Ecclesia utitur Sess 3. that they said nothing but the Nicen Creed this new one not being yet hatcht Nay even now in their publick Worship and when they Baptize as conscious of the Novelty of the Tridentine Faith they only use the three Catholick Creeds the new one is not mentioned but reserved to persecute Hereticks withall that is to damn and to destroy the Enemies of the might and grandeur of Rome For it is to be noted that all these New Articles are so contrived that they all manifestly make for the advantage of the Roman Church They establish its uncontrolable dominion over Mens Consciences they stretch and assert its power over all persons and in all cases and they bring great profit to the Roman Clergy Here you find nothing that glorifies any of Gods Attributes nothing to magnifie or explain the Mysteries of our Redemption nothing that can engage men to serve and love God better nothing to encrease the hopes or settle the peace of Christian souls All of it is nothing but the founding of the Roman Empire the Canonizing of those Means whereby the Pope and his Clergy should reign and abound in wealth Accordingly this Faith is not propagated or maintained as the Christian was by the humility meekness and patient sufferings of its Preachers and Professors but by craft and policy by might and violence Not by the demonstration of a a divine power in the working of Wonders and Miracles openly before all the world But by such pretended feats as many among themselves are ashamed to mention and to own These 500 years and upwards they have filled their Books with wondrous Stories to back those their new devices which are neither Primitive nor universally received neither contained in Scripture nor the ancient Creeds And these their Miracles are for the most part so ill contrived so absurd so private and obscure so ill attested that they confute themselves and prove nothing but the ungroundedness of those Doctrines and badness of that Cause whose interest they are brought to maintain SECT III. That this New Creed makes the distinction betwixt Papists and other Christians THis Creed is the unpassable Gulf fixt betwixt Popery and the Reformation and hath widened the breach never to be made up betwixt the Roman Church and all other Christian Churches It is not now as before the Council of Trent when many lived in the Roman Church hoping and endeavouring to rectifie what was amiss and without owning its errors Now those errors are become Articles of faith declared necessary to all mens salvation and men must make a publick profession of them and solemnly swear to them And it is become a common Maxim and a Principle on which they ground their proceedings against Dissenters Dubius in fide censetur haereticus that he is counted an heretick that doubts in matters of Faith You may not question not so much as hesitate about any Point in the New Articles neither may you interpret them or seek to give them a commodious sense as the Bishop of Condom hath endeavoured to do to make them plausible the whole Creed and Oath must go down in the Popes sense that imposed it be it what it will So that except a man truly and thoroughly can believe all this he cannot with any Conscience any ways comply with the Church of Rome or remain in its Communion And all the guilded words and promises of the Popish Clergy to them they would seduce about tolerating different opinions and leaving them to themselves are as appears by this Bull and Creed but pious Frauds and down-right lies Upon these New Articles of Faith is grounded the Worship now used in the Church of Rome Whoever believes them not must needs look on the Mass and other Popish devotions with great horrour and abhorrency and own it his duty to die rather than joyn with them in what is so contrary to true Religion and so dishonourable to his God and Saviour So that the Points of this New Creed are the touch-stone and trial of a Papist and stand as a Partition-wall betwixt him and a Protestant Whence I desire it may be considered how unjust and injurious they are to the Church of England and its Conformable Clergy that charge It and Them with being Popish and Popishly affected Some no doubt as we have seen by experience do it with evil designs and will do it in spight of all evidence to the contrary and to them nothing is to be said but God convert them Others that may be imposed upon will perhaps be satisfied when they consider 1. The constancy of our Clergy in professing that Worship and Doctrine for which our Reformers died Martyrs even in those days when they themselves were persecuted exiled and ruined for it and had all the provocations imaginable to pass over to Rome if they had had any inclination towards it 2. Or when they acquaint themselves with the many and most learned Writings of our Doctors of all Ranks against Romish Errors and Superstitions so strong so convincing that none can read them with any attention and remain unsatisfied in any Point wherein Protestants do differ from Rome 3. Or lastly If they will but compare the declared and avowed Doctrines of our Church as they are contained in the Common-Prayer-Book and the 39 Articles with either the Canons of the Council of Trent or in short with this Roman Creed For then they shall see not only that we hold none of these Tenets peculiar to the Church of Rome and contrary to Gods word But that our Doctrines and Perswasions are directly opposed to them As for those that make Popery to consist in two or three Ceremonies or indifferent Rites they much mistake the matter and they must be mightily in love with Ignorance and Scruples that cherish such thoughts and will not read what will inform them better Any Reformed Church might as well be charged with what any man shall please for some of their Customs and Orders will be found to resemble those of the Jews Pagans Mahometans or Socinians And where the differences are so many so great so just and material as betwixt us and the Church of Rome it is strangely unreasonable to expect that we should go naked or walk upon our heads for fear of doing any thing that the Papists do It is much more to be feared lest the want of Order and Decency of Creeds and Forms of Divine Worship and administring the Holy Sacraments should open an easie entrance for the Roman Innovations to come in where there is a great confusion and a great latitude and nothing fixt and establisht in opposition to them than that we who in the Conformity of our Confessions of Faith and of a pure and holy Worship of God alone through our Lord Jesus Christ hold a constant and avowed Communion with all Reformed Churches and all Christians that keep to the Primitive Rules should break our ties and break over those bars and
inclosures wherewith we have separated our selves from Popery and excluded it from mixing with us The Church of England hath not made any thing necessary to Salvation but what God hath declared so to be and hath imposed upon the People no controverted or doubtful Doctrines nothing but what all true Christians owned in all places and all times so that it hath given provocation to none but to such as own the New Creed of Pius IV. to separate from her Communion But the Church of Rome hath made to be Faith absolutely necessary to Salvation that which was not so before that which God no where revealed in his holy Word and that which is in many things contrary to it and to the true Catholick saith of all Christians And who that believes Jesus Christ to be that Great Prophet who revealed to us the whole Counsel of God and is alone to be heard as the only Author and finisher of our Faith can swear an indefinite obedience to the Pope and make it part of his belief that he embraceth all the Traditions of the Church of Rome which they themselves cannot number and receives all the definitions and declarations of her Councils especially that of Trent and believes her to be the Mother and Mistris of all Churches which is apparently false Who that believes them accursed that shall add any thing to that Faith which our Blessed Lord and his Apostles preached can now make part of it that Christ is truly sacrificed in the Mass for the Living and the Dead that he is wholly contained under either species in the Sacrament that there is a Purgatory where Souls are relieved by what the Living do here for them That the Saints must be prayed to and that due Worship must be given to their Relicks and Images and that Christ left to his Church a power of granting salutary indulgences to such as would purchase them as we see by their practice This is a Faith so new so strange so different from the Christian so contrary to it that any man that shall compare both and be persuaded that it is part of that highest honour which belongs to God alone that all his Dictates and Declarations should be received with an humble submission of our understanding and an entire faith will die as Millions have rather than make profession of this Roman Creed Joh. 2.9 Whosoever transgresseth or goeth beyond and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God The Doctrine of Christ we have in the Gospel of which the sum is contained in the Christian Creed It declares the glorious Attributes of God his wonderful works of power and mercy what great things he hath done for us what more he will have us to expect from him and all to engage us Religiously to serve and love him alone and own him for our Supreme Lord by an holy Worship and Obedience The Doctrine of Rome doth only set forth the unlimited power and dominion of the Pope and his Church over the souls and consciences of men and the means of seizing on their Wealth by selling the Mass Sacrifice and the indulgences by taking the Offerings of the Images and Shrines and drawing Souls out of Purgatory The Popes Crown and the Monks Belly is the sum of all and the crime of us Hereticks is the speaking against either or the not believing what makes for them as much as we believe in God For this were the Cruelties and Inquisitions of the Roman Church invented and exercised against all Christians whose knowledge and Conscience would not permit them to profess this new and unchristian Faith But from this it is apparent we dissent not out of peevishness or humour or a stubborn temper but upon the account of obligations and duty to our God and Saviour whose true Religion I hope we shall constantly own and profess whatever we suffer for it CHAP. II. Of several parts of the Roman Worship and first of their Exorcisms IT is not to be expected that where the Doctrines are so corrupted the Worship should be pure Mens Actions commonly are worse than their Principles and so here it is to be observed that those Articles of the Roman Creed on which is grounded any part of their Worship are not so bad in the Notion as they are in the Practice Their customs usages and outward Acts of Religion which are the true Interpreters of their Doctrines make them uncapable of those fine Glosses some of their Missionaries would put upon them and withal are so superstistitious so idolatrous that all men that fear God and are concerned for the honour of the Blessed Jesus must needs judge themselves absolutely obliged rather to die than to joyn and comply with the Popish Worship As far indeed as their Worship proceeds from that Christian Faith they have common with us the Apostles Creed they may have Prayers very good and very devout But as far as it proceeds from their new Roman Faith it is a strange Medley of conjuring consecrating abusing Gods holy Name and giving to Creatures the love and praises due to our Blessed Redeemer I shall give some instances of it and first begin with their conjuring Part. 1. chap. 2. sect 10. of which they have Treasures and Manuals Printed besides what is in their Rituals and other Books of publick use Of the first Bishop Tailor in his dissuasive from Popery gives us some account how they assault the Devil with Holy Water Incense Sulphur Rue little Papers containing holy words Relicks of Saints and notable Railing How the Priest with his Stole about the Neck of the Possessed very imperiously commands the Devil using many names of God Hebrew Greek and Latine very many signs of the Cross adjurations in the name of St. Ann St. Michael c. especially of the Blessed Virgin all whose Names Epithets Merits and Titles are very effectual the Form in the Ritual is not much better and all of it is a heap of things very absurd and very dishonourable to true Religion But in their daily Ministrations there are so many of these Exorcisms for to drive out Devils out of every thing that one would think they are Manichees who believed most of the Creation to belong to those evil Spirits In the Office for Baptism they Exorcise the Salt which they put into the Infants mouth with nine signs of the Cross and a Prayer whereby they beg it may become Salutare Sacramentum a salutary Sacrament and a perfect Medicine to all that receive it And even the Child is Exorcised with the Priests blowing three times in his Face and anointing it with his Spittle saying Exi ab eo immunde Spiritus tu autem effugare diabole appropinquabit enim judicium Dei Come out of him unclean Spirit and thou Devil be gone for the Judgment of God is at hand Together with this Prayer Exorcizo te immunde spiritus in Nomine Patris c. I exorcize thee unclean Spirit in the
hath sought to impose on the Christian World only false Doctrines and superstitions if the case be so it will wholly clear the Institution of our Blessed Redeemer and make their guilt most heinous and crying who under pretence of preserving the purity of Christs holy Religion have destroyed millions of its Professors CHAPTER I. Of the Roman Faith as distinct from the Christian and truly Catholick And first of the New-Creed I Shall not in this place represent how distant from all cruelties how averse to them is the Christian Religion But first I shall give some account of those Doctrines and that Worship peculiar to the Church of Rome which for being opposed or not received in whole or in part have oceasioned those persecutions of which we complain I shall begin with the Doctrines as they are contained in the New Creed of Pope Pius IV. who as was appointed by the Council of Trent framed and imposed a Profession or Confession of Faith to be taken as an Oath by all the Secular Clergy by all Military Orders by all sorts of Friers all that should be required and all that should come to their Communion in this wise Ego N. firma fide credo profiteor omnia singula quae continentur in symbolo fidei quo Sancta Romana Ecclesia utitur videlicet Credo in unum Deum patrem omnipotentem c. I N. stedfastly believe and profess all things contained in that Confession of Faith which is received in the holy Roman Church as follows I believe in one God the Father Almighty c. So the Nicen Creed thoroughout and then follow the new Articles of the Roman Faith Apostolicas Ecclesiasticas Traditiones reliquasque ejusdem Ecclesiae observationes constitutiones firmissimè admitto amplector c. In English thus I most stedfastly embrace and admit the Apostolical and Ecclesiastical Traditions with the Constitutions and all other things used in the Roman Church I also receive the holy Scriptures according to that sense which our holy Mother the Church whose it is to interpret it hath held and still holds neither will I ever understand or explain otherwise than according to the unanimous consent of the Fathers I also profess that there are seven true and proper Sacraments of the New Covenant instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ necessary to mens salvation though not each Sacrament to every singular person These are Baptism Confirmation the Eucharist Peance Extreme Unction Orders and Matrimony all which do confer grace and whereof Baptism Confirmation and Orders cannot be repeated without Sacriledge I likewise own and admit all the approved and customary Rites which the Catholick Church useth in the solemn administration of all the foresaid Sacraments All and every particular defined and declared by the most holy Council of Trent about Justification and original sin I receive and embrace Likewise I profess that in the Mass a true and proper propitiatory Sacrifice for the living and the dead is offered to God and that in the most holy Sacrament of the Eucharist there is really and substantially the Body and Bloud with the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ and that there is a conversion made of the whole substance of the Bread into his Body and of the whole substance of the Wine into his Bloud which conversion the Catholick Church calls Transubstantiation I also confess that under either kind or species whole Christ is entirely contained and the true Sacrament received I constantly hold that there is a Purgatory and that the Souls therein detained are helpt by the good Works and Prayers of the Faithful As also that the Saints which reign with Christ pray for us and are to be worshiped and prayed to and their Reliques to be venerated I most firmly assert that the Images of Christ of the Blessed Virgin and of the other Saints are to be had and retained and that due honour and worship is to be imparted to them Also I affirm that the power of granting Indulgences was left by Christ to his Church and that the use of them is most salutary to Christian people I acknowledge that the holy Catholick Apostolick and Roman Church is the Mother and Mistris of all Churches and I promise and swear true obedience to the Pope of Rome who is Christs Vicar and Successor to St. Peter the Prince of the Apostles I also without doubt or scruple receive and profess all other things delivered defined and declared by the sacred Canons and General Councils especially by the most holy Council of Trent and all things contrary to them with all heresies whatever condemned rejected and cursed by the Church I likewise reject and condemn and curse This holy Catholick Faith which I now truly hold and profess and without which no man can be saved I shall by Gods help constantly keep and confess whole and undefiled untill my last breath and to the utmost of my power shall in my Place and Calling endeavour that the same shall be taught preached and professed by all my Subjects and all under my care I the foresaid N. promise vow and swear it so help me God and these holy Evangills The Bull which appointed and framed this new Oath or Confession of Faith is dated from St. Peters in Rome the _____ of November in the year of our Lord 1564. and is concluded in the usual manner Nulli ergo omnino hominum liceat c. Let no man whatever dare to infringe this written Declaration of Our Will and Command or by a temerarious Presumption any ways oppose it which if any one shall attempt he must know that he shall incur the indignation of Almighty God and of his blessed Apostles Peter and Paul SECT II. General Reflections on this Roman Creed IT seems they that framed and imposed these new Articles were afraid they should not hold fast enough the Consciences of men and therefore Pope Pius obliged them to swear a simple Profession would not be sufficient to enslave the Minds of Christians and bind upon them this heavy Burthen a formal Oath as we see is contrived and so the Bull calls it forma juramenti And whereas men make Confession of the Christian Faith freely and out of choice as that that will be infinitely beneficial to them They must swear to the Roman Faith to secure themselves from persecution I know that some of the opinions of this Roman Creed were prest before upon the Western World by Inquisition and Fire and Sword and that most of them had been gaining ground upon the persecuted opposers about five or six hundred years But they never became a Creed imposed with an Oath necessary to all mens salvation till this Council and Pope did make them so And we find about the beginning of this Council under Paul III. in the year 1546. that when the Fathers made profession of their Faith according to the Roman Creed as they call it Symbolum quo sancta Romana
Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost that thou mayst come out of this servant of God and depart from him thou damned accursed for so he commands that walked upon the waters and stretched out his hand to Peter when sinking therefore cursed Devil own and receive thy Sentence and give honour to God and come out of this his Servant c. Other Exorcizings there are for the baptizing of adult persons so for the baptismal water it self by blowing upon it three manner of ways and pouring some of it towards the four parts of the world and a long Prayer whereby the Priest very imperiously commands Omnis Spiritus immunde omne phantasma omne mendacium eradicare effugare ab hac creatura aquae All unclean Spirits phantasms and lies to be rooted out of the water and driven away from it So are their Salts and Oyls and many other things of common use powerfully conjured and the lurking Devils ferretted out of them And what is all this but the disgracing of Christianity and prophanation of Gods Sacred name SECT I. Of their many Consecrations THeir Consecrations are much to the same purpose they mightily abuse the holy duty of Prayer and attribute to every toy they have a fancy for as much sacredness and vertue as to any divine Ordinance or Christian Sacrament With their holy Water they sanctifie every thing and are blest themselves perpetually with it living and dying and even after their death when betwixt the hands of a deceased man they put a Cross upon his breast and every foot dash him with holy Water as is appointed in the Ritual And no wonder for it is consecrated to drive away devils diseases and all evils to have the vertue of divine benediction and the effects of divine grace And they pray that the holy Salt which is its great ingredient may procure to them that receive it perfect health of soul and body and freedom from the wiles and temptations of the devil Every thing and more than we can expect from the holy Communion Vt efficiaris sal exorcizatum in salutem credentium sis omnibus sumentibus te sanitas animae corporis c. Their holy bread pain benit they bless to be likewise to them that taste of it the salvation of soul and body and a safeguard against all dangers And even the blessed Candles where ever they are lighted are to fright and expel away the Prince of darkness and all his Angels The same is to be done by their holy Oyl and Incense All their holy Garments and Church-Utensils are blest much in the same manner and to the same purpose We find them praying that the little Boxes for Relicks or other consecrated things may receive the dew of heavenly grace Also that their Bells may do great feats and that the dew of the Holy Spirit may be poured on them Hoc tintinabulum sancti spiritus rore perfunde They also Exorcize the Chrism for their many Unctions and having purged it from the Devils that were bathing in it pray that it may become to all that are anointed therewith the adoption of Sons by the Holy Ghost and that the mixture of it may be to them a sure and salutary defence and propitiation for ever Vt omnis virtus adversarii omnis exercitus diaboli omnisque incursio omne phantasma satanae eradicetur effugetur à te ut fias omnibus qui ex te ungendi sunt in adoptionem filiorum per spiritum sanctum c. Much more as bad or worse might be transcribed out of their Pontificals and Rituals but it would be endless and endless to shew all their Ceremonies for the Apparel and Ornaments of their Priest Altars Images for their various Postures and Motions for all their Ablutions and Purifyings and the consecrated tools and toys they imploy in their ministrations all which far exceed what was appointed by Moses in the Worship of the Jewish Tabernacle This is only that they who are not acquainted with their Books may see how contrary is the Roman Worship to the simplicity and spirituality of true Christianity how much Gods holy Name and Religion are abused by the absurd Prayers and impious Exorcisms and Consecrations of the Popish Liturgies and how thankful we ought to be that we can worship God in the beauty of holiness without such heaps of Superstitions SECT II. Of their Mass THeir way of celebrating the Lords Supper is become so unlike the sacred institution of it and so dishonourable to its blessed Author that Christians of other Communions tremble and are seized on with horror when they consider the Blasphemies and Idolatries contained in the Doctrine and Worship of it And accordingly they of Rome have prest it these four hundred years with the greatest rigour and made it the touch-stone and gin whereby to know and to katch Dissenters To have a Christ made of Bread as their Creed and Tridentine Canon absolutely declare against the evasion of Bellarmine and others who ashamed of it would make it to be a a Transubstantiation adductive Contrary to what their Church hath determined that the whole substance of the bread is changed into the whole substance of Christs body is a strange account of the Hypostatical Union and of the Incarnation of our Blessed Saviour and much to his dishonour As also to have their Christ appear notwithstanding all the Pageantry of the Mass in circumstances of the greatest weakness and destitution So that he must be carried and lock'd and cleansed being in danger of falling to the ground of being lost of being mouldy and corrupted of being eaten by Dogs or Vermin and even abused at the Devils pleasure to Sorcery and Witchcraft What a contempt doth this reflect on the Lord of Glory who once indeed abased himself for us very low But now fitteth on the right hand of the Majesty on high The Consecrated Wafer which they call the good God their Creator and their Saviour they daily adore as such and that with a most profound and solemn Worship both at the Altar the Priest and all the people and abroad when it is carried about to the great terrour and danger of all that are not of their persuasion And this they constantly do when even according to their own Principles they never have any certainty that Christ by Transubstantiation is present under the species For want of Intention in the Priest that consecrates or in them that ordained him marrs the efficacy of the consecrating words frustrates the expectation of the Worshipper and makes them all Idolaters It is further intolerable in this one part of their Worship that they sacrilegiously take the Sacred Cup from the People who are put away with a sip of the ablution Wine wherein the Priest washeth those fingers of his that touched the Host And then that their eating of Christ in the Mass they make to be a true propitiatory Sacrifice for the sins of the living and