reason to be afraid of this kind of persecution I mean of their Tongues for I may say I have lived amongst them without blame as may be conjectured from the considerable Employments which I have had in the Church of Rome for their Bishops never admit a person into their Cathedrals to preach unless they know him to be of an honest and good behaviour And the Religious of that Order of which I have made profession the Carmelites which doubtless is one of the most exemplary of the Romish Church if these had not had a good opinion of me they would never have promoted me to that degree of honour amongst them which I have held having been three times the Priors Deputy in the same Convent which Office is given to none but to such as are very regular and exemplary in their lives It is therefore needless that any person should trouble himself with an inquiry for the place from whence I came and of my carriage while I have remained in the Church of Rome to discredit this little Book I am not afraid in the least of any such thing I am rather fully perswaded that there is no man in those Towns where I have made my abode nor in the Convents where I have dwelt but will give me the reputation of an honest and just man blameless in my carriage until now as much as is possible in case the change of my Religion be concealed from them I think therefore that thou hadst best peruse this Treatise with a calm and unprejudiced mind that thou may'st be better able to judge of the things therein declared and gather from thence the instructions needful to undeceive thy judgment if thou art yet in the same errours as I have been Those that will read over these lines with that good disposition will approve of my change and of this publication and will be constrained to confess that there are causes and reasons strong enough to oblige any man to forsake the Romish Church and embrace the Profession of the Protestant Religion The Prayer before Sermon O Lord God infinite in goodness and mercy who hast by the gracious hand of thy divine Providence taken and lead me as Abram out of the superstitious Ur of the Caldeans as Lot out of the filthy flames of Sodom and Gomorrha as Israel out of the bondage and tyranny of Egypt as Joseph from his dungeon as Daniel out of the Lions den and as the blind Man of the Gospel out of that fearful blindness which hath since my infancy hindred me from the discovery and acknowledgment of thy Sacred Truth O God who hast preserved me from all perils and conducted me safe out of the hands of enemies with thy powerful and stretched out Arm here I am prostrate at the foot-stool of thy Divine Majesty convinced in judgment with a contrite and an humble spirit here I am in the midst of thy Elect of thy Royal Priesthood of thy Holy Nation of thy People purchased with thy Blood in the midst of Believers not with an intention to offer up unto thee their prayers for I am not worthy of so holy a Ministry my Tongue is not yet able to speak so loud as their sighs and my Lips are too much defiled but I am here to beseech Thee O'Searcher of the Heart to hearken to their vows and the prayers of their Souls for the advance of thy Glory the accomplishment and preservation of thy Church especially for this which worships Thee in spirit and in truth in these three Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland for the prosperity of the King that Commands here for his Spouse Queen Catherine for James Duke of York and for all the Royal Family for the Arch-bishops Bishops and other Teachers of thy Church that it may please Thee to enlighten them with the Spirit of thy Truth and enflame them with an holy zeal for the Salvation of Souls for the Lords and others of the Kings Council for the Magistrates and other Inhabitants of these three Kingdoms that it may please Thee to supply and succour them in all their wants whether they be spiritual or corporal But more especially we pray Thee for all such as are yet engaged and plunged in errour take them out of the same depths of sin from whence Thou hast drawn me open their eyes whether they will or no that they may perceive the truth of thy Gospel open their hearts by the divine power of thy Holy Spirit that thy Blessed Word may be received as in a good and fruitful field that it may bring forth an hundred fold In this occasion be pleased to accept of my prayers with thy peoples for I know by experience that Thou alone art able to turn and convince a Soul brought up in errour and change a heart nourished from its infancy with an abhorrency of thy Holy Word Therefore I pray Thee or rather we all pray Thee together to open the eyes of so many blind persons whom I leave behind me in the regions of darkness and touch with the efficacious finger of thy Holy Spirit so many stony hearts that resist the motions and offers of thy Grace with so much obstinacy Lord Thou hast performed in me a blessed change for which I offer up unto Thee my hearty thanks and praises beseeching Thee to pardon my unworthiness and graciously to accept of the thanks which thy faithful people here assembled do render unto Thee for my sake But O merciful God at this same time that I find my self obliged to offer unto Thee my thanks for a favour received from thy hand I find my self in a necessity to beg another favour and mercy of granting unto me the power and ability to declare unto this numerous Congregation the great mercy that Thou hast shewed me by bringing me to my Conversion I am desired O my God! it is but just that I should give glory to thy Holy Name Justice and Reason require that I should declare thy Goodness where iniquity hath so long appeared with impudency that I should employ the members which have been abused in warring against Thee to discover thy wonderful mercy in me these lips this tongue and this voice which hath uttered so many lyes and errours against the light and suggestions of thy Holy Spirit these members that have declared so many falshoods preached up so many abuses confirmed so many blasphemies committed and caused so many sins to be committed it is just that they should glorifie thy Holy Name Forgive O my God! forgive me the sin of having so long detained thy truth in unrighteousness against my conscience and thy secret motions Grant me the grace that I may this day be able to make an honourable amends that I may give the same testimony to thy Blessed Truth which I have given to Heresie and that I may bring forth fruits suitable to my repentance For this purpose O good God purifie my unclean lips touch them with a
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
a zealous observer of these particulars as may appear by his History in the Gospel Matth. 27.4 He wanted not compâ—nction or a hearty displeasure to have sinned against God for it is said he repented He confessed also his crime I have sinned said he in betraying the innocent blood David in his repentance could say no more and the greatest Casuists amongst the Papists demand no more for he did not confess only in general but he mentions also the greatness and nature of his sin There was also in his repentance a satisfaction for he restored back his ill gotten money he brought back the thirty pieces of silver How comes it to pass therefore that penitent Judas was damned It was saith a Papist because there was no Priest at the foot of the Gibbet where he hang'd himself to give 〈◊〉 absolution if there had been one never so contâ—â—ptible to speak to him but these two words Te absolvo he might have made him a Saint and following Ages would have built Temples in honour of him Altars and Images as to the other Apostles to receive the devotions of the People Some may reply that Judas had not that sincere and hearty sorrow required in a true Penitent and that this was the cause of his damnation I am of the same opinion I acknowledge that to be true but I affirm and can prove that Judas had as much sorrow and displeasure as the Papists require in a sinner when they give absolution and assure him of his happiness I know that some of them will say that this attrition must be supernatural grounded upon a divine faith as the fear of forfeiting the joys of heaven of falling into the pains and torments of hell or a grief proceeding from these and such like perswasions it is not derived from God or His Love but from our interest revealed unto us by faith In Judas we may take notice of a displeasure as great and not much unlike to that which proceeds from these principles as may appear by his own words I have sinned in betraying the innocent blood He declares publickly the innocency of our Saviour which was an act of faith moreover he declares that the consideration of Christ's innocency was the chief cause of his displeasure There is no ghostly Father of the Church of Rome but will take Judas's repentance not only for an attrition but also for a true contrition I am certain that they give absolution to many persons who never had so great a sorrow for their sins as Judas Therefore why was Judas damned St. Ambrose returns us a satisfactory answer 〈◊〉 â—hich we may understand how dangerous it is sometimes to confess our sins rather to men than to God Arbitror saith he enim quod etiam Judas potuisset tanta Dei miseratione non excludi à venia si poenitentiam non apud Judaeos sed apud Christum egisset Ambr. l. 2. de poenit c. 5. I am perswaded saith he that Judas might have been admitted by God's infinite mercy if instead of professing his repentance to the Jews he had addressed himself to Christ He went to confess his sin to the Jews who instead of reproving him for it and exhorting him to trust in God's unspeakable goodness returned him an answer that tended to confirm him in his malice and cast him into despair Quid ad nos tu videris said they to him What is that to us see thou to that This is the true model of the Papists repentance They confess their sins to a Priest as much loaden with guilt as they are themselves I have been drunk saith a drunken Sot in his confession to a ghostly Father who is sometimes more debauch'd Quid ad nos replyes the Father tu videris It is no great crime we are apt to be drawn away with the love of good company therefore for penance I enjoyn thee to cause a Mass to be said for thee before the Virgin Mary's Altar after that he is perfectly absolved I have been guilty saith another twenty times of the sin of Fornication Quid ad nos replies a lecherous Father-Confessor tu videris It is a difficult task to suppress the motions of love therefore thou shalt for thy penance number over thy Beads that is sufficient for thee such a one is afterwards certain to obtain salvation by this absolution so easily obtained I have worshipped Images will a nice conscience it may be say contrary to God's command I have believed many things not agreeable to what is recorded in the Holy Word of God I have preferr'd man's inventions to the Laws of God c. Quid ad nos tu videris Thou must do so saith a Priest by this means thou shalt come to be a Saint This is a Judas's repentance and a dealing like to that of the Jews Let any man judge if it be able to secure the salvation of our souls I might add to this that extraordinary Power which the Romish Priests claim of pardoning all manner of sins and of blotting them out with the breath of two words Is not this to make themselves equal to Jesus Christ and to declare themselves to be the Saviours of Man-kind Wherefore do they treat their Penitents as slaves and deal with them as if they were their Gods Moreover they treat the Son of God most unworthily and are guilty of the same sin as the wicked Macedonians who affirmed that the Holy Spirit was but the servant of the Father of Eternity The Romish Divines deal with Christ in a more disgraceful manner For by their doctrines they make him become their Priest's servant For when they are pleased to say we absolve this sinner it is the same as if they said to Jesus Christ we command thee to give to this soul sanctifying grace that it may be justified and acceptable to God the Father We will not grant absolution to that sinner that is to say we forbid thee to shew him or her so much favour as thou didst to penitent Mary Magdalen to wash away her sins this belongs to us we will do it a fortnight hence we command the sinner to come to us at that time until then we will bind him or her with a tye not to be loosed The Lamb of the Revelations without our assistance cannot open the book of a sinners conscience to take away from it the impressions of sin This is the imperious language of the Popish Priests to their Penitents they deal with them in this manner their Missionary and Itinerary Preachers are yet more cruel to such as are at their mercy I would not have any man think that I add more than is true I will assure him that I speak nothing but what I know to be too true If the Father-Confessors speak not these words always they have them in their thoughts seeing that they deal thus with the people and maintain that they must do so So impertinent and ridiculous they are But consider in