what manner this Confession is made They begin by a repetition of the Confateor saying I confess my self to God the Father Almighty to the Blessed Virgin Mary to St. Michael the Archangel c. What an impertinency is this Doth my absolution depend upon the will of God the Father of the Virgin Mary of St. Michael and of the Priest equally must they all consent to the forgiveness of my sins is not God's mercy sufficient alone why do they rank them with God Afterwards the Priest forceth them to mention all their sins every particular and circumstance asking them questions according to the condition of the persons but such many times as are more proper to teach than to reprove vice daily experience declares But what manner of sins think ye that the Penitents are forced to confess Such as many times are but the whimsies of the ghostly Fathers who would perswade their Zealots of being more spiritual and more subtil than ordinary by this means to oblige them to a greater reverence of their persons What ridiculous impertinencies have some of these Father-Confessors taught their penitent Nuns in their Confessions You shall see what the right reverend Father Father Yves a Capuchin of Paris hath written in his Letters of Agathon to Erastus and Father Chiron a Carmelite in his Book called The Examen of the Mystical Theology They bring a devout Nun before her Father-Confessor accusing her self in this ridiculous manner and nonsensical language Benedicite ghostly Father I accuse my self and confess that I have not been early enough upon my tip-toes in the heart and about the concerns of my internal houswifery in the time of my prayer I have not been fixed to the In-action nor to the contemplation of the In-being I have not acted my devotions in a fit temperies of soul and body I have suffered my senses to wander from the domination of the man-Man-spirit thus hath it been almost all the time of the aeconomical work of my obediential duty I have eaten and drunk and taken of the creature too freely otherwise than in sight of natural mercy without minding in due time to do acts of stop stop to my All by a recal of my self within my self of my outward part within the compass of my inward in the bottom of my soul I have not done my best endeavour to keep my self always in the fiery Meridian of the full reigning of God in me I have not rested my self under the caliginous mists of the enlightning Pedagoge I have not been thankful enough to the triple Spirit of God in me to the tear-heart the endure-God and the transpiercing lover-God These two Authors affirm that the Missionary Priests of Peter Camus Lord Bishop of Bellay and Father Donatian have taught their devout Nuns to confess their sins in this extravagant manner Let any man judge if such lessons as these are not ridiculous and impertinent if their consciences are not deceived by believing all these niceties to be crimes they had better declare with David I have sinned I acknowledge my offence O God have mercy upon me than to run over so many sidle-fadles The time of Confession is spent in reckoning up such impertinencies as these and after all the Priest enjoyns a penance more ridiculous than the confession it self A certain Monk informed me of a very discreet and virtuous Lady who was so conscientious that she came to him to intreat him to mitigate or change a penance commanded to her by a Missionary Priest which was to dip her smock in cold water before she went to bed and to sleep in it every night for a whole year she had been once obedient to him but her obedience almost cost her her life Nevertheless she was perswaded that there was no salvation for her if she did not perform her penance this cast her into a despair and made her almost mad See unto what grievous follies and mistakes this supposed power drives the Papists They pull Jesus Christ from his throne to place their Priests in his seat they enslave the souls and consciences of men to their wills so that they believe themselves bound to credit whatsoever they say to do whatsoever they command yea the greatest follies and impossibilities § Abstinence and Fasting I have always look'd upon as a very holy and useful practice but I could never understand under this dispensation of God's Grace in this liberty and freedom from all laws that are not of his enacting how it is possible that a good piece of beef or a slice of fat bacon should be able to damn my soul sooner than a red herring For we are commanded by St. Paul to eat that which is set before us and our Saviour assures us that it is not that which enters into the mouth that defiles the soul but that which comes out They tell us that Moses Elias and our Saviour Christ have done so before us their virtuous examples in this respect were admirable but not imitable the Papists are not careful to follow them exactly no more than the Protestants For they should spend forty days and forty nights without eating or drinking I am perswaded that if the Pope should make any such law the Romish Bishops and Cardinals would never believe that he was inspired of God But we may see by experience that abstinence from meats and fastings are quite out of fashion and seldom observed by the Roman Catholicks their Casuists allow liberty to so many that but few in these days think themselves to be obliged to keep these Laws for if you please to set aside all Women with child all wet Nurses all Handy-crafts-men Plow men Mariners and Seamen Servants that work all day all Travellers weak and sick such as have no means to eat a good meal that is to say such as have no fish or something like that for their dinner set aside the Magistrates and others that labour with their brains the Ladies that cannot sleep without a good supper in their bellies and generally all such as have not attained to the Age of one and twenty I or that are above threescore and tell me how many will remain And of those whom we have not mentioned but very few observe fasting for it is no fasting to feed twice a day I am certain they are rather guilty of gluttony to fill their paunch above measure at noon that they might not long for meat the rest of the day I think they had better never have made any such Law which concerns so few and which by them is very ill observed But the Prince of Darkness hath found out this expedient to beget doubts and scruples in the souls of men that they might sin against their mistaken consciences and by that means run into damnation I must take notice here of another consideration unto which I could never find any satisfactory answer and which hath help'd me to discover the vanity of all these feigned austerities whereof the
the Wine his Blood c. all this is well and very true we are not ignorant that St. Ambrose St. Chrysostome St. Austin St. Cyril of Jerusalem and many other ancient Doctors name it so But how can the Papists shew by the Holy Scripture that Christ is there in the same manner as they affirm by a real presence which is not only spiritual but material and corporal That he is there in the same manner as he was of old in the Virgins womb in the manger of Bethlehem upon Mount Tabor and upon the Cross and nevertheless that he is in the highest Heavens at the right hand of God the Father Where can they find in all the four Evangelists any Text that mentions this prodigious Miracle of the Transubstantiation or transmutation of the bread into the real Body of Jesus Christ and of the wine into his Blood with a destruction of the first and a creation of the latter by the efficacy of four words uttered by a Priest Where is there a Writer of the Greek or of the ancient Latin Church that speaks of this Mystery in the same manner as Thomas Aquinas who maintained a corporal presence multiplied without division accidents sustained without their proper substance a discontinuance of a being without corruption a production of the same effects by a cause that is not an humane and divine substance under the appearance of a Wafer a God made man where nothing of his manhood is to be seen a body without extension a life without motion an infinite number of equal parts proportionable to their totum in a Mathematical point a relation from the same to the same from the first to a second who are but one a situation without space an abiquity without place a general destruction of all Predicaments by this supposed Mystery or Manhu as he calls it a word which expresseth the admiration of the Israelites when they saw the Manna fall amongst them Did ever St. Ambrose St. Chrysostome or any of the four chief Doctors of the Christian Church speak in this manner they did never imagine that so many absurdities could enter into the minds of men I am perswaded that if this Doctor stiled by them the Angelick Doctor because of the rare Inventions of his Wit had lived in the days of St. Austin and had spoken unto him in these terms that Primitive Father would never have understood him although he understood the Predicaments of Aristotle without Tutor doubtless he had taken him for a man faln from the Clouds dwelling in the Globe of the Moon or for one that maintains that there is there another World Where have they seen in Holy Scripture or amongst the ancient Fathers That the Lay-men must not communicate in both kinds that the Mass is a Sacrifice where the Passion of our Saviour is really renewed that Jesus Christ will be there worshipped in a visible manner by an adoration that relates to the substances as God himself if he were to be seen according to the Command of the Council of Trent I have been several years reading and perusing the Holy Scriptures and its Interpreters but I have found nothing there like to these Doctrines unless it be in the Popish Authors for I have met with an hundred passages contrary to this belief I confess we find in Holy Writ that Christ hath said This is my Body but he hath said also I am the Door I am the Stone I am the Vine and the Shepherd of the Sheep c. If we are to take all these expressions in a literal sonse we must believe that he is a Door a Stone a Vine a Shepherd of Sheep But the Scripture saith that Jesus Christ is ascended up into Heaven and that he sits there at the right hand of God the Father Therefore he is no longer upon Earth for it is not possible that the same Body should be in two distinct places at once If that were likely as the Philosophers tell us the same Body might be in twenty in an hundred in a thousand and in ten thousand places in the same moment From hence we might conclude that it is possible to make one man become a great Army that one man should kill himself a thousand times and yet continue alive that he should be a Saint in one place and a Devil in another damned in one place and saved in another the object of Gods wrath and goodness at the same time these are impossibilities and plain contradictions Christ commands us to do this in Remembrance of Him therefore he is not there really and bodily for we do nothing in remembrance of a man present before us in a corporal manner The Papists instance the Manna which was kept by God's command in the Ark in remembrance of that which God sent down from Heaven which was both the remembrance and the thing remembred the representation and the thing represented This is one of the most plausible Examples of the Papists but it is to little purpose for besides other Reasons that may be alledged against it I think they are mightily mistaken to compare a totum integrans with an individual one and the same may be divided and the parts carried into several distinct places where they may be look'd upon in divers manners but the other is altogether repugnant to division and separation The Manna that was in the Ark I confess was a memorial of that Manna which the Israelites had fed upon in the Wilderness but it was not the same How can they therefore from hence conclude that Christ's body must be in several places under distinct notions Christ informs us That His words are spirit and life and that the flesh profiteth nothing that it is the spirit that quickens It is not possible to speak any thing more contrary than this to the Papists Doctrine for these words assure us that Christ is there really and in truth but spiritually not corporally nor substantially that He is there by his Spirit virtue and efficacy to produce the same effects in us as if he were there in a sensible manner This was taught by the Primitive Fathers and thus the Protestants believe it He commands us also To eat his Flesh and drink his Blood in both kinds St. Paul repeats the words and the Council of Constance which is esteemed by the Papists as highly as a fift Evangil saith that since the Apostles time Communicants did receive in both kinds wherefore did they then take away the Cup why did they establish this Law that forbids Lay-men to drink of the Cup They acknowledge that Jesus Christ hath appointed it to be so that the Apostles did practice and command it and that it had been an universal custom amongst Christians for all men to communicate in both kinds Nevertheless this Council was so insolent to forbid it and command the World to believe that this Prohibition proceeds from the Holy Ghost although it be contrary to Christ's Institution
to the Apostles Doctrine and the Practice of the first Christians we must have a notable Faith to believe this The inconveniencies which they mention to colour their Change are ridiculous They tell us that some men wear long Beards and that a drop of Christ's Blood may chance to drop upon them and that some that are sick may by this means give their Diseases to others c. But how comes it to pass that Jesus Christ did not foresee all these inconveniencies were the Bishops of this Council wiser than Christ himself Did not the men of our Saviour's days and in the Primitive time wear long Beards were they not as subject to spreading Diseases as well as in the time of this Council St. Paul tells us that Jesus Christ hath offered himself up once for all as a Sacrifice but they affirm that he offers himself not only once but every day and a thousand times a day and in a thousand distinct places in every corner where the Mass is sung which is say they a true and real Sacrifice of the Body of Jesus Christ Whom must we believe what the Papists say or what St. Paul But suppose the Mass were a true and real Sacrifice of Jesus Christ a second death and his very Passion as they teach are not their Priests Murderers and Executioners from whence proceeds this effect is it not from a real cause that is in them Whence is this Sacrifice is it not from a true and real Sacrificator Moreover according to their own Doctrine three conditions are chiefly required in every Sacrifice the Offering the Consecration and the Destruction where shall they find the latter in this Sacrifice of the Mass Do they destroy the Body of Jesus Christ if they answer that they destroy the Bread and the Wine they don't answer to the question for it must be the Sacrifice that must be consumed and destroyed for either we must say that only the Bread and the Wine are sacrificed or that the Body of Jesus Christ is there destroyed and consumed Hence we must conclude that he is both dying and immortal dead and risen and worshipped by the Angels and at the same time eaten by Men things altogether inconsistent and impossible But where do they find that we must worship the Bread and the Wine as being united to the Body of Jesus Christ that we must kneel at every time that we see them as before God himself if he were visibly present Doth not Jesus Christ command the contrary when he saith that the time is come that we must worship God in spirit and in truth How in spirit if we worship the Bread and the Wine How in truth if Jesus Christ be not there really present as we have good cause to question it and as it may happen according to their own saying For in case the Priest be not a true Priest in regard of some Canonical impediment or if his intention be elsewhere in celebrating Mass what kind of Mass will it be and what shall the People adore Some young men come to receive Orders very much unprepared whom the Lord Bishop saith that he hath no design to receive and admit to the Priesthood as for example when they send other persons in their stead that are more Learned to be examined for them when they make use of false and supposed Letters when they are mentioned in a Decree or deserve an Excommunication All these persons according to the Popish Doctors are not really Priests they have not the power to make the Body of Jesus Christ although they may pronounce the words of the Sacrament Others have not a right intention out of negligence or design these cannot cause Jesus Christ to come down under the species of the Bread and the Wine although they pronounce the words of the Consecration I have known a Priest that caused a noble Dame to Receive almost every day at the end of his Mass to hide from her Husband the secret correspondency that was between them and to cover it over with a fair shew of Devotion and for four or five years he never gave unto her a consecrated Wafer for fear of committing Sacriledge by causing her to receive in an evil disposition And about six months ago some Priests of a Town where I have dwelt to satisfie a devout Woman faln into Frenzy that did earnestly desire them to admit her to the Communion resolved amongst themselves to put an unconsecrated Wafer into the Chalice which should be separate from the rest In such a case I desire you the Divines of the Church of Rome to tell me if you believe that Jesus Christ is not present in the Bread and Wine but when the Priest pronounceth his words with an intention to make him come down from Heaven whether the people that assist there and worship the Wafers don't commit a grievous Idolatry Yes you will say they commit a material Idolatry But pray tell whether the Priest and the penitent Woman the Whoremaster and the Whore did not commit a crime in your judgment was not this as great and as formal an Idolatry as ever was seen I shall not mention many other stories of the baseness Sacriledges and Idolatries of the Romish Priests which they are guilty of in this occasion for I intend not to make a satyrical Libel of this serious Discourse I shall only say in general terms that if the Father-Confessors of the Church of Rome would but speak truth and declare what I have heard there is no reasonable man of any perswasion but will say that which we cannot utter without blasphemy that Jesus Christ would be extravagant and mad if he were in the Mass as the Papists believe § Purgatory is another new Article of their Creed which hath no ground nor appearance in Holy Scripture The Papists mention a certain place out of the Maccabees Book 2. ch 12. v. 43. but this Book St. Jerom praefat in Proverb and many more as Cajetan in fine Comment in hist Esther and Cardinal Hugo in Prolog Hier. in lib. Regum declare to be Apocrypha Another passage is cited out of St. Matth. 12. where Jesus Christ saith that there are some Sins that shall not be pardoned neither in this world nor in the world to come From hence the Papists conclude by a Maxim of Right Exceptio firmat regulam in contrarium that there are some Sins that shall be pardoned in another world that is to say according to their meaning in Purgatory But we may easily perceive that they miserably wrest this passage and argue very impertinently to make this conclusion Some Sins shall neither be pardoned in this world nor in the world to come ergo There is a Purgatory A Chymist would sooner extract ten ounces of Oyl out of a Pumice-stone than to gather this conclusion from the premisses But there is nothing impossible to the Popish Divines they can make a fire with any wood when they are to warm