aurem tuam in maerore meo laetifica me Tu es fortitudo mea refugium meum consolatio mea protectio mea ad te clamavi cùm tribularetur câ—r meum In manus tuas Dom na commendo spiritum meum meam totam vitam diem ultimum that is in thee O Lady have I put my trust let me not be confounded for ever receive me into thy favour incline thine ear to me and in my mourning comfort me Thou art my strenght my refuge my consolation and my protection unto thee have I cryed when my heart was troubled Into thy hands O Lady do I commend my spirit my whole life my last day See here is there not herein beside the outward worship of the body and the bodily act of invocation a profession of the most inward worship proper unto God and most incommunicably to be reserved unto him Is there not here then gross Idolatry and Blasphemy ascribing to a creature that that is peculiar unto God Of the like sort is that in Psal 71. Resperge Domina cor meum dulcedine tuâ c. Besprinkle my heart O Lady with thy sweetness make me to forget the miseries of this life stir up everlasting desires in my soul and inebriate or make drunk my mind with the joys of Paradise and in Psa 46 alià s the 47 thus Omnes Gentes plaudite manibus psallite Jubilo Virginis gloriosae quoniam ipsa est porta vitae Janua salutis Via nostrae reconciliationis spes paenitentium solamen lugentium pax beata cordium atque salus c. that is ô clap your hands all ye Nations sing with a joyful voice to the glorious Virgin because She is the Gate of Life the Door of salvation and the Way of our Reconciliation the Hope of those that repent the Comfort of those that mourn the blessed peace and safety of hearts c. with reference to Psal 18. it is also said Religiosi omnes honorate illam quia ipsa est Adjutrix vestra specialis Advocata Esto refrigerium nostrum gloriosa Mater quia Tues totius Religionis mirabile firmamentum c. that is All ye Religious men or Cloysterers honour ye Her because She is your helper and special Advocate Be thou our refreshing O glorious Mother of Christ for thou art the marvelous foundation or establishment of all Religion upon Psal 20. Exaudi Domina succurre Animae cùm deseruerit corpus suum mitte Angelum in occursum ejus per quem ab hostibus defendatur sentiat in paenis refrigerium tuum concede locum inter Electos Dei that is Hear O Lady succour my soul when it shall leave it's body send an Angel to meet it by whom it may be defended from it's enemies let it feel thy refreshing in the pains of Purgatory and give it a place among the Elect of God And if this do not sufficiently shew their guilt of Idolatry I shall add a passage or two that will shew it with greater Blasphemy as when they say in Psal 34. Quia Domina humillima fuisti Verbum Increatum ex te carnem suscipere coegisti that is Because thou O Lady wast most humble thou didst constrain or compel the Increated Word to take flesh of Thee and in Psal 36. Mater Dei inclina vultum Dei super nos coge illum peccatoribus misereri Mother of God incline the countenance of God towards us compel him to be merciful to sinners But enough of this blasphemous Idolatry with her Yet all this and much more is to be found in that Psalter of the blessed Virgin said to be made by their Seraphical Doctor St. Bonaventure Bishop of St. Albans and one of the Cardinals of the holy they might better have said unholy Church of Rome And their Primer made for their children after the use of Salisbury printed with a privilege according to the Kings and Queens Majesties Letters in the reign of Queen Mary is of like complexion with that Psalter as is to be seen in Fox Martyro volum 3. pa. 273. witness these among other passages Holy Mary So comfort us in our Desolation That by thy prayer ond special Mediation We may enjoy the reward of the Heavenly reign c. And again The dolorous passion of Gods sweet Mother Bring us to the Bliss of Almighty God the Father Again O Thou meek Mother have mercy therefore On Wretches for whom thou hadst these pains all Seeing thy Son that Vine-cluster pressed sore And from the pestilence of death eternal Keep us by voiding the Fiend Infernal And join us with them that rewarded be With eternal Life seeing the Deitie Nor only with Her do they commit this Idolatry but with others also both Apostles and others of less worth if not evil persons as may appear from the same Primer Whence they teach their Children to be such in Idolatry betimes teaching them not only to say O Lord defend us always through the continual succours of St. John Baptist or with reference to the Apostles Peter and Paul Hear us mercifully and grant that through the merits of them both we may obtain the glory everlasting but also with respect to Thomas Arch-Bishop of Canterbury murthered by occasion of contempt against the then King this is said By the blood of Thomas which He for thee did spend Make us Christ to climb whither Thomas did ascend O Blasphemy And with respect to St. Nicholas O God which hast glorified blessed Nicholas thy holy Bishop with innumerable miracles grant we beseech thee that by his merits and prayers we may be delivered from the fire of Hell To these I shall add some passages that Dr. Moor hath mentioned in his Antidote against Idolatry giving that in English that He hath therein set down in Latine only Being pieces of Devotion publiquely read or sung with Stentorian voices as he phrases it in their very Churches as to St. Cosmas and St. Damian two Quondam Physitians they thus sing O Medici piissimi Qui meritis clarissimi In Coelis refulgetis A peste clade corporum Praeservetis operum Moribus nè langueamus Nec moriamur spiritu Sed Animae ab olitu Velociter surgamus Et vivamus in gratiâ Ad sacra Caeli palatia Donec regrediamur O Physitians most pious Who in merits being famous Brightly in the Heavens do shine Keep us from pestilence noisom The bodies death and also from Bad manners lest in them we pine Neither let us in spirit dy But from Souls death hastily Let us rise again And that we may live in grace Till to Heavens sacred Palace We return to reign St. Francis they bespeak to this purpose Sancte Francisce properè veni Pater accelera ad populum qui premitur teritur sub onere paleâ luto latere sepultos Aegyptio sub sabulo nos libera carnis extincto vitio Holy Francis come apace hasten Father to the people pressed and worn out under their
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
Peter and Paul to Thomas and Sergius c. And what the Papists alledge of their doing all the same things that we Protestants do but they do more also is but all one in this matter as if a Woman should say that she doth all things to her Husband that another honest Woman doth to hers but she doth this more that whereas the other honest Woman yields her Body to her Husband only and admits no other man into her Bed besides she out of respect to her Husband admits him and his Servants and familiar Friends also And as a wise Husband would scarce think that a good honour given or done to him by his Wife no more will God take such adulterous embraces of the Saints and their Images and the like as a good honouring of him its like also as if the false Apostles and their followers should have pleaded against the true Apostles and theirs that they did the same things with them but they exceeded them and did more for they not only Baptized into the Name of Christ but Circumcised too and were Circumcised after the manner of Moses nor did they only celebrate the Lords Supper but also observed the dayes and times appointed in the Law and surely there was more colour for their so pleading than for these mens for they had something formerly of Gods appointment to shew for themselves but these have nothing at all but many prohibitions there against to produce Nothing said I Yes I remember the Plea of a Jesuite for the Picture of Christ though nothing for worship to be given it nor for worshiping the Saints and their Images from the Apostles saying to the Galathians that they were Fools to turn to Moses law when Christ Jesus had been set forth and evidently crucifyed among them the word saith he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is was Pictured and therefore they had the Picture of Christ drawn before their Eyes even of Christ Crucifyed surely the Jesuits was hard put to it for a proof that he was fain to fetch one from that word by the same way he might prove that the Prophets of old were Painters and Image makers because it s said in Rom. 15.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so it should be translated whatsoever things were Pictured aforetime were Pictured for our Instruction he might have found the Pictures of other men besides Christ though not of the Saints unless such saints as some of them of the Roman Church may be for Jude tells us of some that were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall we read Pictured out unto this Condemnation Jude 4. ungodly Men. Surely the Jesuit was either a man of little judgment or which is rather to be judged of a profligate conscience that mattered not with what colours to paint over his matters or else he would have waved such a proof for so bad a purpose and have remembred that the Apostles and their fellow Labourers whither they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ingrave or pourtray yet it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not in Tables of Stone as the Romish Picturers work but in the fleshly Tables of the heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not with Ink or such like Paint but with the Spirit of God as the Apostle writes in 2 Cor. 3.3 and with such a manner of drawing I suppose their Picture makers have little or no acquaintance nor indeed would it have deserved the title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Foolish Galathians had the false Apostles only drawn them from a Christ Crucifyed as represented in an externally visible Picture or Image of him wherein nothing but his body and flesh or rather the external lineaments proportion and complexion of it could be represented and so the shape of a man Crucifyed nothing of his Deity and inward Virtue as they deserved for being drawn from him as Painted forth by the Spirit in the Gospel to the eyes of their understandings as the Son of God and so as God manifested in the flesh and baring our Sins in his Body on the Tree and there through geting the victory over Sin and death and the Divel which no Painters in matters of Stone or other Metals could draw to the Life the other might rather offend them and give the false Apostles advantage against believing on him than perswade to constancy therein there being nothing but a Crucifyed man represented to them therein But I have been tedious in making good this charge but therein I suppose I have abundantly discovered the truth thereof that Rome Papal is as arrant a Whore as Rome Pagan was nay in one respect far greater and worse for in those times she was not espoused to Christ as such therefore was not charged then as commiting adultery from him or breaking Wedlock as now that having been the Catholick Church and her Faith that that was preached in the whole World and she a famous Mother without it yet she hath played the Harlot from him like Jerusalem in Ezek. 16.15 as being corrupted from the simplicity in him to swarve so much from her loyalty to him and admit a multitude into the Bed of love besides him yea the Kings of the Earth also with whom she hath truckt for their honours and riches crowns and scepters accommodating her self to their wills that she might lift up her self by them and get her will on them as in the famous Story of her Bishop Boniface chaffering with Phocas who having Murthered his own Master Mauritius and his Children was owned as Emperour in his stead by the said Boniface that he might as he was be made and declared by him to be the Universal Bishop over all the Churches in Christendom upon a fond pretence never before thought on its likely that because Christ said to Peter that he would give him the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven therefore the Bishops of Rome however unlike to St. Peter and without any delegation of them by him in any of his Epistles or other ways of conveyance of them to them must rule over all the Church in all after ages A notable reward of Romes Whoredom with that Murtherer but that may lead me to another particular charge agreeable also with the character given her which also declares her to be the Babilon spoken of by the holy ghost in the book of the Revelations viz. That 8. The Church of Rome is not only a Whore and the great Whore but a Bloody Whore too else she should not be that Babilon for St. John was shewed that so she would be for he saw her drunk with the Blood of the Saints and with the Blood of the Martyrs of Jesus to his great admiration and amazement and that in her was found the blood of the Prophets and of Saints and of all that were Slain upon the Earth Rev. 17.6 and 18.24 and indeed it may be doubted whither she slew more in her Pagan state to raise and maintain
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