Holiness and that of the Rosary for instance or S. Francis and twenty more by turning Beads or wearing Frocks or Girdles and by such other new Performances To join and keep all this together the Roman Church submits to two Heads the Son of God in Heaven and his Holiness in Italy and Preaches two different and sometimes contrary words of God which you must embrace both together with the same Devotion and Faith namely the written word of God which you may find in the Holy Scripture and the unwritten Tradition which you must seek in that Churches Breast In this unhappy conjuncture of true Catholic Christianity and of mere Roman Popery that happens which you may observe either in unnatural and beastly Copulations the baser kind spoils the better or in the Dreams of Pharaoh the ugly destroies the well-favor'd We find by sad experiences in these last times of the Gospel what heretofore was typified by Ceremonies and also expressed ever after by unhappy Examples under the Law the Flesh which was consecrated and made holy at Gods Altar had not the same vertue to sanctifie the unclean as the unclean had to defile that which was Holy Nor were the Israelites so powerful to convert the Idolatrous Jebusites to God when Married together as were the Jebusites to seduce them to their Idols and for this consideration the Law forbad such Societies Corrupt Nature we know hath of it self both a strange tendency to frivolous and unlawful and no less aversness from truly good and holy things so tho the power of both were equal as to sanctifying or corrupting our inward Inclinations are more likely to determine us to the worst side Never were Women so ready to part with their choicest Jewels as when 't was to make a Golden Calf nor could ever so many Fathers have bin perswaded to be so cruel as to pass their Children thro the fire had it not bin to serve Molock The Kingdom of Heaven is by our Savior compar'd to Seed now one handful of Tare is enough to poison and over-run a whole Field Hence it is that tho the ten Tribes of Israel retained the Law of Moses as well as the Papists do at this present the Gospel yet the holy Prophets mention no other Religion whether in Dan or Beer sheba but the waies of Jeroboam and the Ordinances of Omry And tho the Samaritans did make profession to serve the Lord God of Israel among the gods of other Nations 2 Kings 17.33 Yet their service to these so immediatly takes up their whole Devotion that in the following Verse you find that they do not fear God at all It is by this fatal prevalency of evil over good and the corrupt readiness of Men to yield to this prevalency that the Roman superstition hath not only over-topped but even over-whelmed the Catholic Faith to that degree as any Christian may both see it if he have Eies and must deplore it too if he have any sense or fear of God What the Blessed Evangelists have set down in the four Gospels and what the Blessed Apostles have Preached upon it thro the whole World is yet at Rome as to its being but as to its condition there it is as miserably buried under the confused heap of other new unchristian services as ever was that Book of the Law 2 Kings 22.8 under the Ruines of the Temple Their Masses Legends Auricular Confessions Bulls Praiers to Saints and the Worshipping of Images fill up the Churches and make the main Bulk of all visible Religion There if some good Praiers to God Almighty appear by chance among the Croud it is as one Pater noster among many Ave Maria's that is one among ten in their Beads and if you take the pains to compare how many Praiers Proses Panegyrics and other expressions of the deepest Devotion are bestowed on the Virgin with what is left for our Savior there you shall find somewhat the same proportion between them two as you may see both in the Images that represent them in their Churches and in the most Authentic Visions which are pretended to shew them together to their Monks where she appears still with all the Pomp that can attend a glorious Queen whil'st Christ her Son is still represented but as a Child Thus Papists have the Common Faith and I wish to God they had no more and their own proper Romanism to the very same or like purpose as the Jews have the Law and the Prophets and the Talmud of their Rabbies and as the Turks have both much of Moses and of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and all the Impieties of Mahomet this latter to choak the former as the Tares in the Parable did the good Seed or to dishonor and abuse it as the Babylonians in Dan. 5. did the holy Vessels of Gods house To make all these sins more sinful and Popery more dangerous these unhappy Superstructures which lie as a heavy Encumbrance upon the holy Foundation of God are now adaies used as so many Snares and Attractives to draw Men to the Church of Rome Protestants have among themselves neither better nor other waies of saving distressed Sinners then by charging them to forsake sin to believe and to live according to the Gospel and with this Faith the use of Divine Ordinances to cast their burden and themselves on the Mercies of God in Christ whereas over and above all this the Papists have a great deal more which others do lay no claim to First they have the Queen of Heaven and the Mother of Compassions who is unknown on this account to the best Churches And this Goddess is represented as such a Tresurer of all Graces and a Favorer of such Persons and upon such good and easie terms as without her it were absolutely vain to expect advantage from the aid even of the whole Trinity In the second place they have millions of Saints who whensoever called upon make it their business to help as much as in them lies every condition sort and profession of Men. There is never a small Parish nor Trade no nor any exigence want or disease but hath some favorable and proper Saint The very Images of Wood and Stone are instrumental to great Blessings their Churches and Altars are consecrated in such a manner that the very coming near them forgives some sins The sound and ringing of Bells if Christned after their way hath much vertue Who knows not how much devout persons are benefited by Holy Water and devout Praiers improved to high Merits by holy Beads It were infinite to say all that is pretended of the Agnus Dei Medals and a numberless store of Relics and how they are working every day up and down the World for believing Catholics more Cures then you can ever imagine The Milk the Hairs the Shift the Shoes but especially the Girdle of the Virgin Mary are to this purpose tried and well known What shall we say of those swelling Streams
SAVL and SAMVEL AT ENDOR OR THE New Waies OF SALVATION and SERVICE Which usually temt Men to ROME and detain them there Truly Represented and Refuted By DAN BREVINT D. D. As also A Brief Account of R. F. his Missale Vindicatum or Vindication of the ROMAN MASS By the same Author They have hewed them out Cisterns broken Cisterns that can hold no water Jerem. c. 2. v. 13. OXFORD At the THEATER 1674. The Preface I Never expected that my Book against the Mass should have the liberty to go abroad two Years together without meeting opposition nor that two Points so dear and so fundamental to Rome as Mass Sacrifice and Priest-hood are could be left so long in the Dirt and under the Impeachment of that Lewdness and Impiety that I have accused and I hope convicted them of without an Advocate to defend them and therefore am not at all surpriz'd that after so long a time an Answer is pretended to be made to it But such an Answer so emty and impertinent I must confess I did not expect imagining the Cause as bad as it was tho it could not find good Reason would yet have had good Sophistry and Artificial Colour to defend it But since that Roman Catholics are pleased to take up with these most trivial Shifts and Cavils and in spight of both Sense and Grace persist in an Abuse which neither they nor any body else can in any tolerable manner justifie the next thing which I have to do is to examine what the special Attractives are which can draw Men to and detain them in such a strange and unchristian kind of Worship Here I do not propose to my self the cure of such as are already prepossessed and throughly sick with wilful Ignorance He that can cure the Deaf and the Dumb is alone the immediate and proper Physitian for that Disease But I do what I ought when I do what I can to hinder the Plague from spreading and them which are desperatly ill with it from infecting others The Roman Church abounds with prudent and politic Men who can infuse their Mysteries in as plausible and Christian Words as the Assyrian Envoy did his Designs in good and true Jewish Language Isa 36. The very Jansenists a more reformed kind of Papists whom therefore one might less suspect exceed sometimes the Missionaries and the Jesuits in this black Art of disguising and I have had in Conferences such Experience of some of the best of this sort both at the French Court and the Sorbone that tho I may here spare their Names I may not with any Charity spare to warn others to take heed of their Companies The proper Genius and as it were the Vniversal Spirit of that Church consists much in a Confidence to raise any thing which they have altho that were but a Dung-hill into a Castle and by the noise of strange Expressions to perswade you out of your own knowledge that you may believe the Enchantment Transubstantiation the Mass Sacrifice Purgatory and their pretended Infallibility had bin as soon tumbled down as started up had they not bin kept on foot by this kind of Roman Hectorism and the better to turn both Mens Brains and Hearts to that side their pretended Catholicness Miracles Suffrages Confraternities Church Tresury Indulgences c. the very Dirt and Dung of that Church are by the same Art and Valor erected into plausible Means of Worship and Salvation Therefore my present business is to remove these and other-like Snares out of the way and to let impartial Men see that the very Meat and Drink wherewith they are allur'd and baited to Popery are the very Poison and Imostume that should deter them from it To this end I fetch out the Soot and Ashes which lie hidden in the skin of a Sodom when it passes for a Golden Apple and as the Fathers did before me under the first Christian Emperors I expose to public view the Vermine the Cats the Crocodiles and other such foolish Idols which are adored by vulgar People upon the credit and account of pompous and stately Temples In this unbowelling of Rome I fear not what Papists shall say and some unexperienced Christians perhaps suspect as if I made the case worse for I make it such as I have seen it and not to be mine own witness such as I find it in their Authors I might have bin as charitable and as ignorant in these Affairs as those who know little of Popery but what they read in Bellarmin or what they heard of subtile Jesuits discoursing among raw Strangers had I not bin made wiser then so both by the Times of Rebellion that kept me 17 Years abroad among the Romanists themselves and by the special favor of great Persons who during nine whole Years of that long Banishment procured me the advantage of being pretty well acquainted with all sorts and degrees of their Roman Learned Clergy And to say this also by the way the undeserved Conceit of some of them and my Friends too who were pleased to look upon me as a fit Man to be imploy'd about the great design then in hand of Reconciling the two Religions gave me such an Access into every corner of that Church that it is much my Fault if I do not know as well all that which is within its entrails as those Men do who make it their great Business to Disguise and Paint its outside As to the Safety and Savingness which it promiseth the great Imposture of the times I do sincerely represent here both what it is and what it can do The truth is Ignorant Sinners run generally for shelter to Rome as broken Merchants do to the Kings Bench with hope of being there secured against the ordinary course of Justice So that as long as God and the Kings Laws keep Men in awe and that there shall be ranting and spending neither that Prison nor that Church can want good store of Proselytes In order to make them throng in when the Roman Church hath the good luck to meet with tender Consciences she will be ambitious to exceed all the degrees of Christian Severity and if she meet with Men of a contrary temper she will accommodate them also with all the Condescentions of the loosest Indulgence So let these Fishers cast out their Nets at which side of the Ship they please both the Superstitious the Profane if they have the Grace but to fear Hell shall be sure to become their Prey And upon this one account it is a very great Wonder to me and as I hope a great Mercy of God upon a better Posterity that in this both most ignorant and sinful Age all as well as many do not run away from us to that promising Sanctuary And this is the motive wherefore in opposition to a more general Apostacy I do here endeavor to break the main strength and course of the present Temtation to discover and break the most dangerous
she was all the while rambling up and down in Bawdy-houses that it was not her self but an Angel who ran Races and fought Battels in the shape of her Worshippers being then at Mass Some are also pleased to say that every Saturday she goes down to Purgatory not by her self but by her Proxy for the rescuing thence of some Souls But none of her Historians will aver that it was a Deputy or any other but her self who did hug and kiss St. Bernard St. Dominic and St. Alain upon several occasions who did once ride behind a Knight in the shape of a Woman in order to surprize the Devil or who in a dark tempestuous night was really met by two wandering Travellers in a Forrest with St. Michael and St. Peter It is she and not another if you will believe what she saies who now and then will call her self the Mother of Grace and Mercies who comes often to visit Churches with sweet Perfumes or Holy Waters or whole Baskets of Holy Roses or white and black Hoods for her Chaplains And accordingly it is she her self and not her Angel that is adored in all the places where she appears No man praies either to her or to any other Saint or Angel upon any considerable occasion but thinks to have her and them present and so the very same conceit of an Universal Power and Presence essential Attributes of God which makes them willing to pray to Saints must needs make them Idolaters in praying thus This impious worship is an Abuse of what was don sometimes to God in the primitive times at the Graves of his own Martyrs and no wonder if ignorant men could turn the Miracles and Mercies of God as they can all other good things to their own destruction It is well known how many wonders were wrought at the Sepulchers of holy Martyrs as one at the shadow of S. Peter Act. 13. and at the Bones of the holy Prophet Elisha 2 Kin. 13.21 These Miracles were to those Saints in some mesure what the glorious Resurrection and Ascension had bin before to their Savior to wit high Declarations from above that their Souls and Bodies however they had appeared vile in the Eies of their Murderers were pretious in the sight of God and that what they had believed taught and signed as it were with their own Blood were both true Doctrines good Examples in order to Salvation And these extraordinary Marks of Gods favor on their Persons and Seals of truth to their belief as they were principally intended in behalfs of Infidels so they mostly and longest continued in those parts of the world as Africa e Lege Aug. de Civit. l. 22. for example where more Pagans remained not called or not converted to the Faith It is well known also how at the same time which was a time of generall and cruel persecutions the holy Zeal and Death of the Martyrs as it was marked out as it were by the finger of God in his Miracles so it was exalted both to their own praise and to the encouragement of others by the Christians in all Churches The highest strains of Eloquence which the Fathers had were spent in the magnifying of Martyrs They set down their Names in their best Church Records and rehearsed them duly in their solemn Eucharists and public praises to their Savior They gave the most honorable Burial they could in those sad times to their bodies and having no Churches then they made their graves their most ordinary Places of Meeting to declare before all the world that by this resorting to their Sepulchers they prepared themselves to their Death In a word they did what they could to bring both themselves and their Flocks to love and admire those holy Souls that so both themselves and others might be encouraged to follow them Bless and esteem most sincerely saies S. Basil f Basil in 40. Martyr the holy Martyrs that you may in your course do as they did in the mean while in your real intention be accounted as good as real Martyrs already that you may without the blows cruelties which they suffered attain to the rewards which they enjoy These zealous exhortations in times of Persecution and the visible hand of God confirming whatever they said as to this point prevailed so far upon the People that * S. Basil ibid. at every particulat occasion as well as upon solemn daies they did go and pray hard by their Graves and did take for a great honor to be buried where they had praied till at last their Pagan Foes began to take notice of it and to believe at least to say g Cyril Alexand. cont Jul. l. 6. p. 202. Ed. Paris 1638. Maximus Madaur ap August Ep. 43. that Christians did adore dead men as themselves did adore their Gods This gave an Occasion to the holy Fathers to wipe off all suspicions of this kind from Christian Religion and to declare to all the world I wish that Roman Catholics would take better notice of it first that they did not worship c Hieron contr Vigilant Martyrs at all neither as Gods nor as Presidents and Vice Roys d Cyrill Alex. contr Julian l. 6. of any Town or Country Secondly that the blessed Saints have neither particular notice e August de cura pro Mort. c. 13. nor care of the Affairs of this world and if by chance they medled with it it was as extraordinary to them to do so as f August ibid. c. 16. as to the Water to become Wine or to a dead Body to rise up Thirdly that the Veneration and Reverence which they did bear to holy Martyrs exceeded not that degree of honor which in former times was deferred to * Cyrill sup pag. 204. valiant men after they had spent their lives for the defence of their Country or that is due to all the Friends g Smyrnensis ap Euseb Hist Eccl. l. 4. c. 15. and true Disciples of Jesus Christ and is of no other h August cont Faust l. 20. c. 21. sort then is that which in this life we give to other holy men whom we think to be endued with the same piety that Martyrs were only our Devotion for the Dead Saints is more confident then it can be for living because these are yet fighting and those have got the victory Fourthly that when they builded i Idem De Civitat l. 22. c. 10. Monuments and Houses of Praier where these Martyrs were buried the Monuments were for the Dead Saints and the Houses of Praier were only for the living God Fifthly that when the names of the Martyrs were there mentioned it was neither to pray for them nor to them but to keep up after k Dionys Areop de Eccl. Hierar c. 3. their death an Authentic Declaration of their continual being with God and specially in these great Mysteries where Christ is both signified and received of their
Soul thirst after her and do not leave her till she hath blessed thee Let thy mouth be filled with her praise and sing of her greatness all the day long That of the same Moses at the red Sea Exod. 15. Let us sing to our glorious Lady the Virgin Mary Our Lady is Almighty Her name is next to God She hath thrown into the Sea the Chariots of Pharaoh his Host c. O Lady thou hast delivered my Soul from the Lion O my dearest Lady cover thou me as a Hen doth c. I am all thine and all I have is thine I will put thee as a signet upon my heart c. That of Isaiah 12. I will sing to thee O Lady c. for thou hast comforted me my Lady is my Savior I will trust in thee and will not fear Thou art my strength in the Lord and art become my Salvation with joy will I draw Waters out of thy brook and I will call upon thy name alwaies c. That of King Hezekias in the same Prophet 38.9 when he was recovered from his mortal Disease I said in the midst of my daies I will go to Mary c. Father Mother and Friends did forsake me but Mary hath holden me up I will put my trust in her in the morning in the evening and at noon-day God had as it were a Lion broken my bones but thou our Lady hast delivered my Soul from perishing my Darling from the hand of the Dog c. That of the three Children commonly so called All the works of the Lord bless our Lady praise and magnifie her for ever O ye Angels bless our Lady c. Blessed be thou O Crown of Kings Let every knee in Heaven in Earth and in Hell bow unto thy Name c. That of Zachary Luke 1.38 Blessed be thou Lady Mother c. Save us from all our Enemies c. and perform the Mercy promised to our Fathers and us that we being delivered out of the hands of our Enemies may serve thee without fear c. And thou Mary shalt be called the Prophetess of the Highest by whom he hath given the knowledg of Salvation c. By the Bowels of thy Mercy O Morning Star do thou visit us from on high To complete Idolatry with absurdity that very Hymn wherewith she adored once her God is with some parcels of the Song of Annah 1 Sam. 2. now turned into an Office to adore her My Soul doth magnifie the Lord and my spirit hath rejoiced in my Lady c. There is no Saint like our Lady c. Let Sion and Jerusalem rejoice and praise Mary for she is the greatest among the Ladies of Israel She makes poor and she makes rich She brings low and she lifts up on high This Lady of ours is higher then the Heavens broader then the Earth and purer then the very Stars 6. Sixthly She is adored with the most solemn and elevated Office that the ancient Church could worship God with namely Te Deum We praise thee O Mary we a Melch. Inchofern Ep. B.M. ad finem acknowledg thee to be the Lady All the Earth doth worship thee as the Spouse of the everlasting Father To thee all Angels c. continually do cry Holy holy holy Mary the Mother of God The holy Church thro out all the world doth acknowledg thee Mother of an Infinite Majesty Thou art the Queen of Glory O Mary the Ark of Grace and the Ladder of Heaven Thou art the hope of all the world the Salvation of them that call on thee the Teacheress of the Apostles the strength of the Martyrs c. O Lady save thy People c. Vouchsafe O Lady to keep us this day and for ever O Lady have mercy upon us have mercy upon us O Lady let thy mercy lighten upon us as our trust in thee c. Lastly there is added to her Honor that Praier which belongs to the Holy Ghost Veni Creator and which some say the Council of Constance at their meeting were pleased to present the Virgin with Come Mother of Grace Spring of Mercy Light of the Church Queen Star c. come to defend the Church to destroy Heresie and to make peace c. And in a word to do any thing that an honest and pious Council may better expect of the holy Ghost 7. Seventhly There is a whole Bible made and Printed to her Honor Biblia Mariae Albertus Magnus both a great Scholar and a great Bishop and a kind of Roman Saint is the Prophet who as it is thought composed it This Holy Book gives the Virgin all or b Biblia Mariae Tit. Pag. Omnia fere most part of what was in the true Bible either said or intended for God and Christ As for Example in Genesis She is the truth both of the Altar which Noah built and of the Sacrifice which he offered and the Sweet savor which there was smelled is nothing else then her Praier She is the Ladder which Jacob saw Gen. 28. wherewith Christ is to come down to us and we are to come up to him In Exodus she is said to be both the true Mercy-seat and the great Altar of Burnt-offerings In Leviticus and Numbers she is the Ark of the Covenant the Rock whence flow the Waters of Grace and the Star which Balaam saw c. In Joshuah she is the Border of our Heavenly Inheritance the Window through which we must escape and be saved from Jericho that is from perishing in and with the World the Ark which marches before us to Canaan that is Heaven there to prepare us a resting place the City of Refuge where those must seek shelter whosoever flee from the Wrath of God c. In the Book of Judges she is the true and great Captain in whose hand our Celestial Father puts the whole Land Heaven all Power and Himself Therefore take heed saies this Godly Bible from going to war without her In Ruth she is the true Ruth with more probability then the Captain who goes to the Field that is the Church there to glean ears of corn left in the Field by the Reapers that is some few which she rescues from Devils Thus she gleans whomsoever she pleases for Boaz hath charged the reaping Angels not to to touch her Ruth 2.9.15 16. When she hath gleaned them she takes them up into the Bosom of her Mercy and carries them into the City v. 8. that is into the Celestial Jerusalem In the 1. Kings 1.2 3. She is the fair and young Virgin who is to lie in the Kings or Gods Bosom and inflames him to love and compassion towards his People Thus this Bible running all along to the Revelation after this rate at last ends with this Praier instead of the Grace of our Lord c. O Queen of Mercy Grace and Glory Emperess of all the Creatures blot out all my Transgressions and lead me to the life everlasting 8. The Virgin
having Bibles and Psalmes and other Instruments of Devotion wherewith Christians serve God and Christ there is no reason she should want Churches And she hath them in so great a number consecrated to her Service and Visited to her honor and all in such a special manner that as they impiously are used to say c Salazar Prov. ε. 31. v. 11. n. 55. that the Holy Ghost is jealous of Joseph on her account because they both are her Husbands God Almighty the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost may justly be Jealous of that Idol which appearing under her Name gets more Churches to its Service then God to his Those men cover this Shame but with Figleaves who give out these Churches to be but d Bell. de Cult Sanct. l. 3. c. 4. sect Altera solutie Palaces and herein as well their own Church Books as their very Goddess gives them the lie Their own Church Books For they have not one Church consecrated to God since Poperie that is not with the same words and order consecrated to the Virgin e Pontifical Rom. Tit. de Dedication Eccles Sanctificetur c. Let this Church be Sanctified and consecrated in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost to the Honor of God and of the Glorious Virgin and to the memory of such a Saint By which words it appears that tho the Palace be pretended to be but a Memorial to such a Saint talis Sancti it must be a Church to the Virgin or not to God Since He an She have the same Rank and Interest in that main End that the Church is consecrated to I say that their very Goddess also confutes their distinction between a Palace and a Church whensoever she appears abroad for the building either of them Witness the Celestial f Chronic. Deip. an 1274. Ladder and the ascending Angels and her self above them all to mark the very Ground where she would have a Church built to her Honor. Witness S. Balduin the Ermite whom this evil Spirit for the g S. August contra Faust. l. 20. c. 21. item de Civit. l. 20 passim good Spirits abhor such things chid severely h Chronic. Deip. an 1112. for not building a Church so fast as she did wish in a place that She had chosen for them that would serve her Witness that large and square Stone of Anis where she declared what she intended for her self both in that and all other places k Odo Gissaus Histor Virg. Anic This is the Place saies she which I have chosen to this purpose that here and hereafter mortal men may worship me and serve me throughout all Generations Now I hope such houses for Devotion Praier and Worship by what name soever you call them are just that which we use to call Churches by making them stately and Roial you may make them Palaces also but this Magnificency cannot unchurch them The Jesuite Canisius is plain and downright and herein more sincere then his good Brother Bellarmin for he calls them Templa Mariana l Canisius De B. V. l. 5. c. 23. the Temples or the Churches of Mary In those Churches they say that she will appear sometimes in a created capacity only either to sing her part among the Nuns like a Chorister or to burn Incense to Perfume n Bover Tom. 1. Annal. Capucin the Church like a Diacon or to give the Sacrament o Chronic. Deip. an 1248. like a Priest Visne c. that is My Son Sylvester wilt thou take the Body of my Son or to Confirm her worshippers and cross them p Leand. Albert. in vita Jordan all with her Sons hand or to sit in an Episcopal Throne like a Bishop But at last her main purpose is to appear there more like her self to proclame before all the world that she is the x Blosius in Monili Mother of God and the Queen both of men and Angels and upon this account Bellarmins Palace well becomes her to swear y Henriquez in Guntelin 13. Sept. Catholics to her Service to promise them z Nicephor Eccles Hist l. 15. c. 25. protection and all spiritual Blessings upon condition they shall pray to her heartily and at the Service of God both begin a Chronic. Deip. 221. and end with her Praises Sometimes she will take this trouble upon her of teaching them how to do it And this is the Model she gave and sung once to S. Godrick S. Maria c. b Matth. Paris in vita Godric Holy Mary Mother of Christ blot out my Sins reign in my heart and bring me up to Happiness with God alone God himself cannot have more and Churches by their usual Consecration promise no less And to render this Consecration yet more solemn as the Ground where these Churches stand is commonly markt outby the Virgin so the Consecrating of them to her Service is now and then c Odo Gissaeus Histor B. V. Anic performed by her Angels 9. Ninthly These Churches of hers have Altars which are no part of a Palace and which are dedicated to her Service Every Altar even in Christs own Church is consecrated to this double use to wit d Pontificat Roman supra to the Honor of God and to that of the Glorious Virgin and this on several respects either e Ibid. as a Stone or a Table or a Sepulcher or a complete Altar twenty times But besides this She hath as many other Altars which are proper to her alone where if God have any share it is as it were but by the by Such as the Rosary Altars Mariana Altaria the Altars of the good Mary and sometimes under several Titles f Chronic. Deip. an 1287. five such in one and the same Church The Holy God of Israel never had so many in his own Temple It is both a great disingenuity to disguise and as great an impudence to face out this gross and open Idolatry with saying as they will sometimes that these belong to God alone as Altars and to the blessed Saints as Sepulchers For first the Virgin Mary left no Bones if that be true which they say that her whole Body was taken up and carried by the Angels into Heaven And if you be so simple to believe what they talk of that great Abundance of milk which they have got of her since she is above to wit when she is pleased to come down and give suck for having a Child on her Arm she must needs have milk to give him these Altars are not sepulchers for they do not bury this milk under them but keep it among the other Relicks they have of her Combes Gloves Hairs Shifts and Slippers very safe as in wardrobes 2. It is not a Grave it is an Altar which she or rather a quite other Spirit under her Name calls for Go saies that Ambitious Spirit and get me g Chronic. Deip. an
Christ the Merits of the Virgin Mary and the Suffrages of the Holy Church we beseech thee O Dominic do not keep us here any longer The Holy Angels can revele to thee at any time what thou wilt know and as for us we are such Liars as no Christian can believe us But the Saint fell to another Praier O worthiest Mother of Wisdom for the Salvation of this good People who have learned in this Rosary to salute thee force thou these Enemies to declare to us the plain truth He had scarce made an end of Praying when behold she comes with a Troop of above an hundred Angels armed with golden weapons and in the midst of them the Virgin with a golden Rod fell foul on the Devils Backs Then fell all the Devils to new howlings O Damning foe who emtiest Hell and makest the best way to Heaven thou dost force us against our will to speak out truth and our own Confusion Hear ye therefore O Christians This Mother of Christ is too potent to preserve her devout Servants from ever falling into our hands It is she who breaks all our Plots and we confess that whosoever keeps to her Adoration and Service can never be damned with us we never can prevail against any one of her People She saves many against our Rights at the very moment of Death and were it not that she frustrates all our Designs we might have long ago made all her Church fall from the Faith To say all in a word no man who makes use of her Rosary can be damned S. Dominic having by this time what he lookt for bids the People to say the Rosary then O Miracle never to be forgotten at every Ave Maria a Troop of Devils under the figure of burning Coals breaks out of that Heretics Body and being all out The Virgin gives them her Blessing and goes her way The Conclusion and design of all this is all sorts of People from that time applied themselves in good earnest to the use of the Rosary and to the worship of Mary Christ and all his Apostles never thought of making thus the Devils to preach his Gospel no more did Moses or Elias employ them so to confirm the Law It seems the Rosary as to its end hath neither Christ nor Elias nor Moses nor any true Saint to favor it and therefore t is no wonder if it was helped by other waies Nevertheless all the World was not so generally blind and sottish as not to see that the Devil could tell a ly and juggle then with S. Dominic and so this new sort of service having no better ground to stand upon then the warranty of the Devil made so little Progress in the world that the same sprite under the Name of the Virgin Mary 400 years after was fain to appear e Gonon Chronic. an 1476. to another Saint and with extraordinary Favors as Rings made of her own hair and milk which she Drew out of her own Brest to enchant him to the same Service At the first it was called our Ladies f Bulla Sext. 4. Psalter because the Lady hath there 150 Salutations as in the Bible the Lord hath 150 Psalmes Now it is called the Rosary either because of the Sweet Comforts that g Martin Navar. De Rosar Miscell 1. as they say it perfumes Devout Hearts with or more probably because of a sweet odour sweeter then that of any Roses which devout worshippers pretend to smell at such Praiers Herman this Ladies great Mignion did smell it so perfectly that at each naming of Mary h Chronic. Deip. an 1235. he stooped his nose to the very ground that so he might have it the fresher and they tell us of an old man of the same Confraternity that at any time or place soever when and where he said his Rosary i Ibid. an 1594. he was revived with this Aromatical Fragrancy Nay the very hand of Saint Caecilia k Ibid. an 1507. even after she was quite dead did smell they say better then any Rose by often touching her Rosary This smell is invented to perswade men of the Excellency of the matter which Excellency is quite other as they take it then could be had either from the breath of an Arch-angel or the mouth of a Prophet For the Roman Church hath improved it to such a form to such an end and to such a signification that now it hath a hundred Mysteries in the mouth of a Catholic which it never had in that of the Angel tho you should grant as they will have it that he l Gonon Chronicon pag. 10. sung it upon his knees For as they take it Ave that is sine vae that is without any thing that hath any smell of Curse is such m Martin Navar. de Oratione Dom. c. 19. n. 131. a Salutation as proclams the Virgin Mary to have bin free from all kind of sin whatsoever from the Original in her passive Conception from all Actual whether mortal or venial in her life time and from any decay or corruption in her Body either at or after her death Maria in their Roman Construction raises the heart of a Worshipper to adore her both Soverain and Universal Monarchy over all men and Angels sometimes n Missal Paris in Sab. Missae de S. Maria. over God himself too They take and construe o Navar. De Orat. Domin c. 19. Maria also for that special Star that guides poor Travellers upon the Sea Stella Maris the surest defense against all storms the best Leader into Heaven both by her Example and Merits the Light of them that sit in darkness and the great Star that Balaam saw Gratiaplena makes her in the same Grammar * Navar. ibid. a whole Sea and Ocean whence the Sinners have their Pardon the just men all Increase of Grace the Angels joy and the whole Trinity Glory here they find in particular the seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost the nine Miraculous Powers and the twelve p Antonin 4 part Tit. 15. c. 20. special Privileges of being the Mother of us all the Gate of Heaven c. Therefore this Ave Maria when specially thus understood makes the sweetest Melody by * Chronic. Deip. an 1303. her own confession that ever you can sing in her Ears Christ himself as they think or at the least say sings q Vita S. Margaritae Chronic. S. Franc. c. 3. it sometimes upon the Altar and the Virgin hath it written in letters of Gold upon r Gonon Chron. an 294. her brest Many People who knew nothing but the three or four first words of this Angelical Salutation s Chronic. Deip. an 1149. Ren. Benedict de Vit. SS 1. Nov. Th. Cantiprat l. 2. c. 29. sect 9. have bin as they say as well saved therewith as if they had known the whole Gospel And all the t Molan Indic SS Belg. Roses and white Lilies nay
it doth sometimes that the laborious and painful part is so extrinsecal to the good work as to be easily severed from it as when S. Paul Preaches in the Chain or when S. John looses his Head in a Prison for his Preaching altho the Chain and the Preaching be two different things in their nature yet they cohere and are close together in the Eies of God Almighty there the holy Work of Preaching shall sanctifie the cruel Chain the hard Chain shall improve the price of the Holy or Meritorious Preaching And if David can well consider not only what Service Abner did him in bringing Israel to him but also that he lost an Army or part of his Estate in doing it there is no fear but God is a good God and will extend his Mercies as far both on what his Servants do in his Name and what they suffer in those Services For I say unto you that every one that hath forsaken Houses or Children or Lands c. shall receive an hundred fold more c. Matth. 19. And when every little parcel of the Suffering is recompensed as well as the Meritorious part with so liberal a Reward What can Popes scrape off from it that remains unrewarded to spend in satisfactions for more and to lay up in their Tresury It seems these crafty Shavers would have the Meritoriousness for one thing and the pain of performing it for another or in more homely terms they would give the Money for the Purchase and the trouble of telling and paying it for the discharge of some other Debts whereas the sum well told and paid can scarce suffice to buy the first much less to leave any over-plus to satisfie the second Account 3. Lastly Whenever Crosses and Hardships fall upon one not in order to any good Work which they do precede or follow but because they are sent from God for Chastisements or Curbs or Trials as the Tribulations of Job the buffeting Angel of Paul and the Sickliness of Timotheus were or because they are voluntarily fetch'd in and undertaken by some Saints as the hard Diet of John the Baptist the often Fastings of Anna the low and narrow Lodge of Hilarion the seeming barbarous Mortifications of some ancient Holy Persons What is all this to the Popes Tresure Did ever God at any time lay these Afflictions on the Righteous in order to make the Pope richer or his own Children humble and better And when these laied them on themselves can the Roman Church well think but that they intended them rather for mortifying their own Bodies and securing their own Salvation then for discharging other Mens sins What and if God and they laied more then was necessary for these true ends Are Roman Divines ignorant that God who made Job twice as rich as he was before he made him poor will most abundantly remunerate all such hard surplusage if there is any And when all accounts are made even whatsoever Burthens are charged either by their Savior or themselves St. Paul tells them That the sufferings of this present life and 't is with these if some could be found unrewarded that this Tresury should be stuffed up are so far from superabounding or equalling that they are not to be compared with that Glory immense reward of all Sufferings and not only of all good Works which shall be reveled in us Ro. 8.18 Or if by chance Clement the 6th and the first Founder of this Tresure better understood this Balance and saw in some corner or other about S. Mary S. Stephen and other Martyrs some unrewarded Afflictions which S. Paul took no notice of in Conscience are we come to this that Roman Popes may fetch them out and apply them to whom they please That poor John the Baptist shall see from Heaven his austere Life and hairy Clothes shelter Herods and Herodias lying securely together That most vile and unclean Persons shall with the unspotted Holiness and Chastity of the Blessed Virgin Mary buy off out of Purgatory and sometimes out of Hell it self the very Whores who * Luitpr l. 2. c. 13. Vid. Ieron ad an 908. made them Popes And that the Martyrs shall be in the disposal and for the use of so many dissolute Monsters And to this comes the Church Tresury that makes so much noise in the World and like a Drum is as emty as it is loud Let us see what they draw out of it CHAP. X. Concerning Roman Indulgences the most general Inducement to Popery THE Church Tresury the Jubilee the Indulgences are words capable of a good sense if the Roman Church would allow of it For really the Church of God possesses a very great Tresure namely Jesus Christ in Heaven and in his Holy Ordinances All sinners whosoever they be if contriti confessi after Gods way that is really and truly penitent and turning from their sins to good Works such as become true Christian Faith and Repentance may without the Keies of the Pope open this Heavenly Tresure and thence take out as much of Christs Blood or to make use of the Roman terms as much of the satisfactions of Christ as will make up a full and a most plenary Indulgence that is Mercy and Pardon without Mony and plenteous Redemtion both from the Spot and the punishment of all their Sins John the Baptist Jesus Christ and the Apostles are the first Men who at the very Birth of the Christian Church did Preach abroad these Indulgences and among them Peter is the first not Boniface who proclamed at Jerusalem the great Christian Jubilee You have his Bull in his Sermon Acts 2.38 39. The Church of Rome for her own ends hath much abused this good Tresure as well as these great Indulgences and if you look into what she hath to brag of you shall find her Tresury to be but a broken Cistern and her Indulging Bulls instead of Living Waters to be but Puddles With all the Blood shed on the Cross one drop whereof in their judgement could have saved all they say that Christ hath not fully satisfied for any actual sins after our Baptism and that besides the Eternal Torments in Hell for which he hath immediatly satisfied there remain other not less grievous tho not so long for which we our selves must needs satisfie either in this Life or near about Hell in a place under Ground which they call Purgatory Their Mass Priests and Bishops with all their ordinary Power cannot absolve their Penitents tho never so contrite farther then this and to have more they must either procure it to themselves by their own works or send to Rome for Indulgences All this is pack'd and contrived with great Wisdom for the best advantage of Rome His Holiness gains much by it for all that Blood which might have paid for all the pains as well as for the vicious Acts of sin is spared for his Tresury and all Catholic Souls being affrighted with Purgatory out of which
and therefore to their honor is this Privilege duly granted that whosoever will but visit any of their Churches or Chappels shall receive Pardon c Ibid. sect 6. for a hundred Years and if any of them being dead d Ibid. sect 9. will be wrapt up in Frocks or be buried in a Church yard belonging to either of their Orders shall in all probability have as much more Judg you by this what these Confraternities of theirs be worth and what value you may well set upon their two most Sacred Standards or Bodies the Rope or Girdle of St. Francis whereof enough and the 150 Beads or Rosary of S. Dominic of which you must now learn somthing This new and admirable way of praying to God by saying Ave Maria hath as they say proved in their Church so successful for raising Hearts to Devotion sanctifying Men extirpating all Heresies and propagating Catholic Light as it appears by e Pius 5. Constit Consueverunt many Bulls that most Popes from Sixtus the Fourth 1479. have thought themselves concerned in their Consciences to raise it to a Confraternity as Universal as their Church and to make it as the Sun is to use their words common to all Men in the whole World For this brave Corporation is not as the most part of others are some for Men only and not for Women some for great Men and not for mean People some for the Religious and not for the Secular some for the sound and not for the weak * Archang Caraccius De Rosar 1. par c. 1. this great and comprehensive Society takes in all sorts and conditions of Men and to say all as it shall appear hereafter even the very dead may come to it Whosoever will be admitted as a Member of this vast Body and march f Idem 3. par c. 5. as they love to speak under the B. Virgin and St. Dominic's great Standard he must go first to Confession and take the Consecrated Wafer then he must appear in Person if he can or by a Proxy if he cannot and there either himself or his Proxy being prostrated before the Altar Del Santissimo Rosario of the most holy Rosary declare what great desire he hath to be enrolled under St. Dominic's Banner So the Officers being duly qualified to that purpose shall take his name and acquaint him with what he the new Brother is to do especially how he must once every Week run over the whole Rosary that is the 150 Beads Ave Maria and the 15 Pater nosters solacing him at the same time with this most gracious assurance that he must not think it a Sin * Ibidem nor a breach upon his Conscience if at any time he shall fail in the performance and that the whole duty consists of such things as never were commanded by God nor practiced by his Apostles so the omitting of them must not disquiet his mind only he must be content to lose the good Indulgences which his Roman Holiness was pleased to grant upon such terms After this he gives him a Consecrated Rosary of Beads and the Consecrating of them comes to this After some short Praiers and Responsals the Mass-Priest begs at the hands of God this great and Blasphemous Favor g Idem part 3. c. 5. namely That to the honor and praise of his Sons Mother would he be pleased to infuse into those Beads so much strength of his Holy Ghost that whosoever shall either carry them abroad or reverently keep them at home and there devoutly pray with them after the way of the holy Confraternity may abound in Devotion may have his share in all the Graces Privileges and Indulgences granted to the said Society may as long as he lives be protected every where against all Enemies whatsoever and at last may be presented full of good works to God by the Blessed Virgin Mary To which is added the other Blessing by Holy Water and as it were a second Baptism In the Name of the Father c. Next to the holy Beads thus impiously Consecrated and devoutly delivered into the hand of the new Brother or Sister comes the Holy Candle This Holy Candle is of great use when you walk in Procession when you go to Burial when any one of the 15 Mysteries you may remember what that is is solemnly celebrated and especially when you die for there but especially here if you do hold this holy Candle lighted in your hand you may be sure that all your sins are forgiven because Pope Adrian the h Breve Illius qui Dominicam Sixth hath ordered it so But the Candle must be Consecrated as solemnly as your Beads were and with a Form to this purpose That thro the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the 15 great Mysteries contained in the aforesaid Beads Christ the true Light that enlightens every Man that comes into the World will enlighten also this Candle with the true light of his Grace c. Then is the Candle sprinkled with Holy Water in Nomine Patris c. This is not all you must have a Holy Rose for it is of a singular Vertue and besides Rose and Rosary are of a kin especially as soon as it is Consecrated with this execrable Form of Blessing Deus Creator c. the sense is That God the Creator and Giver of spiritual Grace and eternal Salvation be pleased to bless the said Rose which is presented unto i Archang Caraccius de Rosar part 3 c. 6. him for the worship of his Mother and to infuse into the Rose by the vertue of the sign of the Cross such a Celestial Blessing that to what Infirmities soever it be applied and in what houses and places soever it be devoutly kept or carried the said Infirmities may be cured that thence all Devils may flee away This Charm is likewise compleated with the usual Baptism of Holy water With these Tacklings you may hereafter reckon your self most fully incorporated into this Heavenly Body What you have next to think upon is well to discharge those duties that belong to a Heavenly Member and to fall lustily to that incredible and strange way which S. Mary and S. Dominic her Husband have in the latter times brought into the Roman Church of serving God by saying Ave Maria. To the great encouragement of the said Brethren and Sisters this way of Devotion is called the Crown the Psalter and the Rosary the Crown because whensoever you say fifty times Ave Maria as my Italian k Caraccio Part. 1. c. 13. Author observes and I may prove it many waies the so saluted Goddess is pleased to take it for so many Crowns and Garlands of fine Flowers that you do adorn her Head with 2. The Psalter because the Church of Rome doth think it fit to worship the Lady of the most Holy Rosary with 150 Salutations as King David the Prophet did to adore the Lord God of Israel
Take Virgin Wax charm it with the b Cardin. Raspon de Basilic Lateran l. 2. c. 8. usual Blessing mingle it with the Ointment which they call Chrisma and some Balsom added to it put this Past into the shape of Lambs carry them in a Silver Bason to the Pope at Procession saying these Words c Ibid. Holy Father these are the young Lambs that bring the good Tidings Allelujah now they are going to the Fonts ad Fontes At which the Clergy is to answer Thanks be to God Allelujah Then his Roman Holiness abusing most horribly the Holy Ceremonies of Baptism dips d Ceremonial Rom. them all into the Water out of which he or some other present Bishop takes them and thus all being Baptized Omnibus Baptisatis the Pope himself Consecrates them with a Praier to the Holy Ghost O Alme Spiritus c. that is as He the Holy Ghost hath ordained the Holy Sacrament of Baptism to wash all sins away so these Lambs pretty Children to bring to Christ being washt with the holy and living Water and anoiated with the holy Ointment may be blessed and sanctified with the abundance of his Grace against all Devils and ill Spirits And that whosoever will devoutly carry about him one of these Lambs may never be troubled with any storms nor overcome with any Adversity nor Plague nor ill Air nor Shipwrack nor Fire that no man may ever have the Dominion over him So Catholics must have still the better And that if a woman wear it in Childbed the Child may be kept safe with the Mother The great Sacraments of Christs own institution namely the Holy Baptism and Communion have not the half of this and yet both for the great encouragement of Poperie and the greater horror of all true Christianity you may have more for the first Pope who made them and therefore knew best what they were good for makes their vertue like to Christs Blood e Raspon suprà Balsamus Cera c. I present you saies he to the above said Empress with an Agnus or Lamb of God as a great Gift for it scatters away Devils and storms c. as in the consecrating Praier and besides all this it breaks and choaks all mortal sins as the very Blood of Christ doth Commend me now to such a Church that can upon her own account make for her friends such Sacraments Secondly Hear what she can make in another way of this same wax especially upon Easter Eve In the Morning f Pontificat Rom. sect De Offâ—c Sabbath Sanâ— at six a Clock strike you as much Fire out of a Flint as may serve you to light CharCoales without the Church put the lighted Coales in a Censer and throw on them five Grains of Franckincense while this Incense is a burning put out all the Lights of the Church put three wax Candles at some triangular distance upon the top of a long Pole At the first stepping into the Church light one of them at the new Fire then lift it up and let the People say Deo gratias God be thanked there is Christs light When you come to the middle of the Church light the Second and falling down upon your knees repete the same words somewhat louder and when you are come in so far as to the High Altar then light me the third Candle and cry out as loud as you can Here is Christs light This done go up to the Pulpit and there with one of the three afore said Candles light a fourth but a huge one which is called Cereus and must be burning the whole night This great Candle or Cereus is good as they say on Easter Eve to bring the holy Ghost into that water which it is thrice dipped into the first time it must no more then touch the water the second it must go in somewhat deeper but the third g Missal Rom. Sabbath Sanct. time it must sink unto the Bottom Now sprinkle a little of this holy water upon your self or whom or whatsoever you will it will do Marvails Once the Virgin brought down from Heaven one such Taper h Pyraeus Coron B. M. Tract 1. c. 12. to dip in water whether she learned it from the Roman Church or this from her I cannot tell but however all the Inhabitants of Arras who drunk but a little of this water being troubled afore with sore diseases were upon their drinking thereof on a sudden recovered It were exceeding worth trying whether the other lesser Candles could do the same if they were dipt for Roman Catholics find in the water a marveilously great aptness to impregnate it self with all the vertu of Holy things Witness that water whereof mention was made before where S. Francis did wash his feet and the other water in Flanders which did cure i Balinghem Calend. B. M. 10. Sept. the Palsie when the little Image of Montague Montis acuti had soakt in it But however without any water these small Candles do great Effects if the praier to hallow them be not as vain as I am sure it is extravagant namely k Misal Roman Fest. Purificat that God would be pleased to Sanctifie all these Candles thro the Intercession of the Virgin and the Praiers of all his Saints for the health of Souls and Bodies by Sea and Land and to this purpose to kindle them with the light of his Celestial Blessing and the infusion of his Grace that all the People who have a mind to carry them devoutly and decently in their hands may have their Praier heard in Heaven This said and don then presently come up the People to the high Altar and there down on their knees do kiss the hand of the Mass-Priest who gives to every one of them one of these Candles When some Body is like to dy this blessed light is held before him when he cannot hold it himself and the benefit of it is this that whosoever holds or hath this Candle held before him when he dies especially if a Rosary Brother dies l Archangel de Rosar part 3. c. 6. with the Pardon of all his sins what would you have more Thirdly from the Wax you go to the Oil for the Church of Rome makes of it three other great Organs of Grace 1. One to prepare and qualifie young People to all spiritual Graces Oleum Catechumenorum 2. Another to introduce the Old or the Sick into Heaven Oleum Infirmorum And the third to strengthen both young and old from the time of their Baptism through their whole life against all Temtations whatsoever Chrisma For the making of these three Means of Salvation which are best don on holy Thursday m Pontifical Roman in Caena Domini â„ž Take me three Bottles full of the best and purest Virgin Oil you can get cover them well the two former with silk of any Golor but the third by all means with white then when the Bells have rung
Battles e Cartagena De Mirand Deip. sect 70. because he kept among his Captives one who wore still about his Neck a small Image of the Virgin Many hundred years before him old King Arthur most successfully used the same Devise for he had still a shield most curiously painted with the Image of the same Saint * Gononus Chronic. an 640. which revived his Spirits and strength whensoever he found himself fainting And doubtless this is the reason why S. Lewis when tired with hunting or otherwise distrest used to alight and to hang f Eened Gonon Chronic. an 815. an Image which he carried still about him to the first Tree he met with and there kneeling and praying to it had presently what he wanted and it is believed that by this Means he recovered his Estate which his Children had taken from him when they kept him close in a Cloister 3. Now which is the third and the last and the most considerable Point to examine what is or may be the matter in or about all these Images which can procure these quick Returns and herewith upon all occasions temt men to pray and worship them is more then the Roman worshippers can or dare distinctly tell All that you find in an Image must come to some of these three Things 1. The substance that it is made off 2. The outward g Bellarm. de Imag. l. 2. c. 21. sect Quarto in Shape or Resemblance that makes it in mens conceit the Image of such an Angel or such a Saint 3. The Consecration that makes it a holy Image As to the first the matter or substance it self to wit Marble Brass or Silver c. can do no more then to make the Image more or less fine rich and costly and tho it were a Saint Christopher that is a huge great statue like a Giant which stands in most of their Churches of Massy Gold it might draw men to admire the Price but not the vertue of the Image For when Images are consecrated it is not as in the case of Mass-wafers which in five words are presently transubstantiated from what they were the Marble or Brass or any substance whatsoever remains still the same and thus far Pagans and Papists may be equally credited when whatsoever their worshipping be they solemnly disown Gold Wood or Stone for being either their Saints or their Gods The second considerable thing in an Image is the outward form and figure intended to represent either among the Pagans a God or among the Papists a Saint Upon this Point tho Roman Images were so ancient and so happy as to be undoubtedly acknowledged for Pictures of S. Nicodemus or S. Luke or a very Angels drawing and tho they should most truly represent the Blessed Virgins-Face and Features the utmost they could temt men to by this most exact Resemblance were perhaps to go a good way purposely to see and view them yet no sober men on such accounts could be temted to worship them much less to hope any great matter from having seen and worshipt them Figures Shapes and Proportions which make Images like or unlike are of themselves you know as uneffectual and unactive on other scores as bare words Cyphers or letters are and therefore the Resemblances which result from them can produce no effect at all but as sacred or profane signs may by some either Divine or human Institution Thus once the Israelites might well hope to keep off the Destroier by sprinkling their Lintels with Blood or to recover their former health by looking up toward the Serpent because God had instituted these two signs and had promised such Blessings if the People did use them so Thus the subjects of the ancient Roman Empire might hope besides the performance of their Duty to get the favor of their Princes by standing about their Statues or by their low and civil kneeling when their first Ministers as once Joseph was in Egypt or Mordecai under Assuerus chance to pass by because these Soveraigns had resolved and declared it should be so and because it is in their power as to challenge their Peoples Duty so to dispense their own Favors at any time at any Place and at any mark sign or token which they will chuse For tho great Kings cannot appear in their own persons every where yet will they some other way appear as Soveraigns and be acknowledged so every where and if any private person or any unruly Multitude take down what they were pleased to set up as the Ensigns of their Empire or of their declared Plesure as they did who pulled down the Statue of Eudocia which Bellarmin h Bellar. de Imag. l. 2. c. 12. sect Theodosius quoque is pleased to make a foolish plea for Images they do affront the Emperors and Kings themselves Now to bring all this home to the Case 1. Who knows that Roman Images are either drawn by a Saint whom no Scripture saies to have bin a Painter rather then by Pilate or by Simon the Sorcerer who perhaps i Iren. cont Haeres l. 1. c. 20. c. 24. were or drawn so true as to invite so much as sober Curiosity to look on them Is it certain that Christ or his Mother were just such as they are now represented she with a delicate Italian Face he with the Corpulency of a Dutch Boy 2. When there is little to satisfie a curious Eie is there more for a pious heart what Sacred Institution of either Christ or his Apostles about Images can either give ground to a due lawful worship or supply the expected Blessings which neither shape nor likeness can Did ever any one of Gods Saints intimate some where in their lives that they would take it very kindly if they were praied to before Images and did ever the Virgin promise to any Body that she would either come or send to save Towns and Countries from plagues and wars when ever they would set up her Statues whether of the two waies is more likely to bring her to what we desire the carrying her Pictures about or as it hath bin successfully don sometimes the plain k Antonin 2. part Tit. 14. c. 2. sect 3. threatening her with drowning it Are the saints come to be of the Devils mind who perform most effectually what Magicians enjoin when they treat l Chaeremon ap Euseb de Praepar Ev. l. 4. p. 117. him with rough Language If both supplicating and threatening be alike uncommanded and impertinent for this Purpose is the looking toward the Ark or the looking up to the Brazen Serpent which had both a Commandment and a Promise so fit a Precedent as they m Bellarm. de Imag. l. 2. c. 12. pretend to countenance praying or looking to Images which for certain had neither of these Therefore since neither the Matter nor the external Form of Images have any strength either themselves or of any known help conferr'd by God to
I take thee for my Dame and therefore I hereby do give and engage my self and my Soul to thy good Plesure That simple young Prince l Al. Gazaeus De Offic. M. p. 91. of Hungary said much less without Ring or Intention only reading of course the words of an Antiphone Thou m Stellar Beat. Virg. l. 12. c. 10. art fair and Beautiful c. This was enough for the Lady to make her come down to him and what said she if I am so fair why leavest thou me to take another Thus the young man being astonisht for he was in the Church already upon the very point of taking a wife at these words and deluded with fine Promises of becoming a great Monarch in this Devils Heavenly Kingdom left his other Bride at the Altar to the great scandal of all the world and to his own far greater shame Now commend me to such a Saint who can free men from just Promises and put asunder to some purpose them whom God would have join'd together If this instance be not enough Take this other from a grave Bishop n Vincent Bell. Specul Histor l. 7. c. 87. A young Gallant being about to play in a Place where the same Virgin had a Statue puts a Ring he had on its Finger and after he had don playing thinking to take his Ring again the Image had closed her Finger so being unwilling to struggle too much for t is not safe to be too bold with some Images he left it there and some few years after he happened to get an honest Match with a considerable Fortune but he is not sooner with her a Bed then presently another Bride fairer then she appears to him shews him his Ring which he had left on the Statue and as she took it had engaged himself to her with it before The man takes this for a Phantome and so it was and a devillish one too but when he thought again to sleep the same Lady comes in again but much more terrible then before and what with her angry look what with her fearful Threatnings for this Mother of Mercy will prove sometimes a dangerous Dame she frighted him away out of his Bed from his lawful Wife his good Estate into a pittiful Cloister Now to judg how grave and holy this is and how likely to come from a Saint compare it with this Parallel which I have o Matthaeus Westmonaster Flor. Hist. ad an 1058. from a good Author In the year 1058. a young Nobleman of Rome after a magnificent wedding Dinner goes with his Guests to Campus Martius and being at a hot Exercise puts his Ring into the finger of a stately brazen Image which stood hard by and had in former times bin consecrated to Venus an hour after my Gentleman being to return home goes for his Ring but the Statue had miraculously shut its hand so being loth to speak of it for fear of being laughed at by his Friends he leaves it there and when it was night coming back again with tools and men to get it off the hand was open but the Ring gon So the best he could make of a clear loss was to concele it and to go to Bed with his Bride As soon as they were in Bed he felt a big soft Bundle as it had bin a sack of Wool tumbling between them and hindering them from ever coming near one another he heard withal a voice Lie thou with me I am Venus whom thou hast taken to Wife this afternoon with this Ring which here is on my finger To make short the same both Bundle and Voice kept them ever asunder as often as they offered to touch one another till with the advice of their Friends they went to one named Palumbus a skilful Necromancer and Priest who for a good sum of Mony meeting the Devil in his own way got the Ring out of Venus hand These two Cases are so like that one might think them to have bin transcribed the one from the other the same manner of wedding Apparitions the same Correspondency and Proxiship between these Spirits and their Images the same Malice and opposition against Faith and Gods Ordinance the same base and low trifling beneath the condition of any Noble Creature Hereupon in Cases so like so unholy so ungodly so unseemly let the Church of Rome breed such fools as to think that the one can be a great Saint when the other is a downright Devil 2. In the second place comes the Baby whom most commonly you shall see doing some foolish thing or other upon the left Arm of this Dame For this little Image is known to act as many Parts as the great one can It weeps it prates it sings it turns its back it jumps from one hand to another it stretches out its little hand And whereas at first it was intended that this little thing should stand still as an Historical Memorial of Christs Birth it hath bin since these last Ages so well animated and warmed with the heat of Roman worship that it shews all the life and Activity sometimes that can be expected of a true natural Child besides what Juglers can do The inward Soul and Principle which actuates and moves this Image certainly cannot be a good Angel for good Angels are too serious for such mere Childish Motitions Good Angels in all the Scriptures since their Creation till Popery are not known to speak in Images and when they speak in any way they do neither lie nor blaspheme as this woodden pupet must needs whensoever he takes on himself the name of God Christ and Savior The true Mover and as it were the Soul of this Infantine Image can be no other then that Spirit which often in the Roman Church appears acting that by himself which he acts by his Image and none is fitter nor likelier to prate with a woodden Parrot then he that can do it with his own Lips For setting a side the little Image the Papists have a little God whom they call in English the Sweet Babe and more blasphemously in Latin Puer Jesus the Child Jesus and whom another Spirit under the name of Queen of Heaven in all great Apparitions carries commonly on her left Arm t Bened. Gonon ex Antiquo Cod. ad an 1285. and gives to many People u Flaminius in vita S. Cathar Bonon Menol. Cisterc. 29. Octob. Chronic. Deip. an 1508. Balinghem 17. Jun. to kiss to carry about x Gonon Patr. Occident l. 6. in vita Harman Praem as S. Joseph did to lay by them in their y Chronic. Deip. an 1561. beds S. Lucia z Chronic. Grdin Praedic an 1543. had him once three night and when S. Arnulphus a Chronic. Deip. an 1228. they say had him but a quarter of an hour he was so overcome with Joy that he was forced to give him back Sometimes this sweet Baby will leave his Mother and walk