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
serious examination of all these things that there can be nothing more contrary than these two things the ancient Christian Rome and that which appears now the Church then with the modern the Faith and Christian Religion under the Popes Government with that Faith and Religion which the Romans first embraced and professed a long whiles under the Teachers and Bishops which the Apostles left them Let any man read over the Gospel and the Records of the Primitive Christians since the time of the Apostles until the fourth or fifth Centuries to seek what Church Jesus Christ established upon the unmoveable foundation of His Word and Merits let him take notice of that which St. Luke describes better with his Pen than with his skilful Pencil of that which all the approved Writers of the Ecclesiastical Affairs immediately succeeding do represent unto us which professed no other belief but in Jesus Christ which had rejected an Angel from Heaven if he had preached any other Doctrine but that which is contained in the Holy Gospel and in the other Books of Sacred Scripture This Church acknowledged no other but Christ looked upon such as named themselves of Apollo's Party of Peter's or Paul's as so many Sectaries and allowed of no other Judge of Controversies and Governour but Jesus Christ Call but to mind all that you have ever read or heard of this Church since its beginning until the time of the Bishop of Rome's usurpation of the Sovereign Power under the name of Pope and compare that Church of Rome with this in our days examine the Tenents Maxims Laws Behaviour and Customs of both and you will be forced to confess that they are not the same but two Churches as much differing the one from the other as the day from the night We must not therefore mention the Antiquity of this Church but as of a languishing and decayed Body we may say she is ancient in the same manner as we say of women that shamefully yield themselves to pleasure in their old age whilst they were young chast and beautiful they were worthily esteemed and admired of every one but since age and lechery time and debauchery seises upon them they become so strangely altered that they seem not to be the same persons We must look upon the Church of Rome in this manner She is no longer that beautiful Wonder that ravishing Spouse whose Picture Solomon labours to draw in chap. 4. of the Canticles but an old Whore the Mother of fornications and abominations of the earth mentioned by St. John Revel chap. 17. She is old I confess like unto those old Palaces which time and want of repair have brought to ruin I may express this by another resemblance She is ancient as are the old Bodies infected with Leprosie and abounding with vicious humours which putrefie the older they grow and corrupt the more with age the continuance of the disease having so changed their constitution that they are not to be known by the former idea's of their persons In this manner the Romish Church may be said to be ancient Antiquity doth but discover her shame reveal her Apostacy and declare her grievous Corruptions Let us say something more to the purpose Men are known by their speech the home-born Inhabitants of a Country are distinguishable from strangers by their language and pronunciation I desire no more to shew that the Church of Rome is not the true Church of Christ and that the present Church is not the same as that which was first established Listen to the language of both and you shall find a vast difference hearken to the Popes language and to that of Jesus Christ to what the one commands and the other forbids to what the first affirms and the latter denies to what Christ with his Apostles preach and the Pope with his Doctors declare and publish We need but read the Holy Gospel and the Decretals of Rome the Scripture and the Canons of the Council of Trent the Books of the ancient Fathers and the Belief of the Jesuits and of modern Authors to understand that the Church which stiles her self Christian Catholick Apostolick and Roman is nothing of all that and deserves none of those glorious Titles for she is neither Christian nor Catholick nor Apostolick nor Roman if we take the Roman Church for what she was anciently She cannot be properly named Christian because she acknowledgeth another Lord and Superiour besides Jesus Christ and denies Him to be the only Saviour of Men ascribing this honour to the Virgin Mary and others by saying that she may and doth save many by her interceding for them that the Pope is able to do the like by pardoning their sins and granting unto them his Indulgences and that they themselves may contribute to their own salvation by their good works c. She is not Catholick in that sense which the Romanists give to this word because she preaches a Doctrine not agreeable to that which God hath revealed to us by His Son and Ministers and prefers her own Traditions before the Oracles of the Holy Scripture because she invents many superstitious Laws which occasion grievous sins She is not Roman like unto that Church which was anciently so called for besides that primitive Church as we shall further take notice never did claim an universal Dominion for she did acknowledge the Churches of Antioch Alexandria and of Jerusalem and others to be her equals in all respects therefore her Bishops never believed themselves to be their superiours but their brethren and companions The Christians of those days understood nothing of Indulgences of Fraternities of Holy-water of Consecrated Crums of Relicks and Repositories of Medals and Beads and other such like Baubles in which the Church of Rome placeth the Holiness of Christianity They knew nothing of Holy Bread kept in little Tabernacles to be there worshipped they never had in their Churches Images like to those of Rome as may appear by the words of Epiphanius who lived in the fourth Century and writ to John the Patriarch of Jerusalem an Epistle which St. Jerome hath translated into Latin and therefore declares the Judgment of those two Eminent Persons In this Epistle he saith that when he went into a Church situate in a Country Village he perceived upon the door a veil where there was an Image to be seen therefore he caused it to be taken down and to be torn in pieces for saith he by this means men may introduce Idolatry amongst Christians By this passage we may understand that the Worship of Images was a strange thing in that Age as other Historians and after them Baronius are forced to confess Christians of those days did rather chuse to be burned alive and tormented than to suffer the least grain of Incense to fall from their hands into that fire which was intended to burn it in honour of an Image or Idol which they were required to worship Those wise and couragious Christians did
their Lives for Christ's Cause where so many Saints have observed the Rules of the Gospel and made such a glorious profession of all Christian Virtues a Religion where so many pious Souls do yet live a very exemplary and a holy life having forsaken the World to confine themselves to a Convent Who dares deny such a Religion to be the best the securest and the holiest of all In this manner I did argue and many judicious Persons suffer themselves to be thus deceived with a false appearance But such as will as I have done look more narrowly to this particular and weigh every thing in the Scales of the Sanctuary shall find by experience that the Church of Rome hath no cause to glory so much in them There are many Martyrs reckoned in the Church of Rome I confess but this is no infallible proof of its excellency There have been many also in the Churches of Jerusalem of Antioch of the Georgians Muscovites Greeks c. yet the Papists esteem them not the more But they say that many Saints in this Profession have and do yet perform notable Miracles I have cause to question the truth of this Assertion for many false ones are published but when they should be real they are no infallible signs of the Truth of their Faith for the Magicians of Egypt by Gods permission did also work Miracles Exod. chap. 7. God whose Secrets and Judgments are not to be searched out may suffer the Devil to keep men in ignorance by this means But the Papists say that amongst them many Religious Persons are to be seen that lead a most holy life I answer that they are for the most part but whited Sepulchres and that this is the Devils cunning to deceive Souls I shall say something more in this Chapter But what advantage do they expect from this Argument There are men of honesty every where amongst the Heathens and Hereticks as well as amongst the Christians and Catholicks there are persons of good behaviour or at least appear so to the world This is therefore no infallible sign of a true Religion but suppose it were so that the holiness and integrity of life were an infallible sign of the Truth the Papists will never be able to better their Cause by this reason unless their Chief and Governours who are to be look'd upon as the Paterns of the rest change their manner of living The Church of Rome is not so holy as it is said to be to the simple people ignorant of the Affairs of that City Examin the Transactions there now and within this eight or nine hundred years If we did but see the disorders of this Church plainly presented unto us we should have cause to wonder at the things related by the Papists themselves of their Popes I shall here mention some of them and that I may not be traduced as a Lyar I shall bring two or three of their own famous Writers speaking of the Court of Rome such I mean who endeavour to cover its imperfections and have never made use of their Pens but in its defence The first is devout St. Bernard Ser. 1. de Convers Pauli This man's integrity can never be suspected In this manner he speaks of the Court of Rome Iniquity proceeds from the grave Judges who are named Christ's Vicegerents and who seem to govern His people Of them we cannot say As is the People so is the Priest for the people were not like or so bad as the Priest And elsewhere de Consid ad Eugen. lib. 1. cap. 4. From all parts of the world the ambitious the covetous and persons guilty of symony sacriledge debauchery and incest and such like Monsters did flock to Rome to get the Ecclesiastical Honours or to keep them by the Pope 's Authority About the year 897 Cardinal Baronius affirms That there were the most wicked Varlets brought in to sit in St. Peter 's Chair men of most infamous lives most fearfully debauch'd of a corrupt and filthy behaviour every where and in every respect And when he speaks of the year 900 he intreats the weaker sort of Christians not to be offended from thenceforth if they see sometimes the abomination of desolation in the Temple of God Afterwards he cryes out What horrible Monsters were introduced into this See which the Angels respect O disgrace O grief how many evils have proceeded from them how many grievous tragedies have been acted by them what villanies have been here committed in this glorious See what filthy and base actions have appeared here c. In the year 912 he saith sect 8. this Church was so debauch'd and swimming in vice That the filthiest and the noted whores did govern all at Rome At their pleasure the See was disposed of the Bishops were created and their Favourites and Gallants were chosen in St. Peter 's Chair to be Popes This is what Baronius hath been forced to acknowledge after many other Historians who have recorded the disorders of the Roman Church Let any man read Genebrard Chron. l. 4. ad ann 902. Isidor Peleus l. 3. epist 323. Baptist Mantuan de calam suorum temp l. 3. Alvar. Pelag. de planctu Ecclesiae Or let any man go to Rome to see how such behave themselves who pretend to be established of God to govern His Church on earth and they shall find there more wickedness than ever was in Sodom or in Nineveh Let Rome be therefore ashamed saith a Learned Man who beheld these abominations Claud. Espens in Epist ad Tit. c. 1. Let her never offer to shew a Catalogue of her shameful Crimes I would advise her to not mention nor produce this Calendar of so many Saints whom she hath canonised and in whom she glories so much for all those former Saints discover her shame seeing that the Lives of the present Popes and Governours are quite contrary to theirs therefore she hath no cause to challenge them as her own Those former Worthies are her reproach and condemnation because she doth not imitate their Example Nevertheless the Popish Doctors are so impertinent to boast of these disorders vices and abominations and to gather from thence reasons to prove the truth and holiness of their Religion Who would believe that Baronius after that he had filled his Annals with the filthy debaucheries of many Popes should gather from thence a conclusion to the advantage of his Church Yet this he doth very boldly for when he hath taken notice of the debauch'd and abominable Lives of some Popes declared their vices in a most horrible manner and acknowledged all that hath been written of them by his predecessors to be very true that there have been Popes very ambitious covetous symoniacal impious Murderers lecherous incestuous Atheists and Sodomites which things the Papists cannot deny because their own Historians declare them Nevertheless when Baronius hath said all this of the Popes he concludes as boldly as if he had to prove the Divinity of Jesus