With which and many such Miracles or rather lying Wonders he deceived and perswaded ignorant people to believe that he was a Lamp of pure Holiness As also he kept a Brazen-Head in his Closet wherein dwelt a Spirit wherewith in any danger he consulted to know the result of his undertakings But on a certain time as he was preparing to War against the Emperour his Domestick God gave him such an ambiguous Answer that he could make no sense of it therefore took the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper his supposed Deity and setting it on a Table Conjur'd it with the same Words that he had his Brazen-Head a little before but the Sacrament giving him no Answer His Holiness in a great passion threw it in the fire with these Words There 's a God indeed Could the Idol-Gods of the Heathens give them Answer in their Success and canst thou give me none The Cardinals then present were much displeased that Hildebrand should have burn'd the God which they had made to be eaten Therefore John Bishop of Portua of the Popes Privy Council made his Apology in a Sermon in St. Peter's Church the next Lord's Day thus What meaned HILDEBRAND and We to do these things for which We all deserve to be burned alive From whence I infer that Pope Gregory was an Heretick and did not believe the real Presence and that the Sacrament was a True God. Yet this Gregory alias Hildebrand or Hell-brand as some term him for all he Poyson'd seven Popes to make way for himself to the Popedom dyed at Salerne in great Misery Anno 1086. My fourth proof is by consequence from the Words of Pope Gelasius concerning the Sacrament of the Lords Supper who against the Eutychians speaketh thus Biblioth patr Tom. 4. Surely the Sacraments which we receive of the Body and Blood of our Lord are a Divine thing so that by them we are made partakers of a Divine Nature and yet it ceaseth not to be the Substance or Nature of Bread and Wine and certainly the Image and Resemblance of Christ's Body and Blood are Celebrated in the Action of the Mystery Whence it will undoubtedly follow that he was a Heretick according to the Canon of the second Council of Lateran which confirmed the Doctrine of Transubstantiation or else that all the Popes since have been Hereticks who have maintained Christs real presence in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper My fifth and last proof shall be of Pope Leo the X. who when Cardinal Bembus moved a Question out of the Gospel very contemptuously Answered All Ages can testify enough how profitable that Fable of Christ hath been to us and our Company Who then dare be so impudent to affirm him Infallible in Faith who denyeth the very foundation thereof and him by whom only Salvation can be obtained Be astonished O ye Heavens at this and be horribly afraid c. Jer. 2.12 Now if this be the Fountain of the Romish Faith and the Creed of his unspotted Holiness what mud and dirt is in Babel's streams What Atheism and Infidelity must there be among the Crew of the Romish Clergy And Rabble of Brutish Priests Monks and Friers Est petri Sedes saith Bellarm. in praefat ante lib. de Pontif. Rom. Lapis probatus angularis pretiosus in fundamento fundatus St. Peter's Chair is an approved Corner Stone precious and laid in the foundation And again lib. 2. de pont Rom. cap. 31. The Pope of Rome is the foundation of the Church And Stapleton Relect. princip Doctr. in praef Alii nunc a Christo eorumve Doctrina praedicatio determinatio fundamenti apud me locum habebunt That is others now beside Christ and their Doctrine Preaching and Determination shall be esteemed of me as a Foundation The Begging Friers in the time of William de sanct amore as the Doctors of Paris in lib. de peric novis temp relate collected all their Dreams Fancies and vain Traditions into one Volume calling it the Eternal Gospel and Preach'd The Gospel of Christ shall cease and our Eternal Gospel shall be Preach'd and receiv'd to the end of the World. The Pope with great reluctancy did at last condemn this blasphemous Book of Abominations and lying Wonders at the earnest Request of the Doctors of Paris against whom his Holiness conceived such implacable hatred that he could never after be reconciled to them and favoured the Friars so much that he both preferr'd them and enlarg'd their Priviledges Now if any of the Romish Clergy perswade a Lay-man to believe as the Church believeth he must tell him what is the Church For if he believe what the Church of Rome preach'd formerly then he must not believe the Doctrine of Popery now Yea if he believe Pope Gelasius whom I have Quoted he must not believe the present Church of Rome or else if he will believe the Doctrine of Rome now he must acknowledge that Pope Gelasius was a cursed Heretick which will overturn the Doctrine of the Popes Infallillility which hangeth betwixt a Possibility and an Impossibility Now to prove the Pope Fallible in respect of evil Works Sin and Wickedness his godless and brutish life is enough to declare him both a Beast and an Atheist And I really believe that as soon as ever he sitteth down in the old rotten Stool which they call St. Peter's Chair as from an old enchanted Oracle he is possessed with the spirit of Delusion and Errour which driveth him headlong to all Abominations and Uncleanness And as an evil spirit from God troubled Saul so suffereth he the wicked one to take possession of this Prince of Pride that they who follow and wander after him and term him His Holiness may be inexcusable in the day of their accounts in reputing him a Terrestial God whom they see an Infernal Devil And for further satisfaction I shall here insert some Popish Pranks and Wicked Villanies committed by the Popes of Rome which the Reader may judge whether or not they can consist with Infallibility and unspotted Holiness Pope or rather Popess Joan was a Fornicatrix and died in Labour bringing forth a Bastard Pope John XIII lay with his own Sisters forced his Fathers Concubines played at Dice drank the Devils good Health pray'd to him for good luck and put out the Eyes of Benedict his Ghostly Father Gregory VII caused a fellow to put great stones right over the place where the Emperour Henry used to pray in St. Marys Church to knock him on the Head by an ingenious contrivance whilst he was at his Devotion he Cursed and Excommunicated him without occasion and took his Crown from him without any just cause Paschal II. stirred up Henry the V. to Rebel against his good Old Father who at last by his assistance beat him from the Empire and brought him to beg his Bread so that he lived and died miserable and was caused to lye rotting above ground without burying five years at the Pope's special command Innocent IV.
SPEEDY ADVICE TO ALL Roman Catholicks Especially those concerned in SCOTLAND AND IRELAND LONDON Printed and are to be sold by Richard Baldwin near the Black-Bull in the Old-Baily 1689. SOUND ADVICE TO Roman Catholicks c. THough there be none in this Nation who upon the account of Merit oweth less kindness to your Tribe yet as one well acquainted with the Intrigues of both Churches upon the account of Brotherly Love and Charity I humbly present you with my Christian and best Advice earnestly desiring you seriously to consider the sandy Foundation of your Romish Church and no more pin your Faith and confidence of Salvation to the implicit assertions of a pretended Authority and usurped Supremacy to believe every Contradiction of Nonsense which is or can be affirmed by the Spiritual Apostates of so abominable an Harlot whom with the Ephesians Act. 19.28 you term your Great Diana and unspotted mother-Mother-Church and therefore ought to be believed without any further enquiry though the Turks may on as good grounds perswade the World to embrace their Religion and their chief Mufti as well claim Christ's Vicarage upon the account of John of Constantinople as the Pope of Rome can on the Succession of Peter their Principles being neither more ridiculous nor contrary to the Scriptures of Truth and Apostolick Christian Faith than the Doctrine of the Church of Rome is at this present time Indeed I my self was lulled asleep by the allurements of the Popish Syrenes and the bewitching Sorceries of the Man of Sin as by the impetuous current of Babel's streams driven headlong to the brink and shore of the See of Romish Abominations But as Joseph was sold to Aegypt for the Preservation of his Brethren so was I laid aside by the permission of Divine Providence for the safety both of my King and Country Therefore with the Apostle Paul who was once a Persecuter knowing the terrour of the Lord and the danger of Popish Apostacy I perswade all men to renounce the Doctrine of Devils and embrace the Christian Faith freely offered to us in the Gospel And because I would gain ground on the meanest Capacities and discover the nakedness of the Roman Harlot in puris or rather nudis naturalibus I shall for the benefit of those who have not money to buy nor time to read great Controversies set down in this small Treatise some obvious and abominable Errours of the Romish Church in such capital and legible Characters that they who run may read MYSTERY BABYLON c. on the face of that impudent Harlot and unless they shut their Eyes Ears and all their Senses the Gates of their understanding be ready to cry out Men and Brethren what shall we do to be saved The first blow that I intend to strike is at the Pope's Supremacy and Infallibility the two great Pillars whereon the Church of Rome or rather Fabrick of Antichrist leaneth The first God hath as evidently prohibited Mark 10.42 as he hath Murder and Adultery in the sixth and seventh Commandments and since Papists unanimously acknowledge that all the Apostles received the gift of the Holy Ghost and Peter only the Keys the Orders and Badge of his Supremacy before they prove his Superiority and Dignity above the rest of the Apostles they must prove that those Keys were a thing better and more precious than the rest received yea than the Holy Ghost or God himself which none but Antichrist and his Members dare to affirm Peter indeed being a forward Man Self-confident and Audacious first answered our Saviour's Question Matth. 16.16 and our Saviour very gently continued his discourse to him not excluding the rest But were I to give the Supremacy to any Apostle I would rather give it to James the Lords Brother or to Paul or Barnabas to whom Peter himself gave the right hand of fellowship Gal. 2.9 or to John who could be more intimate with Jesus than any of the rest as is clear from Joh. 13.23 and was termed the Disciple whom Jesus loved Joh. 21.20 Yet what Fool will from thence conclude that he hated all the rest though the Papists foolishly affirm that because Christ gave the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven to Peter he gave them to none else He was pleased to wheedle over the rest with smaller enduements priviledges and preheminence though they received both the Father and the Son. Thus did Peter according to the Canon of the Church of Rome receive a more noble Gift and was inspired with a greater Spirit than God himself though our Saviour saith Joh. 10.29 My Father is greater than all Yet for all these Keys were so precious that bloody Sodomite Pope Julius the Second threw them in the River Tiber as he was marching before his Army the number whereof was as the sand of the Sea Whence Bibliander doth conclude that Pope Julius did resign all his pretended Right and Power of shutting and opening Heaven and Hell to the River Tiber or the Fishes or other Creatures therein For casting away the Keys the Testimony of his Authority he did deprive and spoil himself and all his Successors of Peter's inheritance But to approach a little nearer to this glorious Mitre whose dazling brightness darkneth all the Crowns in Christendom I would gladly know how the Pope of Rome came to be Peter's Successor and if he came honestly by his Popedom If Peter was Crucify'd at Rome his Succession must be by Usurpation and his Right to the Holy Chair but a meer Robbery But it is acknowledged by all that the Titles of Pope of Rome Universal Bishop Peter's Successor Christs Vicar and God upon Earth were not known till about 600 years after our Saviour The Patriarchs of Constantinople and Rome did both by Letters and Legates sollicit the Emperour Mauritius for the Title of Bishop of Bishops instead of Servus Servorum But Gregory the First abhorring that Blasphemous Name and calling it the Mark and Badge of Anti christ Lib 4 Epist 27. wrote to the Emperour thus Exclamare compellor ac dicere O tempora O mores Ecce cuncta in Europae Partibus Barbarorum juri sunt tradita Destructae Urbes eversa Castra depopulatae provinciae nullus terram Cultor inhabitat tamen Sacerdotes qui in pavimento cinere flentes jacere debuerunt vanitatis sibi nomina experiunt novis ac prophanis vocabulis gloriantur That is to say I am compelled to cry out O Times O Manners Behold in all the parts of Europe all things live under the reverence of barbarous people Towns are destroy'd Castles are over-thrown Provinces are spoiled No Labourer inhabiteth the Land notwithstanding the Priests who should lye in ashes upon the ground weeping are seeking unto themselves Names of Vanity and Glory in Prophane Titles Thus Anti-christ's Title was blasted in the bud and forc'd to linger in the birth till Bonifacius the Third finding opportunity by the disliking which the Emperour Phocas had of the Patriarch of
whole Christ and that the eater and the eaten were the same and that the Apostles were Canibals and did eat Christ alive when he was dead in his Grave and that the B. Virgin did cruelly tear in pieces and eat up her own Son every bit and crum and that God in Christ who made Men Rational and is the Author of Order and not Confusion did confound the World both in Sense and Reason and that in this Sacrament there is Form without Substance and Substance without Form and yet no Forma Substantialis and that Christ's Body is in Heaven Earth France Spain Italy and all the World over at once without Bilocation or Ubiquity Or in few Words to affirm that a Wicked Debauch'd Priest can make that which was never unmade viz. The Eternal ever-living holy God and then eat up the invisible Deity is such a piece of ridiculous impudent absurd brazen-fac'd blasphemous self-contradicting Nonsense as driveth the Turks Pagans and Heathens to astonishment staineth Christianity and confirmeth all ungodly Wretches in Atheism and Idolatry and ought not to be named among Christians For as Vigil lib. 4. contra Eutych speaking of Christs Body saith When it was on Earth surely it was not in Heaven And now because it is in Heaven certainly it is not on earth My eighth Objection shall be against the Church of Rome's depriving her Laity of the Communion-Cup For if our Saviour was so liberal of his Body and Blood as to give both to unlearned Fishermen yea to Judas whom he knew to be both a Thief and a Traytor I think the Romish Clergy may do the same to the vulgar after Confession without fear of the falling of drops of blood or mammocks of flesh for it was no less disparagement to Christ's Body and Blood to be in the Self-murdering Son of Perdition's Belly than to lye in a Church floor My ninth Objection shall be against the Doctrine of Popish Merit For if Man in his best estate be but Vanity all his righteousness and best performances but filthy rags and the best of men but unprofitable Servants What can foolish men merit at the hand of God Or what reward can he expect for his empty performances Yet are the deluded Papists so simple as to affirm that many of their supposed Saints did live so holily that they left in bank a superplus stock of good Works more than merited Heaven to themselves and Wicked Kinsmen which now his Holiness of Rome hath laid up in bank as Spiritual Revenues to be sold to ungodly rich sinners for ready Money to buy their Salvation and redeem their deceas'd Friends out of Purgatory But this principle is so evidently abominable that there is no need to refute it to a Rational Man for there can be no greater absurdity thrown at it than its own impudence and filthiness For if Christ's Merits be infinite and his Raiment which he proffereth freely be white as snow what necessity is there to lay out our money for that which doth not profit and buy filthy rags which cannot cover our nakedness My tenth Objection shall be against the Adoration of Images For notwithstanding that the changing the Glory of the Incorruptible God into an Image made like to corruptible Man and to Birds and Four-footed Beasts and creeping things was the abomination of the Gentiles whom being vain in their Imaginations God gave up to vile Affections yet are not Papists ashamed to build the Sepulchers of their Fathers painting the Immortal Deity in similitudes of their own Invention O Fools Doth not God fill Heaven and Earth Are not all Nations before him less than Nothing and Vanity To whom then will ye liken him Or Who shall be his equal It would be reputed a spiteful piece of Misdemeanour if not High Treason in any Subject to take the Picture of a Hog Dog or Bear and set it up in his Chamber and call it the Picture of his King. Yet there is greater disparity betwixt God and the best of Creatures than betwixt a King and a Bear. And what an impudent deluded thing is it in them to pray to the Images of supposed Saints Statues Stocks and Stones Gods of their own making and not acknowledge themselves Idolaters For say they We Worship not the Image or Statue but its Representative But O deluded Wretches What Fool will conclude that the Israelites when they Worshipped their Molten Calf did believe that it was their real God which had smitten Aegypt with Plagues and divided the Red Sea before them but only his Representative Yet for their Idolatry how many thousands fell in one day Neither is it less sin to pray to Angels and Saints than to Idols of Stone Wood and Clay for if there be but one Omnipotent Omnipresent God who is only able and willing at all times to hear and help us How dare you slight him who inviteth us freely to embrace those who are neither able to hear nor help For Papists cannot deny that they pray Holy Michael defend us in Battel that we perish not in the fearful Judgment And to the Blessed Virgin O Glorious Saint in whom I put my trust the Mother of Grace The Port of Salvation my Confidence my Refuge and my only hope c. And to another thus Let me obtain Heaven by the Blood of St. Thomas Becket as if the blood of a Traytor were more efficacious and propitiatory before God than the blood of Christ Moreover what an abominable thing is it to pray to St. Nicholas to protect Mariners St. Luke Painters St. Crispin Shooe-makers St. Gal Geese and Antony Pigs c. as if God whose Providence reacheth the Sparrows were not the Confidence of all the ends of the Earth and of those who are afar off upon the Seas Moreover it is ridiculous to pray to that which can neither hear nor help and say O Holy Cross help me And again ange piis justitiam reisque dona veniam Increase Righteousness in the Godly and grant Pardon to Sinners And to an old rag to say O Sancte Sudari Ora pro nobis O Holy Napkin pray for us These are the Works of Delusion yea the Mystery of the Man of Sin which I earnestly desire and request all Papists to forsake and pray only to God in Christ the only Mediator and Advocate betwixt God and Man as Jerom in an Epistle to Riparius Writeth Christians neither adore nor Worship Martyrs nor Sun nor Moon nor Angels lest they should therein rather serve Creatures than the Creator My eleventh Objection against Papists shall be their praying in an unknown Tongue for as Paul saith 1 Cor. 14.9 Except ye utter by the tongue words easie to be understood how shall it be known what is spoken for ye shall speak unto the Air Yea in this same Chapter vers 23. he compareth those who are guilty of this foolery to Barbarians and Mad-men and telleth that tongues are for a sign to them that believe not but Nonsense
to them that believe Moreover to be spoke to with stammering lips and Men of another tongue was a Curse from God upon Israel as it is now on the obstinate Romans this day Isa 28.11 My twelfth and last Objection shall be against their Doctrine of Adultery or their Clergies single life wherein they condemn their Sacrament of Marriage as an unholy thing and a stumbling-block in the way to Heaven God appointed it from the beginning Christ countenanc'd it and the Apostle recommended it as honourable to all Men. What then are they who give the lye both to God and Man terming it unholy and unclean whilst God hath affirmed the contrary in as direct and plain terms as any man yea beyond what the Wisest Orator can express But since this is so plain an absurdity in it self I shall not spend Pen and Ink in proving that which no rational man will deny only suffer me at last now to treat or rather surfeit your Eyes and Ears with one abominable Story which is this Hudericus Bishop of Augusta in an Epistle Writeth to Pope Nicholas I. that Gregory the Great bound the Clergy to a single Life but on a certain time a Woman catching small fishes which this superstitious Monk thought only lawful to be eaten found 6000 Heads of Infants which had been therein drowned which Monk Gregory perceiving to be the effect of the Clergies single Life with sighing and sorrowing he revoked the Canon Yea it is reported by the foresaid Bishop that the Clergy did so burn in Lust that they not only kept Company with Married Women and their own Kindred but with Mankind and the very Beasts in the Field Another Story the Parallel whereof you may read in several Popish Historians is this Leander and Tritemius report that about the year of our Lord 1470 Alanus de Rupe a Dominican after he had seen several Visions contrived his Work called Rosarium out of our Ladies Psalter and Preach'd it instead of the Gospel which Pope Sixtus IV. confirmed with Bulls and Indulgences Whereupon a certain Book was published in the beginning whereof is Written that the B. Virgin came into the Cell of the said Alan it being shut and made him a Ring of her own Hair and betrothed her self to the Monk kissing him and giving him leave to handle her Breasts and finally to be as intimate as Man and Wife This is he from whom sprang the Order of Alanites and whose Miracles the Popish Clergy so zealously defend I thought to have spoken something of several other Popish Opinions especially of Pennance Pardons and Indulgences but lest I weary you I shall only refer you to a little Pamphlet sold by the Booksellers of London Intituled Sodom Fair which discovereth the Nakedness and Abominations of the Romish Harlot to the Life or rather Death from which I pray God may deliver us all I resolved once as I have said to have given you a taste of all the poysonous and counterfeit Merchandize that is expos'd in the Market of the Man of Sin and a touch of all his Hocus Tricks and Popish Pranks But he who readeth with an Impartial Eye considereth with an Unprejudic'd Understanding and receiveth what I have here written in an honest Heart will be ready to turn his back on Babilon and his face Zion-ward and enquire after the good old way which is set before us in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament Therefore it is my humble and hearty Advice that all people be terrified at the Name of Popery and that all Roman Catholicks open their obstinate Eyes and Ears to see and hear the Word of Truth and with the Noble Bereans search the Scriptures the Writings of the Fathers yea and their own Legends and Historians to see whether what the Christian Protestant Churches affirm be conform to the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles or not Then if Baal be God follow him if the Pope or his Creature the Hoste his imaginary Deity be God follow him But if there be no God but one all sufficient eternal invisible and incomprehensible follow him according to his own Will and the Rule which he hath in his Word prescribed to us but if you will neither hear nor believe the Word of God and Scriptures of Truth nor the Writings of the Fathers and of your own Historians then if one should come from the Dead you will neither hear nor believe him For they that shut both Eyes and Ears and resolve to be filthy will be filthy still And none can do more but with the Prophet Jer. 51.8 Wail over you and cry out We would bave healed Babilon but she is not healed But remember what the Lord saith by the Prophet Isa 50.11 Behold all ye that kindle a Fire that compass your selves about with sparks Walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks that ye have kindled This shall ye have of mine hand ye shall lie down in sorrow A WORD To the People called QUAKERS Gal. 4.16 Am I therefore become your Enemy because I tell you the truth I Intended to have spoken of your Opinions and Principles but considering that you all pretend to an Inspiration of the Infalllble Spirit of Truth and need no outward teachers I shall only humbly advise you to square your profession and try your Spirits by the Scriptures of Truth for the Spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets And if you walk not after that Rule which God hath set down in his Written Word and holy Will it is because there is no light in you Next I cordially request you to consider that all ages since our Saviour's days did repute them Hereticks who denied the sanctified use and benefit of the Sacraments which God in Christ hath appointed as Seals of the New Covenant to be an Evidence before the World that as we really believe in our hearts before God we are not ashamed before men to own him for a Redeemer whose body was broken and whose blood was shed for the Remission of our Sins and Salvation of our Souls And tho you repute them foolish and ridiculous God by the foolishness of Sacraments yea of Baby-sprinkling Bread-eating and Wine-drinking hath oft-times conveyed Grace Comfort and Strength to weary fainting Souls Neither can you wipe off what I affirm by saying they were but beggarly Rudiments for young beginners to endure but for a short season For our Saviour in his last Will recommended them to his Apostles as a Christian performance to endure till the end of the World. Baptism he did Matth. 28.19 Teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo I am with you alway even unto the end of the World. Now since Baptism is one among these all things which Christ hath commanded to the peformance of which he hath promised his assisting presence to the Worlds end it cannot be a transient Necessarium secundum quid a thing that may be done or slighted and that but for a short space for the Words are baptizing them viz. all Nations Now when there are no Nations there will be no Baptism but as long as there is any Nation or one Man of a Nation Baptism will never be an useless Rudiment of humane Institution or that which may be thrown away as a ridiculous Tradition And as for the Sacrament of the Lords Supper our Saviour said Matth. 23.19 This do in Remembrance of me Now if the time be expired wherein we should not remember our Redeemer and the time come wherein we should forget him then may we lawfully lay by his Sacrament Sed falsum prius ergo c. The next advice that I would give Quakers is negative concerning matters of Fact and that is that they neither lye cheat nor covet For he that saith that he is Religious taught and led by the Spirit of Truth and doth such things his show of Religion is vain he is yet blind and not purged from the Old Man Love not the World then neither the things that are in the World. If any man love the World the love of the Father is not in him The Prophet Micah adviseth us to a good Religion Chap 6.8 To do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God. Which if all would study before they fall by the ears in controversie for the tithes of Mint and Rue there would be more sincere knowledge in Religion more inward Peace and outward Content and greater practice of true piety For the Lord saith by his prophet David Psal 50.23 To him that ordereth his Conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God. Now to this God only Wise be ascribed all Glory Honour and Praise with Dominion Majesty and Might World without end Amen FINIS