but Dij Patroni of the Gentiles Idolaters such as were in the Capitol Jupiter in Paphos Temple Venus in Ephesus Temple Diana and such like Alass we seem in our thus thinking and doing to have learn'd our Religion not out of Gods Word but out of the Pagan Poets who say Excessere omnes adytis Arisque relictis Dij quibus Imperium hoc Steterat c. That is to say all the Gods by whose defence this Empire stood are gone out of the Temples have forsaken their Altars And where one Saint hath Images in divers places the same Saint hath divers names thereof most like to the Gentiles When you hear of our Lady of Walsingham our Lady of Ipswich our Lady of Wilsdon and such other What is it but an Imitation of the Gentiles Idolaters Diana Agrotera Diana Coriphea Diana Ephesia c. Venus Cypria Venus Paphia Venus Guidia Wherein is evidently meant that the Saint for the Image sake should in those places yea in the Images themselves have a dwelling which is the ground of their Idolatry for where no Images be they have no such means Terentius Varro sheweth that there were three hundred Jupiters in his time there were no fewer Veneres and Dianae we had no fewer Christophers Ladies Mary Magdalens and other Saints Oenomaus and Hesiodus shew that in their time there were thirty thousand Gods I think we had no fewer Saints to whom we gave the honour due to God And they have not only spoiled the true living God of his due honour in Temples Countries Cities and Lands by such devices and Inventions as the Gentiles Idolaters have done before them But the Sea waters have as well special Saints with them as they had Gods with the Gentiles Neptune Triton Nereus Castor and Pollux Venus and such other In whose places be come St. Christopher Saint Clement and divers others especially our Lady to whom Ship-Men sing Ave Maris Stella Neither hath the fire scaped their Idolatrous Inventions for instead of Vulcane Vâ—sta the Gentiles Gods of the Fire our Men have placed Saint Agatha and make letters on her day to quench Fire with Every Artificer and Profession hath his special Saint as a peculiar God As for Example Scholars have Saint Nicholas and Saint Gregory Painters St. Luke neither lack Souldiers their Mars nor Lovers their Venus amongst Christians All diseases have their special Saints as Gods the Curers of them The Pox St. Roche The falling evil St. Cornelis The Toothake St. Apollin c. Neither do Beasts and Cattle lack their Gods with us for Saint Loy is the Horse-leech and St. Anthony the Swine-herd c. Where is Gods Providence and due Honour in the mean season who saith the Heavens be mine and the Earth is mine c. But we have left him neither Heaven nor Earth nor Water nor Country nor City nor Peace nor War to Rule and Govern neither Men nor Beasts for their diseases to cure That a godly man might justly for zealous Indignation cry out O Heaven O Earth and Seas what madness and wickedness against God are Men fallen into What dishonour do the Creatures to their Creator and maker And if we remember God sometimes yet because we doubt of his Ability or will to help we join to him another helper as if he were a Noun Adjective using these sayings such as learn God and St. Nicholas be my speed such as neese God help and St. John to the Horse God and St. Loy save thee thus are we become like Horses and Mules which have no understanding For is there not one God only who by his Power and Wisdom made all things and by his Providence governeth the same and by his Goodness maintaineth and saveth them Be not all things of him by him and through him Why dost thou turn from the Creator to the Creature This is the manner of the Gentiles Idolaters But thou art a Christian and therefore by Christ alone hast access to God the Father help of him only These things are not written to any reproach of the Saints themselves who were the true Servants of God did give all Honour to him taking none unto themselves and are Blessed Souls with God But against our foolishness and wickedness making of the true Servants of God false Gods by attributing to them the Power and Honour which is due to God only And pa. 48. It is further added If answer be made that they make Saints but Intercessors to God and means for such things as they would obtain of God That is even after the Gentiles Idolatrous usage to make them of Saints Gods called Dii Medioximi to be mean Intercessours and helpers to God c. The homily calls it a Lewd distinction of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For it is evident that the Saints of God cannot abide that as much as any outward Worshipping be done or exhibited to them and to attribute such desire of Divine Honour to Saints is to blot them with a most Odious and Devilish Ignominy and Villany and indeed of Saints to make them Satans and very Devils whose property is to challenge to themselves the Honour which is due to God only see pa. 50. And pa. 54 he proceeds but in many points they have far exceeded in all wickedness foolishness and madness particularly in this they pass the folly and wickedness of the Gentiles that they Honour and Worship the Reliques Bones of Saints which proves that they be Mortal Men and Dead and therefore no Gods to be Worshiped which the Gentiles would never confess of their Gods for very Shame And after a great many ridiculous practices of theirs in reference to the Reliques are reckon'd up the Homily concludes that they are not only more wicked than the Gentiles Idolaters but also no wiser than Horses Asses and Mules which have no understanding Great pitty it is that so useful and pious a detection of the Idolatries of the Roman Church should be neglected to be read in such a time when they have the Impudence to face us down with their bold and false denyals of their Ethnick Doctrines and practises Hereby we see what Opinion the Reformed Church of England hath of their detestable Polytheism or making a plurality of Gods In this they act exactly as the Holy Scriptures speak of the workings of Antichrist with all deceiveableness of unrighteousness and teach up the very Doctrines of Devils That the Original of this Saint and Angel Worship was from the Heathen is plain from Nicephorus a very Credible Author in his Church History book the 15. cap. 28. Where he informs us that one Peter Gnapheus an Heretical Bishop of Antioch in the fifth Century which was before the year 500 was the first that Instituted the Worship of the Virgin Mary and that her name should be called upon in the publick Prayers of the Church which is likewise testifyed by the Historians of Magdeburg
in so doing Hence then passing by other particulars I commend to your attention this Doctrine Doct. That whensoever and however our Lord shall come all his Servants especially his Stewards who have been wise faithful and diligent in his family giving to all their portion in season shall be found in a good and happy state It is not certain when or how our Lord will come but whenever it is or however it may be they are Servants and Stewards in happy state who are found fit for and faithful in the Lords Service His condition is and shall be good who is a good servant to the Great and good God The meanest and most ordinary Servants in the family being faithful are blessed according to their capacities the Stewards who are above ordinary Servants in their charge abilities and account are also above them in their blessedness when they are found faithful to their Lord. It is a good and a great imployment to be a Servant It is a better and greater thing to be a Steward in Gods Family the Church of Christ It is the best temper to be wise and faithful in discharge of either as our Lord shall appoint to us and require of us Now in handling this Doctrine that I may speak fully to it I shall desire you with me to consider 1. The time when our Lord cometh 2. The manner in which he cometh 3. The Scriptures do assure us his faithful Servants are happy 4. Wherein their happiness doth consist 5. Why appropriated to so doing i. e. to giving the Portion to each c. 6. Why deferred until the coming of our Lord. When these are dispatched the Doctrinal part will afford us profitable Application Now to the first thing proposed I answer 1. That our Lord in his coming doth not observe the same time towards all he cometh sooner to some he stays longer to others our experience and observation herein is an undeniable witness Some Parents God hath taken away sooner and left in younger days both Widows and fatherless Children Some Preachers have had the opportunities of Forty or Fifty years when others have been called to their rest at half that period You know not how long God may continue you to yours or them with you you had not been now mourning under this loss if God had given to all his faithful Ministers the same length of time for their work to which some attended longer than others have lived The years of labour to some exceeding by much the years of Life given to others Thus 35 or 36 end the life and of these some 16 or 17 years end the Labours of this Servant of God yet he dyed not the youngest Minister that ever yet dyed But the unaccountable variety here bids me forbear to enquire farther into it 2. That our Lords coming is according to his own determined purpose Our times for life and service are in Gods hand they are reserved with him and he will come in his own time Were our times in other hands we might be unseasonably hurried too soon out of Life and Labour by unkind hands of ill-willers or detained too long by the unwillingness of our Friends to part with us But our Lord hath appointed and will keep his own set-time to come to us 3. There can no measures be given beforehand what time our Lord will take to come to us in Nor may we expect any such Rules from any by which to guess how long it will be ere our Lord will come to you or me Thousands have within our time and observation if we had heeded it been summoned when all about them have thought they might have continued much longer Parents have lost their Children Wives have lost their Husbands and People have been deprived of their Pastors on a sudden when no such calamity was fear'd Our Lord hath not made an hour to come sure to any of us or invested us with a Right to another succeeding moment Our rule is Work now attend on the present business God lays before us for our Lord comes at an hour we know not of as Matth. 24.42 sooner or later expected or unexpected seasonably to our comfort or unseasonably to our Friends Relations and Churches grief we cannot foretel Sure we are he cometh not to all at one age nor to any in any time but his own nor with certain fore-warnings of weeks or days or hours he hath no where told us he will stay a day longer for the youngest of us It is enough that he doth assure us if we are faithful in our places and serve him we shall be blessed in so doing And as the time is thus various so in the second place His manner of coming is various of which next 2. Gen. There are five several ways wherein the Lord is pleas'd to come toward us 1. He cometh in publick afflictions and general calamities upon Kingdoms or Nations or People among which many of his faithful servants dwell and are with others oftentimes involved in their troubles and sorrows When the Lord did call Psal 50 his Saints together vers 3 he tells us a fire shall devour before him and this is the effect when God shall come and not keep silence Of such a coming Isaiah speaketh in these words The Lord shall come out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth Isa 26.21 The faithful Servants of God inhabiting the earth with others may thus feel the castigatory indignation of their Father And in his Prophetick lofty strains the same Prophet doth lively describe this coming of the Lord Chap. 13.5 6 7 8 9 10 11 verses Who is represented coming with the weapons of his indignation vers 5 And the day of destruction cometh vers 6 To lay the land desolate vers 9 which was indeed accomplisht in its time on Jerusalem and the Jews after they had rejected Christ and crucified him yet then at this coming those that were faithful were found in a good Condition they were blessed who served the Lord and prepar'd for his coming though this be not the coming chiefly meant in the Text yet the Doctrine is sound in this regard 2. Sometime the Lord cometh in that manner that particular families or persons are found out by the rod and corrections Lev. 20.5 God speaks of cutting off a house or person Deut. 29 18 19. God warneth persons in a Family and the Family too now if such do not take warning but provoke him he will in his own time come to correct or punish such a person or family of this manner of proceeding are we to understand that of 1 Sam. 2.30 31 and cap. 3.13 When God doth thus visit persons or families he is properly enough said to come against them and in such cases still it holdeth true Those servants of God who are faithful in their service to God are blessed or in a good condition So Eli was though he smarted under the Rod and David
maintain that Images are to be honoured with the same Worship that is due to the Original or Prototype So that the Images of God and of the Trinity for such they are not ashamed to make as will be seen by and by and of our Lord Jesus Christ must be adored with the highest Divine Worship that any Creature is Capable to pay and if any have come short herein and have not preached up this excess of Devotion the Constant practice of the Popish Church runs counter to their Doctrine They set up Images every where in their Churches and enjoin their People to Worship them and the more they Cringe and Creep the more devout Catholicks they are accounted And as their Predecessors the Priests of Baal and the Gentile Idolaters prostrated themselves and cryed and Macerated their Bodies before their Idols so the Popelings bow before their Idols Pray unto them smoke their Nostrils with perfumes and erect abundance of Wax-Lights about them and in Loud Quires Chant the Praises of their Idol Saint And when this Rotten God happens to fall into repair and to be patcht and mended happy is he that can get one of the Consecrated Chips present it to some Biggotted Lady or Nobleman to sanctify their closets And to convince the world that it is certainly the Image that they Worship Adore and not the Virtues or Remembrance of the Original they pay a great deal more Superstitious homage to a Graven Image than to a painted one though they represent the same Person besides the same Image hath much more Reverence in one place than in another as their Lady of Loretto and St. James of Compostella c. To which you shall have them trot a hundred Leagues or more in Pilgrimage when perhaps they have the Image of the same Saint altogether as decent and as like at home in their own Parish Church But all this can be supposed for no other but that they might keep close to the Copy of the Heathen Idolaters who though they had many Groves to Moloch and Astoreth c. Yet they had their Capital high places where in case the Petit Country Deities could not give them redress they appealed as to a higher Court and with vast presents and Chargeable Pilgrimages sought to obtain an answer to their Petitions So the Oracle of Apollo at Delphos had more veneration than any other of his Shrines though many others were erected to him But however it happen'd other Climates did not so well suit with the Temper or Constitution of that Deity perhaps they might be too cold or hot the catering of the Scullion Priests not so agreeable to his Pallate as the Delphick Ragousts and entertainments certain it was the God was more sullen and seemed to be tongue-tyed in other places or spoke in some Language which the Priest did not understand whereas those at Delphos soon resolved the doubts and answered the Petitions of their Suppliants At Nants and Tours and some other places they erected a Monstrous Image to our Lord which they call St. Saviours about 10. or 12. foot high now this Saint distinguishable from their Petty Saints by his large bulk and stature is Worshipped by them for the preservation of Corn and of their Vines from Cold Frost and Tempest for curing their Horses of the Staggers keeping Sheep from the Rot Bees from dying and for defending their Lambs from Wolves Therefore on his Festival where these great Images are erected you may see an Infinite Number of Pilgrims of all Ages and Conditions bringing their Gifts to those Statues Some bring one thing some another according to their Qualities or Capacities for the Idol or rather the Priest are not so squeamish but any thing will go down with them for Advantage and their Temples like Parsonage Barns will entertain any sort of Grain There you might see vast Quantities of Wool Corn Thred Butter Bacon Hony Sucking Piggs Grapes all brought Mony or some other good thing as valuable and none came without wax Tapers to burn all the while that Masses were saying at the Altar So that besides Chests full of the fore-recited materials Tables Loaden with great pieces of meat and a Number of all sorts of Provisions there have been gathered up in five hours time of short ends of Candles full threescore and ten pounds of wax by the Light of which you may certainly see the dreadful Idolatry of the Romish Church De la Mot Sermon at the Savoy 1675. page 68. It was and is the Doctrine and ought to be the belief of every true Son of the Church of England that the Church of Rome is an Idolatrous Church see 35. Article of the Church of England and then see the 2d part of the Homily for Whitsuntide pa. 213. where you have these words That the Church of Rome as it is presently and hath been for the space of nine hundred years and odd is so far wide from the nature of the true Church that nothing can be more and in Peril of Idolatry pa. 69. That it is an Idolatrous Church not only an Harlot as the Scripture calls her but also a soul filthy old wither'd Harlot and the mother of Whoredom guilty of the same Idolatry and worse then was amongst Ethnicks and Heathen pa. 71. pa. 54. with abundance more to the same purpose My Lord Chief Justice Pemberton affirms in the Tryal of Plunket pa. 200. That Popery is a Religion ten times worse than all the Heathenish Superstitions But further to prove that Popish Idolatry is but Ethnick Idolatry new dipt see again what the Church of England saith of it in Tom. 2. of her Homilies pa. 46. And for that Idolatry standeth chiefly in the mind it shall in this part first be proved that our Image-maintainers have had and have the same Opinions and Judgments of Saints whose Images they have made and Worshipped as the Gentiles Idolaters had of their Gods and afterwards shall be declared that our Image maintainers and Worshippers have used and use the same outward Rites of honouring and worshipping their Images as the Gentiles did use before their Idols and therefore that they Commit Idolatry as well Inwardly and Outwardly as did the wicked Gentiles Idolaters And concerning the first part of the Idolatrous Opinions of our Image-maintainers What I pray you be such Saints with us to whom we attribute the defence of certain Countries spoiling God of his due honour herein but Dii Tutelares of the Gentiles Idolaters such as were Belus to the Babylonians and Assyrians Osiris and Isis to the Egyptians Vulcane to the Lemnians and to such other What be such Saints to whom the safe guard of certain Cities are appointed but Dij Presides with the Gentiles Idolaters such as were at Delphos Appollo at Athens Minerva at Carthage Juno at Rome Quirinus c. What be such Saints to whom contrary to the use of the primitive Church Temples and Churches be builded and Altars erected
in the Woods to invocate Devils and bewitch Women to follow them 24. Nicholaus the second a great contender for Transubstantiation 25. Innocent the third brought in the Doctrine of Transubstantiation 26. Sixtus the fourth brought in Beads into the Divine Worship 27. Alexander the sixth Incestuous with his own Daughter and gave himself to the Devil By this short yet dreadful List it may appear by what degrees first Superstition then Idolatry and after that Daemonolatry or a Correspondence if not a Confederacy with the Prince of Darkness crept into the world nay that part of it that claims the name of an Apostolick Church Tho nothing more contrary or rather Diametrically opposite to the Doctrine and Faith established by the Holy Jesus and his blessed Apostles The Heathen Oracles had been struck dumb by the coming of the Eternal Redeemer and the Divine Miracles wrought by him in Confirmation of the everlasting Gospel the Magicians and Sorcerers confounded by the Sacred Authority derived to the constituted Apostles as we find recorded in their Acts in the cases of Simon Magus and Elimas the Sorcerer with divers others of that kind But after the Christian Doctrine had been confirmed by so many and unquestionable Divine Miracles so that there wanted nothing that might assure the World of the mighty hand of God that accompanied his Ministers in their first planting the Gospel of Salvation Then again do we find the Arch-Enemy of our Souls unchained and we may well calculate his losing from the time of Stephen the third which was that fatal period that again spread the foul Contagion over the Apostate Church For now the mystery of Iniquity shewed itself in the Temple of God and the old Serpent began again to be Worshipped as God and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Altars in the obnoxious Temâ—â—â—… And here I cannot omit that which is irrefragably urged upon this Argument by the learned Doctor Brevint in his Book intituled Saul and Samuel at Endor a Treatise that perhaps gives some of the clearest demonstrations of the defection of the Roman Church of any thing yet extant though many of our Reverend and Learned Divines have acquitted themselves with singular Honour upon that occasion to whose Memories Posterity will be obliged to pay the most grateful acknowledgments But this Gentleman had the opportunity of a long co-habitation amongst their Fathers beyond the Seas and the advantage of making such discoveries and observations as cannot fall under the cognizance of others I shall therefore make bold to cite some passages out of the fore-named book of that excellent Authors in refutation of the pretended Roman Miracles I shall begin with p. 45. where he makes a quotation out of St. August de Civit. l. 10. c. 16. There are some of the Devils Miracles saith St. Austin that as to the work itself seem to be no lesser then Gods are but their end must distinguish them And therefore he will have the Miracles of the latter times to be tryed by the true Church 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 meer 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 at the 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 these are nothing to the advances made by other Prelates 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 Lyons 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 Catholicks 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 S. Bernard S. Chrysostom and St. Gregory and yet they are forced upon them And you can hardly pass for a true Catholick unless you believe that St. Bernard was saluted and suckled several times by our Lady in her Image that St. Chrysostom did Raise the dead did cure all sorts of incurable diseases and had every night St. Paul himself whispering in his Ear what he did write on his Epistles And as to St. Gregory the Great he had no meaner whisperer then the Holy Ghost in Person under the shape of a Pigeon sitting quietly upon his head and sometimes stretching down her Bill into his Mouth when he was Preaching And we know that the Grand Impostor Mahomet pretended somewhat the like about the same time Now you may be sure all these things are Fabulous since disowned by the very men who are pretended to have had them and who therefore knew best the truth of all these works and assistances Much like to these are the Miracles of Ignatius Loyola when he cures Women in their Travail if you but set his Seal or Signet on their Belly when he makes 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 dearest Friend Hosius 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 Cum nomine suo Chartae inscripto then Moses and the Apostles did in Gods name We cannot deny says the Bishop of Canaries but sometimes very grave men write and leave to posterity such reports about Saints Miracles humouring hereby both themselves and the people whom they perceive both prone to believe and importunate to have them do so For the Authority of the above cited Fables that worthy Divine quotes their own various Authors citing the several Books and Pages where they are related for confirmation of which I must refer you to the 45 th p. of his Book before mentioned And is it not hereby evident to all that will not wilfully blind themselves to their own delusion that these Stories if true are no other than Diabolical Cheats being such as in no wise can be imagined to confirm the Evangelical Doctrine but rather the Superstitions and Orders by the Romanists imposed upon
and all and so died thrice She had a mighty knack at Miracles all her life long for to save Souls from the pains of Purgatory she loved to throw her self into all the hottest Ovens and burning Fires she could find that she might endure here what they suffered there and to atone for Gluttons she resolv'd to starve her self till finding the pains of a sharp hunger she had Milk came into her Paps so allayed the cravings of her Stomach by sucking her self she expiated for proud Souls by applying her self to the worst way of common begging she could distinguish too between the honesty and dishonesty of those which gave her alms for the Bread that came from good hands tasted like Bread but that which came from wicked hands tasted like Toads-flesh To satisfy for all Sorts of sins contracted by those which used much company keeping she resolv'd to forsake mankind and to come near none but Beasts at last that she might be safe from all contagion of Flesh and Blood she parched her self on the tops of Trees there her thin body being made thinner both by continual fasting and great fervency of Spirit she did at her prayer contract her self into a round form much like that of a Hedg-hog She could climb up the highest Trees like a Squirrel and swim in Rivers like a Fish till her Friends barbarous it seems and not believing all these Miracles put her in Chains as a Mad Woman and there she miserably lacerated her poor body with struggling hard to free her self and this violence in Prison gave occasion to more Miracles for the Milk in her Breasts turned into Oyl wherewith she did anoint her sores and sometimes too she used it as Butter to sweeten her Bread Cardinals and whole Towns can aver these extravagancies and therewith we shall conclude the first kind of Roman Miracles omitting what might be said of S. Brigit S. Julia S. Clara S. Vrsula with hundreds more known and famous in that Church with whose stories their Voluminous Legends do crawl all over In the mean time it will not be amiss for satisfaction of the curious to insert the names of those Authors our Reverend Doctor hath made use of in this Section Alan Rediv. part 2. c. 4. Jul. â—omer in vita Ildeph ap Sur. 23. Jan. Chronick Deipar an 985. Leander in vita Reginald Robert Archid. in vita S. Albert. ap Sur. 7. Apr. Chronic. Deip. an 598. Histor Eccl. Carnot an 1020. Chronic. Deip. an 1152. Ibid. an 1476. Ibid. an 1235. Matth. Paris in vita S. Godric Menol. Cisters 29. Octob. Bov. 14. anal an 1317. n. 2. Flamin in vita S Catharin Henriques Fascicul S. S. Chronic. ord praedict Henriques 3. Jam Chronic. Deip. an 1285. Ibid. an 1235. S. Bonavent in vit S. Fran. Job Garg in vita S. Dominic Tho. Cantapr in vita S. Christinae ap Sur. Jun. an 1160. Jacob de Vitriaco in vita S. Mariae Ocigniar CHAP. VIII A further evidence of the Confederacy of Roman Priests with evil Spirits THE Argument that we are now upon having already taken up too much Paper for one Section I have thought it proper to continue it in the following Chapter lest those who are ignorant of Satans devices and of the Artifices of his Priests should want so convincing a Demonstration of the danger of Communion with them as is laid before them in the subsequent lines I must therefore resume the Discourse as it is continued in the forecited Book of the Reverend Dr. Brevint and having already transcribed the sum of what he speaks upon the first Head namely That the Miracles of the Roman Church are ordinary such trifling and Ludicrous pranks as cannot possibly seem to hold any proportion with those solid and Divine Operations which attested the Truth and Excellency of the Doctrine of the Holy Gospel The Second Evidence that he mentions is the Tendency and Design of the Popish Miracles which look quite another way from those wrought by our Blessed Saviour and his Apostles For whereas those last confirmed the Faith and Doctrine of the first Preachers of the Doctrine of Salvation and those which anciently were wrought at the Sepulchres of the Primitive Martyrs cannot be thought to justify or assert any other Faith or Doctrine than what was Taught Believed and Practised by those Holy Men Aug. de Civit. l. 22. c. 9. says What is it that these Miracles will attest but the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ St. Paul tells us that they taught nothing but what was concluded within the Law and the Prophets and it cannot be supposed that the extraordinary things done by them should confirm any other Doctrine than what they Taught So at this day tho all sorts of Operations were to be seen at the Sepulchre of St. Paul they could not be presumed to confirm the Popes Bulls or the Innovations of the Roman Church but those truths which were contained in his Preachings and his Epistles But as for Roman Miracles they follow their Novel Doctrines which sometimes are contrary to and always quite different from the true Christian Gospel How many Volumes would be required to contain all the revelations and the strange wonders that encourage and excite men in general to the Worship of the Virgin Mary As many more are bestowed upon the doing it by special ways and at her particular Feasts for upon that score great Indulgences are promised to her Adorers or else what mean those swarms of Monks that lie hid under her Coats or the Ladders whited with her Milk from which no body that takes that way to Heaven can ever tumble down Or those Quires of supposed Angels heard in the bottom of a deep Well to sing her praises What can be thought of those Images that bleed or speak or fly as light as Feathers unless it be to bring mankind to the Worshipping of Wood or Stone or something more sordid and abominable which seems to give motion to those inanimate Stocks What all those thousands of sad Souls to ramble up and down the World since the time of Pope Gregory but to reveal Purgatory and recommend Masses for the dead What abundance of strange Feats have been done by St. Francis and St. Dominic on purpose to confirm their new orders and ways What can signify those heaps of excommunicated Flies and a poor Raven pining to death under the same Curse for having fled away with a Bishops Ring but to shew the Terrour of the Roman Keys And those multitude of small and great Toads crawling in and out of mens mouths when they do observe well or ill the rules of Auricular Confession but to justify that jugling piece of Priest-Craft Or the many little Children standing upon consecrated Wafers but to maintain the Doctrine of Transubstantiation What can the many pretended Miracles wrought by the five wounds in the body of St. Francis or the Rope about his Loyns signify but to keep up an Opinion of the Sanctity of
l. 4. c. 9. Od. Gissaeus supra Niceph. Eccl. Hist l. 15. c. 25. Blosius in Monili Menol. Cisterc 22. Dec. Chron. Diep an 1467. Tho. Malvenda Tom. 1. Annal. Ord. Praed an 1221. Much more doth the learned Doctor urge to prove that what the Papists offer to the Shrine of that which they call the Blessed Virgin can be nothing less than giving Divine Honour and Adoration to an unclean Spirit but I fear I have been tedious in transcribing this tho it were to be wished that all professed Christians were truly convinced of the danger and damnableness of this Roman Doctrine For if That which was never commanded by God in his Word ought not to be introduced into his Worship If Whatsoever pretended Saint or Angel claims a Religious Adoration be to be reputed Diabolical and unclean Then what can be concluded of those Worshippers and these Saints in the Roman Church unless it be this that they have not introduced only the Doctrine but the down-right Worshipping of Devils It is not for nothing that the Holy Spirit of God doth in the Sacred Writings by his inspired Pen-men so often warn and call off his People from Idolatry it is not for nothing that the Eternal Fountain of Blessedness expresses such an inflamed Jealousy against the Israelites for departing after strange Gods and that the Divine Vengeance always followed that Impious Abomination with such tremendous and smoaking Judgments For when once the profligated Spirits can obtain for Deities in their Temples and Altars it is not to be expected that the true and Eternal God should have any place in the heart of such a People Therefore the Scripture calls Idolatry a departing from the Holy One a going a Whoring from him The Samaritans had that Opinion of the works which Simon the Sorcerer performed by Witchcraft and a Diabolical Confederacy that they called him the mighty power of God in the 8 th Chap. of the Acts. But by the verse preceding it appears that he had fascinated their minds and laid his Charms on their understandings that they were in such a condition as Paul terms the Galatians they were bewitched that they should not Obey the Truth And it cannot be supposed that any thing short of some forcible Enchantment could prevail with those of the Roman Communion to give faith to those lying Wonders and Divine Worship to those eluding Spirits which upon that account have the Shrines erected amongst them By what hath been said it is evident that those Ghosts or Spirits which require Temples and Worship are no other then some of the Tainted Expulsed Legions and that the strange Miracles performed by the Images or at the Shrines of these Deities are the old delusions continued whereby they drew the Antient Pagans after their Oracles Groves and Pythons c. and the Papists now a days into an Adoration of Images Altars and Relicks Still the old Confederacy is kept up tho under new Forms and Notions And perhaps it is none of the smallest Policies of the Agents of that Communion to impose upon their Credulous Ones the belief that there is no such thing as a Witch that so their performances of that kind may the better pass under the notion of a Miracle But by the following discourse any one that will not wilfully blind himself may discern the strange and vast power that the Deceiver of the Nations still maintains amongst the degenerate race of men And so I have put an end to the first Part. THE SECOND PART OF Pandaemonium Giving an Account of divers most Remarkable Witchcrafts Also a further Account of Daemons and Spectres never before Published BY what hath been said in the foregoing pages it is evident that the Prince of Darkness hath a very large Dominion among the Sons of Men That he hath his Temples Altars and Sacrifices and though under new and different names still draws off poor biggotted wretches to pay unto his Implous Shrines that Honour Homage and Adoration which is only due to the most High There are besides these another sort of the Infernal Disciples who give themselves up immediately to the Conduct and disposal of the Apostate Angel by entring into League and Covenant with him and giving themselves up to those Black and Interdicted Mysteries which justly are punished with death both by the Divine and Human Law These have their Familiars of the dark Region that assist them in the Execution of their Hellish purposes by this means they attain to performances vastly transcending the capacity of Human Agents as much as can be supposed that Spiritual and Angelical Beings exceed in Subtilty Agility and Power whatsoever can be pretended to by meer Mortals It would swell this Volume to too large a bulk should I speak of the divers ways and manners by which they enter themselves Scholars to the School of Darkness besides divers learned and famous Authors have taken great pains herein I shall therefore no longer detain the Reader from an account of divers very Remarkable Relations never yet Printed the Truth of which will be averred from Persons of unquestionable Reputation now alive the things themselves having been done within the compass of these very few years And if some sober and ingenious Persons would undertake but to commend to the publick the Occurrences of this nature in every County It would doubtless be a work very acceptable to all good men and of great use for the conviction of others The first Relation An Account of the Troubles that happened in the house of Peter Pain a Shoe-maker living in Mary Poel Street in the City of Bristol extracted out of a Letter sent me from Mr. J. R. a Gentleman of good Ingenuity and Reputation an Inhabitant of the City aforesaid Dated June 25. 1683. Sir ACcording to your desire in a Letter I received from you on Saturday last I have here sent you the true and real Account of the passages you desired That which was related by our late Dean was thus That about 45 years since the house of Peter Pain then a Shoe-maker in St. Mary Poel Street in this City was extreamly disturbed with most surprizing and unaccountable noises for some time and one night above the rest about 12 of the Clock the usual noise was accompanied with so great a light through the whole House as if every Room had been full of burning Tapers or Torches These repeated scenes of Horrour so amused the whole Family that they applied themselves to Mr. Toogood the then Minister of St. Nicholas who was easily prevailed withal to visit the House which he had no sooner entred but he became an Ear-witness of the most dreadful and accustomed noises so together with the whole Family he repaired into a Chamber at one end of a Gallery at the other end of which was a large bulky Trunk full of old lumber and so heavy that four or five men were not able to lift it Having shut the door to them the Minister