mean while as they now confess with many thousands of Corruptions 3. Having considered the Obligation we have to the Religion we profess it may be seasonable next to reflect on the Religion to which we are invited One that recals us to the Idolatrous practice of the heathen World to pray unto our fellow Creatures canonized to Saints and Heroes to worship Images and fall down to the stock of a tree Nay what in the confession of Coster the Jesuite and some others in case Transubstantiation be not made out a more stupid Idolatry than the worst of heathens were ever guilty of the worshipping the consecrated Host. Now that Transubstantiation is not real we have all the evidence that we are capable of the testimony of our reason and our senses The absurd and monstrous consequences of that Doctrine will fill Volumes a great part of which are with great truth and justice drawn together by D r. Brevint in his late Tract entituled The depth and mystery of the Roman Mass. We are invited to a Religion that takes from us contrary to the express words of our Saviours Institution half of the Sacrament of the Eucharist To a Church that revives the Heathen Persecution of taking away our Bibles and would involve every Lay-man in the guilt of being a Traditor the nex step in the account of the Primitive Church to Apostacy from the Christian Faith We are invited to a Church that as it takes away the Scriptures and half the Communion robs likewise of the benefit of the Publick Prayers putting the Offices in an unknown Tongue insomuch that when about thirteen years ago some of the Prelates of the Church of France had taken care to translate the Liturgy and Scripture into the vulgar Tongue Pope Alexander the seventh damns the Attempt and under pain of Excommunication commands all persons to bring in their Books to be publicly burnt We are tempted to a Religion which contrary to the command of trying all things and holding fast that which is good and paying to God a reasonable service enjoyns an implicite Faith and blind Obedience to a Religion that instead of the guidance of the Word of God sets up an infallible Judge and Arbitrator of all Doctrines the Pope of Rome Which instead of the faith once delivered to the Saints adds new Articles of Faith which instead of that one propitiation made by Christ and the condition thereof Faith and Repentance sets remission of sins upon terms and proposes that gift of God to be bought with Money in the vile Market of Indulgences for instance Sacriledge is valued at seven grosses Incest five Simony seven Perjury six Murder five and so on in the Tax of the Apostolic Chancery We are invited to a Church where we must be Schismatics that we may be Catholics and adhere to the Roman in opposition to all other that is to the Catholic Church 'T were endless by retail to reckon up the Errors and the Guilts to which we are invited the fond ridiculous Rites the superstitious burthensom and heathenish Ceremonies the Exorcisms and Conjurations the Blasphemies and forged Miracles Cheats and pious Frauds the Lies and Stories stupid and impossible as Amadis de Gaul the Knight of the Sun or the Seven Champions witness the Golden Legend the Lives of the Saints of St. Francis Bruno St. Dominic and infinite others or if we have a mind to a Romance of our own the long Tale of a Tub which Fath. Serenus Cressy has lately put out borrowed from Father Alford the improbable that is the greater Miracles as he tells us being omitted because of the unbelief of the Heretics and yet enow are left to weary the credulity of the most sanguine Catholic Wherein also as he tells us we may see the Faith of our Forefathers and truly we have great reason to thank him for the prospect which gives us strong inducements in so unjust a competition to retein our own Notwithstanding all that has been said there is a sort of pacific Writers who represent the Doctrines of the Church of Rome under a fairer light and would have us believe they have a better meaning than is usually suggested And God forbid that we should take things by the worst handle or make that breach wider whose closure we should endeavour to make up with a zeal equal to that of the gallant Roman who threw himself on behalf of his Countrey into the gaping Gulf. Indeed no price can be too great for Peace but only Truth the which we may not part with for all the tempting charms of Charity and Love and God knows in the present case 't is evident that the excuses which are fram'd in the Romanists behalf are short and frivolous nor besides can any man be esteem'd a Roman Catholic by admitting the Doctrines of that Church in his own private or some more probable Doctors but in the public sense And had these undertakers in the Catholic Cause power to dispense therein according to that Candor which many of them make shew of we might attend to what is said but we are well assur'd that all these fair words can signifie nothing but are merely a bait and snare laid to draw in the easie Proselyte for when he 's reconcil'd and brought into the bosom of the Church these painted shews are presently washt off and all concessions immediately retracted the Convert must then learn the Colliers Creed believe as the Church believes and St. Peter's Key which threw the gate open to admit into the Church will shut the Prisoner in and the Child which had a piece of money given him to keep him quiet shall soon after have it call'd for back again and be aw'd with the rod if he repine or murmur So that 't will be a frivolous Project to talk of a reconcilement with the Church of Rome till she first conform herself to Truth and a Conviction and much more a Reformation must here be impossible where the grossest Errors are join'd with an Assurance of being free from any may a Persuasion of being infallible 4. The Motive which deserves the next place is the Safety of the King's Person and the Prerogative of the Crown which hath no higher or more necessary appendent than his Supremacy in his Dominions in all Causes Ecclesiastical and Secular according to the powers invested in the Jewish Kings under the Law and exercised by the first Christian Emperours 'T is obviously known how destructive both to itself and the Community is the Partnership of Regal Power but this must be infinitely mischievous when shared by a Foreiner whose interests are necessarily contrary to those of our Prince and Nation as the Popes certainly are But this mischief stays not within the aforesaid bounds for the Pope is not content with a bare Co-ordination but demands the Preference for his spiritual Sword and claims a power to depose
Second against whom his Holiness Innocent the IV then Pope to use the words of the Acts of the Council Pronounced and thundred out the Sentence of Excommunication not without the horrour and amazement of all hearers and by-standers Only the Annats or First Fruits of Bishopricks as they were computed in Parliament Anno 1532. in a few years came to an hundred sixty thousand pound sterling it would be endless to audit the whole Account As England was by the Popes stiled an inexhaustible pit so was there no bounds set to the industry of them who attempted to drain it After a sad complaint of the Rapine Avarice and tyranny of the Pope and his Officers among us Matthew Paris breaks out into these words We might there see heart-breaking grief the cheeks of pious persons drown'd in tears the doleful moan that they made and the sighs which they multiplied saying with bleeding groans It were better for us to die than behold the calamity of our Country and pious People of it Woe to England who heretofore was Princess of Provinces and Ruler of Nations the mirrour of Excellence and pattern of Piety is now become Tributary vile persons have trampled upon her and she is a prey to the ignoble But our manifold sins have procured these judgments from God who in his anger for the iniquity of his People has made a Hypocrite and Tyrant to rule over them If Almighty God should for the like Provocations put us again under the same Egyptian Task-masters we need not doubt of the self-same usage But now for all this expence 't is pleasant to examine what is to come back to us in exchange even Parchments full of Benedictions and Indulgences store of leaden Seals Beads and Tickets Medals Agnus-Dei's Rosaries hallowed Grains and Wax-candles such Traffic that an Indian would scarce barter for such pitiful Gauds that would hardly bribe a child of a year old and yet this is the goodly price they offer for all the wealth of a whole Nation 10. After this Tyranny over our Estates in the particulars rehearsed there is a very remarkable one behind which will well deserve to be considered It is Auricular Confession where not to mention its ill aspect upon Government as being made an Engine of State and Picklock of the Cabinets of Princes sealing up all things from the notice of the Magistrate but making liberal discoveries against him hereby not only the Estate but Soul and Conscience of every private man are subjected to the Avarice and Rapine and withal the Humour and Caprice the Insolence and Pride nay Lust and Villany of a debauched Confessor Every mortal sin upon pain of Damnation must be confessed and when the Penitent after great anxieties has freed himself from this disquiet he must submit to the Penance however rigorous or chargeable or foolish which the Priest enjoyns he and his Family are entirely in the power of this Master of their secrets And if this Awe and Empire however grievous were the whole inconvenience 'twere something tolerable it being to be hoped that so severe a remedy would affright from guilt but the very contrary happens vices of the foulest kinds are hereby procured to the Priest takes often benefit of the sin which he absolves from and having the advantage of these two Points that the person whose Confession he has taken has lost modesty and that he can absolve from the crime it will be easie to perswade the repetition of that sin which his breath can easily blow away and render none I shall not here mention on the other part the perfunctory Penances which seem only imposed to invite to sin again and those authorized by a most authentic pattern that of the Popes themselves for what Markets may we not expect from a poor Priest when his Holiness in his Tax of the Apostolick Chancery has valued the most horrid crimes at so easie rates as a few grosses or a Julio and eighteen pence or half a Crown compounds for the foulest most abominable guilt Nay when a visit to a privileg'd Shrine or Altar and the bare recital of a short Prayer purchases pardon for 100 500 546 6646 days Nay for 7500 10000 1000000 years according to the grants of several Popes to be seen for our great comfort and edification in the Horae B. Virginis So that the Story of that plump Confessor who for six Acts of Adultery is said to have enjoyn'd the repetition of six Poenitential Psalms and when 't was told him that there were seven of them advised the Votary to commit Adultery once more and repeat the whole number may seem a very severe act of Discipline and besides a full attonement for past sins supererogation for future ones So that Vice being brought to this easie rate besides all other misadventures unless we will stand for the honour of being Cuckolds and have our Posterity share the Title which is Proverbial in Popish Countrys to be fils de Prestre it will concern us to look about us while 't is time and prevent these vile dishonours which are preparing for us If it shall be said that 't is not imaginable men should pervert so sacred an action as the receiving of Confessions to those purposes of villany that are suggested I answer first That we may without breach of charity suppose that thing possibly to be done which is notoriously known to have been done as also that the horrour of the crime is competently allayed by their Doctrine who think only marriage and not Fornication inconsistent with the dignity of a Clergy-man And therefore the Nephews of great Clergy-men and Popes have in all Ages been own'd and preferred and moreover Fornication has been allowed to Priests and Friers in compensation for their restraint from marriage three or four Whores as part of their spiritual preferment I say all this being put together there will be little hopes to preserve honour in Families where so many Circumstances concur together to betray it 11. After all this there still remains a farther reason why we should resist the growth of Popery even the most pressing that can be urged Self-preservation to avoid Imprisonment and Inquisition Fire and Fagot Massacres Racks and Gibbets the known Methods by which the Romanists support their Cause and propagate their Faith Should that Sect prevail the Nonconformist shall no longer complain of a Bartholomew-day the Parisian Vespers which bore that date will be resumed again and silence all complaints of them or us and as his Holiness thought fit to celebrate that barbarous villany calling together as Thuanus tells us his Cardinals solemnly to give thanks to Almighty God for so great a blessing conferred upon the Roman See and the Christian World nay a Jubilee was to be proclaimed through the Christian World whereof the cause was expressed to give thanks to God for destroying in France the enemies of the Truth and of the Church
There may be found on this side the Sea men who will imitate the Princes of the holy League who upon such encouragements from the See of Rome and for the greater glory of God will be ready to consecrate their hands in a Massacre here with us It is vulgarly known what was done to the poor Albigenses and Waldenses how many hundred thousand of lives the planting of the Roman Gospel in the Indies cost What cruelties were practised in the Low-Countries by the Duke D'Alva what bloud in this Island in the days of Queen Mary what designed to be shed in the Powder Treason and that by the privity and direction of the Pope himself as Delrio informs us in spight of all the palliations that are now suggested who withal adds that his Holiness Clement 8. by his Bull a little before that time gave order that no Priest should discover anything that came to his knowledge in confession to the benefit of the Secular Government It seeming safer to these good men to break all the Obligations of Duty and Allegiance though bound by Oaths than violate the Seal of Confession or put a stop to that meritorious work at one moment to destroy their Soveraign with all his Royal Family his whole Nobility and Senate and subvert the Government of their Native Country But we need not seek for instances without our own memories the carriage of the Irish Rebellion where the Papists in a few months cut the throats of about two hundred thousand innocent Protestants of all Sexes and Ages cannot be yet forgotten Which Act was so meritorious as to deserve from his Holiness a most plenary indulgence for all that were concerned in it even absolution from Excommunication Suspension and all other Ecclesiastical Sentences and Censures by whomsoever or what cause soever pronounced or inflicted upon them as also from all sins trespasses transgressions crimes and delinquences how hainous and atrocious soever they be c. Nor let any man be so fond to hope for better terms or Liberty of Conscience if Popery should now prevail Let us look into the world and we shall see on all hands that nothing is any where suffered to grow either under or near that Sect. Where Protestantism has been so strongly fix'd as not to be batter'd down at once it has by degrees been perpetually undermin'd witness the Proceedings against them in Poland and Hungary and several parts of Germany the late Persecutions in the Vallies of Piedmont and the methods used in France to demolish their Temples and disable from Employments and almost exclude them from common Trades I need not enquire what is now done in Vtrecht and other acquisitions of the French upon the Hollander this we are sure of Whatever Articles are or can be made of favour and compliance 't is somewhat more than a probable Doctrine that Faith is not to be kept with Heretics The Jesuited Romanist is at large by Equivocations to say any thing and by directing of Intention to do any thing they can with a very good conscience dissemble their own and pretend to the Protestant Profession come to the devotions of Heathen Idolaters and that from express Licence from his Holiness Pope Clem. VIII upon account of which We may says Tho. a Jesu be present without any scruple at the Rites and divine Offices of Infidels Heretics and Schismatics Nay Peter Maffeius makes it his boast that Ignatius Loyola imitated the Devil in all his tricks cheats and cunning to convert souls and how his followers have transcrib'd that Pattern the world does know Yet farther they some of them at least can set up a new Gospel where there is not one word of the Cross of Christ can worship Heathen Idols with that pitiful reserve of having in their Sleeve a Crucifix to which they privately direct their adoration all which as they are notorious for being complained of to the Pope so are they uncontroul'd for ought appears and permitted by him Indeed what conversation can there be with these men who are under no obligations of Society no Character of notice or distinction who at the same time are Priests and Hectors Casuists and Artificers Presbyterians Anabaptists Quakers Theists Atheists and amidst all this very good Catholics Let any honest sober man judge what kind of Religion this is in it self and how fit to be encourag'd and submitted to 12. To close up all that has been said from uncontroulable Testimonies and Proofs we have seen the influence which Popery has either heretofore or may hereafter have amongst us in all the great concerns of our Religion our Prince our Laws our Property our Country our Families and Lives and found it evidently destructive unto all the inference from whence can be no other but that if we have any love of our Religion any abhorrence of the grossest Superstition Error or Idolatry any regard for the safety of his Majesty any care of our Laws or our Estates any concernment for the strength the wealth or numbers of our Nation any desire to hold the Freedom of our Conscience the Virtue and the Honour of our Families and lastly any care of Self-preservation to escape Massacres and the utmost rage of Persecution it will behoove us to beware of the prevailing of that Sect in whose Successes we have reason to expect to forfeit all these Interests perish our selves and bequeath Idolatry and Beggary and Servitude to our Posterity FINIS a Art 6. b 2 Tim. 3.15 c Artic. 13. Cousins Schol. Disc. d Aâ—t 8 e Jewels Apol. f Art 25. Catechism in the Lit. g Art 1. h 1 Cor. 14. 6 7 8. i 1 Cor. 14. 40. Preface of Cerem to the Litur k Art 33. Commin in the Litur l Book of Ordain Art 36. Mason de min. Ang. Bramhal m Art 37. King Charles Letter to the Prince n Bulla Caenae o Jude 3. Gal. 5. 1. p Ethelbert and some others of the South of England q An. 23. of Hen. 8. by the advice of the Parliament and Convocation r Herb. Hist. of Hen. 8. Speed Baker c. s Guicciard 16. Luitprand l. 2. c. 13. Baron ad An. 9â—8 Concil Const. Sess. 11. Genebr ad an 901. t Sixt. V. Clem. â— in the Prefaces of their Book u Concil Trident Sess. 25. Bell. de Imag. l. 2. x Coster Enchirid Controvers c. 3. de Euch p. 308. Concil Trident Sess. 13. Bell. de Euch. y Concil Constance Sess. 13. Trid. Sess. 21. Bell. de Euch. l. 4. z Index lib. prohib reg 4. Bell de vâ—rto dei l. 2. * Optat. milevitan l. 1. Cont. Parmen †Missal rom Approbat ex decret Concil Trident. bullá Pii 5. cherubini bullar Tom. 2. p. 311. a Extrait du pâ—ocez verbal des assemble general du clerge du Fran. tenue à Paris â—s An. â—660 661. b Bell. de rom pont l. 4. c Bellar. de Eccles l. 3. d Jude 3. e Bellar de Indulg l. â— f Taxae cancel Apost g Bellar. de Eccles. l. 3. h Church History of Britany i Curtius k David Hezek c. l Const. Theod. Justin. c. m Bell. de rom pont l. 5. Suar. Aud. Eud. Johan resp ad Casaub. p. 12. Suar defens sid cath l. 3. Turreâ—rem sum eccl c. 14. Thom. Aquin. 2.2 quaest 12. Art 2. Ledes Theol. mor. tract 7. Malder com in D. Thom. 2. 2. quaest 1. n Extravag de majoritate obedientia c. 1. unam sanctam o Platin. in vit Innoc. 3. p Concil later can 27. tom concil 27. p. 461 Concil lat 4. Can. 3. Tom. 28. p. 161. Concil Lugd. 1. Sess. 3. Tom. 28 p. 424. Concil Const. Sess. 17. tom 29. p. 458 and 469. q Histâ—ry of Popish Tâ—easons and Usurpations r Admonish â—â— the Nobility f Mat. Paris An. 1253. t Cherubini bullar Tom. 1. p. 704. Hist. Conc. Trent l. 1 An. 1538. u Hist. Conc. of Trent an 1558 x Cambd. Eliz. An. 1570. Cherubini bullar Tom. 2. p. 303. y Thuan. l. 64. Cambd. Eliz. An. 1578. z Cambd. Eliz. An. 1588. * Cambd. Eliz. An. 1600. †Dat May 30. 1626. Foulis p. 725. a Lord Orrerys answer to Peter Welsh his Letter b Watsons quodlibets p. 255. out of Bannes Valentia and others c King James his works p. 504. d Pag. 14. e Pag. 14 15 c. f Pag. 59. g Baron cent undecim h An. 1208. i Platina in vita Greg 7. k Roger Hovd in Hen. â— Mat. Paris ib. l Concil Trident Sess. 25. m Hist. Concil Trident. l. 2. n 1 and 2 of Philip and Mary o Treaty at the Isle of Wight p Cap. 28. q Cap. 13. r Traitte de la politique de France c. 14. p. 283. s Concil Trid. Sess. 22. bullae caenae in bullario Gherubin passirâ— t Herbert hist. of Hen. 8. Speed c. u Sermon preached before the Pope and Cardinals at Avenion x Indefensorio y Tom. concil 28. p. 460. z Pag. 462. * Herb. Hist. King Hen. 8. p. 330. †Mat. Paris Anno 1246. a Anno 1237. b Concil Trid. Sess. 14. c Taxi cancel Apost d Horae B. Vir. p. 73 84 76 40 73 79 72 56 80 c. e Sleid comm l. 4. f Cornel. Agrip. c. de lenocin g Thuan. hist. l. 53. h Disq. magic l. 6. â— 1 Sect. 2. i Lord Orrery p. 29. k Pag. 61. l Concil Const. Myst. Jesuitism m De convers infid p. 854. n In vit Ignat. Loyol o Palafox Bp. of Angelopolis in his Letter to Pope Innoc. X.