Selected quad for the lemma: faith_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A41756
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The Grand imposture, or, The mystery of iniquity a satyr.
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1679
(1679)
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Wing G1497; ESTC R16312
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3,380
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10
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THE GRAND IMPOSTURE OR THE MYSTERY OF INIQUITY A SATYR Tristius haud illis Monstrum nec saevior ulla Pestis Virg. Aeneid lib. 3. London Printed Anno 1679. THE Grand Imposture OR THE MYSTERY OF INIQUITY ASCEND Alecto from thy Den and come Just as thou look'st in that Infernal Home Fell Fury fire my Fancy for I have More cause then Poet e're had yet to rave Thou art my Muse thy Snakes my Lawrels are By me thine own and Rome's Intrigues declare Do it for once then back to Hell retire And pay the Jesuits their Arrears of Fire A Jesuit great Satan's Envoy is Sent to succeed the Snake of Paradise For when that fatal stroke of Adam's loss Was healed by the great Theanthropos When that deep Stratagem of the dark Throne Mysterious Messiah had undone And that first Argument of hellish Power Was quite confuted by a Saviour Then baffled Lucifer no Answer had Till He a Jesuit his rejoynder made By whom he hopes compleatly to renew The Battle and once more mankind undo Plotting his old Dominion to make good By false implicit Faith or fire and blood That catches Fools and these destroy the Wise Thus all mankind are equally his Prize Shut your Eyes close believe me and you 'll see Th' Ignatian cryes the way t' Eternity Deny all Reason misbelieve your Sense Church cannot Err be that your Confidence Pin on our Sleeve your Faith and thô you 'r blind Take but fast hold and follow us behind Our open Eyes the way for both will find This Wine and Wafer now are common food But a few words shall make 'em Flesh and Blood And thô they after all the same appear And out of Modesty th' old Livery wear Yet is Christ's very Blood and Body here Such plain Impostures such bold Cheats as these Can surely none but fools or mad men please The Snake of Paradise play'd fairer far With Adam's Wife and more upon the Square He call'd an Apple Apple said 't was good Pleasant to th' sight and delicate for food The Jesuits Tricks would ne're have ta'n with Eve She saw what 's what before she did believe Besides he pleaded that 't would make her wise But these the grossest ignorance advise And thus we lose our selves b' a greater Cheat Then what the Serpent us'd in Eve's defeat Thus we our sense and reason lay aside To take an old ambitious Fool for Guide Thus we turn Stocks and Ideots and then Become good Cath'licks ceasing to be men As if the only way to save our Souls Were to be easie Slaves or senceless fools To all this fond credulity we 're hurl'd By slavish fears about the burning world So to be sure to feel no torment there First strip our selves of all our senses here Now my Alecto let 's advance and view The Frauds that lurk under Religious shew For thô to Heav'n their fair pretences swell The Root lies deep and dark as is thy Cell No Heathen Law-giver no Pagan Priest Did e're with such mysterious Wiles infest The superstitious Multitude for that Is still most apt to fear they know not what No Cabalist of State could e're Trapan With such firm subtlety as Rome's Divan And first least holy Church should chance to float Without a last appeal in endless doubt You must with dumb obedience still repair Unto Rome's holy Apostolick Chair That that 's infallible and cannot erre This bold Assumption keeps more in Awe Then Numa with his feign'd Egeria And thô it seems at points of Faith to aime 'T is to be uncontroulably Supreame Get universal deference and create A close dependance on the Roman Seat Branding on all damnable Heresie That dare oppose the Apostolick See Or Rome's Political Divinity Thus it usurps boundless dominion Makes Kings their subject's slaves and both it 's own Rome's doctrine is a secular device Mere trick of state in reverend disguise Th' ambitious spawn of latter Centuries And thô it proudly boast an ancient Line From Peter 't is of basest Origine 'T is the Priest's spurious Issue gotten on Ignorance Fear and Superstition These three compleatly make the triple Crown And still support old Rome's imperial Throne How slily do the Priests by help of these Make men believe and then do what they please How solemnly they dazle Vulgar eies With fine misterious holy Vanities Whose ceremonious pomp strikes awful dread In fools that by their eies and ears are lead But should I here endeavour to declare The num'rous Gimcracks of the Romish Fair Their Mystick Idols consecrated Bawbles Feign'd Miracles and monstrous holy Fables How dead Saints relicks cure the Gout or Ptisick And are like Egypt's Mummy kept for Physick How they can scare the Devil with a stench Not that Tobias us'd to get the Wench In telling this I might as teedious be As the returne of their next Jubilee But these are Petty trifles tiney toys Tricks to catch Women gaping Fools and Boys They have devices of a larger size Traps to ensnare the Wary and the Wise And if you chance to boggle at the bait They curse and cry damnation be your fate And then you swallow it at any rate Oh! what a melancholy dismal story They roar in dying Ears of Purgatory That rather than th' affrighted wretch will burn So long Hee 'll all his Gold to Masses turn Thus Ecclesiastick Chymists you 'ld admire Make real Gold by a fictitious Fire Next extreame unction comes from whence the Priest Gets the most good by greasing in the Fist But of all cheats that necessary are Unto salvation Auricular Confession bears the bell and seems to me Next to infallible Supremacy It wears a holy Ueile but underneath Is shame and slavery far worse than death The Priest may tyrannize without controul That knows the guilty secret of the soul So when the gentle sex confession makes That they have often sin'd upon their backs How easily the Priest coms in for snacks And shireves the pretty Penitent A la mode No trick like a jure divino Fraud Thus are their chiefest Doctrines plain device Pimp to their Pride their Lust and Avarice In holy Apostolical disguise In short the whole misterious Cheat doth lie In superstition and Idolatry Two spurious Graffts Set in the tree of life Religion With whose Luxurious branches 't is or'e grown To such a monstrous disproportion That the first planters would it quite disown Religion like a modest rural mayd No artificial dresse no fucus had But was in native Innocency clad Till in Romes Court she ceased to be such Thence sprang her Infamy and first debauch There laying plain simplicity aside She grew to idle wantonnes and Pride Yet still some modesty confin'd her Home Nor rambled she beyond the Walls of Rome Till Proud of her succesful charms she grew Ambitious mighty Monarchs to subdue So by deceitful arts she inlarg'd her pow'r And made them slaves that sh ' had serv'd before At length her lawless Pride gave some mistrust And that increas'd by her insatiate Lust She grew imperious asked more and more And would be Tyrant too as well as Whore Then wisely some the Vassalage forsook Others repin'd as weary of the Yoke She Jealous lest her Universal sway Shold lessen or her former fame decay ' Mongst others did the Schoolmens Pen imploy To Vindicate her truth and honesty Schoolmen who ransack sciences and Arts To prove with pains that they are Fools of parts A knack to Coyn unmeaning words they 've got False words that w'ont endure the test of thought Distinction's their last refuge and appeal The better if unintelligible So these her honour justifi'd in words As Bully Jesuits Plot to doe with swords But both in vain for 't is concluded on Their Mistress is the Whore of Babylon Shift shift the Scenes Alecto fury Fiend Wake all thy Snakes and make this Tragick end By Hellish Art raise up in dark Cabal The Pope a Jesuit and Cardinal Thy self place in the middle raving Wood With Poysons Pistols Daggers Fire and Blood Now let this Scene start into sudden sight By gloomy Flashes of Sulphureous light Then let his Holiness's face appear Full of deep Counsel thought and weighty Care Whilst each of you in awful silence hears The sacred Oracle with hungry Ears Was it for this my boundless power was giv'n For this have I the Keys of Hell and Heaven In vain I boast of a Supremacy And call my Chair the Universal See A little Nest of Hereticks cut off From Europes Earth at all my Pow'r doth laugh Turning to the Jesuit Who thô they kindly could decline to be A Bar to Ballance Gallick Monarchy Yet still oppose my holy Tyranny False Agents heartless traiterous have you So often sworn by Sacramental Vow Or to Convert this Island or undo Was your Commission scant did I deny Plenipotentiary Villany Have not I null'd Divine and Humane Laws That without let you might promote the Cause Heavens Laws thô fixt by an Eternal Seal Stoop and are liable to my repeal Moses once broke these Tables often I Not to prevent but fix Idolatry Thus had your large Commission no restraint Nor did you Apostolick Blessing want Nay more the blackest Crimes in you were merit For which all other endless flames inherit So Treasons Murders Perjuries became Sure Monuments of your Eternal Fame So nature chang'd her course yet nothing's done T' advance the Catholick Religion Be gone Slave fly Delude with crafty words If they prove vain use poyson Fire and Swords Make better work on 't or I swear by th' Mass And the Divinity of Holy Cross These chance unlucky words broke all the Spell They vanish'd and Alecto sunk to Hell FINIS