did bear rule by their means and which is observable the People did Love to have it so Jer. 5. 31. And to the like purpose St. Paul speaks of those Rom. 1. who held the Truth in unrighteousness because that when they knew God they glorified him not as God neither were thankful they became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened so that professing themselves to be wise they became fools and were given over to a Reprobate mind and to be without understanding Now this consideration that God doth many times in Judgement upon wicked people send them strong Delusions that they should believe a Lye serveth to these two good purposes that I may not mention any more 1. It discovers unto us the Reason why it is such an hard and very difficult matter to reclaim people that have once wilfully revolted from the Truth Every Age hath found it true by sad experience that it is much more easie to convert that person from the Error of his way who hath been bred up in Ignorance from his Youth than to reduce that man who hath turned aside either to Atheism or to Idolatry and Superstition albeit he may have been instructed out of the Scriptures from his Childhood Such a one sinneth against greater light of Conscience and so is infinitely more Criminal in shutting his own eyes than he who never had his eyes open nor had a Torch held out unto him to find out the True way Questionless a man may sin away Gods Grace by degrees and of all sorts of Sinners the Apostate seemeth to take the Largest step towards it and therefore the Apostle speaking of Renegado's from the Truth tells us Heb 6. 4 5 6. That it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the Heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good Word of God and the powers of the World to come if they shall fall away to renew them again unto Repentance For if any man quencheth the Spirit it is he If any man treadeth under foot the Son of God it is he If any man counteth the Blood of the Covenant an unholy thing it is he If any man doth despite unto the Spirit of Grace it is he And after so many sins so much obstinacy and so much standing out against the clamours and snubbings of Natural and Enlightned Conscience to recover that man out of his Apostacy by the gravest Counsels by the most pathetical Exhortations or by the strongest and most convincing Arguments though it be not absolutely impossible yet it is next door unto it and the Reason of it is here in my Text because he loved not the Truth therefore hath God sent him strong Delusions that he should believe a Lye Let him therefore that standeth as he valueth the favour of God the comforts and fellowship of the Spirit and the Eternal interest and felicity of his own Soul let him take heed lest he fall 1 Cor. 10. 12. 2. This Consideration of Gods sending some men strong Delusions serveth to clear up that which in our Age seemeth to be a Miracle of wonders how it cometh to pass that many famous and learned Divines in the Church of Rome have both believed those things themselves and obtruded them upon others also as so many sound and Catholick Truths which even unskilful Men and Ideots in our Communion can discover to be meer delusions or falshoods as it were of yesterday I remember Tertullian said Sapientis est nihil admirari That a Wiseman will wonder at nothing and I think we need not wonder at this thing if it be so but rather we may make it a Question whether it be so indeed Whether they have believed those points themselves which they have offered unto us as Articles of Faith St. Augustine tells of Varro that learned Pagan that he affirmed Aug. de Civ Dei lib. 4. c. 31. That many things in Religion were true which it was not fit that the Vulgar sort should know and on the other hand that tho some things were false yet it was not convenient for the common People to believe otherwise And so he tells us of Scaevola the Roman High-Priest in those times of Heathenisme that Expedire existimavit falli in Religione Civitates He thought it very expedient for De Civ Dei lib. 4. c. 27. Cities to be deceived in their Religion And some others too especially among the old Greeks have spoken to the same purpose And it is not impossible but some Christian Romanes Vid. Joseph cont Appion lib. 2. may have thought as Varro and Scaevola did of old that for certain Reasons the Vulgar ought to be made believe many things tho they be not true I would strain my Charity to think well of the worst but yet I cannot for all my Charity but fear at least that some Popish Divines have acted quite against their own Consciences and used indirect Arts to gull the rest of the World teaching such Doctrines for True which they themselves could not but know to be false and I shall give you two instances to confirm my opinion that it may not seem to be an uncharitable conjecture only When they procured a Commission from King Philip of Spain to search for all sorts of Catholick Books and to purge out of them those passages which made for the Protestants and to note those passages in a Book by it self called the Expurgatory Index there were notable Cautions inserted in the Commission that the Book so compiled should not in any wise be made publick Vide Diploma praefix Ind. Exp. Edit Belg. but commited to the trust of some certain faithful Prelates and that those Prelates should not communicate the matter to any but such as they should judge to be trusty and by them to be kept very close and not so much as the sight of one Copy to be imparted unto others tho they were Catholicks Now was not this acting against Conscience For if they intended to deal fairly and upon the Square why was this contrivance to be kept under the Seal of Secrecy Again When the Censors of Doway were upon promoting of this design of purging Books and did light upon several ancient Writers and perticularly upon Bertram who lived within nine hundred years after Christ and wrote things destructive of Transubstantiation they resolved together not to burn those Books but either to bear with their Errors or to extemiate them or to excuse them and to give them as kind a sense as could be and if the shoo pinched too much than their last refuge was roundly and manfully to deny the matter in their disputations with their Adversaries this is the English of their own words in their Censure of Pag. 13. Ind. Exp. Edit Belg. Bertram's Book And if this be not in plain English down right dishonesty we are yet to seek what the Nature of Cheating is
IMPRIMATUR March 28. 1679. Guil. Sill. R. P. D. Henr. Episc Lond. à Sac. Dom. ANCIENT and MODERN DELUSIONS Discoursed of in Three Sermons Upon 2 THES 2. 11. Concerning some ERRORS now prevailing in the CHURCH OF ROME By EDWARD PELLING Rector of St. Martins Ludgate London Etiamsi ingeritur oculis Veritas amat tuetur errorem coargui non vult in malè caeptis honestior illi pertinacia videtur quà m Penitentia Sen. de ira lib. 1. c. 16. LONDON Printed by B. G. for Jonathan Edwin at the three Roses in Ludgate-street 1679. ANCIENT and MODERN DELUSIONS Discoursed of in three SERMONS Upon 2 THES 2. 11. SERM. I. 2. THES 2. 11. And for this cause God shall send them strong Delusions that they should believe a Lye I Think there is not in all the New Testament a Chapter which has been more quoted by Protestants than this And he that shall read the former part thereof may be apt to conceive that S. Paul by a Prophetick Spirit pointeth here to the Church and Bishops of Rome And I confess many Learned Divines have thought so because there are in this Chapter so many notable Characters which do become and fit that Faction so well that though St. Paul did not point to them directly a man might easily and plausibly mistake in thinking that he did For first he tells us of a falling away from the Faith that was to come vers 3. and it is notorious that the Church of Rome hath departed though not from the whole Creed yet from many Fundamental and universally received Doctrines of Christianity In the same breath he speaks of a man of sin that was to be revealed the Son of Perdition which the best Interpreters do understand not of a single Person but of a whole Sect as when we say the Jesuit is a Traitor we mean the wholer Order and Society Moreover the Apostle tells us that this man of Sin opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped so that he as God sitteth in the Temple or Church of God shewing himself that he is God He speaketh of a Mystery of Iniquity that began to work then whose coming was after the working of Satan with all Power and Signs and lying Wonders All which descriptions whosoever shall consider and compare them with the Novel Doctrines the intollerable Usurpations the monstrous Practices and the pretended Miracles of the Church of Rome may be apt to think as several Doctors both before and since the Reformation have thought that the Pope and his flatterers are here marked out unto us Especially if he shall consider withal how the Apostle saith vers 10. That the coming of this man of Sin would be with all deceivableness of Vnrighteousness meaning with all cunning Arts of wheadling people into iniquity which Cornelius a Lapide the Jesuit reckons to be six and all of them to be used Com. in Loc. by Anti-christ to draw men into Errour and Destruction 1. By courteous and obliging Insinuations 2. By specious pretences of Holiness and Sanctity 3. By their Wisdome and Eloquence and skilfulness in all Arts and Learning 4. By promising and bribing them with money the more readily to bring hungry persons to their Lure 5. By threatning such as are Refractory with Death and Destruction and by inflicting on them the terrible Torments of an Inquisition 6. By working such Prodigies and Wonders before the Eyes of the World as ignorant and credulous People will be ready to admire and believe and to take for true Miracles Now I am much deceiv'd if this Jesuit did not take his Measures by his own Brethren so exactly do these Arts and Methods agree with the Tricks and Manners of that sort of Cattel that when I read his Comment upon the Place I fancied my self to be reading the plain and perfect Character of Ignatius's Disciples Yet the great Hugo Grotius and many Lib. de Antichristo Moderate and Judicious men besides do not understand St. Paul to relate here immediately to the Romanists though others have otherwise opined whose zeal might have transported them beyond themselves such weak Creatures we are naturally that our Passions are apt to ingage in the most weighty Disputes just as hot pated men are ready to thrust into and bustle in the gravest Councils Very probable it is that the Apostle in this Chapter as in several other places pointeth to a wicked Crew of Apostates that prevailed in those first Times of Christianity as Simon Magus and his followers who though they were divided into several Sects and Factions the Nicolaitanes the Corinthians the Carpocratians the Eucratitae the Marcionites and the rest some of our late Divines do comprehend all of them under the general name of Gnosticks I will not contend about this matter being little to my purpose This is certain that whatever deceivers are intended in this place of Scripture it was a just Judgement of God upon vile and wicked men that they compassed their Ends They gained upon such or such onely as ran wilfully to their own destruction such as lived unrighteously and loved not the Truth but dishonoured it and the God of it by their foolish sensual and lewd Courses for this cause it was that God sent them strong Delusion that they should believe a Lye So that my business is to handle this Text with reference unto those chiefly who either are already or are likely to be Deluded if it be possible to redeem the one and to keep the other sort out of that snare which the Devil spreadeth for unwary wretches by as many Wiles and Instruments in these days of ours as ever he did in the dayes of the Apostle or after And in the prosecution of this matter I shall undertake to shew you these two things by occasion of the words which I have now read unto you 1. How it cometh to pass that many people are led away by strong Delusions and believe that which is a manifest and notorious Lye 2. That notwithstanding the great evidences which have been given on the behalf of Truth yet multitudes of silly People are very fond of Delusions and Lyes still strong Delusions gross and palpable Lies which are taught them by those who are if not the same yet as like unto the deceivers whom St. Paul speaketh of here as one Impostor can be like another and in the process of this discourse I shall shew you in particular what some of those Delusions and Lies are and how they resemble those which were broached in the beginning 1. How it cometh to pass that many people are led away by strong Delusions and believe that which is a manifest and notorious Lie Certainly the History of mankind is a very great wonder that since Truth is so lovely and taking since men are generally so solicitous and inquisitive after it since our faculties are so excellently framed to find it out and are naturally
suffer themselves to be abus'd and cheated by men who count gain to be Godliness For as the World now goes people are not easily to be fool'd and baffled out of their Reason their Liberty and their Money too And yet we see there are some and those of no mean extraction or pitiful Parts who have been brought to subscribe to many Delusions which that Church teacheth for Catholick Doctrines But Secondly even these I fear do it for their Interest too Though it be not for their Spiritual and Eternal Interest to give themselves up to believe a Lye yet for their Worldly and Carnal Interest it is for the Interest of their Lusts and sensual Appetites which some are more fond of than of a good Conscience For certainly there is not a more easie Religion in the World For of Good Works they reckon but three sorts Alms Fasting and Prayer so that let a man but shew Mercy in some indifferent measure let him but forbear eating of flesh when the Church bids him let him but hear the service though in an unknown Tongue and run over the Rosary consisting of 150 Ave Mary's and 15 Pater Nosters and he need not much fear his future state So likewise of Mortal Sins they reckon but seven viz. Pride Envy Covetousness Carnality Gluttony Anger and Sloath So that let a man forbear these Seven though he commiteth Seventy times Seven more yet to Hell he shall not go Or though he commiteth These too yet if he do but confess to the Priest once a year or before he dieth he is Absolved at a cheap rate and if he chance to expire before all his Penance be done t is but leaving behind him a good Legacy for a Mass and then the pains of Purgatory shall not hold him long What an Heap of Sophistry is here and yet they call it Religion and are willing to believe that it is the only True Religion not because it is a Rational but a Pleasant Model for it strains no Sinews it breaks no bones but saves them the charge of mortifying their Lusts of crucifying their Affections of subduing their earthly Members of cutting off a right hand or pulling out a right eye and as long as things go at this rate it is a wonder to me that all lewd and vicious people in the world do not throw themselvs into the bosome of that Church where they may live as merrily as they list and yet if they be not careless or niggardly or poor may die as securely and happily as they can wish I have been the longer upon this Subject because I was minded to give you some account of that which at this day seemeth such a strange thing that every one is ready to lift up his hands in admiration that when the world generally is so knowing some should be prevailed with to forsake a Grave Serious and Excellent Religion to embrace a Profession which is made up of Fooleries Chimaera's and Ridicules 'T is Interest many times that opens the gate and le ts out a Renegado or an Apostate And yet 3. Thirdly there is yet another account and the weightiest of all which the Apostle gives of it in my Text God doth many times send men strong delusions that they should believe a Lye For the right understanding of which words two things are to be noted 1. That the words are not so to be understood as if God did directly infatuate the minds of men or actually blind their understandings by working so powerfully upon them that they cannot but Err. For as he doth not Tempt so neither doth he delude any but every man is led away by his own Lusts and by the wiles and devices of the Prince of darkness the place then is not to be understood in a Positive but in a Negative sense rather viz. that God is many times pleased to permit men to be deluded to deliver them up to themselves to let them follow their own imaginations and to suffer them to be deceived by letting the reins loose to the Spirit of Error and by withdrawing from wicked people though not a sufficiency yet that plenty of Grace whereby they might have been kept out of the snare of the Devil God is said to have sent an evil Spirit between Abimelech and the men of Sichem Judg. 9. To have moved David to number Israel and Judah 2 Sam. 29. To have put a lying Spirit in the mouth of Ahabs Prophets 2 Chron. 18. To have poured out upon the Jews the Spirit of a deep Sleep Is 29. And to have given them the Spirit of Slumber Rom. 11. 8. But all these Texts and expressions must be understood of Gods Permission and purpose of suffering Satan to use his Arts and Stratagems to close mens eyes and to cast a mist before their understandings and to draw them into Errors And so here God shall send them strong Delusions that is will suffer and permit the Devil and his Instruments to delude them that they should believe a Lye 2. It is to be noted that when God is pleased to do this it is not with an immediate design and direct intention that men shall be deluded that they may perish For he is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to Repentance But the Apostle speaketh of the event and issue of things that the wickedness and ingratitude of People would bring them to that pass and upshot that they would believe any thing in the End though never so Romantick and Fabulous And so the sense of these words being opened the consideration which now lyeth before us is this that however some are necessarily Deluded through their invincible ignorance and others are willing to be Deluded for their interest and advantage yet that many are delivered up to strong Delusions is a just judgement of God upon them as a punishment of their unrighteousness Because they received not the Love of the Truth that they might be saved for that cause saith our Apostle God shall send them strong Delusions that they should believe a Lye An example whereof we have in King Ahab 2 Chron. 18. Because he would not credit the account which Michaiah gave him concerning his going up to Ramoth Gilead the Lord suffered him to be deceived and thereby to be slain The Lord said who will entice Ahab King of Israel that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead And there came out a certain Spirit and said I will entice him I will go out and be a lying Spirit in the mouth of all his Prophets And the Lord said thou shalt entice him and thou shalt also prevail Go out and do even so In like manner he dealt with the whole Nation of the Jews when they were in Love with Lies and required the Prophets to Prophesie deceit unto them God chose their Delusions and gave them up to the ways and imaginations of their hearts insomuch that the Prophets prophesied falsly and the Priests
From these two Instances it doth appear that there is reason enough for us to suspect at least that they have acted craftily and against the light of their own Consciences and so it is very probable that they do still and that they may know themselves the falshood of those things which they would fain have us to believe and perhaps for Varro's and Scaevola's reason because it is fit sometimes the People should be deceived in their Religion for peace and quietness sake But yet What if the Rulers of these People be of the same Faith with their Vassals it is no argument of the truth of their Creed because great and learned Men have believed it for great and learned Men may be and have been deceived That great Philosopher Zeno did question whether there was any such thing as Motion in the world but what authority is this for me to disbeleive my own eyes And Scipio Tettus was such a Fool that he denied the being of God and set up a School of Atheism and died a Martyr for Atheism and clapt his hands too in the very flames Now all that we can collect from these and the like instances is that Man is a most senseless Creature when God gives him up to his own conduct and management especially if he be blinded too by him that ruleth in darkness Magnus Deus est error as Luther said Error is a God which the most admired Sophies are ready to adore when the God of Truth Righteousness and Peace shall leave them to themselves and commit them to their own hands And that this is usual the Instances are too many to be insisted on and the thing is too common to be wondered at And so the first thing I propounded is made good that many people are led away by strong delusions to believe that which is a manifest and notorious lie and how this cometh to pass Partly by the power of Mens Education partly by the efficacy of their Lusts but chiefly by the Justice of God thereby punishing them for their darling wickednesses for this cause God doth send them strong Delusions that they should believe a Lie ANCIENT and MODERN DELUSIONS Discoursed of in three SERMONS Upon 2 THES 2. 11. SERM. II. 2. THES 2. 11. And for this cause God shall send them strong Delusions that they should believe a Lye THE second consideration now followes that notwithstanding those great Evidences which have been given on the behalf of Truth yet multitudes of silly people are very fond of delusions and lyes still nay even such as are of the same or of the like Nature with those Delusions which St. Paul speaketh of here which he sayeth were to be sent upon that Generation as a curse and Judgement upon them because they loved not the Truth that they might be saved In the handling of this matter I must of necessity observe this Method to shew you what those Pretences were which prevailed in the very first ages of Christianity Then that many pretences which are in vogue now do resemble and come very near to those which were broached in the beginning by damned Seducers and lastly that these are meer Delusions and Lyes how specious soever they may appear unto the vulgar 1. Then it is observable and very certain that in the most Primitive Times of the Church many Impostors did pretend to an Infallible Spirit This is clear to any man that hath but enquired into the History and condition of that Age wherein the Apostles of Christ lived For Simon the Sorcerer of whom we read Act. 8. and whom the Ancients called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Eldest Son of the Devil pretended that he was that Divine Being which framed both the Angelical and Visible world He perswaded many to believe that he was the great power of God or as it may be rendred that he was that Power Numen or Divine Majestie which is called Great He pretended to be more than Gods Vicar upon Earth for he gave out that he was the very God that appeared Epiph. Haeres 21. Iren. l. 1 c. 20. Cyril Catech 5. Iustin Dial. in Tryph. Euseb Hist Eccl. lib. 2. c. 13. upon Mount Sinai as the Father that he was the Christ that afterwards conversed with the Jews as the Son and that he was the Holy Ghost that at last descended as the Paraclete or promised Comforter Eusebius tells us that he had a Demon alwayes attending on him which was called the Virtus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereby he Quod de Marco Annot Iren. lib. 1. c. 9. wrought such seeming Miracles that he was worshipped as the Supream and Sovereign Deity and it appears by the joynt testimonies of Tertullian Justin Martyr and other the most Tertul. Apol. c. 13 Iustin Apol. 2. Iren. l. 1. c. 20. Cyril Catech. 5. ancient Writers of the Church that Claudius the Emperor erected a great Statue in honour of him with this Inscription upon it Simoni Deo sancto to the Holy God Simon Some learned Divines do conceive that this was that Man of Sin of whom Saint Paul saith in this 2 Thes 2. 4. That he opposed and exalted himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped c. This is certain that his Followers pretended to the most perfect and certain knowledge of Gods Will insomuch that they despised the Apostles themselves as much inferiour to them in understanding the Divine Mysteries And Epiphanius relates that when the Church appealed to Epiph. lib 1. Haeres 14. 34. Iren. lib. 3. c 2. the Writings of the Apostles they urged the authority of a more infallible Tradition and affirmed themselves to be wiser than the Apostles and to be Preachers of greater Truths than ever the Apostles were acquainted with These were those false Prophets which our Saviour foretold would come Matth. 7. 15. He called them false Prophets not because they pretended to foretel future events but because they falsly pretended to Divine Inspiration and to an Infallible Spirit These are they which Saint Paul saith were puffed up with a profession of Science falsly so called 1 Tim. 6. These were they whom he called false Apostles deceitful workers transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ 2 Cor. 11. 13. And these are they against whom he cautioneth the Thessalonians in this Chapter that they should not be shaken in mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vers 2. by any pretences of the Spirit by a shew of Inspiration Immediate Revelation and Infallible Knowledge Now by what hath been spoken you may easily observe that the Fundamental and Grand Pretence upon which those monstrous Hereticks went in the Apostles Times was This that their Master was the Divine Oracle the great Teacher of all Truth and that they themselves by being his Disciples had this Priviledge above other men to be divinely and immediately inspired so that they neither did nor could be mistaken in their Religion Like unto this is the
and was delivered of a Popeling and so cozened the whole Church and her self too notwithstanding her Infallibility but as to this it will be said that it was not Error in Capite a judicial Error but a personal slip only an hurt in the Elbow or the Shin or else they will deny that there was ever such a Pope and with them it is a Rule that Fortiter mentiri to Lye strenuously and to swear to it for the sake of the Catholick cause is not only pardonable but meritorous too I shall only add what is very well known that Sixtus the 5th set forth a Latine Translation of the Bible and cursed all that would not use that and after him came Clement the 8th and set forth another and different Translation and cursed all that would not use that so that let the Romanists turn themselves which way they please they are all accursed and damned if it be so that their Popes be indeed Infallible But 't is a wonder that any Learned person should be of that opinion of men who have been so vicious so ridiculous and so inconsistent with themselves that the Italians themselves have made them the Subjects of the bitterest Pasquils and Satyrs only I do remember what a Learned Writer hath observed of Aeneas Bishop Taylor lib. of Proph. Sect. 7. Silvius that before he came to be preferred to the Popedome he laughed at the conceit of the Popes Infallibility and the reason why some did set him above Councils was this as he ingeniously confest because the Pope had the disposal of all Spiritual Preferments which Councils had not and so the thing fairly ends that 't is not the Love of Truth but the Love of Interest which has made men to sweat to defend this pretence of Infallibility A pretence which I have been the longer upon because it is the grand Delusion on which many others are built and though many who dare not believe their own Senses are so senseless and sottish as to believe this fancy yet I consider that thousands have been justly given up to believe a Lye That great impostor Montanus pretended that he was the Paraclete or Comforter that was promised and that Delusion prevailed so that the Acute and Learned Tertullian himself was at last perswaded of the Truth of it Though it be a dangerous yet 't is no New thing for the worst of men to say they are Infallible Those false Prophets and false Teachers who seduced the World in the Apostles days pretended the same thing and it was the grand Delusion which the Righteous God delivered them and their followers up to believe because they loved not the Truth 2. Another thing observable of those first Hereticks is that they taught the worship of Images S. John cautioned his little Children to keep themselves from Idols 1 Joh. 5. 21. And S. Paul spake of some Idolaters that were in the World in his days 1 Cor. 5. 10. Now by these are to be understood not only those who worshipped the Pagan Deities but those also who worshipped Pictures whether of God or of Christ or of Men. And that such there were in those first times is very clear out of the Writings of many Ancient Doctors in the Church and though they called themselves Christians as the sincere Professors of the Gospel were called yet were they condemned and prescribed by the Church as vile and abominable Hereticks Such were the Cerinthians who boasted of their immediate Revelations and yet honoured the Picture of Judas himself because he was the occasion of Christs death Simon Magus of whom I spake Epiph. Haeres 21. Iren. l. 1 c. 20. Augustinus Eusebius before delivered an Effigies of himself to his Followers in the shape of Jupiter and another of his Strumpet Helena in the shape of Minerva and his Disciples by his directions worshipped these with prostrations with incense with meat and drink-Offerings In like manner the Carpocratians had the Pictures of Christ and of Iren. l. 1. c. 24. Paul and of others to which they gave religious worship and by so doing did conceive that they greatly honoured Christ himself and his Apostles Now all these poysonous Branches of Idolatry proceeded from one bitter Root that wicked Sorcerer who was the Author of all * Cyril Cat. 5. Vide Ouzel in Min. Faelic p. 54. Heresies And the learned Dr. Hammond is of opinion that Saint Paul pointeth to these Impostors Rom. 1. 23. where he saith that they changed the Glory of the incorruptible God into an Image made like unto a corruptible man for they supposed that God himself was adored and worshipped in and by these Images and Representations Like unto this old abominable and heretical Practice is the modern Practice of the Church of Rome in worshipping the Pictures of the Persons in the Holy Trinity of the Holy Virgin and of the Apostles and other Saints And tho they would come off with a nice and foolish distinction between Latria and Dulia which yet their Writers do not throughly agree in yet suppose they do not pretend to give Divine worship to the Images themselves but to the Prototypes that is to God and to Christ who are thus Represented this is a very gross delusion and a Lie in the Scripture sense of the Word that is down right Idolatry For they who worshipped the golden Calf in the Wilderness are called by the Apostle Idolaters 1 Cor. 10. 7. and yet they were not so sottish as to think that the Image which they had just formed with their hands was the very True God but looked upon it as the Symbol of Gods presence and worshipt it as Gods Representative and their Worship was ultimately directed not to the Calf but to God himself by the Image and under that Similitude and so they were guilty of Idolatry in the Manner tho not in the Object of their worship for they worshipped the True God after a False way And indeed this was the Idolatry of the very Pagans For tho many of the vulgar sort among them terminated their worship in the Images themselves yet the wiser sort did conceive and prefer that they worshipped the Great God by their Images and not the Images themselves So Celsus declared in his Disputations with Origen that he was no better than a perfect Fool that looked upon those things things of Wood and Stone of Brass and Gold to be Gods and not rather as Origen cont Cels l. 7. Images of the Gods And the Pagans in Arnobius profest that they worshipp'd Statues only Arnob. l. 6. because through them honor is given to the Gods whereas the Images themselves were worshipt only for their Dedication and Relation sake unto the Deity This was the Plea of the Heathens and this is the Plea of the Papists so that either they are guilty of Idolatry or else neither Jews nor Heathens were ever guilty of it And whatever evasions they make use of to excuse
Godrus Huntsmen their Eustacius Seamen their Saint Christopher Saint Clement and our Lady Lawyers have their Juno Smiths have their Eulogius and Harlots themselves have their Saint Magdalen and Saint Afra Once more they have as the old Heathens had particular propitions Spirits and Orators for particular Diseases and Griefs as Cornelius for the Falling Sickness Barbara against sudden Death Liberius for the Stone Apollonia for the Tooth-ach Otilia for Sore eyes Roche against the Plague Petronilla for the Fever Saint John and Saint Bennet against Poyson Saint Antony for the Erysipelas Romanus for Demoniacks and Saint Margaret for Women in Travel and Faelicitas for such as are Barren Lastly they have particular Saints for the safety of themselves and their several sorts of Goods They have Antony for their Swine Wendeline for their Sheep Pelagius for their Oxen Saint Gall for their Geese Saint Loy for their Horses Vrban for their Vineyards Agatha against Fires Saint Michael and Saint George against all their Enemies These Instances I have collected not so much out of a design to render their Religion ridiculous as to open the eyes of those ignorant People who are deluded by crafty and evil Men and whom I pity with my Soul Alas miserable were those Creatures in the Apostles time who were taught by Hereticks to pray unto Angels to invocate and conside in Angels as their Mediators and Patrons in the Court of Heaven but God help them how miserable are those poor Souls I now speak of who are taught to do this and much more Not only to adore and depend on those that are indeed Ministring Spirits but moreover to worship and repose their trust both for their present and eternal safety in little and many times very naughty Creatures whose names they are pleased for their Interest sake and for some self-ends to enter into the Register and Catalogue of Saints But they have taken their Copy from the Religion of those whom Saint Paul speaketh of in my Text that had strong delusions sent them that they should believe a Lie because they loved not the Truth that they might be saved And yet I have more to say of them still ANCIENT and MODERN DELUSIONS Discoursed of in three SERMONS Upon 2 THES 2. 11. SERM. III. 2. THES 2. 11. And for this cause God shall send them strong Delusion that they should believe a Lye FOR Fourthly there is yet another thing observable of those Deceivers in the dayes of the Apostles that they pretended to great Austerities of Life in mortifying their Flesh and disciplining their Bodies and abridging themselves of that Liberty which God had allowed in the use of his Creatures S. Paul takes notice in two several places that they forbad to marry and commanded to obstain from meats 1 Tim. 4. 3. and that they neglected the body by observing these humane Ordinances touch not taste not handle not Col. 2. 21. They pretended to be more perfect and Holy than other men in using those severities towards the Body which others neither did nor thought themselves obliged to use These things have indeed a shew of Wisdome saith the Apostle Col. 2. 23. and 1 Tim. 4. 2. He gave these Deceivers this Character that they spake Lyes in Hypocrisie abused the World by pretences of extraordinary Sanctity and Mortification because they were so strict in these outward observances And are not the Modern Severities which the Romanists lay so much stress upon so many Apish Resemblances of these Ancient Delusions Their forbidding all Monastick persons and Clergy-men to Marry as if it were unbecoming the Sacredness of their Profession their commanding certain Religious Orders such as the Benedictines and Carthusians to eat no manner of Flesh all their days their General Laws touching the choice of meats at certain times which are imposed upon All as Religious ordinances and necessary to be observed under pain of Anathema what is all this but a reviving of the Doctrines of the Old Gnosticks and a new Edition of those Cheats and Impostures which were condemned by the Church in its most Primitive Ages As near as I can I will do them no wrong in this particular The Case I confess in some respects is not altogether the same and yet in other respects it is not altogether different It is not the same on this account because some Ancient Deceivers condemned Marriage as one of the Devils works and forbad the use of Wine and Flesh as a thing evil and unlawful in it self So Theodoret tells us of the followers of Simon the Sorcerer and Irenaeus tells us of Saturninus Marcion and the Eucratitae And Epiphanius relates of the Iren. l. 1. c. 22. 30. Epiph. Haeres 30. 42. 66. Ebionites and Manichees also how they held Marriage and the use of Flesh and Wine to have been instituted by the Devil and therefore was evil naturally and intrinsically This the Papists do deny as we do and they are very proud of this Evasion and make use of it against us when we dispute against their superstitions even as Tertullian did disputing against the Church in his book de Jejunio when he was a Montanist This is agreed upon on all hands against the first Hereticks that Hierom. adv Jovinian l. 2. every Creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving as S. Paul speaks 1 Tim. 4. 4. But then it is to be noted that in the Apostles days some were guilty though not of Heresie yet of great Superstition in this particular For they granted the use of Gods Creatures to be lawful in it self but yet they conceived the forbearance of their Liberty to be a very meritorious Act of Self-denial a great piece of of perfection and such a direct Act of worship as was very acceptable and pleasing unto God S. Paul in 1 Tim. 4. 8. speaking of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bodily exercise as a thing of little profit doth plainly glance at the fooleries of those men who placed Religion in bodily castigatigations in abstaining from certain meats and drinks and from Marriage although they did not look upon these things as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 abominable in their own nature but refrained from them as divers did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Discipline sake supposing this abstinence to be an Exercise of Piety and kind of Mortification and Humility that would purchase and merit the Divine favour And in Col. 2. 23. although he calls this neglecting of the body will-worship and humility as those superstitious wretches did yet he tells us that these are onely the Commandments and Doctrines of men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which tended to corrupt practices by the abuse of them These things had indeed in them a shew of Wisdome as being borrowed of some Philosophers for which reason he saith beware least any spoil you through Philosophy and vain deceit vers 8. but yet they were onely specious not real or substantial
shie of receiving any notions which have not the species and colour of Truth since men profess a willingness to buy it almost at any rate and to value the possession of it above the World and even to sacrifice their Lives for Truth sake it seemeth strange that there should be any such Anomalous Creatures and Monsters among the Sons of men as will care so little for it as to exchange it for a Lye and not onely to plead and dispute but moreover to suffer and become Martyrs for a Falshood O foolish Galatians who have betwitched you that you should not obey the Truth Gal. 3. 1. 'T is such a senseless thing to be in Love with Error that none but meer Fools and Sots and such Fools as are bewitched too can be thought capable of suffering themselves willingly to be abused with wrong apprehensions especially in matters of Religion But he was not much out that divided the whole World into Cheaters and Cheatees There are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some that Deceive and others that are Deceived 2 Tim. 3. 13. It has been so in all Ages and yet all Ages have admired at it and 't is that which we stand amazed at in these days to see not only mean and silly People that are but as Mushromes of the Earth but even Persons of Honourable Extraction of Parts and Learning and Generous minds to be both the Disciples and Patrons of a Religion which of all the Religions that ever were set up in the World is not only the most Bloody but the most Ridiculous But the Reasons which may be given of it are these chiefly 1 Education whereby men suck in mistakes with their first milk and have false Principles entailed upon them as part of their Inheritance And questionless great is the power of Education it being so difficult a matter to raze those principles out of mens minds which cleave to 'em from their Infancy and grow up with 'em from their Cradle especially if either the Tutor be not Faithful or the Scholer be not Inquisitive or Means be not afforded for the enlightning of the understanding as it is we know in many places beyond the Seas where Priests are either ignorant or dishonest and the Layety are nursed up in blindness taking their Guides for so many infallible Oracles who deprive 'em of the Bible and other usefull Books and breed 'em up as you would breed up Pyes and Parrots to say any thing which they do not understand No wonder if these miserable Souls believe a thousand things for Truths which we who have the means of Knowledge plainly find to be no other than Impostures and we doubt not but God who is rich in mercy will Pardon the invincible Ignorance of these deluded wretches and require of them according to what they have and not according to what they have not But God be blessed this is not the case of those Romanists who live amongst us They cannot pretend that they are not or may not be better instructed such of them especially as have deserted our Communion 't is not through Ignorance that They are deluded but very probably it happeneth that they are brought to believe a lye 2. By the Love they bear to some base and sinister ends For certainly nothing doth more corrupt and abuse Mens understanding than their Affections Either the Hatred of a party or the Hope of Promotion or the Fear of great mens frowns or the Love of Riches when they run greedily after the Errour of Balaam for reward but above all a desire of gratifying their Sensual Lusts and Appetites carrieth a mighty hand over their Reason to make it receive Falsehood for Truth and to believe not that which is Rightest but that which is most popular most pleasant and most advantageous Reason is either the best or the worst Counsellour When it sits in the Throne commanding the lower faculties of the Soul it gives True judgement and faithful directions But when it hearkeneth to the Oratory of Interest and submits to the Empire or flattery of the will it is like the hand of a disordered Dial that pointeth to any Figure and it is impossible for that man to be free from mistakes who is guided and led away by his Lusts For these do strangely paint every object to make it lovely and beautiful so that when it is presented to the understanding Reason is like an eye that is infected with the jaundies or that looks through a false Glass and every thing seems to be of the same hue and complexion and colour with the Medium Hence it cometh to pass mainly that there are so many errors in Religion because men are willing to comply with those doctrines which are most consistent with their Inclinations and most suitable to their Appetities And this is that I fear which hath perswaded so many to warp from the Protestant Religion there being variety of such Baits ministred by the cunning Anglers upon Tyler as are very delightful to every mans palate and Gusto whether they be the Clergy or Lay-people 1. They of the Priest-hood have by a thousand stratagems brought it so to pass that they are made privy to all mens secrets and are become Masters of all mens Consciences and make both Peasant and Peer truckle to their commands and exact what Tributes they please as just offerings to the Church Now by these means they throughly secure themselves from that contempt and Poverty which with us to the shame of us be it spoken is the common reward of many a Learned painfull and Honest Divine especially when we have to do with people of sordid and degenerous principles who neither Respect nor Feed the Ox that treadeth out the Corn. Now when a Religion is so advantageous 't is no wonder that there are found men who for their Interest sake both profess it themselves and teach it others too though it be full of Impostures We read in Act. 19. that when Demetrius and his follow-crafts men saw that their Trade and their wealth was in danger they strenuously oppos'd the Doctrine of St. Paul though it wanted neither Reasons nor Miracles to confirm it Sirs by this crast ye know we get our wealth and that was likely to be lost if the world should once be perswaded to believe that they be no Gods which are made with hands and therefore for the sake of the Silver shrines they cried up Diana of the Ephesians though it was but a sorry Puppet which they worshipt all this while I am afraid that there are many Demetriuses now adayes that meerly for their profit and gain cry up Diana of the Romans also For by this craft they get their Honours and Riches and 't is not strange that men who aim at base and secular Ends should first be perswaded to Admire and then be concern'd to Defend a Religion that brings them such a large and plentiful Dowry The wonder is that the Vulgar sort should
modern pretence touching the Infallibility of the Bishop and Church of Rome What the old Gnosticks did claim by and under Simon Magus that do the new Romanists claim by and under Simon Peter that their Teachers and Guides cannot Err. Tho for above fourteen hundred years together the Popes judgement was not counted infallible yet now it is an undoubted Article and the Fundamental Tenet among them especially among the Jesuites that their Great Pontifex hath this Prerogative above all Councils that in his quae ad fidem pertinent nullo casu errare possit as Cardinal Bellarmine affirms in things pertaining to the Bellarm. de Rom. Pontif. lib. 4. c. 3. Faith he cannot erre in any case Now that this is a meer Delusion and a notorious lie Our Writers have used several effectual wayes to prove But because I do not intend to wade up to the neck in such a senseless Controversie I shall take this as a ready and satisfactory course by shewing you briefly how Contradictory the sense of one Pope hath been to the judgement of another and so by setting them together against themselves it will soon appear what a vain and silly pretence that of their Infallibility is To begin Saint Peter as they reckon was the first Bishop of Rome and he has left that behind him which doth blast the Infallibility of his pretended Successors for he declared the King to have no Superior Though he himself was so great an Apostle and all Kings then were Pagans and Infidels yet he taught us to submit our selves to every ordinance and to the King as Supreme 1 Pet. 2. 13. But Pius the 4th claimed that at the Council of Trent which Engenius the 4th had lately defined at the Council of Florence that the Bishop of Rome holdeth the Primacy over the whole World Kings and Emperors not excepted And this they are so fond of still that whosoever among us shall ex animo take the Oath of Supremacy must lie under a Curse as an Heretick and an Apostate from the Catholick See Again the Title of Universal Pastorship over all the Bishops in the World all the Popes have claimed since the days of Boniface the Third and yet Gregory the Great while he was Bishop of Rome declaimed horribly against it and in divers of his Epistles calls it a Title full of Novelty Vanity Blasphemy Pride Madness and Wickedness and said that it was a Preparative to the Times of Anti-christ Again this business of Infallibility which is now one of the choicest feathers in the Old mans Cap was formerly accounted by themselves as a New-nothing For about 250 years since no longer ago Adrian the Bellarm. de Rom. Pontif. lib. 4. c. 2. sixth did ingeniously and honestly declare that the Pope might not only Err but might be an Heretick too and might teach Heresie and that some Popes have de facto done so And to make good what this Pope Adrian said it is further observable that Liberius subscribed the Arian Heresie and the thing is so certain that Cardinal Bellarmine himself doth confess it and produceth many Authorities to Hierom. in Catalog Ballarm de Rom. Pont. lib. 4 c. 9. prove it Moreover Honorius the first held that there was but one Will in Christ and Vigilius denied that Christ had two natures and Anastasius the second was a Photinian and Marcellinus was more than an Heretick for Melch. Canus lib. 6. Gratian dist 19. c. 9. Council Sinues Tert. adv Prax. he Apostatiz'd to Heathenism and sacrificed to Heathen Idols and Zepherinus embraced the Prophesies of Montanus and Rhenanus himself in his Annotations upon Tertullian notes it on the Margin as a thing to be observed Episcopus Romanus Montanizat the Bishop of Rome is turned Montanist And yet Montanism and Arianism and Photinianism and the other Sects I have named were justly reckoned by succeeding Popes as so many Heretical Professions and Factions which yet these their Predecessors did embrance notwithstanding And since this is Pope against Pope one contradicting and condemning the other and that in things pertaining to the Faith How is it likely and possible that every one of them could be in the Right Further yet two things are observed of Pope Galasius the first that Magdeb. Cent 5. c. 4. de Caene Dom. cap. 10. in vita Gelasii he flatly affirmed the Elements in the Sacrament to remain in their own Nature Bread and Wine and that he called it a piece of Sacriledge to administer the Bread without the Wine But how irreconcileable his Doctrine is with that of latter Popes who teach Transubstantion and half Communion any man may see with half an Eye Again Caelestine the Third taught Alphons de Castro lib. 1. c. 4. that Marriage was void and null if either the Wife or the Husband became an Heretick and yet the quite contrary was taught by his immediate Successor Innocent the Third and so it has continued to be taught by the rest of the Popes since Further yet The Papists are pleas'd to call Mr. Calvin an Heretick for affirming that the souls of Saints departed shall not enjoy the perfect vision of God until the Resurrection Yet this Doctrine was taught by Pope John the 22th but to see the Infallibility of these Men some say that John himself recanted this before his death however it is certain that the contrary was defined by Benedict the Twelfth Johns next Successor and so the Popes teach still that such Souls are perfectly happy upon their departure and this is the fundamental Principle upon which their Invocations of Saints standeth and were it not for that I believe John's opinion would have been received as a certain Truth But what shall we say of John the 23th who denyed the Articles of Eternal Life and the Resurrection of the Body And for his Heresie was accused and condemned by their own Council of Constance Either he or other Popes were grossly mistaken and which of the two is most likely we leave to themselves to dispute it out To these I might add many instances more as that John the 12th ordained a Deacon in a stable Magdeb. Cent. 10. c. 9. drank healths to the Devils and called upon Devils for help when he was at Dice that there was an Age as Platina tells us when Plat. in vit Steph. 6. 't was usual with Popes to make void all that their Predecessors had done that when Formosus was dead Stephen the 6th made his body to be taken out of the Grave caused some Ballarm of his fingers to be cut off and his Carcase to be thrown into the River that then Pope Romanus was set up who condemned the Acts of Stephen and then came Sergius the 3 d. who ratified what Stephen had done and nulled again the Acts of Formosus I might instance also in another of their pretended Infallible Oracles I mean that Female Pope who turned St. Peters into a groaning Chair