condemned in the Scripture I deny that For Antichrist and his Kingdom are not so old as the Scripture and yet the Scripture condemned it For not only condemns it present heresies but also the heresies that was to come And seeing Papistrie is that Antichristian Religion as shal be made manifest by Gods grace therefore it hath the express condemnation of it in the Word of God The form therefore of it no wayes will make it impossible to be proved As for the next thing that I prove nothing bu offers very fair I answer it was not my purpose then but I hope ye shal have a proof now of that which I offered then As to the third then that I can say nothing to your argument which ye would hâ—ve the Reader to mark When I read this I marked this that ye would earnestly have the Reader perswaded of the invincibleness of your argument and my inability to answer But what bring ye with you to perswade him of the same Your reason is because I have not answered it Will this follow I have not suppose it were so as ye say therefore I cannot It will not follow I have not answered I cannot answer to it But as you have a new Theology so have you a new Logick But said I nothing to your argument What is not answered sufficiently in the same Your argument was the antiquity of your Religion and continuance of it from Christ by a lineal succession never interrupted c. and the novelty of ours My answer was Yours was not institut by Christ nor his Apostles in his Scripture as ours was and yours was gain-said in the chief points by the testimonies of the Fathers the first six hundred years and the principal points of our Religion confirmed by sundry of their testimonies Thirdly yours was that Antichristian apostasie that the Scripture fore told should come and in the hight of your tyranny and Idolatry was gain-said by many before Martin Luther and ours was professed by sundry before him whose names I set down all which I offered to prove and now shal do by Gods grace Now you say this is no answer But is that no answer that cuts the very throat of your Religion if it be verified and invalidities your argument that it do never stand up to under-prop your Religion again For that Religion which is not instituted by Christ in the Scripture whose main foundations is gain-said by the testimonies of sundry of the Fathers of the first 600. year which is Antichristian and which was gain-said by the Saints that they persecuted and slew hath not the continuance from Christ by a lineal succession never interrupted nor spoken against by a true Church till Martin Luthers days This I am sure ye will not deny But your Religion is such as I offered then to prove and now have in some points and shal in other some points by Gods grace The which if it be verified then I hope ye will not deny but that your Religion hath neither antiquity continuance nor succession from Christ till Martin Luthers dayes And that Religion cannot be newly forged and invented since Martin Luthers dayes which hath the warrant and institution of it in the Scripture c. This you cannot deny But our Religion is such as then I offered to prove and now have done in some points and shal do in other some points by Gods grace Therefore our Religion cannot be newly forged and invented c. but is the only true Religion So that this answer if it be proved doth sufficiently vindicat our Religion from novelty Now if this be no answer to your argument then I say no more but ye will answer it the sooner And because ye formed your own argument your self in your answer to me and I have answered to it else therefore I will now insist no further upon it And as for your lineal succession of Bishops it will come in question afterward therefore I omit it now SECTION V. Concerning the Judge of Controversies namely whither GOD speaking in the Scripture be Judge of Controversies Maister Gilbert Brown AS for the written Word it is true that it is a most faithful witness and it be not corrupted to Christ and his Church as our Savior testifies himself John 5.39 of the which opinion there is sundry Protestants chiefly young Merchiston in his discourse upon the Revelation in the 21. proposition and other places 2. Cor. 3.6 John 6.63 But that it ought to be Judge to decide all controversies in Religion M. John hath no Scripture for the same It is the holy Ghost that must be Judge and the holy Writ must bear witness thereto For this cause the holy Ghost was given to the Church by the Father and the Son that he might teach it all truth John 14.25.26 This holy Ghost gives judgement by the Pastors of the true Church as he did by the Apostles and Priests at the Council of Jerusalem It hath pleased the holy Ghost and us saith the Apostle Acts 15.19.28 and so he hath ever done since the beginning of the Church when it was troubled with heresies and false doctrine as the Councils of Nice Constantinople Ephesus and Chalcedon M. John Welsch his Reply You first here decline the Scripture as Judge to decide all controversies in Religion And you are not the first that have done this but all your Roman Clergy with you And suppose there were not another thing to make the consciences of men suspect your Religion that it is not found in the book of God yet this is a great presumption that ye give out of it your selves For what may all men think of the same but that if ye were perswaded in your conscience to justify your Religion to be from Jesus Christ in his written Word ye would never decline the judicatorie of it and the declining of the same is an evident demonstration that ye are privy to your selves in your own consciences that it is not from God in his written Word But wherefore say I that ye are privy to your selves of this Ye have made it known to the world by your confession in your own books that many of the chief points of your Religion controverted between you and us which ye maintain have not their original beginning nor authors in the Scriptures but in your unwritten traditions So Petrus a Soto a Papist of great name confessed He calls all these observations Apostolick traditions whose beginning principium origo author cannot be found in the whole Scriptures in his book against Brentius And then he reckons out a number of the chief and principal heads of their Religion saying Of the which sort are the oblation of the sacrifice of the altar the invocation or prayers to Saints the prayer for the dead the supremacie of the Pope of Rome the consecration of the water in baptism the whole sacraments of orders matrimonie pennance confirmation and extream unction the merits of works
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
without further tryal because he hath so decreed it What is this but not only to make him equal to the Lord For God only hath that priviledge to be believed because he so speaks mans testimony so far only is to be credited as it may be warranted by the Scripture but also to preferr his authoritie to the voice of God in his Scripture seeing he is Judge of the same and not that onlie but to hang my salvation upon his voice and testimonie And seeing ye will have them Judges what is the cause that their Canons Laws and determinations are not as authentick as the Scripture and insert in the Canon of the Scripture But let us see your reasons First you say That the holy Ghost was given to the Church by the Father and the Son that he might teach it all truth I grant this that the holy Ghost is given to every one of the elect as wel Pastor as people to lead them in all truth in so far as may bring them to salvation And yet ye will not make every one of them Judges next every one of the elect may err notwithstanding of this promise suppose not totally and finally and therefore cannot be Judges of Religion Secondly you alledge the example of the Council of the Apostles and Elders It is true in that controversie that arose among the Christians concerning the observing of the ceremonies of the law of Moses that the Apostles and Elders with the whole Church after reasoning defined the same and writes the same to be observed by the Disciples everie where but first they were Apostles and was infallibly governed by Gods Spirit that they could not err in teaching and writing but your Pastors are not Apostles and may err Next they assemble with the Elders and the whole Church and all with one accord defines Acts 15.12.22.23 You in your Council excludes all except your Bishops to be ordinary Judges to give out judgement and your Popes neither Elder nor brethren having power of voting with you Bellarm. lib. 1. de Concil cap. 1. Thirdly they define according to the Scripture saying As it is written c. Act. 15.15 This controversie to make us to understand if we will not be more then blind that this rule should be followed in all Councils to determine in controversies according to the Scripture Upon the which I reason if the Apostles who had that high measure of Gods Spirit which never man had since so that in writing and teaching they could not err if they I say did determine the controversies of Religion according to the Scripture how much more then are all Pastors since who may err both severally and jointly together in a Council bound to follow the same rule And whereas ye call their Elders Priests you stile them not as the holy Ghost hath stiled them there so there they are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Elders and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is sacrificing Priests as ye suppone Your third reason is the practise and custom of the Church in deciding the controversies of Religion in Councils we grant that this is a very commodious mean to search and find out the truth by the Scripture For first the more they are that seek the truth it is the more easily found Next the consent of many in determining a truth will be of greater authority to repress hereticks then if it were agreed upon only by a few But yet they should determine nothing but that which is warranted by the Scripture and their determinations only in so far forth to be received as is agreeable to the same And this we grant hath been done in the Council of the primitive Church And therefore the Emperor Constantine speaking to the Fathers of the Council of Nice saith Sunt libri Prophetici Apostolici qui apertè quid credendum sit docent c. That is there are the Books of the Prophets and Apostles who teacheth plainly what we should believe All contention therefore laid aside let us take the soveraign decision of these things which are called in controversie out of the Scriptures which are inspired by God And this we grant and this we require But that Councils ought to determin any thing of their own authority in matters of Religion which binds the conscience without the warrant of the Word that we deny Master Gilbert Brown It is a wonder that M. John will refer any thing to the written Word seeing that he and his have no warrant that the same is the Word of God but by the authority of the Roman or Papist Church For understand there was no Church worthie of credit immediatly before Luther but that Church Master John Welsch his Reply You wonder that I refer any thing to the Scripture But what a wōder is this that ye are so far blinded of God that you think that a wonder in me which Abraham hath done which the Prophets have done which our Savior and his Apostles have done and which the Fathers have done for all these have referred the infallible testimony and decision of the will of God concerning his worship unto the Scriptures Luke 16 29. John 5 39. Acts 26.22 Rom. 12. and 16.26 2. Tim. 3.16 2. Pet. 1.10 Rev. 1 3. cap. ult yea which your self also hath done for ye make it a witness But what hath moved you to think this a wonder in me which so many and your self also have done before me Because say ye that he and his that is our Church have no warrant that it is the Word of God but by the authoritie of the Roman or Papist Church I grant indeed that you and your Church are plunged in this blindness and miserie that all the warrant that you have not only of the Scriptures themselves that they are inspired of God but also of all your doctrine and Religion is the testimony of your Roman Church that is of your Pope and Clergy for so ye interpret the Church So Bellarmin grants de Sacr. lib. 2. cap. 25. That all the certainty of all doctrine depends upon the authority of the present Church meaning the Pope and his Clergy And Stapleton saith lib. 1 contra Whitak de author script cap. 10. That it is no absurd thing not to believe God but for the testimony of the Church Pigius saith That it is not needful to believe all that Matthew and John writ in their Gospels to be true because that they might fail in memory and lie as all men may do Ecclesiast hierar lib. 1. cap. 2. And Hermannus saith That the Scripture would be of no more authority then the fables of Esop were not the testimony of the Church And so blind and miserable must you be that hangs the certaintie of all Religion and of man his salvation upon so smal a threed as the testimony of your Popes and Clergy What peace in conscience can any man have that professes your Religion which teaches that the
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
that doth believe that Popery is the most abominable Idolatry imaginable to wit to worship the handy-work of the Baker and wood and stone c. and considers what severe threatnings he hath denounced against Idolatry namely That they shal be shut out of that New Jerusalem Rev. 22.15 and shal drink of the wine of the wrath of GOD and shal be tormented day and night before the holy Angels and before the Lamb and the smoke of their torment shal ascend for evermore and they shal have no rest Rev. 14.9 And that he is a jealous GOD visiting not only this iniquity of Idolatry upon themselves but likewise upon their children to the third and fourth generation and is not much troubled to hear and see so many souls seduced and led aside thereto and doth not judge it of his concernment to lay out himself to the utmost for discovering the snare pit that is laid for entraping and ruining eternally of poor souls Therefore we hope as our endeavors shal be peace to us so we hope it shal be acceptable to all the lovers of truth That this prayerful Treatise of that great wrestler with GOD may be blessed for convincing of gain-sayers informing establishing and confirming the LORDS people in the truth and for stirring up and awaking zeal love and repentance in the godly shal be the earnest prayer of Your servant for CHRISTS sake MATT. CRAFORD TO THE RIGHT EXCELLENT AND MIGHTY PRINCE JAMES THE VI. KING OF SCOTLAND c. Grace and Peace be multiplied I Hope it shal not be accounted presumption most Noble Prince to offer to your Majesty the first fruits of these my simple and rude labors seeing the cause is JESVS CHRISTS that KING of Kings and LORD of glory which is here defended even the everlasting truth of GOD against the venimous stings of one of the Locusts Rev. 9.3 of that Antichristian Kingdom The right whereof doth most justly belong to your Majesty both in respect of these rare and singular gifts of knowledge and understanding which the LORD hath vouchsafed upon your Majesty in such a plentiful measure that your subjects do acknowledge it at home and strangers do admire it and commend it abroad Whereby you are not only able to render a reason of that Faith which is in you 1. Pet. 3.15 but also able to stop the mouth of the adversary Tit. 1.9 and convict the gain-sayer whatsoever by that word of truth 2. Tim. 3.5 Wherewith your Majesty hath been brought up from your very infancy So that all the wise men of Babel I mean the Clergy of that Roman Harlot is not able to resist the mouth and wisdom which the Lord hath given to your Majesty And also in respect of that supereminent power as the Apostle calls it Rom. 13.1 whereby as you are most able so are you most obliged to maintain his truth propagat his Kingdom and nowrish his own Spouse which he hath purchased to himself by his own blood Acts 20.28 by the breasts of your Majesties government as it was promised of old That his Spouse should suck the breast of Kings Esa 60.16 So who is more obliged then ye Sir Who so sufficient and able every way to maintain it as ye Sir Your knowledge binds you Your profession binds you Your soveraign authority as ye are a King in Israel binds you For as the wisest King that ever was hath said and left it in writ or rather that King of Kings in him and by him Princes reign by me Prov. 8.15 Ye hold your Kingdom of him Sir and must lay down your Crown at his feet and must stand up and give a reckoning of the government of his Kingdom of the maintenance of his Truth of the nowrishing his Spouse in that day Your knowledge Sir is able to justifie it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 your soveraign authority able to defend it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ye have received that two-edged sword of Gods Spirit in your mouth able to wound Heb. 4.12 yea to consume that man of sin and son of perdition Ye have received that sword of justice and judgement Rom. 13.4 in your hands able to destroy betimes all the wicked of your Kingdom and to root out from the city of the Lord all the workers of iniquity Psal 101.8 Ye know Sir the abomination of Babel Rev. 17.4.5 that as it is said of the vertuous woman Many women have done vertuously but thou surmounts them all Prov. 31.26 So the contrary may be said of her Many hereticks have taught erroneously and worshipped and wrought abominably but the whoor of Babel Rev. 17.1 the Church of Rome in heresie in abomination in idolatry hath surmounted them all that ever went before her or ever shal come after her Many beasts have spoken blasphemously Rev. 13.1.3.6 but that second beast that hath two horns like the Lamb Rev. 13. 16.13.14 17.3.4.5.6 18.24 surmounteth them all in blasphemy tyranny cruelty and abominable idolatry destroying and making merchandise of the souls of men and women Other heresies did but subvert some fundamental points of Religion but the Church of Rome hath subverted them all almost Of other heresies some was but against the Godhead of Christ other some against his manhood other some against his offices and benefits or some one head or other But the doctrine of the Church of Rome is against them all Injurious to his Godhead in making him not only inferior to the Father in teaching that he is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but also inferior to the very creatures in praying to Mary to cōmand her Son Jure Matris impera Redemptori as I heard your Majesty most solidly prove and so worse then the Arrians Injurious to his manhood to all his offices his benefits and all the means inward and outward of the knowing and applying of him And last of all injurious to his soveraign glory in communicating it to stocks and stones a piece of bread bones and ashes and the skurf skarf of all things as I hope I have made manifest in this my Answer So that most justly it is called The speach of the Dragon and the doctrine of Devils by the Spirit of God Rev. 13.11 1. Tim. 4. And if the profession of such a devilish doctrine be too great an evil what would the practise thereof be I mean the idolatrous Mass that abomination of desolation The misery alace were too great to see the people of this Countrey scattered like sheep without shepherds Matth. 9.36 dying that second and everlasting death for want of the bread of life and Gospel of salvation But this would be the misery of miseries if the golden cup of Babel full of all abominations Rev. 17.4 should be set to their head again to drink the deadly poyson of their own damnation And certainly if this famine of the Word of GOD Amos 8.11.12 whereby not only two or three Cities as the same Prophet saith ch 4.8 but twenty or
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
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
abundance of the rivers of the Scriptures of God quench and satisfie this your desire but that you must go unto the unpure fountains of mens writings as though the Scriptures were not sufficient not only to make a man wise unto salvation but to make him perfect in every thing These things I am sure will satisfie the souls of them that love the truth But because you give no credit to the Scriptures but counts them as a nose of wax and as one of your Popes speaking to Bembus a Cardinal called them a fable of Christ and yet such a fable as hath inriched your treasures And Sylvester Prierias writing against Luther saith That the Roman Church and Pope is of greater authority then the Scriptures O horrible blasphemies of the holy truth of God Therefore we will go to the Histories and see what they have testified of these circumstances And although all things here be not expressed to the full yet there is so much left uncorrupted and unscraped out by the gracious providence of God that would not want his witness in all ages out of the Fathers and your own Writers that I hope will satisfie the consciences of all the modest and godly Clemens Alexandrinus saith lib. 1. strom that the Apostles successors received the doctrine from them as the sons from their fathers But he subjoyns That there was very few children that was like their fathers Aegesippus as Nicephorus reports saith lib. 3. cap. 16. That the Church remained a pure virgin as long as the Apostles lived unto Trajans time but they being dead he writes that it was speedily corrupted So if ye credit the testimonies of these men ye see the Church remaineth not long in her integrity And if you would hear any thing of your Roman Church Socrates lib. 7. cap. 11. saith That Celestin your Pope past the bounds of his Priesthood Read Basilius de Spiritu sancto cap. ult and there ye may see what change of Religion was in his time Augustin testifies epist 119. c. 19. That the multitude of ceremonies grew so in his time that the condition of the Jews seemed to be more tollerable then the condition of the Church Now did not this sickness suppose ye grow by time And to come to your own Writers Bernard saith in Cant. 33. That the Ministers of Christ meaning of the Roman Church serves Antichrist And to the Pope himself Eugenius the 3. he saith lib. 4. And thou the shepherd goeth forth being clothed with a glorious attyr if I durst say it these are the feeding places of Devils rather then of sheep Thy court is accustomed rather to receive good men then to make them good not the evil profits but the good decays there And in another place he saith From the sole of the foot speaking of the Church of Rome to the crown of the head there is no health nor soundness And de conv Pauli Psal 91. ser 6. he saith What remains now speaking of the corruption of that Church of Rome but that the man of sin be revealed the man of perdition Daemonium non modò diurnum sed meridianum that is a devilry not only in the day-tyde but in the very noon-tyde And lib. 4. to Eugenius the Pope he saith In these secular attyrs and powers thou hast not succeeded to Peter but to Constantine The day would sooner fail me then the writing of his complaints against the Church of Rome Pope Adrian the 6. in his instructions to his Legats who were sent to the Council of Noremberg he grants and bids them say to the Council That we know that in this chair meaning Peters Sea in Rome for certain years many abominable things have been in it the abuse in spiritual things the excess in commandments and in a word all things are changed in a worse And the Council of the Cardinals to Paul the third they say Out of this fountain holy Father as from the Troyan horse hath broken so many abuses in the Church of God such heavy diseases whereby we see now that she is despaired almost of health Aeneas Sylvius a Cardinal who also was Pope afterward saith of your Church That all faith hath perished in her and love is grown yce-cold And Cornelius Bitontinus Bishop who was present at the Council of Trent saith Would to God speaking of your Church that unanimes velut prorsus c. all with one heart all utterly they had not declined from Religion to superstition from Faith to infidelity from Christ to Antichrist What would ye have more Will ye yet be so shameless as to boast of the purity of your Church and from God to Epicurism ex Epistola 54 ad Caspar Schlick Oratio Cornelii Epis Bitonti 3. Dom. advent I leave the rest as Platin Genebrard Frier Mantuan Nicolaus Clemangis Franciscus Petrarcha Aventinus and a number of others who are full of complaints of the abominations of your Church of Rome that certainly I cānot but wonder at your shamelesness in opening of your mouth and saying That your Church had the truth in all things and never failed nor was interrupted against such a cloud of witnesses whose testimonies ye dare not refuse But I leave you to the Lord. The lips of a liar is abomination to the Lord Prov. 20 So your own mouthes shal rise up in the day of the Lord and condemn you that saith Your Church hath not failed in any substantial point of Religion But you require more distinctly the time place and persons c. that hath brought in this mutation and change If these are to be accounted authors of your erroneous doctrines who were the chief defenders thereof then I say the Popes of Rome for the most part are the authors of the same for they were the chief defenders thereof suppose they had not been the first teachers thereof For otherwise Luther cannot be said to be the author of our Religion as ye say because he was not the first that taught the same and that by your own confession For ye say that sundry other hereticks before Luther taught the same heads of doctrine which he taught and which we profess now as that fasting should be free that only faith justifieth that man hath not free will c. Next because it were too longsome to go through the whole heads of your Religion therefore I will only bring a few examples and that in some of the substantial points thereof As for the sacrifice of the Mass and the ceremonies thereof I have shown the authors thereof in another place therefore I omit that now The first that ever took upon him to exercise jurisdiction over the Churches of the East was Pope Victor anno 200. or 198. who took upon him to excommunicat the Bishops of the East because they would not follow his fashion in the celebration of Easter There the person time and place resisted by Irenaeus Bishop of Lions in France and the Bishops of the East and the brethren
4. That it is impossible to fulfil the whole Law and Vega a Papist saith lib 11. in consil cap 20 That venial sins are properly against the Law Upon the which I reason He that daylie transgresses the law fulfills not nor is not able to fulfil the law for to fulfill the law and transgress the law are contrarie but your own doctrine is that no man can keep himself at least from venial sins and Vega as hath been said saith that venial sins are against the law Therefore if your selves speak true no man is able to fulfil the law I conclud therefore that this doctrine of yours is contrarie to the doctrine of Jesus Christ and his Apostles set down in the Scripture and also contrarie to the doctrine of the Fathers and contrarie to the doctrine of the most learned and chief Doctors of your Roman Church And this for the second point of your doctrine SECTION VIII Whither a man by his Free-will may resist the will of GOD. Master Gilbert Brown THirdly Our doctrine is that man of his Free-will may resist the will of God which is contrary to their doctrine ratified by Act of Parliament in the year 1560. And also against their Psalm book of Geneva Yet our doctrine is the doctrine of Christ For Christ said to them of Jerusalem How oft would I have gathered together thy children but you would not Matth. 23.37 And S. Steven Ye stiff-necked and of uncircumcised hearts and ears ye alwayes resist the holy Ghost as your fathers your selves also Acts 7 51. The same was the faith and belief of the Apostle S. Peter saith Our Lord is not willing that any perish but that all return to pennance 2. Pet. 3.9 And S. Paul hath Our Savior God wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth 1. Tim. 2.4 This was the doctrine of the Prophets before Psal 5.5 Ezec. 18.23 and 33.11 Now then if God wills that all men should return and yet all men doth not the same whereof proceeds it but of their Free-will which will not work with the will of God Therefore our Savior saith in sundrie places If thou wilt enter into life keep my commands If thou wilt be perfect go and sell all that thou hast Matth. 19.17 He that will follow me let him deny himself Luke 9.23 Master John Welsch his Reply As for this third point of doctrine I cannot wonder enough what ye mean by it For have you sold your self so far to untruth and lying that for to bring the truth of God which we profess in hatred you will father on us that doctrine which never so much as once entred into our thoughts let be to teach it or write it Did you think when you writ this that the truth of it would never come to light Or thought you that ye regarded not to be controlled of lying at the last so being that for a season ye might make our Religion to be more abhorred through your calumnie But frost and falshood as they say will never have a fair hinder end If you mean then by resisting the will of God a voluntary disobedience and repining against the Spirit of God and his revealed will in his Word as the testimonies which ye quote here imports Then I say there was never man of our Religion that professed taught or writ the contrary and ye will not find a syllable neither in the Confession of our Faith confirmed by the Act of Parliament neither in our Psalm book to the contrary For our doctrine is flat contrary to this to wit that man of his Free-will resists that that is good and chooses the contrary So ye fight here with your own shadow And if ye mean any other thing set it down in plain termes and I hope by his grace it shal be answered So I cannot wonder enough what ye mean to write and subscribe so manifest an untruth Now surelie M. Gilbert I think it had been greater wisdom to you to have saved your own credit and not for a little hatred to our Religion to have blotted your self with lying and untruth for ever I would pray thee Christian Reader if thou wilt not credit me read our Confession thy self and I hope thou shalt wonder with me what the man meant in subscribing so manifest a calumnie This for the third point SECTION IX Concerning Transubstantiation and Christs real and substantial Body and Blood in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Master Gilbert Brown Fourthly Our doctrine is that our Savior gave his true flesh and very body and blood under the forms of bread and wine to be eaten of his Disciples at his last Supper and that to be received by their very mouth And this I say by the written Word is the doctrine of Christ and his Apostles Christ saith John 6.51 And the bread which I will give you is my flesh for the life of the world And at the latter Supper Take ye and eat ye this is my body And Drink ye all of this For this is my blood of the New Testament which shal be shed for many unto remission of sins Matth 26.27.28 And in S. Mark This is my body and this is my blood of the New Testament which shal be shed for many Mark 14.22.24 And S Luke saith This is my body which is given for you and this is the calice of the New Testament in my blood which shal be shed for you Luke 22.19.20 This same is the doctrine of the Apostles For S. Paul saith This is my body which shal be delivered for you and this calice is the New Testament in my blood and whosoever shal eat this bread and drink the calice of our Lord unworthily he shal be guilty of the body and blood of our Lord. And after For he that eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks judgement to himself not decerning the body of our Lord 1. Cor. 11.24.25 27.29 And in the chapter befo e The calice of benediction which we do bless is it not the communication of the blood of Christ And the bread which we break is it not the participation of the body of the Lord 1. Cor. 10.10 M. John Welsch his Reply I come now to the fourth point of your doctrine your Transubstantiation and real presence The first ye quote is the 6. of John And the bread which I will give is my flesh c. This makes nothing for your real presence For first our Savior speaks not here of that sacramental eating and drinking of his flesh and blood in this sermon which was not instituted a year after that For he speaks here of that eating and drinking of his flesh and blood without the which there is no life So our Savior testifies in the 53. verse Except ye eat saith he the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood ye have no life in you But your selves grants that men may be saved without that sacramental eating therefore
the words themselves be understood of him without great absurdity Or can they be applyed to him without horrible blasphemy And may not every one see that they were conceived and made of the gifts and sacrifices of praise which the people did offer up to God in the Sacrament And they speak here in the plural number of many and the sacrifice of the Son of God is but one Next they are called gifts presents thy own gifts of thy own sacrifices of praises which caÌ„not be spoken of the real sacrifice of the Son of God which is a propitiatory sacrifice are not called gifts presents and sacrifices of praises of the people Thirdly they say Remember them who offers unto thee their gifts for themselves and theirs which cannot be understood of any but of the people that offered their offerings of their fruits unto the Lord. For you will not say that the people offers up the Son of God but only the Priest And what Christian heart can think that these prayers can be applyed to him without horrible blasphemy as to dust and ashes to interceed by prayer to God the Father for his beloved Son to pray him to accept in his favor to bless and sanctify his own beloved Son who is the fountain of all blessing and holiness and in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwels and to look upon him with a merciful and favorable countenance and to daign to vouchsafe to accept of him in whom and with whom he is well pleased who is his Fathers dayly delight and joy and to accept of him as he did of the sacrifices of Abel Abraham and Melchisedeck comparing that blessed sacrifice of himself with the sacrifices of the fruits of the earth and beasts of the field as theirs was without the which neither their sacrifices nor persons would ever have pleased God and to pray to God the Father to command the Angels in whom as Job saith he found no purity to carry his own eternal Son up to heaven in his presence as though he were not as able now to ascend from thence to heaven if he were there being glorified without the help of Angels as he did after his resurrection Now let any Christian heart judge whither these prayers can be conceived without blasphemy of the eternal Son of God or not And after the consecration they have this prayer in their Ganon By whom thou creates sanctifies quickens blesses and gives to us all these good things which can no ways be applyed unto the sacrifice of Christ unless they will have him a creature dayly made blessed and quickned in their Mass but unto the gifts and presents of the people which they offered up to God in the Sacrament And in the Liturgy which they ascribe to Clement the prayer is Pro dono oblato that is for the gift which is offered up that it would please God to receive it in his altar through the intercession of his Christ in a sweet smelling savor Clemens lib. 3. cap. 17. which no ways can be applyed unto the sacrifice of the Son of God For here they are manifestly distinguished the gift offered and the intercession of Christ for the which they desire God to accept of the gift offered So here is a most notorious corruption wherein they apply all the prayers which were first conceived and made of the gifts and presents of the people which they offered up to God in the Sacrament to the pretended sacrifice of the Son of God And from the offerings of the people which was many they pass to an oblation which was offered For a Sacrament of praise to a Sacrament which the Priest consumeth all himself from a Sacrament to confirm us of our salvation in Christ to a propiciatory sacrifice of the Son of God for the redemption of souls and from a commemoration of the death of Christ in the Sacrament to a real immolation and offering of him up again and that not for the living only but for the dead also By these degrees then hath this monstrous sacrifice been conceived formed received life and brought forth into the world Now many other things did concurr to the strengthening of her and the rooting of her in the hearts and consciences of men as first the word sacrifice which was frequently used by the Fathers of the pâ—imitivâ— Church taken from the Old Testament and the typical sacrifices there which they ascribed unto the Sacrament of the Supper calling it a sacrifice And that first because it was celebrated with thanksgiving which is called the sacrifice of praise Next because they sacrificed themselves in a holy lively and acceptabâ—e sacrifice to God in the same Rom. 12.1.2 3. Heb. 13 15.16 Thirdly because of their offering and alms which they â—ffered in the Sacrament which are called sacrifices wherewith God is pleased And last of all because it was a commemoration of that once offered up sacrifice of the Son of God the vertue whereof is eternal and sufficient The next was the universal ignorance both of Pastors and people through the barbarous Nations of the Goths Huns and Vandals which spoiled and wasted the Empire of the West more then an hundred years full whereby all learning almost was buried and the lights and torches of the Church being extinguished their successors being born and brought up under that barbarity in that common and publick ignorance they were so far from chasing away that darkness that they rather increased the same being given altogether to seculare and worldly affairs as the laws of Charles the Great do testifie commanding them that they should abstain from seculare affairs from the Court from warrs from salconry from lechery from games Thirdly the corruption of languages which entred in with these barbarous Nations at that same time through the mixture of people of sundry languages Whereby first the language became barbarous next not universally understood And certainly were not this Satan could not have prevailed so much in causing this poyson of this monstrous sacrifice to be so universally drunken out by the people For if they had understood the language these words which they dayly heard in their service Sursum corda lift up your hearts And show forth the death of the Son of man and confess his resurrection till his coming These words might easily have kept them in this knowledge that Christ was above and they should not seek him bodily in the Sacrament because he was not there really present but was to come and that the Sacrament was not a real offering of the Son of God again but a showing forth of his death until his second coming But two doctrines especially which by process of time also entred in the Church of God brought this pretended sacrifice of their Mass to her full perfection and strength the one was the doctrine of Transubstantiation that the bread and wine in the Sacrament by the words spoken or rather muttered by the Priest was changed in
institution of the Supper Take ye eat ye and drink ye all of this And contrary also to the doctrine of the ancient Doctors of the primitive Church Hieron in 1. Cor. cap. 11. Chrysost in 1. Cor. hom 18. and of some Councils Concil 2. Antioc cap. 2. Conc. 4. de Tolet. cap. 17. and some of your own Popes also Alex 5. Epist 1. de myst corp sang Calixtus de consecrat dist 2. Can. Peracta The twelfth abuse is in the prayer contained in the Canon of the Mass in these words Look mercifully upon these things to wit Jesus Christ his body and his blood which the Priest thinks he offers up to God and so Biel a exponer of the Mass interprets the same and accept of them as thou accepted of the sacrifice of Abel of Abraham and of Melchisedeck And in another place the Priest prays unto God to receive that sacrifice to wit of Christ and to sanctifie it with the blessing wherewith he sanctified the oblation of Abel Now if any thing can be said to be blasphemy certainly this must be blasphemy to a Mass-Priest a sinful creature to interceed between God the Father and Christ his Son to pray the Father that he may sanctify his Son and accept of him as though he were not fully sanctified in himself and were not the fountain of all holiness to others and as though the Father were not well pleased in him already And because the Mass-Priest vaunts that in his sacrifice of the Mass he offers up the eternal Son of God in a sacrifice to his Father for the sins of the quick and the dead I will ask him this Doth not he blaspheme horribly who vaunts that in something that he doth he is more acceptable to God then Jesus Christ is This cannot be denyed But I assume that the Priest vaunts that in his Mass he is more acceptable to God then Jesus Christ is Therefore the Priest is a horrible blasphemer And I prove the assumption thus The Priest vaunts that in his Mass he offers up Jesus Christ to God his Father the Priest also in the Mass prays the Father that he would sanctifie and accept of his Son which he offers up Therefore the Priest vaunts that he is more acceptable to God in the Mass then Jesus Christ is for God regards more the person that offers up then the thing that is offered up This is Ireneus language lib. 4. contra haeres Valent cap. 34. and for this purpose he brings forth the examples of Abel and Cain and their sacrifices For he saith They two offered up to the Lord but they were not both accepted of him for Abel his sacrifice pleased God because his person pleased him and that because of his faith but the sacrifice of Cain pleased not God because his person pleased him not and that because of his incredulity Seeing therefore that the Mass-Priest vaunts that he offers up Jesus Christ in his Mass to the Father and seeing the Priest must be more acceptable then your sacrifice Therefore it must follow that the Priest in the Mass vaunts that he is more acceptable to God then Jesus Christ is and so is a horrible blasphemer in his Mass The thirteenth abuse is that he compares the sacrifice of the Son of God with the sacrifice of Abel Abraham and Melchisedeck which by infinit degrees surpasseth them all The fourteenth what horrible blasphemy commits the Priest when he prays that that oblation which he thinks to be Jesus Christ may be carried to heaven by the hands of an Angel as though Christ were not as powerful now to ascend to heaven as he was after his resurrection and therefore hath now need of the help of an Angel to carry him to heaven What blasphemy is this But let me ask you M. Gilbert wherefore pray ye that he may be carried to heaven seeing ye eat him and makes him to descend in your belly as ye think and to ascend and descend are things contrary And if ye will say that first it mounts to heaven and then descends again then I say first the accidents of the bread and wine are left there alone for they are not carried to heaven but remains in your hand and Christs body and blood are not under them seeing he is carried to heaven by the hands of an Angel and so your real presence is gone Secondly seeing ye eat his body and drink his blood it must follow that ye must make a new transubstantiation to cause Christ come down again from heaven and to make the bread and wine to be transchanged again in his body and blood that ye may eat him and drink him And so these are many voyages which ye cause Christ to make First to descend from heaven by the means of your Transubstantiation then to make him to ascend to heavē by the means of your prayer and then last of all to make him again descend from heaven that ye may eat him and drink him These are the blasphemies which follows on your blasphemous Mass The fifteenth abuse is in their prayer for the dead wherein they pray for a place of refreshment light and peace for them who have died in faith sleeps in peace and rests in the Lord and yet in the Masses that are said for them they will not give the Pax to be kissed which is a sign of peace let them advise how they will reconcile this But first I say their prayer for the dead is without all warrant of the Word next I would know who these are for whom the Priest prays not for them that are in hell for they have not died in faith nor sleeps in peace nor rests in the Lord and prayers for them are needless for out of hell is no redemption not for them that are in heaven for what greater light or peace or joy can they have then that which they have already Not for them that are in Purgatory for beside that it is but the devise of man according to their own doctrine they that are in Purgatory sleeps not in peace but are tormented in fire if their doctrine of the fire of Purgatory be true and so this prayer cannot be for them neither The sixteenth is your horrible cruelty against the Son of God in breaking the body of Christ in three pieces in your Mass as ye think which is greater cruelty then the men of war did to him upon the cross for they brake not a bone of him and yet ye Mass-Priests makes no scruple to part his body in three pieces The seventeenth is your dipping a part of the hoste into the cup which is without all warrant or example of the Scripture and is against the doctrine of one of your Popes Pope Julius de consecrat dist 2. Can. Cum omne crimen The eighteenth is in the prayer wherein the Priest prays that the receiving of Christ his body be not to his condemnation seeing he means not here by the
body of Christ the bread which is a seal of his body but properly the body of Christ which whosoever receives receives not to death but to life seeing he is life and salvation it self The nineteenth is the blowing and mumbling of the Priests on the bread and wine their turning of their back to the people when they pronounce the words of consecration their so oft signing with the sign of the cross in their Mass 25. times their keeping and inclosing of Christs body as they suppone in a box their burning of candles before it The ordinance of Honorius the 3. confirmed by Pope Innocent the 4. de celebrat Miss Canon Sane de custod Euchar. cap. 1. their carrying of it in procession upon their solemn days which they call the Feast of God in their Temples Villages streets their carrying of it to the sick and diseased with these blasphemous words spoken by the Priest to the patient Behold my friend God your Creator which I have brought unto you Ordinance of Pope Urban anno 1564. What blasphemie is this And what a God is this that cannot come by himself but must be brought by another And what comfort can this God bring to the patient that cannot bring himself to the patient but as he must be born by the Priest What a mockery of God of his Word of themselves and of the poor people is this Do their Priests the thing that Christ did in the Sacrament Did he any of these things or commanded he them to be done Crossed he the bread and wine Did he blow and mumble the words upon it Commanded he the bread to be kept in a box to be carried in processions to be carried to the sick to burn candles before it What spirit hath revealed to you these things seeing the Spirit of Christ hath not revealed them in the Scriptures You must seek therefore for a new Gospel to prove these ceremonies for the Gospel of Christ makes no mention of them yea this keeping of the sacrifice it is forbidden by your own Canon Law de consecrat dist 2. cap. 3. Gradibus So ye both fight against the Scripture and your own Canon Law The twentieth abuse is their manifold stiles and titles that they give to their Mass which cannot be all agreeable to the same some taken from the persons in whose name and honor they are celebrat as the Masses of the Trinity of the Name of Jesus of his cross crown and five wounds of our Lady of the Angels of the Saints some taken from the persons and matters whereof they are said For there are sundry sorts of Masses for sundry sorts of persons and matters as one for the Pope another for the Emperor the third for the King the fourth for a man 5. for a woman 6. for the bridegroom 7. for the bride 8. for prisoners 9. for them that saills 10. for them that goes a voyage 11. for the dead 12. for him of whose soul there is doubt 13. for the pest 14. for the rage 15. for the tempest 16. for the fire 17. for all sorts of diseases both of man and beast And last of all some of their styles are taken from the diversity of times and seasons wherein they are said one sort of Mass for Summur another for Winter one for the time of Lent another for the time of flesh one for Christmas another for Pasch another for Whitsunday and other some for other Feast days Now these Masses are so diverse that the Mass that it said at one of these solemn times cannot serve for another the Mass for Lent cannot serve for the time of flesh the Mass for Pasch cannot serve for Christmas and so forth of the rest In the which there are many horrible abuses First if the Mass be one with the Supper as they say then as there is but one Supper of the Lord which is instituted only for the remembrance of CHRIST which is but one in general for all and whereof all the faithful are partakers of whatsoever rank they be be they great be they smal be they rich by they poor and which serves for all times For as our Savior did institut but one Baptism to serve for all persons and for all times so he did institut but one Supper to serve for all persons and all times If therefore the Mass were one with the Supper it should be but one for all persons and for all seasons But this diversity of Masses doth testifie that it is not the institution of Jesus Christ but the institution of Antichrist and that it is not one with the Lord his Supper as they falsly alledge Yea it doth testifie that they have forsaken the truth of God and are given over of God to believe lies and to be deceived by strong delusions that they might be damned Secondly what needs several Masses of the Trinity of the holy Spirit of the Name of Jesus For seeing the three persons of the Trinity are one and they all concurr in the work of our faith the Father giving his Son by his holy Spirit in the Word and Sacraments therefore this diversity as though the persons of the Trinity were separat is needless Thirdly this would be marked that suppose they have stiled their Masses from sundry persons yet they have not ascribed a singular Mass to Jesus Christ that it might be named simply the Mass of Jesus Christ and this no question is not without the providence of God that seeing the Mass is not the institution of Christ but of Antichrist not the ordinance of God but of Satan he would not that such a blasphemous and idolatrous invention should have the same stile to be called the Mass of Christ simply without any further addition as the Supper is called the Lords Supper Fourthly they have a several Mass to the Name of Jesus unto the which Boniface the sixth hath given pardon of three thousand years to them that say this Mass devoutly Missale Romanum as though his Name were a thing separat from himself and as though there were some special vertue in the syllables letters of that Name after the manner of Magiciens and Sorcerers Fifthly their Masses to his cross and crown is manifest idolatry in ascribing that which was proper to Jesus Christ to the tree whereon he hang and to the crown of thorns which he bure as though either they had redeemed us and not himself who was crucified on the tree or else that they were one with himself which are both blasphemy Sixthly their Masses to the honor of the Virgin Mary to Angels and Saints is manifest idolatry For the Supper was not instituted in the honor of any creature but only to the honor of him who did redeem us Seventhly wherefore serves any Mass for the Pope For if he be such a one as himself and his Church have written of him to wit That his will is heavenly that he may make something of nothing that
blood But Dominicus saith he not being void of that perfection of love he took a three-fold correction out of his own hand every day not with a cord but with an iron rod even to the effusion of his blood and for his own faults which were very few another for them that were in Purgatory the third for them that were in the world And so deduces this comparison through all the parts of Christs life And in the end he saith That being to depart from this world he comforts his disciples saying Let not this trouble you for in the place where I go to I shall be more comfortable to you then if I were with you For after death ye shall have me a better Advocat then ye could have in this life What blasphemies these are judge thou Christian Reader and yet they are authorized by the Church of Rome because they serve to establish the Popes supremacy For Gregory the 9. canonized him as a Saint anno 1223. and appointed a festival day to be kept to his honor And he that writes these things is an Archbishop of Florence a man famous among them To him that will joyn himself to this Order of Franciscus and Dominicus for to merit the Kingdom of heaven to redeem their own souls or the souls of their friends as their Bull of Fraternity saith The Provincial gives him the Bulls of Fraternity by the which is made capable of all the merits of the Convent of the merits of all the Friers of that Province of their Masses prayers fastings abstinences devotions watchings disciplins c. Whereby as though it were too little for them to be Saviors of themselves they teach that they have such abundance of merits as also may serve for others They have a prayer to Thomas Becket in their porteous book who was made a Saint by Alexander the 3. in these words Tu per Thomae sanguinem quem pro te impendit fac nos Christe ascendere quo ille ascendit that is Make us O Christ to ascend to heaven by the blood of Thomas which he shed for thee Mocking as it were the blood of Jesus Now as for the Virgin Mary what title is proper to Jesus Christ which they have not ascribed unto her What honor or worship is given to Jesus Christ which is not given to her Damascene saith praying to the Virgin Mary I shall be saved by hoping in thee Thou is the salvation of mankind Antoninus saith part 3. summa tit 12. part 4. tit 15. cap. 14. para 7. That all they upon whom the Virgin Mary turns her eyes are necessarily justified and saved And that Christ because he is both Advocat and Judge together is too rigorous for this cause saith he God hath provided an Advocat meaning of the Virgin Mary in whom nothing is to be found but sweetness And he saith The Seraphims willing to have retained Mary as she mounted to heaven Not saith she for it is not meet that man should live his alone speaking of the everlasting Son of God who sits at the right hand of his Father I am given to him for to be a help to that work of redemption by my compassion and to that work of glorification by my intercession to the intent that if he threaten to destroy the earth as in the time of the Deluge I may appear before him as the rain-bow to the intent that he may remember his covenant And which is yet worse if worse can be another Papist saith applying that which is only spoken of Christ to her God saith he said to her in her birth I have given thee to be a light to the Gentils to the intent that thou may be our salvation applying it blasphemously to Mary to the end of the world and a light to be revealed to the Gentils And again he saith That all graces which run down from the Father and the Son come by her who saith he is a Mediatrix between God and men And no grace comes from heaven but through her hands and all grace enters in her and comes out of her And he saith She is a Mediatrix of salvation of conjunction of justification of reconciliation of intercession of communication And to be short he saith The Father hath given to her the half of his Kingdom the which was signified in the persons of Assuerus and Ester and that he hath retained to himself justice and hath left to her to exercise mercy So that we may appeal from the Court of the Justice of God to the Court of the mercy of the Virgin Mary Whereby they most blasphemously prefer and lift her up above the Lord for that Judge unto whom appellation is made must be superior unto these Judges from whom the appellation is made therefore they blasphemously prefer the tribunal of Mary to the tribunal of the God of heaven And what shal I speak of her Letanies Psalteries and Hours Of her Hours where she is called the Queen of mercy who hath bruised the Serpents head which thing is spoken only to the first parents of the Son of God Gen. 3. and the restorer and Savior of mankind the most godly and most holy the gate of heaven the shining port of life the mother of grace and mercy our life our hope who makes the world to shine by the light of the brightness of her peace who only hath deserved to be next in honor to the Trinity by whom the whole world lives next God She is called the comfort of the desolat the salvation and hope of all them that put their trust in her the fountain of salvation grace godliness joy comfort The Queen of heaven and star of the sea whom the Sun honors the promise of the Prophets the Queen of the Evangelists the teacher of the Apostles the comfort of the Martyrs the salvation and consolation of the quick and the dead the bottomless fountain of all grace the port of paradise the Lady of glory the Queen of joy the Lady of Angels the joy of the Saints the only hope of the miserable the Empress of the Angels the comforter of sinners the keeper of the heart the praise of all the Saints And of her is sought in her Hours and Letanies all these graces generally which are only proper to God through Jesus Christ to give as Protection receiving in the time of death refuge in the time of misery remission of sins the keeping of soul and body holiness of life staying of the pest calming of the seas perseverance in grace the eschewing of sin salvation and eternal life And that by her merits and prayers their sins may be forgiven and that being redeemed by her they may climb up to heaven And they pray to Mary and John Baptist by the Redeemer making Christ a Mediator between them and them And they pray to Christ to defend them from his anger and from the anger of his mother And they pray her to give her self
silver and copper idols Miss Rom. de rit servand in celebrat Missae And to be short in this as their Priests had their heads and their beards shaven how like are the Papist Priests in this Pontif. 20. part 1. Pier. Valer. pro sacerd barbis They worship also the image of Christ with the worship of Latria Thom. Aquin. part 3. quaest 25. art 3. 4. Ant. Possev Bibl. select lib. 1. cap. 10. which themselves confess to be proper only to God confessed by one of their own number a learned Jesuit Gregor de Valent. lib. 2. cap. 7. And therefore he defends that some kind of Idolatry is lawful And Bellarmin saith lib. 1. de Eccles trium cap. 23. That the worship of Latria is given truly to the Image of the Cross and the Crucifix suppose he saith he thinks it not safe to preach this to the people They style the Image of the Crucifix with the styles only proper to God The King of glory the Lord that is strong and mighty in battel the Lord of strength Conrad Brun. de imagin cap. 7. Such like when the Image of the Dove at the Pentecost is let down in the Temple with fire and water then the Priest saith Receive the holy Ghost Ibidem So do the Popes give the style of the immaculat Lamb to the Images of wax Sacra cerem Eccles 20. lib. 1. tit 7. The second Council of Nice Act. 4. saith of the Image of Christ This is Christ And the Council of Trent Sessio 25. And in their consecration of their Images of wax ibid. sacra they pray to God the Father Let these immaculat Lambs speaking of the Images receive that self-same vertue against all the crafts and deceits of the Devil wherewith that innocent Lamb his own Son Jesus Christ delivered from the power of the Devil our first parents And they sing of every one of these wax Images which they call their Agnus Dei omne malignum that is these wax Images break and annul every sin as Christs blood doth And to fill up the heap of their iniquities not only do they worship the thing signified by the Images but the Images themselves as themselves testifie Polydor. Virg. de invent lib. 6. cap. 13. And Pius 2. saith Comment lib. 2. that in the Church of S. Mary c. there is an Image of the Virgin which the people worship mirâ Religione with a marvellous Religion as the giver of rain and fair weather And Bellarmin saith lib. 2. de imag cap. 21. That the images of Christ and the Saints ought to be worshipped properly and by themselves as they are considered in themselves and not only as they represent another thing And he saith cap. 13. That the Image it self should be worshipped with that same kind of worship properly with the which the thing it self represented thereby should be worshipped The second General Council of Nice is of the same mind Marinaeus Siculus de rebus Hisp lib. 5. testifies that in Spain in a certain Temple the Crucifix of Christ is adored And he saith Cujus imaginis invocato numine At the invocation of the Godhead of the which Image sundry received their health Pope John the 22. formed a prayer to be said to the Image of Christs face kept in a shirt which they call Veronica and hath granted ten thousand dayes pardon to them that say this prayer devoutly Salve sancta facies Redemptoris nostri c. In the which prayer first these styles are given to this Image as the face of our Redeemer wherein shines the brightness of the Godhead the beauty of the world the glass of the Saints wherein the heavenly spirit desire to look in the strength of our Christian faith the destroyer of hereticks our joy in this life Secondly they pray to this Image to purge us from all the spots of our sins to joyn us to the company of the blessed to powr in light in our hearts by that vertue which is given to it to increase our merit and to lead us to heaven When shal we tumble our selves out of the gulf of these abominations and idolatries Blind now must they be that see not their doctrine to be the doctrine of the Dragon Therefore do I strive with you saith the Lord and with your posterity For go through all the regions of the earth and see if there be the like abominations as is among them For they have changed the glory of God into unprofitable Idols O ye heavens be astonished at this and be confounded and be ye desolat For two evils have they done they have forsaken the Lord and Christ his Son the fountain of living waters and have made unto themselves broken pits which can hold no water that is they have made unto themselves false Gods and false Christs which cannot bring salvation unto them They have given his glory unto others so that of all Idolaters that ever have been they are the greatest It is no wonder therefore suppose the Lord hath caused it to be proclaimed by an Angel That he that worshippeth the beast and his image shal be tormented in fire and brimstone day and night and the smoke of their torment shal ascend for evermore and they shal have no rest Rev. 14 10.11 I hope now the second point is sufficiently cleared that they have spoyled Christ of his Priesthood and of that glory and honor that is due unto him Now as they have spoyled him of his Priestly office so have they robbed him of his Kingly office His Kingly office stands in two things The one is in the inward operation of his Spirit The other is in the exercise and ministery of the Word Sacraments and Discipline which he hath ordained for that end As for the first He by his Spirit prepares the heart by bringing us to a sight and sense of our misery that we may run to him to seek for mercy And then he by his Spirit works that living faith which makes us fully assured of salvation which works by love and brings forth the fruits of holiness and righteousness whereof prayer is one special All which is taken away by their doctrine As to the first No sufficient knowledge of their misery among them For first their doctrine is That we are not dead in sin but man hath free-will and then that concupiscence after Baptism is not sin and that the adoring and worshipping of Images is not the breaking of the second command And that the reward of every sin is not everlasting death And that men even without faith may merit the favor of God and that after they have obtained faith they may not only fulfill the Law perfectly but also do more yea love God with a greater love then he hath commanded and lead a more strait and heavenly life then either the Law of God or man prescribes as Bellarmin saith And that men may not only satisfie God for their own sins and merit everlasting life to
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
of the cold and famine suffered in the way But these were but the beginnings of sorrows for they fell on and murdered in cold blood some at plough others in their houses others travelling in the way without provocation In the Castle of Lisgool there were about 152. persons consumed with fire At the Castle of Monea were an hundred slain together All that was in the Castle of Tullah were all cruelly murdered after the Castle was yeelded upon composition and faithful promises of fair quarter At Lissenkea they hanged and killed above an hundred of the Scots Protestants Some they caused upon hopes of life to hear Mass and to swear never to alter from it and presently thereafter hanged or killed them At Portendoun-bridge they drave a thousand persons into the river and drowned them all yea in that County they drowned four thousand persons driving them to the river and if any were slack in their pace they pricked them forward with their swords and picks and to terrifie the rest they killed some and wounded others and if any essayed to swim to the shore they stood and shot at them Some they gave passes and sent of the Irish with them under the pretence of safe-conducting them while they came to some place fit for execution where they either murdered or drowned them At Armach Onel got together all the Protestants thereabout pretending to conduct them to Colrain but before they were gone a days journey they were all murdered and so were many others though they had Oneals protection In Armach town there were 500. persons murdered and drowned In Kilmore all the inhabitants were stript and massacred being 200. families The whole County was a common butchery where many thousands perished in a short time by sword famine fire water and all other cruel manner of deaths that rage and malice could invent yea their cruelty was so great that they would not grant them so much liberty as to pray before they murdered them Some when they were kneeling and praying they would cut off their head When some on their knees begged but leave to pray before they were slain they would bid them bequeath their souls to the Devil Others would ask them Why do you desire to pray your souls are already with the Devil and so would immediatly slaughter them Some they put in filthy dungeons full of dirt and myre and there clapping bolts on their legs suffered them to perish at leasure Some they barbarously mangled and left them languishing upon the high ways crying out but for so much mercy as to be dispatched out of their pain Some they buried alive Some when they were half hanged they cast into pits covering them with a little earth where they sent out most lamentable groans for a good while after Some they hacked slashed and wounded and then put and kept them under with stones where they lay languishing and groaning while their own wives stopped their breath with handkerchiefs to put them out of pain Some they buried alive yet so as their pityful cryes were heard afar off Some were deadly wounded and so were hung by the chocks upon tenter hooks Some with ropes about their necks were drawn through the water Some with ropes about their middles were drawn through woods and bogs Some were hung up by the arms and then with their swords they made experiment how many blows an English Protestant would endure ere he died Some had their bellies ript up and so were left with their guts running about their heels Many women great with child they hung up then ript their bellies and let the infants fall out and gave them to be devoured of dogs and swine Many children they took by the heels and dashed their brains out against a tree Many they pucked and stabbed with their skeens forks and swords slashing cutting and mangling them in their heads faces breasts arms and other parts yet killed them not but left them wallowing in their blood to languish starve and pine to death and when they desired them to kill them out of their pain they refused yet sometimes after a day or two they would dash out their brains with stones or clubs which they accounted as a great favor In the cold weather many thousands of Protestants of all ranks ages and sexes being turned out stark naked perished of cold and hunger Thousands of others were drowned cast into ditches bogs and turff-pits Multitudes were inclosed in houses which being set on fire they were burnt miserably Some that lay sick of fevers they drew out of their beds and hanged them Some men women and children they drove into boggy pits and if any of them endeavored to get out they knockt them on their heads Some aged men and women they forced them to carry their own children to the river where they were drowned yea some children were compelled unnaturally to be the executioners of their own parents Wives were forced to help to hang their own husbands and mothers to cast their own children into the water after all which themselves were murdered In Slego they forced a young man to kill his own father and then hanged him up In another place they forced a woman to kill her husband then caused her son to kill her and then immediatly hanged the son and this they did that they might destroy both soul and body yea the women were as bloody as the men killing women and children yea they boyled a child of twelve years of age in a caldron and in some places the women stoned the English women to death In some places they plucked out the eyes and cut off the hands of the Protestants and so turned them out into the fields to wander till they perished Neither did their cruelty end with the lives of the Protestants but extended after death to the denying burial to their carkasses casting some into ditches leaving others to be devoured of ravenous beasts and fowls yea some that had been formerly buried they digged up and left them as dung upon the face of the earth and they vowed if any parents or wives digged graves to bury their husbands or children in they should be buried therein themselves Yea they abused and triumphed over the dead for at Kilkenny when they had committed many cruel murders they brought seven Protestant heads among which was the head of a Minister all which they set on the Market Cross on a Market day triumphingâ— slashing and mangling of them and putting a gag into the Ministers mouth they slit up his cheeks to his ears and laying a leaf of the Bible before it they bid him preach for his mouth was wide enough When they put many Protestants in houses and set fire in them and burnt them they exulted over them imitating in scorn their cryes and saying O how sweetly do they fry Yea they made their boast how many Protestants they killed yea they burnt and blasphemously abused the Bible At Slego they put all the Protestants