of Christ's Church For to perswade people the more that their Traditions are necessary they exalt them above the Authority of the Holy Scriptures and advance such doctrines and propose such questions as might make any man an Atheist that will hearken to them How do you know say they that these Writings that bear Moses's name have been written by him How do you know that St. Matthew St. Mark St. Mark St. Luke and St. John are Authors of the Gospel that St. Paul St. James and St. Peter have written the Epistles unless it be by Tradition Have you seen the first Originals of these Writings that you credit so much And if you did see them who is it can affirm that they were written by these great Apostles that have been dead so long unless you believe the men of our days who have received what they affirm either by writing or otherwise from the hear-say of their Forefathers This we name Tradition Pighius argues in this manner Hierarch Eccles l. 1. c. 2. This was also my reason and argument that I have often made use of but when I had seriously examined its strength its veracity and design I found it to be but weak and tending to undermine the foundations of our Faith of our Laws and Religion for if I might have the liberty to propose such questions I might as well make others which shall intangle them in as great a difficulty as theirs do us How know you may I say that your Tradition is good and true How do you know that such as affirm St. Peter to have been Bishop of Rome speak truth How came you to be perswaded that there is a Bishop of Rome have you seen him How are you certain that the Pardons and Indulgences that you receive came from him that he hath confirmed them with his signature could not the persons that have delivered them to you counterfeit his hand May not an Atheist make use very well of this argument and ask How do you know that there is any other God besides the Sun have you ever seen him have you ever spoken with him How do you know that there are three Persons in the Godhead How do you know that Jesus Christ hath lived upon earth that there have been Apostles c. This is the drift and end of these questions which we must reject as the Devils cunning to ensnare our Faith Hearken not to those that will speak in this manner saith St. Austin Confess l. 6. c. 5. How knowest thou that these Books proceed and are derived unto men from the Spirit of a true God for this we must believe above all things And Tertull. contra Hermogen I acknowledge the fulness of the Scripture Hermogenes cannot find there any pretence for his errours therefore he and his fellows flye to the assistance of Tradition And elsewhere he saith Take away from Hereticks that which is common to them with the Heathens and confine them to the Holy Scriptures and they can no longer subsist De Resur carnis I think this answer is a sufficient reply to the Papists Many others have been given which are to be read in the Books of Controversie It is my judgment that God hath fully as much power as men and that his voice is as efficacious and perfect as ours We are to be distinguished by our voices and speeches as when a Son hears his Fathers voice he needs not that a Servant should inform him that his Father speaks likewise our Saviour Christ assures us that his sheep hear his voice and know it We need no other but Christ's voice to know that it is His that He speaks unto us in the Holy Scriptures Let not the Papists propose any such questions for the future and let them take notice of what St. Jerome tells us upon Hagg. That the things that are invented are false as for example such as are said to be the Apostles traditions which have no authority nor testimony from the Holy Scriptures are mark'd by God's sword § From this Doctrine of Tradition proceeds their Faith of Miracles a Faith as ill grounded and ridiculous as the Traditions themselves that are but old wives tales We may judge of such as are related to us of former ages by them that are published and performed in our days of a thousand there is scarce one that hath the least appearance of reality if we will but seriously consider and examin them Nevertheless they are as boldly delivered for truths in the Popish Pulpits as the Gospel I have declared many being forced thereunto by my Office that I knew to be very false Several persons of the common people have related to me accidents that have happened in places of devotion which they look'd upon as notable Miracles but when I have examined them well I have understood that they were but natural effects If they had addressed themselves to some other persons their belief and declarations had passed as currant as Christ's Resurrection from the dead and Lazarus rising out of the Sepulchre they had been recorded and laid up for posterity to read For example A Country fellow comes to me with two or three of his neighbours assuring me that his wife had been at the last gasp and that because he had offered her to St. Mathurin or St. Anne the very next day she recovered of her distemper But he did not tell me that the Physitian that had judged her sickness so desperate was but a Country Chyrurgeon who hath scarce seen the outside of Physick Books and therefore knew not how to judge of a disease by the symptoms I have healed many in this manner by prescribing to them no other receipt but patience I did not discover to them that the dangerous distemper which had taken from the Patient speech proceeded from a Crisis or the turning of the blood or from the working of some violent physick Another comes to me and tells me that his child hath been thought to be dead for several hours but when in time he comes to take notice that it was a Convulsion-fit or the Falling-sickness he don't go back to acquaint the Priest that what he thought to be death is but a disease Who is it that would not have really believed to be true what the Bishop of Anger 's published in print he is a person not easily to be perswaded he caused an exact enquiry to be made and was certainly informed that Jesus Christ had visibly appeared in the Parish-Church of Ulmes in the Priests hands as he was saying Mass Yet he hath been forced to acknowledge to the shame of the whole Church that it was but a fiction of the Priest and a few Parishioners who thought to enrich themselves by that means If this Priest had but dyed a few days after he had been Canonized for a Saint but he hath lived and declared by his Life what manner of man he is the Bishop hath been forced for his scandalous behaviour
her shame and disgrace as the Antiquity of a Noble Family is a reproach to a degenerated Son I have found that the Authority which she claims hath no other foundation nor beginning but the pride and tyranny of such Popes as have succeeded Gregory the Great for neither he nor any of his Predecessors have ever thought it lawful for them to challenge or pretend to an universal Dominion or Authority in the Church I have found this Succession which is said to be without interruption to be an abyss where the most learned Historians lose themselves they can find no sure footing so that they themselves are forced to confess that they flote upon the waves of a Sea subject to calms and tempests to ebbing and flowing if I may make use of their own expressions Sometimes they see this Ship of St. Peter without Helm or Pilot overwhelmed with the billows without hope of a recovery or expectation of salvation for such as are there imbarqued I have found that the Holiness wherewith this Church was adorned under the Conduct of its ancient Bishops is at present much degenerated an universal corruption hath spread it self into all the Members of this politick Body so that where grace did formerly abound there at present sin and heresie abound to the shame and disgrace of Christianity This I have found as soon as I could open my eyes to take notice of such matters without prejudice or partiality which we must banish from us if we will give a true judgment This I have learned in the study of Holy Scripture in the reading of the ancient Fathers of the Church and from the Records of Antiquity without the assistance of Protestant Books or any information from Ministers § Antiquity hath always had a Command over the minds and judgments of men We look commonly with a great deal of reverence and respect upon a head which time hath loaden with gray hairs and which discovers the number of its years by the many wrinkles of its face we see many times the ruins of an old Dwelling encompassed about with a few rotten Oaks is more looked upon than the noblest Palaces reared up according to the newest and most regular form of Art a Brass Medal shall be more esteemed than ten others of a more precious Metal if it can but shew forth the Image and Name of some ancient Monarch or of a Conquerour of former Ages This respect which Nature and Custome discover for things of a long continuance is not disagreeable to the directions of Moral and of Christian Policy We are to have more esteem for a State that hath subsisted a thousand years than for another that hath continued but one or two hundred and we are advised to have most regard for that Religion which can produce the ancientest Records and prove its establishment to be the first This hath always been my judgment As therefore I did look upon the Church of Rome as the most ancient as that which had been founded by the Apostle St. Peter as the Romanists would perswade us I have for a long while entertained the greatest esteem for her and judged such as were not agreeable to her Principles to be but hasty productions of Nature in comparison of an ancient Tree or as Bastards in comparison of the Child well born I did wonder how men could harbour any other thoughts My Mind being thus filled with partiality for my ancient Religion I could not imagin how any man of wit and ability without being grievously blinded could embrace any other I did oft-times argue with my self in this manner Is it possible that there should be some men so silly and ridiculous to prefer a Religion which we have seen in its Cradle to another which hath continued sixteen hundred years a Church formed by the wit of Calvin and Beza and some others to that which Christ and His Holy Apostles have established c. Thus it is saith Lactantius in his Book of the Rise of Errour l. 2. c. 7. Thus Antiquity commands the judgments of men Its authority is so great that we look upon it as a crime to inquire into the qualities of that which is ancient and to question its rights credit is given to it at the first sight as to a most known truth In the same manner saith that Author l. 2. c. 8. some imprudently neglect the advice of wisdom approving without any examination the inventions of their forefathers suffering themselves to be lead as beasts whithersoever others please and not whither they should go In this manner they are deceived and are willing to be so by taking for the rule of their faith the belief of their forefathers out of a strong conceit that they cannot be wiser than they were before because they have succeeded them and that it is not probable that they were deceived seeing that they have preceded them and are named their ancestors These words of this wise man and some passages of others made me think that it was not so great a crime as is declared in the Church of Rome to examin the Antiquity of the Religion of our Forefathers and to consider from whence it proceeds whither it tends what it hath been what it should be what are its Priviledges Duties Doctrine Laws Conduct if that which is professed to day be the same as that of yesterday that of this age be like to that of the first times or whether it be not differing or a strange Bastard put into the room of the true Child whether it hath not robb'd the lawful Heiress of her Titles of Honour usurped her Rights by counterfeit Letters seised upon her Demesnes driven her from her Inheritance banished her out of her Dominion by a disguise under the most beautiful habits and whether by this means the Romish Church hath not seated her self in the seat of the lawful to procure unto her self a greater esteem amongst men who have so much respect for things that appear with a grave and ancient countenance I have seriously examined these things I have sought for the Rights and Titles of the Church of Rome amongst its pretended Ancestors Christ St. Peter and St. Paul who have been saith she my Founders and Apostles I have read over the Priviledges that they ascribe to her and the Duties that they require from her that which she hath received from them and that which they command her to have the language which they teach her and the Laws that they have given her and how they behaved themselves that succeeded immediately after her first Founders When I had thus compared the one with the other the present Rome with the ancient the World that is now with that which was the Children with the Father that which is believed and preached at present with that which was believed and preached heretofore that which was practised and that which is now done that which is seen with that which was anciently I have found after a
chuse rather to behold their own Arms and Members consume in a fire and endure the most sensible pains and tortures than to behold the Smoak of Incense fallen from their hands mount up to the nose of a senseless Idol They did rather chuse to expose themselves to the fury of the fires and of drawn swords and undergo the torments of the wheels of the wild beasts c. than to bow their knees before a graven Image and yield unto it the least respect O Romans of our days if any of the ancient Christians could but rise out of their graves to come amongst you into your Churches on some Festival day what would they say or think when they should see the accomplishment of Ezekiel's Prophecy chap. 8. so many abominations in the midst of God's Sanctuary the worship due to God alone paid to dumb Pictures which stand about the walls of your Temples when they should see that your Christian Devotion consists chiefly in such apish tricks in the kissing of Altars in cringings stretching out of your arms and signs of the Cross often made sometimes three or five times in kneeling before an Image with hands lifted up in offering to it frankincense in numbring a few beads in casting holy water upon the bones of the deceased in burning a wax candle put out and lighted again as many times as you have things to desire from a Saint c. How many tears would these ancient Catholick Roman Christians shed when they should see this Church practising such foolish things so much contrary to the Truth of Christian Religion How many sighs groans and lamentations should we hear from their pious Souls Jeremiah never uttered so many over the Ruins of Jerusalem O Rome Rome would they say what change is this what are these impertinencies what wonderful metamorphosis Heretofore the Truth did command in thee over Errour the Laws of God over the Inventions of men the Precepts of the Gospel over the Traditions of the people and true Piety over Superstition and God's Worship was chiefly regarded but now we see the contrary Therefore the Church of Rome which is now is not the same as that Christian Church of Rome first established there but a shadow of it which hath nothing of its likeness I would desire the Papists never to boast of the Age and Antiquity of their Church they have no reason to glory in that Rome was anciently one of the most famous Churches of Christendom for it is not like what it was heretofore Miserum istud verbum fuisse saith Seneca It is but a sad comfort and a bad cause of glory to say we have been if we cannot say also we are yet This the Papists should endeavour to make good unto us They ought to shew us by their Doctrine and Works that the Church of Rome at present is the same as it was of old which cannot be done but by a reformation of all the abuses and a reducement to the first estate whilst they continue as they are they shall never discover what their first fathers have been The most learned of all their Doctors who have undertaken to shew their conformity with the ancient Church of Rome seem to be much perplex'd in the proving of this matter very weak in their arguments and so contrary to one another that we need but their own Books to find out the falshood of their Doctrine This every one may take notice that will peruse them without partiality I might here name an hundred passages out of their Books to prove the truth of what I say but I think I have said enough to make the Papists apply unto themselves Tertullians reproach directed to the Heathens Apol. adv Gent. cap. 6. Tell me where is your Religion where is that respect that ye owe to your forefathers you are not like to them in your habits in your manner of living in your customs opinions and in your language You praise antiquity but every day you admit new inventions You differ much from the worthy institutions of your predecessors You declare by your behaviour that you retain nothing of those things that deserve to be retained but observe that which deserves it not This is a true representation of the Church of Rome § In the next place that Sovereign Authority which this Church claims did seem to me to be very well grounded when I did consider that which Jesus Christ saith to St. Peter in many occasions especially in that where He tells him immediately after the Confession of his Faith Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose in earth shall be loosed in heaven Matth. 16. By these words Christ seems to give unto him and his Successors a full power and more than to the rest There are other passages of Holy Scripture that make for the same purpose and St. Austin and several other Interpreters seem to favour this opinion and Reason it self seems to teach us the necessity of a visible Head over Christ's Church on earth answerable to its estate In this manner I did argue with my Comrades having been instructed in the Schools of Thomas Aquinas Suarez and others that gather from thence many reasons to prove the Pope's Authority and Sovereignty But when I had a little better examined these passages perused the Writings of the Fathers to understand their judgment of this matter I have found that there is nothing more false than the Doctrines of the Popish Schools in this occasion for Christ's words to St. Peter were not said to him alone as may appear if we look into the Gospel for Jesus Christ asked not only Peter but all His Disciples and Peter answers not only in his own name but also in that of the rest of the Apostles in persona omnium Apostolorum saith St. Ambrose St. Chrysostome and the other ancient Interpreters which words the Papists have inserted into their Breviarum or Rubrick speaking of this passage When therefore the Son of God returns unto St. Peter as a reward of his confession the power of binding and loosing and the keys of heaven c. it is not to him alone that He speaks and grants all these priviledges but to the rest in whose name St. Peter did answer therefore a few days after He repeated unto them the same thing and confirm'd the same priviledge to all the rest of His Apostles Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven c. Matth. 18. vers 18. He addresseth Himself to them all and not to one alone And if after His Resurrection Christ speaks to St. Peter only Feed my sheep this was as St. Cyril and other wise Interpreters have taken notice with an intent to confirm and re-admit him into the office
Sovereign Power not only over Spiritual Affairs but also over the temporal in all Christian Kingdoms How blind or rather how malicious must the Popish Divines be to employ all their learning and skill in maintaining of this Doctrine I am perswaded that there are but few that commit this sin out of ignorance Do you judge if it be not a grievous blasphemy to extol the Pope as those Doctors do and to appropriate unto him these Titles and Praises given him by some Councils for example that which Pope Nicholas II. said of himself Can. omnes dist 22. That be was invested with the Empire of Heaven and Earth And Martin V. named himself The Light of the World and the Father of Kings c. The modestest of them all have suffered themselves to be called without renting their garments as Paul and Barnabas once did in a like occasion The King of Kings the Sovereign of the World the Judge of all Controversies from whose Sentence there is no appeal to God's Tribunal for it were to appeal from one to the same Being for God's Authority and that of the Popes is but the same as if the Father the Son the Holy Ghost and the Pope were but one God They name him also the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world God's Majesty on earth the Brightness of God's Presence the Bridegroom of the Christian Church the Lion of the Tribe of Juda God's Vicegerent the Holy of Holies Infallible Almighty c. The Popes have claimed these and many other Titles which I am ready to shew not only in the Writings of the Roman Doctors but also in their Rubricks if any man shall question what I now say They have claimed them both by word and deed requiring the Kings themselves to kiss their slippers and with their feet they have cast down the Crowns of Emperours from their heads as Pope Celestin treated Henry the Sixth They have trampled them under their feet as Alexander did the Crown of Frederick Barbarossa What may be more said of Jesus Christ to put a difference between him and the Pope Here is the fulfilling of all the Impieties which St. Paul did foretell 2 Thess 2. v. 3. The man of sin shall be revealed the son of perdition who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God on that is worshipped so that he as God sitteth in the Temple of God § The pretended Succession of the Roman Bishops so much spoken of in their Writings and in the Pulpits of that Church did seem to me to be very well grounded in Holy Scripture and by the continued Catalogue of all the Popes which the modern Popish Authors have gathered from the ancient Historians I did judge that this was but the consequence of Christ's promise to St. Peter when He told him that his faith should never fail and that the gates of hell should never prevail against his Church I was perswaded that this was plainly to be seen in the Church of Rome that above sixteen hundred years no Schism hath been so great as to hinder the Popes to succeed one after another There is no place in the world where so long and noble a Catalogue is to be seen and a Succession of so many lawful Bishops But since I have curiously examined the Truth since I have look'd into the Histories to find out this continued Succession of Roman Bishops for so many years I have found the Writers so perplex'd upon this Subject nay the Papists themselves are so obscure and ambiguous that we may justly say that the most part of them speak they know not what for most of them are guilty of contradiction for how can they agree this continued Succession without interruption with what Onuphrius saith in his Chronicle where he mentions no less than six and twenty Schisms in the Church of Rome the twentieth lasted forty years and the twenty sixth continued since Urbanus VI. until the Council of Constance as Genebrard saith Chron. lib. 4. an 1378. the one and twentieth lasted six and thirty years as the same Author affirms during all this time the Church of Rome had two Popes that did excommunicate one another Ann. 1389 How can we agree this Succession with what Baronius saith for he is forced to acknowledge it after so many Historians that at Rome there have been no less than three Popes together whom he names tricipitem bestiam portis inferis emergentem tom 11. and ann 1044. sect 5. a beast with three heads ascending out of the bottomless pit All three saith Bellarmin namely Gregory XIII Benedictus XIII and John XXIII had the same apparent right to the Popes Miter de pontif lib. 4. c. 14. How can we also agree this Doctrine with Baronius an 912. sect 8 He saith That the Clergy were not admitted to the Election that the Canons were not observed and all ancient Customs of chusing Popes set aside what Cardinals think ye saith he that these Monsters did create for according to the usual course of nature every thing begets its likeness c. Lechery saith Platin. in vita Benedicti brought forth these Monsters these Prodigies who by ambition and gifts have intruded themselves in and not lawfully enjoyed St. Peter's Chair See what the Historians of the Church of Rome have been forced to acknowledge although they have endeavoured to palliate its imperfections and hide them from the knowledge of the world How can any have the impudency to maintain that the Faith of this Church hath never failed that the gates of hell could never prevail against it and that there was never any discontinuance in the succession of its Bishops c Yet this is impudently affirmed with allowance in the Schools of the Papists This Doctrine I have also heretofore defended in Theses which I published amongst them That although the Election of the Roman Bishops hath passed almost at every time by bribes fraud violence murder c. Although the Church of Rome hath been frequently and for a long while divided into Sects and Factions and that much disorder hath happened in it nevertheless we ought to believe and affirm that the Holy Ghost did govern these Elections and that they were by Gods appointment and that the Faith of this Church hath never failed because I did suppose there hath always been a wonderful agreement between all its Members c. Let any man judge if ever Arius Pelagius Marcion or any other Heretick did ever teach such impudent Doctrine as this in Mahomet's Alcoran there is no absurdity found like unto it § The great crowd of Martyrs and the multitude of other Noble Saints who have performed so many Miracles and are challenged by the Papists as their own was another powerful motive to perswade me of the Truth of their Faith and of the Sanctity of their Religion Who is it said I to my self that dares deny that a Religion where so many Martyrs appear that have laid down
careful to oblige her domesticks to live well according to the Laws of God I cannot believe that such a person can be damned nor I neither said I to my self I am of your mind nevertheless it was then my interest to dissemble the inward perswasion of my mind Don't let that trouble you I was about to say to such if you have not committed a more grievous sin than that I shall not load you with an heavy penance I am certain that many are of my mind in the Church of Rome It is a cheat and a design to force people to believe it as confidently as the most holy mysteries and a great error to tell them that they cannot have any hopes of salvation if they are not perswaded that the others are assuredly damned although God commands us to the contrary by his Apostle not to judge others Rom. 14.3 Jam. 4.12 and assures us in his Gospel that there needs nothing else to attain unto salvation but the keeping of his Commandments which the Protestants profess to do and perform Therefore I did often argue in this manner It is not possible to be damned without sin for sin is that alone that shuts heaven and draws upon us the wrath of God Now there is no sin but is against his commandments either we must omit what he enjoyns or commit what he forbids Every one therefore that believes what God hath revealed unto us by his Prophets and Apostles and by Christ and shall keep the commandments of God shall infallibly be saved the Scripture declares it He that believeth in me although he were dead yet shall he live saith our Saviour Joh. 11.25 and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never dye He don't tell us we must believe in the Pope to be saved but we must believe in him He repeats these words in several passages of the Gospel Verily verily I say unto you if any man keep my word he shall never see death he speaks the same to that man which enquired of him what he was to do to be saved If thou wilt enter into life keep the commandments Matth. 29.16 when he enquired which Christ answered Thou shalt not kill thou shalt not commit adultery thou shalt not steal c. Now the Protestants profess and observe these two things to believe in God and to obey his commandments This is their Faith and the principles of their Religion to believe all that God hath revealed and to do all that he hath commanded Wherefore should they be damned Because they don't believe in the Pope answers a Papist and because they don't keep the commandments of the Church of Rome But my friend from whence hast thou that these two things are also necessary for thy salvation is it from God or from man can you find in any passage of the Holy Scripture or in the three Creeds of your Religion any thing of this doctrine It is true you shall find I believe in God the Father Almighty Creator of heaven and earth and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord c. You shall not find there that you must believe in the Pope that the Bishop of Rome is the Head of all the Christian Church that he is infallible and that he must be obeyed as God himself You shall not find there any mention made of the Sacrifice of the Mass of Purgatory Indulgences the Worshipping of Images nor of the other Articles of the Popish Religion And the two other Creeds made about two or three hundred years after the first to explain and paraphrase it speak of no such things Listen attentively at your Morning Prayers or when Mass is sung in your Churches publickly you shall hear nothing of the Pope nor of his Church you shall only hear of the Articles which Protestants believe with less additions than you for they credit them only because God hath revealed them they will have no mixture of humane authority with the divine Look over all the commandments of God's Law you shall not find there any thing of praying to Saints of worshipping of Images of abstinence from meats of fasting in Lent of confession of sins to men but there you shall find that we must worship God that we must not make any graven Image c. All these commandments are kept more religiously by the Protestants than by the Papists what reason therefore can we find for their Damnation how come they to be so bold as to thrust this into their Creed as an Article of Faith ambition and antichristian rage against them hath perswaded them to it But I wonder how they can offer to maintain this doctrine with this addition that there is no salvation but by an union with the Pope whom they affirm to be the Head of the Church and by consequence to influence and give life to every one of its Members Suppose the Pope is a wicked man as many such have been according to their own confession if he be covetous profane lechrous an Heretick a Negromancer or a hellish Monster how can any relation and union with such a one do me any good can he make me partaker of that holiness which he himself wants I have good cause to fear that he will infect me with his vices Is it not a grievous mistake and a ridiculous fancy to say that I cannot please God unless I communicate with and be related to his enemy and that I must not expect salvation but by a communion with him that is assuredly damned Nevertheless this is one of the Articles of the Popish Creed and Faith § Their Doctrine concerning Traditions is also contrary to the Holy Word of God It tends to withdraw us from our faith and belief in it If Jesus Christ did now live in the world he might with reason treat the Papists in the same manner as he did the Pharisees In vain do they honour me teaching for doctrines the commandments of men for laying aside the commandment of God ye hold the tradition of men as the washing of pots and cups and many other such like things you do transgress the commandment of God by your tradition Mark 7.7 13. Matth. 15.3 The most part of the Papists Principles and Articles of Faith are nothing but Doctrines and Commandments of men which have altogether changed the appearance of Christ's Church in all those Kingdoms where they have been admitted I might make this appear more plainly if I did but run over all the grievous impertinencies that are by this means received as so many Articles of Faith in the Church of Rome if I did but make an enumeration of all the false Miracles published for true but I should exceed the narrow limits prescribed to my self I shall therefore confine my self to one thing that hath very much scandalised me in this Doctrine it is the reason and expedient that they have to maintain it which tends to the total subversion of Christian Religion and to the destruction