some at fifty pieces of eight, about 117. of our money; and this to be valued according to the ability of the purchaser, once in two years: all are obliged to buy them against Lent. Besides the account given of this in the cruising voyage, I have a particular attestation of it by captain Dampier; and one of the bulls was brought me printed, but so that it cannot be read. He was not concerned in casting up the number of them; but he says, that there was such a vast quantity of them, that they careened their ship with them. As for any changes that may be made in popery, it is certain, infallibility is their basis; so nothing can be altered where a decision is once made. And as for the treatment of heretics, there has been such a scene of cruelty of late opened in France, and continued there now almost thirty years without intermission, that even in the kingdom where popery has affected to put the best face on things possible, we have seen a cruel course of severity, beyond any thing in history. I saw it in its first and sharpest fury, and can never forget the impression that made on me. A discovery lately made, shows what the spirit of those at Rome, who manage the concerns of that religion, is, even in a mild reign, such as Odischalci's was; and we may well suppose, that, because it was too mild, this was ordered to be laid before him, to animate him with a spirit of persecution. When the abbey of St. Gall was taken in the late war in Switzerland, a manuscript was found, that the court of Propaganda ordered their secretary to prepare for Innocent the Eleventh's own use; which after his death came into the hands of cardinal Sfondrato, who was abbot of St. Gall, and so at his death left this book there. It gives a particular account of all the missions they have in all the parts of the world, and of the rules and instructions given them; with which I hope those worthy persons, in whose hands this valuable book is now fallen, will quickly acquaint the world. The conclusion of it is an address to the pope, in which they lay his duty before him, from two Testament, directed to St. Peter. of the words in the New The first was, sheep; which obliged him not only to feed the flock that was gathered at that time, but to prosecute the constant increase of it, and to bring those sheep into it that were not of that fold. But the other word was addressed to him by a voice from heaven, when the sheet was let down to him full of all sorts of beasts, of which some were unclean, Rise, Peter, kill and eat; to let all see that it is the duty of the great pontiff to rise up with apostolical vigilance, to kill and to extinguish in the infidels their present life, and then to eat them, to consubstantiate their false and brutal doctrine into the verity of our faith. There is an affectation in these last words suitable to the genius of the Italians. This application of these two passages, as containing the duties of a pope, was formerly made by Baronius, in a flattering speech to encourage pope Paul the Fifth in the war he was designing, against the Venetians. By this we see, that how much soever we may let the fears of popery wear out of our thoughts, they are never asleep, but go on steadily prosecuting their designs against us. Popery is popery still, acted by a cruel and persecuting spirit: and with what caution soever they may hide or disown some scandalous practices, where heretics dare look into their proceedings, and lay them open; yet even these are still practised by them, when they know they may safely do it, and where none dare open their mouth against them; and therefore we see what reason we have to be ever watching, and on our guard against them. This is the duty of every single Christian among us; but certainly those peers and commoners, whom our constitution has made the trustees and depositaries of our laws and liberties, and of the legal security of our religion, are under a more particular obligation of watching carefully over this sacred trust, for which they must give a severe account in the last day, if they do not guard it against all danger, at what distance soever it may appear. If they do not maintain all the fences and outworks of it, or suffer breaches to be made on any of them; if they suffer any part of our legal establishment to be craftily undermined; if they are either do not invert it to a political piece of craft, by which men's secrets are to be discovered, and all are subdued by a tyranny that reaches to men's souls, as well as to their worldly concerns. In a word, they consider religion in the soul as a secret sense of divine matters, which purifies all men's thoughts, and governs all their words and actions: and in this light they propose it to their people, warning them against all dangers, and against all deceivers of all sorts; watching over them as those that must give an account to the great Bishop of souls, feeding the flock over which the Holy Ghost has made them overseers, ready to lay down their lives for them, looking for their crown from the chief Shepherd, when he shall appear. May the number of these good and faithful servants increase daily more and more; may their labours be so blessed, that they may see the travail of their soul, and be satisfied: and may many by their means and by their example be so awakened, that they may resist even to blood, striving against sin, and against the man of sin: and may I be of that number, labouring while it is day; and ready, when the night comes, either to lie down and rest in the grave; or, if God calls me to it, to seal that doctrine, which I have been preaching now above fifty years, with my blood! May his holy will be done, so I may but glorify him in my soul and body, which are his! |