to degrade him and cast him into a Prison where I think he remains yet We may judge by this what to think of all the other Miracles noised abroad in the Church of Rome § The last Article relates to the Indulgences I don't here question whether the Pope hath power to pardon sins when he pleaseth Jesus Christ can do no more the Pharises would never allow him that power I desire therefore that the Divines of the Church of Rome would resolve me these Questions which I have often proposed to my self Wherefore do the Popes proclaim their Universal Jubilees which causes â—o many thousand people to trot to Rome or to some other great City where the place is appointed to gain them For if they answer that it is to obtain the forgiveness of our sins I may reply that there is no need to go so far to obtain this forgiveness there is no Parish but a full Indulgence may be bought every year several times There is scarce a noted Town but it may be purchased every day only one being concerned and initiated into the Fraternity of the little habit of the Virgin many times obtains for us above one hundred and fifty every year I shall not speak of the other means to get these priviledges and advantages Now those Indulgences as the Popish Divines affirm free us as well from the punishment as from the guilt of all manner of sins if therefore this is to be had in every parish-Parish-Church what need is there of a Pilgrimage to Rome if all our sins are pardoned what will the Pope's or his Agents Absolution profit us Is not this to make a sport of mens credulity and to deal with them as with blind men and fools It may be they will answer that at such solemn occasions the Pope absolves from grievous sins reserved to himself which are not forgiven every day but if I have not been guilty of such horrid crimes wherefore am I sollicited and press'd upon to go and purchase a Jubilee wherefore am I obliged otherwise to make a general confession of my sins and if I don't wherefore am I look'd upon as an Atheist From hence we might conclude that their Church is never perfect but in the time of the Jubilee because at that time only it hath a power to forgive all manner of sinners But Bishops and Priests are to be found in every corner that have power granted to absolve these grievous and horrid sins there is scarce a petty Monk but will say he hath that priviledge four or five sins excepted which scarce happen in an hundred years in a Province If none but such as are guilty of these sins did go to Rome the Roads of Italy would not be so populous as they are at this time I might here mention the other Indulgences that may be obtained every day The abuses are so great and ridiculous that if you please to view the instruments of a Popish Zealot you shall see stuff and trinkets enough to set up a Shop You shall see Beads of all sizes shapes and numbers fifteen in a string fifty in another thirty in another ten in another all this is full of mystery you shall see little garments like childrens babies attire some white others red others brown you shall spy Medals of all sorts Cords with knots of several magnitudes and Crosses of all fashions The Papists are become so ridiculous to cause their Zealots to wear two pins a-cross upon their sleeve of breast assuring them that they shall obtain the forgiveness of several days sins as often as they kiss this Cross or pronounce over it two or three hard conjuring words I was never more astonished and scandalized than I was the last year when I was sent about the time of the Festival of the holy Sacrament to preach in the City where I made my abode I found every body stored with these Indulgences wearing pins a-cross they inform'd me that the devout and right Reverend * These Knaves and Cheats of that bloody Society play a thousand such tricks in those Kingdoms and Cities that are at their devotion as in Spain Italy and France Father of the Jesuits called Father Huby had recommended this notable piece of devotion to them By this means he disposed of above ten millions of pins which he had the conscience not to sell he gave them out of an excess of charity but in requital his charity did require for every two pins a summ of money to help his Brethren the Jesuits travelling in China and in far Countries to say Mass for in those places they cannot meet with such fools that will encourage them by contributing to their subsistence If we did but run over all the other Tenents of the Romish Faith we should find as many errours mistakes and abominations as we have done in these But it is not my design to mention all I intended to be more succinct and I look not upon my self as able to make this description so well as others who have more studied the Disputes and Controversies THE THIRD PART THE Third Reason that hath so long kept me in the Romish Religion was grounded upon the practices and Laws of that Church the solemn Festivals the Auricular Confession Abstinence from Meats the Forty days of Lent the Priests Vows of Chastity and the austere Lives of the Monks All these things did present themselves as it were in a body together in my mind and caused me to entertain so high an esteem for Popery where I saw so many holy and religious customs observed that I could not look upon the rest but with disdain hatred and aversion because I could not find the same things But when against my will I was forced to open my eyes and being engaged by my Office to seek into the beginning of all the abominations that I saw acted in the world I found that these things proceeded from the Laws invented to deceive the most subtil wits and intice the devoutest souls into the broad road of hell by the Devil who sometimes appears as an Angel of Light § What a vast number of disorders have been occasioned by the many Festivals of the Church of Rome There were so prodigious a multitude lately observed in France that the King was forced about seven years ago to get a Dispensation for the ease and benefit of his People from the Pope who abolished a great many But this Dispensation hath caused a strange deformity in all the Bishopricks of France Some were willing to obey the Popes order by casting out of the Calendar such Festivals as were abolished other Bishops would not admit it some cut off a few keeping still the rest others were offended that the King did incroach upon their priviledges therefore instead of diminishing the number of their Festivals they established new Feast-days some fast in the Saints Eve and keep not the day others regard neither the fast nor the day others cause them
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
her shame and disgrace as the Antiquity of a Noble Family is a reproach to a degenerated Son I have found that the Authority which she claims hath no other foundation nor beginning but the pride and tyranny of such Popes as have succeeded Gregory the Great for neither he nor any of his Predecessors have ever thought it lawful for them to challenge or pretend to an universal Dominion or Authority in the Church I have found this Succession which is said to be without interruption to be an abyss where the most learned Historians lose themselves they can find no sure footing so that they themselves are forced to confess that they flote upon the waves of a Sea subject to calms and tempests to ebbing and flowing if I may make use of their own expressions Sometimes they see this Ship of St. Peter without Helm or Pilot overwhelmed with the billows without hope of a recovery or expectation of salvation for such as are there imbarqued I have found that the Holiness wherewith this Church was adorned under the Conduct of its ancient Bishops is at present much degenerated an universal corruption hath spread it self into all the Members of this politick Body so that where grace did formerly abound there at present sin and heresie abound to the shame and disgrace of Christianity This I have found as soon as I could open my eyes to take notice of such matters without prejudice or partiality which we must banish from us if we will give a true judgment This I have learned in the study of Holy Scripture in the reading of the ancient Fathers of the Church and from the Records of Antiquity without the assistance of Protestant Books or any information from Ministers § Antiquity hath always had a Command over the minds and judgments of men We look commonly with a great deal of reverence and respect upon a head which time hath loaden with gray hairs and which discovers the number of its years by the many wrinkles of its face we see many times the ruins of an old Dwelling encompassed about with a few rotten Oaks is more looked upon than the noblest Palaces reared up according to the newest and most regular form of Art a Brass Medal shall be more esteemed than ten others of a more precious Metal if it can but shew forth the Image and Name of some ancient Monarch or of a Conquerour of former Ages This respect which Nature and Custome discover for things of a long continuance is not disagreeable to the directions of Moral and of Christian Policy We are to have more esteem for a State that hath subsisted a thousand years than for another that hath continued but one or two hundred and we are advised to have most regard for that Religion which can produce the ancientest Records and prove its establishment to be the first This hath always been my judgment As therefore I did look upon the Church of Rome as the most ancient as that which had been founded by the Apostle St. Peter as the Romanists would perswade us I have for a long while entertained the greatest esteem for her and judged such as were not agreeable to her Principles to be but hasty productions of Nature in comparison of an ancient Tree or as Bastards in comparison of the Child well born I did wonder how men could harbour any other thoughts My Mind being thus filled with partiality for my ancient Religion I could not imagin how any man of wit and ability without being grievously blinded could embrace any other I did oft-times argue with my self in this manner Is it possible that there should be some men so silly and ridiculous to prefer a Religion which we have seen in its Cradle to another which hath continued sixteen hundred years a Church formed by the wit of Calvin and Beza and some others to that which Christ and His Holy Apostles have established c. Thus it is saith Lactantius in his Book of the Rise of Errour l. 2. c. 7. Thus Antiquity commands the judgments of men Its authority is so great that we look upon it as a crime to inquire into the qualities of that which is ancient and to question its rights credit is given to it at the first sight as to a most known truth In the same manner saith that Author l. 2. c. 8. some imprudently neglect the advice of wisdom approving without any examination the inventions of their forefathers suffering themselves to be lead as beasts whithersoever others please and not whither they should go In this manner they are deceived and are willing to be so by taking for the rule of their faith the belief of their forefathers out of a strong conceit that they cannot be wiser than they were before because they have succeeded them and that it is not probable that they were deceived seeing that they have preceded them and are named their ancestors These words of this wise man and some passages of others made me think that it was not so great a crime as is declared in the Church of Rome to examin the Antiquity of the Religion of our Forefathers and to consider from whence it proceeds whither it tends what it hath been what it should be what are its Priviledges Duties Doctrine Laws Conduct if that which is professed to day be the same as that of yesterday that of this age be like to that of the first times or whether it be not differing or a strange Bastard put into the room of the true Child whether it hath not robb'd the lawful Heiress of her Titles of Honour usurped her Rights by counterfeit Letters seised upon her Demesnes driven her from her Inheritance banished her out of her Dominion by a disguise under the most beautiful habits and whether by this means the Romish Church hath not seated her self in the seat of the lawful to procure unto her self a greater esteem amongst men who have so much respect for things that appear with a grave and ancient countenance I have seriously examined these things I have sought for the Rights and Titles of the Church of Rome amongst its pretended Ancestors Christ St. Peter and St. Paul who have been saith she my Founders and Apostles I have read over the Priviledges that they ascribe to her and the Duties that they require from her that which she hath received from them and that which they command her to have the language which they teach her and the Laws that they have given her and how they behaved themselves that succeeded immediately after her first Founders When I had thus compared the one with the other the present Rome with the ancient the World that is now with that which was the Children with the Father that which is believed and preached at present with that which was believed and preached heretofore that which was practised and that which is now done that which is seen with that which was anciently I have found after a
serious examination of all these things that there can be nothing more contrary than these two things the ancient Christian Rome and that which appears now the Church then with the modern the Faith and Christian Religion under the Popes Government with that Faith and Religion which the Romans first embraced and professed a long whiles under the Teachers and Bishops which the Apostles left them Let any man read over the Gospel and the Records of the Primitive Christians since the time of the Apostles until the fourth or fifth Centuries to seek what Church Jesus Christ established upon the unmoveable foundation of His Word and Merits let him take notice of that which St. Luke describes better with his Pen than with his skilful Pencil of that which all the approved Writers of the Ecclesiastical Affairs immediately succeeding do represent unto us which professed no other belief but in Jesus Christ which had rejected an Angel from Heaven if he had preached any other Doctrine but that which is contained in the Holy Gospel and in the other Books of Sacred Scripture This Church acknowledged no other but Christ looked upon such as named themselves of Apollo's Party of Peter's or Paul's as so many Sectaries and allowed of no other Judge of Controversies and Governour but Jesus Christ Call but to mind all that you have ever read or heard of this Church since its beginning until the time of the Bishop of Rome's usurpation of the Sovereign Power under the name of Pope and compare that Church of Rome with this in our days examine the Tenents Maxims Laws Behaviour and Customs of both and you will be forced to confess that they are not the same but two Churches as much differing the one from the other as the day from the night We must not therefore mention the Antiquity of this Church but as of a languishing and decayed Body we may say she is ancient in the same manner as we say of women that shamefully yield themselves to pleasure in their old age whilst they were young chast and beautiful they were worthily esteemed and admired of every one but since age and lechery time and debauchery seises upon them they become so strangely altered that they seem not to be the same persons We must look upon the Church of Rome in this manner She is no longer that beautiful Wonder that ravishing Spouse whose Picture Solomon labours to draw in chap. 4. of the Canticles but an old Whore the Mother of fornications and abominations of the earth mentioned by St. John Revel chap. 17. She is old I confess like unto those old Palaces which time and want of repair have brought to ruin I may express this by another resemblance She is ancient as are the old Bodies infected with Leprosie and abounding with vicious humours which putrefie the older they grow and corrupt the more with age the continuance of the disease having so changed their constitution that they are not to be known by the former idea's of their persons In this manner the Romish Church may be said to be ancient Antiquity doth but discover her shame reveal her Apostacy and declare her grievous Corruptions Let us say something more to the purpose Men are known by their speech the home-born Inhabitants of a Country are distinguishable from strangers by their language and pronunciation I desire no more to shew that the Church of Rome is not the true Church of Christ and that the present Church is not the same as that which was first established Listen to the language of both and you shall find a vast difference hearken to the Popes language and to that of Jesus Christ to what the one commands and the other forbids to what the first affirms and the latter denies to what Christ with his Apostles preach and the Pope with his Doctors declare and publish We need but read the Holy Gospel and the Decretals of Rome the Scripture and the Canons of the Council of Trent the Books of the ancient Fathers and the Belief of the Jesuits and of modern Authors to understand that the Church which stiles her self Christian Catholick Apostolick and Roman is nothing of all that and deserves none of those glorious Titles for she is neither Christian nor Catholick nor Apostolick nor Roman if we take the Roman Church for what she was anciently She cannot be properly named Christian because she acknowledgeth another Lord and Superiour besides Jesus Christ and denies Him to be the only Saviour of Men ascribing this honour to the Virgin Mary and others by saying that she may and doth save many by her interceding for them that the Pope is able to do the like by pardoning their sins and granting unto them his Indulgences and that they themselves may contribute to their own salvation by their good works c. She is not Catholick in that sense which the Romanists give to this word because she preaches a Doctrine not agreeable to that which God hath revealed to us by His Son and Ministers and prefers her own Traditions before the Oracles of the Holy Scripture because she invents many superstitious Laws which occasion grievous sins She is not Roman like unto that Church which was anciently so called for besides that primitive Church as we shall further take notice never did claim an universal Dominion for she did acknowledge the Churches of Antioch Alexandria and of Jerusalem and others to be her equals in all respects therefore her Bishops never believed themselves to be their superiours but their brethren and companions The Christians of those days understood nothing of Indulgences of Fraternities of Holy-water of Consecrated Crums of Relicks and Repositories of Medals and Beads and other such like Baubles in which the Church of Rome placeth the Holiness of Christianity They knew nothing of Holy Bread kept in little Tabernacles to be there worshipped they never had in their Churches Images like to those of Rome as may appear by the words of Epiphanius who lived in the fourth Century and writ to John the Patriarch of Jerusalem an Epistle which St. Jerome hath translated into Latin and therefore declares the Judgment of those two Eminent Persons In this Epistle he saith that when he went into a Church situate in a Country Village he perceived upon the door a veil where there was an Image to be seen therefore he caused it to be taken down and to be torn in pieces for saith he by this means men may introduce Idolatry amongst Christians By this passage we may understand that the Worship of Images was a strange thing in that Age as other Historians and after them Baronius are forced to confess Christians of those days did rather chuse to be burned alive and tormented than to suffer the least grain of Incense to fall from their hands into that fire which was intended to burn it in honour of an Image or Idol which they were required to worship Those wise and couragious Christians did
to be kept only 'till noon others to prevent all inconveniencies have appointed all Feast-days to be observed on the Sunday and their Fasts on the Saturday So that yet we may see two men of the same Village or of the same Family of a different perswasion one obliged to keep a Festival-day for fear of a mortal sin and the other not nay the same person is ingaged to this observation if he stays at home but if he steps over a gutter or rivulet to go into another Parish he commits no such sin and may do what he pleaseth Can any man think that these practices proceed from God Yet this they believe and the Casuists amongst the Papists affirm § Auricular Confession is another Invention of man's brain The Romish Clergy have imposed it out of policy as a necessary means to keep men in their duty and to hinder them from mischievous attempts The design was good but the means imployed is unjust and tyrannical I may safely name it so without fear for I know sufficiently what I am to think and say upon this subject I have read over and over the Holy Scriptures and the Fathers concerning this matter and because I did not trust to my own judgment I intreated the assistance of some Learned Men of my acquaintance to see whether they could find any thing out of St. Ambrose St. Austin or other Fathers to assist and confirm my Meditations that I was to deliver in Sermons which I composed upon this Subject but I could never see nor find any passage there that confirms this politick Institution as it is practised in the Church of Rome We may find that we must confess our sins unto God but not to men we may also find that it is well done to declare and discover the troubles of our consciences to them that have the rule over us and are appointed by God to instruct us that we may understand and receive from them seasonable comforts and instructions This is very useful to us and sometimes absolutely necessary But it is not required that we should reveal all our weaknesses mention all our sins small and great to particularise their number and quality and all their circumstances and aggravations to a sinful man as vicious as my self who ought to confess also it may be to me as the Priests of the same Church confess their sins to one another it is not required that I should make this confession as it is practised with so many ridiculous questions that teach us to commit sins that we knew not before The Casuists are of opinion that when a Priest should be inclinable to the most abominable sins of lechery and in danger to be tempted to them by every apprehension yet when he receives the Confession of a Virgin he had better omit nothing than to cause her to pass over any thing and to commit by this act a material sin in their opinion This can never be proved unless the Papists offer to do it by a new Bible by other Evangelists and other Interpreters than have yet written upon the Holy Scriptures I could never digest the doctrine of the Popish Divines that teacheth us two kind of sorrows required in true repentance the one they name Contrition which is say they when we are grieved to have offended God for his sake because he is so infinitely good and because sin displeaseth him this grief is sufficient to obtain from God the forgiveness of our sins in case we cannot conveniently go to confess them for if a Priest be present we cannot be dispensed from this duty The other grief or sorrow named Attrition is when a man is grieved to have offended God out of worldly interest and selfishness because sin deprives us of the hopes of Heaven and condemns us to Hell c. This sorrow say they is not sufficient of it self to obtain the absolution of our sins but only when it is accompanied by the Priest's absolution That is to say that although a man upon his death-bed shall confess all his sins if the Priest will be so hard-hearted to deny him absolution in case he departs in that estate with such a sorrow in his heart he shall be damned for all that Let any of the Popish Divines tell me which of the holy Evangelists have taught them this distinction which of the Apostles did ever preach such doctrine as this Nevertheless I think they have reason to recommend it because the salvation or the damnation of souls is so highly concerned according to their teaching and many times of ten thousand souls in one Church This bastard Sacrament is not of the number of the Sacraments of which we are never to be partakers but once for it is commanded every year at Easter and some persons are partakers of it almost every day as is usually practised in the Church of Rome What is the reason that neither Christ nor his Apostles have ever mentioned it Or rather how came these persons to be so bold as to impose these distinctions as Articles of Faith Is it possible that the Priest's presence or absence or the opportunity of Confession makes our repentance true or false according to such trivial circumstances If I am at a distance from a Romish Priest am I therefore to be look'd upon as if I were at as great a distance from God and in a worse estate than another from whose sides the Priest is not to be drawn Doth this cause my sorrow to be less or more able to prevail upon God's mercy Doth true repentance depend upon the Priest's good pleasure And Attrition which is but an imperfect sorrow of no validity of it self in God's sight is it more considerable more perfect and more able to save me when a Priest shall have mark'd me with the sign of the Cross upon my forehead when he shall have whispered two or three words in my ear What am I the better for all this Is God's Justice thereby satisfied and his Mercy more inclinable to pardon me According to this ridiculous Doctrine suppose I should weep and lament for my sins as bitterly as St. Peter with as many expressions of holy love as Mary Magdalen if I do not confess them to a Priest I shall be nevertheless damned for them And suppose I should be guilty of the most horrid crimes if I can but imitate this imperfect sorrow a superficial displeasure to have offended God for the love that I bear to my self if I reveal them to a Priest I shall be saved notwithstanding Wretched Judas hadst thou had but a Romish Priest at the foot of thy Gibbet thy Soul might have gone streight to heaven for he performed all the conditions required by the Popish Doctors in a true Penitent for they say that three particulars are to be observed the compunction or pricking of the heart the confession and satisfaction compunction in the soul confession of the mouth and satisfaction of the hand Judas was
a zealous observer of these particulars as may appear by his History in the Gospel Matth. 27.4 He wanted not compâ—nction or a hearty displeasure to have sinned against God for it is said he repented He confessed also his crime I have sinned said he in betraying the innocent blood David in his repentance could say no more and the greatest Casuists amongst the Papists demand no more for he did not confess only in general but he mentions also the greatness and nature of his sin There was also in his repentance a satisfaction for he restored back his ill gotten money he brought back the thirty pieces of silver How comes it to pass therefore that penitent Judas was damned It was saith a Papist because there was no Priest at the foot of the Gibbet where he hang'd himself to give 〈◊〉 absolution if there had been one never so contâ—â—ptible to speak to him but these two words Te absolvo he might have made him a Saint and following Ages would have built Temples in honour of him Altars and Images as to the other Apostles to receive the devotions of the People Some may reply that Judas had not that sincere and hearty sorrow required in a true Penitent and that this was the cause of his damnation I am of the same opinion I acknowledge that to be true but I affirm and can prove that Judas had as much sorrow and displeasure as the Papists require in a sinner when they give absolution and assure him of his happiness I know that some of them will say that this attrition must be supernatural grounded upon a divine faith as the fear of forfeiting the joys of heaven of falling into the pains and torments of hell or a grief proceeding from these and such like perswasions it is not derived from God or His Love but from our interest revealed unto us by faith In Judas we may take notice of a displeasure as great and not much unlike to that which proceeds from these principles as may appear by his own words I have sinned in betraying the innocent blood He declares publickly the innocency of our Saviour which was an act of faith moreover he declares that the consideration of Christ's innocency was the chief cause of his displeasure There is no ghostly Father of the Church of Rome but will take Judas's repentance not only for an attrition but also for a true contrition I am certain that they give absolution to many persons who never had so great a sorrow for their sins as Judas Therefore why was Judas damned St. Ambrose returns us a satisfactory answer 〈◊〉 â—hich we may understand how dangerous it is sometimes to confess our sins rather to men than to God Arbitror saith he enim quod etiam Judas potuisset tanta Dei miseratione non excludi à venia si poenitentiam non apud Judaeos sed apud Christum egisset Ambr. l. 2. de poenit c. 5. I am perswaded saith he that Judas might have been admitted by God's infinite mercy if instead of professing his repentance to the Jews he had addressed himself to Christ He went to confess his sin to the Jews who instead of reproving him for it and exhorting him to trust in God's unspeakable goodness returned him an answer that tended to confirm him in his malice and cast him into despair Quid ad nos tu videris said they to him What is that to us see thou to that This is the true model of the Papists repentance They confess their sins to a Priest as much loaden with guilt as they are themselves I have been drunk saith a drunken Sot in his confession to a ghostly Father who is sometimes more debauch'd Quid ad nos replyes the Father tu videris It is no great crime we are apt to be drawn away with the love of good company therefore for penance I enjoyn thee to cause a Mass to be said for thee before the Virgin Mary's Altar after that he is perfectly absolved I have been guilty saith another twenty times of the sin of Fornication Quid ad nos replies a lecherous Father-Confessor tu videris It is a difficult task to suppress the motions of love therefore thou shalt for thy penance number over thy Beads that is sufficient for thee such a one is afterwards certain to obtain salvation by this absolution so easily obtained I have worshipped Images will a nice conscience it may be say contrary to God's command I have believed many things not agreeable to what is recorded in the Holy Word of God I have preferr'd man's inventions to the Laws of God c. Quid ad nos tu videris Thou must do so saith a Priest by this means thou shalt come to be a Saint This is a Judas's repentance and a dealing like to that of the Jews Let any man judge if it be able to secure the salvation of our souls I might add to this that extraordinary Power which the Romish Priests claim of pardoning all manner of sins and of blotting them out with the breath of two words Is not this to make themselves equal to Jesus Christ and to declare themselves to be the Saviours of Man-kind Wherefore do they treat their Penitents as slaves and deal with them as if they were their Gods Moreover they treat the Son of God most unworthily and are guilty of the same sin as the wicked Macedonians who affirmed that the Holy Spirit was but the servant of the Father of Eternity The Romish Divines deal with Christ in a more disgraceful manner For by their doctrines they make him become their Priest's servant For when they are pleased to say we absolve this sinner it is the same as if they said to Jesus Christ we command thee to give to this soul sanctifying grace that it may be justified and acceptable to God the Father We will not grant absolution to that sinner that is to say we forbid thee to shew him or her so much favour as thou didst to penitent Mary Magdalen to wash away her sins this belongs to us we will do it a fortnight hence we command the sinner to come to us at that time until then we will bind him or her with a tye not to be loosed The Lamb of the Revelations without our assistance cannot open the book of a sinners conscience to take away from it the impressions of sin This is the imperious language of the Popish Priests to their Penitents they deal with them in this manner their Missionary and Itinerary Preachers are yet more cruel to such as are at their mercy I would not have any man think that I add more than is true I will assure him that I speak nothing but what I know to be too true If the Father-Confessors speak not these words always they have them in their thoughts seeing that they deal thus with the people and maintain that they must do so So impertinent and ridiculous they are But consider in
perswaded that in his conscience he cannot blame me for what I now write nor will he think that this is a stayrical Libel or that these are unjust or ill-grounded accusations for whosoever hath been a Father Confessor amongst the Papists knows an hundred times more than I dare reveal He knows that the greatest vice of Priests is the breach of their Vow and that this is such an ordinary sin amongst them that a Priest is look'd upon as a notable Saint if he be never guilty of other sins but of drunkenness and if he can command his unruly self so much for a week only so as not to let a lecherous thought escape towards a woman At least if they would allow a time sufficient to to try our own strength and to experience the effects of God's Grace within us But far from this they determin their Children to the Cloister while they are yet in the Cradle The eldest Son as is most usual being designed for Marriage the second must be a Knight of Malta the third appointed for a Church-man into whose hands they often thrust the Breviary before he can yet pronounce the Title of the Book and complement him with the reverent stile of Abbot while he is as yet un-acquainted with his Alphabet and what reluctancy soever he shall hereafter have against it yet must he necessarily still continue an Ecclesiastick But if the elder Brother chance to fail the Vocation then ceaseth and the Spirit that bloweth where it listeth seems to have with drawn its influence he throws of his purple robe and the Gentleman who was but since yesterday changed from a Clergy-man is now as ready for the Nuptial as he was before for the Religious Vow and all this say they proceeds from God which those may believe that think fit but I for my part never could As for the Daughters if there happen to be three they do usually enter two of them into the Covent and here it is observable that God is wont to call the most deformed whilst the other is born for the enjoyments of the world The Peasants indeed do cause their eldest Sons to apply themselves to their studies but after they have performed their Exercises and spent a considerable sum in their Education it is no longer at their choice whether they will become Priests or not but are compell'd to it for fear of incurring the displeasure of their Parents Thus it is that they betake themselves to the practice of this Law and from hence proceed so many disorders which might easily be prevented if the Church were left to its primitive liberty But that which makes these Constitutions of the Church of Rome to seem unto me the more strange and extravagant is this that they commonly prefer them to the Commandments of God Let a young man have given himself over never so much to the sin of the flesh yet when he comes to take Holy Orders this shall create no necessity of taking out a Dispensation but if he shall chance to have married two wives or but one if she hath been married before to another man which they call Bigamy this woman being dead he cannot take Orders without a Dispensation from the Pope for which he must pay sauce Although a man should never so often have taken the Name of God in vain and uttered a thousand blasphemies yet even for such offences will any Priest very readily give his absolution and he shall be freed from his guilt and penalty by putting himself to the charge of two or three Masses But if he should at any time in Lent happen to eat a morsel of flesh there is no absolution to be obtained for such a crime but from the hands of the Bishop who will inflict so severe a penance that he shall have cause to remember it all the rest of his life Let a woman be never so notoriously guilty of fornication and prostitute her self as often as Lais or Messalina there is no Confessor so inconsiderable but can give her an absolution But if by extraordinary misfortune she shall on a Friday have tasted but one spoonful of soupe which was left the day before she must necessarily apply her self to the Bishop and shall if it be possible be sent to the Pope himself By these means it comes to pass that such disorders have crept into the Romish Church and that at present they prefer humane laws to the Commandments of Almighty God § Before I conclude it is necessary to answer an Objection that the Romanists are wont to make to any person that shall upbraid them with the abuses and disorders whereof we have before treated Whence proceeds it then say they that there are so few persons that forsake the Romish Religion and that in lieu of those few that go over to the Protestant party we see great numbers return to the bosome of the Church and make as they call it their Recantation whereas of all those that have abandoned the Protestant Religion we see scarce any that return unto it after they have once forsaken it To this I might answer several ways and I could give many particular reasons why several Protestants in France of great worth and quality have shifted their Religion which is there no longer in fashion and accommodated themselves to that of the Church of Rome I shall only say this in general which may be observed in the case of every particular person that it is Interest which first invites and then detains them this is that which first causeth them to change and then obstinately to adhere to what they have embraced They act many things against the dictates of their conscience to avoid a private persecution which is often more severe than that which is more open and avowed The Charges which they offer the Preferments which they bestow upon persons of Quality on condition that they shall change their Religion and a Pension of a thousand Crowns promised to a Minister provided that he quits his Party are very powerful motives and arguments for the Romish Church and I have often admired at such as could resist so great Temptations A Lady of quality whil'st as a Messenger sent from God I sollicited and exhorted her to acts of Charity and compassion caused me once to make an offer of 8000 Franks to a Maid-servant of the Reformed Religion and at such a time as she had received some ill usage from her Mistress to try if I could by that means make her become a Proselyte I attempted it with all the Rhetorick and Philosophy that I could make use of for such a purpose but she still remained constant and slighted us both for the vanity of our attempt This is no common virtue and I believe there are few servants of the Romish Religion in this City but might be prevail'd with by so considerable a reward But it is not by such means as these that we ought to endeavour the conversion of our