their saying Pater Nosters and Creeds to the Honour of them and Ave Maries to the Virgin Mary for the infallibility of the Bishop or Church of Rome for their Doctrine of the blessed Virgins Immunity from actual sin for the necessity of Auricular confession for the necessity of the Priests intention to obtain benefit by any of their Sacraments and lastly for their licentious Doctrine in holding that tho a man lives and dies without the practice of any Christian Vertue and with the Habits of many damnable sins unmortified yet if at the last moment of his life he has any sorrow for his sins and joyn confession to it he shall certainly be saved This is a Doctrine may keep many Souls out of Heaven but I doubt will scarce carry any one there So that the Papists Doctrine being ancient is nothing as long as 't is evident that they hold many dangerous errors As for instance the Millenaries and the Communicating Infants was more ancient than their Doctrine and 't is plain that Antiquity unless it be absolute and primative is not a certain sign of true Doctrine and the very Apostles themselves assure us that in their days the mystery of Iniquity was working The Papists demand how comes it to pass that their Doctrine is so Universal forgetting that weeds spread faster than good herbs And we ask them how the errours of the Millenaries and the Communicating Infants became so universal let them tell us this and we will tell them that for what is done in some may be done in others The Papists ask us where our Ch. was before Luther and tell us because 't was no Ch. before him therefore it can be no true Church at all To which we answer That this cause is no cause for tho Luther had no being before Luther yet none can deny but that he was when he was tho he could not be before he was So there may be a true Church after Luther tho there was none for some Ages before him as since Columbus his time there have been Christians in America tho there were none for many Ages before For it does not follow that nothing but a Church can possibly get a Church nor that the present being of a true Church depends necessarily upon the perpetuity of a Church in all Ages For though I cannot deny the Churches perpetuity yet that 's not here necessary to rur difference but that a false Church by Gods providence over-ruling it may preserve a means of confuting their own Heresies and so reduce men to Truth and raise a true Church I mean the integrity of the Word of God with Men. Thus the Jews preserve means to make men Christians and Papists preserve means to make men Protestants and the Protestants false Church as the Romans call it preserves men Papists Nor does it appear that the perpetuity of the Church is the truth of the Papists Church for they speak as if they were the only Christians in the World before Luther when the whole World knows that this is but talk and that there were other Christians besides the Papists that might have perpetuated the Church tho there had not been then one Papist in being For sure there was a Catholick Church before the Roman one Next the Papists say To hold that the Visible Church is not perpetual is a Heresie so that Luther's Reformation being but particular and not universal nor but of late date it can have nothing to do with the visible and perpetual Church Which the Protestants answer thus To say the visible Church is not perpetual is properly a Heresie but the Papists cannot deny but that the Apostles who preach'd the Gospel in the beginning did believe the Church universal tho their preaching at the beginning was not so So Luther also might well believe the Vniversal Church though his Reformation was but particular the Church in the Apostles time being universal de jure of right but not de facto in fact Nor did Luther and his followers as the Papists are pleased to mis-call many Protestants forsake the whole Church but the corruptions of it in renouncing some of their corrupt practices and this the Protestants say they did without Schism because they had cause to do it and no man can have cause to be a Schismatick because he is only one who leaves the Church without a cause for 't is not only separation but a causeless separation from the Church that is Schismatical and I think 't will not be amiss before I go any farther to distinguish the difference between Heresie and Schism Heresie is an obstinate defence of any error against any necessary Article of the Christian Faith. Schism is a causeless separation of one part of the Church from another Now we Protestants say still That we never forsook the whole Church or the external Communion of it but only that part of it which is corrupted and is to be fear'd will still continue so viz. The Papists Church and forsook not but only reformed another part which part they themselves were And sure the Papists will not say the Protestants forsook themselves nor their own Communion and therefore the Papists Argument must be very weak in urging that the Protestants joyned themselves to no other part of the Church therefore they must separate from the whole Church which the Protestants say is a false conclusion in as much as they themselves were part of it and still continue so and therefore the Protestants could no more separate from the whole than from themselves So that by the rule of Reason if Protestants be Schismaticks because they differ from one part of the visible Church by the same reason the Protestants may say that the Roman Church is in a manner made up of Schismaticks for the Jesuits are Schismaticks from the Dominicans and the Dominicans from the Jesuits and the Jesuits from the Canonists the Franciscans from the Dominicans and the Dominicans from the Franciscans for all these as the world knows differ in point of Doctrine and betwixt them there is an irreconcilable contradiction and therefore one part must be in error And if the Papists will but stand to justifie what they declare as truth That every error against a revealed Truth is a Heresie they holding for certain as a revealed Truth the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary then consequently the Dominicans that hold and declare it an error in Doctrine must necessarily hold a Heresie Now it may be a fault to be in error because it many times proceeds from a fault but sure Protestants forsaking error it cannot be a sin unless to be in error be a Vertue So hardly do Papists deal with us Protestants as they will either damn us in making us follow their false opinions or else brand us as Schismaticks for leaving them And yet the rational sort of Papists can hardly deny but the Protestant Religion must be a safer Religion than theirs in worshipping Pictures in
ADVICE FROM A CATHOLICK To his Protestant FRIEND Touching the Doctrine of Purgatory By way of Letter Printed in the Year 1687. Price Two Pence Advice from a Catholick to his Protestant Friend c. SIR THO' at our last parting I found you obstinate in your Unbelief as to the matter of Purgatory yet as I think my self bound both as a Christian and as a Friend to combate that dangerous Infidelity of yours so I shall now undertake that Province with some new Efforts Nevertheless I will not venture to Engage you singly with my own strength but borrow the necessary forces from such as have been most vers'd in such sort of Conflicts Wherefore to begin I must tell you That your Repartées upon me when we last discours'd this point rather spoke the Libertine than a Professor of Christianity Purgatory you deridingly cry'd is not so hot as Folk talk Who ever came back to tell us News of it God is merciful think you he takes delight to burn his Children and to cut off the Price of his Son's Passion who satisfied for our Sin. When I heard this I was afraid you would have proceeded and joyn'd with Atheistical Philosophers in saying That Death is the Remedy of all Evils and that tht Soul separated from the Body hath no more to suffer What could I less expect when you so diametrically oppose not only the General Consent of all Ages but also the General Opinion Practice Sentence and decisions of all the Church in such sort That there is not any Truth of our Faith more fortified As to the First the Gentiles who lived out of the Law were sensible of the noble extraction of the Soul and knew it to be defiled by the Body and by sensual Works On this account had they recourse to feeble Elements to purifie it One while washing themselves in virgin-streams another passing thro Flames and sometimes contriving other means to cleanse themselves from the Pollutions of the Flesh And they were not content to purge themselves in this Life but extend it to the Souls of the Dead constantly believing they stood in need of Remedies to free themselves from Bodily stains The Hebrews the Aegyptians the Greeians and Romans all contended for Prayers for the Dead and the Truth of Purgatory The Hebrews three times in the Year Celebrated the Feast of the Dead and their Priest mounting up into a Four-square Pulpit made on purpose and Ceremoniously to represent the City of the Blessed according to S. John rehearsed aloud and Apoc. xxi 16. Civitas in quadro positas est audibly the Names of the Dead to recommend them to the Prayers of the present Congregation Prayers so familiar amongst them that they wrote them upon Tombs instead of Epitaphs in these terms Sit Anima ejus colligata in Fasciculo viventium Let his Soul be bound up in the Posie of the Living As if we should say all the Souls of the Saints were as an odoriferous Posie whereof every Elect constituted a Flower The Aegyptians were so possessed with the Opinion that Souls were to be purg'd in the other Life in as much as they had been drench'd in the voluptuous Pleasures of the Flesh that in the Funerals of the Dead having opened the Body they took the Heart out of the Breast and put it into a little Casket then on the Bank of Nilus where ordinarily Tombs were erected a Herald holding the Casket and shewing it to the Eyes of Heaven protested before all then present the Deceased now in Question had lived piously and according to the Laws of his Ancestors that if he had offended through Bodily Pleasures they wished his Soul might be as well cleansed as they went about to purge the Stomach the Instrument of the Lusts of the Living thereupon they threw it into Nilus What need I mention the Grecians their Prime Man Plato nay termed the Divine in his Phaedon spake so perspicuously for Purgatory that he seems to have had his Education in Christian Schools And as for the Romans Quintilian in the very Infancy of Quint. Declam 10. the Church when as some of the Apostles were yet living in a certain Plea. urges the Truth of Purgatory by saying The Soul being purged by Fire went to take place in Heaven Besides Julius a very ancient Author speaking of the Death Julius Florileg lib. 3. of a Lady named Podon observed in plain terms That her Husband who was one of the most ancient Christians made Offerings for her which he calls Gifts for Ransom of the Soul Answerable to which Tertullian writeth it was the Custom of the Ancient Church to Pray for the Souls of the Tertul. in Exhort ad Castitat Dead yea and to make annual Offerings for them Thus when we see a◠Universal Agreement in a Proposition it is not one man speaks but the Mouth of Heaven which uttereth this Verity And also observe when the Holy Fathers produce an Example of Pagans it is not to set us the Pagans for our Instruction but to shew that to waver in the Belief of things they generally held by the sentence of Nature is to be worse than a Pagan Having thus proved the Universal Consent of all Ages and Countries I now proceed to shew it to have ever been the Universal sense of the Church For this purpose in France view the Council of Chalons upon Saone for Prayers for the Dead and the Truth of Purgatory In Spain that of Praga in Germany that of Worms in Italy the Sixth General Council held at Rome under Pope Symmachus in Greece a number of Synods collected by Martius In Africk the Third of Carthage and lastly the Three Oecumenical of Lateran Florence and Trent which say the same A man that hath but the least sense surely needs no more than this to be possessed with the truth Ay but you object That Jesus made Purgation of Sins and said to the Good Thief Thou shalt to day be with me in Paradice A goodly Consequence Jesus purged Sins there is then no Purgatory Might you not as well say Jesus pray'd for Remission of our Sins then we no longer stand in need of Prayer or Penance Besides you would seem to intimate by saying the Good Thief went directly to Paradice without feeling Purgatory that we assert it was necessary for all the World to pass that way No make your Self a great Saint and the Purifying Flames will have nothing to work on But you say this Doctrine came but lately into the World and is the Invention of Self intercsted Pfiests But consult the Scripture and the Fathers and they will satisfie you to the contrary When St. Paul said that the day of God viz. the day of Judgment be it general or particular shall be manifested by Fire which shall put every One's Works 1 Cor. 3. Chap. upon Trial and that he who upon the Foundations of Jesus shall build with Wood Straw or Hay to wit with vain and
witnesâ—… Pope against Pope Councils against Councils some of their Fathers against others and rather then fail some against themselves new Traditions inrolled and old ones Cashiered in a word one Church against another and if â—…hat be not enough the Church of one Age against the Church of another whereas the Scripture being true and â—…nalterable and containing all things necessary to our Salvation I am secure that by believing nothing else I shall â—…elieve no falshood in matter of Faith and if I mistake the â—…rue sense of Scripture and so fall into error yet I am secured â—…rom any dangerous error because whilst I am truly endeaâ—…ouring to find the true ground of Scripture I cannot but â—…old my error without obstinacy and be ready to forsake â—…t when more probable and true sense shall appear unto me and then being assur'd that all necessary truths are plainly â—…et down in Scripture I am certain by believing the Scripture â—…o believe all necessary truth and he that does so if his life be â—…nswerable to his Faith how is it possible he should fail of Salvation And tho the Roman Church pretend to be a perfect guide of Faith and teacher of all Divine Truths yet sure that â—…itle might much better and more justly be given to the â—…cirptures as their Teacher and Master The Roman Church brags how ancient their Church is but doubtless they cannot deny but the Scripture is more ancient â—…f they will but allow the Mother to be older than the Child The Papists say their Church is a means of keeping Chriâ—…tians at unity so are also the Scriptures to those that be â—…ieve them in unity of belief in matters necessary The Papists say their Church is Catholick certainly the Scripture is more Catholick for all true Christians in the universal world do now and ever did believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God so much at least as to contain all things necessary to salvation whereas the Papists say They only are the true Church and all other Christians tho more than they give them the lye for saying so By following the Scriptures I follow that whereby the Papists prove their Churches Infallibility For were it not for Scripture what pretence could the Papists have for it or what true Notion could they receive of it So that by so dong the Papists must plainly confess That they themselves are surer of the Truth of Scripture than of their Churches Authority for we must be surer of the proof than of the thing proved or else 't is no proof So that following Scripture I follow that which must be true if the Papists Church be true for their Church allows it's truth Whereas if I follow the Roman Church I must follow that which tho the Scripture be true may be false nay more must be false if the Scripture be true because the Scipture is against it Following the Papists Church I must be a servant to my Saviour and a subject to my King only at the pleasure of the Pope and renounce my Allegiance when the Popes will is to declare him an Heretick nay I must believe Vertue Vice and Vice Vertue if he pleases for he both makes and unmakes Scripture as he thinks convenient witness the Apocripha which hath not past for Canonical but of late years in the Papistâ—… Church who interpret Scripture according to their Doctrine but will not judge their Doctrine according to Scripture for none like to weigh light Mony in true scales In short the Pope adds and lessen and interprets Divine Laws as he pleases and they must stand for Laws and be obeyed as such so that in effect he rules his people by his own Laws and his own Laws by his own Lawyers his Clergy who dare not speak nor uphold them other than just such as the Pope would have them and indeed Cardinal Richelieu gave the reason why more hold the Pope above the Councils than the Councils above the Pope Because the Pope gave Archbishopricks and Bishopricks but the Councils had none to give And tho the Papists say his Holiness cannot err yet let not the Papists forget what God says in the Scripture if not only the Pope but if angel from Heaven shall preach any thing against the Gospel of Christ let him be accursed In following the Scripture we have God's express command and no colour of any prohibition but to believe the Papish Church infallible we have no Scripture-command at all much less an express one Following the Popish Church we must believe many things not only above reason but against reason witness Transubstantiation whereas following the Scripture we shall believe Many mysteries but no impossibilities many things above our reason but nothing against it Nay we need not believe any thing which reason will not convince us we ought to believe for reason will convince any sober Christian that the Scripture is the Word of God and there 's no reason can be greater than this That God says it therefore it must be true In a word we Protestants believe that all things necessary to our salvation are evidently contain'd in Scripture what is not there evidently contained cannot be necessary to be believed and our reason is just and clear Because nothing can challenge our Belief as to salvation but what hath descended to us from our Blessed Saviour Christ Jesus by original and universal Tradition Now nothing but Scripture hath thus descended to us therefore nothing but Scripture can challenge our Belief Now the grand difference between the Papists and us concerning the Scripture is this We hold the Scripture to be the only perfect rule whereby to judge of controversies The Papists say That they acknowledge the Scuriptures to be a perfect rule only they deny that it excludes unwritten Tradition which in effect is this they say 'T is as perfect a Rule as a Writing can be only they deny it to be as perfect a Rule as a Writing may be Either they must revoke their acknowledgment or retract their contradiction of it for both cannot possibly stand together For if they will but stand to what they have granted That Scripture is as perfect a Rule of Faith as a Writing can be they must then grant it so compleat as it needs no addition and so evident that it needs no interpretation for both these properties are requisite to a perfect Rule And that a writing is capable of both these properties and perfections is most plain for he that denies it must say that something may be spoken which cannot be written for if such a compleat evident rule of Faith may be delivered by word of mouth as the Papists pretend may is and whatsoever is delivered by word of mouth may also be written then such a compleat and evident rule of Faith may also be written For the Argument is most plain Whatsoever may be spoken may be written a perfect rule of Faith has been spoken therefore a perfect
and that the Church composed partly of the Holy Apostles themselves who were blessed with and inspired by the Holy Ghost could mistake and that there is no man free from sin and yet that the Body of men that make up the Popish Church should be infallible is I confess beside my faith to believe or reason to comprehend For sure if the Roman Church had been esteem'd by the Apostles infallible what needed the Apostles any other â—…reed than this short Creed I believe the Roman Church â—…fallible and that would have been more effectual to â—…eep the Believers of it from Heresie and in the true Faith â—…an this Apostolical Creed we now have And sure the Papists cannot but believe with us that â—…ose Holy Men that wrote the New Testament were not â—…nly Good Men but also Men that were desirous to direct â—…s in the plainest and surest way to Heaven And the Paâ—…ists cannot also but believe with us that they were likewise â—…en very sufficiently instructed by the Spirit of God in all â—…e necessary points of the Christian Faith Therefore cerâ—…inly 't is most rational to believe they could not be igâ—…orant of this unum necessarium that all Faith is no Faith â—…cept we believe the Church of Rome was design'd by God 〈…〉 be the Guide of Faith as the Church of Rome believes â—…d would have us believe so too We also further believe and that with great reason too â—…at the Writers of the New Testament were Wise Men espeâ—…ally being they were assisted by the Spirit of Wisdom and â—…ch that must know that an uncertain Guide was as bad as â—…ne at all and yet after all this is it possible for a Philosoâ—…ical or Contemplative man nay for any man that has reaâ—…n or common sense after all these suppositions to believe â—…at none among these holy Writers of the New Testament â—…ould remember ad rei memoriam to set down plainly â—…is most necessary Doctrine not so much as once That â—…e were to believe the Roman Church infallible Again that none of the Evangelists should so much as â—…ce name this Popish necessary point of Faith if they had â—…teem'd it necessary for us to believe it when St. Paul says â—…e kept not back any thing that was profitable for us and sure â—…e Papists cannot deny but was is necessary to salvation â—…ust be very profitable And St. Luke also plainly tells â—…hristians his intent was to write all things necessary And â—…re it stands also with reason that when St. Paul wrote to â—…e Romans he would have congratulated this their exâ—…aordinary priviledge if he had believ'd it belong'd to â—…em And though the Romans bring it as a great Argument â—…or them that St. Paul tells them Their Faith is spoken all the world over Yet pray let them moderate those thoughtâ—… with this consideration that St. Paul said the very same thing to the Thessalonians And let them further consider this that if the Roman Faith had been the Rule oâ—… Faith for all the World for ever as the Papists hold surâ—… St. Paul would have forborn to put the Romans in fear oâ—… a possibility for though Raillery is much in fashion now 〈…〉 sure 't was not then that they also nay the whole Churcâ—… of the Gentiles if they did not look to their standing might fall into Infidelity as the Jews had done 1 Ephesians 11. And methinks it also stands with great reason that the Apostles writing so often of Hereticks and Antichristâ—… should have given the Christian World this as Papists pretend only sure Preservative from them To be guided bâ—… the infallible Church of Rome and not to separate from it upon the pain of damnation Methinks also St. Peter St. James and St. Jude in their Catholick Epistles would not have forgot giving Christianâ—… this Catholick Direction of following the Roman Church and St. John instead of saying He that believes that Jesus 〈…〉 the Christ is born of God might have said He that adheres to the Doctrine of the Roman Church and lives according to it is a good Christian and by this mark you shall know him In a word can there be any thing more irrational than to believe that none of these holy Men who were so desirous of mens salvation should so much as once remember to write that we were to obey the Roman Church but leave it to be collected from uncertain Principles and by more uncertain Consequences So that upon the whole I cannot without much wonder look on the Pope's Confidence and the Papists Credulity in esteeming the Pope or his Councils to be an infallible Guide sure either they never read what they ought to believe or else they will not believe what they read though it be never so known a Truth and worthy of belief for if they did they could never believe the Infallibility of the Popish Church For indeed if they would read the Popish Story or as I may well call it the Civil Wars of the Popes you shall find as I said before Popes against Popes Councils against Councils some Fathers against others nay some against themselves new Traditions brought in and old ones turn'd out one Church against another nay the Church of one Age against the Church of another In a word the Papists say their Church is infallible and all other Christians besides themselves tho more in number than they absolutely deny it and yet we must for all that believe the Popish Church infallible And to speak the plain Truth and in a word to unravel the real cause of the Grandure of the Church of Rome above all other Churches is only this Rome was the Imperial Town of the Empire and its greatness was given by Men and not God and when afterwards Constantinople was the Imperial City they Decreed that the Church of Constantinople should have equal Priviledges and Dignities with that of Rome And now to end this Discourse I desire you will please to consider this Conclusion which is that after all that the Papists have said be it never so much and mighty to shew the Infallibility of their Church I am verily perswaded they cannot shew more if so much out of the Scriptures for their Church as the smallest Society of Christians met together in prayer can for themselves that when two or three are met together in my name I will be amongst them says the Lord And now I have just done this small Discourse and the Sun is just upon finishing this days visit I can very readily follow that holy advice of not letting it go down in my anger which I thank God I have to none living and therefore am in so much Charity with the Papists as to wish that neither they nor Protestants might waist their precious time in meer speculative controversies about words and ceremonies which of themselves will never carry us to Heaven but that we may spend our time like wise Christians in the ways and fear of God which
general censure one another not as they are really faulty but as they appear and are esteemed handsom and therefore ugly Women have the priviledge of Popes who cannot err but may do what they will and take what liberty they please and handsom Women will be as far from censuring their actions as Young Men from praising their persons So that really in effect we find most Womens censures are not proportionable to the ill others act but rather suitable to the Beauty they possess which by their leave is a way of judging that 's both iriational and uncharitable since I am sure none can deny but there are some unhandsom Women unchast and some chast Women handsom For Vertue and Beauty are not so declar'd enemies but they sometimes meet though I cannot deny but that Vertue which in former Ages was esteemed one of the greatest adornments of the soul is now so Eclipsed by the outward Beauty of the Body as Vertue and Piety the true inward Beauty cannot shine out A good Soul being nothing now in comparison of a good face Beauty being now the Great Empress that commands the whole World and makes the Supremest of men become subjects to Her. And yet this so ador'd Beauty which all Women are so ambitious of and all Men so court has at best no intrinsick value in it but just like riches they enjoy most that are contented with least since 't is not much but enough that 's the true measure of satisfaction But Madam 't is now more than time to beg your pardon for I find I am stray'd both beyond the time and beside the road of my design'd Discourse which is not to present you a Character or List of the fine Ladies and Mode-vices of the times they will require a much wittier Pen than I pretend to be Master of and a larger Volume than I design to trouble you with but this Character which indeed merits Volumes of Praises I am sure I can give you without needing wit or abusing of time and if I could here cast up the sum total of all the vices that your Sex are eitheir guilty of or scandaliz'd with which I 'le assure you are more than a few their number might be tedious to read but need not be disagreeable for you to hear since by naming all those faults they are infected with I should but tell all those you are free from But Madam my design is now to remove my Battery and change my Scene of Writing as you have your place of Living and to level my Discourse not at the vices and pleasures of London nor the pastimes of the Court but at your Country-Neighbours the Woods and Mountains of Macroome which renders it a place much fitter to exercise your past-time than satisfie your delight were you of the humour of most Ladies but all know you are not only an excellent Woman but an extraordinary wife I mean in Goodness for 't is rare now to meet a wife that 's not extraordinary for you take as much satisfaction in the cares of well managing and improving your Estate as most other Ladies delight in the lavishing theirs so that I can truly say you have not only brought your Lord a large sum of money for your Portion but a continued increase of Rent by your Industry And I am sure Madam if you were now askt as the Philosopher was Where was his home you would answer now as he did then My home is still where my chief business is So that now your chief Concerns and Family which is still the good Wives Treasure being at Macroome I must conclude your heart is there also A place where in lieu of London crowds of good Company and swarms of divertisements you must prepare to meet with and do Penance to your self among the Flocks of Priests and Fryars against whose Popish insinuations and infectious perswasions I here present you a small but necessary Collection of Arguments to carry about you as a Preservatitive in your own Religion and an Antitode against theirs and though I cannot pretend this pocket-Pistol is a sufficient Battering-piece to beat down their infallible Church yet I doubt not but it will at least be a sufficient Life-guard to defend you and your Chamber against their assaults They are most of them argumentative reasonings I pickt out of Mr. Chillingworth as one that reasons best and satisfies me most of any I ever read and knowing you want a Collection of choice Flowers I heartily wish that these I have gathered out of his Garden and here sorted and made up to present you in a Nosegay may serve you against the unpleasing savour of Popish Doctrine And I wish they may not altogether degenerate from common nature of Flowers which the Naturalist tells us grow larger and better by being transplanted so that I hope you will not find them the worse nor like them the less for being transplanted but receive these Arguments just as you do your Rents without caring whether your Tenants have the Money out of their own bags or borrow it so you have it to supply your occasions Truly Madam I have taken some pains and spent much time in reading the Discourses of Papists against our Religion and though I have consider'd their Arguments without the least Byas or antedated prejudice yet I can give no better a character of them than I do of ill Dealers The more I have to do with them the worse I like them They savour much of Self-interest teaching Church-Government before Gospel-Obedience witness their holding Marriage a greater crime in a Priest than Fornication The one is but forbid by their Churches Law which they all know is disputable the latter by the Law of Christ which they cannot but know ought to be past all dispute And truly Madam if you please to admit your reason to make but a short progress into the Popish Religion you shall find much to create your wonder but little to satisfie your reason or belief for the Gospel of Christ is the Gospel of Truth and therefore ought still to be pictur'd naked as Truth without any Art of Roman Dresses which are only obscure shadings of the true light of Scripture by making dark Paraphrases on the plainest Gospel-Commands which in all reason ought to be plain enough for the meanest capacity For God forbid it should be otherwise for the meanest Christian must be saved or damned for keeping or not keeping them and sure God's Justice will never send persons to Hell for not doing what they could not understand was his Will they should do that were such a cruelty as if a man should torment his Servant for not doing his Errant when he knew he did not understand his Message yet the Papist must not take these plain Gospel-Commands as such but as they are distill'd in the mysterious politick Lymbeck of the Popish interest Indeed Mystery and Obedience is so interwoven in that Religion that Papists must take what
Invocating Saints and Angels in denying the Lay-men the Communion in both kinds as was commanded by our blessed Saviour in celebrating their Church-Service in an unknown Tongue which was condemned by St. Paul in adoring the Sacrament and in all these a rational Papist cannot deny but he is on the more dangerous side as to the committing of sin and the Protestant in the more secure way as to the avoiding it For in all these things if Protestants say true the Papists do that which is impious but on the other side if the Papists were in the right yet the Protestants might be secure enough too for their fault would be only this that they should only not do some things which the Papists themselves confess is not altogether necessary to be done And truly the Protestants are so Charitably civil as only to say of Papists as St. Austin did of the Donatists That Catholicks approved the Doctrine of the Donatists but abhorred their Heresie of Rebaptization So Protestants approve the Fundamental and necessary Truths which the Papists retain by which many good Souls among them may be saved but abhor the many superstitions they use in their Religion And supposing these Errors of the Popish Church were in themselves not damnable to them that believe as they profess yet for us Protestants to profess what we do not believe and esteem those as Divine Truths which we believe not to be either Divine or true would be doubtless damnable as to us for 't is certain Two men may do the same thing and it may be sinful to one and not to the other as suppose a married Woman gives herself out to be a Widow and one knowing her Husband to be alive marries her doubtless his injoyment of her was adulterous but a second man comes and after seeing her pretended Husband buried marries her and dies without the least information of her first Husbands being then alive his ignorance sure protected him from sin and the second Husbands knowledg of the sin he acted condemned him of Adultery tho his fault might be palliated with some excuses yet it can never be defended by any just Apoligy And so tho we read in Scripture that it was St. Paul's Judgment that meat offered to Idols might lawfully be eaten yet he says if any should eat it with a doubtful Conscience he should sin and be condemned for so doing And supposing we Protestants ought not to have forsook the Papists Church for sin and errours if she had not injoyn'd and imposed them on us yet since she does maintain them with such obstinacy and imposes them with such tyranny we ought certainly to say with St. Peter and St. John 'T is better to forsake men than God and leave the Popish Church-Communion rather than commit or profess known errors as Divine Truths for as the Prophet Ezekiel tells us that to say The Lord hath said so when the Lord hath not said so is a high presumption and great sin be the matter never so small and therefore when St. Paul spoke concerning Virgins abstaining from marriage he said He had no commandment of the Lord but I declare my own judgment of it Now if St. Paul had given this as God's command surely we might have justly contradicted him and made a distinction between Divine Revelation and Humane Judgment So that for a Protestant to abide in the Communion of the Roman Church is so far from securing him from errour as that if I or any Protestant should continue in it I am confident I could not be saved by it and the reason is because the Papists will not admit of my Communion without professing the entire Popish Doctrine to be true and profess this I cannot but I must perpetually exulcerate my Conscience tho the errours of the Roman Church were not in themselves damnable yet for me to resist known Truths and to continue in the Profession of known errours and falshoods is certainly a capital sin and of great affinity with the sin which shall never be forgiven In short if the errours of the Roman Church did not warrant our departure yet the tyrannous imposition of them would be our sufficient justification for they force us either to forsake the Papists Communion or profess as Gospel-truths what our Conscience assures us is very little akin to them so that the Protestants were oblig'd to forsake those errours of the Popish Church and not the Church but the errours and we Protestants did and do still continue members of the Church having only left what appeared most plain to us to be superstitious and impious And we separate no more from the Popish Church thant she has separated from the Ancient Church and indeed to speak properly our difference is more against the Court than Church of Rome which has introduced so many new ceremonies and practises in the Popish Church as was never heard nor practised in the Primitive Times as for one instance of a Thousand I might give you Their denying the Cup to the Laity which was never practised in the Church a Thousand years after our Saviour But because the Papists brag so much of and depend so entirely on the Infallibility of their Church I shall pass by their Out-works and search a little into this their Grand Fort the Infallibility of their Church for except they prove that they prove nothing but in proving that they prove all and if the Papists could satisfie me either by Scripture or Reason that their Church is infallible I should not only be of their Church to morrow but repent I was not sooner but really by all that I ever heard or read for their making it good I find cause only to admire their confidence but not at all to esteem their reasons The cheif method they take and degrees they use to prove the Infallibility of their Church are by whole-sale these First that St. Peter was head and cheif amongst the Apostles and there was given to him and his Successors by our Saviour Universal Authority over his Militent Church That the Pope or Bishop of Rome is St. Peter's Successor and has his Authority of Vniversal Bishop and consequently the Roman Church being built upon this Rock is infallible all which I doubt not but to prove to be inconsistent with and contradictory both to Scripture and Reason As to the first point of St. Peter's being Head of the Apostles which the Papists all stile him and say he was called from thence Cephas which is derived from the Greek word Head it is a most gross mistake for Cephas is a Syriack word that signifies Stone but this is only by the by Now we Protestants say tho we allow St. Peter might have primacy of Order yet we cannot grant he had supremacy of power over the other Apostles for sure it cannot stand with the least reason that St. Peter should have authority over all the Apostles and yet never act the least authority over
Extract especially under the specious and Religious colour of sacred Confession hereupon he was brought to Trial before the Duke who ordered his Secretary to take a Catalogue of the names of the married Women that he had gallanted and after a tedious enumeration of many Persons of quality that frequented the Duke's Palace the Secretary still pressed him to a farther Confession whereat the poor Soul fetching a deep but counterfeit Sigh said Why then Sir sincc you are so urgent pray set down your own Wife in the number which sudden and unexpected Answer did so surprise the Secretary with Astonishment that the Pen fell out of his hand and the Duke at the rehersal of the Story was almost resolved into Laughter These tricks are so frequent among them that 't is commonly said as a Proverb An Augustine Friar in the Stews In a Village near Coignac This is in the Queen of Navarr 's Relations called Cherves a reputed Maid Sister to the Curate of the Parish who because she was accounted a holy Virgin spread a Rumour abroad among the credulous People that she was a second Virgin Mary and was impregnated by the holy Ghost O execrable Blasphemy But Charles Earl of Angoulesme and Father to King Francis the First hearing of it did imagine there was some packing and gross villany in the Business and took order for a more strict examination of this Wench who was about 13 years of Age The Court where she was summond to appear to make her defence did adjure her as well as her Brother to reveal the Truth upon her Salvation and being sworn she used this form of Affidavit I take the Body of our Lord here present upon my Salvation before you my Masters and you my Brother that never Man had any Carnal knowledge of me more than you and so received the Eucharist Having taken this Oath as you have heard they related the particulars of her Process to the Earl who hearing it thought on what they never dreamt of that she had great reason to use that form of words That never man touched her more than her Brother and took it for granted that he had raised her Belly whereupon he commanded them to return and imprison the Curate who upon his Commitment confessed the Fact his Sister in few days lost her Tympany and was delivered of a Child and both of them were condemned to be Burnt which Sentence was accordingly executed and 't was favourable enough too considering the horrid Blasphemy and Perjury of the Criminals A certain Curate not far from Vienna in Daulphine being taken in the Act with a notorious Strumpet who had often prostituted her self to his dissolute Embraces behind the High Altar and that on good Friday too an aggravating Circumstance the worthy Bishop of that Diocess was to inflict a Punishment on him for this heinous Crime and it was a merry one indeed viz. to sing Mass for a certain time but the compassionate Legate of Avignon thought the Priest was too severely dealt with and discharged him from that rigid Sentence which encouraged the holy Man to play his tricks more frequently with the same Harlot and in the same Place than formerly thus to advance their sensual Delight these Clergy-men make Religion and Holiness a Bawd to their own lascivious Wickedness Methinks they should be more wary to observe the old Rule Si non casté tamen cautè and not affront the Meridian Sun with their Noon days Impieties and this was the cause of that sporting reason that one gave why ghostly Fathers are called Beaux Peres because said he they get Children at the High Altar Thomas of Abington a lascivious Friar could not be satisfied with the Use of three Concubines but he must be incestuous as if single Fornication were a small matter for he had two Children by his own Sister nay some Friars and Monks have maintained twenty Whores at one time a fine Crew indeed able to fill a pretty Seraglio Berenger an Italian Marquess entertained a Chaplain in his House as Persons of his Quality usually do to perform the Duties of the Family as to their Devotion for which he had a competency becoming one of his Coat and to gratifie his Lord lay with his Lady and tho he was but a mere Dandiprat as deformed in Body as in mind yet she notwithstanding the Nobility of her Race run the risco of so ignoble an Action but he had his merited Compensation at last which spoil'd his sport for the Future for being discovered by the barking of an unlucky House Dog he was taken stript stark naked and had his impetuous Nerve amputated for the Offence This hapned in the time of Pope Steven the Eighth about the year 941. A Butcher of Strasbourg in Germany by a strange accident lost his Wife and not hearing the least syllable of her in a long time concluded she was Dead and so she was to him in truth tho not to the Franciscans who kept her at Bed and Board an Order so much extoll'd for their Sanctimony and Piety but he found that there was a Franiscan Novice who came daily to the Shambles accompanied with a ghostly Father which the Butcher thought did so resemble his Wife that he would often say were he not perswaded that his Wife was dead he should swear it were she In fine she proved to be what he thought her his Wife indeed which being discovered and made known to the Civil Magistrate not only the Franciscans but the other Monks and all the wicked rabble of lascivious Priests were deservedly expell'd the City A Franciscan lodging in The Queen of Navarr 's Relation a Gentleman's House of Perigort who was his Confessor and very intimate with him being privy to all his Secrets by that Religious Cheat of auricular Confession whereby he came to understand the Gentleman had a design to bed his Wife that Night who had layn in but three weeks before which the Confessor perswaded him to only for his own wanton ends for when Night approach'd the Friar anticipated him went to Bed to his Wife and enjoyed her who departed immediately after he had satisfied his Lust as mute as a Fish not so much as opening his lips and went out of the Door which the Porter took notice of Presently after in comes her Husband at the time appointed who thinking it was he that accompanied her before could not forbear discovering it whereupon he suspected the Friar had play'd him that slippery trick and finding him out of his Chamber and the Porter confirming his departure he was satsfied 't was he went back to his Wife and acquainted her with the circumstances of the Story and so left her to pursue the Francisean but his Wife being alone and extreamly perplex'd to rid her self of that trouble that was upon Spirit hanged her self but whilst she was strugling with the pangs of Death killed a little Infant that was by her with a Blow of