have the Essentials of Christian Religion For these essentials are not saving but where they have the Prevalency and they can but aggravate sin and leave it more inexcusable where they are baffled and opprest Can any man think that Pilats Judgment Hall becomes a Church for having Christ standing there to be condemned or that Dagons Temple becomes Gods house for having the Ark there shut up No wise man looks for any Harvest from a few handfulls of Wheat choaked with all manner of weeds nor takes it to be good Pasture which he sees to be overgrown with Thorns No sincere Israelite can ever think of being saved by the Religion of Dan and Bethel because it keeps still Moses his Law nor by the Samaritan Religion because they serve God as well as Baal Mixt and corrupt Religions are not to be valued so much in what is trodden under mens feet as by what is predominant and set upon their high Altars The great Building raised at Jerusalem by Adrian did not cease to be Jupiters Temple for being raised upon holy Foundations and the best Altars of the Lord can procure no Atonement tho they be kept in good repair when they serve for burning Swines Flesh Thus what expect you from the whole Bible while what is in it is but a Pedestal to hundeeds of false Superstitions or from the Preaching of Christ and himself crucified the chiefest learnin of S. Paul and the Salvation of Jews and Gentiles as long as it is made a Foundation for an abominable Mass Service In the mean while if Papists will still bless themselves and think that all is safe at home because they are called Catholics abroad and for my part I can but wonder to find here Bellarmin so weak let them remember that in the ancient times Men as erroneous as they are were called Gnostics Apostolics and Angelics that is Sublime and Angelical Christians and thus the very Turks may bless themselves whensoever we call them Musulmans that is Men of true saving Faith The Papists may give to themselves such Titles as they are best pleased with but when Protestants call them Catholics it is either out of ignorance for many are not acquainted with the true signification of that Word or a ciuil Complement or a meer Jest and Mockery 〈…〉 as to the truth it self the Roman Church 〈…〉 the true nor a truly Catholic Church 〈…〉 the true Catholic Church for this 〈…〉 pretend to but upon the account of 〈…〉 Jurisdiction over all the Churches of 〈◊〉 which Pretension where it prevails is a Sacrilegious Encroachment and where it doth not is a meer Fable Nor is she truly Catholic either by her own proper Doctrines Laws and Worship which all are new as to Christian Antiquity Local and unapostolical or by the common Principles of Christianity that she detains since she detains them in Unrighteousness over-whelmed oppressed and groaning under many heavy massy Burthens of Superstitions and Abuses beneath which she kept them and that not like the Oracles of God in a Church but as Captives in a Dungeon There both God in his Law and Jesus Christ in his Gospel are in a manner close Prisoners under a cruel Band of Soldiers not one Commandment among the ten few if any of the twelve Articles of the Creed but there are in the Church of Rome some special Errors and Impieties wickedly set to abuse them And this is both the Sanctuary that Rome opens for Salvation and the first fundamental Allurement she serves men with to entice them to Popery CHAP. III. Concerning the second Inducement to Popery The Roman Miracles NExt to the pretended Catholic Church Roman Miracles are the main Pride of Popery and its strange Wonders such as they be of Lauretta Montserrat and other places give as much countenance to the Roman as Delphi Delos Dodona and such other Seats of Heathenish Gods did to the Heathenish Religion The truth is Miracles will carry a great weight both with the unlearned and Learned Men when they are right and therefore it much concerns every one that hath no mind to be cheated well to know the right from the wrong All true Christian Miracles are supernatural or extraordinary Works wrought for a time either by the immediate Hand of God or by the Mediation of Men and Angels when moved or strengthned thereto by him for the farther authorizing and confirming true Catholic and Christian Truth especially among Infidels First I say true Christian Miracles not only to oppose them to all Cheating and Fabulous but also to distinguish them from other more common supernatural Effects which God is pleased sometimes to shew promiscuously among all sorts of Nations for the asserting of his Power Justice Mercy or more generally his Divine Being in the course of his Providence There is not a Nation in the whole World but may find if they will search many such admirable Passages in their Chronicles nor scarce any private Man but may observe somwhat of these as he calls them strange Accidents in his own time It is most certain that God sent his Angels and with them his great Judgments and Powers among the Persians and Greeks called Javan Dan. 10. as well as among the Israelites and besides what either the Earth or the Heavens can do by their proper Influence and what Man-kind can add unto it by their own good or bad conduct in the ordinary course of things the miraculous Hand of God often times over-rules so visibly that no sober man can doubt of his interposition and guidance Of this kind are the stupendous and unexpected rises and falls of great Estates the slaughters of many thousands mention'd in divers Histories by an inconsiderable handful of men the raising of Princes among Pagans to an extraordinary pitch of Moral Vertue and Heroical Courage the terrible Prodigies Blazing-stars and Predictions before great Desolations and Plagues somtimes Curses somtimes Blessings fastned as it were to some Houses c. No judicious Man will fancy that Cyrus for example or Alexander either would undertake or could perform their vast Designs amidst their Disadvantages without some singular influence and help from above and whosoever will consider what Plato was and what he makes a Plato in Apolog. Socrat. Socrates say before his death can hardly forbear thinking but that this Heroical Pagan had commonly the Assistance of a good Angel These and other such great Examples taken notice of by all sorts of Historians confirm the truth of Gods special care about the conservation of Societies and signifie nothing at all about their true or untrue Religion in Churches or Temples If they did where is that pitiful Sect or Country but might allege sundry Miracles to justifie its own Pagan or Heretical Perswasion The Emperors Vespatian and Adrian might have authorized by this means the Worshipping of Roman Eagles for both are said b Corn. Tacitus Hist. l. 4. to have restor'd sight to blind men the Vestal in
had in her Breast turned into Oil wherewith she did anoint her sores and somtimes also she used it as Butter to sweeten her Bread Cardinals and whole Towns besides can aver these Extravagancies and make therewith the first kind of Roman Miracles A second Evidence against Roman Miracles is their looking quite another way and their being design'd for the confirmation of quite different Doctrines then ancient Miracles were The last Primitive Christian Miracles being wrought for the most part at the Graves of Holy Martyrs never confirmed more then this Truth That the Death the Souls and the very Ashes of those Saints were precious before the Lord and therefore that the Christian Faith which they had believed taught and died for was very true So it remained only to enquire what this Faith was and what kind of Doctrine St. Stephen and other Martyrs believed and Preach'd for nothing else but this can be asserted by their Miracles What is it saith St. Augustin g Aug de Civit. l. 22. c 9. that these Miracles will attest but the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ The Holy Apostles being alive never confirmed by their Miracles but what they taught and what they taught St. Paul tells you is concluded within the Law and the Prophets You may be sure it went no farther then what you find in Christs Gospel This is that Faith which once and but once being delivered to the Saints was carried thro all Nations and thus made Catholic by the Almighty Breath of God and there setled by his Almighty Hand and the Miracles that followed it Mark 16.20 So at this very day tho all sorts of Operations were continually seen at the Sepulcher of S. Paul at Rome they would rather confirm his Epistles then the Popes Bulls As for Roman Miracles they do follow likewise Roman Doctrines which sometimes are quite contrary to and alwaies quite different from the true Christian Gospel They would be huge books that could contain all the Revelations and strange Wonders that encourage Men in general to the worship of the Virgin Mary As many more are bestowed upon the doing it by special waies and at special Feasts for what else mean those swarms of Monks who lie hid h S. Anton. 3. part Hist. t. 23. c. 3. sect 1. under her Coat or those Ladders whited with her Milk i Chronic. Deip. an 1231. from which no body taking that way to go up to Heaven can tumble down or those Quires of k Histor. Carnat an 1116. Angels heard in the bottom of a deep Well to sing her Praises What can you make of those Images that l Archiv Buburg in Frand an 1383. bleed or m Menol. Cisterc 28. April speak or fly as light n Leand. in vita Hyacinthi ap Sur. 16. August as Feathers unless they serve to bring Mankind to the worshipping of Wood and Stone What aile those thousands of sad Souls to ramble up and down the whole World since the times of Pope Gregory but to revele Purgatory and to recommend Masses for the dead How many strange Feats have bin wrought by the hands of S. Dominic and S. Francis to no better end then to confirm the new Orders and waies of these Saints All those heaps of Excommunicated p Specul Exemp Tit. Excommunicatio Exemp 5. Flies and that q Ibid. Exemp 4. poor Raven pining to death under the same Fate for having fled away with a Bishops Ring What else can they signifie but the terror of the Roman Keies What shall I say of those both small and huge great Toads crawling r Ibid. Tit. Confessio Exempl 22. out and into Mens mouths when they do observe ill or well the Rules of Auricular Confession or of the many little Children s Ibid. Tit. Eucharistia standing upon Consecrated Wafers there purposely to justifie the real Transubstantiation at Mass or of the many Cures wrought every where partly in the behalf t S. Bonav in vit Franc. of the five Wounds which St. Francis had in his Body or of the Rope he did wear about his Loins And since we are about this great Saint tell me what you think of this Miracle †Hieron Platus de Bono statu Relig. l. 5. c. 33. A Bishop moved with Passion against a Convent of Franciscans had resolved to turn them out of his City and was to do it the next day the Night before behold their Sacrist sees in a Vision the Image of St. Paul and the Image of St. Francis both painted in the Church Window talking earnestly one with the other He hears St. Paul extremely blaming St. Francis o Gregor in Dialog passim for no better defending his own Order and St. Francis answering to him What shall I do saies he I have but a Cross and that is no defensive Weapon but had I a Sword as you have for commonly they represent them so perhaps I might do somewhat more The man being awak'd starts off his Bed and his Imagination being full of this runs to the Church finds the two Pictures had exchang'd their Arms Paul in the Window had the Cross and St. Francis had the Sword This amaz'd the whole Convent but that which is more then all the rest St. Francis had not St. Pauls Sword in vain for that same night the Bishop had his Throat cut What Evangelical Doctrine can be confirm'd by these three Wonders Pictures that can speak and move St. Paul that exhorts to revenge and a Saint who during his Life made conscience as they say to kill a Louse now can cut his Bishops Throat What I say can you make of this unless it be this wholesome Doctrine That Bishops are not Jure Divino but Fryers are All these and whole Millions of other such Roman Miracles are not fit for Christs Kalender because they never were fitted for perswading Men of the truth of Christs Gospel and therefore upon that account must needs proceed from any other then Christs Spirit The third foul mark of Roman Miracles is that besides their unchristian ends they happen in such suspicious times as may discredit the best that are The Gift of Miracles being to Teachers what both Credential Letters and Roial Colors are to public Officers which signifie much with good Subjects whilst they know them granted to none but such as the King doth really send but very little after they see those in the hands these on the backs of every dirty Carrier who hath a mind for his own ends to counterfeit them and rant with them No wise man takes for good paiment whatsoever hath Cesars Image after he hears of false Coiners who have dispersed vast sums abroad and marked them with the same Stamp We are not now in the privileged daies either of Moses or Elias or Jesus Christ or his Apostles when neither all the Magicians could make one Louse nor all the Baalims could light Fire on one Altar nor all
continuing Sacred communion with Christ Sixthly that these Honors were all bestowed on them l Scriptum Smyrn ap Eus Eccl. Hist l. 4. c. 5. both for the more solemn celebrating of their faith thro-out all Churches and for the encouraging of all Christians to their Example This was enough to vindicate the Truth of God and the true meaning of his Church as to the Honor due to his Saints It might have bin enough also to smother in the very birth the growing superstitions of some private men in this case that St. Austin doth complain of or at the least to restrain them from growing worse and endangering the after Ages if the Pagans being confuted some partly seduced partly seducing Christians had not revived their quarrel and gon about to justify as much as in them did lie their old Reproches by propping their praying to Saints upon the two main Points whereon the Pagans worshipt their Gods The first is taken from the prudence that humble or wise Sutors must use at Court You shall hardly find one Papist but will tell you that it is rashness to go bluntly and directly to great Persons unless you be presented to them by their Officers and favorites and why should any man pretend any easier a Chrisost in S. Philogon tom 5 p. 505. Ed. t. Eton. admittance to God without their intercession and favor who as the Saints and the Angels do stand continually about him This is the very self same Argument which the heathenish Philosophers mainly objected to the Fathers and to which the Fathers gave two such Answers as at once may stop equally both the Pagan and Roman Mouths the one is that m Ambros ad Rom. c. 1. V. Dicentes se esse sapientes of S. Ambrose We are forced to go to the King saies he by the mediation of his Nobles because great Kings are men as we are and have this Infirmity along with their condition that they must hear and understand with the help of others besides themselves whereas God understands every thing which every supplicant asks and deserves and as for the obtaining of his favor we can employ no better friend then an honest and pious Soul The other is most singular and I have it from Origen But if you have a mind also to have the concurrence of the Angels n Origen cont Cels l. 8. p. 420. Edit Cantah saies he we have it when by pious lives and praiers we do address our selves to God For as the motion of the shadow must needs follow that of the Bodies what way soever these will turn let us know this that if we move God towards us we shall get by the same means all the good Angels Souls and Spirits to be our Friends and which is more actual helpers both by praiers and other waies for these blessed Spirits take most especial notice of men qualified for Gods favor And I dare say confidently that whosoever praies to God devoutly hath whole Legions of holy Angels at the same time praying for him without his desiring them to do so This antient Author is the first who ventured to say That the Saints might perhaps pray and act for us and yet he is as express as any other to direct men to God by Christ alone and to keep them from Praying to Angels and Saints The other main Ground common to Pagans and Papists for Praying those to their Gods these to their Saints is either the false Allegation or the false Construction of Miracles This every one knows who knows them both Whereas when the Miracles of the Saints were at the best that is during the three Primitive hundred years they never temted Christians any farther then to go and to pray to God in those places where they were wrought and where Praiers had somtimes very extraordinary returns there they might perhaps wish to God that he would hear in their behalf the general Praiers which these Souls most probably offer to God for the afflicted members of his Church But where is the worthy Prelate or Christian saith o S. August contra Faust l. 21. c. 21. Id. De Civit. l. 8. c. 27. St. Augustin who being by the Grave of a Martyr ever said Peter or Paul or Cyprian I offer to you this Sacrifice whether of Praier or Praise or Vow 't is all one The Miracles don by Holy Men did set as it were the Seal of God upon the Gospel which they believed and upon the Worship which they both promoted and died for therefore we must believe and worship as they did If they did set also as certainly they did some Marks of Reverence on their Persons and their Memory 't was not to this purpose that they should be either adored or praied to We do not read that true Israelites ever praied to the dead Prophet for the great Miracle wrought at his Tomb nor that Christians ever worship'd the living Apostles for all the signs wrought by their hands and sometimes at their very shadow S. Chrysostom p S. Chrysost ad Pop. Antioch Hom. 1. assures me that God kept them most commonly under some sensible Infirmity which they could not ease themselves of as the ill Stomach of Timothy and the troublesom Angel about St. Paul that the Glory of their Miracles might wholly reflect on Christs Power and that nothing of it might be abused to the admiration of their Persons But all is in vain to save those Men who have a mind to lose themselves Pagans in spight of all will worship the living Apostles Acts 14. and Papists will pray to dead Saints The Miracles of God must be wrested to countenance these Mens folly and to use the words of an ancient Father q S. Chrys Ibid. to this purpose here observe the Wiles of Satan Christ emploies both at once his Apostles and his Miracles to destroy all Idolatry from among Men and Pagans and Papists make use of both to bring it in This manner of calling on Saints is both unchristian and unjust on all the sides that you can take it First It transfers on Creatures that Prerogative of Gods glory and that special part of his Worship which in Holy Scriptures doth comprehend his whole Service Secondly It makes Saints to be what the Holy Ghost alone is searchers of Mens Hearts and Thoughts and present over all the World if not How can they perceive mental Praiers Thirdly if you suppose that night and day God is reveling to them what Men do and what they would have it forges another Impiety and make God a perpetual Clerk Mediator and Drudg to his own Saints Fourthly It intrudes into Christs Office as many Mediators to intercede with God for Men both by their Sufferings and their Merits as there are with him Saints and Angels whereas the Church knows none but one Fifthly It quite disables the Church from all possibility of asserting Christ and the Holy Ghosts Divine Nature by their usual
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
the stead of either a Prophet to revele or of a Messenger to bring or of a kind of Clerk to read to them all these Praiers Here to make use of those Examples wherewith both o Bell. de Beatit Sanct. l. 1. c. 20. sect Respondeo quemadmodum Papists and p S. Ambros ad Rom. c. 1. Pagans will perswade Men to call upon their Saints the King alone must be the Master of Requests to his Courtiers and the Speaker to his Commons to inform them of every great and every petty trifling thing that their respective Relations Countries and Towns will have them put in a Bill and then present it to his own self Whensoever the Pope calls on S. Peter or a Cardinal on S. Jerom or a Monk on St. Cutbert or any Catholic Man or Woman upon the Virgin nothing is done till God himself calls for these Saints and tells them Hear you Peter Jerome and you Cuthert such and such People now pray to you that you would pray to me and perswade me thro your Merits to grant them such and such things And to dispose you the better to be forward in this Office I must tell you the Pope is old the Cardinal wants an Estate suitable to his Eminence and unless you make hast to solicit me for more Grace such Monks or Maidens your humble Suiters are at this very nick of time in great danger of Incontinency Then and not a moment before come up the Saints with these Praiers to press and solicit with God the very same things and circumstances which God hath reveled to his Saints before Such Wheelings and Impertinencies as these were ridiculous upon a Stage much more are they so in a Church and how much more with God in Heaven And what can you think of the Comedians who dare bring both God and his Saints as chief Actors in such a Play Well Praier to Saints includes these sins in its most plausible Practice when 't is no more then calling on the blessed Saints that they be pleased to mediate and to intercede in their Praiers for us to God which is the cheating notion under which Men ashamed of what they do would fain disguise their Praying to Souls and Angels with the colour of doing q Bell. de Sanct. Beat. l. 1. c. 17. c. 20. no more then when we pray here our Friends and Pastors to pray to God Almighty for us But when they pray and beg at their hands not only for Praiers but as it is apparent by their real practice and the stories of their best Saints for effectual Deliverances such praying is without excuse for instead of the former Drudgery which the other puts upon God this attributes Ubiquity Omnipotency and other infinite and Divine Powers to Saints that is the Church of Rome cannot expect and upon that expectation cannot Pray as they do every where at the same time to the Virgin Mary for example to bless and help them unless she be conceived as being both present every where and potent to bless them and help them every where And this is a double Immensity that of being present where they pray especially where they pray more devoutly and of being present where she helps For without this Ubiquity how could she be seen at Harvest wiping the Faces of r Vincent Sperat Hist l. 8. c 17. of reaping Monks or in a Chamber rubbing s Menol. Cisterc. 22. Decemb. the Head of the good honest Father Adam whilest she is elsewhere t Chronicon Ord. Min. Tom. 2. l. 5. burning Villages or in a rich Abby u De Mirac B. M. 2 Tem. Serm. Discipuli Moguntiae 1612. Mid-wiving an Abbess whom her Steward had unfortunatly gotten with Child Is it not unimaginable that during either of the two daies when she was under a Gallows x Chronic. Deip. an 1358. holding up a Thief under the Feet for fear his own weight should strangle him she could be then in a River y Ib. an 1134. riding Prince Pocoldas his Horse or upon the Walls of Poictiers beating the English off from that Town Or if she be so nimble as to be at the same time under a Gallows upon a Wall and in the middle of a River because all these places are in Europe Can she run both the East and West Indies at the same moment of time there to a Beretar invita Anachoretae l. 1. c. 1. make a Jesuit more chast and here to comfort b Bal nghem 11. Apr. a poor Captain Thus far what Bellarmin saies c Bell. de Beat. Sanct. l. 1. c. 20. sect Alii dicunt may very well pass for certain truth that to help Men in the point of need at z Ibid. an 1200. the same time and in so many distant Countries no nimbleness can serve the turn nor any thing less saies he then a true Omnipresence which is an Attribute proper to God Every Saturday in the Week requires in a special manner this Universal Presence for then the Virgin Mary is in her own Person undoubtedly and by their most solemn Devotions upon that day exalted besides others above the highest Heavens She is at the same time conceived to be most present and beneficial by her Miracles and other waies to her Worshippers upon Earth and according to the promises which she hath d Bull. Sabbath passed to Pope John the 22d she goes down to Purgatory upon that day and therefore she is then under ground This same Universal Presence the clearest Character of God is in a very great mesure required in all other Saints for she goes seldom without them then they are praied to nevertheless from all parts not only to intercede in Heaven which there they might being in one place but to assist them by Sea and Land in Spain and in Armenia which no man believes they can do without believing them every where For no created Causes whatsoever can work any thing but where they are If our Savior did help some sick at a distance from him as Matth. 8.12 He did it with that Divine immense Nature that his human was united to And Holy Souls are not likely to have more power then the Angels who are personally present wheresoever they work any thing If any one say that the Saints may out of Heaven do on Earth whatever they please not by their coming down themselves but by their sending down some Angels First let him shew That the Saints are not only equal to but superiors to the Angels and then that they have the disposal of this Celestial Hierarchy Secondly tho they or at the least the Virgin had it yet this sending of Angels could not be applied but to some few private Services as when some say 't was not her self but some Angel whom she had sent for her but to counterfeit the Devotions and to save the credit of a Nun for the space of nine whole Years when
is still the same if you believe them and by what Men find since far greater It may be now they will not be so plain with you as the poor Widdow n Thom. Cantiprat de Apib. l. 2. c. 29. n. 24. was with the Robber one day to tell you Sir do what you please all the Week long only abstain from doing so on Saturday this one daies Abstinence will so far expiate all that either dead or alive you shall have time both to confess and to escape but they will induce you to fast then and to hear Mass to the Honor of their Goddess by such miraculous Passages as must oblige you if hearkened to to believe more Witness the Head of that Villain which being * Ibidem cut off tumbled down a Hill to the very door of a Mass Priest and there both cried for and obtained accordingly Confession and Salvation together Witness also the Rose o Vincent Bellaar l. 7. c. 102. 103. growing in sign of Salvation out of the Mouth and appearing upon the Tomb of that other debauched Fellow who escaped Hell merely upon the account of not having ravished a Maid both because her name was Mary and that it was on a Saturday So thankful and sensible is this Goddess for mean Services and so either blind and indulgent to great Abominations I forbear the producing of more instances to this purpose because they may be both too well known and too great snares to our Catholic Proselytes Here the Carnal and the Spiritual Whoredom sufficiently help one another CHAP. VIII Of another special Inducement to Popery by a more easie way of serving the Virgin by Beads which they call the Rosary THE Rosary must needs come in after the good Ladies hourly Service For they a Al. Gazaeus de Offic. B. V. pag. 67. 68. hold that these two are the Wings in Ezek. 1. that carry up the Cherubims that is the Devotions of Pious Souls into Heaven and the two golden staves Exod 25. wherewith the Ark of the Lord or rather our Ladies Covenant is carried over the whole World And if they seem to carnal Eies but contemtible thereby the better they resemble the two celebrated Gospel Mites which being devoutly offered to the merciful Queen of Heaven and cast into her Tresury Luk. 21. go far beyond all the richest Gifts The Rosary otherwise called the Virgins Psalter is a new manner of praying which saies Navarrus b Mart. Navar. De Rosar Miscell 1. n. 1. never was nor can ever be valued at what it is worth for it is made up of 150 Ave Maries and 15 Paters tacked together with little buttons upon a string There was before in the Roman Church a lesser set of 50 Aves and 5 Paters which they call Beads and a middle one of 63 in memory of all the years which they say the Virgin lived here upon Earth which is called the Virgins Crown Corona Mariae These had bin * Guilielm Tyrius de Bello sacro intended by an Eremite for the use of Soldiers who had no better Books nor could conveniently carry them to the Holy war But this of 150 Aves and 15 Paters both run over devoutly and meditated on together is a quite other kind of thing as well in worth as Extent They say that the Goddess her self inspired it to St. Dominic about the year 1200. and blazed it abroad into the world in the sight of 12000 men with both the sound and the splendor of such wonderful Miracles as if true must needs make it most Authentic I am as unwilling as any man to trouble my self with Romances But let us not be loth to hear what men turning Papists are given over to believe When first St. Dominic began to preach this Rosary there fell a Demoniac d Legenda S. Dominici ex Jordan Constantin Vmberto c. at his feet and craved his aid against the Devils who did then make him roar and blaspheme Wherefore the Saint being well pleased with this occasion of confirming by some strange Feats what he had Preached leaves his Sermon and in the Name saies he both of the Virgin Mary and of her Service which I stand for O Hellish Spirits I command you to answer me to these Questions 1. You must tell me wherefore you torment this poor Man and how many you are in him Wo unto us say the Spirits it is not in our power to resist this Adjuration We have taken hold of him both because of his Irreverence to the Virgin Mother of God tho we hate her as much as he doth because of his unbelief for ever since this Month and more that thou art Preaching the Rosary this Heretic hath continued as incredulous as before Now we are fifteen thousand Devils in him because he did blaspheme against the Rosary whereof the Ave contains five words and the whole Psalter fifteen Paters that this Rascal offered to laugh at 2. Saies St. Dominic by this Rosary you must tell me Whether all that I have Preached concerning it be true or not Then all the Devils began to fall to fearful Cursings and Howlings why did we not choak this base Fellow when we took him Now it is too late for this Holy Man holds us in fiery Chains ignitis Catenis and forces us to speak the truth So hear ye all Men and Women Whatever this our bitter enemy hath spoken either of Mary or of her Rosary is very true and unless ye believe it you shall perish 3. Thirdly saies S. Dominic you must tell me Who is the Man whom you hate most Thee say the Devils for with thy Sermons and Praiers thou shewest every one the way of getting to Paradise and escaping out of our Hands Then the Saint being modest at this and confessing himself a great sinner Cursed be say they this civility which puts us all to this torture 4. Fourthly S. Dominic throwing his Mantle about this Demoniacs Neck which made him spue ugly matter I must saies he know of you who is the greatest Saint in Heaven whom you fear most and whom Men ought to love and serve best At this Query the Devils roared so horribly that all the People fell to the ground O Dominic Dominic said they have some compassion be content with what Hell makes us suffer and do not put us to new Torments At the least we beseech thee do not force us to answer to this publicly it seems they would have condescended to an Auricular Confession Nay saies Dominic but you shall give a clear and public answer But they being a little stubborn St. Dominic falls on his knees and thus praies to the Virgin Mary O most excellent Virgin by the Power of this thy Psalter I beseech thee make these Enemies of Mankind to satisfy my Question At this Praier presently Flames of Fire burst out at the Mouth of the poor Wretch and all the Devils cried out by the Passion of
the year 1265. This Simon was they say a Johan Pitsaeus De Illustrib Angliae Script an 1265. a most retired Eremite and so great an Enemy to all human Conversation that to the age of 80 years he kept himself most of his time in an old hollow rotten Oak hence he was called S. Simon Stock or Stoch because this Stock was his lodging All this while in his old Tree he was night and day entreating sometimes God sometimes the Virgin that they would be pleased to direct him what kind of men he might more safely join himself to At length as the story saies there came over to England a Company of Monks from Mount Carmel who made him their General that is the General of their Order Never since that time did the good Saint miss one day without praying his Patroness for some special Mark of her Favor upon his Flock Flos Carmeli b Fasti Carmelit an 1250. Carmelitis c. that is Flower of Carmel Star of the Sea send a token to thy Servants the Carmelites Monks will tell you of thousands of Apparitions whereby she uses to come to kiss them or give them some other favor and expression of kindness Whether this Lady who appears to them to be so free and profuse of her Favors be the Virgin or rather some wanton Devil that takes her Name as it is usual to countenance Superstition is not the present Quere Certain it is that the Spirit which commonly appears for her will bring them sometimes very fine Things Lightsom shining Garments as to c Myraeus Chronic. Praemonstrat the Bernardin Friers Scarlet-Robes d Carthagen Tom. 4. de Mirand Deip. sect 233. shut up in a Box as to Thomas of Canterbury Rich Drinking e Balinghem de Viris Illustr 25. Decemb. Cups as of late to St. Tharlavaret sometimes but more seldom good f Gregor 1. Dialog l. 1. c. 9. Mony as to Bishop Bonifacius fine ever burning and never wasting g Pyraeus in Corona Tract 1. c. 12. Lights and Tapers as to the Procession of Arras Fine bread open Lilies and Books as to the h Archang Gian De Initio Servit seven Servites and among others the story is remarkable when the Cistercian Order was yet in its Infancy and had need of this Patroness She appeared among them all when they were singing their Mattens i Gonon Chronic. an 1109 with a fine white Hood in her hand wherewith she hooded their Abbot and as soon as he had it on to their great joy and amazement they presently saw their former black Hoods or Capuchions turn pure milk white and the good Lady added besides these words Ego ordinem c. I do undertake to favor and defend this Order to the worlds end Well old Simon was day and night begging for some such favor till he had it For after much praying to this Flower of Carmel at last she appeared unto him with a great multitude of Angels having the 2d Scapulary or little Rocket in her hand and This shall be said she * Gâ—nonus ex Fastis Carmel Chronic. an 1250. both to Thee and to all the Carmelites a Privilege Whosoever dies in this Habit shall not suffer the Eternal Fire Whosoever dies in this shall be saved This was Encouragement enough to allure People to this happy Confraternity yet these Carmelites were strangers and as it is usual envied by the Mendicant Orders growing much about the same time they had much ado to take root till the Virgin Mary appear'd for them a second time and to a much better purpose The Roman Catholics for the most part if they have but time to confess are not much afraid of the eternal fire in Hell but they terribly fear the Temporal Purgatory to this effect therefore came the same Lady from above and declared in the presence of Pope John the 22th then residing at Avignion that once a week about every Saturday night she hereafter would not fail to come down * Bull. Sabb. to Purgatory and thence pull all and every Soul which she shall find to have worn that sacred Habit. This being proclamed by an Authentic Bull and by a Pope for those daies of great Learning brought the Scapulary into great request And since that time men may be thought to deserve well all the Purgatory Burnings whosoever would be so untoward as not to prevent that danger when they can do it upon so reasonable terms Especially now when it is made most easy and commodious in behalf of Persons of the greatest quality for wearing under the gentilest Doublets or Bodies There are some words and Forms of Blessing to consecrate this little Habit into a saving Apparel There are also some few Restraints put upon them that do wear it a Maid must keep her Virginity a Wife Conjugal Faith and a Widow her Chastity c. But if they happen to trespass they all know when and how and where to be easily absolved For the putting on of this Habit procures a threefold advantage in the way of Roman Salvation 1. An Indulgence and Pardon of sins 2. All the Favor and Protection of the Virgin of Mount Carmel 3. A plentiful supply of all the Meritorious and Satisfactory works belonging to the Society 1. As to the Benefit of Indulgences most Confraternities equal or exceed this and here you may find the Popes backward or much saving in the distribution of their Pardons For whereas other Confraternities have seldom less then a full Indulgence of all sins at the Entrance this hath but a third part of them in the great Sabbatine Bull. They allow but 40 daies Pardon for saying seven Paters and Aves to the honor of the seven Joies but 100 for the little Office but 300 for eating no flesh on Saturdaies but 500 and some few Quarantains for waiting on the consecrated Host Many other Confraternities of far lesser importance then that is have much more Witness that of S. Benedict S. Scholastica and S. Rochus And yet tho the Popes on this account did so little they did it for the most part but when they were forced to it by strong and irresistible Impulses The Virgin Mary as they say l Palconydor Antiquit. Carmelit l. 3. was fain to threaten Honorius the 3d and to tell him of two chief Officers of his who had bin already destroied by Gods Vengeance for neglecting her Carmelites before this Pope could be brought to confirm their Order and Innocent the 4th had an Express a while after from the same Lady before he would do them Right against their envying Neighbors By this it seems the Lady had done for them so much before that the Popes were unwilling for their own profit as in the case of the Chappel of Angels to do much more 2. And the truth is if these Apparitions to S. Simon and to John the 22th be true the Scapulary Confraternity hath abundantly enough in her