Babel and therefore one day she shal be recompensed for all her iniquity Rev. 17.6 and 18.24 Go out of her therefore and save thy soul that thou be not tormented in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone with her for evermore Rev 18.45 Otherwise I call heaven and earth to witness against thee that thou shalt die in her sin and the smoke of thy torment shal ascend for evermore Rev. 14.1 What now will you say to these things that your Church is not the Catholick Church but a part of it only and is only Catholick because of the Catholick doctrine that she professes But if this be true wherefore then did your general Council condemn it in John Hus and burn him for that doctrine which both your self must confess to be true and is agreeable to Scripture Fathers and your own Popes Next I say suppose when ye are brought to this strait ye must say so yet for all this not only call ye your Church Catholick because of the soundness of doctrine which ye suppose she professes but also and speciallie to make the simple believe that there is no salvation out of her As appeareth by the Epistle of Cardinal Cusanus writing to the Bohemians Cochlaeus histor Hussitar lib. 21. Therefore ye call it the only true Church and the Catholick Church for out of the particular Church there is salvation but out of the Catholick Church there is no salvation Thirdlie I say as the Epistles of Peter John James and Jude are intituled Catholick not because of the soundness of their doctrine which is common to the Epistles of Paul also and all the rest of the Scripture which in that respect may also be called Catholick but because they are written generallie to all So the Church is called Catholick properly not because of the soundness of doctrine for that is common to all the particular Churches that have the puritie of Religion but because it comprehends all the particular Churches and all the elect And also to put a difference between the Church of the Jewes which did comprehend but one certain people and the Christian Church since the coming of Christ which is not bound to any certain place or nation or people but indifferently receives all both Jew and Gentil that believes and therefore is it called Catholick and therefore in our Belief we say not I believe the Catholick doctrine but the Catholick Church So by this she is properlie distinguished from particular Churches as the mother from the daughters and the whole body from the particular members So then if you would speak properlie of your Church and not make your styles snares to catch the souls of the simple call her but a particular Church and a member of the Catholick Church but yet dead and rotten as shal be shown afterward by the grace of God Otherwise if you will but call her the Catholick Church you first rob the mother for she is properly Catholick and also injures the rest of the daughters For in respect of the soundness of faith they may also challenge the same to them And thirdly ye deceive the souls of the simple thereby by making them believe there is not one other Church but yours And last of all you are sacrilegious in decking an adulteress with the styles of the spouse of Christ As to the third point wherein ye calumniate the truth of God which we profess in calling it a new Evangel and old renewed and new invented heresies of our own These are indeed heavie words wherewith ye blaspheme the word of the Lord Acts 18.6 and 19.9 and speak evil of it to the people of this Countrey And therefore as the Apostle saith of them that blasphemed his doctrine Your damnation is just Rom. 3.8 For a wo by Gods own mouth is pronounced against them that call good evil and evil good truth falshood and falshood truth and darkness light and light darkness Isai 5.20 But as the Archangel when he strave with Satan about the body of Moses did not blame him with cursed speaking but said The Lord rebuke thee Jude 9. so we will not blame you with cursed speaking but the Lord rebuke you For ye speak here the vision of your own heart and not from the mouth of the Lord And ye are not the first that hath blasphemed the truth of God for so did the Jewes before you call the doctrine of the Gospel a sect a heresie and the Gentiles called it strange Gods and a new doctrine and the preachers thereof a setter forth of strange Gods and of new doctrine and a babler Acts 28. and 14. and 17. The Jews said that Christ had a Devil and yet as our Lord testifies it was they that were the children of the Devil John 8.44 Ye say that we preach a new Evangel and old new heresies but this is the sin the doctrine of your Church For to let that pass of that new everlasting Gospel which your Friers invented devised as testifieth Guliel de sancto Amore in his book de pericul noviss temp anno 1192. wherein was contained such blasphemies as the heaven and earth abhorrs to hear them That God the Father reigned under the law God the Son under grace And the holy Ghost was then that year to begin his kingdom and to continue to the end of the world And that Jesus Christ was not God his Sacrament nothing and his Evangel not a true Evangel O horrible blasphemie the which if God had not raised up some men in those days to have resisted it as the Waldenses and others which ye call hereticks and infamous men the Gospel of Christ had been lost and in stead of it we would have gotten a new Gospel the dreggs whereof yet remains in your Church But I will let this pass because the wise men of Babel I mean your Clergy of Rome saw that that was too plain an iniquitie therefore they caused it quietlie to be removed and buried and yet they not condemned as hereticks that preached it But by the contrary the Waldenses and others that withstood it was condemned as hereticks and their books burnt To let this pass I say which testifieth what the world might have looked for at your hands if the Lord had not provided better for his poor Church Your whole doctrine is Antichristian as shal be proved hereafter your Church Babel Rev. 17. your Kingdom that second beast Rev. 13.11 that hath two horns like the Lamb and yet speaks like the dragon and your head the man of sin 2. Thess 2. and son of perdition And ye are they that have renewed old condemned heresies and have invented new of your own as shal be proved afterward by Gods grace SECTION III. Concerning the Churches infallibility and immunity from error M. John Welsch SAy they our Religion is so ancient that it hath continued ever by a lineal succession of Pastors and Bishops from the dayes of Christ and his
I delivered it to his Majesty but he was in a passion and it seems it hath fallen by for I have not gotten an answer Nay my Lord said M. Welsch you should not lie to God and to me I know you delivered it not I am sory My Lord for your lot I warned you not to be false to God and now I tell you God shal take your estat and honors in Scotland and shal give them to your neighbor and this in your own time This troubled the Lord Ochiltrie and came truly to pass for he being the eldest son of the good Lord Ochiltrie a Reformer was forced in his own time to quite all and give both estat and honors to James the son of Captain James the second brother who was the last of that house VI. While he was Minister at Air the plague was sore in the Countrey but no infection was in the Town but it came to pass that two men coming with packs of cloth to the Town from a neighboring place where there was yet no suspicion thereof The sentry on the Bridge held them out notwithstanding they had a pass while the Magistrat came who though he could not disprove their pass yet would not permit them to enter the Town till he sent for M. Welsch So the Bailly bids them disburden their beasts till he considered what was to be done A little after M. Welsch coming the Bailly saith to him Sir here are men come from such a place we have heard of no plague there besides they have a pass from known men What shal we do M. Welsch made no answer but uncovering his head stood in the midst of the company that followed him and having his eyes directed to heaven yet speaking nothing near half a quarter of an hour at last said Bailly cause these men put on their packs again and be gone for if GOD be in heaven the plague of GOD is in these packs These men returned and opened their packs at Cumnock and it was observed that such contagion was therein that all the people of that Village died there was not a man left to bury the dead VII While he was in prison John Stewart an eminent Christian wo lived at Air being come to visit him found him in a more then ordinary way troubled and sad and upon his enquiry thereanent he saith John ye should not be here go home to Air for the plague of GOD is broken up in that place and cause Hew Kennedy Provest of that Town who was also a very singular Christian convean the people to the streets and pray together and the Lord shal hear Hew Kennedy and remove the stroke This at first did something astonish the said John and put him to question its truth having so lately come out of that place but at his return found it so and accordingly in every thing it fell out as the man of GOD had shewed These instances are recorded in the fulfilling of the Scriptures to which I add one no less true then the rest it is this VIII While M. VVelsch was Minister at Air there was much profanation of the LORDS Day committed by reason of great confluence of people at a Gentle-mans house about eight miles distance from Air to the foot-ball and other games and pastimes whereupon M. VVelsch did several times write to the Gentle-man desiring him to suppress the profanation of the LORDS Day at his house but he not loving to be called a Puritan slighted it wherefore M. VVelsch came on a day to his gate and called for the Gentle-man who coming to him he told him that he had a message from GOD to him to show him that because he slighted the advise given him from the LORD and would not restrain the profanation of the LORDS Day committed in his bounds therefore the LORD would cast him out of his house and estat and none of his posterity should ever enjoy it Which came to pass for although the Gentle-man was in a very good external condition at that time yet from that day forward all things crossed him while at length he was necessitat to sell his estat and while he was giving the buyer possession thereof he told before his wife and children with tears that he had found M. VVelsch a true Prophet This was related by the Gentle-mans own son a godly and reverent Minister who was present when his father told it with tears He longed much to be in heaven and to be rid of a body of death as witnesseth among others these expressions in that fore-cited letter My desire to remain here is not great knowing that so long as I am in this house of clay I am absent from the LORD and if it were dissolved I look for a building not made with hands eternal in the heavens In this I groan desiring to be clothed upon with my house which is in heaven If so be that being clothed I shal not be found naked For I that am within this tabernacle do oft times groan and sigh within my self being oft times burdened not that I would be unclothed but clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life I long to eat the fruit of that tree which is planted in the midst of the Paradise of GOD and to drink of the pure river clear as crystal that runs through the streets of that new Jerusalem I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shal stand at the last day on the earth and that after my skin worms destroy my body yet in my flesh shal I see GOD whom I shal see for my self and not another for me And mine eyes shal behold him though my reins be consumed within me I long to be refreshed with the souls of them that are under the altar who were slain for the Word of GOD and the testimony they held And to have these long white robes given me that I may walk in white with these glorious Saints who have washed their garments and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Why should I think it a strange thing to be removed from this place to that wherein is my hope my joy my crown my eldest brother my Head my Father my Comforter and all the glorified Saints and where the song of Moses and the Lamb is sung joyfully Where we shal not be compelled to sit by the rivers of Babylon nor to hing up our harps on willow trees but shal take them and sing the new Halelujah Blessing honor glory and power to him that sitteth upon the throne and to the Lamb for ever What is under this old vault of the heavens and in this old worn earth which is under the bondage of corruption groaning and travelling in pain and as it were still shooting out the head looking waiting and longing for the redemption of the sons of GOD VVhat is there I say that should make me remain here I expect that new heaven and that new earth where righteousness
dwelleth wherein I shal rest for evermore I look to get entry at the new Jerusalem at one of these twelve gates whereupon are written the names of the twelve Tribes of the children of Israel I know CHRIST JESUS hath prepared rowm for me why may I not then with boldness in his blood step in unto that glory where my Head and LORD hath gone before me JESUS CHRIST is the door and the Porter who then shal hold me out VVill he let them perish for whom he hath died VVill he let that poor sheep be plucked out of his hand for whom he hath laid down his life VVho shal condemn the man whom GOD hath justified VVho shal lay any thing to the charge of the man for whom CHRIST hath died or rather risen again I know I have grievously transgressed but where sin aboundeth grace superaboundeth I know my sins are red as scarlet and crimson yet the red blood of CHRIST my LORD can make me as white as snow as wool VVhom have I in heaven but him Or whom desire I in earth beside him O thou the fairest among the children of men the light of the Gentils the glory of the Jews the life of the dead the joy of Angels and Saints My soul panteth to be with thee I will put my spirit into thy hands and thou wilt nâ—â— put it out of thy presence I will come unto thee for thou casts none away that comes unto thee O thou the only delight of mankind Thou camest to seek and save that which is lost Thou seeking me hast found me and now being found by thee I hope O LORD thou wilt not let me perish I desire to be with thee and do long for the fruition of thy blessed presence and joy of thy countenance Thou the only good Shepherd art full of grace and truth therefore I trust thou wilt not thrust me out of the door of thy presence and grace The Law was given by Moses but grace and truth by thee VVho shal separat me from thy love Shal tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword Nay in all these things I am more then a conqueror through thy Majesty that hath loved me For I am perswaded that neither death nor life Principalities nor Powers nor hight nor depth nor things present nor things to come nor any other creature is able to separat me from the love of thy Majesty w ich is in CHRIST JESUS my LORD I refuse not to die with thee that I may live with thee I refuse not to suffer with thee that I may rejoyce with thee Shal not all things be pleasant to me which may be my last step by which or upon which I may come unto thee When shal I be satiat with thy face When shal I be drunk with thy pleasures Come LORD JESUS and tarry not The Spirit saith Come the Bride saith Come Even so LORD JESUS come quickly and tarry not Why should the multitude of mine iniquities or the greatness of them affright me Why should I faint in this mine adversity to be with thee The greater sinner I have been the greater glory will thy grace be to me unto all eternity Oh! unspeakable joy endless infinit and bottomless compassion O Ocean of never-fading pleasure O love of loves O the hight and depth and breadth and length of that love of thine that passeth knowledge O uncreated Love Beginning without beginning and ending without end Thou art my glory my joy and my gain and my crown Thou hast set me under thy shadow with great delight and thy fruit is sweet unto my taste Thou hast brought me into thy banqueting-house and placed me in thine orchard Stay me with thy flagons and comfort me with thine apples for I am sick and my soul is wounded with thy love Behold thou art fair my Love Behold thou art fair thou hast doves eyes Behold thou art fair my Love yea pleasant also our bed is green The beams of our house are Cedars and our rasters are of firr How fair and how pleasant art thou O Love for delights my heart is ravished with thee O when shal I see thy face How long will thou delay to be to me as a Roe or a young Hart leaping upon the mountains and skipping upon the hills As a bundle of myrrh be thou to me and ly all night between my breasts Because of the savor of thy good oyntments thy name is as oyntment powred out therefore desire I to go out of the desert and through to the place where thou sittest at thy repose and where thou makes thy flocks to rest at noon When shal I be filled with thy love Certainly if a man knew how precious it were he would count all things dross and dung to gain it I would long for that scaffold or that ax or that cord that might be to me that last step of this my wearisom journey to go to thee my LORD Thou who knowst the meaning of the spirit give answer to the speaking sighing and groaning of the spirit Thou who hast inflamed my heart to speak to thee in this silent yet love-language of ardent and fervent desires speak again unto my heart and answer my desirs which thou hast made me speak to thee O Death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory The sting of Death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law but thanks be to GOD that giveth me the victory through JESUS CHRIST What can be troublesome to me since my LORD looks upon me with so amiable a countenance And how greatly do I long for these embracements of my LORD O that he would kiss me with the kisses of his mouth for his love is better then wine O that my soul were the throne wherein he might dwel eternally O that my heart were the Temple wherein he might be magnified and dwel for ever c. If there were no more but these heavenly breathings of soul they do speak forth what earnest desires and groanings this holy Man had for the full enjoyments of GOD and what full assurance of faith he enjoyed As he was extraordinary in prayer so he was marvellously diligent in the rest of his Masters Work For as I was assured by an old reverend and godly Minister who knew the truth thereof he preached twise every week day from nine to ten in the morning and from four to five at night beside his work on the LORDS Day and catechising and visiting of families and of the sick In his preaching he had a deep impression of the great and dreadful Majesty of GOD upon his spirit that made him speak with great boldness and authority The learned and godly M. Boyd of Trochrig relateth in his Commentary upon the Ephesians chap 6. vers 19.20 praelect 91. pag. 1101. how that M. Welsch being called to preach before the University of Saumur one of the most learned Auditories in France although he
do all my will And also that it may be written of your Majesty in the Chronicles of the Kings of Scotland as it was written of David Ezechias Josias in the Chronicles of the Kings of Juda That King JAMES the sixth his heart was perfect toward the LORD his GOD all his dayes and his Government was in such Peace and Justice that after him there was none like him of all the Kings of Scotland Neither was there any such before him who did cleave unto the LORD his GOD with all his heart and followed all his Commandments and neither declined to the right hand nor to the left Now the LORD grant to your Majesty that ye may find this favor in his eyes for his CHRISTS sake I have now taken this boldness to offer these my labors unto your Majesty as a testimony of my most humble and loyal heart unto your Majesty as GOD the searcher of the heart knows Your Majesty did exceedingly encourage me to let it go forth unto the light what by your Majesties most gracious acceptation of mine endeavor and most favorable censure and approbation of my labors what by your Majesties humane counsel and advise confirmed by your Majesties Priviledge and authority to me to publish the same Such was Your Majesties humanity to me not only in these but in all your actions both publick and privat with all your subjects of whatsoever rank or degree Ye shew such humanity and affability that that saying of Trajanus the Emperor That a Prince should behave himself so to his subjects as he would have them to do to him if he were a privat man is verified in you Sir wherein certainly ye need not to give place to any of whatsoever rank You express it so lively in all your actions and I have found it for my own part by experience So that Your Majesty hath often caused me to remember that notable saying of Titus that Roman Emperor A subject should never go sad-hearted from the speech of his Prince The which experience makes me to conceive hope that Your Majesty will pardon this my boldness will accept in good part this my smal mite I therefore most humbly desire Your Majesty to accept it as from Your Majesties most humble obedient servant and subject For whose peace and prosperity I am always earnest with the LORD Now the GOD of all Peace even that KING of Kings powr all light and grace in all abundance more and more upon Your Majesty and so root and ground your heart in JESUS CHRIST that ye may honor him more and more in your life and calling here that ye may be honored of him again both in this life and in that day with immortal and everlasting glory Amen From Air the 18. of November 1602. Your Majesties most humble subject M. JOHN WELSCH UNTO THE GODLY AND CHRISTIAN READER IN THIS LAND Grace Mercy and Peace from GOD the Father and JESVS CHRIST his Son our LORD and only Savior Amen WHen I think Christian Reader of the unsearchable mercies for so I may call them which the LORD according to his rich grace whereby he hath been abundant towards us if ever towards any hath vouchsafed upon us and of our great ingratitude and manifold iniquities wherewith we have recompensed him again I cannot but tremble to think of these most fearful judgements of GOD which we have most justly deserved and which cannot but most assuredly fall upon us unless with most speedy and earnest repentance of all sorts they be prevented and averted For unto what Kingdom or Nation under heaven hath GOD been more liberal in communicating the insearchable riches of his dear Son in his Gospel Eph. 3 8. as unto us in this Nation Nay unto what one Kingdom under heaven hath God been so rich and superabundant in mercy as unto this There are but few Kingdoms upon whom the Lord hath caused the glorious light of his Gospel to shine upon a gross darkness covering the most part of the Kingdoms of the earth and yet Scotland hath found this favor in the eyes of the most high GOD. So that that may be most truely said of us which is written of the land of Zabulon and Nephthali Matth. 4.16 A people that sate in darkness saw great light and unto them which sate in the region of death light is risen up Many Kingdoms upon whom this light is risen are but in part delivered from the bondage of that second beast Rev. 13.11 17.4 and from that abomination of Babel a part worshipping the LORD and a part worshipping Baal I mean the idol of the Mass and their idols of stock and stone But our deliverance was full from that bondage for that was fulfilled in us which was promised and prophesied of old Zech. 14 9. That the LORD should be but one and his Name one And in these Kingdoms where the LORD is but one and his Name one that is where he only is worshipped some of them have embraced him but as a Prophet to teach them and as a Priest to satisfie for their sins and to interceed for them but not as a soveraign King to rule them and govern them by that form of government which he hath prescribed in his Word with his own Lawes Offices and Officers retaining yet a part of that hierarchie of Babel with some of her Lawes Offices and Officers But the LORD was rich in mercy towards us in bestowing himself upon us not only as a Prophet to teach us and as a Priest to satisfie for our sins and to interceed for us but also as a soveraign King to govern us with that self same form of government which he hath commanded in his Word and unto the which only he hath annexed the promises of his blessing and presence with his own Laws Offices and Officers So that as the Prophet saith Zech. 14.9 He was not only one in us and his Name one but also a soveraign King in our land O Scotland what Nation was like unto thee that had the Gospel so freely preached his Sacraments so purely ministred his censures and all the priviledges of his Kingdom in such liberty executed as thou hadst For what one Nation under heaven hath God done so great things as for thee What one Kingdom is to be found in the whole earth where Idolatry was so fully rooted out wherein all the means of his glory and all the priviledges of his Kingdom was so fully restored to their own integrity and perfection as they were first instituted wherein all these means of the Word Sacraments and Discipline hath continued for so long a space in such peace in such purity in such liberty without heresie or schism as in thee O Scotland So that thy day hath been like the day of Joshua When the Sun stood in Gibeon and the Moon in Aialon Josua 10.12 For I know not if ever Nation or Kingdom hath had so long a day of the Gospel in such peace
against you for wrath and vengeance then ever Abels blood did against his brother Cain Gen. 4.10 Now therefore at the last repent you of it Purge your hands of it and at the least vouchsafe so much upon every Church as may sustain a Pastor to break the bread of life unto them and think the damnation of so many millions of souls of your poor brethren who might have been saved for ought that ye know if they had had the Gospel of salvation preached unto them too great guiltiness suppose ye had not blood upon blood Otherwise if ye will not I call heaven and earth to witness against you Deut. 30.19 that the indignation of the LORD shal root you and your posterity out of the land of the living and their blood that perish for want of teaching shal be laid to your charge and ye shal be arraigned as murderers of their souls in that great day And not only that curse shal fall upon you which was commanded to be pronounced upon Mount Hebal Deut. 27.23.18 for causing the blind to go out of the way whereunto all the people should say Amen But also that most fearful and irrevocable sentence shal be pronounced and executed upon you in that great day by the Judge of the whole earth Depart from me ye cursed in that everlasting fire of hell to be damned with the Devil and his Angels for evermore Matth. 25.41 Lay it therefore to your hearts and flatter not your selves in a carnal and vain presumption Be not cruel to your own souls and to the souls of the poor people any more otherwise ye shal most assuredly drink of the wine of the wrath of God and be casten in the great wine-fat of his wrath where there ye shal be tormented day and night Let every one of us therefore in the conscience of so great and singular mercies which the LORD hath vouchsafed upon us in such a plentiful measure Harden not our hearts while it is called to day but let us rent them and turn them unto the LORD our GOD Heb. 4.7 Joel 2.13 and let us not delay it while he calls upon us by his word and spreads out his arms unto us Otherwise if we will not but despise the day of our salvation then I protest unto you in the Name of the great GOD that he will hear the cry of our sins and will abhor us greatly as he did Israel that he shal forsake his glorious Tents and Tabernacles in this land and first give over his strength to captivitie and his glory to the hands of our enemies Psal 78.49.60.61 c. And then accounting no more of us then of the myre in the street he shal deliver us over both old and young Pastor and people to the sword of the enemie For this I dare say if he take his Kingdom from us he shal not let Scotland be a free Kingdom Matth. 21.43 as it hath been before For true is he who hath said it The Nation and Kingdom that will not serve thee shal perish and these Nations shal be utterly destroyed Esai 60.12 And if he spare not his own strength and glory I mean his glorious Gospel but deliver it over into captivity into the hands of his enemies he shal have no compassion of us but shal surrender us over to the edge of the sword to be consumed thereby and as the LORD hath been more abundant in his mercy towards us then towards any others so shal his wrath be accordingly For if other Kingdoms or Nations yea if Tyrus or Sidon Sodom or Gomorrha Matth. 11.21.22 yea if the Turks or barbarous Americans had heard the things that we have heard they would have repented long since in sackcloth and ashes and therefore our condemnation shal be heavier then any condemnation under heaven Now therefore if there be any consolation in CHRIST if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the Spirit Philip. 2.1 if any love to his glorie to his blood to his Gospel and if there be any compassion and mercy in your hearts to this poor and sinful land and his poor Church and Kingdom therein repent you of your sins reconcile you to GOD take hold of his blood wash you and cleanse you in it until ye be white and bright in his eyes Rev. 7.14 Bring him into the chambers of your hearts and make him to dwell in you Eph. 3.17 Galat. 6.14 that he may crucifie your sins and bury them in the grave with him Col 2.12.13 and may quicken and raise you up together wiâ—h him and may set you in those heavenly places with himself Eph. 2 5 6. And then having rooted and grounded your hearts in him Col. 2.7 and having filled your souls with the abundance of his presence bring him out first to your families and then to your tenants servants neighbors and people According to your callings instruct them rebuke them admonish them correct them and reform them and rest not till ye have set him up as a LORD and a King in their hearts or at the least till you have obtained this assurance in your consciences that ye have been so faithful and sincere in your callings that if CHRIST be hid from any to whom your callings or occasions have reached he is hid from such only as perish Now oh that the LORD would give us these hearts and so purge us that we might be thus fruitful to the praise of his glory then assuredly would he repent him of all the evil that he hath thought against us then should he have delight in us in our posterity and then these Canaanites I mean the relicks of that cursed generation of Babel the Church of Rome which is yet left unrooted out of this land to try us and tempt us if we will serve the LORD our GOD and to be pricks and thorns in our side should not bring us in bondage again but should be made tributaries to JESUS CHRIST yea our latter estat should be more glorious then the former Now let us find this favor in thy eyes O LORD our Redeemer and glorifie thy great Name among us by converting our hearts at the least the hearts of all thy children in mercy rather then by confounding and consuming of us in thy wrath and indignation For wherefore should thy enemies say Take up their GOD and their Gospel Wherefore should they O LORD our GOD blaspheme thy holy Name when they shal see thee angrie with thy own inheritance and redeemed ones Oh! turn us unto thee and put us not away from thy face and let not those that are thy enemies triumph over us Purchase thy self an everlasting Name through our conversion and repentance that the enemie and the avenger may be still and our hearts may be inlarged and our mouthes may be opened to proclaim the everlasting mercies and to shout forth thy praises Turn you unto him you that are his children and delight in his Tents You that love
the beautie of Sion and the glorious presence of his Redeemer fill your privie chambers with strong cryes and many tears Cause heaven and earth to be filled with groans and sighs of his own Spirit in you and take a claught of that Prince of life ere he remove altogether and before he have stollen himself far away that he cannot be found again And wrestle with him as Jacob did and let him not depart out of your hearts entreat him yea enforce him as it were by your tears and sorrowful cryes not to leave his own Tents and Tabernacles in this Land not to give over his glorious Gospel which is his strength and glorie into captivity in the hands of their enemies Remember that he cannot abide the intercession of his own Spirit in his own He cannot hide his eyes from his own flesh and blood he can deny nothing to his own beloved Son that makes intercession for his Saints Let us therefore step up to that Throne of grace with all confidence and assuredly as he is true who hath promised we shal find grace and mercy in the time of this our need both comfort to our own hearts and it may be peace in our dayes that our eyes shal not see the evils that are to come and at that bright appearing of our LORD of life all tears shal be wiped away from our eyes We shal be clothed with those long white robes and shal be fed with the fatness of his house and shal drink of the rivers of his pleasures which is at his right hand for evermore For Sions sake in this Land Christian Reader have I thus written unto thee and for Jerusalems cause have I not kept silence at this time that her glory and wonted brightness may be renewed that the Church of Scotland which was the beauty of Europe and the praise of the whole earth for her liberty purity and discipline might be established in the same and her salvation and righteousness might break forth as a burning lamp to all the Nations of the earth and that other Churches in other Kingdoms which desired to see our beauty and spiritual glory and accounted them blessed which might have had the occasion to have dwelt in our Tents to have seen and enjoyed the same yea who would have been content to have bought it with the price of their blood to their posteritie that they I say may see the continuance thereof and may rejoice Turn thou O LORD our GOD our hearts unto thee that thy glorious presence may be continued with us for ever for JESUS CHRIST his sake our LORD and Redeemer to whom be all praise and glory for ever and ever Amen Now I come to this matter in hand the occasion of it was this There was one who was sometimes an hearer of the word with me who shew me that he had been in conference with a Papist and he had brought him thus far that if he would show him of any that professed our Religion before Martin Luther he would renounce his Papistry and therefore desired me to set them down in writ The which I did and set it down in this form as thou seest it here So this being carried to M. Gilbert Brown he writs an answer to it and sent it to me Unto the which I have made this reply Thou hast them all three here first that which I did write then his answer to it and then my reply to his answer Indeed it is true Christian Reader that there was many things that did hinder me withdraw me from this resolution either to make any answer to it at all or yet to let it go forth to the light As first that so many things have been written already by the lights lanterns of this age against that ruinous Babel that all further cōvictions seemed to be superfluous Next the conscience of my own tenuitie and weakness together with a continual burden of a fourfold teaching every week in my ordinary charge beside others both privat and publick duties which not only my own people but also this desolat Countrey craved whereby I was let to afford that time and studie unto it as the gravity of such a matter required And last of all the consideration both of the person and work of the adversary that neither the one nor the other would be accounted worthy of any answer at all himself being both rejected and excommunicated according to the express commandment of the holy Ghost as an Heretick being perverted and damned in his own conscience and delivered over unto Satan that he might learn if it were possible not to blaspheme the everlasting truth of GOD any more Tit. 3.10.11.12 1. Cor. 5.5 1. Tim. 1.20 And also denounced his rebel for his treasonable attempts both against this Church and Kingdom his work also being so foolish in its self as both I heard his Majestie affirm that he was a foolish reasoner in it and also I hope the indifferent Reader shal see the same his reasons arguments being also so oft answered unto by the learned of our side so that it seemed but actum agere to make any further answer thereunto yet notwithstanding of all these impediments these motions and reasons prevailed with me at the last both to answer it and also to let it go forth to the open view and sight of all men to wit the conscience of that duty which I ow unto the truth of GOD being so highly blasphemed and evil spoken of the unfained love of the salvation of my Countrey-men who for the most part are blinded with the smoke of the darkness of that bottomless pit the railing and thrasonical bragging of the adversary both by word and writ that it would never be answered and that the Ministery would never suffer an answer to come to light because they knew the answer to be unworthy and none other was able to answer to it the most earnest pressing of a great many of my brethren who knew the lamentable estat of this blind Countrey the constant desire of all men in this Countrey to see the same together with his Majesties most gracious acceptation of my endeavor and most favorable judgement of this my labor and most humane counsel to publish the same which did not a little incourage me and last of all the express commandment of the holy Ghost Answer a fool according to his follie lest he seem wise in his own eyes the which if it have place in any thing it must have place here where not only this seeming wise in his own eyes would undoubtedly follow upon my silence but also a seeming wise in the eyes of all this part of the Countrey almost both to the prejudice of the everlasting truth of GOD and also to the stumbling of the weak the further obduring of the obstinat and the wounding of the hearts of the godly therein Augustin lib. de Trinitate cap. 3. lib. cont Mend. cap. 6. hath
Apostles till now never interrupted never spoken against but of late since Martin Luthers dayes But yours say they is newlie forged and invented never heard tell of but since Luther and Calvins dayes Therefore yours cannot be the true Religion and ours must be the only true Religion M. Gilbert Brown This objection consists partly of a truth and partly of an untruth It appears by this that either M. John knows not our proofs or if he doth he alters the same that he may the better oppugn his own invention Our objection or rather one of our proofs whereby we prove that we Catholicks is the only true Church of Christ and have the only truth in all things is this We have aboundantly set down to us by the Prophets and Apostles in the holy writ that the kingdom and Church of Christ shal never fail in this earth and that the gates of hell shal not prevail against it But shal be permanent for ever and shal have alwayes the presence and assistance of the Father Son and holy Ghost who shal teach it all truth and remain with it for ever as may be perceived by these places noted here which were over longsome to be set down at length To the which I adjoyn some of the ancient Fathers exponing the same Out of the Old Testament Psal 60.5 read August upon this Psal 88. v. 1.2.3.4.5.19.30.31.32.33.34.35.36.37.38 read Aug. on these places Psal 104. ver 8. read Aug. Psal 110.9 Esa 9.7 read S. Hier. on Esa 51.7.8 read S. Hier. on Esa 54.8.9 read Hier. on Esa 55.3.13 Esa 59.21 read Hier. on Jer. 31.3.36 read Hier. on Ezec. 37.25.26 Dan. 2.44 Dan. 7.14.27 Mich. 4.7 Out of the New Testament Luc. 1.33 read S. August upon the 109. Psal Matth. 10.18 read here Saint Hierome upon this place Luke 22.32 John 14.16.17 John 17.18.19.20 Matth. 28.20 1. Tim. 3.15 Acts 5.39 Some of the ancient Fathers Hilar. de Trinitat lib. 7. August de utili credent cap. 87. Ambros lib. 9. cap. 20. Chrysost in serm de pente Clem. Alex. lib. 6. strom in the end And because the Scriptures and the ancient Fathers of the primitive Church concurrs and agrees in one unitie I would wish M. John to consider the same that the Church of Christ by all mens judgements shal never fail nor be interrupted nor broken M. John Welsch his Reply I will follow your footsteps and first answer to that part which ye say is true and then unto that which ye say is false And as to the first the ground which ye laid down whereupon ye go about to build the truth of your Religion is the Church of Christ shal never fail nor be interrupted c. It is recorded in Histories Athenaeus dipnosophist lib. 12. of one Thrasilaus a frantick man among the Greeks whensoever he saw any ships arrive at the haven of Athens he thought them all his own and took an inventarie of their wares and met them with great joy Even so it is with you wheresoever you see the name of the Church in the holy Scripture the promises of God made unto the same ye take all to be yours and books the treasures of it and boasts thereof as though they were your own crying The gates of hell shal never prevail against it It shal never fail It hath always the holy Ghost to lead it in all truth To remove you therefore out of the haven and to give every merchant his own ware and his own ship and to set the Church it self in possession of the Church we must distinguish the name of the Church The Church therefore is taken sometimes for the companie of the elect and chosen whereof a part is in heaven triumphing with Christ their Lord a part here in the earth fighting her battels lying in her camp and awaiting for the victorie And these are termed the invisible Church because Gods election cannot be discerned by the judgement of mans senses or eyes and we cannot know who are his chosen And unto this Church that is to the chosen appertains all the promises set down in the Scripture and in them only are they fulfilled And sometimes it is taken for the company of them who professes the true Religion wherein both the chaff and the wheat the popple and the good seed Matth. 3.12 and 13.24.25 the dregs and the wine the good and the evil are mixed together the which suppose they be in the Church yet they are not of the Church no more then the superfluous humors of the bodie are true and livelie members thereof So then if ye mean by the Church The Church of the elect and if ye mean by this That it shal never fail nor be interrupted c. only this that it shal never be utterly abolished but shal have alwayes the presence of the holy Ghost to lead her in all truth yea and in all holiness also in so far as shal serve for her salvation We grant that with you as Bellarmin confesseth of us and therefore he saith Lib. 3. de Eccles milit cap. 13. That many of their number spend but time while as they go about to prove that the Church here beneath absolutelie cannot perish or make absolute defection for Calvin saith he and the rest of the hereticks grant that but they speak and mean saith he of the invisible Church So if ye mean no further but this then Bellarmin telleth you that all the testimonies of Scripture and Fathers that ye have heaped up here to prove the same is but to spend the time so are fetched as needless witnesses in a matter â—â—at is not doubt some or called in question And if ye had understood his language ye needed not to have cumbred your self in fetching of this mortar and stone to build up your Babel For this was not required at your hands But because it is Babel which ye are bigging a tower of confusion therefore the Lord hath sent such a confusion of language among you that few of you understands what another sayes when some cryes for mortar others brings stone Bellarmin the great maister-builder cryes for proofs to prove that the visible Church here beneath cannot err neither in the matters which are needful to salvation neither in the matters which are not needful which she propones to be believed or to be done whither they be doctrine contained in the Scripture or extra scripturam that is not contained in the Scripture He cryes to prove that and ye cumber your self in bringing in a number of Scriptures to prove that the Church shal alwayes remain till the end of the world whereas in the examination of your proofs it will be found that they will go no further with you But if ye mean of the visible Church that it shal never fail c. that is it shal never fail in doctrine nor be interrupted in the same not only in the matters needful to salvation but in all truth as ye affirm of your
interpretation destroyes the Articles of our Faith I prove it thus If this be true that the bread and wine be really changed in the bodie and blood of Christ in the Sacrament as ye expound the words First It will follow that either Christ ascerded not into heaven because he remaineth in the earth in the Sacrament and so one of the Articles of our Belief is falsified Or else if ye say he ascended once but yet descends continually to be present in the Sacrament then another Article of our Belief is falsified which saith That he sitteth at the right hand of God his Father And as Peter saith abides in heaven whom the heavens must contain while the time of the restoring of all things come Act. 3.21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Secondly It will follow that Christs bodie is made of the bread for if the substance of the bread be changed in the bodie of Christ then it must follow that the bread is become the bodie of Christ and Christ his bodie is made of that bread as the wine was made of the water at the marriage of Cana in Galilee And so Bellarmin lib 3. de Eucharist fol. 399. and Pope John 22. lib. orat in script antidotar animae and the Master of Sentences Lombard lib. 4. distinct 11. cap. 8 grants that Christ it made of bread and the substance of bread and wine it made Christs flesh and bodie and so here another article of our faith falsified which saith That Christ his bodie was made of the seed of the woman and not of any other matter and like to us in all things except sin Thirdlie It will follow that Christ had two bodies together one under the form of a man and another under the form of bread one speaking and another dumb one giving to his disciples to eat and another the self same thing which was given to be eaten yea it shal follow if your exposition be true in saying That Christs body and blood is under the forms of bread and wine in the Sacrament not only that there are two Christs one in heaven at the right hand of his Father visible glorious and in one place and another Christ in the earth invisible circumscribed by no place but also that there are as many Chri s as there are Sacraments in the earth yea as many Christs as there are bits of bread in every Sacrament and so the foundation of our salvation is overturned Fourthly It will follow that the body and blood of Christ are separat as the bread and wine in the Sacrament which is turned in them is separated Fifthly It will follow that his body is separat from his soul and so a dead bodie because the bread and wine are not changed in his soul but only in his body Sixthly It will follow that the bread in the first Supper being changed in the body of Christ that the substance of the bread hath suffered for us died for us and risen again for us and hath a part of our redemption which is blasphemous to think Seventhly It will follow that Christ eated his own body and drank his own blood which is absurd for Chrysostom hom 83. in Mar. and your Canon Law de consecr dist 2. Canon Nec Moses testifies that he ate the same thing which he gave to his Disciples And also he saith himself From hence forth will I not drink with you more of the fruit of this vine c. So he drank of that which they drank of And last of all it will follow that the Mass-Priest is the creator of his Creator and so their Breviaries and Lombardus and Bellarmin grants In their Breviaries the Priest saith Qui creavit me sine me creatur mediante me that is He that created me without me is created by my moyen Lombardus saith distinct 12. lib. 4. cap. 5. The Priests are said to make the body and blood of Christ because by their ministry the substance of the bread is made his flesh And Bellarmin saith lib. 3. de Eucharist cap 24 Sacerdotes conficiunt corpus Christi ex pane That the Priests makes Christ his body of bread Now if there be no blasphemous absurdities I know not what is blasphemy Now choose ye whither ye will subscribe to all these absurdities which you with all the wit of the Roman Clergy is not able to eschew if ye grant this interpretation of yours to be true or will you forsake this interpretation of yours as false erroneous and contrary both to the plain Scriptures of God and the articles of our Faith and the grounds of our salvation As to the third Your interpretation destroys the nature of all Sacraments and makes the Supper of the Lord no Sacrament for every Sacrament consists of an outward and visible sign and of a spiritual thing signified by that sign the which sign hath a resemblance with the thing signified The sign is ever earthly and the thing signified is heavenly as shal appear by all the rest of the Sacraments both of the Old and New Testament In Paradise Gen. 2.9 Rev. 2.7 there was a very tree for the sign and Christ the thing signified by it In circumcision there was a cutting of the skin Gen. 17.9.20 Rom 4 11. Deut. 30.6 Col. 2.11 and the cutting off of sin In the Passover there was a Lamb and Christ Exod. 12. 1. Cor. 5.7.8 John 19.36 And in the Sabath there was a day of rest and eternal rest Heb. 4.1 3.4.5 c. In the Sanctuary there was an holy Place and heaven Heb. 9 24. In the wilderness there was a Rock yeelding water and Christ yeelding his blood 1. Cor. 10 4. In the apparition there was a dove and the holy Ghost John 1.32 In the Manna there was bread and Christ 1. Cor. 10.3 In Baptism there was very water which washeth us and Christs blood washing our sins Tit. 3.5 1. Pet. 3.21 Therefore in the Sacrament of the Supper must be bread and wine feeding this natural life and resembling our communion one with another and Christs flesh blood feeding our spiritual life 1. Cor. 10.16 17. otherwise this Sacrament is against the nature of all other Sacraments which is absurd to think and should be no Sacrament at all as Augustin saith Epist. 23. If the Sacraments had not a resemblance with the things whereof they are Sacraments they should not be Sacraments at all But your interpretation and doctrine destroys both the sign and the resemblance which they should have with the things signified in the Supper for there is no outward sign there which is an earthly substance but only accidents of color and quantity if your doctrine be true and there is nothing there to resemble either our spiritual nowrishment by the flesh and blood of Christ or yet our spiritual fellowship one with another unless you will say that accidents feeds and nowrishes the which if you will say then to say no more to it but this If
26.26.27 bread and wine and having given (f) Luke 22.19 thanks to his Father of heaven (g) Mark 14.22 blessed the same by the which (h) 1. Cor. 10.16 blessing and heavenly words he made them his body and blood as I said before and (i) Luke 22.29 gave or offered himself then for them that is for his And last of all gave the same body and blood to his Apostles to be eaten which we call to (k) 1. Cor 10.16 communicat And when he had done the same he commanded his Apostles and by them the lawful Pastors of the Church till the worlds end to do the same for the (l) Luke 22.19 remembrance of him And seeing that our Priests do the same as our Savior did how can M. John say that our Religion in this was not instituted by Christ Master John Welsch his Reply I come to another point of your doctrine concerning the sacrifice of the Mass which suppose ye call blessed yet is it most abominable idolatry as by the grace of God shal be made manifest And first concerning the word it self MASS you are of such variety of opinions among your selves concerning it that (a) As Doctor Bellarmin in his answer to Duplessis Mornay de Eucharist lib. 11. cap. 1. Genebrard in Liturg. S. Denis from the word MISSAH Deut. 16.10 that properly signifieth sufficiency but Bellarmin refutes this lib. 1. de Missa cap. 1. some of you saith it is taken from the Hebrew some (b) Bulinger ibidem from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that signifies a secret sanctificatioÌ„ from the which comes mystery from the Greek some (c) As Bellarmin ibidem and sundry others from mitto missio or dimissio from the Latin and (d) Some because the sacrifice and prayers is sent to God in the same as Hugo de S. Victor de sacram lib. 2. part 8. cap. ult some saith it is called the Mass for one cause and (e) Some because an angel as they say is sent unto the same as Lombard in 4. sent dist 13. Thomas part 3. quaest 83. And some because the people is dismissed and sent forth as Bellar. lib. 1. de Missa cap. 1. some for another I will only speak this of it that it is usually taken by the ancient Writers for the dismission or skailing as we call it of the Church after the publick service was done to God as Bellarmin grants in the first acception of this word Mass And therefore in the end of your Mass the Deacon crys Ite missa est that is Go your way the Congregation is dismissed But now the Papists takes not the word in this sense for the skailing of the Church or dismission of the people after the service of preaching prayer and so forth but for that abominable sacrifice of theirs wherein as they suppone they offer up Christ his very body and blood in a sacrifice for the quick and the dead as M. Gilbert doth here And for this cause they call this sacrifice the Mass that is first sent from the Father to us that Christ his body and blood might be with us next sent from us to the Father that he may interceed and may be for us with the Father as Durandus lib. 4. ration divin testifieth But how can he be sent from them to heaven seeing he descends in the mouth stomack and belly of the Priest for to be sent down to the belly of the Priest to be sent up to heaveÌ„ are things contrary So by this stile of the Mass as they take it it is plain that either Christ descends from heaven in the earth dayly in the Mass which some of them grants also Turrian 1 tract cap. 11 fol. 59. which is contrary to an article of our faith That he sits at the right hand of hâ—s Father whom the heavens must contain until the time that all things be restored Acts 3.21 or else their Mass-Priests dust and ashes are the creators of their Creator which is a blasphemy Thus much now for the name of the Mass which all Christians should abhor according to that of David That he would not take the name of false Gods in his mouth Psal 16 4. For that word which is proponed by men for an Article of our Faith which is not found in the Scripture neither in proper terms nor yet in substance and by necessary consequence out of the same should be rejected by the Church of God as a profane and a bastard word But the Mass is such For it is proponed by the Church of Rome as an Article of our Faith and yet it is neither found in proper termes nor in substance nor by any necessary consequence out of the Scripture Therefore it should be rejected as profane and idolatrous by the Church of God This for the name Now to the matter This is one of the greatest controversies betwixt you and us concerning your sacrifice of the Mass which as ye account it most heavenly so we account it most abominable as that which injures the Son of God which derogats from his death and passion which is injurious to his everlasting Priesthood which is idolatrous vain needless and fruitless which hinders and overthrows the true service of God all which shal be made plain of it by Gods grace The matter of our controversie therefore is Whither Jesus Christ God and man his body and blood be personally and corporally offered up in your sacrifice of the Mass as ye call it And whither this your sacrifice be a propiciatory sacrifice for the sins of the quick and the dead This your Church affirms and holds and this we deny Now let us see your reasons first and then we will set down what reasons we have for us out of the Word of God to the contrary As to yours First ye say it way prefigured by the Law of Moses Next prophesied of by the Prophets And thirdly done and instituted by Christ our Savior and commanded by him to be done to the end of the world As to the first This sacrifice was prefigured by the sacrifices of the Old Testament for the which purpose ye quote Levit. 2. and 6.20 Unto the which I answer That the sacrifices of the Old Testament were figures and shadows of that great and bloody sacrifice of Christ Jesus ones offered up upon the cross never to be offered up again as the Apostle saith Heb. 9.25.26.27.28 and of our spiritual sacrifices and service to God whereof the Apostle speaks in these places here cited Rom. 12.1 Heb. 13.15.16 The which also were fulfilled in that one and only sacrifice of himself upon the cross for the sins of the world and are fulfilled in our spiritual sacrifices of our selves and of the calves of out lips continually But that these were figures of your abominable sacrifice in the Mass there is not a syllable in the whole Scripture to prove the same For that which was prefigured
oblation after the consecration I leave the rest of their contradictions so that seeing they have no concord among themselves neither in the matter nor in the form nor in the effect nor in the substance nor in the circumstances of their pretended sacrifice but that the Lord as is said in Hosea hath divided their hearts therefore their Mass must perish And seeing the Lord hath sent such a confusion among them that they understand not the language one of another some saying one thing some another therefore it is Babel the tower of confusion which they are building and not the house of the Lord. To conclud this they will have their sacrifice not a creature but a Creator of all creatures and therefore they worship it with the worship of latria which by their own doctrine is only proper to God Turrian 1. tract cap. 17. Antonius de Padua ex Bellarm. de Euchar. lib. 3. cap. 8. Therefore they sing after the consecration It is not bread but God and man my Savior And yet they say That this Creator both begins to be where he was not before after the consecration and ceases to be where he was before and that he is not every where as God is Scarga art 5. fol. 335. Turrian tract 1. cap. 21. And they say That the Priest makes Christ his body of the bread in the Sacrament and Christ the King is made of bread Bellar. lib. 3. de Euch. fol. 399. Pope John 22. lib. orat inscrip Antidotarius animae in Breviario missalibus Qui creavit me sine me creatur mediante me he that created me without me that is the Priest is created by my moyen that is he makes that God that made him Now how can he be the true God and a true Creator which hath a beginning and ceases to be which is not every where as God is which is made of bread and wine by a Mass-Priest and that by their own doctrine How therefore shal their Church be cleared from abominable idolatrie that worships that which they call God Creator and Savior and yet such a God as by their own doctrine hath a beginning and ending and is not every where and is made of bread and wine by dust and ashes O! wo be to their souls that worship God which made not heaven and earth and causeth others to do the same And how shal their Mass-Priests be cleared from sacrilegious blasphemy which vaunts that in their Mass they dayly creat their Creator and that of bread and wine and so makes themselves Gods and more then Gods For God created but creatures but they as they suppone creat the Creator And as they worship a false Creator in their Mass so do they worship a false Christ and Savior in the same For the Scripture saith That the true Christ is made of the seed of David of the seed of the woman Rom. 1.3 Gal. 4.4 and not of any other substance But the Christ which they offer up in their Mass by their own doctrine is made of bread and wine and that by the Priest So Bellarmin confesseth ibidem and Pope John 22. ibidem For the one saith That it is no absurd thing to the Priest to make Christ his body of bread And the other saith That Christ the King is made of bread Therefore they worship not JESUS the son of Mary who was made of the woman and of the seed of David but a false Jesus made of bread and baken in the oven and formed by the Priest Therefore of all Idolaters they must be the most blasphemous and abominable And thus much for the Mass SECTION XIII Concerning Confession and Absolution by the Priest Master Gilbert Brown FIfthly our doctrine is that the lawful Ministers and Priests of the Church of Christ have power given them by Christ to forgive and to retain sins because Christ saith to his Apostles Receive ye the holy Ghost whose sins ye shal forgive they are forgiven them and whose sins ye shal retain they are retained John 20.23 And in another place That ye may know saith Christ that the Son of man hath power in earth to forgive sins c. Matth. 6.9 and 16.19 and 18.18 with sundry other places conform to the same And this is denyed by the Protestants Master John Welsch his Reply As for the fifth point of your doctrine that the lawful Ministers of Christ have power given them by Christ to forgive sins and to retain them If you mean that they have this power as Gods Witnesses Ministers and Embassadors yea and Judges too For the Apostle saith We judge them that are within to testifie and to declare to judge and give out judgement according to Gods Word not only by the preaching of the Gospel and administration of the Sacraments joyned therewith but also by the censures and discipline in excommunicating the obstinat impenitent and absolving the penitent If I say your doctrine be this then you injury us in saying we deny it and you needed not to have quoted these places to confirm the thing which we both teach and also practise But what is the cause ye would not quote the place where we deny this doctrine But if you mean that the lawful Ministers of Christ have an absolut power and full authority not as Ministers and Witnesses only but as Judges and Lords over our Faith to forgive or retain by their own authority and that the very pronouncing of the words of absolution is the cause of remission of sins and that it so scattereth the sins and makes them to evanish as the blast of wind extinguishes the fire and scatters the cloud as Bellarmin saith Controv. Tom. 2. If you mean so this we utterly deny un-you and all men because it is only proper unto God The which the Jews suppose they were blinded did acknowledge and so not so blind as ye are For it is only God that forgives in Jesus Christ Matth 9. It is only his death that hath merited it and only faith that apprehends it and only his Spirit that seals it up and the Word and Ministery that declares testifies and confirms it For the Apostle saith He hath committed to us the word and ministery of reconciliation and we are in his stead to beseech men to be reconciled to God 2. Cor. 5.18.19.20 So we are but Ministers of this Augustin is plain in this Homil. 23. It is the Spirit saith he that forgives and not you meaning of the Ministers and the Spirit is God it is God therefore who forgives and not we There is one argument God only forgives sins therefore not man And again What is man but a sick man to be healed himself Wouldst thou be a Physician to me with me seek the Physician thy self Here another argument He cannot be a Physician to others who needs a Physician himself Further he saith He that can forgive by man can also forgive without man for he may as well forgive by
that their communion with her shal be in heart and the practise thereof in secret and he shal abolish the publick exercise of all Religions true or false save that which is done to himself So that the Mass they say shal be had but in secret then And Bellarmin lib. 3. de Rom. Pont. cap. 17. 18. and Sanderus demonst 35. 37. is of the same mind That his cruel persecution shal stay all publick exercise of Religion and he shal make open warfare with the whole Church and shal endeavor to destroy the universal estat of the whole Christian Commonwealth and shal shut up the door of Sacraments and shal suffer no man any more to enter in the Church of Christ and shal be Monarch of the whole world Now if this be true whether shal the Church of Christ by your own doctrine be fed secretly or not be latent and lurk in the time of the Antichrist let all men judge But what a contradictorious spirit is this of yours who to gain-say the thing that I writ cares not to involve your self in a contradiction not only to the truth but also to your own Catholicks Either therefore wonder at your own Catholicks who have spoken as much and more in this point then I did and at your self also who grants as much in substance as I meant that ye and they have abused the Scripture or else leave off to wonder at me and wonder at the vail which is hung over your own eyes which hinders you not only to understand the truth but also to understand what your self and your own brethren teach Now as for your reason it is not said that Babylon was in the desert but that John was taken in the spirit that is ravished in the spirit as in the 1. and 4. chapter into the desert that is into a solitar and heavenly contemplation of that vision which was afterward shown him For as this carrying of him in the sprit signifies his spiritual ravishing so this desert signifies the solitariness of his contemplation And as that lifting up of Ezekiel by the locks of the hair of his head between the heaven and the earth and that carying of him to the door of the innermost port towards the North to see the abominations of Jerusalem was only in vision and not bodily So I take this carrying of John in spirit to the wilderness to see the whore of Babylon to have been in vision only and not bodily And whereas ye say that this word desert signifies more properlie to be hid and invisible then the word wilderness I pray you tell me M. Gilbert what is between desert and wilderness save that the first is driven from the Latin and the second is English Must you be set to the Grammar-school again What fancie is this wherewith ye are possessed that you put a difference between wilderness and desert Is there any difference if you understood the Greek language between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is between desert and desert wilderness and wilderness And if ye have ever read the New Testament in Greek there is but the self-same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in both these places which signifieth desert or wilderness But where have you been when ye did imagine this difference Appearantly ye have been dreaming in some wilderness or else wandring in the wilderness of your own blind imaginations As for the exposition of your true Catholicks we count not much of them Always these whom ye call your true Catholicks Bellarmin the Rhemists and Sanderus have been plain in this matter and have spoken more in this point then we do And as for the time of this her secrecie and lurking 1260 days which you expound literally to be but three years and an half I answer This exposition of yours is against first the custom of prophesies which are expounded figuratively and not literally as these 70. weeks in Daniel concerning Christ where there a day is put for a year Next it is against the whole circumstances of the text For will you expound this woman figuratively for the Church as Sanderus doth and the wilderness unto the which she fled figuratively for the smal number whereunto she shal be redacted as you do and the sun wherewith she was clad and the moon which was under her feet and the twelve stars that was upon her head and the red Dragon which pursued her with ten heads c. all figuratively and yet will ye expound the time of her being in the wilderness literally What violence is this which ye will offer unto the holy truth of God to expound all the rest figuratively and only the time literally So then a day here is set for a year as also it is taken in the same sense in the 2. chapter of the Reveâ—ation in the Epistle to Smyrna where it is said They shal have tribulation for the space of ten dayes that is for the space of ten years As for the invisibility of our Church because that question comes afterward therefore I omit it now Only this as your Hierarchie and abomination of your Church grew so did the purity of the doctrine of Jesus Christ in his Church decay And as your Popes came not to their hight at an instant and brought not in their abominations at an instant but piece and piece and by long process of time So the purity of the truth of God decayed not at an instant but piece and piece and by a long process of time For the degrees of your exalting was the degrees of the depressing of the truth of God in his Church As for our dispensation suppose your Church useth not to give them without money laid down yet we will neither buy them nor have them for nought So keep your dispensations at home M. Gilbert while we send for them M. John Welsch And the Ministers thereof shal preach in sackcloth that is under persecution all that time and at the last they shal be put to death for the testimonie of Jesus and for speaking against their false Worship and Religion Master Gilbert Brown It appears to me that M. John hath found some new Revelation other then that of S. John for he notes no place to us and these words of his are no way in S. John and therefore as an invention of his own head we will reject the same Indeed we have in S. John That God shal give to us two witnesses and they shal prophesie 1260. dayes clad with sackcloth Rev. 11.3 But this can no wayes agree with this purpose of his For why there shal be but two of these and there is more then two hundred Ministers in Scotland And these two shal prophesie but our Ministers are no Prophets albeit they foretell things oftentimes that is not true all the prophesies if they prophesie at any time is of evil and not of good These two shal prophesie but three years and an half
Image of these who were first authors of their Orders 2. The Basilidians worshipped Images Irenaeus lib. cap. 23. and used invocations so do you 3. Carpocras had some painted Images in great estimation both of others as also of Christ Irenaeus lib. 1. cap. 3.24 So do the Papists paint Christ and say that his form was painted by Luke the Evangelist 4. The old Idolaters did excuse their Idolatry that they did not worship the Images but the thing represented by the Image August in Psal 113. in con 2. Lactant lib. 2. cap. 2. So do you excuse your Idolatrie 5. It was the custom of the old Idolaters to afflict and whip their own bodies that they might please their own Gods Iren. lib. 1. cap. 21. So do some of you now 6. It was their custom also to light candles at noon day in the time of their service Iren. lib. 6. cap. 2. So do you 7. Basilidians and Carpocratians kept secret their doctrine counting all other men dogs and swine Iren. lib. 1. cap. 23. Epiph. haeres 24. So do you keep secret your mysteries from the common people and will not suffer the Scriptures to be read of all lest say ye precious pearls be cast before swine 8. Marcosij they spake some Hebrew words in Baptism to astonish and affray the hearers Iren. lib. 1. cap. 18. But you are worse who in all your service speak nothing but an unknown language and that say you to make their mysteries to be had in greater reverence 9. The Heracleonits anointed their dead with oyl balm and water superstitiouslie August de haeres cap. 16. Epiph. haeres 36. and so do you 10. Marcion and the Pepuzian hereticks permitted women to baptize Epiph. haeres 42. au ad quod vult cap. 27. So do you 11. The ossenes taught that it was not needful that prayers should be made in a known language Epiph. haeres 19. ante Christum So do you and therefore your prayers are in Latin 12. The Messalians affirmed Baptism only to serve for the washing away of the sins going before it Theodoret. divin decret cap. de Bapt. So do you 13. The Tatians and sundry other hereticks affirmed marriage impure Epiph. haeres 46 So doth your Pope Siricius in their Priests Gratianus Epist. 82. cap. Proposuisti 14. The Manichees damned marriage in their elect and perfect but suffered it in the rest August Epist. 74. So do the Papists in their Priests and religious men they damn it but they do tolerat it in the laicks and yet the Spirit of God calls it A doctrine of Devils to forbid marriage 1. Timothy 4.1.2.3 15. The Manichees they had the Communion under one kind So doth the Papistical Church The Council of Constance so decreed it against the Scriptures with these hereticks Such like their Fasting and your Fasting is alike For they made choise of meats and abstained from flesh but yet used their delicats and so do you 16. The Manichees affirmed there was two beginnings so doth Augustinus Steuchus a Papist in sua Cosinopoea in principio Genes where he saith That the crystallin heaven is coeternal with God The which if it be true then certainly it is God For that which is without beginning is God and so there are two Gods If Calvin or any of us had written such how would heaven and earth have been filled with cryes against us 17. Montanus an heretick received the whole Scripture but yet he denyed that it contained all doctrine needâ—ul to salvation Epiph. haeres 48. So doth the Papists And from this error springs their traditions their ceremonies infinit in number partly Jewish partly Ethnick 18. This Montanus was the first who prescribed certain laws of fasting the Scripture appointing no such thing Apollo apud Euseb lib. 5. cap. 17. So doth the Papists their fastings are upon their prefixt and set days 19. Montanus taught that smal faults was to be suffered for after this life neither was the souls to be delivered from the prison till they had payed the utmost farthing Tertull. de anima in fine So doth the Papists also 20. Such like the doctrine of the Montanists was that Abrahams bosome was beside Hell or in the uppermost part of Hell 21. That the Patriarcks before the coming of Christ were in Hell 22. That only the Martyrs souls go immediatly to Paradise 23. That prayers and oblations should be made for the dead 24. That extream unction should be given after Baptism 25. That the sign of the Cross should be used as testifieth Tertullian in lib. de animo de coron milit All which your Church hath renewed 26. Helcesaitae made two Christs one above another beneath So doth your Church make two Christs one in heaven having a true natural body with his own essential properties in a certain place visible another in earth made of the bread and wine with all the essential properties of a true body invisible in the Sacrament 27. Sampsaei kept the dust of the feet and the spittle of two women which they worshipped as Goddesses which they affirmed did serve to cure diseases and which they used as amulets Epiph haeres 53. haeres 19. ante Christum So doth your Papistical Church keep the relicks of Saints worship them and carry them about as serving either to preserve or to recover health The like also was the superstition of the Ossens 28. Cathari gloried in the merit of their works and affirmed that they were made righteous with an inherent righteousness Isid etymol. cap. 8. de haeres Christ. The Papistical Church in this heresie goeth beyond them for both they glory of their works and affirm that we are justified with an inherent righteousness 29. The hereticks called Angelici and also the Caini they worshipped Angels Aug. ad quod vult cap. 39. Epiph. haeres 38. So do the Papists 30. The hereticks called Apostolici admitted none in their number but those who vowed wilful poverty and chastity August de haeres cap. 40. Epiph. haeres 61. So the Papists admit none to their religious Orders but such who vow both 31. There were some hereticks who went bare-footed August ex Philastrio quorundam cap. 68. So do the Franciscan Friers and those who are called Coâ—digeri 32. The Donatists denyed that the true preaching of the Word was a note of the pure Church and therefore Augustin in sundry places calls them back to the Scriptures So doth your Church 33. The Collyridians worshipped Mary and therefore they are called Idolaters by Epiphanius haeres 74. So do the Papists 34. Armenij worshipped the Cross of our Lord and therefore they were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is worshippers of the Cross Epiph. in Panoplia So do the Papists 35. The Pelagians affirmed Adam would have died suppose he had not sinned So doth Augustinus Steuchus a Papist of great name in his Annotations upon the 2 of Genesis He saith Death is natural and sin is not the cause of
Antichrist is called an adversary that is opposed and contrary to God and that not in life only but in doctrine Religion and government and that not in one point only but almost in all the substantial points thereof The which mark the Popes of Rome bear and that not only in their lives but also in the whole substantial points of Religion And to make this clear besides that which hath been spoken we shal compare the doctrine of Jesus Christ and the government of his Kingdom set down in the Scripture with the doctrine of the Popes and the manner of their government that the contrariety of them may be known so that it shal be seen that cold is no more contrary to heat and black to white then Papism to Christianity and the Religion of the Church of Rome to the Religion of Christ Jesus The doctrine of Christ stands especially in these two things in the knowledge of his person and in the knowledge of his offices And therefore the Apostle saith I desire to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified 1. Cor. 2.2 And Christ himself saith It is life eternal to know thee to be the only true God and whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ John 17 3. The doctrine of the Popes of Rome overthrows both And first to prove this concerning his person the Scripture testifies that Jesus Christ is conceived of the substance of the Virgin Mary and that he hath but one true body made of the seed of David and of the seed of the woman Rom. 1.3 Gal. 4. 4 and not many and that he is like unto us in all things except sin Heb. 2.17 The doctrine of the Church of Rome is that Christ Jesus his body is made of the bread and wine in the Sacrament their doctrine makes him to have as many bodies as there is bits of bread in the Sacrament and not to be like his brethren in all things except sin Bellar. lib. 3. de Eucharistia fol. 399. Pope John 22. lib. orat in scr antidotarius animae for his brethren can be but in one place at once with their own due proportion visibly But their doctrine of Transubstantiation makes him to be both in heaven and earth at once in heaven visibly in earth invisibly in heaven with his own quantity and proportion in earth without his natural proportion and not in one place of the earth only but in innumerable places thereof at once so that this main foundation of mans salvation without the which there is no eternal life concerning the truth of Christs manhood made of the woman is utterly defaced and overthrown by the doctrine of the Popes of Rome in making him to have infinit bodies not made of the feed of the woman but of bread and wine or at the least made of two diverse substances And as they overthrow the doctrine of his person so they overthrow the doctrine of his offices His offices are three a Prophet a Priest and a King which are all overthrown by them As he is a Prophet he hath revealed his Fathers whole will unto his servants John 1.18 and hath left it in register in his latter Testament and hath forbidden to add empair or to alter the same Deut. 4.2 and hath pronounced a wo a curse unto them that adds empairs or alters the same Rev. 22.18 Gal. 1.8 and that because it is sufficient to make a man wise unto salvation and to make the man of God perfect unto every good work 2. Tim. 3.15.16 and because it is pure and perfect and easie to all them that will understand it Prov. 8.9 Psal 19.8.9 13. 119. But they have many wayes corrupted this Testament of Christ by mingling and adulterating the same First in that they give divine authority to the Books called Apocrypha which are humain Concil Trident. Sess 4. Next in receiving and commanding others to receive traditions with equal reverence and affection with the Scripture Thirdly in their corrupt Latin translation which they have made authentical which some of themselves confess have missed sometimes the meaning of the holy Ghost Bud. annot prior in Pandect Andrad lib. 4. Arias Montanus Tom. 8. Bibl. Reg. in praefat Fourthly in joyning with the Commandments of God their own commandments and that not as things indifferent but as necessary to salvation Concil Trident. Sess 6 cap. 10. Fifthly in condemning all sense and meaning of the holy Scripture but that which they hold themselves Sess 4. Last of all in quarrelling the Scripture of imperfection obscurity and ambiguity calling it dead and dumb like a nose of wax They therefore who have altered added and corrupted the Testament of Jesus Christ confirmed by his death which he hath left in writ for to instruct his Church in all things and to make her wise to salvation and perfect to every good work doth spoil the Lord Jesus of his Prophetical office But the doctrine of the Church of Rome hath done so Ergo they spoyl Jesus Christ of his Prophetical office Thirdly they are no less sacrilegious and injurious to his Priesthood His Priesthood stands in two things First in purchasing unto us by the vertue of that one sacrifice once offered up upon the Cross an everlasting redemption Next in making continual intercession for us with his Father Heb. 9.11.12 15.24.25.26.27.28 the which both are overthrown by the doctrine of the Church of Rome As to the first it is overthrown many wayes as first our Savior saith That his soul was sorrowful unto the death and that he swat drops of blood Matth. 26.37.38 and he sent up strong cryes and supplications with tears in the dayes of his flesh Heb. 5.7 Luke 22.44 and therefore he thrise upon his knees prays That if it had been possible that cup might be removed from him Matth. 27.39 And upon the Cross through the sense and feeling of that wrath he breaks forth in that complaint My God my God why hast thou forsaken me All which do testifie that he suffered more then a common death to wit the terrors of the wrath of God which was due to the sins of all the elect But the doctrine of the Church of Rome ranverseth this doctrine of our salvation and teacheth that Christ suffered not the wrath of God upon his soul which if it be true then Christ hath not payed our debt sufficiently for our debt was not only the natural death of the body but the wrath of God upon the soul and therefore the Scripture saith The soul that sinneth shal die the death Ezech. 18.20 Secondly the Scripture testifieth that Christs death and blood is a sufficient ransom for our sins and a sufficient satisfaction unto the justice of God Heb. 10.10.14 John 19.28 1. Tim. 2.6 1. Pet. 2.24 1. John 1.7 They by the contrary joyn to his satisfaction the satisfactions of men both in this life and in the life to come in Purgatory and that not only for their own sins but for
the sins of others What is this else but to make themselves in a part Saviors of themselves and Saviors of others also Yea what is this else but to make themselves God For who can satisfie the justice of God but God himself Thirdly as it hath been proved before Christ offered up himself once by shedding of his blood upon the Cross never to be offered up again which hath purchased an everlasting redemption the which is the only ground of mans salvation How they have overturned this by their abominable sacrifice of the Mass and their sacrilegious Mass-Priests I hope hath been proved sufficiently before so that they have both evacuat the vertue of the sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross in setting up another sacrifice for the redemption of souls And also they have spoyled him of the dignity of his Royal Priesthood in joyning unto him collegues and fellow-Priests to offer up himself dayly in their pretended sacrifice Fourthly as they spoyl him of his Priesthood so do they spoyl men of that redemption righteousness and salvation which his death hath purchased both in the fountain matter and form thereof The Scripture testifies that the only fountain and efficient cause of our salvation is Gods free love and grace 2. Tim. 1.9 Tit. 2.11 Eph. 1.5 and 1. John 3.16 They teach That an infidel by the works of preparation as they call them even done without faith may procure and merit Gods favor Masuenda in disput Ratisb cum Bucero Scholast And also they joyn with the grace of God mans free-will as a party worker with it as though God did not renew it being corrupted or repair it being perished but only relieve it being weak and raise it up being faint by the which they abolish if the Apostle speak true Rom. 11.6 and 4 5. the grace of Christ for if our salvation be of grace it is not of works and if it be not of works then it is not of grace and so not at all As to the matter of our justification the Scripture ascribes it only to Christ his obedience and his death Rom. 5.19 They by the contrary suppose they grant that Christ hath fulfilled the Law and perfectly satisfied God yet they teach that this righteousness of Christ is not our righteousness by the which we must be justified but they place it in our own works and in our own merits And of this comes the third that whereas the Scripture testifies that this righteousness of Christ is imputed unto us by faith Rom. 4.22.23.24.3.5.6.7 They acknowledge not this imputation but placeth the form of our justification in the merit of our works and so they spoyl man of righteousness and salvation For Bellarmin saith lib. 2. de Pontif. cap. 2. That the imputation of the righteousness of Christ is not required to our justification And the Council of Trent Can. 10. Accurseth them who say that we are justified justos formaliter per Christi justitiam by the righteousness of Christ. And as they have spoyled Christ of the first part of his office of his Priesthood so do they spoyl him of the second part thereof which consists in his intercession in joyning with him innumerable Intercessors and Mediators as well of Angels as of Saints departed at whose hands they seek all manner of grace which is only proper to Jesus Christ to give and that not only for the vertue of the merits of Christ but for their own merits and intercession Every Parish almost among them had their own Patron and every malady disease or calamity their own Saint or Angel to run to And as their doctrine hath robbed the Lord Jesus of his Priestly dignity and man of the benefit of eternal life purchased to him by the same so have they robbed him of that glory and worship that is due unto him in plucking away his glory from him and giving it unto creatures 1. As unto Angels and 2. Unto Saints departed and especially unto the Virgin Mary 3. Unto their relicks 4. Unto images of the Trinity of the Saints of the Cross 5. Unto things consecrated as water oyl c. 6. And unto the Sacrament of the Eucharist unto whom they give that worship which is only due unto God as prayer worship vows sacrifices c. So that if they may be justly called the Antichrist whose doctrine spoyls Christ of the office of his mediation and man of his salvation purchased thereby and God of his due glory which man is bound to give him for his creation and redemption and sets up other Saviors and Mediators other Priests and Intercessors beside him and teaches another way of mans salvation then he hath taught and worship other Gods then the God that made heaven and earth and after another manner then he hath commanded Then I say the Popes of Rome may justly be called and is in truth the Antichrist and adversary to God For they are guilty of all this abomination And because I know that the poor and ignorant people and these that are blinded with the strong delusions of that man of sin will not believe these things of him and of his Church but as Thomas said of Christ Unless I see the print of the nails and put my finger in the print of the nails and put my hand into his side I will not believe Even so unless they see their idolatry and grope it as it were with their hands they will not believe it therefore I am compelled for their conviction and information that none of them that is ordained to salvation perish to let them see their idolatries and to make them to grope their abominations and that by their own Books For I shal not speak here beguess for that were great foolishness to alledge here any other thing then that which is written in their own Books seeing he hath promised to give an answer lest he should challenge me of lying of them I protest therefore Christian Reader that I shal forge nor fain nothing of them but shal only set down those things which are to be found in their own writings And first in their service and Mass Book secundum usum Anglicanum Horae beatae Mariae suffragia c. printed anno 1520. they pray to the Archangels and Angels to defend them in battel to defend them that none condemn them to keep both their soul and body from godless desires and from unclean cogitations to keep their mind from pollution to confirm them in the fear and love of Christ Secondly they pray to the Saints departed That by their merits and intercession they may be defended from all evils obtain all gifts and get eternal life Yea they seek of them Defence in this world from all evils and everlasting life And they pray to God the Father that by their merits and intercession they may be delivered both soul and body from Hell fire and may obtain through their merits faith patience and everlasting life So not only they
make them Intercessors but Mediators at whom and for whose merits they seek salvation And upon this ground came that Paganism which they have brought in the Church of God whereby every Nation Village Family every Estat and every malady or affliction have their own Saint to be a Patron for them Upon the which also hath proceeded this canonizing of Saints that is to make men Gods For they say that this canonizing of them is to let men understand that they should be adored and called upon as one of their own Archbishops Antonius saith part 5. summa tit 12. For he saith that seven things appertain to the canonizing of Saints 1. To be reputed publickly to be a Saint 2. To be prayed to by the Church 3. To have Temples and Altars 4. To have offerings and sacrifices offered to their honor 5. To have a festival day 6. To have an Image with a candle in sign of their glory 7. To have their relicks And they say That they may be directly prayed unto with the Lords Prayer which our Savior formed only to be said to God the Father Now how shal they be excused from vile idolatry in this Pope Innocent saith That to the worship which is only proper to God appertains Temples Altars sacrifices feasts And Durandus a Papist saith the same lib. 5. cap. 4. If this then be true which this Pope and this Papist say how then can they be cleared from idolatry that give unto Saints that service which by their own confession is only proper to God as Temples Altars Festival dayes c. And what shal we say to Franciscus and Dominicus two of their canonized Saints in whose persons they have done that lay in them to have abolished the merit the Name of Christ Of this Franciscus they say in their Book of Conformities That he is greater then John the Baptist And preferring him in many things to him they say That John received the word of repentance of Christ but Franciscus say they received it of Christ and of the Pope quod plus est which is more Of John it was revealed by an Angel to his father what he should be but of Franciscus it was revealed to his mother and his servants by Jesus Christ John was like the friend of the bridegroom but Franciscus was like the bridegroom himself They say He is better then all the Apostles for they left but their boats but he left all to his very hose They call him Typicus Jesus a typical Savior a singular crucified one who received in vision the same wounds which Christ hath suffered the same dolors who is the way of life who is the image of Christ as Christ is the image of the Father Yea which is more they prefer him to Christ Jesus They say Christ did but pray but Franciscus by prayer obtained They say The Baptism of Christ forgives original sin but Franciscus hood much more It is written also upon the port of the Cordeliers of Bloys of this Franciscus That his sin shal be sought for but it shal not be found which is only proper to Christ Now these are not particular opinions but approved by the Church of Rome For Pope Gregory the 9. Alexander the 4. and Nicolas the 3. ordained all the faithful under the pain of heresie to believe all Franciscus marks And their Books are set forth by their priviledges As for Dominicus Antoninus who was of that Order compares him with Christ and in a manner prefers him to him Hist. 3. pars tit 23. cap. 1. part 1. 3. Christ saith he did raise in all but three from the dead Dominicus raised three in Rome and by his prayer restored forty to life Christ after the resurrection being immortal went twise to his disciples the doors being shut but Dominicus saith he having as yet but a mortal body which saith he is more marvellous went into the Church in the night the doors being shut that he should not waken his brethren c. And such like of the rest of the miracles wherein he not only compares but in a māner prefers him to Christ Christ saith he said after his death all power is given to me in heaven earth This power saith he is not in a little cōmunicat to Dominicus above all heavenly earthly infernal things that in this same life for he had the Angels to serve him the elements obeyed him And in the end he applyes that which is only spoken of Christ in the 45. Psalm He is more beautiful then the sons of men Also he saith That there was two Images the one of Paul the other of Dominicus At the foot of Pauls Image it was written Per istumitur ad Christum By this man is the way to Christ At the foot of the Image of Dominicus it was written By this man the way is made easie to Christ And marvel not saith he at this for the doctrine of Paul and the rest of the Apostles induceth men to believe and to obey the precepts of Christ but the doctrine of Dominicus induceth men to keep the counsels of Christ and therefore the way to Christ by him is easier So he prefers him to Christ in miracles and to the Apostles But what shal we say to that that follows He is called saith he Dominicus because he is like our Lord and he hath possessive and in possession that which Christ hath absolutly and by authority Christ saith I am the light of the world The Church saith he sings of Dominicus Ye are the light of the world The Prophets testified of Christ and so did they also saith he of Dominicus and of his Order as in the 11. chapter of Zachary where it is spoken of Christ I have taken unto me two rods and I called one the staff of beauty and the other the staff of bands The staff of beauty saith he is the Order of Dominicus the staff of bands is the Order of Franciscus So they abuse the Scripture He compares him also with Christ and in a manner prefers him to him Christ saith he was born upon the bare earth but lest he had been over much hurt by cold he was put into the crib by his mother But Dominicus saith he being in the custody of his nurse even then abhorring the pleasures of the flesh was found oft-times lying upon the bare earth When Christ was born a star appeared signifying that he should illuminat the whole world But saith he when Dominicus was born his Godmother saw a star in his fore-head a prognostication of a new light of the world The prayer of the Lord was ever heard when it pleased him but yet did not ever obtain that which he prayed for as when in the garden he prayed that the cup might be transferred from him But saith he Dominicus desired nothing of God but that which he obtained perfectly according to his desire Christ loved us and washed us from our sins in his
and her Son unto them What horrible blasphemy is this Who can give Christ but only God the Father They say God will give them that worship her a reward here and heaven hereafter How shal I praise the redeemed by thee speaking of Mary And in the prose of the Mass they have this prayer Jure matris impera Redemptori that is By thy motherly authority command the Redeemer And as concerning her Psalteries how horrible is it to see all that David spake of the Father Son and holy Spirit to be transferred and applyed to her without exception from the beginning to the end changing only the style of the eternal Lord in the style of our Lady blaspheming Blessed is he who loves Mary fears her and praises her name who hopes in her The heavens declare thy glory and the earth and the fulness thereof Blessed are all they who love thee because thou hast washen their sins in thy mercies Have mercy on me O mother of mercy and according to the bowels of thy compassions wash me from all mine iniquities Save me for thy names sake Let Mary be lifted up and all her enemies will be scattered Lord give thy judgement to thy Son and thy mercy to the Queen his mother Lady salvation and life is in thy hand O how good is God to them that worship his mother God is the God of vengeance but thou art the Queen of mercy Come let us worship the Lady let us praise the Virgin who hath saved us let us confess our sins unto her The Lord said unto our Lady Sit here my mother on my right hand O mankind rejoyce because God hath given to thee such a Mediatrix and at the name of Mary let all knees bow in heaven in earth and in Hell This Lady Psalter was compyled by a Cardinal of Rome Bonaventure who was canonized for a Saint by Pope Sixtus the fourth anno 1470. After the same manner have they corrupted the Songs of the Prophets of Simeon and of the Virgin blaspheming after this manner My soul rejoyceth in my Lady My soul magnifie my Lady c. Now letst thou O Lord the servant of Mary depart in peace because my eyes have seen the salvation of Mary And to put an end to these abominations they ascribe unto the Virgin that which the holy Ghost hath spoken only of Jesus Christ the everlasting wisdom of his Father The Lord hath possessed me in the beginning of his way before he made any thing I was ordained from everlasting Prov. 8.22 And Pope Leo the 10. calls her Deam a Goddess Epist 17. In the General Council of Lateran in stead of praying to God through Christ for the assistance of his Spirit they crave the help and assistance of Mary Concil Lateran sub Julio 2. Leone 10. Sess 9.10 c. And Pope Pius the fifth acknowledgeth her for the victory of the Christians against the Turk in their combat which was stricken on the sea and for that victory hath ordained a yearly rememberance of her to be kept Martyrologium Rom. act 7. And Antoninus one of their Archbishops saith Hist. part 3. tit 23. cap. 3. That Christ sitting at the right hand of God the Father rose up angry to have slain all the sinners in the earth and when none was able to resist his mother came to him and pacified him till two of his servants Franciscus and Dominicus might be sent to them and that Christ answered Behold I am pacified and have accepted thy face I appeal your conscience M. Gilbert before the Lord Jesus Christ as ye must appear before him in that great day whether these speeches be not the speeches and blasphemies of the Dragon or not And whether this doctrine and Religion of yours be not idolatrous blasphemous and Antichristian or not Not only have they spoyled the Lord Jesus of his mediation intercession and of his glory due to him and mankind of their salvation purchased by his blood in ascribing it to Saints Angels and to the Virgin Mary but also in ascribing them unto their consecrat things as their holy water the tree of the Cross the sign of the Cross their golden silver and stony Crosses For unto the Cross they give the worship of Latria as themselves testifie which by their own confession is only proper to God Thomas in part 3. summae quaest 25. artic 4. Cajet in comment in illum locum Thomae Andradius in lib. 9. orthod explic And their prayer to the Cross and the sign of the Cross is to help them defend them and save them and they adore it and worship it They pray such like that the holy water may be salvation unto them and that by the sparging of the same the health of their soul the strengthening of their faith the security of their hope may be given them Unto the Images and relicks of the Saints they offer sacrifice in burning incense unto them which the Scripture calles an oblation only proper to the living God Mark 9 49. Therefore Ezechias brake the brazen serpent because they burnt incense unto it 2. Kings 18.4 And the burning of incense to Baal is counted idolatry 2. Kings 23.5 They pray for their golden silver and stony crosses that as the world was purged from the guiltiness of sin by the Cross of Christ so by the merit of this Cross these who offer it up may be forgiven of all their actual sins Pontif. Rom. part 2 tit de benedict novae crucis Careat omni peccato perpetrato Is not this to set up their stony c. Crosses in the room of the blood of Jesus Christ They ascribe to the tree of the Cross that which is only proper to God saying Salva catervam that is Give salvation to the assembly gathered together in thy praises Brevia Rom. in fest invent exalt sanctae crucis They worship their images after the same manner as the Heathens did their Idols And as the Heathens Baruc. 6.3 bure their golden silver and timber Idols upon their shoulders so do the Papists Baron nota Marti Rom. Sleidan com lib. 9. Jodoc meg peregr Hieros cap. 3. Pellic. in Baruc cap. 6. The Heathens worshipped their idols the Papists do the same in falling down before the images of Saints Conc. Trid. Sess 25. The Heathens decked their idols with vestiments as though they had been men so do the Papists with their images which some of themselves think to be an abuse and would have it abolished Molin Epist Valen. Salig Espen hist Eccles Ecclesia reform in Gallia lib. 4. They lighted candles before their idols which their idols saw not so do the Papists Erasm colloq peregrin relig ergo Polyd. Virg. de invent rer lib. 2. cap. 23. lib. 6. cap. 13. There the faces of their Gods were made black through the smoke of their incense which was burnt in their worship as it is exponed by some so do the Papists burn incense to their golden
of ryot pride extortion and simony Ammian Marcel lib. 27. Baptist. Mant. Fast lib. 5. Bern. Epist 42. Conc. Basil Sess 21. And as for excommunication he hath used it not against the wicked Bernard ad Eugen. lib. 1. 3. Mantuan sylvar lib. 2. of whom a sink hath flowed at all times in Rome not against thieves of whom Rome is made a den not against murderers for whom there is a sanctuary in the houses of Cardinals at Rome Aeneas Sylvius hist de Asia min. cap. 77. not against adulterers not against whores whereof the Pope received such tribut as hath been spoken but against Emperors Estats Nations who would not serve him at a beck against any man that denyed his Parish Priest a little tiends against whole assemblies of the faithful whom he by most villanous cruelty and treachery as if they had been sheep appointed for the slaughter hath rid away by fire by torment by sword And to end this what shal I speak of his tyrannical laws whereby he hath oppressed the Church of God as of single life auricular confession choise of meats apparel dayes of new and strange canonizing of Saints of pilgrimage to the holy Land of the vows of Monks Nuns of the estates and rites of marriage and of innumerable ceremonies partly unfruitful partly foolish partly impious And what shal I speak of his dispensations against the Old Testament against the Epistles of Paul against all right and equity That a brother may marry his own brothers wife King Henry the 8. and an uncle his sisters daughter Philip King of Spain And Pope Martin the fifth approved the marriage of one with his sister germain That Church offices and livings may be given to boyes to simonical merchants and unlearned persons Bernard Epist 42. de consid ad Eugen. lib. 1. 3. That one may have plurality of Benefices Dist 70. cap. Sacerdotum cap. de mult de praeb That he who hath the Benefice needs not to attend the office cap. relatum de cler cap. licet Canon de elect in Sexto That promise may be broken with God and man That subjects may be discharged of their oath to their Princes Conc. Constant. Sess 19. And last of all what shal I speak of his Indulgences and Pardons in granting so many hundred and thousand years pardon of their sins to them that will devoutly say their idolatrous prayers Some giving three hundred dayes pardon as Pope Celestin Some seven hundred years pardon as Pope Boniface Some ten thousand years pardon as Boniface the 6. Some thirtytwo thousand seven hundred fiftyfive years pardon And Sixtus the 4 hath doubled the time of this fore-said pardon And some ten hundred thousand years pardon for deadly sins as Pope John 22. Portuus book of Sarum printed anno 1520. Here is pardon for all sins so that there be money And as the Revelation saith The very souls of men are made merchandise of Rev. 18.13 And one of their own friends saith venalia Romae Templa Sacerdâ—tes Altaria sacra coronae Ignes thura preces coelum est venale Deúsque Baptist Mantuan calam temp lib. 3. That is Churches Priests Altars crowns fire incense prayers heaven and God are to be sold in the Church of Rome To conclud this then he is the Antichrist whose Doctrine and Religion Ministery and Discipline is directly contrary to the Doctrine Religion Ministery and Discipline of Jesus Christ Again he is the undoubted Antichrist whose doctrine spoyls Jesus Christ of the truth of his humanity of his Prophetical Kingly and Priestly Offices and sets himself and others up in the same offices and whose doctrine spoils him of the glory which is due to him only for our creation and redemption and gives it to creatures and last of all he whose doctrine spoyls men of their salvation must be that undoubted Antichrist But the Doctrine and Religion of the Popes of Rome and his Clergy as hath been proved sufficiently are such Therefore they are that undoubted Antichrist which the Scripture fore-told was to come And this for the second mark The third mark of the Antichrist is That he exalts himself above all that is called God and is worshipped that is above all powers and majesties both heavenly and earthly He saith not Above God himself but above all that is called God that is above all powers heavenly and earthly as hath been said He then is the undoubted Antichrist whom the Scripture fore-told should come who lifts up himself above all powers as well heavenly as earthly this you cannot deny because the Scripture so affirms But the Pope of Rome have lifted up themselves above all powers both heavenly and earthly the which if it shal be proved then of necessity it must follow that the Popes of Rome are that undoubted Antichrist Now for proof hereof we shal set none other upon their assise to file or cleanse them in this point but their own Canon Law their own Writers their own Bishops and themselves Antonius Archbishop of Florence saith Sum. part 3. tit 22. cap. 5. That his power is greater then any created power and that it extends its self to heavenly earthly and infernal things Of whom saith he that is true which is spoken of Christ in the 8. Psalm 6. Thou hast subjected all things under his feet that are in heaven in earth or in hell applying it to the Pope What needs more This is conviction enough But yet we will proceed and see how far he hath lifted up himself above all these As for them in the earth there are two special powers the temporal power and the spiritual power He claims superiority over both as is manifest by their own doctrine The Pope is over the world in stead of Christ Anton in sum part 3. tit 22. cap. 5. I am Cesar all the power in the heaven and in the earth is mine Boniface 8. We affirm and define that it stands all creatures upon the necessity of their salvation to be subject to the Pope Extra de majorit unam sanct The Pope should judge all and be judged of none unless he be found an heretick And suppose he should draw after him innumerable souls by heaps unto Hell yet no mortal man should be so bold as to say to him Lord why dost thou this Dist 40. cap. Si. Papa Gloss extravagant ad Apost How far he hath lifted up himself above the temporal power Kings Princes and Emperors let both their doctrine and practise bear witness The Pope is as the Sun to rule over the day that is the spirituality and the Emperor as the Moon to rule over the night that is the temporality And as the earth is seven times greater then the Moon and the Sun eight times greater then the earth so is the Pope forty seven times greater then the Emperor And as the Emperor or Roman Princes take of me their approbation unction and Imperial Crown so they must not
disdain to submit their heads to me and to swear to me their oath of alleageance and fidelity Pope Clement 5. de jurejurando The Pope may depose Kings from their Kingdoms and absolve their subjects from their oath of alleageance and interdict their Kingdoms and set up others in their room Sext. Decretal de sentent re judicata cap. ad Apost item Glossa Childerick King of France was deposed and Pepin set in his room Pope Zachary causa 15. quaest 6. cap. Alius Henry the fourth Henry the fifth Frederick the first Otho the fourth Frederick the second Conradus his son all Emperors were excōmunicat and deposed by the Popes Justinianus Otho the first Frederick the first Henry the fifth Sigismundus Carolus the fifth all Emperors and Monarchs admitted by the Popes of Rome to kiss their feet And if this had been their practise only and not their doctrine this pride and arrogancy might have been imputed to the persons and not to the seat But his doctrine is so Author ceremoniarum lib. 1. 3. The Pope of Rome doth reverence to no mortal man All men of whatsoever dignity or preeminence they are of so soon as they come in the presence of the Pope ought to kneel thrise down and to kiss his feet The Emperor as soon as he sees the Pope with his bare head kneeling to the ground he worships him and kisses his feet The Emperor holds the stirrop while the Pope leaps on So did Constantin the Great saith their Canon Law Dist 96. cap. Constant The Emperor at the banket holds the water to the Pope to wash his hands and brings the first dish to the Popes table And if the Pope be to be carried in a chair he or the King if they be present ought to carry the Pope in the chair on their shoulders So this is clear both by their doctrine and practise how far they have lifted up themselves above the Kings and Monarchs of the world so that Pope Gelasius saith That Emperors are more inferior to Popes then lead is to gold Dist 96. cap. 2. Their superiority over the spiritual power of the Church of Christ hath been shown in part before But for the further proof of it they say That the Pope is above all General Councils and that they take their force and confirmation only by him Pope Marcel dist 17. cap. Synodum And that he is supreme Judge in all controversies of Religion whose judgement is also infallible Bellarm. de Primat Pap. And where God hath ordained all causes among men to be judged by men he hath only reserved the Pope to be judged by himself and that he cannot be judged by any neither of Kings nor of the Emperor nor of the whole Clergy nor of the people Symmachus Pope 99.3 Aliorum Pope Innocentius 9. quaest 3. cap. Nemo And that he is Judge over all the Churches and that without a Council both to absolve and condemn and none to judge of his judgement and all to appeal to him and none from him whose judgement must stand as given out of heaven by the mouth of Peter himself which no man must break or retrait no man must disput or doubt of Anastas quaest 3. cap. Antiquis Item 11. quaest 3. cap. Quamvis cap. Quatuor dist 19. cap. Sic omnes 9. quaest 3 cap. Pater Pope Innocentius 2. art 17. quaest 4. cap. Si quis dist 19. cap. In memoriam Sext. decret tit 7. de renunciatione cap. Quoniam And that in omni re dubiâ that is in all controversies of Religion he must obediently of all the faithful be heard whether he can err or not Bellarm. de Pont. lib. 4. cap. 2. And that he may make lawes to bind the consciences of men cap. 15. and that he may creat new Religions Anton. sum 3. part tit 22. cap. 5. His power over them that are in Purgatory and Hell According to his absolut jurisdiction he hath power to spoil all Purgatory by the communication of his Indulgences and Pardons except only them who have only the Baptism of the Spirit and infants who are in Limbo Patrum Ibidem and these who have not friends to do for them The Pope may absolve from an infinit pain to wit from the pain of Hell as Gregory did who by his prayer absolved the soul of Trajan from the infinit pains of Hell Anton. tit 22. cap. 5. The Pope hath as great power in Purgatory and Hell as that he may deliver as many souls as are tormented there by his Pardons and with all speed place them in heaven and seats of the blessed as he pleaseth Clem 6. in bulla Anton. ibidem cap. 6. His power over heaven and all the powers therein All power in heaven and earth is given to me saith Boniface the 8. The Pope hath so great power in heaven that he may canonize any dead man and place him among the Gods and that against the judgement of his Bishops and all his Cardinals Clemen 6. Bulla Troilus in tract de canonizatione sanct He commands the Angels to take souls out of Purgatory and to carry them to heaven Clem. 6. in Bulla His power is greater then the power of all the Saints Baldus God hath subjected the Angels in heaven to the Pope and he is greater then they in four respects and no less honor is due unto the Pope then to the Angels and then greater saith he for the Pope receives from the faithful adoration and kissing of his feet which the Angel would not permit to be done to him by John Anton. ibidem tit 22. cap. 5. What needs more now for the proof of this mark Doth not he lift up himself above all that is called God who claimes power over heaven and earth and hell This they cannot deny But I assume their own Clarks Doctors Popes and Bulls testifie this which they cannot choose but confess also Therefore of necessity the Popes of Rome have exalted themselves above all that is called God and therefore they are that undoubted Antichrist which was to come and now is come And as they have exalted themselves above all heavenly powers so have they matched themselves with Jesus Christ for these things are only proper to Jesus Christ To have all power given him to have all things subject to him under heaven to be greater then all the Angels to receive that worship which the Angels refuse to command the Angels to make laws to bind the consciences of men to creat and institut new Religions And yet the Pope hath arrogated all these things to himself as hath been proved Therefore he is that undoubted Antichrist For he that makes himself equal to the Son of God lifts up himself above all that is called God this cannot be denyed But the Popes of Rome have done so in challenging to themselves these things which are only proper to the Son of God therefore they must be the Antichrist Further these things are
proper to Jesus Christ only To be the head the spouse and foundation of his Church to be that corner stone that precious stone and that proved stone to be that rock of offence to be the Sun that gives light to his Church to be the Prince of Pastors and to have all treasures of wisdom and understanding hid in him and to have all power in heaven and earth given him and to have the fulness of power Epa. 5.23 Col. 2.8 Eph. 1.21.22.23 Isa 28.16 and 8.14 Matth. 21.41 Malach. 3.20 Matth. 28.18 2. Pet. 5.4 Col. 2.3 But all these things the Popes of Rome have arrogated to themselves as is manifest by these places before quoted Bellarmin in praefat de sum Pontif. lib. 1. ceremon tit 7. de majorita cap. Unam sanctam de constitut cap. licet In sexto de translat cap. Quanto in glossa Yea he hath not left so much unto Christ as his style but it is ascrived to him For Bernard writing to him saith Tu es unctione Christus that is Thou art Christ c. de consider ad Eugenium yea he hath claimed a greater power to himself then ever we read that Jesus Christ the Prince of glory and the Lord of life used as to deliver damned souls out of hell and make them Saints in heaven that as many as pleases him Clement 6. Papae Bulla So not only hath he made himself equal in authority in office in styles with the Prince of glory the Lord Jesus but also he hath lifted up himself above him And that there may be nothing wanting to make it manifest that he is this Antichrist as though it had been too little to him to have lifted up himself above all powers in heaven in earth in hell and to have matched himself with the eternal Son of God both in works styles and offices and to arrogat a greater power then ever he did exercise He hath matched himself with the majesty of the Godhead claiming to himself these things which are only proper to the Godhead De translat cap. Quanto As the Popes will is for reason He hath an heavenly arbitriment he changes the nature of things Of nothing he makes something He may depose and set up in Kingdoms whom he will He hath an absolut jurisdiction that no man may say to him wherefore dost thou this He may liberare ex toto sicut ipse Deus that is absolve a man from the whole as God may do Yea that he may do all that God may do except sin the key not erring Panormitan de elect cap. licet ab All which things are only proper to the majesty of God And as he hath matched himself with the majesty of God himself in his judgement will and power so doth he claim to him the self-same worship and adoration which is only proper to God This worship is only proper to God To fall down before his feet and to adore him and therefore Satan craved it of Christ and he refused to give him it And John would have given it to the Angel but the Angel refused it Wherefore did Christ refuse to give it and the Angel refuse to receive it Rev. 22.8.9 Matth. 4.9.10 but because it was written The Lord thy God thou shalt worship and him only shalt thou serve But that worship which the Devil craved to be given to him and which the Angel refused as proper only to God that doth the Pope claim to him and receive from others as his own Archbishops and Canon Law and men of his own Religion do testifie Antonius saith 3. part sum tit 22. cap. 5. printed Lugduni 1516. He receives adorations prostrations that is worship and falling down before his feet which saith he the Angel refused to receive of John Steuchus saith de donat Constant p. 141. Constantin the Emperor worshipped the Pope as God and gave unto him divine honors and worshipped him as the lively image of Christ And Blondus saith Lib. 3. inst Romae that all the Princes of the world worship the Pope ut summum Deum as the most high God And Joannes Faber saith Praefat. in institut the Pope calls himself by words the servant of servants but yet he permits himself to be worshipped which the Angel in the Revelation refused And Frier Mantua saith Cujus vestigia adorat Caesar aurato vestiti murice Reges Whose feet meaning the Popes or footsteps Caesar and the Kings of the earth adore or worship And yet lest any should doubt whither he be the Antichrist or not he is not only made equal with the majesty of God in power arbitriment and adoration but also the very Godhead it self and the very style of the majesty of God is ascribed to him Aventinus saith Lib. 7. the Popes of Rome earnestly desire domination Divinitatem divinity or Godhead And de electione it is said That he is taken up in the fellowship of the invisible Trinity Cap. Fundamento in Sexto And Baldus saith The Pope is a God in the earth And the common voice of the Canonists is Dominus Deus noster Papa that is the Lord our God the Pope Canonist extra Joan. 22. cap. Cum inter in glossa And he is called by his Doctors Optimus Maximus most good in grace most great in power Stapleton in praefat in princ fid doct And Aventinus saith that it is written in his fore-head Deus sum I am God And Gomesius saith Vict. in tom 4. Hieron praefat the Pope est quoddam numen a certain Godhead showing himself to be a visible God in the earth And in the Council of Lateran one saith to the Pope Tu es alter Deus in terris Thou art another God upon the earth And the Tridentin chapter calls him Terrenum Deum an earthly God And his Canon Law saith It is manifest that the Pope was called God by Constantin dist 96. cap. Satis evidenter What needs more He must be blinded by God that sees not the Popes to have lifted up themselves above all that is called God and is worshipped But yet I say further He hath lifted up himself above the majesty of God First in making that to be Gods word that is not Gods word in decreeing the Apocrypha to be Canonical Scripture And his Canon Law reckons in the decretal Epistles among the Canonical Scriptures of God distinct 19. in Canonicis Now what is this but to prefer his authority to the authority of God He denies forgiveness to them that break his law but he sells the break of Gods law for money It is certain that there is no redemption out of Hell 2. Tim. 2.13 and yet the Popes of Rome claim that authority to deliver souls out of Hell and to make them Saints in heaven It is impossible to God ex injustitia facere justitiam to make wrong to be right because the Scripture saith He cannot deny himself and he cannot lie Heb. 6.18 But the Popes Canonists
say That he may ex injustitia facere justitiam Of wrong make right De translat cap Quanto in Glossa de concess Praebend cap. Proposuit 16. quaest Quicunque in Glossa 15. quaest 6 authorit in Glossa dist 32. Lecto His Canonists also say That the Pope may dispense supra jus de jure above right And that he may dispense against the law of nature against the law of God against the Old Testament against the Apostles and that he may dispense against all the precepts of the Old and New Testament Ut citatur à Juello pag. 59. defens Apolog. They say He may dispense against the degrees forbidden in the Law of God And that he may according to his absolut power Dissolve the bond of marriage upon the consent of both the parties without any lawful cause And that he may dispense with oaths and promises made either to God or men Fox pag. 785. And some say That he may dispense that one may have me wives then one at once in some cases Now what is this else but to exalt himself above the Lord And in a Sermon in the Council of Lateran it is there spoken of him by one of his own Bishops That all power in heaven and earth is given to the Pope Concil Later sub Leone sess 10. And that which is more That in him is omnis potestas supra omnes potestates coeli terrae All power above all powers both of heaven and earth And Aventinus saith That they desire to be feared more then God To conclud this then He that hath exalted himself above all powers in heaven earth and hell he that hath equalled himself with the Son of God the Prince of glory and with the majesty of God in styles authority office and power And he who hath lifted up himself above the Lord Jesus and above the majesty of God he must be that undoubted Antichrist which the Apostle Paul hath described But the Popes of Rome have done so both by their practise and by their doctrine as hath been proved by their own testimonies Therefore they are that undoubted Antichrist who was to come This for the third mark The fourth mark of the Antichrist set down by the Apostle is That he fits in the Temple of God as God That is in an eminent high place in the Church of God So Jerome to Gelasius and Chrysostom upon that place and Theodoret Thomas of Aquin a Papist expones this place and August de civit Dei lib. 20. cap. 19 expones this Temple to be the Church of God wherein the Antichrist shal sit For lest men should think that the Antichrist should be an open enemy to God the Apostle saith He shal sit in the Temple of God that is in the Church of God as it is taken 1. Cor. 6.19 where the Saints in Corinth are called the Temple of God So the Antichrist is fore-told to be an houshold enemy and not a forrain so and he shal withstand Christ not openly but covertly And though he be a deadly enemy to Christ yet shal he pretend that he is in the Temple of God that is a member of the Church and that he hath a throne that is a high dominion within Gods Church And therefore in the Revelation he is called A beast which hath two horns like the Lamb Rev. 13.11 that is who in outward show is like the Lamb pretending his power and authority And as Primasius saith exponing that same place Those whom he seduceth he seduceth them by hypocrifie of a dissimulat truth for he saith he were not like the Lamb if he spake openly as the Dragon And Augustin saith Tract 3 in Epist Joannis Let us not take heed to the tongue but to the deeds let the tongue rest and ask the life Whereby it appears that they also are Antichrists who deny Jesus Christ in their life And therefore alluding to Judas he is called the son of perdition who not by open warfare should oppugn Christ but by a kiss as it were should betray him And therefore he is described also under the form of a woman an harlot Revel 17.2 Thess 2 whereby is signified that he shal not be an open enemy in profession but secret and dissimulat And therefore the cup wherein she reacheth out her abomination is described to be of gold that is having a show of godliness And his unrighteousness that is his doctrine is called deceiveable because of the show of truth that it hath And his iniquity is called a mystery that is not a plain and open impiety but secret so colored with shows of truth and godliness that every one cannot perceive it And yet for all this hypocrisie of his for all this dissimulation and show of godliness He shal speak like the Dragon Rev. 13.19 that is his doctrine shal be the doctrine of Devils His drink shal be abomination and fornication that is abominable idolatry Now to whom can this agree And in whom hath this been fulfilled except only in the Popes and Bishops of Rome For doth he not call himself The Vicar of Christ the head of the Church and those that obey him only the true Church and true Catholicks Who hath horns like the Lamb and yet speaks like the Dragon but he That is who styles themselves the servant of servants the Vicar of Christ the head of the Church c. but they And yet for all this who have ever lived taught or spoken so blasphemously as they Oraclo vocis mundi moderaris habenas Et meritò in terris crederis esse Deus That is By the oracle of thy voyce thou rules the world and worthily is thou believed in the earth to be God This inscription was written in Rome to Pope Sixtus the fourth In show of holiness most vaunting and yet for all this of all the creatures under heaven the most monstrous Of all idolaters under the show and pretence of Religion the vilest and most abominable and of all creatures in the earth they have lifted up themselves farthest above God and that under the pretence of humility And therefore the Scripture saith that the Antichrist shal sit in the Temple of God not as a Minister teaching and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom in season and out of season but as God that is claiming to himself these things that are proper and peculiar to God The which the Popes of Rome have done as hath been proved before So to conclud this He must be the undoubted Antichrist who suppose he hath lifted up himself above all that is called God yet he sits in the Temple of God as God who hath two horns like the Lamb and yet speaks like the Dragon whose abominations are drunken out of a golden cup whose doctrine is deceiveable and a mystery that is who under the pretence of Christ overthrows Christ But so it is the Popes of Rome are such as hath been proved Therefore the Popes of Rome are
WE come now to the fourth thing proposed to wit that the Pope hath been the grand Author of warrs combustions and confusions in the Christian world always both before and since the Reformation This is so evident that he is very unseen in Histories that will deny it therefore I shal give only a passing taste of what is recorded at large by Historians I. I shal begin with Gregory the first who approved Phocas in murdering his Soveraign Mauritius who killed his children before his eyes and usurped the Empire for he writes a gratulatory Epistle to him in which he thus speaketh Benignitatem pietatis vestrae c. We are glad that the benignity of your piety hath attained to the Imperial dignity Let the heavens rejoyce and let the earth be glad and let the people of the whole Republick be joyful for your gracious deeds II. Gregory the 2. rebelled against his Soveraign Leo Isaurus and made Rome and the Roman Dutchy do the same because he prohibited the adoration of Images and pulled them down every where and being sore afflicted with the warrs of the Saracens in the East the Pope seased on Rome and made himself Lord of that part of the Emperors dominions in Italy which was the beginning of his temporal Principality and is the title whereby he holds Rome and the Territory of it to this day even rebellion and tyrannical invasion of the Emperor his Soveraigns Estat and Dominion III. Gregory the 3. his successor came yet a further length for Platina writeth of him Hic statim c. That so soon as he attained to the Papal dignity by the consent of the Roman Clergy he deprived Leo the 3. Emperor of Constantinople hoth of his Empire and the communion of the faithful because he had razed Images out of the Churches IV. The next instance I shal mention is of Pope Stephen the 2. who stirred up Pepin King of France to expell the Exarchs out of Italy and when he had done he obtained the Exarchat for himself though belonging to the Emperor of Constantinople his lawful Soveraign in which action there was both rebellion and robbery V. But Gregory the 7. alià s Hildebrand surpassed all the rest for he was wholly compounded of blood shed treason and rebellion for he excommunicated the Emperor Henry the 4. and deposed him and gave his Empire to Rodolph Duke of Suevia But the Emperor vanquished Rodolph in battel who dying acknowledged that his right hand was deservedly cut off in battel because he had sworn with it lifted up allegiance to the Emperor Rome was taken by the Emperor and Pope Gregory died for grief VI. But Urban the 2. his successor was nothing afraid of what had hapned to Gregory his predecessor but did also excommunicat and persecute him This is that Urban that made that famous Decree That an oath made to an excommunicat person must not be kept VII But the Emperor was most of all afflicted by Pope Paschal the 2. who succeeded Urban for he made his own son to take up arms against him where he was overcome in battel and deposed in a Synod held at Mentz by the Popes command and the Crown and other Imperial ornaments were violently taken from him by the Bishops of Mentz Colen and Worms and given to his son and for grief he died soon after But although we say Livor post fata quiescit yet the Popes wrath did not cease against him after he was dead for he would not suffer his son to bury him so that he lay five years unburied Cardinal Baronius commends this fact saying Quis negare potest summum fuisse hoc pietatis genus c. Who can deny that it was the highest kind of piety to have shewed himself cruel in this case And again Nihil habes in quo damnes filium magis quam si insanienti furientique pius filius vincula injiciat patri You can no more condemn the son then if a pious son should bind his father who is fallen mad VIII But the son felt the Popes no better friends to him then they were to his father for although Pope Paschal granted to him the collation of Benefices and confirmed it with an oath yet he brake the oath although when he sware he divided the consecrated host betwixt him and the Emperor saying Sicut pars c. As this part of the vivifying body is divided so let him be divided from the Kingdom of Christ who will go about to break this compact And Calixtus the 2. his successor excommunicated him and forced him to compound Pope Adrian the 4. caused Frederick the 1. to hold his stirrop and quarrelled him for taking the left in stead of the right But the next Pope Alexander the 3. trod upon his neck when he stooped to kiss his Holiness foot using these words of the Psalm 91. Thou shalt tread upon the Lyon and Addâ—r the young Lyon and Dragon shalt thou trample under foot And when the Emperor said Not to thee but to Peter do I this submission The Pope treading on him again said Both to me and Peter IX I spare to speak at large of Pope Câ—lestin the 3. who crowned the Emperor Henry the 6. with his foot and after he had crowned him cast down the Crown to the ground thereby signifying that he had power to cast him down from the Empire if he deserved it which Baronius highly commendeth But his successor Innocent the 3. is not to be forgotten for he excommunicated John King of England deposed him absolved his subjects from their allegiance to him and did cast an interdict upon the Kingdom which lasted six years and gave it to Philip August the French King if he could take it which made the subjects to despise him the Clergy to revile him the Barons to rise in warr against him and the French King to fall upon him so that he was brought to such extremity that to purchase his peace he gave the Kingdom to the Pope and in end a Monk poisoned him It would fill a volume to speak at large how Henry the 3 King of England was abused and tyrannized over by the Pope and how Pope Innocent the 3. excommunicated the Emperor Otho and deprived him of the title of the Empire and how Honorius and Pope Gregory the 9. and Pope Innocent the 4. excommunicated and deposed the Emperor Frederick the 2. and sent an army into Appulia and seized upon his lands and of the contest betwixt Philip the Fair King of France and Pope Boniface the 8. who excommunicated Philip and deposeth him of his Kingdom and giveth it to the Emperor Albert and laboreth to arm Germany and the Netherlands against France But the King took him prisoner brought him to Rome where he died shortly through grief X. It would also be tedious if I should relate how John the 23. and Benedict the 12. and Clement the 6 excommunicated deprived Ludovicus Bavarus and elected Charles son of the King