threatned to give up their wise and prudent men on whom the people leaned to an infatuation of their understandings Isa 29.9 10 11 12 13 14. and the fault charged by our Saviour on the Scribes and Pharisees and the Jewish Church as depending on them Math. 15.1 3 7 8 9. Mark 7.6 7. to vers 13. and it will be as great or a greater evil in us than in them if we make our selves guilty of it in as much as God having now spoken to us by his only begotten Son hath declared his Name more plainly and expresly than he had done in former ages and therefore greater heed and acquiescence in his words and sayings is expected from us for us then to forsake the fountain of Living waters which is Christ speaking in his Servants the Apostles and Prophets in the Scriptures to dig up Cisterns broken Cisterns as all men with their inventions and decrees and all their authority and power that are not his are would be a more astonishable madness than what of that nature was practised under Moses and the Prophets by the Church of Israel Jer. 2.12 13. Our Saviour in the Relation of the Rich man and Lazarus introduces Abraham directing the Rich mans five brethren to Moses and the Prophets and not to the Jewish Sanhedrim or High-Priest or any other persons claiming an infallible authority distinct from them though they might have had more colour by far for claiming such a thing either from that in Deut. 17.8.11.13 appointing men in case of doubt or controversy to stick to and observe the determinations of the High-Priest or chief Ruler of the People or from that promise in Isa 59.21 where God promiseth to put his Spirit upon Zion or some persons in it and his words into their mouth so as to continue it from generation to generation than any the Pope or the Church of Rome can shew for their claim yet I say Abraham directs them to no such person or persons but onely to Moses and the Prophets and if he so directed them then surely now that we have Christ and his Apostles also added as a compleatment of the revelation of Gods mind and will and as infallible Interpreters of Moses and the Prophets it behoves us to take heed to them as speaking in their words and writings and not to neglect or refuse them under pretence of insufficiency in them to direct us now aright without some other infallible Guide that he no where directs us to to determine us And that Rome or her Head the Pope is not Infallible in her doctrine of Transubstantiation the thing last insisted on is evident from hence that Gelasius one of their Popes or Bishops hath taught the Church that the bread in the Sacrament is not naturû or substantiâ mutatus changed in its nature or substance and others of them have taught and determined that it is substantially changed so as the flesh of Christ it is that is eaten and torn with the Teeth of the Communicants as in the Luteran Council was defined and in contradictories one part must needs be false which things duly considered may imbolden us to reject the Pleas and pretence of that Church as more groundless Usurpations Inchroachments by which they pervert men from the right ways of God which our Lord Jesus hath delivered to us Nay our Lord Jesus in the Book of the Revelations instead of directing us to Rome doth clearly call us off from it and hath revealed that to us concerning her which being taken heed to by us will admonish us to flee from her for by the concurrent consent of Interpreters as led to it by the Scripture it self compared with the state and condition of Rome it is Rome deciphered in that Book not by the Name of Jerusalem the beloved City of God in the light whereof the Nations of the saved should walk but by the name of Babylon the Enemy of Jerusalem and her Inhabitants and the subject of the deepest died sins and heaviest judgments mentioned in that Book Yea the Papist writers themselves are also forced to confess the truth hereof it is so palpable and evident yea rather than they will not prove St. Peter to have been at Rome Babylon shall signifie Rome too in his 1. Epistle 5.13 surely she was the City that then ruled over the Kings of the Earth and was built upon seven Hills or Mountains and that 's the City called Babylon Rev. 17.9 18. and its evident that she ruled over the Kings of the Earth not only in her Pagan but also as much or more in her Papal State wherein their Popes or Bishops have exacted Homage of them made them kiss their Toes hold their Stirrups wait at their Doors and do things far below their Majesty and Grandeur in subjection to them Now in all that Book no good is spoken of Babylon nor any direction is given to Gods people the followers of the Lamb to resort to her for any thing but much is spoken of its Wickedness Whoredom Idolatry Bloodiness while it remains and of its woe and misery irreparable in its fall as that that shall for ever Perish with express and vehement command to Gods people that are in her to come out of her lest pertaking with her in her sins they should also pertake with her in her Plagues Rev. 18.4 which one consideration also quite overthrows that corrupt interpretation that would confine what is said of her to her Heathen state only as the Papists to excuse themselves do or rather to blind themselves from seeing their own guilt for if it were so then she should have found her not as a City or Harlot destroyed for ever but by a glorious Metamorphosis or dispossession of the Spirit of Whoredom and Resurrection from her falls in Heathenism changed into the holy City or the Lambs Wife whereas there is not the least intimation of any such thing but a vehement assertion of her sinking like a mighty stone in the waters never to rise again Rev. 18.21 whence it is evident which I shall mention as a farther distinct charge and a farther instance not only of her fallibility but also that she is fallen foully already in that it is thereby evident That 7. She is guilty of Idolatry for that 's it that in Scripture is represented by Whoredom and she is called the great WHORE and the Mother of Harlots and abominations of the earth And she is certainly as great a WHORE from Christ as ever the old Babilon or the old Pagan Rome was and more truly so also being not so espoused to Christ in her Pagan state as since she turned Christian Indeed she is a Mystical WHORE corrupted from the purity of the Faith and Worship of God in Christ yet giving out herself to be a Queen and Lady the Queen or Darling of Heaven the only Catholique and Infallible Church In her Pagan state she was more openly and grosly a Harlot a gross Idolatress
Omnipotency will make the one as possible as the other Or that the same thing that is shut and hung up in the Pix being a Consecrated Host is the same numerical body that is glorified and gloriously appears in Heaven also what was eaten by the people in their receiving eating what of it was given them But we may see how these men straining the words of Christ where they please as they do also some expressions of the Ancient Fathers make the word of God subject to their wills and pleasures and where they please they will grant a Figure and where they please they shall be properly and literally understood yea and strained beyond their litteral expression for Christ said no such thing as this is transubstantiated into or is the substance of my very body as they say though the like absurdities following upon the litteral sence of or collection from it as would from taking the other expressions litterally makes it necessary to understand them figuratively and sacramentally in the one place as well as in the other It 's true that in this Supper Christ would have us and it 's necessary for us to abstract or withdraw our minds from the consideration of the bread and wine in their own proper substances and to fix them only upon the body and blood of Christ whereof they are a communion or communication 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so to have no more to do with those Elements in our thoughts in a manner than as if there were no such matters only as they may occasion us to meditate and consider that his flesh is meat indeed the true bread and everlasting nourishment of our Souls and his blood or the New Testament confirmed by it Drink indeed a most comfortable matter of refreshing for the Soul to take into it's believing consideration and so spiritually and sacramentally to feed upon his flesh and blood But to impose upon peoples Faith that the things which they see with their eyes to be very bread and wine are very Christ his very flesh and blood yea God-man their Saviour and to cause them to worship them is a very gross departure from and abuse of Christ's institution and of his command for our observation of it And why may they not as well impose upon mens faith that St. Peter after he Confessed Christ was transubstantiated into a hard stone and his flesh blood and bones yea his Soul and body and all was metamorphiz'd into a Rock For our Saviour said unto him Tues Petrus in the Syriac Cephas which in our English Language signifies a stone Mat. 16.18 with Jo. 1.42 here is Christs assertion as plainly of Peter as there of the bread And if the word Est is imply the substantial change of the bread in the one why may not the word Es thou art imply the substantial change of Simon Bar-Jonah in the other And why may it not be as rationally believed that his flesh and bones yea Soul and body were immediately and substantially turned into stone living stone as that the bread was changed into the body of Christ substantially seeing the Omnipotency of God was as well able to do the one as the other And that is pleaded as sufficient for our Faith to believe this And so St. Peter was a living walking Stone that had not the substance of either flesh or blood or bones in him though the appearance of them all to the sences Yea and why may it not be as well imposed upon mens Faith that Christ himself is so changed in his substance into stone too For he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the living stone 1 Pet. 2.4 and that the Altar that Jacob built at Shechem was transubstantiated into the Essence of God because Jacob Consecrating it called it El Elohe Israel God the God of Israel Gen. 33.20 Surely they are strangely infatuated or obstinately wilful that cannot or will not see the absurdity of this Doctrine of theirs so contrary both to sence and reason and so void of any solid ground for it in the Holy Scriptures Object Oh but they will say they are the Church and their judgment is to be taken as the infallible truth and therefore if they did assert the like changes and transubstantiations in other things then they were to be believed too For our Faith is to be resolved into their sayings as our Saviour tells us that they that hear not the Church are to be accounted as Heathens and Publicans Ans But to that it 's said and shewed before that they are not the Church Catholique but only a part of the Church and a very corrupt part too To which I add that I find it injoyned to us that we should hear Christ the great Prophet of God in all things which he shall say unto us but I find it no where injoyned us that we should hear the Church in all that she shall say unto us And that the Scripture here quoted by them to serve their design is perverted by them from it's true and genuine intent rnd scope For our Saviour did not there intend nor speak any thing as signifying an intent to teach us to build our Faith or belief of the Scripture-sayings or the Exposition of the Scripture upon the Authority of the Church or it's sayings much less of any uppermost party that unduely challenge to themselves the title and appellation of the whole Church much less the Church of Rome But his discourse is evidently about offences given by any sinning Brother which being evident in themselves might by any particular person against whom they were committed be reprehended and faulted and in case the party offending would not hear a private admonition then it should be reproved by the same person again taking one or two persons as witnesses with him who might also join in reproving or admonishing him And if still he harden his heart and retain his offensive or evil way or practice then they should declare it to the Church who might all testifie their dislike or give him a joint admonition of the same fault And if he hear not them in such joint admonition given them by the Church then the offended Brother might disclaim communion with him and leave him as no more to be owned by him than an Heathen man or a Publican Here is nothing of the Church's giving the object of faith to be believed or of her being to be heard in whatsoever she shall say though never so contrary to sence or reason or to the Scripture sayings or to the commands of God and Christ but of the Chuch's admonishing an offending Brother who being admonished by her ought to hear the Church therein But that 's in no other thing than in what he ought to have heard first the offended Brother in upon his own private admonition or the offended Brother with one or two joining with him upon his slighting the admonition given by the offended Brother alone But
reguard the ceasing therefrom or any commands of God requiring it so long as his guides and leaders that pretend to have the keys of Heaven in their hands assure them that if but an hour or two before their deaths they confess their Sins and are sorry that they have endangered their Souls thereby and be a little attrite or troubled for them receiving absolution from the Priest and their extreme Unction they may by the vertue of the Sacraments to convey grace ex opere operato be secured against damnation and be eased too in and freed from their Purgatory pains if they be but bountiful to their Church and its Priests by the benefit of their devotions and the Saints Supererrogations so that by this first part of the Touch-stone they appear clearly convicted of being far from being an Infallible Church yea or a true and right Church of Christ especially if we also take in what some of them assert and their doctrine of probability therefore makes safe for all to believe viz. that no man is bound of necessity to love God but that is a work or frame of more perfection without which observing their Church Orders and receiving their Sacraments they may be saved Surely by our Saviours doctrine to love God is the first and great Commandment and that they that teach that men may be saved though destitute thereof cannot be under the commendation of keeping Gods commandments 2. And as much faulty are they with reference to the other branch of the character of the true Church opposed to the false Church or the Beast and his Image worshippers namely the keeping the faith or testimony of Jesus which they keep not that corrupt it and add their mixtures to and with it as the false Apostles kept not the faith of Jesus though they might hold as truths all the Articles of the Creed and teach them to others while they added thereto the necessity of being Circumcised and of keeping the Law of Moses unto Salvation no more than they would be commended for keeping for any ones use good and wholsome Wine commited to their custody and charge who would indeed deminish nothing of it but yet would mix with it some of those Stygian Waters which had a poysonous nature in them or other poysons whereby they might be made deadly to them that drink thereof such a Person might indeed plead that he had kept by him all the Wine deposited with him and took nothing of it away yea and that he gave out again all that other keepers of it who keep it Pure and give it out such as it is given do and something more but I suppose with no likement or commendation of him that commits it to him for the benefit of those that will drink of it just such keepers that is to say corrupters of the faith of Jesus are the Papists and their Church They retain with them indeed the whole Bible and all the Gospel and Gospel truths therein but so as to keep them in their Bibles from the generallity of the People that they may not read or hear them read to them yea and they retain with them and possibly Preach to the People and Teach them all the Articles of the Creed at least in an unknown Latin Tongue or if they also interpret them yet to be sure they teach them many other things as matters of faith necessary to be believed by them as much as any of the said Articles though they be quite different from all that Christ and his Apostles delivered to the Church to be believed by us as for instance they teach that God the Father and Christ and the Holy Ghost are one God in three Persons to be believed on and called upon by Men but they corrupt that with this addition of their own that the Saints also are to be called on and that they ought to believe on them to receive help by their intercessions being worshiped by them they teach that Christ is the Son of God and the Saviour of the World that he dyed for our Sins and offered up a Propitiatory Sacrifice to God for the whole World but then they add and mix of their own therewith that their Priests can do dayly make him of a Wafer and offer him up as an effectual unbloody sacrifice for the quick and dead to and that they ought to believe and expect to receive the forgiveness of their Sins through their Sacraficing him a most horrible impiety and indignity to his Cross and Passion and the alone virtue and efficacy thereof and a monstrous addition to and corruption of the faith once delivered of God to the Saints in his Apostles doctrine They hold and teach that Christ is risen from the dead and ascended into Heaven and sits at the Right Hand of God but they mix therewith and teach their Children and Followers to believe that the same very real Body that suffered and is in Heaven is also dayly in the Host at their Mass and is hung up in the Pix or Box that they put him into and that they carry up and down when they please in Procession and that they really tear him with their Teeth and eat him Lib. de Natura Deorum and therein they do what the Heathen Cicero abhorred to think of in their Pagan worship for he said quem tam amentem esse putas qui illud quo vescatur Deum credat esse that is who thinkest thou is so mad as to think that to be a God that he eats or is fed with those Papists are so mad as to think and teach so they hold and teach that there is a Heaven to reward the righteous and a Hell to Punish the wicked and so our Saviour delivered in his faith or testimony but withal they add that there is a third place between both called Purgatory wherein Souls that are not fit for Heaven when they dye may be purged by enduring pains and torments there and that the Pope hath the keys of this place to and can let Souls out of it c. And this Christ never taught nor his Apostles they believe and teach that there is a Holy Ghost and that he is to be believed in but they teach also corruptly that he is confined as it were to them of the Church of Rome and that their determinations or the determinations of their Popes out of St. Peters Chair are his infallible Oracles to be as much believed and held as fast as or more than the sayings of the holy Prophets Apostles in the Scriptures They teach that there is a holy Catholick Church but they add and mix with that also this Poysonful Doctrine that the Church of Rome only are that Church and that men are to resolve their faith into its sayings and conclusions and that the Pope is the visible Head of the whole Catholick Church and Christs Vicar on earth they teach a Communion of Saints but they teach also
THE Church of Rome Unmask'd OR HER FALSE PRINCIPLES Briefly Detected TOGETHER VVith some Reasons of so many retaining or returning to Communion with Her and the great danger of everlasting Destruction That such Persons especially after separation from Her return to Her Communion do run themselves upon Written by a Learned Divine by way of Letter to a Friend in the Country Prov. 4.14 15 16 17. Enter not into the way of the wicked and go not in the way of evil men Avoid it pass not up it turn from it and pass away For they sleep not except they have done mischief and their sleep is taken away unless they cause some to fall For they eat the Bread of wickedness and drink the Wine of violence I heard a voice from Heaven saying Come out of her from Babilon my people that ye be not partakers of her Sins and that ye receive not of her Plagues For her Sins have reached unto Heaven and God hath remembred her Iniquities Rev. 18.4 5. LONDON Printed for Isaac Cleave at the Sign of the Star next door to Searjants-Inne in Chancery-lane 1679. The Fallibility and Falshood of the Church of Rome briefly detected and made manifest SIR SInce Providence cast me so luckily into your company and acquaintance your affable carriage and obliging civility hath stirred up in me both towards your self and your relations no small affections and affectionate desires of your best welfare and happiness and therefore having heard not without grief that the Roman party have endeavoured to seduce you or them into their communion I have not been a little exercised in my heart with desires to prevent or rescue you therefrom being well assured that the Factors for that communion are Deceitful workers evill doers such as the fruit and product of their Principles in them who are snared with them is no less than imminent danger of if not inevitable destruction And indeed I cannot but bewail that any ingenuous persons brought up under the light of the Scriptures and of Protestant doctrine should have attained to no greater understanding and better judgment thereby than to be imposed upon by persons guilty of so much corruption in their Religion as that a man with half an eye as they use to say if not careless to use and improve it for his own welfare may easily discern it but yet I know their subtilties are great and their insinuations strong where they can get admission to obviate which I shall indeavour a little to help you against them and to let you see wherein the Roman Church and the men of her communion are so dangerously erroneous and corrupt that it behoves all men as they love their souls to avoid them And first her claim of Infallibility is a most palpable errour and miscarriage for which she hath neither any good ground nor colour for what though Christ hath said that he will build his Church upon the Rock and that the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it yet that affords no more ground for the Roman Church or any officer in her to assert her or his infallibillity than for any other Church for granting that by the word It is meant the Church built upon the Rock and not the Rock it selfe upon which he builds it though the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cam it being a relative agrees in gender with and may therefore be referred indifferently to either of them yet its Christs Church indefinitely and generally that our Saviour asserts that of and the Church of Corinth the Church of Ephesus the Churches of Galatia and the rest mentioned in the Scriptures yea and beyond what are their mentioned were every whit as much the Church or of the Church of Christ as the Church of Rome that is they were all equally and indifferently members of the same Catholick or Universal Church when they were first planted and when the Apostles wrote to them and they were all one as well as another by the Apostles ministry and by Christ as going forth with them built upon the same Rock and so they were under the same promises and in the same state of safety for all of them conjunctly made up that Church which was and is the Church of Christ in its Catholick and Universal capacity and yet we see the other Churches might possibly and did actually erre very grosly as is evident in what is said of the Church of Corinth 1 Cor. 15 12 2 Cor. 11.2.3 and the Churches of Gallatia Gall. 1.6 and 3.1 2 3 4 10. and 5.2.3.4 and where now I pray are the Churches of Asia Ephesus and the rest have none of them failed or erred grieviously what promise made our Saviour to the Church of Rome more than to any of them nay he made such to some of them as to that of Philodelphia of Keeping her in and from the hour of temptation that should come upon all the earth as we no where find the like made unto Rome Rev. 3.8.9.10 oh how would Rome have boasted her self had such a thing been directed to her or to her Angel if there be any such to her where is it written or recorded And yet the gates of hell shall not prevail against Christs Church namely so as to ruin it Christ hath will have a Church in the World Maugre all the power and malice of hell yea and he may have part of it among those Churches in Asia and Graecia that are yet lest in being though under great oppressions and not free from corruptions for they whoever they be that heartily believe Jesus to be the Christ so as sincerely to imbrace his doctrine and be followers thereof to the best of their skill and power and keep singly thereto they even the whole company of them whoever they be or how much soever outwardly disperst are Christs church the Church built upon the Rock against which the gates of hell shall not prevail And such there are not only if there be any such at Rome and under her jurisdiction but more purely and less corruptly in divers parts of the world that are no members of her If it be said as I know it is by them that Christ gave a more peculiar priviledge to the Church or Bishop of Rome than to any other Church or Bishop belonging thereto as to infallibility in that it is built upon St Peter as its Bishop the Bishops thereof being his successors To that I say that the Scriptures know or use no such language as the Churches or any Churches being built or founded upon St. Peter Yea St. Peter himself tells us that the true Believers and so consequently the Church comes to Christ the living Stone disallowed indeed of men but chosen of God and precious and are built upon him so us to grow up into a spiritual house an holy Priesthood c. not making any mention of their coming to himself that is to Peter and being built upon him 1 Pet. 2.4
very Antichrists Oh that none of your Souls may come into their secret or have fellowship with them but yet this is not all in which they declare plainly that they erre grosly from the Faith and Truth of Christ and the true way of his Worship Behold it still in other particulars For 4. Whereas the Lord Jesus in the Night in which he was betrayed instituted his Holy Supper to be Celebrated in commemoration and remembrance of him In which He gave to his Disciples and ordered his Apostles to do the like to the Churches afterwards a Commemoration of his death and passion in two distinct Elements of bread and wine the one before and the other after and bad them all expresly drink of the cup and the Apostles plainly tell us that they delivered to the Churches that which they also received of Christ Jesus and so that they both gave the bread to be eaten and the cup to be drunk by them Witness the writings of the Apostle Paul in 1 Cor. 10.15 16. Where not directing them to some eternal infallible Judge Determiner of their understanddings he bids them as wise men to judge of his sayings and mentions both the cup of blessing which they blessed calling it the communion or fellowship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the blood of Christ and the bread that they brake calling it the communion of the body of Christ and in chap. 11.23 24 25 26. Where repeating the words and order of Christs instituting his Supper in both branches or parts of it he saith for as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye shew forth the Lords death till he come and let a man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any man of the Church indefinitely Lay or Clergy as they are now a days distinguished examine himself and so let him eat of this bread and drink of this Cup. He saith not only let him eat of this bread but also let him drink of this cup. And whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this Cup of the Lord unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself And the Apostle saith also in chap. 14.37 as we noted before that the things He wrote were the Commandments of the Lord yet this Church of Rome most audaciously and with a non obsunt or notwithstanding all this presume to deny the cup to the Laity yea and to the Clergy too say some if any of them be present beside the Priest that celebrates or saieth Mass making nothing of Gods or Christs authority to the contrary Surely therefore to them may most truly and fully be applyed those words of our Saviour spoken by him against the Scribes and Pharisees in whose steps they walk viz. well hath Isaiah prophesied of you Hypocrites as it is written this People honoureth me with their lips but their hearts are far from me Howbeit in vain do they worship me teaching for doctrines the Commandments of men For laying aside the Commandments of God ye hold the Tradition of men c. And full well ye reject the Commandments of God that you may keep your own Tradition making the word of God of none effect through your Tradition which ye have delivered Mar. 7.6 7 8 9 13. For what is their doctrine of Concomitancy but their own Tradition wherein they teach their Followers to believe that the Cup is in the bread as it were the blood of Christ is in his body and they as well taken together For were they not so when Christ being yet alive instituted the Supper And after his Resurrection when the Apostle and the Primitive Christians observed it in both kinds And can the supposal of both together in one be so lively a resemblance representation and commemoration of his death as when they are given seperately The end of our Saviours instituting and of the Churches observing this Ordinance is to shew forth the Lords death till he come 1 Cor. 11.26 And is not his death more lively set forth and represented when the Elements are given apart and so the body represented as without it's blood and the blood as separated from the body than when both are supposed to be given together in one In Christs state of death his blood was shed forth from his body and in the supper as instituted of Christ the cup was given by it self as a representation of his blood shed for the remission of our sins So that here is in this bold contradiction to our Saviours precept and practice both a rejecting of his commandment and a making null the end of his institution the shewing forth of his death Though yet neither is this all nor the half of that in which this bad Church dares to confront the authority of God For 5. They also leave out in their Catechismes the second Commandment Thou shalt not make to thy self any Graven Image c. And to make up the number of ten they divide the last into two both contrary to the express voice and command of God who gave the second as audibly as any of the rest and with more express sanction by way both of threatning added as a jealous God punishing the Offenders and promise of blessing to them that love him and keep his Commandments and to the practise and manner of the Christian Church in all it 's Primitive times Because they confront Gods Commandment in their practise setting up and injoyning Images and the Likenesses and the Representations of things and Persons to be erected and worshipped though God hath expresly commanded the contrary Oh audacious Church and Congregation of evil doers And can any be so blind as not to see palpably in this and the other particulars that they both can and do err And how then can it be possibly imagined that they are Infallible Nay rather verily it is far righter to say that they are incorrigible impenitent and impudent in their notoriously evil Principles and Practises God saith thou shalt not make to thy self any Graven thing nor the likeness or similitude of any thing either in Heaven above or in the Earth beneath thou shalt not bow down to them nor worship them And these men do make the similitude of many things in Heaven and Earth as of the Virgin Mary the Saints deceased the Cross of Christ yea as they pretend of God himself c. bow down to them worship them yet they say they are innocent so did the adulterous Church of Judah when they upon every high Hill under every green tree wandred play'd the Harlot yet they said they were not polluted they had not gone after Baalim they were innocent and therefore surely Gods anger would turn away from them Jer. 2.23,35 Even so doth this corrupt and erroneous Church plead not only that she is innocent but also that she cannot err But we shall have occasion to say more to this anon Besides all this 6. What is their Doctrine of Transubstantiation but a
most gross and palpable error against the Verdict of Sence and Reason and the Word of God therefore must needs be without any substantial reason therefrom And me thinks it 's strange that men will believe Lies that are so evident and notorious that their very sences may convince them thereof If Christ should have told his Disciples that a Spirit hath not flesh and bones as they see him have and yet might impose upon their sences and make them to believe that to be flesh and bones upon the Verdict of their sences which yet in truth for all that might be other-wise had he not been really what his Adversaries falsly accused him to be And what weight would there be in that argument so often made use of by the Apostles to assure us of the truth of their Doctrine viz. that they were Eye-witnesses of the things they delivered for truths to the Church and see and heard and felt what they testified if things might be quite otherwise than the most plain and constant evidence of them to our sences represent them Now we may see the substance of bread in the Sacrament as plainly as our eyes can discern any substance we may feel it with our hands tast it with our mouths smell it with our nostrils And when we have so many evidences that it is bread yea and the word of God and Scriptures of the Apostles call it bread too as they do after the words of Consecration when it is broken yea and eaten too for they say the bread which we break is it not the Communion of the body of Christ and so often as ye eat this bread c. 1 Cor. 10.16 and 11.26 to be perswaded upon this Church's or it's Priests authority that there is no bread there but the very natural body and the substance of the flesh and bones of Jesus Christ is the most palpable imposture upon our faith and the most unreasonable credulity that ever was heard of not to be parallel'd in any Histories Oh but say they our Saviour said this is my body and therefore it must be his very natural body As if our Saviour never spake in Parables or used not similitudes and figures in his speaking and so must be understood to speak Literally when the understanding his words so contradicts our sences yea and our reason too For if the substance of bread be gone and the very substance of his body flesh blood and bones be there really present under the forms of bread and wine upon the Consecration or pronunciation of those words this is my body how many absurdities must follow thereupon As then Christ must have many bodies distinct from one another or the same to be multiplied beyond all possibility to say into how many yea then while Christs body sate by his Disciples whole and untouched it must be at the same instant in their hands and mouths yea his whole body in every one of their hands and mouths in it's mortal state and yet his whole body visibly before them all and distinct from them all and from all their hands and mouths and what was therein yea then his body must be broken by himself before it was broken and he was as it were his own Crucifyer before he was crucifyed slain and while as yet nothing of that nature was done to his body For if that bread which he took and blessed was transubstantiated into his body then he saying of it that it was broken for them in that he brake the bread it must then be broken by himself and yet for all it was broken and eaten too yet it was as whole after that yea and in the very time of it's being broken and eaten as ever and was taken and broken and crucified on the Cross by his enemies after every one of his Disciples had eaten it in it's natural substance Then also he must have a thousand and a thousand bodies at once in the several places where the Mass is Celebrated and the Host eaten and the whole body eaten by every Communicant in it's substance corporally yet his body whole entire in Heaven and the Heavens must receive or contain it till the time of the restitution of all things spoken of by the Prophets Yea and when the Hosts is reserved in the Pix or Box the same body must be in the same time in Heaven Glory and shut up in a narrow box in diverse places where possibly it may mould or if the Mice can come to it be eaten too by them except the Mice can eat accidents without the substance they can be accidents without substance to inherein that are in such case mouldy or the like and all the absurdities that the Prophets cast upon the Heathen Idolaters when they tax them with making a God that cannot help or save it self but may be carried to and fro as men please may be all justified as rational or warranted as possible enough by this one Doctrine For do not the Priests they say make of a piece of bread the person of Christ God and man even their Maker And when a Baker hath of the same dough made diverse cakes or wafers and divers of them being caught and taken and eaten by men the Priest takes one or more of them and Consecrates and makes a God of it and falls down and worships it and perswades the people to worship it telling them it is very God and their Saviour Though yet when it is in their hands it is in their power if they will to cast it away or to burn it in the fire if they secretly reserve it and it cannot rescue it self from them and their power no more than the God made of a piece of a Tree could May it not as well be said to these as to those Heathen Idolaters remember this and shew your selves men bring it again to mind O ye Transgressors Isai 46.8 For are not these men every whit as much infatuated as those persons or worse For there they took a piece of a Tree the workmanship of God more immediately and having burnt part of it in the fire and roasted meat and warmed themselves with it they made another part of it into an Image or similitude of something and set it up and Consecrated it with some words or charms and then they called it their God they prayed to it and said deliver me for thou art my God Isa 44.14 15 16 17. Giving it Divine worship Perhaps they might think as the Papists do that after they had Consecrated it it was transubstantiated too and ceased to be wood the matter and substance of that was gone and it was thenceforth not a Block or wood but really a God and had power to help and save it's Worshippers As the Poet deridingly sings of their Priapus Olim truncus eram ficulnus inutile lignum Cùm Faber incertus scamnum faceret né Priapum Maluit esse Deum Whence it might say
seeing Pope Julius the second in his expedition against the French some ages since threw them into the River Tyber saying because St. Peters Keys would not do his work he would betake him to St. Pauls Sword how doth it appear that he and his Successors did not thereby loose them forever When did Christ make any new ones and give to him or those that suceeded him But herein also her excessive pride appears in that her Bishops challenge both St. Peters Keys and St. Pauls Sword nay both Swords both the Civil and Sacred or Ecclesiastical for I think the truly Spiritual they care not much for at least as to any true right use thereof that is they challenge Dominion in Temporal matters usurp upon the rights of Kings Princes and to exercise a power in disposing of Thrones and Scepters and making Civil Wars as well as to rule over all Nations in Church matters Never was there any Chuch or company of People in the World ranting it so highly and carrying it so aloft as this Church and her Bishops have done ever since they obtained of Phocas the high Honour he conferred upon them to make them an amends for approving him in the Murther of his Master in setling the dignity of Emperor upon him and this suits well with the description of my story of Babilon too in the Revelations where she is represented as mounted upon a Stately Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns as being both exalted and supported therein by and yet ruling and ordering the Imperial Power Sitting upon many Waters that is ruling over many Nations People and Languages gallantly deckt and making all Nations drunk of the Cup of her Fornications glorifying her self in stead of God and Christ and saying I sit as a Queen as the Lambs wife the Catholique Church to whom all in all estates owe honour and subjection and am no Widdow Infallible not forsaken of Christ and so shall see no sorrow the City that ruleth over the Kings of the Earth Revel 17.1 2 3 4 18. and 18.7 Surely if pride go before destruction and a haughty mind before a fall then it cannot be but so proud and Luciferian a Church must needs fall too If the Angel of the Church of Laodicea because of his high boastings that he was rich and increased with goods growing thereby lukewarm was threatned to be spewed out of Christs mouth and what was said to him was said to the Churches by the spirit as implying that any of them falling into the like temper must be so dealt with except they repented how can it be but that this Church hath long since met with that doome seeing shee for a long time hath been far more Proud and Highminded than that Angel was and no less lukewarm or indifferent for the honour of Christ so she may be but the Queen and Empress especially also seeing she obstructs the way against her repentance by pleading she is Infallible and so needs no repentance justifying by her Priests and Jesuits her self and her practices in all these vile and filthy miscarriages doing therein as was noted before like Jerusalem of old that would not acknowledge that she had transgressed and scattered her ways to strangers and had not obeyed Gods voice but would against the most notorious and palpable evidences of her guilt yet say she was not polluted she had not gone after Baalim or other Lords and Masters besides her own proper God Even so it is with this proud imperious Chuch she will lift up her self against all charges and will not own her self guilty of Idolatry or corrupt in her faith worship but will boast of her being the Church the Catholique Church the Infallible Church talk of her Antiquity Universality Unity challenge all the Apostles Prophets Martyrs Confessors Ancient Doctors Councels to be hers when indeed in truth in their true and genuine Doctrines the Apostles Prophets Primitive Doctors and Councels all condemn her It is true she may in many things boast of her Antiquity and so may the Devil and his Followers who also can shew as great an Universality and Unity for should he be divided against himself as our Saviour saith his kingdom could not stand Luk. 11.18 but non omne quod antiquum est verum est sed quod primum not all that is ancient though of great latitude and extent and at unity with itself but that that is the first that is true and right So God was the first and before the Devil and his truth was before error and falshood and the Articles of the Christian faith were long before any noyse was heard of the Popes Supremacy or being Christs Vicar or of his having derived the Keys or the Power over the whole Church from St. Peter or of the Doctrine of Purgatory or Transubstantiation or their Merit of our works or of Works of Super-errogation or of the Cup being denyed to the People or of the Latine Service or Prayers injoyned in an unknown Tongue or of the Worship of Images or Invocation of the Saints or of whatever else is properly Roman as distinguished from all other Professors of the Christian Religion Which are so many gross and horrid Errors into which she is fallen and from the charge of guilt wherein she cannot clear her self But though she wash her with Nitre and take much Sopâ— yet they are and will be marked before the Lord as He said sometime to Jerusalem Jer. 2.22 and therefore also being so fowly fallen into Error and Iniquity and not confessing and repenting but justifying her self and saying in despite of all the most evident convictions that she is innocent it cannot be but that what God threatned to Israel will also be her portion and that in a far more dreadful and severe manner that is that he will plead with her and execute upon her all the terrible Judgment written in Revel 18. So as she shall be thrown down into the Pit of destruction with great violence even by the mighty hand of God so as she shall be found no more at all because she instead of owning her guilt and repenting of her Idolatries Blood-shed Pride and all her other Enormities saith she is innocent and her lying false Prophets dawb her up with their untempered Mortar and see for her vain and foolish things instead of discovering her iniquity to turn away her misery Yea they see for her as Jerusalems false Prophets did for her false buthens and causes of banishment of her and all that cleave to her for ever from Gods presence Jer. 2.32 Lam. 2.14 Rev. 18.2 and she loves to have it so For if any be convinced of her Errors and protest against them being converted from them they seek if possible to murther and destroy them As many have proved and as Mr. Anthony Aegan tells us they have endeavoured diverse ways to do to him since his conversion from them and protests against them and endeavours
to reclaim any of them But the time is hastening when as she is fallen into the Dregs of Impiety Error and Apostacy from her Primitive Faith and Worship in its purity multiplying as many false Objects of worship as ever Pagan Rome did with her Pantheon so she must because of her obstinacy and impenitency fall under Gods most severe and terrible Judgments forethreatned that as she is become a very Sink of sin and wickedness spiritual and corporal so she may sink into an Abyss of woe and misery eternal 10. In all that I have said and shewed it appears that she is also a false Church or a lying Harlot so far is she from being Infallible though I shall evince it still further in speaking something to what she pretends very much as an undeniable proof of her being the true Church at least Namely the multitude of her Miracles wherewith She endeavours to establish all other her False doctrines and practises as her doctrine of Images and Saint Worship her doctrine of Purgatory and of Transubstantiation and what not almost She pleads Miracles for confirmation of and this being added to her other Notes of her Antiquity Universality and Unity make her to glitter mainly in the eye of many simple people concerning which I may shew her to be a false lying Church too in a two fold respect 1. In her pretending such things as She calls Miracles the signes and strange wonders that she boasts of to be a good and undoubted note of a true Church owned of God and that the doctrines which they tend to confirm are true that this is false we have manifold evidences For 1. The Lord himself by Moses supposeth the contrary when he saith If there be a Prophet or a dreamer of dreams and he give thee a sign or a wonder and that sign or that wonder come to pass that he foretold of saying let us go after other Gods thou shalt not hearken to the words that Prophet Deut. 13.1 2 3. Such signs and wonders then are no true Note or sufficient evidence of the rightness of a person or of a people that doth or listens to them that do them or of the doctrines confirmed by them 2. The Apostle Paul also tells us that the man of sin that wicked one whose coming is after the manner of Sathan shall come with power and signs and lying wonders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wonders of falshood partly so called because done to confirm falshoods and he shall also have a great number of followers after him even the generality of those that have not received the love of the Truth that they might be saved 2 Thes 2.8 9 10 11 12. 3. And our Saviour himself warning his Disciples of the false Christs and the false Prophets which have been creeping into the world and among the Churches ever since the Apostles time such their Antiquity that should shew great signs and wonders so as to deceive if possible the very Elect who being the fewest it s most rational to suppose that the generality of those that have not Elect or chosen out of the world are deceived by them and so that there is a great over-spreading universality of them also and they at unity as to their following these Impostors and deceivers of them by their great signs and wonders Math. 24.24 25. 4. And in Revelations 13. we read of a Beast after whom the whole world wonders so great the universality of his power and of them that approve him unanimously before whom a second Beast shall do or doth so great signs and wonders and miracles as to cause fire to come down from Heaven in the sight of the Beast and in the sight of Men that is he shall do such things in the sight or judgment of men as do as clearly in their judgments testifie Gods approvement of him in what he propounds to them as he did Elijah when he caused Fire to descend from Heaven and consume his Sacrifice offered to Jehovah and yet he is a false Prophet for all that and his Image that he sets up to be worshipped and all the Marks and Characters that he causeth people to take by which they may be known to be the Beast worshippers and the worshippers of his Image it is certain are naught and most displeasing to God who therefore threatens the worshippers and receivers thereof with most dreadful punishments Rev. 14.9 10 11. and yet he by these Miracles and other exercises of his power causes them that dwell on the Earth to submit thereto yea all both small and great rich and poor to give some way or other an acknowledgment of it such their universality and unity therein And it s of great Antiquity if the judgment of the most learned and judicious Expositors may be taken who judge that the 42. months or 1260 days of the continance of that Worship signifies one thousand two hundred and sixty years a day for a year as is sometimes the reckning of the Prophets as in Num. 14.34 Ezek. 4.4 5 6. Rev. 13.12 13 14 15 16. so that this worship hath been in the world as Mr. Mede hath learnedly hinted in his Apostacy of the last times since between the Fifth and Sixt Century 5. How early in the world began the Pagan Idolatry how far and near did it spread it self and that for many ages and generations the Nations of the world unanimously agreeing therein for though its true that they worshipped diverse Gods and had in several places different rites and ways of worshipping yet they might for all that be said to have as great an unity and unanimity in their worship as the Papists have seeing they also worship divers Saints and some of them are more pecularly addicted to one Saint and some to another and observe divers aind different Orders in their different Devotions some being of the Order of St. Dominick some of St. Benedict some of St. Francis some of Ignatius Loyola some Votaries to one Saint and some to another Now the Pagans also had their Signs and Wonders to confirm them in their Religion by the operation and working of Sathan witness what Celsus aforementioned writes of them as it is recited by Origen to this purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. what should I reckon up how many things partly the Prophets and Prophetisses namely of the Pagans partly other persons Lib. 8. contra Celsum both Men and Women inspired with a Spirit have divinely foretold what strange and wondrous things they have drawn out of their secret Cells or Temples how many things they have also foretold from the Entrals of their Sacrifices to those that have consulted them How many things have been foreshewed by other Prodigies to some there have also been granted manifest apparitions of the Gods the life of men is full of these matters how many Cities have been built by the direction of these Oracles how many have escaped Pestilence and Famines
how many Cities have Perished regardless or forgetful of their warnings how many Colonies have been led out by their directions and have been increased with great felicities while they have not neglected their commandments how many both Princes and private Persons have fared well or ill upon these accounts how many being troubled for want of Children by taking heed to them have obtained their desires how many have escaped the Anger of the Demons or devils how many that have been Lame in their Members have recovered their former soundness again how many doing violence to their holy things have forthwith been variously punished some have gone out of their Wits some have of their own accord confessed their evil facts others have made away themselves others have fallen into incurable diseases nor wants there examples of some who have been killed by a dreadful voice that hath proceeded forth from the cells or secret places of their Temples Such strange wonderful things could that Heathen boast of concerning his false Gods and their wicked Worship as I might also mention some instances that St. Augustine speakes of in his tenth Book de civitate Dei Cap 16. as of Aeneas his Images going of themselves from one place to another of â—arquinius cutting a Whetstone through with a Raisour of a Woman with her girdle only fastned thereto drawing a Ship that stuck so fast in the River Tybâ—r as it could not be moved as a Testimony of her Chastity and of another carrying Water in a sieve from the said River upon the like account not to mention the strange things done by Apollonius which Philostratus would make the world believe might be equallized with the Miracles wrought by Christ Surely these nor any nor all of these were no good evidences that they were Gods Church and that they or their doctrine or worship were approved of him though the Signs and Wonders seem not much Inferior to what either Theodoret in his 8. Book before mentioned relates of miraculous Cures done or helps obtained at the Monuments of the Martyrs or what some others have elsewhere related as St. Gregory or perhaps some of those things mentioned by St. Augustine lib. 21. de Civitate Dei cap. 8.9 c. But 2. Besides this there is another thing to be said to the Plea of the Roman Churches Miracles that a great many of them are fained forged matters and therein she is a lying false Harlot to go about to gull Souls with her lying and false delusions not but that those mentioned by St. Augustine or others of the Fathers might many of them be true and God might work many miracles at such places as were dedicated to the memory of the Martyrs and of his holy servants to draw people thereby to the beliefe and obedience of his truth which they had confessed and suffered Martyrdom for but doubtless Sathan and his instruments have also taken occasion thence either to work by Gods permission diverse strange things to punish those that therefore departed from the purity of the worship of God and Christ or also to counterfeit and pretend what was not indeed wrought to draw the minds of People into deceit I shall not search books for confirmation hereof seeing if any man will vouchsafe seriously to peruse what the Learned D. Stillingfleet hath largly discoursed on this subject of their pretended miracles he may be satisfyed sufficiently hereof only I shall set down hear what the forementioned Fryer Mr. Anthony Aegan in his recantation Sermon relates which is to this purpose That about seven years before his said Recantation Sermon made at London April 6. 1673. a Priest near the City of Limrick by name William Sarchwel had for fifty shillings hired a Woman to pretend her self a Cripple from her birth and that she had a revelation that if she dipt her self in such a Well while a Priest said Mass by the place she should be recovered of her Infirmity whereupon she came halting at a time appointed to the Well and returned out of it as one perfectly cured which became a miracle to the people and both got to the contriver a vast some of Mony and confirmed the People in their superstition which he tells us the said counterfeit Woman after some time upon some remorse of conscience confessed to him the said Anthony Aegan which he made her declare to the whole Congregation before he absolved her as also he tells of a Fryer of great note and zeal that told him that he was at a Franciscan Convent beyond the Seas where was the Image of the B. Virgin made with a scrue in the head thereof where they put in some water and having a string that came undeserned to a place where the Fryers stood when they thought the People had brought a good offering then by the help of that string they could unloose the scrue and then the Image of the B. Virgin would seem to weep and that was one of their Miracles which the relator said was a great scandal to him and that therefore he complained of it to the General of their Order who answered him that should he make a reformation in that particuler that Convent should starve to which he adds that the Monks of a certain Convent put a like cheat upon St. Barnard by an instrument carrying the Voice to the Image of the said Virgin Mary causing her to salute him with a salve Barnarde when he came into the Church but he apprehending the Cheat gave no other return to the complement but this that it is ashame for a Woman to speak in the Church but adds the said Fryer Aegan of all the fine stories commend me to this new Miracle they talk of for the confirmation of transubstantiation viz. that in a certain place in the King of Spains dominion as the Mass was celebrated all the perfect effigies proportion of a man rose out of the host but when the People came too near that they might see the Miracle plainly he Vanished away on which he only relates a remark made by a Facetious Person to the relatot of it you suppose said he that it was Christ himself that appeared and it seems upon the approach of the People he vanished away which is the only circumstance to make the Story credible for he might suppose the People were come to eat him and so he vanished I shall add to it this remark of my own that many of their Miracles are such as will not abide the search and tryal but upon a near approach to that end vanish into nothing but pretence and delusion Now if we put both these together both that false Prophets and Persons of false Religion may do signs and wonders especially lying signs and that many that are boasted of in the Church of Rome are the lying cheats and delusions of their Priests then will their Plea of Miracles be too far from evidencing them to be the true Church of Christ that it
Monasteries and Nunneries places of separation from the World in a sort to be devout in if they be so disposed and for those that have desires for Heaven she can shew them as she pretends a certain way whereby they may not only obtain but merit it too and to that purpose excites them to much devotion to God and to the Saints and provokes them to bounty and works of charity though she poysons them with her Doctrine of Merit tending to puff them up and corrupts all their good things with the sowre and evil leaven of Idolatry and other false Opinions before reproved For as the Apostle saith of the false Apostles that they could transform themselves into the Ministers of righteousness while corrupting men in and from the faith they were for all their goodly appearance in reality the Messengers of Sathan and that they made a fair shew in the flesh and gloried in appearance not in heart 2 Corinth 11.13 15. and 5.12 Gall. 6.12 So is it with these men They are as Dr. Stillingfleet hath very well and worthily observed and in his Sermon upon that Text manifested them to be Wolves in sheeps clothing and the Religionists that walk after their directions are corrupted and spoiled by them For if the speaking with the tongue of men and Angels gift of Prophecy and understanding all Mysteries and all Knowledge yea and Faith so as to remove Mountains and the giving all a mans goods to feed the poor and his body to be burnt will not profit him if he have not love or charity 1 Cor 13.1 2 3. what profit think we can accrue to this Church or to any of its Devotionists from all their Devotions Gifts Liberality Penances or whatever else is done by them while they are guilty of gross Idolatry and corruptions of the Faith as is before evidenced Surely no Idolater hath true love to God nor any that is partaker with the Blood-thirsty the guilt whereof lies upon this Church and all in its Communion When the Apostle commends Charity it is a Charity out of a pure heart and a good conscience and Faith unfeigned 1 Tim. 1.5 which cannot be where Idolatry and Superstition and corruption of the Faith take place however liberal they may be in Almsdeeds to the poor which the Apostle also supposeth may be where that love and charity which is so necessary and excellent is yet wanting Suppose the Gallathians seduced by the false Apostles to believe the necessity of Circumcision and the observation of the Laws of Moses should have been also perswaded by them to have retired themselves into Monasteries and spent their time in Devotions and been free to give all they had to feed the poor would any or all those things have profited them under that perswasion I suppose not seeing the Apostle saith If they were circumcised Christ would profit them nothing Gall. 6.2 If Christ would profit them nothing surely much less would those things or whatever else could have been done by them And doubtless if the corrupting their Faith by Circumcision would have so marred all their Religion much more will Idolatry Superstition and the other Iniquities before detected in the Roman Communion marr all their finest and otherwise most laudable actions But then on the other side this wiley Church like a wiley Strumpet hath other entertainments for persons of other tempers or dispositions and if they have a mind to live loosly and in the practice of any Wickedness they have plaisters to skin over such Ulcers they can fit them with loose Doctrines and Principles they can hold them in the Roman Communion by telling them that if they confess to the Priest once a year or oftner and receive Absolution from their sins upon some petty Penances and seeming Austerities to the flesh which yet they may upon pretty light Devotions or for mony have Indulgencies in they may receive pardon for all their forepast faults yea perhaps for a great many years too or for a great time to come and if they continue in sin till death returning to what they have confessed yet if but an hour or two before their death they can but send for a Priest and make confession of their sins with some attrition or grief that their condition is no better though they be not contrite or broken in heart for their sins nor have any love of God yet having the Priests absolution and being anointed with their Extream Unction they are secured from Hell and damnation Indeed they may be unfit for Heaven as the foolish Virgins were that slumbred and slept till it was proclaimed that the Bridegroom came and then not having Oyl in their Vessels their Lamps were gone out ay but they shall go but to Purgatory at the worst and be purged by those pains for sometime and from thence also they may be soon released by vertue of the over-much Oyl in the wise Virgins Vessels that is by vertue of the meritorious works of Supererrogation done by their more religious Votaries and Canonized Saints and by the Masses and Sacrifices offered for the quick and the dead and other Devotions performed by their living Priests especially if they give a considerable sum of mony to them to purchase their Devotions for them when they dy and then they may in a short time too be at rest therefrom And these are fine pleasing baits to hook and hold in the Souls of vitious persons Now who that 's religiously inclined but by a conceit of meriting will be observant of the rules of such a Religion And who that loves his sins but will like such a Doctrine and Religion as gives them so good encouragement to hold them fast and propounds such easy remedies to secure them from the dreadful punishments of them And that 's a main reason of so many great and small being held fast in the arms of this loving Church that she being in her self gay and gawdy and deckt and painted with fine colours hath the wit or craft and subtlety to bait her Hooks according to the humors of the several persons for whom she fishes and accommodates her self to the several dispositions of her Paramours to be either more solitary and sullen or more pleasant and gamesome as may suit best with their constitution What we have said upon this first Head to the reasons of so many being held still in her Communion may suffice to that 2. And truly in answer to the inquiry in its second branch some things of what is said to the former might be repeated again or rather referred unto by us as causes thereof namely of the falling off of so many to her that have been delivered from her and brought up under that light by which they might so discover her false colours as to keep from her As the subtlety of her Emissaries and Factors having now more liberty amongst us to negotiate for her than formerly and the occasions of offence ministred by our own divisions