affirm that they may come down now and then and take some care of our Affairs Admit that these few Apparitions which I find recorded by good Authors 1. Of Potamiena k Euseb Eccl. Hist l. 6. c. 5. to Basilides 2. Of a Father l August de Curapro Mort. c. 11. who after his death brings the true Acquittance of a Debt that his poor Son was troubled for 3. Of something like Felix the Confessor m Ibid. c. 16. appearing to relieve Nola 4. Of something like Spiridians daughter that n Socrat. Hist Eccl. l. 1. c. 12. offered to the good Bishop her Father to shew him where she had laid the Jewels which a Friend had entrusted her with 5. Of somthing like John Monachus a Holy Man that o Aug. sup c. 17. appeared to a really pious Woman when once she longed to see him 6. And of something like St. Augustin that once appeared to his p Ibid. c. 11. Disciple Eulogius and another time q Idem c. 12. to one Curma about Hippo when both this John and St. Augustin were yet alive and knew nothing of this appearing at the least St. Augustin did not but what he heard other Men say Suppose I say both against all probability and the s Ibid. c. 16. c. positive judgment of St. Augustin himself that these were not Angels but real Souls What are some few extraordinary Apparitions to ground an universal and perpetual way of Worship And suppose that not few but whole thousands of Souls should swarm down amongst us as we know the Angels do the Angels we also know were never called upon nor praied to by any true Servant of God as long as the Church was ordered by any Prophet Apostle or Apostolical Men and after their departure it is well known how the Fathers who next succeeded them alwaies voted both against Worshipping and Praying to any one created Angel The Disciples of Christ saies St. Ireneus t Iren. cont Haeres l. 2. c. 57. sub fin do nothing by praying to Angels but by directing holy and undefiled Praiers to the Lord who hath created all things Praiers directed to others it seems are defiled with something And tho the blessed Angels u Orig. Cont. Celsum l. 5. p. 233. Edit Cantabr saies Origen a most authentic Author in this Point are sometimes called Gods and convey down to us the favors of God yet we do not serve them as Gods for all our Praiers Supplications Addresses and givings of Thanks which he makes to be all one with the true Service of God must be directed to God who is the Master of all things thro our High Priest the living Word and God who is greater then all the Angels And as for the Angels themselves we have no reason to pray to them because we do not understand them well and tho we did this very knowing of both their Nature and Offices would not afford us the confidence of offering our Vows and Praiers to any other then to the All-sufficient and Supreme God by his Son our Savior Not to trouble my self or others with any more clear and direct Citations to this purpose I will only add the Verdict of two and thirty Fathers who find x Concil Laodic Can. 35. in a full Council that the praying to Angels for so St. Theodoret y Theodor. Colossens c. 2. v. 18. interprets the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be both a hidden Idolatry and a forsaking of Christ and his Church The true reason which makes these and other Fathers so sharp against Praying to Angels much more against Praying to Saints as to call it Idolatry is not because the Angels cannot hear alwaies the Saints never for this would make praying to them no more then an idle and useless act but mainly and principally because Praier Vows and giving of Thanks is a main part of Gods service and therefore Saint z Iren. Sup. Ireneus and a Orig. sup Origen take Praier and Worship promiscuously for the same thing And 't is upon this same account that both b Psalm 50 14.15 Scripture and the Ancient c Tertullian Apol. c. 30. Euseb Demonst Evang. c. ult sub fin Orig. in Rom. c. 10. v. 14. p. 382. Edit Paris 1619. Fathers still reckon Praier and Thanksgiving among the truest Sacrifices and which can belong to none but God Now Praier is part of Gods service because if serious and devout and I am sure Roman praying to Saints is no jest it presupposes and acknowleges in the Saint which is praied to such an infinite knowledg of Mens hearts such an Universal and extensive Capacity or rather Being in hearing them all alwaies every where and such an immense sufficiency and power of helping them accordingly that to make or to presuppose created either Saints or Angels fit persons for to be praied to is to make or to presuppose them to be Gods And this is the true account wherefore calling upon God is reputed an Honor given to God Call upon me and thou shalt glorifie me Psal 50.15.23 because it implies and in very deed acknowledgeth the Immensity the Knowlege the Mercy and Power of God not calling upon him is Atheism Psalm 79.6 And so calling on them who are not Gods is down-right Idolatry The truth is you may call upon a Saint without any danger of Idolatry if he be in such a distance whence intelligent Creatures may without Miracle hear one another thus the Prophets were not afraid to speak to Angels Dan. Ch. 10. and Ch. 22. Zachar. 1.9 If you did pray a Holy Man whil'st he is with you to pray for you and to recommend you to God after he is dead perhaps this exceeds not much the ordinary power of a Saint Thus St. Cyprian d Cyprian l. 1. Ep. 1. sub fin intreated his Friend Cornelius then Bishop of Rome that he of them two who should by suffering Martyrdom step the formost to Jesus Christ would being with him there continue his wonted Praiers for his poor Brother whom he knew to be left behind And as I take it the same Father asks the same favor of his Holy and Devout Virgins against the time when their Virgin Zeal and Piety e Idem de Habitu Virg. Tract 2. sub fin should be crowned with its due Honor. Thus far I see nothing at all that an humble Christian may not wish and a created Saint may not perform and if such Praiers have any defect it is not Idolatry nor Superstition perhaps 't is only they want an Example Nor is it any Idolatry to pray to your Friends by letters at any distant whatsoever for St. Paul in his Epistles doth often so and therefore I would not blame our learned Papists for dedicating their Books and writing Dedicatory Letters to the most Blessed Virgin Mary if they had Expresses to carry them But if you can fancy a Saint of such
them after they are dead without Repentance It is enough for you to know y Rich. ibid. she doth it And what might she not do for these Villains since she can with her two Angels be a Midwife z Discipulus De Miracul Mar. Tom. 2. Serm. Exempl 25. Palbart l. 21. c. 13. to very whores your main Interest is to see in return of these great Mercies Kindnesses and Protections what Services now she will have CHAP. VI. Concerning the Adoration and new Waies of serving the Virgin Mary WHEN the Roman Doctors are among themselves either worshipping at their Altars or discoursing in their Pulpits or teaching in their public Scholes they freely talk of adoring a Vid. Concil Nicenum 2. the blessed Saints they think them to be Canonized most principally for this end that they may publicly b Antonin Sum. part 3. l. 22. c. 8. be adored and praied to and they highly commend the Greek who at his first Conversion professed that he did c Salazar Prov. c. 8. v. 15. n. 114. adore from his heart our Lady the Queen of the world And their S. Damascen is herein their great Goliah driving before him all the Fathers with this weapon Decet enim c. It must be so f Damasc 1. De Nativ 2. de Assumt or t is fitting that this Mother of God should enjoy that which belongs to her Son and therefore the Glory of being adored by all men But when the Papists are amongst us tho they keep still their hearty thoughts they do quite reform their Language they are ashamed to say in England what they are proud to do at Rome If you believe what they say here it was never heard in their Church that they must adore any Saint g Censura Colon. p. 228. unless by chance it be in that sense in which Jacob adored his Brother and Abigail King David which is no Divine honor at all but only such a reverence as is deferred h Coster in Enchirid. to Kings or Fathers or such honorable Persons and therefore and justly too why not to Saints And if you be inquisitive and press them farther about this Point then they will run out into so many Distinctions and terms of Art as will puzle any Lay-man Dulia Latria hyperdulia Absolute and Relative Worship Divine Adoration and bordering upon Divine Godhead essential and Godhead participated so that it will go very hard with them if they do not leave him whom they pretend to satisfie as ignorant and more confounded then he was before They will tell you that they intend not either to adore the Virgin or to adore her otherwise then respectively that it is in a mere relation to her Son and those Intentions being in their hearts it is impossible there to search out either the Truth or the untruth of what they say But if you look to what they do instead of hearkning to what they say their most solemn and practical Devotions have such a plain and real language as must declare to all the world both what their Religion is in it self and what you may best think of it 1. First they bestow and accumulate upon the Virgin all the best Titles which both in the Church and in the Scripture are proper to God For in their most solemn Devotions she is a She God a She Savior the Queen of Queens the Fountain of Salvation the Ladder and Gate of Heaven c. And it were great folly in us to think that they do not worship her according to what they call her since it is not in such Rencounters that men use to play the Hypocrites 2. Secondly in their ordinary Praiers and Praises and Giving of Thanks they do most commonly join her with God Jesu Maria comes in one word out of their Mouths and Glory be to God and to the blessed Virgin is but one compleat Doxologie at the end of most of their Books Now such an Association as this is in the judgment of the Fathers a clear Evidence of being God Thus they prove i Athanas Orat. 4. contr Arian pag. 260. Edit Comel against the Arians that the Angel whom Jacob praied to when he blessed his Grand-children Gen. 48.16 is the Lord Christ because in that praier he is joined with the God of his Fathers and that this Christ is very God k Ibid. p. 159. because the Apostles join him with God both in their Praiers and their Praises Grace be to you and Peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Rom. 1.7 c. The strength of their Demonstration consists in this that in all those daies both when the Prophets and Apostles did write the Holy Scriptures and when the holy Fathers did maintain the Faith which is contained in them no man was seen or heard praying l Athanas suprà Cyrill Alexand. Tom. 5. in Thesaur pag. 115. Ed. Paris 1638. for any thing both to the Father and to an Angel or to any other Creature for Popery was not yet abroad nor wishing that God or his Angel or any greater Creature whatsoever would grant or give him any thing And they take it for an insufferable piece of m Cyrill Alex. ibid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sawciness when the Arians dare couple as upon their Principles they do any Creature with the Lord God Such was the known Catholic Faith and Profession of the Primitive times for otherwise judicious and learned Men would not have produced it in that manner as an undoubted Evidence against such subtil and dangerous adversaries Now both the Roman Faith and practice taking a quite contrary way we I hope are more bound to think that the Papists who follow this are Idolaters then that the holy Fathers who went on in that were very Fools 3. Thirdly The Papists apply to the Virgin the most illustrious Places of Scripture that belong directly to Christ and by this means either disable all true Christians from the possibility of proving by the Scriptures that He is God or prove as well that She is so too I will mention out of many but few Instances Every word almost of the eighth Chapter of the Proverbs which doth describe the Eternal Wisdom of God which by the Fathers is applied to Christ alone and which is none of the least cogent Mediums they stand upon to demonstrate him to be that true essential and uncreated Wisdom is now turned another way n Vid. Salazar in Prov. to deifie their Virgin It is by her namely the Virgin if you believe those Abusers of Holy Scripture that Kings reign and that Princes decree Justice v. 15. By her Princes rule and Nobles and all Judges of the Earth 16. Riches and honor are with her true durable Riches and Righteousness 18. She leads in the way of Righteousness she causes them who love her to have substance The Lord saies she out of these Blasphemers
the Rosary both to save all sorts of sinners and to please the Holy Virgin I say St. Dominic knew it before for when he praied against the Albigenses r Bovius Tom. 13. an 1213. the Queen of Mercy appeared to him and bad him to set up the Rosary and to teach all men that form of Praier as most acceptable Service both to her self and to her Son And besides this Instrument saies she shall be a singular weapon to destroy Heresies and Vices to advance all sorts of Vertue and to obtain both the Divine Mercy and my help All this was farther represented by two notable Visions which a Bishop saw in a Dream In one he saw S. Dominic s Gonon Chronic. an 1315. making a Bridg with 150 Towers upon it to bring sinners into a Garden where the Queen of mercy was giving Crowns to others but to himself a sharp Censure for his being not sound in the Faith concerning that Article of Catholic Religion But in the other this prelat being grown very little better by what he had seen in the former he found himself and many more in a most stinking t Ibid. Lake and Puddle where certainly they had bin choakt but that both the Goddess and the Apostle of the Rosary let down from above a long Chain made of 150 small Rings and some few others bigger among them by means whereof all were drawn out Thus far you see what the Holy Rosary can do now you must learn how to use it 1. It is needful to begin it deliberately u Mart. Navar. de Horis Canon c. 13. n. 15. that is saies the best and surest Author you can find in that Church not to do it like men in a dream who may walk and kneel and say their praiers altho they sleep but to begin it with a set purpose of doing what the Church enjoines For tho there are several Examples of men that were saved out of Hell for either wearing x Alan Rediv. part 5. c. 43. a Rosary or for giving it to y Id. part 1. c. 21. a friend without using it otherwise these are extraordinary Blessings rather granted to some to recommend the Excellency of Rosaries then to encourage holy men to that abuse 2. Tho of course as it appears by the ordinary Gloss z Clement in Concil Vien de Celebrat Misserum Tit. 13. upon the Council of Vienna Rosaries might be used as well as other forms of Praiers are without actual attention which manner of Praying without the mind is called by them the fruit †Ibid. of the Lips and thus the Lips may do the work in reading the hourly Praiers whilst the heart runs another way yet besides the first Deliberation and set purpose in the Beginning my more sober and severe director requires a kind of General attention in the Progress of this Service that is to say you are not bound to attend what words you say nor to care much what sense they bear since neither of these two can be well done without some help of the Latin tongue which you have not But whilest you dispatch your Aves and tumble over and over your Beades you must have what they call the Third or the * Paul Layman Theol. Moral l. 4. Tract 1. c. 5. n. 9. Spiritual Attention that is a Navà rrus De Hor. Can. c. 13. n. 4. to remember for example that you are at Mass there to fancy the Real Presence and to pray heartily that what the Mass Priest doth or saies for you tho you do not know what it is may be granted My good God or my sweet Lady saies the Catholic worshipper as b Navar. Ibidem this severe Divine advises him I do not understand what I hear and I as little understand what I say yet I believe that I both hear and say thy Praises and that I pray for my self and all other Christians after the intention of the Holy Church Grant me O Dear Lord or Lady what I desire not knowing what This being done and the men being thus well disposed let Mass hourly Praiers and Rosaries be what they will Greek or Latin Pater noster or la sol fa all is one to Roman Worshippers And as to the 15 Mysteries and 165 Contemplations all this must not trouble his head as it might most really do and it may be c turn his Brain too if he were oblig'd to care for it for it seems these Contemplations and Mysteries are involved in the Rosary as a great Tresure under Walls to make it vastly rich and powerful altho the owner perceive it not Thus their consecrating Words Hoc est enim corpus meum can work Miracles from the mouth of an Ignorant and so do mostly Spells and Characters in the mouth of a Conjurer Origen observes somewhere that the words of Abraham Isaac and Sabaoth that Magicians did enchant with did work far better in that Tongue which was unknown to them then in their own You may hear of strange Fears also don by words taken out of the Latin Psalms which the Witches do not understand And so must at this rate Ave Maria Pater noster good and holy words otherwise if they do such Miracles as they say contract likewise a strange Virtue from some Extrinsecal Principle which is neither understood nor thought of Mean while what Church is this and where can the Papists find such another that dispatches the Divine Service as Conjurers do their mischief in a strange Tongue 3. To say the Rosary after the best way without distracting your self about Contemplations and Mysteries take me the Virgin d Navar. de Rosar Miscell 26. n. 2. by her self that so the whole strength of your Soul may the better mind her alone And fancy her the best you can in some of those Conditions which her Images can help you to either as hearing with reverence the Message of the Angel Gabriel Ave Maria c. or looking stedfastly on her Baby whom she hath commonly on her left Arm or else sitting like a great Queen close to God upon a high Throne and there hearkening to what we say To use your fancy to this way you must salute her thrice a day at Morning Noon and Sun-setting when you hear the Bell Salve Regina and at each time e Ibid. adore one of those three Members or parts of her which were the seats of the greatest Wonders 1. Her Belly in these or such Words O most glorious Queen of Mercy I do salute the venerable Temple of thy Womb Ave Maria. 2. Her Heart O most glorious Queen of Mercy I salute thy Virgin Heart which never had any tincture of sin Ave Maria. 3. Her Soul O most glorious Mother of Mercy I salute your most noble Soul deckt as it is with all the pretious Ornaments of Gifts of Vertues and of Graces Ave Maria 4. Thus having got your self into some f Ibid.
alittle Button of Wood Globulo ligneo as could save any one Soul if in saying the Lords Praier he will but hold it in his hand now this Blessing will stick to it though you throw it into the Sea and if you did throw it into the Fire this admirable saving Vertu would probably stick to the Ashes I am sure it will lay hold upon the very ringing of Bells and whensoever o Richard Cluniacens in Papa Joh. 22. you hear them in the Morning especially at Noon and at Sun-setting and have the grace to put off your Hat to say an Ave Maria you may thereby expiate some sins Happy sinners whose Churches Altars and the very Bells can do so much and the Tresure shall pay for all But this is a fitter matter to be abhorred then jested at As this Tresure is best contrived both for the Interest of Covetous and the Lust of lewd Persons it is made up of Blasphemies and impertinent lies against God The first Pope who invented it maintain'd it upon this ground That p Clemens 6. Extravag Vnigenitus one drop of Christs Blood could save man-kind whence follows that he had no need to die Hereupon the Blasphemer concludes That since God spared not his Son but put him to such a violent death as forced out of him not one single drop but q Ibid. a whole stream and Flood of Blood there must be somewhere a Tresury to receive this most precious but superfluous quantity lest it be lost But First This impious untruth destroies the necessity of Christs satisfaction and sufferings and countenances all what the old and the new and worse Arrians will say against his Sacrifice upon the Cross For if one drop of Blood was sufficient he shed that and more at his Circumcision and thus far his Passion was useless Secondly It charges the Justice of God with such a foul Reproch as can never be wash'd off as long as this Roman Tresury shall stand For since it stands merely to receive that Blood which might have bin spared at our dear Saviors Passion it stands up as an Evidence that whatsoever is therein kept was demanded of and paied by Christ as a tyrannous rigor above what was due to afflict and torment him and that the same Eternal Judg who as they say is so merciful even in Hell as to take * Aloys Novarin Vmbra Virg. To. 2. l. 4. Excurs 43. n. 799. less of damned men then they deserve was in the very acts of Grace and the Redemtion of Man-kind so severe against his own Son as by most insufferable Punishments to extort from him a thousand times more then it was strictly just he should suffer Thirdly It throws the same Dirt upon that Love which God bears to his only beloved Son For Christ never sought for Torments farther then they were necessary for the saving of his own Flesh that is Man-kind Contrariwise with Praiers and Tears he wish'd That that Cup might pass from him And therefore what kindness had this bin in God the Father to put his Son to vain Tortures and to plunge his very Soul into a most shameful kind of death when one drop of Blood had done as much the Popes Interest being laid aside And what Bowels and natural Compassions were these in both a Just and Loving Father to draw so much Blood out of his Son as should bring him to a cruel Death merely to fill up Roman Purses Fourthly Nothing less then blind Covetousness could betray Men into that blind Opinion For what could perswade the Popes that one drop of Christs Blood was enough to save all the World out of Hell but the pretence of having all the rest in their disposal to save Men from Purgatory Can any ordinary Divine unless blinded by that Interest be so fundamentally ignorant as not to know that what sinners deserve the Law demands the Sacrifices for sin did threaten and therefore either we or our surety for us was to suffer was a real and cursed Death And can any other then a mad-men think that a Drop of Blood shed without Death is a real and cursed Death It is true one Drop of that Blood was of an infinite value and t is perhaps with this pretense that Popes blind themselves and others or unconsidering men in their harangues have talkt unwarily but there are many more things in Christ which are of an infinite value as for example his Praiers his Groanings his Tears c. which yet are not sufficient for our Ransom for no infinite thing could be it but such as were an infinite death and certanly a Drop of Blood is neither death nor a death of infinite worth Popes or at the least Popish Divines r Bellar. de Indulg l. 1. c. 2. sect Tertia Propositio Becan de Iâ—â—ulg q. 1. sect Prima Conclusio have another Foundation to set their Church Tresure upon which I confess is not so impious as the former but is as much or more impertinent They say and they say well that the Death of Jesus Christ was abundantly sufficient not only to save those few who are saved out of the World but to save all men besides and twenty thousand both men and worlds more if God had created them and if they had corrupted themselves Hereupon and this is their foolish Impertinency they part Christs death and infinite Ransom into two Namely that which hath bin really applied and made use of and that which hath not bin so The former they think well bestowed on them who are or shall be really saved and therefore lay no claim to it But the other which is the far greater part that never was applied because it was rejected for fear it should fall to the ground they challenge it for their Tresure and that is it which they apply every 25th year in a Jubilee and every day in Indulgences After this rate Rome may provide for new store-houses for they may part as well in two the Infinite Wisdom or power or Providence of God and leaving that part he makes use of for Creating and Ordering this one world wherein we live take for themselves that other share which might have served and yet did not for creating and ordering of thousand more Did one ever hear of mad-men that went about to tresure up that part of sun-shine that might shew the way to a whole Army when but one man makes use of it or to reserve that part of Christs Voice as far as it might have bin heard by the seventy where it was heard but by the twelve Disciples the Papists in this Poin are very little wiser then so The same Wisdom and Power of God which is all-sufficient both to create and order many worlds is all necessary and therefore indivisibly and wholly set to order one the same Sun-shine which at one time fills a whole Hemisphere or the voice and Sermon which fills a great Auditory do not use to
all Spain and the Kingdoms appertaining saies f Navar. de Jubil Notabil 15. n 5. Navarrus and think not that England fares worse a full Indulgence of all Sins with many other Faculties and Privileges added to it such as the liberty of eating Cheese on Saturday c. may be had by every one Prince or Pesant it matters not for two small pieces of Silver 2. There is not any poor country Church or Chappel but as it hath a Saint for its special Patron and an anniversary Feast for the day on which it was consecrated hath also some special Graces out of the Roman Tresury to wait both upon the Saint and the Feast Thus one needs not to go farther then the Parish to get at the least twice in a Year the benefit of Indulgences 3. If you be not content with what your Parish can afford the Pope hath so judiciously scattered great Sanctuaries over all his Catholic World like the Moazim in Daniel and the High places in Israel that there is scarce any Country so unfortunatly seated but it can supply all Catholic Inhabitants with all they can want in this case In Spain you have the Chappel of Angels g Conformit S. Franc. Conf. 14. where by the Virgins special favor you may save one Soul every Year you might have done it every day if the Pope had not grudged at it if you will but step into the Church At Venice you have the Chappel called The Lords Sepulcher and therein some think fourscore thousand Years of Pardon Padua Perusium Florence Montserrat Lauretta c. do not come much short of this In France you shall find it may be more if you go to St. Denis St. Michael Limoges and a hundred other famous Places which it were needless to mention here You may be sure that Germany and the Low Countries do not want such Commodities as these are 4. Besides these local Indulgences that are fixed to Altars and Churches which you may easily resort to his Holiness hath taken care to fasten some other and large ones too upon certain moveable h Suarez de Indulg Disp. 52. Sect. 1. n. 3. things which are brought ready to your hand For as there are privileged Altars Masses and Churches made fast to certain pieces of ground there are Praiers enrich'd with the like Favors and Indulgences flying up and down the Roman World as light and nimble as Paper can be that can afford you upon this score more then you can need Buy but a little Book such as I have an old one by me containing the Suffrages of the Saints there you shall find in one short Ave Maria i Suffrag fol. 74. alias 85. said to the honor of St. Anna St. Mary and her Son ten thousand Years for your Mortal and twenty thousand more for your Venial Sins In another Salutation k Suffrag fol. 9. Ave Valnus 4000 daies in the Praier Dirupisti 6000 in the Praier a Suffrag fol. 64. Domine Jesu ten hundred thousand Years in the Praier Adoro te l Suffrag fol. 52. 32755 Years of Pardon And if this be not enough Pope Sixtus the 4th was pleased to add to it a great deal more even so much as to double it and the 15 Oo's of St. Brigit that is in a Praier made of 15 Ejaculations m Suffrag fol. 49. all beginning by O Jesu forty five huge great Indulgences and extraordinary Powers namely fifteen to deliver from Purgatory any fifteen Souls you please to name of your kindred fifteen to convert to a good Life any fifteen Men or Women that you may find among sinners and fifteen to keep fifteen more honest Persons safe and constant in a good way And the Rubric adds more n Ibid. that whatsoever you shall desire if it be for the good of your Soul you shall have it And what can you not expect of Salve Regina Ave spes and such other more solemn Praiers When you are weary of Praiers take your Beads Videmus c. a Navar. de Jubil Notabil 15. n. 5. saies a most Learned and Pious Author in the Roman way I my self saies he have seen small Buttons or Beads of Wood so powerfully blessed by the Pope that whosoever had one in his hand in saying but the Lords Praier was therewith enabled to save a Soul Any Meddal when rightly consecrated can do as much 't is but getting some of those rusty Pieces which Pope Sixtus the Fifth found once under the rubbish of an old Wall then presently you are b Cardinal Raspon l. 4. c. 11. pag. 347. fitted with * Suffrag fol. 6. rare Indulgential Privileges The Agnus-Dei's as I will shew you anon that is pieces of Wax sealed with the Image of a Lamb and consecrated accordingly go beyond this But observe what I tell you and admire the blessedness of being a Roman Catholic by that time you are grown so weak or so lazy as not to stretch your hand to a Book in order to the gaining these Indulgences the very Bell of the Parish will sound them intâ— your Ears Pope John the 22d is the first I know who c Ricard Cluniac in Joh. 22. being at Avignion assured twenty daies of Pardon upon the toling about Sun-set and since that time these 20 were out of the Church Tresure d Suffrag de Beat. Mar. fol. 42. by Pope Sixtus improved here in England into 300 daies of pardon at every daies toling 3 times this they call the Ave Bell. Thus unless you stop both Heart and Ears you can't want every day a fair proportion of Indulgences 4. If you will drink at the Fountain of all these good things go to Rome As that Town is by the Testimony of her e Alvar. Pelagius de Planctu Eccles l. 2. Art 2. Platina in vita Marcel S. Bernard de Considerat l. 4. own Friends acknowledged to be the durtiest Nest of all sorts of uncleanness she hath to wash all clean a whole Ocean of Indulgences There the seven great Churches not to name a hundred more can upon their own account afford more Propitiations then the greatest Villains can commit sins for there is Scala Sancta that is those 28 Steps or Marble Stones that once belonged to Pilate but now have in them such a measure of Holiness that the Popes think it Devotion to kneel on them And that of late Queen Christina is much celebrated f Card Reston l. 4. c. 10. by some for having bent her Roial knees and what she never had done in her Country expressed much Devotion by creeping up those Holy Stairs There is that most Holy Chappel which they call Sancta Sanctorum where Men at the first stepping into find wherewith g Ibid. c. 19. pag 373. to expiate all sins and Women at the very looking into it for they are not suffered to come in get even as much through an Iron Grate This is the
alone either to publish at Mass what b Ibid. an 1297. he is and to sing Ave Maria or to run about c Wadd an 1338. the Church as little Children use to do but upon another account for inviting all the Congregation to praise his Mother and so to spread a great many Roses and sweet Perfumes among them all Sometimes the Child will venture farther and jump or fly like a winged Cherub as when he d Matth. Paris in vita S. Godric crawled out of the mouth of a Crucifix and jumped thence into an Images Bosom and hence back into his first Hole When S. Herman was a Novice he did use to give e Chronic. Deip. an 1235. him Apples and to be his play fellow between Services his Mother and S. John the Evangelist did come down purposely to see them play Here take my Son * Henric. Gran. Ex Diversis Distinct 9. Exemp 74. saies the Lady and play with him a grave Divertisement for glorious Saints Once a devout woman f Magn. Specul Tit. Humilitas Exempl 23. found him alone walking at Church and thinking the poor Child had bin left and forgotten there for he lookt but as three years old she asked whether he could say his Pater the Lords Praier to which he having nothing to say the good Gentlewoman thought that he was yet too young to speak but when she tried him again with an Ave Maria he found his tongue The strangest of all his Fortunes was to be found g Cantiprat de Apib. l. 2. c. 1. sect 13. naked in the Snow crying and bemoaning himself because he was starved with the cold weather and that there was none that would help him At last nevertheless when a Charitable Traveller would take him up and had him already on his horse the sweet Babe vanished away The Pagan Jupiter transforming himself into what shape he will cannot be worse then this Popish God lying thus and wailing in the Snow However this is the Spirit and God forbid we should think him worth a better Name that helps the Roman Crucifixes and the sweet wooden Babes to stir to speak to work Miracles at last to become the God of a special Confraternity called now adaies the Religion or Confraternity of the little Jesus The first founder of this Religion as far as I can trace it up was their Fanatic S. Francis This giddy Saint having a special Licence from the Pope for what he meant to do that you should not think it a private folly h Bonavent in vita Francisc ap Lipom. got upon Christmas Eve an Ox and an Ass and Hey and Oats in a Stable there a Multitude of Country People besides his ordinary Disciples flockt from all Parts about to see the new Ceremony The Mass is said the Stable was the Church and the Manger was the High Altar There S. Francis after he had read the Gospel preacht with many tears and sobs a most pathetical Sermon upon the Duty of that Night and at that time never called Christ otherwise then this sweet Babe of Bethlehem My good Author informs me not whether he had provided for and so pointed at a woodden Babe in the Manger But however there he found more for it is * Bonavent ibid. credibly reported God permitting the Operation of Error and the Devil of course deluding men who seek for God out of Gods way that a brave and lusty Boy was there found lying a sleep then you may guess with what transported devotion S. Francis fell to kissing to hugging and to worshipping the sweet Babe thus sleeping sweetly upon the Hey where †Chronic. Deip. an 1508. Michel Pius Chronic. an 1510. others likewise have found him since He is the same Lad who cried when he was half buried in the Snow who used to skip and play about Churches the very same that doth appear standing or lying sometimes upon Mass wafers and who by the Mass Priests themselves is partly suspected partly judged to be a Devil But let them judg or suspect what they please It is as far from Jesus Christ our Glorious Savior in Heaven to come down now to play the Child as to be so and not so much as a wise grave and moral man much less a Saint much less an Angel much less our Immortal Savior would condescend to appear in a fools Coat But however this Enchantment has bin attended with such Miracles as have bin i Ibid. able to make it pass into a Piece of Roman Religion for holy Truth And the same Hey whereupon the sweet Baby slept that had the vertue as they say to cure sick Cattle and to preserve Men from all Diseases had the vertue to bring them too into a new Confraternity which consists much in washing starching and sowing Laces wherewith at Christ-mass to deck the Babe a proper employment at this very day for good Ladies And we that have lived among them from the Persecution of both the long Parliament and Cromwel had leisure enough in twenty Years to see and wonder at their folly who think to make their Peace with God for the whole Year by dressing and undressing rocking and worshipping this Child that Night 3. Now lastly take both Mother and Child together you shall find between them two as much Witchcraft and Superstition again These Images were not long adored in the Churches but there went Stories abroad true or untrue I decide not that they did stir and work Miracles The Worshipping and Adoration of course invited the Spirit to come in and by a recompence fit for Error the stirring Spirit brought more Worship These seeming vital Motions however extrinsecal to Images in their harmless use when they were but Memorials either of things past or of Friends absent have ever bin most proper and most essential to Idols and you can hardly find any one among the Pagans that is famous but I can shew you that upon fit occasions it did speak or move or seemingly do greater Wonders All this and in this case hath proved to be most advantageous to the advancing of Roman Worship For besides the first account which is harmless enough when it goes no farther then representing Christ made Man and born of a Woman this Image as now it is used and continually look'd on fixes in the simple Worshipper a sottish notion of what he gazes upon continually to wit here of Christs being still a little Child and there the Virgin being a great Queen Hereupon their Speeches and Miracles improving this imagination and Christ appearing in very deed prating and acting as a dutiful Child under his Mother or as an Infant with the Queen Regent and at the same time great and glorious Apparitions of seeming Angels and Saints from Heaven speaking and acting seemingly in their own Persons what these Images speak and act in Churches the Church of Rome hath bin pleased to make her own public Praiers suitable to these