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<DATE>2014-10-14</DATE>
<RESPSTMT>
<NAME>Mona Logarbo</NAME>
<RESP>MURP</RESP>
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<ITEM>Proofed and reviewed as part of batch B140719.pdcc.</ITEM>
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<IDG S="marc" R="UM" ID="A91971">
<STC T="W">R1925</STC>
<STC T="C">R233394</STC>
<BIBNO T="oclc">43077584</BIBNO>
<VID>151675</VID>
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<TEXT LANG="eng">
<FRONT>
<DIV1 TYPE="title page">
<PB REF="1">
<P>ROOM FOR MIRACLES; OR MIRACLES FROM ROOM A Cart-Load for a Penny.</P>
<P>Plea&s;antly yet truely Expo&s;ing the <HI>Wonder|ful Fopperies</HI> Impo&s;ed by the <HI>Popi&s;h Church,</HI> to be Be<GAP DESC="illegible" EXTENT="1 letter">ieved by Her <HI>Catholick Children.</HI></P>
<P>To which is added a Lump of <HI>Holy Re|liques,</HI> worth no Body knows <HI>What,</HI> as a <HI>Ca&s;t</HI> into the <HI>Bargain.</HI></P>
<Q><P>VVho&s;e coming is after the VVorks of <HI>Satan,</HI> with Signs and Lying VVonders,</P> <BIBL>2 The&s;. 2.9.</BIBL></Q>
<P><HI>LONDON,</HI> Printed for <HI>Stout D.</HI> 1673.</P>
</DIV1>
<DIV1 TYPE="to the reader">
<PB REF="2">
<HEAD>To the Reader.</HEAD>
<P>FInding our late Dialogue between his <HI>Holine&s;s,</HI> and his <HI>Cloven-foot|ed Tutor,</HI> Bought up as fa&s;t as <HI>Gazzets</HI> after a Sea Fight, En|courages us to play the Fool once more, and pre&s;ent thee with an <HI>Oglio</HI> of their M<GAP DESC="illegible" EXTENT="1 letter">racles, for a <HI>Chri&s;tma&s;s</HI> Di&s;h: Dre&s;t they were all, we a&s;&s;ure thee, by Cooks of the <HI>Popes</HI> one Kitchin, and pa&s;t for no &s;mall Delicacies in former Times, however <HI>Sawc'd</HI> here a little Facetiou&s;ly to Ta&s;te more briskly on thy Palate. Let our <HI>Graver Authors</HI> Baffle <HI>Ro|mi&s;h</HI> Arguments and Pretences to <HI>Rea&s;on,</HI> our De&s;ign is only to Manife&s;t the Rediculou&s;ne&s;s of that <HI>Religion,</HI> that &s;o <HI>weaker Heads</HI> (apt to be taken with its Pomp and Gaytie) may henceforth behold &s;uch <HI>Pagentries</HI> rather with <HI>Contempt</HI> than <HI>Wonder:</HI> VVhen this is done, the <HI>Je&s;uites</HI> may go whi&s;tle for <HI>Pro&s;elites,</HI> unle&s;s (according to their practice) among&s;t the <HI>Convicts</HI> of <HI>Newgate.</HI> If any think we &s;peak too <HI>Joca&s;ly</HI> of the&s;e won|derful Faculties, we doubt not but our <HI>Catholick Confe&s;&s;ors</HI> in their Budgets of <HI>Pardons,</HI> have <HI>One</HI> for Drollery, e&s;pecially, &s;ince <HI>them&s;elves</HI> have been &s;o <HI>Bla&s;phemou&s;ly</HI> bold as to Entitle that <HI>Buffoon</HI> of their party, Fryer <HI>Juniper, Jaculator Chri&s;ti,</HI> the <HI>Je&s;ter</HI> (I tremble to repeat it) of our Ble&s;&s;ed <HI>Saviour.</HI> To Coyn the&s;e pityful <HI>Miracles,</HI> was the Imploy of <HI>La&s;ie Monks,</HI> in Ages of a <HI>pitchy Ignorance,</HI> thereby to <HI>Decoy</HI> &s;illy Souls to an awful <HI>Reguard</HI> of their Cheating <HI>Idolatries.</HI> If thou &s;halt welcome <HI>This</HI> with thy former Indulgence we may perhaps <HI>Weekly</HI> trouble thee with &s;ome fre&s;h Piece of <HI>Popi&s;h Fopperies,</HI> wherein thy hazard &s;hall be but a <HI>Penny,</HI> which yet may po&s;&s;ibly Divert thee for an Hour, no le&s;s In|nocently than a Game at <HI>Whi&s;t,</HI> or <HI>Cribbidg;</HI> who knows but &s;uch <HI>Ob|lique Glances</HI> may warm and Enlighten, as kindly as perpendicular <HI>Rays,</HI> and &s;mall <HI>Twig'd Rods</HI> give &s;marter <HI>La&s;hes,</HI> than &s;ome more <HI>Labour'd</HI> Con&s;ultations of <HI>Catholick Non&s;en&s;e.</HI></P>
<CLOSER><SALUTE>Farewel.</SALUTE></CLOSER>
</DIV1>
</FRONT>
<BODY>
<DIV1 TYPE="tract on religious relics and miracles">
<PB N="3" REF="2">
<HEAD>ROOM FOR Miracles and Reliques, &amp;c.</HEAD>
<P>THough Rea&s;on tell us, that only New Revelations want New Miracles to Evidence them Divine. And holy Scripture Teaches, That the Doctrine of the Go&s;pel &s;tands not in need of any further Miracles, &s;ince it hath long &s;ince been &s;o &s;ufficiently Confirmed: That if an Angel from Heaven &s;hould Teach otherwi&s;e, and offer Miracles to Vouch his Doctrine, he were worthy to be Accur&s;ed; yet the Church of <HI>Rome</HI> to prop up her Traditions, pretends the&s;e Miraculous Operations to be far more frequent now, than in the Primitive Times: Well may the Hereticks (&s;aith &s;he) pre|tend Miracles Cea&s;ed, being con&s;cious of their own dull Inefficacy and confe&s;&s;ed Di&s;ability to perform them, whil&s;t the Catholick Church has in all Ages given vi&s;ible Marks of her Infallible Authority, and Unlimi|ted Juri&s;diction, by multitudes of Incredible, as well as unpara<GAP DESC="illegible" EXTENT="1 letter">lel'd Miracles.</P>
<P>Of the&s;e wonderful Operations, that certainly de&s;erves to Lead the Van (though ordinarily and con&s;tantly wrought) which every pitiful Hedg Prie&s;t by virtue of his Office, dares chal<GAP DESC="illegible" EXTENT="1 letter">enge to Exerci&s;e, even to <HI>Create</HI> his <HI>Maker,</HI> and fetch down the Body of the Glorified Je&s;us from Heaven to the Altar, as &s;uddenly as the Sun can diffu&s;e his Be<GAP DESC="illegible" EXTENT="1 letter">ms of Light: And though he Con&s;ecrate a Thou&s;and Wafers at a time, and a Thou&s;and &s;uch Con&s;ecrations be made in &s;everal places at the &s;ame time, yet the whole Chri&s;t is there Bodily in every place, in eve|ry of the Wafers, at the &s;ame in&s;tant, and yet nothing to be &s;een, felt,
<PB N="4" REF="3"> nor ta&s;ted, but plain common Wafers &s;till. For not believing this heap of Ab&s;urdities, how many Thou&s;ands have &s;uffered cruel Mar|tyrdom?</P>
<P>In the next place de&s;ervedly Marches St. <HI>Francis</HI> (Chri&s;ts Standard-bearer they call him, and Je&s;us Typical) Heaven and Earth are fill'd with A&s;toni&s;hment at his Wonders: What &s;hould we Talk of his puny Miracles, as in&s;tructing of a Sheep to go to Church with him, to kneel devoutly there, and bear a part when he Sung the &s;acred Anthems: Of his &s;wallowing a Spider at Ma&s;s, which crept out again whole at his Thigh: Of Water fetcht in an in&s;tant out of a Rock, for an Hone&s;t man that had lent him an A&s;s (for you know one good Turn requires another;) or of a Lock of his Hairlaid in the Crack of a Wall, which made up the Breach without Morter. It would be endle&s;s to &s;tand Re|tailing his Stock of Miracles, &s;ince the Hi&s;tory of his wonderful Con|formitys to Chri&s;t, lately publi&s;hed with great Authority, doubts not to tell you in gro&s;s, that whatever Chri&s;t did, <HI>Francis</HI> has done the &s;ame: And that he has Tran&s;cended Chri&s;t in his Miracles. Our Sa|viour turned &s;ome few Ve&s;&s;els of water into Wine, but <HI>Francis</HI> turned a whole Fountain &s;o. (I know an hundred Good Fellows wi&s;h it had been <HI>Lambs Conduit,</HI> but it &s;eems he carried it with him into th<GAP DESC="illegible" EXTENT="1 letter"> <GAP DESC="illegible" EXTENT="1 word"> World, for there is no &s;uch thing to be found in this.) Our Sav<GAP DESC="illegible" EXTENT="1 letter">our Rai&s;ed &s;ome few from the Dead, but St. <HI>Francis</HI> rai&s;ed a Thou&s;and more out of Purgatory: Attended with all which Train, his Soul was vi&s;ibly &s;een march to Heaven in the &s;hape of a <HI>Fl<GAP DESC="illegible" EXTENT="3 letters">er-Mo<GAP DESC="illegible" EXTENT="1 letter">k,</HI> but by the way was Triumphantly met by Chri&s;t, and his ble&s;&s;ed Mother, <HI>&amp;c.</HI> and placed among&s;t the highe&s;t Order of <HI>Serap<GAP DESC="illegible" EXTENT="1 letter">i<GAP DESC="illegible" EXTENT="1 letter">s,</HI> in the vacant S<GAP DESC="illegible" EXTENT="1 letter">at formerly belonging to <HI>Lucifer.</HI></P>
<P>What &s;ay you to St. <HI>Fingare,</HI> who Sailing from <HI>Ireland</HI> on a broad Leaf (&s;uppo&s;ed to be a Cabbidge Leaf) into <HI>Cornwell;</HI> being Mar|tyr'd by the Tyrant, carrried her head in her arms (ju&s;t as the great <HI>French</HI> St. <HI>Denis</HI> did) up to a Hill not far off, intending to bury it there; but being di&s;turbed with the Scolding of &s;ome <HI>B<GAP DESC="illegible" EXTENT="3 letters">insgate</HI> Go&s;&s;ips, trudg'd with it down again into the Valley, and wa&s;hing it in a &s;pick and &s;pan new VVell that &s;prung up there ju&s;t then on purpo&s;e; quietly buried both it and her &s;elf.</P>
<P>Can the Hereticks &s;hew &s;uch a merciful Saint as the Abbot of <HI>Willar,</HI> who to &s;ave a poor womans Longing, kill'd his Ox, and gave the poor Soul almo&s;t a quarter of it, which yet was found next morning a<GAP DESC="illegible" EXTENT="1 letter">ive and whole, Grazing in his Pa&s;ture. Or &s;uch a patient Saint as Mi&s;tre&s;&s;e
<PB N="5" REF="3"> <HI>Clare,</HI> who &s;tood &s;tone &s;till from <HI>Holy Thur&s;day</HI> in the afternoon, till the Saturday night, thinking of ju&s;t nothing at all; or rather, As ano|ther Si&s;ter Saint in <HI>Ireland;</HI> who putting her hand by chance out of a Window, a Thru&s;h came and laid her Eggs in her Hand, where the good woman &s;tood without moving hand or foot till tho&s;e Eggs were Hatch'd, and in all likelihood, &s;tir'd not till the pretty Birds were Fledg'd.</P>
<P>Saint <HI>Brendan,</HI> for &s;even long years together, celebrated his <HI>Ea&s;ter</HI> upon a <HI>VVhales</HI> back, which he at fir&s;t mi&s;took for an I&s;land; But find|ing his Error, with a prayer or two he fixed the Sea mon&s;ter from &s;tart|ing, and at la&s;t VVhipt and Spur'd him as far as the Earthly Paradize; from whence (as Luck would have it) they both came &s;afe home. But whether afterwards the VVhale lay Lieger all the &s;even years, or came courteou&s;ly every <HI>Ea&s;ter</HI> to find out St. <HI>Brendan,</HI> and offer the Service of his back to &s;o holy a purpo&s;e (becau&s;e the Earth could not afford Room enough for &s;uch a precious bu&s;ine&s;s) we cannot certainly inform you.</P>
<P>VVonderful is the Legend of Fryer <HI>Tony</HI> of <HI>Padua,</HI> who finding his Labour lo&s;t in per&s;wading Hereticks, went to the Sea-&s;ide, and call'd the Fi&s;hes together, who &s;uddenly in whole Shoals a&s;&s;embled them|&s;elves; and lifting up their Heads above VVater, Li&s;tned mo&s;t atten|tively to his powerful Preaching, and no doubt turned good <HI>Catholiques,</HI> As appeared by their &s;ilence: VVhich &s;ucce&s;s &s;tirring no &s;ma<GAP DESC="illegible" EXTENT="1 letter">l Envy in the peevi&s;h Hereticks; They inviting the Holy man to Supper, Set before him a great ugly Toad, Urging him with that precept in the Go&s;pel, <HI>(VVhat&s;oever &s;hall be &s;et before you Eat.)</HI> But what does he, but makes a Cro&s;s over it with his finger, and turns it immediately into a brave fat Capon, piping hot from off the Spit.&mdash;And now Reader, if thou ha&s;t a &s;tomach to &s;uch Miracles as the&s;e, fall to and welcome.</P>
<P><HI>Augu&s;tine</HI> (I mean the <HI>Monk</HI> not the Venerable <HI>B<GAP DESC="illegible" EXTENT="1 letter">&s;hop</HI> of <HI>Hippo</HI>) by Reading one <HI>Ma&s;s,</HI> rai&s;ed up two Souls out of Purgatory; one a Laymans, who dyed Excommunicated for not paying his Tyths 150. years before; The other that of the Prie&s;t who excommunicated him, but at the <HI>Monks</HI> Entreaty, the prie&s;t who excommunicated him, but at the <HI>Monks</HI> entreaty, the prie&s;t ab&s;olved the Lay-man, and away they Marcht to Heaven good Friends.</P>
<P>And now we talk of Excommunication, let me tell you not a few Mi|racles have been done by that trick. The Abbey of <HI>Fu&s;niack,</HI> was hor|ribly infe&s;ted with Flies, St. <HI>Bernard</HI> comes and &s;olemnly Excommuni|cates
<PB N="6" REF="4"> the &s;aucy In&s;erts, whereupon next morning the&s;e noy&s;ome Gue&s;ts are found all dead on the floor. A white leaf do (but let a Prie&s;t repeat the words of Excommunication over, it) &s;hall t<GAP DESC="illegible" EXTENT="1 letter">rn as black as a Coal. And when <HI>Robert Brooks</HI> was Excommunicated by St. <HI>Thomas Becket,</HI> (and thereby become <HI>Jumentum Diabelt</HI>) the very Dogs refu&s;ed to take the bones from his hands, and as readily &s;natcht them away being tendred by others.</P>
<P>A <HI>Synoa</HI> being a&s;&s;embled at <HI>Wilton</HI> in <HI>England</HI> heretofore, to debate the lawfulne&s;s of the Clergy's Marrying. The very <HI>Crucifix</HI> (if it were not &s;ome knavi&s;h Prie&s;t behind it) cryed out, <HI>Ye &s;hall never yield that the Clergy &s;hall Marry;</HI> And &s;o the bu&s;<GAP DESC="illegible" EXTENT="1 letter">ne&s;s was determined.</P>
<P>Can any of the &s;illy Prote&s;tants boa&s;t &s;uch a Favourite of Heaven as <HI>Fryer Benedict;</HI> who having it &s;eems a particular kindne&s;s for the Pro|phet <HI>Daniel,</HI> had a Moneths mind to vi&s;it his Tomb in <HI>Babylon,</HI> but be|ing &s;omewhat di&s;heartned with &s;uch a tedious <GAP DESC="illegible" EXTENT="1 letter">ourney, and fear of a Dragon, that he was told had the Cu&s;tody of it: One day as it hap|pily fell out, comes me a huge terrible Dragon (bigger than that from which St. <HI>George</HI> re&s;cued his fair <HI>S<GAP DESC="illegible" EXTENT="1 letter">brina</HI>) and wrapping him up in the Curls of his long &s;weeping Tayl, flies away with him to rights to <HI>Ba|bylon</HI> (was not the poor <HI>Saints</HI> heart at his mouth think you all this while) And &s;et him down there as gently as if it had been his Mi&s;tre&s;s, clo&s;e by the &s;aid Tomb; where he viewing the Sacred Corps, made &s;o bold out of his deep Devotion, as to cut of a finger and &s;teal it away for a precious Relique; which done, the friendly Dragon is ready to take him up a pick-pack, and return him &s;ound as a fi&s;h to his Cell.</P>
<P>St. <HI>Chri&s;tina</HI> dying in her Childhood, was mo&s;t kindly welcom'd into Heaven; but withal, was offer'd the civility to take her choice, whether &s;he would &s;tay there &s;till in Happine&s;s, or return to Earth again, for her greater Merits, in delivering <HI>Parboil'd S<GAP DESC="illegible" EXTENT="1 letter">uls</HI> out of <HI>Purgatory Torments.</HI> She like a good natured <HI>Girle</HI> chu&s;es the latter, and down &s;oop &s;he comes again into this Lower World; but not enduring the <HI>&s;tench</HI> of mens &s;ins, &s;till keeps her re&s;idence at &s;ome di&s;tance aloft, perching on the Tops of the Talle&s;t Trees and highe&s;t Pinac<GAP DESC="illegible" EXTENT="1 letter">es; where &s;he &s;atisfies her Hunger with the Milk of her own Brea&s;ts, no matter though &s;he were a Virgin. <HI>Diony&s;ius</HI> the <HI>Carthu&s;ians</HI> had &s;een her at it a Sucking of her &s;elf a hundred times.</P>
<P>There is indeed a World of like Miracles, whereby the <HI>Romi&s;h Re|ligi<GAP DESC="illegible" EXTENT="1 letter">n</HI> is Honour'd and Confirm'd. St. <HI>Bridget</HI> having given (out of Charity you mu&s;t know) a good piece of Bacon to a fawning Cur, yet found it again after he had eaten it, re&s;tored in her Kettle and eat it her
<PB N="7" REF="4"> &s;elf. Another time &s;igning a new born infant with a Cro&s;s, &s;he cau&s;ed the Child to di&s;own its &s;uppo&s;ed Father, and cry out a loud. <HI>The Bi&s;hop of</HI> Broen <HI>is not my Fa|ther, but yonder poor man that fits at the lower end of the Table:</HI> Truly I think the Child was almo&s;t as Miraculous as the Saint, that he could know his own Father &s;o readily; If the &s;ign of the Cro&s;s did retain the &s;ame <HI>V<GAP DESC="illegible" EXTENT="1 letter">rtue</HI> &s;till, perhaps few of our <HI>Women</HI> now adayes would care to have it u&s;ed at their Children Bapti&s;me.</P>
<P>To conclude, who would willingly cro&s;s the <HI>Alps,</HI> though always Perriwig'd with Snow, barefoot in a devout Pilgrimage, to &s;ee that holy building of our <HI>Ladies Chappel,</HI> That (God knows why or when) travelled Miraculou&s;ly two thou&s;and miles at one Stage, all through the Air, from <HI>Pale&s;tina</HI> to <HI>Loretto,</HI> or to behold a thou|&s;and more notable Monuments of both Ancient and Modern Saints, and their Sacred Reliques; As St. <HI>Jo&s;eph</HI>'s Breeches (And if you plea&s;e <HI>Lip&s;ius,</HI> his that he offered to our <HI>Lady</HI> too Boot) St. <HI>Anns</HI> Comb, <HI>Judas</HI> his Lanthorn, <HI>&amp;c.</HI> but e&s;pecially who would not be greedy to view tho&s;e Immortal Reliques, The Feather of the Angel <HI>Gabriel;</HI> and the Red Velvet <HI>Buckler,</HI> &s;till re&s;erved in a Ca&s;tle in <HI>Normandy,</HI> which the Arch-Angel <HI>Michael</HI> made u&s;e of when he Combated the <HI>Dragon:</HI> In all which Monuments, there is not &s;o much Miracle in their Pre&s;ervation, as in their Super|natural <HI>Multiplication,</HI> That the &s;ame Cro&s;s which <HI>Simon of Cyrene</HI> bore on his back, &s;hould now be able to <HI>Load a Ship.</HI> And whereas <HI>John</HI> the <HI>Bapti&s;t,</HI> lo&s;t but one Head, there are now two to be &s;een, one at <HI>Amyens</HI> in <HI>France;</HI> the other at St. <HI>Sil|ve&s;ters</HI> Abbey in <HI>Rome;</HI> And the&s;e both whole. Be&s;ides, a multitude of Parcels and Fragments of it el&s;ewhere.</P>
<P>But of all this we may have a Rea&s;on in the Story of the <HI>Nails,</HI> wherewith our Saviour was fa&s;tned to the Cro&s;s; at fir&s;t they were but three in all, and <HI>Con&s;tantine</HI> cau&s;ed one of them to be put in his Hor&s;e Bridle which he u&s;ed in the Wars; the <HI>Se|cond</HI> in his Helmet to &s;tick his Plum of Feathers in; The <HI>Third</HI> he flung into the <HI>A|driatique</HI> Sea, in a Tempe&s;t to Calm the Raging Waves: yet now in <HI>Several Churches,</HI> you &s;hall &s;ee a <HI>Do<GAP DESC="illegible" EXTENT="1 letter">en</HI> or <HI>Sixteen</HI> of tho&s;e Nails, for which <HI>Catholick Doctors</HI> give this Rea&s;on, That the Nail ca&s;t in<GAP DESC="illegible" EXTENT="1 letter">o the Sea, took upon it the Nature of a Fi&s;h and Spawn'd a great many other <HI>little Nails,</HI> which has produced this multitude. And now I hope your Curio&s;ity is &s;atisfied in the Point.</P>
<P>Further you are to know that all tho&s;e Holy Reliques, you have their peculiar Miracles, as the Saints above have their peculiar Imployments. For as the <HI>Heathen Romans,</HI> Erected Temples to the <HI>Green Sickne&s;s</HI> and <HI>Ague</HI> for want of Wit: So the&s;e <HI>Catholick Romans</HI> for want of <HI>Grace,</HI> have &s;uited their Canonized Patrons to all occur|rences. Thus on St. <HI>Johns</HI> day, they implore that Saint for a Ble&s;&s;ing for their <HI>Wine,</HI> St. <HI>Stephen</HI> looks after their <HI>Pa&s;tures.</HI> St. <HI>Mark</HI> their Corn, and for <HI>Sea-Deities</HI> they have made good &s;tore to pray to, lea&s;t &s;ome of them &s;hould not be at lei&s;ure, or otherwi&s;e imployed in that va&s;t Element: As St. <HI>Andrew,</HI> St. <HI>Clement,</HI> St. <HI>Nicholas, &amp;c.</HI> So that certainly if the <HI>Saints</HI> in Heaven do know what is now faigned of them on Earth; and could be capable of <HI>Hmuane Affections,</HI> in that ble&s;&s;ed Region of <HI>Im|po&s;&s;ibility,</HI> they would Blu&s;h for &s;hame at &s;uch <HI>Prodigious Fables,</HI> and as <HI>Socrates</HI> when he read <HI>Plato</HI>'s Dialogues, cry'd out, <HI>Quam Multa de me mentitur Adole&s;cens.</HI> So &s;urely would they &s;ay, <HI>How many gro&s;s and abominable Lyes, do tho&s;e Idle Cloy&s;terer's rai&s;e of us.</HI> But by this <HI>Craft we get</HI> our <HI>Living,</HI> cry the <HI>Popi&s;h D<GAP DESC="illegible" EXTENT="1 letter">metriu&s;&s;es.</HI></P>
<P>The&s;e Stories were all rai&s;ed to Cheat the Common people, fir&s;t of their <HI>VVits,</HI> and then of <HI>Money,</HI> and creat an e&s;teem for the Prie&s;ts and Monks, as In&s;trumental in the&s;e Miracles, and having all the Sacred <HI>VVonderworking</HI> Reliques in their Cu&s;tody: Whereas indeed notwith|&s;tanding all their Brags of Miracles, mo&s;t true is that Blunt <HI>Repartae</HI> of
<PB N="8" REF="5"> <HI>Thomas Aquinas,</HI> to <HI>Innocent</HI> the Fourth (whom he found &s;urrounded with va&s;t Heaps of Gold) Loe! <HI>Thomas,</HI> &s;aith the Pope, The Church cannot now &s;ay as of Old, <HI>Silver and Gold have I none:</HI> No truly, re|plied the <HI>&s;urly Doctor.</HI> Neither can &s;he &s;ay to the Lame man, <HI>Ari&s;e and walk.</HI> Con&s;idering the great Di&s;honour of God and &s;incere Religion, with the danger poor deluded Souls are drawn into by &s;uch Impo&s;tures of the Romi&s;h Clergy, we hope we may without offence, conclude this Sheet with a <HI>Story</HI> borrowed from Father <HI>Bromiard</HI> (a <HI>Catholick,</HI> and therefore we hope an undeniable Author) which if it &s;hould be true, not a few poor Ignorant Lay-papi&s;ts, that u&s;e to Reverence their cheat-<HI>Prie&s;ts</HI> as Demy-Deitiyes, will certainly think it a greater Miracle than any we have yet related. And thus it is: A certain Prie&s;t returning Home one Night very late from an <HI>Harlot,</HI> which he kept Abroad (to do, which the <HI>Cannons</HI> vote le&s;s Criminal by far, then to have an hone&s;t Wife) hearing a mo&s;t lamentable Noi&s;e of a <HI>Gho&s;t</HI> not <GAP DESC="illegible" EXTENT="1 letter">ar <GAP DESC="illegible" EXTENT="1 letter">rom him; after he had <HI>Cro&s;t</HI> him&s;elf once or twice, askt <HI>what, or who he wa<GAP DESC="illegible" EXTENT="1 letter">?</HI> The Gho&s;ts an&s;wers hIm by asking, <HI>VVho art thou that woul<GAP DESC="illegible" EXTENT="1 letter">&s;t know?</HI> I am a Prie&s;t quoth the man, fencing &s;till with the Sign of the Cro&s;s: A <HI>Prie&s;t,</HI> quoth the Gho&s;t, A <HI>Prie&s;t,</HI> A <HI>Prie&s;t?</HI> which made the Prie&s;t en|quire the rea&s;on why he <HI>redoubled</HI> that word with &s;uch vehemence. To which the <HI>Gho&s;t</HI> replied, That there came daily &s;uch <HI>Swarms</HI> of Popi&s;h <HI>Prie&s;ts</HI> to Hell, that he verily thought there had been <HI>None</HI> left alive upon <HI>Earth.</HI></P>
<TRAILER>FINIS.</TRAILER>
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<DIV1 TYPE="postscript">
<HEAD>POSTSCRIPT.</HEAD>
<P>LE&s;t any &s;hould Dream we Coyn any Stories here on purpo&s;e to make Popery <HI>Rediculous,</HI> we a&s;&s;ure them we have taken all from <HI>Ori|ginals,</HI> where they are told with no little <HI>Seriou&s;ne&s;s</HI> and <HI>Gravity,</HI> as in the <HI>Golden Legend, John Capgrave, Speculum Exemplorum,</HI> the Book of <HI>Conformities,</HI> and &s;uch other worthy Catholick Monuments.</P>
<P>And le&s;t any &s;hould fancy that the old <HI>Beldam</HI> of <HI>Rome</HI> is grown Barren, and accu&s;e us for telling more but <HI>&s;tale</HI> Miracles, <HI>Fortune</HI> has ju&s;t now &s;upplied us with a <HI>fre&s;h In|&s;tance:</HI> For the very la&s;t <HI>Harleem Currant,</HI> comes News from <HI>Rome</HI> of the 9th. of <HI>Dec.</HI> That two <HI>Maids</HI> are there found with Child. And who can doubt that to be a Miracle? E&s;pecially when they had &s;olemnly vow'd Virginity, and were Cloi&s;tered up in a <HI>Nunnery:</HI> However the <HI>Pope</HI> con&s;idering humane frailty, and remembring it was only a <HI>Venial</HI> Sin, thought fit to Impo&s;e no other <HI>Penance</HI> on them then a gentle <HI>Flogging</HI> or <HI>Whipping</HI> puni&s;h|ment. Yet &s;till we fear this will &s;eem neither Miracle, nor new to them that have Read in our Engli&s;h Chronicles, how many Hundred Childrens Sculls and Bones were found Buried in <HI>Nunneries</HI> at their Di&s;solution in King <HI>Henry</HI> the 8ths. time.</P>
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