Christ That all these Vices by which St. Peter's Chair hath been dishonoured are proofs of its Holiness Excellency and Infallibility because saith he God hath permitted all these debaucheries and wickednesses in such as were the Governours of His Church without punishing them this discovers that this Estate is more sacred more holy and more regarded of God than that of Kings whom God commonly chastiseth as soon as they are unfaithful and abuse their Authority I must needs confess that I was never more astonished than when I found this Argument made use of by this Learned Man and heard it approved of in the Popish Schools Me thinks I could as easily prove the union of Contraries to be found in the same Subject as to shew the union and correspondency of this Conclusion with the Principles from whence it is drawn In this Church most abominable Popes have been seen Alvar Pelag. a Portugues Bishop tells us lib. 2. art 15. of many Popes who have crept into that See by their factions agreements covenants and large promises and when they have got in all their endeavour was to enrich and raise their Relations to promote their friends to the chief Offices to live themselves in pleasure and to dignifie their Kindred building Towers and Palaces in Babylon I mean Rome so called by St. Jerome These Popes have fomented the Wars and Factions in Italy instead of maintaining the unity of the Church They have wasted the sacred Revenues advanced most unworthy persons and gloried in their chariots elephants horses rich garments numerous train guards and noble attendants They have by the power of the sword often endeavoured to enlarge their own Borders and seize upon the Territories of their neighbouring Princes never minding the salvation of souls but have been addicted to the pleasures of the flesh c. These Men for money have sold as Judas did Christ's Body consecrated the Sacraments and celebrated Orders for silver c. We have seen saith the same Author lib. 2. art 2. fol. 104. men that have made this City like Sodom and Nineveh by letting in and countenancing all manner of vices publick and private as covetousness ambition symony usurpations uncleanness vain glory envy tyranny and other crimes which cannot nor ought not to be named We have seen in God's sanctuary saith the Bishop of Bitonte in the beginning of the Council of Trent orat hab in concil Trid. sess 1. shameless monsters rotten vessels full of infection publick plagues c. so that there remains no appearance nor hopes of good life but an immoderate and extraordinary debauchery a not able impudency more crimes than can be well credited We have seen according to the testimony of some Cardinals chosen by Pope Paul III. for the Reformation of the Church Concil delect Cardin. tom 3. pag. 823. Whores walking about the streets of Rome as honourable Dames carried upon Mules attended and waited upon by Noblemen and Cardinals Chaplains such like scandals have never been seen elsewhere but in this City We have seen saith Guischardin Hist of Italy lib. 1. sect 2. Rodericus Borgia who was afterwards Pope Alexander VI. buy the priviledge of disposing of the Holy Treasury And Platina and Baronius relate that there have been some Popes introduc'd by violence who have clapp'd in prison such as were before in possession of the See of Rome as Christopher did Leo VIII Some have been so base and furious that they have taken up the Bodies of their Predecessors whose Fingers wherewith they had given their blessing to the people they have cut off and cast into the Tybur as Stephen VI. treated Formosus In short we have seen men more covetous ambitious impious lecherous cruel and wicked than in the most licentious Courts than amongst the most barbarous Nations And Genebrard Chron. lib. 4. saith that these disorders have lasted sometimes 150 years together During this time saith Baronius ann 912. sect 8. Jesus Christ slept very soundly in the bottom of the ship and wink'd at all these mischiefs Therefore from hence he gathers this conclusion for this cause the Church of Rome must needs be the truest the holiest and best beloved of God infallible and the only Church that may be named Catholick c. Let any man judge if this be not the most impudent and unjust reasoning in the world The Heathenish Philosophers have taught these Popish Doctors to argue in this manner for their Religion from this ancient Maxim of theirs Ex quolibet fit quodlibet That from any Principle we may draw any Conclusion either good or evil They care not so they can but maintain their Thesis and Opinion but these kind of Reasons discover their weakness For any Understanding may perceive from thence the feebleness of their Doctrine the falshood of their Religion seeing that they are driven to draw such Conclusions as are quite contrary to the nature and truth of the things themselves If any man say that this Reason is not in Baronius word for word as I have expressed it the premises are there and the Conclusion not in two or three words and in such a plain and succinct manner as I have here related it but it is laid down in a more ample and more florid Discourse which tends to no other end but to prove the Truth Holiness and Excellency of of the Popish Religion from the Vices and Debaucheries of its Priests and Popes This cannot but be look'd upon as very ridiculous by any man of Judgement For if their Reasons were good I might as well say that Pharaoh's Kingdom was holy because God suffered it to continue so long without punishing him and did many Miracles for his sake and that the Turkish Religion must needs be the holiest and the best at present because God hath suffered it to abide so many years and increase every day although its Chieftains lead most filthy lives These and such like Considerations which I have had by reading the Books of the Popish Doctors and Historians have lessened that vast esteem that I had formerly for that Church and made me to understand that all its excellent Priviledges which it claims and which they assign to her are but whimseys and Chimaera's begot in their fancy by their fondness for their Religion the Popes ambition and the credulity of silly minds who are ready to believe any thing the greatest absurdity if boldly asserted Let us proceed next to our other Considerations THE SECOND PART THE Second Reason that hath so long time kept my Mind in a ballance was grounded upon the Faith and Articles of that Church I did seriously examine all those things which she engageth us to believe as infallible Truths the Pope's Infallibility the real and corporal presence of Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of the Altar the Sacrifice of the Mass Purgatory the Invocation of Saints and the certain damnation of all those who acknowledge not the Pope for their Superiour c. I thought all this
to be very true when I look'd upon it with the Popish Spectacles which they give to all that read their Writings or study in their Schools and judged this Church to be the best and holiest Hath not Jesus Christ said I have promised to St. Peter that his Faith should never fail doth not he mean that his Successors should be always Infallible hath he not said in celebrating his Holy Supper that the Bread was his Body and the Wine his Blood expresly and in proper terms c. In this manner I did argue upon all the Articles of the Popish Faith concluding always to its advantage But when I had more narrowly Examined these matters alone without partiality I found that I was very far from Truth that all these Articles of Faith were not conformable to Holy Scripture but altogether contrary and the Popish Religion opposite to that of Jesus Christ of the Apostles and of the Primitive Fathers § For where shall we find any thing of the Pope's Infallibility in the Holy Scripture shall not we find rather that the holiest of men are liars Psal 115. 11. and 61.10 That we fail all in many things and that if any man fails not in word he may boast of being a perfect man Jam. 3. and St. John informs us that we are all Sinners Moreover this Infallibility is according to the judgment of the Popish Doctors one of its Divine Attributes stiled by them Uncommunicable how can they therefore say that God hath given it to a man and why to the Pope of all other men seeing that according to the Papists confession he is many times a very wicked man And St. Peter himself unto whom the Son of God had promised that his Faith should never fail from whence they would establish this Doctrine was guilty of a great mistake concerning the Circumcision of the Jews and Gentiles as St. Paul affirms I have resisted him to his face saith he for he was to be blamed Is it possible that the Pope chosen by a company of men who know not whom they pitch upon and promoted many times by Legerdemain by Bribes subtilty temporal Interests Princes favours Is it possible that these Popes who are to be all Italians born elected out of the number of Cardinals and so aged that they can scarce do any good but by others Is it possible that these Popes promoted by the assistance of Whores and the Cardinals Courtizans as Paronius and Bellarmin and others acknowledge should be more infallible than St. Peter chosen by Christ himself How can we imagin that such a man should be a Treasury intrusted with Divine knowledge and the will of God that his voice pronounced out of his Chair should be the voice of Heaven that he should be able to cause the Holy Ghost to go and come at his pleasure and to oblige God to ratifie and confirm all his Laws in the World to command when he commands to prohibit when he prohibits to damn when he damns and to save when he saith the word Before we can believe this they must deprive us of our judgments and make us become beasts before we can become Christians and deal with us worse than Mahomet deals with his Mussulmans The Pope being assisted by some of his Brethren hath pronounced the Sentence which they say is ex Cathedra and condemned Jansenius and his followers he hath declared them to be Hereticks must I believe it as an Article of Faith because he saith that in the Book of this Learned Bishop there are five Propositions the same as were condemned heretofore in Calvin and that only from the information of the holy Fathers the Jesuits Must I take all this as an Article of my Faith although Mr. Arnaldus and other Doctors of the Port-Royal have proved to all that can but read that these Propositions are not be found in his Books The Pope saith that Peter d'Acantara Francis de Sales and Pius V. are He-Saints in Heaven that Mary Magdelen of Pazzi Mother Rose and others are She-Saints he commands us to pray to them If I doubt of it and speak as the wise Son of Sirach Eccl. 9. whose Book is received amongst the Canonical That no body knows whether he be worthy of love or hatred much less doth he know this of others if I should say as the Gospel that it belongs to God to judge men and that all Judgment is left unto Jesus Christ or as St. Paul that the Judgments of God are unsearchable and that therefore I leave it to him I am an Heretick amongst the Papists Since these He and She-Saints have been Canonized it is become an Article of Faith to believe them in Heaven Before I was at my own choice to credit what I pleased but since that time I am no longer free the Pope hath said it we must therefore believe it if I despise their Mediation if I neglect to pray to them out of a distrust of their happiness and credit with God I am an Infidel and an Athiest in the judgment of the Papists Is not this to mock God and men Some of them answer that the Pope may erre in matters of fact but not in matters of right Bellarmin de Po. l. 4. cap. 2. But we all know that most of their questions of right depend upon matters of Fact and that the judgment of right which concerns not only the Doctrines of the Holy Scripture but an infinit number of other things received by Tradition proceeds from the testimony and information which they have received of several matters of Fact Suppose therefore that all these informations should be false as they may be for the Pope who only is to be look'd upon as Infallible according to the Papists Doctrine hath not seen all these things he believes it from the testimony of others For Example It is an Article of Faith amongst them that St. Peter hath been twenty five years Bishop of Rome that he hath added the word enim to the words of the Consecration saying Hoc est enim corpus meum and not as it is in the Gospel Hoc est corpus meum that he did mingle Water with the Wine in the Mass If these things that are all matters of fact which cannot be proved by Holy Scripture be false as we have cause to imagin what certainty can we have of the right and truth which depends upon it § Moreover I find the Papists Sacrament of the Lords Supper differing very much from the description which Christ and his Apostles have left us It is the bread of life say the Romanists the bread of Angels the Heavenly bread the Body and Bloud of Jesus Christ I have always believed it to be so I think there is no good Christian that doubts of it We all know that it is no common Bread no body will contradict them in this St. Justin shall not be condemned for affirming it That the Bread becomes the Body of Christ and
coal from thine Altar clense this tongue yet venomous which hath so often conveyed a poison into many hearts inflame it with some of those cloven tongues of fire which lighted upon thy Holy Apostles and which caused them to be no more dumb but eloquent Change the accent of this voice which hath been heard in the Pulpits of the Romish Religion make it never to be heard any more in vindication of errour and that it may never accent and pronounce any thing but that which is altogether conformable to thy Word These are the petitions that I now present unto Thee O good God especially at this time beseeching Thee also so to prepare the ears and hearts of my Hearers that they may be the better by my discourse more confirmed and settled in their Faith and more resolved in an obedience to Thee These mercies we beseech Thee to grant us O merciful God by the merits and only mediation of Jesus Christ in whose Blessed Name we continue to pray unto Thee as He Himself hath taught us Our Father which art in Heaven c. ROM 5. vers 20. Where sin abounded grace did much more abound HEre I am my Brethren in this Pulpit to acquaint you at present with the causes of that which you have seen me do this morning I am here to express unto you a repentance suitable to the hainousness of my sins by a publick abjuration of those grievous errours which I have formerly professed in the Church of Rome that I might shew forth the accomplishment of this holy Oracle pronounced by St. Paul Where sin abounded grace did much more abound You may be fully perswaded my Brethren that Gods grace hath obliged and constrained me to what I have done for my Change of Religion proceeds not from the unconstancy of my mind I have done nothing suddenly I have been seven years in a continual deliberation struggling with my self convinced in my judgment but could never resolve until now You must not therefore look upon my alteration as the effect of some calamity or the consequence of an unworthy behaviour or a disgrace I never wanted bread I have always had too much at command and have ever met with more happiness in my undertakings than I could expect Neither is this Change the product of any miscarriage no blessed be God I am not ashamed of any thing that I have done those Honourable Persons unto whom I have been recommended in this place may bear witness from the information of such as are worthy of credit The greatest crime that I have committed is that which I have been guilty of this day by forsaking a superstitious Religion and embracing a purer by leaving the broad road to Hell and turning into that of Heaven God out of his infinite goodness and mercy hath obliged me to it notwithstanding all the natural perswasions of worldly interest for I have left the assurance of a sufficient provision for my maintenance to embarque my self and rely wholly upon Gods good providence I have caused my best friends to become my most deadly enemies I have made of my parents and relations my persecutors and sworn adversaries I have left forever a Country where I enjoyed as much worldly happiness as was possible to come to live and dye in another where I have no other expectation nor means to advance my self but only from your kindness and favour God knows how strong these reasons have been to detain me so long and what difficulty I have had to command my self to a final resolution but at last grace hath overcome God hath had in me more power than the world and humane reason and the hopes of my salvation more than the advantages of this life That I might declare this unto you I have now the liberty to appear in this Pulpit I shall therefore do it as briefly as I am able I shall give you an account of some of those disputes which I have maintained in my mind before I could resolve to do what I have at last done I shall therefore begin to declare the reasons that have kept me so long in the profession of the Romish Religion and that as far as I am able to judge do detain the rest of its Professors I shall afterwards discover to you the reasons that have destroyed the first groundless reasons and that have caused me to forsake the Romish Religion and embrace the Protestant to renounce errour for faith heresie and idolatry for the truth the babylonish Rome for the celestial Jerusalem my Country for Haven and all for my God By this Discourse you shall perceive the greatness of Gods mercy towards me in that he hath been pleased of a stone to raise up a son to Abraham and hath caused his grace to abound where sin abounded before THE FIRST PART THe first and chief cause which hath so long detained me in the Church of Rome is that venerable Antiquity which is ascribed to her alone I did sometimes consider her gray hairs her pretended Founder the Apostle St. Peter who as it is said governed her during the space of five and twenty years I did sometimes look upon her Sovereign Authority which she saith Christ himself gave unto her in the person of that Apostle which since hath continued successively in all the Popes who have commanded in that See This Succession of the Popes and Bishops of Rome hath never been violated nor interrupted as they pretend but they have immediately succeeded to one another the like is not to be seen in any other Church Besides I did sometimes view a long Catalogue of Martyrs and other Saints who are said to have lived in an obedience to the Church of Rome and to be dead in the profession of that Faith which is there now and hath been always taught as is pretended I did examin all these plausible Titles these glorious Attributes and her divine Prerogatives as I found them recorded in the Books and Schools of that Church which could not but oblige me to an high esteem of her excellency and to wonder how men could be so blind and irrational as to deny her to be the only true Catholick and Apostolick Church In this manner my Brethren I have continued about the space of six or seven years seriously considering these advantages that were given to this Church At last I took that liberty which is not granted to any of that profession and that is to open my eyes and examin more narrowly from whence proceeded these magnificent and glorious Attributes and what reasons Rome hath to claim them to her self alone For that purpose I perused the Holy Scriptures and its most ancient Interpreters as the most worthy of credit and by them I was constrained to alter my judgment and to entertain perswasions contrary to that received from my Forefathers from my Masters and from the Reading of the Romish Divines I have found that Antiquity in which Rome boasts so much discovers
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
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
of an Apostle which he had renounced by his Apostacy from Christ He had denied his Master thrice therefore the Son of God proposes this question Lovest thou me three times All this is noted in the Roman Rubrick Thrice saith St. Cyril lib. 12. chap. 64. He commands him to feed His sheep to renew unto him the dignity and confirm him in the office of an Apostle for fear that the denial of his Lord which he had been guilty of through the weakness of the flesh should seem to have cashier'd him For it is to contradict what Jesus Christ said to all His Apostles when He appointed them to preach the Gospel to Mankind to teach and baptize c. to say that none but St. Peter had this power granted to him But a great many passages of Holy Scripture do expresly contradict this Doctrine You have but one Master but one Father which is in heaven saith Jesus Christ Matth. 23. vers 8. I am the good Shepherd I know my Sheep and lay down my life for them He saith not I am an hired Shepherd but the true Shepherd John 11. As there is but one Flock there can be but one Shepherd now who is this Shepherd Christ or the Pope My Father hath given me all power in heaven and in earth Matth. 28. I have power to pardon sins on earth Mark 2.10 God hath committed all judgment unto me and power to execute judgment John 5. How can these passages agree with the Popes Sovereign Authority Is it not a grievous affront offered to Jesus Christ to set this Divine Saviour aside as Bellarmin doth secluso Christo to help up the Pope to his Throne and invest him into his usurped Sovereignty If we are to acknowledge but one Shepherd but one Master but one Lord but one only Heir of the Fathers Power and Authority shall we not rob Christ of these His Divine Prerogatives if we should offer to bestow them upon the Pope I am not ignorant of all the distinctions made use of in this occasion to justifie the Pope from this Usurpation but they are but philosophical and aiery distinctions of the same nature as are commonly invented by the wit of man to justifie Aristotle from his Belief and Doctrine of the Worlds Eternity Thomas Aquinas and others from their saying that the Virgin Mary was conceived in sin Tertullian Origen St. Bernard and others from teaching that the Souls of Saints are not admitted to the Vision of God before the day of Judgment They are such like distinctions as the Pirrhenians invented to prove that white was black that a hat was the same as a slipper and an Ape like a Lion c. All these arguments and distinctions might be well resented from the mouth of Aristotle of Plato Pythagoras or from a Cartesian Philosopher but not from a Catholick Christian who ought not to mind what he might say but what he should believe in conscience not what he can maintain but what he is bound to embrace When an Article of our Faith is concerned such a one must set aside his disputing humour and the quirks and tricks of Logick taught him in the Schools to make a plain and sincere profession of the Truth For my part I think it is the best to declare ingenuously that there can be no solid reason found out to authorize our ascribing to a man that which belongs to Jesus Christ alone by his own words No man can justly condemn me for having denied to the Pope that which I read in the Gospel to be Christs Prerogative only It is not possible faith an ancient Father to give too much to God especially when man enters into competition with Him But listen I pray to what the Apostles and primitive Fathers say upon this Article There is one sovereign or great Shepherd of our Souls saith St. Peter Ep. 1. chap. 5. with whom when He shall appear we shall appear also with Him in glory such as feed the flock of Christ committed to their charge taking the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy lucre but of a ready mind neither as being lords over Gods heritage but c. Doth St. Peter establish here the Popes Monarchy doth not he rather undermine the foundation of it No man saith St. Paul can lay another foundation but that which is already laid Jesus Christ There is one Lawgiver Who art thou saith St. James that judgest another He hath the Keys of David that opens and none can shut that shuts and no man can open Revel 3. How doth this agree with that which the Papists would perswade us of St. Peter and of the Pope Ought we not to gather from these passages Doctrines contrary to their belief No man can lay another foundation c. They are therefore much deceived that affirm that St. Peter is the foundation of the Christian Church and that the Pope is the head There is but one Lawgiver the Pope therefore hath no authority to command and appoint Laws He is to be looked upon as a Deceiver when he would perswade us that they are all out of the Church that will not acknowledge his power Jesus Christ hath the Key of Heaven He opens and no man can shut c. I must therefore seek an entrance from Him if He opens me the door I shall be admitted maugre the Pope his Priests and Excommunications if He shuts it to me the Pope hath no Absolution nor Indulgence of a sufficient efficacy and power to open it All the primitive Doctors confirm this Doctrine they ascribe to Jesus Christ only that which the Papists ascribe to St. Peter and to the Pope whom they have made his Successor When Jesus Christ saith St. Chrysostome Tom. 3. Ser. de pent hath said upon this Rock I will build my Church He did not say upon Peter for He hath not built His Church upon a man but upon this Faith What means saith St. Austin Tract 10. in Epist Joan. what means He by these words upon this Rock I will build my Church He means upon this Faith because he had said Thou art Christ the Son of the living God St. Ambrose St. Hilary Theophylact and many others affirm the same thing Optat. Millevitanus speaking of Pope Siricius he doth not call him Master or Holy Father c. but Noster Socius our Companion Contra Parmen lib. 2. Art thou bordering upon Achaia saith Tertullian de Praet cap. 36. thou art near to Corinth if thou art joyning to Macedonia thou hast Philippi Thessalonica if thou canst go over into Asia thou shalt find Ephesus and if thou neighbourest upon Italy thou art not far from Rome where we have authority Thus the Primitive Fathers discourse unto us of the Church of Rome They never ascribed unto her any more power or priviledge than to all the other Churches Let any man therefore judge what impudency and presumption the Popes are guilty of in that they claim a
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
their own Kitchin If I might argue in the same manner I might say with more reason that Judas Macchabaeus never thought to speak of Purgatory in the foregoing passage but of the Resurrection of the dead I am perswaded that from St. Paul's words Heb. 1.3 He hath by himself purged our Sins we may conclude a Doctrine contrary to this of the Papists For seeing Christ hath purged our Sins what need of any other Purgatory seeing that he hath done this by himself that is by his Blood as St. Paul saith Revelat. 1.6 there is no need of the Fire of Purgatory But pray tell me which of all the first Doctors of the Christian Church mentions Purgatory and how was that Festival established in the Church of Rome to pray to God for the deceased I have many times been ashamed when I have been questioned because I was forced to alledge a Dream as the cause and ground of one of the chief Articles of that Religion The Abbot of one of the Monasteries of St. Benedictus as the Roman Legend declares heard upon the top of a Mountain from whence certain flames did proceed not much unlike to those of Aetna and Vesuvius a confusion of voices occasioned by the strugling of the flames with the air round about as the Philosophers inform us as many times it happens when the Air is shut up in Rocks and concavities this brain-sick Abbot fancied that these voices came from the departed Souls burning in those flames to desire his Prayers Therefore he appointed in his Convent a Festival-day to pray to God for the deliverance of these poor Sufferers The next night it is said that he had a vision of these Souls which to his seeming were mounting apace towards Heaven at the same time that his Monks were praying in their Church for them Afterwards he published his Dream and Vision which was look'd upon as a Divine Revelation when the Pope came to understand it he soon established a Festival like that of the Abbot and Monks in their Convent to be observed all over Christianity The design succeeded very happily the silly women that believed that their husbands Souls were frying in Purgatory gave vast summs of Money and great Revenues that Prayers might be said for the happiness of the deceased About this time some Dreamers had Visions in their sleep the Priests asssured them that their departed Friends did require from them Prayers this Doctrine was proclaimed in the Pulpits and believed every whereas an undoubted Truth it pass'd for an Article of Faith for which the Priests were more willing to dye than for the Faith of one God or for the belief of the Incarnation of the Son of God This was the first beginning of that Festival and of that mode received for currant in the Church of Rome to pray to God for the deceased Souls From hence we may judg of the thing in it self and whether it is not to the abuse of mens credulity to deliver upon these grounds this as an Article of Faith But that we may refute the Papists Errours from their own confessions and belief If we may obtain a full Indulgence to be exempt from the flames of Purgatory if by wearing a little Scapulary a Medal of five Saints or by repeating three times in our sickness Jesu Maria before a Crucifix or by being of the Fraternities of the the little Habit of the Virgin or of the Rosary or of the Dying What reason have they to be so earnest with the Widows that Prayers may be said for their Husbands c. when they have seen them perform all these duties which they impose upon the negligent as weighty Cases of Conscience especially at the time of Confession what need of any Mass to be said for their deliverance from Purgatory They affirm at Rome that one Mass said before a priviledged Altar is able to bring up a Soul from the very bottom of Purgatory although it hath been condemned to remain there one hundred or a thousand years or till the day of Judgment Wherefore then do they oblige Children to buy daily Masses for many years in all the Churches of a City and give away their Revenues for ever for the repose and happiness of their Parents Souls If one Mass be sufficient what need is there of so many thousands wherefore do they condemn them as Atheists that will have but One because they trust upon the Priviledge of such Altars And if the Pope hath the power to let the Souls go out of Purgatory when he pleaseth as the Papists say why does he not free them Is it not for want of Charity to suffer them there in Torments to release but one when he may release a thousand or all Is it not pity to see needy wretches labour and sweat all the Week long poor Widows take the Bread out of their Childrens mouths before they come to be of age and give it to a fat Priest on the Sunday that he might say a Mass and deliver by that means from Purgatory the Soul of a Wife or of an Husband when the Pope may perform this with two words by granting an Indulgence From hence we may plainly discover that the chief design of this was to enrich the Clergy with the spoils of the Orphelin and of the poor Widows and with the Estate of the deceased § The Invocation of Saints is another sensless and groundless Doctrine for there is no Text of Holy Scripture that mentions any thing of it it is there neither commanded nor allowed of nay several passages prohibit this Idolatry There is one God saith St. Paul and one Mediator between God and men the man Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 2.5 there he confirms the Faith of one God and of one Mediator If any should offer to maintain to a Popish Doctor that there are many Gods he would exclaim in a rage upon him as upon a wicked Idolater Fair and soft Mr. Doctor you have little cause to suffer your wrath to kindle against a person as innocent as your self you are no less guilty in regard that you affirm that there be many Mediators although St. Paul protests that there is but one as there is but one God The King of Samaria was punished with death because he had sent to enquire of the god of Ekron as if there had been no God in Israel The Papists deserve as great a punishment because Christ hath been pleased to invite us unto himself and oblige us to seek to him alone Come unto me all ye that travel and are heavy laden and I will refresh you learn of me for I am meek and lowly Matth. 11.28 No replies a Papist I will not go to thee I will not address my self directly to thee for thou art a rigorous God thou wilt not suffer Sinners to be so bold to speak to thee only Saints are allowed to offer up unto thee their Prayers Doth not this language of a Papist contradict Christ's command
Priest in his Mass often perfuming the nose of the Image with Incense they shall see a Deacon appointed to read the Gospel reading that appointed for the Saint's day over the head of such diseased persons as they imagin that the Saint can cure they shall see many others as well Priests as other Clerks singing upon their knees the Litanies of that Saint before the dumb Image and such like abominations they shall see What think ye in conscience that these Primitive Doctors would say if they beheld all this foppery would they not cry out against that which God hath prohibited You are in the Errour would they say to the Papists for ye do what God hath forbidden in express words He forbids you to make Images and your Churches are full of them He forbids you to make any Likeness of any thing that is in Heaven above and nevertheless you make unto your selves the Likeness of those men whom you fancy to be in Heaven He forbids you to Bow down to them and yet you Kneel to them He forbids you to Serve them and behold all your Priests are employed in their Service and Worship one saith Mass another smoaks the Idol's nostrils with Perfumes another reads unto him his Gospel another is busie to light Wax-candles about him all the rest are singing his Praises What think ye Papists will not God that declares himself to be a jealous God be offended to see you pay unto such senfless Idols that Honour and Service which he hath expresly forbidden Will not he punish you according to his threatning to the third and fourth Generation There is no person of the least reason will have this thought for the thing of it self is very plain we need not much Logick to discover this Errour and to condemn it Therefore it is not without good cause that the Church of Rome forbids the reading of the Holy Scripture nourishes her people with a strong and indisputable respect for the Pope and his Oracles although he commands things contrary to God's Word they believe nevertheless that they are obliged to obey and credit whatsoever he saith as an Article of their Faith and to curse as Hereticks all such as follow not their example The Reasons that they pretend to justify their Superstitions are very frivolous and unlikely They commonly tell us That they worship not the Image nor the Saint that is thereby represented but God in that Saint shewed unto us by the Image This Reason is very impertinent seeing that God forbids not only the worshipping of Images in the same manner as we believe the Heathens did but he forbids us to make them to make any likeness to carry it abroad to serve and fall upon our knees before it which the Papists do daily Besides this Reason hath no likelihood for we see by our experience every day that the Saint or rather the Image of the Saint is worshipped and reverenced and not God in the Saint as the Papists would fain perswade us For if they worship only God in the Saint wherefore do they esteem more a graven Image than a painted one We can never see the people going out of their Parishes and Precincts to pay their homages to an Image painted in another place wherefore is this If they only seek in the Image the resemblance of the Saint to call to their minds his virtuous behaviour and actions wherefore do the Papists beyond the Seas trot a-foot an hundred leagues from their own homes to cringe and bow to a monstrous Image which in some places hath not the appearrance of a man who should be represented decently about six foot high for this Image is like a mishapen Dwarf ugly and ill-favoured having the Virgin Mary standing by him in the shape of a Onild about seven or eight years of age whereas these persons leave their own Parish-Churches next to their houses where the Image of the same Saint more decent more like to the Original and more beautiful stands without receiving the like respect Wherefore do we see in the Church of St. Anna of Auray in Britany fifty or sixty thousand Pilgrims in her Festival-day whereas it may be not ten shall be found in other Chappels dedicated to the same Saint at that time Wherefore is there such a vast number of silver and golden arms legs hearts heads and little children hanging there rather than in the other Churches consecrated to the same Saint where it may be we shall find no other Ornaments but those which have been dedicated to and left her by the devout Snails behind them I mean their silver-colour'd slime with which they beautifie her walls and paint the face of this worthy Saint it may be we shall find there nothing but a crazy Shrine broken in many places and one before the great Altar made up with the tayl of some old Gown and so tatter'd that many times it is no easie task to tell of what stuff and colour it was of c. Wherefore do the common people throng to this Church only their hands loaden with Crosses Beads Medals and other baubles to have them touch the Image of St. Ann which to my knowledge is but a block of decayed wood almost rotten and which was found in a puddle lying in the mud over head and ears if they believe not in this wood any divine virtue more than ordinary and more than in other Images of this Saint Wherefore have the Carmelits the Keepers of this Church been so careful to preserve so long every morsel and crum of this rotten wood which they have been forced to cut off to mend the Image and wherefore have they offered it about the Countrey in little bits to the Noble persons and Gentry that have desired it to sanctifie their Closets if they did not believe in this crazy wood some holy quality some wonderful virtue like to that which the Heathens affirmed to be in their Idols Let them not therefore tell us that they seek nothing else in the Image of a Saint but the representation and likeness to call their Virtues to remembrance For they take all men to be fools and Idiots whom they would perswade to admit of this excuse by doing what they do A Heathen might with as much reason tell us that he is a Christian that he believes and that he acknowledgeth and and worshippeth but one only God when I see him upon his knees before his Idols offering to them his perfumes To say the truth I think that there is but little difference between the ancient Heathens and the modern Papists if there be any it is only in their names for at present the Papists speak in the same Idolatrous language as the Heathens did for without exception nor reservation they say now in the Popish Dominions that the Images themselves may be worshipped I am certain that the Heathens never shewed more respect to their Gods than the Papists do at present to their Images This
about ten or twelve foot high which they baptize by the name of St. Saviour now this Saint distinguishable from their other petty Saints by his great stature and large bulk is worshipped by them for the preservation of Corn and of the Vines from the cold and frost for the curing of their Cows of a disease called the Swelling and for the healing of the Horses of the distemper named the Staggers this Saint is prayed to for to keep their Sheep from the Rot their Bees from dying and their Lambs from the fury of the Wolves c. Therefore on his Festival-day at Nantes and at Tours and other places where these great Images are erected you might see an infinit number of Pilgrims of all ages conditions and estates bringing their gifts to these Statues one brings thred another wool this man corn another butter and some sucking pigs or pieces of bacon others bring grapes or pots of honey or other commodities but all bring wax-tapers to burn all the while that Mass is saying at his Altar all come with money or some other thing so that about the Altar of this good Saint at such a Solemnity you may find coffers full of wheat barrels filled up with butter tables loaden with great pieces of meat and such a prodigious number of little wax candles that one time when I had the charge to gather up the remains which the people did cast yet lighted at the foot of the Statue although each end of the candle was so short that I could not hold it in my hand any longer I gathered up in five hours full threescore and ten pounds of wax It may be that some ingenious Papists will turn all this to the advantage of their Church as they do the other abuses and abominations committed in it They will say that this is an expression of the wonderful Faith of their people therefore they are apt to blame a Religion where they cannot spy so much Zeal amongst the Professors and accuse it as if she had neither Faith nor Devotion But we may very well suffer them to speak in their own defence for this is a most palpable Idolatry the Heathens were never guilty of so much I do not think that it is possible to do more to Jesus Christ if he did return into the world But I may say they are to be excused if they entertain their people in these Idolatries for a thousand Crowns which they receive in one day by the credit of one of these Images may satisfie for a mortal Sin and free them from the penalty that it deserves There is but one thing more required to make them perfectly like to the Heathenish Idolaters which is to have an universal Idol proper to represent several Saints which might serve in many Festivals The Emperor Trajan had an Idol of this nature he had a golden head of an Idol kept secretly in his Closet which he caused to be put upon the body of the Statues that he had a mind to worship in this manner he did take off the head of his Gods as he thought fitting I have seen amongst the Papists something like to this in a little Town of Britany in the Bishoprick of Vannes if it were not for the respect that I bear to some persons concerned I would name all the circumstances which I shall be forced to do and many other things that I now conceal I shall declare to the World if any offers to accuse me of lying and falshood in that place I have seen a mutable Saint carried up and down wearing several apparels according to the peoples devotion it was the Image of St. Maurice who was prayed unto in his day that he might heal the sucking Babes of a disease called by the Countrey-people Carrel a benumming disease or the Rickets On St. Giles's day they carried the Image to another place and of a Bishop that it was before they made it an Abbot cloathing it accordingly and seeking unto it for another distemper called the Disease of St. Giles On St. Yves's day they chang'd his Abbot's attire into that of a Lawyer they put a corner-cap upon the Image's head and a bag full of Writings in its hand instead of a Croche in this manner it continued to be St. Yves until another Festival-day and the people did pray unto it not only to get the better of their Suits in Law but also that St. Yves might kill and destroy such as were thought to be the authors and inventers of calumnies cast upon them For the Papists there when they are injured by any slanderous discourse or by another they summon the supposed offendor to appear before St. Yves within a year for they confidently believe that he that hath done the wrong shall surely dye before the limited time Let any man judge if it be likely that a Saint should destroy a man for a trifle We may from hence perceive what grievous abuses errors superstitions and mistakes reign in the Church of Rome There is therefore no difference between this Church and the Heathens I relate not here the follies and abominations that have been heretofore practised but these that are now visible I intend not to recollect the passages of the time past but only to make mention of the present I speak not by hear-say but that which I have often seen to my unspeakable grief and confusion because I was in reason forced to condemn a Religion which I was engaged to support and maintain and to preach up a Worship which I knew in my soul to be pure Idolatry I did often wish that the Papists would but confine themselves to the limits of Reason in their Zeal and Devotion for these petty Saints and would have shewn more to St. Peter St. Paul or to the other Apostles but they are not so much esteemed because they are not in such reputation for their Miracles I did often observe their Churches forlorn their Images without ornaments all covered with dust and the Spiders hanging by their lips and noses I did not see so many sacks full of wax so many arms legs dugs of silver and of gold crutches hoods shirts and garments of little Children hung up in their Chappels as are round about the Churches of these Saints so much in vogue for their pretended Miracles The Festivals of those great Saints unto whom we are next unto Christ most obliged for our Religion are celebrated with little or no solemnity there are no more Chappels built for their sakes and such as are erected are decaying every day they are put out of their places and grow out of credit and other new Saints put in as I took notice their Images are cast behind the Church doors amongst the sweepings and lie along with the besoms because they cannot get their expences their Chappels and Altars cost more to keep them than they bring profit whereas if it be but generally credited that the rotten Image of a little
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
to be kept only 'till noon others to prevent all inconveniencies have appointed all Feast-days to be observed on the Sunday and their Fasts on the Saturday So that yet we may see two men of the same Village or of the same Family of a different perswasion one obliged to keep a Festival-day for fear of a mortal sin and the other not nay the same person is ingaged to this observation if he stays at home but if he steps over a gutter or rivulet to go into another Parish he commits no such sin and may do what he pleaseth Can any man think that these practices proceed from God Yet this they believe and the Casuists amongst the Papists affirm § Auricular Confession is another Invention of man's brain The Romish Clergy have imposed it out of policy as a necessary means to keep men in their duty and to hinder them from mischievous attempts The design was good but the means imployed is unjust and tyrannical I may safely name it so without fear for I know sufficiently what I am to think and say upon this subject I have read over and over the Holy Scriptures and the Fathers concerning this matter and because I did not trust to my own judgment I intreated the assistance of some Learned Men of my acquaintance to see whether they could find any thing out of St. Ambrose St. Austin or other Fathers to assist and confirm my Meditations that I was to deliver in Sermons which I composed upon this Subject but I could never see nor find any passage there that confirms this politick Institution as it is practised in the Church of Rome We may find that we must confess our sins unto God but not to men we may also find that it is well done to declare and discover the troubles of our consciences to them that have the rule over us and are appointed by God to instruct us that we may understand and receive from them seasonable comforts and instructions This is very useful to us and sometimes absolutely necessary But it is not required that we should reveal all our weaknesses mention all our sins small and great to particularise their number and quality and all their circumstances and aggravations to a sinful man as vicious as my self who ought to confess also it may be to me as the Priests of the same Church confess their sins to one another it is not required that I should make this confession as it is practised with so many ridiculous questions that teach us to commit sins that we knew not before The Casuists are of opinion that when a Priest should be inclinable to the most abominable sins of lechery and in danger to be tempted to them by every apprehension yet when he receives the Confession of a Virgin he had better omit nothing than to cause her to pass over any thing and to commit by this act a material sin in their opinion This can never be proved unless the Papists offer to do it by a new Bible by other Evangelists and other Interpreters than have yet written upon the Holy Scriptures I could never digest the doctrine of the Popish Divines that teacheth us two kind of sorrows required in true repentance the one they name Contrition which is say they when we are grieved to have offended God for his sake because he is so infinitely good and because sin displeaseth him this grief is sufficient to obtain from God the forgiveness of our sins in case we cannot conveniently go to confess them for if a Priest be present we cannot be dispensed from this duty The other grief or sorrow named Attrition is when a man is grieved to have offended God out of worldly interest and selfishness because sin deprives us of the hopes of Heaven and condemns us to Hell c. This sorrow say they is not sufficient of it self to obtain the absolution of our sins but only when it is accompanied by the Priest's absolution That is to say that although a man upon his death-bed shall confess all his sins if the Priest will be so hard-hearted to deny him absolution in case he departs in that estate with such a sorrow in his heart he shall be damned for all that Let any of the Popish Divines tell me which of the holy Evangelists have taught them this distinction which of the Apostles did ever preach such doctrine as this Nevertheless I think they have reason to recommend it because the salvation or the damnation of souls is so highly concerned according to their teaching and many times of ten thousand souls in one Church This bastard Sacrament is not of the number of the Sacraments of which we are never to be partakers but once for it is commanded every year at Easter and some persons are partakers of it almost every day as is usually practised in the Church of Rome What is the reason that neither Christ nor his Apostles have ever mentioned it Or rather how came these persons to be so bold as to impose these distinctions as Articles of Faith Is it possible that the Priest's presence or absence or the opportunity of Confession makes our repentance true or false according to such trivial circumstances If I am at a distance from a Romish Priest am I therefore to be look'd upon as if I were at as great a distance from God and in a worse estate than another from whose sides the Priest is not to be drawn Doth this cause my sorrow to be less or more able to prevail upon God's mercy Doth true repentance depend upon the Priest's good pleasure And Attrition which is but an imperfect sorrow of no validity of it self in God's sight is it more considerable more perfect and more able to save me when a Priest shall have mark'd me with the sign of the Cross upon my forehead when he shall have whispered two or three words in my ear What am I the better for all this Is God's Justice thereby satisfied and his Mercy more inclinable to pardon me According to this ridiculous Doctrine suppose I should weep and lament for my sins as bitterly as St. Peter with as many expressions of holy love as Mary Magdalen if I do not confess them to a Priest I shall be nevertheless damned for them And suppose I should be guilty of the most horrid crimes if I can but imitate this imperfect sorrow a superficial displeasure to have offended God for the love that I bear to my self if I reveal them to a Priest I shall be saved notwithstanding Wretched Judas hadst thou had but a Romish Priest at the foot of thy Gibbet thy Soul might have gone streight to heaven for he performed all the conditions required by the Popish Doctors in a true Penitent for they say that three particulars are to be observed the compunction or pricking of the heart the confession and satisfaction compunction in the soul confession of the mouth and satisfaction of the hand Judas was