and are highly unsuitable to and unworthy of Christ and his Religion which became victorious and spread over the World not by frauds or cruelty but by miracles and argument by patience susferings and the innocency of its Teachers and Disciples And therefore its Author Jesus tho solicited by his Disciples to call down like Elias fire from heaven according to his mighty power to destroy his fiercest Adversaries the greatest obstacle to the propagation of his Religion rebukes and corrects them and tells them They knew not of what Spirit they were of and that this temper was Ignorance and Fury and not true Zeal and Faith and therefore he would never in his greatest straits and miseries call down the Angels from above to his guard and assistance or like his Type Moses turn the Rivers into streams of blood but still continued delivering his Fathers Will in safe and gentle methods with prayers for and compassion upon his Persecuters resigning up his Soul into the hands of him that judgeth right For the sake of Christianity and the peace of Christendom all good men wish that his pretended Successor at Rome was heir to and possest this gentle and easie temper as well as aimed at his power and jurisdiction But alas to the scandal of Christianity if we search into the Records of Time and turn over the History of all Ages and read the barbarous usages of the Pagan World we can either equal or over act them in the butcheries and Massacres of the Romish Church that pretended mild and holy Mother so numerous are the files of Martyrs that have died under their bloody hands that we can reckon them by as large numbers as St. John doth his Catalogue of sealed Saints Rev. 7.5 of the Tribe of Judah twelve housand For so the Historians tell us that in the French Massacre in the space of three Moneths an hundred thousand were slain by the instigation of the tender Vicar of Christ Dr. More in his Divine Dialogues out of Vigerius and Peyonius and the most Christian King of France Murthered of the Albigenses and Waldenses ten hundred thousand Killed in the Duke of Alva's persecution thirty six thousand and in the holy Inquisition in the space of thirty years an hundred and fifty thousand and what should I tell you of the times of Pope Julius and our own Marian dayes of the Spanish cruelty to the poor Americans or the bloody persecution in Ireland wherein an hundred thousand Protestants were murthered by Papish hands What Kingdom or People have not felt their slaughtering principles either by open violence or secret poysoning or stabing and this dayes brave attempt surpasses all the great exploits of all their bloody Predecessors and every where so many have been and are their cruelties that that good Author Mr. Mede observes that Papal persecutions do equalize or exceed the ten famous persecutions of the Pagan Emperours Here 's the litteral Successer of Saint Peter and out writes the Copy arise Peter kill and eat and when they have spoke the Prologue by the murther of a worthy Person in order to as deep a Tragedy as this our indignation must assign the Roman Bishops another Predecessor his great Sire Romulus * Fraterno primi maduerunt sanguine muri who laid the Walls of Rome in his Brothers blood as tho Rome Pagans cruelties were all entailed and ran in the blood of Rome Christian and are now become so natural to her being establisht by her Canons and Constitutions that we must sooner expect an instrument out of a Cutlers Shop than arguments out of a Jesuits Colledge for our conversion giving us no other effect of her power of Miracles but that she would this day have turned our Rivers into blood not remembring the wise mercy of that God they say they adore who when he reveng'd the sins of Sodom in showers of fire and brimstome was careful least the Righteous should be swept away in the deluge But here Prince and People good and bad * History of the Powder Plot. pag. 9. Some Romanists and the Reformed must all promiscuously fall by one common blow to be Pattern and President hereafter of learn'd Cruelty that they dar'd to act what others sear'd to think 2. The Policy by which this Conspiracy was carried on 'T was called a snare in the Psalmists time and so it may be justly now Naked Truth and Integrity are powerful and successful by their native arguments and internal vertue his villiany and baseness which call for stratagems and deceits and live and thrive by political frauds When Rome her self was to be baptised into Christianity only the reason and Miracles of her great Apostles their plainness and integrity their constancy and resolution under persecution made the way and caus'd the mighty Change and Conversion but when she her self is to reclaim onely the errors of a dissenting Sister Conclaves and Cabals the State-craft of all their Fraternities and Orders the subtlety of all their Emissaries must combine together to carry on this black design How strangely is Primitive Christianity among them that pretend to be its greatest Champions and Admirers degenerated from its first simplicity and open innocency into fraud and violence inquisitions and disguises cunning and artifice is their faith and piety and the Court and Ceremony their Church and their Bishop instead of universal Pastor merits better the title of Stateholder their Discipline and Cannons their Articles of faith and Rules of manners are coyn'd and fram'd to serve their power and Interest and Mysteries of Christianity are chang'd and become only secrets of the Papal Empire the design of their counsels and determinations are not to better and amend the lives of men but to sway and govern Christendome Good old Laws are relaxt and new ones call'd fundamental cast to raise a portion for a Neece or to enrich a Cardinal Patron and their Exchecquer brought into the Temple and call'd the holy of holies that what their Predecessors got by fraud they might still keep by the same method the dreames and visions the extasies and raptures the miracles and revelations and other pious frauds us'd and countenanc'd by the Church of Rome who calls her self the only spouse of Christ to drive on their secular interest makes the Atheistical world conclude that Jesus himself was only a great imposter and joyned with his Privy Council the twelve Apostles onely design'd to set up a new goverment or only to lay us down some rules to trade by and the chief factory should be at Rome a good School to teach men only policy and cuning and for an instance of their policy which they call the Spirit of God take the time for the election of Romes High-Priest when they pretend the Spirit of God is as familiarly presiding and as fully operating as upon the day of Pentecost or baptisme of the blessed Jesus yet so wide are their differences so clamorous their factions their buying
of voices their seting up stales their tearing of scrutinies their long disagreement as from the death of Clement the fourth two years and more and other slie methods that you may say of them as an old Cardinal did you must uncover the roofe of the house so little room is left among them for the holy Ghost to come upon them And their famous Tridentine Council was a better demonstration of their cunning than their faith and integerity wherein they fancy the Spirit of God guided their pens influenc'd their heads and moved their hearts he being totus in toto inqualibet parte and sent every day * Hist of the Counc of Trent pag. 497. as some then merrily said from Rome in a cloak-bag thither yet beside the lewdness of their definitions and decrees so many were their wily methods and their laborious arts that the Recorder of Florence or Caesar Borgia seem'd rather to keep the Chair than the Spirit of God and little of good Saint Peter among them beside his Nets to draw some less discerning men into the fashion of their Religion and therefore more eminent was Divine Providence that discovered all these slie and subtle Serpents that took them in their crasty wilyness defeated their Counsels and made them perish by their own designs 3. The Loss that would have follow'd had this design taken effect Which is two-fold 1. Of the Lives and Blood of so many 2. Of Religion 1. Of the Lives and Blood of so many To secure the peace and quiet of this Nation and to fix Religion safe from its underminers the Great Assembly meets a learned and wise King the Prince also by them in the beginning of their Plot concluded to be present Nobility and Commons with their large Train and Attendants the Flower and strength of the Nation the Church and State engrost and enhous'd together with their good design stately buildings and a Race of Kings sleeping in their Tombs must by these Conspirators be made an whole burnt Sacrifice and offer'd up to Rome ambition and by one blow surpass what ever Plague or Pamine War or common Mortality in many years could bring to pass and these would not have fallen alone but Laws and Liberties Charters and Priviledges would have died together and have been buried in one common ruin and all our peaceand freedome would have ended in Gibbets and Inquisitions Torments and heavy Burdens and betrayed into a Papal Bondage And this Land that was never compleatly overcome by all the Legions and Armies of their Pagan Emperors in the space of so many years in a moments time might have been conquered by Romes High Priest * History of the Powder Plot out of Thuanus pag. 5. For so Catesby as my Historian tells me thought it not enough that this or that or any single Person should be aimed at but that all together and at the same time should be comprehended in this Conspiracy For so he reasoned with himself The King himself might many wayes be taken away but this would be nothing as long as the Prince and the Duke of York were alive Again if they were remov'd yet this would advantage nothing so long as there remain'd a Parliament so vigilant so circumspect to whatever might happen Or if the Parliament or the Chief Members of it could be destroyed there would remain still the Peers of the Realm so many prudent Persons so many powerful Earls addicted to that Party whom they would hardly resist and who by their Authority Wealth and Dependants would be able if occasion should be to restore things to their former state therefore not by delayes but at one blow all were to be swallowed up and so laudable an atchievement was to be brought to effect altogether and at once Thus did the Roman Eagle stoop to her prey and the whole Land was got within her pounces but thanks be to God who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth 2. The Loss of Religion 1. What might have been had this Treason been successful Had this Train of Powder and Designs been prosperous what a dismall choice had been proposed to change you Religion or to embrace a Stake to violate your Faith and Consciscience for the Romish Creed or else Lives and Liberties Fortunes and all the Endowments of Life must be sacrific'd to Recant your Vows and sacred Oaths or else to expect a perpetual Prison or a Flame to suffer or comply to have a Wrack either in Body or in Mind Such hard proposals should have been the conditions of your Peace and a severe contract it would have been to change the Religion of our Church which we have Arguments and Reasons sufficient to confirm us is pure Primitive and Apostolical into a Faith that is but a Modern Contrivance and Innovation begun by interest made up of Fopperies and Falsehood and carried on by Fraud and Violence Such a Religion you must have had which makes absurdities Blasphemies and Contradictions Articles of Faith teaching you how by vertue of Transubstantiation you may admire the glorified Body of your Saviour above yet mangle it adore and devour it at the same time here below you should have been taught to make your Prayers and Addresses unto God in an unknown Tongue whereby the dead that sleep in the Tombs and Monuments of the Church might have as good Devotion as the living in it or if they understood any part of their Devotion the work barely done the nimbleness of their Lips and Fingers must satisfie for Zeal and intention of mind you should have been taught that though you die with a load of sins not thoroughly repented of and satisfy'd for yet your kind Mother of Rome hath provided an intermediate place between Hell and you a second venture from whence by a Deputy Friend a good Purse and a kind Priest you may be discharged and be Crown'd a Saint in that Church You must be content onely to Communicate in one kind and be glad of the bread alone for the dainty reason of the Lay mans beards and the nice distinction of concomitance yet point blank against your Saviours institution you must have been in that Church notwithstanding the Thunder and Lightning upon Mount Sinai to shew their indispensible nature when the Ten Commandements were deliver'd will afford you Nine only or at least use Art to conceal the Second because it Glares too much upon their Adoration of Images and Invocation of Saints and the Curious Distinctions of their Schools and Casuists have eluded the force of all the rest Such Priests such Temples such Devotions you must have had so gay so foppish so full of Antick Postures Scenes and Ceremonies that you will find little difference between Old Rome's Theatres and New Rome's Churches Such a Religion is the Romish which Magnifies Christ in Hymns and Songs Gestures and other lighter Services yet Rivals him in his particular Power and Prerogative in Adoring and Invoking Saints som
of which while on Earth were Vicious and now we know not where they dwell and others justly suspected if ever they were in Being The jolly Sinner in that Church needs not despair of his Salvation for want of Sincere Repentance while Artificial Sighs and Customary Confessions Pilgrimages and gentle Whippings Pardons and Indulgences so easily obtain'd by privileg'd Altars Agnus Dei's hallowed Swords Roses Hats Church-yards and other pretty Knacks and Devices while a little Dole to the Poor and more to the Priests for a lusty Absolution upon Attrition and other faint Compositions with God and Bribes for Divine Justice will serve the turn Such a Church you should have been in who notwithstanding her Pretences to Infallibility can give her Members no sufficient Assurance to judge by whether they shall be saved or no not only from their known way of Arguing call'd Circle proving the Scriptures from their Church and their Church again from the Scriptures but from the Doctrine of Intention a Dianae Compend p. 36. which is an Article of Faith at Rome that if the Priest do not really Intend to do what he outwardly pretends to do all his Performance is Ineffectual and this perverse Intention of the Priest is not to be supply'd by God himself b Ibid. saith one of their Casuists and that the Priest may be so perverse as not to Intend c Escobar Tract 7. Examin 6. Num. 41. p. 867. Another of their Doctors doth suppose and states the Case where it may be allow'd so that though you be Baptized Communicated and Absolved things absolutely necessary to Salvation by their Confession yet you cannot certainly judge whether you shall be sav'd except you have the privilege of God and know the Heart and Intentions of your Priest Such a Religion you must have profess'd whose chiefest Doctors and Guides of Conscience teach men to break all the Ties and Ligaments of Humane Society and Conversation telling their Disciples that Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks directing them how to Lye Artificially to Equivocate and Forswear to Cheat in Bargaining to baffle Contracts to exempt their Priests though Guilty of Treason from the Secular Judge and before an Ecclesiastical one 't is very difficult to Convict them their a For a Cardinal 72. for a Bishop 64. See Diana Compend p. 85. Witnesses must be so many These Guides teach Subjects to Rebell and Murther Children to be Disobedient Servants Unfaithful by which and many other lewder Doctrines Skin'd over by nice Distinctions by which they instruct their Proselytes only more Learnedly to sin they would make the World only a greater Robery and reduce it to its Ancient b For these and much more of the same nature see the Casuistical Writers of the Church of Rome as Sanchez Azorius Lessius c. Chaos In short such a Religion the Bishops of Rome would have fore'd you into whose Faith is False and Erroneous the Rules of Manners laid down by many of her Penitentiaries and great Doctors perswading and countenancing Vice and Debauchery her Devotions Childish and gay and propagated by Fraud and Cruelty Taking therefore this short view of the Romish Way and being fully perswaded that we are Baptized into this Church of England whose Faith is Primitive Pure and Apostolical her Rules for Manners only leading to Virtue and Goodness her Discipline wholsome and proper and her Devotions decent and Manly let us stick fast unto her Prov. 24.21 and take Solomon's Advice My Son Fear thou the Lord and the King but meddle not with them that are given to change 2. What Religion hath lost though the Design was Unsuccessful yet the Attempt makes the Crime Scandalous and Horrid and Detestable by all Mankind Christianity by the intended Blow lyes a Bleeding Tell it not in Gath publish it not in Askelon When the Uncircumcised the Pagan Emperours and Mahometan Princes shall hear of such Barbarous Attempts upon the Persons of Princes such Bloody Villanies and Massacres upon their Subjects and That by her that Arrays her self with the fine Names of the only Catholick Apostolical Infallible most Holy and only Christian Church and Perjuries and Murders Rebellion and Disloyalty are defended by the Nice Doctrines of their Schools will they not conclude in Disdain Here 's the Principles of a Christian these Spring from their Bibles these are the Doctrines and Precepts of their Commander and Master Jesus Are these the tame Lambs and Doves of Christianity Are these they that fear Damnation for Rebellion Are these the gentle Martyrs for Honesty and Peace for Conscience and Obedience Are these the meek Servants of the Bishop of Rome that calls himself the Servant of Servants Christians Away with them to the Lyons and Fires again Let us invade their Territories set up our Alcoran for their Bibles and our Mahomet for their Christ against whom we dare not Rebell lest we forfeit that Luxurious Paradise The Bloody Doctrines and Rebellious Practices of the Infallible Chair hath stain'd more the Beauty of Religion and stop'd its progress and Victories over the Superstitions and Idolatries of the Gentile World and lost more Proselytes than ever their busie Emissaries their Christaviers and other zealous Planters have Converted and obtained Will not an Indian Prince be afraid of embracing the Christian Religion lest he lose his own Dominions Life and his Paternal Religion too at the same time which he now holds by a surer Tenure Is it not a clear Argument and demonstration to the Chinesian Emperour to renounce his Idolatry and be Baptized Christian when he shall read how Henry the Fourth and Frederick the First as one observes fought threescore Battels more than Julius Caesar stirr'd up by the Peaceable Popes of Rome Is it not a fair perswasion for all Princes to become Christians when they shall hear of the Deprivations and Excommunications and that unlimited Power of the Romish Priest in disposing Crowns and Sceptres upon the pretence of Profuseness or Breach of Faith for Perjury or Magick for Sacrilege or Heresie for Schism or Violence to a Cardinal and for many other Causes laid down by their flattering Casuists or for almost any thing when his Holiness is out of Humour and they give us a President of Childerick who was deprived from being King of France because he was a little easie natur'd not given to Action nor so wise as his Neighbours whereby he was unfit for Rule a Fowlis Hist p. 113. though Benedict the Ninth at Twelve years of Age was made Vicar of Christ and his little Holiness was as Infallible as the best of them and fitter for the Rattles of their Devotions than any When they shall read of that Jolly Pope Sixtus Quintus Excommunicating Elizabeth of England and publishing a Croisada against her and Henry the Third of France of Gregory the Fourteenth Excommunicating and Damning Henry the 4th renewed by Clement the Eighth and the turbulent carriage of Paul the