Saints and Seruants Claritas Claritie do they not yeeld the same to their Holy Father What glory then at that time and in that place where the Lord of heauen is pretended to be worshipped to haue him borne vpon mens shoulders and so mounted euen in S. Peters Church vntill he come to the Throne where his Maiestie is to sit there to be worshipped with adorations genuflexions and acclamations Liue Holy Father Liue most Holy Father What Claritie by making and creating Kings to giue Kingly authoritie where none was before What glory Suar lib. 3. c. 23. teacheth that the Pope hath power to chastise Kings euen with death and he maketh this doctrine an article of faith to depriue Kings of that Regaltie and those Crownes which the hand of heauen had set vpon their heads What claritie to be able to create yea to create Princes ouer the wholeworld which he doth in creating Cardinals making them his Brethren and Princes ouer the world What Claritie as a Monarch to summon all Councells as a supreme Head to sit and gouerne all Councells Generall and Prouinciall to make or vnmake them dissolue or confirme them as he shall thinke good What Claritie to be a Monarch-Exlex Outlaw to make lawes Outlaw for all great and small high and low and to be tyed to none himselfe This Claritie was not vnthought vpon by the Bishop of Modrusium when he sang thus in the Councell of Laterane to a iouiall and a Iuuenall Pope Leo the 10 Ecce venit Leo de Tribu Iuda radix Dauid c. Behold the Lyon of the Tribe of Iuda is come We have Cone Later Sess 6. in â—rat Ep. Modrus expected thee a Sauiour O most blessed Leo. thus there with more like stuffe The third Attribute giuen to God by his Saints is Sapientia Wisdome Wisdome touching which who is ignorant that the Papists make the Pope the fountaine of all Christian wisdome the Rocke Pillar and Fountaine of Inerrabilitie in the whole Church whether it be for articles of doctrine and profession or lawes of discipline Yea Bellarmine and most of the Ignatians giue vnto their Holy Father this Inerrabilitie not onely as he is Pope and as hee teacheth Bellaâ— de Pont lib. 4. cap. 6. Alb Pighius lib. 4. hierar c. 8. their whole Church but further also that as hee is a priuate Person he cannot be an Heretike and for this purpose I will here insert a true tale There was in Rome a Courtier who vpon an occasion affirmed that the Pope might erre in faith being a man of great note hee was convented before some Cardinalls to answer for himselfe to whom he affirmed as much as before whervpon the Cardinalls replyed vnto him and said that hee was an Heretike for so saying to whom the Courtier thus answered for himselfe Pope Paul being at dinner said in my hearing that he did beleeue he should recouer Placentia before he died and yet he did not and so I am assured he erred in faith O said the Cardinalls we thoght you had meant the Pope might erre in the Christian faith no truly replyed the Courtier I could not so thinke for for ought that I can see I cannot say whether the Pope or any of his Cardinalls haue any iot therof at all or not And this his last answer is doubtlesse best for a man who hath liued amongst them will hardly by their liues iudge that they haue any faith at all whether christian or morall Thanksgiuing is the fourth Attribute giuen to God by Gratiarum actio Thanksgiuing his Saints wherein how egregiously the Papists do flatter their Pope their Epistles Sâ—nodicall and Dedicatorie their Orations and acclamations Gratulatorie doe euince Doe they not acknowledge him to take away the sinnes The arrogancy of the Pope requiring acclamations of Thanksgiuing when England was reconciled to him by Card. Poole Aemilius lib. 7. post medium of whole Kingdomes Let vs call to minde how Cardinall Poole the Popes Legate did vnder King Philip and Queene Marie reconcile this Kingdom of England to Rome wherevpon there followed and were required great Gratulatorie acclamations of Thanksgiuing vnto his Holinesse Is it not recorded how the Cecillian Legates with a pitifull miserere did cry to his Holinesse Qui tollis peccata mundi miserere nostri c. Thou who takest away the sinnes of the world haue mercy vpon vs Thou that takest away the sinnes of the world giue vnto vs peace Doe not Kings Emperours Patriarkes Primates Archbishops Bishops Abbots Priors Generalls Absolute and Vicarian with gratefull acknowledgment confesse him to be their Holy Father their Patrone Protectour and that they doe all ex plenitudine eius accipere receiue from his fullnesse The case is cleare I passe on The fifth Attribute of praise giuen to God is Honour Honor. Honour the which being coincident with some of the former already handled I passe it ouer as cleare The sixth is Power And is not this giuen vnto him Potestas Power whenas their Decretall article of Boniface standeth amongst them in absolute force as a point of faith Subesse Romano Pontifici omni humanae Creaturae definimus declaramus De maiorit Obed. cap. Vnam Sanctam pronunciamus omnino esse de necessitate salutis Wee defiae wee pronounce we declare that it is altogether necessarie to saluation that euery humane creature be subiect to the Bishop of Rome How vniuersall is his power and iurisdiction For charge mounting vp to the heauens commanding Angells For blessing piercing Purgatorie and deliuering soules Yea according to their owne principles in his absolute power he is able to deliuer all soules out of Purgatorie flames and Antonine affirmeth Anton part 3. titul 22. cap. 5. the like pittie his charitie is not as absolute as his power For punishment penetrating hell it selfe coniuring commanding the Deuills by his Exercists augmenting and increasing their paines and torments in infinitum FlagelluÌ„ Daemo if they proue refractarious For glory heauen seemeth beholding to his power for his Canonizing and Sainting with the vnspeakable Charges of those who desire it Saints and Saintesses as of late Spaine did their Didacus Polonia Hyacinthus and the whole multitude of Ignatians hauing already procured their Father Ignatius to be Beated and Beatified doe continually expect They expect the same for their Zauerius Gonzaga and desire to haue him Sainted and Canonized that as now they say Beati Ignati orapro nobis Blessed Ignatius pray for vs so then they may say Sancte Ignati ora pro nobis Saint Ignatius pray for vs. The seuenth Attribute is Fortitude the which that it Fortitudo Fortitude is giuen to the Popes by the Romanists who can doubt who hath heard of that fundamentall article of their Church by which they make the very Persons of their Popes to be that very Rocke vpon which their Church is Bell de Pent lib. 1. cap.
beast whose wound was healed and whose Image was made vntill the wordes of God were fulfilled Now as this hath neuer beene accomplished towardes their nominall Emperours who haue scarsly in Germany for without Germany they are sans terre a few free common-wealths at their command so it hath been most perfectly compleated in the Romane Papall State where iust at the very time when the Pope made the Image of the beast to speake in his Papall gouernment those tenne Kings which came out of the same Empire with him vpon the dissolution of the heads gaue their power vnto him subiecting their thrones and their kingdomes to his command And this exposition seemeth more cleare if we doe withall consider that these Kings which were at the first her deuoutes were afterwardes to fall into so great disliking of her that they would by degrees make her desolate eate her flesh and in the end consume her with fire the which how in part it is alreadie performed the conditions of England Denmarke Sweueland Scotland c. doe declare and make manifest For as the Countries with their Soueraignes were at the first together with all other kingdomes of the west subiected to the Pope so now they are become his fatall enemies And here we are not for further confirmation to leaue vnconsidered how the subiection to the Pope when he made the Image of the Beast to speake was so vniuersall that all kinreds and Nations were subiect to his power as it is described in the 13. of the Reuelation yea they were with him to fight against the lambe and to ouercome the lambe that is to take away as it were from open view and knowledge the true and intire profession of Christianitie which accordingly happened as it is manifest and the Papists themselues doe glory that all Kings and kinreds all Nations and Kingdomes were then subiect at lest to the Pope when hee first came to make more speciall vse of his vniuersall Supremacie which was vpon the decay of the beast as is most manifest And as his extent grew then on by degrees to be vniuersall so by degrees as by experience it is euident it hasteneth to bee confined within Saint Peters pretensed Patrimonie Lord Iesus say Amen There is a third speciall miracle which some Pontificians would gladly for the clearing of the Pope ascribe to Antichrist It is that Antichrist should feigne himselfe dead and by the Arte of the Deuill should raise himselfe vp againe which as yet say they none of the Popes haue done ergo they are not Antichrist Alas good Sirs into what plunges are you driuen your Viegas with many other of yours doth for very incongruitie of the miracle relect the same and how filly the conceit is it thus appeareth For first the Prophet doth not say that the Beast was wounded but that one of his heades was quasi occisum as it were slaine by which we must of necessitie vnderstand one of the Kings and Kingly gouernments expounded in the 17. of the Reuelation to haue beene so neere vtter ouerthrowing that it seemed dead and yet was raised againe Doth not your vulgar reading expresly say plaga mortis eius curata the wound of death was cured that is a mortall wound was cured but it saith not he was reuiued after he was dead Againe how incongruous is your Bellarmine and your Rabbies in their declaration who say that Antichrist shall feigne himselfe dead and yet should be raised vp by the power of the Deuill What Sirs if Antichrist doe but counterfeit and dissemblingly shut his eyes what neede shall hee then haue of the Deuills Arte to raise him vp againe Againe what falsaries are those who say Antichrist counterfeits his wound when as the holy Ghost saith expresly that one of the Beasts heades was as it were slaine that the wound was plaga mortis a mortall wound that the wound was cured And all the world admired after the beast but seeing our Aduersaries would needes hereout drawe an argument to cleare their Pope let vs endeauour out of the true meaning of the same to shew him to be Antichrist For clearing of which Wee must vnderstand according to the exposition of the Angell himselfe to S. Iohn in the 17. Chapter by the head which was wounded one of the seuen Kings and so by comparing the 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. and 8. verses of the 13. Chapter with the 8. and 11. verses of the 17. Chapter wee shall clearely finde that the King or kingly state wounded must probably bee that vnder which Saint Iohn wrote his prophecie which being so I doe in good earnest demand of the Pontificians by what Rome-gouernment succeeding after the Emperial was the wound cured wounded as the 7. but recured as the eighth for so saith the holy Ghost And the beast that was and is not Apoc. 17. 11. euen he is the eight and is of the seauen and goeth into perdition Now I demand in good earnest what Rome-gouernment other then that of the Emperours hath been wounded as it were to death and yet recured againe what mortall wound can be better thought vpon then either that of the Gothes and Longobardes or that of the Henries and Frederikes if we think of that of the Gothes and Longobardes cleare it is the wound was cured by the Popes by their meanes and procurations and for their owne good and their reuiuing againe But what if a man would leaue the former and vnderstand this wounding of those woundes which your If we make the Pope the seuenth head then we are to take him ruling Rome with his intermixt hornes of the Lambe at Constatines relinquishing the same Papall Rome-gouernment receiued from the Henries and Frederikes in your Alexanders and Gregories and make them the 7. head for then were your Popes brought so low vpon their knees that they seemed dead yet see the Fate of Rome for reigning on a suddaine they were so reuiued raised vp and their deadly woundes healed that one of them Gregorie the 7. made Henry the 4. dance his leasure three daies and nights bareheaded and bare-footed at Canusium the other Alexander the 3. set his foote vpon the necke of Frederike Barbarossa in the sight of all Venice at Saint Markes Church doore and thereupon it was that the whole world admired after the Beast that was and is not that was the eight and is of the seuen Apoc. 17. 8. and yet is not because sixe of his heades are quite abolished and yet is in the seuenth and in the eight For my part I referre this to bee censured by the more learned I haue called Antichrist both of the seuen and the eight of the seuen because in his Papal-spirituall Monarchie whilest the Gothes ruled hee next succeeded the Emperiall in which hee was wounded afterwardes but his wound being cured he so trampled downe the Henries and Frederikes and all succeeding Emperours that hee ioyned the Scepter and the keyes together And whereas
auenged them by miraculous punishments you can easily call to minde what manner of prodigy was in the iudgement of your Ignatian Society that holy one Sixtus the 5. but I pretermit to speake of him or those prodigious impieties which your society obiects against him by that which I haue said the iudicious Reader may obserue how idle that inference of yours is when you thus write Is Gods power or his loue lesse towardes mankinde since Luthers preaching this your is is so idle that it is fit for you to put againe vp into your budget and rescrue it for your blinde Obedients at Saint Omers I say before that God had not often nor ordinarily auenged your holy Sires impieties yet it cannot be denied but that God hath sometimes auenged them with his furious rodde I could out of your owne Authours put you in minde of disastrous ends of some of your Popes your Bonifacies your Beneaicts your Siluesiers Gâ—nebra Plat. Baron Anastasies Iulies Alexanders Sabinian Iohns Paules and your Gregories and â— famous Peter Aleisius sonne of Paul the 3. was met withall What thinke you of that prodigie from heauen which Glaber relateth thus in effect one Fulco an Earle of Glaber lib. 2. hist cap. 4. The temple of S. Idoc with the sacred things in it were quite burnt Auâ—nt lib 7 hist pâ—g 495. Gaunt had built a Church for the sacring of which there must be sent belike no Bishop of France was holy inough a speciall Legate à latere from your Pope Iohn of that time what followed he came hee consecrated the same which done instantly the day hauing beene very faire and bright-shining before there arose such a tempest as though heauen and earth would haue rent in sunder by which your new sacred Churche was ouerturned and by the Deuills ministery execrated defaced Call to minde what prodigious punishments happened Gregor epist 30. lib. 3 mentioned aboue You cannot but haue heard how a late Papist Monarch was consumed to death with lyce a iust guâ—rdon either for his â—uâ—ury or his â—ury against Gods Saints you know whom I mean a Grand friend of yours and the tale is true to those who by commande of your Popes and Prelates did dig about the body of S Laurence as likewise to those who out of superstitious purpose did dig about some Saints bodies in Saint Paules Church without the Citie of Rome felt they not Gods reuengfull hand smiting them with suddaine death Thinke of that iudgement which happened to the workemen at Doway when vpon command they were to remoue one of our Dioses made of stone I haue related the same in my Motiues And concerning the endes of some of your late Cheeftaines I thinke you shall not haue any cause to reioyce either in Allens end Parsons Sanders Garnets or Holts with some other such like but inough of this kinde And so here I would end with a scorne to all the rest which followeth in this diuision sauing that you prouoke me iustly by your gybing at Master Crashaw for affirming truely that God is neuer wanting to his seruants in the affaire of marriage and further by your reproachfull scorning that famous Galeacius for his keeping of two maide seruants in his house for his daily attendance whereof you affirme that it is one of the greatest miracles which our Gospell did euer beget that Galeacius should keepe such flaxe in his house and conuerse so many yeares together domestically with them and yet abstaine from scorching of them Wherein I first taxe that your rash iudgement you hauing forgotten that of our Sauiour Nelite iudicare non iudicabimini c. Iudge not Matth 7. 1. and yee shall not be iudged This your headlong censure putteth me in minde of as wicked a one which yee vsed against that most Reuerend man and Martyr of God Bishop Craumer as if he should haue poysoned himself and this you say to take away credit from a very credible Triumph pag. 14â— num 22. Fox his Acts and Monum relation which is that your cruell fire could not burne the heart of that blessed man when it was cast into the same A like you calumniate when you make Mr. Mason a Fulsarie as though hee had cited some vnautentike records touching the Ordinations of the Bishops of the Church of England but Mr. Flud I may tell you that formy satisfaction when I came to the Church of England I saw them by the appointment of the Lord of Canterburie his Grace in Mr. Costines office neere the D. Commons Where also of late certaine of your Priests of the Clinke did diligently view pervse and consider the same that so for the time to come you may if it please you with your Mr. Fitzherbert D Smith some others leaue to harpe any longer of that lying stringe as though there were no true ordination in the Church of England I dare boldly make profer to enter into dispute with you or any of your side and vndertake The Ordination of Bishops in the Church of England more Orthodoxe then that of the Popes to shew that the Ordination vsed in the Church of England is more Orthodoxe and sound then the Ordination of your Popes themselues in your Roman See is or hath been of later times and yet neither will I nor can I denie but that there is in your Church true Ordination and Priesthood howsoeuer most egregiously infected with your superstitions But not to adde more of this seeing you idly tell vs of so great a miracle done in our Church in the person of Galeacius giue me leaue to tell you truly and to purpose of some such kinde of miracles done in your Church which you would fasten so willingly vpon vs. You inforce vs Mr. Flud to discouer some of your miracles Are there not great miracles begotten by your Ignatian Gospell here in England that your Priests with iolly Dames should be shut vp in secret places I meane such places as your Priests are The Ignatians and their Fauourites forbeare not in particulars and by name to personate though falsly We therefore are to be excused if conteyning our selues in generalls do not nominate any in particular hid in whilest the Messenger is searching your houses and yet there should be no burning nor scorching of such flaxe Is it not a great miracle that your Priests should sit in secret chambers hearing the Confessions of their female Penitents and yet all be well no flaxe scorched Is it not a great miracle that Priests should whilest their faire Females are confessing vpon their knees behold looke meditate feele with their hands their faire necks stroke their vermilion cheekes of such their Penitents should take their hands into theirs and daily with them and yet be no scorching or burning of such flaxe Is it not a miracle that some of your deuoted Priests should desire to behold the length thicknes c. of some of their fine Dames feete and
and Popish Preachers doe at the first of their preaching endeauour or seeme to endeauour to laie for the foundation and first corner stone Christ Iesus whom they teach and proach to be the onlie Messias and that by faith in him and true repentance with obseruation of his commandements saluation is onlie to be purchased and vpon this ground worke they endeauour to ouerthrow all contrarie worships of Iewes Infidels and Gentiles And so long as they rest here their manner of preaching is Christian and Apostolicall for confirmation of which preaching to the Pagans if God be pleased to shew some miracles it is not much to be maruelled at But hauing by such manner of preaching conuerted some to be christians then they deliuer their owne Additaments to this foundation not of hay and stubble but of brambles and bryers then talke they of Indulgences praying to Saints Popes supremacie worshipping of Images with a thousand vanities and that we may better conceiue this their practice with the Infidels I will in some instances shew their manner of proceeding here in England When they assault anie they doe not at first inuite them to adoration and worshipping of Images or kneeling to the Crosse nay rather if occasion of speech of them be offered they will professe and protest that they The she manner vsed by Popish Priests to make their new Proselytes doe not adore them but that they haue them onlie before them in their Oratories and Churches as memorialls and remembrances of Christ and his Saints but being fullie conuerted then they impart vnto them the mysterie of adoration of Images yet in nice termes at first to wit that they adore and worship them not for themselue but for God and the Saints whom they represent Againe they doe not at first teach to their new conuerts especiallie if men of some good estate or discretion the Popes absolute and vnlimited power ouer Princes and kingdomes to depose or dispose of them no no that is a point reserued vntill they be of age fit for solide meat and when they doe teach the same it is done verie circumspectlie as that Sussex Ignatian G. â— whom I mention in my motiues who denied me absolution because I held that the Pope had not power to depose Princes yet the same equiuocating Padre the same day after Masses were ended we sitting at Table I proposing the question vnto him before the gentleman of the house his wife and some seruants whether the Pope had power to depose Princes made this direct answer that he could not nor would not affirme so much they were not as then capable of that solid meat but since as I heare they haue imbraced it Againe when they tell their new conuerts that their sinnes cannot be forgiuen without a Priests absolution doe they acquaint them with the mysterie of their Indulgences no assuredlie such excrements they leaue for solide meat and their postpasts So likewise to contract much in briefe at their first dealing with new conuerts they auoid as much as is in them to debate those questions which are controuerted betwixt them and vs and for that their maine fundamentall point of their Popish Gospell to wit their Popes Inerrability and Infallibilitie of iudgement in matters of faith do we thinke that they impart it to their new conuerts no no they rather teach him to be subiect to generall Councels and that in their Church no point of faith is or can be declared without the consent of a generall Councell thus they for the most part doe deale with most of those whom they seduce to their side first perswade and then teach as Tertullian of old wrote of the heretickes of his time All which considered their practice being answerable amongst the Infidels it is not to be maruelled if God who hath his elect in all places best known to himselfe doth for the confirmation of some fundamentall points of Christian religion which they at first truelie deliuer effect and worke some miracles whereby his elect out of the thickets of Idolatrie may be called to the Pastour of their Soules And so I end this discourse with a notable saying of S. Ciprian To prophecie to cast out deuills and to doe other great wonders vpon earth is a high and Ciprian de simp Prelat siue de vnit Ecclesiae a wonderfull thing yet he who is found to haue all these doth not therefore obtaine eternall saluation except he walke-in the obseruation of a iust and vpright way Thus he Which I desire you to consider Master Flud and so I come to examine what followeth in your reason Master Floode pag. 152. num 35. I thinke sobrietie will smile at the Protestants felicitie in this point who may sit by the fire-side or lie quiet in their warme-beds whilest the Iosuits go into barbarous Countries to worke miracles to proue forsooth their Gospell that Fryers may marry Nunnes and be saued by idle life in sole faith I should thinke it more probable that Luther in his nights conference with the Deuill a a De missa Angul did conuert and make him a friend to Christ that now hee will bee content to worke miracles to glorifie and extoll his name ANSWER Nay rather Master Floode sobrietie cannot containe from Vatinian-like laughter at your Ignatian felicitie in bragging and calumniating Of your bragging we haue alreadie giuen some touches a few words here Whereas you glory of your Iesuits going into barbarous Countries I pray you sir though they goe into barbarous Countries yet they goe not like Mendicants or without scrip and hauing only staues in their handes and sandalls vpon their feete no no sir they goe plentifully furnished with all manner of necessaries fauourablie countenanced and very honourably prouided for by those Marchants Portugalls or Spaniards who conduct I haue heard some of yours glory of the great and honourable entertainments yours haue there and they spoke by experience them into those Countries not to by corners or deserts but to principall or royall Cities or cheife townes of the same where their wants cannot be great but rather none at all Their manner of proceeding in those Countries is not vnlike vnto that of their brethren here in England amongst whom you shall hardly finde one of threescore that will reside in a mans house of meane note No Sir honourable houses are fit residences for your men and seruices of esteeme the reconciling of Ladies Nobles Noblesses and other Persons of worth but if there be any worke of hazard of labour or of meane sort that your brethren vse to put ouer to some Secular Priests their Pendants and Creatures which either reside neere vnto them or with them at their pleasures to go come or stay as they shall appoint Whereas you talke of sitting by the fire or sleeping in warme beds I dare boldly say number for number the same is more practised by your Priests and Ignatians then by our Ministers except some
few disordered ones the reason whereof first is their neuer intermitted diligence in preaching which cannot be performed without much studie and labour whereas few of yours take care for Sermons their ordinarie taskes being to heare some pretty tales at confessions to mumble vp their offices and to say their Masses For sleeping in warme beds I dare vndertake you surpasse for time most of our Ministers and to speake more specially of you Ignatians what else is your manner of liuing then a meere philosophicall I will not say Epicurian summe of contentment All your rules orders gouernment disciplines tend to this end that you may enioy your contents free The Ignatians hard austere liues from sorrow or greife for this end your apparrell is conuenient warme sweete and soft your diet sweete of the best wholesome not without often varieties of dishes pasts postpasts antepasts you ordinarily feede thrice a day in the Sommer you haue your afternoones collations For sleepe you haue seuen houres and a halfe in winter more vpon your recreation daies and ordinarily eight houres in Sommer if you were restrained from walking abroad considering the pleasantnesse of your Orchards and Gardens the same were tollerable but it is not so for you haue your often parambulations abroad through cities and into the pleasantest fieldes and vineyardes For your studies and exercises you haue your competency of bookes and all other conuenient helpes In time of sickenesse what doe you or can you want which arte or nature may afford In breefe your whole manner of liuing is a summe of philosophicall content And this I take to be the cause why you doe not willingly permit any no hardly of your priuates to enter into the secretter roomes of your most neete and daintily ordered houses lest they should obserue in you too great an Epicurian like care I doe assure my selfe that there are very few Ministers in England who would not gladly bee content to be so well prouided for as you Ignatians are they might haue been all of them sufficiently prouided for without that competencie of meanes which our Benificelesse precisians prate of had not your holy Father the lawlesse Outlaw when hee domineired in this Kingdome diuided the Tithes of Parishes bestowing the best and fattest of them vpon his seruiceable locusts c. Perhaps you will make answere and say that though you haue all these worldly contents yet you vse them moderately and doe also containe from voluptuous pleasures of the flesh What your moderation is all those know who know you how moderate I pray you was your holy Padre Gerrard who reuelled it lustily in Sir Euerard Digbies house whilest the poore Knight himselfe was mewed vp to meditate his weeke-contemplation of your vaine exercises What your voluptuousnesse is it would appeare if particulars might be produced would God too many of your popish Monkes Fryers c. were not acquainted with that nefand position of your Italian Cynedes who haue not been ashamed publikely and in print to commend and extoll vnnaturall pleasures which a modest penne cannot so much as touch before the holy State of matrimony which God hath instituted and approued If you would seriously consider what voluptuous abuses are committed in manie of your Congregations you would haue litle cause to twit our Church for that she christianlie alloweth and approueth with the Apostle Mariage to be a thing honourable in all yea in Fryers and Nunnes comming to the truth and shaking off the bonds of blindnesse wherein they had superstitiously enthralled themselues Much hath been said by the learned of our Churches in defence of such mariages yet considering how vniuersall the calumniation is euen by those Priests Dames Matrones Maides Youthes who are guiltie Criminis pessimi and further considering that some Protestants for some politike respects doe not greatly arride or approue of such mariages I haue purposed in this place with the Readers patience in all possible breuitie to shew the lawfulnesse of such mariages euen out of popish principles and their dogmaticall Tenents For clearing of this truth I am first to prefixe some suppositions and out of them to make my inferences First I suppose as a truth confessed by them all or Supposi ∣ tion First most of them that Christ and his Apostles did not prescribe necessitie or vow of single life to any of the holy Aquinas 2. 2. q. 88. art 11. Alij omnes Canon Apost Can. 5. Gratian causa 26. q. 2. cap. Sors dist 31. cap. Quoniam Durand de Conc Celebr Aquinas vbi supra art 2. Orders as Presbyterie Decanrie Subdeaconrie either before the taking or after the taking of the same but that concerning the vow of chastitie either from Christ himselfe or his Apostles there is no other order then the order of Counsell which is of this nature according to the doctrine of all Pontificians no one Doctour excepted that the vse acceptance and admittance of the same is meerely of free choice and election not out of necessitie Thus they constantly deliuer concerning Euangelicall Counsells which they distinguish into a threefold number Obedience Pouertie Chastitie of all which their doctrine is with the Apostle Preceptum 1 Cor 7. 25. Domini non habent sed solum consilium That they haue no precept of the Lord but only his Counsell thus they Secondly I doe suppose that as the sonne of God Sup ∣ position Second made no limitation from mariage in any so doubtlesse in that point he had respect vnto his Fathers prime institution who in Paradise made an euerlasting ordinance approuing and commending the same This is a truth confessed by all sides howsoeuer some popish Authors may sometimes seeme to denie it in that they would seeme to fasten sinfull impurities vpon the state of mariage it selfe but being called in question for the same they crie peccaui yea they will reuile you if you seeme to lay such an imputation vpon them and their Church Thirdly I suppose that which the Aduersaries themselues Suppo ∣ sition Third cannot denie as being clearely to be proued out of their owne Historians Canonists Diuines to wit that the inhibition and restrayning of mariage in some Persons first by precept and law onely after by vow and promise was brought into the Westerne Church by the ordinance and command of the Bishops of Rome I say Westerne Church for the East Churches would neuer Disi 31. cap. Alâ—ter Can. 13. apud Gratian. dist 37. cap. Quoniam Gloss in cap. CuÌ„ in preterito dist 84. admit of the same as it is euident by a Cannon of the Councell in Trullo flatly decreeing against it Now it was brought into the Westerne Church thus vnder a shew of godlinesse the first shadow of it we finde in Siricius Pope commanding the same The like in Calixtus and after them in Gregorie the first but these preuailed not to make their commands vniuersally receiued But when Gregorie the seuenth that Hildebrand who trampled vpon
of Theatines which was then arising in Naples and so the good Ignatians nose was wyped of his golde and the poore Theatines their Antagonists very well contented therewith Some such other forfeitures vpon their aduentures might be deliuered they aduenture so much that it is no maruell if they often loose their aduentures Their aduentures in this kinde are very frequent and great as England Genoua Rome Venice Flanders very well knowe But leauing them to their gainefull trade I will returne to the Vision which me thinkes clearely checketh the horrible abuses of the Pontifician Bishops in the reseruations of their cases their metaphysicall defences of these their dealings this place serueth not to handle onely agreeing to the instruction of this Vision there haue not as yet risen vp amongst them any zelous reprouers and reprehenders of these Pontifician abuses and therefore those two spots which our Sauiour so greatly condemned remaine still in their Church to the destruction Dist 40. Cap. Si Papa and perishing of many soules but of this no maruaile for it is agreeing to their Canon Si Papa If the Pope should lead innumerable soules to hell yet no man may iudge his fact nor condemne his proceedings which yet was not obserued by the Prelates of the French church in the time of King Hugh when as at a Synode gathered Sinod Rhem. sub Hugone at Rhemes they did by the mouth of their famous eloquent and learned speaker Arnulphus condemne the Pope in diuers things and resolutely determine that the Pope himselfe if hee would not heare the Church might be reputed as an Ethnike and Publicane Daies and yeeres would faile me if I should stand to recount all visions which might be produced against themselues out of their owne Authors I haue heard some learned wish that a masse of their visions might be published together to the reprouing of their folly and reducement of many to the Church of God I concurre in part only in iudgement with such For I thinke that such a course might perhaps be profitable with the iudicious and intelligent Papists if they would take this as a principle with them that that Religion cannot be of God which needeth to be supported and borne vp with lyes and fictions which are of such a dangerous consequence in matters of religion that as a holy Father hath said If but one lye only could be found in the holy Scriptures it would be sufficient to discredit the whole But as for their superstitious Idiots who are delighted with nothing more then such vanities I suppose by tryed experience that little fruit would be gathered thereby Such a worke to publish such a masse of fooleries would be exceeding laborious to the Authour all which may well be supplied if painefull and zelous Ministers would with discretion and choice eftsoones publish some of their fooleries in Pulpit I said with choice and discretion because I would wish that such things should be cited out of their owne Authours who are full fraught therewith and not taken out of such trifling Pamphlets as Plutoes trauailes and such like I heartily wish that such Preachers at least Doctors who liue amongst Popish or Semipopish people would be more careful what imputations they lay against them They are exceedingly scandalized when any lyes or such doctrine as they teach not is imputed to them A famous Predicant of a Funerall erred egregiously in this kinde within this yeere c. I was ashamed to heare him c. And here I cannot by the way but maruaile with what wisdome any man dare presume to licence vnder the shadow of Maiestie such stuffe which although in part true yet for substance is vaine But let the courteous and christian Reader be perswaded that we neede not to deuise any thing in this kinde against our Aduersaries their workes are so replenished with such fooleries against their owne principles of Religion that a scholler shall finde it a harder matter to relate them all then to confute them the first being impossible the second most facill and easie And here concluding I giue the Reader to vnderstand that although lying signes wonders and prodigies in sholes and multitudes are signes and markes of Antichristianisme especially in these later timer neuertheles the mighty hand of God doth neuer so forsake his Church to leaue altogether the rodds of sinners vpon the shoulders of his seruants but that sometimes hee doth with miraculous deliuerances assist them but this he doth apparantly openly clearely euen in the sights and to the confusion of their Aduersaries whenas all their miracles prodigies wonders are secret hidden from a farre of by heare-say For how else but by the mightie hand of God was the Church of Bohemia protected and defended in the time of King Sigismund and Pope Martin who laboured and proiected by the vtmost of their powers the ruine of that Christian flocke For my part I dare compare those holy warres of those Christians with those of the Machabies yea if we had them fully and perfectly recounted vnto vs wee should finde them to equallize if not to excell their victories what can we thinke but that the right hand of God did powerfully ayde them when their Iudas Machabeus renowned Iohannes Trosnoue surnamed Zisca did eleuen seuerall times notwithstanding their huge forces foyle and ouerthrow them Was it done by meanes of humane strength no no our Aduersaries will tell vs the contrarie And to particularize in some doth not Pope Aeneas Syluius cap. 48. Pius the 2. in his Historie of Bohemia tell vs that when a threefold potent Armie was gathered against these poore Christians a very handfull of souldiers one out of all Saxonie and the Territories thereunto adioyning the second out of rich and warlike Franconia the third out of Bauyre Sueuia and the Prouinces of the Rheyne with valiant Captaines appointed ouer them did in three seuerall parts with all violence assault those poore Christians intending their vtter ruine doth not I say Pope Pius the second tell vs that presently vpon the sight of the Christians without doubt Gods terrour being in them they did flee before them yea saith Pius non visum hostem fugerunt before they saw the enemy they fled and flew so hard that they ceased not to flee vntill the Christians ceased to pursue them by occasion whereof their bag and baggage was left to the Christians and an happie occasion also giuen them to make spoile of many popish towns to impose tributes vpon them Thus in effect Pope Pius who yet relateth vnto vs a more potent deliuerance of those Christians for when vpon such a shamefull ouerthrow the Papists were ashamed the Pope and Emperour together gathered another greater the greatnesse whereof you may inferre because it had foure thousand horse in it army and then againe therewith assaulted them but Iulian the Cardinall who was generall for the Pope ouer the whole Army had no sooner entred into the limits of those