to be true seruants to their Sauiour or good subiects to their Souereigne I Hauing finished yet in great weakenesse our former worke wherein I doe humbly craue of all sorts a friendly and fauourable construction and acceptation and there still remaining a few pages vnwritten I thought it not labout lost if I did annexe some common yet courteous direction to the Lay-papists of the land to disswade them from the corrupt Doctrine of the Church of Rome vnto the which they are induced by the inchaunting allurements of Popish Priests men whose learning and wits are tempting baites yea bawdes Thamar-like prostitute themselues so that they may haue children they will deceiue their owne father Iudah as also by the ignorance of these Lay-disciples whose right eyes of knowledge they thrust out as Nahash the Ammonite would haue done to the men of Iabesh Gilead depriuing them of the word of knowledge the Scripture and saying It was the Deuills inuention to permit the people to reade the Bible as one of their fide writes and therfore the Church of Rome forbiddeth the reading of it among the people By which meanes oh wofull meanes and to cry with their owne Doctor to their Cleargy for it woe to our Parish Priests woe to our Bishops woe to our Prelates they haue brought in such a floud of prodigious ignorance as that many of them are as ignorant as that Knight was of whom Claudius Espâ—ncaem tells of who being demanded his beliefe touching the holy Ghost answered he knew not whether there was an holy Ghost or no. So that their followers being so blind not able to iudge of colours wanting the word of Truth the Scripture in the tongue they vnderstand which is the lapis Lydius the touchstone to try the truth from error diuina statera as Augustin calles it the diuine ballance to weigh truth from falsehood it is easie to winde such into selfe-losing labyrinthes and to driue them with their painted clothes like woodcockes into their nets and to goe with them with Domitius Chalderinus yet hee learned who when he should goe to the Masse accustomed to say Eamus ad communem errorem Let vs goe to the common error So these are content to goe to Masse the common or Catholicke mother of all Bastard errors The attractiue motiues which draw many to fancy and follow the religion of the Church of Rome may be reduced to three Heads 1. The Antiquitie 2. The Vniuersality 3. The Vnity of that Church which three if they could be found there were of powerfull consequence to mooue reuerence but neither of these can be found there for the moderne Romane Church which coines so often new Creedes and Articles of faith and is reuolted from herselfe in substance of doctrine is no more like herselfe in her primitiue State then Lais the Curtizan is an honest woman I could demonstrate this I say without controulement if I were purposed to write a common-place-booke of Controuersies in this point but it hath beene handled so largely and learnedly by other Diuines of our Church that I may at this time forbeare any long discourse I will but touch it and instance this I write how the moderne Church of Rome is swarued from herselfe not onely from the Truth which primitiue Rome embraced but also varied from herselfe declining into heresie innouating those Articles and dogmaticall points of faith as they count them which in the processe of her fall she professed it might be specified in most of the points of Doctrine she maintaines at this present time but I will rest with these few for I write but an Epitome 1 Example shall be in the Sacrament At the first the people receiued the cup as well as the bread for the space of a thousand yeeres yea afterward the Romance Church commanded the wine to be consecrated that the lay-people might fully communicate saith Micrologus most and the best Papists liked this well that the people should communicate in both kinds but afterward the Councell of Constance forbad it and after that the Councell of Basil released the decree of Constance to some and after that the Councell of Trent the mint of errors confirmed it againe and depriued the Laity of the Cup Sect. 21. c. 2. So that this point of Doctrine now maintained in the Church of Rome can pleade no antiquity being now so oft renewed put vp and put downe and their most ancient Liturgies shew how the people receiued the wine as well as the bread and this custome saith Caietan endured long in the Church and as one of their Church say It were better if this custome were renewed againe 2 Example in Transubstantiation Transubstantiation lately brought into the Church and made a matter of faith by a silly Pope Innocent the third in the Lateran Councell within these 400 yeeres and the Papists themselues say this opinion is very new and lately brought into the Church and beleeued onely vpon the authority of the Lateran Councell and speake so vncertainely and inconstantly in this point and doe so stagger enterfere in their opinion herein confessing that there is no Scripture to conuince it vnlesse ye bring the Church of Romes exposition so that hitherto we can see no great antiquity nor good vniuersality in their doctrine 3 Example in Popes supremacy The Councell of Constance and Basil decreed That a generall Councell was of greater authority then the Pope but long after that the Councels of Lateran and Trent decreed contrary The Councels of Chalcedon and Constantinople make the Bishop of Constantinople equall with the Bishop of Rome yet now he arrogates a supremacy aboue Bishops aboue Councels aboue Kings aboue all his title no lesse then vniuersall Bishop yet Gregory who was Pope of Rome saith I hat he dare confidently say He is the forerunner of Antichrist in his pride whosoeuer he be that calleth himselfe vniuersall Bishop but this smoaky pompe of pride the Pope now likes well enough and makes it an Article of Faith to sweaâ—e obedience to his primacy and he that denies this denies Fidem Catholicam The Catholicke Faith faith Bellarmine I might here produce other examples of Popish Doctrine crept in by degrees as their abhominable image-Image-worship brought in by the second Councell of Nice the first restraint of Priests marriage by Pope Siritius the doctrine of the merit of workes lately by the Schoolemen as Waldensis writes Their prayers to the dead Popes pardons Purgatory a Platonicall or poeticall fiction Auricular confession with other like triuiall trash which if they haue any colour of antiquity yet they haue no colour of verity And what is antiquity without verity Saint Cyprian tels vs Consuetudo sine veritate est vestustas erroris Continuance without truth is the antiquity of error And againe Non hom ines consuei â—dinem
against them Purim by the name of Pur i. Lot or lots in casting lots for their destruction So Samuel pitched a stone the Philistines being ouercome and called it Eben-ezer Lapis adiutorij Hitherto hath the Lord holpen vs. These and many other examples whereof the Scripture is plentifull are sufficient to stirre vp Gods people to remember with humble thankefulnesse the great workes of Gods most mercifull deliuerance And herein as becommeth faithfull seruants to God and loyall Subiects to his Annointed let the People of Great Britanny holily celebrate with deuout prayers and prayses to Almighty God that solemne Anniuersary day The fift of August the day of our gracious and religious Kings preseruation from that bloody intended destruction of the wicked and wretched Traytors Gouries of Scotland In which deliuerance Gods might and mercy did so wonderfully appeare that we may cry with Moses Stand still and behold the saluation of the Lord which he shewed this day Saying with the Psalmist It is hee which giueth deliuerance vnto Kings and rescueth Dauid from the hurtfull Sword and moues our High Soueraigne to say with that Kingly Prophet If the Lord had not holpen me my soule had beene put to silence and therefore his Maiesty in a thankefull acknowledgement of Gods mercy doth religiously obserue in hearing prayers and preaching of Gods word euery Tuesday in the yeere it was Dies Martis almost Mortis Two most admirable deliueries vpon that day from two abhorred Treasons in both which I may cry with Iererie It was the Lords mercies that we were not consumed and may say with Augustine Hee that seeth not Gods mercy in this is blind he that seeth it and prayses it not is thankelesse he that hindreth him that praises it is mad And therefore to adde a little fewell to the fire of our generall deuotion to God for this his mercifull and maruellous preseruation of our dread Soueraigne worthy to be written with eternall Characters in the hearts of all good People perpetually to praise God for the same I haue enterprized to write this little Treatise hoping that others who haue greater Talents will labour to eternize the memory of this renowned worke of God to all posterities In handling of which Subiect I shall not write the History of it it is already published to the World I shal only discourse of Traytors in generall with some application in particular declaring the wofull Tragicall ends of Traytors with such occurrences Vt quorum exitus per horrescunt eorum facta non imitentur That as their wofull deaths so their wicked deeds all men should abhorre and as St Ambrose closes vp the Story of Achabs and Iezabels fearfull end thus Fugies huiusmodi exitum si fugies huiusmodi flagitium Escape their sinne and thou shalt escape their end So hate Treason and neuer feare a Traytors end whose wayes is the gallowes death or hell In the description of the punishment of Traytors and their ends their infamy in the World the greatnesse of their sinne being hatefull to God and Man dangerous to Kingdomes dreadfull to Kings and damnable to themselues the diuel and his adherents the onely Agents in such enterprizes if the Tragedy of them past may worke so well vpon the hearts of all present or future as to detest Treason both in action and affection because it brings wounds to their consciences ruine to their Families plagues to their Countries and punishments to their carkases how happily shall this little labour be bestowed if hereafter in great Britanny no Traytor may be found to his King or Countrey Then shall the Lord blesse the workes of our hands O Lord blesse thou our handy worke CHAP. II. AS the highest mountaines are most subiect to thunder and tempests so the greatest Potentates exposed to dangers Enuie and Treason neuer aime at misery but flies an higher pitch and like vnto the Spider liues in Kings Palaces and lookes with blood-fallen eyes vpon the royall hands of him that holds the Scepter to bring him downe to his Sepulcher This hath befallen to many Kings both good and bad Christian and Heathen in all ages Not to recite a long catalogue of this cursed crew of Trayterous miscreants whose memorial is perished with them who haue attempted Treason against the Lords Annointed Dauid a man after Gods owne heart yet loc Sheba the sonne of Bichri blowes his Trumpet saying We haue no part in Dauid neither haue we any inheritance in the sonne of Ishai nay not onely strangers but his owne sonne Absolom proues a Traytor and seekes his Kingdome So many others of the Kings of Israel found Traytors to indanger them yea our Sauiour himselfe had a Iudas to betray him King Assuerus had his Bigthan and Teresh Traytors Ester 2. Ezechâ—as had his Shebna Esay 22. 15. Looke vpon the reignes of Heathen Kings and you shall find Histories full fraught with many examples Augustus a famous Emperour ten times assaulted by treacherous villains Iulius Caesar found a Brutus and Cassius to kill him Vespasian made totus ex clementia All of mercy as the Historian tels vs yet for all that Machinationes nefariorum assiduas expertus est Hee found daily Treacheries attempted against him and his Princely sonne Titus graced in those dayes with Amor deliciae generis humani the loue and delight of all mankind yet had a Trayterous Cecinna to assault him Antoninus had Traytors to trouble him Cassius Titianus and Priscianus Berengarius the Emperour found Flambertus a Traytor whom yet he highly aduanced and vsed in the secrecies of State and familiarity Sed eô magis aestuaret innocenteÌ„ tollere regem So much the more he was set on fire to destroy the innocent King saith Cuspinian What should I rehearse the troope of Traytors which in former Ages haue lift vp their hands and hearts against their royall Masters This last Age prophesied by Saint Paul to be perillous times wherein men shall be Traytors hath fulfilled that prediction These last dayes haue swarmed with such desperate and diuellish wretches who by all meanes of mischiefe haue laboured in these attempts not to play the part of a Notary or Recorder in forraign Nations in publishing the names of Traytors who haue infested their Kings or Countries wee haue had too many in our natiue Countrey whose names are registred in the Popes Kalender of Martyrs or the Hangmans Booke who haue assaulted in late times our late dread Soueraigne Queene Elizabeth of blessed memory and our most gracious and vertuous King two as famous Princes as euer here reigned and both admired of all the Monarkes vnder the Sunne How many Traytors swarmed in Queen Elizabeths daies how frequent were conspiracies of vngodly persons Parries Lopusses Babingtons Campians c and the roaring Buls came from Rome with thunderbolts of excommunication depriuation and all this was but Sonitus spinarum ardentium sub
with your Graces and Honors defence as with precious stones built vpon the chiefe corner-stone Rocke Christ Iesus though flouds from the Sea of Rome should come or the windes of wicked Iesuites blow vpon this booke with their infecting breath and would beate it downe with a storme of words yet Non cadet quia fundatur super petram I feare to be tedious and therefore in all dutifull and submissiue reuerence I cease my hand yet my heart till death shall neuer cease to pray for all your prosperous happinesse and heauenly successe in your holy and high affaires for the Church King and Country for which Diuine blessing shall be duely and daily powred forth the poore deuotions of your Graces and Honours most humble seruant Samuel Garey Ad Gloriam Dei Sionis gaudium malorum luctum MAgnae Britanniae immortales Gratiae Pro salute Britanniae quinto Nouembris Ab horrenda proditione Anglo-Papistarum Qui pul vere bombardico Parliamenti domum Euertere sunt machinati Hoc Aniuersario commemorantur In libre diligenter exara illud erit in die nouissime in testimonium vsque in aeternum Esa 30. 8. Amphitheatrum Scelerum OR The Transcendent OF TREASON For the 5. day of Nouember Sonne of Man write thee the name of the day euen of this same day for the King of Babel set himselfe against Ierusalem this same day Ezech. 24. 2. CHAP. I. AS Moses did speake in another kinde to the people of Israel Enquire now of the dayes that are past which were before thee since the day that God created man vpon the earth and aske from the one end of Heauen vnto the other if there came to passe such a great thing as this or whether any such like thing hath beene heard So I may say Enquire of the Times past and search the Records of all Antiquities and you cannot finde such a damnable and diuellish proiect the very modell of all mischiefes and Miscellan of all massacres the intended Powder-plot the Quintessence of all impiety and confection of all villany the like neuer de ficto much lesse de facto in which these prodigious and barbarous monsters not men but loathsome lumpes of mire and bloud in whose proditorious brests the spirits of all expired traytors by a kinde of Pythagoricall transmigration were inclosed intended to haue destroyed the obiects of Englands earthly glory the glory of succession yea succession it selfe to extinguish the whole light and life of the land vno actu tactu ictu by one blow and blast of powder Tollere Rem Regem Regimen Regionem Religionem Furious Phaetons in one day yea howre with a dismall fire-worke to burne all to ashes of a glorious Monarchy to make an Anarchy to offer our most gracious King royall Queene vertuous Prince and hopefull Progeny with right Noble personages of honourable place and birth the reuerend Cleargy with all the rest of that wise and flourishing assembly to offer them all as a quicke and liuing sacrifice not powdered with salt or salted with fire as our Sauiour but salted with powder to make such an Holocaust or burnt offering as should be the general martyrdome of the Kingdome to bereaue vs of our Eliat and Horsemen of Israel and take them away in a whirle-winde and chariot of fire Quot mortes in vna morte How many deaths in such a death to cut off caput caudam head and tayle branch and rush Prince Priest and people from our Israel in one day Quomodo inaudito potuit manus impianisu Tam dirum fabric are nef as Respublica in vno Funere tollenda est vno tumulanda sepulchro With such an hellish deed for to desire To bury King and Kingdome in a fire How ought the heauenly and happy deliuery from such an horrible and hidcous Tragedy excite all continually to thanke and magnifie our most mercifull God for such a miraculous preseruation And though the crying sinnes of the Land had deserued such a Doomesday of fire yet the Lord in mercy hath deliuered it from that desolation and secured by his outstretched arme of power and pitty the Royall Head and loyall members of great Britanny from his and our enemies who tooke crafty counsell against thy people and consulted against thy secret ones They said Come let vs cut them off from being a Nation and let the name of Israel be no more in remembrance but they perished at Endor and were dung for the Earth Shall such wondrous workes as these be knowne in the darke and thy righteousnesse in the Land where all things are forgotten Can such a deliuerance from such a dismall danger so villainous in the Agents so dolorous for the patients so craftily contriued so eagerly pursued so neerely effected the watch of a night and turning of an hand betweene vs and so deadly desolations can such a gracious worke be euer buried in obliuion Indeed it was Israels error whose prayers and praises ended so soone as they had passed the Red Sea and shall we that haue escaped not that Red Sea of water but a Red Sea of fire shall wee end our prayers and praises to God because that danger is past Oh how vnworthy shall we be of future fauours if so vnthankefull for past blessings And truly herein the Land is faulty in forgetting these benefits in a cold and not continuall acknowledgement of their humble thankefulnesse to God for these and other vnspeakable benefits And at the first all peoples hearts did burne within them like those two Disciples when they did but talke of the Powder Treason admiring and acknowledging the infinite mercies of God in the preuenting this most abhorred massacre and with heart and voice magnified the Lord with Dauids Psalme If the Lord had not beene on our side may Israel now say If the Lord had not beene on our side when men rose vp against vs they had then swallowed vs vp quicke when their wrath was kindled against vs. Praised be the Lord which hath not giuen vs as a prey vnto their teeths but a few yeeres being past they beginne to slacken this duty and are cold in praysing God for so blessed a deliuerance Perchance pondering Parsans words Will you neuer giue ouer saith he your clamors and exaggerations The Powder Treason the Powder Treason No we should neuer giue it ouer to poure foorth our perpetuall praises to God for protecting vs from so prodigious a plot and practise Our Eucharisticall deuotion to God for the preuention of the downefall of the Land should not be so momentary and like a morning dew as if the renued remembrance of so great deliuerance should become wearisomenesse vnto our spirits or the wonderment of the Lords mighty worke being past our gratulation to God should be out of dare vnseasonable and more then halfe forgotten No the deliuery from this flagitious and most bloody designement as it
anathematized but neuer others Can Gods Church be wonne or woed with swords and armes Indeed Phillip of Macedon led an Army against Bizantium and said that hearing of the beauty of the City he was come to make loue to her but the Otator tels him It was not the manner of Louers to wooe with instruments of warre but musicke The City of Gods Church will be wonne with no warlike Engines the weapons of our warfare are not carnall saith Paul The Church of Christ was neuer planted by blood except passiuely and so Semen Ecclesiae fuit sanguis Martyrum The blood of Martyrs the seed of the Church But these parties would build vp their Church with blood actiuely as if lately they had passed from Mount Gerizim to Mount Eball to curse and consume all It is a weighty and worthy worke to plant the Gospell the glad tidings of peace and no better way to doe it then by prayers and peace but in this worke the Papists euer vsed the wrong toole labouring to make men Haeredes vineae exhaeredes vitae Dispossesse them of life here howsoeuer hereafter If their arts faile their armes follow fit souldiers for Bacchus who is described with Buls hornes Semper paratus ad feriendum Alwayes prepared to strike and fight but it is a pretty saying of one Nemo ita tenetur inter duo vitia quin ei exitus patet absque tertio No man is so included betwixt two vices but he may get out without making a third If these men were so confident of the truth of their Religion and none more confident then the ignorant why did they not follow the Counsell of truth it selfe if they persecute you in this City flie into another yet they had no cause to say so truly why did they not forsake all and flie to Rome there were their hearts what did their bodies here or if with him they would first kisse their Father and Mother before they would follow Christ had a naturall affection to the things on earth yet why were they not willing with the Apostles to submit themselues to the higher Powers in bodily obedience but in spirituall seruice to say with Peter and Iohn Whether it be right in the sight of God to obey you rather then God iudge ye But how comes it to passe that such Lay-Papists of small knowledge and lesse grace should take vpon them to be reformers of Religion Were they extraordinarily called to this worke as Ehud was to be a Sauiour to Israel in destroying King Eglon or as Iehu in killing Ioram and the stocke of Achab had the Lord said vnto them as to Ioshua Arise goe ouer this Iordan feare not nor be discouraged for I the Lord thy God wil be with thee c. They write indeed that God and man had concurred rather the diuell and his Angels had consented Iudas heart Esawes hand and Achitophels head had all conspired Concurrêre homines sed quales quippe profani Impuri infames scelerati sanguinolenti Horribiles medici funesti seditioss Tales demissi coelo censores A crue combind but who prophane impure Infamous wicked such as all would cure With blood and fire Phisitians that with powder Would blow vp all diseases cry yet lowder Heralds from heauen these sent the Church to plant If God sent such then God good men doth want If such be good in hell ill men are scant But the Lord gaue such no Commission for such wicked and him that loues iniquity doth his soule hate the Lord will iustifie no wicked men nor imploy them in any wicked action But these had their Commission from the deuill and were at his command set to this worke and might say with Chrysalus in Plautus Insanum magnum molior neg otium Verâ—… possim rocte vt emolier A mad peece of worke I goe about And feare I shall not doe it as Iought And because they failed in the performance of it therefore manus manum fricat one Traytor bemâ—nes an other alas vnfortunate Gentlemen grieuing that it was their ill fortune to haue their hopes frustrated for it is very true which 〈◊〉 obscrues conspiracies discouered will not be credited or will be impayred by report 〈◊〉 occisiâ— principibus vnlesse the Princes the obiects of their mischiefe be slaine which if at any time it come to passe and the conspirator escape how highly he is magnified imitating a people of whom I haue read who worship Iudas for a God because he did betray Christ to the Iewes to be crucified by whose death comes saluation Thus this Catholicke cause should haue produced a Catholicke curse vpon our Common wealth but when they cursed vs God blessed vs defeated the deuises of the wicked dispersed these fogges and mistes of Sathans spirits and made it manifest to all the world that both their cause and course was bad Causa mala est fructus edidit illa malos For a corrupt tree bringeth forth euill fruit and therefore were they cut downe with the axe of Iustice and were not Gods mercy aboue all his workes cast into fire CHAP. IX Fourthly the Ends. WE are come to the last act of this intended Tragedy the ends of it which is almost without end In their expectation though frustrated in the execution they had set vp Hercules Pillars Nil vltra no humane malice or mischiefe could reach any further Hoc Scelus Abyssus ex Abyssu natum A boundlesse prodigy sprung from the bottomlesse pit I will not nay cannot fully finish this taske onely touch it Magnum opus hoc moueo maior reliquis datur ordo Perficere in captum This point I onely touch and leaue the rest To them who are with greater gifts possest And so many learned men by Preaching and Printing haue laboured in this worke and still out of the store of matter this Subiect affords will annually spend their breath in the declaration of this deuillish mischiefe and deliuery by Diuine mercy that I may forbeare any large discourse And truly if all of vs were as some say the seauenty Interpreters appointed by Ptoloms were put in diuersas cellulas â—aman sio diuisi eadem scriptitarunt into seuerall Roomes yet all separated they writ the same things which S. Ierome thinkes a fabulous figment So if all of vs were put apart heerein we should agree and sing with Ananias Azarias and Misael Blesse yee the Lord praise him and exalt him aboue all things for euer for he hath deliuered vs from the hell and saued vs from the hand of death and deliuered vs from the furnace and burning flame of powder euen from that fire hath he deliuered vs. Therfore coÌ„fesse vnto the Lord that he is gracious and his mercy endureth for euer wherein for better order sake to touch the Tragicall ends and dismall effects of this confused Babell a monstrous and multiplying Hydra of
by the wicked were by the wisedome of our gratious God escaped and the wicked were snared in the worke of their owne hands A deliuery deseruing eternall Trophies of Triumphs to glorifie God with our prayers and praises with our lips and liues and neuer follow them of whom the Apostle who glorified not God neyther were they thankefull but may continually call vp our hearts to this duty and cry with the Psalmist Come and hearken all yee that feare God and I will tell you what hee hath done to my soule for he hath deliuered our soules from death and our feet from falling that we should walke before God in the land of the liuing Therefore praise our God yee people and make the voice of his praise bee heard and say with the children of Reuben Gad and Manasses God forbid that we should rebel against the Lord and turne this day away from the Lord c. And as the children of Israel after their returne from the captiuity in Babilon and hearing Ezra reade the Law the ioy of their soules Ezra praised the Lord the great God and all the people answered Amen Amen lifting vp their hands and bowing themselues worshipping the Lord with their faces towards the ground and Nehemiah with Ezra and the Leuites tels the people This day is holy vnto the Lord your God so let our English Israel deliuered from the intended bondage of Babilon hearken to their Ezraes in the Pulpit made for the preaching of Gods Law wherof they should haue beene depriued and with their Priests praise the Lord our great and good God answering Amen Amen bowing themselues in all humility at the footestoole of Gods Maiesty annually celebrating the fift day of Nouember with praises of thankesgiuing and saying This day is holy vnto the Lord our God This day shall be vnto vs a remembrance and wee will keep it an holy feast vnto the Lord throughout our generations we will keep it holy by an ordinance for euer to remember this maruellous worke of Englands deliuerance from the plotted powder-destruction to praise Gods holy name and glory in his praise singing and saying cheerefully with our tongues and deuoutly with our hearts Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for euer audeuer and let all the people say Amen Amen To the ternall and eternall glorious Godhead Father Sonne and holy Ghost one and the same God in nature and number indiuisible inuisible inuincible our sole and soueraigne protector and preseruer God ouer all blessed for euer be all praise power faith feare glory and maiesty yeelded by vs by ours and by all his redeemed for all his mercies in generall and for this speciall deliuerance in particular humbly heartily holily for euer and euer Amen Glory be to God in the high Heauens and peace on earth Luke 2. 14. FINIS A SHORT DISSVVASIVE FROM POPERY To all Lay-Papists who desire to be true seruants to their Sauiour or good Subiects to their Soueraigne 1. Kings 18. 21. How long halt yee betweene two opinions If the Lord be God follow him but if Baal be he then goe after him Tert. de resurr carn Aufer haereticis quae cum Ethnieis sapiunt vt de Scripturis solis quaestiones suas sistant stare non poterunt Hugo de Claustro anim lib. 1. Superstitio dicitur verae religioni superaddita falsa religioÌ„ Melancthon Ex malo dogmate malis moribus dignoscuntur lupi By SAMVEL GAREY a Preacher of Gods Word and a perpetuall petitioner to God for your happy conuersion to Gods holy Truth LONDON Printed by Iohn Beale for Henry Fether stone and Iohn Parker 1618. To the Right VVorshipfull Sir Philip Kniâ—et Baronet and his worthy Lady The Spirit of Grace Truth and Wisedome be multiplied Right VVorshipfull I Am bold vpon experienced acquaintance with your generous qualities and gentle fauours towards me to send this vnworthy Treatise to your worthy viewe I know whose iudgement it must passe yet am fearelesse not in a grosse stupidity of mine owne weakenesse but in an hopefull presumption of your vsuall Gentlenesse a disposition euen naturalized in your courteous breasts whereof I acknowledge with gratefulnesse the acceptable fruites of your long and large loue towards me and for which I euer rest your thankefull friend and ingaged debtor in part of requitall whereof I haue presumed to offer to you this Handfull of my duty and hearty loue towards you and vnder your worthy name to send it to the world that they who are bettered by it may thanke you for it A short Disswasiue from Popery necessary for these Times wherein you may behold in part some points of the corrupt Doctrine of the Romish Church which is the common Mother of corruption superstition For that Church must needes be a Chappell of errors which enlarge the sacred Canon with Apochryphalls diminish the authority of the Scripture with Traditions ouerthrow the Originall with Translations peruert the Text with Glosses as the Romish Church doth Yea to maintaine her errors she conceales the light of Truth the Scripture from Lay people vnder the curtaine of the Latin language and euen in the Schooles among the learned she is put to poore shifts often forced to conclude arguments out of meere Allegories lame Similitudes fained miracles naked names of Fathers hired Testimonies of Schoolemen and other deboshed vassailes and proctors of the Romane Court who with all artificiall pollicy labour to adorne the Romane Harlot with painted trimmings whereby the vnwary young age of many more credulous then iudicious is deceiued and deluded The whole subiect of our former worke well perused and indifferently weighed doth giue good light looking vpon her corrupt precepts and cursed practises to discouer that smooky Kingdome of Antichrist but perchance you may say to me with Seneca Quidme torques lacer as in quaestâ—…bus Subtilius est contempsisse quam 〈◊〉 Why doe you trouble me with such questions it is more subtilty to contemne them then to confute them Worthy Sir it shall not be I hope labour lost if to your priuate contemplations you shall adioyne these short and sacred speculations specially penned for your seruice and published for the beâ—…e of all who are willing to open their eyes to walke in Truth I giue all but a small kind of taste in these points of Popish fragments if any mans appetite long for it I dare promise him heereafter more full dishes The Lord giue vnto you a Christian care in the profession of the Truth which with a sincere heart I haue preached vnto you and perfit your first Progresse in the grace of God to the holy Sanctification and happy Saluation of your bodies and soules for euer For which mercy and grace to be bestowed on you I shall euer vnfainedly pray to God and rest Your Worshipes poore Orator in Christ Samuel Garey A SHORT DISSVVAsiue to all Lay-papists who desire
held Deum ex humanis membris consistere God did consist of humane members then how abominable is it to worship God vnder the shape of an Image and ascribe the same honor to the Image as they doe to the samplar God as they say by it representedâ— So that to such God will say as the Prophet speakes Confounded be all they that serue grauen images or that glory in Idolles and as Esay I am the Lord this is my name and my glory will I not giue to an other neither my praise to grauen Images And I wonder that any should be so bewitched as to delight in Images historicall vsel deny not but all spirituall vse is fornication and abomination but more to creepe and croutch to them the visible obiects of dust or dirt to bowe to the stocke of a Tree as the Prophet speakes this is the basest thing that almost the Sunne euer sawe vnworthy of man whose knee should bow to his Maker and not to the stocke that he hath made himselfe how odious is the seruice and sacrifice of such creeping and croutching Idoll-suppliants in the Lords sight he will cast the dung vpon their owne faces euen the dung of their solemne feasts such fordide seruice such prophane and heathenish sacrifice which stinckes in his nostrills and say I neuer required this woodden worship at your hands I neuer commanded you to buy these Bookes which you say shall put you in remembrance of me but you that cannot remember me without the sight of an Image on earth I will forget you and shall neuer haue a sight of my Image in heauen Thus hauing spoken a little yet enough to satisfie a temperate and ingenuous Reader to behold the corruptions of Popery in the forepassed points I will come to our next promised part Popes pardons wherein I wil be more briefe because they are called by them Bullae Bulls or Indulgences rather bubbles something in appearance empty in the substance of proofe or profit Fourthly Popes pardons Their Cardinall Allen in his defence of Popes pardons saith that to impugne the power of pardons is to ouerthrow the greatest matters which life and Faith doe stand vpon and saith that Luther except one Witclife condemned in the Councell of Constance was the first that contradicted them from which point did begin the toyle and tragedy of these times wherein the Cardinall speakes not 〈◊〉 Cathedra for the Waldenses long before Witclife and Bohemians before Luther did contemne and condemne this vsurped power of popish pardons wherein the pith of popery is inclosed Indeede when it pleased the Lord to open Luthers eyes to see the truth he began first to finde fault with the base inundation of picke-purse pardons though as hee saith then he did but fight in the darke for when Pope Leo the tenth had sent abroad his pardons which were preached by Terelius a Dominicke Frier ' Luther admonished the people of the abuses and deceits of the pardons and pardoners which long before his time had beene reproued in the Councels of Lateran and Vienna and complained to the Archbishop of Mentz to the Bishop of Brandenburg to the Prouinciall of the Augustine Friers and to the Pope himselfe and Surius the Papist confesses that he did iustly complaine and afterward compelled by intollerable iniuries and neglect of manifest truth and reformation cast off the seruile yoake and vassalage of Antichristian captiuity These Pardons haue no ground in holy Scripture or Primitiue Church or Fathers of the Church for a thousand yeares after Christ but are indeede the impostures of this last age delusions of Sathan and the temptations to Epicurisme and all vice when as such pardons for all kinde of sinnes are proffered and prostrated to all such as can prouide money for them For the Court of Rome hath an order containing the price to be paid for all kinde of sins as murther incest parricide sodomy sacriledge c. and they that would see the particular summes of money for all kinde of sinnes and offences and what their pardon will cost in the Court of Rome for all capitall and horrible faults let them read Musculus common places in the title of the Ministers of the worde of God towards the end Some of their writers confesse De Indulgentijs nihil habemus nec in Scripturis nec ex dictis antiquarum doctorum we haue nothing of pardons neyther in the Scriptures nor in the ancient Doctors their Gregory of Valence saith that Gratian Lombard who liued not aboue 400. yeares agoe Nihil de indulgentis â—…nisse haue recorded nothing of Indulgences And the same Iesuite saith Erant Catholici quidam ante Lutherum quorum opinionem Thomas refent qui indulgentias pias fraudes esse duxerunt There were certaine Catholickes before Luther whose opinion Thomas recites who accounted these indulgences holy fraud rather lenocinia diaboli the enticing impiety of the Deuil and the whore to be so indulgent to their sons as rather to cocker then correct them for their sinnes So Pope Boniface the 8 the first inuenter of Iubily pardons grants Non solumplenam largiorem immo plenissimam omniâ—m suorum veniam peccatorum Not onely a full and large pardon but a most full pardon of all their sinnes and to giue pardon for many hundred yeares to come and that for doing a very small seruice as Pope Gregory who made a prayer about the length of a Creede which whosoeuer shall say deuoutly shall receiue fiue hundred yeares of pardon quicke worke yet prouided that at the end of euery verse he say a Pater noster and an Aue. Sometimes pardons for dayes as Pope Innocent the sixt to them who say a short prayer about the scantling of an Aue hee shall obtaine pardon for twenty thousand daies Pope Iohn the two and twentieth giues to them who say a short prayer three thousand daies of pardon of mortall sinnes and twenty thousand daies of venials and if that prayer too long or pardon too short let him say fiue Pater nosters before the Vernacle and hee shall haue ten thousand daies pardon by that Pope Gregorie the third giues a pardon to them that shall say a prayer as long as three Aues and kneele before a Crucifice for sixe thousand sixe hundred threescore and sixe daies iust so many daies as Christ had wounds on his body as some say saue that our Lord appeared to S. Briget at Rome and told her that his wounds were but fiue thousand foure hundred and fourescore or as others tell it fiue thousand foure hundred fourescore and ten excepting the prickes of his crowne which were threescore and twelue But some other Popes haue beene more liberall in the grant of these pardons Pope Sixtus the fourth graunted to them who say a prayer of his making which hath not aboue fiue and forty words forty thousand yeares of pardon Read a Bull of