A Calm Answer To a Violent DISCOURSE OF N. N. a Seminary Priest, FOR THE Invocation of Saints: WITH A REFLECTION UPON THE Covetousness and Impostures OF THE Popish Clergy, LONDON, Printed for Henry broom, at the Gun in St. Pauls Church-yard, the West end, 1677. Imprimatur, Guil. Jane, R.P.D. Hen. Episc. land. a Sacris domest. Mar. 18. 1676/ 7. To Madam O.O. Madam, THE Land being full of the knowledge of the Lord, it would have been very strange, if you, being tempted to apostasy by an Emissary of Rome, had not found a help at hand, to stand for God and you against that seduction. The Letter which he sent to you for that purpose, was sent to me by your friends, because I was at hand; and I found myself obliged, by my holy Calling, to sand you an Antidote against that poison. I have not the honour to know you, but by the report of your holy Constancy in that assault; but I know the duty of my place: And judging by the style and manner of the Priests Letter, that it is a set-form for him to spread abroad, and make Conquests for Rome; I judged it also necessary for me to spread abroad this Buckler against those fiery Darts of Satan, by the help of the Press. God Convert those that make it their Calling to pervert us, and confirm you to the end in your most holy Faith; blessing, for that good effect, the endeavour of Madam, Your most Humble Servant. A Calm Answer to the Violent Discourse of N. N. a Seminary Priest, for the Invocation of Saints. THE Gentleman undertaketh to prove, That the Protestants have calunniated his Church in this point; And that therefore they are a company of Cheats, Calumniators, and false-Teachers, and consequently not the Church of Christ. Before he hath done, he will put Rebellion and villainy to their charge. This is the civility of a Party subsisting in England by the forbearance of those whom they thus insult upon. We shall find him as short in his Intellectual performances, as in his Moral duties. He promiseth to prove, That it is good and lawful to pray to Saints reigning in Heaven with Christ. And that, by authority of Holy Scriptures, Councils, and the most ancient and learned Fathers. His first erroneous dealing, is the wrong-stating of the Question between our Church and the Roman. We acknowledge the intercession of Saints to God for us. We acknowledge also, that if there were any possibility of communication between the glorified Saints and us, we might lawfully use it, and desire their praying for us to God, so that such addresses to them were made without adoration, or any religious worship, which cannot without Idolatry and horrible sacrilege be deferred to any but God. Had N. N. considered so much, he might have saved great part of his pains. In the front of his proofs out of Scripture, he brings the blessing which Jacob bestowed upon Joseph's Sons, Ephraim and Manasseh: Of which Text, this is the true version; The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the Lads, and let my name be name on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac. Hence N. N. infereth that we may pray to Angels, and if to Angels, to Saints also. In this passage he hath omitted the first half-period, The God that hath fed me all my life long unto this day; lest it should be made plain, that the Angel whose blessing he craved for the Lads, was God himself, who had fed him, and redeemed him from all evil; else Jacobs sense must be lame. Neither ought we to acknowledge our redemption from any but God, or crave blessing from any but him. But it is no new custom with Romish disputants to clip the words, and the sense of the Scripture, and of the Fathers, to make them speak their sense. This Angel is the same who is called by Malachi the Angel or the Messenger of the Covenant, whom all Interpreters take to be the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is the Angel which had wrestled before with Jacob, and had blessed him after; for it was more than any Angel could have done with effect. The ancient Fathers and rabbis, understand this passage in that sense, Cyril. lib. 3. Thesauri Athanas. Orat. contra Arianos. Procopius, in hunc tuum. Rabbi Menahem. in eundem. Cyrillus, Athanasius, Procopius, and Rabbi Menahem. Accordingly the Septuagint, Eccles. 5.5, translate lyphmaleak, {αβγδ}, before the face of God, not of the Angel. Upon the following words of that Text, Let my name, and the name of my Fathers, Abraham and Isaac be name on them, or( as he will have it) be invocated on them, he makes this comment; When I am dead, let me be invocated in their behalves, as also my father Isaac, and my grandfather Abraham. This indeed is unparalleled in all ages, that a man should bespeak himself to be invocated after his death: A superlative pride, very far from that good mans holy simplicity. The drift of the whole Chapter sheweth, that Jacob would be name, not the grandfather, but the father of Ephraim and Manasseh, as himself was name the son of Isaac, and Isaac of Abraham. Had N. N. had a design to make the Reader merry by laughing at him, he could not have devised a wilder conceit, than to make Jacob to bespeak himself to be prayed to after his death. But what if he hath found to his thinking, a practise of that invocation, Exod. 32.13. when Moses invocated the names of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, over the people: if he hath found it, he hath better eyes than we that cannot see things that are not. Moses said there to God, Remember Abraham, Isaac and Jacob thy servants. To make good N. N's exposition, Moses should have prayed to Abraham, Isaac and Israel: But Moses was better taught than so. Then followeth a proof of the like pregnancy: The prayer of the three Hebrew children in the furnace( We may for this time let it pass as caconical, for any harm it can do us). Take not away from us, O Lord, thy mercy, for Abraham thy beloveds, and Isaac thy servants, and thy holy Israels sake. Here is,( saith N.N.) plain invocation of holy men not living upon earth. But I say, here is plain want of brains in N. N. to use the two last allegations for that purpose. Is it invocation of Saints to pray to God to have mercy upon the Children for their good Fathers sake? and to remember his Covenant made with those Fathers, and with their posterity after them? What more? God commanded Jobs friends to desire Job to pray and offer sacrifices for them. A good proof( saith he) that it is Gods will and pleasure, that we should apply ourselves to his Saints to obtain favour for us. Yea, but the difference between the Romanists and us, and the question stated by N.N. is about praying to Saints reigning with Christ in Heaven; which without an especial warrant from God we may not, we dare not attempt. And herein we are confirmed by N. N's verdict, worthy to be remembered, We do not think( saith he) that we are commanded to pray to Saints. A great Romanist saith no less, even Cardinal Perron, p. 981. who in his book against the most Excellent King James, acknowledgeth, that for the Invocation of Saints there is neither precept nor formal example in Holy Scripture. We shall hear Cardinal Bellarmin saying as much before we have done. Is it so? Why then are we defamed as heretics, and burnt by the Inquisition for refusing that Invocation for which there is neither precept nor formal example in Scripture? Take with these, Father Cottons perplexity about that point, and withal a remarkable passage of that mans life, who was a famous jesuit, Confessor to Henry the IV of France. There was a demoniac woman in Paris, admired for footh-saying, and solving hard questions; with her Father Cotton would converse under pretence of exorcizing the evil Spirit. To that evil Spirit he had formed questions, which being written in a single paper, he laid in a book which he had borrowed of Monsieur L'Abbe, councillor in the Court of Parliament of Paris. It happened that when he returned that book to the owner, he forgot to take out of it his paper of questions. Monsieur L'Abbe, having a little turned over his book, found that criminous paper, and out of indignation published it in print. Among many questions about State-matters( one of which was about the life of the King his Master), there were Theological questions, This among the rest, to find a Text of Scripture for the Invocation of Saints: A fit task for the Devil, after all the labour-in-vain of School-men about it. So much being granted by N. N. and his whole party, that there is no command of God to pray to Saints; Let them take for themselves Christs rebuk to the Pharisees; In vain do they worship me, Mark. 7.7, 8. teaching for Doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandments of God, you hold the tradition of men. And what are the devotions of the Rosary to the Holy Virgin, styled the Mother of Grace, confirmed by so many Indulgences, but mere commandments of men, without the least ground of Gods commandments and promises? So because God hath not commanded Invocation of Saints, and much less promised any reward for it; some men judging it nevertheless to be wanting in the Church, have commanded it. That of the Holy Virgin especially, to whom the Roman Church giveth ten Aves for one Pater to God. Her they have created Queen of Heaven and of all the world, and leaving unto God the Throne of Justice, they have bestowed upon her the Throne of Grace, to which sinners may appeal from the sentence of the Throne of Justice. Whence these two effects naturally follow, The one that the Creature is exalted above the Creator in the opinion of the people, for all appeals are made from an inferior Court to a superior. The other, that thereby men are estranged from God; for sinners that are of their Communion, needing Grace, will be sure to go to the Throne of Grace, that of the Virgin, and to let God alone in his Throne of Justice. These are no fictions of ours; the famous Doctors of the Roman Church, and directors of Consciences, are full of these. These are the words of the Jesuit Viegas: Serm. 17. fol. 10,& 11. This is the Virgin Mary with whom God hath divided his Kingdom; for where as God hath Justice and Mercy, he hath reserved Justice for himself, and hath given Mercy to his Mother. Wherefore if any find himself aggrieved by the Court of Justice, let him appeal to the Throne of Mercy of the Mother of God, the Lady and Augusta. This is repeated in so many words by Bernardinus de Bustis Marialis Serm. 3. de nominatione Mariae. To the same purpose Gabriel Biel de Can. Missa Sect. 30. Gabriel Biel calls the Holy Virgin the Queen of Heaven, to whom the King of Kings, the Heavenly Father, hath given the half of his Kingdom. What more? Stellavil Coronae lib. 12. part 1. cap. 6,& 7. Psalterium. Bonaventurae. Pelbart allegeth this out of St. Bernardin. of Senes, All serve to the Empire of the Virgin, and God himself.— Then most great is the dominion of the Holy Virgin, for she doth not only command the Creatures, but God himself, as a Mother her Son. But of all the Roman Saints, give me Saint Bonaventura, who hath transported to our Lady all the addresses made to God in the Psalms: Let our Lady arise, let her enemies be scattered. I will sing of the mercies of our Lady. Save me, O Lady, for thy names sake. In thee, O Lady, have I put my trust, I shall never be confounded. Our Lady is our refuge and strength, our very present help in trouble. And that nothing be wanting to the height of impiety, that blasphemous Saint hath expelled the Son of God from the right hand of God his Father, to give place to his Mother, The Lord said unto my Lady, Sit thou on my right hand, till I have made thine enemies thy footstool. Let all Christians that are in their right sense judge whether these blasphemies ought to pass for holy Doctrines, because they are pronounced by Saints of the Roman Church, and owned by the unerring Roman Church; or whether by these enormities of foul Doctrine the Church of Rome show her self to be the Mother of abominations, and the Synagogue of Satan. This I recommend to the sober consideration of N. N. who stands so stiff upon the authority of the Roman Church as the pillar and ground of Truth, the infallible interpreter of Scripture, and the only director of Religion and Conscience. If he have any ingenuity he will acknowledge by the alleged passages, that when the Governours of the Church once presume to go beyond Gods Ordinance, their will-worship knoweth no bounds, and will extravagate even into blasphemy and non-sense. N. N. is very copious in proving that the Saints pray for us, which he needs not. We make no doubt but that the Saints in Heaven are sensible of the sufferings of the Church on Earth, and pray to God to hear their cries, and shorten their combats. We are willing to take in that sense, those golden vials full of odours, Rev. 5.8. which are the prayers of the Saints. But that they have a particular knowledge of the several addresses made unto them by men on earth: Or that they have a commission from God to be Masters of Requests in the Court of Heaven, or that we ought to present our requests unto God by them, it is that which never was, and never shall be proved. To prove that they hear our prayers, N. N. allegeth, that there is joy in heaven among the Angels of God for the conversion of one sinner; whence he infereth, that the Angels know mens hearts, and why not the Saints? But were all this granted, it would not follow that we must pray to them. Truly neither the Angels nor the Saints know mens hearts; the Angels cannot know them otherwise than by their lives and behaviour. But there is a particular reason of the Angels rejoicing at the conversion of sinners: The Angels are employed about Gods service on earth, and no doubt but that a great part of that service is to labour for the conversion of sinners: No wonder if they rejoice when they have good success in that holy labour. They conversing both in Heaven and on Earth can give, and do give an account in Heaven of the conversion of sinners on Earth, and thereby cause joy in Heaven both among the Angels and the Saints. But we red in no place of Holy Writ, that ever any Saint was sent for that or any other errand from Heaven to Earth. Rather we are taught, that the dead know nothing, Eccl. 9.5, 6. and have no portion in the things that are done under the Sun. God may reveal to them what he pleaseth, not what we are pleased to imagine without a good warrant from him. N. N. allegeth Christs command, Luk. 16.9. that we make to ourselves friends that may receive us into the eternal Tabernacles. I know no friends that can receive us into the eternal Tabernacles, but the three Persons, and one God: And the way to make them our friends, intimated in that Text, is to give alms out of our Mammon. But what is that to our praying to Saints? N. N. might as pertinently have brought in the head of Holofernes, to prove the lawfulness of the Invocation of Saints, as that Text. He citeth Saint Peters promise to pray for the Church after his decease. 2 Pet. 1.25. But Saint Peter saith no such thing: And though he did, it is nothing to us who deny not that the Saints pray for us: But that therefore we must pray to them, it is a wrong consequence. And though we are willing to acknowledge that they pray for us, we dare not call them our Meditators, as N. N. doth; which is a blasphemy, and giving the lie to the Holy-Ghost: who teacheth us that there is one Mediator between God and man, 1 Tim. 2.6. the man Christ Jesus. And mark that which followeth, Who gave himself a ransom for us. The Apostle will not have us to acknowledge any person to be our Mediator, but that one person who gave himself a ransom for us, and thereby giveth virtue to his mediation. But it is the Genius of Popery to transfer the honour due to God, unto the Creature. N. N. hath undertaken to prove that it is lawful and good to pray to Saints, and that by authority of Holy Scriptures, councils, and the most ancient learned Fathers. A gallant flaunting undertaking: How he hath proved it by Scripture, we have seen. Enough he hath done to betray his Cause, and show that there is not one tittle for it in all the Word of God. Which I speak not for his disparagement, but that of his Cause. For all that could be devised out of Scripture he hath brought in. I cannot say for him, that he hath used the like diligence about Councils and Fathers. Out of Councils he doth not bring the least proof: He is pleased only to say, That the Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon prayed to Saints: so I need only to say that they did not, till he make them speak for themselves. As for the most ancient and learned Fathers, he allegeth Saint Austin, who deserveth a better praise, than to be the most ancient and learned Father. He makes him say, That if the shadow of Saint Peter in his life time did cure diseases, he will do much more now that he is in the fullness of power. He quoteth not the place, yet I durst pass my word for Saint Austin, that he never ascribed fullness of power to Saint Peter. But the Romanists, who derive the Popes Power from Saint Peter, will be sure to ascribe to that Apostle as much sulness of power as they can, that from Saint Peter it may pass to the Pope. Be the passage of Saint Austin true or false, it is nothing to us, for it toucheth not the point in question, which is, the lawfulness of praying to Saints. Very boldly, and very untruly N. N. affirmeth, that there is none of the ancient Fathers, but shewed and practised prayers to the Saints. Let him in 375 years of the first Christian Antiquity find, if he can, any one instance of that practise. The first that began it was Gregory Nazianzen, who in his eloquent Orations, hath rhetorical addresses to his deceased friends; yet modified with doubtful reservations. In his funeral Oration for his sister Gorgonia, he speaks thus to her soul, If thou hast any respect of the honour we do thee, and if that reward be given to holy souls to have a resenting of these things, receive this speech of mine; showing himself doubtful whether his deceased sister heard him. The like doubting expression he useth in his Oration against Julian the Apostate, Hear thou excellent soul of Constantine, if thou have any feeling left. These were the infant-trembling beginnings of the Invocation of Saints. N. N. would have us to believe upon his honest word, that several Fathers whom he nameth, taught the Invocation of Saints. Eusebius Greg. Naz. Greg. Nyss. Cyril. Teros. Chrysost. But to make us believe that they taught so, their own words would have been to better purpose than his. Having done nothing to the purpose, yet he makes a high boast of his achievements: I have( saith he) proved the lawfulness of praying to Saints, by the testimony of the most learned and ancient Fathers and Doctors of the Church, and by the authority of General Councils. Have you done so, Sir? Not in any paper of yours that came to my hands. If naming only Fathers and Councils be proving by them, in his logic, I am sure it is not in that of the Schools, nor in common sense, nor in honesty. Let any ingenious person peruse his paper, and judge whether he hath given the least ground for that boasting. With the like ostentation, without any proof, he sets forth the constant custom of the whole Church to pray to the Saints, from the time of the Apostles; and he hath never done insisting upon that. But we must believe him upon his bare word. We build not our faith upon human testimonies: Yet to show the vanity of that boast, I will bring some testimonies of the best and first Antiquity. In the fourth book of the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius, cap. 15. we have the relation of the Martyrdom of Policarp, Bishop of Smyrna, a Disciple of Saint John. That holy Martyr being dead, some by the suggestion of the Jews, desired the governor of Smyrna that his body should not be delivered to the Christians, lest they should worship him. The Christians of Smyrna,( who have recorded this History), thereupon spake thus for themselves, They know not that we cannot leave Christ, who hath suffered for the salvation of all them that are saved in the world, nor serve any other but him. For as for Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God, we worship him. But as for the Martyrs, we love them worthily, as Disciples and imitators of the Lord. This is a precious jewel of the purest Antiquity. A relic which deserveth more veneration than all the relics idolized in the Roman Church. Ignatius who lived in the year of Christ 140, in his Epistle to the Philadelphians, speaks thus to the Virgins, You Virgins, have Jesus Christ alone before your eyes, and the Father in your prayers. Clemens Alexandrinus, Stromat. Lib. 7. a little later than Ignatius, reasoneth thus, There being but one truly good, which is God, both we and the Angels pray to him alone. Irenaeus who lived about the year of Christ 220, speaks thus: The Church doth nothing by the invocation of Angels, Lib. 2. but purely and simply addresseth her prayers unto God, and calls upon the name of the Lord Jesus. The Council of Laodicea pronounceth Anathema to those that called upon Angels, Can. 35. and declareth them idolaters. In those days, in the year of Christ 368, the invocation of Saints was not yet in fashion, but that of the Angels was, and had begun even in the Apostles time: Col. 2.18. Thus reproved by Saint Paul, Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility, and worshipping of Angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by a fleshly mind. Origines, Contra cells lib. 8. We must pray to God alone, who is above all things. We must pray also to his only Son. Lanctantius: Lib. 2. Instit. divin. cap. 17. Let us worship none, and serve none but only the Godhead of our Maker and Father. Saint Ambrose, or whosoever is the Author of the Commentary upon the Epistle to the Romans put among Ambroses works, disputing against the Pagans, who by the Stars( which they took to be intelligent Creatures) pretended to go to God, as suitors go to the King by Colonels and Governors, styleth that a miserable excuse. Then he addeth, Suitors go to the King by Colonels and Governors, because the King is a man, uncertain to whom he shall trust the Government of the State. But to get the favour of God, to whom nothing is unknown,( for he knoweth what men deserve), there is no need of any to help you with his good word, but only of a devout spirit. For whensoever a man so disposed shall speak to him, he will answer him. A notable Authority, not so much because the Papi●ts themselves have put it among Ambroses works, as for the soundness of the reasoning; which to any reasonable person is most convincing, and confounding the practise of the Invocation of Saints. Since N. N. takes upon him to allege Saint Austin, I will serve him with a Text or two of that excellent Father, to better purpose than that which he citeth, but knoweth not where to find it, and which concerneth not the matter in Question, the Invocation of Saints. De civit Dei. l. 22. c. 10. In the 22 book of the City of God, Chap. 10. Saint Austin compareth thus the service which the Pagans did to their Deified men, Hercules and Romulus, with the celebration which the Christians made of their Martyrs memory. They( meaning the Pagans), have erected Temples and Altars to such gods, and have instituted for them Priests and Sacrifices. But to our Martyrs we build no Temples as to gods, but Monuments as unto dead men. Neither do we erect Altars to sacrifice unto the Martyrs: But to that one God both of the Martyrs and ours, we offer our Sacrifice. And at that Sacrifice, those men of God that have overcome the world in confessing him, are name in their place and order. Yet they are not Invocated by the Priest that makes the Sacrifice. The same Father, in the eighth Book of the City of God, Chap. 27. De civit. Dei. lib. 8. cap. 27. speaks much to the same purpose. Nec tamen nos iisdem Martyribus templa, facerdotia, sacra,& Sacrificia constituimus, quia non ipse said Deus eorum est nobis Deus. We do not( saith he) appoint to the Martyrs, Temples, Priests, Religious Service, and Sacrifices, because they are not our gods; but their God is our God. Upon which, Ludovicus Vives, the Learned Commentator on St. Austin, makes this sad observation, Many Christians in a good thing commonly offend, that they venerate Saints of both sexes no otherwise than God. And in many of them I see no difference between their opinion of their Saints, and that which the Gentiles had of their gods. How different is that Holy Antiquity of the Church from the present practise of the Roman Church, which erecteth Altars to Saints, and over the Altars the Saints Images, and burn Tapers to their honour: And before the Altar there is kneeling, and Invocating of the Saint? As for the Temples bearing the names of Saints, they will say that the Temple is built especially to the Honour of God, and next of the Saint. But by changing the name of Christs Church of Canterbury to that of Saint Thomas( as they had begun to do, a little before the Reformation), they shewed that they had more devotion to Thomas Becket than to Jesus Christ. Whereas then N. N. presseth us with the Authority of the whole Church; we have excepted the ancient Church out of that Universality: And we could descend to lower Ages if need were. But how shall we defend ourselves against that terrible crowd which N. N. raiseth against us, the Universal Church in our Age? By the Church he meaneth the Roman, conceiving no other Church in the World but such as worshippeth the Pope. Whereas it is not the fourth part of the Christian Provinces. For the Greek, the Armenian, the Persian, the Indian, the ethiopic; besides a considerable part of Europe, which hath shaken off the Popes tyranny, and all the oppressed souls that groan under it. These I say, do five or six times exceed the true Romanists in number, as much as the Romanists exceed them in pride: Such a pride, that with N. N. and his Cronies, it is the highest Rebellion to believe and obey the word of God without the interpretation and leave of their Church; which craving superiority over the Word of God, will allow of no Doctrine, and no Interpretation of Scripture, but such as serveth to advance the Grandeur and the Wealth of their Temporal Monarchy. Now of all those Doctrines, none( next to that of Purgatory) worketh more their greatness and lucre than that of the Invocation of Saints, whose merits have founded so many Convents, and enriched so many Abbeys, and of whose Saintship the Pope is the Creator. If in the Roman Church none but God were worshipped and prayed to, as it was in the Primitive Church, the Roman Regular Clergy would be a poor Clergy, and the Secular little better. We are summoned by N. N. to find that praying to Saints is forbidden in Scripture. They cannot find( saith he) one Text in Scripture, that saith in plain terms that prayer to Saints is unlawful, or that it is a fond thing. We can find Texts that say so much in plain terms, though not perhaps in the very terms of his desising. For this is one of the quillets of his party, to frame terms of our Doctrine for us, and then Challenge us to find them expressy in Scripture. If I say after Christ, mat. 4.10. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve; are not these plain terms to prove that prayer to Saints is unlawful? And if I find God deriding those that pray to others than him, and that pray even to the dead for the living, saying, Should not a people seek unto their God? Isa. 8.19. for the living to the dead? is it not saying in plain terms, That for one to pray to another than his God, and to pray to the dead for the living, is a fond thing? All the prayers in the book of Moses, and in the Psalms, and in the Prophets, and in the New Testament, are addressed unto God alone. Which Cardinal Bellarmin considering, saith with a pleasant ingenuity, Bellar. de cultu Sanctorum. cap. 9. That when the Holy Scriptures were written, the custom was not yet to make vows unto the Saints. For that round-dealing the Protestants are much obliged to his Eminence. Let this be taken into serious consideration; The Doctrine, and the attaining of Salvation, was in the Church so many thousands of years without any Invocation of Saints; how is it become the main part of Religion in these last Ages of the World? If they made their addresses to God successfully, without the help of Saints, may we not enjoy the like privilege; now especially, that we have the Son of God manifested and given unto us in the Gospel, for our Mediator between God and men; whereas the Church before him had him but under a veil? Certainly, neither under the Law, nor under the Gospel, have we any Mediator appointed by God to present the Churchers prayers to him, but Christ alone. Whereas then N. N. tells us, Find me a Text of Scripture, saying, that prayer to Saints is unlawful: we say to him, Find us a Text of Scripture where Prayer to Saints, and worship of Saints, be commanded, or allowed, or practised. We find Saint John worshipping an Angel, but we find him also rebuked for it by the Angel. See that thou do it not, Rev. 19.10. for I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren the Prophets, and of them that keep the sayings of this book: Worship God. Saint James bids us to ask in Faith. Asking in Faith, Jam. 1.6. is praying with assurance, that we pray according to the Will and Word of God: for Faith is by the Word of God. Rom. 10.17. If then the Word of God giveth no allowance to your praying to a Saint, How can you pray to him in Faith? Do you believe on that Saint? No doubt but N. N. will say, No. Why then do you pray to him? It is the very Question of Saint Paul, Rom. 10.14. How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? The Apostle( you see) admits not that gradation, I call on the Saint, that the Saint may call for me on him in whom I believe. To that wheeling about by a Saint to God, if you join praying before the Saints Image, and that in a Tongue which the person that prayeth understands not, and turning and telling beads withall; a wise Christian cannot but perceive the Devils design, to puzzle the people Devotion, and bewilder their very senses with out-sides, that amuse the eyes, and buzy the fingers, and employ the memory about the number of Beads, and leave the soul empty. This you may see every day in their Churches and Oratories: A woman on her knees, saying her Pater Noster before an Image of Saint Margaret, a Saint which hardly is in Heaven, for she never lived on Earth. The object of the good Womans Devotion being that of her eyes, it is ten to one that she calls Father the Image of that Female, no Saint, and no where. The Saint and the Image understand her not, and she understands not her own self, her prayer being in Latin. Upon what bottom doth that poor soul fix the Anchor of her Faith in her prayer? All these prodigies of absurdity and irreligion had been avoided, if she had been taught to call plainly upon God through Jesus Christ, in her Mothers Tongue. But can the Patron-Saint of N. N. hear his prayers better than Saint Margaret and her Image? He tells us, that the Angels know mens hearts, and why not the Saints? I have shewed how the Angels may have joy in Heaven at the Conversion of sinners, and make the Saints rejoice with them, without need of that impious supposition, that they know mens hearts. The Papists have much contention among themselves, about the manner how the Saints come to know mens prayers made unto them. Their old supposition was the Gregogorian glass, God himself, in which the Saints by beholding God, behold also all that God beholdeth. A supposition grounded upon this Maxim, That whoso seeth him that seeth all, seeth all himself. But that this Maxim is rejected as false by their own Occam and Aquinas, Greg. de Val. de modo quo Deus cognoscit. Disp. 1. qu. 12. Puncto. 6. Sect. Concesso igitur. we learn of Gregorius de Valentia, who saith, That it is well for the Saints, if they see in God the things that are proper for their happiness. That Glass being broken, they device a second way, which is a Revelation from God to the Saints, of all the requests made to them on earth, that they may present them unto him. So they put that drudgery upon God, to tell to Saint Margaret, the Patroness of Midwifery, So many thousands of Women in Labour pray to thee, that thou wouldst pray to me for their happy deliverance; so much I let thee know, that thou mayst do what they desire of thee: and when thou hast prayed to me for them, I shall advice how far I shall grant it. The like Revelations must be imagined to be made to the Saints, Protectors of the several Provinces and Professions. Indeed as for the Holy Virgin, who is made the Plenipotentiary Mother of Grace, and hath ten times more worship than God( a proportion observed in the Rosary), it may be thought, that without such Revelations she may out of the brightness of her radiant light know, and out of the plenitude of her Motherly power( to which appeal is made even from God) grant or deny all the suits addressed to her, and no need to go further. But howsoever, she hath need to have an unwearied head-piece, Bell. de beat. Sanct l. 1. c. 20. Sect. Alii dicunt. to go through such an infinite crowd of business. Bellarmin seeing what Task this Doctrine puts upon Sai●●s, and upon God himself, saith, That to help men in the point of need at the same time, and in so many distant Countries, no nimbleness can serve the turn, nor any less than true Omnipresence, which is an attribute proper to God. The Holy Virgin having so many businesses in the Court of Heaven, for which the brains of a hundred Lord Chancellors, and all their Officers, would not serve; it is to be wondered at, how she may find leisure for journeys abroad, and sometimes long absence. As when to save the credit of Beatrin a Nun, Caesarius. 7. lib. miracul cap. 35. especially devout to her, she went to her Convent, put on her shape, and filled her place whole fifteen years, while the devout Nun solaced her body in bawdyhouses. It were worth knowing who in those fifteen years filled the Holy Virgins place in Heaven, to answer the infinity of Suits daily sent up unto her Court: for how many might call upon her in that long time that she was not at home? N. N. hath found a way which easeth much the dispatch of Suits addressed to Saints; for he will have the Saints to know the hearts of men. Contrary to that most express Declaration in Solomons prayer in the Consecration of the Temple, an occasion in which he was especially guided by God's Spirit, Thou, 1 Kings 8.39. even thou only knowest the hearts of the children of men. Hath God ceased to be the only knower of hearts, since praying to Saints is come in fashion? Hath God given them the Key of the Locks of mens hearts? May the Saints with that Key unlock a mans heart at any time, and red his mental prayers in his Closet, and in his Bed? What warrant have we from the Word of God, or what ground in reason that God imparts the gift of knowing mens hearts,( which is his most proper and incommunicable attribute) to those whom it pleaseth the Pope to Canonize? It is such a Note above Ela, such a monstrous conceit, as can win no mans belief, that hath not enslaved his conscience, and his very common sense to the Popes and his Clergys worldly interest. To reconcile such extravagancies with reason, they run into such fictions and wild suppositions, as turn Religion to a Chimera, and open a wide gap to Atheism. No better was to be expected of men intruding themselves into things they have not seen, Col. 2.8. vainly puffed up with their fleshly mind. That way men came to Worship Angels, as we learn of Saint Paul; The same way also they came to Worship Saints. Let every Christian that finds himself bound by the first and great Commandment, Thou shalt have no other Gods before me, beware of making religious addresses to others than God. Whosoever prayeth to any other, and makes a Sacrifice of his heart to a Saint or an Angel, makes another god to himself than God, and before his face, who is jealous of his glory. It is the worst imprudence to provoke his jealousy. And those shall feel it in this world, or in the next, that bestow upon another the homage and honour due to God alone. Say not, I worship the Saints with an inferior worship: So did the Idolatrous Jews worship the Baalim, who were the Saints of those days, men Deified( as bad as canonised) after their death. And they worshipped the Lord too. But the Lord scorned then, and so doth now, to have any partner in the Devotions of his Creatures. He will have all their worship, all to himself alone. No doubt but that Saint John intended not the highest worship to the Angel when he fell down before him, Yet the Angel rebuked him for it, and bad him Worship God. When all is said in all consultations, every wise man will take that course which is without exception: Such is the address unto God by the Mediation of his Son. The contending-parties agree upon that. Let us stand to that, and do it sincerely and carefully, we shall never be confounded. And whereas it is the Devils perpetual design to diminish the Service and Glory of God, every wise Christian will avoid those new Channels cut for mens Devotion, the services to the several Saints, seeing how thereby the Service and Glory due to God is shared between God and the Creature; and that the Creature hath got the greater share in all places where Popery reigneth. N.N. allegeth out of Saint Ambrose, that miracles were wrought by the relics of Geroase and Protase Martyrs. But Ambrose saith not that they were worshipped and prayed to. The miracles were done at, not by the relics, but by God who would grace the memory of those that had suffered for his truth. He, not the Saints, not their relics, must be glorified for that mercy. He acknowledgeth that the Protestants follow the authority of the Universal Church in many things, and why not in the Invocation of Saints? taking it for granted, That the Invocation of Saints hath the warrant of the authority of the ancient Universal Church, which we deny: And I have shewed that the Universal Church in her primitive purity was against it. For the Church of Rome to bear her self now for Universal, it is a senseless pride, she being none of the greatest limbs of it, and the impurest of all. But though she were what she styleth her self, Universal; In points of Religion, it is not the multitude of the professors, but the truth of the Doctrine, Exod. 23.2. that must have the casting-voice. Thou shalt not follow the multitude to do evil. I will not forgive to N. N. his excursions out of his subject. He falls foul upon poor John Calvin, whom he sets forth as stigmatized for a Villain. Those that have more interest in him than we, have sufficiently confuted that slander against his morals. And as for his Doctrinals, the Jesuit Sanctius hath been his Champion, for he hath faithfully translated his Comment upon Isaiah, out of that of Calvin. But N. N. slandereth us with saying that the truth which we maintain, was unknown to the world till it was discovered by Calvin: Whereas the Church of England had Martyrs for the truth which we profess, in Henry the VIII his time, ten years before the name of Calvin was known in England: yea, two hundred years before. Neither was our Church reformed upon Calvins form. Nay, he was much posterior to the Reformation in France. Of which, they that have sought the beginning, are come short of it, if they have taken no notice that those which embraced that Profession in the large Provinces, between the Pyrenees and the Alps, as soon as they heard it countenanced in Germany, were the posterity of the Albigenses, of whom Saint Dominick and his Zealots had butchered twelve hundred thousand, three hundred years before, for the same Holy Truth. A Truth, which being suppressed by the sword, had left such roots in the posterity, that it filled the land with its sprigs as soon as it met with encouragement. The Albigenses were called, in contempt by their enemies, Pauperis de Lugduno, the poor men of lions, or the Leonists, though they were a powerful party, maintained by Raymond Count of Toulouse, a potent Prince, and even by the King of Arragon. Let the enemies of their memory take this account of them from that sworn enemy Rainerius, their cruel Inquisitor, Rainerius contra Valdenses, cap. 4. who made bonfires of them; who yet had been one of them, and therefore had an experimental knowledge of the men and their communication. The Leonists( saith he) are the most pernicious Sect of all Sects, that are or ever have been; and that for three causes: The first, because they are of the longest standing; for some say that they have continued ever since Pope Sylvester; Others say, from the time of the Apostles. The second, because it is more general than any Sect, for there is no land in which they are not. The third cause is, that whereas all other Sects, by the horridness of their blasphemies against God, strike horror into those that hear them, This Sect of the Leonists hath the face of piety, in that they led a righteous life, and believe all things well of God: Only they blaspheme the Church of Rome. Antonius Sonensis, cited by Gretserus in his Prolegomena to the Bibliotheca Patrum, saith, That this Rainerius lived A. D. 1254, a man of great Learning, and formerly a Bishop among the heretics; but afterwards he le●t them, and became a severe Inquisitor in Lombardy. If then above 400 years ago they were of great Antiquity, their Doctrine ought not to be taxed of Novelty in our days, now their Doctrine is ours, in the main points, as we may justify by their Confessions, which we have. Sigonius finds them in Milan, Anno 1056, under the name of Patavini. He might have found them in Jerusalem, in the Apostles time, under the name of Christians. This will seem a strange Narrative to N. N. who in his Seminary was bread in that ignorant belief, that the whole Church of God, and the whole Christian world, for sixteen hundred years, held immutably the same tenets as the Roman Church holdeth now. Let him learn of his Bishop Fisher, that many Doctrines, now of principal importance in the Roman Church, Roffens. Luther Consut. Art. 18. are of no very old date. Of Purgatory( saith he) in the ancient Fathers there is no mention at all, or very rare. The Latins did not at once, but by little and little receive it. The Grecians believe it not to this day. And Purgatory being so long unknown, it is not to be marveled, that in the first times of the Church there was no use of Indulgences; for they had their beginning after that men had a while been scared with the torments of Purgatory. For our part we join with the Roman Church in all the primitive Doctrine; And dissent in nothing from them, but where we must need say, In the beginning it was not so. N. N. is very bitter against our Reformers, and brands them with villainy and Rebellion against their Superiors and lawful Pastors. I will not counterscold his scolding, but pass by these Romish civilities which he learned in the Seminary. I will but tell him, that before he indite us of Rebellion for shaking off the Popes heavy voke from our neck, he must prove that the Pope is our lawful Pastor and Superior: And when he hath proved that, he must proceed to prove that Christ by saying to Saint Peter, feed my sheep, gave power to the Pope to tread upon the necks of Kings, and exercise over their sacred persons, their revenues, and the purses and consciences of their Subjects, that horrible Tyranny under which poor England hath groaned so many ages. Blessed be God who hath given to the Kings and Kingdom of England that wisdom and courage to come out of spiritual and secular bondage, and to enjoy the benefit of Christs promise, You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. But I will not part with N. N. till I have payed him his fees for calling our Doctors cheaters, and our Religion a cheat. Whereas it will be found upon sober consideration, that he and his mates have been our Godfathers, by giving us their own names. And that since the world was created, never was such a mystery of cheating as the Papal Monarchy, and the Romish Religion. Look over the whole body, and all the parts of Christian Religion, and see whether any parcel of it was by them left sound, that could be screwed to feed the ambition and the Covetousness of the Clergy. It goeth well with the points of the Trinity, and of the two Natures in the Person of Christ, that there is nothing to be got by all the Pro's and Con's of those Controversies which have distracted the ancient Church so many hundreds of years. Pope Julius got once much credit to his person and See, by standing firm for Saint Athanasius, and the Nicene Creed. But it is now above 900 years since the Roman See hath turned them out of doors. Let Protestants confute Arians and Pelagians if they will; The Roman Doctors look upon those debates unconcernedly. Something they have said of them in their Common places; but in the emergent Contradictions, they are silent. Why? they are {αβγδ}, They bring no grist to their Mill. They are not so demure in the points of Justification, and the virtue of Christs merit. We learn of Saint Paul, Rom. 5.1. that being justified by Faith, we have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. That power of Faith is the great comfort of the Christian, but the great discomfort of the Roman Merchants, of the remission of sins; for if by Faith we be justified, and have peace with God, we need not go to the Jubilee, nor give money for human satisfactions to buy that peace. That Text doth so gravel the Jesuit Cornelius a Lapide, that he makes upon it this gloss, Lapide come. in hunc locum. which contradicteth the Text. This peace( saith he) is the tranquillity, serenity and confidence of a righteous and good conscience, not out of a certainty of divine Faith, by which a man most certainly believeth that his sins are remitted, as the novelists( meaning the Protestants) will have it; but out of conjectures and signs, which breed a kind of moral certainty. We say not that there is no Faith, when there is not in a man a most certain confidence of the remission of his sins. But every Christian ought to have a most certain confidence, that there is no way for him to have remission of sins, and peace with God, but through Christ. Such a Divine Confidence doth not please this Jesuit. He alloweth not to his Disciples a Divine Faith, grounded upon the Love of God, and the Merit of Christ, but a kind of moral certainty upon signs and conjectures. Is it not plain, that his end is to sand men unsatisfied from Christ, of whom, by their private Faith, they may get a comfort but of a kind of moral certainty; and to make them go to the Pope, who hath the plenitude of the Merits both of Christ, and of the Saints and Monks, in his disposition; and to the Shops of Indulgences, where every man may get paradise for his money? To the same purpose is the Doctrine, that Christ by his Death and Merit hath taken away the guilt of sin, but not the punishment: That God hath forgiven sinners the sin, but they must suffer for it, unless they compound for it with the Church. Rare nonsense! yet such as persuadeth men, cunning enough for the World, but frighted out of their wits by the pangs of an evil Conscience, to part with real money and land to avoid the imaginary fire of Purgatory; running at the same time into the real torments of hell by their wicked life. But because now adays fewer will be cheated out of their Land than in old time; and persons of quality are often short of money, the Pardon-mongers will compound with such Customers at easy rates, rather than lose their Custom. The English, and Irish especially, are courted with large Pardons, and easy Penances, to buy their firm adherence to the Holy See. Whereas, if we look up to the dark Ages of our Fore-fathers, in which the Church grew rich, you will wonder what incredible wealth was got by that gross cheat of Purgatory. How dull sinners, terrified with their crimes, founded so many rich Monasteries, and gave so much Land to the Abbeys to pray for their Souls, that the Clergy is become formidable to Princes by their wealth and power; and by that numerous and rich Clergy, who all acknowledge the Pope for their head, the Pope hath a mighty party in all States, kept at the charges of the Princes and people whom they tyramnize over. A party ready to assist him at all occasions of need, so that he needs not to pay Armies or garrisons. In all Countries, where Popery hath the upper-hand, doth not the Pope cheat the sovereigns of great part of their Native Subjects, who being entred into the Clergy, claim exemption from the Secular powers, depend on the Popes Courts, and pay him Annates and Tributes? The greatest cheat of all, and which hath raised the greatest storms in Europe, is the abuse of the power of the Keys. Not so much by teaching those Keys to open Chests( which they have done to some purpose), as by justling with those Keys against the Imperial Swords. With those Keys the Popes have knocked down the Crown of the Kings of Italy of the Race of charlemain. With those Keys they have so battered the Emperors Crown, that they made him loose his large. Territories in Italy; and so broken to pieces his German Crown, that there is scarce one left which he may call absolutely his own. And yet( O the cheating witchcraft of the Roman See) no Prince hath more Devotion to it than the Emperor, who is a main prop of the Empire of the destroyer of his! Of the horrible Cheats and Tyranny of the Popes in England, whereby they have unking'd our Kings, and fetched many times more money out of England than they left in it, two Monks, Matthew Paris, and Matthew of Westminster, have left a large account to the World. The Popes Revenue at home, being about two Millions yearly; it were easy, but too long, to prove by the Histories now extant, that he got his principalities by fraud and oppression. His Revenue out of the Clergy depends much upon that his Clergy gets. The Pope furnisheth them with the Nets of Indulgences to catch the prey, and those, are various, and often change garb; for as the peoples Devotion to old Saints is cooling, he reneweth Indulgences for new ones; for which, he never wanteth the Warrant of Revelations, Miracles, and Visions of Holy Votaries. Great sums are got by those new Indulgences. At the publishing of one of them, the Cordeliers of Orleans caught four thousand Crowns at one draft. They have bowed Gods Commandments to their own profit and conveniency. Finding it less gainful for their Trade, to make the people to worship God alone, than to make them worship others with him; because the people love variety, and multitude of Saints giveth occasion for multitude of Indulgences, they have fitted the public Devotions to the peoples humour, and their own gain. For their own gain, they have left out the second precept against Images out of their Catechism: Finding that men( such is their weakness) love to see what they worship, and are apt to say, Exod. 32.2. Make us Gods that may go before us: they have humoured them, and amused their eyes with Images, relics, Beads, Agnus Dei's, and multitude of holy Trinkets. They have strengthened the adoration of Images, with miracles and Indulgences. What treasures they have got by the Images of greater credit, is past reckoning. Some Kingdoms yield a less revenue to their King than the Image of Lauretta brings to the Monks, and to the Pope at the secondhand. Now, because the people would be saved, but are loathe to leave their sins to get paradise, and to sadden their jollity with Devotion and Austerity, several Orders of friars, which multiply daily, have taken upon themselves to be Holy, Strict, Devout and Austere for the Gallants, who cannot in thankfulness but give them good Fees for it; whereby Mendicant friars are become rich Societies. Their great Harvest is, when a great Noble-man, or a rich Widow lie on their death-bed. Then the hatred of the Regular Clergy against the Secular, and the envy of the several Orders of friars among themselves, and the cheating and gripping of them all, is most odiously evident. The Parish-Priest, as the Pastor, will have the governing of his Parishioners conscience. But while he is about it, friars of several Orders, all richly gifted with impudence, will crowd in, and thrust out both him and one another with violence. Some have singular indulgences for departing souls. Others have yet a more compendious way to Heaven. All provided with some toys of relics for the Patient to kiss. If one have a piece of the wood of the Virgin Mary's Cradle, another will bring forth a rag dipped in Saint Francis his blood, when he received the stigmats; another a great Tooth of Saint Apollonia. And in stead of preparing the dying Patient to a better world, they will thwart one another with high and foul words, and the sick party in that extremity is torn by Vultures, miserable comforters. The way of Salvation offered to him by each Order, is to endow their Convent bountifully, that his Soul may be prayed for. But the Jesuits commonly will out-wit them all, applying themselves to great persons before they be sick, sticking to them, and keeping out all others in their last sickness; whereby they have hooked in great inheritances, to the exclusion of the right heirs. Then the Obits or Services for the dead yield to them, and to the Parish Priest, a considerable revenue. He that dying leaveth nothing to the Church, is cried down by them as damned. The History is known of the Prevosts of Orleans Wife; at whose death, her Husband allowed no Legacy to the Church, which was so ill resented by the Cordeliers, that they appointed one of their Convent to creep between the ceiling and the Roof of their Church, and there to bustle, and skreek, and howl. At which all the City being frighted, as if the Church were haunted by the Devil, and flocking to the place, the Spirit was conjured, by an Exorcist, to speak what he was, and what he would have. Then the Spirit spake, She was the soul of the Prevosts wife, for whose health nothing was given to the Church; and that for want of the prayers of the Church she was in horrible Torment. But the Prevost, a stout man, got the matter so well preached, that the Imposture was found out, and the Impostors whipped and stigmatized, without respect to their cowls, and the indempnities of their Order. The like Imposture was acted, and discovered at Bearn, by the Dominicans, An. 1507, and that discovery made way for the Reformation, which followed soon after in that Canton. But they have learned since to cheat more cautiously. As the Clergy thriveth by the simpleness of the people, so the Pope thriveth by the cheats of the Clergy, and by their errors in it. He useth those Religious Houses as Sponges to drink what juice they can from the people, that afterwards he may wring them out. The multiplication of Holy days, is one of the great cheats of the Papal Clergy to increase their wealth. For upon those days the Shops of the Laity are shut up, and those of the Clergy open; and in all those days Pardons may be had in some Church or Convent. But these Arts do not speed alike in all places. They have not been lucky to the King of Spains Dominions in the Low-Countries. For it is observed that his Cities that join upon the United Provinces, are thin of inhabitants, because the holidays, upon which Shop-keepers must not sell, and handicrafts-men must not work, being now well-nigh as many as the worky-days; those men that live by their daily Labour and Trading, were easily persuaded to remove to the Neighbouring-Towns, where they may Trade and work all the days of the week but Sundays; and withal, be freed of the pinching of friars and Priests upon the living and the dead; for they have infinite tricks to hook in the money of the Laity. A place that hath multitude of that Clergy, shall never grow rich. In our memory, Charles Gonzaga, Duke of Nevers, built a City, which by his Name he called Charleville, in a little sovereignty of his, near the Frontiers of lorraine. His first buildings in it were a House for the Jesuits, and a Convent of Capucins. This made some judicious men to foretell, that the Town was no more like to grow rich, than a Fish-pond to be well stored with Fish, when pikes are put into it before the Carps. And the Prognostication hath proved true. Where the Clergy is rich, the Pope gets great booties by visiting them. pus the V. under pretence of visiting and reforming the Clergy, drew fourteen Millions from the Clergy of Spain; for which, he was complained of to the Council of that Kingdom. Of later date, Memorial de Magest. Catholica. the King of Spain himself published a Book of Expostulations against the Court of Rome, for their cruel exactions upon the Spanish Clergy. He representeth that the Pope imposed Pensions upon benefice, even those that had cure of souls, in favour of strangers, in an excessive proportion, even to the third part of the full value. That the Fees of his Court were so great, that they were a sufficient punishment for a grievous crime. That a rich Clergy-man could no sooner fall sick, but the Popes Collectors were gaping about him for his goods, and set guards about his house, because the Pope did challenge and usurp for himself, at the death of Clergy-men, all their estates that were raised out of the revenues of the Church. That by this means, Bishops had not left, before they were dead, a Candlestick, or a Cup to drink in: yea, that they have been disserted upon their death-beds, and famished for want of meat to eat. So they deserved to be used, that had bound themselves slaves to such an ill Master. To these join the account which the excellent Convert, True catholic apostolic faith, l. 1. p. 85. Dr. Andrew Sall, giveth of the monstrous exactions of the Datory Office, by which Paul the V had scraped up from the Clergy twenty hundred thousand scutes, taking for the sale of benefice five years Pension before-hand; which is selling at the rate of 30 in the 100, besides the Clergy-mans personal service. And selling for those benefice Coadjutorships, with assurance of future succession after his death, to whom the purchaser was made Coadjutor; making him pay one years profit for the expediting and Fees of the Bull. Add to these, Item, For the Pall of an Archbishop, 20000 Ducats. Item, For a Licence to mary in a degree allowed by God, but disallowed by the Church, 14000 Ducats. Item, For a Prince to mary his Aunt; A sum not to be told. Item, So much for another to mary two Sisters. Item, So much for Legitimating a Bastard-issue. Item, So much for Dispensing a Prince from keeping his Oaths. O that bottonles gulf of iniquity, covetousness, and fraud! those depths of Satan! I presume not to dive to the bottom of them. But some of them are so evident, Tit. 9. de elect. in Secto. cap. Fundamenta. Theodoric. a Nihem. Tract. 6. cap 37. Miram est quantum ista de Christo fabula nobis affuleritemolument. that even the Glossaries of the Decretals made bold to say, Roma a praedonibus fundata ad huc de primordiis retinet. Rome founded by thieves, still retaineth the genius of her Origine. And even a Secretary of the Popes, saith, That the apostolic Chamber is like the Sea, into which all Rivers flow, and never make it overflow: for streams of Gold from all parts ran into it by thousands, yet it is never full. There is in it a Generation whose teeth are swords. Sure those Italian Gentlemen, being much of lo the X's Religion, declared by him to Cardinal Bembo, laugh among themselves, seeing the Wealth of Nations streaming amain into their lap, by the brutish zeal of the people, Tributary to their craft. And I presume, that from thence the Italians have got that pride, to call all nations but their own, bestias, because they have gulled them, to work the wealth and grandeur of Italy by their brutality. That the Election of Popes may be suitable to their behaviour; there is not one Pope in twenty that comes not in by Cheat and Simony; and scarce one Cardinal that sells not his voice. Of that, the Histories are full, and the ordinary practise justifieth it. These foul practices, making( by their own Laws) the Election voided; An Exact and Learned pen of a Roman catholic, hath proved by clear evidences, that none of the Bishops or Popes, who usurped that See since Gregory the XIII, was a lawful Bishop. The Treatise written upon this Subject in Latin, was addressed to the Emperor, and all the Kings and Princes of the Christian world, and presented to the most Excellent King James, who caused it to be printed. Nine years after, it was printed in English, A. D. 1622. It was a supplication to all those Princes, to call a General Council against him that usurped the Papal Chair, Paul the V. Unto this day the book was not answered by any that we know. A clear proof that they wanted means to gain-say the truth of it. Of that Treatise, the Learned and faithful Convert, Dr. Sall, giveth a full account in his late Book of the catholic and apostolic Faith maintained in England; 1. Book. cap. 9. in which he fully discovereth the horrible collusions and foul practices in those Elections; and proveth that Sixtus the V, Clement the VIII, and Paul the V, were no Popes, and the Cardinals made by them no Cardinals, and had no power to Elect Popes. And what are now the Popes Elected by such Cardinals? What shall the Popes be that are to come, having no warrant for their Authority but that succession? Upon that rotten thread hangs the Headship of the pretended Vicar of Christ, and the Infallibility of the Roman Chair. Blessed be God, that our Faith stands upon a better pillar and ground of truth than that See, in which Satan can claim so much right, both because it is obtained, and because it is maintained by his Arts. Leaving the Grandees alone; what are you, Sir, N. N. who take upon you to upbraid our Divines with Cheating, but an arrant Cheater? This I will prove by yours, and your fellow-Priests practise. If two bring Jewels to sell to a Lady, and the one desire her ladyship to get her Jewels seen and tried by Jewellers before she buy them; and the other will not part with them, unless the Lady bind her self by a strict Covenant with him to keep them close, and let none of them that deal in Jewels see any of them: I pray, which of the two is the likelier to prove a Cheater? This is the case between you and me. I desire to have the Doctrine which I set forth, tried by friends and foes, by the light of Gods word, and in the sight of the World. But you forbid those whose conscience you take upon you to govern, to let any but yourself and your confederates to know what Doctrine and what Devotions you impose upon them. To all books but yours, you make them blind. To all discourses but yours you make them deaf. Is it not because you fear that the light of Gods word should open their eyes, and let them see the unsoundness of your wears? Well, when you have brought them to subjection, what food do you give to their souls? Not the holy Scripture, a dangerous, a forbidden book, because it hath made many heretics, or at least hath alienated many from your Church: Dr. Sall p. 86. of the first book of the catholic Faith, &c. And( as he telleth you, that was lately one of yours) you permit them not to know more than their beads, or some small prayer-book, with the litanies of the conception, or Saint Josephs Sarata Teresa, &c. and a list of great Indulgences for very small Devotions. You admit them to the fraternity of the Rosary, and perhaps of other Societies, whereby they get a share in all their merits, though they will have no share in their Austerities: but they must pay for it; for that partnership in the merits of holy Votaries, is only manus porrigentibus adjutrices, for those that help the catholic party with money, either to sand to Convents beyond the Sea, or to maintain Priests and friars at home, or to keep in a common stock for emergent occasions, of setting up the Pope in England again, though by the ruin of King and Kingdom. You give to your Disciples false notions of our Religion: That it began by Luther, and never was heard of before. That all the Primitive Church, and the whole Christian world in our days, are against it. That we are all for faith, and reject good works. That we despise the Fathers of the Church, hate Saints, and revile the Virgin Mary. For points of Doctrine you require no more of your Disciples, but to believe what the Church believeth, never enquiring what the Church believeth; and to repose themselves absolutely upon their Pastors faith, who must believe for them what they should believe. By that way a man is a believer in the great, but an unbeliever in retail; and blindness and ignorance is pretended to be a Christian profession. Hear the example recommended by that great pillar of Popery, Gregorius de Valentia, for all Christians to follow. He highly praiseth a Merchant of Placentia, Analisi de Ecclesia, p 205. reasoning in this manner: I am resolved to embrace, rather the Papal than the Lutheran Religion; especially, because in the Papal I may learn the truth with little ado; what the Pope affirmeth, I will affirm; what the Pope denieth, I will deny; if he will say more, I will assent to more. Whereas, if I will turn Lutheran, I must learn a Catechism, and search the Scripture, which I cannot do; when I should rather look to my Italian Ships, and take care to get foreign wears. And he addeth again, Pag. 207. That God in his terrible judgement shall have nothing at all to say against that man. Such is the Roman faith, thus described by Cardinal Bellarmin, Fides melius per ignorantiam quam per notitiam definitur. Lib. 1. de Justificave, cap. 7. The definition of faith is better made by ignorance than by knowledge. Ignorance is the strong and main Bulwark of the Roman Religion, which therefore is defended with the utmost care and obstinacy. For if all that bear the name of Christians, did but know and believe, That God will be alone worshipped and prayed to; that the blood of Christ doth cleanse us from all sin; that there is no salvation in any other, and none other name under Heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved: down would fall the lucrative Invocation of Saints, the foul merchandise of Indulgences, and the treasure of human satisfactions. The fire of Purgatory would go out: No more Pilgrimage and Jubilees; for who would travail a thousand miles to fetch the remission of sins, if he may find it at home in Gods word, and obtain it by a lively saith, upon an humble repentance, and a serious Conversion? Then also Capucins would give over whipping themselves for the sins of others; and their Chapmen would leave buying that which the sellers cannot deliver. Then also Christians, finding no help in the Invocation of Saints, much less would seek it in the service of their Images, but would cast away their Images to the Moles and to the Bats. Isa. 2.20. But then, what would be left to feed the pride of the Pope, and the belly of the Monks? These being fed by the ignorance of the people, and the cheating of the Clergy, it belongs to your Trade, Sir, diligently to cheat your Disciples to ignorance, Saint Ignorance, precious Ignorance, your bountiful Nurse. And you do it with your most earnest endeavour, keeping out very far from your Disciples those truths which are so ruinous to your cause. But there is one point,( you wish it were a truth) in which you ground your Disciples with great care; That the Pope is the sovereign of England and Ireland, both for the Spiritual and the Temporal. This is the main point of Religion with the English roman-catholics; this is the point for which Thomas Becket suffered Martyrdom; this is the point for which the powder-Traitors plotted that Treason, and for which they suffered; this is the point for which the Irish Massacred two hundred thousand Protestants, to begin a War, in which the Popes Standard was set up; this is the point for which Cardinal Barbarini was so severe against those English and Irish Lords, who had so much forgotten their first faith, as to swear Fidelity to their King. What more? this is the point which the formidable faculty of the louvain Divines, asserted by an express Declaration sent abroad to show their zeal and folly. Certainly, this is the only point of which his Holiness is sensible. Two Popes have made this good, having offered to Queen Elizabeth to confirm the Reformation of England, and our book of public service, if her Majesty would but have taken it from them, and acknowledged the Popes power. And this is the point for which so many Emissaries are sent from Rome into England, N. N. one of them, who cannot in conscience deny that this was the chief point of his instructions from his Superiors, to labour most earnestly to reduce the English to the Obedience of the See of Rome. I summon him to Obedience to a greater Superior, and Exhort him, both by the Compassions of God, which I hearty wish to him, and by the terror of his Judgments to obdurate sinners in their wilful blindness; That he weigh with impartiality the truths contained in this discourse, the untruths which he is employed to maintain, and the foul dealings of his pary, which likely he knew not before. Let him open his eyes, and behold, How from the sole of the foot, even unto the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds, Isa. 1.6. and bruises, and putrefying sores. Under the name of the Church of Christ, the Synagogue of Satan, and the pride of Babylon, maintained by all the wicked arts of gripping, and Imposture of her Agents, and by the stupidity and ignorance of the World, now so tamed to be cheated, that they take them for their enemies that lay open the truth of God before them, that they may not run blindfolded into perdition. Christ who hath purchased a Church to himself by his blood, preserve the oppressed remains of Christianity, which we still acknowledge among the general Corruption. FINIS Books Printed for, and sold by H. broom, since the dreadful Fire of London, 1666, to 1677. Divinity. DR. Heylin on the Creed, fol. Bishop Taylor's Cases of Conscience, fol. — His Polemical Discourses, fol. Mr. Cumber's Companion to the Temple, being a Paraphrase on the Common-Prayer. Bishop Wilkin's Principles and Duties of Natural Religion. Bishop Cosen's Devotions. Mr. Fowler's Design of Christianity. Dr. Patrick's Witnesses to Christianity, in two Vol. Holy Anthems of the Church. The Saints Legacies. The Reformed Monastery, or the Love of Jesus. Bona's Guide to Eternity. Sermons. Dean lloyds two Sermons at Court. Dr. Sprat's Sermon at Court. Bishop Lany's Sermon at Court. Mr. Sayer's Assize-Sermon. Mr. Naylor's Con. Sermon for Col. Cavendish. Mr. Standish's Sermon at Court. Dr. Duport's three Sermons on May 29th, Novemb. 5th, Jan. 30th. Dr. Du Moulin's two Sermons on Novemb. 5th. — His Sermon at the Funeral of Dr. Turner. Histories. The Life of the great Duke of Espernon, being the History of the Civil Wars of France, beginning 1598, where D'Avila leaves off, and ending in 1642. by Charles Cotton Esq; The Commentary of M. Bluiz. de Montluc, the great Favourite of France, in which are contained all the sieges, Battels, Skirmishes, in Three Kings Reigns, by Charles Cotton Esq; Mr. Rycaut's History of turkey, with 80 Copper cuts. The History of the Three last Grand signors, their Sultana's and Chief Favourites, englished by John Evelin Esq; The History of Don Quixot, fol. Bishop Wilkin's Real Character, fol. Bishop Cosens against Transubstantiation. Dr. Guidot's History of Bathe, and of the Hot Waters there. Domus Carthusiana, or the History of the most Noble Foundation of the Charter-House in London, with the Life and Death of Tho. Sutton Esq; The History of the Sevorites, a Nation inhabiting part of the third Continent, with their Government, Religion, Custom and Language. physic. Dr. Glisson de Ventriculo& Intestinis. — De Vita Naturae. Dr. Barbar's practise, with Dr. Decker's Notes. Sir Ken. Dygby's Excellent Receipts in physic, chirurgery and Cookery. The Anatomy of the Elder three, with its approved virtue. Mescellanies. Dr. Skinner's Lexicon. History of the Irish Remonstrance. The Planters Manual. Treatise of Human Reason. The complete Gamester. Toleration discussed, by R. L'Estrange Esq; Englands Improvement, by R. cook Esq; Leyburn's Arith. Recreations. Geographical Cards describing all parts of the World. And a Geographical Dictionary. School-Books. Screvelius Lexicon in Quarto. Centum Fabulae, in Octavo. Nolens Volens, or you shall make latin. Radyns Rudimenta Artis Oratoriae. Pools Parnassus. The Scholars Guide from the Accidence to the University. Erasmus Coll. English. Lipsius of Constancy, English. Controversies. Considerations touching the true way to suppress Popery; to which is added an Historical account of the Reformation here in England. Lex Talionis, being an Answer to Naked Truth. The Papists Apology answered. A Seasonable Discourse against Popery. — The Defence of it. The difference between the Church and Court of Rome. Take heed of both extremes, Popery and Presbytery, by Mr. Bolew. Dr. Du Moulin against the Lord Castlemain. — Against Papal Tyranny. Fourteen Controversal Letters against Popery. Papists no catholics. Popery no Christianity. Mr. Gataker against the Papists. Origo Protestantium: Or an answer to a Popish Manuscript( of N. N's) Friendly and seasonable Advice to the roman-catholics of England, the second Edition Enlarged.