and slight his call and gracious design When the Son of God came into the World he had no other intention but to banish out of it all Idolatry and to establish the Worship of the true God Because saith an Eloquent Bishop of Ravenna that wonderful Majesty in which God appeared unto Moses and the dreadful threatnings and punishments of his Law did hinder his people to make their addresses to and trust in him and did encourage Idolatry by causing them to seek to other gods more tractable and of a more easie access he hath been pleased to become Man like unto us To win them by the expressions of his kindness and to hold them fast bound to his service by the testimonies and declarations of his Goodness Petr. Chrysol Ser. 147. This was God's design But by that strange propensity of men to Idolatry they hinder its accomplishment for instead of looking up to him and receiving from him grace and mercy they have run to others and sought for other Mediators and Protectors other visible Gods whom they implore in their indigency This alienation from God proceeds from their fancying him who is their Brother and like unto them and who is become their Friend armed with severity and justice by this means they are frighted away from his service and cannot with so much confidence as they ought rely upon his Mercy In this manner God's divine Wisdom is disappointed and his Design frustrated by the ignorance baseness and blindness of men The Intent of the Son of God saith Tertullian in his ordinary strain when he took upon him our nature was totally to abolish Idolatry he knew that men were very inclinable to this vice that few in the world would be content to worship God in spirit and in truth he had seen them bow down to a golden Calf to mortal Men to Statues of stone Onions c. This is an Impudency saith likewise St. Austin which was unsufferable to him he had an intent to bring a remedy to these disorders by condescending a little to mens inclinations therefore he took upon him a Body that men might have a God according to their own mind and desires and that they might adore a Man without offence Ut pro impudentia idololatriae satis Deo fieret per impudentiam fidei How did men answer so great a Mercy I confess they prayed unto and worshipped this God-Man very faithfully for several Ages but at last the Spirit of darkness crept in amongst them and hath drawn some away to their former Abominations instead of being governed by that holy Impudency which Faith furnishes them with and prompts them to to adore God in a Saviour-Man and worship a man as God they have substituted others in whom they confide to whom they present their Vows and offer their Sacrifices This is the Papists Crime Jesus Christ is not properly their God they worship and pray to the Saints they forsake the Lord that calls and invites them to come to him to go and make their Prayers to and worship the Servants Look but into their Chappels and Churches you shall scarce see ten persons kneeling to the Crucifix when you may perceive several hundreds before the Altars of the Virgin Mary and of the other Saints I have often taken notice of this when I was amongst them I am perswaded that if the Papists had not their Idol of the Mass I mean the Sacrament to present to the people to receive their homages Jesus Christ whom this Sacrament signifies would be quite forgotten they would scarce think upon him if they did it would be with much indifferency You shall see something more of this in the next Article § The Worshipping of Images is one of those things that was most offensive to me in the Church of Rome since I took the liberty to read the Holy Scripture for I never found any one passage that seems to allow this Superstition but have met with many that represent it as the most grievous of all other crimes I know that their ingenious Wits have distinguished their Worship into that of Latria which is only due unto God and into Dulia and Hyperdulia which may be paid to the Creature But how can the ignorant Vulgar make this distinction And doth not God in express words prohibit in one of the Ten Commandments written with his divine finger in the Tables of stone delivered to Moses upon the Mountain To make any Image or likeness of things which are in Heaven or elsewhere and command us not to fall down to them nor serve them Do not the Papists by their daily practices violate this Sacred Law To what purpose are their cunning distinctions and the right direction of their intentions their elevations of their mind from the Image to the Saint and from the Saint unto God seeing they do what God hath expresly forbidden I desire to convince the most obstinate of all the Papists by their own thoughts and the reflexion of their minds for this consideration hath been very powerful to undeceive me When I did consider the continual disputes between Protestants and Papists about the worshipping of Images I thought upon St. Austin's words to Petil. and the rest of the Donatists and that his direction was the best means to end the controversie and to understand which of them was in the right To. 7. de unit Eccles contr Epist Petil. c. 3. Non audiatur haec dico haec dicis sed haec dicit Dominus c. we must not heed what the Protestants say nor what the Papists affirm but only what God declares according to the exposition of those Doctors that were of neither side let us take one of them or if the judgment of one is not sufficient let us take ten put into their hands that by which we shall all be judged the two Tables delivered to Moses the ten Commandments of God let us intreat them to read over that which concerns the Worshipping of Images Thou shalt not make unto thy self any graven Image or the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth thou shalt not how down thy self to them nor serve them for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity c. Exod. 20. Let us lead these indifferent men into a Church of the Papists and into another of the Reformed Religion let us desire them to tell us which of these Perswasions is to their seeming most conformable and obedient to this Law will they not say that it is the Reformed and Protestant For amongst the Papists they may see several Churches and Chappels and in each of them eight or ten Saints or rather Images of Saints and before every one of these Images they shall find above twenty men and women kneeling with lighted Tapers in their hands they shall see others carrying their Offerings up to the Saints Altars and a
thought came into my mind at every time that I did look over the Ecclesiastical Histories where they mention the Pagans Idolatries I was confirmed in it by what one of the most famous of the Popish Doctors tells us Thomas Aquinas named by them the Angelical Doctor maintains very solidly and rationally that a man or a child that hath attained to an age able to understand the natural truths and to make use of his reason if he can but discourse upon the things that he sees he must needs discover the necessity of a first Being of a primitive Principle the Origin of all other things of a first Truth the only source of the rest of a first Cause that gives motion and action to all secondary causes he must needs find the necessity of the Being of a Sovereign Moderator and Governour of the Universe who commands in chief over all things that are and shall be in the World It is not possible but that such an one must find out by the light of Nature that There is One God and that there can be buâ— one Only God When I had made this supposition and did nevertheless find that Aristotle Plato Pythagoras Dioclesian Trajan and other Emperors until the time of Constantin the Great had Canonized many men and reared up unto them publick Statues to receive the Worship of the People and Sacrifices and that a certain Valentin had caused no less than thirty to be made of a new fashion fifteen makes and fifteen females Is it possible said I to my self that men should be so stupid as not to understand that there can be but one only God one only true perfect and sovereign Divinity Had not they as well as we the light of Reason and Nature to know this Yes doubtless they Knew it and according to the judgment of Thomas Aquinas it was unpossible but that they must have this discovery they knew this God they did worship him they did rear unto him Altars as well as to the other Gods As may appear by that Altar at Athens consecrated to the Unknown God which was the occasion of St. Paul's Preaching unto them some of these primitive Heathens did place Jesus Christ in the number of their Gods How came they therefore to be guilty of Idolatry wherefore are they accused of this crime It was because they did worship men and other creatures with the true God They did fancy some divine qualities in certain creatures and therefore they reverenced them or rather they reverenced and adored God in them For we cannot conceive how those great Philosophers who are yet received amongst us as our Teachers could worship a Rat as a true God it is not credible that they were guilty of so great a mistake to take a Rat or an Onion for the great Creator of Heaven and Earth Neither did they imagin that their Caesars and their Hero's men whom they had seen entring into the world living and departing as other men were real Gods but they believed that they were the chief Friends and Favourites of the true God They had seen them perform notable and wonderful deeds whiles they were on earth which made them judge that God had yet a particular affection for them and that he had more regard of them than of other men therefore they thought themselves obliged in duty to pay unto them more respect to adore in them the divine qualities which God had given them and to pray unto them as to persons whom they imagined to have an influence upon God and to be well esteemed of him For this cause they built for them Temples reared up Altars erected their Images and put them in frequented places to be there adored of the people they appointed Festivals that they might be then worshipped in a particular manner in these solemn days the people did throng together to kneel before these dumb Statues to offer to them their Vows Prayers and Sacrifices all which are homages due to none but to God alone This was their fault this was their crime which causeth them to be condemned of Idolatry Don't we said I to my self don't we do the same as they did do not we render to our Saints and Images the same devotion as the Heathens did to their false Gods Let us judg by this comparison between them and us They made Images we do the like they set them in publick places we likewise they did fall down and kneel before them and burn incense unto them and do not we do the same they prayed unto them in their need to Mars in time of War to Neptune when they did set sayl to go to Sea c. Don't we Papists said I imitate them These and such like considerations did often trouble land disturb me against my will for I could not well suffer such reflexions that did lay open to me the nakedness and abominations of my Religion so much like to the Heathenish condemned by God himself For the Papists in time of War fly to the Saints that are the Protectors of their Kingdoms as if St. Denis St. Marcellus and the other Protectors of France were at their request 〈◊〉 â—â—gage in a quarrel for their sakes in the Court of Heaven against St. James St. Theresia and the other Protectors of Spain when those two Nations are at variance The Papists pray to St. Yues when they are at Law because he was a very good Lawyer as if such as were of an employment on Earth were to continue it in Heaven St. Joseph was a Carpenter St. Crispin a Shooemaker and so of the rest We call upon St. Roch in time of the Plague St. Eutropius for the Dropsie because the Legend informs us that these Saints have been sick of those Diseases as if the Saint that hath been troubled with an infirmity on Earth did enter into Paradise only to become there the Physician of it to get a Patent and pass the degree of Doctor They pray to the Virgin Mary at all times and seasons and give her many ridiculous names they pray to her for their Eye-sight stiling her Lady of the Light they worship her by the name of Our Lady of good News when they have any Ships sayling upon the Seas they call upon her in distress and affliction and stile her Our Lady of Gladness in a grievous Sickness they make their addresses to her and flatter her with this title Our Lady of Pity or Our Merciful Lady and in all other necessities they honour her with these glorious Names Our Helpful Lady Our Assisting Lady Our Lady adorned with all kind of Virtues Thus to this one Saint they ascribe many names titles and properties that they might make the silly people believe that she is in some respect not much unlike unto God whose attributes and perfections are infinit But that which I find to be very ridiculous amongst them is the manner of representing and worshipping Jesus Christ they have made him a monstrous Statue
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
of Christ's Church For to perswade people the more that their Traditions are necessary they exalt them above the Authority of the Holy Scriptures and advance such doctrines and propose such questions as might make any man an Atheist that will hearken to them How do you know say they that these Writings that bear Moses's name have been written by him How do you know that St. Matthew St. Mark St. Mark St. Luke and St. John are Authors of the Gospel that St. Paul St. James and St. Peter have written the Epistles unless it be by Tradition Have you seen the first Originals of these Writings that you credit so much And if you did see them who is it can affirm that they were written by these great Apostles that have been dead so long unless you believe the men of our days who have received what they affirm either by writing or otherwise from the hear-say of their Forefathers This we name Tradition Pighius argues in this manner Hierarch Eccles l. 1. c. 2. This was also my reason and argument that I have often made use of but when I had seriously examined its strength its veracity and design I found it to be but weak and tending to undermine the foundations of our Faith of our Laws and Religion for if I might have the liberty to propose such questions I might as well make others which shall intangle them in as great a difficulty as theirs do us How know you may I say that your Tradition is good and true How do you know that such as affirm St. Peter to have been Bishop of Rome speak truth How came you to be perswaded that there is a Bishop of Rome have you seen him How are you certain that the Pardons and Indulgences that you receive came from him that he hath confirmed them with his signature could not the persons that have delivered them to you counterfeit his hand May not an Atheist make use very well of this argument and ask How do you know that there is any other God besides the Sun have you ever seen him have you ever spoken with him How do you know that there are three Persons in the Godhead How do you know that Jesus Christ hath lived upon earth that there have been Apostles c. This is the drift and end of these questions which we must reject as the Devils cunning to ensnare our Faith Hearken not to those that will speak in this manner saith St. Austin Confess l. 6. c. 5. How knowest thou that these Books proceed and are derived unto men from the Spirit of a true God for this we must believe above all things And Tertull. contra Hermogen I acknowledge the fulness of the Scripture Hermogenes cannot find there any pretence for his errours therefore he and his fellows flye to the assistance of Tradition And elsewhere he saith Take away from Hereticks that which is common to them with the Heathens and confine them to the Holy Scriptures and they can no longer subsist De Resur carnis I think this answer is a sufficient reply to the Papists Many others have been given which are to be read in the Books of Controversie It is my judgment that God hath fully as much power as men and that his voice is as efficacious and perfect as ours We are to be distinguished by our voices and speeches as when a Son hears his Fathers voice he needs not that a Servant should inform him that his Father speaks likewise our Saviour Christ assures us that his sheep hear his voice and know it We need no other but Christ's voice to know that it is His that He speaks unto us in the Holy Scriptures Let not the Papists propose any such questions for the future and let them take notice of what St. Jerome tells us upon Hagg. That the things that are invented are false as for example such as are said to be the Apostles traditions which have no authority nor testimony from the Holy Scriptures are mark'd by God's sword § From this Doctrine of Tradition proceeds their Faith of Miracles a Faith as ill grounded and ridiculous as the Traditions themselves that are but old wives tales We may judge of such as are related to us of former ages by them that are published and performed in our days of a thousand there is scarce one that hath the least appearance of reality if we will but seriously consider and examin them Nevertheless they are as boldly delivered for truths in the Popish Pulpits as the Gospel I have declared many being forced thereunto by my Office that I knew to be very false Several persons of the common people have related to me accidents that have happened in places of devotion which they look'd upon as notable Miracles but when I have examined them well I have understood that they were but natural effects If they had addressed themselves to some other persons their belief and declarations had passed as currant as Christ's Resurrection from the dead and Lazarus rising out of the Sepulchre they had been recorded and laid up for posterity to read For example A Country fellow comes to me with two or three of his neighbours assuring me that his wife had been at the last gasp and that because he had offered her to St. Mathurin or St. Anne the very next day she recovered of her distemper But he did not tell me that the Physitian that had judged her sickness so desperate was but a Country Chyrurgeon who hath scarce seen the outside of Physick Books and therefore knew not how to judge of a disease by the symptoms I have healed many in this manner by prescribing to them no other receipt but patience I did not discover to them that the dangerous distemper which had taken from the Patient speech proceeded from a Crisis or the turning of the blood or from the working of some violent physick Another comes to me and tells me that his child hath been thought to be dead for several hours but when in time he comes to take notice that it was a Convulsion-fit or the Falling-sickness he don't go back to acquaint the Priest that what he thought to be death is but a disease Who is it that would not have really believed to be true what the Bishop of Anger 's published in print he is a person not easily to be perswaded he caused an exact enquiry to be made and was certainly informed that Jesus Christ had visibly appeared in the Parish-Church of Ulmes in the Priests hands as he was saying Mass Yet he hath been forced to acknowledge to the shame of the whole Church that it was but a fiction of the Priest and a few Parishioners who thought to enrich themselves by that means If this Priest had but dyed a few days after he had been Canonized for a Saint but he hath lived and declared by his Life what manner of man he is the Bishop hath been forced for his scandalous behaviour
other things which from my own experience I could speak to in laying open the Abuses of the Romish Church which I have not at present thought necessary to mention But I am perswaded that what I have said already may be sufficient to convince you that I have not without good reason forsaken the Papists that I might embrace the Religion of the Church of England I will conclude therefore with my request to you that you would reflect on what I have done and said I have not I hope in this act of mine discovered any thing of blind ignorance or any unruly passion which I trust I may say without vanity for by the grace of God I am free from it I know very well that I am rather exposed to the pity than to the envy of the world but this I have done that I might give glory to God and assert that which I am perswaded is the truth All that I have said concerning the Abuses of the Romish Church are things whereof I am very well assured and such as I have not without a great deal of study and industry discovered I have for six or seven years diligently search'd for Reasons whereby I might defend them sometimes applying my self to the Holy Scripture sometimes to the ancient Fathers and modern Authors I sometimes seriously proposed my Objections to a great number of most accomplish'd men with whom I had been long conversant and never could receive any satisfactory return Wherefore after all these Essays being perfectly convinced of the truth of your Religion I am constrain'd to renounce the Religion of my Ancestors and to take up a resolution to forsake it But how and at what time I must to the glory of God acknowledge it that it was at such a time as there was not the least probability that I should attempt it for certain reasons which some are not unacquainted with and which are not fit to be published It will be sufficient to declare in general that I have forsaken Popery in a time in which I had the strongest and natural engagements to keep me in my predecessors Religion and in my former Profession How so Because a change must needs cause me to run many hazards bring upon me the hatred of my Friends and the displeasure of my Kindred make me appear to them as a declared Rebel and an Apostate So that according to the Laws of the Land that I have forsaken I am to be punished in an exemplary manner for embracing the truth These and the following Considerations did long retard my design as that by this alteration I should purchase to my self nothing but misery and in the judgment of some the esteem of a vagabond or of a licentious person guilty of some offence or scandal and that I must never expect to be entertained and live in the world but as little better than a Beggar Notwithstanding all these obstacles and Panick fears my Christian Brethren you see that I have freely and confidently engaged my self in the profession of your Religion I forsake without regret or apprehensions that of my Forefathers to embrace the Protestant This act ought to be look'd upon as an encouragement of such as are doubting and wavering in their minds whether that which they profess is the best and the furest without doubt it is You may believe me upon my word which I have confirmed by my deeds for God be praised in this matter I am not ignorant I have been long enough deliberating and weighing the Reasons of both Parties of Protestants and Papists I know from whence I come what I forsake and what I embrace Besides you may well look upon and esteem me to be no mad man that runs wilfully into his own damnation There is none more careful in the Church of Rome than I am to avoid the causes of damnation If I did but doubt of my salvation in the Reformed Religion or if I could believe that it were possible for me to be saved in the Church of Rome I here swear and protest unto you before God that I would never do what you see I have done I would rather undergo the most bitter torments and whatever might happen to me I would never wrong my conscience This consideration therefore and my example should settle and confirm every one of you in the Protestant Religion should appease the troubles and doubtings of your mind fix your resolutions in the profession of the Truth And you my beloved Brethren that are sufficiently grounded in your Religion and whose lives are conformable my example should oblige you to rejoyce in that God is pleased to grant your private and publick requests and the prayers of your Congregation by sending to you from time to time Proselytes and bringing into your Flook the straying Sheep or rather the lost Sheep such whereof the salvation was so difficult that there was scarce any appearance or likelihood that it should be brought to pass St. Anstin was named the son of Monica 's tears because his religious Mother shed so many that at last she obtained her request and her Son's conversion from God's goodness I may this day stile my self in the same manner for I look upon my self as the return of your religious and charitable prayers and the Son of your sighs and tears I would therefore now express unto you my hearty thanks but you desire that I should render them only to God I have nothing else to request from you but the continuation of the same prayers for all those whom I yet leave behind me especially for such as I have confirmed in their errours and mistakes help and joyn with me in my duty in endeavouring their conversion But especially I must entreat your prayers to God that I may for the time to come lead a life answerable to that holy profession which I hâ—â—e this day made that I may not be unworthy of your Communion here and may attain with you hereafter to the fruition of that Crown of Glory which God hath promised to his faithful Servants To One God and Three Persons the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost be ascribed all Honour Glory and Praise now and for evermore Amen FINIS