glorious appearance Roman Miracles and Visions have most commonly some black Mark which may convince any sober man that they are not what they seem to be Consider in the holy Scriptures what all the true Saints of God both holy Angels and Apostles say or do whensoever they meet with more honor then is their due and ask S. Austin what Spirits those are who take it whensoever given or call for it when it is not No Saints or Angels saies this holy Father e August cont Faust l. 20. c. 21. 22. will take of others what they know to be due only to God as it appears by Paul and Barnabas who tore their clothes to shew they were mere men Act. 14. and by that Angel who rejected adoration Unclean Spirits are for Worship and tho they care little for Flesh yet they pride themselves with Sacrifices only because they are due to God And in another Place f Idem De vera Relig. c. 55. Good Angels are for this one thing namely that with them we may serve God in whose contemplation they are happy but those who invite us to serve themselves are like proud men c. only the serving of proud Devils is more hurtful And in another place g Idem de Civit. l. 10. c. 7. Celestial and happy h Ibid. c. 16. Spirits will have us Sacrifice not to themselves but unto God whose Oblation they are as well as we and therefore all Revelations and Miracles that invite us to serve more then one God are such Seductions of Devils as any pious and prudent men must needs throw off for this is their proud malice who by that token are noted to be neither good Angels in themselves nor the Angels of a good God For the i Ibid c. 7. item l. 9. c. 23. good Angels love us so well that they will not have us serve them but serve the true God Bring now to these Christian Rules most of the Roman Apparitions and Miracles Shew me where this humble Spirit whom they worship did the like good Angel ever reject one worshipping or devout Adoration shew me where she tore once her clothes at the hearing the Te Deum and the whole Psalter of David sung and applied most blasphemously from God to her I am sure I find in her waies for several centuries of years the steps of another Spirit seeking continually for more honor We shall behold one who strokes k Caesarius l. 7. Hist c. 55. and kisses pious men because they both l Leandr de vrt is Illustrib Chron. Deip. an 1372. begin and end their best Devotions with her Praises who teaches in what godly form they must m Chronic. Deip. an 1178. pray to her for all Blessing who calls them into brakes n Franc. Hierasc in Vit. Henr. Sylvice of Thornes and Nettles and sometimes into holes under ground to find and adore her Images one who can put on the shape either of a o Odo Gissaeus Histor. Virg. Aniciensis Stag or p In vita Manaveri ap sur 5. Jun. a Pigeon or a great r Arch. Gian Cent. 3. Annal. l. 4. c. 9. Queen purposely to shew the place and stone where she must needs have an Altar or a Chappel or a great Church that there she Å¿ Od. Gissaeus supra may be served and worshipped to the worlds end and there t Niceph Eccl. Hist l. 15. c. 25. walk and delight her self one I say who in all these Churches brags among men as if she were the u Blosius in Monili Mother of Campassions the Lady x Menol Cisterc 22. Dec. of the House of Praier and the fountain y Chronic. Deip. an 1467. of all Blessings lastly one who spreads forth about her a great Mantle therewith to betoken the great z Tho. Malvenda Tom. 1. Annal. Ord. Praedic an 1221. largeness of her mercies and favors which she saies she denies to none that will come to her with faith Hereupon let S. Austin judg what kind of Creatures these Spirits are and what great difference there is between those which among Pagans did perpetually labor for Sacrifices and these which now among Papists are all for Masses and the greatest Oblations that can be set on Romes Altars Mean while we may be confident that none but God alone can own Sacrifices Altars and Churches to be served with and that none but Devils ever owned Images to speak move or in any wise to work in Such Spirits as these may be the Authors of all the Roman Apparitions and Miracles and such Apparitions and Miracles are very fit for such Spirits and both foretold and reserved for the last times And so you may guess what that Church is that hath her proper establishment both from such Wonders and such Saints CHAP. IV. Concerning the Protection and Assistance of Roman Saints THIS pretended help of men and women who after their departure out of this world and their being Canonized by some Pope are called Saints are another great Enchantment to keep and draw People to Rome Their Souls are conceived to be still ready to go about any business which their worshippers have in Heaven and their Bodies even to the least of their Bones their Clothes and their Shoes withal can at every good occasion work great Cures and Feats on Earth Thus one Saint is upon this account worth as much or more then any two Angels What sober man therefore would not be temted to turn a Roman Catholic and who would turn from being so tho there were no other reason for either then the getting and losing such Friends The perswasion of Romanists is that all such Souls as deserve their Canonization at Rome go up directly to Heaven as to a place where their happy Rest from all their Labors and an happy Possession of an eternal Glory with God is not all what they expect they must have also Government and Regencies a Bell. de Sanct. Beati t. l. 1. c. 18. over the whole world wherefore they fancy them sometimes like so many great Captains marshalling all the Natione under Christ with an Iron Rod sometimes like great Pillars above holding all Churches under them And because so much were too much for any one Saint to manage it well and that no Creature is capable of such an Universal Burden except the Virgin Mary above and the Pope of Rome here below to facilitate b Gab. Biel. in Can. Lect 32. N. the business they divide the whole among themselves that every one may be troubled with no more then his proper share First by this imaginary Distribution they divide their Saints into Countries c Salmero 1. ad Tim. c. 2. Disp 7. S. James is to take care of Spain S. Sebastian of Portugall S. Denys of France S. Mark of the Venetians S. Nicolas of the Moscovites S. Ambrose of Milan the three Kings of the Electorat of
the Workers of false wonders open their Mouth against Jesus Christ We live in times when the Devils in all Mens account are let loose from such a restraint and the Church left unguarded of such a Protection when false Prophets may arise with such Prophesies Deut. 13. and false Christs with such Miracles as if it were possible might deceive the very Elect Mark 13.22 Now the Mirabilarians u Aug. in Joh. Tract 13. sub fin as S. August calls them are abroad against whom Christ saies he already and we much more that are 1200 years after him cautum me fecit Dominus the Lord himself his Apostles after him have given us all sufficient warning And so it were a great folly to take notice of a Painted Cloth when we are told of so many that * Ibidem run away with Christs Colours that is with a permitted power of counterfeiting true Miracles and therewith amaze poor Country People but whosoever hath no mind to be either affrighted or cheated with this may look to it The glorious Works of Christ of Christs Disciples and other Apostolical Fathers were don in such clear daies as scattered and dissipated all suspicions and imaginable Clouds of Imposture the Devils had not so much as the liberty to preach the Truth Mark 1.25 If either Simon or Elymas tho Sorcerers of the highest rank did but offer to play their old game you read in the Acts how they were kept in Thus this mighty restraining hand rather then the intrinsecal greatness of the work was an infallible Evidence which in those daies shined about all true Miracles whereas the Revelations and Feats of Rome must needs be full of suspition and noted for such by all Christians since they came forth when all false Christs and false Prophets have the liberty to work them In this horrible Confusion either of Miracles or Actors none but God or a good Angel can well discern by the work it self which is the Impostors and with the Saints If the restoring life to a dead man or giving sight to one born blind be thought to be proper to God this may be without much ado counterfeited by any Devil and as Brass sometimes out shines Gold lying wonders may dazle our Eies as strongly as most true Miracles This dark and dubious conjuncture is the season and the very point of time when Roman Miracles swatm abroad Then the Apparitions of sad Souls first begin by thousands to come up and to acquaint their friends with their condition underneath and what neither Moses nor the Prophets nor Jesus Christ nor his Apostles ever thought to mind us of sad groaning Spirits make it their principal business to express and throng about craving for help for Pilgrimages and for Masses Then come Images after them to bleed or sing or mourn as occasion requires and the consecrated Elements the better to justifie what they are not appear with blood with flesh and even sometimes with whole children It passes all understanding how the Virgin Mary who kept her self so long above would not come down among us men both sooner and in fitter times She passed all her daies on Earth alwaies keeping close and quiet at home and since her happy departure I can account five hundred years when all good Authors will justifie that she continued as quiet above Here then are two huge great Marvels the first how the blessed Virgin after so many years of rest comes to have new Inclinations to bestir her self among men and the second that she should consent to take this suspicious unlucky time of shewing her Activity when the Devil and all his Spirits are permitted to play their Pranks How is this Change imaginable that she who never did appear to any one of the primitive holy Fathers when she could do it without any suspicion would in these last and branded times shew her self to a dirty Monk Did not S. Augustin before he died being besieged by Barbarians deserve as well her Protection and a guard of her armed Angels as S. Dominic did whilest he held with his Rosary x Specul Exemp Tit. Rosar Exem 1. about the neck one poor pitiful Heretic wherefore never had these holy men S. Athanasius S. Hilary S. Cyprian as well the comfort of a kiss or an Embrace as y Ribaden in vita Ignat. Loyola as z Attich Chron. Ord. Minim an 1612. Stephen the Minime and thousand more less deserving it And how comes she who never was known to take notice of any trouble disease or Imprisonment of true Saints as the Head-ach of S. Chrysostom the sickliness of S. Basil the infirm Body of S. Gregory Nazianzen the Prisons and Tortures of all the Martyrs now to be running up and down to relieve all sorts of persons to cure a Jesuite with her a Chronic. Deip. an 1561. Child whom she put by him in his bed to cure whole Countries b Oliver L. Mirac Mar. Montis of purple feavers and to free several Rogues that had well deserved c Albert. De Viris Illust. Ord. Praedic hanging from the Gallows from Dungeons and from all Imaginable sorts of Dangers How comes this fancy to take her so late of bringing down out of Heaven Crosses Hoods Books Robes Holy water and such other utensils which the Fathers in former times never had nor expected from her the truth is this kind of Apparitions and Miracles were most advisedly reserved till such times as these later are dark and confused and more propitious to Imposture and these strange new doings have another reason besides which I wish Roman Catholics would seriously take notice of and it is this As long as the blessed Virgin had no more honor in the Church then what became a Creature and was allowed to her by the Fathers to be d Epiphan contr Haeres l. 3. adv Collyrid honored not adored no ancient Author will tell you that she ever appeared among men But assoon as the later times brought in Public Services to pray with to her and new Images to pray to her by then she or rather some other Spirit under her Name began first to bestir her self then she and all other Saints with her seemed to come down and appear at the voice of these new Praiers just as the Soul of Samuel did or rather seemed to come up at the Mysteries of Endor Sam. 28. Ever after the pretended Queen was seen in the Roman Church as in her Heavenly Palace and she had more Angels to wait on her in the least of her ordinary progresses then Christ himself ever had in any one of his most Solemn Appearings But as the Circumstance of a base witch who did order Sauls business was a sufficient Evidence that the Appearance of Samuel had not the Soul of Samuel and as when Devils will look like Angels you may still they say either perceive a Cloven Foot or smell a stinking vapor that betraies the pretending
and the ordinary Seats of Roman Saints and when Bellarmin with some others say that they do honor these Images as signs only representing and and not as Seats and Instruments inhabited or assisted by the invisible Spirit of their Saints they are confuted by these two waies the visible Practice of their Church and the invisible Testimony of their own private Consciences What might be said more probably both in behalf of these Images and of their zealous Devotion in worshipping them is what frees them from the reproach which Holy Scripture casts on Idols that they have Eies and see withal they have Hands wherewith they handle and somtimes give terrible blows if they have Mouths it is not in vain since they can cry and laugh and speak and somtimes also Prophesie Feet have they and thereon leap and walk and flee and if they have Noses they smell therewith and can tell where the wanton and the wicked Persons are All this I say from their own approved Authors Only the main difficulty remains and I conjure all sober Men as they tender their Salvation to look how to satisfie it well to know what is the inward Principle Spirit or Soul which moves and animates these dead Figures to all and more then what living Bodies can perform with the help of their living Souls Here let the Roman Catholics well consider whether to justifie them by these acts of activity from being Idols doth not by the same means both accuse and convince them of being Devils The Holy Scripture warns Men often against false Christs and false Prophets against false Apostles and false Spirits it were strange if we had no need of warning or of being wary against false Saints I find somtimes the best Roman Monks much puzled what to think of their most celebrated Apparitions and tho they trust too much their Holy Water a pitiful trial God knows in the discernment of the good from the bad Spirits yet they do not think it uncatholic to demur somtimes in such matters It is neither want of Learning nor want of Faith in the School-men the Primitive Fathers of Popery which makes them dispute now and then whether that which they see at Mass under the Figure of raw Flesh or a young Child be Christ himself or a Phantome and certainly we have no ground either in Scripture or in Reason or in Experience to secure us but that the Devils which play such pranks both in Apparitions and on Altars may juggle as well and play worse tricks about consecrated Images First It is no small prejudice against these Roman Images and the Roman way of using them that both came so late into the Church and that in the best Primitive Times when the Church was a purer Virgin none but Heretics had Images whereas in these later and worse Ages when the Church is confessedly worse too no Roman Catholics are without them It is also no small prejudice against the best as it is supposed and the most famous of these Images that when they were admitted at first as either visible Records of Ecclesiastical Antiquity or as Ornaments of new Walls not one of them did work Miracles or if it did 't was in behalf of Infidels and Pagans only as it is presupposed by Patriarch Tharasius n Nicaen Synod secund Act. 4. pag. 626. Edit Bin. Paris 1634. the great Promoter of Image Worship whereas now since they are become both the Objects and the Instruments of Roman Devotion and Blessing they generally work all Miracles in behalf of the Romanists The alteration in the Church as it is now full of Images from the Church as it was then without any Image Worship as it is visible and great must have some visible and great Cause Is it because the Pagans and the Heretics then and the Mass-Priests and Papists now understand the worth of Images and the right use of Image-worship better then the Holy Apostles did Or is it because the Holy Apostles had neither Patriarchs nor Prophets nor Martyrs to make Saints of or to consecrate Images to Is it not more probable to think that this Alteration hath thus happened because both Pagans and Papists are of the same mind as to Images And because the Spirits which Christ and his Blessed Apostles had silenced and beaten off from most of their Pagan Quarters having long wandered among the Heathen and in dry places have at last found better shelter and emploiment at Lauretta Montserat and other great Roman Oracles What can one think else of Images which having kept themselves close dumb and obscure in the best and Primitive daies take now their advantage to start up and to make a noise and to shew Miracles in these later times of the Church when both by Christ and his Apostles Predictions and the Judgment p Joseph Acosta de Temporib Novissim l. 3. c. 3. 14. of sober Papists all must be full of false Prophesies of strong Illusions and lying Wonders Secondly That which aggravates the suspition of appearing in unhappy Times like the coming of Thieves and unexpected Straglers in dark Nights is the ugly and pitiful Holes where most of these Images were at first found For these Images I mean those wonderful and famous ones which the Roman Church runs most after were neither lately made by common Painters nor consecrated by ordinary Roman Bishops they are supposed to have bin made and consecrated by no meaner Workmen then God himself his Christ his Angels and such of his Saints as S. Luke S. Nicodemus c. were and so left and deposited to the Christian Church and Catholic Tradition Hereupon let me ask two things absolutely necessary for any sober satisfaction The first When and where if ever at all these Saints made these Images and by laying on of their Hands or otherwise conferred on them the Gifts of Speaking of Prophecying and working Miracles or put in them an inward or assisting Spirit to make them speak foretel and do strange things The second When and where having used them as it is supposed they have they thought fit to bury them under Ground and to hide some among Thorns some under Brambles all in most pitiful places as dark Holes and hollow Trees where they were found and where any wise Man would rather look for Worms or Toads If you say they hid them in those places for fear of the Pagan Persecuters Pagans were not haters at all nor destroiers of Images contrariwise they loved Images as Papists do But since they were great Burners and Destroiers of Holy Scriptures Why would the Apostolical Men rather hide their Books under ground which were most principally both hated and sought after then their Images which were not so And if they hid both Images and Books together by what universal Mischance did they never find any of these where they found those How came the Holy Scriptures to discover themselves so soon ever in cruellest times of the Primitive
other Christian Champions whil'st they were writing large Volumes in defence of Religion where it seemed subject to reproach to leave this part alone undefended which by all Mens confession had if then in being the greatest need of defence If the Church of God had in those daies a most real and continual Mass-Sacrifice How came S. Cyrill of Alexandria to be so dull against his Custom as when Julian laughed at Christians for having neither Altars nor Sacrifices to stop his mouth with nothing else then Metaphorical Oblations And was this Apostate such a Sot as to object at every turn such meer Falshoods if Mass be true wherein he knew having bin long a Christian that any Body might stop his mouth It seems as some of their best Authors d Alphons de Cast. l. 8. tit Indulgentia confess the Mystery of Transubstantiation was yet in the Church incognito and came to appear as it doth now but a long while as they say e Gabr. Biel. in Can. Sect. 41. I. too after Christ had instituted it So it is not Catholic at all 3. Go you down to Purgatory that vast and wide subterranean Rome as great at least as this above-ground who also in a very great mesure is her Mother and Nurse for if this pretends to send down any kind of relief to that by her Masses and Massoffices yet 't is that which maintains and helps up this with Wealth Honors Monasteries and all imaginable affluence of Riches In the mean time this commerce how mutual and great soever is nothing less then Catholic having not followed the Gospel through all the Countries nor times of the Church Whensoever and wheresoever the Christian Faith was Preached there is left an Impression in the Heart of all Believers that there is after this Life a Heaven prepared for Faithful Souls and an everlasting Hell for those that shall be found not to be so Purgatory which is a third place and should of course if true have gon in the same company with these two never followed them half the way no Apostle so far as we can see in their holy Writings ever Preached it it was not blown by Gods Spirit thro-out the whole World as other Catholic Doctrines were it lodg'd in some corners only and that late or upon a Heathenish account and where by chance it was admitted it found no better entertainment then a wavering Opinion Such a thing may be saies one It is not unlikely saies another The Greek and Armenian Churches larger then the Roman is do not believe it f Alfon. di Castro l. 12. tit Purgatorium saies one of the most learned Papists It was believed but somewhat late saies g Fisher cont Luther Art item one of their Cardinal Bishops and tho Bellarmin turns over and over all the Scriptures to search it out many of his own Church do confess that they h Fisher ibid. Pet. à Solv Assert 8. Mart. Peresius de Traditione cannot find it there 4. Indulgences that vast revenue and staple Merchandize of Rome is neither more ancient nor Universal then its correspondent Purgatory For saies i Polyd Virgil. de Invent. l. 8. c. 1. a good Roman Author after Cardinal Fisher no body thought of Indulgences before Purgatory was set a foot these without this being of no value But a while after men had bin affrighted with the Purgatory Torments then began Indulgences to be of use If you will know why both came in late they will endeavor to k Gab. Biel. in Can. Lect. 57. M. Alfons à Castro l. 8. â—it Indulgentia satisfie you with two Reasons the first is because Christians in primitive time had few sins to trouble them after their death when they had any they needed no other flames then their own Zeal to burn them out and their great i Gregor de Valent. de Indulg punct 2. Mortifications besides left nothing to do for Indulgences The second is because the Ancient Church did not know all however much less then now we do The first reason stands upon mere inconsideration of what men were for the most part in the best times The second stands fair for new lights and upon this account you must exclude Purgatory Indulgences and Fanaticism from being Catholic Doctrines 5. You may join with those three all the Roman Praiers and Devotions to Saints This recommended daily and reputedly devout Emploiment hath not so much as the shadow of Catholic for it crept in among Christians as the Baalim did in Israel when the Holy men that had seen Moses and Joshua and the elders of that generation were all departed Jud. 2.10.11.12 when our Savior and his Apostles and the first Preachers of the Gospel had left the world During above four thousand years when God had undoubted Saints living on Earth among his People you shall not find one who ever call'd praied or worshipped any other Saint in Heaven then the Holy one of Israel Salmero one of the learned Disputants at Trent confesses m Salmero 1. ad Timoth. Disp 7. Sect. Nec obiter such Invocations have no express ground in all the Scriptures Bellarmin n Bell. de Beat Sanct l. 1. c. 19. Sect. Item ex c. 32. Suar. p. 3. q. 52. Salm. 1. Tim. 2. Disput 8. Eckius Enchirid. c. 15. and others must yeild it as to the 4000 and odd years that preceded the Ascension And as for the years that followed it Would to God saies Stapulensis o Faber Stapul Praefat. in Evang. we would conform our waies of Faith and Devotion to the example of the Primitive Church who never lookt but on one Christ and never Worshipped any other then he Holy Trinity Eckius p Eckius in Enchirid. câ—de Venerat SS also is clear for this Read for your better satisfaction Origen contra Cels l. 8. Euseb Eccles Hist. l. 4. c. 15. S. Epiphanius his whole Tract against the worshippers of the blessed Virgin S. Ambros 1. Rom. S. Austin de Civit. l. 8. c. 27. l. 22. c. 10. item contra Faust. l. 20. c. 21. The whole business of Image worship the most visible part of the Roman Religion came in later then the Saints worship and therefore appears to be less Catholic If Ancient Authors mention once as it were by chance q Euseb Eccl Hist l. 7. c. 18. a Statue made by the Woman and a Heathenish Woman was she whom Christ had cured of a bloody Flux or the Picture of some Apostles which had bin seen on private walls or the Figure of a Shepherd with a Lamb upon his shoulders ingraved in a Cummunion s Tertull. de Pudicitia Cup or a Representation of Histories and t Gregor Nyssen Tom. 3. Martyr Theodor. p. 579. Edit Paris 1638. Martyrdoms in one or two Oratories yet where is the Prophet the Apostle or the Holy Father who ever lookt on such Figures otherwise then common representations or Pieces
Valerius with her holding of Water in a Sieve or drawing a Ship with her Girdle might as well have asserted her Heathenish Religion as her Personal Innocency There is nothing so absurd with the Donatists nor so impious with the Manichees which some Miracle or other wrought among them might not countenance in some mesure And without looking back towards old times the Kings of England and the Kings of France with that gift which it is said they have of healing an otherwise scarcely curable Disease might come near to justifie at once which is both absurd and impossible both Protestancy and Popery So far do these Providential differ from Christian Miracles as to the confirming of any Christian Truth Secondly I say that these true Christian Miracles are commonly but for a time and for the first authorizing c. For the Gift of working Miracles is as that of speaking Languages 1 Cor. 14.12 intended for the Conversion of Unbelievers and for assisting the Gospel wheresoever it should be first Preach'd Therefore the first Evangelists and other first Planters of Churches as well as the Holy Apostles had as long this help of Miracles as God had Nations in the World to whom he would revele his Will which being a work of many Years this supernatural Hand of God help'd it forward both in confounding Pagan Idols and strengthning Men against Pagan Persecutions till God had sent Christian Princes to whose care he then committed the work both of countenancing the Church throout all their Dominions and of mastering her Enemies which till then he did by his own hand After this 't is certain Miracles ceased apace if not to be yet to be common being thenceforth not so necessary as before Those that continued the longest were about the healing of Sicknesses and about the casting out of Devils and the corners where they continued were those wilde Deserts and remote Places the refuge of the Primitive Christians from the Face of their Enemies where there was more need of such continued Wonders because that more Infidels did lurk there And by the way it may be imagin'd that God inclined those last Workers of Miracles whose austere Life and Devotion now adaies seems to us so strange * to leave the more cultivated World and retreat to Deserts in order to convert barbarous men in their most barbarous Countries All this being done and all known Parts and Creeks of the World being either mostly converted or sufficiently called to the Christian Faith the Holy Fathers tell us that Miracles c S. Chrysost 2 Thess c. 2. Hom. 4. ceased that they were d Idem 1 Cor. c. 2. Hom. 6. Author Quaest ex Nov. Test apud Aug. unnecessary that to expect e S. Crysost in Joh. c. 3. v. 25. Hom. 23. of God any other then the old ones by which the Gospel had bin already most sufficiently confirmed was no less then temting of him that if any were wrought in their times they could not be well look'd upon but as a suspicious kind of Signs and not infallible proofs of Faith because the true f Author Operis Imperf Hom. 49. Servants of Christ having confirm'd their Preaching by true signs call'd Men away from their Infidelity to the Faith now this first calling being over the Devil will set up himself by the means of his own Miracles in order to draw Men back again from Faith to Infidelity And as to this God was pleased to take the same course in the publishing of the Gospel as he had bin pleased to take in the publishing of the Law In this first he asserted the Glory of Israel the redemtion out of Egypt and his own Law under Moses by such Miracles as no Egyptian at last could question and no false God could counterfeit For altho most of them as for example the producing of Lice the dividing an Arm of the Sea the making Thunders and Earth-quakes c. seemed not much to exceed that compass which created Causes might have reach'd to yet God so visibly confounded both the skill of all Magicians and the power of all Devils that his Almighty Power and stretched-out Arm did not appear so much in the very working of these Wonders as in restraining the contrary Powers both of the Air and of Hell from attemting to any purpose the like performances Lastly God having sufficiently evidenced both the Power of his Laws and the Truth of his Promises he thenceforth both withdraws his Hand from working his former continually appearing Miracles and takes off that restraint that alone kept the Devils from either doing or counterfeiting any like them And then the Evil Spirits being let loose again to their former Liberty God gives his People this fair warning against all Revelations and Miracles whatsoever If there arise among you a Prophet and give thee a Sign or a Wonder c. Deut. 13.1 In like manner those Miracles which ushered the Holy Gospel and spread it over all the World were in all respects unquestionable First they were mark'd out before-hand by clear infallible Prophecies both of Isaiah 35.5 6. The eyes of the blind c. And of Joel 3.28 I will pour my Spirit c. Secondly to remove farther out of the way both all suspicion and possibility of Error in those first times all the Devils and all their Ministers were tied generally from all false and considerable Miracles I beheld saies our Savior very much to this purpose Satan falling as Lightning from Heaven His Oracles were over the World all upon a sudden * Plutarch de Orac. defect suppressed Magicians and Seducers if they attemted any thing were either struck blind as Elymas in the Acts or silenced as so many Demoniacs were in the Gospel or confounded and even beaten down when they thought to exalt themselves as Simon Magus was by St. Peter as we find both in the Acts and in the Ecclesiastical History Then after a long course of true and infallible Miracles sufficient in all respects both to perswade men through all the World and to seal the Holiness and Importance of the Gospel to all Ages Satan is permitted to use his ancient Power again both for the trial of the Believers and the punishment of the Rebels Then all sorts of Seductions false Revelations and false Miracles could not but return back again by an infallible Consequence and with greater Violence then ever because after a longer restraint Hereupon come the often repeted and serious and merciful warnings of Christ There shall arise false Christs c. Matth. 24. Thus both in the Law and the Gospel the first times and sorts of Miracles do carry alwaies along with them and as it were in their Foreheads such express Characters of Gods hand as is most proper and most sufficient to put the Truth above all doubt Therefore Christ often doth make use of them John 5.36 and 9.37 And so do the Holy Prophets most celebrate and insist upon those Principal
daies at Rome did really the greatest Cures these would assert S. Peter and S. Pauls Epistles which the Papists now contradict in many Points and not the Popes Roial Power nor the Roman Purgatory nor the works of congruity condignity or supererogation nor any other like Doctrines which are contradicted by these Epistles But if you meet as oft you may with another sort of Miracles which what way soever you turn them do not look towards any Doctrine delivered by Christ or his Apostles these can be none of those we may be sure which S. Mark calls following Miracles such as are properly the Christian ones They may be from God nevertheless and true and good and thankfully to be accepted as the Providential Miracles are But if they look or go plainly a quite cross or contrary way be sure they are Antichristian and are designed either to sow or to improve some other Seed then was at the first Sown by Christs Preaching and cultivated by his Miracles And such were those true Prophecies which Moses bids us to take heed of Deuter. 13.1 to draw Israel after strange Gods such were the many Signs and wonders which Jansenius Bishop of Gant affirms l Cornel. Jansen Conc. Evang. c. 123. to have bin don in his time to seduce men after a false Christ Nor matters it that these Miracles seem not much less then those first were wherewith the Gospel was confirmed For the Beast can perform great wonders Revel 13.13 Devils by Gods permission come very neer that which good Angels attain unto by Gods Command and tho there are many Miracles beyond the reach of good and bad Angels as for instance the Reviving of dead Bodies c. Yet there are none but by some illusion or other may be so exactly counterfeited that tho they have no Reality yet will they have as much appearance to confirm Lies as the other have to confirm the Truth Hence comes in these last times when the Devil hath no restraint to keep him from making the utmost use of his Power the absolute impossibility of discerning those from these any other way then by the end which they aim at to wit the reveled will of God and the manifestation of his Truth There are some of the Devils Miracles * August de Civit. l. 10. c. 16. saies S. Austin that as to the work it self seem not to be lesser then Gods are but their End must distinguish them And therefore he will have the Miracles of later times to be tried by the true Church †Idem de Vnitat Eccles c. 19. as we find it in the Scriptures and not the Church by these Miracles Bring Roman Miracles to this Rule you may divide them into three Ranks for some of them are but mere Tales some are counterfeit Impostures and artificial tricks of Juglers others have a real Being but the question is Whence they have it As for the first sort of Miracles the Papists have by little and little heaped them to such an Extravagancy that divers of their communion who have some modesty left them can scarce forbear blushing m Melch. Canus Loc. l. 11. c. 6. at their relation Gregory of Tours and Gregory the first Bishop of Rome if the four Books of Dialogues be truly his did begin pretty well to tell stories But it is nothing to the advances made by some other Prelats and great Roman Doctors in the following Ages And I may say confidently that these Romanists are not much short of the most extravagant Romancers There you shall read of Constantine the great being a Leper and transferring his Roman Empire upon that Pope that made him clean of Wolves and Lions bringing back Lambs and restoring them out of their Entrails after they had torn them to pieces of Birds flocking about to hear Sermons and of Asses becoming Roman Catholics at least kneeling to adore the Mass-Sacrament c. They cannot conceive any great Man to be a Saint unless he hath an extraordinary Gift for the working of such Miracles How true they be you may best learn of the very Saints who deny them as for Example n Bernard Serm de Benedict Berard o S. Chrysost passim St. Chrysostom and p S. Gregory Hom. 29. in Evang. St. Gregory and yet they are forced upon them and you can hardly pass for a true Catholic unless you believe that St. Bernard q Chronic. Deip. an 1152. was saluted and suckled several times by our Lady in her Image that r Simeon Metaph. in vita Chrysost Sigeb an 606. St. Chrysostom did raise the dead did cure all sorts of incurable Diseases and had every night St. Paul himself whispering continually in his Ears what he did write on his Epistles And as to St. Gregory the Great he had no meaner Whisperer r Simeon Metaph. in vita Chrysost Sigeb an 606. then the Holy Ghost in Person under the shape of a Pigeon sitting quietly upon his Head and sometimes stretching down her Bill s Petrus apud Vossium de Historic Lat. l. 2. c. 23. into his Mouth when he was Preaching And we know that the grand Impostor Mahomet pretended somwhat the alike about the same time Now you may be sure all this is merely Fabulous since it is disown'd by the very Men who are pretended to have had it who therefore knew best the truth of all these Works and Assistances Much like to these are the Miracles and Revelations of Ignatius Loyola when he cures Women in their Travel if you but set his Seal t Valderama Serm. de Canon Ignat. or Signet on their Belly when he makes u Ibid. pag. 10. the House where he happens to be horribly shake and when himself grows as hot and as terrible as Mount Aetna by the fierce motion of that Spirit which from a debauch'd Soldier made him a Holy Jesuit or when he sees the Soul of his deerest Friend Hosius x Ribadaneira in vita Ignat. mounting up into the sky far more gorgeous then the Soul of any other or when he works greater Miracles with his own name in a little piece of Paper y Valderama ut sup p. 51. Cum nomine suo Chartae inscripto then Moses and the Apostles did in Gods Name We cannot deny saies the Bishop of Canaries but somtimes very grave Men write and leave to posterity such reports about Saints Miracles humoring hereby both themselves and the People whom they perceive both prone to believe and importunate to have them do so There is a second sort of Roman Miracles which are somewhat but have it all from Artifice and Imposture Pope Boniface in this matter once behaved himself like a Man when thro a Pipe or Sarbatane he conveied so dexterously this a Platina Bonifac. 3. Bergom Supplem l. 13. in vita Bonif. Oracle Celèstin get thee away if thou hast a mind to be saved that Pope Celestin took it it seems
notwithstanding his Infallibility for an Angelical Warning and so left his Popedom to the Cheat. Pope Hildebrand had once another as good intention of Cheating but as it was much more cruel it had not so happy a success when he had ready a huge Stone b Card. Benno de Gestis Hildebr which should have faln from a high Vault like a Judgment out of Heaven upon the Emperor Henry the Third's Head but the poor wretch who was emploied in that good affair made too much hast for he fell down with his great Stone wherewith he was crusht all to pieces before the Emperor came under that place where he used to kneel at Praier It was a prettier trick of the Country Curate b Card. Benno de Gestis Hildebr who getting Crabs with little candies fastned to their backs set them a crawling up and down his Church-yard at night and perswaded his People in the morning after he had taken them again that they were poor distressed Souls which wanted z Melch. Canus Loc. Com. l. 11. c. 6. c Erasm in Epist Masses Images and Crucifixes are very commodious for working this kind of Miracles especially when they are ser up close to thick Walls as the great Serapis of Alexandria was once for then 't is an easie matter to get up behind by secret waies to anoint the Face of the Saint and to put in a Chafing dish that shall make him both sweat and weep by heating and melting that Liquor Springs and Wheels and such like Engines are of great use to move and bow and make them speak By such a Miracle the married Clergy unhappily lost once their good Cause at Winchester for when they were upon the point of winning it d Polyd. Virgil. Hist. l. 6. sub fin a Crucifix started at it and declared against the Priests This Voice in the Synod being well seconded by the Monks went presently for an Oracle So either simple were the men or strong the Impostures of those daies nor are they now much less in many places Altho Lyranus tells all the World That great e Lyranus c. 14. in Daniel Delusions are often put upon the People by Mass-Priests and their counterfeited Wonders and Signs Besides these two I will not deny but the Roman Church may be granted to have another third kind of Miracles which neither are fancied by Historians nor counterfeited by Juglers but really wrought by higher Causes For my part when I do read in grave famous Roman Writers that a Consecrated Host will flie and flutter in the Air sometimes till a Mass-Priest holds up his Pix to receive it that shapes of Flesh and young Children have appear'd on their Altars at the Elevation of the said Host that by many good Experiences Horses and Mules and Cows have bin cured of their Diseases when some Masses were sung for them to the honor of St. Barbara that St. Dominic did write Books which upon several Trials no fire could ever Burn that once he was seen perfectly in the shape of a Crucifix f Boet. Alan Rediv. part 2. c. 60. with the five Wounds in his Body and a Crown of Thorns on his Head that at the Consecration at Mass somthing like Christ was seen hard by him with the same signs of his cruel Passion dropping out of his own Wounds some of his dear Blood on this dear Saint that the Blessed Virgin beheld all this of her own accord plaied the Mass-Priest and administred the very Body of her Son in one moiety of a Consecrated Wafer to this same Saint in token of special Friendship and all this averred and sworn as true by a formal Oath in the Name of the Blessed Trinity and under pain of all kinds of Gods Curses in case of a lie or a mistake with five hundred such and greater Marvels I think it a kinder and safer part in me to take them for something then for mere Tale But for my pains of believing so let me who by Gods grace am a Protestant have the liberty which the Papists allow themselves when they controle what is done by Pagans to say as perhaps it is true that g Bell. de Eccl. l. 4. c. 14. sect ad quartum when the Emperor Vespasian once cured a blind and a lame man it was the Devil who hindring the sight of the one and the motion of the other seemed really to heal both when really he did but cease from hurting and annoying them Somtimes Papists will come so far as to suspect their own Miracles h Biel. in Canon Lect. 51. and to take them but for sportings of unhappy and wicked Spirits Those extrordinary shows of a young Child or of a Man of complete stature that appear somtimes as they say among their holiest Mysteries and upon the Fists of their best Priests They might as well if their Interest would suffer it find the like flaws in all the rest And you may easily do it if you compare their own Roman with all averted Christian Miracles For The Miracles of Christ and of his Apostles had in them three prime Characters which set them past all doubt 1. In themselves all were very substantial and serious Works and of a suitable nature besides both to promote the Glory of God and to procure some very considerable good to men 2. They did tend and were also proper to rouse the dullest Infidels to the belief of some Fundamental Article of Christian Religion as the Resurrection or coming of Christ the accomplishment of Prophecies and the establishment of the Gospel 3. And for this end God had them wrought mostly in such remarkable times as were set out by most express Predictions and freed by Gods restraining hand from all mixture and possibility of Lying Wonders The Roman Miracles contrary-wise carry with them three such sad marks or at the least some of the three as both visibly distinguish them from the Christian ones and must needs render them suspicious to all Christians First By their own intrinsecal Impertinency and Frivolousness Secondly By their general Aptness and Tendency to confirm rather any piece of trifling Superstition then any fundamental Point of Christian Faith Thirdly By being done late after the Gospel of Jesus Christ had bin thus abundantly confirmed over all the world by the former true Miracles that the farther continuance of them had bin useless which times were reserved for false Miracles and are branded accordingly by Christ himself and his Apostles with this woful Prediction that Antichrist should then come and enchant men with strong Delusions and lying Wonders 2 Thess 2. Revel 13.13 As to the first black Character whereas the Ancient Miracles of God are grave and serious works and do carry along with them both some Image of Gods Wisdom and some holy Impression of the Divine hand that causes them the modern and Roman Miracles are commonly such Sports and Pranks as can become but Fairies
continuing Sacred communion with Christ Sixthly that these Honors were all bestowed on them l Scriptum Smyrn ap Eus Eccl. Hist l. 4. c. 5. both for the more solemn celebrating of their faith thro-out all Churches and for the encouraging of all Christians to their Example This was enough to vindicate the Truth of God and the true meaning of his Church as to the Honor due to his Saints It might have bin enough also to smother in the very birth the growing superstitions of some private men in this case that St. Austin doth complain of or at the least to restrain them from growing worse and endangering the after Ages if the Pagans being confuted some partly seduced partly seducing Christians had not revived their quarrel and gon about to justify as much as in them did lie their old Reproches by propping their praying to Saints upon the two main Points whereon the Pagans worshipt their Gods The first is taken from the prudence that humble or wise Sutors must use at Court You shall hardly find one Papist but will tell you that it is rashness to go bluntly and directly to great Persons unless you be presented to them by their Officers and favorites and why should any man pretend any easier a Chrisost in S. Philogon tom 5 p. 505. Ed. t. Eton. admittance to God without their intercession and favor who as the Saints and the Angels do stand continually about him This is the very self same Argument which the heathenish Philosophers mainly objected to the Fathers and to which the Fathers gave two such Answers as at once may stop equally both the Pagan and Roman Mouths the one is that m Ambros ad Rom. c. 1. V. Dicentes se esse sapientes of S. Ambrose We are forced to go to the King saies he by the mediation of his Nobles because great Kings are men as we are and have this Infirmity along with their condition that they must hear and understand with the help of others besides themselves whereas God understands every thing which every supplicant asks and deserves and as for the obtaining of his favor we can employ no better friend then an honest and pious Soul The other is most singular and I have it from Origen But if you have a mind also to have the concurrence of the Angels n Origen cont Cels l. 8. p. 420. Edit Cantah saies he we have it when by pious lives and praiers we do address our selves to God For as the motion of the shadow must needs follow that of the Bodies what way soever these will turn let us know this that if we move God towards us we shall get by the same means all the good Angels Souls and Spirits to be our Friends and which is more actual helpers both by praiers and other waies for these blessed Spirits take most especial notice of men qualified for Gods favor And I dare say confidently that whosoever praies to God devoutly hath whole Legions of holy Angels at the same time praying for him without his desiring them to do so This antient Author is the first who ventured to say That the Saints might perhaps pray and act for us and yet he is as express as any other to direct men to God by Christ alone and to keep them from Praying to Angels and Saints The other main Ground common to Pagans and Papists for Praying those to their Gods these to their Saints is either the false Allegation or the false Construction of Miracles This every one knows who knows them both Whereas when the Miracles of the Saints were at the best that is during the three Primitive hundred years they never temted Christians any farther then to go and to pray to God in those places where they were wrought and where Praiers had somtimes very extraordinary returns there they might perhaps wish to God that he would hear in their behalf the general Praiers which these Souls most probably offer to God for the afflicted members of his Church But where is the worthy Prelate or Christian saith o S. August contra Faust l. 21. c. 21. Id. De Civit. l. 8. c. 27. St. Augustin who being by the Grave of a Martyr ever said Peter or Paul or Cyprian I offer to you this Sacrifice whether of Praier or Praise or Vow 't is all one The Miracles don by Holy Men did set as it were the Seal of God upon the Gospel which they believed and upon the Worship which they both promoted and died for therefore we must believe and worship as they did If they did set also as certainly they did some Marks of Reverence on their Persons and their Memory 't was not to this purpose that they should be either adored or praied to We do not read that true Israelites ever praied to the dead Prophet for the great Miracle wrought at his Tomb nor that Christians ever worship'd the living Apostles for all the signs wrought by their hands and sometimes at their very shadow S. Chrysostom p S. Chrysost ad Pop. Antioch Hom. 1. assures me that God kept them most commonly under some sensible Infirmity which they could not ease themselves of as the ill Stomach of Timothy and the troublesom Angel about St. Paul that the Glory of their Miracles might wholly reflect on Christs Power and that nothing of it might be abused to the admiration of their Persons But all is in vain to save those Men who have a mind to lose themselves Pagans in spight of all will worship the living Apostles Acts 14. and Papists will pray to dead Saints The Miracles of God must be wrested to countenance these Mens folly and to use the words of an ancient Father q S. Chrys Ibid. to this purpose here observe the Wiles of Satan Christ emploies both at once his Apostles and his Miracles to destroy all Idolatry from among Men and Pagans and Papists make use of both to bring it in This manner of calling on Saints is both unchristian and unjust on all the sides that you can take it First It transfers on Creatures that Prerogative of Gods glory and that special part of his Worship which in Holy Scriptures doth comprehend his whole Service Secondly It makes Saints to be what the Holy Ghost alone is searchers of Mens Hearts and Thoughts and present over all the World if not How can they perceive mental Praiers Thirdly if you suppose that night and day God is reveling to them what Men do and what they would have it forges another Impiety and make God a perpetual Clerk Mediator and Drudg to his own Saints Fourthly It intrudes into Christs Office as many Mediators to intercede with God for Men both by their Sufferings and their Merits as there are with him Saints and Angels whereas the Church knows none but one Fifthly It quite disables the Church from all possibility of asserting Christ and the Holy Ghosts Divine Nature by their usual
1467. an Altar built by such an Image that it may be a spring of all Graces to them who shall call on my Name Never Saint in the whole Bible spake near this rate 10. All Altars being made by their general institution both to receive and to sanctifie the Sacrifices and Offerings which are daily laid upon them the Virgin hath these also and in an immense abundance Gods Temple at Jerusalem was scarce richer then Lauretta is on this account Neither Gold nor pretious Stones are too good for her Majesty If his Holiness fear the French as Alexander the third once did he will secure himself from that danger by h Gianius Chronic. Servitor Mar. an 1495. offering her a Silver statue or as Innocent the 8th by offering Golden i Job Burch in Diarie 1492. Medals and Clothes embroidered with Pearls or as the Recineti did for securing themselves from the plague by offering her a Massy Crown k Tursel Lamet Hist l. 2. c. 8. of Gold and pretious Stones They that have not so much may offer less tho it were but a wax-candle as common an Offering under this new Religion as was a pair of Turtle Doves under Moses They that have nothing at all must make a vow of visiting some of her Churches Such vows they say have saved many from the Gallows from Shipwracks Falls Fires and all imaginable Dangers tho vows before Popery came up were never heard to have bin made to any Saint but God alone But which is more Sacrilegious then all either Vows and Sacrifices that which they call the Holy Mass must be celebrated on her Altars that is the Son of God and God himself as they take it must be sacrificed to her honor and in that impious service as I have demonstrated l Mystery and Depth of the Roman Mass elsewhere suffer more shame and Infamy to please her then he ever suffered on the Cross to save the whole world besides 11. They allow her in every year eight holy daies Christ hath no more of his Christians nor are they so religiously observed Nothing but death or some other Judgment as bad threatens the Profaner of them Witness the Hill m Bancius Annal. an 1580. which they say fell on the Villain who offered to dig upon her Assumtion day and the terrible pain * Bust Marial 1. part Serm. 7. p. 2. which ever troubled honest Alensis as long as he read his Schole-Divinity upon the day of her Conception Contrarywise great Miracles and great Blessings will attend the holy keeping of these Daies for wax-candles and Tapers n Petr. Abbas Cluniac Miracul l. 2. c. 30. will burn then a whole night without wasting And Bishop Bernard may fall down with his horse thro a broken Bridge without harm if he do but vow while he tumbles that o Chronic. Deip. an 1436. he will observe the Immaculate Conception day 12. And lastly The Papists bestow upon the Virgin Mary Proper Masses Litanies Canonical Hours and both great and small Offices in all Churches on all Altars and upon proper Holy daies Thus the Virgin or that Goddess which they take for the blessed Virgin hath all the Religious Services and more from the Papists that God and Christ have or ever had from the best sort of Israelites and Christians If God and Christ have not enough then Moses and the Prophets the Apostles and the Holy Fathers are much to blame who gave no more and if they did and gave as much as could make up all the service which God then required at their hands and which now another Spirit being certainly a Creature requires at the hands of Papists let the Israel of God be the Judge both what that proud Creature is that craves as much as God ever had and what these Catholics are that will give it For what they plead is soon wiped off Here a Woman stands accused of lying every night with her Neighbor She cannot at all deny the Fact but she maintains that the Fact is not Adultery because she never lies with him as with her Husband but alwaies as her dear Husbands Cozen and dear Relation There stands a Jew publicly impeached of Idol-worship by the Prophet because he burns Incense to the Queen of Heaven Jerem. 44.25 The Jew for his Justification avows this but utterly denies that because he burns not his Incense to the Queen as to the King and understands very well that this Queen is a Creature Between these two guilty Persons stands also the Roman Catholic charged with the same he cannot deny but he hath Churches Altars Vows Bibles Psalters Oblations and Holy daies and universally all those kinds of Worship which Christians can bestow on God which for his part he bestows also on the Virgin But this moves him not at all he stoutly clears himself he thinks of all by once saying that he neither honors nor adores with all these things the Blessed Virgin as he doth God whom he knows to be her Creator but as a holy Woman whom he knows to be his Creature By this Reckoning none of the three let them do whatever they will in the way of either Carnal or Spiritual whoredom can be convinced of being guilty as long as they have but so much wit as to distinguish the first a Cozen from a Husband the second a Moon from a Sun and the third a Woman from God Almighty Whereas by their very pleading and excusing of themselves they are found to be twice Idolaters 1. By their Act which they confess for they transfer on the Creature what is due to God alone 2. Secondly by their own knowledg for all what can be don to God in point of visible worship which is all that men can take notice of they willingly and voluntarily impart to others whom they know to be Creatures By what they do they stand guilty and by what they know unexcusable Never simple men were more grossly drawn and inveigled into such sins then Papists are To begin first where I ended last of these eight Holy Daies kept and set out for the Marian Worship not one can be called Catholic nor bear any primitive Date The very Papists p Bell. De Cultu Sanctor l. 3. c. 16. sect Ad tertium dico duo cannot deny it and among them the two greatest namely the pretended Conception and Assumtion as they were the fittest to crown a most compleat Idolatry so they came in the latest of all That glorious Feast of the Immaculate Conception now so blissfull to them that observe it and so terrible to them that do not was never thought on by their Virgin nor by themselves to any considerable purpose sooner then above twelve hundred years after the Virgin her self was conceived It was about the year 1300 when this Marian Goddess appeared like a Queen both of Heaven and all the Angels both to revele it to S. Peter the Cistercian who q Gononus Chronic.
an 1292. knew nothing of it before and to take him for her Husband upon condition he should keep it which he gladly undertaking her Son came down to the wedding and in facie Ecclesiae being in a Priestly Habit and in the face of the whole Church joined this holy Monk and his Mother in a Roman Wedlock together Her other Solemn and great Feast which they call the Assumtion and which in the Roman account makes the Virgin as much a Goddess as the blessed Ascension among the Socinians can make Christ God is scarce older One of the most skilful of all the Fathers in Sacred Antiquity I mean St. Epiphanius had not yet in his time heard of it nor had a great many years after pious and learned Pulcheria when she sought s Nicephor Eccles Hist b 5. c. 14. the Virgins Corps in the Holy Land not dreaming it was in Heaven Neither could Venerable t Beda de Locis Sacr. c. 6. Bede or Arch-Bishop * Martyrol Adon. 18. Cal. Sept. Ado men the best versed both in all true and untrue stories tell much more nor had Ludulphus de Saxonia tho a great Adorer of the Virgin †Devita Christ part c. 186. yet heard of that Legend Nicephorus is the first u Niceph. ibid. Romancer that can distinctly tell with what Triumph of men and Angles She went up twelve hundred years after it was don The Blessed Virgin Mary kept her self during that interval close and happy like other Souls in the Bosom of Abraham and under the wings of her Savior She never thought yet of coming forth either to throw x Mag. Speculum Tit. Festum Exemp 2. Gold or Medals into their hand who kept this Feast or to bury y Bencius supra them under ground who kept it not Neither mortal Ears had heard till then in the blindest times of the Church the Angels z Cantiprat l. 2. c. 4. n. 7. singing their Mattins to celebrate that Festival nor mortal Eies seen Trees * Gonon ex Annalib Colmar an 1276. both to blossom and bear Fruit against nature nor Hoods and a Cantiprat l. 2. c. 29. n. 26. Frocks becoming as good as strong Boats to ferry Monks over a great River when they would preach the Glory of that day In good earnest can an infallible Church can a true Church be drawn away to new Services upon the account of such Tales Or if these Tales and hundred other as bad or worse be true stories as they may be and I am not he that will dispute it what must we think of that Spirit which is pleased to entice us to his Service upon such Grounds This matter proves as bad again in the Point of Altars and Churches First it cannot be a good Spirit if created that calls for either Altars or Churches Secondly it is not a good Spirit neither that calls for them by unbecoming ridiculous and jugling waies Thirdly 'T is not a true Religion or a true Church that yields to that Spirit what he calls for both on those accounts and by those waies First Such Spirits what name soever they take are to be shrewdly suspected who call for Churches Vows Altars Offerings and all such other sacred services as clearly belong to God alone And in express terms Saint Augustin makes no doubt b August de Civit. l. 10. c. 19. but that they are Devils Good Angels saies this holy Father do then love us and for our sakes do rejoice when we worship the only God but if we do the like to them they are not pleased with it at all but openly cast it from them And when some have thought of deferring also to them that honor they forbad them and commanded them to do it to him to whom alone they know that it can be lawfully done Herein the Holy Men of God do imitate the Holy Angels c. Therefore saies and concludes the c Ibidem same Father as well he may when some of those Spirits or Saints have a mind to be served with holy Rites and Sacrifices and others avert it from themselves and order it for God alone the very sense of true Piety may teach any Man how to discern between that which proceeds from true Religion and what from a Spirit of pride for proud Spirits are neither good Angels nor the Angels of a good God And let d Ibid. c. 11. them do what Miracles they will even beyond the course of Nature these are but seducing Tricks of wicked Devils which true Piety must take heed of Here the Papists cannot answer St. Augustin nor satisfie him at all by saying That no Roman Saint or Spirit was ever found calling for any Sacrifices that is for the Blood of Bulls or Goats which here St. Augustin understands for then the Father will reply and out of Porphyrius an authentic Pagan Author that these proud c Ibid. c. 19. Devils never cared for the Blood or smell of slain Beasts upon any other account then because such Sacrifices were in those daies the Expressions of Divine Worship as now surely Churches and Masses are destined to the same end and therefore as much at the least if not more desirable and pleasing to them Who doubts but all the Gold and Silver Utensils which you shall find at Lauretta may be as rich Oblations as all that was once at Delphi And let any Jeweller tell me whether one of those many precious Stones which are daily by formal Vows sent and presented to that Goddess would not buy the best Bull or Ram that ever was at any time Sacrificed at Jerusalem To follow the Roman accounts one Mass is better then all what both Delphi and Jerusalem had together and if the Devils anciently craved for the slaughter of silly Beasts because such was the solemn worship of Israel how proud may they be now to see upon their Altars the Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ which tho in very deed but a Wafer yet in the Opinion of Papists is the most solemn Worship of Rome You will say that this Flesh or Wafer is not sacrificed to the Virgin Mary true indeed but it is worse for it is sacrificed to God for her sake in honorem Mariae Thus when I make much of a Stranger for my Friends sake the Stranger hath the entertainment and God upon the Roman Principles hath the Sacrifice or the Mass but the Friend and the good Lady are the main end and the main Persons I look upon he in the Entertainment and she in the Sacrifice a Gonon Chronic. an 1372. Thus this she Ghost understands it Thou art my servant saies she to a Priest offering the First-fruits of his Mass Priesthood when he was singing his first Mass Thou art my servant for I have chosen thee God uses to speak so to his Prophets and I will be glorified in thee I dearly love them of your b Leand. Albert. in vita
Jordan de viris Illustr Order saies she to her St. Jordanes that succeeded St. Dominic because in all their Divine Services they both begin and end with my Praises So c Gonon ib. Go and say to that Bishop because he begins his Sermons alwaies with my Praises that I will be a Mother to him I could bring to the same purpose a hundred like or worse Examples Let the Roman Catholics shew me but one where any good Angel ever said as much or where any Devil ever spoke for more If they cannot who may not fear what their best Monks d Chronic. Deip. an 1476. oftentimes do lest the Spirits of former times which seduced Men under the name of God of Christ of Angels and Apostles now may do worse under the name and the apparition of the ever Blessed and Holy Virgin Secondly This fear and suspicion is sufficiently evidenced to be plain truth by the undecent and foolish waies which this pretended Goddess takes to allure Men to these Services Commonly to compass her ends she comes down from Heaven it seems but however from above the Clouds either with new Hoods for Friars or Miters and Gowns for Bishops or Roses and Garlands for Maids or Pots of Holy Water to sprinkle them all When she hath overjoied them with these Favors that they may not want what to sing nor what to preach and do in her service she tells them she is the Queen of Heaven and the very Mother of Grace and that they shall find her to be so if they go but to such an Image and there build for her an Altar or sing to her honor Sancta Maria c. or some other-like Godly Anthem Often times before she leaves them she will kiss them or shew them her fine Breasts somtimes give a tast of her Milk or acknowledg them for her Husbands at the least before her parting she is sure to perfume the Room and stroak them on their Heads and leave them some good Books that will teach them to sing her Praises The ordinary conclusion of all is this after she hath well bewitched them what with favor what with perfumes they must pray to her both day and night and if they can build her a Church or a Chappel or do something to her honor To promote this Devout People shall meet with Images lying here and there among Brambles under Trees and under Ground either crying or laughing or doing some other wonder that needs must be taken notice of and when Men think that these Images call on them merely for succor to help them out of those obscure places into some neighboring Church it proves commonly a mistake for either the little Image grows so heavy that it is impossible to remove it or if you remove it twenty times you shall find it the next Morning in the same place where it was before and this is the ordinary token that there is the place where a Convent or a great Church or at the least an Altar must needs be builded This good Lady hath in the World hundreds of Churches and Chappels both made and served by this device I need not tell you where I learn this for no wise Catholic will deny it or he shall do it to his shame When the Building must be a work of greater charge and importance then will she take the trouble of bestirring her self more vigorously about it for in that case either she will set up some great Ladder reaching from the ground up to Heaven and there bespeak a e Gonon Chronic. an 1274. Church to her worship or she will come down to some Wall and there sit like a Shepherdess stroaking with her hand * Menolog Cisterc 7 Octob. a flock of Sheep which shall turn speckled with black and white under her hand thereby to give a fair intimation that there she must have a Convent of Monks wearing these two colours Or she will make Snow in f Idem an 363. Summer and tell the Pope of Rome in a Dream that John the opulent Citizen must there bury his whole Estate for the building of St. Maria major the seventh great Church now at Rome She will sometimes also shew the compass her Church must have either by the means of a strange Stag which she will inspire g Odo Gissaeus Hist. Virg. Amic to run about or she will shew it her self with a thred h Balinghem in Calend. B. M. 1 April which at this very day is kept for a very great Relic She counts it no disparagement to be found roosting on the ground i Vita S. Menuverci ap Sur. 5 Jan. under the figure of a Dove or sitting down by a k Pyraeus Coron B. V. Tract 1. c. 12. poor Girls scrip whilest she goes from her to tell the People where she would have a new Church stand Her Churches of Montserrati and Lauretta stand upon harder accounts for that is built upon a Hill where she had taken the l Hist Miracul B. V. Montis Serrat pains to keep a Maid alive in her Grave six whole Months when her Throat was cut and this which stands at Lauretta was at first a private Room in Nazareth but the Goddess being somewhat grieved m Gonon Chronic. an 1292. pag. 179. Edit Lugd. 1637. for not being so well worshipped in that Country as she deserved transported it thence to n Turselin Laretan Hist l. 1. Dalmatia that is farther then from London to Rome all in one night thence she made it jump over the Sea to Recineti thence back upon a little Hill whence upon a fourth jump it got and setled in that place where now all Catholic Pilgrims do resort to be cured of all Diseases This admirable House had bin hidden hundreds of Years out of Mens sight otherwise o Beda de Locis Sanct. c. 16. Venerable Bede and Arculphus might have found it at last after more then 1200 Years burial it started up again into that part of Italy where now it is Most of the Marian Churches as they call them stand all upon such Fabulous Foundations and Men must not be taken for Catholics unless they will serve the Spirits who will play such Pranks to get them Churches Thirdly I said that it is a strange Religion that steers it self and is guided by such absurd Impertinencies The very ridiculousness essential and inherent to these Passages might serve better then the Cloven foot to discover these kinds of Spirits Men who would hearken to their own Reason and lay Prepossession aside could not take her for a most holy and a most vertuous Virgin that could at any time brag amongst Men of what she is and allure them with Smiles and Kisses to Worship her as a Goddess Or in case their Reason were so weak and so inveigled with Custom as not to be able to see so much if instead of Consecrated Wafers Holy Water and Signs of the Cross
by the Roman Church must be a greater Temtation For what would you have more temting then this By this saving Office say they h Al. Gazaeus supra pag. 69. if you use it now especially when his Holiness hath improved it with Apostolical Indulgences 1. You may lay claim to Heaven not merely upon the title of mercy from God but by that of Justice and Condignity as your own Right 2 You may satisfy Divine Justice both for your sins and the sins of others 3. What would you have more by these Praiers whatsoever you can ask in the Name of the Savior and in the name of the Savioress Mary too you shall receive it For who can be so incredulous as not to be sure to have all in order to his real Good and Salvation by this form of Praier thus approved of by the Church recommended by God himself they mean the little Baby who bids men to pray to his Mother and in an especial manner consecrated to the Virgin Maries Service What a hot friend she proves to be and how Zealous to undertake for the silliest Fellow that is her Client S. Damian can best tell you i Cardin. Damian l. 2. Ep. 14. A pitiful sottish Man who had no spark of Grace in him but that he could sing Ave Maria and bow passing by her Altar had bin deprived of his Pension by a Bishop who thought himself bound in Conscience to free the Church from such a Wretch But then the Goddess comes by night and falls foul upon the Prelat and being seconded by an Angel who had a burning Taper in one hand and a lusty whip in the other What saies he wrong'st thou my Chaplain and takest thou from him what thou didst not give At last after many sound stripes the Bishop being taught good manners was glad to cry out peccavi and to restore to that worthy Man the stipends which he had kept from him This is but a temporal Concern but here is one which is Eternal It is somewhat long but it concerns all Men to know it and I have it from the same Saint k Card. Damian supra An ugly Fellow named Bassus who died a sudden death had the good luck to die so in coming from one of our Ladies Churches He having bin in his Coffin the greatest part of the night after his death rose up out of it suddenly both affrighted and affrighting others for with a terrible tone he cried for Praiers Litanies to scare away those ugly Spirits who watch'd for him about the Room and at last being come to himself for Ave Maria and Holy Water had soon frighted the Devils away when my poor Soul saies he parted from me presently came on some black Troopers this Fellow said they is our prize for he hath ever lived after the Flesh and never knew what the Spirit was His good Angel could say nothing but that he was dead in the service of their Mistress the Queen of Heaven and that whosoever hath her favor cannot perish by the power of any Judg. To this they make bold to reply that God being Just would do nothing for a Sinner to their prejudice and thereupon the Devils grew so earnest after their Prey and the Angels on the other side so remiss in keeping their charge that the Wretch was upon the point of being given up as he deserved when behold the Queen of Heaven came among them and an Army of Celestial Soldiers with her and with such a splendor besides that the Devils durst not look up Nevertheless with reverence they protested against the wrong which the former Angels had done them in detaining from them their just Prey and that if God and she were just they could not rescue such a sinner out of their hands The Queen confessed he had bin so but yet her Son and Lord would never suffer that one who had ended his daies in her service as this Fellow had done in going to visit her Church should ever suffer their Cruelty and withal he had confessed tho he had not the time to do Penance Hence the Devil took a fit time to tell her what a Villain he was and what ugly Abomination he had never confessed and that is true saies the revived Man of himself at which the Mother of Mercy started but at last after a kind of modest silence in reverence to this plain truth having somewhat recovered her self It is as you say saies she but yet of course Mercy goes before Judgment Go back again to thy Body saies she to him and then confess to such a Priest whom she named what these Spirits lay to thy charge and in my name charge such Friars whom she named also to take upon them thy Penance Then come again without delay for I will not stir hence till thou come The Rascal being confessed saies the Cardinal Damian and the Holy Friars having taken upon themselves the satisfaction enjoined him by the Confessor died again but as sweetly as if he had but fallen asleep A happy Sinner indeed who can find such a Savioress as will give way to all his Crimes and secure him from punishment Men troubled in their Consciences and unwilling to leave their sins do not consider the Absurdity tho visible in all such Stories but see their own conveniency and what could please and fit then better then such a protecting Goddess Add to this Enchantment of daily Praiers to the Virgin the Devotion of Fasting and Hearing one Mass to her Honor every Saturday the Temtation will be ended and your Soul safe This weekly piece of Devotion on Saturday Officium Sabbatinum is grounded as they say l Durand Rational l. 4. c. 1. upon three Reasons 1. Because the Saturday and the Sunday or the Ladies day and the Lords day as do the Lord and the Lady go together 2. Because as God the Father rested upon that day and kept it holy under the Law so must the Goddess his Daughter and Wife do the like under the Gospel 3. Because she is an entrance to Eternal Life as Saturday is to the Sunday But if you will be so refractory as not to acquiesce in these Reasons be you satisfied with a Miracle They say m Gonon Chron. an 770. that in the Year 770. it is pity it did not happen sooner that the Holy Apostles and the Fathers might have observ'd it a great Cortin that hanged before our Ladies Image all the Week long was miraculously drawn up as they suppose into Heaven from Friday at Vespers to Sunday Night so that the People could see her Face for the space of 24 hours and adore her accordingly This Miracle constantly veiling and unveiling the Virgin Mary on Saturday as well as the other that the Night of her Assumtion made all sorts of Lights burn without wasting is quite abolish'd But the Benefit and the Charm to induce you to hear her Mass Missa de S. Maria in Sabbato
familiarity with the Virgin and thereby learned to look her full in the face now fall to the first g Ibid. Miscell 24. n. 3. Decad or the first ten Ave Maria's of your Rosary Ave Maria Gratia plena Dominus c. And at the end of each Decad fastening alwaies your Eies on her in one of the three postures aforesaid adore her with this Doxology instead of Glory be to the Father Virgin Mother Glorious Mary let all the Angels and Arch-angels all Principalities Dominations and Powers the Thrones the Cherubims and Seraphins now glorifie you a thousand times And we hope to see you and adore you once in Heaven as well as they Amen Then take your breath and at the end of the second Decad or ten other Ave Maria's tell her this O glorious Virgin Mother let Adam and Eve Elias and Enoch the Patriarchs and the Prophets St. John Baptist the Innocents and all the Saints of the Old Testament with whom we hope one of these daies to see and adore you now bless you twenty thousand times Amen At the end of the third Decad that is as far as to 30. Aves O glorious Queen c. Let Peter and Paul and John and all the Apostles and Evangelists let Stephen and all the Lords Disciples Sebastian and all the Martyrs with whom c. now praise and bless you thirty thousand times At the end of the fourth Decad that reaches to 40 Aves Let all the Confessors Sylvester Gregory Jerome Isidor Martin and Nicolas Benedict and Bernard Dominic and Francis all the Bishops Monks and Eremits c. bless you now forty thousand times Ave Maria. And at the end of the fifth Decad O most glorious Virgin Mother let your Mother Anna and your two sisters Maries let Magdalen and your dearest Martha and Marcella let your dear waiting Maids Agnes Catharina and Agatha let all holy Maids Wives and Widows with whom we hope c. now bless you fifty thousand times Amen By this time you have done the third part of your Rosary and now you may take breath a while 5. When you shall come to it again for the first part is enough to some for a day and to others for a whole Week that you may both recreate and improve Devotion with some variety A wise and holy Man advises you h Navar. De Orat. c. 10. n. 36. to say but 5 Aves and to put a Pater to each and apply all to the five Wounds which Christ suffered in his Body for it is ordinary with these Men to say Our Father to the Virgin and Ave Maria to God with this Preface Go too let us sing five Pater nosters and five Aves to the honor of the five Wounds and first in memory of the right Hand Ave Maria gratia c. next in memory of the right Foot wounded Ave Maria c. then of the left Hand and Foot in the same way finally of his side concluding all the five Paters at every wounded Member with an Ave Maria by all means that being as pertinent to his Body as a Pater can be to her Image 6. When you have done with applying your Ave Maria's to Christ apply them now which is more proper to her self And by all means stick close to the direction of St. Herman not Herman the second Joseph and Husband of the Virgin Mary but the Dominican and therefore the best acquainted with Rosaries His advice is that having the Virgins Image before you you k Chronic. Deip. an 1243. take her whole Body piece by piece and apply to each an Ave beginning first with her Bowels then proceed to her Heart then her Paps after her Arms then her Hands then her Mouth in a Word every Member that you can civilly name and look upon in a Woman that so all your Aves may get more Merit and Holiness by being applied to every part of her Body as the Beads or little Buttons of your Rosary do you know by being touched at her Image For this piece of Devotion she once on a Saturday gave a gracious visit to this l Ibidem Harman and enriched him then with Eloquence the gift of Tongues and all other Graces imaginable 7. Another thing you may do more which Jordan m Gonon Chronic. an 1222. the Dominican and a great Saint gave in Counsil to Bertholdus When you are pouring your Praiers before the Mother of Mercies take notice of how many Letters the name Maria is made of it consists of five the first is M. therefore seek for some holy Song or Psalm of which the first Letter is an M. such is for example Magnificat c. The second Letter is an A. then say Ad te levavi c. The third is R. therefore have at Retribue c. and so to the very last After which you must dispatch your Aves provided which you may omit by no means that before any one of the five Psalms you sing or say Ave Maris stella I salute you O star of the Sea c. And at the end of every such Song you make a Leg or a Courtesie and then end with Ave Maria. This parcel of special Worship once pleased so well this Spirit for God forbid I should think it to be the blessed Virgin that leaving all work in Heaven she came down with a Pot full of Holy Water to sprinkle it on these Worshippers with her own n Gonon ibid. hand and to bid one of them tell all the others as from her that she was the Mother of God that she loved dearly their Order for thus beginning and ending the Service of God with her Praises and that for her doing so she obtained of her Son that no Dominican Friar shall ever defile that holy Order by lying long in mortal Sins A very great Privilege indeed and given to Monks from a good hand You might also do what St. Joane the Carmelite used to do * Benedict Mattus in vita Johannae Carmel but not to that prodigious number for she did dispatch I hope it was not at one time fifteen thousand Aves fifteen score is enough for you and at the end of each hundred she said a Salve Regina and seven times Ave Stella or O gloriosa Domina all prime Songs to adore her with and she called this Our Ladies Shift this being her Ladiships goodness to account it as so many Crowns or Ornaments and rich Garments bestowed on her when she is adored in this manner It is by the strength of such Hymns and well ordered Repetitions and Rosaries that S. Dominic o Flaminius in vita S. Dominic and S. Francis were predestinated as they say both to restore Piety and to keep the World from perishing that in all probability so many black Friars were admitted under the p Antonin 3. part Hist tit 23. c. 3. Robe of their Goddess that with continual repeting the Rosary Salutation Eustachius
a while and all things are ready for the Office let one Sub-Deacon or more bring the three Bottles orderly one after another on his left Arm where the Lady carries her Babe and deliver them being decently covered into the hand of a more noble Officer who shall name what Bottle it is as for Example Oleum Infirmorum Here is the Oil for dying People and so set it before the Bishop upon a little Table near the Altar At that moment the Bishop shall rise up and with a pretty low voice not so low nevertheless as when he changes Bread into Flesh thus conjure and consecrate the Bottle set before him I conjure thee shall he say O thou most unclean Spirit and all you Apparitions and Incursions of the Devil to get forth out of this Oil in the Name of the Father c. that it may become a Ghostly Vnction fit to streng then the Temple of the living God Then follows the solemn Consecration that God would be pleased to send down the holy Comforter out of Heaven into this Fatness of Olives that it may scatter all the Pains all the Infirmities and all the sorrows both of the Soul and Body and that it may be a safeguard and restauration to them who shall be anointed with it After this must the two other Bottles be brought up on the left arm likewise but with more Ceremony for the Chorus must sing the Verse or as they call it the Charm O Redemtor c. four or five times and the high Mass Priest must consecrate the Balsam and mingle it with some of the Oil in a lesser Dish or Patin This don he blows three times cross-wise over the Mouth of the greater otherwise called the Chrismal Bottle After him twelve other Mass Priests but of an inferior Dignity who stand ready for the same purpose blow each in order thrice and cross-wise on the said Bottle Then here follows the Conjuring Consecration Exorcizo te c. that is I do exercise thee by God the Father Almighty O thou Creature of Oil that all the Armies of the Devil and all the Incursions of Satan may flee away out of thee and that thou maiest become to them who shall be anointed with thee an Adoption of Sons by the Holy Ghost in the Name of the Father c. Having thus conjured and praied he falls upon singing the Praises of this Chrismal Oil calling upon the Trinity as impertinently as before that the Vertue of the Holy Ghost may be mingled with the Fatness of this Oil just as he the High Mass Priest mingles what is upon the little Dish or Patin and lets it in into the Bottle with a Fiat that is wishing or commanding that this mixture of Liquors be a saving Propitiation and safe guard to them who shall anoint themselves with it And in full assurance that it is so the Inferior Priest takes off the white Veil which this Bottle was hooded with then the High Priest with a threefold humble kneeling worships the Bottle three times together saying at every kneeling and salute Ave Sanctum Chrisma but raising his voice by set degrees for this belongs to the Mystery at the second and the third time the rest of the present Clergy do somewhat more for at every Ave in several notes as before instead of bowing where they stood they must approach and kneel before the Bottle call it worship or Idolatry or what you please Lastly both the High and low Mass Priests do most reverently kiss in order not the Mouth as before but only the Lip of the Bottle Labium Ampullae Nothing of all this is don in vain and nothing can be don too much for this is the great Chrismal Ointment which supplies the want of Baptism and which arms the true Catholics with all Graces not one excepted against all Temtations whatsoever The third Bottle conteins what they call the Oil of the Catechumens which laying Balsam aside is consecrated as the former for the High and the 12 low Mass-Priests blow thrice on it then it is conjured and praied over that all the Devils may flee from it and that so many Graces may come into their Places as both to adopt and to purifie the Flesh and the Spirit of all who shall therewith be liquored For the Conclusion they all worship the third Bottle as they did the second with their repeting Ave Sanctum Oleum I worship or Salute thee O Holy Oil. So you have all you can desire to set your Salvation forward against the world the Flesh and the Devil Fourthly the Church of Rome knows how to advance Salt and water either each by it self or both together by Conjuring them into another n Pontifical Rom. sect De Benedict primi Lapiddis saving Sacrament the Salt to be both the Health and the Salvation of the Body and Soul Salus Mentis Corporis and the water by it self no less but when both are mixt together then you are safe on every side then all ill Spirits and uncleanness must fly away and then the assisting Presence of the Holy Ghost comes in good earnest about you That is the reason that no wise Catholic will pass one day if he can help it without sprinkling himself with this water nor let the Chamber where he lies be without a little Bottle full of this holy Preservative Fiftly the Roman Church affords two other great Saving o Pontifical Rom. ibid. sol 114. Devises by blessing Wine and conjuring Ashes These Ashes if it be possible must be taken p Id. sect De Officio 4 Ter. Cinerum out of the burning of such Boughs as had served the year before for Palm-Sunday What vertu these Ashes have especially on a Catholic when troubled in his Conscience guess by the praier of the Church who sends expressly for q Ibid. Gods Angel to infuse strength and blessing into them The Wine not that of the Holy Communion for this is a Mysterie which neither Christ nor his Apostles ever thought of as it appears by its consecrating Praier hath a great deal of vertue too But it shews it especially when the Mass Bishop hath mixed it with the said Ashes Salt and Holy water therewith to hallow Churches Altars and all other Instruments of Catholic Devotion with such admirable Properties as can make all Services more acceptable Sixtly this is one of the greatest Perfections and Allurements of Rome that over and above the many Means of Inherent Blessings to enable the deadest Souls towards something she can enable Marble Wood and Stone to raise and quicken the least Performance And for my mony give me such a Master as can both animate my hand with skill and motion to play upon an Instrument and help me to such an Instrument as can make most sweet harmony of the least touch of my finger when I come near and this is the Case of the Roman Church and the great Attractive she hath to make
of God threatning that he will not hold them guiltless but look on them alwaies as Sinners and abominable guilty Persons whosoever do take his Name in vain Read who will Roman Service Books there he shall find the whole Trinity as frequently and as formally called down on Bells as on Children as dreadfully named and conjured Per Deum vivum c. By the true God the living God the Holy and Almighty God upon Salt Stones Ashes and such Trash as on his Sacred Ordinances The whole Service of Rome from end to end is pestered with such Conjurings 3. But if such Conjurings be not thought to be taking Gods Name in vain but seem somtimes to work out somthing you may justly fear that they be worse The Jews had an Art of casting out Devils and curing many Diseases some with Rings and Roots of r Joseph Antiquit. l. 8. c. 2. Herbs which they said they had from Solomon some by Suffumigations ſ Justin Martyr cont Tryph. p. 91. Edit Steph. 1551. and Conjurings The ancient Pagans did the same with Flowers t Euseb Praepar Evang. l. 5. p. 117. Edit Rob. Steph. with Figures and with Words which themselves did not understand These for the most part were Scripture names Sabaoth u Origens ê cont Celsum l. 1. Adonai God of Abraham Isaac and Israel c. The truth is abused Scripture and Medicine have ever bin the two common Ingredients of Black Arts this finds out Herbs Roots Gums Perfumes c. that furnishes sacred Words sacred Figures and holy Daies to make up the Enchantment Thus the Devils are best pleased when they trample both on Nature and Grace both on Gods good Creatures and Christs sacred Ordinances You can no where find more of this then both in the Jewish Talmud and in the Consecrations of Rome No Salt no Wine no Smoak no sound of strange Words and Characters can be out of their way and use in order to true Popery and if Christ and the Primitive Fathers ever used any of these Creatures to a Moral and Mystical sense the Papists will first stretch it out to extravagant Allegories and at the conclusion will abuse it for the working out of strange Feats Thus the use of Oil which by the Fathers was applied to represent the Graces of the Holy Ghost falls into the hands of Papists to cure Diseases Thus the ringing of the Bells is improved from calling the People to Church to make Corn prosper in the Fields and thus the Bones of dead Saints and the very Sacrament of the Lord from being kept as holy Memorials to be thrown to quench the Fire and to save Houses And as the Lord of Hosts the God of Israel and such other Names of God proper to his ancient People so must the Holy Trinity the Living God and such other Expressions of the blessed Divine Nature which are more proper to the Christians among other names of Saints and Angels be now brought in with many Crossings and Figures to conjure their Business and as Cardinal Rasponi ingeniously expresses it to make a x Respon de Lateran Basilic l. 2. c. 8. p. 147. Charm of Blessing With this a little Bottle of Holy Water hanged at or by the Beds Tester is conceived to keep the whole Chamber both from Fire and evil Spirits and as much as a small Peper corn of Wax sowed and wrapt up with Silk in the Figure of a Heart and carried about ones Neck is a stronger Preservative then all the forbidden y Concil Laodicen Can. 36. Phylacteries And as these great and sacred Names did not conjure so well as when pronounced in Hebrew for the Devil did not care for the word unless it was said Sabaoth or Adonai as Learned Origen well z Lib. 1. cont Celsum p. 20. Edit Cantab. observes all the Pontifical Consecrations and Exorcisms are in Latin Per Deum Vivum c. and this may he thought a good reason for celebrating their Mass in a Tongue that few understand for fear the Consecrating words in English or other known and common Languages might not work out the great Miracle which they call Transubstantiation Therefore whensoever Serpents or Floods or Quartan Agues are conjured or when to the same good purpose Spells and Papers are given out all is said and written in Latin out of their vulgar Version See their Book called Flagellum Daemonum full of Enchantments to scourge the Devils or their other Book called The Tresure of the dreadful Conjurings Thus 't is the Fate of corrupted Religions whether Jewish or Mahometan or Roman to end in Witchcraft and Sorcery and who can wonder if such continual abusing Gods Holy Name and Scripture proves a strong Invitation to any other Spirit rather then his own But of this you shall hear more about Images CHAP. XVI Concerning the most general and most sensible Inducement to Popery by the means and in the use of Consecrated Images BOTH the first scope and most difficult work of Christian Religion concerning Mankind is to raise up their Souls from low and gross visible Creatures to God himself and all Spiritual Objects Contrariwise the main business of Heathenish Superstitions was ever observed to consist in depressing Men from God and all supercelestial thoughts down as low as ever they could to gross and sensual Idols This second is the easier Task because human corrupt Nature all good or bad Religions being laid aside is apt and prone to move downwards by the very weight of its Principles Men naturally do love as little to look up or to employ themselves about invisible Matters as to gaze at random on emty Air and being guided only by their Senses it is exceeding hard for them to take any other way but towards what they see and touch Hence Rome hath taken the advantage to fit her own Religion from what true Christianity prescribes to what sensual Men can or will do For as to what they can if to love God with all their hearts and to adore him in Spirit be much above their Moral strength to bow passing by an Altar or to sprinkle themselves with Holy Water or to stand or kneel demurely at the lifting up of a Wafer are such acts of Devotion as any one who hath but some health and the natural use of his Members hath sufficient ability to perform And as to what they affect altho all spiritual Exercises and mental Elevations be to them unpleasing and all pure and eternal Objects very far above their sight and farther yet above their care yet they will kiss a Crucifix salute a Cross carry most devoutly a Scapulary an Agnus or a set of Beads about them and these and other like Devotions as I have shewed in many Instances go far in the Roman Account And as to the great Zeal and Passion which the Gospel of Christ requires tho few Men can force themselves so much as patiently to hear one Preaching upon any
Persecutions and Roman Images so late and so many hundred Years after all these Persecutions were over Why did not Images howl or sing under their Nettles as well in the fourth and fifth Age when S. Epiphanius S. Jerome S. Chrysostom and such Learned Fathers might have best judged of their worth as they did many hundred Years after when Antichrist was expected and when all the Learning and Holiness of the Gospel was under the thickest Cloud If you go to Tradition which is what the second Nicene Council and now the Papists go too as if Roman Images were come from hand to hand immediatly from the Apostles By what misfortune comes it to pass that the many hundreds of Greek Prelats all great Admirers of Images and Boasters of Tradition had never one of St. Luke's Pictures nor of Nicodemus nor of Christ and that now Rome hath got them all But since these Images never came to us through their hands as it is certain they came not that way Rome hath got them either flying like Birds and Fowls over their Heads or creeping along silently like Moles and Vermin under their Feet The truth is when this second Council of Nice was held it was somwhat too soon for such Roman Novelties as the prating and howling of Images to appear above Christian Ground it was not then yet quite so dark but the Church could see about her altho it was toward Sun-setting Hobgodlings venture not to dance at any Light but the Moon-shine A deep Mid-night of Ignorance and of all other Confusions besides which soon after over-whelmed the following Ages was by much a fitter time for Stones and Images to speak and for Spirits to delude Men. And you may judg what Ghosts they are who hide their Heads during the times of the Apostles and all the Primitive Fathers and take their times to shew them when all is full of new Revelations and Dreams and Monks and yet shew themselves in such a manner as marks both their Original and their Nature appearing forth from under ground and watching under Bushes and Brambles like those Spirits in Isa 29.4 which were not heard but muttering out of the dust Certainly those blessed Spirits who are imagined to speak thus are not in Hell whence damned Souls in Romes account will somtimes howl nor in that other place which in their Opinion is about it and which they call Purgatory whence they say that tortured Spirits will come up to bemoan themselves they have a most happy and glorious abode in Heaven whence it is not imaginable they will come down unless thrust out to lurk and weep here under Hedges The Scripture speaks of some false Gods which you may be sure of it were true Devils who loved to be courted under green Trees and of some other wicked Spirits which either whisper with a low voice as from the Earth or are met with and spoken to in some Sepulcher and love to keep themselves and others in Wildernesses and about Tombs The Heathen Rome had familiar Spirits or Demons Dii Lares and Dii Penates which watch'd and fluttered about their Hearths and Houses I have heard of some who had travelled in the East that in those vast Desarts between the Holy Land and the Red Sea especially about Mount Sina there are many unhappy Phantomes that will watch and kill Men somtimes when they find them single and stragling from their Convoies or Caravans And I am satisfied by some noble and living Eye-witnesses that often in some Silver Mines as for example near Befo rt in the Frontiers of France and Germany are seen a sort of seeming little Men in red or blue Juppa's Genii Metallici playing and trifling about Work-men especially in the deepest Holes These are both fit and likely Juglers to act their part in hollow Trees and dark Corners But who could expect it of Moses of Elias or of any Glorious and Blessed Saints or Angels that instead of waiting upon Christ in their Robes about his Throne or if need be as at his Glorification upon the glorious Mount they would come down into base Holes and there become Pupetplaiers to make Images whistle under Nettles Let Rome find us one such Example and second it with some reason why the Blessed Saints and Angels whosoever appear in Holy Scriptures detest and wave Adoration for themselves and now a daies under Popery come down purposely to crave and beg it for their Images Thirdly in the judgment of the holy Fathers a Eusebius De Praepar Evang. l. 5. p. 120. Edit Rob. Steph. 1544. in their Controversies against Pagans it was a sufficient Evidence and Demonstration against false Gods and it can be no less against false Saints to shew that they did teach men to make Images and that they did love these the like Figures And the truth is if holy Souls may be allowed in that elevated condition wherein they live to fancy yet dead and gross things it were rather their Bones and Relics wherewith they have fought the good Fight then carved Wood and painted Boards wherewith they never had any commerce For as to Pieces of stone or wood which are nothing to their Nature and as little to their Happiness it were most strange to see them taken with such Things and upon such poor silly accounts because therein forsooth they see somewhat like either their Form or their Faces Tho good and sober men may love sometimes their Friends Pictures none but vain fools dote on their own and they that laugh to see young Cats turning about and admiring their Resemblance in looking-Glasses would be sorry to see their old and venerable Friends doing the like in their Pictures Let the great Devil Serapis brag among his other Pagan Gods b Euseb supra p. 119. of the fine Head brave Locks and Beard and golden Feet which he then had in his Statues How mean and unbecoming such a great Saint as certainly the Blessed Virgin is were it to see her pleasing her self as doth the Laurettan Lady with acquainting sometimes a c Horat. Tursel Laur. Hist l 1. sick Mass Bishop and sometimes an d Ibid. c. 6. old Eremite with the value of what she had in her Chamber at Lauretta and shewing here the very Altar where S. Peter did officiate and there the very Crucifix which the Apostles had set over it But especially saies she here is our Image of Cedar which Luke the Evangelist made with his own hand to represent my Face as much to the life as it was possible for a Mortal and all this is a Dear Jewel both to God Almighty and to my self She accuaints them withall that it had bin long honored and with the highest degree of worship in her Town of Nazareth But at last their Faith and Devotion decaying she had removed all from thence to receive more Honor in Italie In good earnest will a true Saint make such discourses and will a true Saint
black and blew where her Image had bin abused and inspires a Black-Smith both with Intelligence where to seek out the hidden Jew and with skill and spirit to fight with him in a Duel for it was an affront she had received that was to be repair'd by her Hectors valor and kill him This one instance and many more that might be had to this purpose doth plainly shew that Roman Saints concern themselves in their Images not in a civil regard only as Kings abused in their Envoies or Nobles beheaded in their Pictures or Effigies but in a far more real manner as if Catholic Kings did find their Backs excoriated when some Pope scourges their Ambassadors and as if Gentlemen had their Heads really cut off from their shoulders when the Hang-man strikes their Pictures There is such an effectual Correspondency between Roman Saints and Images as is observed between Twins who most commonly are either well or ill together or to come somewhat nearer the case as between enchanted Images of Wax and the Persons intended by them who freez or burn accordingly as the Magician manages the business After this rate as they speak n Plutarch de Defect Oracul ap Euseb de Prepar Evang. l. 5. pag. 122. of the Howlings of Devils when Christs Passion and Sacrifice turned them all out from their old Seats you may hear somtimes these Roman Saints weep and bemoan themselves sometimes in the o Vincent Specul Hist l. 7. c. 81. Clouds sometimes under Walls when they are abused in their Images It is upon this same account of care and sympathy for their dear Receptacles that as Pagans did with threatning force their Gods to what they had a mind they should do Roman Saints may be led that way if you tell them unless they do it that either q Mart. Polon ad an 715. pet Canisius de Deip. l. 5. c. 24. you will drown their Images or take r Caesarius l. 7. c 46. away the sweet Baby as did really the Woman who kept him so long in her Chest upon the loss of her Child s Ibid. whom a Wolf had run away with till with wonderful humility the Queen of Heaven commanded the Wolf to bring again and restore his prey her Majesty seeming to be exceedingly afraid of being deprived of her Son that is the little Cherub whom she hath commonly on her left Arm. Hence you may learn upon what ground the Tyrians once being besieged kept their chief Image * Quint. Curt. in obsidione Tyri in Chains the Trojans secured their Palladium the Romans their Ancile and now the Roman Catholics have so great care of their Images Those were once what these are now dear Pawns and as it were Hostages to draw on any side the Gods and Saints p Franc. Hierasc in vita Henr. Sylv. whom these Images do relate to Never fear that the good Lady can forget her ancient Friend at Lauretta at Maria major or at Montserrat and if she be sometimes out of the way when Pilgrims adore those Images it is because she looks to some others But if the Image be deeply engaged either in its Reputation as when it had bin intrusted with the Keies and keeping of t Annal. Flandr l. 12. an 1340. Tournay or in its own preservation as that was which the Sextan u Bov. supra would burn to bake his Wafers then read what Apollo did x Herodot Vrania for Delphi and Minerva for her little Chappel when both were assaulted by Xerxes compare it with what in the like occasion our Lady did for y Tursel Lauret Hist l. 2. c. 20. Lauretta for z Annal. Fland. sup Tournay for an old Image and so upon this whole matter judg whether Pagan Gods and Roman Saints be not alike as to their care and kindness to their Images and how unreasonable it were if you take those for very Devils to take these for any true Saints Fifthly The very acts of making Images to speak is an irrefragable Evidence of their being both ungodlike and unsaint-like Spirits God and his Blessed Angels have in times past expressed themselves several waies by Visions Dreams Vrim and Thummim Signs Judgments Fires and Thunders I leave out Gods speaking by Men because it is his most ordinary way of Revelation But let the Roman Catholics turn over either the Holy Scripture or the genuine Writings of any ancient Father and then shew me where ever God or Saints or Angels spake either in the Church or abroad in the World a Balinghem 28. May. by Stocks or Stones or any kind of dead Pictures and after they have consulted their Consciences if instructed with any degree of Learning let them pronounce whether both speaking and working through Images be or be not the most universal and most constant way of Devils Hereupon let Rome consider that tho Devils may and do often countenance themselves with counterfeiting the waies of of God God or his Saints never have disparaged themselves with using the waies of Devils much less such a way as the use of Images is which God hath so earnestly and constantly disowned and declared himself against Sixthly Their own Speeches and Actings may convince any sober Man by their own Ridiculousness or Impiety what kind of Spirits set them on work To be short consider but this one instance namely the Image of our good Lady with a young Child on her left arm the great Goddess and God of Rome and at the first entring into a Roman Church the first and most conspicuous Object of the Roman Adoration Consider in this double Image 1. The Roman Lady 2. The Roman or as they call it the sweet Baby each by themselves 3. Both the Mother and the Babe together First As to the main and Mother Image What is it do you think that makes Images sometimes as light as any Feather sometimes as heavy and immovable as any Rock sometimes to fly sometimes to dance sometimes to sing sometimes to weep sometimes to sweat sometimes to tear themselves to pieces For if all the Pranks be true as 't is certain they are possible do they not become somewhat better those wild silly Spirits that use to tumble stools and dishes or to skip up and down in a house then the most Holy the most serious and the most truly glorified Virgin Mary Whosoever will be at the trouble of summing up the Hours and Daies which since these six or seven hundred years have bin mispent about such doings shall find both that this spirit whosoever it is that animates this Roman Image is oftner below then above and that against the condition of all true glorified Saints he or she fidles away more of his time about Visions and Drudgeries about Gallows Whores and Prisons and about Monks and their Images then is left him or her to spend with the Blessed Saints about Gods Throne and in the Beatifical Vision Seeondly what do you