all the fathers almost denie publicke penance to Priests and Deacons fallen into notorious crimes but the popish faction regardeth them not one iote Bellarmine lib. 1. de eucharist c. 11. saith that Augustine did not well weigh these words of Luke I will drinke no more of the fruit of the vine Augustine lib. 22. de ciuit Dei c. 10. saith that Christians doe not worship martyrs or erect remples in their honour lib. 1. de morib eccles c. 3. he denieth that we are to adore any ereature Hierome also ioineth with him in this opinion mepist ad Riparium but the popish sect doth not regard what they say nor followeth their doctrine Finally it were an easie matter to shew the fathers to bee aduerse to popery in all materiall controuersies but what shall wee neede to doe it seeing their late corruptions and false allegations of fathers doe plainlie testifie that they doe not hope for victory if the fathers may be truely alleadged of late they haue set out indexes expurgatory teaching Printers how to falsifie fathers Sixtus Senensis inepist ad Pium 5. ante biblioth sanct sheweth how that Pope had caused the fathers to bee purged or rather corrupted expurgari fecisti omnium authorum catholicorum saith he praecipuè veterum patrum scripta Pameluts hath most shamefully corrupted Cyprian and the like course all Papists take with the bookes of the fathers lately set foorth Somtime also they confesse the corruption of fathers Aeneas Sylu. lib. 1. de gest concil Basil sheweth how Popes stand vpon these words vocaberis Cephas and lanch into the deepe and such like neglecting the exposition of all the holy doctors posthabitis omnino omnium sanctorum expositionibus Alan Chartier saith they reiect the holy doctrine of fathers sanctâ—â— patrum doctrine reiectae posthabitae sunt Matth. Paris in Wilhelmo Conquest speaking of Hildebrandes decree against maried Priests saith it was made without consideration and against the iudgement of holy fathers inconsiderato iudicio contra sanctorum patrum sententiam CHAP. XIX That Popish religion was neuer testified by the blood of Christian martyrs STrange it were if the martyrs of Christ should turne from Christ and testifie for Antichrist yet because the aduersaries of truth doe boast of ancient martyrs and Bristow in his 15. motiue doth place Martyrs as setters foorth of the Popes glorious kingdome we are briefly to shew that the testification of Martyrs maketh nothing for popish religion and that appeareth first for that the Papists refuse to bee tried by the doctrine of the Apostles which were principall Martyrs Secondly we haue shewed that the principall points of Popery were neither taught nor receiued during the time of the primitiue Martyrs nor many ages after and that many points now taught and receiued among Papists were then refused as heresies Thirdly Papists adore idols and burne incense vnto them but the ancient Martyrs were therefore martyred cruelly put to death because they would not consent to the worship of idols nor burne incense to them Fourthly the practises of Papists declare that they are more like to the heathen Emperors and persecutors of Christians then to the ancient martyrs of Christs church for as they massacred Christians for maintenance of the Apostolike faith so do the Popes and their complices massacre all that stand for the same as they by sword and fire sought to vphold idolatry so doe these as they hated them deadly which taught the true faith so doe these Finally the confession of the faith published by Pius the fourth and that doctrine which the conuenticle of Trent hath of late confirmed and commanded to be taught and beleeued is in many points contrarie to the faith of ancient martyrs and in all points of controuersie betwixt Papists and vs vtterly vnknowne to them The holy Apostles commend scriptures and so doe ancient martyrs but Papists accuse them of insufficiencie obscuritie flexibility and call them a nose of waxe and a killing letter Ancient martyrs were burned and put to death because they would not deliuer holy scriptures to be burnt the Papists doe burne scriptures and suspect such for heretikes as reade them in vulgar tongues The Apostles and Primitiue martyrs beleeued the scriptures because they came from God the Papists will not haue scriptures to bee belecued vnlesse they be deliuered by the Pope They taught neither heresie nor impiety nor noueltie but Popish religion as before is declared is full of heresies impieties nouelties In ancient time the Bishops of Rome were martyrs now those that call themselues their successors doe murder Gods Saints and make them martyrs Ancient martyrs taught that one God was to bee adored the Papists giue diuine honour to the crosse and crucifixe and call the Sacrament their Lord and God Ancient martyrs did breake downe images now the Papists erect them fall downe before them and worship them Finally ancient martyrs neuer beleeued that either doggs or hogs could eate Christs body or that the same was in any place where it could neither be felt nor seene or that the same was both in heauen and earth and euery pixe at one time or that bread is transubstaÌ„tiated into Christs body or that Christians do with their teeth eate mans flesh or with their throats swallow mans blood or that the bishop of Rome is lord and monarch of the church or that he can fetch souls out of Purgatorie or that there is a treasure of Saints merites out of which indulgences are granted or that Christians are iustified by extreme vnction or eating fish and such like Popish deuises Neither is it materiall that these holy martyrs are put in Popish calenders for the Iewes bragged of their father Abraham and adorned the sepulchers of the Prophets although they neither abode in the faith of Abraham nor followed the doctrine of the Prophets Further Bristow telleth vs that S. Stephen helped all those that sought vnto him but his proofes are drawne out of legendes and certeine counterset sermons of S. Augustine in his 22. chapter de ciuit dei c. 8. there is no such matter and yet these reports that are there inserted seeme to be none of S. Augustines but suppose certein superstitious persoÌ„s should pray to S. Stephen yet S. Stephen neuer taught them so to do nor allowed such formes of praiers Lastly he talketh of Fisher More the Charterhouse monks and diuers that died in king Henry the 8. the late Queens reigne for the Popes cause and telleth vs that they were of his religion but it is first denied that they were martyrs and next that Fisher and More were of the moderne Romish religion the first is proued for that they died for the Pope and not for Christ Secondly they died as traitors either by open rebellion or by ouert act oppugning the Princes authoritie the second is euident for that diuers of them died before the conuenticle of Trent which hath now published a new forme of faith and decreed many things
for it Ambrose Catharine tractat de imaginibus saith God prohibited images simply but that this prohibition was positiue others deny both images to be forbidden and the second commandement to be positiue Occham Maior and Richardus are of opinion that a sacrament cannot be defined Scotus in 4. dist 1. q. 2. holdeth that it may be defined imperfectly Ledesma in tract de sacrament in genere q. 1. art 2. saith it may properlie bee defined Finally to shew the contradictions of Papists we need to seeke no further than to Bellarmine who in euery controuersie bringeth in different opinions of men of his side Gardiner a pillar of popery did oftentimes contradict himselfe and his fellowes sometimes hee swore against the Popes supremacy sometime like a forsworne creature hee stood for it somtime he consented to the dissolution of monasteries as sinkes of Sodomy and all tibaldrie and villany sometime be spoke for them his booke entituled Marcus Constantius is full of contradictions M. Foxe hath scored vp great multitudes The contradictions of Robert Parsons in his book of three Conuersions I haue noted in my answeare to that treatise The whole masse also of Poperie doth consist of contrary pieces as I haue shewed in the contradictions of the doctrine of the Masse of purgatory of indulgences of the Pope and diuers other principall points and haue proued the same in treatises of that argument For example they say the Masse is an vnbloudy sacrifice and yet teach that euerie Priest doth really offer and drinke Christs bloud Sometime they say the sacrifice is but one sacrifice yet in the canon they say sacrifices in the plurall number Sometime they say the Priest only offereth this sacrifice but in the canoÌ„ they make the people to offer sacrifices In the canon they pray that Angels may carry Christs body vnto Gods high altar but all confesse that Christs body is in heauen before There also they make the Priest a mediatour for Christ. but where they speake soberly they make Christ a mediator both for the Priest and others In heauen they say Christ is visible and palpable on the altar they make him inuisible and impalpable They say the Masse is an externall sacrifice yet no man euer yet could see Christs body externally sacrificed In purgatorie they say soules suffer extreme paines but in the Masse they saie they slâ—epe in peace They teach that Christians may performe the law of God perfectly but they will not grant that they may liue without sinne which is all one Talking of auricular confession they make it necessarie but in the chap. Petrus doluit and lachrymae dist 1. de poenit they denie it The Pope calleth himselfe seruant of seruants yet doth he take vpon him as lord of lords Order they say is one sacrament yet they teach also that there are seuen Orders and euerie one of them a sacrament which is as much as if they should make one seuen and seuen one The Pope they saie is head of the Church but that is as much as if they should teach that their Church in the vacatio nis headlesse If then the catholicke faith be one and those that professe the faith agree in one then cannot popery be the true Catholicke faith that containeth so many contradictions CHAP. XXVII That popery is a most foolish and absurd religion AS the lawes of God are full of wisedome and giue vs a true vnderstanding so when man of his owne braine vndertaketh to adde vnto his commandements the same in proofe falleth out to be nothing but vanity and foolery the same wee sind verified in the additions of the superfluous religion of Papists for although it haue a shew of wisedome as the voluntarie worship of Angels had of which the Apostle Coloss 2. speaketh yet compared with the wisedome of God reuealed in the Gospell it is meere foolery For first what is more foolish then to forsake the liuing springs of holy scripture out of which do sally waters of life and to follow after the puddle streams of Romish traditions of scriptures we are assured that they are the word of God but no man can affirme that of Romish traditions or the Popes decretales that either professeth piety or loueth truth is it not then strange that any Christians should bee so foolish as to match the word of man with Gods word and where we haue a certaine rule to seeke for a broken vncertaine and crooked rule Againe it is most absurd not to beleeue the scriptures without the Popes warrant but to say that Christians are not to beleeue in God nor in Christ Iesus nor to receiue the rest of the articles of our Creed vnlesse the church of Rome doe deliuer them vnto vs is not only a peece of great foolery but also a very high streine of madnesse and yet this is the doctrine of Popery for Stapleton saith that the church must needes consigne the scriptures vnto vs and the authoritie of the church both he and others giue to the Pope likewise in their catechisme the Papists signifie that faith is of things onely proposed to vs by the church so that if the church propose not the articles of faith we are not to beleeue them if these men teach truth further this sheweth the Romish church to consist of a packe of infidels for if the same beleeued not without the authority of the church then did she beleeue nothing of Christ seeing the Papists acknowledge no other Church but that of Rome and no church can teach it selfe Finally this is as much as if they should say that the law of the Prince is not to be receiued vnlesse it be proposed by the crier or other such like officer The Masse-priests of Trent sess 4. most absurdly prefer the old Latin vulgar translation of the Bible before the originall text which is as much as if they should preferre S. Hierome and other interpreters before the Prophets and Apostles and the streames before the fountaines Generally they forbid scriptures to bee read publickely in vulgar tongues but they permit most fabulous legends to bee read publickely The holy scriptures they will not permit to bee read in vulgar tongues of the multitude without licence but they are content that any of their followers should reade the Popes decretales or the miracles of their god of paste or the history of our Lady of Loreto and other such lying legends without licence To say that the Pope is the head of the vniuersall church is meere foolery for grant that and it will follow that the Church is sometime without head as in the time of vacation of the papacy and sometime a monster with two or three heads as when two or three Popes reigne at once and sometime a mad Church as hauing a mad and franticke head The church they say albeit catholicke yet is alwaies visible but this being granted it followeth that vniuersall things may be the obiect of sense and that the church of
the doctrine of the Apostles and Prophets and therefore we may not thinke that they taught that Christ had a bodie inuisible or inpalpable or that his body was in heauen and earth at one time and yet not continued to it selfe or that his soule was omnipotent or omniscient or that Christians were to beleeue that dogges and hogges did eat Christs body and yet that all the communicants saue the Priest were to be excluded from the cup of the new Testament or that Christ is onely the meritorious cause of our iustification and saluation and that formally we are iustified and saued by our owne workes or that remission of sinnes cannot be obtained vnlesse we come to auricular confession and haue the Masse-priests absolution or that the Pope by his indulgences out of superfluous merits of Saints is able to deliuer soules from purgatory or other popish heresies and wicked doctrines before mentioned for these doctrines are contrarie to the holy scriptures in which the summe of the Apostles preaching is conteined Gregory the first lib. 4. epist 32. doth dislike the title of vniuersall bishop and calleth it sacrilegious and prophane he doth also condemne the worship of images lib. 7. epist 109. and lib. 9. epist 9. and commendeth Serenus the bishop of Massilia for reproouing the adoration of images neither doth he allow any more than the historicall vse of them that Purgatory which Gregory the Dialogist speaketh of differeth much from popish purgatory being rather designed for veniall sinnes than for satisfaction for temporall paines after the fault remitted lib. moral 19. c. 16. hee sheweth that the bookes of the Machabees are not canonicall scriptures and lib. 14. moral c. 32. that Christs body is solide and not like a spirit and lib. 4. dial c. 55. that things aboue in the eucharist are vnited to things below summa imis consociantur of which it followeth that there is no such presence as the Papists imagine nor any transubstantiation for if the bodie of Christ residing aboue be vnited to things below then is not Christs body included within the accidents of the host nor is the bread and wine abolished Augustine the Monke brought with him a crosse and the image of our sauiour in a table and did sing litanies as Bede testifieth lib. 1. hist Angl. c. 25. but we doe not read that hoe filled Churches with images or that hee worshipped Christs image or the crosse with latria or that in his litanies he called vpon Saints or Angels Bede saith they praied to God litanias canentes c. domino supplicabant If then we cannot find the points of popery which we refuse in the writings of the Apostles or in any record mentioning the doctrin of Ioseph of Arimathaea Eleutherius Gregory or Austen but rather find them to bee opposite to their doctrine and denised afterwards then vnlesse we meane to remooue the ancient limits and bounds set downe to vs by our fathers and to refuse the counsell of the holy ghost Prouerb 22. wee may not returne to popery forasmuch as the first conuerters of the inhabitants of this land were no authours nor fauourers of popish superstition heresies impieties and blasphemies CHAP. XV. That popish religion is most falsely termed Catholike religion and Papists Catholickes CAtholicke religion as Vincentius Lirinensis in his commonitory chap. 3. doth teach vs is that which alwaies hath beene beleeued and of all Christians wee are to hold saith he that which alwaies hath beene beleeued of all Christians for that is properly Catholicke but the faith of the Romish church conteined in the Popes decretales and disputes of the canonists and schoolemen hath not alwaies beene beleeued of all Christians their faith therfore is not catholike the assumption is proued not onely by the nouelties of the decretales glosses of Canonists and summes and resolutions of the schoole diuines but also by the falsehood and contrarieties of the doctrine therein conteined Nicholas in his decretale ego Berengarius de consecrat dist 2. teacheth that Christs body sensually is handled with the hands of Priests and torne with teeth but this is contrary to scriptures fathers and truth Innocent in the chapter firmiter de sum trinit fid cath saith that the bread is transubstantiat into Christs body which is false for Christ saide of bread which hee tooke this is my bodie The Canonists honour the Pope as a God on earth as the head foundationmonah rcand spouse of the Church the schoolemen brabble one with another and sometimes change their owne opinions Bellarmine lib. 2. de purgat c. 3. confesseth that Thomas Aquinas changed his opinion concerning the merit of soules in Purgatorie most schoole-men build doctrines of faith vpon Philosophicall grounds and vary both from scriptures and fathers in their doctrine of the diuine attributes of Christs body and soule of merits of sacraments and diuers other points how then can we repute these doctrines to be catholike It is the Property of Catholikes saith Vincentius Lirinensis commonit c. 34. to keepe the doctrine committed to them and left with them by the auncient fathers and to auoid profane nouelties but the doctrine of schoolemen concerning the diuine attributes concerning the examples of the persons of the Trinitie brought by the master of sentences the eating of Christs body by brute beasts and diuers other points is ful of profanenesse and nouelties their reasons also are more philosophicall and sophisticall then Apostolicall all the points in controuersie betwixt vs and them are mere nouelties as the decretales whereon they depend declare Leo epist 81. saith that there is one true only perfect and inuiolable faith whereto nothing can be added and from which nothing can bee taken but vnto this faith the Popes haue added their determinations concerning traditions the carnall reall presence of Christs body and blood in the sacrament of the Lords supper transubstantiation the communion vnder one kind the Popes vicarship generall and vniuersall power purgatory indulgences the worship of images and diuers other pointes of doctrine doth it not then appeare that popery is nothing else but a corruption of doctrine comming in after the publication of the Christian Catholike faith and added vnto it Furthermore as the Apostolike doctrine is catholike and vniuersall so hereticall opinions are particular and peculiar to certaine sects and persons and times but wee haue shewed that Popery is nothing else but a packe of old and new heresies Lastly by many particulars it may be proued that the doctrine of Papists hath neither beene taught at all times nor imbraced of al christians nor spred ouer al the world which doth plainly declare that neither the doctrine is catholike nor the professors thereof truely termed Catholickes First they teach that the scriptures are an imperfect rule and vnsufficient without traditions and speake lewdly of them calling them a nose of waxe a killing and dead letter a matter of strife and what else they list to deuise in their
the Popes lawes as the resistance of the churches of Asia against Victor of the churches of Afrike against Sozimus and other Popes declare 20. Of late time friers especially the Capucins haue attired themselues like chimney sweepers burners of houses 21. The rules of monks and friers are diuers from the rules of Christian religion and can not be elder then the orders of monkes and friers 22. Gregory the seuenth as Otho Frisingensis sayth was the first that did excommunicate the Emperour and taught that he had power to assoile subiects from the others of obedience to Princes 23. The vse of priuate masses without communion is but new as the old ordinall of Rome that hath no masses of that nature declareth the canons of the Apostles forbid Christians to depart before they receiued the communion 24. Innocent the third in the chap. omnis vtriusque de poenit remiss did first bring in a necessity of auricular confession he also was the first father of the monster transubstantiation as we find by the chapter firmiter de sum Trinit fid Cathol 25. Purgatory for satisfaction for temporall paines of sinnes whose guilt before was remitted was first deuised by schoolemen 26. The Iubiley among Christians was first deuised by Boniface the eigth he also decreed first that all temporall princes and others vpon paine of damnation must bee subiect to the Pope 27. Popish indulgences are but of a late stampe and the schoole doctrine thereof much latter the Papists themselues being as yet not fully resolued what to thinke of them 28. Clement the sixth first deuised the treasure out of which indulgences are supposed to be granted as appeareth by the chap. vnigenitus extr depoenit remiss 29. The doctrine of cases reserued to the Pope is not once spoken of in the writings of the fathers and yet the Masse-priests make a great matter of them 30. The doctrine of the Popes penitentiarie taxe for dispatch of pardons for murders incest sodomie and all villanies I thinke Kellison will not contend to bee verie ancient 31. Bellarmines doctrine lib. 1. de verb. Dei c. 3. concerning the new Testament where he saith it is nothing else but the loue of God shed into our harts by the holy Ghost is new for it contradicteth Chrysostome Theodoret and others in 2. Cor. 3. who teach that the new Testament is God grace remitting sinnes 32. The prohibition of mariage betweene spirituall gossips is a late deuice of the Pope for gaine 33. The separation of maried couples for religion before consummation of mariage without consent of both the parties is both new and wicked 34. The popish ceremonies vsed in baptisme are of a late inuention as for example salt spittle candles and popish exorcismes 35. Of late they haue begun to exorcise salt in salutem credentium for the saluation of the faithfull and holy water to cast our Diuels and to driue awaie discases these consurations are not found in the old Romish ordinals 36. The Masseppriests haue now gotten a new tricke to sprinkle the altar with holy water and to say thou shalt sprinkle mee with hyssope and I shal be clensed applying the scriptures contrary to the meaning of the holy ghost 37. Honorius the third in the chapter sane cum olim de celebr miss did first ordaine that the sacrament should bee worshipped and safely kept and caried with light to those that are sicke 38. Halfe communions are direct contrary to Christs institution and the practise of the church and first established in the conuenticle of Constance 39. The Masse cannot be old for that Nauclerus Platina Polydore and others confesse is was innented by diuers authors long after the Apostles times 40. The praiers for the dead now found in the Masse are not to be seene in the booke called Ordo Romanus 41. In old time the fathers neuer beleeued that Christ had a body inuisible and incircumscriptible and that might bee in heauen and earth and many places at one time 42. The godly bishops of old time did neither swinge the chalice about their head nor make crosses about it when they celebrated the eucharist 43. The saying of seruice and administration of Sacraments in tongues not vnderstood is a foolish noueltie 44. Now in the Roman Catechisme they teach that euery Masse-priest consecrating worketh three miracles but in old time they were neuer taken for such workers of miracles 45. The Papists after their Pater noster say their aue Maria and pray to our Lady which practise is neither ancient nor Apostolicall 46. The Psalter of our Lady and her peculiar offices and Masses in honour of Saints will not be iustified by ancient precedents 47. Hardly will the Papists bring a precedent of 300. yeers old to prooue that Christians praied to the crosse for encrease of iustice and remission of sinnes 48. In the missall of Sarum the Priest saith to the sacrament aue or haile and boweth to it contrarie to all ancient practise 49. The worship of Papists must needs be new for that both their Saints are new and their praiers and offices new 50. The missals breuiaries and offices of our Lady haue their antiquity from the conuenticle of Trent 51. Popish idolaters worship the sacrament and the crosse with diuine honour but they shall neuer bring allowance of antiquitie for this practise 52. They burne also incense to dumbe images kisse them and bow to them but these vnchristian trickes were not knowen in old time 53. Of late time they haue decreed that the Pope is aboue the councell but it is since the councell of Constance 54. Now the Pope pretendeth right to handle the temporall sword but that did not the Bishops of Rome for a thousand yeeres after Christ 55. Of late time the Pope hath troden vpon the necks of Emperours but in ancient time the bishops of Rome were subiect to Emperours 56. In time past the bishops of Rome were persecuted and martyred now the Popes of late time persecute and martyr others Finally all the points of doctrine differing from the faith o this church which the Pope and his complices seeke now to thrust vpon Christians are for the most part nouelties And this doth clearely appeare in this for that they are contrary to the doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles as before hath beene particularly declared the same is also coutrary to the doctrine of the fathers and ancient churches practise as we shall declare heerafter Further the Papists haue turned the whole seruice of God into a massing mommery Finally for God they worship Saints and dumbe images the institution of Christ Iesus in the eucharist they haue altered new sacraments they haue deuised are they not then ashamed to call popery ancient Christian religion CHAP. XVII That Poperic is repugnant to auncient councels MVch doc Papists bragge of councels Campion saith the first last and midst are his concilia generalia mea sunt generall councels saith he are all for me
not possible a man should be saued vnlesse he beleeue the catholike faith but this catholike faith the Papists beleeue not intirely for neither doe they giue to Christ humane flesh nor make him a perfect man thrusting his body into a small piece of bread or rather into the accidents of bread where it is neither seene nor felt as other mens bodies are further they doe not beleeue his ascension or that he shall come from heauen to iudge quicke dead as is conteined in that Creedo making their followers beleeue that his body is vpon euery altar and not being able to deny that he shall come out of the pixe seeing they teach he is there Our Sauiour Christ Matth 15. teacheth vs that such worship God in vaine as teach for doctrines mens precepts but the doctrine of Popery as it addeth to ancient Catholike religion is nothing but a masse of humane inuentions deuises and precepts their decretales are the Popes deuises their formes of worship conteined in the missals and breuiaries are merely humane From mans deuise proceeded the popish worship of Angels Saints Images the most part of the resolutions of cases of consciences is grounded on the Popes lawes finallie the turnings skippings heauings greasings spittings and other ceremonies of Masse-priests and their followers proceede from mans inuention Popery therefore by Christs rule is nothing but wearinesse and vexation of mens soules while they seeke to serue God by those meanes By the chapter si Papa dist 40. we learne that the Pope may be remisse and negligent in his office and silent in teaching and leade innumerable people with him into hell but if the Papists are to adhere to the Pope and to follow him how can they escape when he leadeth them into hell that they runne not headlong into hell themselues also If then they will not beleeue scriptures nor fathers yet their owne decrees may teach them that following the Pope innumerable Papists runne hedlong into hell Besides the testimonies of scriptures and fathers and the confession of Boniface in the chapter si Papa dist 40. diuers reasons teach vs that the Papists holding firmelie and positiuely the erroneous doctrine of the moderne church of Rome cannot be saued for first no man can come vnto the father but by Christ Iesus as he testifieth of himselfe Iohn 14 he sheweth also that he is the way the truth and the life the Apostle 1. Tim. 2. teacheth vs that there is no mediator betwixt God and man but the man Christ Iesus but the Papists as they pretend come to God not only by Christ but also by the Virgin Mary by Angels and Saints they seeke out also new waies content not themselues with such as Christ taught vs. finally they beleeue that the Pope by his indulgences and euery Masse-priest by his Masses is able to redeeme mens soules Secondly he that buildeth his faith vpon other foundation then the doctrine of the Apostles and Prophets doth build vpon sand and not vpon a firme foundation but the Papists build their faith vpon the Popes decretales vpon vnwritten and vncerteine traditions vpon the doctrine of the Romish church vpon miracles and prophesies reported in the Romish legends and such like fables doe they not then build vpon rumous foundations Thirdly the papists hope to be iustified by the law and to be saued by their workes But the Apostle Rom. 3. teacheth vs that man is iustified without the workes of the law and Rom. 6. that eternall life is the gift of God through Iesus Christ our Lord. Fourthly the law of God pronounceth him accursed that abideth not in all the words of the law to doe them and a plaine matter it is that no man can be saued that wilfully breaketh Gods law and neuer soroweth nor craueth pardon for his transgression but the Papistes teach doctrine contrary to Gods law and enforce their followers to breake it and that in diuers points God commandeth vs to haue no other gods but him but they honour the Sacrament and the images of the Trinity and crosse with diuine worship they doe also impart Gods worship to the virgin Marie and to saints he forbiddeth the taking of Gods holie name in vaine the Popes of Rome doe dispense with oathes and enforce men oftentimes to breake them God commandeth vs to honour our parents the Pope setteth the children against their parents finally they allow publike stewes and set vp shops of vsury and massacre innocent Christians directly against Gods commandement and that without all remorse of conscience or feeling of their sinnes Fiftly papistes hope to obteine remishon of sinnes by their owne satisfactions by indulgences by the paines of Purgatorie by masses by auricular confess on and popish absolution of Masse-priestes and diuers humane deuises but relying vpon these broken reedes there is no hope for them to be saued for without the onely sacrifice of Christ Iesus applied to vs by true faith there is no hope of remission of sinnes Sixtly without true faith it is not possible to please God but their peruerse doctrine of faith and the innumerable heresies of papists do declare that they haue no true faith Seuenthly the Prophet Dauid Psal 15. demanding who shall rest vpon Gods holy mountaine answereth among other things he that slandreth not with his tongue nor doth euil to his neighbour but the Papists as is formerly shewed haue no other meanes to vphold their ruinous state but by lies and slanders treasons rebellions murders and massacres of innocent Christians Finally it is not possible they should be saued that are ignorant of the meanes of their saluation and hold heresies repugnant to the apostles doctrine of the law of the gospel of repentance from dead workes and other articles of the faith but the Papists beleeue that Christ is only the meritorious cause of their saluation as if he had merited only that they might sause themselues they teach also that men are iustified formally by their owne works that their supposed sacraments and their pilgrimages and voluntary obseruances of the precepts of the Romish church and works performed according to the Popes decretales and conuenticle of Trent do iustifie Lastly they teach and beleeue doctrine contrary to the law to the gospel to the Apostles doctrine of repentance and good works are they not then in miserable case Now if any man aske what is then become of all those that either now die or in time past are dead in places where Popery is or hath beene professed I answer that of those that held the foundation and liued well we hope well but we denie that such as liued before the conuenticle of Trent held Popery positiuely we hope also that many there are among the papists now which conform themselues to them in outward ceremonies and yet beleeue not the errors of Popery positiuely but hold themselues to the old Apostolike saith and of these mens saluation we haue no cause to despaire God grant that the
foundation and pillar of our faith they doe make the traditions of the church not written equall to the scriptures and vpon them nay vpon the decretales of Popes and practise of Massepriestes doe build their faith all antiquitie esteemeth holy scriptures to be the canon of our faith and therefore calleth them canonicall But the Romanists esteeme them to be an vnperfect canon without their traditions and the Popes decretales and determinations Bellarmine lib. 4. de verb. dei c. 4. saith they are neither necessary nor sufficient without traditions The fathers neuer accounted the bookes of Tobiah Iudith Ecclesiasticus Wisdome and the Machabees equall to the bookes of the law and Prophets extant originally in Hebrew as appeareth by the testimony of Hierome in prologo Galeato of Athanasius in synopsi of Nazianzen in carm of Epiphanius and diuers others old and new writers the Papists in the synode of Trent decree them to be of equall authoritie with the rest the auncient catholikes euer esteemed the Hebrew text of the old testament and the Greeke of the new to be more authentical then anie translation the conuenticle of Trent hath made the old latin vulgar translation of the bible authenticall and doth not giue that honor to the originall bookes of the bible the canonicall scriptures we say receiue their force from the author of them and this is to be prooued by the consent of fathers and by arguments from scriptures law and reason they say that scriptures receiue force and authoritie in respect of vs from the Church or rather from the Pope Papists are neither willing that scriptures be turned into vulgar tongues nor will permitte them to be read of the vulgar sort without licence or publickly read in vulgar tongues in the church finally they say they are obscure and hard to be vnderstood and speake what they can in their disgrace Secondly they teach erroneously concerning Christs naturall body and concerning his office the body of Christ they beleeue to be both in heauen and on earth on euerie altar at one and the selfe same time they also hold that his body is really vnder the accidents of bread and wine giuing him a body neither visible nor palpable nor in any sort like to ours they teach further that his body is in diuers places where it filleth not the places and that his one body hath relation to diuers places they beleeue that the soules of the faithfull before Christes comming were in hell or at least in Limbo which is a part of hell and were thence deliuered by Christes going to hell as if his crosse had wrought nothing for them they teach that Christ as man is omniscient and per consequent omnipotent and that he was vir perfectus that is a perfect or growne man from the first instant of his conception his office of mediation they giue to the virgin Mary to Angels and to Saints they make also Saints our redeemers teaching that by their merits Christians obteine their desires and are deliuered out of purgatorie to Masse-priests they giue priesthood according to the order of Melchisedech and say that they offer vp Christs body and blood really for quicke and dead finally they make the Pope head spouse and monarke of the Church Neither doe they teach more catholikely of Christes mysticall body then of his naturall body for they subiect the same to the Pope and exclude all from Christ that are not subiect to the Pope the true members thereof they persecute and make heretikes and reprobates and such as liue without order or law professing their religion outwardly true members of Christes body the Church say they is alwaies so conspicuous and visible that euery one may see it and discerne it the true markes of the church that is true doctrine and the sincere administration of Sacraments and holinesse of life they denie assigning most common and vncerteine markes as vnitie vniuersalitie antiquitie succession and such like The Pope they make a most certeine and infallible interpreter of Scriptures and iudge of matters of faith they giue him authoritie to make lawes for the whole Church and power to binde mens consciences they make him more souereigne then a generall Councell and say that his power in giuing indulgences reacheth into purgatorie they say he hath power to excommunicate and depose kings and to giue away their kingdomes to others Betwixt the Catholicke church and Roman church they make no difference equalling a part to the whole they say also that the Roman church can neither erre nor faile The worship of God consisteth in spirit and trueth but they place the same in certeine externall rites and ceremonies and in meere humane inuentions and deuices nay for God they worship creatures not onely giuing diuine honour to the Sacrament but also to crucifixes and images of the Trinitie made of wood stone and colours they doe also adore not onely saints but rotten bones and ragges they know not of whom to Saints they pray they make vowes they confesse their sinnes to saints they erect churches and altars to their images they burne incense and present diuers oblations and finally in the honour of Saints haue deuised particular masses and offices transforming the Psalmes and wordes of Scriptures to Angels and Saints Their doctrine concerning the Sacraments is most exorbitant for they doe not onely adde vnto water in Baptisme salt spittle oile and diuers other ceremonies partly idle partly superstitious but also vnto the two Sacraments instituted by Christ they equall confirmation matrimonie penance orders and extreme vnction making them Sacraments as well as Baptisme or the Lords Supper in Confirmation they haue deuised both a new signe and new wordes in extreme Vnction they haue deuised new formes in the ordring of Priestes they say accipe potestatem offerendi sacrisicium in ecclesia pro viuis mortuis that is receiue power to offer sacrifice in the church for quicke and dead in Penance they vrge a necessity of confession strange formes of whipping and vncerteine hopes and new deuices of satisfaction from Matrimonie they exclude Priestes monkes and friars and make it a Sacrament albeit they know neither certeine signes nor words of the institution of it but the institution of the Lords supper they haue quite abolished for that which Christ ordeined to be receiued of the Communicants that the masse-priest doth offer for quicke dead and in the honour of Saints and Angels of which there is not one worde spoken in the institution our Sauiour in bread and wine instituted his last supper these neither leaue bread nor wine but make Christians eaters of mans flesh and drinkers of mans blood like the canibals Cyclopes Christ ordeined this Sacrament in remembrance of his death and passion these make of the same a sacrifice in honour of Angels and Saints the cup of the new testament they take from Christians abrogating as much as in them lieth the new testament established in Christs blood and
we shall haue further occasion to speake hereafter Secondly seeing the Papistes are not certaine of their grounds it must needes follow that the religion of Papists is most vncertaine that they cannot be certain of their grounds diuers arguments declare for neither are they certaine whether Clement Leo or any other sitting in the Popes chayre be true Pope nor canne they assure themselues whether the decretales which goe vnder the names of Popes were indeed their decretales whose names they cary Antonius Contius a learned Papist in a certaine annotation of his added to the ch sancta dist 15. in Plantins edition saith that all the decretales set out vnder names of Popes before Siluester are false and this he saith he hath shewed manifestly further it cannot be proned that all the determinations of the Popes are right and equall nay contrarie we haue by diuers most certeine demonstrations prooued that both concerning scriptures faith the law sacraments praier the worship of God and diuers pointes of faith they haue determined contrary to the rule of saith as shall hereafter more particularly appeare Thirdly it were plaine impudencie to say that the Apostles instituted the consecration of the Paschal Lambes the forme of hallowing of churches salt water and all Popish trinkets the form of praying vpon beades and the rest of the Romish traditions neither shall Kellison euer be able to iustifie all those reportes which his teachers haue receiued by tradition and publikely heretofore set forth and now read out of their legendes Fourthly diuers of those 84. canons which goe vnder the names of the Apostles are disclaymed by the Papists themselues and the rest cannot be proued that they were made by the Apostles of the actes of the Nicene Councell the Papists themselues haue no certainty Most confesse 20. as Ruffin and Pope Stephen others in c. vigint dist 16. Gratian vnder the testimony of Athanasius telleth vs of 70. c. septuaginta dist 16. now one Alphonsus a pisa a Iebusite hath published 80. canons the acts of the councell supposed to be held vnder Siluester Bishop of Rome are all conterfeit as the barbarous stile and strange forme of gouernment represented in those acts and diuers barbarous names and other arguments doe signifie sometimes Peter Crabbe the collector of councels doth set downe diuers actes of councels not only differing but also repugnant one to another fiftly diuers bookes are set foorth vnder the name of fathers that no man can certeinly say were written by the fathers whose names they cary Nay some of them doe containe doctrine contrary to the faith professed by the fathers sixtly they are not certaine either what is the sense of the Romane church diuers doctors yeelding diuers interpretations of scriptures or what is the old Latine translation for Sixtus Quintus setteth out the old vulgar Latin translation after one sort and Clement the eight after another and he that alloweth the translation of Sixtus Quintus must nedes condemne that of Clement the eight contrariwise finally seeing diuers Papists assigne diuers grounds of their faith and scarce two of many doe agree in all points concerning their foundations and the assurance of them how can they pretend either vnity or certainty in their religion Thirdly the foundations of Popery being laid vpon false decretals and lying legends hardly shall our aduersaries be able to deny their religion to be false and full of lies that the Popes doe in their decretales report notorious lyes it is apparent by the decretale set out vnder the name of Innocentius c. quis nesciat dist 11. where he denieth that anie taught or gathered churches in France Spaine Afrike Italy beside S. Peter and those which were sent by him and his successors and likewise by the decretale of Gregorie the 4. c. in praeceptis dist 12. where it is said that all causes are to be referred to the church of Rome as to the head and from thence to receiue direction from whence it receiued his beginning and by the chapter in nouo dist 21. where it is said that the rest of the Apostles made Peter their Prince and infinit others that the legendes which are the ground and receptacle of many traditions are ful of lies I haue shewed els where if Kellison the Suruey or deny this let him proue vnto vs that S. George killed a dragon ready to deuour the kings daughter of Silena and conquered Palestine that Catharine ouercame 50. Philosophers and conuerted the Empresse and the general of the emperors army and broke a wheele with her praiers that with turning killed 4000. pagans that S. Nicholas being an infant fasted Wednesdaies and Fridaies that Bernacus yoked harts that Saint Brendan sayled into Paradise that a crucifixe of wood resaluted Bartilmew a monke of Durrham that the blessed Virgins body was caried into heauen by Angels that her house was carried ouer the seas first into Dalmatia and then into Italy and lastly to Loreto and the rest of those tales Fourthly the Pope being the foundation of the church it followeth that as oft as the Pope dieth the church is without foundation it followeth also that the Pope going to hell as it appeareth by the chap. Sipapa dist 40. that he may the foundation of the Church should lie in hell that the Pope falling into heresie as Liberius Honorius 1. Iohn the 22. and diuers others haue done that the Church should faile which be matters absurd and impious to affirme Fifthly feeing diuers old traditions are now out of vse as for example that of celebrating baptisme at Easter and praying standing betwixt Easter and Whitsontide and of praying with our faces turned to the East and such like it must needes be granted that the foundations of Popery are ruinous for why may not the like happen to other traditions as to these and if traditions be temporary and ruinous which they make equall to holy scriptures what can they alleadge for the continuance and perpetuity of the Popes decretales which are not only contrarie to holy Scriptures but also repugnant one to another Sixthly the old translation differing from it selfe in the editions of Sixtus Quintus and Clement the eigth and others set out at Colein Louain and Antwerpe and much more from the originall bookes of the old Testament in Hebrew and new in Greeke and the interpretations of the scriptures being so diuers in the chiefe doctors of the Romish church and so repugnant to the meaning of the holy Ghost it doth necessarily follow that Popish religion is composed of contrary pieces and cannot be the faith of Christ which is one and hath onely one firme foundation Finally there can bee no consent or vnity in the points of Popish doctrine for that the same consisteth of contrary opinions of Popes and is grounded vpon contrary traditions contrary legends contrary interpretations of fathers and schoolemen and either of traditions or decretales contrary to scriptures or of sentences of fathers contrary to
wormes to be engendied if it be long kept and that both the kinds are corrupted but it is blasphemous to say that either Christs body and blood are corrupted or that wormes can issue and be engendred thereof to auoid this inconuenience they say they are engendred of the accidents or of the bread and wine returning againe For the engendring of wormes of meere accidents is absurd and for the returne of bread and wine they can bring foorth no words of scripture 29. Thomas Aquinas p. 3 q. 77. art 7. confesseth that Christs body is not broken in the Sacrament and gladlie would he shew how the accidents there may be broken but he traueileth with vanitie and bringeth foorth nothing but foolerie 30. Commonly Masse-Priests say that Christ at his last supper did eat himselfe and drinke his owne blood before it was shed matters that imply manifest contradiction and dissolue rules of reason 31. Now the spaniards will not denie but they are canibals and eaters of mens flesh that eate the same whether rosted broiled baked or otherwise dressed why then should not the Masse-priests be auoided as eaters of mans flesh and drinkers of mans blood as they say themselues albeit they eate Christs flesh and drinke his blood prepared vnder other formes 32. The fathers say that Christs bodie is meate for the soule and not to be eaten with the teeth but Nicholas the second will haue it torne with teeth as his words import c. ego Berengarius de consecrat dist 2. others will haue it swallowed into the belly 33. Christians abhorre to heare that Christs bodie should be eaten and his blood drunken of brute beastes but Papists teach and confesse both 34. Christ gaue his disciples the cuppe of the new testament the Pope and his complices sacrilegiously take the same from Gods people 35. Christ said take and cate the Masse-priests suffer them that haue them to gape and gaze and giue them often nothing to eate 36. Christians beleeue that they receiue the same Sacrament that Christs disciples receiued at his last supper but Thomas Aquinas 3. p. q. 81. art 3. saith the disciples receiued it passible and such as it then was but now no man can receiue his true body but he must receiue it as it is in heauen that is as it is glorified and impassible 37. They say that the eucharist is both a Sacrament and a sacrifice and for those two ends instituted but that implieth a plaine contradiction for as the sacrifice is offred to God so the Sacrament is ordeined and giuen to men 38. If poison after consecration be mingled in the Sacrament Thomas Aquinas 3. p. q. 83. art 6. will haue the same kept among Saints reliques but what Christian will rescrue poison for a relique 39. The Apostle saith Christ was once offred the Masse-priests say he is offred continually and that for quicke and dead a matter vnknowen to Christs Apostles 40. Our Sauiour instituted this Sacrament for a remembrance of his death and passion but the Masse-priests offer the Sacrifice of his bodie and blood for quicke dead for sicke for hole for sailers for trauellers in the honor of Sainte and Angels for peace and good successe in all things which bee matters neuer thought vpon in the institution of this Sacrament Finallie they haue no lesse strange false and contrary positions in their doctrine of matrimony order penance and extreme vnction which they make Sacraments but by this it may appeare sufficiently how litle they regard either the institution of Christ or the doctrine of the ancient catholicke church in the matter of Sacraments I shall also haue occasion otherwhere to touch these pointes particularlie CHAP. VIII That poperie is a mixture of old and new heresies IT were long to insist vpon euery article of Popish doctrine I will therefore rather in a generality shew the qualities proceedings and practises thereof running through the whole then dilate the absurdities and falsities of euery particular standing vpon euerie small point now then that I haue touched the grounds and certaine principall doctrines of Popery I haue thought good to shew that the rest is nothing but either old or later heresies They glory in their workes and hope to bee iustified by the law as may be gathered out of Bellarmines disputes de iustificatione and also out of diuers of their treatises of good workes the Iebusites of Collein censur fol. 22. say that all their life and saluation consisteth in the precepts of the law whose fulnesse is loue they doe also extoll the merits of their workes but the Apostle Rom. 2. taxeth them that glory in the law and Galat. 3. condemned those false Apostles that taught iustification by the law 2. They make Gods law void by their traditions of worshipping images maintaining publike stewes banks of vsury and such like practises the which is noted as an error in the scribes and pharisies reprobastis mandatum Dei saith our Sauiour Marc. 7. per seniorum vestrorum traditionem and as they had their Talmud so haue the Papists their decrees and decretales which they follow as the law of God 3. The Monks and Iebusites are also like to Pharisies dicebantur pharisaei saith Epiphanius haeres 16. ante Christum co quod separati essent ab alijs propter spontaneam superfluam religionem apud ipsos receptam the Pharisies were so called for that they were separated from others for voluntary and supersluous religion receiued by them they compassed also sea and land to make Proselytes and when they had won them they made them twise more the children of hell then they were themselues as our Sauiour Matth. 23. teacheth vs. so likewise for a spontaneous and superfluous shew of religion these irreligious Iebusites and Monkes do separate themselues from others and take great paines to winne Proselytes to the synagogue of Rome and in the end abuse many and make them much worse than themselues 4. In their supersophisticall exposition of the law and their often washings and affectate holinesse they imitate the scribes who for this cause by Epiphanius haeres 15. ante Christum are enrolled in the catalogue of heretickes 5. By their often washing in holy water the Papists hope to wash awaie sinnes as the Hemerobaptists among the Iewes which for this were reputed heretiks as Epiphanius sheweth haeres 17. ante Christum but there he telleth them that neither drops nor riuers of water nor the whole ocean can wash awaie sinnes 6. The Dositheans were reputed heretickes for their affectation of virginity and abstinence from mariage and punishing their bodies why then should not the like accompt be made of those Papists that runne into the same errors not sparing their bodies more than they did whom the Apostle Coloss 2. reprehendeth 7. Iohn the 23. was condemned in the councell of Constance for denying the immortality of the soule the like opinion as Zegedinus in spec pontif and others report had Alexander the sixth Leo
respuunt they beleeued not also that children dying yong should possesse the kingdome of heauen and doe not all sects of Monkes and Friers among the Papists exclude married folkes out of their cloisters doe not the Masse-priests also exclude all children dying before baptisme yea where it was much desired out of the kingdome of heauen 33. Priscillian saith Augustine haeres 70. disioined married folkes his words are coniuges disiungens his followers to hide their filthie opinions and beastlinesse make no account to forsweare themselues propter occultandas contaminationes turpitudines suas habent in suis dogmatibus iura periura secretum prodere noli they refuse also to eat flesh as vncleane meat and come not the Papists neere them in these points that separate Monkes and Priests that doe marrie from their wiues and teach their schollers to forsweare themselues the Rhemistes in Act. 23. say that oathes taken against Papists which they falsly call Catholikes may and must be broken vnder paine of damnation this periury is also allowed by 2. rinegued English traitours Allen and Parsons in their resolutions of cases of conscience wherein they teach their schollers to play the villaines and to periure themselues with a good popish conscience the Carthusians also and diuers Monkes forsweare eating flesh which they cannot doe in reason but that they thinke it lesse cleane than fish 34. The Helcesaites make Christ in heauen to differ from Christ on earth as Theodoret. de haeret fab c. de Helcesaeis doth testifie Christum non vnum dicunt saith he sed hune quidem supernè illum infernè so Papists aboue make Christ visible and palpable but in the Sacrament neither visible nor palpable 35. The Eutychianistes deny that Christ after the vnion of the two natures had a true body but as Leo signifieth ser 6. de teiumo 7. mensis a body without shape dimensions or circumscription they said also that Christ was both in heauen and earth at one time against whom Vigilius disputing lib. 4. contr Eutych c. 4. saith that the flesh of Christ when it was on earth was not in heauen and being now in heauen is not on earth and these points of Eutychianisme the Papists haue reteined for they say Christs body is really in the eucharist where no shape nor dimensions of a body do appeare they saie also that Christs body is both in heauen and earth at one time which taketh away all circumscription from Christs body and is contrarie to the doctrine of Vigilius Theodoret also Dial. 2. doth refute this heresie by similitude of the eucharist for that the substance of bread remaineth in the Sacrament after consecration 36. The Papists also in many points conspire with the enemies of Gods grace the Pelagians Augustine de haeres c. 88. saith that they hold that without grace a man may performe all Gods commandements and Bellarmine de grat lib. arb lib. 5. c. 5. 9. hath these words solis naturae viribus posse aliquem ad breuissiâ—uÌ„ tempus omnia sernare scilicet diuina mandata he shifteth off the matter by adding quoad substantiam operis but the Pelagiani no doubt being pressed would say so much nay if man haue freewill as well to obserue the law as to breake the same then must he needes be able alwaies to performe all the law by force of his freewill The Pelagians beleeue that a man may bee without all sinne so likewise doe the Papists in effect for they say that euery man hath freewill to abstaine from all sinne and Bellarmme lib. 4. de iustific c. 11. saith that man is able to performe the law of God perfectly of which it followeth necessarily that he may be without sinne for he that performeth the law of God perfectly is without all sinne They teach that concupiscence by baptisme is sanctified and being before euill doth afterward beginne not to be euill as may be collected out of S. Augustine lib. 6. contr Inlianum c. 6. and their argument is for that the guilt of concupiscence is remooued by baptisme the Papists also hold that concupiscence after baptisine is no sinne and of this it followeth that concupiscence is sanctified by baptisme The Pelagians say that we haue a strong and firme freewill not to sinne and the censurers of ColeinÌ„ and Bellarmine in diuers places affirme that sinne is subiect to our will and that man by freewill hath power to doe good and to abstaine from euill he that list to fee diuers other points of concordance betwene Papists and Pelagians let him read my last challenge Andradius handling the point of freewill saith that Philosophers by force of their freewill were able to atteine true faith and iustice by which they might be saued doe not then Papists come neere Pelagians 37. The Donatistes as S. Augustine saith haeres 69. beleeued that Christs church was confined in Afrike and remained in the faction of Donatus quod ecclesia Christian Africa Donati parte remanserit they rebaptized also catholike Christians the Papists likewise confine the church within the iurisdiction of Rome and saction of the Pope they presume also to rebaptize better Christians then themselues 38. As the Circumcellions so the Papists thinke it meritorious to kill all that are opposite to their sect as the practises of Pius the fifth Sixtus the fifth and other Popes against Queene Elzabeth the French King Henry the third and fourth Prince Maurice and diuers other Christian Kings and Princes the massacres of France and Flanders doe shew Sixtus Quintus did commend the execrable murder committed by Iames Clement a Dominican Frier Iohn Ghineard a Iebusite was hanged for mainteining the bloody doctrine of murdring Princes excommunicat by the Pope 39. Sigebertus Gemblacensis doth accompt it an heresie to beleeue that the Pope can assoile subiects from their obedience or excommunicat such as will not rebell against Princes haresis saith he pestilentissima populuÌ„ percellit yet this heresie doe Papists mainteine both by their doctrine and practise 40. The Audeans or Anthropomorphites did imagine God to haue a shape and figure like to a man which if the Papists doe not beleeue then why doe they worship God the father in the similitude of an old man and if this bee not the likenesse of God but of an apparition why doe they giue Gods honor to their owne fancies 41. Origens heresie was that he beleeued that the damned might in the end be saued as Augustine de haeres c. 43. sheweth from this they digresse not far that beleeue that Traiaus soule was fetched out of hell by the praiers of Gregorie furthermore if Purgarorie be in hell why may not soules as wel be fetched out of other partes as that part of hell 42. Eunomius taught that so a man were of his religion it skilled not greatly what sinnes he committed asseuerabat saith S. Augustine de haeres c. 54. quod nihl cuiquam obesset quorumlibet perpetratio ac perseuerantia peccatorum
both of heauenly things and of men on earth and that God himselfe as sarre as is requisit for mans defence doth at her pleasure gouerne the earth the sea the heauens and nature and at her becke giueth diuine treasures and heauenly gifts matrem suam praepotens ille dens diuinae maiestatis potestatisque sociam quatenus licuit asciuit huic olim caelestium mortaliumque principatum detulit ad huius arbitrium quoad hominum tutela postulat terras maria coelum naturamque moderatur hac annuente per hanc diumos the sauros mortalibus coelestia dona largitur Bernardinus likewise in Mariali doth say that all graces come downe from God by Mary as sense and vigor descend from the head to the other members of the body Bonauenture or rather some wicked falsary vnder his name hath transformed the praises and honor of God set out by the Prophet Dauid to the Virgin Mary Commonly they giue power to the Virgin Mary ouer her sonne iure matris saie they impera redemptori In the Roman Breuiary she is called dulcis amica dei and the happie gate of heauen and to her they pray to haue their bands loosed In the missal of Sarum they pray thus per te mater aboleri filiorum slagitamus crimina nosque omnes introduci insempiterna paradisi gaudia as if she were the sauiour of the world The missals and breuiaries are full of impieties for beside the confession of sinnes made iointly to Angels and Saints with God first they offer the Masse-cake as they say for the redemption of their soules pro redemptione animarum suarum secondly they make the Priest a mediator to God for the body and bloud of Christ as if by his praiers God did accept his owne and onely begotten sonne supraquae propitio ac sereno vultu respicere digneris say the Masse-priests speaking of Christs body and bloud thirdly they compare Christ to brute beasts and the sacrifice of Christs body and bloud to the sacrifice of Abel that offered brute beasts digneris accepta habere saie they sicut accepta habere dignatus es munera pueri tui iusti Abel fourthlie they desire God that Angels maie carie Christes bodie into Heauen fifthly they make God oftentimes a mediatour or intercessor to Saints as appeareth by this praier praesta quaesumus vt quem doctorem vitae habuimus in terris intercessoreÌ„ habere mereamur in coelis the same is also proued for that Saints know nothing done in earth as some of them suppose vnlesse it please God to reucale matters vnto them which if he do then is God a mediator betwixt the Papists and Saints sixthly they pray to the crosse for increase of iustice and pardon for sinne augepijs iustitiam reisque dona veniam seuenthly in coniuring salt they pray it may be salt exorcised for the saluation of them that beleeue vt essiciaris sal exorcisatnm in salutem credentium it were infinite to report all their blasphemies and these may serue for a tast only this may not be forgotten how praying before a certeine counterfet picture of Christs face giuen as they say by Christ to Veronica they pray thus salue sancta facies impressa panniculo nos ab omni macula purga vitiorum atque nos consortio coniunge beatorum haile holy face printed in a cloute purge vs from all blot of sinne and icine vs to the companie of blessed spirits in heauen Bellarmine alloweth this common saying of Friers speaking to the crucifixe thou hast redeemed vs thou hast reconciled vs to thy father as we may read lib. 1. de cult sanct c. 23. That the Gospell is a rule of perfection they denie but they doubt not to giue that honour to the rules of Benet Brendan Francis Dominicke and such authours of sects of the holy scriptures they speake more blasphemously than the Turkes and Saracens for they honour the bookes of the old testament albeit they oppugne the Christian faith wheras the papists professe the faith but speake euil of scriptures some call them a nose of waxe others a dead letter the Rhemists call them a killing letter Stapleton in his doctrinall principles end enoureth to proue that all heresies proceed from scriptures the surueying Kellison p. 158. of his suruey saith the diuell doth wrap himselfe from top to toe in scriptures as if scriptures were the habit of the diuell pag. 41. he saith the letter of scripture with a false meaning is the word of the diuell Turrian writing against Sadeel doth cal scriptures Delphicum gladium or an instrument to all purposes Bellarmine de verbo Dei accuseth them as imperfect and insufficient neither is there any swad amongst them but he hath somewhat to say against scriptures To the images of the crosse and crucifixe they giue as much honour as they giue to God they giue the same also to the images of the Trinity teaching their followers that it is but one honour that is giuen to the image the thing represented by the image but the things being two and that so different as there is no proportion betwixt them they must needs blaspheme giuing the name and honour of God to these base creatures The Pope aduanceth himselfe aboue all that is worshipped and refuseth not the name and titles of God in the chap. satis dist 96. he is called God and heereupon Steuchus in his treatise for defence of Constantines donation audis saith he summum pontisicem à ConstaÌ„tino Deum appellatum habitum pro Deo In the chap. quoniam de immunitate in 6. he calleth himselfe the spouse of the church in the chap. inter corporalia de transla praelat we read these words quando Papa dissoluit matrimonium vnletur quod Deus solus dissoluit matrimonium he is called a God in the earth by Felin in c. ego N. de iureiuraÌ„do and by Baldus m lâ—g vlt. C. sententiâ—e reseindendae Abbas Panormitanus expresly saith that Christ and the Pope haue but one consistory the glosse in c. cum interextr Ioan. 22. de verb. signif doth call the Pope our Lord and God Further he maketh a scorne of Christian religion Iulius the second vpon Easter day sought with the French at Rauenna Gregory the seuenth his armie vpon their good Friday fought with Henrie the 4. in S. maries church he sought to murther the Emperour by throwing downe a stone vpon his head from a vault Sixtus the fourth his agents at the eleuation of the sacrament indeuoured to murther Laurence and Iulian de medicis as Volaterran Geograph lib. 5. testifieth that of Gregory is written by him that wrote the Emperours life and by Beno Cardinalis Leo the tenth called the gospel a fable commonly the Popes send the sacrament before them together with their baggage and the scullery And as if Christ had giuen vs no sufficient rules of religion so he inuenteth and confirmeth daily new religions as for example of late the religion of the
Apostles he shall declare himselfe to want both head and braine for in the Canticles c. 2. and Ephes 5. the title of spouse of the church is declared to belong to Christ and him only the scriptures declare to be head of the Church Gregory lib. 4. ep 38. ad Ioan. Constantinopol sheweth that neither Paul nor Andrew nor Iohn nor Peter was the head of the vniuersall church but all members of the church vnder one head The Prophets and Apostles doe teach vs that the church of God consisteth of sheepe and lambes and such was Peter commanded to feede God saith by his Prophet Isay c. 11. that there shall be no hurting nor killing in all his holie mountaine and that the wolfe shall dwell with the lambe and the pard he with the kidde but the Romish Church is full of blood and wholy vpholden by cruelty in France the Pope and his complices haue caused aboue two hundred thousand persons to be murdered for the profession of the true faith the fires and butchers axes of their executioners haue consumed also infinit Christians in Italy Spaine England Scotland Germany and the Low countries very ignorant therefore he is of the doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles that supposeth that the massacring Romish church is founded vpon the doctrine of the Apostles and Prophets The Prophet Daniel doth prophecy how a certaine king shall arise that shall speake words of blasphemy against the most high and consume his Saints and that shall thinke that he may change times and lawes the Apostle also 2. Thess 2. sheweth that there shall come a departing and that the man of sinne shall be disclosed and exalt himselfe against all that is called God and that he shall sit in the temple of God S. Iohn also in his Apocalypse sheweth that Antichrist shall rise after the decay of the Roman Empire and giue life to that state and that the great whore shall sit vpon the seuen hils and haue her garments died red in the blood of Saints but this argueth that the Pope is Antichrist and that Popish religion is not Christian religion grounded vpon the doctrine of the Apostles and Prophets but rather Antichristian heresie founded vpon the Popes decretales and schoolemens fond and foolish inuentions Finallie it is not only desperate ignorance but also meere madnesse to affirme that the grounds doctrines heresies and blasphemies which before we haue spoken of are deriued out of the writings of the Prophets and Apostles would Kellison the Popes grand surueier vndertake to prooue vnto vs all the Popes traditions concerning the Masse the dirges and offices for the dead purgatory indulgences holy water holy candles paschal lambes rascall Friers and Monkes and such like trash by the testimony of the Apostles and Prophets he should but lose his labour and percase his wits too for in their diuine writings such fond superstitious and impious doctrines haue no defence nor shelter but if hee meane to find their true beginning then must he search the Popes decretales the writings of schoolemen and canonists and other the Popes adherents and there he shall not only find out the first authours but also the rest of the nouelties fooleries and impieties of the synagogue of Satan CHAP. XIII That poperie was either condemned or not knowen by Kings and Princes professing Christian religion in old time THe Popes Agents when they are vpon their owne dunghils and among their owne disciples and fauorers doe make great crackes as if the Popish religion which is now taught at Rome were the only religion professed by ancient kings princes and emperors of Rome that made profession of the Christian faith but who so list to read the ancient confessions of Christian kings and the lawes made by them both for mainteinance of the Christian faith and for the repressing of diners errors shall finde that the grounds doctrines impieties absurdities of Popery were either disallowed by them or vnknowen vnto them The first Christian king of Britaine if we may beleeue Bede and others of latter times for in more auncient histories there is no record of such a king or such matters as then passed was Lucius but we doe not finde that the Popish Masse was then hatched or that Eleutherius bishop of Rome pretended the vniuersall monarchy of the Church nay wee read that Irenaeus doth make as great account of other churches as of Rome albeit the same be first placed in regard of the splendour and authority of that citie furthermore Lucius neither had images nor worshipped them nor did he giue Latria to the crosse of Purgat one and indulgences he could not heare any thing for that Eleutherius as yet tooke not vpon him to deliuer soules out of Purgatory nor to grant pardons a poena culpa finally if Kellison seeke to prooue the articles of Popery before mentioned by the testimony of Lucius you shall soone see that the man will be at a stand The first Christian Emperour of Rome was Constantine the great but many actes of his declare that he was neither a slaue of the bishop of Rome nor a professor of Popery for first by his authority both was the councell of Nice assembled and the actes thereof established as Enschius in vita Constantini and other ecclesiasticall writers doe testifie secondly that faith which the councell of Nice published he professed but therein is not one article of Popery established but rather diuers refuted as namely the doctrine of Papists concerning Christs humanitie and the Popish reall presence and dissoluing priests mariages for if Christ be true man then is not his body inuisible and impalpable in the Sacrament againe if Christs body be ascended into heauen then is not the same in euery pixe if the same be to come from heauen then is not the same to creepe out of a pixe if mariage of Priests be honorable and not to be dissolued as was decreed in the counceil of Nice by the aduice of Paphnutius then doe the Papists teach doctrines of diuels that condemne such mariages and separate Priests from their wiues thirdly all the actes of that councell were confirmed and not only receiued by Constantine but that sheweth that the Bishop of Rome then had no more authoritie in his prouince then the Bishop of Alexandria in his as the sixth canon of the Nicene councell testifieth the 4. canon sheweth that the Bishop of Rome had no greater authority in ordeining bishops then other metropolitans the fifth canon equalleth his power in excommunication to that which other Bishops had to abridge this matter we finde that the Bishops of Rome were as well subiect to the canons of the councell of Nice as other Bishops finally we finde that Constantine made lawes for church gouernment in his time and not the Bishops of Rome Nay the bishops of Rome as is said in the counterfet donation of Constantine had their priuileges from Constantine and not contrariwise priuilegium Romanae ecclesiae pontifici
of her image there to be idolatrous 14. They celebrate the feast of our Ladies conception and of the assumption of her body into heauen as appeareth by their missals and breuiaries but Catholickes drslike both as grounded vpon apocryphall fables and lying legends S. Bernard epist 174. speaking against the feast of her conception saith she needed no false honours 15. Catholickes neuer beleeued that Christ had a body inuisible impalpable and not comprehended in a place S. Augustine de essentia diuinitatis saith that Christ according to his humane nature is visible corporal and local but our aduersaries teach that his true body is in the sacrament where it is neither seene felt nor circumscribed in a place 16. They speake reuerentlie of Christs body and hold it blasphemy to say that the same may be cast into the fire or eaten of dogs or hogs or other brute beasts but the Papists doe not so much as goe about to cleare themselues of this blasphemy 17 They teach that Christ had a body like to ours in all things sin except the Papists beleeue that his body is really in the sacrament and conteined in the compasse of a consecrated host and that the same is inuisible and able to penetrat other solide bodies without the dissolution of their substance but such abodie no man euer yet had nor by nature can haue 18 They beleeue that euery body is continued to it self or as Logicians call it continua quanutas but Papists beleeue that Christs body is in heauen and earth and euery altar and yet not in the middle places whereby it followeth that Christs head in heauen is not continued to his feet being in a consecrated host in earth 19. Vigilius lib. 4. cont Eutych saith that Christs body being now in heauen is not on earth and that is the faith of Catholickes but the false and pretended catholickes beleeue that his body is both in heauen and earth and diuers distant places at one time 20. Catholickes beleeue that Christ only is our redeemer for so the Apostle teacheth vs Rom. 3.1 Cor. 1. and diuers other places but Bellarmine in his first booke of indulgences teacheth vs that saints and others may be called redeemers all his consorts also teach that the Pope by his indulgences redeemeth soules out of purgatorie 21. Catholickes acknowledge that Christ is our iustice for so the Apostle 1. Cor. 1. expresly saith they beleeue also that we are iustified by faith in him as we read Rom. 5. but Kellison in his suruey and his consorts teach that he is onely the meritorious cause of our iustification and that we are formally iustified and saued by our owne workes 22. Catholickes doubt not to make their election sure and being iustified by faith haue peace with God and are perswaded that nothing shall separate them from the loue of God for all this is Apostolike doctrine but Papists teach their followers to doubt of their election and of the grace of God towards them and depriue them both of peace of conscience and of all assurance of Gods grace 23. Catholickes beleeue that Christ was wounded for our transgressions and that he hath borne our infirmities and that by his stripes we are healed for so the Prophet Isay cap. 53. teacheth vs. but the pretended popish catholickes do lash themselues and hope by their owne stripes to heale their sinnes and to satisfie for them and without this satisfaction they beleeue that no man can obteine remission of sinnes 24. Catholickes euer spared their owne bodies but certaine heretickes and idolaters did vsually afflict their bodies and lash themselues before their idols in lashing of themselues therefore the Papists imitate the Priests of Baal and not true Catholickes 25. Catholickes beleeue that their sinnes are purged by the bloud of Christ as we read Hebr. 1. but Papists beleeue that their sinnes are purged in purgatory and by their owne satsifactions 26. The Greekes to this day neuer beleeued Purgatory neither doe any of the ancient fathers beleeue that after our sinnes are remitted Christians are to satisfie for temporall paines either in this life or in purgatory the doctrine therefore of purgatorie will neuer be proued Catholicke 27. The Apostles and ancient fathers neuer knew nor heard of the doctrine and treasure of the Popes indulgences this doctrine of Papists therefore is to bee abolished as not Catholicke 28. True Catholickes neuer beleeued that Christians were iustified by mariage the master of the sentences saith it is onely a remedy against sinne but Papists hold they are iustified by marriage aswell as by other Sacraments 29. The doctrine of the conuenticle of Florence concerning the forme of priesthood popish confirmation extreme vnction and their number of seuen sacraments cannot bee proued to be Catholicke 3. Bellarmine lib. 2. de effectu sacrament c. 3. and other his consorts affirme that Christians are instified by the sacraments ex opere operato or by their owne act and worke wrought whereby it followeth that they are iustified by greasing crossing and such like acts but this doctrine is not catholicke the Greekes to this day acknowledge no such doctrine nor is any such thing to bee found in ancient writers 31. The Greekes to this day renounce the Popes supremacy the ancient fathers neuer heard of a triple crowned Pope with a crossed slipper and a guard of Suitzers the doctrine therefore of the Popes generall vicarship taught by Bellarmine in his bookes de pontisice Rom. and by others is not Catholicke 32. Papists teach that some sinnes are done away by holy water and without repentance and that such sinnes deserue not death but the Apostle Galat. 3. sheweth him to be accursed that abideth not in all the words of the law to doe them and Rom. 6. saith that the wages of sinne is death this is also the faith of all Catholickes but of the efficacy of holie water to doe awaie sinnes true Catholickes say nothing 33. Papists offer the sacrifice of the masse pro redemptione animarum suarum for the redemption of their soules but Catholikes doe not hope for redemption but by the sacrifice of Christ once offered vpon the crosse 34. They make Christians eaters of mans flesh and drinkers of mans blood really and literally as their words in the chapter ego Berengarius dist 2. de consecrat do import but our Sauiour saith that the spirit quickeneth and Saint Augustine tract 25. in loan sheweth that Christs flesh is not to be receiued with our mouth or teeth vt quid paras dentem saith he why doest thou prepare thy teeth 35. They make their Priests creators of their creator as Innocentius in his bookes de myster missae stella Clericorum and Boner in his speech to the Priests in Queene Maries time in expresse words doe declare but Christians and Catholikes abhorre to heare Priests called creators or God to be made a creature 36. They make the Priest to intercede for Christs bodie and blood saying supra quae propitio
which then were not knowen nor beleeued as matters of faith these fellowes therefore are liker the Martyrian heretikes then to Christs martyrs and if they be honored of any it is of rebels leaguers and traitors combined with the Pope and forrein enemies against their Prince and countrie so likewise the Circūcellions were honored of their consorts as martyrs yet Augustine epist 58. speaking of them saith they liued as robbers and were honored as martyrs viuebant vt latrones honorabantur vt martyres CHAP. XX. That Popery is a meere humane deuise and not in any sort to be deduced or proued out of holy scriptures In matters of religion we are diligently to take heede that we passe not beyond the commandements of God vpon whose word only all true religion is founded Whatsoeuer I command you saith Moyses Deut. 12. take heede you doe it you shall put nothing thereto nor take ought therefrom our Sauiour Christ Matth. 15. telleth vs that they worship God in vaine that teach for doctrines mens precepts finally the apostle Coloss 2. condemneth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or voluntary worship taken vp by men without warrant and well doth the old Latine interpreter of the bible translate that word superstition let vs then a litle consider whether Popish religion be deriued out of holy scriptures or else bee onlie a packe of humane deuises The masse as our aduersaries themselues confesse was framed at seuerall times and by diuers authors Polydore de inuentorib lib. 5. c. 10. saith S. Peter after consecration vsed only the Lords prayer and that S. Iames and S. Basil did encrease the mysteries out of Walasridus Platina Naucler and others we reade that Caelestine made the introit beginning iudica me deus that Damasus added the confession said by the Priest and Gregory the Antiphona and Kyris eleeson and Telesp horus Gloria in excelsis and Gelasius certaine oraysons or clauses of oray sons and the praier te igitur and Syricius communicantes and so we see how it was peeced by little and litle In the consecration of the cuppe they haue added to the words of our Sauiour the words aeterni and mysterium fidei Innocentius c. cum Marthae de celebrat missar saith first that they were added by the Apostles albeit not found in the gospell as if it were not a simple matter to thinke that they did not write that which they thought sufficient he saith again that they are proued out of the words of the Gospel but his proofes are ridiculous for he must shew that these words were vsed where they are placed which he doth not so much as once endeuor to doe The Masses in honour of Saints and Angels are deuised by men and that very lately Thomas Aquinas as is said deuised the office said on corpus Christi day who deuised the masses and offices said in honour of S. Francis and S. Dominicke and other late Saints the Papists themselues doe not know The Psalter of our Lady as some thinke was deuised by Bonauenture her Offices are of a latter stampe all are meere humane deuises without any ground of scripture That Priests offer Christ to his father for the sinnes of quicke and dead nay for sicke horses and pigges and whatsoeuer necessities else can be imagined is a deuise of man and no way to be iustified by Christs institution Christ instituting baptisme said baptize and not spit and salt and grease and light candles he said also to his Disciples being present take and eate and not gape and gaze the ceremonies therefore vsed in baptisme and in the masse by Papists proceed not out of Gods word It is also a meere humane deuise that no Priest may say Masse without water and fire and is prescribed not by euangelicall authority but by the Pope in the chap. literas tuas de celebrat missar The worship of the sacrament and the custody thereof in a pixe dependeth on the decretale Sane cum olim de celebrat miss and was first brought in and inuented by Honorius the third The practise of Priests in saying canonicall houres commeth from no canon of scripture but from the constitution presbyter de celebrat missar In ancient time the reliques of martyrs were buried in the ground and might not be touched but humane curiosity hath thought it better now to dig them out of the ground and to place them in the altar and to worship them and that without any instruction or direction of holy scriptures Popish litanies wherein Papists pray to Angels Saints and sometime to those which are no Saints are diuers from the formes of praiers prescribed in scriptures and lately brought in by the deuise of superstitious Monkes Friers and Masse-priests Benet Francis Dominicke and other authors of feined religions tooke not their rules from the Gospel but thought they could frame a more perfect religion then the Gospell The Popes triple crowne guard of Suizzers crossed slipper and such like deuises will hardly be found in the writings of the Apostles S. Peter certes neuer wore any such crown nor had any such guard Where they praie to the crosse in the breuiarie and say increase righteousnesse in the godly and grant pardon to sinners they doe it of their owne head and shall neuer find any such praier in scriptures Boniface the eight first ordeined the feast of the Iubiley and Clement the fifth appointed the feast of corpus Christi but if you aske their warrant they will shew you some other authority than from the Apostles Sixtus quartus ordained the feast of our Ladies conception and another Pope of her assumption but both vpon false grounds supposing that she was conceiued without sin and that her bodie was taken vp into heauen they maintain the same also by lies and apocryphall fables Finallie it is an easie matter to shew that the formes and signes of popish confirmation extreme vnction and other new made sacraments are prescribed by Popes and their adherents without warrant of holy scripture CHAP. XXI That popish religion in diuers points is directly contrary to holy scriptures NEither is popery only destitute of warrant out of scriptures but also directly contrarie in some points to holy scriptures In the law Deut. 12. we are expressely forbidden to adde to the law of God or to take from it The Papists offend both waies for to the lawes of God they adde the precepts of the Romish church and decretales of Popes and say they binde the conscience they doe also cut out the second commandement concerning the worship of images as their short catechismes and primers doe testifie and by false interpretations corrupt Gods law In the first commandement we are forbidden to haue other Gods beside the God of heauen and earth but the Masse-priests as before is declared call the sacrament their Lord and God and honour the Pope as a God on earth and giue diuine honour to creatures which is as much as if they should expresselie command their
Rome before our times is not the church because no man can now see it They hold also that the true church may alwaies be seene and discerned but this being so how happeneth it that the Pagan Emperors in time past and the Turkes now doe neither see it nor discerne it for we may not thinke that if they knew the church they would hate it and persecute it They beare men in hand that the Pope desining out of his chaire cannot erre but it is as much as if they should say that a blinde man sitting in a chaire cannot do amisse in iudging colours or that the Pope should be more wise sitting in a chaire then standing in a pulpit or walking in a hal sitting at the table in his chaire and feeding daintily then disputing in schooles They call him Christes vicar yet our Sauiour did neither weare triple crowne nor thunder out his excommunications against Gods children nor persecute cut the throates of Christians By the right of S. Peter the Pope challengeth power to depose Princes and to translate kingdomes yet it is absurd to thinke that Peter had any such power They know that Peter was charged to feed Christs sheepe are they not then absurd fellowes that beleeue the Pope to be S. Peters successor that neuer feedeth nor teacheth but rather murdroth and massacreth Christians Peter was neuer borne vpon mens shoulders nor did he giue his feete to be kissed of his followers as a fauour nay when Cornelius fell downe at his feete he willed him to rise vp and would not suffer himselfe to be worshipped are they not then strange fellowes that beleeue the Pope to be S. Peters heire who is heaued on mens shoulders and requireth that Princes and all others should kisse his feete and worship him They permit publicke stewes and forbid honest wedlocke they dispence with adulterie and fornication very easily as appeareth by the chap. siclerici de iudicijs but depose and burne their priests and friers if they ioyne themselues in honest marriage with lawfull wiues are they not then absurd fellowes that make good euill and euill good Euery continued quantitie is in one place are they not then strange teachers that say Christes body is in many places at once and that it is in heauen and in earth and not in the middle place nor continued to it selfe Reason teacheth vs that accidents haue their being in a subiect but these fellowes against reason say they subsist in the Sacrament without a subiect The Aegyptians absteined from eating such creatures as they worshipped for God but the Masse-priests as men more senselesse then the barbarous heathen nations haue no sooner made their God but they deuoure him and heereof proceeded such a scandale that Auerroes for this onely cause pronounced the Romish religion to be the most foolish and absurd religion of all others Christes body in heauen they confesse is to be felt and seene how then commeth it to passe that this bodie being at the same time in the Sacrament as Papistes say is neither felt nor seene is not this notorious patcherie They confesse also that Christes body is of a iust length breadth and thicknesse are they not then absurd fellowes that beleeue that such a body can be conteined in a piece of an host no bigger then a counter and are they in their wits that teach that one host being consecrated Christes whole body is there and that the host being broken Christs body is also whole in euery peece thereof Are they not also impious and absurd fellowes that say that a dogge a hogge a mouse or a sparrow may cate vp the Sauiour of the world That the same man should be both a creature and a creator nay a creator of his owne Creator is an absurditie passing the boundes both of religion and reason and yet this is a peece of Popish diuinitie Innocentius lib. 4. de myst missae c. 19. sayth that dayly a creature is made the creator ita ergo quotidie creatura sit creator and in Stella Clericorum we finde these words Sacerdos est creator sui Creatoris that is a Priest is the creator of his creator Papistes also make Christians barbarous Canibales and eaters of mans flesh and drinkers of mans blood Nay when they eate his flesh they suppose they drinke his blood by a necessarie concomitance making Christians both to cate and drinke with one breath and in a certeine prouinciall constitution beginning ignorantia de summa Trinit the Masse-priests teach their followers neither to cate nor to drinke Christes body but to suppe it vp perfectly tritum modicè sorbere perfectè Christes blood hath redeemed vs and saued vs as holie Scriptures teach vs. but the papistes say that Christes bloud is really in the chalice after consecration in which notwithstanding we reade in stories that both Victor the third and William archbishop of Yorke that liued in the daies of Anastasius the 4. was poisoned In the Sacrament they confesse that wormes may be engendred and that the consecrated wine may be corrupted is it not then a most absurd peece of doctrine to hold that Christs body and bloud should be in the Sacrament where vermine is engendred and which is subiect to corruption Is it not also extreme folly to abandon Christ in whose name we are commanded to pray to the Father and to pray to God in the name of Saints which is no where commanded but rather forbidden as derogatory to Gods honour In the office of our Ladie at Matins in a certeine antiphona they say gaude Maria virgo cunctas haereses sola interemisti in toto mundo Resoice virgin Mary thou onely hast killed all heresies in the whole world but what more foolish then without warrant to ascribe this to the virgin Mary and to take this honour from almightie God They also say their Pater noster before stockes and stones but what is more absurd then to pray to those that cannot heare and to looke for helpe of them that cannot helpe themselues The Masse-priests in their praiers looking vpon a little woodden crucifixe say thou hast redeemed vs. thou hast reconciled vs to thy Father as Bellarmine lib. 2. de cultu sanct c. 23. confesseth may we then thinke that these are well in their wits that make a peece of wood or mettall their Sauiour and take this honour from the Sonne of God to giue it to a dumbe image In their breuiaries they pray thus to the crosse auge pijs iustitiam reisque dona veniam inerâ—ase iustice in the godly and grant pardon to sinners are they not very blockish then trow you that thus pray to a blocke and hope to finde pardon of a dumbe creature At Cahors in France they pray to Christs winding-sheete which they call sudarium saying holy sudary pray for vs and againe sudarium Christi liberet nos à peste morte tristi the winding sheet of Christ let it deliuer vs from the plague
woluish inquisitors before haue condemned Finally they take from Princes all command and authority in the church not suffering them either to make ecclesiasticall lawes or to meddle with ecclesiasticall persons as for other Christians they doe excommunicate them curse them burne them massacre them and set them together by the eares that one may teare another if they repugne against their commandements Can we then esteeme Popery to be Christian religion that holdeth Christians in so base accompt and will Christians indure this yoke of bondage put vpon their neckes by the Popes faction that endeuoreth to take all liberty from Christians CHAP. XXXII That Popery is a doctrine of diuels THe diuel being the author of all vntrueth and falshood it may well be said that all the lying and false doctrine of papists is of the diuel but beside this there are particular reasons why we call Popery the doctrine of diuels for first diuers points of popish doctrine are specially said to proceed from the diuell and next the best proofes and meanes which our aduersaries haue to maintaine their doctrine are from the diuell The Apostle 1. Tim. 4. calleth the prohibition of marriage and lawes of abstinence from certaine meates doctrines of diuels for speaking of doctrines of diuels afterward he specifieth the same saying forbidding to marry and commanding to absteine from meats which God hath created but Papists by law expressely forbid marriage to priests and others that haue vowed single life and the eating of flesh on fasting daies and white soule in lent neither can they excuse themselues for that they doe not condemne marriage as simply euill or flesh as vncleane for Thcodoret sheweth that such came within the compasse of the Apostles censure as by law prohibited these things further neither did the Encratites or Manichees absolutely forbid marriage as vncleane but as not fitting such as tende to perfection Epiphanius in haeres 79. esteemeth the superstition of those women that offred the sacrifice of a cake in the honour of the virgin Mary to be diabolicall totum hoc opus est diabolicum spiritus immundi doctrina but Papists doe offer their masse cakes in the honour of our Lady and of Saints Likewise he calleth it a doctrine of diuels to giue diuine worship to dead men but this is a common practise among Papistes for by Saints they sweare and to them they confesse their sinnes and in honour of them they build churches and altars and say masses all which are speciall points of diuine honour Further he sheweth that the desire that men haue in making grauen images is a diuelish indeuor simulachrificum studium diabolicus conatus but where is there more labour bestowed in making images then in the synagogue of Rome S. Chrysostome homil 9. in epist ad Coloss saith that the diuel first brought in the superstitious worship of Angels diabolus superstitionem angelorum introduxit heere then we vnderstand whence the Papists haue their worship of Angels From the diuell also hath the Pope learned to aduance himselfe aboue al that is worshipped and to take vpon him as if he were God Apocalyps 9. we read that the smoke that darkned the sunne and the aire came out of the bottomlesse pit and that locustes came out of this smoke but this smoke is nothing else but the fumes of the errors of Popery which haue long darkned the brightnesse of the truth and the locustes are the monks and friers which with their poysoned doctrine drawne from hell haue infected the mindes of simple people About the yeere of our Lord 1256. as Matthew Paris testifieth the friers published a booke entituled Euangelium aeternum composed of certaine dreames of abbot Ioachim and this say they exceeded the gospel written by the foure Euangelists as farre as the Sunne the Moone or the kernell the nut but the author of the Romant of the Rose where he speaketh of the hypocrisie of friers testifieth that this booke came from the great diuell Fut or baille c'est chose voire saith he Pour bailler commun exemplaire Vn liure de par le grand diable Dit l'euangile perdurable That the Popes haue serued the diuell it appeareth by Iohn the 12. that called vpon the diuell as he plaid at dice by Syluester the 2. and Benet the 9. that were necromancers by Gregory the 7. that 2 Matt. Paris in With. Conq. confessed at his death that by the counsell of the diuel he had stirred vp Gods anger against the world and diuers others but seruing the diuell it is not likely but they learned somewhat of him Delrius lib. 4. de Magia c. 1. q. 3. § 5. testifieth that the diuell appeared to a certaine abbot in forme of an Angell and commanded him to say Masse but he would not haue perswaded it vnlesse he had well liked it Dibdale a Masse-priest in England coniured the diuell to tell him whether Christes body was present in the Sacrament or no. he said it was and this was a great satisfaction to the Papists present as is said in a booke of miracles that passeth from hand to hand In the 2. Nicene councell act 4. a certaine monke prooneth the worship of Images by the testimony of the diuel I sengrenius in libro de Maria in veteri ottinga prooueth that the virgin Mary was to be worshipped by the witnesse of the diuel that said his aue Maria. In the 2. booke of conformities fruct 2. they make proofe by the diuels testimonie of the vertue of indulgences granted to the church of Assisium by the meanes of S. Francis Likewise lib. 3. conformitatum fruct 8. a certaine â—iâ—el tolde one as is said how Angels were present at the death of S. Francis daemon dixit cuidam angelos interfuisse in transitu B. Francisci another told how S. Francis his soule passed through Purgatory by the testimony of another diuel they prooue that S. Francis had Christs wounds imprinted in his body and that he and Christ onely of all that were in heauen had these markes the wordes of the booke of conformities are these diabolus dixit quod Christus videns quod Franciseus sibi datus esset pro signisero tanti ordmis ipsi suorum vnlncrum stigmata impressit and againe diabolus adiuratus à quodam sacerdote de veritate dicenda post plura per os mulieris apud Ranennam morantis nomime Zantese sic inquit in coelo sunt tantum duo signati scilicet Christus slomachosus Franciscus Baronius in his 4. tome prooueth Iohn and Paul to be martyrs by the diuels testimony daemones clamantes ex corporibus obsessorum Ioannem Paulum martyres esse testabantur so heere we see whence the Papists haue the worship of Saints In the 77. lombard legend it is said that Dioclesians sonne being possessed with a diuel the same diuel cried out that he wold not dislodge before Vitus came lo heere a braue testimonie of the holinesse of S. Vitus Finally the
professe Christ to be true God yet they teach that dogges and hogges doe eat his body as ofte as they eate consecrated hosts The Turkish Priests beleeue that Christ was true man that his body is visible and palpable but the Masse-priests giue him a body in the sacrament that is neither visible nor palpable nor in any respect like to our bodies The Turkes doe teach that after this life some are placed in paradise some damned to hell as Postell writeth in his history of Turkes a third place they know not nor doe they beleeue that their Calipha or high Priest is able to deliuer soules out of the nether part of the earth by his indulgences but the Papists beleeue a third place beside heauen and the place of the damned and suppose that the Pope is souereigne lord of purgatory and can deliuer soules thence by his indulgences Among the Turkes we doe not read of anie that euer doubted of the immortality of the soule as Menauinus de relig Turc testifieth but among the Papists many doubt of it for else why should Leo the x. lateran concil sess 8. forbid men to dispute against the immortality of the soule some deny it as did Iohn the 23. as is testified in the appendix to the councell of Constance and many other atheisticall Papists who haue nothing of religion but an outward bare profession Turkes do beleeue that God hath a body yet doe they not suffer any image or similitude of God to be made but Papists albeit they professe God to be a spirit yet most absurdlie they doe make diuers corporeall Images of God The law of God prohibiting the making and worship of grauen images and other likenesses is diligently obserued of Turkes Georgeuitz in his booke de moribus Turcarum saith he neuer saw any images in the temples of Turkes with him also in effect concurreth Zigabenus in elencho Ismaelit and sheweth that such as worship images by the Turks are called idolaters but Papists fill al the corners of their churches ful of images and idolatrously doe they worship them nay because they perceiue their practise to be contrariant to the law of God therefore in their briefe catechismes they raze out the commandement against images Mahomet neuer called himselfe God but the Prophet of god only neither did his followers euer giue him the title or honor of God nay some of them beleeue that Cosdroes was vanquished by the romans because he called himselfe God but Papists call the Pope God as we read in Baldus in c. vlt. cod sent rescind and the Pope calleth himselfe God after a cunning sort c. satis dist 96. The Turkes are not so absurd as to beleeue that their Calipha Mufti or high Priest cannot erre because he succeedeth Mahomet and sitteth in his chaire but the simple Papists most absurdly thinke that their Pope albeit he bee ignorant and foolish yet cannot erre as long as he teacheth out of the papall chaire In all the histories of Turkes we cannot finde where any Ianizars or Turkish Friers thought it lawfull or attempted to blow vp the Turkes pallace or parliament house but Thomas Percy Catesby and their consorts attempted and thought it lawfull to blow vp the parliament house the king and principall men of England the Papists therfore passe Turkes in barbarous and perfidious cruelty We do not reade that any Calipha of the Turkes did skin any of his Priests but Iohn the 22. as Platina recordeth did pull the skinne from the Bishop of Cahors happy had he beene if his body had beene inuisible and impalpable as the Papists make Christs imaginary body in the sacrament Mahomet as Zigabenus in Saracenicis telleth vs wrote only 113. fables but the Papists in their legends and breuiaries and Caesar Fabulonius I would say Baronius haue written more then x. M. fables and commend to their followers most fabulous fooleries Among the Turkes the Priests may not begge but the Iebusites and other mendicant Friers count beggery a peece of perfection and much it were to be wished that they did only begge for oftentimes they either take by force or steale most cunningly Septemcastrensis de relig Turc c. 14. testifieth that the Turkes in their fasts abstaine from all meat and drinke doth it not then appeare that they fast better then Papists that drinke wine and eate all dainty fishes and banketting meats vpon their fasting daies The Turkes doe not beleeue their religion to be true or their Alcoran to bescripture because their Calipha doth tell them but because they take it to haue come from God but the Papists neither beleeue scriptures nor the articles of faith vnlesse the Pope doth particularly tell them that the scriptures came from God and that their Christian faith is Apostolicall and most true The Turkes beleeue not that any can be iustified by extreme vnction or eating red-herrings and salt-fish but the Papists both teach it and beleeue it and burne all that shall hold beleeue or teach the contrary The Turkes albeit seruile in their manner of life yet neither kisse the feete of their Calipha nor heaue him vp to be adored by his followers are not then the papists in this point more slauish and miserable then the Mahometans Finally Mahomet neuer taught his followers to kill Kings excommunicated by the chiefe Priest of Turkes or to rebell or take armes against the Sultan or Emperor of Saracens as oft as their chiefe priest should command them nor did he teach his followers that the Calipha of Turkes could dispense with the law of God or assoile subiects from their oathes made to princes but the Popes bastardly children the Iebusites doe giue all this power to their holy father and he is nothing nice in taking it vpon him and so farre haue they proceeded in this damnable doctrin that no prince can stand assured of his life that hath any of this generation about him this doctrine cost Henry the third of France and the prince of Orenge their liues and put both Henry the 8. of England and his daughter Elizabeth and Henry the 4. of France to their plunges and brought them into great danger And of late time the King the Queene their children the Nobles and prelates of England and the Commons assembled in parliament were deseined to the slaughter and had beene destroied if God had not discouered the trechery Were Christians then so patient as to tolerate heresie yet it argueth great stupidity if they should endure a religion more absurd foolish and abominable then Mahometrie CHAP. XLVIII That Christians are lesse oppressed vnder the Turke then vnder the Pope HOw great miseries they endure that liue vnder the Turks gouernment those can best relate that haue trauailed Turkie and haue experience of their lawes and customes we doubt not but they are many and extreme considering the rigour of the Turkish tyranny yet if we will beleeue those that are as well acquainted with the gouernement of the Pope and his