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A90212
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Speedy advice to all Roman Catholicks; especially, those concerned in Scotland and Ireland
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Oates, Titus, 1649-1705.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing O56aA; ESTC R230350
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17,548
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24
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Constantinople insinuated himself in the Emperour's savour and obtained at his hands that the Church of Rome should be called the Supream Head of all other Churches and himself Supream and Universal Bishop of all Bishops Then Boniface as Platina writeth proud of his Vain Glorious New Title which he had snatch'd from the hand of an Usurper called a Council at Rome consisting of seventy two Bishops thirty Presbyters and three Deacons wherein the priviledge of Supremacy given by Phocas to the Roman Church was published Thus he who had murdered an Emperour could make a Bishop and add lustre to his ambitious Holiness and against the Nature both of Reason and Philosophy give that which in himself he had not Thus was this proud swelling Title Midwif'd to the World by a Tyrant who had Murdered his Master the good Emperour Mauritius with his Brother Wife and Children And as Bibliander observeth the Eagles three Heads with their bloody Bills awaked all at once viz. Boniface Phocas and Mahumet the Arabian Now considering these things and that the Bishop of Rome oweth his Greatness and Supremacy to the Emperour what Master of Ingratitude is he to Curse Excommunicate Depose and tread him under his Feet Cause him to hold his Stirrup Crown him with his Feet force him to stand bare-foot begging at his Gates Poison him and make him lye rotting above ground without a Grave to lye in Neither can the Pope deduce his Infallibility from Peter's constancy and stedfastness of Faith for he after he had received the Keys both could and did fall and was by our Saviour Matth. 16.23 not called His Holiness but Satan whence I might after the manner of Popish Argumentation infer that the Church of Rome is built upon Satan who denyed his Saviour and was ignorant Gal. 2.13 14 whether it was lawful to eat with the Gentiles till Paul informed and confirmed him in the true Faith. Yea all Papists foolishly conclude and affirm that during the time of Christ's Crucifixion none upon Earth no not the Apostles themselves had true Faith or believed in the Son of God but only the B. Virgin whence it will follow according to the Principles of Popery that the Church was built upon an Unbeliever and that the Devils the Gates of Hell did prevail against it Now then if Peter was neither Supream nor Infallible why doth the Pope of Rome father his Fopperies of Supremacy and infallibility on him as by a Gospel Line and Spiritual â— could prove his Right to the Holy Chair and throw down all his Brats of Abomination at the Blessed Apostle's Door But if I can by demonstration prove the Pope of Rome his pretended Holiness an Infidel in Faith and an Atheist in Life and Conversation I hope all ingenious Papists will acknowledge him Fallible for ab actu ad potentiam bene valet consequentia The first proof I shall bring is a short History taken out of the best Popish Writers which is this Formosus the first Reigned six Years and died anno 896. after he had made many Decretals Acts and Church-Canons which Steven the 6th spitefully annulled and cancelled as wicked and abominable because he had prevented him in the Popedom and would not allow him Concubines to his mind Yea to revenge his undeserved quarrel against him summoning a Council he caused his dead rotten Carcass to be digg'd out of the Grave and deckt with Gorgeous Pontificals and pulling off all again to be array'd in Lay-mens habit Thus the dead Body being degraded and devested of all Ecclesiastick Dignity like a superstitious Fool he cut off the two Fingers of his right hand wherewith he us'd to hold the Sacrament and threw them in the River Tyber and afterwards commanded his Body to be buried among Lay-men But Romanus the first succeeding Steven allowed and confirmed the Acts and Decrees of Formosus annulling and condemning the Canons Acts and Decretals of Steven as wicked and abominable Then after the Death of Romanus Pope John the tenth being a Favourite of Formosus made a General Collection of all the Writs and Processes against the dead Body of Formosus and condemned the Pope Steven his Council and all their Writings Till Sergius the third who had before by the Roman Clergy been elected Pope with Formosus but suppressed by Faction digg'd up the dead rotten Body of Formosus the second time which had been in the Grave about ten Years set it in St. Peter's Chair drew it thence by the Heels to a block and strook off its head And chopping off the three fingers which Steven had lest he caused the rotten stinking Massacred Body to be thrown into the River Tyber And lastly defaced anulled and condemned all his Acts and Decrees which before had been allowed denyed confirmed and condemned by several thwarting and contradicting Popes Till in the Reign of Pope Anastatius the third about the year 913 some Fishermen found the Body of Formosus in the River Tyber which was by his Holiness buryed sumptuously the very Images if you can believe the famous Popish Writers welcoming nodding and saluting the dead Body when it was brought into the Church Now of necessity some of these contradicting Popes were erroneous in their Judgments yea both faulty and Heretical and did fall in their Faith and sacrifice their Conscience to their spleen For contradicting one another they could not all be in the right nor affirm that whicn was true and Orthodox For it is an undeniable maxim that Duo contradictoria nequiunt esse simul vera But whatever was their Faith I am sure their Charity was thred-bare and their Holinesses destitute of all mercy vindictively pursuing their holy Father beyond the Gates of Death and revenging their quarrel in the very Grave Neither was this all for it is observed by Popish Writers and all others since that after the Death of Formosus the Popes of Rome poison'd and dispatch'd one another so fast that there were eleven Popes within nine years space The next proof of the Pope's Fallibility in Faith is that John the 23d was proved an Heretick in the Council of Constance by these words Pope John said and stubbornly believed that the Soul of Man dyeth together with the Body and is consumed to nothing like the Souls of Bruit Beasts And because Thomas Walleis an English-man was Imprisoned by the Pope for reproving his Heresie the King of France summoned a Council into his Palace in Viciana Sylva where the whole Assembly subscribed against the Pope's Heresie And the King wrote to John to reform it and set the Prisoner at liberty The last he did to prevent threatning dangers but of his Heresie he never would purge himself My third proof shall be from Pope Gregory the VII This man was an Adulterer a great Sorcerer and Necromancer and as Beno the Cardinal writeth when he was in his merry Fits would cast off his Sleeves and skip and dance like a Bear in form of sparkles and flames of fire
to them that believe Moreover to be spoke to with stammering lips and Men of another tongue was a Curse from God upon Israel as it is now on the obstinate Romans this day Isa 28.11 My twelfth and last Objection shall be against their Doctrine of Adultery or their Clergies single life wherein they condemn their Sacrament of Marriage as an unholy thing and a stumbling-block in the way to Heaven God appointed it from the beginning Christ countenanc'd it and the Apostle recommended it as honourable to all Men. What then are they who give the lye both to God and Man terming it unholy and unclean whilst God hath affirmed the contrary in as direct and plain terms as any man yea beyond what the Wisest Orator can express But since this is so plain an absurdity in it self I shall not spend Pen and Ink in proving that which no rational man will deny only suffer me at last now to treat or rather surfeit your Eyes and Ears with one abominable Story which is this Hudericus Bishop of Augusta in an Epistle Writeth to Pope Nicholas I. that Gregory the Great bound the Clergy to a single Life but on a certain time a Woman catching small fishes which this superstitious Monk thought only lawful to be eaten found 6000 Heads of Infants which had been therein drowned which Monk Gregory perceiving to be the effect of the Clergies single Life with sighing and sorrowing he revoked the Canon Yea it is reported by the foresaid Bishop that the Clergy did so burn in Lust that they not only kept Company with Married Women and their own Kindred but with Mankind and the very Beasts in the Field Another Story the Parallel whereof you may read in several Popish Historians is this Leander and Tritemius report that about the year of our Lord 1470 Alanus de Rupe a Dominican after he had seen several Visions contrived his Work called Rosarium out of our Ladies Psalter and Preach'd it instead of the Gospel which Pope Sixtus IV. confirmed with Bulls and Indulgences Whereupon a certain Book was published in the beginning whereof is Written that the B. Virgin came into the Cell of the said Alan it being shut and made him a Ring of her own Hair and betrothed her self to the Monk kissing him and giving him leave to handle her Breasts and finally to be as intimate as Man and Wife This is he from whom sprang the Order of Alanites and whose Miracles the Popish Clergy so zealously defend I thought to have spoken something of several other Popish Opinions especially of Pennance Pardons and Indulgences but lest I weary you I shall only refer you to a little Pamphlet sold by the Booksellers of London Intituled Sodom Fair which discovereth the Nakedness and Abominations of the Romish Harlot to the Life or rather Death from which I pray God may deliver us all I resolved once as I have said to have given you a taste of all the poysonous and counterfeit Merchandize that is expos'd in the Market of the Man of Sin and a touch of all his Hocus Tricks and Popish Pranks But he who readeth with an Impartial Eye considereth with an Unprejudic'd Understanding and receiveth what I have here written in an honest Heart will be ready to turn his back on Babilon and his face Zion-ward and enquire after the good old way which is set before us in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament Therefore it is my humble and hearty Advice that all people be terrified at the Name of Popery and that all Roman Catholicks open their obstinate Eyes and Ears to see and hear the Word of Truth and with the Noble Bereans search the Scriptures the Writings of the Fathers yea and their own Legends and Historians to see whether what the Christian Protestant Churches affirm be conform to the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles or not Then if Baal be God follow him if the Pope or his Creature the Hoste his imaginary Deity be God follow him But if there be no God but one all sufficient eternal invisible and incomprehensible follow him according to his own Will and the Rule which he hath in his Word prescribed to us but if you will neither hear nor believe the Word of God and Scriptures of Truth nor the Writings of the Fathers and of your own Historians then if one should come from the Dead you will neither hear nor believe him For they that shut both Eyes and Ears and resolve to be filthy will be filthy still And none can do more but with the Prophet Jer. 51.8 Wail over you and cry out We would bave healed Babilon but she is not healed But remember what the Lord saith by the Prophet Isa 50.11 Behold all ye that kindle a Fire that compass your selves about with sparks Walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks that ye have kindled This shall ye have of mine hand ye shall lie down in sorrow A WORD To the People called QUAKERS Gal. 4.16 Am I therefore become your Enemy because I tell you the truth I Intended to have spoken of your Opinions and Principles but considering that you all pretend to an Inspiration of the Infalllble Spirit of Truth and need no outward teachers I shall only humbly advise you to square your profession and try your Spirits by the Scriptures of Truth for the Spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets And if you walk not after that Rule which God hath set down in his Written Word and holy Will it is because there is no light in you Next I cordially request you to consider that all ages since our Saviour's days did repute them Hereticks who denied the sanctified use and benefit of the Sacraments which God in Christ hath appointed as Seals of the New Covenant to be an Evidence before the World that as we really believe in our hearts before God we are not ashamed before men to own him for a Redeemer whose body was broken and whose blood was shed for the Remission of our Sins and Salvation of our Souls And tho you repute them foolish and ridiculous God by the foolishness of Sacraments yea of Baby-sprinkling Bread-eating and Wine-drinking hath oft-times conveyed Grace Comfort and Strength to weary fainting Souls Neither can you wipe off what I affirm by saying they were but beggarly Rudiments for young beginners to endure but for a short season For our Saviour in his last Will recommended them to his Apostles as a Christian performance to endure till the end of the World. Baptism he did Matth. 28.19 Teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo I am with you alway even unto the end of the World. Now since Baptism is one among these all things which Christ hath commanded to the peformance of which he hath promised his assisting presence to the Worlds end it cannot be a transient Necessarium secundum quid a thing that may be done or slighted and that but for a short space for the Words are baptizing them viz. all Nations Now when there are no Nations there will be no Baptism but as long as there is any Nation or one Man of a Nation Baptism will never be an useless Rudiment of humane Institution or that which may be thrown away as a ridiculous Tradition And as for the Sacrament of the Lords Supper our Saviour said Matth. 23.19 This do in Remembrance of me Now if the time be expired wherein we should not remember our Redeemer and the time come wherein we should forget him then may we lawfully lay by his Sacrament Sed falsum prius ergo c. The next advice that I would give Quakers is negative concerning matters of Fact and that is that they neither lye cheat nor covet For he that saith that he is Religious taught and led by the Spirit of Truth and doth such things his show of Religion is vain he is yet blind and not purged from the Old Man Love not the World then neither the things that are in the World. If any man love the World the love of the Father is not in him The Prophet Micah adviseth us to a good Religion Chap 6.8 To do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God. Which if all would study before they fall by the ears in controversie for the tithes of Mint and Rue there would be more sincere knowledge in Religion more inward Peace and outward Content and greater practice of true piety For the Lord saith by his prophet David Psal 50.23 To him that ordereth his Conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God. Now to this God only Wise be ascribed all Glory Honour and Praise with Dominion Majesty and Might World without end Amen FINIS