must passe as undenyed truth And thus false History is made the chief foundation of the Roman Kingdom Thus they will face you down that you are ignorant or impudent 1. If you question whether Peter was a true Bishop at Rome yea or ever there which Nilus hath shewed to be somewhat uncertain 2. Or that he setled the Roman Bishop as his successour in a supremacy over all the Christian world 3. Or that the Popes Primacie was over all the Churches on earth which indeed was but as Canterburie is in England in one Roman Empire only 4. They will perswade you that this Primacie was setled by Christ or his Apostles which was done only by Councils and Emperours of Rome 5. They would make you believe that this was from the Apostles daies which began long after 6. They would perswade you that all the Christian world submitted to it even Abassia and all the extra-imperial Churches which is no such matter 7. Yea that before Luther none contradicted the Papal power and claime but all the Christian world were Papists By many such lies they deceive thousands of the ignorant And when they challenge men to dispute by word or writing their last refuge is to bring them into a wood of History that there they may either win the game or end the chase And if a Minister of Christ be not armed here to confute their historical forgeries they will take it for a victory and triumph which made me write my last book against Johnson or Terret to shew Historically the Antiquity of our Church and the novelty of theirs which I could wish young Ministers unacquainted with Church-History would peruse But if our people were truely acquainted how things have gone in the Church from the beginning it would be one of the most effectual preservatives against Popery when now the falsifications are become its strength I have oft thought that it had been greater policy in the Papists if they could to have burnt all Church-History but specially of the Councils that the credit might have depended on their bare word For verily once reading of Crab Binnius Surius or Nicolinus would turn against them any stomack that is not confirmed in their own disease But they have overdone Baronius and now made so great and costly a load of the Councils as that the deficiency of money time wit and patient industry shall save the most even of the Priesthood from the understanding of the truth And such Epitomes as Caranza's leave out most of the culpable part and yet even such they can hardly tolerate II. The more moderate French Papists who magnifie Councils aboue Popes would make us believe that though Popes are fallible and may miscarry yet General Councils have been the universal Church-representative which have a Legislative and Iudicial Vniversal power and that our concord must be by centring in their decrees and all are Schismaticks at least that take not their Faith and Religion upon their trust But if men knew that there never was a General Council of all the Christian Churches but only of the Empire and how wofully they have miscarried it would do much to save them from all such temptations III. The overvaluers of Church grandure and wealth and maintainers of the corrupt sort of Diocesane Prelacy Patriarks c. write books and tell the ignorant confident stories how such a Prelacy hath been in the Church ever since the dayes of the Apostles and that all the Churches on earth consented to it But if the people were acquainted with Church History they would know that the primitive fixed Episcopacy was Parochial or every Church associated for personal present Communion had a Bishop Presbytery and Deacons of their own unfixed Itinerant General Pastors indefinitely taking care of many Churches And that it was the Bishops striving who should be greatest and turning single Churches into an Association of many Churches and to be but Chappels or parts of the Diocesan Church that their power and wealth might be enlarged with their Territories and the turning of Arbitrating Bishops into the Common Indicatures which must govern all Christians and such like which poysoned the Church and turned the species of particular Churches Episcopacy Presbytery and Discipline quite into another thing And to speak freely it was the many blind volumes and confident clamours of some men that rail at us as denying an Episcopacy which the universal Church hath always agreed in which drew me to write this abridgement of the Church History of Bishops Councils and Popes IV. And those that make the Ignorant believe that seditious disobedient Presbyters have in all Ages been the dividers of the Church and the Bishops the means of Vnity concord and suppression of such Schismaticks and Hereticks could never thus deceive the people were but so much Church-History commonly known as I have here collected Read Church-History and believe that if you can V. And many that take up any new opinion or dotage which is but newly broached among them would have been saved from it if they â—aâ— but known how that same opinion or the like was long ago taken up by Hereticks and exploded by the faitbful Pastors and people of the Church VI. And the sectaries who rashly seperate from some Churches because of some forms opinions or ceremonies which almost all Christians on earth have used in the former purer ages and still use would be more cautelous and fearful in examining their grounds and would hardly venture to seperate from any Church for that which on the same reason would move them to separate from almost all Christians in the whole world if not Vnchurch the Church of Christ And ancient errours and crimes would affright us from imitating them VII And those that make new ambiguous words or unnecessary practices to become necessary to Church Communion and hereticate all that differ from them or persecute them at least would be more frightened from such pernicious courses if they well knew what have been the effects of them heretofore VIII And it is not unuseful to Princes and Magistrates to see what hath corrupted and disturbed the Churches in fâ—rmer times and what cause they have to keep the secular power from the Clergies hands and to value those that for knowledge and piety are meet for their proper guiding office and use of the Church Keys but not to corrupt them by excess of worldly wealth and power nor to permit them by striving who shall seem GREATEST WISEST and BEST to become the incendiaries of the Church and world and the persecutors of the best that cannot serve their worldliness and pride The Reader must Note 1. That though much of the History be taken from others the Councils are named and numbred according to Binnius and Crabbe 2. And that because so much evil is necessarily recited I thought it needful in the beginning and end to annex a defence of the Pastors and their office and work lest any should be tempted
to think hardly of Religion and the Church for mens abuses 3. And if Micrelius Gutlerbeth Phili Pareus Funcius Carion Melancthon Buchotzer Scultetus Pezelius Helvicus or any other that I have seen had answered the ends which I here intend I should have gladly saved my self this labour and have refer'd the reader to them The Councils are now published voluminously and many young students want money and time to read them at large To such this abridgement may not be unuseful especially to men that have mistaken the case of the great heresies and hereticators and would know what Prelacy and Councils have done to the concord or discord of the Churches The Description of the State of Alexandria recited in the beginning as a Letter from a friend was from Mr. Clerkson a Learned and worthy Minister though silenced now in London The Lord pardon and heal our common faultiness and give better Teachers to his Churches when we are dead and gone who will take warning by all our errours and miscarriages especially to escape a wordly spirit pride Church-tyranny and schism and serving the world the flesh and the Devil by pretence of Authority from Christ. Amen March 31. 1680. London VVhat History is Credible and what not AS the Holy Ghost saith Believe not every spirit I may say Believe not all Reports or History It was not only Ahabs Prophets in whose mouths Satan was a lying spirit As lying and deceiving is his work in the world for the destroying of Holiness and of Souls even when he turneth himself into an Angel of Light so is it the work of his Ministers when they seem to be Ministers of Righteousness when it is oft said Be not deceived and Let no man deceive you with vain words it is more necessary advise and hardlier followed than most men understand As Truth is Gods means to work the will to holy love and lead us in a holy life so Lying is the Devils means to oppose them and of all Lyars none are more pernicious than lying Historians and lying Preachers It is a sad perplexity to the world that when men read and hear even the more confident and plausible Histories and Reports they know not whether they are true or false and if they believe that to be true which is not the effect is worse than this perplexity I will tell you what I take to be credible and what not I. It is presupposed that a man must believe his senses if sound about their proper objects Papists that tell us that all mens senses are deceived when they seem to perceive Bread and Wine in the Sacrament do but tell us that no man then is to be believed and therefore not they themselves II. The History of the Gospel is certainly credible because it was confirmed by multitudes of uncontrouled Miracles wrought by Christ and by his Apostles and multitudes of Christians as the Doctrine it self beareth the Image and Superscription of God III. The Prophets that had Divine Inspiration and Vision had that Evidence which gave themselves a certainty though not to others IV. When History delivereth a matter of fact and sense by the common consent of all men that knew it though of contrary minds dispositions and interests it giveth us a certainty which may be called Natural because Nature hath nothing in it that could cause such a Conspiracy in Lying That it is so credible as to be a Natural certainty that there is such a place as Rome Paris Ierusalem that the Statutes of the Land are not Forgeries while all Contenders plead them against each other and hold by them their Estates and Lives And so that there was such a Person as Jesus Christ and that the Scriptures were written by the Prophets and Apostles c. V. When the History of any person and action is proved by continued or visible effects as that William of Normandy conquered England while so many of the effects of that Conquest in our Laws and Customs are still visible And that the Welsh were the Ancient Britains driven by the Saxons into Wales while their Language Habitation c. shew it And so that Christ instituted Baptism and church-Church-Communion and the Apostles separated the Lords Day for holy worship when the Christian World hath used all these publickly in all places ever since and do 〈◊〉 them And so that Temples were built for holy worship and endowed when we still see and possess them VI. That History is credible which consentingly speaketh against the known interest of the Author for mans corrupt nature is apteâ— to false boasting than to false Confessions of Sin against a Confessor there needs no Witnesses And this is much of the credibility of the harsher part of the Church-History which I here recite What I say of the miscarriages of Bishops and Councils is mostly in their own words and what I say against Popes is but the recital of what is said by the greatest Defenders or Flatterers of Popes I give you no Reports against the pride contentions and corruptions of Patriarchs and Prelates out of the supposed Hereticks or Protestants I give you not a word out of Lutâ—er who de Conciliis hath very much and especially speaketh much like as I here do of Cyril and Nestorius nor out of Illyricus his Catalogus Testium Veritatis nor out of the Mornay's Mystery of Iniquity no nor out of the Collections of Goldastus Marquardus Freherus Ruberus Pistorius c. But the substance of the common History is taken out of the commonly received Church-Historians Eusebius Socrates Sozomene Cassiodorus Theodorite Ruffinus Evagrius Nazianzen Hierom Victor Niâ—ephorus Liberatus Nicetas and such others and the sum of the Councils and Popes is out of Baronius Anastasius but most out of Binnius and Platina and Aeneas Sylvius a Pope Petavius and such other as are the greatest Papal Zealots When these speak for their Cause I leave you to just suspition but when they speak against it by way of confession or lamentation they are not to be suspected VII The next degree of credibility dependeth on the Veracity or credible fitness of the Reporter some men are much more credible than others For instance 1. One that was upon the place and saw what was done or lived near where he had full information is caeteris paribus more credible than one that followeth uncertain reports or hear-say 2. A wise man is much more credible than a proud self-conceited Confident Fool. 3. One that hath made a matter his long and hard study is caeteris paribus more to be believed in that matter than many ignorant men 4. One that is impartial a lover of peace and not ingaged by faction or interest to one side against the other is caeteris paribus much more credible than a factious interested man 5. A sober calm considerate man that will stay and try before he judgeth is more credible than a passionate or hasty judger 6. A man of manifest honesty conscience and
him Unjustly say even Binnius and Baronius who here repeat out of Sulpitius Martins once communicating with the Bishops there to save two Mens Lives and the Words of the Angel to him Meritò Martine compungeris Sed aliter exire nequîsti Repara virtutem resume Constantiam ne jam non periculum gloriae sed salutis incurras Itaque ab illo tempore satis cavit cum illâ Ithacianae partis communione misceri Caeterùm cum tardius quosdam ex ergumenis quam solebat gratiâ minore curaret subinde nobis cum lachrymis fatebatur se propter communionis illius malum cui se vel puncto temporis necessitate non spiritu miscuisset detrimentum virtutis sentire sexdecim pòst vixit annos nullam Synodum adiit c. Is it not strange that Papists blush not to recite such a History with approbation which expresseth a testimony from Heaven against far less than their Inquisition Flames Murders Canons de heraeticis comburendis exterminandis and Deposing Princes that will not execute them And which sheweth such a Divine justification for separation from the Bishops and Synods of such a way yea though of the same Religion with us and not so Corrupt as the Reformation found the Roman Papacy and Clergy § 20. LXXIX The two Bishops continuing at Antioch Evagrius succeeding Paulinus and Rome owning him and the East Flavianus a Council is called at Capua Flavian refuseth to come The Council had more wit than many others and Ordered that both Congregations Flavian's and Evagrius's being all good Christians should live in loving Communion O that others had been as wise in not believing those Prelates that perswaded the World that it is so pernicious a thing for two Churches and Bishops to be in one City as Peter and Paul are said to be at Rome And they referred the Case to Theophilus Alex. § 21. But this Council condemned a new Heresie Hereticating was in fashion viz. of one Bishop Bonosus denying Mary to have continued a Virgin to the death And they condemned Re-baptizing and Re-ordaining and the Translation of Bishops § 22. LXXX Next comes a Provincial Council or two at Arles which doth but repeat some former Canons § 23. LXXXI Next we have a strange thing a Heresie raised by one that was no Bishop But the best is it was but a very little Heresie Hierome is the describer of it who writing against the Author Iovinian a Milan Monk no doubt according to his sharpness makes the worst of it At the worst it containeth all these 1. That Virgins Widows and Marryed Women being all baptized or washed in Christ and not differing in any other works are of equal merits 2. That those that plenâ â—â—de with a full faith are born again in baptisme cannot be subverted by the Devil 3. There is no difference of merit between abstaining from meat and receiving it with thanksgiving 4. That there 's one Reward in Heaven for all that keep their baptismal vow Siricius catching Iovinian hid at Rome sends him to Milan where a Council Hereticateth him § 24. LXXXII It 's strange that Binnius vouchsafeth next to add out of Socrates l. 5. c. 20. when he Hereticateth him also a Council of the Novatians Socrates and Sozomen are called Novatians by the Papists because they rail not at them so valiantly as the Hereticators do And it may be they will call me one if I say that I better like this Councils Canon than burning men for such a Heresie They decree that as from the Apostles the different time of keeping Easter was not taken for sufficient cause for Christians to renounce Communion with each other so it should be esteemed still and it should be so far left indifferent that they live in love and Communion that are herein of different minds And I would say as lowd as I can speak If all the proud contentious ambitious hereticating part of the Bishops had been of this Christian mind O what sin what scandal and shame what cruelties confusions and miseries had the Christian world escaped But yet men will scorn to be so far Novatians in despight of Scripture reason humanity and experience whatever sin or misery follow As I said before in England the Convocation and Parliaments oversight hath determined of a false rule to know Easter-day and silenceth Ministers for not Assenting Consenting to it and approving the Use of it even the Use which consisteth in keeping Easter at a wrong time which makes us Hereticks § 25. LXXXIII An. 393. A great Council was called at Hippo where Austin yet a Presbyter was there Good men will do well Here was nothing but pious and honest for reformation of Discipline and Manners And most of the African Councils were the best in all the world Their Bishopricks were but like our Parishes and they strove not who should be greatest or domineer § 26. LXXXIV Next a Council at Constant. decideth a Crontroversie between two men striving for a Bishoprick Bin. p. 539. § 27. LXXXV Concilium Adrumetinum did we know not what § 28. LXXXVI An. 394. A Council of Donatists was held at Cavernae about a schism between two men set up for Bishops against each other § 29. LXXXVII At Bagai another Council was called by the Donatists for the same Cause where Primianus Carthag having 310. Bishops condemned Maximianus his Competitor absent Note here 1. How great a number the Donatists were and on what pretence as over-voting them they called others Hereticks and Schismaticks 2. How small Bishopricks then were the number tells us § 30. LXXXVIII A Synod was held at Taurinum in Savoy where a difference was decided between the Bishops of Arles and Vienne striving which should be greatest And he was judged to be the greatest whose seat was proved to be the Metropolitan And a case of Communicating with one Foelix a Partner of Ithacius and the bloody Bishops was debated § 31. LXXXIX Another Carthage Council called the second which Binnius saith was the last is placed next which decreed several Church Orders some of which shew that a Bishops Diocess had then but unum altare As when reconciliation of Penitents as well as Chrisme and Consecrating Virgins was to be done by the Bishop only except in great necessity And when Christians were multiplyed they that desired a Bishop in a place that had none before might have one And the prohibition erigendi aliud altare c. was repeated § 32. XC Another Carthage Council called the third hath many good Orders One is Can. 26. That the Bishop of the first Seat shall not be called the Chief Priest or Bishop or any such thing but only the Bishop of the first Seat To avoid all ambitious designs of superiority Whence Binnius elsewhere noteth that Carthage had not an Archbishop No doubt they had a sense of the sin and misery that came by the Patriarchall and other ambitious strifes § 33. XCI Another Carthage
spoken of by Platina he sate above one year It 's said that he dyed of grief for the loss of Ierusalem in his time CCCCXXXI A Council he had at Paris they say for Ierusalem too late § 186. Gregory the 8th succeedeth him two months and dyeth § 187. An. 1187. Clement the 3d succeeded him who importuneth the Christian Kings to recover Ierusalem The Emperor Frederick the King of France and Richard King of England go in person The Emperor was drowned in Asia as he was waâ—â—ing himself in a River The rest do much but all to little purpose but to the great destruction of many Christians The Pope sendeth an Army into Sicily to claim it for the Church because the King dyed childless There also bloody havock is made An. 1188. An Assembly at Paris furthered the Holy War Binnius will call it a Council § 188. Though this Clemens sate but three years and five months he ended the long War between the Romans and the Pope granting them their Senators but deposing their Patricius or Head that Union might not strengthen them § 189. Caelestine the 3d cometh next who to get Sicily from Tancred gets out of a Nunnery a devoted Virgin that was the Heiress and marrieth her to the young Emperor Henry the 6th and giveth him with her the Kingdoms of Sicily and Naples when he can get them and so wholly obligeth him to the Church and to surrender Tusculum which the Romans utterly demolish Sicily the Emperor gets and puts out Tancred's eyes but Naples was too hard for him his Soldiers dying of the Plague How the King of France and the King of England disagreed in Palestine and how the King of France returned home and treacherously joined with Iohn the King's Brother to invade the King of England's Dominions and so called him from attempting the Siege of Ierusalem and how he was taken Prisoner by the way home many Histories acquaint you § 190. Binnius out of Urspergens tells us how this Pope that had sent the King of France into Palestine for his repudiating his Wife after interdicted the whole Kingdom of France the use of holy thing O horrid Villany worse than Heathenish For one Man's Family-sin to forbid so great a Kingdom to worship their God and Saviour Saladine when he had taken Ierusalem dealt better with the Christians O bewitched Princes and People that by their degenerate Prelates would be brought to suffer or submit to such a wickedness contrary to the nature of all Religion O wicked Prelates and Clergy that would obey an Usurper in sucâ— a wicked Interdict But the King of France grievously punished his Clergy for the Fact For it was done by the Pope's Legat and the Bishops at a Council at Divion the CCCCXXXII here § 191. Next cometh the great Pope Innocent the 3d a young man of 30 years old called Lotharius An. 1198. § 192. The Duke of Saxony Otho the 4th succeedeth the Emperor Henry the 6th But Philip of Suevia is his Competitor and the King of France was for Henry's Brother and the Pope for Otho hating Frederick's Line Some say Philip conquered and deposed Otho but Petavius after divers others saith that they agreed that Philip should Reign quietly during his life and Otho afterward succeed him After ten years Otho a Palatine of the Rhine killeth Philip and Otho again Reigneth quietly marrying Philip's daughter But seeking to possess Apulia and Calabria by Arms and not obeying the Pope's Prohibition the Pope Excommunicateth him first and after sentenceth him deprived or deposed which at his command the Archbishop of Mentz publisheth which Otho despising the Pope to shew that he can make and unmake Emperors and Kings sets up Frederick King of Sicily Henry the 6ths Son by Câ—nstantia the Nun formerly saith Binnius which Petavius denieth and commandeth all to take him for Emperor The King of France stands for Frederick and the King of England for Otho Otho is overcome being forsaken and dyeth for grief and Friderick a young man twenty years old prevaileth § 193. Passing by the English and Scottish Councils for the Sabbath or Lords day CCCCXXXIII The Roman Council that deposed the Emperor Otto for rebellion against the Pope was An. 1210. § 194. This Pope excommunicated our King Iohn for rejecting Stephen Laughton Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Yea he deposed him quantum inse and interdicted Gods worship to the whole Kingdom for six years three months and fourteen dayes O wicked Bishops and Priests that would give over the worship of God because an Usurper forbad it The Pope gave the King of France commission to seize on England King Iohn is constrained to please the Pope What wars were hereupon in England and how he gave up his Kingdom at last to the Pope and to hold it as of him our own Historians certifie us yea and how he offered the King of Morocco to turn Mahometan for his help § 195. CCCCXXXIX Next cometh the famous 4th Laterane Council called by the Papists the 12th General approved of 400 Bishops and 800 other Fathers for others they have an 1215. Regn. Frider. 2. In the first Cap. is the Creed and their Transubstantiation asserted as the way of Union between Christ and us we taking his flesh as he took ours and that no one can make this Sacrament but a Priest ritely ordained according to the Keyes of the Church which Christ gave to the Apostles and their successours But the Sacrament of Baptism saveth by whom soever it is ritely done The 2d Cap. condemneth Abbot Ioachim's doctrine who opposed Lombard as making a quaternity for saying that Quaedam summa res est Pater Filius et Spiritus Sanctus et illa res non est generans nec genita nec procedens which the Council owneth The 3d. Cap. is this We excommunicate and anathematize every Heresie extolling itself against this holy Orthodox Catholick faith which we before expounded condemning all Hereticks by what names soever called having indeed divers faces but tails tyed together because they agree in vanity in the same thing And being damned let them be left to the present secular power or their Bailiffs to be punished by due animadversion the Clerks being first degraded from their orders so that the goods of such damned ones if they be Lay-men be confiscated but if Clerks let them be applied to the Churches from which they had their stipends But for those that are found notable only by suspicion unless they shew their innocency by a congruous purgation according to the considerations of the suspicion and the quality of the person let them be smitten with the sword of anathema cursed from Christ and avoided by all till they have given condign satisfaction so that if they remain a year excommunicate they be then condemned as Hereticks And let the secular powers be warned and induced and if need be compelled by ecclesiastical censure what offices soever they are in that as they desire to be
them what good they had done the City For when they came thither they found three or four bawdy houses but at their departure they left but one But this one reached from the East Gate of the City to the West gate § 194. The Pope returneth into Italy and seeketh to get men to ruine Conrade the late Emperor Fridericks Son The King of Englands brother Richard is first invited but deniâ—d due help and refuseth King Henry the third himself at last is drawn in and furnisheth the Pope with a great deal of money and the Croisado Soldiours are turned against Conrade from the relief of Palestine Bitter accusations against him are published by the Pope which Conrade answereth He and Robert Grosthead the famous Learned holy Bishop of Lincoln dying near together the Pope biddeth all that belong to the Church of Rome to rejoyce with him because these two their greatest enemies are gone And if such wise and holy men as this Bishop were numbered with the enemies of the Pope we may conjecture what he was and did and whether all the Christian World were then his Subjects and whether Rome then needed reformation § 195. But though the King of England had so far served him it was not enough Nothing less than all would serve as Matth. Paris tells us when the King would yet be King and did not fully obey the Pope which he manifested in his rant against this rare and excellent Bishop of Lincoln the occasion of which I think well worthy of our recital as it is in Matth. Paris Anno 1453. pag. 87â— 872. A credible Monk though oft reviled by Baron and Bin for telling truth This Bishop was one of the famousest men in the whole world for knowledge piety and justice The Pope had sent him an order as saith Matth. Paris he often did to him and other English Bishops to do somewhat which the Bishop judged to be unjust It was not so bad as an interdict to silence Christs Ministers but whether it was the promoting of bad Ministers or hindering or excommunicating good men some such thing it was as you may see by what followeth The Bishop writeth a Letter to the Pope and Cardinals in which he tells them That he would obey the Apostolical precepts but that was not Apostolical which was contrary to the doctrine of the Apostles Christ saying he that is not with us is against us And that cannot be Apostolical that is against Christ as the Tenour of the Popes Letters were His non obstante so often repeated shewed his inconstancy and his blotting the purity of the Christian Religion and perturbing the peace and quiet of Societies a torrent of audaciousness procacity immodesty lying deceiving hardly believing or trusting any one on which innumerable vices follow And next after the sin of Lucifer which in the end of time will be that also of Antichrist the son of perdition whom the Lord will destroy with the Spirit of his mouth there neither is nor can be any other sort of sin so adverse and contrary to the doctrine of the Apostles and the Gospel and so hateful detestable and abominable as to kill and destroy souls by defrauding men of the care of the Pastoral office and Ministry which sin those men are known by the most evident testimonies of the sacred Scripture to commit who being placed in power of pastoral care do get the salary of the pastoral office and ministry out of the milk and the fleece of the sheep of Christ who are to be quickened and saved but administer not to them their dues For the very not administring of the Pastoral ministeries is by the testimony of Scripture the killing and destroying of the sheep And that these two sorts of sins though unexpectedly are the very worst and beyond all comparison exceed all other sort of sin is manifest by this that they are in the two existent foreâ—aid things though with disparity and dissimilitudes directly contrary to the best things And that is the worst which is contrary to the best And as for these sins as much as in them lieth one of them is the destruction of the Godhead it self which is superessentially and supernaturally best and the other is the destruction of that conformity and deiâ—ication of souls by the gracious participation of the Divine beams which is the best thing essentially and naturally And as in good things the cause of good is better than the effect so in evils the cause of evil is worse than the effect is manifest that the introducers in the Church of God of such most mischievous destroyers of holy formation and deification in the sheep of Christ are worse than the destroyers or murderers themselves the nearer to Lucifer and Antichrist and in the greater degree of mischief or priority by how much the more superexcelling and by the greater and diviner power given by God for edification and not for destruction they were the more bound to exclude and extirpate such most mischievous murderers or destroyers from the Church of God It cannot be therefore that a holy Apostolick Seat to which all power is given by our Lord Iesus Christ the holy of holies for Edification and not for destruction as the Apostle testified should command or require any thing that bordereth on or tendeth towards so hateful detestable aud abominable a thing to Iesus Christ and so utterly pernitious to mankind or by any way endeavour any thing that tendeth thereunto For this were either a defection or a corruption or an abuse of Christs own power which is evidently most holy and most full or it were an absolute elongation from the Throne of the Glory of our Lord Iesus Christ and the next sitting together of the two foresaid Princes of darkness and of hellish punishments in the chair of pestilence Nor can any one with unspotted and sincere obedience who is a subject and faithful to that same Seat and not by schism cut off from Christ and that holy Seat obey the said mandates and precepts or any endeavours whatever and whensoever they come yea though it were from the highest order of Angels but must necessarily contradict them and rebel with all his strength or power And therefore Reverend Lords from the duty of obedience and fidelity in which I am bound to both the parents of the holy Apostolick Seat and from the Love which I have to Vnion in the body of Christ with it I do only filially and obediently disobey contradict and rebel to the things which in the foresaid Letter are contained and specially because as is before touched they do most evidently tend to that sin which is most abominable to our Lord Iesus Christ and most pernitious to mankind and which are altogether adverse to the Sanctity of the holy Apostolick Seat and are contrary to the Catholick Faith Nor can you discretion for this hint conclude or decree any hard thing against me because all my