go upon Crutches of Crucifixes Beads and Images Doth this look like that Noble Religion which Christ taught the World and whose design was to advance our Rational Souls by Contemplation and Meditation O Madam you are too Young to know the Tricks of that Church you live in they are more politick Heads than yours is that had the contriving of it Bold Men that had Learnt not to Blush at a Lye and then thought it their interest to Hector the World into a belief of it We that can Read Books as well as they and know the History of the Church as well as they can see through all these devices which they perceiving are angry with Us for discovering the Cheat. What was it Madam that you wanted in our Church to carry you to Heaven Did you want that which the Apostles and the Primitive Christians never wanted I mean did you want more Articles of Faith than they subscribed and believed If you wanted that we Confess we could not supply you for we dare say nothing and believe nothing with Divine Faith but what Moses and the Prophets and Christ and his Apostles have taught us If the Scripture contains all things necessary to Salvation then we teach all that If the Church of ROME knows more Articles than Christ or his Apostles knew of we will admire her insolence but cannot satisfie her unreasonable desire Did you want strictness of Life in our Church If all the Commands of the Gospel can make you Holy We teach them all and press them upon the People and I presume you do not aim to be Holier than Christ and his Apostles would have you to be Hath the Church of ROME another Gospel to teach you than we did instruct you in if they have much good it may do them We are not sond of the Apostle's Curse Should an Angel from Heaven bring another Gospel to you let him be accursed I know your common Plea that We Protestants cannot rightly interpret the Scripture because We pretend to no infalliblity And do you blame Us for not being so impudent as the Church of ROME There is no Protestant but would be glad there were an infallible Interpreter of Scripture instituted by God and recommended to Mankind But where shall we find him Who is it that God hath imparted this Honour to If you say the Fathers you know not what you say for the Fathers differ many times as much in interpretation of the Scripture and are as contrary to one another as any Men. If you say the Church that 's a hard Word if you mean Christs Universal Church dispersed all the World over you must tell us where it is that this Church hath left an infallible Comment upon the Bible and how it is possible for a man that will be resolved in a point to go to all Christian People in the World If you say the Church of ROME you must first shew Us her commission for this infallible interpretation Secondly you must prove She hath infallibly interpreted the Scriptures and that those interpretations are infallible in all places Thirdly you must agree among your selves what part of your Church is infallible whether the Pope or an Universal Councel or all Christian People or whether all these together To say that this Infallibility lies in the Church though you know not where is to say a Needle lies in a Bottle of Hay and he hath good luck that finds it Nay I think the Church of ROME hath been so modest that notwithstanding all her pretences to infallibility She never hath dared to obtrude a comment on the Bible as infallible nor did I ever see any Interpretation of the Bible made either by Pope or Councel which hath pretended to Infallibility If that Church be infallible why do not their own Divines agree in Interpretation of Scripture if there be an infallible Sense of the Scriptures in that Church then the Members of that Church are mad not to keep to that infallible Sense especially if they know where to fetch it and they offer great injuries and affronts to their Church in differing so much about interpretation of Scripture when their Church can give them an Infallible sense of it For that Church having as they pretend the Holy Ghost to guide them in all things I suppose that Spirit assists her in Interpretation of one place of Scripture as well as in another if they say it doth infallibly assist them in some places and not in all they destroy their own Principle and how shall a man be sure that just in those Points that are in dispute between Us and them they are Infallible Is the Spirit divided Or is he not alwaies the same Or doth not he exert his power upon all occasions Madam who so blind as those that will not see Who sees not that the pretence of Infallibillity is nothing but a juggle a device to maintain a triple Crown and an Engine to carry on a temporal Authority God indeed hath promised that his Church dispersed through the World shall last to the World's end and that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against her but that promise differs very much from a promise of Infallibility and suppose it did infer an Infallibility how comes the particular Church of ROME to ingross it to her self that is at the best but a Member and a very unsound one of Christ's Universal Church It is one thing to be secured against being destroyed and another to be free from all possibility of Errour There is no doubt but a sober rational man that prays earnestly for illumination and reads the Scripture much and considers the Circumstances the Holy Writers were in when they writ and the Occasions of their writing and hath the advantage of Learning of Languages and History may give a very true Interpretation of Scriptures such an Interpretation as no man can rationally contradict though he hath not recourse to a Visible infallible guide and though himself be not infallible Things may be very certain though they are not infallibly so and he that can make things cut so that a prudent man cannot but give consent to them and hath no just cause to doubt of their truth may justly challenge beleif from other men But I will not insist upon this point because I never heard you speak much of it I will come a little closer to those reasons that moved you to goe over to the Roman Church whereof the principal was this that you were troubled in mind upon the account of your Sins and could get no satisfaction in Our Church though you sought it like Esau with teares whereas you did no sooner confess to a Roman Priest and receive absolution but you presently found unspeakable comfort And are you sure Madam that the peace and satisfaction you found in that Church was not delusion you tremble at that word But le ts consider the Nature of your peace When you were in our Church either
THE HONESTY OF THE PROTESTANT AND DISHONESTY OF THE Popish Divinity IN A LETTER TO A LADY Revolted to the Church of ROME By Anthony Horneck Preacher at the SAVOY The Second Edition London Printed for James Collins at his Shop by the Temple Church 1681. A LETTER Of a Protestant Gentleman to a Lady revolted to the Church of ROME Madam AND are you indeed got into the onely Catholick Church And are you sure the Men you have lately believed have not deceived you as you fancy we have done for tho you may be so Charitable as to think that we have not intentionally couzened you yet since you cannot suppose Us to be both in the Right you must necessarily conclude that we have at least ignorantly abused and imposed upon you and did you ever rightly consider what a truely Catholick Church does mean Men of Sense and Reason always believed that a Church which hold's the truely Catholick Faith is a true and sound Member of the Catholick Church and dares malice it self say that we do not hold the Apostles the Nicene and Athanasius's Creed The Church of ROME her self confesses that these Creed's contain the truely Catholick Faith And most certainly when the Nicene Councel was celebrated and in Athanasius's time that Church was counted a sound Member of the Catholick Church that held that Catholick Faith which is expressed in those Creeds and do we not hold that Faith do we not stand up at it to express our readiness to defend it and what have we done that we must not be counted a Catholick Church Is it because we will not receive things which the Church of Rome hath since added to the Catholick Faith Is it because we will not admit of the Doctrines which that Church was first induced to believe by the darkness and ignorance of the Ages it lived in and at last loath to part withal for fear they should be thought to have been so long in an Error Is it because we will not yield to things which we apprehend to be directly against the Word of God and destructive to that Catholick Faith the Christian World hath professed in all Ages Is it because we will not deceive the People of the Cup in the Blessed Sacrament which Christ intended as a mighty comfort to them Is it because we will not believe the Miracle of Transubstantiation against four of our Senses and Reason and Scripture to boot Is it because we will not suffer the Worship of God or that which is very like it to be given to Creatures because of the very appearance of the evil of Idollatry which we are commanded to shun as much as Idollatry it self Is it because we will not believe a Purgatory fire which cleanseth little but peoples Purses of their money Is it because we will not indulge the Pride and Arrogance of a Man at Rome who having first wheadled the Christian Princes out of their means and Power hath at last made that Power and Riches hereditary to his Successors under a pretence of a Legacy from Christ Is it because we will not believe contrary to the Apostles Rule that publick Prayers which are intended for the benefit are understanding of the Multitude must be said in a Tongue unknown to the People These must certainly be the reasons why we cannot now passe with the Church of ROME for members of the Catholick Church That these things were not in the Ancient Catholick Creeds I hope you are convinced for you have read them over and found none of all these Additions in them And now I beg of you in the name and by the mercy of that Jesus in whom you beleive to judge which is most likely to be the truly Catholick Church our's or their's our's that keeps to the truly antient Catholick Faith or their's that hath added things contrary to Scripture and reason and antiquity And dare you continue in a Church where your very Communion with it is an approbation of their Actions which are directly contrary to the command of Christ can there be any thing more contrary to it than their denying the Cup to the Laity And when you receive the Sacrament but in one kind contrary to Christs command do not you Sin and allow of the Sin of that Church you are in Is not your disobedience to Christs Command a Sin or can you imagine that you are more obliged to Obey men than Christ himself You confess you dare not live in any one Sin But how dare you live in this Sin You talk of the benefit of Confession and absolution when that very Priest to whom you confesse and who absolves you lives in that Sin you are guilty of and neither absolves himself nor you from it and you both continue in it as if the Blind had a mind to lead the Blind How dare you act thus against your Reason and Conscience Are you not affraid when you are going to confesse that God will laugh at your Mock Confession since you neither confesse that Sin of living contrary to Christs Command about the Cup nor are willing to part with it Tell me not here that you drink the blood of Christ in eating his Flesh if so to what purpose doth the Priest Consecrate Wine for himselfe if he drinks the blood of Christ in eating his Flesh But suppose the Bread were transubstantiated into the Flesh and Blood of Christ you know that the not giving the Cup of Blessing to those that come to the Lords Supper is contrary to Christs institution who distinctly consecrated the Cup and gave that to his Disciples who were representatives of all Believers as well as the Bread and peremptorily commanded Drink ye all of this and I hope you do not call eating the consecrated Wafer drinking the Wafer But let Us grant you your strange Doctrine that you do participate of the Blood of Christ in eating the Consecrated Wafer who gave your Church Authority to alter Christ's Institution How can Men dispense with an express Law of God Can they annull what God would have Established and continue to the Worlds end And can you consent to so great a Sacriledge Doth not some horrour seize on you when you seriously think that you approve of the Priests sinning against so notorious a Precept and which he that runs may read And pray Madam wherein have you bettered your self in going over to the Roman Church Is this your proficiency in Religion to forsake a Church where you felt the lively Oracles of Heaven coming warm upon your Soul and to joyn your self to a Church where you hear nothing but Latine Prayers and where the Priest if he be not a good man may as well Curse you as Bless you for any thing you understand of his Language or Devotion Is this Your proficiency in Religion to leave a Church where you were taught to Worship God in Spirit and in Truth and now to cleave to one where they teach your Prayers to
do And that these words of Christ cannot possibly be understood of a Corporal eating Christs flesh and drinking his blood but must be understood of a Spiritual eating and drinking that is believing in him and obeying him and hoping for pardon through his death which is the Spiritual food of the Soul is evident from the 54th and 56th Verse where every one that eats of his flesh and drinks of his blood is said to have actually eternal life in him and Christ dwelling in him and he dwelling in Christ. That is Christ loves him with a love of complacency he is a Child of GOD and beloved of him and an heir of Heaven But since Wicked men come to the Sacrament not only in our Church but even in the Church of ROME it would follow if a corporal eating were understood that Wicked men eating Christs body and drinking his blood have Eternal life in them and that Christ dwels in them and are true Children of GOD and heires of Heaven contrary to the unanimous consent of the Holy Prophets and Apostles who call Wicked men Children of the Devil and blinded by the Devil the GOD of the World and Heirs of damnation And indeed it is strange that people should contend for this corporal and sensual eating of Christs flesh and drinking his blood when Christ himself saith v. 63. That the flesh profiteth nothing and that this eating and drinking must be understood spiritually i.e. of Spiritual eating and drinking which is believing as it is said v. 64. You see Madam what it is not to make use of your own reason but to enslave it to the Faith of a Church which loves to act in the Dark and would have her Children Colliers and believe what the Church believes and know little more than the great Mystery of an Ave Maria or a Rosary Time was when you were pleased to tell our Ministers that though you were gone over to the Church of ROME yet you had liberty not to pray to Saints nor to fall down before Images for that was not thought necessary by the Church of ROME which only recommends praying to Saints and Veneration of Relicks and Images as a thing useful and which men have received much benefit by And indeed I remember I was told you thought that praying to Saints was a kind of Idolatry and therfore were glad they would excuse you from that Worship but since I hear that you are grown as devout a Worshipper of Saints and peculiarly of the Virgin Mary and do prostrate your self before them as much as the most tractable Papist in the World I confefs I did smell a Rat at first when your Priests assured you that Invocation of Saints was not a thing commanded but recommended as useful and was then confident that before a year came to an end for all these soft expressions and dispensations with your omission of this worship they would perswade you to that worship which then you thought unlawful My prophecy is come to pass and the Pill which seemed very bitter at first is swallowed and become sweeter than hony and look'd upon as an excellent Medicine And this I must needs say is more than you could have in our Church But this is our Comfort that the more ingenuous men of the Church of ROME confess that this praying to Saints or Angels was not heard of or used in the Christian Church for the first three hundred years after Christ and if the Christian Church for the first 300 years did not think it useful at all it is a strange degeneration from their principles to press it now as useful Certainly if GOD had thought this invocation so useful as your Church pretends it is He would not have so peremtorily commanded Call upon me in the day of trouble I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me Psalm 50. 15. and it 's probable the Apostles in prescribing so many useful things of far less concern would not have left us in the dark as to the mighty usefullness of this invocation especially when they had occasion to mention the spirits of men made perfect and did so often converse with Angels The Angel Revel 22. 8. 9. thought it a very useless thing and would not admit of so much as a Religious prostration of the Evangelist before him because it look'd like Sacriledge and robbing GOD of his due But since your Church in this adoration takes pattern so much by the Courts of Princes give me leave to suggest to you how you think a Soveraign Prince would take it if a Subject should give any of his servants the title of Majesty or any other title which properly belongs to him There are few titles that GOD hath and inspired men have given to him but you give them to the Blessed Virgin and though when you are charg'd with it you fall to distinctions and turn and wind your selves to get out yet that shews only a bad cause because it requires so much artifice and cunning to defend it but alas it must be Children that are perswaded and coaxed to believe that the Church of ROME onely counts it useful not necessary when it is well known that the generality of that Communion pray to Saints more than to GOD which in the Scripture phrase is honouring the creature more than the Creator and they never leave that person that goes over to them till they have brought him to that Worship of Saints and Angels It s pretty to hear these Men talk that it is only recommended as useful when the Bishops and Preachers of that Church are injoyned and take their oath upon 't to commend this invocation to the People as profitable and the People are obliged to hearken to their Priests in all things so that though a Man at first may think this Invocation not necessary upon the account of its being onely useful yet from that other obligation he hath to obey the Priest in all spiritual things it becomes necessary But from this scruple we are delivered Madam by the Confession of Faith which the Roman Catechisme doth prescribe for there it is that it is not only useful but that we ought to pray unto Saints and indeed should any man live in that Communion and omit it he would soon be looked upon as prophane and but a half Convert to their Church they would soon let him know their displeasure and either fright or flatter him into conformity And is this the Worship Madam which Christ and his Apostles have injoyned the World Are not you afraid of doing things that do so nearly border upon robbing God of his honour and glory Idolatry is a frightful word and you do not love to hear it and therefore I will trouble you with it as little as I can But when God hath commanded you to come to him directly without mentioning the intercession of Saints and Angels how dares your Church of her own head bring in a Worship so dangerous who should
the Priests to throw themselves down from steep rocks and break their necks and all to arrive the sooner to the happiness of another World c. I think there cannot be thingsmore contrary to flesh and blood than these and yet we see these Doctrines are propogated daily without any force of Armes only by Example and perswasion to be sure without any Miracle but I hope that doth not prove their Religion to be divine It 's a Dictate of the light of Nature that the way to Heaven is strait and therefore people that are religiously inclined are easily won over to those men whom they see exercise such severities upon themselves To Conclude Madam when all is done what the true Church is must be tryed by the Writings of the Evangelists and Apostles We see that even in the Apostles dayes corruptions crept into the Church Witness the Churches of Corinth Galatia and Colosse c. and the simplicity of the Gospel began even then to be perverted and mingled with idle and foolish opinions and practises and therefore we must needs think that after the Apostles decease the Church of Christ was subject to the same fate so that if there be any standard or touch stone left whereby the truth and sincerity of a Church can be tried and we must needs think so well of GODS providence that he would not leave his Church without some rule to rectifie their Errors by in case she should be infected with any it must be the Primitive institution of the Christian Religion and that Church as I said before which teaches things that approach nearest to that primitive institution must be the true Church And Madam do but once more for your Souls sake and for your Salvations sake compare the Doctrines and practises of the Church of ROME with the Doctrines and practises of the Gospel the Fountain of Christianity and try whether you can find there the Doctrines of Communion under one kind of publick prayers in a tongue unknown to the people of Purgatory of the Mass of Transubstantation of the Church of Rome's supremacy and infallibility of Worshipping and adoring the Virgin Mary and praying to Saints of Veneration of Relicks and Images of adoration of the Hoste c. Do not force any places of Scripture and try whether you can make sense of any of these Doctrines by Scripture View the Stream of the Gospel and search whether there be any thing like these Doctrines in it why will you make your reason a Slave to your Priests magisterial Sentences How can you answer it to GOD that you did not improve your reason more What have you your reason for but to judge what is agreeable to the Word of GOD and what is not Is not this acting like a Creature void of reason to be guided altogether by what a few blind guides say to you without enquiring at the Law and Testimony whether things are so as they say or no Wonderful stnpidity I stand amazed at it It is not all the seeming Holiness of those Priests you converse withal that make the Church you are in a true Church There is no Sect in the World but when they are under a Cloud necessity and the discouragment they are under and their desire to make Proselytes makes them outwardly Religious There may be and no doubt are Zealous and outwardly pious men in all Religions in the World but that doth not make every Religion true and divine An outward shew of Piety is the only way of propagating any Religion The Devil himself could not propagate Heathenisme and Idolatry but by the pretened Zeal and Piety and Abstinence and Mortification of Apollonius Tyaneus who yet by the confession of the whole Christian world was no better then a Wizard and Conjurer I make no application to any particular Priest in the Church of ROME I do not deny but men may be in great Errors and be very Zealous for their errours and seemingly very pious in their Zeal and when their Errors are not very wilful and destroy not the true Worship of GOD for ought I know they may find mercy in the day of our Lord. I grant there is a great shew of outward Piety in the Church of ROME very dazeling and very moving but the great danger lyes here that the Worship they give to GOD with one hand they strike and pull down with the other I know too well the practise of their Churches and a Heathen that should come into their Temples beyond Sea would verily believe that they Worship a Multiplicity of Gods as well as he whatever their pretentions may be to the contrary It is not what people say so much as what they do that GOD takes notice of and though you should Ten Thousand times protest that you Worship and adore GOD alone yet while GOD sees you adore the Virgin Mary with as great Zeal and reverence as you do him pray to her oftener then you do to him make as many bowes to her and other Saints as you do to him and other things of that nature how can he believe you Religion is a thing that will not bear jests and Hypocrisy GOD will not be put off with contradictions between speeches and Practises Madam I do from my heart Pitty you and as it might be the weakness of your Judgment that might lead you into this Erroneous Church so I beseech you for Christs sake to return to the Church you have rashly left where you cannot run a hazard if you will but follow the plain Doctrines of the Gospel besides which we preach nothing and enjoyn nothing as necessary to Salvation Should these entreaties and beseechings be alledged against you in the last day as things which you have contrary to reason refused and slighted how dreadful would your condition be I have discharged my Duty and given you warning I would not have your Guilt lye at my Door and therefore have let you know my real thoughts and Sentiments concerning your condition and the Church you are in The Great GOD of Heaven open your eyes that you may see and fear Time was when you would have believed us as much as you do now the Priests of the Church of ROME It 's strange that now they should speak nothing but truths and we nothing but falshood Do you think we do not understand the Scriptures and Fathers and Antiquity as well as they And can we all be so besotted with interest and passion that none of us should yied to the dictates of their Church if we could prevail with our sense and reason to believe that the things wherein they differ from us were agreeable to the Gospel sure we have a great many men among us that are great Lovers of Peace and would be glad that the whole Christian world were agreed and would these men stand out against that union if it could be done with a safe Conscience Certainly we have men as learned among us as ever