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
Saint hath been pull'd out of the dirt and mire that such a one grants every man his request that he obtains for them their suits in Law that he procures a safe arrival to Ships and Merchants goods at Sea that he gives rain or fair weather as people require that he heals diseases the Tooth-ach the infirmities of the Eyes c. all the world will throng to him all will run with their hands full of Gifts and laden with stately Offerings From whence proceeds this It is because that people have forsaken God to adhere to the creature and their minds are possessed with a devilish superstition which aims so much at their present advantage that they will have no devotion but for themselves they will seek nothing but their own contentment in the worship of their God nor adore him but for their profits What I have heard from the mouth of a Suffragan of a Bishop of Britany whose name I shall conceal for the respect I have for him will further confirm unto you this Truth He assured me that when he was in the Visitation with his Bishop he passed by a Parish situate at the entrance of a Forest where the Countrey people did worship a Saint named St. Gontran or Gautran that he might protect their Sheep from the Wolves the Bishop's curiosity more than his devotion led him into the parish-Parish-Church to see the Saint whom he found holding a Wolf tyed to his garment but so much decayed that there was scarce any thing to be seen of the Saint only the bold Wolf did there appear the Bishop being a good and understanding man and such a one as labours to remove and banish away as much as he can all Superstitions of this kind commanded the Image to be taken down with the Wolf and to be burnt together because the Saint being decayed by degrees and vanishing out of sight the Country-people began to reverence and pay their devotions to the Wolf If the rest of the Roman Bishops were but like to this Prelat the Popish Religion would soon become Reformed Now it happened by chance that the very day that this Protector of the flocks was consumed in the fire the Wolves of the Forest came out and carried away three Sheep out of the Village the people immediately believed that the Saint had sent them this misfortune because he had been burned in the flames therefore they flocked about the Suffragan whom they believed to be the occasion of the Saint's burning they loaded him with imprecations and curses and threatned him in such a manner that if he had not withdrawn himself out of their sight they had stoned him All this makes me believe that these Papists seek not so much God's honour and the glory of their Saints as their own worldly gains and benefit as the Heathens did when they worshipped their Idols For I am fully perswaded that if the Saint that is reverenced in the Church of Rome were a Devil they would nevertheless pay him respect and devotion if he had but the reputation of working Miracles and granting Petitions so abominable they are in their Superstitions § There is another grievous abuse crept in occasioned by the Relicks of the Saints because the Primitive Christians did entomb with honour and secure the bodies of the deceased Martyrs and gather up the ashes and bones of their consumed bodies that the Heathens might not express their cruelty upon them after death nor make a sport of them after death therefore by degrees this superstition is crept in men pay them now as much respect as to Christ's body if it were upon earth This Idolatry was in St. Austin's days as he himself declares de opere Monach. c. 2. The Devil hath cloathed a great many of his hypocrites with a Monkish attire they wander up and down the Provinces without being sent they are never setled never fixed never resting some of them saith he make sale of Martyrs members or such as are supposed to be so c. This Traffick is nothing in comparison of that which is now-a-days for such things are sold at an excessive rate as dear as the Devil intended to buy Christ with the power of Kingdoms and their glory upon condition to fall down to them and worship them the whole World is full of this deceitful commodity which may be said to be the most subject to cozenage We have good cause to wonder to hear no less than eight or ten Churches boasting to have the Virgin Mary's Girdle Christ's Winding-sheet and Seamless-coat there have been many suits in Law in the Courts of Parliament between several Churches about the keeping of one Relick for every one did affirm theirs to be the truest If all the bits of wood which are now esteem'd to be pieces of our Saviour's Cross were gather'd in a heap one hundred men would not be sufficient to carry them and if all the nails which are said to be the true nails of his Cross were together there would be enough to nail a Coach we may say the same of all the other Instruments of his Passion I would mention them all but they are already reckoned up by others and there is no man that hath peep'd out of his Cradle and seen never so little of the World but knows what I say to be true Go to Turin there you shall find some ready to swear that Christ's Winding-sheet is there kept entire go to Besançon you shall find the same thing But that which hath surprized me most was that which I have seen in a Convent of devout Virgins unto whom I was a long time Confessor I had no design to name them but because some have accused me of falshood in this Article I find my self forced against my will to particularize more than I intended it was in the Nunnery of Religious Carmelits called of Nazareth in the City of Vennes in the Province of Britany At a certain time I went in amongst these devout Nuns to receive the Confession of one of them upon her death-bed when I came a way three or four of them according to their custom brought me back from the place where their sick are kept to the gate one of them invited me to visit their ancient Chapter which was an old decayed Chappel at a corner of their Convent I went with them and at the entrance I wondered to see them kneel in a place where I perceived no Image I desired them to tell me the cause they informed me that it was because of some Relicks that were there I went to them and found in the Wall in a place very clean a great number of Bones with an Inscription that declared that they were the Relicks of eleven thousand Virgins I asked of them the reason why they had not put them into a vessel fit for Relicks according to the custom and why they did not make them more publick They replied that the Bishop had caused them to be visited
to degrade him and cast him into a Prison where I think he remains yet We may judge by this what to think of all the other Miracles noised abroad in the Church of Rome § The last Article relates to the Indulgences I don't here question whether the Pope hath power to pardon sins when he pleaseth Jesus Christ can do no more the Pharises would never allow him that power I desire therefore that the Divines of the Church of Rome would resolve me these Questions which I have often proposed to my self Wherefore do the Popes proclaim their Universal Jubilees which causes â—o many thousand people to trot to Rome or to some other great City where the place is appointed to gain them For if they answer that it is to obtain the forgiveness of our sins I may reply that there is no need to go so far to obtain this forgiveness there is no Parish but a full Indulgence may be bought every year several times There is scarce a noted Town but it may be purchased every day only one being concerned and initiated into the Fraternity of the little habit of the Virgin many times obtains for us above one hundred and fifty every year I shall not speak of the other means to get these priviledges and advantages Now those Indulgences as the Popish Divines affirm free us as well from the punishment as from the guilt of all manner of sins if therefore this is to be had in every Parish-Church what need is there of a Pilgrimage to Rome if all our sins are pardoned what will the Pope's or his Agents Absolution profit us Is not this to make a sport of mens credulity and to deal with them as with blind men and fools It may be they will answer that at such solemn occasions the Pope absolves from grievous sins reserved to himself which are not forgiven every day but if I have not been guilty of such horrid crimes wherefore am I sollicited and press'd upon to go and purchase a Jubilee wherefore am I obliged otherwise to make a general confession of my sins and if I don't wherefore am I look'd upon as an Atheist From hence we might conclude that their Church is never perfect but in the time of the Jubilee because at that time only it hath a power to forgive all manner of sinners But Bishops and Priests are to be found in every corner that have power granted to absolve these grievous and horrid sins there is scarce a petty Monk but will say he hath that priviledge four or five sins excepted which scarce happen in an hundred years in a Province If none but such as are guilty of these sins did go to Rome the Roads of Italy would not be so populous as they are at this time I might here mention the other Indulgences that may be obtained every day The abuses are so great and ridiculous that if you please to view the instruments of a Popish Zealot you shall see stuff and trinkets enough to set up a Shop You shall see Beads of all sizes shapes and numbers fifteen in a string fifty in another thirty in another ten in another all this is full of mystery you shall see little garments like childrens babies attire some white others red others brown you shall spy Medals of all sorts Cords with knots of several magnitudes and Crosses of all fashions The Papists are become so ridiculous to cause their Zealots to wear two pins a-cross upon their sleeve of breast assuring them that they shall obtain the forgiveness of several days sins as often as they kiss this Cross or pronounce over it two or three hard conjuring words I was never more astonished and scandalized than I was the last year when I was sent about the time of the Festival of the holy Sacrament to preach in the City where I made my abode I found every body stored with these Indulgences wearing pins a-cross they inform'd me that the devout and right Reverend * These Knaves and Cheats of that bloody Society play a thousand such tricks in those Kingdoms and Cities that are at their devotion as in Spain Italy and France Father of the Jesuits called Father Huby had recommended this notable piece of devotion to them By this means he disposed of above ten millions of pins which he had the conscience not to sell he gave them out of an excess of charity but in requital his charity did require for every two pins a summ of money to help his Brethren the Jesuits travelling in China and in far Countries to say Mass for in those places they cannot meet with such fools that will encourage them by contributing to their subsistence If we did but run over all the other Tenents of the Romish Faith we should find as many errours mistakes and abominations as we have done in these But it is not my design to mention all I intended to be more succinct and I look not upon my self as able to make this description so well as others who have more studied the Disputes and Controversies THE THIRD PART THE Third Reason that hath so long kept me in the Romish Religion was grounded upon the practices and Laws of that Church the solemn Festivals the Auricular Confession Abstinence from Meats the Forty days of Lent the Priests Vows of Chastity and the austere Lives of the Monks All these things did present themselves as it were in a body together in my mind and caused me to entertain so high an esteem for Popery where I saw so many holy and religious customs observed that I could not look upon the rest but with disdain hatred and aversion because I could not find the same things But when against my will I was forced to open my eyes and being engaged by my Office to seek into the beginning of all the abominations that I saw acted in the world I found that these things proceeded from the Laws invented to deceive the most subtil wits and intice the devoutest souls into the broad road of hell by the Devil who sometimes appears as an Angel of Light § What a vast number of disorders have been occasioned by the many Festivals of the Church of Rome There were so prodigious a multitude lately observed in France that the King was forced about seven years ago to get a Dispensation for the ease and benefit of his People from the Pope who abolished a great many But this Dispensation hath caused a strange deformity in all the Bishopricks of France Some were willing to obey the Popes order by casting out of the Calendar such Festivals as were abolished other Bishops would not admit it some cut off a few keeping still the rest others were offended that the King did incroach upon their priviledges therefore instead of diminishing the number of their Festivals they established new Feast-days some fast in the Saints Eve and keep not the day others regard neither the fast nor the day others cause them
and slight his call and gracious design When the Son of God came into the World he had no other intention but to banish out of it all Idolatry and to establish the Worship of the true God Because saith an Eloquent Bishop of Ravenna that wonderful Majesty in which God appeared unto Moses and the dreadful threatnings and punishments of his Law did hinder his people to make their addresses to and trust in him and did encourage Idolatry by causing them to seek to other gods more tractable and of a more easie access he hath been pleased to become Man like unto us To win them by the expressions of his kindness and to hold them fast bound to his service by the testimonies and declarations of his Goodness Petr. Chrysol Ser. 147. This was God's design But by that strange propensity of men to Idolatry they hinder its accomplishment for instead of looking up to him and receiving from him grace and mercy they have run to others and sought for other Mediators and Protectors other visible Gods whom they implore in their indigency This alienation from God proceeds from their fancying him who is their Brother and like unto them and who is become their Friend armed with severity and justice by this means they are frighted away from his service and cannot with so much confidence as they ought rely upon his Mercy In this manner God's divine Wisdom is disappointed and his Design frustrated by the ignorance baseness and blindness of men The Intent of the Son of God saith Tertullian in his ordinary strain when he took upon him our nature was totally to abolish Idolatry he knew that men were very inclinable to this vice that few in the world would be content to worship God in spirit and in truth he had seen them bow down to a golden Calf to mortal Men to Statues of stone Onions c. This is an Impudency saith likewise St. Austin which was unsufferable to him he had an intent to bring a remedy to these disorders by condescending a little to mens inclinations therefore he took upon him a Body that men might have a God according to their own mind and desires and that they might adore a Man without offence Ut pro impudentia idololatriae satis Deo fieret per impudentiam fidei How did men answer so great a Mercy I confess they prayed unto and worshipped this God-Man very faithfully for several Ages but at last the Spirit of darkness crept in amongst them and hath drawn some away to their former Abominations instead of being governed by that holy Impudency which Faith furnishes them with and prompts them to to adore God in a Saviour-Man and worship a man as God they have substituted others in whom they confide to whom they present their Vows and offer their Sacrifices This is the Papists Crime Jesus Christ is not properly their God they worship and pray to the Saints they forsake the Lord that calls and invites them to come to him to go and make their Prayers to and worship the Servants Look but into their Chappels and Churches you shall scarce see ten persons kneeling to the Crucifix when you may perceive several hundreds before the Altars of the Virgin Mary and of the other Saints I have often taken notice of this when I was amongst them I am perswaded that if the Papists had not their Idol of the Mass I mean the Sacrament to present to the people to receive their homages Jesus Christ whom this Sacrament signifies would be quite forgotten they would scarce think upon him if they did it would be with much indifferency You shall see something more of this in the next Article § The Worshipping of Images is one of those things that was most offensive to me in the Church of Rome since I took the liberty to read the Holy Scripture for I never found any one passage that seems to allow this Superstition but have met with many that represent it as the most grievous of all other crimes I know that their ingenious Wits have distinguished their Worship into that of Latria which is only due unto God and into Dulia and Hyperdulia which may be paid to the Creature But how can the ignorant Vulgar make this distinction And doth not God in express words prohibit in one of the Ten Commandments written with his divine finger in the Tables of stone delivered to Moses upon the Mountain To make any Image or likeness of things which are in Heaven or elsewhere and command us not to fall down to them nor serve them Do not the Papists by their daily practices violate this Sacred Law To what purpose are their cunning distinctions and the right direction of their intentions their elevations of their mind from the Image to the Saint and from the Saint unto God seeing they do what God hath expresly forbidden I desire to convince the most obstinate of all the Papists by their own thoughts and the reflexion of their minds for this consideration hath been very powerful to undeceive me When I did consider the continual disputes between Protestants and Papists about the worshipping of Images I thought upon St. Austin's words to Petil. and the rest of the Donatists and that his direction was the best means to end the controversie and to understand which of them was in the right To. 7. de unit Eccles contr Epist Petil. c. 3. Non audiatur haec dico haec dicis sed haec dicit Dominus c. we must not heed what the Protestants say nor what the Papists affirm but only what God declares according to the exposition of those Doctors that were of neither side let us take one of them or if the judgment of one is not sufficient let us take ten put into their hands that by which we shall all be judged the two Tables delivered to Moses the ten Commandments of God let us intreat them to read over that which concerns the Worshipping of Images Thou shalt not make unto thy self any graven Image or the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth thou shalt not how down thy self to them nor serve them for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity c. Exod. 20. Let us lead these indifferent men into a Church of the Papists and into another of the Reformed Religion let us desire them to tell us which of these Perswasions is to their seeming most conformable and obedient to this Law will they not say that it is the Reformed and Protestant For amongst the Papists they may see several Churches and Chappels and in each of them eight or ten Saints or rather Images of Saints and before every one of these Images they shall find above twenty men and women kneeling with lighted Tapers in their hands they shall see others carrying their Offerings up to the Saints Altars and a
Priest in his Mass often perfuming the nose of the Image with Incense they shall see a Deacon appointed to read the Gospel reading that appointed for the Saint's day over the head of such diseased persons as they imagin that the Saint can cure they shall see many others as well Priests as other Clerks singing upon their knees the Litanies of that Saint before the dumb Image and such like abominations they shall see What think ye in conscience that these Primitive Doctors would say if they beheld all this foppery would they not cry out against that which God hath prohibited You are in the Errour would they say to the Papists for ye do what God hath forbidden in express words He forbids you to make Images and your Churches are full of them He forbids you to make any Likeness of any thing that is in Heaven above and nevertheless you make unto your selves the Likeness of those men whom you fancy to be in Heaven He forbids you to Bow down to them and yet you Kneel to them He forbids you to Serve them and behold all your Priests are employed in their Service and Worship one saith Mass another smoaks the Idol's nostrils with Perfumes another reads unto him his Gospel another is busie to light Wax-candles about him all the rest are singing his Praises What think ye Papists will not God that declares himself to be a jealous God be offended to see you pay unto such senfless Idols that Honour and Service which he hath expresly forbidden Will not he punish you according to his threatning to the third and fourth Generation There is no person of the least reason will have this thought for the thing of it self is very plain we need not much Logick to discover this Errour and to condemn it Therefore it is not without good cause that the Church of Rome forbids the reading of the Holy Scripture nourishes her people with a strong and indisputable respect for the Pope and his Oracles although he commands things contrary to God's Word they believe nevertheless that they are obliged to obey and credit whatsoever he saith as an Article of their Faith and to curse as Hereticks all such as follow not their example The Reasons that they pretend to justify their Superstitions are very frivolous and unlikely They commonly tell us That they worship not the Image nor the Saint that is thereby represented but God in that Saint shewed unto us by the Image This Reason is very impertinent seeing that God forbids not only the worshipping of Images in the same manner as we believe the Heathens did but he forbids us to make them to make any likeness to carry it abroad to serve and fall upon our knees before it which the Papists do daily Besides this Reason hath no likelihood for we see by our experience every day that the Saint or rather the Image of the Saint is worshipped and reverenced and not God in the Saint as the Papists would fain perswade us For if they worship only God in the Saint wherefore do they esteem more a graven Image than a painted one We can never see the people going out of their Parishes and Precincts to pay their homages to an Image painted in another place wherefore is this If they only seek in the Image the resemblance of the Saint to call to their minds his virtuous behaviour and actions wherefore do the Papists beyond the Seas trot a-foot an hundred leagues from their own homes to cringe and bow to a monstrous Image which in some places hath not the appearrance of a man who should be represented decently about six foot high for this Image is like a mishapen Dwarf ugly and ill-favoured having the Virgin Mary standing by him in the shape of a Onild about seven or eight years of age whereas these persons leave their own Parish-Churches next to their houses where the Image of the same Saint more decent more like to the Original and more beautiful stands without receiving the like respect Wherefore do we see in the Church of St. Anna of Auray in Britany fifty or sixty thousand Pilgrims in her Festival-day whereas it may be not ten shall be found in other Chappels dedicated to the same Saint at that time Wherefore is there such a vast number of silver and golden arms legs hearts heads and little children hanging there rather than in the other Churches consecrated to the same Saint where it may be we shall find no other Ornaments but those which have been dedicated to and left her by the devout Snails behind them I mean their silver-colour'd slime with which they beautifie her walls and paint the face of this worthy Saint it may be we shall find there nothing but a crazy Shrine broken in many places and one before the great Altar made up with the tayl of some old Gown and so tatter'd that many times it is no easie task to tell of what stuff and colour it was of c. Wherefore do the common people throng to this Church only their hands loaden with Crosses Beads Medals and other baubles to have them touch the Image of St. Ann which to my knowledge is but a block of decayed wood almost rotten and which was found in a puddle lying in the mud over head and ears if they believe not in this wood any divine virtue more than ordinary and more than in other Images of this Saint Wherefore have the Carmelits the Keepers of this Church been so careful to preserve so long every morsel and crum of this rotten wood which they have been forced to cut off to mend the Image and wherefore have they offered it about the Countrey in little bits to the Noble persons and Gentry that have desired it to sanctifie their Closets if they did not believe in this crazy wood some holy quality some wonderful virtue like to that which the Heathens affirmed to be in their Idols Let them not therefore tell us that they seek nothing else in the Image of a Saint but the representation and likeness to call their Virtues to remembrance For they take all men to be fools and Idiots whom they would perswade to admit of this excuse by doing what they do A Heathen might with as much reason tell us that he is a Christian that he believes and that he acknowledgeth and and worshippeth but one only God when I see him upon his knees before his Idols offering to them his perfumes To say the truth I think that there is but little difference between the ancient Heathens and the modern Papists if there be any it is only in their names for at present the Papists speak in the same Idolatrous language as the Heathens did for without exception nor reservation they say now in the Popish Dominions that the Images themselves may be worshipped I am certain that the Heathens never shewed more respect to their Gods than the Papists do at present to their Images This