to them that believe Moreover to be spoke to with stammering lips and Men of another tongue was a Curse from God upon Israel as it is now on the obstinate Romans this day Isa 28.11 My twelfth and last Objection shall be against their Doctrine of Adultery or their Clergies single life wherein they condemn their Sacrament of Marriage as an unholy thing and a stumbling-block in the way to Heaven God appointed it from the beginning Christ countenanc'd it and the Apostle recommended it as honourable to all Men. What then are they who give the lye both to God and Man terming it unholy and unclean whilst God hath affirmed the contrary in as direct and plain terms as any man yea beyond what the Wisest Orator can express But since this is so plain an absurdity in it self I shall not spend Pen and Ink in proving that which no rational man will deny only suffer me at last now to treat or rather surfeit your Eyes and Ears with one abominable Story which is this Hudericus Bishop of Augusta in an Epistle Writeth to Pope Nicholas I. that Gregory the Great bound the Clergy to a single Life but on a certain time a Woman catching small fishes which this superstitious Monk thought only lawful to be eaten found 6000 Heads of Infants which had been therein drowned which Monk Gregory perceiving to be the effect of the Clergies single Life with sighing and sorrowing he revoked the Canon Yea it is reported by the foresaid Bishop that the Clergy did so burn in Lust that they not only kept Company with Married Women and their own Kindred but with Mankind and the very Beasts in the Field Another Story the Parallel whereof you may read in several Popish Historians is this Leander and Tritemius report that about the year of our Lord 1470 Alanus de Rupe a Dominican after he had seen several Visions contrived his Work called Rosarium out of our Ladies Psalter and Preach'd it instead of the Gospel which Pope Sixtus IV. confirmed with Bulls and Indulgences Whereupon a certain Book was published in the beginning whereof is Written that the B. Virgin came into the Cell of the said Alan it being shut and made him a Ring of her own Hair and betrothed her self to the Monk kissing him and giving him leave to handle her Breasts and finally to be as intimate as Man and Wife This is he from whom sprang the Order of Alanites and whose Miracles the Popish Clergy so zealously defend I thought to have spoken something of several other Popish Opinions especially of Pennance Pardons and Indulgences but lest I weary you I shall only refer you to a little Pamphlet sold by the Booksellers of London Intituled Sodom Fair which discovereth the Nakedness and Abominations of the Romish Harlot to the Life or rather Death from which I pray God may deliver us all I resolved once as I have said to have given you a taste of all the poysonous and counterfeit Merchandize that is expos'd in the Market of the Man of Sin and a touch of all his Hocus Tricks and Popish Pranks But he who readeth with an Impartial Eye considereth with an Unprejudic'd Understanding and receiveth what I have here written in an honest Heart will be ready to turn his back on Babilon and his face Zion-ward and enquire after the good old way which is set before us in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament Therefore it is my humble and hearty Advice that all people be terrified at the Name of Popery and that all Roman Catholicks open their obstinate Eyes and Ears to see and hear the Word of Truth and with the Noble Bereans search the Scriptures the Writings of the Fathers yea and their own Legends and Historians to see whether what the Christian Protestant Churches affirm be conform to the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles or not Then if Baal be God follow him if the Pope or his Creature the Hoste his imaginary Deity be God follow him But if there be no God but one all sufficient eternal invisible and incomprehensible follow him according to his own Will and the Rule which he hath in his Word prescribed to us but if you will neither hear nor believe the Word of God and Scriptures of Truth nor the Writings of the Fathers and of your own Historians then if one should come from the Dead you will neither hear nor believe him For they that shut both Eyes and Ears and resolve to be filthy will be filthy still And none can do more but with the Prophet Jer. 51.8 Wail over you and cry out We would bave healed Babilon but she is not healed But remember what the Lord saith by the Prophet Isa 50.11 Behold all ye that kindle a Fire that compass your selves about with sparks Walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks that ye have kindled This shall ye have of mine hand ye shall lie down in sorrow A WORD To the People called QUAKERS Gal. 4.16 Am I therefore become your Enemy because I tell you the truth I Intended to have spoken of your Opinions and Principles but considering that you all pretend to an Inspiration of the Infalllble Spirit of Truth and need no outward teachers I shall only humbly advise you to square your profession and try your Spirits by the Scriptures of Truth for the Spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets And if you walk not after that Rule which God hath set down in his Written Word and holy Will it is because there is no light in you Next I cordially request you to consider that all ages since our Saviour's days did repute them Hereticks who denied the sanctified use and benefit of the Sacraments which God in Christ hath appointed as Seals of the New Covenant to be an Evidence before the World that as we really believe in our hearts before God we are not ashamed before men to own him for a Redeemer whose body was broken and whose blood was shed for the Remission of our Sins and Salvation of our Souls And tho you repute them foolish and ridiculous God by the foolishness of Sacraments yea of Baby-sprinkling Bread-eating and Wine-drinking hath oft-times conveyed Grace Comfort and Strength to weary fainting Souls Neither can you wipe off what I affirm by saying they were but beggarly Rudiments for young beginners to endure but for a short season For our Saviour in his last Will recommended them to his Apostles as a Christian performance to endure till the end of the World. Baptism he did Matth. 28.19 Teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo I am with you alway even unto the end of the World. Now since Baptism is one among these all things which Christ hath commanded to the peformance of which he hath promised his assisting presence to the Worlds end it cannot be a transient Necessarium secundum quid a thing that may be done or slighted and that but for a short space for the Words are baptizing them viz. all Nations Now when there are no Nations there will be no Baptism but as long as there is any Nation or one Man of a Nation Baptism will never be an useless Rudiment of humane Institution or that which may be thrown away as a ridiculous Tradition And as for the Sacrament of the Lords Supper our Saviour said Matth. 23.19 This do in Remembrance of me Now if the time be expired wherein we should not remember our Redeemer and the time come wherein we should forget him then may we lawfully lay by his Sacrament Sed falsum prius ergo c. The next advice that I would give Quakers is negative concerning matters of Fact and that is that they neither lye cheat nor covet For he that saith that he is Religious taught and led by the Spirit of Truth and doth such things his show of Religion is vain he is yet blind and not purged from the Old Man Love not the World then neither the things that are in the World. If any man love the World the love of the Father is not in him The Prophet Micah adviseth us to a good Religion Chap 6.8 To do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God. Which if all would study before they fall by the ears in controversie for the tithes of Mint and Rue there would be more sincere knowledge in Religion more inward Peace and outward Content and greater practice of true piety For the Lord saith by his prophet David Psal 50.23 To him that ordereth his Conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God. Now to this God only Wise be ascribed all Glory Honour and Praise with Dominion Majesty and Might World without end Amen FINIS
SPEEDY ADVICE TO ALL Roman Catholicks Especially those concerned in SCOTLAND AND IRELAND LONDON Printed and are to be sold by Richard Baldwin near the Black-Bull in the Old-Baily 1689. SOUND ADVICE TO Roman Catholicks c. THough there be none in this Nation who upon the account of Merit oweth less kindness to your Tribe yet as one well acquainted with the Intrigues of both Churches upon the account of Brotherly Love and Charity I humbly present you with my Christian and best Advice earnestly desiring you seriously to consider the sandy Foundation of your Romish Church and no more pin your Faith and confidence of Salvation to the implicit assertions of a pretended Authority and usurped Supremacy to believe every Contradiction of Nonsense which is or can be affirmed by the Spiritual Apostates of so abominable an Harlot whom with the Ephesians Act. 19.28 you term your Great Diana and unspotted Mother-Church and therefore ought to be believed without any further enquiry though the Turks may on as good grounds perswade the World to embrace their Religion and their chief Mufti as well claim Christ's Vicarage upon the account of John of Constantinople as the Pope of Rome can on the Succession of Peter their Principles being neither more ridiculous nor contrary to the Scriptures of Truth and Apostolick Christian Faith than the Doctrine of the Church of Rome is at this present time Indeed I my self was lulled asleep by the allurements of the Popish Syrenes and the bewitching Sorceries of the Man of Sin as by the impetuous current of Babel's streams driven headlong to the brink and shore of the See of Romish Abominations But as Joseph was sold to Aegypt for the Preservation of his Brethren so was I laid aside by the permission of Divine Providence for the safety both of my King and Country Therefore with the Apostle Paul who was once a Persecuter knowing the terrour of the Lord and the danger of Popish Apostacy I perswade all men to renounce the Doctrine of Devils and embrace the Christian Faith freely offered to us in the Gospel And because I would gain ground on the meanest Capacities and discover the nakedness of the Roman Harlot in puris or rather nudis naturalibus I shall for the benefit of those who have not money to buy nor time to read great Controversies set down in this small Treatise some obvious and abominable Errours of the Romish Church in such capital and legible Characters that they who run may read MYSTERY BABYLON c. on the face of that impudent Harlot and unless they shut their Eyes Ears and all their Senses the Gates of their understanding be ready to cry out Men and Brethren what shall we do to be saved The first blow that I intend to strike is at the Pope's Supremacy and Infallibility the two great Pillars whereon the Church of Rome or rather Fabrick of Antichrist leaneth The first God hath as evidently prohibited Mark 10.42 as he hath Murder and Adultery in the sixth and seventh Commandments and since Papists unanimously acknowledge that all the Apostles received the gift of the Holy Ghost and Peter only the Keys the Orders and Badge of his Supremacy before they prove his Superiority and Dignity above the rest of the Apostles they must prove that those Keys were a thing better and more precious than the rest received yea than the Holy Ghost or God himself which none but Antichrist and his Members dare to affirm Peter indeed being a forward Man Self-confident and Audacious first answered our Saviour's Question Matth. 16.16 and our Saviour very gently continued his discourse to him not excluding the rest But were I to give the Supremacy to any Apostle I would rather give it to James the Lords Brother or to Paul or Barnabas to whom Peter himself gave the right hand of fellowship Gal. 2.9 or to John who could be more intimate with Jesus than any of the rest as is clear from Joh. 13.23 and was termed the Disciple whom Jesus loved Joh. 21.20 Yet what Fool will from thence conclude that he hated all the rest though the Papists foolishly affirm that because Christ gave the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven to Peter he gave them to none else He was pleased to wheedle over the rest with smaller enduements priviledges and preheminence though they received both the Father and the Son. Thus did Peter according to the Canon of the Church of Rome receive a more noble Gift and was inspired with a greater Spirit than God himself though our Saviour saith Joh. 10.29 My Father is greater than all Yet for all these Keys were so precious that bloody Sodomite Pope Julius the Second threw them in the River Tiber as he was marching before his Army the number whereof was as the sand of the Sea Whence Bibliander doth conclude that Pope Julius did resign all his pretended Right and Power of shutting and opening Heaven and Hell to the River Tiber or the Fishes or other Creatures therein For casting away the Keys the Testimony of his Authority he did deprive and spoil himself and all his Successors of Peter's inheritance But to approach a little nearer to this glorious Mitre whose dazling brightness darkneth all the Crowns in Christendom I would gladly know how the Pope of Rome came to be Peter's Successor and if he came honestly by his Popedom If Peter was Crucify'd at Rome his Succession must be by Usurpation and his Right to the Holy Chair but a meer Robbery But it is acknowledged by all that the Titles of Pope of Rome Universal Bishop Peter's Successor Christs Vicar and God upon Earth were not known till about 600 years after our Saviour The Patriarchs of Constantinople and Rome did both by Letters and Legates sollicit the Emperour Mauritius for the Title of Bishop of Bishops instead of Servus Servorum But Gregory the First abhorring that Blasphemous Name and calling it the Mark and Badge of Anti christ Lib 4 Epist 27. wrote to the Emperour thus Exclamare compellor ac dicere O tempora O mores Ecce cuncta in Europae Partibus Barbarorum juri sunt tradita Destructae Urbes eversa Castra depopulatae provinciae nullus terram Cultor inhabitat tamen Sacerdotes qui in pavimento cinere flentes jacere debuerunt vanitatis sibi nomina experiunt novis ac prophanis vocabulis gloriantur That is to say I am compelled to cry out O Times O Manners Behold in all the parts of Europe all things live under the reverence of barbarous people Towns are destroy'd Castles are over-thrown Provinces are spoiled No Labourer inhabiteth the Land notwithstanding the Priests who should lye in ashes upon the ground weeping are seeking unto themselves Names of Vanity and Glory in Prophane Titles Thus Anti-christ's Title was blasted in the bud and forc'd to linger in the birth till Bonifacius the Third finding opportunity by the disliking which the Emperour Phocas had of the Patriarch of
called Henry III. King of England his Vassal Slave and Page whom he could imprison and put to open shame at his pleasure Hadrian IV. fell out with the Emperour of Germany for holding his wrong Stirrup Innocent III. took from John King of England both his Crown and Kingdom and gave it to Lewis the French Kings Son without any just cause Celestine III. Crowned the Emperour and Empress of Germany with his Feet and throwing off the Crowns again with his Toe said I have power both to make and unmake Kings and Emperours Nicolas III. begot a Bastard Son that had Claws and Hair like a Bear. Boniface VIII because Philip King of France would not suffer the Revenues of his Kingdom to be transported to Foreign Countries Cursed both him and his to the fourth Generation He likewise gave Authority to Ecclesiastick Persons in England to deliver the people to Satan twice a year This man came by the Popedom after a most devilish and treacherous manner for finding his Master Pope Celestine the Fifth a simple doting Man he hired one of his Bed-chamber to make a Ghostly noise in a long Reed through a hole which he had caused to be made privately in the Wall of his Holiness's Chamber crying CELESTINE CELESTINE give over thy Charge for it is above thy strength and ability The Old Man thinking the Infernal noise had been the Voice of an Angel sent from Heaven in spite of all opposers gave over the Popedom on St. Luke's Eve and went to a Desart to lead an Eremit's life as Massaeus writeth But the Impostor Boniface who had thus cheated the simple man and gotten to be his Successor fearing that the people would follow him as Pope apprehended Old Celestine and put him in close Prison where he lay till the day of his Death But Boniface himself did not escape the just Judgment of God for he dyed in a miserable condition with a guilty Conscience This is he of whom it was said He enter'd like a FOX he reigned like a LYON and dyed like a DOG Clement the V. caused his Hang-man to take Francis Dandalus a Venetian Duke and bind him with Chains and throw him at his Feet under his Table where for very hunger he gnaw'd bones like a Dog. Clement VI. caused to Poyson the Emperour Lewis without any cause but Pride Covetousness and desire of Superiority Urban VI. drowned seven Cardinals because he suspected that they had conspired against him with Charles King of Naples and Clement his Competitor an Antipope This Urban whom some termed Turban for his wicked and troublesome life as he was in haste riding from Naples with his Spiritual Court of Rogues and Sodomites caused one of his Cut-throats to kill the Bishop of Aquilo his Prisoner leaving his dead mangled body on the way because after his racking and tormenting he could not ride so fast as His Holiness Pope Sixtus IV. gave liberty to several Families of the Clergy to defile their bodies with all manner of filthiness and brutish uncleanness for the three hot months June July and August Innocent VIII begat sixteen Children on sixteen several Women and was so brutish every way that after his Death this Epitaph was made upon him Octo Nocens pueros genuit totidemque puellas Hunc merito poterit dicere Roma patrem Spuricies Gula avaritia atque ignavia Deses Hoc octave jacent quo tegeris tumulo Benedict the XII bought with a large summ of money the Sister of Francis Petrarch a very beautiful Woman to satisfie his Carnal desire Alexander the VI. lay with his own Daughter on whom after her death this Epitaph was made Hic jacet in tumulo Lucretia nomine sed re Thais Alexandri filia sponsa nuras Paul III. in disguise lay with a young Gentlewoman under pretence of Wooing her by whom he had a Son called Peter Aloysius the express Image of such a Father For being General of his Father's Army he caused his Souldiers violently to hold the Godly Old Bishop of Fane till he in spite of the poor Old Man's heart committed that abomination with him that is neither proper to be Written nor spoken of the Bishop afterwards dying for very grief This Pope Paul had a Daughter named Constantia whose Husband he poison'd to enjoy her person with greater convenience and with her to wallow in uncleanness With whom also her Brother Peter Aloysius in imitation of his Father made bold to commit Incest This Pope also kept a List of 45000 Harlots about Rome which paid him a monthly Tribute for Liberty of Whoring These are Demonstrations of the Pope's Fallibility and the fruits of his manifest Wickedness These are the doings of the Son of Perdition and the wicked Works of the Romish Man of Sin which to number up all or as many of them as have been published in Popish Historians would make a book larger than twenty Church Bibles But ex ungue Leonem We may know by this little what the whole Volume would be and what metal the Mystery of Iniquity is made of Are these the Works of him that hath the Spirit of God or the Spirit of Anti-christ Tell me ingenuously Reader how you relish this drop of the Cup of Romish Abominations and if you can digest a whole Draught of it without Poysoning your Conscience Doth it surfeit your Soul to a future forbearance and force you to cry out O Man of God Death is in the Cup The second thing that I object against the Church of Rome is the keeping the Laity from reading the Holy Scriptures It is life eternal to know God Joh. 17.3 but how to know the God of Truth without the knowledge of the Scriptures of Truth I never could yet find out they being the right way and appointed guide to lead us unto Christ himself Our Saviour saith Joh. 5.39 Search the Scriptures And it was the commendation of the Noble Bereaus Act. 17.11 that they tried the truth of Paul's Doctrine by the Touch-stone and Scriptures of Truth For the Spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets All the Apostles wrote to the Saints in general and Paul desired the Colossians to read his Epistle publickly in the Churches and charged the Thessalonians by the Lord to read his Epistle unto all the holy brethren Now shall I conclude that there are no Saints but great ones and learned Doctors No Church or Congregation but what consisteth of Learned Rabbies and Clergy-men No Brethren but Bishops Abbots Priests Monks and Friers c God forbid For as Augustine saith Conf. lib. 3. cap. 8. Men unlearned earnestly contend for Heaven whilst learned Men without understanding wallow in flesh and blood And although Paul wrote many things hard to be understood which the unlearned and unstable wrest yet did not Peter who giveth an Item of it in his second Epistle 3.16 desire his Writings to be taken from them Meat and Drink must not be rejected because of Drunkards and Gluttons