taken the Cup from the Lay-people and committed many other Abominations Therefore I conclude this Argument The Church of Rome not having the Word of God purely Preached nor the Sacraments rightly Administred according to the Institution is in no sort to be esteemed a Visible Church of Christ Argument 3. That pretended Church which overthroweth and denyeth the only Rule of Faith is no true Church of Christ But the Church of Rome does so Therefore As to the Proposition the only Rule of Faith is the Scripture or written Word of God John 5 32. 2 Tim. 3. 16. Now to overthrow this Rule is to overthrow the Foundation of the Church of God which is built upon the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Ephes 2. 20. That is the Scriptures of the New and Old Testaments As for the Assumption That the Church of Rome hath overthrown this Rule is Evident for First She hath added another Rule of her own to wit Traditions and humane Inventions which are contrary to the Scriptures as Christ saith Matt. 15. 16. Gods Ark and Dagon cannot stand together what Communion hath Christ with Belial What agreement hath Divine Purity with bold Forgeries Secondly they overthrow as much as in them lies this only Rule of Faith whilst they subject the Authority and Sense of it wholly to the Church of Rome or the Pope so that Gods Word is not received of the Church of Rome as it is the Word of God but as the Word of Men contrary to that of the Epistle 1 Thess 2. 13. Argument 4. That Church which holdeth not the Head Christ is no true Spouse or Church of Christ But the Church of Rome holdeth not the Head Christ Therefore The Proposition is undeniable Eph. 4. 16. and 5. 23. The Assumption may thus be proved That Church which is wholly Idolatrous holdeth not the Head Christ For if Worshiping of Angels which is but one kind of Idolatry separates from the Head as it does by the Apostles Testimony Colloss 1. 18. then much more all kind of Idolatry But the Church of Rome is drown'd in all kind of Idolatry as not only Worshiping of Angels but likewise of Saints and Pictures and Images and of a piece of Bread c. Besides she adhereth to another Head viz. the Pope and not to the one only true Head Christ and what agreement hath the Temple of God with Idols 2 Cor. 6. 16. And the member of an Harlot cannot be withal a member of Christ See 1 Cor. 15. 16 17. Argument 5. The true Church of Christ is the true Flock of Christ But the true Church of Rome is not the true Flock of Christ Ergo. The Proposition is undeniable from Cant. 6. 6. Acts 20. 28. John 10. 16. The Assumption is proved John 10. 3 4 and 17 verses There it is laid down as the property and Characteristick Mark of Christs Flock That they hear his Voice and know it and follow it But the Church of Rome hears not Christs Voice nor acknowledges or follows it but the Voice of Antichrist and the Antichristian Synagogue they hear not Christs Voice as Christs Voice but as the Churches Voice And this is likewise affirm'd against Rome by the Church of England in the before Cited Homily for Whit-sunday Argument 6. That Church which practiseth not the true Baptism of Christ is not the true Church of Christ But the Church of Rome does not practise the true Baptism of Christ Ergo The Proposition I suppose will be granted Baptism being an Initiating Ordinance without which none can be Members of the Visible Church The Assumption is thus proved True Baptism is a Seal of the Righteousness of Faith and of the Covenant of Grace made unto us in Christ But the Baptism in the Church of Rome is not such for the Church of Rome denyeth the Righteousness of Faith and the Justifying by Faith yea she maketh Baptism the Instrumental Cause of Justification so as that it confers Grace Ex opere operato by the meer thing done and they require not Faith in Christ as necessary for the Party to be Baptized But only a Disposition Conc. Trent Sess 7. Can. 6. and 8. and principally the whole Force of Baptism and so of all their Sacraments depend upon their Priests intention So that the Church of Rome hath no more of Baptism but only the External Form of words and those fullyed with abundance of lewd Ceremonies together with the Element of Water For a Sacrament is a visible sign of an Invisible Grace which Invisible Grace the Church of Rome destroyeth while she placeth the Grace in the Sacrament it self denying and Accursing Sess 7. Can. 6. only Faith in Gods Promise to be sufficient to receive Grace Thus they destroy the Nature and use of Christs Sacraments and of Baptism in special while they seperate it from the Doctrine of the Word of God and from the necessity of Justifying Faith Thus their Church is quite Removed from the Foundation and built upon another Bottom Thus Baptism to them of that Church is nothing else but a Seal to a Blank or which is worse a Sealing up of their Condemnation whilst their Sins are not washed but their Souls drowned in Errour and Idolatry as the Aegyptians in the Red Sea a Type of Baptism Yea they make a very Idol of their Sacrament and of the Priest together whilst to these they attribute that Grace which the only Author and Fountain of true Baptism can give and present their Children in the Faith of that Church which denyeth true Faith in Christ THE COURANT. Jesuit PRethee whither so fast my dear most obliging Friend Tory. I have just now seen an Express from his Eminency Cardinal H. Patron of our Nation at Rome which assures That all this Ruffle of the most Christian King against that Court is only a Sham Contriv'd on purpose to wheadle in Neighbours into a good Opinion of the French whom you know our Common People naturally hate but yet he says at this Juncture it will be highly necessary for a certain Gentleman's purpose whose Interest is Inseparable to set Monsieur fair in their thoughts under pretence That he will prove forsooth a Second Harry the Eight Jesuite I hate a blabbing Tongue 'T is only taking wind makes things smell strong This ought to be kept a Secret not but that we are long since satisfied in the Intrigue and know whose Influence at present Governs the Sorbon we must adapt Principles to occasions vcer our Sails to catch the Wind. 'T is a thriving piece of Haeresie prethee promote the Hint That Lewis's Arms shall Effect what one of his Predecessors Coyn threatned Perdam Babylonis nomen and get our Observator and his Cullyed Pupils to advance the Notion nothing will be more advantagious as present Circumstances play The White Witch shall Unravel the Enchantments of the Black one Let us alone to Retrieve the Business at next favourable opportunity Tory. But I have further
mystery Roger has more than once been tampering with this Mr. Tongue and at Christmas last renew'd his Intrigue with him much about the same time Fairwell and Pain began privately to broach their Sham now if Godfrey's Murder could have been turn'd off and people been made believe that Dr. Tongue and Dr. Oats contriv'd and invented the whole Scheme of the Plot so Artificially that it deceived the King and four Parliaments and all the Judges c. Then how innocent would the poor Roman Catholicks appear and what glorious Martyrs Whitebread Coleman and the rest But this trinkling with young Tongue taking wind Roger cries Whore first and fills the World with Exclamations that Mr. Tongue forsooth had a Plot upon But Roger Roger for all your Lapwinging there is more of this matter known than you are aware of and there will come a day of Reckoning Printed for Langley Curtis 1682. The Weekly Pacquet OF Advice from Rome OR The History of POPERY The fourth Volume FRIDAY May 26. 1682. Quocunque aspicies nihil est nisi Terror Orcus That the present Faith of the Church of Rome is to be refused upon pain of Damnation The Woes threatned to them that abide in her Communion Greater the Sin and more sore the punishment of such as revolt unto her The Judgment of the ancient Divines of the Church of England in the Case TO reinforce and corroborate what we offer'd in our last of the extream hazard all that continue in the Romish Church at this day do run in Relation to their Eternal State We shall now advance and endeavour to Demonstrate the following Proposition viz. That the Faith of the Church of Rome is to be refused upon pain of Damnation And First For Explanation of the Terms By the Faith of the Church of Rome is understood the Doctrine of the said Church delivered to be believed of all men that 〈◊〉 to be saved as matters revealed by God to that end And this is â—â—â—sidered as one individual or singular thing for though indeed it be divided into several Articles of which it consists yet it is conceived by themselves as one intire Body because they are all knit together by the same Bond namely by being assented to and believed upon one and the same reason and all to be received on pain of the same Anathema Thus Fisher the Jesuite under the Mask of A. D. in his Treatise of Faith Ca. 4. Faith must be intire whole and sound in all points and it is not sufficient stedfastly to believe some points mis-believing or not believing other some or any one For not to believe any one Point whatsoever which God by revealing it doth testify to be true and which by his Church he hath commanded us to believe must needs be damnable as being a notable Injury to Gods Verity and a great disobedience to his Will And that Chamaelion the Arch-bishop of Spalatto when he was return'd to his Vomit in his Consilium Reditûs p. 20. asserts the same All Articles saith he of Faith determined by the Church are fundamental none of them may be deny'd without Heresie Thus every Member of the Church of Rome must as stedfastly and absolutely believe the least point of Reliques Images Purgatory c. delivered by the Council of Trent as the greatest mysteries of the Godhead Trinity Incarnation c. And if he deny any of the former he is no less an Heretick than if he deny'd any of the latter Yea though he believe all that they propound to be believed save some one he is for want of believing that one if he know that the Church propounds it to be believed a Miscreant or Mis-believer The reason of which is this that if the Church may err in one thing it may err in another and so can be no sure foundation of Faith Now to refuse the Faith of the Church of Rome is nothing else but not to acknowledge the Doctrin by her delivered to be true but to abhor it as false not of every particular point but of all joyntly together For we freely acknowledge that the Papists do hold several great mysteries of Divinity truly and soundly wherein we also agree with them but yet we may not receive their Faith for true as it is by them delivered for one Intire body of Divinity revealed by God to be believed by all men that will â—e saved So that to refuse the Faith of the Church of Rome is not to believe that it is true or to believe that it is false and this we say is required by every man upon pain of Damnation Which words Vpon pain of Damnation are not so to be understood as if we presumed to pronounce sentence of Condemnation against all that continue in the Church of Rome we have disclaim'd such Temerity but thereby is meant that the believing that Doctrin as a matter of Faith is a thing in it self damnable that is such as maketh a man liable to damnation How it shall fall out with particular men in the event we neither know nor take upon us to inquire only we say that their mis-belief is such a sin as setteth them in a state of Damnation To prove this we must consider That there are Two ways by which sin leadeth a man into the state of damnation The one is the desert or fitness it hath to procure damnation The other is the actual meriting or deserving of Salvation Into the former sin casteth a man off it self Into the latter he falleth as by sin so by the Ordinance or Decree of God who hath laid the penalty of Damnation upon it Hence ariseth this Argument against receiving the Faith of the Romish Church That which maketh a man unclean in Gods sight hath a fitness to procure Damnation For unclean things are unmeet for the presence of God and consequently meet for Damnation But the Faith of the Church of Rome maketh a man unclean in the sight of God For it is erroneous in so high a nature as we have proved that it makes a man guilty of High Treason against God by Installing the Pope in the Throne of God giving him Power and Authority to determine as a Judge what is matter of Faith and what not without any Commission or Warrant from God Nor do they only give him authority to Interpret the Scripures but also allow him to set up a Forge of Tradition where he Hammers what he listeth and Vends it to be received upon pain of Damnation for the word of the ever living God What is it to fulfill that of the Apostle 2 Thes 2. 4. To sit in the Temple of God shewing himself that he is God if this be not And must not all they needs be accessaries to this High Treason that acknowledge such his Usurp'd Authority and yield obedience to it Or how can it be reasonably denied that there is a worthiness and fitness in the Faith of the Church of Rome to procure Damnation Therefore
being abandon'd by Ladislaus King of Sicily and seeing it was impossible for him to stem the tide of opposition thought it would be more Honourable for him to seem to part with his pretended Popedome freely of his own accord than to be turn'd out And so sends Charles Malatesta his Proctor to make a Renunciation for him who to perform the Pageantry came into the Council all arraid in the Pontifical Robes and was seated in the Chair of state wherein Gregory's name he solemnly Renounces the Papacy and in token thereof pulls of all his Trinkets decently and in order which so pleased the Reverend Gray beards that they presently made Gregory Legate of Pisa And so good Night poor Pope Gregory But the third Gamster stout Benedict defies the People at Constance and all their works He swears he is Christs Viccar I marry is he and so he will continue in spight of their Teeth He says Constance is not a place fit or free and therefore none of his Subjects shall come there However the Synod at Constance Cite and cite him again and again to appear before their Worships but he seem'd to reguard them no more than Parson Hickeringal in our times does the Gentlemen of Doctors Commons And tho after several Messengers in vain the Emperour himself undertook a tedious journey to persuade him to submit yet still he stood it out not only contemning their Authority but thundring out Curses Deprivations and Excommunications and abundance of such Church-Granados at them all which they declare Null and void and proceed against him very vigorously and in the up shot declare him to be a Perjurer a Sâ—â—ndalizer of the Church an Abetter and promoter of Schism 〈◊〉 Heretick wandring out of the way of Faith c. And for these and the like offences they sentence him not only to be depriv'd of his Papal Dignity but also to be cut off from the Church as a dried and withered Member and withall forbid all Persons to obey him on pain of Excomunication But all this would not do for tho almost all his Consorts of Eminency and Power had abandon'd him for Rats always fly from a falling house yet he still persisted in his pretensions to the Popedome continuing saith Crantzius in Metrop l. â— c. 1. Idolum cum Idolis suis Cardinalibus An Idol with the Idol Cardinals of his own making Yea in ipso mortis articulo when he was just going out of the World Anno 1414. he adjur'd the Cardinals that remain'd with him in the Fortress of Paniscola whether for safety he had retreated that they should forthwith chuse him a Successor Which accordingly they perform'd Electing one Giles Munion a Chanon of Barcelona whom they call'd Clement the Eighth but this pitiful shadow of a Pope about 4 years after Renounced his Charge was content to stile himself Pope no longer and what afterwards became of him we do not at present meet with in the Histories of those times Having thus clear'd the decks of the Three contending Popes and for 2 years or upward there having been never an one at all during which time the Council lookt upon themselves as keepers of the Liberties c. They now began to bethink themselves of chusing a new Pope but first to prevent such Rogues as the last John was from vaulting into the Chair they contrive a Test to be taken by all succeeding Popes in the words following â— N. Elected for Pope profess with heart and mouth unto Almighty God whose Church I take upon me to Govern by his help and to blessed St. Peter the prince of the Apostles so long as I shall continue in this frail life firmly to believe and hold the holy Catholick Faith after the Traditions of the Apostles of general Councils and of other holy Fathers and namely of the 8. general Councils the first of Nice the second of Constantinople Ephesine the third 〈◊〉 the fourth the fifth and sixth of them of Constantinople the seventh of Nice and the eighth of Constantinople and also of the general Councils of Lateran Lions and Vienne willing to observe the same Faith inviolate even to the uttermost and to Preach and defend the same even to the spending my Blood and Life as likewise by all means possible to prosecute and observe the Rites of the Sacraments Canonically delivered to the Catholick Church And this my profession and confession by my command being written out by the Notary of the Arches of the holy Church of Rome I have subscribed with mine own hand and sincerely with a pure mind and devout Conscience I offer it to Almighty God upon such an Altar c. In the presence c. Then they appoint a Committee to proceed to the Election who in 4 days agree upon one Columna who being chosen on St. Martins Eve would needs call himself Martin the 5 th and being brought in before the Emperor and Council was Enthron'd with mighty Pomp and Solemnity THE COURANT. Tory. BUT were not you too rash last bout in stiling Mrs. J. Mother Cellier's younger Sister Truem. I hold my self as much oblig'd to retract any thing that may seem a Scandal on the innocent as I do esteem it my duty to Advertise the publick of ill Peoples designs Now tho there were probable inducements that the Paper emitted in her name might be put upon her as the Narrative which Celliers own'd is known to have been seen in Gadburies Hand-writing before 't was in Print yet since I am satisfied that Mrs. J. has always professed her self of the Church of England and never that I can find Herded with the Romanists but on all occasions has expressed a superlative Zeal and Affection to His Majesties Person and Government I must wish a Deleatur on that passage for as I am resolv'd ever to oppose and detect the designs of Papists so never in the least to reflect on any tho of never so inferior quality that are His Majesties Friends Tory. I wish the Observator would practise the same Candour for in the midst of his pretended concern for his native Country Norfolk he most scurrilously reflects on a Reverend Magistrate by calling him tho unhappily true short sighted Pug and we expect by his ungrateful returns that in his next he will reproach him too for taking Bail for Murder and living Litigiously amongst his Parishioners and Neighbours but if he do the Devil a Peny more of Contribution shall he get from the Crape-Gowns of Dumpling-shire Truem. This to me is all Arabick prethee no riddles how go matters in the Town Tory. Hang 't I know not what to think on 't 'T is pitty that excellent Writ De Haeretico Combâ—rendo is out of date some Friends of mine in the West would have made brave use on 't is it not pitty that those who can send an honest Christian to the Devil for not paying an Easter-twopence cannot plague him for the sin of not putting off his Hat But have the
ought we to esteem any thing small or light that is repugnant to the Divine Will especially in a matter of this moment as we have proved it to be tending to advance Idolatry rob God of his honor harden Papists in their impiety and laying a stumbling block before weak Christians Remember that famous History Recorded by Josephus and in the Book of the Maccabees touching Eleazar and the Jewish woman with her seven Sons All that Antiochus and the persecutors urg'd them to do was only to taste a little Swines-flesh a small business you 'l say what not eat a bit of Pork and yet being expresly against the Law of their God they all chuse rather to dye with exquisite Tortures and the reason is notably given by the good old man 2 Maccab. 6. 24. in these words It becometh not our age in any wise to dissemble whereby many young persons might think that Eleazar being fourscore years old and ten were now gone to a strange Religion And so they through mine Hypocrisie and desire to live a little time should be deceived by me and I get a stain to my old age and make it abominable For though for the present I should be delivered from the rage of men yet I should not escape the hand of the Almighty neither alive nor dead 'T is true this History is no part of Canonical Scripture but yet it was never esteemed Fabulous but the Church has always reckon'd them for Holy Martyrs and applauded their Faith and Constancy and consequently must condemn those that practise the contrary In a word those that repute this feigned compliance with Idolatry for a little matter and dare join with Papists in their damnable Superstitions know not how highly Gods Honour ought to be prized by all his Creatures which have their Being to no other end but to glorify him nor have sufficiently weighed that Tremendous Declaration of the great Jehovah Isaiah 42. 8 I am the Lord my Glory will I not give to another nor my Praise to Graven Images Obj. You will say here 's a stir indeed about going to Mass will you compare that with the Idolatries of the Heathen are not the Papists Christians I answer That the Church of Rome is no Church of Christ we have lately prov'd at large that she is guilty of Idolatry is apparent in this respect worse Idolatry than the Heathens because she is faln into the same by Apostacy 'T is an aggravation of her Crime that she was once a Spouse of Christ a man resents more sensibly the Disloyalty and Adulteries of his Wife than those of a common acpuaintance or ordinary friend Nor is this any other than the Doctrine of the Church publickly profest and taught in her Book of Homilies part the 2. p. 213. The Church of Rome as it is at present and hath been for the space of 900 years and odd is so far wide from the nature of the True Church that nothing can be more And again in her Homily against the peril of Idolatry she thus plainly expresses her self That the Church of Rome is an Idolatrous Church not only an Harlot as the Scripture calls her but also a foul filthy old withered Harlot and the Mother of Whoredme guilty of the same Idolatry and Worse than was amongst Ethnicks and Gentiles Thus thought thus spake the Church of England heretofore and whatever some young flashy heads who fancy a Reconciliation with Rome possible may pretend our Church â—â—till of the same Juâ—gment witness Dean Stillingfleet's learned Discourse Of the Idolatry of the Church of Rome witness to that excellent and most true Assertion publickly delivered by the Right Honorable the present Lord Chief Justice Pemberton at Plunket's Trial p. 100. That Popery is a Religion ten times worse than all the Heathenish Superstitions so that we have the present Papists not only accused by our Church to maintain and practise Doctrines and Fopperies worse than Heathennism and the Charge made good by our most able Divines but also judiciously condemned from the Bench for the same However it may be still Objected what if Popery which God forbid should once again in after Ages gain the Ascendent of England and the Mass happen to be Establisht by Law may not I if I am a Minister brought up in the Protestant Religion comply so far as to say Mass if it be done purely out of a good intention thereby to gain an opportunity of Preaching the saving Doctrine of Christ to the people for their Edification who otherwise will be bereaved thereof I answer as Jehu replied to Joram talking of peace 2 Kings 9. 22. What peace so long as the Whâ—redoms of thy Mother Jezabel and her Witchcrâ—fts are so many So what talk you of Preaching to Edification when you practise shall lead to Destruction This is an excuse that proceeds from the Belly not from the Heart he that makes it whoever he shall be has more respect to the keeping a Fat Benefice than the Salvation of the people or if indeed his aim should be right it will not follow that what he does is not sinful for good intentions can never justify bad actions God indeed sometimes by his omnipotent providence can promote his word even by means unlawful being an All-wise Artist that can bring good out of evil but shall it therefore be said that he approves of the irregularity or that he is excusable that commits it when he that mounts the Pulpit to take upon him the Person of Christ by instructing the people in the Gospel under his name and authority and performing the office of an Ambassadour from Heaven shall fain a consent to abominable Idolatry which is openly repugnant with the chief Scope of the Evangelical Doctrine what hopes are there of Edification from such an Hypocrite Let such boast their pious designs as much as they please those Cobweb pretensions are all instantly swept away and overthrowâ—â— by this one word of Eternal Truth That no Evil is to be done that good may follow Others there are that alledge they haunt Popish Chappels only out of curiosity spectatum veniunt they come meerly to see but let them remember too spectantur ipsi they are seen by men which if Papists may by their presence be Confirm'd in their Idolatries and if Protestants may be scandaliz'd and perverted by their Example for who can tell what their Intentions are when they do as the rankest Papists do and what is yet more they are also seen by God who will revenge and punish such their mispending their precious time and abetting of damnable Superstitions It is not safe to touch upon the borders of evil Dinah in curiosity went out to see the Maids of that Country otiosè spectat sed non otiosè spectatur her gazing was her vanity but her being gazed upon produced worse than vanity far was it from her thoughts that such a petulant curiosity should forfeit her Chastity yet we see what a
Truem. Pish Natt Implement will undertake all that and more This unknown Lady will in a trice Blanch ye a Blackamore turn Swine into Sheep make a Hog-dog-rascally Villain as Innocent as a Sucking Devil Nay shee 'l make Subornation of Perjury Lawful or which is as good render it Vnpunishable and all this according to Law Don't you know Bobbloody coat the Sow sucker Tory. Yes yes but now you talk of Rogues and Miracles didst ever heard the Legend of Longinus Truem. No prethee let 's ha 't Tory. Longinus you must Note was a Roman Red coat and somewhat Purblind They tell you that he was the very Man that with his Lance pierced our Blessed Saviour's side and some of the Blood happening on his Eyes presently cured his sight and his Soul being Illuminated as well as his Body he was Converted and Believed and Lived Thirty eight Years a Monastick Life in Cappadocia and then was carried before one Octavius the President to whom Preaching Christ Octavius commanded all his Teeth to be struck out and after that his Tongue to be cut off but still Longinus Preached on And then without 〈…〉 Spake to good purpose when his Tongue was out And at last had his Head Chopt off and after that did a Thousand Miracles Truem. Well and what of all this This is word for word in that ingenious Treatise call'd Devotions of the Roman Church Tory. 'T is so and likewise the same Author from the Roman Festival adds the following story That the hand of Thomas the Apostle that was in Christ's-side would never go into his Tomb but always lay without unburied which hand had such vertue in it that if the Priest when he goes to Mass put a Branch of a Vine into that hand the Branch presently putteth sorth Grapes and by that time the Gospel be said the Grapes will be Ripe and then the Priest takes them and wrings them into the Chalice and with that Wine Honseleth the People Truem. A pretty way to get Liquor But are these all the Miracles you have to tell us Tory. Why what would you have me talke Sense and have an Information brought against me Printed for Langley Curtis 1681-2 The Weekly Pacquet OF Advice from Rome OR The History of POPERY The Fourth Volume FRIDAY Feb. 24. 1681-2 Scito Te mortalitèr peccare si servabis fidem datam Haereticis Pope Martin the Fifth to the Duke of Lituania apud Cochlaeum in Histor Hussit l. 5. Further Observations touching that wieked Tenet of the Romish Church That Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks That memorable Appeal of Amurath the Turk to Christ against the King of Hungary breaking his League by the Popes Warrant c. WE told you in the last how the Council of Constance wickedly caused John Huss to be Condemn'd and executed notwithstanding the safe Conduct given him by the Emperour If you would have the matter briefly summ'd up you may find it in Sleidan's Commentaries l. 3. Aberat â—um fortè Sigismundus c. Sigismund by chance was then absent when the Council thus proceeded and being inform'd thereof took it very ill and came thither to expostulate about it but when once he was told by the Pope That Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks he not only said by his Resentments tho the Bohemians oft interceded with him and requested the safe Conduct might be made good but also was one of the first that bitterly inveigh'd against him Or if you will rather take it in the words of Nauclerus thus Incinerationem Johannis Huss Imperator non aequo animo tulit c. The Emperour was much dissatisfied with the burning of John Huss because he had allow'd him his safe Conduct but the holy Synod answer'd That he could not be tax'd with breach of Faith in the Case for the Council it self had not granted any safe Conduct Et Concilium majus est Imperatore and the Council is greater than the Emperour and therefore he could not lawfully grant any such thing against the pleasure of the Council especially in matters of Faith Bâ—canus and other Advocates for Popery to excuse this Council from the odium of allowing Breach of Promise made by Catholicks to such as they are pleas'd to call Hereticks in that Decree wherein it declares That no Secular Power how Soveraign soever can hinder the proceedings of the Ecclesiastical Tribunal in Causes of Heresie and consequently if the Emperour or any other Secular Prince grants a safe Conduct or engages by never so solemn Oaths or Promises to do any thing which they account prejudicial to that Jurisdiction it is not obligatory do alledge the Reason thereof to be for that it is a promise made of things out of and beyond the Power and Jurisdiction of such a Prince which is to say That altho in Cases properly appertaining to the Princes Jurisdiction he is bound by his Word Promise or Oath yet in case of Heresie or persons suspected of Heresie for all is one with them he is not because the same is of Ecclesiastical Cognizance and what is this less than to say That Promises made to Hereticks are not binding However this to be the Doctrine of the Roman Church will further and undeniably appear from the Sentiments of her allowed Doctors in their Writings and from their Practises Their famous Bishop of Symancha in his Catholick Institutions cap. 45. tells us expresly Haereticis fides à privato data servanda non est Faith or promise made by a private person to an Heretick is not to be kept And a little after Any person is bound to reveal an Heretick to the Inquisition Non obstante side aut Juramento the he hath bound himself by Promise or Oath to the contrary And lest you should think some restriction in the word private Person 't is plain he means All for presently after he affirms Nec fides à Magistratibus data est servanda Haereticis Faith made by Magistrates to Hereticks is not to be kept Now if it be not to be regarded either by Magistrates or by private Persons it follows that 't is to be kept by no body at all That incomparable Historian Thuanus l. 63. ad Annum 1577. tells us That the Popish Divines of France Aperto Capite in Concionibus evulgatis Scriptis ad fidem Sectariis servandam non obligari principem contendebant allato in eam rem Concilii Constantiae Decreto They taught publickly both in the Pulpit and from the Press That Princes were not bound to keep touch with Sectaries alledging to warrant such their Assertions this Decree of the Council of Constance And what wonder is all this when the Casuists justifie other grosser ' Villanies As the before-mentioned Symancha Instit Cathol Tit. Is apud quem Haereticus aliquid deposuerit non tenebitur post manifestam Haeresim rem depositam illi reddere A person with whom one that is an Heretick shall intrust any Goods is not bound
most Sacred Ties besides those of Interest and present opportunity are no more than Sampson's Bands Dissolvable whensoever their own Humour or their Ghostly Fathers Conveniency shall require it The COURANT. Tory. HOw Hodge concern'd in the Burning of London and Godfry's Murder Trum. No I never said he was nor do I believe it but this I say such a wild suggestion might be maintain'd by as good Logick as any he uses to make out the Protestant Plot. Tory. As how prethee a touch for Example I 'le engage not to believe the Consequence Truem. I take it for undeniable That London in Sixty six was designedly burnt by Papists the Law hath determined it in the Execution of Hubert who own'd the Fact and that he was hired thereunto by Piedelon a French Papist The Body of the City have Recorded it in the late Inscription of the Monument and that great and sagacious Minister of State the Right Honourable the Lord Chancellour in his Speech before Sentence on the late Lord Stafford makes no doubt on 't Tory. But you may remember that Hodge was a little disgruntled at That Inscription and has endeavoured to persuade the World that they were the Fanaticks caus'd that Fire But what if the Papists did do it and Kill'd Godfry too what 's that to him Trum. Nâ—thing that I know on But this one might infer according to Mr. L'Estranges modes of Arguing If they were Papists and Hedge should happen to be a Papist too then he may altogether as fairly be Charg'd with both these Exploits as all and every the Dâ—ssenters are by him Tax'd with all the Villanies of Forty odd when the greatest part of them were not born Tory. Well but what Colour is there for Hodges being a Papist Truem. As many Colours as there are in the Rain-bow 1. Two of the Kings Evidence have sworn his haunting of Mass and another Gentleman deposes That he own'd himself to be of that Church whereof the Pope is Head Now you that Rail and Ranâ— at Juries if they won't believe any lousie Witnesses though they swear Dâ—ggers and Impossibilitie ought methinks to Credit such unexceptionable Evidence 2 ly The Gentleman has been oft Challeng'd to prove that for Eighteen years after the Restitution of the Liturgy viz. till after the Discovery of the Popish Plot and that he was question'd as a Papist he ever usually frequented his Parish Church or receiv'd the Sacrament Tory. Oh he Answers that in his Preface to his first part of Dissenters Sayings referring people to one Mr. Gatford of St. Dionis Back Church for proof of his Receiving c. Truem. Call you that Sham an Answer 'T is but his nude Averment he produces no Certificate from that Gentleman Besides 't is known Mr. L' liv'd many years in St. Gileses Parish before the Plot why does he not produce some Testimony in all that time from thence can it be imagin'd so intelligent a person had he been so zealous for the Church of England as he now pretends would ever have liv'd Eight or ten years together without her Ordinances and in disobedience and despight to her Laws and Canons Tory. But in particular as to the Fire-Jobb Truem. Mr. L'Estrange some time before the Fire Printed a Pamphlet call'd A Memento wherein Chap. 6. speaking of some people put to death under Cromwel He uses these words London was made the Altar for these Burnt Offerings God grant that City be not at last Purged by Fire I mean before the general Conflagration Now since Roger I think pretends not to be a Prophet and no body takes him for a Conjurer Ill will might on this occasion suggest him to be a Conspirator for it has been prov'd That the mischief was intended long before it was perpetrated and if one would talk of him as he does of the Dissenters one might say his Prayer God grant is only to Cloak his Malice That here 's a plain Prediction It must needs be therefore that he was acquainted with the Design and so bigg with Expectation that he could not forbear Blabbing on 't and warming his fancy with the very Conceit of the Flames just as Del Rio the Jesuit in his Magical Disquisitions could not forbear giving a dark hint of the Gunpowder-Treason several years before it happen'd Tory. These are unjust and inconsequent Descants on such an Innocent Accidental passage Truem. I grant it But yet 't is at this very rate that L'Estrange Treats others wresting the most harmless Passages to odious and horrid meanings Quod tibi fieri non vis alteri ne feceris Printed for Langley Curtis 1681-2 The Weekly Pacquet OF Advice from Rome OR The History of POPERY The Fourth Volume FRIDAY March 2. 1681-2 Vmbrâque errabit Thynnus inultâ Of the first pretended Act of Parliament that ever was in England against professors of Religion how it was forg'd by the Prelates and soon after Repeal'd The bloody Statute of 4. Hen. 2. ca. 15. for Burning of Hereticks WE have pursued the Papal History beyond the Seas down to the Council of Constance and burning of Hus and Mr. Jerome that is to about the year of our Lord 1415. which answers to the Third year of the Raign of our King Henry the Fifth 'T will therefore now be necessary to look back and gather what Observables occurr'd in England relating to our Subject not already mention'd during the Raigns of King Richard the Second and Henry the Fourth We gave you before the Relation of Wickliff whose Doctrines spread so fast that the incens'd Prelates finding their Spiritual Thunders unable to repress them bethought themselves to pray in aid of the Secular Arm and to that purpose the King being young and dissolute so extravagant to his Favourites that he always wanted Money the Bishops either by fair words or the Bait of a Benevolence to be given him by the Clergy prevail'd with him in the Fifth year of his Raign to consent to an Ordinance of their framing in these words following For as much as it is openly known that there be divers evil persons within the Realm going from County to County and from Town to Town in certain Habits under dissimulation of great Holiness and without the License of the Ordinaries of the places or other sufficient Authority preaching daily not only in Churches and Church-yards but also in Markets Fairs and other open places where a great Congregation of people is divers Sermons containing Heresies and notorious Errors to the great emblemishing of the Christian Faith and destruction of the Laws and of the Estate of the holy Church to the great peril of the Souls of the people and of all the Realm of England as more plainly is found and sufficiently proved before the Reverend Father in God the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishops and other Prelates Masters of Divinity and Doctors of Canon and Civil Law and a great part of the Clergy of the said Realm especially assembled for this
cause which persons do also preach divers matters of Slander to engender Discord and Dissention betwixt divers Estatés of the said Realm as well Spiritual as Temporal in exciting of the people to the great peril of the Realm Which Preachers cited or summoned before the Ordinaries of the places there to answer of that whereof they be impeached will not obey to their Summons and Commandments nor care for their Monitions nor Censures of the Holy Church but expresly despise them And moreover by their subtle and ingenious words do draw the people to hear their Sermons and do maintain them in their Errors by strong Hand and great Routs It is ordained and assented in this present Parliament That the King's Edmmissions be made and directed to the Sheriffs and other Miuisters of our Soveraign Lord the King or other sufficient persons Learned and according to the Certifications of the Prelates thereof to be made in Chancery from time to time to arrest all such Preachers and also their Faitors Maintainers and Abettors and to hold them in Arrest and strong Prison 'till they will justifie them according to the Law and Reason of Holy Church And the King wills and commandeth That the Chancellor make such Commissions at all times that he by the Prelates or any of them shall be certified and thereof required as is aforesaid This was the first pretended Statute that ever was in England for imprisoning Christians for Religious opinions and by colour thereof the Bishops committed great Cruelties I call it pretended Statute for tho it be enter'd in the Parliament Rolls yet it was no Legal Act for it never pass'd the Commons And therefore at the next Parliament in Michaelmas Term following the Commons preferr'd a Bill â—eciting the same and constantly affirmed That they never assented thereunto and therefore desired that the said supposed Statute be annull'd and made void for they protested That it was never their intent that either themselves or such as shall succeed them should be farther subject or bound to the Prelates than were their Ancestors in former times And to this the King gave his Royal Assent in these words Il plaist au Roy The King is pleas'd that it be so Cook 3 Instit fo 40. Foxes Acts and Monuments fo 406. But that you may more fully understand the fraud and subtlety of their Reverences in this Affair you must understand That before the invention of Printing the usual way of publishing Acts of Parliament was to engross them in Parchment and send them with the King 's Writ into every County commanding the Sheriff to proclaim them Now John Braibrook Bishop of London being then Lord Chancellor of England he by a Writ dated 26 May Anno Regni Regis R. 2. quinto sent down the before recited Ordinance of the King and Prelates amongst the Statutes that were then lately pass'd But no less knavishly left out in the next Parliamentary Proclamation the said Act of Revocation whereby the said supposed Statute was made void by which means afterwards the other still pass'd as an Act and was printed continually as such but the Act that disannull'd it was by the Interest of the Prelates from time to time kept out of the Prints the better to give colour to their imprisoning of the Laity at their pleasure And farther to make sure work Henry the Fourth having usurp'd the Crown to gratifie the Clergy who had chiefly assisted him therein in the second year of his Raign he at their Instigation procured the following cruel and wicked Law to be Enacted commonly call'd The Statute Ex Officio which that the Reader may the better observe the Spirit of Popery and Persecution and compare the Times and Actings of Men in past and more modern Times I hope it shall neither be thought tedious nor unuseful to recite the same at large Verbatim it not being now extant in Kceble or any of our Common Statute Books ITem Whereas it is shewed to our Soveraign Lord the King on the behalf of the Prelates and Clergy of this Realm of England in this present Parliament That altho the Catholick Faith builded upon Christ and by his Apostles and the holy Church sufficiently determined declared and approved hath been hitherto by good and holy and most noble Progeniâ—ors of our Soveraign Lord the King in the said Realm amongst all the Realms of the World most devoutly observ'd and the Church of England by his said most noble Progenitors and Ancestors to the honour of God and of the whole Realm aforesaid landably endow'd and in her Rights and Liberties sustain'd without that that the same Faith or the said Church was hurt or grievously oppressed or else perturbed by any perverse Doctrine or Wicked Heretical or Erronious Opinions Yet nevertheless divers false and perverse people of a certain new Sect of the Faith of the Sacraments of the Church and the Authority of the same damnably thinking and against the Law of God and of the Church usurping the Office of Preaching do perversly and maliciously in divers places within the said Realm under the colour of dissembled Holiness preach and teach these days openly and privily divers nâ—w Doctrines and wicked Heretical and Erronious Opinions contrary to the same Faith and blessed Determinations of the holy Church And of such Sect and wicked Doctrine and Opinions they make unlawful Conventicles and Confederacies they hold and exercise Schools they make and write Books they do wickedâ—y instruct and inform people and as much as they may excite and stir them to Sedition and Insurrection and maketh great strife and division among the people and other Enormities horribly to be heard daily do perpetrate and commit in subversion of the Catholick Faith and Doctrine of the holy Church in diminution of God's honour and also in destruction of the Estate Rights and Liberties of the said Church of England by which Sect and wicked and false Preachings Doctrine and Opinions of the said false and perverse people not only most great peril of the Souls but also many more other hurts slanders and perils which God prohibit might come to this Realm unless it be the more plentifully and speedily holpen by the King's Majesty in this behalf namely whereas the Diocesans of the said Realm cannot by their Jurisdiction Spiritual without Aid of the said Royal Majesty sufficiently correct the said false and perverse people nor refrain their Malice because the said false and perverse people do go from Diocess to Diocess and will not appear before the said Diocesan but the same Diocesans and their Jurisdiction Spiritual and the Keys of the Church with the Censures of the same do utterly contemn and despise and so their wicked Preachings and Doctrines doth from day to day continue and exercise to the hatred of Right and Reason and utter destruction of Order and good Rule Vpon which Novelties and Excesses above rehearsed the Prelates and Clergy aforesaid and also the Commons of the said Realm being in
the same Parliament praying our Soveraign Lord the King That his Royal Highness would vouchsafe in the said Parliament to provide a convenient Remedy the same our Soveraign Lord the King graciously considering the premises and also the laudable steps of his most noble Progenitors and Ancestors for the Conservation of the said Catholick Faith and sustentation of God's Honour and also the safeguard of the Estate Rights and Liberties of the said Church of England to the land of God and merit of our said Soveraign Lord the King and prosperity and honour of all his said Realm and for the eschewing of such Dissentions Divisions Hurts Slanders and Perils in time to come and that this wicked Sect Preachings Doctrines and Opinions should from henceforth cease to be utterly destroyed by the Assent of the States and other discreet Men of the Realm being in the said Parliament hath granted stablished and ordained from henceforth firmly to be observed that none within the said Realm or any other Dominions subject to his Royal Majesty presume to preach openly or privily without the License of the Diocesan of the same place first required and obtained Curates in their own Churches and persons hitherto priviledged and other of the Canon granted only except Nor that none from henceforth any thing preach hold teach or instruct openly or privily or make or write any Book contrary to the Catholick faith or determination of the holy Church nor of such Sect and wicked Doctrines and Opinions shall make any Câ—nvenâ—â—cles or in any wise hold or exercise Schools And also that none from henceforth in any wise favour such Preacher or maker of any such or like Conventicles or holding or exercising Schools or making or writing such Books or so teaching informing or exciting the people nor any of them maintain or any wise sustain and that all and singular having such Books or any Writings of such wicked Doctrine and Opinions shall really with effect deliver or cause to be delivered all such Books and Writings to the Diocesan of the same place within 40 days from the time of the Proclamation of this Ordinance and Statute And if any person or persons of whatsoever kind estate or condition that he or they be from henceforth do or attempt against the Royal Ordinance and Statute aforesaid in the premisses or in any any of them or such Books in the form aforesaid do not deliver then the Diocesan in the same place in his Diocess such person or persons in this behalf defamed or evidently suspected and every of them may by the authority of the said Ordinance and Statute cause to be arrested and under safe custody in his Prisons to be detained 'till he or they of the Articles laid to him or them in this behalf do Canonically purge him or themselves or else such wicked Sect Preachings Doctrines and heretical and erronious Opinions do objure according as the Laws of the Church do require so that the said Diocesan by himself or his Commissaries do openly and judicially proceed against such persons so arrested and remaining under safe custody to all effect of the Law and determine that same business according to the Canonical Decrees within three months after the said Arrest any lawful Impediment ceasing And if any person in any case above expressed be before the Diocesan of the place or his Commissaries canonically Convict then the same Diocesan may do to be kept in his Prison the said person so Convict for the manner of his default and after the quality of the Offence according aud as long as to his discretion shall seem expedient and moreover to put the same person to the Secular Court except in cases where he according to the Canonical Decree ought to be left to pay to our Soveraign Lord the King his peculiar Fine according as the same Fine shall seem competent to the Diocesan for the manner and quality of the Offence in which case the same Diocesan shall be bound to certifie the King of the same Fine in his Exchequer by his Letters Patents sealed with his Seal to the effect that such Fine by the King's Authority may be required and levied to his use of the Goods of the same person so convict And if any person within the said Realm and Dominions upon the said wicked Preachings Doctrines Opinions Schools heretical and erroneous Informations or any of them be before the Diocesan of the same place or his Commissaries after the Abjuration made by the same person pronounced fall into Relapse so that according to the holy Canons be ought to be left to the Secular Court whereupon Credence shall be given to the Diocesan of the same place or to his Commissaries in this behalf then the Sheriff of the County of the same place and Mayor and Sheriffs or Sheriff or Mayor and Bayliffs of the City Town or Borough of the same County next to the same Diocesan or the said Commissaries shall be personally present in preferring of such sentences when they by the same Diocesan or his Commissaries shall be required And they the same persons and every of them after such sentence promulgate shall receive and them before the people in an high place do to be burnt that such punishment may strike in fear to the minds of others whereby no such wicked Doctrine and heretical and erroneous Opinions nor their Authors and Fautours in the said Realm and Dominions against the Catholick Faith Christian Law and determination of the holy Church which God prohibit be sustained or in any wise suffered in which all and singular the premises concerning the said Ordinance and Statnte the Sheriffs Mayors and Bayliffs of the said Counties Cities Boroughs and Towns shall be attending aiding and supporting to the said Diocesans and their Commissaries The COURANT. Tory. I Have read that passage we talkt of t'other day in Mr. L'Estranges Memento by the same token in the same page he gives an account of Addresses in these words And now from all parts are to be procur'd Addresses Sweet London leads the way The Commission Officers of the Militia in Suffolk Leicester Sussex and my Country-men of Norwich c. These numerous and pretending Applications were but false Glosses upon his Power and Cromwell was too wise to think them other gain'd by Contrivement Force or at least Importunity half a score pitiful wretches call themselves the people of such or such a County and here 's the Total of the Reckoning Thus far L'Estrange Momentop 30. Truem. I marry and he talks like a South-sayer But hang 't let 's prorogue the Discourse of him and his Atchievements Have you seen Father Dowdal's just and sober Vindication Tory. No what 's he Truem. Even a worshipful Roman Catholick Priest very lately if not still a Prisoner in the Gate-house for Religion forsooth 'T is a small Treatise of five or six sheets bound printed 1681. and to be sold by William Downing in Bartholomew Close The design on 't is
such incorrigible Bunglers as our Irish Rascals let 'um be damn'd blacker than Luther Printed for Langley Curtis 1682. The Weekly Pacquet OF Advice from Rome OR The History of POPERY The Fourth Volume FRIDAY April 21. 1682. Quae si cum sociis Stultus cupidúsque bibisset Sub dâ—mina Meritrice fuisset turpis excors Vixisset Canis Immundus vel amica Luto Sus. The Grand Question Whether the Church of Rome be in any kind to be esteem'd a Church of Christ entred into the Reasons why the same is here discuss'd The definition of the Church and how divided HAving deduc'd our History somewhat below the year 1400. and being Arriv'd at those times wherein our Ancestors in England first of all were brought to Capital sufferings for the purity of Religion and were to use the Apostles phrase Hebr. 12. 4. forced to resist unto Blood the wicked Impositions of the no less cruel than Idolatrous Papal Hierarchy It will be convenient if not necessary to inquire what opinion we ought to have of the Church of Rome in its present state A task we undertake not meerly for diverting the Reader tho sure variety in all other things delightfull will not here be offensive nor the intermixing Polemicks with History be censured since we find precedents of it in the best and most approved Authors But we do it for his satisfaction too that he may make the truer Judgment of those many Tragical Scenes all fill'd with fire and fagot Blood and horror Popish fury triumphant and Pious Innocence torn and mangled and Butcher'd with a thousand Barbarities For though to each Judicious peruser the very prospect of these Cruelties is enough to satisfy him that these are the Talons of the Vulture not the sweet Breathings of the Holy Dove practises of the Synagogue of Satan not of the Church of the meek and mercifull Jesus yet some hot and superficial Readers especially in this debaucht and unhappy Age may be apt to say Here 's a Clutter indeed with a parcell of Peevish Fellows what if they were burn't or hang'd out of the way whose fault was it why would they not conform and honestly come to Church if the Church of Rome be a true Church wherein a man may go to Heaven why did they trouble themselves and the world and make a Schism and disturb the Government you make a stir and call them Martyrs but for ought I know they were Follies Martyrs rather than Gods and I remember I have seen a Book Intituled Semper Iidem or a parallel betwixt the antient and modern Phanaticks Printed here at London with I think Authority I am sure publickly and without any trouble to the Bookseller Richard Lownds at the White Lyon in St. Pauls Churchyard 1661. which renders Oldcastle Bishop Latimer Woodman c. as errant Whiggs and Raskals as ever liv'd a sort of turbulent Hereticks that interrupted the Churches Tranquility and would needs be turning the world upside down though they knew neither why nor wherefore c. Suppose one should meet a Spark of this mettal and such frequently now adays at every Coffee-house you may meet with is it not fit my honest Country men should be ready provided to Confute his Folly and do right to those Glorious Worthies who did not sacrifice their Lives to a sullen Obstinacy or factious Freake but for the pure truths of God worth a million of Lives and departed from Rome because she was so far departed from God that if they had further accompanied her afterdivine Grace had open'd their eyes to see her Abominations they must necessarily have fallen into Eternal perdition To Demonstrate this therefore it will I think be not unworthy your while and presently too lest the Disease come upon us before the Medicine be provided and black darkness surround us e're every body be sufficiently Acquainted with it's Hellish Nature to consider the three points following viz. 1. Whether the present Church of Rome ought in any sort to be esteemed a true Church of Christ 2. Whether any person Living and Dying in the Communion of that Church and understanding her Doctrine and practises and joyning therein may ordinarily be saved 3. Whether any person as suppose a Protestant out of fear compliance c. may be present at Mass understanding the same without committing of grievous sin These Three particulars we shall endeavour in this and some following Sheets to discourse of with all plainness and Candor so far from any violation of Charity that we thereby only design a most necessary Caution to prevent poor missed souls from precipitating themselves into endless Ruin and Destruction As to the first Quaery touching the present Roman Churches being a Church of Christ two things are to be premised and explained 1. What we mean in this debate by Church of Christ 2. What we understand by the Church of Rome 1. The word Church taken in its full Latitude signifies the whole company of all those whom God by his word and spirit calls to the knowledge and profession of his truth and from its members being called forth and separated from the rest of the world that live in gross and avowed Atheism or Idolatry without the knowledg and acceptation of those supernatural verities the Incarnation and Crucifixian of the Son of God for the sins of men upon the terms held forth in the Gospel it is termed the Church in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 derived from the verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Evoco to call out or from The Church thus absolutely and simply considered in this Latitude is but one as the State and Company of the Kingdom of great Britain is but one since all and every one called to this Grace of how different estate qualities or condition soever belong one way or other to this Company but in this Church thus considered there are sundry differences and respects that is the persons called to the Faith of Christ are of diverse sorts for some part of the Church is already reduced from this mortal life and Crowned with that Glory whereunto they were called when here on Earth and thence stiled the Church Triumphant the other part is that which is successively abiding in this world which for that time is called the Church Militant because it lies as it were in the Camp always alarm'd and fighting against Hells Triple League the world the Flesh and the Divel under the Banner of our Lord the blessed Jesus and patiently waiting for the victory But amongst these latter there are again two sorts First such as are effectually called and these are the Elect only whom God not only calls but chuses by his free Grace inspiring them to obey that calling and to live Holily worthy of such their vocation and who shall infallibly be Saved in the life to come and this Company we call the Invisible Church because only God knows who are His and tho we see the men and by their fruits charitably hope
they are Gods Elect yet to speak precisely no mortal eye can infallibly discern them to be such since many times the Bristol-stone glitters as bright as the Diamond and Hypocrites make as fair outward shew as the real Saint The second sort therefore of the militant Church are Hypocrites and â—nâ—ound members who are not effectually called but disobey the truth whereof they make profession These distinctions being thus premised we proceed to acquaint you what we mean by a true Church of Christ and we shall do it in the very words of our mother the Church of England in the 19 th Article of her Faith The visible Church of Christ is a Congregation of Faithfull men in the which the pure word of God is Preached and the Sacraments be duly Administred according to Christs Ordinance in all those things that of Necessity are requisite to the same So that here we see wherever the word of God is sincerely preach'd and heard and the Sacraments Administred according to Christs Institution there is a Church of God for those are the marks whereby the Church may be known So that the visible Church which is also Catholick or Vniversal under the Gospel not confined to one Nation as before under the Law consists of all those throughout the world that profess the true Religion And particular Churches which are members thereof are more or less pure according the doctrine of the Gospel is taught and embraced Ordinances Administred and publick Worship perform'd more or less pure in them And not only the purest particular Churches under Heaven are subject both to mixture and Error but some may and have so degenerated as to become no Churches of Christ but Synagoges of Satan tho yet there shall to the end of the world be a Church on Earth to Worship God according to his will against whom the Gates of Hell shall not prevail Now whether the present Church of Râ—me be not one of these Apostatized Adulterous Churches against whom such a Divorce is sued out we shall proceed to Inquire as soon as we have told you what we mean by the Church of Rome And that is The whole Church of Rome as it is a Body consisting of one vissible head the Pope and of all Papists wheresoever Clergy and Laity professing themselves members of that Head and owning the Faith and Doctrine thereof This Body or Company I say is not in any sort to be accounted a true visible Church of Christ which I conceive will appear by diverse Arguments of which I shall give you one at present That Church which over throweth the main and proper cause of our Salvation is no true Church of Christ But the Church of Rome overthroweth the main and proper cause of our Salvation Therefore the Church of Rome is no true Church of Christ The Major I presume no man will deny and for the Assumption 't is notoriously evident for they have overthrown the principal and fundamental Article of Justification which is the Head and summ of all Religion they err in the Efficient Cause of our Justification which is the free Grace and favour of God which they deny building it upon mans merit of Congruity or works preparatory and dispository to Justification c. Coupling it with mans free-will They Err in the material cause Christ Obedience this they deny to be our Obedience or the matter of our Justification They Err in the Form of our Justification which it the Imputation of Christs Righteousness unto us They Err in the Instrumental cause to wit the Justifying Faith denying is to be a certain particular trust or Assurance in Gods mercy for the Pardon of our Sins They Err in the very Meritorious cause Christ our Redeemer several ways overthrowing all his Offices They Err also in the final cause of Justification being the free Gift of Eternal Life while they say the same is merited by the Condignaty They overthrow the very Fundamentals of Religion by denying the sufficiency of the Scriptures for the Rule of Faith and the necessity of its being known to Gods people They deny the right use of the Sacraments whilst they attribute unto them Grace ex opere operato and teach that their efficacy depends on the Intention of the Priest They deny the truth of Christs humane Body by their absurd whimsey of Transubstantiation and the vertue of His only and all alone sufficient Sacrifice by their propitiatory Masses c. So that 't is plain they have Corrupted or abandoned the main and proper Fundamentals of Salvation consequently has no Claim to the Title of a Church of Christ THE COURANT. Tory. HAVE you seen the famous Panegyrick the Sacrificâ— to the Rising-Sun Truem. No nor can guess what you mean But I have heard that amongst all sorts of Idolaters they were only a parcel of forlorn servile debauch'd effeminate Hen-hearted Chicken-soul'd Persians that worship'd the Sun rising And since you mention that word it puts me in mind what I read the other day in a Pamphlet Entituled A warning against the dangerous practises of Papists written by one Thomas Norton in good Queen Bess's days Anno 1586. Let it be well-weigh'd saith he what they mean to the Realm That under colour of Succeeding so far undermine the Head of our Country that they convey the countenance favour and supportation of a great corrupt number of such as may frame themselves any hope of Gain that way to persons that by such kindled Ambition may be the more hastily embolden'd This to do is to shew us a Sun rising to whose Worship they would fain draw us from our Sun declining as they suppose No no our Queen is our true Sun and whatever shining Thing they would set up in her time is no right Sun but an unlucky Comet And it is not yet Noon I trust with our Sun or if it be I hope yet God will lengthen the day to our Sun for his Honour-sake as he did to Joshua and rather have all good Subjects so to hope if the residue of that day may be so spent as Joshuah spent it and for which God did prolong it viz. To rid the World of God's Enemies Let it be considered what Hopes Anticipation and most dreadful Mischiefs which I fear and abhor to name the encouraging of such succeeding which is the work of Papists may minister where the only Person of our most dear and precious Soveraign standeth between them and their desired Effect the utter undoing of us all and specially where the power of Revenge may by possibility fall into their hands for whose sake it should be attempted It is no small mischief danger and appalling of our Faith and Courage when our Prince must be defended against those that by possibility may aspire to be our Princes themselves and to 〈◊〉 it upon good Subjects I dispute no Titles I have no reach beyond our Queen I can see nothing beyond our Queen 〈◊〉 a Chaos of Misery therefore I am
Intelligence O most Swinging Astonishing Confounding Incredible Blessed News I promise you Jesuit Is 't possible For Old Acquaintance sake let 's have 't Tory. I beg your Diversion Sir You that they say tell Lies so Dear must not expect to hear Truth Gratis But yet to save your longing I 'le give you a Tast Poor old Odiscalchi his Holiness is Dead as a Door-nail The Cardinals are shut up in the Conclave and now they are Canvasing Bribing Intriguing Tugging like mad for a new Infallible Noddle Jesuit That 's News indeed but preethee who 's like to carry 't Tory. Ay! that that I cannot forbear laughing to think how 't will vex thee and I 'le tell thee 't for no other Reason but because 't will make thee Hang thy self They 're going to chuse a Protestant Prince to be their Pope Jesuit Then I le be Hang'd ' Tory. Ay! ay! So thou hadst been long ago if th'adst had thy Deserts and so thou wilt at last whether that be so or no! but this is certain a Protestant Pope they 'l have The Flying Squadron are resolv'd on 't And Spain Germany and France for all the Interest you boast of there strike in with them What a blessed Reformation shall we have Jesuit Why then say I farewel Catholick Cause shaw shaw He 'le worm out the Catholick Faith and sapp the Church by degrees and in a while we shall have damn'd Conventicles held in the very Lateran Tory. No! no! There 's no fear of that neither for the Pope Presumptive though he is known to be a Protestant has promis'd a thousand times and vowed and sworn he 'le maintain the Roman Catholick Church as 't is Establisht by the Canons Jesuit Ay! there 's the Knavery on 't The Fallacy dost thou not smell the Raguery Tory. Not I I protest Father but to say truth I never had a very subtle Nose and yet I can at any time scent a Presbyterian Plot as far off as Vtopia Jesuit Why man by the Church as 't is Establisht by the Canons he means no doubt the Church as it ought to be Reform'd by the Canons of Scripture For can any Man be so Mad so Bewitcht as to think a Protestant will be true to the Catholick Interest Tory. Why not Sir As true I 'le warrant you as a Popish Successor will be to a Protestant Interest Jesuit Well! O my Conscience the Cardinals are a Pack of Knaves they betray the Catholick Cause I am confident most of them are Hereticks in their Hearts Tory. Why so why so good Sir They have Subscrib'd the Council of Trent They have taken all the Holy Tests and Canonical Oaths and given all the Security of their Catholicism that 's requir'd by Law of Holy Mother Church and why should we be so uncharitable as to Censure them for Hypocrites Jesuit Hang ' em hang ' em They 'r rotten at Core let 'em Swear their Guts out they that are so Zealous for a Protestant Pope may well be suspected to have an Hugonot in their Bellies Tory. Why now I 'me vext to hear one of your Order Father whose Society esteem themselves not only the most Learned and Politick but Men of the best Intelligence too talk so like a Ninny 'T is the mode all over the World since the last Comet and the Conjunction of Satura and Jupiter Have you not seen the News brought by a Post pidgeon to Scanderoon The Grand-Seignior is lately Dead too All Flesh is Grass Turk and Pope must come to 't and the Divan being Assembled because he left no Heirs of his Body Lawfully begotten nothing will satisfie them but they 'l Elect a Christian Prince to the Ottoman Empire Jesuit The Devil they will Tory. Nay never question the Truth on 't you shall see it shortly in Muddimans Letter and Infallible Natts Intelligence Jesuit Then hey go mad say I The World is going out of its Wits and the Vniverse becoming an Intire Bedlam What false to their own Religion the most Sacred of Ties betray their own Interest I 'le be Flead if there be one true Mussulman in the Divan if this you told me last be true Tory. Come come Fiat Justitia ruat Coelum Dost think all the World understands their true Interest Mankind are oft led by the Shadows and Fancies and Humours and Whims and a Thousand Capricio's I could tell thee of another as great a Wonder as all this comes to Jesuit Nay nay le ts have the bottom o' th Bag honest Tory Tory. What would you eat Sweet-meats with Shovels come come enough's as good as a Feast either at Souters or Pedlars-Hall what I have will keep cold and I 'le reserve it for another Collation Father Adieu Printed for Langley Curtis 1682 The Weekly Pacquet OF Advice from Rome OR The History of POPERY The Fourth Volume FRIDAY May 5. 1682. Omnia amisit qui veritatem amisit An Objection Answered touching Baptism The Church of Rome hath no true Ministry c. IN our last we urged That the Church of Rome does not practise the true Baptism of Christ whence an Objection may arise thus If the Church of Rome have not the true Baptism of Christ why then are not Papists when Converted to the true Faith of Christ Rebaptized How stands their former Baptism good To which I Reply in the words of the great Saint Augustine Contra Cresconium Lib. 1. C. 30. speaking of the External Form of Baptism used amongst Hereticks such Baptism is not to be Repeated but the Errour thereof Corrected And in his Seventh Book against the Donatists Chap. 40. He hath these Words The Divine Scriptures in many places do shew all these to be strangers from the Church who are not in the Rock and appertain not to the Members of the Dove and yet they Baptize and are Baptized and have Sine salute Sacramentum salutis without Salvation the Sacrament of Salvation And L. 5. chap. 17. Hereticks saith he have Lawful Baptism that is for the External Form but not Lawfully And so Bellarmine himself determines the Case Cum veniunt ad Ecclesiam Baptizati ab Haereticis agnoscendum est quod est Ecclesiae id est Baptisma corrigendus verò Error When those that are Baptized by Hereticks come to the Church the Church acknowledges what is her own that is the Baptism but the Errour is to be corrected The Sacraments operate effectually Non quia dicitur sed quia Creditur Not because the Words are uttered but because there is the Word of Faith purifying the heart as the Apostle speaks Act 15. And therefore the Church of Rome having deny'd the Faith of Righteousness and the Righteousness of Faith and the saving Doctrine of Baptism She hath consequently rendred Baptism to be of none Effect to her unto Salvation But yet still when any Papist is by the Grace of God and the Preaching of the Word and of saving Faith Converted to the true Church of God the Seal of Baptism
is not again affixed but the Evidence of saving Faith and Testament of the Gospel being written in his heart is now added to the Seal and so it becomes compleatly authentick as not being bound necessarily to outward means Nor do we here exclude Gods free Agency in Baptism who in the Party Baptized in that Heretical Church may if it please him work Grace finding his own Water and his own Words finding I say his own Seal he can add his Covenant of Grace unto it yet no Child there Baptized coming to the years of Discretion unless he Renounce the wicked Faith and Relinquish the Idolatrous practices of that Romish Church can have benefit by his Baptism but to him it is Penal and Pernicious as Augustine speaks And now I proceed to another Argument That the Church of Rome is not a Church of Christ Argument 7. That Church which hath not a lawful Ministry is not a true visible Church of Christ But the Church of Rome hath not a Lawful Ministry Ergo. I know this to many will seem a Paradox but 't is a certain Truth for if the Church of Rome hath not a Lawful Ordination how can it have a Lawful Ministry But it has no Lawful Ordination 1. In regard of the Efficient Cause either Remote as the Pope as Head whence all their Ministerial Power is deriv'd or immediate as the Ordainer on whose Intention their Gratia gratis data dependeth So that here is a Nullity in the very Foundation of the Papal Priest-hood It is deriv'd from the Pope as Head of the Clergy and Church a Title Anti-christian and Usurp'd and so their Ministry is Anti-christian And if the Pope being Antichrist and an Usurper and Consecrating Bishops by vertue of his Papal Supremacy as Christ's sole Vicar and Peter's Successor cannot convey any power of Order upon his Bishops and Clergy what lawful Ministry can we expect in that Apostolical Synagogue So that Calvin an Author whom for Honour's sake I mention in a lewd Age when thousands decry him that either for Learning and Piety are no ways comparable to Him was in the Right in his Book called The Method of Reforming the Church Nego sub toto Papatu unum esse verè Episcopum I deny that under the whole Popedom there is one truly a Bishop and what then shall we say of their Priests neither have they any Ministerial Grace because it depends according to their Belief upon their Ordainers Intention and not upon Christs Ordinance Grace and Promise But 2 ly They fail too in the Formal and Fixal Cause of Ordination They have quite altered and Corrupted the Form and so the End thereof adding a New Form which overthroweth the Old and imposeth a New End viz. making the whole Essence and use of their Ministry to consist in Priesthood that is in Sacrificing of an Idol and so turning the Office of a Minister of the Gospel into an Idol-Sacrificing Priest For in the Form of their Ordination set down in their Tridentine Catechism Part the Second after Imposition of Hands with the sign of the Cross on the Party that is to be Ordain'd The Chalice with Wine and the Paten with the Host is delivered into his hands with these Words Accipe potestatem offerendi Sacrificium Deo Missásque Celebrandi tam pro vivis quam pro defunctis c. Receive thou Power to Offer Sacrifice to God and to celebrate Masses as well for the Living as the Dead c. And this praecipua Sacerdotis functio existimanda est is to be esteemed the principal Office or Function of a Priest Ad Extremum verò c. In fine Imposing hands again he says Receive then the Holy Ghost Whose sins soever ye Remit c. Eique Coelestem illam c. And thus the Bishop giveth unto the Priest that Heavenly Power of Retaining and Forgiving of Sins which the Lord gave to his Disciples Thus the very words of their Ordination Now we know that this power of Remitting and Retaining of Sins the Church of Rome placeth not in the Dispensing and Preaching of the Word of God but in their Sacrament of Pennance Thus they have wholly perverted their Ordination both for the formal and final End Nor do they less fail in the Material Cause ignorant unqualified Persons being ordinarily made Priests and such as only are able to Mumble over the Mass and Matins But it may be Objected That in Popish Ordination there is a Power Confer'd to Preach the Word of God 'T is true they do use these words of our Blessed Saviour which the Church of England useth viz. Receive the Holy Ghost whose sins ye Remit c. Which we do indeed understand of the dispensation of the Word and Sacraments But the Church of Rome otherwise meaning thereby the Priests power of Binding and Loosing in their Sacrament of Pennance And it is in vain for them to say That their Priests in their Ordination have any Power confer'd upon them to Preach the Word of God when their Practise is far otherwise Neither indeed is it lawful for them so to Preach the Word of God as it behoveth faithful Ministers of the Gospel viz. purely and soundly to the saving of Mens Souls For the pure and sound saving Doctrine of the Word of God is branded for Heresie in the Council of Trent Nor may their Bishops or Priests deliver the sense of it otherwise than according to those Canons and Decrees In a word See the Conc. Trid. Sess 14. Can. 3. Si quid dixerit c. If any one shall say That those words of our Lord and Saviour Receive the Holy Ghost whose sins ye Remit they are Remitted and whose sins you Retain they are Retained are not to be understood of the power of Remitting and Retaining sins in the Sacrament of Pennance but shall wrest them contrary to the Institution of the Sacrament to the authority of Preaching the Gospel Let him be Anathema Well therefore does the pious and judicious Calvin conclude Totum Sacordotium Papisticum non solum impia est vera Ministerii profanatio sed Execrabilis in Christum comumelia quisquis est sacerdos Papalis dâ—nec titulum illum abjecerit Christi Servus esse nequeat The whole Popish Priesthood is not only an impious Profanation of the true Ministry but an execrable Reproach against Christ So that whosoever is a Popish Priest until he renounce that Title he cannot be the Servant of Christ True Ordination is a sacred Institution of Christ whereby the Person Ordain'd is Invested with a Power to Preach the Word of God and to Administer the Holy Sacraments according to Christ's Ordinance But the Ordination used in the Church of Rome is not according to Christ's Institution to wit whereby the Person Ordained is Invested with a Power to Preach the Word of God and to Administer the Holy Sacraments according to Christ's Ordinance Therefore in the Church of Rome there is no true Ordination therefore no
true Ordination Therefore no true Church The Assumption we have already Demonstrated For first for Administration of Sacraments the Priests Power is respectively and specially limited to their Eucharist and Pennance 2 ly That Eucharist is a meer Idol and blasphemous Sacrifice and no true Sacrament at all 3 ly The very Words of Christ used in true Ordination of all Orthodox Churches which are understood of Dispensing the Word and Sacraments the Church of Rome perverteth and wresteth to Absolution and most impudently faith That to understand it of Dispensing the Word of God is to wrest the sense contrary to the Institution of this Sacrament of Pennance But now a like Objection will occur thus If in the Church of Rome there be not true and lawful Ordination why then when any of their Priests are Converted to the true Faith and Church of Christ are they not Re-ordained To this we may Answer That although their Ordination were altogether unlawful and unwarrantable according to the Institution of the Church of Rome yet coming to us of the true Church after the paring and shaving off of their Power of Sacrificing and of Sacramental Binding and Loosing and Pennance and Restoring to the Word of God prophaned and abused by them to a wrong sense its Original and true meaning whilst the Priest so Converted openly Renounces the Mass and witnesseth his Abhorrence and Detestation of all that abominable Sacrifice and subscribes to the Articles and Doctrine of our Church they are hereupon Received and their Ordination now stands good which before was vitious and Anti-christian See for this more fully Mr. Francis Mason's Book of Ordination L. 5. Ch. 12. The same Reason is to be given of the Ministry of the Church of England which in times past was derived and descended from that false and Corrupt Church Some will say The Church of Rome is as a Diseased Body which though never so Corrupt is yet still a true Body for he is really a Man to whom the Definition of a Man agreeth indued with a reasonable Soul though his Body be never so much Diseased as with the Plague or Leprosie I Answer Many deceive themselves and others with this Comparison They should first prove the Church of Rome to be a Living Church before they can properly compare the Body of it to the Body of a Living Man for else it is a meer Petitio Principii a shameful begging of the Question For I deny the Church of Rome to be an Organical Body to wit a Living Body No no It is a meer Corrupt and stinking Carcass and as a dead corrupt Corps is not to be accounted an Organical Body as wanting the Soul to Actuate it and so cannot be called truly a Man or a Mans Body but Cadaver a Corps No more is the Church of Rome no less Dead than Diseased a true Church for a dead Member can but Equivocally be call'd a Member Nor will it follow That because there may be an hidden Church of God within the borders of the Church of Rome Therefore the Church of Rome is a true visible Church For if any amongst them be of the Number of Gods Sacred ones before their Effectual Calling they are Members of that Antichristian Church but being Call'd they are no more of it but in it and there being in it will never prove it a true Church It may be alledged That the Church of Rome hath only added to the Foundation not taken away or subtracted from it and the Nature of an Addition is not directly to deny but by Consequence at most I Answer We have already proved That they have destroyed the Foundation and that both by Subtraction and Addition As their Traditions and Decrees overthrow the Foundation of the Scriptures for if the Scriptures affirm one thing and their Traditions another These are obey'd and those rejected What say you to Invocation of Saints doth it not directly overthrow the pure Worship of God and Faith in him alone Doth not the Mass directly overthrow the one and only Sacrifice of our Lord upon the Cross And so of the rest The COURANT. Tory. WEll I 'le say that for Roger he 's a brisk mettlesome laborious old Wretch He writes four or five Observators a week Truman Do not call it writing man but casting or say he is so often troubled with the Hickup or overflowing of the Gall. The old Gentleman delights much in calling other people Monkeys but sure 't would make a Stoic smile to see how like an Ape he sits cracking of Nits on the Head of the Tory Plot. Tory. Why What would you have him do scribble all the year round about Brass-screws and Antipendiums Trum. Now you speak of that old business I can tell you a story that is altogether as strange and much more true than the transmutation of the Screws Some Years ago there was a very great parcel of English Rogues and Biddle's Catechisms seiz'd by a Friend of mine the obscenity of the first and the Blasphemies of the second against the blessed Trinity deserving a suppression But some Casuists resolve That though Books be unfit to be sold yet it may not be unfit to take money for them So it happened that these very Books by Art Magic were invisibly convey'd to Cambray-house where a certain old Lady then had Lodgings and upon paying down a pretty round Sum to a Friend in a corner the self-same Books of their own accord came one Night out of a Window into a Cart and so disprsed themselves into most of the Stationers Shops about Town There is one J. S. still living who they say can attest this Miracle Tory. But what is all this to honest Roger Trum. Nothing nothing at all I only told it to prove that there is such a thing as Necromancy and Black-Art in the world And therefore to return to Mr. L'Estrange what think you of his owning Observ Numb 129. That he has been forty times at Mass beyond the â—eas I dare challenge him and all his Admirers to pâ—oâ—e that he was so often at any Protestant Church in twenty years time And I cannot fathom the Policy of this Declaration unless it were to give old friends an Item that for all his late sacramental Rant he does not forget them Tory. You must note he did not trudge to those forty Masses out of devotion nor curiosity but purely out of duty for I have been told that when he was abroad he was a little Retainer to Cardinal Van Hess and officiated in his Chappel in the way of his proper Calling playing in Consort on the Base-Viol So that probably he was not at Mass under the Character of a Papist but as Fidler in ordinary to his Eminence But see how in his last Observator Numb 132. he boxes about the Statute 25 Ed. 3. and will needs have the words Eldest Son and Heir to be understood not only of the Eldest Son but of any other Heir Trum. Though
shortly to present his Majesty with the story too of its utter extirpation The Northern Heresie must down They say 't is an excellent piece and will Claw off the Whigs confoundedly Truem. Yes yes a very suitable Subject for such a Pen our Churchmen have great cause to thank him and give him Guinneys for Blowing up the Church with Jesuites Powder under pretence of shooting Phanaticks 'T is mightily no doubt for the Advancement of our Religion at home and must be a most charming invitation and encouragement to Protestant Princes and States abroad to Love and Honor England if such Books shall be so kindly entertain'd amongst us and those Holy Men whom God raised up to be the First Reformers of his Church publickly exposed and ridicul'd by the prophane Buffonery of every mercinary Rascal But no matter for that till we see the Book abroad where do'st think I was to'ther night Tory. I 'le be hang'd if 't were not some damn'd Conventicle or Treason-whispering Club. Truem. Had Gadbury to solve the Question Try'd That Louse-killer could not have guess'd more wide No! no! Man I was even at the Academy of Non sense S's Coffee-house Tory. I am glad of that however for since peoples going to Church though driven thither in the Devils name passes for a laudable Conversion the very entring into S's must be esteem'd so many steps of Loyalty But prethee how didst like the Conversation Truem. Why the Room was large and crowded and there was Fire and Smoak and Hobgoblings in black and swearing and cursing and gnashing of Teeth Tory. Why thou describ'st it like the bottom of Hell Truem. No no Sir only an Antichamber an 't please ye The Universal Buzz was against the Whigs and Shaftsbury one magnify'd Craddock for an Hero another Painted Wilmore blacker than the Devil a third was telling who should be Poculiz'd to and a fourth who should be Hang'd first after that man entred into his Office a fifth was arguing how expedient it was to make a Bonefire of the City Charter c. when all on a sudden entred the Observator Bless us I shall never forget it what cringing and complementing and Sir-reverencing was there It put me presently in mind of the Play call'd The Lancashire Witches where in one Scene the Haggs being Assembled at Sabbatt when the Foul Fiend makes his appearance they all start up and cry Now now our Great Master 's come Arise prepare salute his Bum. And so they go and each reverently kisses the Tail of the Goat Tory. Leave your fooling and tell us what said the Oracle Truem. Nay you may now have all his Discourse in Print for Twopence he and the Company only predicted a brace or two of Observator-sheets to us Tory. Now thou talk'st of predicting Sheets I 'le tell thee how thou shalt get to predict next Tuesday 's Heraclitus Truem. Though 't is grown so horrid silly of late that 't is hardly worth a Stratagem and the attempt will not bring half so much honor as attacking the Smyrna Fleet yet let us hear it however Tory. Go but on any Sunday Night to the Sun in Aldersgate-street and send up Half a dozen Bottles of Claret to the Select Cabal and tell them a Gentleman below drinks the Duke's health to 'um you shall presently be admitted and hear the whole Manuscript read canvass'd debated and corrected Truem. Well! I do not know any body so fond of a Goose Egge That Paper had formerly some Witt with its malice a little Salt now and then as well as Roguery but now 't is become a meer Caput Mort The very Dreggs of Impertinence Printed for Langley Curtis 1682. The Weekly Pacquet OF Advice from Rome OR The History of POPERY The Fourth Volume FRIDAY May 19. 1682. Ite truces Animae Letho Tartara vestro Polluite totas Erebi consumite poenas Whether Salvation may be obtain'd in the Church of Rome The uncharitableness of Papists towards Protestants The desperate Hazards ran by Roman Catholicks c. IN our Pacquet N. 18. We stated Three Questions which we proposed to treat of in Order 1. Whether the Church of Rome were a Church of Christ 2. Whether Salvation were therein attainable And 3 ly Whether a man may be present at Mass without sin The First of these in that and Three other Pacquets since we have dispatcht Now we proceed to the Second a point nice and difficult and which ought warily to be handled That neither excess of Zeal consume our Charity nor conceits of Charity violate Truth and encourage Error The Papists look upon it as a Ruled Case extra Ecclesiam non est salus out of the Pale of the Church there is no Salvation and He that hath not the Church for his Mother neither hath God for his Father which Axioms are very true if by Church they would suffer us to understand the universal Church of Christ but they restrain that Term to the present Ecclesia malignantium the Apostatiz'd Congregation of Romanists united to the Pope as their Head and guided in their Faith according to the Canons of the Conventicle of Trent and averr that all are Damn'd eternally that do not joyn with them therein 'T is a notable Rant to this purpose of one of their Tribe in a Book called The Reconciler of Religions Printed Anno 1663. and Dedicated to Mr. Laurence Dibusty of London Merchant p. 51. The Sacrilegious Illicit and Invalid Ordination saith he of or by Story which was the first pretended Holy Mission of Protestants and from whence they hitherto derive their Orders was not worth a straw and consequently their pretended Holy Orders he speaks of the Church of England are not worth a Pins head therefore they are no true Preachers What are they then Forsooth Intruders Thieves and Robbers Hypocrites Ravenous Wolves and Murderers Sons of Belial false Prophets and Priests of Baal which is their Heresie Rebellion and stubbornness against the Church Now if the Protestant or Sectarian Preachers pray observe he makes no distinction between Church-men and Presbyterians be such what must the Protestants and Sectaries themselves be If the Blind lead the Blind shall they not fall both into the Ditch Sure enough they shall even into the Ditch of everlasting burning Brimstone and Fire But yet more remarkable is that of Costerus the Jesuite in his reply to Osiander Proposit 8. p. ult Fieri nequit ut Lutheranus moriens salvetur Gehennam evadat ex Aeternis Ignibus eripiatur Si mentior damner ipse cum Lucifero 'T is impossible that any person that is a Lutheran should be saved when he dyes or can escape Hell and be snatcht from Eternal Fire If I lie in this assertion let me my self be damn'd with Lucifer Nay in the Irish Massacre and during the Bohemian Persecutions The Papists several times told the Protestants that they kill'd their Bodies in pure kindness to their Souls for say they since we know all you Hereticks must
certainly be damn'd And that the longer you continue in the Errors in this Life the greater will be your torments therefore we cut you off thus betimes that your pain may be the less c. The mercies of the wicked are cruelties and this is the charity which Roman Catholicks so much boast of But God forbid Protestants should entertain such Sentiments we dare not pry into the Ark the Lord and the Lord only knoweth who are his we will not therefore presume to pass a peremptory doom or affirm that no Papist can be saved but this we may maintain with truth and safety that none by that Doctrine which at this day according to the Canons of the Council of Trent is taught in the Papists Assemblies can come to Salvation Though still we doubt not but in such their Assemblies there have been from time to time and still are not a few who although out of weakness they have Communion with them yet either they never gave an hearty Assent to those more grievous and fundamental Errors which are therein taught or were ignorant of them or before their death renounced them and in the true Faith of Christ though fullied with many infirmities they dye and are saved For as of old in Jerusalem when it was most corrupt there were still many there who bowed not their knee to Baal but did sigh and cry out by reason of those Abominations which were committed in the midst thereof So there is no doubt but under the Papacy such at this day may be found who though they dwell in the Tents of Kedar may yet be Heirs of Canaan but these are not properly said to be of the Roman Church though in it Nor is this any thanks to the Church of Rome she prohibits the true Doctrine of Salvation to be Preach'd and advances Errors that utterly make void the Gospel and suppose some Predicant Friar or so should transgress the Rules of the Council of Trent and so Preach the Word of Life to the People as that Souls come thereby to be saved For Example say he shall Preach unto them that they must believe to be saved by nothing but the merits and righteousness of Christ imputed unto them That they must not look to be saved by their inherent righteousness but by the only mercy of God to them in Christ That every one must have a particular Faith and Affiance of his own for the pardon of his sins That they must Worship God only and pray unto him and that in Christs name only That there is no Sacrifice for sin but that of Christ once offered upon the Cross That Christs Blood doth so purge away sin as there remains no stain nor punishment after this Life c. I say if any Friar shall dare Preach thus I deny not but he may be an instrument of saving many Souls But in the mean time does not he fall under the heavy Curses of the Tridentine Canons Is not the Inquisition ready to clapp him up for an Heretick Do these that have imbib'd such his sound Doctrines dare avouch them or are not they forc'd to recant and do pennance for the same So that if any by some special providence secret power and unlimited mercy of God in the Church of Rome shall come so to believe as thereby to be saved both he and his Faith are disavowed as not being the Faith of the Church of Rome but accounted and accursed by her as Heretical Therefore as we deny not but some particular persons that outwardly seem of the Church of Rome's Communion may enjoy everlasting Life so we cannot but look upon the generality of them in a very deplorable case and their Souls in unspeakable danger for the reasons following 1. God saith expresly in his word Rev. 14. That if any man worship the Beast and his Image and receive his Mark in his Forehead or in his Hand he shall drink of the Wine of the Wrath of God And afterwards he saith all such shall be tormented in Fire and Brimstone Now whoever is joyned or reconciled to the Pope and submitteth himself to the Laws and Kingdom of Antichrist doth Worship the Beast and his Image Whoever openly professeth Popery receiveth the Popes Mark in his Forehead Whoever yieldeth to the practise of the Romish Religion receiveth his Mark in his Hand Let them therefore consider how they will avoid the Judgment threatned 2. Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Matth. 15. Teacheth us that such worship God in vain as teach for Doctrines the Precepts of men But the Doctrine of Popery as it addeth to Antient Catholick Religion is nothing but a Mass of humane Inventions Devises and Precepts Their Decretals are the Popes conceits their Forms of Worship contained in the Missals and Breviaries are meerly Humane From mans devise proceeded the Popish Worship of Angels Saints Images c. Most part of their Resolutions of Cases of Conscience is grounded on the Popes Laws Finally the turnings skippings heavings greasings spittings and other Ceremonies of Mass-Priests and their Followers proceed from man's invention Popery therefore by Christs rule is nothing but vanity weariness and vexation of Souls whilst they seek to serve God not according to his appointments but their own fond imaginations and how shall a vain Religion bring any man to heaven 3. We read Rev. 22. Without are Doggs and that Enchanters Whore-mongers Murtherers Idolaters and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie shall be excluded out of the Kingdom of God Now how like two Dogs do the Pope and his Adherents refuse and bark at Gods word and bite and tear those to pieces who seek to feed them with the Bread of Life Not a few of the Popes have been Magicians and Necromancers as Benet the 9. Gregory the 6. and 7. Sylvester the 2. Paul the 3 c. And one of their Offices in their Church is that of an Exorcist or Conjurer They permit publick Stews allow Concubines and to Monks Friars and Mass-Priests forbid Lawful Marriage They have murdered and Massacred millions of Christians to erect and uphold their Anti-christian Kingdom They set up Idols in Churches and every corner of their streets and in high-ways giving Divine Honour to the Cross and to the Images of the Trinity and calling the Sacrament their Lord and God and making Vows Prayers and Confessions to Saints and burning Incense to Images and saying Mass in Honour of Saints and Angels Finally they do not only make and delight in Lies as forging not only horrid slanders against M. Luther Zwinglius Calvin and other sincere Preachers of Gods word but also against all Protestants asserting that we teach That God is the Author of Sin That Christ despaired That there is no Hell but horror of Conscience That good works are not to be practised or commended c. All which we expresly detest Therefore these wickednesses in Papists not being so much the sins of particular private men as the natural consequences of
their Tenets and general avowed Practises of their pretended Church must needs render the condition of any Soul in that Communion very dangerous and hazardous 4. No man can come to God the Father but by Jesus Christ as our Lord testifieth of himself John 14. Who also sheweth That he is the way the truth and the life And by his holy Apostle 1 Tim. 2. teacheth us That there is no Mediator betwixt God and Man but the Man Christ Jesus But contrary hereunto the Papists vainly hope and imagine to come to God not only by Christ but also by the Virgin Mary by Angels and Saints They also seek out new ways and content not themselves with such as the infinite wisdom of our Lord prescribed unto us and do foolishly believe that the Pope by his Indulgences and every Hedg-Priest by mumbling over his Masses is able to redeem mens Souls 5. Whoever buildeth his Faith upon other foundation than the Doctrine of the Apostles and Prophets doth build upon the Sand and not upon such a firm foundation as will abide in the day of the Lord. But the Papists generally build their Faith upon the Popes Decretals upon unwritten and uncertain Traditions upon false pretended Miracles lying Legends and silly Fables do they not then build upon ruinous foundations and if so what is like to become of the Superstructure 6. By their own Canon Law Chapt. si papa dist 40. 't is affirm'd That the Pope may be remiss and negligent in his Office and silent in teaching and lead innumerable people with him into Hell Now if the Papists are to adhere to the Pope as their Head and to follow him how can they escape when he leadeth them into Hell So that if they know not or will not believe the Scriptures nor any other Arguments yet their own Decrees may teach them that following the Pope innumerable Papists run blindfold and headlong into Perdition 7. How is it possible that they should be saved who are Ignorant of the means of their Salvation who hold damnable Heresies repugnant to the Apostles Doctrine whose Faith is Faction and their Practises Idolatry Perjury Treasons Massacres and all kind of Abomination and this conniv'd at promoted excused justifyed nay commended and applauded by their Church as means to propagate the Gospel But all this is too true of the Papists at this day and therefore what Scripture grounds have we of hope unless they speedily repent and depart from these Abominations But if any man shall ask what then is become of all those that either now die or in times past are dead in places where Popery is or hath been professed We answer secret things belong to God we dare not pretend to sentence those that are gone but would caution such as survive Of those that held the foundation and lived good lives we hope well nor were several of the most destructive errors ever inforc'd upon the belief of men before the Conventicle of Trent and there may and no dobut are many amongst the Papists at this day who though conforming to them in outward Ceremonies yet hold not the errors of Popery positively but keep themselves to the old Apostolick Faith and of such persons Salvation we have no cause to despair God grant that the rest also may see their deformities and upon what a dreadful precipice they stand and revoke their errors and hearken to the call of God to come out of Babylon lest they are partakers of her plagues and joyn themselves with a sincere heart to the true Church of God and so be saved The COURANT. Tory. YOu see our Reverend guide disowns the Translation of The History of Calvinism Alas good pious man he declar'd it unfit to be turn'd into English Truem. Sure no more unfit than Pere Simon which is sold in Paul's Church yard as commonly as the Practice of Piety They were L'Estranges own Pupils that reported he was upon that Job but possibly he may have dropt the Design finding it smell too Rank or thought it unfit to be Englisht in wholesale That so he may more advantagiously retail the good Fathers notion in Observator's four times a Week Tory. But for all that He 's satisfied that John Calvin Introduced his Government and Discipline by a Rebellion Observ N. 139. Truem. Tho I have nothing to do with Calvin or his Discipline yet I must tell L'Estrange to his Beard though he wore a Sword three Inches longer than he does That in this particular He lies to use his own Phrase like a Kidnapper or any dying Jesuit For the Bishop of Geneva had quitted that City and the Form of Government was popular before ever Calvin came amongst them The judicious Hooker a Testimony more valuable than a million of Observators in the Preface to his Ecclesiastical Policy gives this account of that Affair At the coming of Calvin thither the Form of their Civil Regiment was popular as it continueth at this day neither King nor Duke nor Nobleman hath any Power or Authority over them but Officers chosen by the people yearly out of themselves to order all things with publick consent For spiritual Government they had no Laws at all agreed upon but did what the Pastors of their Souls by perswasion could win them unto Calvin being admitted one of their Preachers and a Divinity Reader amongst them considered how dangerous it was that the whole Estate of that Church should hang on so slender a thread as the liking of an Ignorant Multitude is if it have power to change whatsoever it listeth Wherefore taking unto him two of the other Ministers for more Countenance of the Action albeit all the rest were against it they moved and in the end perswaded with much ado the people to bind themselves by Solemn Oath First never to admit the Papacy again and Secondly to live in Obedience to such Orders concerning the exercise of their Religion and the former Ecclesiastical Government as those their true and faithful Ministers of Gods Word had agreeably to Scripture set down for that end and purpose Now prethee where 's the Treason or Rebellion in all this Tory. Come come have you observ'd Roger's Advertisement N. 138. What a damnable kindness he has for Dr. Oats If any man will be so kind and generous as out of an affection to the Protestant Religion c. to call Simson Tongue to a Legal account c. Roger L'Estrange out of a zeal to a publick good will furnish Authentick Papers and Materials c. What in the name of Nonsense is the meaning of all this Truem. Why first here is Roger honestly declares that is he not a man that has any affection to the Protestant Religion for if he had he might being so well furnisht with Tools and Materials call Tongue to an account himself without putting others upon it if it be a business that will as he pretends be a Service to the Protestant Religion But 2 ly There seems a greater
nothing remains but the Ordinance or Decree of God to appoint Damnation as a punishment of this sin according to the desert thereof But that was passed long since by the Lord himself You shall put nothing to the word which I command you Deut. 4. 2 11. 30. There 's the Precept and the Penalty is express'd Rev. 21. 18. If any man shall add to these things God shall add to him the Plagues that are written in this Book But more plainly 2 Thes 2. 11 12. The Lord shall send them strong delusions that they should believe lies that all they might be damned which believe not thâ— truth Here we see the Lord wrappeth them up in Damnation by his Sentence that believe Lies that is false and erroneous Doctrin nor agreeable to the Truth which they ought to believe What then is wanting to them to make the Faith of the Church of Rome damnable and the Professors thereof liable to Damnation when both the thing it self deserveth it and the Lord hath decreed that they which believe it should have according to their desert Since therefore it thus plainly appears that every man is bound upon pain of Salvation to refuse the Faith of the Church of Rome in what a desperate case are those that continue in it 'T is not for nothing that the Almighty God of Love and Compassion makes Proclamation by his Sacred Herauld Rev. 18. 4. Come out of her people lest ye perish with her and partake of her Plagues We have a famous example in that depravation of the true Religion and setting up of Idolatry under Jeroboam 2 Chron. 11. 14. The Levites that dwelt amongst those Revolted 10 Tribes left their Suburbs and their Possessions that belonged unto them a great Act of self-denial and came to Judah and Jerusalem to do the Service of the Lord in the Temple there And after their example many people out of all the Tribes of Israel that abhorred Jeroboam's Idolatry came thither also for the true worship of God They knew to abide amongst Idolaters would bring them to destruction But if such wrath attend those that continue in that Communion wherein perhaps they were Born and Educated and to which sinkt by so many Chains of prepossession and hardned against truth with a thousand prejudices what Indignation may those expect who were born in Goshen within the daily sound of the Gospel and free tenders of the word of Life in a Land of Bibles baptized into a Reformed Church engaged for by Protestant Sponsors Educated by Religious Parents and under the sweet distillations of Divine Manna from the Lipps of sound and able Preachers If such as these I say will be trudging back to the Garlick and Onyons of Egypt if these Apostatize after so much light and embrace Popish darkness What remains But a certain fearful looking for of Judgment and fiery Indignation which shall devour the Adversary He that despised Moses Law died without Mercy under two or three witnesses of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under Foot the Son of God in his Soveraignty Laws and Ordinances and hath counted the Blood of the Covenant wherewith he was Sanctified an unholy thing imperfect without the Virgins Milk and Saints Intercessions and hath done despite unto the spirit of Grace As the Apostle argues in the same Case Hebr. 10. 27. It is reported by Ireneus cont Haeres L 3. Ca. 3. And by Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History L. 3. Ca. 25. That Holy and Beloved Apostle St. John when he spied Cerinthus the Heretick in the Bath where he was made all the haste he could possible to be gone apprehending it dangerous to be under the same Roof with him Yea the very Heathen as Tully de natura deorum L 3. witnesses being at Sea in a violent storm were much afraid of being Ship-wrackt because they had Diagoras the Atheist abord amongst them I would to God some Protestants were but as careful for their Souls as I say not the Apostle but the Heathen were for their Bodies and used the same discreet caution to provide for their Eternal Salvation as they had to procure their Temporal safety Neither was the Apostle any thing concern'd in the Impiety of Cerinthus or these Heathens with that of Diagoras and yet both He and They doubted some evil might befall them because they were in the Company of such profane wretches And can any Protestant Imagine that he may be free from danger though he joyn in Faith with the Pope that great Anti-christ though he harbour those Locusts Priests and Jesuites and converse daily with them and hearken to their Syren Musick and Imbibe their gilded poyson out of that Cup of Fornication wherewith they have Intoxicated the Kings of the Earth No No touching of Pitch always defileth It cost Jehosaphat dear though he were otherwise a good King for going to War with Idolatrous Ahab against a common enemy For what said Hanani the Seer 2 Chron. 19. 2. Wouldst thou help the wicked and love them that hate the Lord Therefore for this thing the wrath of the Lord is upon thee What then may they look for who like the Laodiceans are lukewarm neither hot nor cold altogether indifferent whether they be Papists or Protestants prepared to shift their Religion as the humour of the Successor shall happen such as are not asham'd to declare beforehand that they had rather be Papists than joyn with any of the Reformed Protestant Churches beyond the Seas that scoff at the very name Protestant and make it the best part of their Religion to swear and damn and rail against and persecute all those pious peaceable Protestants that cannot suppose it be through the error or weakness of their Conscience come up to the usage of some insignificant Ceremonies acknowledged to be indifferent though otherwise sound in their Faith Loyal to their King readily paying all Taxes useful to the publick and peaceable to their Neighbors whilst at the same time these high soaring Nominal Sons of the Church of England as they love to stile themselves though there is scarce one in forty of them but either is ignorant of or does not believe her Articles shall speak well of applaud and caress Papists and argue for their Principles and extenuate for their Treasons c. what shall we say of such people The Lord Rebuke them But least we should seem Fanatical in this assertion that the Faith of Rome is to be refused on pain of Damnation we shall here add some Testimonies of the Reverend Fathers and Divines of the Church of England 1. The famous Jewel in the defence of his Apology part 6. Ca. 22. Div. 2. We have departed saith he speaking of the Church of Rome from them who have utterly forsaken the Catholick Faith 2. Dr. Reynolds Conclus 5. The Church of Rome is not distemper'd with a little-Ague such as hindreth not greatly the functions of life