A Pleasant Purge for a Roman Catholic, Epigram 2
On, and againſt Popiſh Beades, and Pater-Noſters oft Repetition on them.
I Wonder much why Papiſts on*Theſe Beads muſt be ſolemnely hallowed ere they muſt be uſed to ſay our Ladies Pſalter on: the forme of which conſecration you may reade in Tho. Beacons 3. Vol. f. 291. 292. 358. 359. Bedes pray,
And all their Pater-Noſters by them ſay.
Is it becauſe they ſet them out to ſale,
And none will buy them by their weight but Tale?
As they doe wodden Billets; and therefore
They muſt have Beades to keepe true Count and ſcore?
If ſo; it ſeemes a juſt and Lawfull Act;
Though to ſell Prayers, be no Chriſtian Fact.
Or is it, becauſe they contract each day
With God, how many Paters they will ſay
To him? and ſo their Bedes ſerve to keepe true
Account, that God from them may have his due;
So many Pater-Noſters juſt as they
By Contract, vow, or pennance, ought to pay?
This ſeemes an honeſt Practiſe, and moſt juſt,
To render God his due: yet then they muſt
Firſt prove, that God takes all their prayers by Tale
Not weight; but this would marre their price and ſale.
Their Paters are ſo light, that God muſt take
Them all by Tale, ſith they no weight will make.
For ſhould he ballance them, their endleſſe tale
Of Paters, would not Poyſe, nor turne the Scale.
Bedes then keepe equall Scores, 'twixt God and them;
God would forget elſe what they pay to him:
He is oblivious, if not falſe; therefore
They dare not truſt him, they muſt keepe the ſcore.
Or elſe they deeme he mindes no more than they
Their mumbled Paters; elſe they would not pray
By Count; I doubt they cheate God in the Score
Sometimes, to make him minde their Paters more.
Or doe they uſe their Bedes alone to finde
That tale of Paters which they ſeldome minde?
Their thoughts being elſe-where when their Pater's ſayd,
The Bedes muſt tell them ſtill how oft they pray'd:
Their Paters ſure are ſayd with great devotion;
They doe not know their ſumme, but by Bedes Motion:
Should God them take by weight, than, not by Count,
So many feathers would their poyſe ſurmount.
I doubt their Beades, though light, will overweigh
All Paters, Aves, which they on them ſay;
And are far more worth were they to be ſold,
Than all the Paters, Aves, on them told.
But why muſt Paters thus be ſaid by ſcore?
Did Chriſts Apoſtles, Prophets, Saints before
Time uſe it? No, reade Scripture new or old
You finde no Paters, Prayers on Beades told.
Some thinke our Bede, theſe Beads did firſt invent,
From whom they tooke their Name; if I conſent
(*Peter the Hermite was the firſt that invented Beades and Chappelets about the yeare. 1263. Iohn Creſpin: Le…ſt. de L'egliſ. p. 382. Others make them of later date. Though falſe,) yet for ſev'n hundred yeares, or more
Next after Chriſt, none Paters by Beades ſcore
Said; now the Caſe is alt'red; few can ſay
Their Paters, unleſſe they on Beades them pray.
Pray on them? No: let him marke who this reads
They never uſe to pray, but ſay their Beads:
This is their Proper language, ſo as they
Confeſſe, their Beades helpe make them not to pray;
To ſay indeede, nay uſe vaine Repetition,
Againſt the Paters and Chriſts Prohibition,
Who firſt ordain'd the pMat. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Eccleſ. 5. 2.Pater purpoſely
Vaine Babling, and your Bedes quite to put by,
Which Chriſt condemnes as Heathniſh, and defends
All his to uſe, becauſe it God offends.
But Chaplets now this remedie hath mar'd,
And made it the diſeaſe it ſhould diſcard:
Some ſcores of Pater Noſters muſt be ſaid
On Beades, ere God can heare, minde what they praide:
He's growne now deafe belike, and cannot heare
Their firſt, next, third, fourth Pater; or they feare
He is aſleepe, or dreaming; ſo that he
With peales of Paters muſt awaked be,
Or with their Beads great ratling ſound and noiſe,
Ere he can heare or liſten to their voyce.
If he heares the firſt dozen Paters, all
The next are Idle, Booteleſſe, Prodigall,
Yea, a groſſe qExod. 20. 7. Matth. 6. 5. 7. 8.taking of Gods Name in vaine;
Which if it merits ought, its nought but paine.
Such Idle Babble, and Battologie
God doth condemne, reject, hate, and defie,
Eſpecially when they kneele downe before
Saints Images, and ſay their Paters o're
To them, as if they God the Father were,
And did their Beades and babled Paters heare:
Which damned common practiſe Rome allow's
In herrCap. de Oratione. Trent Catechiſme, not diſavou's;
Yea, Hubberdin, with others long agoe,
Maintain'd,sFox Acts and Monuments p. 1310. 1314. in the old Edition. that they might Pater Noſters to
S. Peter ſay, and other Saints full well
Without offence; and tA briefe inſtruction, &c. By George Douley Prieſt: Edit. 4. 1638. Permiſſu ſuperiorum. p. 84.George Douly doth tell
Us now of late, in his Inſtruction
Of the chiefe points of your Religion,
That doubtleſſe men may ſay the Pater, or
The Ave Marie unto the honour,
Or Invocation of any other
Saint or Angell, with this intent, either
To pray to God that he would have mercy
VponUpon their ſoules, for this Saints, Angels Cry;
Or to craze of the Saints themſelves, that they
Will offer to God for them what they pray.
A new point of faith and devotion,
Not knowne to Chriſt, but to Romes Prieſts alone:
Had Papiſts ſenſe or Reaſon, they might ſee
How oft repeated Pater Noſters be
Moſt irkeſome, loathſome to God, not pleaſing.
For if men here ſhould to a Judge, Lord, King,
Ten, twenty, thirty, Forty times, or more
Together the ſame words, requeſts, ſay o're,
(As they to God ſay Paters) all would thinke
Them mad or fooliſh; yea their ſuites would ſtinke
And be denide for this their Clam'rous cry,
Thougſt Juſt, ſince mar'd by ſuch Battologie.
If it be folly, frenzie, babling then
Oft to repeate our ſuites and plaints to men,
Yea, the next way to make them us deny;
Is it not juſt the ſame to God to cry
Thus Pater, Pater, for an houre or more
Untill your Beades be fully numbred ore?
vMat. 6. 5. to 10.Doubtleſſe it is, nay a meere mockery
Of God, who turnes his eares from this vaine cry.
All deeme the Cuckoos, which doe oft times ſing
Nought elſe but Cuckoo, Cuckoo, in the ſpring
For three Moneths ſpace; moſt fooliſh birds becauſe
They oft repeate their Cuckoo, without pauſe;
And we thinke children, fooles, the Cuckooes play,
In counting then how oft they Cuckoo ſay.
Papiſts are worſe than Cuckooes, which forbeare
Their Cuckooes ſong for nine moneths ſpace each yeare;
When they their Cuckoo-Paters night and day,
All the yeare long repeate, and never ſtay.
Yea, whereas Cuckooes never keepe account
How oft they Cuckoo cry; they them ſurmount
In this, that they cry Cuckoo and keepe ſcore
How oft they doe it, on Beades made therefore;
So that they are more ſottiſh, fooliſh, vaine
Than Cuckoos, Children, Fooles, and ſo remaine;
Whoſe ſeverall follies all conjoyned be
In them, and linkt in one, as now we ſee.
If they on Beades to pray will ſtill proceede,
They are Fooles, Children, and the Cuckooes ſeede.