Christ That all these Vices by which St. Peter's Chair hath been dishonoured are proofs of its Holiness Excellency and Infallibility because saith he God hath permitted all these debaucheries and wickednesses in such as were the Governours of His Church without punishing them this discovers that this Estate is more sacred more holy and more regarded of God than that of Kings whom God commonly chastiseth as soon as they are unfaithful and abuse their Authority I must needs confess that I was never more astonished than when I found this Argument made use of by this Learned Man and heard it approved of in the Popish Schools Me thinks I could as easily prove the union of Contraries to be found in the same Subject as to shew the union and correspondency of this Conclusion with the Principles from whence it is drawn In this Church most abominable Popes have been seen Alvar Pelag. a Portugues Bishop tells us lib. 2. art 15. of many Popes who have crept into that See by their factions agreements covenants and large promises and when they have got in all their endeavour was to enrich and raise their Relations to promote their friends to the chief Offices to live themselves in pleasure and to dignifie their Kindred building Towers and Palaces in Babylon I mean Rome so called by St. Jerome These Popes have fomented the Wars and Factions in Italy instead of maintaining the unity of the Church They have wasted the sacred Revenues advanced most unworthy persons and gloried in their chariots elephants horses rich garments numerous train guards and noble attendants They have by the power of the sword often endeavoured to enlarge their own Borders and seize upon the Territories of their neighbouring Princes never minding the salvation of souls but have been addicted to the pleasures of the flesh c. These Men for money have sold as Judas did Christ's Body consecrated the Sacraments and celebrated Orders for silver c. We have seen saith the same Author lib. 2. art 2. fol. 104. men that have made this City like Sodom and Nineveh by letting in and countenancing all manner of vices publick and private as covetousness ambition symony usurpations uncleanness vain glory envy tyranny and other crimes which cannot nor ought not to be named We have seen in God's sanctuary saith the Bishop of Bitonte in the beginning of the Council of Trent orat hab in concil Trid. sess 1. shameless monsters rotten vessels full of infection publick plagues c. so that there remains no appearance nor hopes of good life but an immoderate and extraordinary debauchery a not able impudency more crimes than can be well credited We have seen according to the testimony of some Cardinals chosen by Pope Paul III. for the Reformation of the Church Concil delect Cardin. tom 3. pag. 823. Whores walking about the streets of Rome as honourable Dames carried upon Mules attended and waited upon by Noblemen and Cardinals Chaplains such like scandals have never been seen elsewhere but in this City We have seen saith Guischardin Hist of Italy lib. 1. sect 2. Rodericus Borgia who was afterwards Pope Alexander VI. buy the priviledge of disposing of the Holy Treasury And Platina and Baronius relate that there have been some Popes introduc'd by violence who have clapp'd in prison such as were before in possession of the See of Rome as Christopher did Leo VIII Some have been so base and furious that they have taken up the Bodies of their Predecessors whose Fingers wherewith they had given their blessing to the people they have cut off and cast into the Tybur as Stephen VI. treated Formosus In short we have seen men more covetous ambitious impious lecherous cruel and wicked than in the most licentious Courts than amongst the most barbarous Nations And Genebrard Chron. lib. 4. saith that these disorders have lasted sometimes 150 years together During this time saith Baronius ann 912. sect 8. Jesus Christ slept very soundly in the bottom of the ship and wink'd at all these mischiefs Therefore from hence he gathers this conclusion for this cause the Church of Rome must needs be the truest the holiest and best beloved of God infallible and the only Church that may be named Catholick c. Let any man judge if this be not the most impudent and unjust reasoning in the world The Heathenish Philosophers have taught these Popish Doctors to argue in this manner for their Religion from this ancient Maxim of theirs Ex quolibet fit quodlibet That from any Principle we may draw any Conclusion either good or evil They care not so they can but maintain their Thesis and Opinion but these kind of Reasons discover their weakness For any Understanding may perceive from thence the feebleness of their Doctrine the falshood of their Religion seeing that they are driven to draw such Conclusions as are quite contrary to the nature and truth of the things themselves If any man say that this Reason is not in Baronius word for word as I have expressed it the premises are there and the Conclusion not in two or three words and in such a plain and succinct manner as I have here related it but it is laid down in a more ample and more florid Discourse which tends to no other end but to prove the Truth Holiness and Excellency of of the Popish Religion from the Vices and Debaucheries of its Priests and Popes This cannot but be look'd upon as very ridiculous by any man of Judgement For if their Reasons were good I might as well say that Pharaoh's Kingdom was holy because God suffered it to continue so long without punishing him and did many Miracles for his sake and that the Turkish Religion must needs be the holiest and the best at present because God hath suffered it to abide so many years and increase every day although its Chieftains lead most filthy lives These and such like Considerations which I have had by reading the Books of the Popish Doctors and Historians have lessened that vast esteem that I had formerly for that Church and made me to understand that all its excellent Priviledges which it claims and which they assign to her are but whimseys and Chimaera's begot in their fancy by their fondness for their Religion the Popes ambition and the credulity of silly minds who are ready to believe any thing the greatest absurdity if boldly asserted Let us proceed next to our other Considerations THE SECOND PART THE Second Reason that hath so long time kept my Mind in a ballance was grounded upon the Faith and Articles of that Church I did seriously examine all those things which she engageth us to believe as infallible Truths the Pope's Infallibility the real and corporal presence of Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of the Altar the Sacrifice of the Mass Purgatory the Invocation of Saints and the certain damnation of all those who acknowledge not the Pope for their Superiour c. I thought all this
to be very true when I look'd upon it with the Popish Spectacles which they give to all that read their Writings or study in their Schools and judged this Church to be the best and holiest Hath not Jesus Christ said I have promised to St. Peter that his Faith should never fail doth not he mean that his Successors should be always Infallible hath he not said in celebrating his Holy Supper that the Bread was his Body and the Wine his Blood expresly and in proper terms c. In this manner I did argue upon all the Articles of the Popish Faith concluding always to its advantage But when I had more narrowly Examined these matters alone without partiality I found that I was very far from Truth that all these Articles of Faith were not conformable to Holy Scripture but altogether contrary and the Popish Religion opposite to that of Jesus Christ of the Apostles and of the Primitive Fathers § For where shall we find any thing of the Pope's Infallibility in the Holy Scripture shall not we find rather that the holiest of men are liars Psal 115. 11. and 61.10 That we fail all in many things and that if any man fails not in word he may boast of being a perfect man Jam. 3. and St. John informs us that we are all Sinners Moreover this Infallibility is according to the judgment of the Popish Doctors one of its Divine Attributes stiled by them Uncommunicable how can they therefore say that God hath given it to a man and why to the Pope of all other men seeing that according to the Papists confession he is many times a very wicked man And St. Peter himself unto whom the Son of God had promised that his Faith should never fail from whence they would establish this Doctrine was guilty of a great mistake concerning the Circumcision of the Jews and Gentiles as St. Paul affirms I have resisted him to his face saith he for he was to be blamed Is it possible that the Pope chosen by a company of men who know not whom they pitch upon and promoted many times by Legerdemain by Bribes subtilty temporal Interests Princes favours Is it possible that these Popes who are to be all Italians born elected out of the number of Cardinals and so aged that they can scarce do any good but by others Is it possible that these Popes promoted by the assistance of Whores and the Cardinals Courtizans as Paronius and Bellarmin and others acknowledge should be more infallible than St. Peter chosen by Christ himself How can we imagin that such a man should be a Treasury intrusted with Divine knowledge and the will of God that his voice pronounced out of his Chair should be the voice of Heaven that he should be able to cause the Holy Ghost to go and come at his pleasure and to oblige God to ratifie and confirm all his Laws in the World to command when he commands to prohibit when he prohibits to damn when he damns and to save when he saith the word Before we can believe this they must deprive us of our judgments and make us become beasts before we can become Christians and deal with us worse than Mahomet deals with his Mussulmans The Pope being assisted by some of his Brethren hath pronounced the Sentence which they say is ex Cathedra and condemned Jansenius and his followers he hath declared them to be Hereticks must I believe it as an Article of Faith because he saith that in the Book of this Learned Bishop there are five Propositions the same as were condemned heretofore in Calvin and that only from the information of the holy Fathers the Jesuits Must I take all this as an Article of my Faith although Mr. Arnaldus and other Doctors of the Port-Royal have proved to all that can but read that these Propositions are not be found in his Books The Pope saith that Peter d'Acantara Francis de Sales and Pius V. are He-Saints in Heaven that Mary Magdelen of Pazzi Mother Rose and others are She-Saints he commands us to pray to them If I doubt of it and speak as the wise Son of Sirach Eccl. 9. whose Book is received amongst the Canonical That no body knows whether he be worthy of love or hatred much less doth he know this of others if I should say as the Gospel that it belongs to God to judge men and that all Judgment is left unto Jesus Christ or as St. Paul that the Judgments of God are unsearchable and that therefore I leave it to him I am an Heretick amongst the Papists Since these He and She-Saints have been Canonized it is become an Article of Faith to believe them in Heaven Before I was at my own choice to credit what I pleased but since that time I am no longer free the Pope hath said it we must therefore believe it if I despise their Mediation if I neglect to pray to them out of a distrust of their happiness and credit with God I am an Infidel and an Athiest in the judgment of the Papists Is not this to mock God and men Some of them answer that the Pope may erre in matters of fact but not in matters of right Bellarmin de Po. l. 4. cap. 2. But we all know that most of their questions of right depend upon matters of Fact and that the judgment of right which concerns not only the Doctrines of the Holy Scripture but an infinit number of other things received by Tradition proceeds from the testimony and information which they have received of several matters of Fact Suppose therefore that all these informations should be false as they may be for the Pope who only is to be look'd upon as Infallible according to the Papists Doctrine hath not seen all these things he believes it from the testimony of others For Example It is an Article of Faith amongst them that St. Peter hath been twenty five years Bishop of Rome that he hath added the word enim to the words of the Consecration saying Hoc est enim corpus meum and not as it is in the Gospel Hoc est corpus meum that he did mingle Water with the Wine in the Mass If these things that are all matters of fact which cannot be proved by Holy Scripture be false as we have cause to imagin what certainty can we have of the right and truth which depends upon it § Moreover I find the Papists Sacrament of the Lords Supper differing very much from the description which Christ and his Apostles have left us It is the bread of life say the Romanists the bread of Angels the Heavenly bread the Body and Bloud of Jesus Christ I have always believed it to be so I think there is no good Christian that doubts of it We all know that it is no common Bread no body will contradict them in this St. Justin shall not be condemned for affirming it That the Bread becomes the Body of Christ and
reason to be afraid of this kind of persecution I mean of their Tongues for I may say I have lived amongst them without blame as may be conjectured from the considerable Employments which I have had in the Church of Rome for their Bishops never admit a person into their Cathedrals to preach unless they know him to be of an honest and good behaviour And the Religious of that Order of which I have made profession the Carmelites which doubtless is one of the most exemplary of the Romish Church if these had not had a good opinion of me they would never have promoted me to that degree of honour amongst them which I have held having been three times the Priors Deputy in the same Convent which Office is given to none but to such as are very regular and exemplary in their lives It is therefore needless that any person should trouble himself with an inquiry for the place from whence I came and of my carriage while I have remained in the Church of Rome to discredit this little Book I am not afraid in the least of any such thing I am rather fully perswaded that there is no man in those Towns where I have made my abode nor in the Convents where I have dwelt but will give me the reputation of an honest and just man blameless in my carriage until now as much as is possible in case the change of my Religion be concealed from them I think therefore that thou hadst best peruse this Treatise with a calm and unprejudiced mind that thou may'st be better able to judge of the things therein declared and gather from thence the instructions needful to undeceive thy judgment if thou art yet in the same errours as I have been Those that will read over these lines with that good disposition will approve of my change and of this publication and will be constrained to confess that there are causes and reasons strong enough to oblige any man to forsake the Romish Church and embrace the Profession of the Protestant Religion The Prayer before Sermon O Lord God infinite in goodness and mercy who hast by the gracious hand of thy divine Providence taken and lead me as Abram out of the superstitious Ur of the Caldeans as Lot out of the filthy flames of Sodom and Gomorrha as Israel out of the bondage and tyranny of Egypt as Joseph from his dungeon as Daniel out of the Lions den and as the blind Man of the Gospel out of that fearful blindness which hath since my infancy hindred me from the discovery and acknowledgment of thy Sacred Truth O God who hast preserved me from all perils and conducted me safe out of the hands of enemies with thy powerful and stretched out Arm here I am prostrate at the foot-stool of thy Divine Majesty convinced in judgment with a contrite and an humble spirit here I am in the midst of thy Elect of thy Royal Priesthood of thy Holy Nation of thy People purchased with thy Blood in the midst of Believers not with an intention to offer up unto thee their prayers for I am not worthy of so holy a Ministry my Tongue is not yet able to speak so loud as their sighs and my Lips are too much defiled but I am here to beseech Thee O'Searcher of the Heart to hearken to their vows and the prayers of their Souls for the advance of thy Glory the accomplishment and preservation of thy Church especially for this which worships Thee in spirit and in truth in these three Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland for the prosperity of the King that Commands here for his Spouse Queen Catherine for James Duke of York and for all the Royal Family for the Arch-bishops Bishops and other Teachers of thy Church that it may please Thee to enlighten them with the Spirit of thy Truth and enflame them with an holy zeal for the Salvation of Souls for the Lords and others of the Kings Council for the Magistrates and other Inhabitants of these three Kingdoms that it may please Thee to supply and succour them in all their wants whether they be spiritual or corporal But more especially we pray Thee for all such as are yet engaged and plunged in errour take them out of the same depths of sin from whence Thou hast drawn me open their eyes whether they will or no that they may perceive the truth of thy Gospel open their hearts by the divine power of thy Holy Spirit that thy Blessed Word may be received as in a good and fruitful field that it may bring forth an hundred fold In this occasion be pleased to accept of my prayers with thy peoples for I know by experience that Thou alone art able to turn and convince a Soul brought up in errour and change a heart nourished from its infancy with an abhorrency of thy Holy Word Therefore I pray Thee or rather we all pray Thee together to open the eyes of so many blind persons whom I leave behind me in the regions of darkness and touch with the efficacious finger of thy Holy Spirit so many stony hearts that resist the motions and offers of thy Grace with so much obstinacy Lord Thou hast performed in me a blessed change for which I offer up unto Thee my hearty thanks and praises beseeching Thee to pardon my unworthiness and graciously to accept of the thanks which thy faithful people here assembled do render unto Thee for my sake But O merciful God at this same time that I find my self obliged to offer unto Thee my thanks for a favour received from thy hand I find my self in a necessity to beg another favour and mercy of granting unto me the power and ability to declare unto this numerous Congregation the great mercy that Thou hast shewed me by bringing me to my Conversion I am desired O my God! it is but just that I should give glory to thy Holy Name Justice and Reason require that I should declare thy Goodness where iniquity hath so long appeared with impudency that I should employ the members which have been abused in warring against Thee to discover thy wonderful mercy in me these lips this tongue and this voice which hath uttered so many lyes and errours against the light and suggestions of thy Holy Spirit these members that have declared so many falshoods preached up so many abuses confirmed so many blasphemies committed and caused so many sins to be committed it is just that they should glorifie thy Holy Name Forgive O my God! forgive me the sin of having so long detained thy truth in unrighteousness against my conscience and thy secret motions Grant me the grace that I may this day be able to make an honourable amends that I may give the same testimony to thy Blessed Truth which I have given to Heresie and that I may bring forth fruits suitable to my repentance For this purpose O good God purifie my unclean lips touch them with a
chuse rather to behold their own Arms and Members consume in a fire and endure the most sensible pains and tortures than to behold the Smoak of Incense fallen from their hands mount up to the nose of a senseless Idol They did rather chuse to expose themselves to the fury of the fires and of drawn swords and undergo the torments of the wheels of the wild beasts c. than to bow their knees before a graven Image and yield unto it the least respect O Romans of our days if any of the ancient Christians could but rise out of their graves to come amongst you into your Churches on some Festival day what would they say or think when they should see the accomplishment of Ezekiel's Prophecy chap. 8. so many abominations in the midst of God's Sanctuary the worship due to God alone paid to dumb Pictures which stand about the walls of your Temples when they should see that your Christian Devotion consists chiefly in such apish tricks in the kissing of Altars in cringings stretching out of your arms and signs of the Cross often made sometimes three or five times in kneeling before an Image with hands lifted up in offering to it frankincense in numbring a few beads in casting holy water upon the bones of the deceased in burning a wax candle put out and lighted again as many times as you have things to desire from a Saint c. How many tears would these ancient Catholick Roman Christians shed when they should see this Church practising such foolish things so much contrary to the Truth of Christian Religion How many sighs groans and lamentations should we hear from their pious Souls Jeremiah never uttered so many over the Ruins of Jerusalem O Rome Rome would they say what change is this what are these impertinencies what wonderful metamorphosis Heretofore the Truth did command in thee over Errour the Laws of God over the Inventions of men the Precepts of the Gospel over the Traditions of the people and true Piety over Superstition and God's Worship was chiefly regarded but now we see the contrary Therefore the Church of Rome which is now is not the same as that Christian Church of Rome first established there but a shadow of it which hath nothing of its likeness I would desire the Papists never to boast of the Age and Antiquity of their Church they have no reason to glory in that Rome was anciently one of the most famous Churches of Christendom for it is not like what it was heretofore Miserum istud verbum fuisse saith Seneca It is but a sad comfort and a bad cause of glory to say we have been if we cannot say also we are yet This the Papists should endeavour to make good unto us They ought to shew us by their Doctrine and Works that the Church of Rome at present is the same as it was of old which cannot be done but by a reformation of all the abuses and a reducement to the first estate whilst they continue as they are they shall never discover what their first fathers have been The most learned of all their Doctors who have undertaken to shew their conformity with the ancient Church of Rome seem to be much perplex'd in the proving of this matter very weak in their arguments and so contrary to one another that we need but their own Books to find out the falshood of their Doctrine This every one may take notice that will peruse them without partiality I might here name an hundred passages out of their Books to prove the truth of what I say but I think I have said enough to make the Papists apply unto themselves Tertullians reproach directed to the Heathens Apol. adv Gent. cap. 6. Tell me where is your Religion where is that respect that ye owe to your forefathers you are not like to them in your habits in your manner of living in your customs opinions and in your language You praise antiquity but every day you admit new inventions You differ much from the worthy institutions of your predecessors You declare by your behaviour that you retain nothing of those things that deserve to be retained but observe that which deserves it not This is a true representation of the Church of Rome § In the next place that Sovereign Authority which this Church claims did seem to me to be very well grounded when I did consider that which Jesus Christ saith to St. Peter in many occasions especially in that where He tells him immediately after the Confession of his Faith Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose in earth shall be loosed in heaven Matth. 16. By these words Christ seems to give unto him and his Successors a full power and more than to the rest There are other passages of Holy Scripture that make for the same purpose and St. Austin and several other Interpreters seem to favour this opinion and Reason it self seems to teach us the necessity of a visible Head over Christ's Church on earth answerable to its estate In this manner I did argue with my Comrades having been instructed in the Schools of Thomas Aquinas Suarez and others that gather from thence many reasons to prove the Pope's Authority and Sovereignty But when I had a little better examined these passages perused the Writings of the Fathers to understand their judgment of this matter I have found that there is nothing more false than the Doctrines of the Popish Schools in this occasion for Christ's words to St. Peter were not said to him alone as may appear if we look into the Gospel for Jesus Christ asked not only Peter but all His Disciples and Peter answers not only in his own name but also in that of the rest of the Apostles in persona omnium Apostolorum saith St. Ambrose St. Chrysostome and the other ancient Interpreters which words the Papists have inserted into their Breviarum or Rubrick speaking of this passage When therefore the Son of God returns unto St. Peter as a reward of his confession the power of binding and loosing and the keys of heaven c. it is not to him alone that He speaks and grants all these priviledges but to the rest in whose name St. Peter did answer therefore a few days after He repeated unto them the same thing and confirm'd the same priviledge to all the rest of His Apostles Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven c. Matth. 18. vers 18. He addresseth Himself to them all and not to one alone And if after His Resurrection Christ speaks to St. Peter only Feed my sheep this was as St. Cyril and other wise Interpreters have taken notice with an intent to confirm and re-admit him into the office
their Lives for Christ's Cause where so many Saints have observed the Rules of the Gospel and made such a glorious profession of all Christian Virtues a Religion where so many pious Souls do yet live a very exemplary and a holy life having forsaken the World to confine themselves to a Convent Who dares deny such a Religion to be the best the securest and the holiest of all In this manner I did argue and many judicious Persons suffer themselves to be thus deceived with a false appearance But such as will as I have done look more narrowly to this particular and weigh every thing in the Scales of the Sanctuary shall find by experience that the Church of Rome hath no cause to glory so much in them There are many Martyrs reckoned in the Church of Rome I confess but this is no infallible proof of its excellency There have been many also in the Churches of Jerusalem of Antioch of the Georgians Muscovites Greeks c. yet the Papists esteem them not the more But they say that many Saints in this Profession have and do yet perform notable Miracles I have cause to question the truth of this Assertion for many false ones are published but when they should be real they are no infallible signs of the Truth of their Faith for the Magicians of Egypt by Gods permission did also work Miracles Exod. chap. 7. God whose Secrets and Judgments are not to be searched out may suffer the Devil to keep men in ignorance by this means But the Papists say that amongst them many Religious Persons are to be seen that lead a most holy life I answer that they are for the most part but whited Sepulchres and that this is the Devils cunning to deceive Souls I shall say something more in this Chapter But what advantage do they expect from this Argument There are men of honesty every where amongst the Heathens and Hereticks as well as amongst the Christians and Catholicks there are persons of good behaviour or at least appear so to the world This is therefore no infallible sign of a true Religion but suppose it were so that the holiness and integrity of life were an infallible sign of the Truth the Papists will never be able to better their Cause by this reason unless their Chief and Governours who are to be look'd upon as the Paterns of the rest change their manner of living The Church of Rome is not so holy as it is said to be to the simple people ignorant of the Affairs of that City Examin the Transactions there now and within this eight or nine hundred years If we did but see the disorders of this Church plainly presented unto us we should have cause to wonder at the things related by the Papists themselves of their Popes I shall here mention some of them and that I may not be traduced as a Lyar I shall bring two or three of their own famous Writers speaking of the Court of Rome such I mean who endeavour to cover its imperfections and have never made use of their Pens but in its defence The first is devout St. Bernard Ser. 1. de Convers Pauli This man's integrity can never be suspected In this manner he speaks of the Court of Rome Iniquity proceeds from the grave Judges who are named Christ's Vicegerents and who seem to govern His people Of them we cannot say As is the People so is the Priest for the people were not like or so bad as the Priest And elsewhere de Consid ad Eugen. lib. 1. cap. 4. From all parts of the world the ambitious the covetous and persons guilty of symony sacriledge debauchery and incest and such like Monsters did flock to Rome to get the Ecclesiastical Honours or to keep them by the Pope 's Authority About the year 897 Cardinal Baronius affirms That there were the most wicked Varlets brought in to sit in St. Peter 's Chair men of most infamous lives most fearfully debauch'd of a corrupt and filthy behaviour every where and in every respect And when he speaks of the year 900 he intreats the weaker sort of Christians not to be offended from thenceforth if they see sometimes the abomination of desolation in the Temple of God Afterwards he cryes out What horrible Monsters were introduced into this See which the Angels respect O disgrace O grief how many evils have proceeded from them how many grievous tragedies have been acted by them what villanies have been here committed in this glorious See what filthy and base actions have appeared here c. In the year 912 he saith sect 8. this Church was so debauch'd and swimming in vice That the filthiest and the noted whores did govern all at Rome At their pleasure the See was disposed of the Bishops were created and their Favourites and Gallants were chosen in St. Peter 's Chair to be Popes This is what Baronius hath been forced to acknowledge after many other Historians who have recorded the disorders of the Roman Church Let any man read Genebrard Chron. l. 4. ad ann 902. Isidor Peleus l. 3. epist 323. Baptist Mantuan de calam suorum temp l. 3. Alvar. Pelag. de planctu Ecclesiae Or let any man go to Rome to see how such behave themselves who pretend to be established of God to govern His Church on earth and they shall find there more wickedness than ever was in Sodom or in Nineveh Let Rome be therefore ashamed saith a Learned Man who beheld these abominations Claud. Espens in Epist ad Tit. c. 1. Let her never offer to shew a Catalogue of her shameful Crimes I would advise her to not mention nor produce this Calendar of so many Saints whom she hath canonised and in whom she glories so much for all those former Saints discover her shame seeing that the Lives of the present Popes and Governours are quite contrary to theirs therefore she hath no cause to challenge them as her own Those former Worthies are her reproach and condemnation because she doth not imitate their Example Nevertheless the Popish Doctors are so impertinent to boast of these disorders vices and abominations and to gather from thence reasons to prove the truth and holiness of their Religion Who would believe that Baronius after that he had filled his Annals with the filthy debaucheries of many Popes should gather from thence a conclusion to the advantage of his Church Yet this he doth very boldly for when he hath taken notice of the debauch'd and abominable Lives of some Popes declared their vices in a most horrible manner and acknowledged all that hath been written of them by his predecessors to be very true that there have been Popes very ambitious covetous symoniacal impious Murderers lecherous incestuous Atheists and Sodomites which things the Papists cannot deny because their own Historians declare them Nevertheless when Baronius hath said all this of the Popes he concludes as boldly as if he had to prove the Divinity of Jesus
to the Apostles Doctrine and the Practice of the first Christians we must have a notable Faith to believe this The inconveniencies which they mention to colour their Change are ridiculous They tell us that some men wear long Beards and that a drop of Christ's Blood may chance to drop upon them and that some that are sick may by this means give their Diseases to others c. But how comes it to pass that Jesus Christ did not foresee all these inconveniencies were the Bishops of this Council wiser than Christ himself Did not the men of our Saviour's days and in the Primitive time wear long Beards were they not as subject to spreading Diseases as well as in the time of this Council St. Paul tells us that Jesus Christ hath offered himself up once for all as a Sacrifice but they affirm that he offers himself not only once but every day and a thousand times a day and in a thousand distinct places in every corner where the Mass is sung which is say they a true and real Sacrifice of the Body of Jesus Christ Whom must we believe what the Papists say or what St. Paul But suppose the Mass were a true and real Sacrifice of Jesus Christ a second death and his very Passion as they teach are not their Priests Murderers and Executioners from whence proceeds this effect is it not from a real cause that is in them Whence is this Sacrifice is it not from a true and real Sacrificator Moreover according to their own Doctrine three conditions are chiefly required in every Sacrifice the Offering the Consecration and the Destruction where shall they find the latter in this Sacrifice of the Mass Do they destroy the Body of Jesus Christ if they answer that they destroy the Bread and the Wine they don't answer to the question for it must be the Sacrifice that must be consumed and destroyed for either we must say that only the Bread and the Wine are sacrificed or that the Body of Jesus Christ is there destroyed and consumed Hence we must conclude that he is both dying and immortal dead and risen and worshipped by the Angels and at the same time eaten by Men things altogether inconsistent and impossible But where do they find that we must worship the Bread and the Wine as being united to the Body of Jesus Christ that we must kneel at every time that we see them as before God himself if he were visibly present Doth not Jesus Christ command the contrary when he saith that the time is come that we must worship God in spirit and in truth How in spirit if we worship the Bread and the Wine How in truth if Jesus Christ be not there really present as we have good cause to question it and as it may happen according to their own saying For in case the Priest be not a true Priest in regard of some Canonical impediment or if his intention be elsewhere in celebrating Mass what kind of Mass will it be and what shall the People adore Some young men come to receive Orders very much unprepared whom the Lord Bishop saith that he hath no design to receive and admit to the Priesthood as for example when they send other persons in their stead that are more Learned to be examined for them when they make use of false and supposed Letters when they are mentioned in a Decree or deserve an Excommunication All these persons according to the Popish Doctors are not really Priests they have not the power to make the Body of Jesus Christ although they may pronounce the words of the Sacrament Others have not a right intention out of negligence or design these cannot cause Jesus Christ to come down under the species of the Bread and the Wine although they pronounce the words of the Consecration I have known a Priest that caused a noble Dame to Receive almost every day at the end of his Mass to hide from her Husband the secret correspondency that was between them and to cover it over with a fair shew of Devotion and for four or five years he never gave unto her a consecrated Wafer for fear of committing Sacriledge by causing her to receive in an evil disposition And about six months ago some Priests of a Town where I have dwelt to satisfie a devout Woman faln into Frenzy that did earnestly desire them to admit her to the Communion resolved amongst themselves to put an unconsecrated Wafer into the Chalice which should be separate from the rest In such a case I desire you the Divines of the Church of Rome to tell me if you believe that Jesus Christ is not present in the Bread and Wine but when the Priest pronounceth his words with an intention to make him come down from Heaven whether the people that assist there and worship the Wafers don't commit a grievous Idolatry Yes you will say they commit a material Idolatry But pray tell whether the Priest and the penitent Woman the Whoremaster and the Whore did not commit a crime in your judgment was not this as great and as formal an Idolatry as ever was seen I shall not mention many other stories of the baseness Sacriledges and Idolatries of the Romish Priests which they are guilty of in this occasion for I intend not to make a satyrical Libel of this serious Discourse I shall only say in general terms that if the Father-Confessors of the Church of Rome would but speak truth and declare what I have heard there is no reasonable man of any perswasion but will say that which we cannot utter without blasphemy that Jesus Christ would be extravagant and mad if he were in the Mass as the Papists believe § Purgatory is another new Article of their Creed which hath no ground nor appearance in Holy Scripture The Papists mention a certain place out of the Maccabees Book 2. ch 12. v. 43. but this Book St. Jerom praefat in Proverb and many more as Cajetan in fine Comment in hist Esther and Cardinal Hugo in Prolog Hier. in lib. Regum declare to be Apocrypha Another passage is cited out of St. Matth. 12. where Jesus Christ saith that there are some Sins that shall not be pardoned neither in this world nor in the world to come From hence the Papists conclude by a Maxim of Right Exceptio firmat regulam in contrarium that there are some Sins that shall be pardoned in another world that is to say according to their meaning in Purgatory But we may easily perceive that they miserably wrest this passage and argue very impertinently to make this conclusion Some Sins shall neither be pardoned in this world nor in the world to come ergo There is a Purgatory A Chymist would sooner extract ten ounces of Oyl out of a Pumice-stone than to gather this conclusion from the premisses But there is nothing impossible to the Popish Divines they can make a fire with any wood when they are to warm
before he would suffer them by three Chirurgeons and the Physician of the Convent and that all of them had found and agreed together that the most part of these Relicks were the Bones of Horses nevertheless they were resolved not to burn them as they had been advised because their ancient Records did assuredly tell them that they were the Bones of these marcyred Virgins they did further say that it was possible in the massacre of these Virgins that there might be an Horse killed amongst them this did not make the rest less true and real Relicks I answered them It may be that the Bones of some of those cruel Butchers were killed by the Soldiers that guarded them were there also it is not therefore well done said I to kneel to them one of them answered You preach to us every day that we are saved by Faith This is the usual answer which they return every time that such like mistakes are objected to them As if Faith that looks upon God as its only object or upon the divine enjoyments had need of the Bones of a dead Horse to assist its contemplation as if it did require from us a veneration for the Relicks of a dead Beast or of an Idolater Let any man that questions the truth of what I say inquire or cause to be inquired from the Nuns of that Convent I am certain that they will confirm this relation From that time I took away all the Relicks that I had carefully kept and gave them to friends putting in their room another which was worth a great deal more than the former of which I was then more certain For in regard that men go in pilgrimage two or three hundred leagues to look upon our Saviours winding sheet the Virgin Mary's peruque St. John Baptist's head and other Relicks I did conceive that I could find one nearer that was worth all these It was the piece of linnen which is called the Corporal upon which we put the chalice and the consecrated bread in the Mass I took a piece of it upon which I had oft-times placed the consecrated wafer for it was old and decayed This hath been done by many besides my self If my Doctrine and Religion be true said I this is a good as Christ's winding sheet as His seamless coat the pillar and the holy Cross the crown of thorns the handkerchief of St. Veronica and the other Relicks which receive so many pilgrimages from far All their sanctity is derived from the Body of Jesus Christ which they have had the honour to touch Besides we are not certain if they be true for there are so many Churches that quarrel about them that we have cause to doubt but I am certain said I according to my belief that this linnen hath touch'd the Body of Jesus Christ This linnen therefore I laid up safe in my box of Relicks where I kept it along while after I am perswaded I had good reason to do so in regard of the nature of the thing and assurance that I had I think that every good Roman Catholick ought to do the same if he hath any belief in his Religion and Doctrine for if their excessive faith which they have for Relicks is pleasing to God and sufficient to cause Miracles to be done by them although these relicks be false as they themselves confess to happen sometimes what is the reason that their Religion doth not cause them to repose their trust in that which they believe to have certainly touch'd the Body of Jesus Christ and wherefore doth not this linnen produce Miracles Nevertheless we see that scarce any body respects it 't is cast aside with other linnen without respect a little bit of St. Francis's slipper is more reverenced than all such linnen and chalices of the Papists Wherefore do we not see their Zealots gather up the parings of their Priests nails that touch their God every day It is certainly because they have no faith where they should have or if they have it is but an erroneous faith that is not able to work a Miracle It hath not that efficacy as their belief or their mistaking of a ship nail for one of our Saviour's Cross and the bones of an horse for that of she Saints as the Vapists would perswade They may reply that the linnen the chalice and the Priests nails have touched only the elements But I answer are not these elements strictly united to the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ This is the reason they pretend for their adoring them Their Divines declare this union so strict and extraordinary that they make no difficulty to compare it to the Hypostatical Union for as they say both are divine and wonderful for as the humanity subsists in the incarnation without a natural and a proper subsistence likewise the bread and the wine remain in this Sacrament without their own and natural subsistency which they suppose to be destroyed to give way to a Transubstantiation These things being so wherefore may not the elements sanctifie a thing seeing that they are really united to Jesus Christ God-Man and why do the Papists so little regard that those things that are known to have touch'd them when they reverence others that are said without any likelihood of truth to have approached near to Christ's humanity This is unjust and a reproach to their Faith not only in regard of Relicks but also in regard of their Sacrament of the Altar § Let us proceed next to another Article of the Popish Faith That whosoever depends not upon the Pope whosoever don't acknowledge him for their Lord and the Head of the Church whosoever he be that lives out of his obedience shall be infallibly damned of which Article I could never be fully perswaded therefore I was always very favourable in enjoyning penances to them that did willingly in their Confessions discover that they doubted of the truth of this part of the Popish Creed For such as behold the manner of the Protestants living and their Christian behaviour cannot well be perswaded of it I have known some Ladies miserably tormented with despair because they could not be perswaded of the damnation of such persons My ghostly Father have they said to me I am damned and without hopes of salvation for I cannot possibly believe one of the Articles of our Creed I cannot be perswaded that such a Lady a Hugonot can be damned in regard she is so pious and virtuous in her conversation every morning I know that she is about an hour at her devotions in her closet afterwards she takes a religious book and reads or applies her self to work she is never idle all her discourse is of God's holy Word and her self appears so sensible of what she speaks that she forceth tears from the eyes of the assistants it is not possible to be more just charitable and fearing God than she is it is not possible to be more zealous in God's service and more
Brethren but by the principles of conscience and the more rational motives to salvation On the other side those that are acquainted with the Reasons that retain the Romanists in the Religion which they profess will not wonder that there are so few of them made Proselytes They know well enough that the Nobility and the Commonalty the Learned and the Unlearned the Zealots and the Libertines have an hundred invisible chains by which they are held fast Never expect that a rich Abbot of 5000 Livres per ann should quit such a preferment to become a Minister or that a man in favour at Court should incur the displeasure of his Prince by renouncing the Pope Nor can you with any more reason hope for the conversion of the Learned for you must look upon them in their Schools as Disciples to no other but Aristotle for they learn to dispute before they are taught to believe and become Philosophers before they are Christians If at any time they read the Holy Scripture it is not with any intent to satisfie themselves which doctrine is most agreeable to that divine Rule but that they may find therein some Text or other to be wrested in favour of themselves and their perverse opinions I read the Scripture my self for a long time with this very design when I met with any thing in it different from my principles I thought my self obliged to encounter it and applied my self forth with to the finding of Arguments which might serve as an answer to it And this is that which renders the conversion of the Learned so difficult nor is that of the Ignorant any less for these are the people that will have no other Faith but that which they deposite with their Curate and yet so great an abhorrence for all such as follow not their superstitions that come not to Mass carry not their Rosaries about them make no use of the Office of the Virgin nor pray to other Saints that they are always ready to attempt their extirpation and believe that they should therein do God good service I have heretofore my self had such unchristian intentions and desires as these wherewith the Papists are imbued and amongst the rest those of the Order of the Jesuits I became once so tractable a Scholar by the charitable instructions of these Masters that I was one of the first that rais'd the Tumult at Rennes and set fire to a Protestant Church at such time as it was believed that they were immur'd within it and these reverend Fathers were so far from discountenancing the outrage that they declared their sorrow and regret that we had not at least burnt the Minister there alive Judge therefore if there be any hopes of their Conversion who from their Cradle have imbibed such sentiments as these But the Zealots are yet further removed from it being blinded and kept close to their Principles by erroneous Maxims and superstitious Principles in which they are made to believe the truth and purity of the Christian Religion to consist They perswade them that they must at a venture believe what the Church believes that is what their Director tells them that they ought not to raise the least dispute about what is preach'd to them out of the Scripture as being uncapable to comprehend those Mysteries that to doubt in the least of the truth of Miracles Traditions Indulgences the Power of the Pope and his Priests or to entertain the least thought of the possibility of being saved in any other Religion is a most enormous crime So that that very light which by the special favour of God is afforded them for their conversion is look'd upon by them as a machination of the Devil against which they are obliged to engage This renders it in a manner impossible that they should ever be reclaimed As for the Libertines they have no thoughts of the well fare of their future state and therefore all Religions are to them indifferent carrying always about them some pernicious principles wherewith they are provided to combat against whatsoever shall oppose their sensual inclinations and wherewith they extinguish the light of the Spirit which is afforded them for their relief Amongst these I may rank the giddy and inconstant that out of a principle of Libertinism abandon the Romish Religion and a while after upon the like motives return to their former estate a mercenary sort of people that are ready to enroll themselves in the service of any that will hire them at a dearer rate Such men as these having inconsiderately shut themselves up in a Cloister where they are obliged to lead a regular life grow quickly weary of their first design the Cowl is burdensom to them and the Religious Yoke becomes insupportable hereupon they fancy that if they sally out and go over to the Protestant Party they shall be received after the same manner that they are wont to entertain the revolting Ministers in France who are usually complemented like Princes With such imaginations as these and without any other motive or being able to render any solid reason of their actions one of them presents himself to a Consistory which they presume to be with a good intention and being unwilling to be so injurious as to send him back they receive him in hope that he is sincere in his profession and will prove a good man nor is the assistance of some charitable persons wanting But the man finding himself free from all subjection begins to give the reins to his inordinate appetite frequents Brothel-houses and gives himself over to a scandalous and sensual life hereupon they summon him to the Consistory that he may have the punishment inflicted on him which he deserves the charity lately extended to him is with-held and the Papists again by their sollicitations and promises of a Dispensation from Rome for the future and an Act of Oblivion for what is past they assure him of all possible incouragement and thereby prevail with him to return to his former state without any conviction wrought upon his conscience or any other true motives of his change than the inconstancy of his mind and his propensity to his lusts and pleasures We need not marvel then that such as these should forsake the communion of the true Church since we seem hereby the rather to be confirmed that that Church is the true Church from which they revolt according to their own argument which infers the holiness and good discipline of a Religious Order from the number of such as do renounce it They went out from us saith St. John Ep. 1. c. 2.19 but they were not of us for if they had been of us they would have remained with us but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us By their works we may judge of the sincerity of their conscience and the truth of their faith as the goodness of the tree is judged by its fruit § There are several