There are other things yet, if it be possible, of a higher abomina- tion, to deter all sober persons from touching with this guide, than those already insisted on. And such they are as the present contri- vances and practices of our adversaries do unavoidably compel us to plead in this cause, and are in themselves sufficient for ever to divest that church of this great and gainful pretence of being the only guide of all men in religion. For, —
Fifthly, Consider what it is wherein they instruct many of them who betake themselves unto their conduct and guidance, — I mean of the agents for and in the name of the church of Rome. The first thing which they labour to fix on tlieir minds and consciences is ab- solute obedience unto their immediate guides, with a blind belief of what they propose unto them ; and this they prevail on them unto by assuming a twofold authority unto themselves. 1. And the first is, that oi forgiving them all their sins, though against the light of nature and of their own consciences, which they confess unto them;
610 THE CHURCH OF ROME NO SAFE GUIDE.
and this confession they are obliged unto under pain of damnation. Some things, indeed, they do require of them in order unto a parti- cipation of jDriestly absokition, but they are all in the power of the priest to prescribe, decline, or accept; which latter they will not be uneasy unto when it conduceth unto their advantage. The issue is, that in this pardon of their sins the souls of men may as safely acquiesce as if they were immediately pardoned by Christ himself And if they have occasion, for the advantage of the Catholic cause, to put them on things that are openly sinful, as murder and sedi- tion, either by virtue of the direction, guidance, and commands of the priests, they lose their nature and become no sins at all, or they are so assured of pardon as puts them, in their consciences, into as good a state and condition as if they had not sinned. And, — 2. They assume unto themselves an authority to grant especial pri- vileges and rewards, in heaven and earth, to the doing of what they command or require, whatever it be. As unto the earth, so many prayers, so many masses, shall be assigned unto their advantage ; and in some cases canonization, with all the glorious privileges of it. And as unto heaven, what they so do shall have such a proportion of merit as shall exalt them unto the second, third, or fourth place of prece- dency and honour therein among all the holy martyi'S, It is incredible what power and dominion over the consciences of their proseljrtes they obtain by these means, "vvith other artifices of the like nature. Hence many of them know of no other dependence on any, as unto present peace and eternal blessedness, than that on the priests alone. Woful practices do follow on these principles : for the minds of men being thus prepared, they dispose of them unto such occasions or services, for the interest of the Catholic cause, as their own nature, inclinations, the fierceness or softness of their tempers, their outward greatness, power, and wealth, or their straits, wants, and necessities, render them meet unto; for now they are ready for such things, which, if they had not relinquished the care and charge of their own souls, if they had not absolutely resigned them unto others, they would never have entertained a thought of without detestation and abhoiTency. Poor deluded creatures! who could sufiiciently bewail their condition, but that, for the most part, through the love of sin and the wages of it, they choose these delusions? Some now shall fire cities ; some shall murder innocent persons ; some shall assassinate kings and potentates ; some shall creep into houses and lead captive silly women, laden with sins, led about with divers lusts; and some shall prostitute themselves unto the carnal lusts and pleasures of others ;— all, as they judge, conducing unto the Catholic cause, and their own interest therein ! These are they who must answer, not only for the blood of them that are murdered, but of their mur-
THE RESULT OF ITS PRINCIPLES. 511
derers also. I heartily wish these things were not so, that they never had been so ; but, being so, it is well that they are known so to be, and that they are written in such legible characters in most nations of Europe, especially in this wherein we live, as that he who runs may read them. I shall not descend unto particular instances ; every one's mind and thoughts will suggest them unto them, or they may learn them in Westminster Hall.
It will be said, that on a supposition that these things are so, yet this is the crime of but a few, it may be of a few Jesuits, which others, especially the church, is not concerned in. They are but a feiv who teach and instruct their converts unto such purposes, — but a few that are possessed with those maxims and priuciiDles which lead unto these practices. Notwithstanding their miscarriages, the church itself may be a safe giude unto the souls of men.
I answer two things: — 1. That those who have these principles, who teach these practices, are all of them appointed unto their office and work, imposed on the consciences of men as their only guides, by the authority of the church itself No caution is given by it against them, — no rule prescribed whereby they may know them ; but they come all armed with the authority of the church, and as such are received by their credulous followers. The whole, therefore, of what they do may justly be ascribed unto the church itself 2. It may be made to appear that, for about a hundred and fifty years past, no plot, no design, hath been conceived or perpetrated, wherein kings, princes, private persons were to be murdered or destroyed, wherein nations were to be embroiled in blood and confusion, in order unto the promotion of the Catholic cause, but the church itself was either the contriver or approver of it. Who approved of the murder of the two kings in France, one after another 1 of the massacre there of a hundred thousand Protestants ? Who desimed and blessed all preparations for the murder of Queen Elizabeth, with the unjust invasion of the nation in '88 V' Who blessed and protected, what in them lay, the horrible massacre of Ireland, with the slaughters that have been made in other places on the same princi- ples ? Was it a few Jesuits only ? was it not the church itself, in its head the pope, and its horns the cardinals at Eome ?