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A31347 A Catholick pill to purge popery with a preparatory preface, obviating the growing malignity of popery against Catholick Christianity / by a true son of the Catholick apostolick church. True son of the Catholick apostolick church. 1677 (1677) Wing C1495; ESTC R15262 39,661 102

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the merits of Saints and Martyrs you pray unto God not only through the merits of Jesus Christ but through the merits of Saints whose Reliques are under your Altars your devotoes affirm that the holy Virgin saves us and brings us to heavenly glory not only by her prayers but by her merits and the Roman Divinity saith plainly that there are some Saints and Martyrs that have suffered more then their sins did deserve and that their superabundant satisfactions are put into the Treasury of the Church and distributed by the Popes Indulgence They after cry By the prayers and by the Merits of the holy Virgin Mary of Michael the Archangel of S. John Baptist of the holy Apostles Peter and S. Paul and of all the Saints without making any mention at all of Jesus Christ and his merits And Tenthly and lastly for I should tire you if I should proceed to farther Instances the Papists do profess to believe with us that the blood of Jesus Christ purgeth and cleanseth us from all our sins Why then have they invented the fire of Purgatory If all sins are washed away and purged by the blood of Christ what then remains to be purged in this Imaginary fire They mock the world in calling of it pugatory for according to Romish Doctrine it serves not to purge but to punish souls and to satisfie Gods Justice so that it is not a purging but a pain and a punishment and what resemblance can there be betwixt this subterranean fire and the blood of Jesus Christ Is the grace and pardon of a King applied to a man by breaking him on a Wheel or by burning of him quick But the most torturing Wheels and the most ardent fires are nothing in comparison to this pretended Purgatory if it be true which those of your party say that it is ten times hotter then our fire and that it differs from hell fire in duration only Open then your eyes and see the Sun of truth which shines so bright in the Gospel Jesus Christ hath by himself purged our sins Heb. 1. And the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all iniquity 1 John 1. And that there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 That they pass from death to life And when they put off this body of flesh they have a house eternal in the heavens 2 Cor. 5. They then are over with the Lord And blessed they are who die in the Lord so saith the Spirit They rest from their labors and their works follow them Rev. 14. But what rest or comfort can there be in such dreadful torments Do they not manifestly contradict the words of Wisdom which say the souls of the righteous are in the hands of God and no torment shall touch them I could make the like observations upon all the other controverted points of that Religion And therefore had not our forefathers reason to separate the pure and simple Christian Doctrine from this prodigious medly of so many humane Inventions and Traditions Did they not well in shaking off the yoke of so many Ceremonies and Superstitions borrowed the most part from Paganism Judaism Of which yoke we may truly say as S. Peter did of the Jewish It is a yoke the which neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear In vain do they tell us of the writings of their Fathers and the distinctions of their Doctors we are resolved to hearken to no other proof then what can be alleged out of the word of God or by consequence deduced from it for what concerns our salvation and the service of God We will trust him alone who is our Lord our God he hath merited heaven for us and he alone can shew us the way thither while we follow the light of his word we are sure we shall not go astray Let not then the Papists trouble themselves to force us to their abominable fooleries For the most eloquent discourses imaginable the most plausible humane reasonings the most authentick Authorities of the Fathers The subtilest distinction of the Schools are not sufficient to make us believe either adoration of Creatures the Invocation of Saints the worshipping of Angels the Veneration of Images the power of the Pope the merit of works their most unreasonable Doctrine of Transubstantiation the pretended Sacrifice of the Mass the imaginary fire of Purgatory or the like Nothing is capable to make us acknowledge any other Mediator any other Saviour and Redeemer then Jesus Christ Any other sacrifice then that of his Cross any other Purgatory then his blood nor any other merit then his obedience Nor any other Infallible guide then the holy Scripture And therefore though we are by the uncharitable Papists damned for Hereticks that we have no reason to fear that God Almighty will condemn us because we have trusted to his Divine Word and holy Ordinances we have fashioned our service according to that pattern he hath left us in the Scriptures we have closely adhered to the purity and simplicity of the Christian Doctrine We cannot give that honor and glory to the creatures which is due only to the Creator We content our selves in Worshipping of one only God in Spirit and in truth we put our whole trust and hope in him alone and we put up all our petitions to him in the name only and for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. We cannot believe those false Priests who tell us that Christ is here and there we admit of no other sacrifice then that of the Cross nor any other purgatory than that of his blood we admit of no more Sacraments then those which Christ did Institute and we celebrate them no otherwise then the Apostles have done before us we pray to no Saints worship no Angels nor bow down to any Image Crucifix or Picture and therefore we hope through the infinite merits of God in Christ Jesus because we have been faithful in his service obedient to his commands and observed his Ordinances we shall not be condemned or eternally rejected from his presence But we hope to hear from our Saviours own mouth These words of eternal Consolation Because you have kept the words of my patience been faithful in my service to the death you shall receive the Crown of Life You have been good servants enter you into the joy of your Lord Inherit the Glorious Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the World Which God Almighty grant us for our Lord Jesus Christ his sake Amen A PILL TO PURGE OUT POPERY OR A CATECHISM FOR ROMISH CATHOLICKS Shewing that Popery is contrary to the grounds of the Catholick Religion and that therefore Papists cannot be good Catholicks The Speakers A weak Christian A Minister DIALOGUE I. Christian AMong the diversities of opinion that are in the world how may I know which is the truth whereto I must cleare and who are the true Church and true Catholicks Minister a Believe not every spirit
Blessed Virgin your confidence your refuge and your only hope but the holy Scripture not only commands you to trust in God but it forbids you to trust in the Creatures Jer. 17. Cursed be man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his Arm but blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is Fifthly You confess that it is by the goodness and mercy of that God you are saved so far you are right But you believe also that you are saved by the merit of your Works and if you have none good of your own you buy some of other of folks which Priests make you believe they have store of And counsel you as many as have money to buy But doth not the Apostle say That every one shall give an account of himself to God Again Every one shall give an account what he hath done in the body whether it be good or evil And the Apostle expresly Rom. 11. If it be by grace then it is no more of works Ephes 2. We are saved by grace through faith and not of our selves it is the gift of God and not of Works lest any man should boast Sixthly You would be no Christians if you did not believe that Jesus Christ was made of Woman in respect of his Humane Nature and like unto his Brethren in all things sin only excepted And that in respect of his Divine Nature he is the express Image of the Father Very God of Very God But you believe and adore another Christ who is made of bread and is not at all either God or Man having not the least resemblance of either nature though by his resurrection from the dead his glory is much Augmented Yet it hath not destroyed the verity of his humane Nature nor made his body invisible or impalpable After the Consecration of your Priests I neither see or touch any thing but bread I cannot see or touch the natural body of Christ is it possible any man living should perswade me by any Arguments in the World in this particular contrary to my five senses Behold my hands and my feet Handle me and see for a Spirit hath not Flesh and Bones as you see me have and where there is not Flesh and Bones to be seen and felt there cannot be a Corporal presence Behold then oh you Papists to what a Religion you invite and call us even to the Idolatrous practice of the Heathen World to pray unto our fellow Creatures to Worship Images and fall down to the Stock of a tree I say to the worshipping of the consecrated Host which is a more stupid Idolatry then the worst of the Heathens were ever guilty of you invite us to a Religion that takes from us half the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Notwithstanding the Institution of Christ in express words and the constant practice of the Primitive Church to the contraty You practise the heathen persecution of taking away our Bibles and would involve every Layman in being a Traditor the next step in the account of the Primitive Church to Apostacy from the Christian Faith You tempt us to a Religion that contrary to the command of trying all things and holding fast that which is good and paying to God a reasonable service enjoyns an implicite faith and blind obedience To a Religion that instead of the guidance of the Word of God sets up an Infallible Judge and Arbitrator of all Doctrines the Pope of Rome Who instead of the Faith once delivered to the Saints adds new Articles of Faith And instead of that our propitiation made by Christ and the condition thereof Faith and Repentance sets remission of sins upon quite other Terms and proposes the gift of God to be purchased with money For instance Sacrilege is valued at seven Groats Incest at five Simony at seven Perjury six Murther five And so on for every sin if you have but money you need not fear a pardon though you never Repent or forsake your sins But let me instance a little further In the seventh place you confess with us that Jesus Christ is ascended into heaven and there sits at the right hand of God but you pretend to believe that he is also on Earth and in a Million of places at once That he is on Altars and in Pyxes in the hands or in the stomach of the Priests and of all those that do Communicate But the holy Ghost tells us not only that Jesus Christ in respect of his Humane Nature is ascended into Heaven but that the Heavens must contain him until the time of the restitution of all things Act. 3. and that he shall then descend in the same manner as he ascended Act. 1. This glorious Saviour not only saith I go to my Father but to shew us that he withdrew his body out of the world so absolutely that it should be no more there in any manner whatsoever he saith I leave the world and go unto the Father John 16. The poor you have always with you but me you have not always John 12. And he gives express caution against the false Imagination of his Corporal Presence If they say Christ is here or he is there believe it not Behold he is in the desart go not forth behold he is in the secret chambers believe it not Matth. 24. Again in the eighth place you give Jesus Christ the Honor to call him the Saviour and Redeemer of the World But then do you not affront him to Communicate these glorious Titles to meer Creatures do not the devoutest persons in your Religion call the Blessed Virgin the Redeemer and Saviour of the World and Bell. in his fourth chapter of his Book of Indulgences saith expresly that the Saints are in some sort our Redeemers But the Gospel tells us Not only that Jesus Christ is our Saviour but it tells us plainly that there is no salvation in any other and that there is no name under heaven given amongst men whereby we must be saved Act. 4. Ninethly In appearance you exalt the sacrifice which Christ hath offered on the Cross But in effect you annihilate it and tacitely accuse it of Insufficiency for you have invented another which is that of the Mass But the Apostle doth not only say That Jesus Christ offered up himself to God That he hath purchased Eternal Redemption for us And that by one oblation he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified But he teacheth expresly that he offered not himself often for then must he have often suffered from the foundation of the World And as it is appointed for men once to die and after that to judgment so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many And that where there is remission of sin there is no more offering for sin and that without shedding of blood there is no remission Heb. 9.10 With one hand you Papists lay hold on the merits of Christ but with the other you lay hold on