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A54588
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The visions of the reformation, or, A discovery of the follies and villanies that have been practis'd popish and fanatical thorough reformations since the reformation of the Church of England by Edward Pettit ...
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Pettit, Edward.
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1683
(1683)
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Wing P1895; ESTC R31108
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84,657
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252
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Greg. Epist lib. 6. cap. 3. know it he detested it as a Symptome of Antichrist and Phocas who bestowed it upon Pope Boniface did not doe it untill he had an occasion to bestow his Master the Emperour Mauritius in the other World But now said he you may plainly see it with your Eyes look you there there is the Globe of the whole Earth of which the Pope is the Lord and Governour 't is true you Hereticks wander in some little bye Places as in England and in some petty Hans-Towns of Germany but his Authority is extended over all the World all the Indies acknowledge him all Italy France Spain Poland Hungaria Transylvania Gallicia Valentia Granada Andalusia Hold Hold Sir cryed he if you should stumble o'er the Straits Mouth you will beat out your Brains against Hercules's Pillars Pray let us examine this Monster 's Noddle what a grievous bruise has Martin Luther given him with his High Dutch Knuckles he has broken I do not know how many Degrees of Longitude and Latitude all Great Britain is quite beat out and the Low-Countries are so sunck in that I believe he must be trepan'd before he can recover in short the Protestants are almost as numerous as the Papists But suppose we grant him that thumping Appellation why did Pope Paul the 5th in his Bull wherein he excommunicated Queen Elizabeth use that sneaking Title of Servant of Servants your Triple Servant He should have sent a good deep-mouth'd Nuncio that should have stretch'd his Muzzle to the uttermost and have roar'd like a crack of Thunder among the Alpes and have cryed Paolo quinto Papa Monarcha di Regno di Vaticano Segnor del mondo supremo santissimo Vmano magistrato c. This would have conjur'd down all the Protestants and have put them into such a trembling Fit that they would have shak'd all their Heresie out of the Knees of their Breeches this would have better suited him who is the most serene and invincible Sultan of Contradictions the Grand-Seignior of all Mental Reservations and Equivocations the Sophi of Legends and Romances the Great Mogul of Indulgences the Czar of Holy Impostures and Pious Cheats the Great Cham of the Inquisition c. Hold Sir cryed one of the Papists this is Railery and Abuse 't is as true replyed he as that the Pope is Vniversal Bishop let him but keep within his own Diocese and not meddle any more with the Rights of Sovereign Kings and Princes and there is no body that I know of will be so ready to complement him from the Artick to the Antartick Pole for the Future But we hope cryed several of them you will allow our Church to be the Catholick Church For this word Catholick there has been much scrambling these many Years replyed he and you have taken much pains to monopolize it to your See of Rome in order to which for the great number of humane Hereticks whom you excommunicate you take all manner of Beasts Fowles and Fishes into the Pale of your Church St. Francis first converted the Birds and then afterwards he fully convinc'd and satisfied a Wolf that had a very tender Conscience nor was he the onely Apostle to the Brutes but the Bishop Book of Conf. p. 114. of Canaglion managed as difficult a Diocess in the Year 1593 for he Catholickly accused the Fishes so that afterwards they without all doubt believed the Doctrine of Holy Water St. Bernard in a Fit of Popery is reported by * Pet. de Nat. in vit Bern. Petrus de Natalibus to have excommunicated the Flies and therefore several Species of Creatures observing that all Regular Orders had put themseves under the Protection of some considerable Saints have likewise listed themselves the Dogs under St. Hubert a Huntsman the Horses under St. Loys their Ostler-General and because the Geese once preserved the Capitol there was an Order from the Vatican that St. Feriol should take care of them And so said he I hope we are all satisfied as to the Vniversality of the Romish Church pray set forth the Antiquity of it Upon this all the Papists desired that they might save that Argument untill the last fancying that it gathered strength every Moment and desired the Assembly to take into their consideration the Vnity of their Church and the Supremacy of the Pope as for the Protestants cryed one of them they are divided into as many Factions as there are days in the Year and make an Anarchy of the Kingdom of Grace but the Roman Catholicks are all united under one Head the Pope so making the true Hierarchy of the Holy Catholick Church Upon this one of the Church of England stood up and said as for our Church it has no more to doe or answer for the Factions among Protestants than yours nor so much neither when did ever any Minister of the Church of England preach the Doctrines of Fanaticks to promote its Interest when did any of them ever preach that which in their Consciences they knew to be a Lye for the sake of the Truth and if you look into your own you will find those Divisions which never were in our Church as the differences betwixt the Dominicans and Franciscans betwixt the Jansinists and Mollinists which have been continued with the greatest heats imaginable 't is true the Pope hath sometimes interposed his Authority but to no great purpose but where was the Papal Authority in the days of the Anti-Popes or what will become of it if the Jesuits gain their designs will all other Orders acknowledge the Papal Authority if the Jesuits confine it to their own the Church of England can never be subject to such a Fatal Division so long as the King of England is acknowledged to be in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Civil Supreme Governour As for the Pope's Supremacy that has been so sufficiently pelted with good Greek and Latin by many of these Learned Authours that I will onely humbly drop a few Queries concerning it at this time First then We desire to know Whether our Saviour ever granted it to St. Peter Secondly Whether the present Pope be his Successour Thirdly Suppose it was granted to St. Peter Whether there was any need of forging the Donation of Constantine afterwards Fourthly If it was granted to St. Peter because he first confess'd him to be Christ the Son of the living God Whether Pope Leo the 10th had any right to it for saying to Cardinal Bembo * Crispinus Quantum nobis nostrique ea de Christo fabula prosuerit satis est omnibus secuâ— notum Fifthly we desire to know whether any Bishoprick in Christendom remaining can shew a Succession so disordered and corrupted as that of Rome Not to mention their strange Schisms let any Person but consider the Stratagems and impious Intrigues of the Conclave the Factions of the Nepotism contrary to that Solemn Oath they take enough to make Angels tremble and he will conclude
an Elephant's Trunk before the next Morning but I perceive that some of those who are padling in all the ill Humours of the Nation have been tampering with you That Fellow Sir said I that spoke to him is a Jesuit and he has been as busy with all manner of Fanatical Male-Contents Perhaps said he with as much Success for 't is easy for him to draw those People to what Practices he please who are of the same Principles with himself As for that little Gentleman said I that frets like Gum-Taffety If he will change his Religion because he is not successfull he never had any And as for the Fanaticks they have been told that theirs is purely Popish untill their Ears are stretch'd with hearing it and they will by no means believe it But I will believe my Eyes said he And if you had ever been in France Spain Italy or Germany and had seen or heard the Jesuits or preaching Fryers in their Pulpits you might at the same time have seen all our Conventiclers Mimick Voltings their frisking Ecstasies their apish Laughings their sudden Howlings their awry Faces all their Postures are according to the Ceremonies of a Roman Missal their fumbling their Buttons their knocking their Breasts their Hands hanging loose and then again stretch'd as if they were bewitch'd with an hundred other jugling Tricks and all to set off and varnish their Doctrines which are the most modish Popery in the World viz. That the People is the Supreme Power That Kings and Princes may be Deposed and Murthered That Success is a certain Evidence of God's approving whatever comes to pass I have heard Sir said I Instances enough of the two first Positions pray let me have one of this last Jenkins said he in his Conscientious Queries printed 1651. Asks Whether The stupendious Page 2 d. Providence of God manifested among us in the destruction of the late King whether by these Providences God hath not remov'd the Government of Charles Stuart and whether a refusal to yield Obedience to the present Government be not a refusal to acquiesce in the Wise and Righteous pleasure of God and a stat Breach of the Fifth Commandment So Bellarmine uses it for an Argument for Image Worship Iconomachis Bell. lib. de Imag c 12. Argumenâ—um decimum omnia non sine divino quodam Miraculo malè successisse and then instances that Leo Isaurus for his demolishing Images lost the Empire of Italy whereas it was taken from him by the perfidious Rebellion and Perjury of the Roman Bishops Now you talk Sir said I of Image-Worship they object as a reason of their Separation that the Church of England is inclinable to Popish Superstition and Idolatry No but they are replyed he You must know that some kind of Image-Worship sprang from the obsolete Fancies of the Anthropomorphitae and therefore Pope Adrian argues thus God made Man in his own Image therefore Images ought to be worship'd Now one would think that Pope Adrian's Idea had whipt into that Zealot's Noddle by the way of Pythagoras who cryed Oh Lord take a Chair and come and sit among thine Honourable House of Commons But farther another Popish Doctrine they hold is that God sees no Sin in his Children that they cannot fall from Grace So the Jesuits hold that they cannot commit a Mortal Sin Nemo sociorum in Lethale peccatum incidere queat None of our Society can fall into deadly sin thus they vaunted to Cardinal Borromaeus saith Alphonsus de Vargas in his Book * Cap. 14. pag. 39. Edit 1636. De Stratag Jesuit Their Funeral Sermons are as so many Popish Canonizations and the Lives of their Saints wherein they boast of such extraordinary Revelations and Gifts of the Spirit of strange Voices great Lights and heavenly Apparitions seem to out-doe the Enthusiastick Legends of St. Francis St. Dominick Father Xaviere or Ignatius Loyola they both of them interpret many places of Scripture to the very same sense though both very false and the 21st of Ezekiel the 25th Verse hath been frequently quoted by Popish and Presbyterian Expositours to the same ends and purposes and so has the 8th Verse of the 149th Psalm I have often thought that John Owen learnt from the Psalter of Bonaventure to abuse and misapply the Psalms of David He says * Eben Ezer pag. 13. God came from Naseby and the Holy One from the West Selah And that saith Let our Lady arise and let her Enemies be scattered c. The preaching of Women in the Conventicles of Quakers is rank Popery †Bell. lib. 1. de Bapt. cap. 7. Bellarmine saith 'T is not onely permitted but lawfull for Women to teach and * Paludanus saith †In 4. Sent. dist Papa potest clavem Jurisdictionis Laico Foeminae committere And again Papa potest sicut Laico sic Mulieri committere quòd excommunicet The Pope can grant as to a Lay Person so to a Woman the power of Excommunication And the Canonists teach that they may exercise Spiritual Jurisdiction Thus you see that the Spirit of Popery in one shape or other appears among all the several Sectaries of Great Britain and some more of their Practices will plainly shew how injuriously they cast the Charge of their own Guilt upon the truly Reformed Church of England They condemn all but those of their own Persuasion and their Motto in Zion's Plea is aut hoc aut nihil So Campian in his Challenge to Oxford saith aut nostrum est aut nullius Regnum Coelorum The Jesuits did never more industriously corrupt the Writings of the Fathers than the Presbyterians did the last Books of Mr. Hooker's Ecclesiastical Policy The Papists endeavour to impose upon us the Rhemish Testament and the Presbyterians in King James's time were as busie to have the Geneva Notes put upon the Margent of the Bible The Jesuits have their Index Expurgatorius but they never cancell'd any thing with more boldness than the Presbyterians did when they procured that the 20th Article viz. That the Church hath power to decree Rites and Ceremonies c. was by their Malice left out in the printed Articles And lastly whoever shall reade their unsanctified Ribaldry with which they treat the Reverend Prelates of the Church of England will fancy them the very Cronies and Disciples of the famous Cardinal Palavicini who to maintain the new Frame of Papal Government modell'd by the Council of Trent does so ridiculously and maliciously inveigh against the Sacred and Primitive Order of Bishops calling them * In Hist Conc. Tr. Piccioli Vescovi Fanciulli impertinenti insolenti Buffoneschi little Bishops Babies impertinent insolent Buffoons He had no sooner done speaking but we heard a mighty shouting as if some Triumph had been coming along and hastening to see what was the matter I perceived a great Bonfire blazing in the midd'st of the Court and a world of People with many Torches bringing the Pope with his