and lose their name in this Thus much as to the Doctrinal part From what hath been said may naturally be inferred I. The impossibility of Reconciliation to such an Apostatiz'd Church I know there are some who think that there is little difference between the two Churches of England and Rome and undertake to shew us the several Advances the one hath made towards the other and these are either 1. Some Politick Romanists who hereby would extenuate the foulness of Popery or 2. Some ignorant and loose Protestants who live void of the knowledge and conscience of all Religion men who live tanquam poeniterent non pecudes natos as if they repented they were not made Beasts whose Reason is their burden and light of mind their offence who are so given up to their sensual Appetites as if they were all flesh and had no Spirit who rake up those heavenly Sparks their Souls in ashes never considering their original capacity and end or that Viaticum Aeternitatis provision that is to be made for them unto Eternity These men are moulded for Heathenish as well as Popish Impressions But if we rightly consider the Purity of our own Church and the Apostacy and Corruptions of the Church of Rome you will finde an impossibility of Reconciliation For rebus sic stantibus as the case is that Church must put off it self and cease to be what it is ere it can begin to be once again what it was for Substance Credit Fame Vertue and Honour have at once forsaken her and by long disuse have left her worse than naught Neither can we see how these houses can be repaired but they must be pulled down to the very foundations and then built from the ground But if there be any possibility it must come either from her self or others not from her self because she obstinately defends her Errours not onely with Tongue and Pen but with Fire and Sword and will not yield so much as that she can erre refusing to amend those notorious Abuses which by the moderate Verdict of her elect Cardinals are condemned and by the palpable Flatteries of her last and worst Parasites the Jesuits is grown not onely secure but more proud and arrogant than ever she was Can it be then from others How oft hath this been endeavoured to no purpose Rome may be sacked and battered as it hath often been by Military Forces but purged by Admonitions Convictions and Censures it will never be Now the impossibility of our Reconciliation besides these things I have already named ariseth from the pride and usurpation of the Head of their Church being armed with that Position That he cannot Erre This without hope of Reconciliation divideth Christendom and many other Doctrinal Controversies are subtilly kept on foot to be a Stalking-horse for this Adde to this their hatred against our Religion above all others Jews and Grecians are tolerated in Rome it self their Ceremonies Synagogues Services yea and Circumcision it self administred to the dead as well as to the living by which the Romanists declare themselves to be better friends to the Turks and Jews than to the Protestants not to insist on that detestable Virulence of their Tongues and Gall in their Ink against our first Reformers which hath not stayed there but broken out into their most barbarous Butcheries and cruel Bloud-sheddings They oblige the Consciences of Catholicks to a Separation from all our Ecclesiastical Assemblies are afraid that any of our Books especially our Translations of the Bible should be read in any of their Dominions and where they cannot turn will be sure to burn Protestants O the many miserable Massacres Canibal-like Conspiracies and tragical Murders that they have been guilty of Who are ignorant what Fierceness Fears and Fires were raised to consume the innocent bodies of the Saints living and dead and that in such sort as every corner of the Land seemed as hot as Nebuchadnezzar's Furnace even seven times hotter than it used to be wherein were to be cast whosoever would not fall down and worship the Image which that Romish Nebuchadnezzar had erected Now what Arguments can be used to perswade us of their Reconciliation to us either in the whole or in part of our Religion since they deem it no other than a peccant humour necessary to be purged out every few years either by Murder if it prevail in the Head or by Massacre if in the Body of any Nation And rather than it should not they will not stick with Blassius at the Commandment of their great Gracchus to set on fire the Capitol it self to lay hands on sacred Majesty and to imbrue them in his Royal bloud to subvert Religion to sacrifice our Lives Liberties and all to their ambitious Lusts and Revenge When then you are willing that your Souls shall be damned and Bodies destroyed then think of Reconciliation II. Let us now see our duty which is first to hate and oppose the Popish and to embrace and keep close to the Protestant Religion First Hate and oppose the Popish Religion Let the high praises of God be in our mouths and a two-edged sword in our hands to be avenged on that Scarlet Whore that Mother of Fornications that hath made her self drunk with the bloud of the Saints and Martyrs of Jesus They must be punished by us or we shall be so by them Let 's make no friendship with angry men much less with bloody men 'T is the greatest honour that can be put upon us to be Instruments of their destruction This duty respects us in whatever relations we are be we either Magistrates Ministers or private Christians The Magistrates by repressing those Perverters of our Faith and encouraging Protestant Principles and Practices 'T is not Reason of State but Ruine of State to gratifie those men who would rejoyce to see our Glory in the dust Ministers by preaching up the excellency of this way preserving the pattern of wholesome words and speaking the things which become sound Doctrine to take heed of their own mixtures and not adulterate the Doctrine of Faith to please men The beauty of heavenly Truths wants not the paint either of Humane or Heretical Additions The Babes of Christ must be fed with sincere Milk and the soreness of mens eyes must not hinder the Lights of the Church from shining And next by confuting Gain-sayers not onely have a voice to call their Sheep but to drive away Wolves one to establish Truth and another to oppose Errour one of their hands must work the other hold the weapon Their breasts should be Store-houses of Spiritual Armour be furnished with skill in Scripture in which they should be mighty and in the writings of men even of Hereticks themselves to beat them with their own weapons to kill Goliah with his own sword Are we in the lower Orb of private Christians We must oppose this many-headed Monster and that 1. By confuting the debauched Romanists with the Language of our heavenly
Sun when she appears in her Meridian glory If you do but cast your eye on the former Chapter you will finde enough and I shall need no more to prove it Then 1. The Woman that is the Whore of Babylon is said to be a City which reigneth over the Kings of the Earth and this was onely the Roman Monarchy at that time there being no other City in the world but this that had such a Jurisdiction And so it is expounded not onely by some Greek Authors but by most Latine Writers as Iraeneus Tertullian St. Ambrose St. Jerome St. Augustine and others Prosper also a Latine Writer saith Who cannot understand what City it is that carrieth a cup full of Abominations of Vncleanness and fornication of the whole Earth when that is called Eternal which is but Temporal Verily it is a name of Blasphemy when mortal men are called Divi Gods and their Suppliants say unto them To your divine Power to your Altars and to your Eternity This the Learned know to be the City of Rome which was called Vrbs AEterna and wherein the Emperours were called Gods and the People flattered them with Altars and Titles of divine Power and Eternity as now they do their Popes with the like Antichristian terms of The most Holy and Your Holiness Who have also as blasphemous tokens of Divinity as any of the heathen Emperours had in their Triple-Crowns riding on mens shoulders their being attended on by Kings and Emperours their Thrones in Churches higher than Altars and such-like magnificent Pomps of Heathenish and Antichristian pride Ambrosius Ansbertus a Latine Writer also 850 years since calls Rome the second Babylon who sitting aloft on her seven Hills rules the Scepter of the whole world and in the name of that City is figured the power of the whole earthly Dominions Hence II. In the seventh verse she is said to sit on a beast having seven heads and ten horns which seven heads be seven hills whereon the woman sitteth Now 't is well known not onely to learned Christians but to Heathens themselves that Rome alone is a City builton seven hills This is thought to be a very silly Argument by that Renegado Sanders and others by the seven hills to prove the See of Antichrist to be at Rome because the City is now gone from the Hills and standeth in the Plain of Campus Martius and the Pope sitteth on the other side of the River To which it is well answered That though the greatest part of the City be not now on the seven Hills and his Unholiness his Palace of Pleasure be on the other side the River yet on these hills stand Churches Abbeys and Monasteries where the Papal Authority is put in execution and there is never an one of those hills whereon the present Religion of Rome is not practised Being galled with this they make two Romes Rome Pagan and Rome Christian The Whore spoken of is they say Heathenish Rome which was ruled by those Monsters of mankind Nero Domitian Calignla c. who writ their Laws and rouled their Garments in the bloud of Christians but the Christian Rome is not here meant Whereas 't is obvious to every one that hath but common rational notions alive within him whose Conscience is not quite vitiated and Minde putrified with noisome Lusts but must see that the present Rome in respect of State Princely Dominion and Cruelty in persecuting the Saints of God is all one with the Heathenish Empire the See of the Bishop being turned into the Court of the Emperour and Shambles of the Butcher To avoid this they farther say That Babylon is drunk with the bloud of the Saints and Martyrs shed not in Rome but in Jerusalem where the Lord was crucified and the two Prophets being slain lie there in the streets This is excellently answered by St. Hierome who saith That it is not meant of Jerusalem but of Rome and Christ is said to be crucified there either 1. Because the Authority whereby he was crucified was from the Roman Empire or 2. Because Christ in his Members was and is dayly there crucified though locally in his own person he was crucified at Jerusalem But besides the Authority of Scripture in this case it were easie to adde in the third place 3. The favour and defence which this Exposition hath received from a multitude of Antient and Modern learned men Hence St. Bernard saith That the Beast spoken of in the Apocalypse to which a mouth is given to speak blasphemies and to make war with the Saints is now gotten into St. Peter's Chair as a Lion prepared for his Prey And in another place speaking of the Romish Priesthood They are called saith he the Ministers of Christ yet serve Antichrist And Petrarch saith Once Rome but now Babylon And Joachim Abbas Antichrist was long since born in Rome and now strives every moment to get higher and higher 4. And lastly I answer That it was such a Babylon that for a while Gods people were lawfully in her but when her Corruptions did increase they were commanded to depart which cannot be affirmed of Rome Pagan but of Rome Papal and therefore Come out of her my people This brings me to the second thing viz. the great defection this Church hath made from her Primitive Purity and Integrity The Spouse is now become an Harlot and the chast Virgin a Mother of Fornications her Apostacy is now as infamous as ever her Faith was glorious Some things she is confessed to hold right as a true God in three Persons true Scripture though with additions a true Christ though mangled with foul and erroneous consequences true Baptism though shamefully deformed with rotten Traditions and if you compare Rome Christian with Rome Roman you will see her defection in these five grand instances thereof 1. In the unlimited Jurisdiction of the Triple-Crown The Councils of Basil and Constance decreed that a general Council was of greater Authority than the Pope and that he ought to be subject to it The Council of Nice appointed him his bounds and limits and the Council of Chalcedon made the Bishop of Constantinople equal with him in Authority and Jurisdiction And Gregory himself who sate in the Papal Chair writes That whoever stiles himself Universal Bishop or desires to be called so is the forerunner of Antichrist and many learned Papists believed this to be true But since that time the case is much altered for the Councils of Lateran and Trent have determined the contrary insomuch that he whose Primitive stile was Servant of servants doth now exalt himself above all that is called God The beginning of this Supremacy over other Bishops was in Boniface the third's time who with great ado obtained of Phocas a fit Master to prefer such a Servant to be made Oecumenical Bishop Which Authority his Successors have enlarged and now his Janizaries the Jesuits tell us he is that Statue in Daniel which shall
to Lord it over Scriptures Fathers Councils Church and all the World What possibility is there that the Kingdoms of the world should be subject unto him What probability that Images should be worshipped Our Works merit Heaven That the body of Christ should be in a thousand places at one time That the Priest hath Judicial Power to forgive sins That the Saints in Heaven should be Mediators for us to God He that will but indifferently compare these shall finde them manifestly repugnant not onely to the Principles of Religion but offer violence to the Law of Nature 4. Consider farther that in this Church the most horrid Cruelties are not onely tolerated and approved but rewarded and accounted meritorious It teacheth Equivocation to murder Kings to undermine States and to blow up Parliaments it dispenseth with Murder Incest Sodomy and all this accounted Licitum Solenne From hence proceeds such Conspiracies against our King such Plots against our Church and State 't is not Religion they strive for but Soveraignty and this they will have or they will make all Protestant Nations their Shambles and swim to it through Oceans of Blood and they will this way if others fail reduce the Consciences of Subjects and the Crowns and Scepters of Princes to their Devotion This brands them with the Indelible Characters of the Ministers of Antichrist who being but Priests and confined to their Books having no other Commission than to go and preach the Gospel should thus creep into Thrones filling the world with Anarchy and Confusion and those whose Souls they should win to God by ministring the Word and Sacraments their Bloud they sacrifice to the Devil by stirring them up to Treason and Rebellion perswading them that they shall be Canoniz'd at Rome though they be hang'd at Tyburn and be glorious Saints in Heaven though they died great Rogues and Rebels on Earth These things duely considered in general will tell you that there is hazard not onely of Temporal Safety but of Eternal Salvation in our Communion with such a Church and therefore Come out of her c. This will the better appear if you consider secondly and more particularly this one Argument drawn from the Religion it self practised in that Church And this I will consider two ways 1. As the Jesuits have painted and adorned it 2. As 't is stript naked of all those adventitious Ornaments First As they have painted it and thereby recommended it to the view of their ignorant admirers We read of strange things of certain Painters how admirably they cast and shadowed their works but the skilfullest Painters that ever were are the Jesuits and School-men the workmen of the Church of Rome not the famous Zeuxis or antient Polignotus or Phidias did ever bestow such pains on their Images as these have done on their Idol the Papacie They have made choice of the most exquisite devices that all the Heresies in the world could afford to put the same into their Religion No Policy in Machiavel no Sophistry in Aristotle or Eloquence in Tully but they have contrived it into their Image and save Truth and Sincerity there is nothing wanting The Evangelical Prophet Isai 44.11 c. sets down a lively description of this matter whereby deriding the folly of the Gentiles he fitly shews us the Idolatry of Rome and the manner how the Idol-Religion thereof was framed and set on foot For at the first you see it was but a rude Block rough-hewn by bungling Workmen that were not their Crafts-masters till the Smith Carpenter and Painter came every one in his place and shewed his skill This is ingeniously applied by a very learned man of our own to the Church of Rome 1. The Canonists like Black-smiths blew with the Bellows of their Decrees and heated and hammered it in the Coals of the Popes Constitutions These were Gratian Pope John Gregory and Boniface with their Apprentices that served them Hostiensis Innocent Panormitane and others of that black and smutty Profession Secondly The Carpenters that took it in hand were the Fryars and School-men These stretched their line of Method over it planed it with Distinctions where it was rough and by their Logick and Philosophy brought it into better shape and form These were T. Aquinas Scotus Bonaventure Alexander Hales and others Having thus gotten an handsome shape and fashion the Council of Lateran polished it over again gave it Joynts to stand upon The Councils of Constance and Basil altered the fashion of it in some particular parts for Senensis and Cusanus thought the head stood too high above the shoulders and would have it bowed down a little lower At last they brought it to Trent to the hands of their best Workmen who moulded it à capite ad calcem and set it up again when the worms had well-nigh consumed it Since which came in the third sort of Workmen viz. Thirdly The Painters i. e. the Jesuits and there is no colour which they have not tried to render it beautiful Some with Varnish and Plaister stop up the cracks and Bellarmine was happily born to do them this service Others as Baronius and Surius cast a shadow over it with other colours Sextus Senensis and Possevine brag of the Workmanship flatter the Workmen and extol the Idol And thus at last they have polished their Idol and set it before the Lord's Ark And by this means they have attracted the eyes and hearts of their deluded followers insomuch that all that worship not this Image must into the fiery Furnace and be offered as a Sacrifice to the fury of their Romish Moloch Now that which they are so fond of in this Religion is its suitableness to their sensual interests and affections the greatest part of which easeth them from taking any pains in spiritual things As for Example They must serve God but there be ways to dispence and turn the Spiritual Service into a Corporal which is much easier Sinners must have Gods pardon or they cannot be saved but the dispensation hereof is committed with the Keys to Christs Vicar who hath power to release them by the Sacraments of the Altar and Penance Hence the Pope hath mens Consciences at his devotion into which he slides under the pretence of being St. Peter's Successor then blindes their eyes by taking away the Scriptures and stops their ears by perswading them to hear none but himself And hereby thousands are betrayed into the hands of Eternal Ruine This is the first thing shewn viz. that part of their Religion as set forth with Romish Glosses and Varnishes I am next to shew it you in its native Complexion as stript naked of all adventitious Ornaments and then you will easily perceive it to be the most monstrous and ridiculous the most bloudy and blasphemous Religion in the whole world 1. Ridiculous in it self 2. Blasphemous towards God and Christ 3. Bloudy to all that have and do oppose her I. The most ridiculous Religion as