Christ That all these Vices by which St. Peter's Chair hath been dishonoured are proofs of its Holiness Excellency and Infallibility because saith he God hath permitted all these debaucheries and wickednesses in such as were the Governours of His Church without punishing them this discovers that this Estate is more sacred more holy and more regarded of God than that of Kings whom God commonly chastiseth as soon as they are unfaithful and abuse their Authority I must needs confess that I was never more astonished than when I found this Argument made use of by this Learned Man and heard it approved of in the Popish Schools Me thinks I could as easily prove the union of Contraries to be found in the same Subject as to shew the union and correspondency of this Conclusion with the Principles from whence it is drawn In this Church most abominable Popes have been seen Alvar Pelag. a Portugues Bishop tells us lib. 2. art 15. of many Popes who have crept into that See by their factions agreements covenants and large promises and when they have got in all their endeavour was to enrich and raise their Relations to promote their friends to the chief Offices to live themselves in pleasure and to dignifie their Kindred building Towers and Palaces in Babylon I mean Rome so called by St. Jerome These Popes have fomented the Wars and Factions in Italy instead of maintaining the unity of the Church They have wasted the sacred Revenues advanced most unworthy persons and gloried in their chariots elephants horses rich garments numerous train guards and noble attendants They have by the power of the sword often endeavoured to enlarge their own Borders and seize upon the Territories of their neighbouring Princes never minding the salvation of souls but have been addicted to the pleasures of the flesh c. These Men for money have sold as Judas did Christ's Body consecrated the Sacraments and celebrated Orders for silver c. We have seen saith the same Author lib. 2. art 2. fol. 104. men that have made this City like Sodom and Nineveh by letting in and countenancing all manner of vices publick and private as covetousness ambition symony usurpations uncleanness vain glory envy tyranny and other crimes which cannot nor ought not to be named We have seen in God's sanctuary saith the Bishop of Bitonte in the beginning of the Council of Trent orat hab in concil Trid. sess 1. shameless monsters rotten vessels full of infection publick plagues c. so that there remains no appearance nor hopes of good life but an immoderate and extraordinary debauchery a not able impudency more crimes than can be well credited We have seen according to the testimony of some Cardinals chosen by Pope Paul III. for the Reformation of the Church Concil delect Cardin. tom 3. pag. 823. Whores walking about the streets of Rome as honourable Dames carried upon Mules attended and waited upon by Noblemen and Cardinals Chaplains such like scandals have never been seen elsewhere but in this City We have seen saith Guischardin Hist of Italy lib. 1. sect 2. Rodericus Borgia who was afterwards Pope Alexander VI. buy the priviledge of disposing of the Holy Treasury And Platina and Baronius relate that there have been some Popes introduc'd by violence who have clapp'd in prison such as were before in possession of the See of Rome as Christopher did Leo VIII Some have been so base and furious that they have taken up the Bodies of their Predecessors whose Fingers wherewith they had given their blessing to the people they have cut off and cast into the Tybur as Stephen VI. treated Formosus In short we have seen men more covetous ambitious impious lecherous cruel and wicked than in the most licentious Courts than amongst the most barbarous Nations And Genebrard Chron. lib. 4. saith that these disorders have lasted sometimes 150 years together During this time saith Baronius ann 912. sect 8. Jesus Christ slept very soundly in the bottom of the ship and wink'd at all these mischiefs Therefore from hence he gathers this conclusion for this cause the Church of Rome must needs be the truest the holiest and best beloved of God infallible and the only Church that may be named Catholick c. Let any man judge if this be not the most impudent and unjust reasoning in the world The Heathenish Philosophers have taught these Popish Doctors to argue in this manner for their Religion from this ancient Maxim of theirs Ex quolibet fit quodlibet That from any Principle we may draw any Conclusion either good or evil They care not so they can but maintain their Thesis and Opinion but these kind of Reasons discover their weakness For any Understanding may perceive from thence the feebleness of their Doctrine the falshood of their Religion seeing that they are driven to draw such Conclusions as are quite contrary to the nature and truth of the things themselves If any man say that this Reason is not in Baronius word for word as I have expressed it the premises are there and the Conclusion not in two or three words and in such a plain and succinct manner as I have here related it but it is laid down in a more ample and more florid Discourse which tends to no other end but to prove the Truth Holiness and Excellency of of the Popish Religion from the Vices and Debaucheries of its Priests and Popes This cannot but be look'd upon as very ridiculous by any man of Judgement For if their Reasons were good I might as well say that Pharaoh's Kingdom was holy because God suffered it to continue so long without punishing him and did many Miracles for his sake and that the Turkish Religion must needs be the holiest and the best at present because God hath suffered it to abide so many years and increase every day although its Chieftains lead most filthy lives These and such like Considerations which I have had by reading the Books of the Popish Doctors and Historians have lessened that vast esteem that I had formerly for that Church and made me to understand that all its excellent Priviledges which it claims and which they assign to her are but whimseys and Chimaera's begot in their fancy by their fondness for their Religion the Popes ambition and the credulity of silly minds who are ready to believe any thing the greatest absurdity if boldly asserted Let us proceed next to our other Considerations THE SECOND PART THE Second Reason that hath so long time kept my Mind in a ballance was grounded upon the Faith and Articles of that Church I did seriously examine all those things which she engageth us to believe as infallible Truths the Pope's Infallibility the real and corporal presence of Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of the Altar the Sacrifice of the Mass Purgatory the Invocation of Saints and the certain damnation of all those who acknowledge not the Pope for their Superiour c. I thought all this
coal from thine Altar clense this tongue yet venomous which hath so often conveyed a poison into many hearts inflame it with some of those cloven tongues of fire which lighted upon thy Holy Apostles and which caused them to be no more dumb but eloquent Change the accent of this voice which hath been heard in the Pulpits of the Romish Religion make it never to be heard any more in vindication of errour and that it may never accent and pronounce any thing but that which is altogether conformable to thy Word These are the petitions that I now present unto Thee O good God especially at this time beseeching Thee also so to prepare the ears and hearts of my Hearers that they may be the better by my discourse more confirmed and settled in their Faith and more resolved in an obedience to Thee These mercies we beseech Thee to grant us O merciful God by the merits and only mediation of Jesus Christ in whose Blessed Name we continue to pray unto Thee as He Himself hath taught us Our Father which art in Heaven c. ROM 5. vers 20. Where sin abounded grace did much more abound HEre I am my Brethren in this Pulpit to acquaint you at present with the causes of that which you have seen me do this morning I am here to express unto you a repentance suitable to the hainousness of my sins by a publick abjuration of those grievous errours which I have formerly professed in the Church of Rome that I might shew forth the accomplishment of this holy Oracle pronounced by St. Paul Where sin abounded grace did much more abound You may be fully perswaded my Brethren that Gods grace hath obliged and constrained me to what I have done for my Change of Religion proceeds not from the unconstancy of my mind I have done nothing suddenly I have been seven years in a continual deliberation struggling with my self convinced in my judgment but could never resolve until now You must not therefore look upon my alteration as the effect of some calamity or the consequence of an unworthy behaviour or a disgrace I never wanted bread I have always had too much at command and have ever met with more happiness in my undertakings than I could expect Neither is this Change the product of any miscarriage no blessed be God I am not ashamed of any thing that I have done those Honourable Persons unto whom I have been recommended in this place may bear witness from the information of such as are worthy of credit The greatest crime that I have committed is that which I have been guilty of this day by forsaking a superstitious Religion and embracing a purer by leaving the broad road to Hell and turning into that of Heaven God out of his infinite goodness and mercy hath obliged me to it notwithstanding all the natural perswasions of worldly interest for I have left the assurance of a sufficient provision for my maintenance to embarque my self and rely wholly upon Gods good providence I have caused my best friends to become my most deadly enemies I have made of my parents and relations my persecutors and sworn adversaries I have left forever a Country where I enjoyed as much worldly happiness as was possible to come to live and dye in another where I have no other expectation nor means to advance my self but only from your kindness and favour God knows how strong these reasons have been to detain me so long and what difficulty I have had to command my self to a final resolution but at last grace hath overcome God hath had in me more power than the world and humane reason and the hopes of my salvation more than the advantages of this life That I might declare this unto you I have now the liberty to appear in this Pulpit I shall therefore do it as briefly as I am able I shall give you an account of some of those disputes which I have maintained in my mind before I could resolve to do what I have at last done I shall therefore begin to declare the reasons that have kept me so long in the profession of the Romish Religion and that as far as I am able to judge do detain the rest of its Professors I shall afterwards discover to you the reasons that have destroyed the first groundless reasons and that have caused me to forsake the Romish Religion and embrace the Protestant to renounce errour for faith heresie and idolatry for the truth the babylonish Rome for the celestial Jerusalem my Country for Haven and all for my God By this Discourse you shall perceive the greatness of Gods mercy towards me in that he hath been pleased of a stone to raise up a son to Abraham and hath caused his grace to abound where sin abounded before THE FIRST PART THe first and chief cause which hath so long detained me in the Church of Rome is that venerable Antiquity which is ascribed to her alone I did sometimes consider her gray hairs her pretended Founder the Apostle St. Peter who as it is said governed her during the space of five and twenty years I did sometimes look upon her Sovereign Authority which she saith Christ himself gave unto her in the person of that Apostle which since hath continued successively in all the Popes who have commanded in that See This Succession of the Popes and Bishops of Rome hath never been violated nor interrupted as they pretend but they have immediately succeeded to one another the like is not to be seen in any other Church Besides I did sometimes view a long Catalogue of Martyrs and other Saints who are said to have lived in an obedience to the Church of Rome and to be dead in the profession of that Faith which is there now and hath been always taught as is pretended I did examin all these plausible Titles these glorious Attributes and her divine Prerogatives as I found them recorded in the Books and Schools of that Church which could not but oblige me to an high esteem of her excellency and to wonder how men could be so blind and irrational as to deny her to be the only true Catholick and Apostolick Church In this manner my Brethren I have continued about the space of six or seven years seriously considering these advantages that were given to this Church At last I took that liberty which is not granted to any of that profession and that is to open my eyes and examin more narrowly from whence proceeded these magnificent and glorious Attributes and what reasons Rome hath to claim them to her self alone For that purpose I perused the Holy Scriptures and its most ancient Interpreters as the most worthy of credit and by them I was constrained to alter my judgment and to entertain perswasions contrary to that received from my Forefathers from my Masters and from the Reading of the Romish Divines I have found that Antiquity in which Rome boasts so much discovers
chuse rather to behold their own Arms and Members consume in a fire and endure the most sensible pains and tortures than to behold the Smoak of Incense fallen from their hands mount up to the nose of a senseless Idol They did rather chuse to expose themselves to the fury of the fires and of drawn swords and undergo the torments of the wheels of the wild beasts c. than to bow their knees before a graven Image and yield unto it the least respect O Romans of our days if any of the ancient Christians could but rise out of their graves to come amongst you into your Churches on some Festival day what would they say or think when they should see the accomplishment of Ezekiel's Prophecy chap. 8. so many abominations in the midst of God's Sanctuary the worship due to God alone paid to dumb Pictures which stand about the walls of your Temples when they should see that your Christian Devotion consists chiefly in such apish tricks in the kissing of Altars in cringings stretching out of your arms and signs of the Cross often made sometimes three or five times in kneeling before an Image with hands lifted up in offering to it frankincense in numbring a few beads in casting holy water upon the bones of the deceased in burning a wax candle put out and lighted again as many times as you have things to desire from a Saint c. How many tears would these ancient Catholick Roman Christians shed when they should see this Church practising such foolish things so much contrary to the Truth of Christian Religion How many sighs groans and lamentations should we hear from their pious Souls Jeremiah never uttered so many over the Ruins of Jerusalem O Rome Rome would they say what change is this what are these impertinencies what wonderful metamorphosis Heretofore the Truth did command in thee over Errour the Laws of God over the Inventions of men the Precepts of the Gospel over the Traditions of the people and true Piety over Superstition and God's Worship was chiefly regarded but now we see the contrary Therefore the Church of Rome which is now is not the same as that Christian Church of Rome first established there but a shadow of it which hath nothing of its likeness I would desire the Papists never to boast of the Age and Antiquity of their Church they have no reason to glory in that Rome was anciently one of the most famous Churches of Christendom for it is not like what it was heretofore Miserum istud verbum fuisse saith Seneca It is but a sad comfort and a bad cause of glory to say we have been if we cannot say also we are yet This the Papists should endeavour to make good unto us They ought to shew us by their Doctrine and Works that the Church of Rome at present is the same as it was of old which cannot be done but by a reformation of all the abuses and a reducement to the first estate whilst they continue as they are they shall never discover what their first fathers have been The most learned of all their Doctors who have undertaken to shew their conformity with the ancient Church of Rome seem to be much perplex'd in the proving of this matter very weak in their arguments and so contrary to one another that we need but their own Books to find out the falshood of their Doctrine This every one may take notice that will peruse them without partiality I might here name an hundred passages out of their Books to prove the truth of what I say but I think I have said enough to make the Papists apply unto themselves Tertullians reproach directed to the Heathens Apol. adv Gent. cap. 6. Tell me where is your Religion where is that respect that ye owe to your forefathers you are not like to them in your habits in your manner of living in your customs opinions and in your language You praise antiquity but every day you admit new inventions You differ much from the worthy institutions of your predecessors You declare by your behaviour that you retain nothing of those things that deserve to be retained but observe that which deserves it not This is a true representation of the Church of Rome § In the next place that Sovereign Authority which this Church claims did seem to me to be very well grounded when I did consider that which Jesus Christ saith to St. Peter in many occasions especially in that where He tells him immediately after the Confession of his Faith Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose in earth shall be loosed in heaven Matth. 16. By these words Christ seems to give unto him and his Successors a full power and more than to the rest There are other passages of Holy Scripture that make for the same purpose and St. Austin and several other Interpreters seem to favour this opinion and Reason it self seems to teach us the necessity of a visible Head over Christ's Church on earth answerable to its estate In this manner I did argue with my Comrades having been instructed in the Schools of Thomas Aquinas Suarez and others that gather from thence many reasons to prove the Pope's Authority and Sovereignty But when I had a little better examined these passages perused the Writings of the Fathers to understand their judgment of this matter I have found that there is nothing more false than the Doctrines of the Popish Schools in this occasion for Christ's words to St. Peter were not said to him alone as may appear if we look into the Gospel for Jesus Christ asked not only Peter but all His Disciples and Peter answers not only in his own name but also in that of the rest of the Apostles in persona omnium Apostolorum saith St. Ambrose St. Chrysostome and the other ancient Interpreters which words the Papists have inserted into their Breviarum or Rubrick speaking of this passage When therefore the Son of God returns unto St. Peter as a reward of his confession the power of binding and loosing and the keys of heaven c. it is not to him alone that He speaks and grants all these priviledges but to the rest in whose name St. Peter did answer therefore a few days after He repeated unto them the same thing and confirm'd the same priviledge to all the rest of His Apostles Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven c. Matth. 18. vers 18. He addresseth Himself to them all and not to one alone And if after His Resurrection Christ speaks to St. Peter only Feed my sheep this was as St. Cyril and other wise Interpreters have taken notice with an intent to confirm and re-admit him into the office
careful to oblige her domesticks to live well according to the Laws of God I cannot believe that such a person can be damned nor I neither said I to my self I am of your mind nevertheless it was then my interest to dissemble the inward perswasion of my mind Don't let that trouble you I was about to say to such if you have not committed a more grievous sin than that I shall not load you with an heavy penance I am certain that many are of my mind in the Church of Rome It is a cheat and a design to force people to believe it as confidently as the most holy mysteries and a great error to tell them that they cannot have any hopes of salvation if they are not perswaded that the others are assuredly damned although God commands us to the contrary by his Apostle not to judge others Rom. 14.3 Jam. 4.12 and assures us in his Gospel that there needs nothing else to attain unto salvation but the keeping of his Commandments which the Protestants profess to do and perform Therefore I did often argue in this manner It is not possible to be damned without sin for sin is that alone that shuts heaven and draws upon us the wrath of God Now there is no sin but is against his commandments either we must omit what he enjoyns or commit what he forbids Every one therefore that believes what God hath revealed unto us by his Prophets and Apostles and by Christ and shall keep the commandments of God shall infallibly be saved the Scripture declares it He that believeth in me although he were dead yet shall he live saith our Saviour Joh. 11.25 and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never dye He don't tell us we must believe in the Pope to be saved but we must believe in him He repeats these words in several passages of the Gospel Verily verily I say unto you if any man keep my word he shall never see death he speaks the same to that man which enquired of him what he was to do to be saved If thou wilt enter into life keep the commandments Matth. 29.16 when he enquired which Christ answered Thou shalt not kill thou shalt not commit adultery thou shalt not steal c. Now the Protestants profess and observe these two things to believe in God and to obey his commandments This is their Faith and the principles of their Religion to believe all that God hath revealed and to do all that he hath commanded Wherefore should they be damned Because they don't believe in the Pope answers a Papist and because they don't keep the commandments of the Church of Rome But my friend from whence hast thou that these two things are also necessary for thy salvation is it from God or from man can you find in any passage of the Holy Scripture or in the three Creeds of your Religion any thing of this doctrine It is true you shall find I believe in God the Father Almighty Creator of heaven and earth and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord c. You shall not find there that you must believe in the Pope that the Bishop of Rome is the Head of all the Christian Church that he is infallible and that he must be obeyed as God himself You shall not find there any mention made of the Sacrifice of the Mass of Purgatory Indulgences the Worshipping of Images nor of the other Articles of the Popish Religion And the two other Creeds made about two or three hundred years after the first to explain and paraphrase it speak of no such things Listen attentively at your Morning Prayers or when Mass is sung in your Churches publickly you shall hear nothing of the Pope nor of his Church you shall only hear of the Articles which Protestants believe with less additions than you for they credit them only because God hath revealed them they will have no mixture of humane authority with the divine Look over all the commandments of God's Law you shall not find there any thing of praying to Saints of worshipping of Images of abstinence from meats of fasting in Lent of confession of sins to men but there you shall find that we must worship God that we must not make any graven Image c. All these commandments are kept more religiously by the Protestants than by the Papists what reason therefore can we find for their Damnation how come they to be so bold as to thrust this into their Creed as an Article of Faith ambition and antichristian rage against them hath perswaded them to it But I wonder how they can offer to maintain this doctrine with this addition that there is no salvation but by an union with the Pope whom they affirm to be the Head of the Church and by consequence to influence and give life to every one of its Members Suppose the Pope is a wicked man as many such have been according to their own confession if he be covetous profane lechrous an Heretick a Negromancer or a hellish Monster how can any relation and union with such a one do me any good can he make me partaker of that holiness which he himself wants I have good cause to fear that he will infect me with his vices Is it not a grievous mistake and a ridiculous fancy to say that I cannot please God unless I communicate with and be related to his enemy and that I must not expect salvation but by a communion with him that is assuredly damned Nevertheless this is one of the Articles of the Popish Creed and Faith § Their Doctrine concerning Traditions is also contrary to the Holy Word of God It tends to withdraw us from our faith and belief in it If Jesus Christ did now live in the world he might with reason treat the Papists in the same manner as he did the Pharisees In vain do they honour me teaching for doctrines the commandments of men for laying aside the commandment of God ye hold the tradition of men as the washing of pots and cups and many other such like things you do transgress the commandment of God by your tradition Mark 7.7 13. Matth. 15.3 The most part of the Papists Principles and Articles of Faith are nothing but Doctrines and Commandments of men which have altogether changed the appearance of Christ's Church in all those Kingdoms where they have been admitted I might make this appear more plainly if I did but run over all the grievous impertinencies that are by this means received as so many Articles of Faith in the Church of Rome if I did but make an enumeration of all the false Miracles published for true but I should exceed the narrow limits prescribed to my self I shall therefore confine my self to one thing that hath very much scandalised me in this Doctrine it is the reason and expedient that they have to maintain it which tends to the total subversion of Christian Religion and to the destruction
to be kept only 'till noon others to prevent all inconveniencies have appointed all Feast-days to be observed on the Sunday and their Fasts on the Saturday So that yet we may see two men of the same Village or of the same Family of a different perswasion one obliged to keep a Festival-day for fear of a mortal sin and the other not nay the same person is ingaged to this observation if he stays at home but if he steps over a gutter or rivulet to go into another Parish he commits no such sin and may do what he pleaseth Can any man think that these practices proceed from God Yet this they believe and the Casuists amongst the Papists affirm § Auricular Confession is another Invention of man's brain The Romish Clergy have imposed it out of policy as a necessary means to keep men in their duty and to hinder them from mischievous attempts The design was good but the means imployed is unjust and tyrannical I may safely name it so without fear for I know sufficiently what I am to think and say upon this subject I have read over and over the Holy Scriptures and the Fathers concerning this matter and because I did not trust to my own judgment I intreated the assistance of some Learned Men of my acquaintance to see whether they could find any thing out of St. Ambrose St. Austin or other Fathers to assist and confirm my Meditations that I was to deliver in Sermons which I composed upon this Subject but I could never see nor find any passage there that confirms this politick Institution as it is practised in the Church of Rome We may find that we must confess our sins unto God but not to men we may also find that it is well done to declare and discover the troubles of our consciences to them that have the rule over us and are appointed by God to instruct us that we may understand and receive from them seasonable comforts and instructions This is very useful to us and sometimes absolutely necessary But it is not required that we should reveal all our weaknesses mention all our sins small and great to particularise their number and quality and all their circumstances and aggravations to a sinful man as vicious as my self who ought to confess also it may be to me as the Priests of the same Church confess their sins to one another it is not required that I should make this confession as it is practised with so many ridiculous questions that teach us to commit sins that we knew not before The Casuists are of opinion that when a Priest should be inclinable to the most abominable sins of lechery and in danger to be tempted to them by every apprehension yet when he receives the Confession of a Virgin he had better omit nothing than to cause her to pass over any thing and to commit by this act a material sin in their opinion This can never be proved unless the Papists offer to do it by a new Bible by other Evangelists and other Interpreters than have yet written upon the Holy Scriptures I could never digest the doctrine of the Popish Divines that teacheth us two kind of sorrows required in true repentance the one they name Contrition which is say they when we are grieved to have offended God for his sake because he is so infinitely good and because sin displeaseth him this grief is sufficient to obtain from God the forgiveness of our sins in case we cannot conveniently go to confess them for if a Priest be present we cannot be dispensed from this duty The other grief or sorrow named Attrition is when a man is grieved to have offended God out of worldly interest and selfishness because sin deprives us of the hopes of Heaven and condemns us to Hell c. This sorrow say they is not sufficient of it self to obtain the absolution of our sins but only when it is accompanied by the Priest's absolution That is to say that although a man upon his death-bed shall confess all his sins if the Priest will be so hard-hearted to deny him absolution in case he departs in that estate with such a sorrow in his heart he shall be damned for all that Let any of the Popish Divines tell me which of the holy Evangelists have taught them this distinction which of the Apostles did ever preach such doctrine as this Nevertheless I think they have reason to recommend it because the salvation or the damnation of souls is so highly concerned according to their teaching and many times of ten thousand souls in one Church This bastard Sacrament is not of the number of the Sacraments of which we are never to be partakers but once for it is commanded every year at Easter and some persons are partakers of it almost every day as is usually practised in the Church of Rome What is the reason that neither Christ nor his Apostles have ever mentioned it Or rather how came these persons to be so bold as to impose these distinctions as Articles of Faith Is it possible that the Priest's presence or absence or the opportunity of Confession makes our repentance true or false according to such trivial circumstances If I am at a distance from a Romish Priest am I therefore to be look'd upon as if I were at as great a distance from God and in a worse estate than another from whose sides the Priest is not to be drawn Doth this cause my sorrow to be less or more able to prevail upon God's mercy Doth true repentance depend upon the Priest's good pleasure And Attrition which is but an imperfect sorrow of no validity of it self in God's sight is it more considerable more perfect and more able to save me when a Priest shall have mark'd me with the sign of the Cross upon my forehead when he shall have whispered two or three words in my ear What am I the better for all this Is God's Justice thereby satisfied and his Mercy more inclinable to pardon me According to this ridiculous Doctrine suppose I should weep and lament for my sins as bitterly as St. Peter with as many expressions of holy love as Mary Magdalen if I do not confess them to a Priest I shall be nevertheless damned for them And suppose I should be guilty of the most horrid crimes if I can but imitate this imperfect sorrow a superficial displeasure to have offended God for the love that I bear to my self if I reveal them to a Priest I shall be saved notwithstanding Wretched Judas hadst thou had but a Romish Priest at the foot of thy Gibbet thy Soul might have gone streight to heaven for he performed all the conditions required by the Popish Doctors in a true Penitent for they say that three particulars are to be observed the compunction or pricking of the heart the confession and satisfaction compunction in the soul confession of the mouth and satisfaction of the hand Judas was
perswaded that in his conscience he cannot blame me for what I now write nor will he think that this is a stayrical Libel or that these are unjust or ill-grounded accusations for whosoever hath been a Father Confessor amongst the Papists knows an hundred times more than I dare reveal He knows that the greatest vice of Priests is the breach of their Vow and that this is such an ordinary sin amongst them that a Priest is look'd upon as a notable Saint if he be never guilty of other sins but of drunkenness and if he can command his unruly self so much for a week only so as not to let a lecherous thought escape towards a woman At least if they would allow a time sufficient to to try our own strength and to experience the effects of God's Grace within us But far from this they determin their Children to the Cloister while they are yet in the Cradle The eldest Son as is most usual being designed for Marriage the second must be a Knight of Malta the third appointed for a Church-man into whose hands they often thrust the Breviary before he can yet pronounce the Title of the Book and complement him with the reverent stile of Abbot while he is as yet un-acquainted with his Alphabet and what reluctancy soever he shall hereafter have against it yet must he necessarily still continue an Ecclesiastick But if the elder Brother chance to fail the Vocation then ceaseth and the Spirit that bloweth where it listeth seems to have with drawn its influence he throws of his purple robe and the Gentleman who was but since yesterday changed from a Clergy-man is now as ready for the Nuptial as he was before for the Religious Vow and all this say they proceeds from God which those may believe that think fit but I for my part never could As for the Daughters if there happen to be three they do usually enter two of them into the Covent and here it is observable that God is wont to call the most deformed whilst the other is born for the enjoyments of the world The Peasants indeed do cause their eldest Sons to apply themselves to their studies but after they have performed their Exercises and spent a considerable sum in their Education it is no longer at their choice whether they will become Priests or not but are compell'd to it for fear of incurring the displeasure of their Parents Thus it is that they betake themselves to the practice of this Law and from hence proceed so many disorders which might easily be prevented if the Church were left to its primitive liberty But that which makes these Constitutions of the Church of Rome to seem unto me the more strange and extravagant is this that they commonly prefer them to the Commandments of God Let a young man have given himself over never so much to the sin of the flesh yet when he comes to take Holy Orders this shall create no necessity of taking out a Dispensation but if he shall chance to have married two wives or but one if she hath been married before to another man which they call Bigamy this woman being dead he cannot take Orders without a Dispensation from the Pope for which he must pay sauce Although a man should never so often have taken the Name of God in vain and uttered a thousand blasphemies yet even for such offences will any Priest very readily give his absolution and he shall be freed from his guilt and penalty by putting himself to the charge of two or three Masses But if he should at any time in Lent happen to eat a morsel of flesh there is no absolution to be obtained for such a crime but from the hands of the Bishop who will inflict so severe a penance that he shall have cause to remember it all the rest of his life Let a woman be never so notoriously guilty of fornication and prostitute her self as often as Lais or Messalina there is no Confessor so inconsiderable but can give her an absolution But if by extraordinary misfortune she shall on a Friday have tasted but one spoonful of soupe which was left the day before she must necessarily apply her self to the Bishop and shall if it be possible be sent to the Pope himself By these means it comes to pass that such disorders have crept into the Romish Church and that at present they prefer humane laws to the Commandments of Almighty God § Before I conclude it is necessary to answer an Objection that the Romanists are wont to make to any person that shall upbraid them with the abuses and disorders whereof we have before treated Whence proceeds it then say they that there are so few persons that forsake the Romish Religion and that in lieu of those few that go over to the Protestant party we see great numbers return to the bosome of the Church and make as they call it their Recantation whereas of all those that have abandoned the Protestant Religion we see scarce any that return unto it after they have once forsaken it To this I might answer several ways and I could give many particular reasons why several Protestants in France of great worth and quality have shifted their Religion which is there no longer in fashion and accommodated themselves to that of the Church of Rome I shall only say this in general which may be observed in the case of every particular person that it is Interest which first invites and then detains them this is that which first causeth them to change and then obstinately to adhere to what they have embraced They act many things against the dictates of their conscience to avoid a private persecution which is often more severe than that which is more open and avowed The Charges which they offer the Preferments which they bestow upon persons of Quality on condition that they shall change their Religion and a Pension of a thousand Crowns promised to a Minister provided that he quits his Party are very powerful motives and arguments for the Romish Church and I have often admired at such as could resist so great Temptations A Lady of quality whil'st as a Messenger sent from God I sollicited and exhorted her to acts of Charity and compassion caused me once to make an offer of 8000 Franks to a Maid-servant of the Reformed Religion and at such a time as she had received some ill usage from her Mistress to try if I could by that means make her become a Proselyte I attempted it with all the Rhetorick and Philosophy that I could make use of for such a purpose but she still remained constant and slighted us both for the vanity of our attempt This is no common virtue and I believe there are few servants of the Romish Religion in this City but might be prevail'd with by so considerable a reward But it is not by such means as these that we ought to endeavour the conversion of our
other things which from my own experience I could speak to in laying open the Abuses of the Romish Church which I have not at present thought necessary to mention But I am perswaded that what I have said already may be sufficient to convince you that I have not without good reason forsaken the Papists that I might embrace the Religion of the Church of England I will conclude therefore with my request to you that you would reflect on what I have done and said I have not I hope in this act of mine discovered any thing of blind ignorance or any unruly passion which I trust I may say without vanity for by the grace of God I am free from it I know very well that I am rather exposed to the pity than to the envy of the world but this I have done that I might give glory to God and assert that which I am perswaded is the truth All that I have said concerning the Abuses of the Romish Church are things whereof I am very well assured and such as I have not without a great deal of study and industry discovered I have for six or seven years diligently search'd for Reasons whereby I might defend them sometimes applying my self to the Holy Scripture sometimes to the ancient Fathers and modern Authors I sometimes seriously proposed my Objections to a great number of most accomplish'd men with whom I had been long conversant and never could receive any satisfactory return Wherefore after all these Essays being perfectly convinced of the truth of your Religion I am constrain'd to renounce the Religion of my Ancestors and to take up a resolution to forsake it But how and at what time I must to the glory of God acknowledge it that it was at such a time as there was not the least probability that I should attempt it for certain reasons which some are not unacquainted with and which are not fit to be published It will be sufficient to declare in general that I have forsaken Popery in a time in which I had the strongest and natural engagements to keep me in my predecessors Religion and in my former Profession How so Because a change must needs cause me to run many hazards bring upon me the hatred of my Friends and the displeasure of my Kindred make me appear to them as a declared Rebel and an Apostate So that according to the Laws of the Land that I have forsaken I am to be punished in an exemplary manner for embracing the truth These and the following Considerations did long retard my design as that by this alteration I should purchase to my self nothing but misery and in the judgment of some the esteem of a vagabond or of a licentious person guilty of some offence or scandal and that I must never expect to be entertained and live in the world but as little better than a Beggar Notwithstanding all these obstacles and Panick fears my Christian Brethren you see that I have freely and confidently engaged my self in the profession of your Religion I forsake without regret or apprehensions that of my Forefathers to embrace the Protestant This act ought to be look'd upon as an encouragement of such as are doubting and wavering in their minds whether that which they profess is the best and the furest without doubt it is You may believe me upon my word which I have confirmed by my deeds for God be praised in this matter I am not ignorant I have been long enough deliberating and weighing the Reasons of both Parties of Protestants and Papists I know from whence I come what I forsake and what I embrace Besides you may well look upon and esteem me to be no mad man that runs wilfully into his own damnation There is none more careful in the Church of Rome than I am to avoid the causes of damnation If I did but doubt of my salvation in the Reformed Religion or if I could believe that it were possible for me to be saved in the Church of Rome I here swear and protest unto you before God that I would never do what you see I have done I would rather undergo the most bitter torments and whatever might happen to me I would never wrong my conscience This consideration therefore and my example should settle and confirm every one of you in the Protestant Religion should appease the troubles and doubtings of your mind fix your resolutions in the profession of the Truth And you my beloved Brethren that are sufficiently grounded in your Religion and whose lives are conformable my example should oblige you to rejoyce in that God is pleased to grant your private and publick requests and the prayers of your Congregation by sending to you from time to time Proselytes and bringing into your Flook the straying Sheep or rather the lost Sheep such whereof the salvation was so difficult that there was scarce any appearance or likelihood that it should be brought to pass St. Anstin was named the son of Monica 's tears because his religious Mother shed so many that at last she obtained her request and her Son's conversion from God's goodness I may this day stile my self in the same manner for I look upon my self as the return of your religious and charitable prayers and the Son of your sighs and tears I would therefore now express unto you my hearty thanks but you desire that I should render them only to God I have nothing else to request from you but the continuation of the same prayers for all those whom I yet leave behind me especially for such as I have confirmed in their errours and mistakes help and joyn with me in my duty in endeavouring their conversion But especially I must entreat your prayers to God that I may for the time to come lead a life answerable to that holy profession which I hâ—â—e this day made that I may not be unworthy of your Communion here and may attain with you hereafter to the fruition of that Crown of Glory which God hath promised to his faithful Servants To One God and Three Persons the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost be ascribed all Honour Glory and Praise now and for evermore Amen FINIS