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
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
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
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
Christianity might well go farther m Damian Epist l. 2. Ep. 14. His Brother Marinus being full of this Roman Spirit when yet he was but a young man puts off his Clothes and instead of a halter about his Neck with a lethern Girdle which before he had about his loines he ties himself to the Altar Vowes and gives himself up to the Virgin Mary upon the account of being her slave then whips him self in such a manner as one would hardly whip a wicked wretch and in these words resigns himself into her hands My glorious Mistress and Lady and the true Model of all Vertues whom I have offended by the rottenness of my Flesh All I have more wherewith to help my self I give it up to thee to serve thee with I submit the neck of my heart to the Dominion of thy Dignity Order thou my rebellious self undertake the stubborn and let not thy Mercy reject the sinner By this small Offering 't was a sum of mony which he laid down at her Altar I do now give over to thee whole Estate and from this time ever hereafter I will pay to thee the yearly Rent or Tribute of the same as long as I shall live Papists may call this as they please the best Israelites in their most solemn Adorations never did and said half so much before the Lord. Deuter. 26.12 and the best Christians can do and say nothing to God the Savior that expresses more This height of palpable Idolatry procured at several occasions remorse and shame to its Authors in the very darkest Ignorance before it could be well settled For few years after some had brought in this Office n Gonon Chronic. an 1056. Gozo an eloquent and acute Monk prevailed so far with his reason upon the whole Monastery that these solemn Praiers and Praises of the Virgin were quite voted out of Gods Service But alas presently after this voting it fared just with these poor Monks as it had don once with the Jews when they had left worshipping the Moon Jerem. 44.18 Since we say they left off to burn Incense to the Queen of Heaven we have wanted all things and have been consumed by the Sword by the Famine For then it seems there fell upon the Country where the Convent was situated such a complication of wars and troubles which Cardinal Damian moved with a quite other Spirit then Jeremy was in the like case interpreted to be Judgments inflicted on them by the same Queen that they were perswaded to worship her again and then presently all was well Whosoever then preached S. Damian hath turned o Chronicon ibid. out of this monastery the blessed Mother of true Piety it is fit he should be turned out and whirled about with tribulations and Stormes But turn ye unto me again saies the Lord by the Prophet and I will return unto you saies the Lord he should have said saies the Lady and then the Impertinency had been complete The like but more hellish Illusion if their story be true happened to the Carthusian p Surius in vita Brunon 6. Octob. Order For when they were as poor as they are now rich some of them lookt on this new Marian Worship as nothing less then pernicious and the others were so much perplexed what with it what with the horror of the wild place wherein they were that they thought of leaving both the Place and the Miracle of the seven Stars But then comes to them an old man with long white and curled Hair who assured them from God as he pretended that the Virgin Mary would protect them if they would but read every day Preces ejus Horarias that is her small Office at the due hours So without any more ado they took her for their Patroness and consequently for their she God and since that time her Praiers went on A while after the old man came an Angel q Chronic. Carthus l. 5. c. 5. who advised them to put in between the first and the third hour Ave sanct a Parens and one Mass more to her Glory and if you please to believe all Christ himself r Anton. Caracciol ap Al. Gaz. pag. 108. dictated a Rule to S. Briget where he commands them of that Order to repete every day the said Service No mortal tongue can express how much that ambitious Spirit who assum the Virgin Maries Name is delighted with the hearing of those Praiers She now and then will come to say s Al. Gazaeus de Offic. B. M. pag. 94. Edit Atrebat 1622. them her self when tired or sick Friers as Herman was once cannot do it She will come down also and leave Heaven and all to hear them and in a t Chronic. Deip. an 1230. Majestic Apparel will smile upon and kiss the Choristers if they happen to sing them well and if this be not encouragement enough She will make her Son a Baby whom she commonly carries about run about them and exhort them x Wadd Annal Min. Tom. 3. an 1338. to be fervent in her Service and tell them that nothing can ever be more acceptable to God Almighty then is the honor which they shall bestow on his Mother especially when they fall upon some verses as is in singing the Te Deum When thou tookest c. thou didst not abhor the Virgins Womb y Gaz. Ibid. p. 99. her heart jumps and leaps with joy and so St. Ludgard advises his friend then to bow down to the very ground At the words Eja Advocata z she promises to speak to her Son At these words of the Antiphone Pulcra es decora a Stell B. V. l. 12. c. 10. Gazaeus p. 91. that is thou art fair and gracious She presently came with two Angels and proud with hearing her Beauty praised she took a young man from the Altar and perswaded him to take her for his Wife since she was so beautiful Hence her Roman Chaplains argue well b Al. Gazaeus de Offic. B. V. pag. 8. that if she be so taken with some Parcels of her Office how much must she be with the whole It is upon this account and her being charmed with these Caresses that she hath nothing about her too dear for her Spiritual Courtiers She leaves all her Nobles above to converse veiled and c Gonon Chronic. an 234. hooded and fing like a devout Nun among her white and black Friers she feigns to admire them when they sing she kisses them when they have sung and whilst she is hot and busy with an excessive Passion to divert by all means possible these supreme and Divine Services from God to a mere Creature nothing discovers the Devil more then this foolish overdoing But to lay aside these fond kindnesses of kissing suckling and marrying men and hiding them under her Coat which a Fairess or a white witch could better do the Magnificency of her Promises backt as they are
Christ the Merits of the Virgin Mary and the Suffrages of the Holy Church we beseech thee O Dominic do not keep us here any longer The Holy Angels can revele to thee at any time what thou wilt know and as for us we are such Liars as no Christian can believe us But the Saint fell to another Praier O worthiest Mother of Wisdom for the Salvation of this good People who have learned in this Rosary to salute thee force thou these Enemies to declare to us the plain truth He had scarce made an end of Praying when behold she comes with a Troop of above an hundred Angels armed with golden weapons and in the midst of them the Virgin with a golden Rod fell foul on the Devils Backs Then fell all the Devils to new howlings O Damning foe who emtiest Hell and makest the best way to Heaven thou dost force us against our will to speak out truth and our own Confusion Hear ye therefore O Christians This Mother of Christ is too potent to preserve her devout Servants from ever falling into our hands It is she who breaks all our Plots and we confess that whosoever keeps to her Adoration and Service can never be damned with us we never can prevail against any one of her People She saves many against our Rights at the very moment of Death and were it not that she frustrates all our Designs we might have long ago made all her Church fall from the Faith To say all in a word no man who makes use of her Rosary can be damned S. Dominic having by this time what he lookt for bids the People to say the Rosary then O Miracle never to be forgotten at every Ave Maria a Troop of Devils under the figure of burning Coals breaks out of that Heretics Body and being all out The Virgin gives them her Blessing and goes her way The Conclusion and design of all this is all sorts of People from that time applied themselves in good earnest to the use of the Rosary and to the worship of Mary Christ and all his Apostles never thought of making thus the Devils to preach his Gospel no more did Moses or Elias employ them so to confirm the Law It seems the Rosary as to its end hath neither Christ nor Elias nor Moses nor any true Saint to favor it and therefore t is no wonder if it was helped by other waies Nevertheless all the World was not so generally blind and sottish as not to see that the Devil could tell a ly and juggle then with S. Dominic and so this new sort of service having no better ground to stand upon then the warranty of the Devil made so little Progress in the world that the same sprite under the Name of the Virgin Mary 400 years after was fain to appear e Gonon Chronic. an 1476. to another Saint and with extraordinary Favors as Rings made of her own hair and milk which she Drew out of her own Brest to enchant him to the same Service At the first it was called our Ladies f Bulla Sext. 4. Psalter because the Lady hath there 150 Salutations as in the Bible the Lord hath 150 Psalmes Now it is called the Rosary either because of the Sweet Comforts that g Martin Navar. De Rosar Miscell 1. as they say it perfumes Devout Hearts with or more probably because of a sweet odour sweeter then that of any Roses which devout worshippers pretend to smell at such Praiers Herman this Ladies great Mignion did smell it so perfectly that at each naming of Mary h Chronic. Deip. an 1235. he stooped his nose to the very ground that so he might have it the fresher and they tell us of an old man of the same Confraternity that at any time or place soever when and where he said his Rosary i Ibid. an 1594. he was revived with this Aromatical Fragrancy Nay the very hand of Saint Caecilia k Ibid. an 1507. even after she was quite dead did smell they say better then any Rose by often touching her Rosary This smell is invented to perswade men of the Excellency of the matter which Excellency is quite other as they take it then could be had either from the breath of an Arch-angel or the mouth of a Prophet For the Roman Church hath improved it to such a form to such an end and to such a signification that now it hath a hundred Mysteries in the mouth of a Catholic which it never had in that of the Angel tho you should grant as they will have it that he l Gonon Chronicon pag. 10. sung it upon his knees For as they take it Ave that is sine vae that is without any thing that hath any smell of Curse is such m Martin Navar. de Oratione Dom. c. 19. n. 131. a Salutation as proclams the Virgin Mary to have bin free from all kind of sin whatsoever from the Original in her passive Conception from all Actual whether mortal or venial in her life time and from any decay or corruption in her Body either at or after her death Maria in their Roman Construction raises the heart of a Worshipper to adore her both Soverain and Universal Monarchy over all men and Angels sometimes n Missal Paris in Sab. Missae de S. Maria. over God himself too They take and construe o Navar. De Orat. Domin c. 19. Maria also for that special Star that guides poor Travellers upon the Sea Stella Maris the surest defense against all storms the best Leader into Heaven both by her Example and Merits the Light of them that sit in darkness and the great Star that Balaam saw Gratiaplena makes her in the same Grammar * Navar. ibid. a whole Sea and Ocean whence the Sinners have their Pardon the just men all Increase of Grace the Angels joy and the whole Trinity Glory here they find in particular the seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost the nine Miraculous Powers and the twelve p Antonin 4 part Tit. 15. c. 20. special Privileges of being the Mother of us all the Gate of Heaven c. Therefore this Ave Maria when specially thus understood makes the sweetest Melody by * Chronic. Deip. an 1303. her own confession that ever you can sing in her Ears Christ himself as they think or at the least say sings q Vita S. Margaritae Chronic. S. Franc. c. 3. it sometimes upon the Altar and the Virgin hath it written in letters of Gold upon r Gonon Chron. an 294. her brest Many People who knew nothing but the three or four first words of this Angelical Salutation s Chronic. Deip. an 1149. Ren. Benedict de Vit. SS 1. Nov. Th. Cantiprat l. 2. c. 29. sect 9. have bin as they say as well saved therewith as if they had known the whole Gospel And all the t Molan Indic SS Belg. Roses and white Lilies nay
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
three Patterns Apparitions Actings and Images Jure Matris impera * Missal Paris Miss de B. M. Impera sublimiter imperiosissima c. Command the Son like a Mother c. Thus the Virgin is adored as the Goddess and Queen of all and thus at last these fine Images recommended †Gregor Epist. ad Serenum by Pope Gregory as an useful Book for Ignorants have proved among the Papists to be what the Prophet said they were Teachers of lies For this Mother Image when provoked will k Bryaeus Chronic. B. M. shift and toss its sweet Baby like a Tennis-ball from hand to hand then give it suck and when St. Paula was kissing it she once had the happiness to tast some few drops of the Milk that was l Fesulin in vita Paulae yet left between his Lips Then the Child being full goes to play till the Mother calls him back again and in requital of the good Milk runs about like a little Rat bidding all m Chronic. Deip. an 1338. Men to praise its Dame and telling them how they n Gononus in vita Merthildis must do it When he had done she gets him Wives o Balingben 4 Decem. whom she calls Daughters and gives him Rings for his dear Brides S. Mary Razia S. Catharine and S. Brigit c. are known Instances of what I say The sweet Baby sometimes makes sweet returns in the same kind For when the Mother gets Husbands the Child acts the part of a Priest and as it appears in S. Peter the Cestercian whom p Chronic. Deip. an 1292. she would be espoused to he marries and blesses them together All these Passages are to be seen both in the visible Motion and in the audible Language of Images and these Images are animated both to move and to speak as they do by those Spirits who call themselves the Queen of Heaven and her sweet Babe Now that these are but evil Spirits what title soever they may take unless possibly Imposture and the knavery of Priests may claim a share the very ridiculousness and unseemliness of their doings are their Heralds to proclaim it and as to their being Queen of Heaven or a Savior or any good Angel none besides the Papists but a Lucian or a Jew or some like Blasphemer of Christs Name will have People believe they are to shame with this Belief Christs Holy Name and Religion After that how far these Spirits will proceed beyond their giving and being given in Marriage I cannot tell as to the act but as to the possibility of worse it is certain that Spirits who offer to be both unholy and untrue may be unclean too Learned Men know what other Demons Mars and Venus and Jupiter and other Pagan Gods and Goddesses have proved to be in the very heat of their most seemingly Sacred and Religious Mysteries For my part I have lived too long beyond Sea to take Convents and Monasteries which these Apparitions use most to haunt for Schools of any Chastity Besides what I know by Books I know particularly by above twenty little Skulls digged out of the Ditches of a ruinated Nunnery called Font-some near St. Quintin where we camped a while in the Year 1658. sad Evidences that besides most cruel most impure Spirits had bin there and it is upon a long continued Experience that the Sins of the Flesh and the Worshipping of Idols go both under one name in the Scripture Psal 106. Thus they defiled themselves with their own works and went a whoring after their own Inventions To lay aside the unclean part of this Whoring there is another as Devilish that attends it the Worshipping of Devils or Ghosts of dead Men instead of Saints which most real and pitiful tho most unperceived Sorcery hath ever bin the common fate of Image-worshipping and corrupted Religion and hardly ever Men left God and turned aside from his waies without meeting with ill Spirits Thus did the two Sons of Noah when in their Posterity they turned the Religion of their Father into an Heathenish Image Service thus did also the Israelites as soon as they fell to their Idols and thus after them have the Jews done by falling to their Conjurings And how were it now possible for Men to escape it who fall to both to wit Image Service and strange Exorcisms I do not love to aggravate Burthens which of themselves are too heavy But without aggravation it is most certain that the Roman Church serves more Images then all the Heathens did together she hath evidently more Conjurings both public and privat ones then all the Jews And so accordingly I may challenge the best Scholar and best vers'd in Antiquity to shew me such droves of Spirits running after Men and Women among either Jews or Pagans as I can shew him false Saints haunting and courting sometimes Monks sometimes Nuns sometimes other Superstitious Persons among the Papists This being so no Man must wonder if he sees Rome since she is turned Roman Catholic both more defiled with all Uncleannesses and more enraged to Bloody Massacres and owning both impudently then ever she was when mere Pagan And without these two sad Effects that could never have bin influenced upon Christianity but from Hell the Great and Glorious God and Savior Christ is as much as in Rome lies degraded out of Heaven by the same Devils into a Boy that sleeps on straw or cries and tumbles in deep Snow or runs and plaies with other Lads or is every day kept in a Wafer which a Mass-Priest hath enchanted And the ever Blessed ever Holy and ever Glorious Virgin Mary is traduced likewise by these Spirits into a shameless Vagabond Woman rambling the most part of her time after some Suiters or Husbands O Lord how long How long shall this Transgression both make desolate thy Sanctuary and trample it under foot Dan. 8.13 FINIS A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF R.F. his Missale Vindicatum OR VINDICATION OF THE ROMAN MASS A brief Account of R. F. his Missale Vindicatum or Vindication of the Roman Mass AT last after a deliberation of two Years a Roman Catholic comes forth with great Zeal against me to vindicate his Roman Mass In the whole course of this his Vindication the good Man favors me so far as not to answer one wise Word to any thing that seems to be somewhat material in my Book only leaving his dear Jewel under all the dirt imaginable he shews by what he is pleased to write how he is well resolved to make much of it such as it is and like a tender-hearted Parent to kiss the Child tho it be deformed This fondness of Affection renders all his Railings more excusable Men we know will defend what they love thus what way they can and Nature teaches the very Children when you take from them what they fancy to scratch and cry Only among all his ill Language I must find fault with his Prudence when he