about ten or twelve foot high which they baptize by the name of St. Saviour now this Saint distinguishable from their other petty Saints by his great stature and large bulk is worshipped by them for the preservation of Corn and of the Vines from the cold and frost for the curing of their Cows of a disease called the Swelling and for the healing of the Horses of the distemper named the Staggers this Saint is prayed to for to keep their Sheep from the Rot their Bees from dying and their Lambs from the fury of the Wolves c. Therefore on his Festival-day at Nantes and at Tours and other places where these great Images are erected you might see an infinit number of Pilgrims of all ages conditions and estates bringing their gifts to these Statues one brings thred another wool this man corn another butter and some sucking pigs or pieces of bacon others bring grapes or pots of honey or other commodities but all bring wax-tapers to burn all the while that Mass is saying at his Altar all come with money or some other thing so that about the Altar of this good Saint at such a Solemnity you may find coffers full of wheat barrels filled up with butter tables loaden with great pieces of meat and such a prodigious number of little wax candles that one time when I had the charge to gather up the remains which the people did cast yet lighted at the foot of the Statue although each end of the candle was so short that I could not hold it in my hand any longer I gathered up in five hours full threescore and ten pounds of wax It may be that some ingenious Papists will turn all this to the advantage of their Church as they do the other abuses and abominations committed in it They will say that this is an expression of the wonderful Faith of their people therefore they are apt to blame a Religion where they cannot spy so much Zeal amongst the Professors and accuse it as if she had neither Faith nor Devotion But we may very well suffer them to speak in their own defence for this is a most palpable Idolatry the Heathens were never guilty of so much I do not think that it is possible to do more to Jesus Christ if he did return into the world But I may say they are to be excused if they entertain their people in these Idolatries for a thousand Crowns which they receive in one day by the credit of one of these Images may satisfie for a mortal Sin and free them from the penalty that it deserves There is but one thing more required to make them perfectly like to the Heathenish Idolaters which is to have an universal Idol proper to represent several Saints which might serve in many Festivals The Emperor Trajan had an Idol of this nature he had a golden head of an Idol kept secretly in his Closet which he caused to be put upon the body of the Statues that he had a mind to worship in this manner he did take off the head of his Gods as he thought fitting I have seen amongst the Papists something like to this in a little Town of Britany in the Bishoprick of Vannes if it were not for the respect that I bear to some persons concerned I would name all the circumstances which I shall be forced to do and many other things that I now conceal I shall declare to the World if any offers to accuse me of lying and falshood in that place I have seen a mutable Saint carried up and down wearing several apparels according to the peoples devotion it was the Image of St. Maurice who was prayed unto in his day that he might heal the sucking Babes of a disease called by the Countrey-people Carrel a benumming disease or the Rickets On St. Giles's day they carried the Image to another place and of a Bishop that it was before they made it an Abbot cloathing it accordingly and seeking unto it for another distemper called the Disease of St. Giles On St. Yves's day they chang'd his Abbot's attire into that of a Lawyer they put a corner-cap upon the Image's head and a bag full of Writings in its hand instead of a Croche in this manner it continued to be St. Yves until another Festival-day and the people did pray unto it not only to get the better of their Suits in Law but also that St. Yves might kill and destroy such as were thought to be the authors and inventers of calumnies cast upon them For the Papists there when they are injured by any slanderous discourse or by another they summon the supposed offendor to appear before St. Yves within a year for they confidently believe that he that hath done the wrong shall surely dye before the limited time Let any man judge if it be likely that a Saint should destroy a man for a trifle We may from hence perceive what grievous abuses errors superstitions and mistakes reign in the Church of Rome There is therefore no difference between this Church and the Heathens I relate not here the follies and abominations that have been heretofore practised but these that are now visible I intend not to recollect the passages of the time past but only to make mention of the present I speak not by hear-say but that which I have often seen to my unspeakable grief and confusion because I was in reason forced to condemn a Religion which I was engaged to support and maintain and to preach up a Worship which I knew in my soul to be pure Idolatry I did often wish that the Papists would but confine themselves to the limits of Reason in their Zeal and Devotion for these petty Saints and would have shewn more to St. Peter St. Paul or to the other Apostles but they are not so much esteemed because they are not in such reputation for their Miracles I did often observe their Churches forlorn their Images without ornaments all covered with dust and the Spiders hanging by their lips and noses I did not see so many sacks full of wax so many arms legs dugs of silver and of gold crutches hoods shirts and garments of little Children hung up in their Chappels as are round about the Churches of these Saints so much in vogue for their pretended Miracles The Festivals of those great Saints unto whom we are next unto Christ most obliged for our Religion are celebrated with little or no solemnity there are no more Chappels built for their sakes and such as are erected are decaying every day they are put out of their places and grow out of credit and other new Saints put in as I took notice their Images are cast behind the Church doors amongst the sweepings and lie along with the besoms because they cannot get their expences their Chappels and Altars cost more to keep them than they bring profit whereas if it be but generally credited that the rotten Image of a little
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-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-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
of Christ's Church For to perswade people the more that their Traditions are necessary they exalt them above the Authority of the Holy Scriptures and advance such doctrines and propose such questions as might make any man an Atheist that will hearken to them How do you know say they that these Writings that bear Moses's name have been written by him How do you know that St. Matthew St. Mark St. Mark St. Luke and St. John are Authors of the Gospel that St. Paul St. James and St. Peter have written the Epistles unless it be by Tradition Have you seen the first Originals of these Writings that you credit so much And if you did see them who is it can affirm that they were written by these great Apostles that have been dead so long unless you believe the men of our days who have received what they affirm either by writing or otherwise from the hear-say of their Forefathers This we name Tradition Pighius argues in this manner Hierarch Eccles l. 1. c. 2. This was also my reason and argument that I have often made use of but when I had seriously examined its strength its veracity and design I found it to be but weak and tending to undermine the foundations of our Faith of our Laws and Religion for if I might have the liberty to propose such questions I might as well make others which shall intangle them in as great a difficulty as theirs do us How know you may I say that your Tradition is good and true How do you know that such as affirm St. Peter to have been Bishop of Rome speak truth How came you to be perswaded that there is a Bishop of Rome have you seen him How are you certain that the Pardons and Indulgences that you receive came from him that he hath confirmed them with his signature could not the persons that have delivered them to you counterfeit his hand May not an Atheist make use very well of this argument and ask How do you know that there is any other God besides the Sun have you ever seen him have you ever spoken with him How do you know that there are three Persons in the Godhead How do you know that Jesus Christ hath lived upon earth that there have been Apostles c. This is the drift and end of these questions which we must reject as the Devils cunning to ensnare our Faith Hearken not to those that will speak in this manner saith St. Austin Confess l. 6. c. 5. How knowest thou that these Books proceed and are derived unto men from the Spirit of a true God for this we must believe above all things And Tertull. contra Hermogen I acknowledge the fulness of the Scripture Hermogenes cannot find there any pretence for his errours therefore he and his fellows flye to the assistance of Tradition And elsewhere he saith Take away from Hereticks that which is common to them with the Heathens and confine them to the Holy Scriptures and they can no longer subsist De Resur carnis I think this answer is a sufficient reply to the Papists Many others have been given which are to be read in the Books of Controversie It is my judgment that God hath fully as much power as men and that his voice is as efficacious and perfect as ours We are to be distinguished by our voices and speeches as when a Son hears his Fathers voice he needs not that a Servant should inform him that his Father speaks likewise our Saviour Christ assures us that his sheep hear his voice and know it We need no other but Christ's voice to know that it is His that He speaks unto us in the Holy Scriptures Let not the Papists propose any such questions for the future and let them take notice of what St. Jerome tells us upon Hagg. That the things that are invented are false as for example such as are said to be the Apostles traditions which have no authority nor testimony from the Holy Scriptures are mark'd by God's sword § From this Doctrine of Tradition proceeds their Faith of Miracles a Faith as ill grounded and ridiculous as the Traditions themselves that are but old wives tales We may judge of such as are related to us of former ages by them that are published and performed in our days of a thousand there is scarce one that hath the least appearance of reality if we will but seriously consider and examin them Nevertheless they are as boldly delivered for truths in the Popish Pulpits as the Gospel I have declared many being forced thereunto by my Office that I knew to be very false Several persons of the common people have related to me accidents that have happened in places of devotion which they look'd upon as notable Miracles but when I have examined them well I have understood that they were but natural effects If they had addressed themselves to some other persons their belief and declarations had passed as currant as Christ's Resurrection from the dead and Lazarus rising out of the Sepulchre they had been recorded and laid up for posterity to read For example A Country fellow comes to me with two or three of his neighbours assuring me that his wife had been at the last gasp and that because he had offered her to St. Mathurin or St. Anne the very next day she recovered of her distemper But he did not tell me that the Physitian that had judged her sickness so desperate was but a Country Chyrurgeon who hath scarce seen the outside of Physick Books and therefore knew not how to judge of a disease by the symptoms I have healed many in this manner by prescribing to them no other receipt but patience I did not discover to them that the dangerous distemper which had taken from the Patient speech proceeded from a Crisis or the turning of the blood or from the working of some violent physick Another comes to me and tells me that his child hath been thought to be dead for several hours but when in time he comes to take notice that it was a Convulsion-fit or the Falling-sickness he don't go back to acquaint the Priest that what he thought to be death is but a disease Who is it that would not have really believed to be true what the Bishop of Anger 's published in print he is a person not easily to be perswaded he caused an exact enquiry to be made and was certainly informed that Jesus Christ had visibly appeared in the Parish-Church of Ulmes in the Priests hands as he was saying Mass Yet he hath been forced to acknowledge to the shame of the whole Church that it was but a fiction of the Priest and a few Parishioners who thought to enrich themselves by that means If this Priest had but dyed a few days after he had been Canonized for a Saint but he hath lived and declared by his Life what manner of man he is the Bishop hath been forced for his scandalous behaviour
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
their Lives for Christ's Cause where so many Saints have observed the Rules of the Gospel and made such a glorious profession of all Christian Virtues a Religion where so many pious Souls do yet live a very exemplary and a holy life having forsaken the World to confine themselves to a Convent Who dares deny such a Religion to be the best the securest and the holiest of all In this manner I did argue and many judicious Persons suffer themselves to be thus deceived with a false appearance But such as will as I have done look more narrowly to this particular and weigh every thing in the Scales of the Sanctuary shall find by experience that the Church of Rome hath no cause to glory so much in them There are many Martyrs reckoned in the Church of Rome I confess but this is no infallible proof of its excellency There have been many also in the Churches of Jerusalem of Antioch of the Georgians Muscovites Greeks c. yet the Papists esteem them not the more But they say that many Saints in this Profession have and do yet perform notable Miracles I have cause to question the truth of this Assertion for many false ones are published but when they should be real they are no infallible signs of the Truth of their Faith for the Magicians of Egypt by Gods permission did also work Miracles Exod. chap. 7. God whose Secrets and Judgments are not to be searched out may suffer the Devil to keep men in ignorance by this means But the Papists say that amongst them many Religious Persons are to be seen that lead a most holy life I answer that they are for the most part but whited Sepulchres and that this is the Devils cunning to deceive Souls I shall say something more in this Chapter But what advantage do they expect from this Argument There are men of honesty every where amongst the Heathens and Hereticks as well as amongst the Christians and Catholicks there are persons of good behaviour or at least appear so to the world This is therefore no infallible sign of a true Religion but suppose it were so that the holiness and integrity of life were an infallible sign of the Truth the Papists will never be able to better their Cause by this reason unless their Chief and Governours who are to be look'd upon as the Paterns of the rest change their manner of living The Church of Rome is not so holy as it is said to be to the simple people ignorant of the Affairs of that City Examin the Transactions there now and within this eight or nine hundred years If we did but see the disorders of this Church plainly presented unto us we should have cause to wonder at the things related by the Papists themselves of their Popes I shall here mention some of them and that I may not be traduced as a Lyar I shall bring two or three of their own famous Writers speaking of the Court of Rome such I mean who endeavour to cover its imperfections and have never made use of their Pens but in its defence The first is devout St. Bernard Ser. 1. de Convers Pauli This man's integrity can never be suspected In this manner he speaks of the Court of Rome Iniquity proceeds from the grave Judges who are named Christ's Vicegerents and who seem to govern His people Of them we cannot say As is the People so is the Priest for the people were not like or so bad as the Priest And elsewhere de Consid ad Eugen. lib. 1. cap. 4. From all parts of the world the ambitious the covetous and persons guilty of symony sacriledge debauchery and incest and such like Monsters did flock to Rome to get the Ecclesiastical Honours or to keep them by the Pope 's Authority About the year 897 Cardinal Baronius affirms That there were the most wicked Varlets brought in to sit in St. Peter 's Chair men of most infamous lives most fearfully debauch'd of a corrupt and filthy behaviour every where and in every respect And when he speaks of the year 900 he intreats the weaker sort of Christians not to be offended from thenceforth if they see sometimes the abomination of desolation in the Temple of God Afterwards he cryes out What horrible Monsters were introduced into this See which the Angels respect O disgrace O grief how many evils have proceeded from them how many grievous tragedies have been acted by them what villanies have been here committed in this glorious See what filthy and base actions have appeared here c. In the year 912 he saith sect 8. this Church was so debauch'd and swimming in vice That the filthiest and the noted whores did govern all at Rome At their pleasure the See was disposed of the Bishops were created and their Favourites and Gallants were chosen in St. Peter 's Chair to be Popes This is what Baronius hath been forced to acknowledge after many other Historians who have recorded the disorders of the Roman Church Let any man read Genebrard Chron. l. 4. ad ann 902. Isidor Peleus l. 3. epist 323. Baptist Mantuan de calam suorum temp l. 3. Alvar. Pelag. de planctu Ecclesiae Or let any man go to Rome to see how such behave themselves who pretend to be established of God to govern His Church on earth and they shall find there more wickedness than ever was in Sodom or in Nineveh Let Rome be therefore ashamed saith a Learned Man who beheld these abominations Claud. Espens in Epist ad Tit. c. 1. Let her never offer to shew a Catalogue of her shameful Crimes I would advise her to not mention nor produce this Calendar of so many Saints whom she hath canonised and in whom she glories so much for all those former Saints discover her shame seeing that the Lives of the present Popes and Governours are quite contrary to theirs therefore she hath no cause to challenge them as her own Those former Worthies are her reproach and condemnation because she doth not imitate their Example Nevertheless the Popish Doctors are so impertinent to boast of these disorders vices and abominations and to gather from thence reasons to prove the truth and holiness of their Religion Who would believe that Baronius after that he had filled his Annals with the filthy debaucheries of many Popes should gather from thence a conclusion to the advantage of his Church Yet this he doth very boldly for when he hath taken notice of the debauch'd and abominable Lives of some Popes declared their vices in a most horrible manner and acknowledged all that hath been written of them by his predecessors to be very true that there have been Popes very ambitious covetous symoniacal impious Murderers lecherous incestuous Atheists and Sodomites which things the Papists cannot deny because their own Historians declare them Nevertheless when Baronius hath said all this of the Popes he concludes as boldly as if he had to prove the Divinity of Jesus
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
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
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