disturbing the Earth and mounted into the blessed Regions of Light and Peace and Love as a Reward of Strife Disobedience Hatred and Contention and every evil Work. Neither is it sufficient to say in this Case that his God's Substance being invisible and not to be discern'd by Mortal Eyes or Human Senses there is therefore need of a sensible Memorandum altho' the Worship be terminated in Himself for at this rate all the Idolatry of the Heathen World may be excus'd for no Man is so sensless to believe their Worship was terminated in a Stick or Stone at least we ought not to believe it without very good Proof and if it could be prov'd yet even this would be parallel'd in the Church of Rome where they Pray p. 26. to the Crucifix of Wood or Stone as well as to Christ himself and attribute as much Satisfaction and Expiation to it as they do to the Blood of their Crucifi'd Redeemer as appears undeniably from the Romish Missals which are extant at this day and may at any time be produc'd against them God do's not expect p. â—0 that we should make a particular Confession of our Sins to Men the consequence of which is only to make our selves uneasie in the Company of those to whom we have Confess'd to run an apparent hazard of being undone in many Cases by Knaves for Interest or by Fools out of Levity Inconstancy and a blabbing Humor and indeed I know nothing it can be good for but to let Men that have nothing to do to pry into such Matters into the Secrets of Families and to put our selves perfectly at the Mercy of a Priest who will sometimes be treacherous as well as other Men besides that instead of keeping up a wholsom Discipline it is the way to corrupt it and tends to the debauching both Laity and â—lâ—rgy in as many ways as there are Sins to be committed when the Confession and the Penitent begin to discover and understand one another Or tbus They have all along consecrated their devilish Practices by these glorious Names The Churches Interest is the Center of their Religion and their Consciences turn upon the same Pin That every thing is Pious Conscientious and Meritorious that makes for the Cause and there 's no Sin with them like Ill-luck and Miscarriage The supernumerary Articles of the Trent Conventicle have almost every one of them a Plot in them either to destroy others or advance themselves But their Politic Creed wich serves to keep up the State and Grandeur of Holy Church is most fatally pernicious tending to the Subversion of all Christian Monarchs in the World The Articles whereof are such as these That the King is the Pope's or the Peoples Creature for it is indifferent to their great Machiavils the Jesuits whose he is so he do but belong to either Take him whole or divide him or how you please so that God to whom alone he belongs and is accountable may have the least share in him If the People contend to have him all to themselves the Jesuit's a fair Chapman and will rather give up the Spiritual Interest of the Chair than dispute it That if the People do but Depose him p. 17. be it for Tyranny be it for Heresie nay be it for Popery or Suspicion of Popery do but Depose him and he is contented Or thus Whatever Doctrin gives licence to Sin must needs proceed from the Devil Yet in the Church of Rome such Doctrins as these are solemnly constituted as Essential Parts of the Christian Religion and impos'd upon the Christian World with the same Authority as the most Fundamental Articles of the Christan Faith. Or thus Would we but change our Scripture into Legends our Service into a Mass-Book our Prayers into Beads our Sacraments into Shows our Priests into Puppets would we Communicate in one Kind Read Prayers in an unknown Tongue Adore the Pope little less than we do God Preach Purgatory instead of Repentance sell Masses for a Groat bestow Indulgences and Absolutions to the worst of Men. Tho' instead of Scripture we set up rotten Tradition Tho' instead of Faith we Preach up Faction Tho' instead of Obedience we became guilty of Treason Nay should we murther Princes and prove false and deceitful to Mankind yet Euge bone serve all would be well and we in an instant thought worthy of a better Kingdom by the Papists If they Jesuits cannot peaceably compass the same they are to do it by Fire and Sword Halter or Poyson never minding the lawfulness of the Means provided the Thing be but done I confess I should admire their Zeal and applaud their Order but since one of them must go with Dagger in his Hand another with a Pistol a third with a Bowl of Poyson most of them with one Mischief or other to murder the King and massacre the People to breed Confusions and unhinge the Government to destroy Religion and plant Idolatry I cannot but utterly quarrel and blame their Zeal and yet no Pharisee ever compass'd Sea and Land like them No Difficulties scare them no Improbabilities amaze them no Dangers repel them Tu Regina jube Let but the Pope He or She command them and away they go with as much alacrity and readiness as the Evil Spirit to persuade Aâ—ab that he may go up and fall at Ramoth gilead Or thus There is great boast made of Alms in the Romish Church they sound the Trumpet of them perpetually in our Ears But what is the End to which a great part of this Charity tendeth The Scope they too often vainly aim it is the Blessing of a presumed Saint who is ignorant of them Security from the External force of Evil Spirits by the Charms and Spells of Monkish Conjuration a sort of Ecclesiastic Magic which those very Spirits invent and encourage Nay sometimes the Scope is that very wicked one of Compounding with Heaven by their liberal Alms for their unforsaken Sins And here in this Nation whilst the Island was enchanted with Popery there were granted Indulgences ever for what they call Deadly Sins for many thousand Years to come Or thus A Jesuit being once ask'd What Ways and Means the Papists design'd to take for the introducing their Religion into England Gave this Reply We intended at first to do it either by persuading and convincing the People with strength of Reason and Argument but because these have prov'd so often vain therefore of late Years we have pitch'd upon two new Methods and Resolutions The one is to debauch and vitiate the Nobility and Gentry and to bring them off by degrees from all Sense and Care and Kindness for Religion which is easily to be done by representing to them a Sinful Pleasurable Life both Lawful and Safe The other is to divide the Commons into several Sects Now how far the Papists have thriven in these Designs I shall leave to the Judgment and Determination of every
either to stifle its Discovery or to divert the Odium of it from themselves upon others Or thus Of all those former Practices there is no one can parallel that execrable hellish Plot which was now set on foot against us and is still going on and if God have not mercy upon us doubts not of success to sink the Protestant Religion which we profess so far as never to rise again Or thus Our Enemies slept not they were contriving how to make us return back into Egypt or submit not our Necks only but our Souls and Consciences to that Tyrannical Yoke of the Roman Slavery and thought the Design so well laid that it was upon the point of being Executed Then did it appear that God was still watching over us for Good and he that saw all these secret Contrivances so closely carry'd and cemented with so many sacred Ties disappointed all their Councils and brought all their Designs to light when we were least aware of it being tho' sensible of a great Danger hanging over us yet little apprehensive that it was so near us and was to break out in such a manner Or thus Their loud Cry is not for Diana but for the Silver Shrines not for the State of the Church but for the State and Pomp of the Church-men to make the Pope and his Clergy absolute Lords of all Powers and Pleasures and Profits of the World as in the Discovery of the late horrid Plot for the Subversion of our Religion and Government we find they design'd for themselves the most beneficial Places both in Church and State. Or thus Providence hath discover'd another Plot and Confpiracy contriv'd by those who act according to their Principles A dangerous Plot deeply laid secretly carry'd on and that stumbles at nothing that lies in their way not at the Life of the King himself tho' a Prince of so much Clemency and Mercy that he is inferior to none that sways a Scepter or sits upon a Throne And therefore I doubt not but that you My Lords and the rest of the Great Council of the Nation who have now the weighty Concerns both of Church and State before you will consider that ad Triarios deventum est the Concerns of your Religion your Sovereign your Laws your Lives are before you Therefore if you have any love of your Religion as I know you have great love for it If you have any love of that True Reform'd Approv'd Religion any Abhorrency of the Grossest Superstitions If any Regard for the Life and Safety of his Majesty If any Concernment for the Peace and Welfare of the Nation If any Care of Self-preservation to escape horrid Massacres and the utmost Rage of Persecution It highly concerns you to take into your speedy and serious Consideration what Remedies are fit and suitable to be apply'd Or thus O that God would give us all Hearts to consider this That so we may no longer expose our selves and our Country our Lives and Fortunes and the best Religion in the World to the Advantages of Blood-thirsty and deceitful Men who have at this day conspir'd against us to take away both our Place and Nation But it seems that we are not yet quite cast off by that wonderful Discovery which God hath made amongst us of a Hellish Plot for the Assassinating of our King and the Subversion of our Government and Religion Or thus How visibly and near did God in his infinite Mercy by way of warning hold it the Rod forth to us in his late discovering that Hellish Plot of our Blood-thirsting Enemies the Popish Priests who had contriv'd to Murder not only our Bodies but our Souls also by taking from us the Light of the Gospel which is the Life of our Souls and to cast us into the Dungeon of Popish Darkness Truly there needs no more than the Popish Priests whom tho' you banish the whole Land you may be sure they will not sit idle Abroad but Night and Day labor to make assisting Parties in Italy Spain and France We find they have all contributed Mony to carry on that Devilish Work and doubtless they will go on to contribute both Mony and Men also as occasion shall serve they will not easily sit down and suffer themselves to be baffled in this Design they thought themselves so sure of Or thus The Instances are so many and so very well known that I need not name them but if they were all forgot the late shall I say or the Present Popish Plot for the taking away the Life of his Sacred Majesty and Subverting the Protestant Religion and the Establish'd Government of this Kingdom now brought to light This alone tho' all the other Instances were worn out of Memory would sufficiently shew us what we are to expect from these Roman Principles as to the Security either of our Prince our Liberties or our Religion Or thus At this very time since the discovery of so barbarous a Design and the highest Provocation in the World by the treacherous Murder of one of his Majesties Justices of the Peace a very good Man and a most excellent Magistrate who had been active in the discovery of this Plot I say after all this and notwithstanding the continu'd and insupportable insolence of their Carriage and Behavior even upon this Occasion no Violence nay not so much as any Incivility that I ever heard of hath been offerd to any of them And now what remains but to make our most devout and thankful Acknowledgment to Almighty God for the wonderful discovery of the late horrid and barbarous Conspiracy against our Prince our Peace and our Religion Or thus Even this hath enrag'd our Adversaries of the Roman Church and made them the more restless to destroy it the Reformation and to stick at no Means which they thought might tend to its Ruin. O Blessed Jesus That ever thy Holy Name should be assum'd by Traytors and Murderers or that the promoting thy true Religion should be made the Colour for the most wicked Practices Be astonish'd O ye Heavens and tremble O Earth that hast brought forth such a Generation of Vipers who are continually making way through the Bowels of their Mother and as we have reason to believe have design'd to destroy the Father of their Country If these be the kind Embraces of one that pretends to be the Mother Church if this be the Paternal Affection of the Holy Father at Rome if this indeed be the Zeal for the Catholic Cause if this be the way to reconcile us to their Communion have we not great reason to be fond of returning into the Bosom of such a Church which may strangle us as soon as it gets us within her Arms But there are some whose Concernment it is to make Men believe there was no such dangerous Plot intended I meddle not with that Evidence which lies before you but there is one Notorious Circumstance
sober and unprejudic'd Reader Or thus For maintenance whereof their Prelatical Pride and Rapacity all their Pious Frauds and Cheats all their Lying Miracles Indulgences Purgatories Limbusses Crosses Images Fopperies Plots and Sham-plots are calculated design'd and contriv'd I do not think that every silly Papist knows these things for they poor Puppets dance creep to the Cross cringe bow drop Beads Cross themselves sprinkle themselves with Holy-Water mumble their Aves and shew Tricks as the Masters of the Puppet-Play with Wires within the Curtain actuate them and make them Frisk so ridiculously Curvet and shew such Gambols in Religion especially at Processions which I have seen in Portugal that the soberest Countenance cannot forbear a Smile mixt with Pity But there 's never a Jesuit amongst them Pope nor Cardinal but knows that I here write God's Truth and cannot forbear Laughing among themselves at these Frauds only they Sanctifie these Cheats with a mollifying Epithet calling them Pious Frauds They hold p. 33. that the Pope is Alter Deus in terra God upon Earth And others say Christus in Coelo praesidet Papa in terris residet Christ is Prince in Heaven the Pope on Earth Nay their Hebrew Gloss upon Deut. 17. 11. says Si dixerint tibi quod Dextra sit Sinistra talis Sententia tenenda est If they the Pope and his Emissaries tell thee that thy Right-hand is thy Left-hand or thy Left-hand is thy Right-hand yet you ought to believe them and be of that opinion Another says Sit ergo Domina nostra Roma Baculus in aqua fractus absit tamen ut crederem quod viderim Let our Mistriss Rome be a Stick that in the Water seems crooked yet God forbid that I should believe my own Eyes No Man therefore I say can be a Papist but he whose Eyes are blinded by Education or he who puts his own Eyes out by Atheism Or thus This Council of Trent expresseth its allowance of Picturing the Divinity it self and accordingly Pictures of the Blessed Trinity Oh hateful Sight are ordinarily to be beheld in Popish Churches Nay they Pray unto them Images not only for Temporal or Ordinary Blessings but for Spiritual and Supernatural such as the Pardon of their Sins What think you of their Doctrin of Transubstantiation This is the most prodigiously contradictious Doctrin that I will not say the Wit but the Madness of Men can possibly invent 't is a most wonderful complication of most horrid Contradictions and absolute Impossibilities But this is not the worst of it it is also the Foundation of so Gross and Foul Idolatry as is scarcely to be nam'd among the Gentiles or to be found parallel'd in Peruvia it self or the most Barbarous Parts of India Here you see that the Bread and Wine are Worshipped by them not as Representations of God but as God himself What say you to their Doctrin of Purgatory By this Doctrin the poor People are brought into a most slavish State by the means hereof their merciless Tyrants the Priests hale them into worse than an Egyptian Bondage who instead of enjoyning them the most Reasonable Duties to which the Precepts of their Saviour oblige them and which are most admirably adapted to the cleansing of their Natures c. impose upon them a great number of ridiculous Services of their own Invention And as this Doctrin of theirs is groundless so is it as wicked it being a most vile Affront to the Merits and Satisfaction of our Blessed Saviour For in order to the establishing of this Doctrin they teach that the Passion of Christ takes away only the Gullt of Mortal Sins p. 19. not their Eternal Punishment which is as Nonsensical as False and Impious What say you to their well-known Doctrin of the Non-necessity of Repentance before the imminent point of Death What say you to the Doctrin of Opus operatum which makes the meer Work done in all Acts of Devotion sufficient to Divine Acceptance particularly the bare Saying of Prayers without either minding what they say or understanding it and agreeably hereunto the Romish Church enjoyns the saying of them in a Language unknown to the generality of her Children Or thus He the Pope takes out of their Hands the Holy Scriptures the greatest Gift of the Holy Ghost And instead of it puts a Legend For the Word of Life and Truth undeniable fabulous Traditions For Bread a Stone For Fish a Serpent He takes from them the knowledge of the Prayers offer'd in their Name and lets them not understand their own Desires So are the People to appear before God dumb and sensless like one of their Idols All is to be referr'd to the Priest the Pardon of their Sins is to depend on his Discretion That Princes may not complain of Respect of Persons they Absolve in some Cases from the Obedience of God himself and avowedly allow what he as positively forbids authorize Incestuous Conjunctions and licence Perjury O monstrum horrendum Pass Pardons for all Sins committed against the Divine Majesty They give Divine Honor to Bread which they call p. 18. a God and to an Image which to the Eye they might better Transubstantiate And to cover their Idolatry they commit Sacrilege steal away one of the Ten Commandments and by their Index Expurgatorius blot the two Tables themselves Or thus Tho' they the Papists have nothing of good Works at all nay tho' they be guilty of very great Immoralities yet if they Confess to a Priest and receive Absolution which may be had at an easie rate they are then declar'd as Innocent as the Child that is new born Nor is it necessary to this Absolution that they should be Contrite or heartily Sorry for Attrition with Auricular Confession shall pass instead of Contrition that is to effect if they be but sorry for the Penance tho' they be not sorry for their Sin or if all this should fail 't is but being at the charge of an Indulgence or Pope's Pardon that is to purchase so many Penyworth of other Mens Merits which remain stor'd up in the Church's Treasury to be dispended at the Pope's Pleasure to those who will give so much Mony for them And this is what they require by way of Commutation instead of Regeneration Sanctification Holiness and a Godly Life Or thus We must not use any unlawful or indirect Means This is the most pernicious and damnable Doctrin of Rome tho' not always publicly own'd yet greedily swallow'd among them and prov'd sufficiently from their unwearied Practices that in order to the propagation of their Faith or Church any thing every thing becomes lawful Killing and Massacring no Murder Lying and Perjury no Sin or Injury that so good and great an End will Sanctifie all Actions Or thus For Auricular Confession their great Intelligencer and Lieger-Nuncio the main Curb of the Laity whereby the Clergy hold them in awe in being admitted to all the Secrets of States