Sovereign Power not only over Spiritual Affairs but also over the temporal in all Christian Kingdoms How blind or rather how malicious must the Popish Divines be to employ all their learning and skill in maintaining of this Doctrine I am perswaded that there are but few that commit this sin out of ignorance Do you judge if it be not a grievous blasphemy to extol the Pope as those Doctors do and to appropriate unto him these Titles and Praises given him by some Councils for example that which Pope Nicholas II. said of himself Can. omnes dist 22. That be was invested with the Empire of Heaven and Earth And Martin V. named himself The Light of the World and the Father of Kings c. The modestest of them all have suffered themselves to be called without renting their garments as Paul and Barnabas once did in a like occasion The King of Kings the Sovereign of the World the Judge of all Controversies from whose Sentence there is no appeal to God's Tribunal for it were to appeal from one to the same Being for God's Authority and that of the Popes is but the same as if the Father the Son the Holy Ghost and the Pope were but one God They name him also the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world God's Majesty on earth the Brightness of God's Presence the Bridegroom of the Christian Church the Lion of the Tribe of Juda God's Vicegerent the Holy of Holies Infallible Almighty c. The Popes have claimed these and many other Titles which I am ready to shew not only in the Writings of the Roman Doctors but also in their Rubricks if any man shall question what I now say They have claimed them both by word and deed requiring the Kings themselves to kiss their slippers and with their feet they have cast down the Crowns of Emperours from their heads as Pope Celestin treated Henry the Sixth They have trampled them under their feet as Alexander did the Crown of Frederick Barbarossa What may be more said of Jesus Christ to put a difference between him and the Pope Here is the fulfilling of all the Impieties which St. Paul did foretell 2 Thess 2. v. 3. The man of sin shall be revealed the son of perdition who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God on that is worshipped so that he as God sitteth in the Temple of God § The pretended Succession of the Roman Bishops so much spoken of in their Writings and in the Pulpits of that Church did seem to me to be very well grounded in Holy Scripture and by the continued Catalogue of all the Popes which the modern Popish Authors have gathered from the ancient Historians I did judge that this was but the consequence of Christ's promise to St. Peter when He told him that his faith should never fail and that the gates of hell should never prevail against his Church I was perswaded that this was plainly to be seen in the Church of Rome that above sixteen hundred years no Schism hath been so great as to hinder the Popes to succeed one after another There is no place in the world where so long and noble a Catalogue is to be seen and a Succession of so many lawful Bishops But since I have curiously examined the Truth since I have look'd into the Histories to find out this continued Succession of Roman Bishops for so many years I have found the Writers so perplex'd upon this Subject nay the Papists themselves are so obscure and ambiguous that we may justly say that the most part of them speak they know not what for most of them are guilty of contradiction for how can they agree this continued Succession without interruption with what Onuphrius saith in his Chronicle where he mentions no less than six and twenty Schisms in the Church of Rome the twentieth lasted forty years and the twenty sixth continued since Urbanus VI. until the Council of Constance as Genebrard saith Chron. lib. 4. an 1378. the one and twentieth lasted six and thirty years as the same Author affirms during all this time the Church of Rome had two Popes that did excommunicate one another Ann. 1389 How can we agree this Succession with what Baronius saith for he is forced to acknowledge it after so many Historians that at Rome there have been no less than three Popes together whom he names tricipitem bestiam portis inferis emergentem tom 11. and ann 1044. sect 5. a beast with three heads ascending out of the bottomless pit All three saith Bellarmin namely Gregory XIII Benedictus XIII and John XXIII had the same apparent right to the Popes Miter de pontif lib. 4. c. 14. How can we also agree this Doctrine with Baronius an 912. sect 8 He saith That the Clergy were not admitted to the Election that the Canons were not observed and all ancient Customs of chusing Popes set aside what Cardinals think ye saith he that these Monsters did create for according to the usual course of nature every thing begets its likeness c. Lechery saith Platin. in vita Benedicti brought forth these Monsters these Prodigies who by ambition and gifts have intruded themselves in and not lawfully enjoyed St. Peter's Chair See what the Historians of the Church of Rome have been forced to acknowledge although they have endeavoured to palliate its imperfections and hide them from the knowledge of the world How can any have the impudency to maintain that the Faith of this Church hath never failed that the gates of hell could never prevail against it and that there was never any discontinuance in the succession of its Bishops c Yet this is impudently affirmed with allowance in the Schools of the Papists This Doctrine I have also heretofore defended in Theses which I published amongst them That although the Election of the Roman Bishops hath passed almost at every time by bribes fraud violence murder c. Although the Church of Rome hath been frequently and for a long while divided into Sects and Factions and that much disorder hath happened in it nevertheless we ought to believe and affirm that the Holy Ghost did govern these Elections and that they were by Gods appointment and that the Faith of this Church hath never failed because I did suppose there hath always been a wonderful agreement between all its Members c. Let any man judge if ever Arius Pelagius Marcion or any other Heretick did ever teach such impudent Doctrine as this in Mahomet's Alcoran there is no absurdity found like unto it § The great crowd of Martyrs and the multitude of other Noble Saints who have performed so many Miracles and are challenged by the Papists as their own was another powerful motive to perswade me of the Truth of their Faith and of the Sanctity of their Religion Who is it said I to my self that dares deny that a Religion where so many Martyrs appear that have laid down
the Wine his Blood c. all this is well and very true we are not ignorant that St. Ambrose St. Chrysostome St. Austin St. Cyril of Jerusalem and many other ancient Doctors name it so But how can the Papists shew by the Holy Scripture that Christ is there in the same manner as they affirm by a real presence which is not only spiritual but material and corporal That he is there in the same manner as he was of old in the Virgins womb in the manger of Bethlehem upon Mount Tabor and upon the Cross and nevertheless that he is in the highest Heavens at the right hand of God the Father Where can they find in all the four Evangelists any Text that mentions this prodigious Miracle of the Transubstantiation or transmutation of the bread into the real Body of Jesus Christ and of the wine into his Blood with a destruction of the first and a creation of the latter by the efficacy of four words uttered by a Priest Where is there a Writer of the Greek or of the ancient Latin Church that speaks of this Mystery in the same manner as Thomas Aquinas who maintained a corporal presence multiplied without division accidents sustained without their proper substance a discontinuance of a being without corruption a production of the same effects by a cause that is not an humane and divine substance under the appearance of a Wafer a God made man where nothing of his manhood is to be seen a body without extension a life without motion an infinite number of equal parts proportionable to their totum in a Mathematical point a relation from the same to the same from the first to a second who are but one a situation without space an abiquity without place a general destruction of all Predicaments by this supposed Mystery or Manhu as he calls it a word which expresseth the admiration of the Israelites when they saw the Manna fall amongst them Did ever St. Ambrose St. Chrysostome or any of the four chief Doctors of the Christian Church speak in this manner they did never imagine that so many absurdities could enter into the minds of men I am perswaded that if this Doctor stiled by them the Angelick Doctor because of the rare Inventions of his Wit had lived in the days of St. Austin and had spoken unto him in these terms that Primitive Father would never have understood him although he understood the Predicaments of Aristotle without Tutor doubtless he had taken him for a man faln from the Clouds dwelling in the Globe of the Moon or for one that maintains that there is there another World Where have they seen in Holy Scripture or amongst the ancient Fathers That the Lay-men must not communicate in both kinds that the Mass is a Sacrifice where the Passion of our Saviour is really renewed that Jesus Christ will be there worshipped in a visible manner by an adoration that relates to the substances as God himself if he were to be seen according to the Command of the Council of Trent I have been several years reading and perusing the Holy Scriptures and its Interpreters but I have found nothing there like to these Doctrines unless it be in the Popish Authors for I have met with an hundred passages contrary to this belief I confess we find in Holy Writ that Christ hath said This is my Body but he hath said also I am the Door I am the Stone I am the Vine and the Shepherd of the Sheep c. If we are to take all these expressions in a literal sonse we must believe that he is a Door a Stone a Vine a Shepherd of Sheep But the Scripture saith that Jesus Christ is ascended up into Heaven and that he sits there at the right hand of God the Father Therefore he is no longer upon Earth for it is not possible that the same Body should be in two distinct places at once If that were likely as the Philosophers tell us the same Body might be in twenty in an hundred in a thousand and in ten thousand places in the same moment From hence we might conclude that it is possible to make one man become a great Army that one man should kill himself a thousand times and yet continue alive that he should be a Saint in one place and a Devil in another damned in one place and saved in another the object of Gods wrath and goodness at the same time these are impossibilities and plain contradictions Christ commands us to do this in Remembrance of Him therefore he is not there really and bodily for we do nothing in remembrance of a man present before us in a corporal manner The Papists instance the Manna which was kept by God's command in the Ark in remembrance of that which God sent down from Heaven which was both the remembrance and the thing remembred the representation and the thing represented This is one of the most plausible Examples of the Papists but it is to little purpose for besides other Reasons that may be alledged against it I think they are mightily mistaken to compare a totum integrans with an individual one and the same may be divided and the parts carried into several distinct places where they may be look'd upon in divers manners but the other is altogether repugnant to division and separation The Manna that was in the Ark I confess was a memorial of that Manna which the Israelites had fed upon in the Wilderness but it was not the same How can they therefore from hence conclude that Christ's body must be in several places under distinct notions Christ informs us That His words are spirit and life and that the flesh profiteth nothing that it is the spirit that quickens It is not possible to speak any thing more contrary than this to the Papists Doctrine for these words assure us that Christ is there really and in truth but spiritually not corporally nor substantially that He is there by his Spirit virtue and efficacy to produce the same effects in us as if he were there in a sensible manner This was taught by the Primitive Fathers and thus the Protestants believe it He commands us also To eat his Flesh and drink his Blood in both kinds St. Paul repeats the words and the Council of Constance which is esteemed by the Papists as highly as a fift Evangil saith that since the Apostles time Communicants did receive in both kinds wherefore did they then take away the Cup why did they establish this Law that forbids Lay-men to drink of the Cup They acknowledge that Jesus Christ hath appointed it to be so that the Apostles did practice and command it and that it had been an universal custom amongst Christians for all men to communicate in both kinds Nevertheless this Council was so insolent to forbid it and command the World to believe that this Prohibition proceeds from the Holy Ghost although it be contrary to Christ's Institution
Christ That all these Vices by which St. Peter's Chair hath been dishonoured are proofs of its Holiness Excellency and Infallibility because saith he God hath permitted all these debaucheries and wickednesses in such as were the Governours of His Church without punishing them this discovers that this Estate is more sacred more holy and more regarded of God than that of Kings whom God commonly chastiseth as soon as they are unfaithful and abuse their Authority I must needs confess that I was never more astonished than when I found this Argument made use of by this Learned Man and heard it approved of in the Popish Schools Me thinks I could as easily prove the union of Contraries to be found in the same Subject as to shew the union and correspondency of this Conclusion with the Principles from whence it is drawn In this Church most abominable Popes have been seen Alvar Pelag. a Portugues Bishop tells us lib. 2. art 15. of many Popes who have crept into that See by their factions agreements covenants and large promises and when they have got in all their endeavour was to enrich and raise their Relations to promote their friends to the chief Offices to live themselves in pleasure and to dignifie their Kindred building Towers and Palaces in Babylon I mean Rome so called by St. Jerome These Popes have fomented the Wars and Factions in Italy instead of maintaining the unity of the Church They have wasted the sacred Revenues advanced most unworthy persons and gloried in their chariots elephants horses rich garments numerous train guards and noble attendants They have by the power of the sword often endeavoured to enlarge their own Borders and seize upon the Territories of their neighbouring Princes never minding the salvation of souls but have been addicted to the pleasures of the flesh c. These Men for money have sold as Judas did Christ's Body consecrated the Sacraments and celebrated Orders for silver c. We have seen saith the same Author lib. 2. art 2. fol. 104. men that have made this City like Sodom and Nineveh by letting in and countenancing all manner of vices publick and private as covetousness ambition symony usurpations uncleanness vain glory envy tyranny and other crimes which cannot nor ought not to be named We have seen in God's sanctuary saith the Bishop of Bitonte in the beginning of the Council of Trent orat hab in concil Trid. sess 1. shameless monsters rotten vessels full of infection publick plagues c. so that there remains no appearance nor hopes of good life but an immoderate and extraordinary debauchery a not able impudency more crimes than can be well credited We have seen according to the testimony of some Cardinals chosen by Pope Paul III. for the Reformation of the Church Concil delect Cardin. tom 3. pag. 823. Whores walking about the streets of Rome as honourable Dames carried upon Mules attended and waited upon by Noblemen and Cardinals Chaplains such like scandals have never been seen elsewhere but in this City We have seen saith Guischardin Hist of Italy lib. 1. sect 2. Rodericus Borgia who was afterwards Pope Alexander VI. buy the priviledge of disposing of the Holy Treasury And Platina and Baronius relate that there have been some Popes introduc'd by violence who have clapp'd in prison such as were before in possession of the See of Rome as Christopher did Leo VIII Some have been so base and furious that they have taken up the Bodies of their Predecessors whose Fingers wherewith they had given their blessing to the people they have cut off and cast into the Tybur as Stephen VI. treated Formosus In short we have seen men more covetous ambitious impious lecherous cruel and wicked than in the most licentious Courts than amongst the most barbarous Nations And Genebrard Chron. lib. 4. saith that these disorders have lasted sometimes 150 years together During this time saith Baronius ann 912. sect 8. Jesus Christ slept very soundly in the bottom of the ship and wink'd at all these mischiefs Therefore from hence he gathers this conclusion for this cause the Church of Rome must needs be the truest the holiest and best beloved of God infallible and the only Church that may be named Catholick c. Let any man judge if this be not the most impudent and unjust reasoning in the world The Heathenish Philosophers have taught these Popish Doctors to argue in this manner for their Religion from this ancient Maxim of theirs Ex quolibet fit quodlibet That from any Principle we may draw any Conclusion either good or evil They care not so they can but maintain their Thesis and Opinion but these kind of Reasons discover their weakness For any Understanding may perceive from thence the feebleness of their Doctrine the falshood of their Religion seeing that they are driven to draw such Conclusions as are quite contrary to the nature and truth of the things themselves If any man say that this Reason is not in Baronius word for word as I have expressed it the premises are there and the Conclusion not in two or three words and in such a plain and succinct manner as I have here related it but it is laid down in a more ample and more florid Discourse which tends to no other end but to prove the Truth Holiness and Excellency of of the Popish Religion from the Vices and Debaucheries of its Priests and Popes This cannot but be look'd upon as very ridiculous by any man of Judgement For if their Reasons were good I might as well say that Pharaoh's Kingdom was holy because God suffered it to continue so long without punishing him and did many Miracles for his sake and that the Turkish Religion must needs be the holiest and the best at present because God hath suffered it to abide so many years and increase every day although its Chieftains lead most filthy lives These and such like Considerations which I have had by reading the Books of the Popish Doctors and Historians have lessened that vast esteem that I had formerly for that Church and made me to understand that all its excellent Priviledges which it claims and which they assign to her are but whimseys and Chimaera's begot in their fancy by their fondness for their Religion the Popes ambition and the credulity of silly minds who are ready to believe any thing the greatest absurdity if boldly asserted Let us proceed next to our other Considerations THE SECOND PART THE Second Reason that hath so long time kept my Mind in a ballance was grounded upon the Faith and Articles of that Church I did seriously examine all those things which she engageth us to believe as infallible Truths the Pope's Infallibility the real and corporal presence of Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of the Altar the Sacrifice of the Mass Purgatory the Invocation of Saints and the certain damnation of all those who acknowledge not the Pope for their Superiour c. I thought all this