Holiness and that of the Rosary for instance or S. Francis and twenty more by turning Beads or wearing Frocks or Girdles and by such other new Performances To join and keep all this together the Roman Church submits to two Heads the Son of God in Heaven and his Holiness in Italy and Preaches two different and sometimes contrary words of God which you must embrace both together with the same Devotion and Faith namely the written word of God which you may find in the Holy Scripture and the unwritten Tradition which you must seek in that Churches Breast In this unhappy conjuncture of true Catholic Christianity and of mere Roman Popery that happens which you may observe either in unnatural and beastly Copulations the baser kind spoils the better or in the Dreams of Pharaoh the ugly destroies the well-favor'd We find by sad experiences in these last times of the Gospel what heretofore was typified by Ceremonies and also expressed ever after by unhappy Examples under the Law the Flesh which was consecrated and made holy at Gods Altar had not the same vertue to sanctifie the unclean as the unclean had to defile that which was Holy Nor were the Israelites so powerful to convert the Idolatrous Jebusites to God when Married together as were the Jebusites to seduce them to their Idols and for this consideration the Law forbad such Societies Corrupt Nature we know hath of it self both a strange tendency to frivolous and unlawful and no less aversness from truly good and holy things so tho the power of both were equal as to sanctifying or corrupting our inward Inclinations are more likely to determine us to the worst side Never were Women so ready to part with their choicest Jewels as when 't was to make a Golden Calf nor could ever so many Fathers have bin perswaded to be so cruel as to pass their Children thro the fire had it not bin to serve Molock The Kingdom of Heaven is by our Savior compar'd to Seed now one handful of Tare is enough to poison and over-run a whole Field Hence it is that tho the ten Tribes of Israel retained the Law of Moses as well as the Papists do at this present the Gospel yet the holy Prophets mention no other Religion whether in Dan or Beer sheba but the waies of Jeroboam and the Ordinances of Omry And tho the Samaritans did make profession to serve the Lord God of Israel among the gods of other Nations 2 Kings 17.33 Yet their service to these so immediatly takes up their whole Devotion that in the following Verse you find that they do not fear God at all It is by this fatal prevalency of evil over good and the corrupt readiness of Men to yield to this prevalency that the Roman superstition hath not only over-topped but even over-whelmed the Catholic Faith to that degree as any Christian may both see it if he have Eies and must deplore it too if he have any sense or fear of God What the Blessed Evangelists have set down in the four Gospels and what the Blessed Apostles have Preached upon it thro the whole World is yet at Rome as to its being but as to its condition there it is as miserably buried under the confused heap of other new unchristian services as ever was that Book of the Law 2 Kings 22.8 under the Ruines of the Temple Their Masses Legends Auricular Confessions Bulls Praiers to Saints and the Worshipping of Images fill up the Churches and make the main Bulk of all visible Religion There if some good Praiers to God Almighty appear by chance among the Croud it is as one Pater noster among many Ave Maria's that is one among ten in their Beads and if you take the pains to compare how many Praiers Proses Panegyrics and other expressions of the deepest Devotion are bestowed on the Virgin with what is left for our Savior there you shall find somewhat the same proportion between them two as you may see both in the Images that represent them in their Churches and in the most Authentic Visions which are pretended to shew them together to their Monks where she appears still with all the Pomp that can attend a glorious Queen whil'st Christ her Son is still represented but as a Child Thus Papists have the Common Faith and I wish to God they had no more and their own proper Romanism to the very same or like purpose as the Jews have the Law and the Prophets and the Talmud of their Rabbies and as the Turks have both much of Moses and of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and all the Impieties of Mahomet this latter to choak the former as the Tares in the Parable did the good Seed or to dishonor and abuse it as the Babylonians in Dan. 5. did the holy Vessels of Gods house To make all these sins more sinful and Popery more dangerous these unhappy Superstructures which lie as a heavy Encumbrance upon the holy Foundation of God are now adaies used as so many Snares and Attractives to draw Men to the Church of Rome Protestants have among themselves neither better nor other waies of saving distressed Sinners then by charging them to forsake sin to believe and to live according to the Gospel and with this Faith the use of Divine Ordinances to cast their burden and themselves on the Mercies of God in Christ whereas over and above all this the Papists have a great deal more which others do lay no claim to First they have the Queen of Heaven and the Mother of Compassions who is unknown on this account to the best Churches And this Goddess is represented as such a Tresurer of all Graces and a Favorer of such Persons and upon such good and easie terms as without her it were absolutely vain to expect advantage from the aid even of the whole Trinity In the second place they have millions of Saints who whensoever called upon make it their business to help as much as in them lies every condition sort and profession of Men. There is never a small Parish nor Trade no nor any exigence want or disease but hath some favorable and proper Saint The very Images of Wood and Stone are instrumental to great Blessings their Churches and Altars are consecrated in such a manner that the very coming near them forgives some sins The sound and ringing of Bells if Christned after their way hath much vertue Who knows not how much devout persons are benefited by Holy Water and devout Praiers improved to high Merits by holy Beads It were infinite to say all that is pretended of the Agnus Dei Medals and a numberless store of Relics and how they are working every day up and down the World for believing Catholics more Cures then you can ever imagine The Milk the Hairs the Shift the Shoes but especially the Girdle of the Virgin Mary are to this purpose tried and well known What shall we say of those swelling Streams
demonstrated already that St Peters Roial Power was not believed by the Apostles nor in any Apostolical times and made it good out of Acts and Evidences altogether incompatible with destructive of this Belief namely His being rebuked by St. Paul both to the Face and publicly his being called to account by his Brethren his being sent to Cesarea c. Can you think that if at his return they had found him guilty of such a foul miscarriage as would send whole Nations to Hell they had thought it presumtion as the Canon Law saies it is to ask wherefore he did so Was it ever heard among the twelve that besides the general Commission of Preaching Christ St. Peter had another more special and proper Power of degrading all such Princes as would not be ruled by his Bulls And if he had it not Is it likely that the present Roman Popes have more Secular Power from Christ then he for compensation of their having less Holiness To come lower to the holy Fathers read their Epistles to the then Popes and judg whether St. Cyprian St. Basil c. did believe them to be their Monarchs when they call them as commonly they do their Brethren and Fellow-servants Did St. Augustin and his Brethren the worthiest Prelats of that Age submit themselves very modestly to the Roman Papal Power of controlling by their Legats and Officers the African Church Affairs when they called it again and again Secular y Conc. Afric sub Bonif. Ep. ad Bonif. Ep. ad Celest Pride and do the African z Codex Canon Afric Can. 28 sect Item placuit ut Presbyteri Canons the best Ecclesiastical Rules that the Church hath look upon Popes as their lawful supreme Visitors when they do forbid all Church-men under pain of Excommunication in any Church business to appeal to Rome During this long misunderstanding which lasted the lives of three Popes did Sozimus Boniface and Celestin Learned and Wise Roman Bishops believe that clear Texts of Scripture did sufficiently assert the Papacy when they were afraid of their Cause unless they could help it up better by forging false Nicene Canons And on the other side What meant the honest African Fathers in sending a Concil Afric ibid. to Constantinople to Alexandria and Nicea for true Copies with profession of a readiness of submitting to all the true Nicene Canons if they had thought That feed my flock and Thou art Peter and such other Texts of Scriptures better worth then all the Councils had so much as nodded the Roman way Or if the Papists say for I know not what they can say else that these places of Scripture which they now mainly stand upon are not so clear to their purpose without the help of Tradition Did St. Augustin and all the rest of Africa not yet know what Tradition was or what it said Was the ancient Tradition of the Universa Church then quite lost among the eighty Nicene Canons which some b Alph. Pisan l. 3. in Conc. Nic. Ep. ad Marcum fondly suppose to have bin burnt by the Arrians Books and Papers indeed may have bin burnt but Christian Faith and Tradition written no where so legibly as in Mens hearts could not be so unless the whole Church had bin burnt also Besides the general Practice whatsoever becomes of Tradition must remain still for you cannot imagin that the Church of Rome could actually exercise an universal Jurisdiction over all the Churches of the World without imagining in these an universal submission to that Power To this purpose tell me I pray Whether and where S. Chrysostom or St. Basil did swear Canonical Obedience to his Holiness when they were consecrated What sums of Money did they send to Rome when they had thence got their Pallium And when or where among a thousand Prelats in the old Times do you find one either subscribing himself or being called by others as now they do and are Arch-Bishops or Bishops of Milan of Constantinople or any other Diocess by the Grace of God and of the Holy Apostolical See fairly acknowledging themselves thereby little better then what they are now meer Suffragans Vicars or Curats of that Universal Bishop I am sure that Pope Gregory abhorred as long as he lived that very Title and much more the Usurpation as c Greg. Magn. Regist l. 4. Ind. 13. Ep. 33. Item l. 5. Indict 14. Epist. 39. a Mark of Antichrist and as a Destruction of the Faith Now it is cherished at Rome not only as a Catholic Doctrine but as the very Fundamental that makes the Catholic Church Thus Knaves grow great upon cheating and Rebels become Kings upon a Murther and Mens Crimes prove sometimes their Pride and Exaltation 2. From the Roman Supremacy go on and look upon the Roman Mass you know what great proportion that Sacrifice has among them Whole Popery depends or tends that way as on its Center and if the Roman Pope is that Churches Head this Roman Service is its Body I say then in the second place that this vast and comprehensive Bulk is nothing less then Catholic Catholic is By all Mens acknowledgment that which hath bin alwaies believ'd if a Doctrine or observed and practiced if a Service since Christian Antiquity in all Christian Churches and Ages Go therefore and seek when and where the twelve Apostles ever offered in Preaching their Savior to men to offer him up and to make him a Victime to God Enquire of all the Holy Fathers when and where they sung any Mass publicly without any Communicants except the Priests When and where they ever solemnly and publicly administred the holy Communion under one kind When and where they ever heard one single syllable of those Unchristian Doctrines that now a daies make the Main Fundamentals of the Romish Religion to wit that Christ offered up himself to God as an Expiatory Sacrifice any where else but on the Cross that the Natural Body of Christ is both in Heaven upon a Throne and on Earth on a thousand Altars that here his Body contracts shrinks it self into the compass of a small Crumb of Bread or any the least drop of Wine that these appearing Crumbs and Drops altho emtied to all Substance and attenuated to meer Accidents can both well subsist by themselves and whithersoever they be driven pull along with them the Flesh of Christ If these and other like Doctrines which now are essential to Roman Mass had in Ancient time bin Preach'd and heard as essential to Christian Faith Where was all the wit of Celsus or the malice of Julian and such Enemies of Christ Jesus when they fell foul upon the Blessed Trinity the Incarnation and Resurrection of Christ and all such other Articles as seemed to them ridiculous to spare both the Mass-Sacrifice and the Transubstantiation that both are and seem to be so Where was either the wisdom or the care of Origen Eusebius St. Augustin and
other Christian Champions whil'st they were writing large Volumes in defence of Religion where it seemed subject to reproach to leave this part alone undefended which by all Mens confession had if then in being the greatest need of defence If the Church of God had in those daies a most real and continual Mass-Sacrifice How came S. Cyrill of Alexandria to be so dull against his Custom as when Julian laughed at Christians for having neither Altars nor Sacrifices to stop his mouth with nothing else then Metaphorical Oblations And was this Apostate such a Sot as to object at every turn such meer Falshoods if Mass be true wherein he knew having bin long a Christian that any Body might stop his mouth It seems as some of their best Authors d Alphons de Cast. l. 8. tit Indulgentia confess the Mystery of Transubstantiation was yet in the Church incognito and came to appear as it doth now but a long while as they say e Gabr. Biel. in Can. Sect. 41. I. too after Christ had instituted it So it is not Catholic at all 3. Go you down to Purgatory that vast and wide subterranean Rome as great at least as this above-ground who also in a very great mesure is her Mother and Nurse for if this pretends to send down any kind of relief to that by her Masses and Massoffices yet 't is that which maintains and helps up this with Wealth Honors Monasteries and all imaginable affluence of Riches In the mean time this commerce how mutual and great soever is nothing less then Catholic having not followed the Gospel through all the Countries nor times of the Church Whensoever and wheresoever the Christian Faith was Preached there is left an Impression in the Heart of all Believers that there is after this Life a Heaven prepared for Faithful Souls and an everlasting Hell for those that shall be found not to be so Purgatory which is a third place and should of course if true have gon in the same company with these two never followed them half the way no Apostle so far as we can see in their holy Writings ever Preached it it was not blown by Gods Spirit thro-out the whole World as other Catholic Doctrines were it lodg'd in some corners only and that late or upon a Heathenish account and where by chance it was admitted it found no better entertainment then a wavering Opinion Such a thing may be saies one It is not unlikely saies another The Greek and Armenian Churches larger then the Roman is do not believe it f Alfon. di Castro l. 12. tit Purgatorium saies one of the most learned Papists It was believed but somewhat late saies g Fisher cont Luther Art item one of their Cardinal Bishops and tho Bellarmin turns over and over all the Scriptures to search it out many of his own Church do confess that they h Fisher ibid. Pet. à Solv Assert 8. Mart. Peresius de Traditione cannot find it there 4. Indulgences that vast revenue and staple Merchandize of Rome is neither more ancient nor Universal then its correspondent Purgatory For saies i Polyd Virgil. de Invent. l. 8. c. 1. a good Roman Author after Cardinal Fisher no body thought of Indulgences before Purgatory was set a foot these without this being of no value But a while after men had bin affrighted with the Purgatory Torments then began Indulgences to be of use If you will know why both came in late they will endeavor to k Gab. Biel. in Can. Lect. 57. M. Alfons à Castro l. 8. â—it Indulgentia satisfie you with two Reasons the first is because Christians in primitive time had few sins to trouble them after their death when they had any they needed no other flames then their own Zeal to burn them out and their great i Gregor de Valent. de Indulg punct 2. Mortifications besides left nothing to do for Indulgences The second is because the Ancient Church did not know all however much less then now we do The first reason stands upon mere inconsideration of what men were for the most part in the best times The second stands fair for new lights and upon this account you must exclude Purgatory Indulgences and Fanaticism from being Catholic Doctrines 5. You may join with those three all the Roman Praiers and Devotions to Saints This recommended daily and reputedly devout Emploiment hath not so much as the shadow of Catholic for it crept in among Christians as the Baalim did in Israel when the Holy men that had seen Moses and Joshua and the elders of that generation were all departed Jud. 2.10.11.12 when our Savior and his Apostles and the first Preachers of the Gospel had left the world During above four thousand years when God had undoubted Saints living on Earth among his People you shall not find one who ever call'd praied or worshipped any other Saint in Heaven then the Holy one of Israel Salmero one of the learned Disputants at Trent confesses m Salmero 1. ad Timoth. Disp 7. Sect. Nec obiter such Invocations have no express ground in all the Scriptures Bellarmin n Bell. de Beat Sanct l. 1. c. 19. Sect. Item ex c. 32. Suar. p. 3. q. 52. Salm. 1. Tim. 2. Disput 8. Eckius Enchirid. c. 15. and others must yeild it as to the 4000 and odd years that preceded the Ascension And as for the years that followed it Would to God saies Stapulensis o Faber Stapul Praefat. in Evang. we would conform our waies of Faith and Devotion to the example of the Primitive Church who never lookt but on one Christ and never Worshipped any other then he Holy Trinity Eckius p Eckius in Enchirid. câ—de Venerat SS also is clear for this Read for your better satisfaction Origen contra Cels l. 8. Euseb Eccles Hist. l. 4. c. 15. S. Epiphanius his whole Tract against the worshippers of the blessed Virgin S. Ambros 1. Rom. S. Austin de Civit. l. 8. c. 27. l. 22. c. 10. item contra Faust. l. 20. c. 21. The whole business of Image worship the most visible part of the Roman Religion came in later then the Saints worship and therefore appears to be less Catholic If Ancient Authors mention once as it were by chance q Euseb Eccl Hist l. 7. c. 18. a Statue made by the Woman and a Heathenish Woman was she whom Christ had cured of a bloody Flux or the Picture of some Apostles which had bin seen on private walls or the Figure of a Shepherd with a Lamb upon his shoulders ingraved in a Cummunion s Tertull. de Pudicitia Cup or a Representation of Histories and t Gregor Nyssen Tom. 3. Martyr Theodor. p. 579. Edit Paris 1638. Martyrdoms in one or two Oratories yet where is the Prophet the Apostle or the Holy Father who ever lookt on such Figures otherwise then common representations or Pieces
daies at Rome did really the greatest Cures these would assert S. Peter and S. Pauls Epistles which the Papists now contradict in many Points and not the Popes Roial Power nor the Roman Purgatory nor the works of congruity condignity or supererogation nor any other like Doctrines which are contradicted by these Epistles But if you meet as oft you may with another sort of Miracles which what way soever you turn them do not look towards any Doctrine delivered by Christ or his Apostles these can be none of those we may be sure which S. Mark calls following Miracles such as are properly the Christian ones They may be from God nevertheless and true and good and thankfully to be accepted as the Providential Miracles are But if they look or go plainly a quite cross or contrary way be sure they are Antichristian and are designed either to sow or to improve some other Seed then was at the first Sown by Christs Preaching and cultivated by his Miracles And such were those true Prophecies which Moses bids us to take heed of Deuter. 13.1 to draw Israel after strange Gods such were the many Signs and wonders which Jansenius Bishop of Gant affirms l Cornel. Jansen Conc. Evang. c. 123. to have bin don in his time to seduce men after a false Christ Nor matters it that these Miracles seem not much less then those first were wherewith the Gospel was confirmed For the Beast can perform great wonders Revel 13.13 Devils by Gods permission come very neer that which good Angels attain unto by Gods Command and tho there are many Miracles beyond the reach of good and bad Angels as for instance the Reviving of dead Bodies c. Yet there are none but by some illusion or other may be so exactly counterfeited that tho they have no Reality yet will they have as much appearance to confirm Lies as the other have to confirm the Truth Hence comes in these last times when the Devil hath no restraint to keep him from making the utmost use of his Power the absolute impossibility of discerning those from these any other way then by the end which they aim at to wit the reveled will of God and the manifestation of his Truth There are some of the Devils Miracles * August de Civit. l. 10. c. 16. saies S. Austin that as to the work it self seem not to be lesser then Gods are but their End must distinguish them And therefore he will have the Miracles of later times to be tried by the true Church †Idem de Vnitat Eccles c. 19. as we find it in the Scriptures and not the Church by these Miracles Bring Roman Miracles to this Rule you may divide them into three Ranks for some of them are but mere Tales some are counterfeit Impostures and artificial tricks of Juglers others have a real Being but the question is Whence they have it As for the first sort of Miracles the Papists have by little and little heaped them to such an Extravagancy that divers of their communion who have some modesty left them can scarce forbear blushing m Melch. Canus Loc. l. 11. c. 6. at their relation Gregory of Tours and Gregory the first Bishop of Rome if the four Books of Dialogues be truly his did begin pretty well to tell stories But it is nothing to the advances made by some other Prelats and great Roman Doctors in the following Ages And I may say confidently that these Romanists are not much short of the most extravagant Romancers There you shall read of Constantine the great being a Leper and transferring his Roman Empire upon that Pope that made him clean of Wolves and Lions bringing back Lambs and restoring them out of their Entrails after they had torn them to pieces of Birds flocking about to hear Sermons and of Asses becoming Roman Catholics at least kneeling to adore the Mass-Sacrament c. They cannot conceive any great Man to be a Saint unless he hath an extraordinary Gift for the working of such Miracles How true they be you may best learn of the very Saints who deny them as for Example n Bernard Serm de Benedict Berard o S. Chrysost passim St. Chrysostom and p S. Gregory Hom. 29. in Evang. St. Gregory and yet they are forced upon them and you can hardly pass for a true Catholic unless you believe that St. Bernard q Chronic. Deip. an 1152. was saluted and suckled several times by our Lady in her Image that r Simeon Metaph. in vita Chrysost Sigeb an 606. St. Chrysostom did raise the dead did cure all sorts of incurable Diseases and had every night St. Paul himself whispering continually in his Ears what he did write on his Epistles And as to St. Gregory the Great he had no meaner Whisperer r Simeon Metaph. in vita Chrysost Sigeb an 606. then the Holy Ghost in Person under the shape of a Pigeon sitting quietly upon his Head and sometimes stretching down her Bill s Petrus apud Vossium de Historic Lat. l. 2. c. 23. into his Mouth when he was Preaching And we know that the grand Impostor Mahomet pretended somwhat the alike about the same time Now you may be sure all this is merely Fabulous since it is disown'd by the very Men who are pretended to have had it who therefore knew best the truth of all these Works and Assistances Much like to these are the Miracles and Revelations of Ignatius Loyola when he cures Women in their Travel if you but set his Seal t Valderama Serm. de Canon Ignat. or Signet on their Belly when he makes u Ibid. pag. 10. the House where he happens to be horribly shake and when himself grows as hot and as terrible as Mount Aetna by the fierce motion of that Spirit which from a debauch'd Soldier made him a Holy Jesuit or when he sees the Soul of his deerest Friend Hosius x Ribadaneira in vita Ignat. mounting up into the sky far more gorgeous then the Soul of any other or when he works greater Miracles with his own name in a little piece of Paper y Valderama ut sup p. 51. Cum nomine suo Chartae inscripto then Moses and the Apostles did in Gods Name We cannot deny saies the Bishop of Canaries but somtimes very grave Men write and leave to posterity such reports about Saints Miracles humoring hereby both themselves and the People whom they perceive both prone to believe and importunate to have them do so There is a second sort of Roman Miracles which are somewhat but have it all from Artifice and Imposture Pope Boniface in this matter once behaved himself like a Man when thro a Pipe or Sarbatane he conveied so dexterously this a Platina Bonifac. 3. Bergom Supplem l. 13. in vita Bonif. Oracle Celèstin get thee away if thou hast a mind to be saved that Pope Celestin took it it seems
blind Souls look towards her All even the meanest Country Churches what with this admirable Confection made of Ashes Salt Wine and holy Water what with Greek and Latin r Pontifical Rom sect De Consecr Eccles Characters drawn in Ashes upon the Ground cross-wise with a Mass Bishops pastoral Staff what with Processions about the walls what with hard knocking and singing at the Doors are enchanted to that degree of holiness as that the first step into them and the least good word or thought in them may * Thom. p. 3. q. 83. a. 3. wipe off clear your venial fins and that some Churches if no more then lookt upon at a Distance will clear you from s Supra De Rosar mortal too All even the most common Mass Altars what with little t Pontifical Rom. sect De Consecrat Altar Candles burnt cross-wise what with several sorts of Ointments what with Signs of the Cross what with seven turnings about what with old Bones or consecrated wafers are conceived to have no less vertue then the light of the holy Ghost and a general capacity to make all holy and acceptable which the Priest offers thereon and many have the Privilege if they be seen at certain times but a far off to procure general Pardons without any Mass u Navar. de Jubil Notabil 15. n. 5. or Praier All Images what by being washt with holy water what by being smoak'd and suffumigated with the burning of Frankincense are advanced to this blessing that whosoever makes a short Praier to our Lady before x Pontifical Rom. De Benedict Imaginis such an Image of hers for example shall be saved here from all dangers and shall in the presence of God hereafter be released of all his sins Some such Images there are which go as far and require less even but a simple bowing when you pass by All Crosses whether of wood or stone being washt and smoak'd in the like manner promise the same or greater Effects namely y Ibid. to be a Foundation of ones Faith a Defense in affliction a help in Prosperity a Bulwark in the City a shelter in the Field in a word by Consecration z Id. De Benedict Imaginis a Cross becomes a fit Object to be adored kissed and kneeled unto even by him who did make it especially when there is a Crucifix nailed to it for then 't is both a Cross and an Image and who upon this double account would not be easily temted to adore and to kneel before the work of his own hands A small woodden Button such as you may have many hundreds for two pence as I have observed already is by the Roman Popes Blessing made a sufficient Instrument to raise one Pater to that Price as to be a sufficient Ransom for the buying of a Soul out of Purgatory All Bells and of all sorts which in the Roman account a Durand Rational l. 1. Rubric de Campanis amount to six what with their Chrismal Ointment and another Oil for the sick what with abused Parcels of Scripture and terrible b Pontifical Rom. de Benedict Signi Conjurations what with other Roman and distorted Rags of Baptism are thought to have the faculty as well of scattering storms and Devils from as of calling the People to Church and of working true compunction in the Heart as well as a sound or noise in the Ear. However the Roman Church among her solemn Consecrations praies to God for no less in behalf of her Bells then in behalf of Christian Souls that these Bells may be blessed with all Heavenly Grace and throughly moistened with the Dew of the Holy Ghost Moreover to oblige the Country they are said to be mightily useful for the preserving c Ibidem Omnipotens Dominator Durand Rubr. de Campanis of Corn and Cattel Sixtly and lastly for I am loth to trouble both my self and others with relating more Enchantments besides these Universal Attractives Rome hath or pretends to have wherewith to accommodate every particular sort of Christians in their private Relations His Roman Holiness doth consecrate d Pontifical Rom. sect de Coronation Reg. Crowns for Soveraigns Banners for Princes and great Generals Swords and other weapons for Captains or common Soldiers He knows also how to please Queens Princesses and other great Ladies with Relics and Godly Lambs of his own making He will part sometimes with the whole Carcass of a Roman Saint When they happen to be with Child they may be sure of holy Clouts As for his own â—elf his custom was to consecrate * Cardin. Raspon l. 2. c. 9. a Bit of a patch either of Silk or of Cotton and to do it in this manner At the end of every Station an Acolythe an inferior kind of Officer dips this pittiful patch into the Oil of a burning Lamp and having wiped it as clean as he can comes to the Pope for a Blessing Jube Domine benedicere who doth so and gives it him again then the fellow cries out at another station at such a time and in such a Church which now salutes your Holiness c. and so presents the blessed patch which his said Holiness joifully accepts of and heartily kisses in veneration of the Saint who happens to be the Patron of the Church where they are to meet The Chamberlain laies all these Bits one upon another in a safe place herewith to make a little soft Pillow for his Holiness to rest his head upon when he is dead And why may not this pretty Devise as well be thought a Saving e Pontifical Rom. de Benedict agni Sacrament for a dead Corps as the mixing of Salt and water is in the Consecration of a senseless Bell and why may not silk or Cotton under a Roman Popes head as well as Gold Silver and Steel upon and about a Princes Head be raised by the same Power to strange Spiritual Performances These and many more of like nature consecrated Inventions coming from Rome and being recommended by men of parts as so many special favors of an Infallible Church may very well take and enchant both wise and unwise Romanists and for my part I do much wonder how all such of our Protestants as have more Conscience then knowledge are not more temted then yet they are with these Means of Salvation We all know how much Flesh and Blood is apt to be drawn with Objects and Operations of its own kind and how far it is easier for men and women of loose lives to amuse themselves with Scapularies Beads Ropes Agnusses and sprinkling their Bodies with Holy Water then to lift up pure Hearts to God And what hard matter can it be for an old Sinner on his Death-bed either to kiss a Crucifix or to hold a consecrated Candle when contrariwise he finds it an unsufferable task to repent Who in the daies of Romulus would have run the hazard of being hang'd
black and blew where her Image had bin abused and inspires a Black-Smith both with Intelligence where to seek out the hidden Jew and with skill and spirit to fight with him in a Duel for it was an affront she had received that was to be repair'd by her Hectors valor and kill him This one instance and many more that might be had to this purpose doth plainly shew that Roman Saints concern themselves in their Images not in a civil regard only as Kings abused in their Envoies or Nobles beheaded in their Pictures or Effigies but in a far more real manner as if Catholic Kings did find their Backs excoriated when some Pope scourges their Ambassadors and as if Gentlemen had their Heads really cut off from their shoulders when the Hang-man strikes their Pictures There is such an effectual Correspondency between Roman Saints and Images as is observed between Twins who most commonly are either well or ill together or to come somewhat nearer the case as between enchanted Images of Wax and the Persons intended by them who freez or burn accordingly as the Magician manages the business After this rate as they speak n Plutarch de Defect Oracul ap Euseb de Prepar Evang. l. 5. pag. 122. of the Howlings of Devils when Christs Passion and Sacrifice turned them all out from their old Seats you may hear somtimes these Roman Saints weep and bemoan themselves sometimes in the o Vincent Specul Hist l. 7. c. 81. Clouds sometimes under Walls when they are abused in their Images It is upon this same account of care and sympathy for their dear Receptacles that as Pagans did with threatning force their Gods to what they had a mind they should do Roman Saints may be led that way if you tell them unless they do it that either q Mart. Polon ad an 715. pet Canisius de Deip. l. 5. c. 24. you will drown their Images or take r Caesarius l. 7. c 46. away the sweet Baby as did really the Woman who kept him so long in her Chest upon the loss of her Child s Ibid. whom a Wolf had run away with till with wonderful humility the Queen of Heaven commanded the Wolf to bring again and restore his prey her Majesty seeming to be exceedingly afraid of being deprived of her Son that is the little Cherub whom she hath commonly on her left Arm. Hence you may learn upon what ground the Tyrians once being besieged kept their chief Image * Quint. Curt. in obsidione Tyri in Chains the Trojans secured their Palladium the Romans their Ancile and now the Roman Catholics have so great care of their Images Those were once what these are now dear Pawns and as it were Hostages to draw on any side the Gods and Saints p Franc. Hierasc in vita Henr. Sylv. whom these Images do relate to Never fear that the good Lady can forget her ancient Friend at Lauretta at Maria major or at Montserrat and if she be sometimes out of the way when Pilgrims adore those Images it is because she looks to some others But if the Image be deeply engaged either in its Reputation as when it had bin intrusted with the Keies and keeping of t Annal. Flandr l. 12. an 1340. Tournay or in its own preservation as that was which the Sextan u Bov. supra would burn to bake his Wafers then read what Apollo did x Herodot Vrania for Delphi and Minerva for her little Chappel when both were assaulted by Xerxes compare it with what in the like occasion our Lady did for y Tursel Lauret Hist l. 2. c. 20. Lauretta for z Annal. Fland. sup Tournay for an old Image and so upon this whole matter judg whether Pagan Gods and Roman Saints be not alike as to their care and kindness to their Images and how unreasonable it were if you take those for very Devils to take these for any true Saints Fifthly The very acts of making Images to speak is an irrefragable Evidence of their being both ungodlike and unsaint-like Spirits God and his Blessed Angels have in times past expressed themselves several waies by Visions Dreams Vrim and Thummim Signs Judgments Fires and Thunders I leave out Gods speaking by Men because it is his most ordinary way of Revelation But let the Roman Catholics turn over either the Holy Scripture or the genuine Writings of any ancient Father and then shew me where ever God or Saints or Angels spake either in the Church or abroad in the World a Balinghem 28. May. by Stocks or Stones or any kind of dead Pictures and after they have consulted their Consciences if instructed with any degree of Learning let them pronounce whether both speaking and working through Images be or be not the most universal and most constant way of Devils Hereupon let Rome consider that tho Devils may and do often countenance themselves with counterfeiting the waies of of God God or his Saints never have disparaged themselves with using the waies of Devils much less such a way as the use of Images is which God hath so earnestly and constantly disowned and declared himself against Sixthly Their own Speeches and Actings may convince any sober Man by their own Ridiculousness or Impiety what kind of Spirits set them on work To be short consider but this one instance namely the Image of our good Lady with a young Child on her left arm the great Goddess and God of Rome and at the first entring into a Roman Church the first and most conspicuous Object of the Roman Adoration Consider in this double Image 1. The Roman Lady 2. The Roman or as they call it the sweet Baby each by themselves 3. Both the Mother and the Babe together First As to the main and Mother Image What is it do you think that makes Images sometimes as light as any Feather sometimes as heavy and immovable as any Rock sometimes to fly sometimes to dance sometimes to sing sometimes to weep sometimes to sweat sometimes to tear themselves to pieces For if all the Pranks be true as 't is certain they are possible do they not become somewhat better those wild silly Spirits that use to tumble stools and dishes or to skip up and down in a house then the most Holy the most serious and the most truly glorified Virgin Mary Whosoever will be at the trouble of summing up the Hours and Daies which since these six or seven hundred years have bin mispent about such doings shall find both that this spirit whosoever it is that animates this Roman Image is oftner below then above and that against the condition of all true glorified Saints he or she fidles away more of his time about Visions and Drudgeries about Gallows Whores and Prisons and about Monks and their Images then is left him or her to spend with the Blessed Saints about Gods Throne and in the Beatifical Vision Seeondly what do you