in the Application Next you may I suppose put a Question to me which I have not unfrequently put to my self Where was the Truth if not at Rome Have patience but a little and I hope I shall return you an answer more satisfactory and rational than I could ever have from any of those Papists who make the Decision of all Controversies a Priviledge fitted only to the narrow Dimensions of the Pope's Breast when I have demanded of them what Course they would have taken to have found out Truth in a disputable point if they had then lived when there was sometimes two once three and more than once no Pope at all for many years together a thing evident enough in History Now for the solving of your doubt We willingly do acknowledge That at Rome there was a very early and famous Church her Faith was spoken of through the whole World And when it pleased God by the Conversion of the Emperour Constantine to clear a way for the farther Increment of the Gospel she grew in Eminency and Splendour till overset as it were with the Indulgence and Bounty of him and some of his Successors she began to recoyl and study Grandeur more than Grace We do not imagine that all in one day or year or age she became so infected that it was presently necessary to separate from her But we think the manner of her Defection was well foreshewen and perhaps aimed at in that Parable of the Tares injected by night and hardly discerned in their growth yet increasing still as the Negligence Avarice or Ambition of the Priests and People did serve-in an opportunity Thus the Wisdom of the Primitive Church dispensing her Admonitions her Suspensions Excommunications her Pennances Relaxations Absolutions c. in such manner as the Condition of her refractory or penitent Delinquents might require things conducing meerly to the outward Regiment Discipline of those times degenerated at last into such Conceits as kindled the Fire of Purgatory and gave birth to Pardons and Indulgences prodigally extended to whole Families and their Descendants for many Ages yet to come And by this means were the Purses in a manner of the whole World opened and their owners made inclinable to pour out their Treasure into the Popes Lap. For who would not both easily be perswaded to taste the tempting Sweets of Sin here and to part with a good proportion of his worldly Goods at his death under the Notion of bringing so much health to the Estate of his Soul in the next Life Thus the Stile which the Ancient Fathers thought fit to use when they treated of the Lords Supper wherein they often held to the Tropes and Metaphors of the Institution was at length perverted into the opinion of absolute Transubstantiation a Pyx commanded to be made for a Cover to the Bread and a Bell to ring before it Anno 1215. Adoration of it enjoyned Anno 1226. Corpus Christi Day instituted Anno 1264. and further confirmed in the Council of Vienna Anno 1310. All which served well to settle in the people a greater Veneration towards the Workers of such Miracles the Priests And that such a thing was much in the business may surely seem not improbable to any that will impartially Eye the Posture and Inclination of those times when the Bishop of Rome had his great design on foot to Exalt himself above all Civil Magistracy When I find Erasmus making this return to our Tunstall who had provoked him to write against Luther That he ought to take heed lest he had a Zeal not according to knowledge and that there was a sort of men too tenacious of some things unluckily crept into the Church When I over-hear him complaining to his Freind Stephanus Rhodericus That the Vulgar sort of Divines examined all Scripture by the Text of certain School-disputes attributing very little to
answered The difference laid only in the means of applying it and that not only faith but the exercise of all other vertues was that means I have already declared how this is attributed to the instrumentality of Faith it alone being that Grace which is capable of laying hold upon Christ held forth to the Soul in the promises of the Gospel and as it is a quality inherent it does not justifie no more than other Graces Now if all Papists would grant that only the Righteousness of Christ is to be brought before the Tribunal of Gods justice I should without any difficulty yield that all other vertues are inseparable adjuncts to Faith and admit them to the Office of applying as without which Faith has no such power nor indeed can at all subsist though not to the Office of justifying Cloath me but with the Garments of our Elder Brother so that nothing of my own may come in sight I shall be less sollicitous after what manner it be got on The Pelagians for all their Confession that they had their Souls and all the faculties of them their wills and all the abilities thereof from God yet could not free their Opinions touching free-Will from the just imputation of Heresie So the Church of Rome though she draw the fairest colours she can over her Doctrine of inherent Righteousness Merit thereby acknowledging the first rise of that power to be from God yet for as much as she places the formal Cause of Justification in a wrong place whilst that is made a quality within man cannot wipe off the Error of their Tenent which puts them under the Condition of Do this and Live never since the Fall required by God in the full extent thereof the perfect fulfilling and keeping all his Commandments yet this all Papists are obliged unto from any meer man For the Gospel in its Epitome was early preacht to Adam presently after his defection and so ran through the Administration under Moses whose Ordinances Sacrifices and Ceremonies were full of Representations of Christ as Believers are truly said to have imbraced the Promises Heb. 11. 15. to have drank of him 1 Cor. 10. 3 4. in those times and were not under the Covenant of Works But I am almost driven back into the Ocean when it 's time to bring my Bark to shore I will therefore draw in the Sails and strike Anchor only adding this Advertisement They have long since been invited by the Pen of a very modest and temperate Adversary to demonstrate That certain Articles of their Creed which surely are main ones in their esteem for they proclaim every Oppugner of them no less than Heretick were held for Orthodox during the first five hundred years after our Saviour Viz. 1. That there is a Treasury of Saints Merits and superabundant satisfactions to be disposed of by the Pope 2. That private Masses wherein the Priest says Edite bibite ex hoc omnes Eat and drink ye all of this yet eats and drinks only himself have their Authority from the practice of Christ or his Apostles 3. That the Laity are excluded from receiving the Sacrament of the Lords Supper in both kinds by Christs Institution 4. That the publique worship of God in the Church may or ought to be celebrated in an unknown Tongue 5. That the Popes Pardons are useful or necessary to release souls out of Purgatory 6. That extream Unction is a Sacrament properly so call'd 7. That we may adore God by an image 8. That the Pope cannot Err in matters of Faith If they have already made this out I pray you inrich me with the knowledge of it if they have not yet gone about it put them upon it and suspend your compliance with them till they have effected it But if they fail as I suspect they must of performing it what excuse can you have if you disclaim not their Communion who have so grosly abused the world with glorious nothings and meer pretences FINIS Part II. Some Rubs laid in the way of those Jehu's who at this time seem to drive-on so furiously which they must necessarily either remove or leap-over before they can arrive at the Supremacy or Infallibility of the Roman Church 1. IF those words Tu es Petrus vested him in an absolute preheminency over the rest Why did the Apostles afterwards ask which of them should be Chief And why did not our Saviour thereupon plainly satisfie them but chose so to determine the Question as to convince them of the vanity in that Enquiry Mark 9. 34 35. But if an infallible Judge in all Controversies were thereby to have been for ever introduced the Wisdom and Goodness of Almighty God would not have left a Point of so vast concernment to the whole World in all its successive Generations without a clear and evident Precept 2. From that minatory Exhortation Rom. 11. 18 19 20 21. we collect a possibility for it 's indifferently level'd at all Gentile Churches and particularly directed to Rome that no less She than any other may be cut off 3. Where St. Paul Gal. 2. magnifies his Office in reference to his Apostleship over the uncircumcision and seems to confine the jurisdiction of St. Peter within the limits of the Jewish Pale he ought rather without more to do if a succession of infallible truth to be derived from Cephas to the Chair of Rome had been foreknown by him to have directed our Eyes thither Again where Acts 20. 29 30 31 32. he sadly foretels the Church that after his departure grievous Wolves should enter in and amongst them many should arise speaking perverse things He adviseth them not to make in that case their addresses to him that should then happen to be St. Peter's Successour at Rome but commends them to the word of God's Grace to be built up and established by it 4. St. John an Evangelist and the beloved Disciple out-living Peter about thirty years should have ought subjection and obedience to Linus or Cletus if the primacy of Rome had risen out of St. Peter's ashes 5. The Apostles send from Jerusalem to Samaria Peter and John Acts 8. 14. which is not certainly any great sign of St. Peter's jurisdiction over the rest since the very best in a Nation are never sent out be the Embassage never so great or honourable and where those that seemed Pillars are named Cephas has but the second place 6. When that Article which relates to the Catholick Church was made a part of the Creed there was not a Bishop nor a form'd Church nor peradventureso much as any particular Christian at Rome 7. Ere ever Rome durst be so hardy Constantinople in the person of John her Bishop grasped at the Title of Universal which then was lookt at as so prodigious a Claim that for it Gregory the First pronounced whomsoever should aspire towards it Anti-Christian And good reason had he so to do since the third Council of
be led away by the prevalencie of certain stupendious works done by such as were nevertheless great Impostors Revel 13. 13 14 15. We read again of some that were casters out of Devils yet followed not Christ Mark 9. 38 39. And if we should follow them into Doctrines which are without the concurrence of his Word whether this be the case or no betwixt Rome and us may be decided elsewhere we might easily go astray St. Augustine tell us cap 8. de Civit. Dei He that yet requires wonders in order to his believing is himself a great wonder And this leads us on to enquire after Historical discoveries 2. Whence it will not be hard to learn what the Church in times ancient enough held as to this question It was evidently the opinion of old that the ordinarie working of Miracles ceased when the Apostles deceased That they were of use to allure Heathens and Unbelievers then but not to be expected or singly relyed on for the determination of a controverted Point where Christianty has already been setled That they have been done by some persons in justification of their Tenents when Truth was not on that side That they may indeed soberly be eyed as a concurrent Testimony where it pleases God they happen for establishment of a Truth contained in the Scriptures but not for the Introduction of any belief or practice without or against it As to the former of these Gregory commonly called the Great Bishop of Rome about an 600 hath affirmed That as watering to young Plants is necessary but not to rooted Oakes so Miracles to the infant Church but not when grown up Hom. in Evang. 43. And St. Augustine about two Ages before makes a wonder not only at but of those that pinn'd their faith on wonders That reverend African has taught me to say after him Against the Miracle-mungers he meant the Donatists the Lord hath made me cautious by saying In the last times false Prophets shall arise and shall shew signs and wonders but take heed behold I have told you Tom. 29. Tract 13. in Jo. Mark 13. 22 23 24. The false Prophets there said to do signs and wonders were not to be Ethnicks without Christ but only to obtrude false Christs or a fallacious way to him What need we say more than what we have full and clear authority for 1 Cor. 14. 22. signs are not to them that do believe but to them that believe not That great wonders have been done or at least undeniably urged by some that had not right on their side may visibly be made good from the Testimony of Bede who informs us that the argument from Miracle-working was very rife on both parts in that grand contest about the time of celebrating Easter lib. 2. cap. 15. 16 29. This may serve as to the two first enquiries and so let us pass to the third Disquisition viz. by Reason 3. I would know since sundry other miraculous operations as well as casting out Devils are enumerated in Mark 16. and said to accompany those that were sent why do not our Romish Priests appropriate and take to themselves all the rest as well as that domination over unclean Spirits Let us hear them having never been taught speak with strange Tongues let us see them unhurt touch all sorts of venomous Creatures c. let them shew us that immediately and infallibly they can cure all manner of Diseases For I see not any differences in the Grant in the intentional end or in the time of continuance Again the Promise may seem made to all true Believers not restrain'd to Priests only and it 's more than probable that those Exorcists Mark 9. 38. were not in Orders Why then do they monopolize it and think themselves as sure of it as the Coats on their backs We acknowledge there was in the infant-Churches a sort of Faith sometimes found even amongst miss-believers which was productive of admirable events not of Satan's operation neither This Faith having for its object only that essential Attribute of God his Power and relying thereon by a strenuous Act of Credence particular to that business impetrated frequently then and may peradventure do so yet sometimes wonderful things at his hands though neither the Person nor the Cause stood upon a right foot St. Augustine not denying but the Hereticks of his time might do true Miracles I mean things strange beyond understanding forbore not though to dehort his people from listening to them upon that accompt as may be seen Tract de Unit. Eccles. cap. 9. Tom. 7. Why may not we also though we should see wonders done even such as are mentioned Revel 13. bring them to the Test of Gods Word and require proof from thence that those Doctrines designed for establishment thereby are true 4. But let us in the last place do what we can to see through the darkness of their practice And seriously we can hardly be brought to think that to out the Devil of his hold is the common usual effect of their Sprinklings Fumings Crossings of their Beatings with the Priestly stole repetitions of Latin Words c. since we find not any of all these used by Christ nor instituted to any such end Again we must not nor can forget what palpable collusions and deceipts they have been found to use in almost every place where they met with any body that durst but peep under the veil they at such times do hang before the eyes of the vulgar Let the boy of Bilson as yet I think living a Shooemaker in Northhampton speak And it is not so very long ago about a dozen years since a most gross cheat of this sort was re-acted and fully discover'd at New-Castle upon Tine But whoever shall peruse the twenty fourth Chapter of Dr. Du Moulin's Answer to Cardinal Perron as it 's publisht Anno 1662. cannot certainly but discover what he ought to think and how to demean himself upon such Rancounters What shall we conceive of their giving a solemn Oath to Satan and then questioning him about controverted Points as they did in the case of the Boy of Bilson Oh! he would tear he told them or made signs thereof a dying Protestant but a good that is in their sence a Roman Catholick departing he would be as quiet as a Lamb. Does not this smell rank of design Spectatum admissi A Conjecture how it is come to pass that the Church of Rome hath partly been plundered and partly has cheated her self of so much Primitive Truth THe bitter Contests which had arose and for some Ages continued betwixt the Orthodox and Manacheean Pelagian but especially the Arrian Hereticks had now alienated the minds of men one from another interrupted the correspondences they used formerly to hold and so shaken the Foundations laid by the first Master-Builders when the sudden rise of the Sarazen in the East and the violent rushings of other Barbarians upon the Western Empire had either induced or