that doth believe that Popery is the most abominable Idolatry imaginable to wit to worship the handy-work of the Baker and wood and stone c. and considers what severe threatnings he hath denounced against Idolatry namely That they shal be shut out of that New Jerusalem Rev. 22.15 and shal drink of the wine of the wrath of GOD and shal be tormented day and night before the holy Angels and before the Lamb and the smoke of their torment shal ascend for evermore and they shal have no rest Rev. 14.9 And that he is a jealous GOD visiting not only this iniquity of Idolatry upon themselves but likewise upon their children to the third and fourth generation and is not much troubled to hear and see so many souls seduced and led aside thereto and doth not judge it of his concernment to lay out himself to the utmost for discovering the snare pit that is laid for entraping and ruining eternally of poor souls Therefore we hope as our endeavors shal be peace to us so we hope it shal be acceptable to all the lovers of truth That this prayerful Treatise of that great wrestler with GOD may be blessed for convincing of gain-sayers informing establishing and confirming the LORDS people in the truth and for stirring up and awaking zeal love and repentance in the godly shal be the earnest prayer of Your servant for CHRISTS sake MATT. CRAFORD TO THE RIGHT EXCELLENT AND MIGHTY PRINCE JAMES THE VI. KING OF SCOTLAND c. Grace and Peace be multiplied I Hope it shal not be accounted presumption most Noble Prince to offer to your Majesty the first fruits of these my simple and rude labors seeing the cause is JESVS CHRISTS that KING of Kings and LORD of glory which is here defended even the everlasting truth of GOD against the venimous stings of one of the Locusts Rev. 9.3 of that Antichristian Kingdom The right whereof doth most justly belong to your Majesty both in respect of these rare and singular gifts of knowledge and understanding which the LORD hath vouchsafed upon your Majesty in such a plentiful measure that your subjects do acknowledge it at home and strangers do admire it and commend it abroad Whereby you are not only able to render a reason of that Faith which is in you 1. Pet. 3.15 but also able to stop the mouth of the adversary Tit. 1.9 and convict the gain-sayer whatsoever by that word of truth 2. Tim. 3.5 Wherewith your Majesty hath been brought up from your very infancy So that all the wise men of Babel I mean the Clergy of that Roman Harlot is not able to resist the mouth and wisdom which the Lord hath given to your Majesty And also in respect of that supereminent power as the Apostle calls it Rom. 13.1 whereby as you are most able so are you most obliged to maintain his truth propagat his Kingdom and nowrish his own Spouse which he hath purchased to himself by his own blood Acts 20.28 by the breasts of your Majesties government as it was promised of old That his Spouse should suck the breast of Kings Esa 60.16 So who is more obliged then ye Sir Who so sufficient and able every way to maintain it as ye Sir Your knowledge binds you Your profession binds you Your soveraign authority as ye are a King in Israel binds you For as the wisest King that ever was hath said and left it in writ or rather that King of Kings in him and by him Princes reign by me Prov. 8.15 Ye hold your Kingdom of him Sir and must lay down your Crown at his feet and must stand up and give a reckoning of the government of his Kingdom of the maintenance of his Truth of the nowrishing his Spouse in that day Your knowledge Sir is able to justifie it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 your soveraign authority able to defend it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ye have received that two-edged sword of Gods Spirit in your mouth able to wound Heb. 4.12 yea to consume that man of sin and son of perdition Ye have received that sword of justice and judgement Rom. 13.4 in your hands able to destroy betimes all the wicked of your Kingdom and to root out from the city of the Lord all the workers of iniquity Psal 101.8 Ye know Sir the abomination of Babel Rev. 17.4.5 that as it is said of the vertuous woman Many women have done vertuously but thou surmounts them all Prov. 31.26 So the contrary may be said of her Many hereticks have taught erroneously and worshipped and wrought abominably but the whoor of Babel Rev. 17.1 the Church of Rome in heresie in abomination in idolatry hath surmounted them all that ever went before her or ever shal come after her Many beasts have spoken blasphemously Rev. 13.1.3.6 but that second beast that hath two horns like the Lamb Rev. 13. 16.13.14 17.3.4.5.6 18.24 surmounteth them all in blasphemy tyranny cruelty and abominable idolatry destroying and making merchandise of the souls of men and women Other heresies did but subvert some fundamental points of Religion but the Church of Rome hath subverted them all almost Of other heresies some was but against the Godhead of Christ other some against his manhood other some against his offices and benefits or some one head or other But the doctrine of the Church of Rome is against them all Injurious to his Godhead in making him not only inferior to the Father in teaching that he is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but also inferior to the very creatures in praying to Mary to cōmand her Son Jure Matris impera Redemptori as I heard your Majesty most solidly prove and so worse then the Arrians Injurious to his manhood to all his offices his benefits and all the means inward and outward of the knowing and applying of him And last of all injurious to his soveraign glory in communicating it to stocks and stones a piece of bread bones and ashes and the skurf skarf of all things as I hope I have made manifest in this my Answer So that most justly it is called The speach of the Dragon and the doctrine of Devils by the Spirit of God Rev. 13.11 1. Tim. 4. And if the profession of such a devilish doctrine be too great an evil what would the practise thereof be I mean the idolatrous Mass that abomination of desolation The misery alace were too great to see the people of this Countrey scattered like sheep without shepherds Matth. 9.36 dying that second and everlasting death for want of the bread of life and Gospel of salvation But this would be the misery of miseries if the golden cup of Babel full of all abominations Rev. 17.4 should be set to their head again to drink the deadly poyson of their own damnation And certainly if this famine of the Word of GOD Amos 8.11.12 whereby not only two or three Cities as the same Prophet saith ch 4.8 but twenty or
because all men by nature are hypocrits and boasts of a vain pretence of faith unto whom James saith Show me thy faith by thy works James 2.18 to take away therefore this vail of hypocrisie from hypocrits the promises are made to works 2. The promise is made to works to stir us up to the doing of them for we would be faint in doing good if we knew not that the Lord would reward them It is true he hath promised no reward to them who work not because they in whom Christ dwels they are not only justified but also sanctified and bring forth the fruit of their sanctification And this for the ninth point of your doctrine which is so damnable that both it derogats from the merit of Christ and makes men to take away their confidence from Gods only mercy and free grace and swells them up with a vain confidence of themselves and binds as it were their hearts and mouthes that they cannot with all their heart render the whole praise of their salvation to Gods only free grace SECTION XVIII Concerning Works of Supererogation M. Gilbert Brown TWelftly we have other works that are called works of Supererogation which are works of greater perfection and are not set down to us as the commands of God without the which we cannot be saved but as divine counsels adjoyned thereto they augment our glory and reward in heaven which is also the doctrine of Christ and his Apostles Christ said to the young man If thou wilt be perfect go sell the things thou hast and give unto the poor and thou shalt have treasure in heaven and come follow me Matth. 19.21 Mark 10.21 So we find that wilful poverty is a work of supererogation Such like S. Paul 1. Cor. 7.34.38 saith And the woman unmarried and the virgin thinks on the things that pertains to our Lord that she may be both holy in body and spirit And afterwards Therefore both he that joyns his virgin in matrimony doth well and he that joyns not doth better Therefore virginity is a work of supererogation for albeit matrimony be good yet the other is better and this was a counsel that S. Paul gave and no command Such like Paul wrought a work of supererogation when he preached the Evangel gratis where he might have taken justly for his labors 1. Cor. 7.40 and 9.14.15.23.17.18.19 Christ our Savior speaks of the same works in the parable of the Samaritan Luke 10.35 where he promised to the hostler to recompense him what ever he did supererogat upon the wounded man more then the two pennies And David the Prophet did supererogat when he did rise in the night to give God praise and seven times in the day and so forth Psal 118.62.164 Master John Welsch his Reply As though your former doctrine had not injuried the merits of the Son of God and his free grace enough with the which if the Apostle be true your merits of works cannot stand For the Apostle saith speaking of our salvation If it be of grace then it is no more by works otherwise grace were no more grace and if it were of works then were it no more of grace otherwise works were no more works Rom. 11.6 You yet add this damnable and blasphemous doctrine to all the rest And certainly suppose ye will not let it fall to the ground that your doctrine is the doctrine of the dragon and that your Church is that mystical Babylon that mother of whoredoms full of names of blasphemie yet this your blasphemous doctrine sufficiently declares what you are For I appeal your conscience if ye have any unblotted out yet with the smoke of the bottomless pit and the conscience of all men who ever felt the power of sin in them and the free grace of God renewing them whither this doctrine of yours be blasphemous or not That not only you may fulfil the Law and do all the duty which God hath commanded you and thereby merit eternal life but also you may do more then God hath commanded which ye call works of greater perfection then the Law of God requires of us by the doing of the which you say you merit a greater degree of glory in the kingdom of heaven and as Bellarmin saith in his preface before de monachis lib. 2. That your religious Monks lives a straiter and more high kind of life then either the Law of God or man hath prescribed And that a man may love God with a greater and more perfect love then is commanded him in the Law lib. 2. cap. 13. 6. yea that a man may love God with a greater love then he is bound to love him and that these works are not only meritorious of eternal life and of a singular glory in heaven but also are profitable to satisfie for our sins and that men may communicat of the abundance of these their merits unto others And therefore they have in their service books according to the order of sarum this form of prayer often That by the merits of the Saints they may obtain grace and by the blood of Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury they may ascend to heaven All which whither they be not words of blasphemy and the doctrine of the dragon I appeal your conscience before God in the great day and the consciences of all men as though it were not blasphemy enough to say that men may merit eternal life and a greater degree of glory in that life to themselves by their works but also to communicat unto others of the abundance of their works and so not only to be saviors of themselves but of others also And here Reader I am compelled to speak this to thee suppose thou believe not that they have written and will maintain so horrible blasphemies I wonder not for I speak the truth to thee in my conscience I lie not I could not have been induced my self to have believed that ever they durst have professed such damnable and devilish doctrine if I had not read it my self in their own books yea I durst not have been so confident as to have set it down here upon the report of any except I had read it my self But if the blind lead the blind both will fall into the pit together The Lord deliver his own from such damnable doctrine which of necessity must bring damnation upon the believers and professors of it To answer you then first if we be not able to perform all the duties which God requires of us in his law then we are not able to do works of supererogation which is more then our duty commanded in the law as ye say But the first I have proved before therefore the second is true Secondly if the Law of God be perfect and prescrives more then we are able to do then there is no works of supererogation this you will not deny But David saith The Law of God is perfect Psal 19. and our inability to perform it I have
the undoubted Antichrist This for the fourth mark The fifth mark of the Antichrist as he is described by the Apostle is in these words Ye know saith the Apostle what withholdeth namely that he might be revealed in his own time This Tertullian de resurrect cap. 24. Jerome ad Gelasium and Chrysostom upon this same place and so also Ambrose upon this place and August de civit Dei lib. 20. cap. 29. expone it of the Roman Empire the which as long as it flowrished and was in full strength the Antichrist could not climb up to this his full hight and preeminence So that it behoved that Empire first to be translated and piece and piece diminished before the Antichrist could come up to his hight for that stayed him Now it is manifest out of the 17. chap. of the Revelation that Rome should be the seat of the Antichrist and Bellarmin and the Rhemists do not deny it and Rome was the seat of the Roman Empire before So then it behoved the Empire to translate his seat from Rome that Rome which was first the seat of the Empire might be the seat of the Antichrist Now the issue and event is a sure and clear interpretation of this Prophesie For Constantin the Emperor of Rome translated his seat from Rome to Byzantium called Constantinople in Greece And piece and piece that Empire of the Greek Emperor began to decay and was translated from the Greeks to the French-men by the Popes and then from them to the Germans by the Popes also So that both Rome and a great part of Italy and at the last a great part of the Empire is fallen in the Popes hand So that now he vaunts himself to be Monarch of the whole world and all Kings and Princes gave him their oath of alleageance and the Emperors and Kings held their Empires and Kingdoms of him and are but his vassals as their Canon Law saith So that by the taking away of the Roman Empire the Popes did then climb up to their supremacy and make themselves manifest that they were the Antichrist And so this doth also agree to the Pope of Rome and to none other He is the Antichrist whose climbing up was letted by the Roman Empire and who is built up upon the ruines of the same But the Papacy is such Therefore the Papacy is that Antichristian Kingdom It is said sixthly that this mystery began to work in the dayes of the Apostles that is the foundations of that apostasie was begun to be laid in these dayes and that he shal continue to the Lords coming for he shal not be abolished but by the brightness of his coming suppose he shal be first consumed with the sword of his mouth that is discovered and sore beaten by the Lords Word All which agrees unto Papistrie For that Kingdom is that Apostasie and Antichristian Monarchy whose foundation was beginning to be laid in the Apostles dayes which should be first consumed by the Word of God and utterly abolished by the brightness of his coming But the Papacy is such therefore it is that Antichristian Kingdom Matth. 18.1.2.3.4 and 20.25.26.27 Mark 10.41 Luke 22.25 2 Cor. 1 24. 1 Pet. 3.2.3 For the foundations of it was soon laid both of that Hierarchie and supremacy of the Pope and also of his damnable and erroneous doctrine For that superiority of the Ministery one over another of Bishops over Pastors forbidden by Jesus Christ soon crept in which was the foundation or rather staires by the which the Pope clamb up to his Popedom and supremacy the old condemned heresies which sprang up in the primitive Church many of them were the foundation of these damnable doctrines which the Popes brought in afterward as is proved in the end of the first part And as to his consuming by the Lord his mouth the Lord hath accomplished that already in some measure and shal assuredly fulfil it dayly more and more For since the time of the burning of John Hus and Jerome of Prague about the year of God 1415. and since the time the Lord stirred up Martin Luther and sundry others his faithful servants to preach the Gospel of Christ which was as it were buried in the darkness of Papistry the supremacy of the Pope hath taken such a dayly consumption that many of the Kingdoms of Europe now have forsaken her and the Lord hath put in their hearts to hate her But yet we know the dreggs of it shal not be abolished utterly while the bright coming of the Son of God It followes seventhly the manner how his Kingdom and tyranny shal be promoved upholden and established To wit By the effectual working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceiveableness of unrighteousness among them that perish Which the Apostle calles strong delusions And with this that of the Rev. 13.13.14 in the description of the second beast whereby it is meaned the Antichristian Kingdom doth agree that he did great wonders and deceived them that dwelt upon the earth by the signs which was permitted him to do Now certainly nothing can be spoken more aptly of the Popes Kingdom then this For unless the Pope had had an effectual power strong and devilish also by signs and lying wonders and unless his unrighteousness that is his false doctrine had been exceeding deceiveable that is covered with a fair color of godliness and unless his delusions had been strong his Kingdom had never been so far enlarged and so firmly established as we see it hath been and his damnable doctrine and errors would never have deâ—eived so many Nations as they have done For what is more common and usual in their mouthes then miracles What is it they vaunt so much of as of their miracles So that they make it an infallible mark of the Church And how I pray you have a great part of their errors and superstitions as the praying to Saints and worshipping of Images and pilgrimages and other of their superstitions and idolatries as Purgatory the real presence their monstrous Transubstantiation c. how I say have they been so confirmed and so rooted in the hearts of ignorant people but by their lying wonders and miracles which they fain was done Whereof their golden Legends are full and sundry yet live who have been eye-witnesses of the falshood of their miracles I will only set down for example some of the false miracles of two Nuns here the one of Magdalena de la Cruz Abbess of the Monastery of the Franciscan Nuns who was condemned by the Inquisitors of Cordoua for her enormous offences and covenant which she made with the Devil as they say in their sentence against her She by the aid of the Devil with whom she made a covenant when she was nine years old became a singular hypocrit and by his help wrought many miracles as that she appeared unto Mariners in a storm being invocated and so the storm calmed that she
was a stranger and was to preach in a strange tongue and to strangers yet did preach with such boldness and authority as if he had been before the meanest Congregation whereat Trochrig being astonished could not but on his acquaintance with him question him thereanent whence he had such confidence and was so little moved whilst he preached before strangers so grave and judicious an Auditory and in a strange tongue To whom Ex intimo animi sensu respondit vultu velut ad condolentiam compassionem non ad contemptum vel dedignationem composito Vah Ego ne hominum quorumvis faciem aut curem aut metuam qui memini reputo apud me me coram S. Sancta gloriosà illa majestate consistere cujus verbum in ipsius conspectu servis creaturis ejus annuncio Crede mihi quum ea me subit cogitatio vultus hominum quorumcunque curare aut magni facere non possum etiamsi vellem vel maxime he answered in a humble way as one humbled and not lifted up O do I either care for or fear the face of any man who remembers and considers that I am standing before that holy and glorious Majesty whose word I preach in his sight to his servants and creatures Believe me when the impression of that is upon my spirit I cannot although I most willingly would care for or esteem the countenance of men He was most zealous and tender of all the truths of GOD and studied to the utmost of his power to advance the Kingdom and interest of CHRIST not esteeming his life dear to him for the cause of CHRIST yea accounting it his greatest honor to suffer for him and his truth witness these words of his in the fore-cited letter VVho am I that he should first have called me and then constitut me a Minister of glad tydings of the Gospell of salvation these sixteen years already and now last of all to be a sufferer for his cause and Kingdom c. He shined most brightly as a star of the first magnitude in Kirkubright and Air the space of sixteen years and in France about twelve or thirteen years how long he lived after he came to England I cannot learn but I suppose it was not very long For the sad case of the Churches of France Bohemia and Germany brake his heart His wife was a very eminently godly woman the daughter of John Knox our famous Reformer He had two sons that came to maturity one whereof was a Doctor of Physick the other to wit M. Josias was a very faithful and eminent Minister of the Gospel There are several of his Sermons in manuscripts in the hands of many It is a great loss that these candles should be hid under bushels and not set on candlesticks As concerning this Treatise it is both learned solid clear and easie to be understood by very ordinary capacities and the greatest and weightiest points of Controversie are handled therein as concerning the Church the Mass Antichrist Justification by Faith the merit of works the Judge of Controversies and several other very weighty points of Controversie so learnedly solidly and convincingly that now for the space of seventy years none ever did attempt to make a reply thereto We need not detain you longer in showing reasons that moved us to republish this Treatise at this time for the great increase of Popery and ignorance of the people of this Countrey is reason sufficient for publishing Treatises of this kind especially such an one as this which is preferable to other Treatises of this nature on several accounts First it handles both convincingly clearly and yet briefly the most weighty points of Controversie betwixt us and Papists whereas other Treatises generally either handle only some one or two heads or else they are so voluminous that common people neither can have money to buy or time to read them 2. The Author spent much time in praying for a blessing on this work and therefore we may expect a blessing on it 3. The whole Treatise savors of much piety and zeal especially the Epistle to the Reader where is laid out to our serious consideration GODS goodness to us on the one hand and our unanswerableness to him on the other with the Authors fears lest the Gospel be removed from us if we do not repent and reform The consideration whereof will undoubtedly have great influence on a gracious soul to stir him up to mourn and lament for the sins of the Land and deal seriously for the LORDS abiding with us I know not any thing more useful through GODS blessing for stirring us up and awaking us out of our security in this secure and stupid generation then the serious consideration of the things held out in that Epistle Was our provocations so great seventy years ago that the godly and learned Author expected nothing but the removeal of our candlestick except we did repent And what can be expected now but the powring forth of wrath to the utmost on us except speedy and serious repentance prevent it seeing GOD out of his infinit long-suffering and patience hath continued the Gospel with us to this day and we have multiplied our provocations above the iniquities of our Fathers as if they had been smal things We have exceedingly surmounted them notwithstanding that our light hath been greater and our mercies mo then theirs were O if the consideration of these things would lead us to repentance That the reading of this Treatise might be less tedious and you may more easily take it up I have divided the same in Sections annexing a title to each Section And because the Section concerning the Mass did agree to be placed after the Section concerning Transubstantiation we have transposed it and placed it there I intended to have annexed thereto An answer to H. T. his Manual of Controversies printed anno 1671. and sent into the Countrey for seducing of poor souls but because it would have caused the Book to swel to a Volume I forbare intending if the LORD will to publish it shortly and in the mean time I have annexed A Discovery of the bloody and treasonable principles and practises of Papists that all may see that not only Papists are Hereticks and Idolaters but also bloody Traitors and incendiaries unworthy to live in any Christian Kingdom or Commonwealth As it was the design of the blessed Author in writing and publishing this Treatise at first to confirm the weak establish the wavering convince and stop the mouth of gain-sayers and to discover and lay open the errors idolatries and abominations of that Whoor of Rome that the poor people may be made to flee from Babylon lest being partakers of her sins they be made also partakers of her plagues which are no less then to have their portion in that Lake that burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death So it is our design in republishing the same For what man is he
thirty Parishions in some places should be compelled to go to one if they were desirous to drink the waters of life this I say is a judgement heavy enough But what a judgement would this be if they were compelled to bide at home and it were but in their own families by that abominable Mass the round bread the Gods of Babel Surely a great many of the people of this Countrey do not halt now between these two thoughts whither GOD be the LORD or Baal 1. Kings 18.21 but have forsaken the LORD and his Gospel and in their heart desires the opportunity to say to their round bread These are our Gods who have redeemed us from Hell and these will we worship at least secretly till our strength grow and our number increase The rest of the iniquities of this Land were too great to provoke the LORD of Hosts suppose this impiety which the LORD forbid for his CHRISTS sake be not added unto all the rest and above all the rest For what sin is comparable to Idolatrie Or what iniquity hath been ever so severely punished as Idolatrie A sin that is immediatly against GOD against CHRIST against his Glory A sin that made 24000. of the LORDS own chosen inheritance to fall in the wilderness for the golden Calf and Baal-Peor Exod. 32.28 Num. 25.9 A sin that provoked the LORD in such a high measure that it made him deliver his own people whom he had planted in that Land of Promise and to whom he had sworn to be their GOD over in the hands of their enemies round about them Judges 2.11.12.13.14.15 so that whithersoever they went the hand of the LORD was sore against them A sin that rent the Kingdom of David asunder 1. Kings 11.5.11 and made ten parts of it to be given to Jeroboam the son of Nebat suppose the person was called Jedidiah the beloved of the LORD 2. Sam. 12.25 And the promise was made unto him that his house and throne should stand for ever 2. Sam. 7.13 And finally a sin that first moved the LORD to put away Israel from before his face and caused their land to vomit them out without all hope ever to return again and then made his wrath so hot against Juda 2. Chron. 36.16.17.18 2. Kings 25.10 till there was no remedy but the Temple the Kings House and the houses of all the Nobles were burnt with fire the Kings sons first slain before his eyes then his own eyes put out himself bound with chains of steel and he and his people carried captives to Babel where there they remained for the space of seventy years Are not these things fallen forth as examples to us And are they not written for our instruction as the Apostle saith 1. Cor. 10.11 upon whom the ends of the world is fallen And is not the abomination of Babel Rev. 17.4 their idolatrous Mass as great abomination in the eyes of the LORD as Milcom the abomination of the Ammonits 1. Kings 11.5 Is it less Idolatrie to worship a golden Calf the Gods of Egypt or a graven sheep Ashtaroth the Gods of the Sidonians Exod. 32.4 1. Kings 11.5 Judg. 2.13 then to worship a bit of bread made of wheat ground in the mill baken in the oven conjured and erected up by an idolatrous Priest which is the God of Babel the Church of Rome Is there any more God-head in the one then in the other Hath their Idol of the Mass any more life feeling or moving then the Idols of Egypt and Sidon had And doth not the Church of Rome give as great yea rather greater worship and Religion to their round bread then Juda or Israel gave to their golden Calf or to Ashtaroth the graven sheep for they worship it as their Creator and Redeemer And as the worship of the golden Calf is called the worship of Devils in Moses song Deut. 32.17 so the Idolatry of the Church of Rome whereof their round bread in their Mass is one of the principal is called the worship of Devils Rev. 9.20 by the voyce that came from the four horns of the golden Altar For what Church or Kingdom under heaven is there to be found who in the time of the blast of the sixth Trumpet when that fearful Army of the Turks was loosed to overrun Christendom do worship Idols of gold and silver of brass of wood and of stone but the Church of Rome And if the worship of GOD by Images as Israel did in the golden Calf which is but the break of the second Command be called the worship of Devils shal not the worship of a false Creator and Redeemer as they do in their Mass which is not only the break of the first Command but also the treading under foot of the Son of GOD in the Gospel be most justly called the worship of Devils And is not the LORD as jealous of his glory now as he was then And hath he not sworn that he will not give it to another Esai 42.8 And hath he not threatned as severe judgements against the Whoor of Babel and the worshippers of the Beast and his Image and them that receive his mark openly or privatly as ever he did against Juda or Israel Rev. 13.14.15.16 and 14.8.9.10.12 and 16.1.2.10.19 and 17.1.2 and 18.11.2.3.5.6.21 and 19.19.20.21 and 21.21 Did he not cause it to be proclaimed by an Angel with a loud voyce that the foundations of the earth might hear it and tremble that they shal drink of the wine of the wrath of GOD yea of that pure wine powred out in the cup of his wrath and they shal be tormented day and night before the holy Angels and before the Lamb and the smoke of their torment shal ascend for evermore and they shal have no rest day nor night that worship the Beast and his Image And heard not John him that sate upon the Throne the Judge of the whole earth say That Idolaters shal have their portion in the lake that burnes with fire and brimstone which is the second death And seeing the knowledge of our Redemption surmounteth the knowledge of our Creation and the benefit of our Redemption exceeds by many degrees the benefit of our Creation shal not the worship of an Idol Redeemer and of a false Jesus as they do in their Mass surmount by many degrees the worship of an Idol Creator as Juda and Israel did For the greater the light be and the greater the mercy be that is bestowed upon any their sin must be the greater And as the light of the Gospel is more glorious then the light of the Law 2. Cor. 3.6.7.8.9.10.11.12.13 so the Idolatry of these that are under the Gospel must be more abominable then the Idolatry of these that were under the Law Theirs was but the despising of Moses Law Heb. 10.28 But this Idolatry of their Mass is the treading under foot of the blood of CHRIST and so worthy of sorer punishment as the Apostle saith Heb. 10.29 And
the Temple which were shut up restored the worship of GOD sent messengers with letters throughout all Israel to convert them to the LORD their GOD restored the Priests and Levites in their Ministery as the LORD had commanded by his Prophets spake to their hearts strengthened them in their offices provided for their maintenance that they might be encouraged in the Law of the LORD Follow these examples Sir send Pastors throughout all the borders of your Kingdom to teach your subjects the Law of their LORD and the Gospel of their salvation establish Religion and Justice in all the Cities of your Kingdom Cause the waters of life to run from the heart of your Countrey unto the borders thereof that publickly and privatly the LORD may be but one and his Name one and he may be a soveraign King in all your Land as it was prophesied and promised Zech. 14.8.6 Establish Pastors in all your Kingdom strengthen them in their offices and speak to their hearts Provide for their maintenance that they be not distracted but may be encouraged in the Law of their GOD and in the execution of their Ministery And when it is reported to your Majesty or ye hear of any be they many or be they few be they man or be they wife be it publickly or be it secretly in any of the Cities or parts in your Majesties Kingdom that they have gone out to entise others to Idolatry or have committed Idolatry themselves ye try it search it seek it out most diligently for so the LORD hath most straitly commanded And if it be true and certain that such abomination is done in your Kingdom Take evil out of Israel that he may have mercy on us and multiply his blessings to us And then may ye Sir having done all these things take GOD to record that you are clean from the blood of all your people because you have kept no mean back from them which your calling craved but hath caused the whole counsel of GOD to be shewed to them so that if they perish their own blood may be upon their own heads And then shal forrain Nations and strangers say of you Sir as Hiram and the Queen of Sheba said of Solomon 1. Kings 5.7 and 10.8 Blessed be the LORD GOD who hath set such a wise and understanding Prince over Scotland to build his Church and to exercise Justice and judgement there It was for the love the LORD had to his Church there that he set such a wise and understanding Prince over them Yea the generations to come Psal 78.4 shal tell to their children and their childrens children the great work of the LORD which he hath done by you Sir in this Land I have heard your Majesty gravely protest before GOD in two General Assemblies that it was one of your Majesties greatest desires and ye were even as it were ambitious of that work to plant every Parochin within your Kingdom with a Pastor that the posterities to come might say King JAMES the sixth hath done such a notable work in his days Confirm your self Sir in that purpose For ye know Sir who hath said I will honor them that honor me There is no question Sir and I speak with confidence if ye honor him in this Kingdom and be faithful to him in the Government of it he shal honor you not only by making you to reign in that everlasting Kingdom but also by lifting you up to be Ruler over mo Kingdoms here The LORD anoynted David King over all Israel yet he gave not the possession of it all at once after the death of Saul but first proved him with the Government of one Tribe seven years and an half and then finding him faithful over that he placed him Ruler over all the rest and established all Israel in his hand So there is no question and I am sure of it if ye honor the LORD to the uttermost of your power in the Government of this Kingdom and give him a proof of your fidelity therein that as he hath given you the undoubted right by birth to be a King over mo Kingdoms then this so shal he make you Ruler of them and establish them in your hands Only Sir Be ye strong and couragious to do with all diligence as the LORD hath commanded you in his Word Josh 1.6.7.8.9 and as ye see these faithful Kings have done before you Decline neither to the right hand nor to the left and then assuredly I dare promise you in the Name of the LORD he shal not leave you nor forsake you all your days and none shal be able to stand before your face And as he was with Josua and David so shal he be with you For the LORD is true who hath promised then shalt thou prosper in all thy ways And consider upon the other part who ever prospered unto the end but these that walked as the LORD had commanded For true is that which the LORD spake by his Prophet to Asa He is with you while ye be with him and if ye seek him he will be found but if ye will forsake him he will forsake you 2. Chron. 1.4.2 Was the LORD any longer with Saul Joash Amatzia Uzzia all Kings of Juda then they were with him No no but from time they forsook him he forsook them Because Saul despised the word of the LORD in sparing whom he should not have spared the LORD despised him from being King over Israel and the Spirit of the LORD forsook him 1. Sam. 15.23 and 16.15 Because Joash forsook the LORD 2. Chron. 24.20 in permitting Idolatrie at the request of his Princes the LORD forsook him and his Kingdom and delivered them into the hands of their enemies Because Amatzia did evil and obeyed not the counsel of the Prophet 2. Chron. 5.16 when he admonished him the LORD determined to destroy him Vzzia all the dayes that he sought the LORD the LORD prospered him 2. Chron. 26.5.16.18 but from time he lifted up himself to corrupt himself to trespass against the LORD his GOD in passing the limits of his calling and invading the Priests office he had no honor of the LORD but was smitten with leprosie But let all these things be far from your Majesty since you see what every one of these have done to Kings and Kingdoms before you let your heart be constant before the LORD your GOD all the dayes of your life that priores posteriores 2. Chron. 25.26 be never registrat of your Majesty as it was of them neither in the Books of the LORDS Commentary before him neither in the Chronicles of the Kings of Scotland but that both your former and latter may be that which is good and right in the eyes of the LORD That both the LORD may give this testimony to your own conscience and to the conscience of all his children that he gave of David I have found you a man according to mine own heart that will
purity and liberty as thou hast had Or if ever Nation after us shal have so long a day after such a manner again And it seems to me that as the LORD confirmed Ezechiah of his promise by causing 2. Kings 20. the Sun to return back again miraculously by the degrees whereby it went down So the LORD hath confirmed his superabundant love towards us in causing the light of the Gospel to return again as it were oft times and that most wonderfully and miraculously by the degrees whereby our iniquities in the righteous judgement of God did hasten it to go down upon us Yea the blessing of Abraham hath come upon us For he hath blessed them that blessed us and hath cursed them who hath cursed us he hath striven against them who hath striven against us and hath made our oppressors to eat their own flesh and to drink their own blood no instrument formed against thee O Church of Scotland hath ever prospered and the tongue that hath risen against thee the LORD hath condemned that all flesh might know that GOD was thy Savior and the strong GOD of Jacob thy avenger And certainly if ever people might have been called Jephzibas Esai 62.6 that is the LORDS delight or their land Beula that is married unto him the Church and Kingdom of Scotland might have been so called For the LORD had delight in us and our land hath a husband even the LORD our Redeemer he was an ornament unto us Esa 60 19. he set his beautie on us Ezech. 16.14 he crowned us with glory and a Diadem by the hand of our GOD was set upon our heads Esai 6.2 And true is that of us which our Savior spake to his disciples Luke 10.24 Many Kings and Prophets hath desired to see the things that we have seen and hear the things that we have heard and have not seen them nor heard them So who are so ladened with mercy and kindness as we have been for we have been made the head and not the tail Deut. 28.13 as the LORD promised And surely if ever people should have been Joshurim Deut. 32.15 that is upright and straight in the eyes of the LORD we should have been so No who should have been so holy as we Who so strong in CHRIST and rooted and grounded in him as we Coloss 2.7 Who so rich in all grace and fruitful in all good works as we For who had so many and so glorious means to have made us to have abounded in all grace as we had What could the LORD have done more to us then he hath done Isai 5.4 For we wanted no mean that ever the LORD commanded in his Word either to have bred grace in us or to have preserved it and increased it But they to whom much is given much shal be required at their hands again For as the LORD made us a spectacle of his mercy wherein he did demonstrat the riches of his free grace in CHRIST JESUS unto all the Kingdoms of the earth and above them all So it had been our part proportionably to have met him with thankfulness again and to have been examples of all grace godliness righteousness and of all good works unto all others and above all others But alace sinful Nation laden with iniquities Esai 1.4 who is so sinful as thou art What Nation so polluted with all abomination and wickedness as thou art Thy iniquities are mo then the sand of the sea they are grown up so high that the top of them reach up to the very heavens Hosea 9.7 and the cry of them is like yea beyond the cry of Sodom there is such a burden of iniquity upon this Land that considering all circumstances both of the means and of the time and space the LORD hath given us to repent I know not if ever Nation was so great in the eyes of the LORD as this Land is For may not that which the Prophet spake of Juda. Ezechiel 22. be most justly said of thee O Scotland For art thou not replenished with blood from corner to corner so that blood touches blood Are not thy Nobles in thee every one ready to shed blood In thee the father and the mother are despised in the midst of thee the widow and the fatherless are oppressed In thee the very abominations of the Gentils are committed The discovering of the Fathers shame and adultery with thy neighbors wife thou art so laden with adulteries incests and whoredooms that the Land groans under thee thou hast prophaned his Sabaths despised his Law contemned his Gospel withholden from him the fruits of his Kingdom and hast trodden under foot the blood of CHRIST and hast grieved that Spirit of grace So that when I think of the number and greatness of our sins I cannot but wonder that the LORD should not have withdrawn his Kingdom long since from us and have given it unto others that would have brought forth the fruits thereof Matth. 21.41 Yea I wonder that he hath not caused the Land to vomit us out for the abominations and sins wherewith we have defiled it in so great a light And surely when I think of the severity of the Justice of GOD in punishing other Nations and Kingdoms for the contempt of his Gospel and the withholding of the fruits of his Kingdom from him my soul trembles For wherefore did the LORD reject the natural branches that chosen generation of whom the Fathers was and of whom CHRIST was according to the flesh Rom. 11 2â— 9.5 and gave them and their posterity over to the hardness of their hearts this 1500. years and more to be damned for ever and ever in that everlasting darkness and yet his wrath is not turned back but because they would not be gathered and knew not in that their day the things that belonged to their peace and would not render to him the fruits of his Kingdom in due season Matth. 23.37 Luke 19.42.43 Mat. 21.41 And wherefore did the LORD remove his Candlestick Rev. 2.5 from a great many of the Churches both of the East and of the West which were planted by the Apostles and were once lanterns of light and hath given them over to strong delusions to believe lies 2. Thes 2.10.12 the one to the impiety of Mahomet and the savage Tyrant of the Church the other to the bondage of that second beast and fearful darkness of that bottomless pit Rev. 13.11 9.1 But because they received not the love of the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness as the Apostle saith 2. Thes 2.12 Now if GOD spared not them but gave them over to a most fearful bondage both of soul and body both spiritual and corporal temporal and eternal how should we not fear as great or rather greater judgements seeing we had all these as examples before us to have fore-warned us and to have made us to fear For we are not to think as our Savior saith to the Galileans that they
Church and as Bellarmin sayes as hath been said before If ye go this far as ye do indeed and as Bellarmin doth and your self must do if ye be a right defender of your Catholick faith here or else there is no ground whereupon ye can build the puretie and truth of your Church and Religion Then I say that your ground is as false and erroneous as the stuff that ye build upon it for both they have failed and have been interrupted as shal be proved afterward And mark this Christian reader as the Philistins Church wherein they praised their God Judg. 16. and mocked Samson the Lords servant had two chief pillars whereon the whole house leaned and was born up so hath the Church of Rome two chief pillars whereon the whole weight of their Church and Religion hings the one whereof is this that the Church cannot err the other that the Pope is the head of the Church Take these two from them their house must fall and their Religion can stand no longer For when they are brought to this strait that they see they cannot defend their Religion neither by the testimonies of the Scripture nor yet by the examples of the Church of God when she was in her greater purity and sincerity they are compelled to lay this as a ground to hold all their errors on that the Church of Christ cannot err So take this ground from them their Church and Religion cannot stand Now as to the testimonies which ye quote out of the Old Testament out of Luke 1.33 in the New Testament they only prove that the Church and Kingdom of Christ shal endure for evermore and that his covenant made with her is everlasting The which cannot exeem the militant Church from erring in points of doctrine for both the chaff and evil seed in the Church that is these that are called but not chosen may err and that to death and damnation and yet his Church and Kingdom and his covenant remaineth sure stable and inviolate for the Lord only offers his covenant unto them and they through incredulitie reject it and so he is not bound to sanctifie or save them much less to keep them from error And as for these who are called and chosen all these promises are made and performed in every one of them and the covenant of God is so sure in every one of them that our Savior saith None of them can perish John 10.28 And yet for all this every one of them may err in doctrine suppose not to death and damnation which ye will not deny And if ye would infinit examples not only of the Saints of God of the laicks as ye call them but also of the Priests Prophets Apostles yea and of Popes also and of your own Doctors and Bishops as a cloud of witnesses would stand up and avow the same in your face Now I gather seeing that the militant Church here on earth hath but two sorts of persons in her these that are called and chosen and these that are only called but not chosen and both may err in points of doctrine the one finally to death and damnation the other may err suppose not finally to death and damnation and yet the covenant of God remain sure everlasting and inviolate with his Church Therefore I say the promises of the stabilitie of Christs Kingdom and the perpetuitie of his covenant made with her cannot exeem the militant Church from erring in points of doctrine So ye have lost your vantguard Let us come to the rest and see if they will favor your cause any better then the former hath done The next place ye quote is Matth. 16.18 Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell shal not prevail against it And because ye trust that there is not a testimony of Scripture which shal fight more for you then this let us therefore try it to the uttermost and see how far it can be stretched out What argument will ye frame out of this place For if you gather no more but this Christ hath promised that the gates of hell shal never prevail against the Church that is built on the Rock that is on Christ Therefore the Church that is built on him shal never be all utterlie extinguished and abolished by Satan Then Bellarmin tells you that ye spend but time in proving of this for we grant it That the Church of the chosen shal never perish But if you go further and say That the Church of Christ shal never err because Christ hath promised that the gates of hell shal not prevail against it then I say either that exposition is false or else the gates of hell should have prevailed long since against your Church for when it prevailed against the rock whereon the Church was built it prevailed against the Church For raze and overturn the foundation of a house the house cannot stand seeing the standing of the house consists on the firmness sureness of the foundation thereof Now the rock whereon ye say the Church is built unto whom this promise is made is Peter and his successors the Popes of Rome for so ye all with one consent expone the same Rhemists annotation upon this place Seeing then that they are the foundation of the Church as ye say and the gates of hell hath prevailed against them as I shal prove by the grace of God it must follow if your exposition be true that the gates of hell hath prevailed not once only but at many times against â—he Church For first Peter himself erred in a matter of doctrine when he thought with the rest of the Apostles after the resurrection of Christ the Kingdom of Christ not to be heavenlie but earthlie not spiritual but like the Kingdoms of this world proper to Israel Acts 1.6 not common to all by vertue of the promise and also he is commanded to preach the Gospel to the Gentils doubting nothing Acts 10.20 Which testifies that he doubted before whither the Gospel should be preached to them or not and therefore erred in a matter of faith and that after he had received the promise of the holy Ghost And also he erred in the abrogation of the Ceremonial Law Acts 10.14 for he believed that some meats were unclean after the death and resurrection of Christ and therefore he refused to eat thereof And this was a matter of faith also And last of all the holy Ghost testifies that he went not a right foot to the truth of the Gospel Gal. 2.11 and therefore was rebuked by the Apostle Paul to his face And as for them whom ye call his successors the Popes of Rome not only may they be hereticks but also some of them have been hereticks And therefore if your argument be good the gates of hell both may and have prevailed against them That they may be hereticks I will fetch no other witnesses but your own Councils Canons Cardinals
it out of the histories leaving it free to Historiographers to write what they please and omit what they please Thirdly it is manifest that the Church of the Jewes in the time of Christ was changed both in doctrine and manners from that estat that it was in the time of Aaron Eleazar and sundry others and also the Churches of Galatia and Corinth that they were changed from the estat wherein they were And yet I suppose that neither ye nor any Papist in the earth is able to assign to me all the circumstances of the mutations and changes in the same as the first authors time place c. and yet there was a great change in doctrine and Religion in all these Churches as hath been proved before And we read that our Savior and the Apostles convicted them of a change and yet they designed not the first authors time and place c. The like I say of the Church of Greece Asia and Africa which in number exceeds yours That there is a wonderful change in their Church and Religion ye will not deny or else your Religion is heresie For as said is they acknowledge not your Popes supremacy transubstantiation c. And yet I suppose ye nor no Papist in the earth is able to assign all the circumstances of changes in their Church and Religion which they have presently yea more unable to do this then we are able to do the same in yours I mean not the heresies of Arrius Samosatenus Nestorius Eutyches Sergius and the rest which long ago were damned by the Councils of the Greek Churches For I suppose ye shal not be able to prove that they now maintain these heresies which they condemned and refuted long ago But I mean of the present errors and corruptions in their worship and Religion which now they maintain and profess If then ye judge the Churches of the East heretical because they are not agreeable to your doctrine and Religion of Rome and yet not be able to assign the circumstances of the changes and mutations of the same will ye not grant the same liberty to us to account and judge your Church and Religion failed because it is not agreeable to the doctrine of Jesus Christ set down in the Scripture suppose we could not assign to you the circumstances of the changes of the same Fourthly I say if you have read Epiphanius there ye shal find many heresies which I omit for shortness which he accounts heresies whose beginnings and authors are unknown Fifthly there is such an universal complaint of the monstrous abominations decays in your Religion discipline and manners and that by your own Councils Concil Constant sess 4. 5. Trident. sess 6. Basil sess 2. 3. Fathers Bernard in Cant. 33. Popes Cardinals and Friers that I would have thought it uncredible unless I had read them that either your own mouthes should have so condemned your selves or else that the posterity afterward should have been so shameless as to have boasted of the purity of their Church and Religion Therefore the Council of Trent hath proclaimed it to the world in writ that the Church hath need to be reformed in the head and members Now I ask that of you concerning these abuses in discipline and manners which ye ask of us concerning your doctrine Show me all the circumstances of mutation and change distinctly if ye can what time what place by what author c. such monstrous abominations first brake in in your Church and Religion Now seeing there is no man who hath a spark of judgement that will doubt of that incredible change of manners and discipline in your Church and yet the circumstances of the changes unknown think ye then that ye shal assure men that no changes could fall in your doctrine unless we knew the circumstances of the changes of the same Sixthly the Scripture testifies Matth. 13.27.28 that even the tares which is the evil seed doth not appear so soon as they are sown and that neither the times nor the first author of them was known no not to the most diligent laborers of the Lords ground at the first and yet it was enough to know them to be evil seed by the difference that was seen betwixt them and the good seed suppose the time place and author was unknown at the first So it is proof enough against your doctrine that it is but tares if the difference be made manifest between it and the Lords truth in the Scripture suppose the circumstances of the changes of it cannot be assigned Seventhly error is likened to leaven and a canker which doth not all at once infect the whole mass and fester the whole body but piece and piece so your corruption came not in all at once but piece and piece infected your Church and festered your Religion And therefore it is no wonder suppose the beginnings of infection and circumstances of it hath not been marked For if they had broken in all at once and suddenly overthrown the whole Church it had been no difficulty to have assigned the circumstances of the overthrow of it For if any having a whole constitution with a stroke were slain if a ship with a wave were drowned it were no difficulty to assign the circumstances of the sudden changes But in a consumption and in a leck that hath come in piece and piece in the body and in the ship the beginnings thereof cannot be so easily perceived For a little leck in process of time will sink a great ship And if it be so hard to discern the beginnings of these things which our senses may grope how much more hard is it to perceive the beginnings of these spiritual corruptions which cannot be perceived by the natural man but only by the light of Gods Spirit by the spiritual man Eightly if now it be so in other heresies as the Scripture testifies of them that their beginnings are ofttimes unknown even unto the most diligent laborers of the Lords husbandrie and that they come in by little and little and doth not infect all at once how much more is this true in your Antichristian Religion which as it was fore-told should deceive all Nations and make them drunken with the wine of her fornication And therefore your doctrine is termed in the Scripture an iniquitie but a secret iniquitie an unrighteousness but yet a deceivable unrighteousness a delusion but yet a strong delusion 2. Thess an abomination and spiritual fornication Rev. 17. but yet put in a golden cup that is having the show of godliness and Religion and your Church is called a harlot but yet finely decked in purple c. not like a harlot but a Queen Your Kingdō is called a beast that speaks like the dragon but yet like the lamb in his horns resembling the power and authority of the Lord Jesus Seeing then your Church Kingdom and Doctrine is such a mystery of iniquity hath such a show of godliness hath such a
as far in word as ye do in deed the consciences of the poor people would at the last withdraw themselves from under your tyranny and would go out of your fellowship for the safety of their souls so under the cloke and pretence of the Scripture ye keep them in your communion And surelie were not for this cause only you would regard no more of the testimony of the Scripture then of the testimony of the fables of Esop For the chief authority and all the surety and certainty of all Religion with you as Bellarmin de sacr lib. 2. cap. 25. and Stapleton lib. 1. cont Whitaker cap. 10. confesses is not the testimony of the Scripture but the authority of your own Church So I assure thee Reader it is but for a show that they bring forth the Scripture to prove the heads of their Religion Let the matter therefore be tryed betwixt us by these examples which ye set down here M. Gilbert Brown 1. We say with Saint Augustin Epist 28. ad Hier. that the Sacrament of Baptism is so necessary to infants that they cannot come to heaven without the same which is contrary to their negative saith where they call it the Popes cruel judgement against infants departing without the Sacrament First I say that Christ taught the same doctrine in these words Except a man be born again of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter in the Kingdom of God John 3.5 We say this is spoken properly of the Sacrament of Baptism because there is no regeneration of water and the Spirit of God but in Baptism The same is the doctrine of the Apostles also When they exspected the patience of God saith S. Peter in the days of Noe when the Ark was building in the which few that is eight souls were saved by water whereunto Baptism being of the like form now saves you also 1. Pet. 3.20.21 And S. Paul saith For as many of you as are baptized in Christ have put on Christ Galat 3.27 And Ananias said to S. Paul And now what tarriest thou rise up and be baptized and wash away thy sins invocating his name Acts 22.17 and 2.38 And S. Paul himself in another place Christ hath saved us by the washing of regeneration and renovation of the holy Ghost Tit. 3.5 Rom. 6.3.4 1. Cor. 6.11 Mark 16.16 I think there is no Christian reader that sees these places but he must say that Baptism is most necessary to infants except he will believe rather the exposition of the Ministers then the Word of God Maister John Welsch his Reply First ye begin at the necessity of the Sacrament of Baptism whereof ye affirm that it is so necessary that infants cannot come to heaven without the same As for Baptism we grant that it is a most effectual seal and pledge of our ingrafting in Christ Jesus and of the remission of our sins through his blood and regeneration through his Spirit so that either the neglect or the contempt of it because it is the neglect and contempt of the covenant it self and of Christ Jesus the foundation of the covenant is damnable But that it is so absolutly necessary to infants that without it they cannot come to heaven to wit these whom he hath predestinat it being neither neglected nor contemned but death preventing the receiving of it that we allutterly deny as impious ungodly and cruel For first I say there is none that is in the covenant of grace and who hath God to be their God and are holy that can perish This you cannot deny But the children of the faithful who are of his secret election are such before they be baptized And this I prove The Lord promised to Abraham I will be thy God and the God of thy seed Gen. 17.17 And this Peter also testifies The promise saith he is made to you and to your children Acts 2.39 And the Apostle saith That the children of the faithful are holy 1. Cor. 7.14 Therefore the children of the faithful who are of Gods secret election suppose they die without Baptism do not perish Secondlie if Baptism were absolutly necessary to salvation then the grace of God were bound to the Sacrament This cannot be denyed But your Master of Sentences saith that the grace of God is not bound to the Sacraments and it is impious so to think that Gods free grace and salvation is bound to the instrument Thirdlie if Circumcision was not absolutly necessary to salvation in the Old Testament then Baptism is not absolutly necessary now because Circumcision was as straitly enjoyned to them as Baptism is enjoyned to us and Baptism is suceeded in the room of the same but Circumcision is not absolutly necessarie For Lombardus is rebuked by the Doctors of Paris because he so thought And David doubts not to say of his child who died the seventh day and so before he was circumcised I shal go to him c. and so he pronounced that he was saved and all the time that they were in the wilderness almost 40 years Circumcision was neglected which plainly shows that it was not so absolutly necessary that salvation could not be obtained without it Therefore Baptism is not so absolutly necessary to salvation as ye suppose for the grace of God is of no less force in the New Testament then it was in the Old Fourthlie we read of sundry that received the holy Ghost before they were baptized and seeing the holy Ghost where he is regenerats to eternal life Therefore life eternal is not bound absolutly to Baptism Fifthlie what a cross and disturbance is this that your doctrine brings to the consciences of all these parents whose children have been prevented by death before they could be offered to be baptized If they believe your doctrine how often will this come in their mind that their children are damned And seeing the infants themselves are not in the cause that they are not baptized but their death preventing by Gods providence or the Parents neglecting or contemning the same or persecution or one impediment or other hindering wherefore are ye so cruel to judge them to be damned for that whereof themselves are causeless And last of all if ye be acquainted in the Histories of the Church of God in the first age ye will find many that delayed to be baptized until their latter age which they would never have done if they had thought it simpliciter necessary to salvation as ye do And Ambrosius doubts not to say That Valentinian wanted not the grace of Baptism suppose he wanted Baptism it self the which he would never have said if he had thought it absolutly necessary to salvation And Bernard saith I cannot altogether despair of the salvation of them who wants Baptism not through contempt but only through impossibility to get it And in that same place he saith So also if our Savior Christ for this cause when he had said he that believeth and is baptized shal be saved did
the rest which is exceeding many and because if you be a right defender of the Catholick Faith you will say with the rest of your Clergie that the Pope cannot err Therefore a Pope Gelasius by name saith de duabus natura in Christo Neither the substance of the bread nor nature of the wine ceaseth to be any more then they were before but remain in their own substance And he calls them there An image and resemblance of the body and blood of Christ Now tell me Master Gilbert do not these speak as plain as we Will you avow your transubstantiation which they so flatly deny And as our Savior saith A Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand so the manifold divisions among your selves concerning this transubstantiation is a very sure argument of the falling both of you and your doctrine Some of you expounds this word hoc this (1) Bonaventure Gerson contra Florentiū lib. 4. of the bread (2) As Thomas lib. 4 seu dist 8. Occam in 4 sent d. 13. q. 16.17 Some of Christs body (3) Innocent 3 de offic miss pag. 3 object 14 Scotus in l. 46. d. 8. q. 3. and some calls it an individuum vagum (4) Durandus rational 4 some saith it signifieth nothing (5) Holcot in 4. sent quaest 1 and some saith it signifieth a thing which is common both to terminus à quo and terminus ad quem Secondly in the exposition of the word est is some for it is some for it is changed Thirdly some (a) Thomas saith the substance of the bread and wine returns to nothing some saith (b) The gloss of Gratian and the extravag de cōsecr dist 2 cap. Species c firmit extr de summa Trinitate it passes in the body of Christ Fourthly some saith (c) C. non oportet ibi gloss de consecrat dist 2. c. Cum Martha para verum eleemos the water in the Sacrament returns to nothing some saith it is changed in the blood with the wine some saith it is (d) Thomas 3974 art 8. turned in Christs vital humors some saith it is turned in the wine and after in the blood some saith (e) Durand lib. 4. cap. 42. they dare not define it Fifthly some saith (f) Thomas Epist 59. 3. quaest 79. the worms that are bred of the Sacrament comes of the quantitie other some saith (g) Durand lib. 3. cap. 41. they are bred of the substance Sixthly some saith Christ (h) Idem lib. 4. cap. 41. consecrated by the word he blessed some by the (i) M. Gilbert words This is my body and the blessing together some (k) Gloss in cap. Utrum in verbis perferri de cons dist 2. will have the consecration to be made in heaven and some frankly (l) Scotus in repor dist 8. qu. 2. confesses That they neither know the words nor the number of them whereby this consecration is made And to omit six hundred the like I will only touch these few (m) Gloss in l. tribus some saith The body of Christ is taken bodily with the mouth (n) Cajetan tom 2. cap. 2. 3. 5. some saith That it feeds (o) Gloss ibidem some saith As soon as it is pressed with the teeth the body of Christ is caught up to heaven (p) Durand rational lib. 4. But other some faith It passeth from the teeth to the heart and then the bodily presence ceases (q) Bonavent 4. dist 13. art 2. qu. 2. and other some will have him go to the stomack c. but not to the mind And yet he saith He doubts whither he goes to the belly or not for the variety of opinions and in so great variety he saith what to hold is hard to judge And suppose he holds it That the body of Christ goes not into the belly of a mouse or is casten out into the draught because saith he the ears of well disposed persons would abhor it and infidels and hereticks would jest at it and laugh us to scorn Yet sundry others holds as Alexander de Hales part quaest 45. Thomas Aquin parte 3. qu. 80. art 3. Antonius Archiepisc part 3. tit 13. cap. 6. That not only it goes into the belly but also Christs body may be vomited up or purged out in the draught and that brute beasts may eat Christs body it may go into the belly of dogs and swine O filthy mouthes unclean spirits what heretick what Capernait was ever so gross and carnal yea so barbarous and brutish as ye are So not only are ye more gross then the Capernaits who thought that saying hard but also like the barbarous Canibals who eat the flesh of man O blind leaders of the blind shal myce dogs and swine eat and drink the precious body and blood of Christ Shal they then have eternal life I think the ears of all Christians will abhor this your doctrine and their hearts will tremble at it These absurdities together with Scriptures and Fathers against the same hath made some of your great pillars to say as Fisher against the captivity of Babylon That no man can prove by the words of the Gospel that any Priest in these days doth consecrat the very body and blood of Christ And others as Lindanus Panop lib. 4. Canisius and Petrus a Soto supra citati That transubstantiation it but a tradition which hath not the author of it in the Scripture nor cannot be defended by the same And others as Tonstal de Sacramentis That it had been better to have left every man to his own conjecture as they were before the Council of Lateran then to bring in such a question I have been longsome in this but yet it so behoved me because it is the foundation of their sacrifice of the Mass and their other idolatries and abominations So then to conclud this seeing your doctrine of Transubstantiation is agreeable neither to the doctrine of Christ nor his Apostles nor ancient Fathers nor your own Canon Law and Popes as they have been cited And seeing ye are at such variance among your selves concerning the same therefore it is to be rejected as heretical damnable and blasphemous by all Christians And this for the fourth point of your doctrine SECTION X. Concerning the Sacrifice of the Mass Master Gilbert Brown WE have only in our Church that heavenly action and sacrifice which we call the blessed Mass that our Savior did at his latter Supper and was (a) Levit. 2. per totum 6.20 prefigured by the Law of Moses and fore-spoken by the (b) Mal. 1.10 11. Isai 19.19.21 and 56.7 Prophets For Christ being the chief Priest of all Priests according to the order of (c) Genes 14.18 Psal 109.4 Heb. 7.3.17 Melchisedec in this action according to the order of (d) Heb. 9.12.13.14 Aaron upon the Cross took (e) Matth.
saying in Philosophy that a conditional Proposition proves nothing It appears he hath been in haste that he might not have leasure to (a) I proved all that was required at my hands prove any head for example of his promise For we understand that M. John is a man who may err as many man hath done before by his judgement and therefore he must have no (b) I desire no credit without warrant as your Popes and your Church do of her disciples credence of us except he bring his warrant and ye shal be (c) M. Gilbert is once beguiled for this is performed sure that he is never able to perform his sayings Master John Welsch his Reply This my Reply I hope satisfies for answer to this section SECTION XXIII Concerning the Visibility of the Church and whither the Visible Church may make defection Master John Welsch THirdly I answer The Spirit of God fore-tels that when the Antichrist shal come the defection shal be universal and all Nations shal be drunken with the wine of her fornication M. Gilbert Brown Where this is written M John tells not For I am sure as it is set down here there is no such thing in our Bibles no not in their own corrupted Bibles except they have augmented them of new That there shal be an universal defection it is altogether repugnant to the Word of God as I have shewed before in proving the Church always to continue For the same place where I believe he alledges to hath these words And it was given unto him to make war with the Saints and to overcome them And power was given him upon every tribe and people and tongue and nation and all that inhabit the earth adored it whose names be not written in the book of life of the Lamb Rev. 13 7.8 Here any man may see that the Saints of God that shal be persecute by the Antichrist such that is written in the book of life shal not make defection then it shal not be an universal defectioÌ„ And also M. John afterward in finding some of his Religion that said against the Antichrist the Pope the time bygone is contrary to himself here that the defection shal not be universal And where he saith that all Nations shal be drunkâ—n with the wine of her fornication the text is otherwise Because all Nations have drunken of the wine of the wrath of her fornication that is that the people of all Nations that have obeyed her shal be punished with the wrath of God and not that all the world should make defection M. John Welsch his Reply You fight against your own shadow M. Gilbert and whereas ye can find nothing justly to quarrel in my words being rightly taken and taken as the Scripture takes them you devise a meaning of your own brain and would father it upon me that ye may the more easily have somewhat to speak against For I neither spake it nor meant it that the elect should make defection in the time of the Antichrist I am so far from it that suppose I believe assuredly that this prophesie is fulfilled in your own Church yet I know assuredly that the Lord reserved his own elect to himself who was kept free from your Idolatry as he promised Rev. 14. and Histories record of some whereof I did set down some of their names But this is the doctrine of one of your own Church Dominicus a Soto in lib. 4. sent dist 46. quaest 1. art 1. who believed it assuredly That the faith of Jesus Christ and Religion should be utterly extinguished through the persecution of the Antichrist if Bellarmin speak true of him lib. 3. de Rom. Pont. cap. 17. And so turn the point of your sword M. Gilbert upon your own brother who so taught and not upon me who is far from it And if ye will say wherefore then called I it universal I answer Because the Scripture calls it a defection without any addition or restraint and your Rhemists grant That this defection shal be a revolting of Kings People and Provinces and the publick intercourse of the faithful with the Church of Rome shal cease And that the dayly sacrifice shal be abolished most universally throughout all Nations and Churches of the world by Antichrist himself Annot. upon 2. Thess 2. And Bellarmin saith lib. 3. cap. 16. That he shal be Monarch of the whole world Therefore this Kingdom by your own confession shal be universal and seeing his Kingdom is an apostasie or defection for as many as shal obey him shal make defection from the faith therefore by the doctrine of your own Church it must be an universal defection And the Scripture saith expresly That he shal make all both smal and great c. to receive a mark on their right hand and on their fore-heads and that no man may buy or sell c. and that all Nations have drunken of the wine of the wrath of her fornication Rev. 13.16 and 14.8 and 18.3 Now whither I might call that universal which the Scripture calls all and your Rhemists and Bellarmin makes so general and universal that it shal possess all the Kingdoms of the earth let the Christian Reader judge And let me ask you M. Gilbert Do you not believe that the Church is Catholick or Universal And do you not think with one of your own number to wit Costerus a Jesuit in Enchirid. that the Church is called Universal because the faith of the Church is scattered in all Nations and yet for all this all particular Nations and all particular men receives not this faith and yet notwithstanding it is Universal and is called Universal still And doth not the Scripture prophesie that in Abraham all the Nations shal be blessed Gal. 3.8 and yet for all this there were and is millions of the Gentils that are not blessed in him Why then in like manner may not the defection in the time of the Antichrist be called universal although the elect be exeemed from it But wherefore insist I to refute this vain quarrelling of words which serves to no purpose So then this that I said is both in your Translation and ours in substance and is not contrary to that which I said afterward As for that place of Scripture which ye cite here Rev. 3.7 8. it is not spoken here of the Antichrist but of the persecution of the Roman Emperors As for that calumny of yours in calling our Bibles corrupted and augmented this is your sin M. Gilbert whereof one day ye shal make an account to the Majesty of God for the slandering and bearing false witness of the truth of God And to speak the truth this is true of you For both you have added to the Scriptures of God first the Apocrypha next your traditions which your Church hath decreed to be received with equal reverence and godliness with the Scripture Concil Trident. sess 4. thirdly the Decretal Epistles of your Popes which
was 630. Bishops Of Constantinople 6. Canon 36. anno 681. where there was 289. Bishops Of Nicene 2. Canon 1. anno 781. where was present 350. Bishops Of Constantinople 8. Canon 27. anno where was present 383. Bishops anno 870. Of the Council of Constance Sess 4.5 where was a thousand Fathers almost anno 1418. And of Basel Sess 2.18 anno 1431. all General Councils condemning your Popes Supremacy as your Church now affirms of him some more some less And also it is condemned by Provincial Councils as of Antioch Canon 6.12.13.14.15.19.20 and of Carthage 2. Canon 12. anno 404. and 3. confirmed in the General Council of Trullan Canon 26. and 6. and by the Council of Milevis Canon 22. condemned also by the Universities of Paris Appellat Univers Paris olione 10. ad futur Concil infastic rerum expe ca. fugi and Lovane Aeneas Sylvius de gestis Basil Concil lib. 1. and Colen and Vienna Histor de Europa cap. 22. and Cracovia Comer de rebus Polonorum lib. 21. So then by the authority of Councils General and Provincial and of Universities the Monarchie and Superioritie of the Pope over all General Councils is disallowed And suppose the Churches of France and Germany did honor them and gave them some preeminence both of honor and power being blinded at that time with the smoke that came out of the bottomless pit yet it may appear by their supplication ad Ludovicum 11. pro libertate Ecclesiae Gallicanae adversus Rom. aulam defensio Parisiensis curiae Gravamina nationis Germaniae exhibita Maxim 1. that they did not allow that full Monarchie of his but misliked it and hated the same yea France made laws against it in Conventu Bituricensi Now these are such whom your selves do hold for Catholicks and yet they acknowledged not the Monarchie of your Pope The Churches of Graecia and of Asia in the East Chalcon conc de reb Turc lib. 1. 6. and of Muscovia Jovius in Muscovia in the North and of Ethiopia in the South Alvarez in descriptione Aethiopiae cap. 77. 83. and of Boheme Aeneas Sylvius hist Bohem. cap. 32. Provence Sleydan comment lib. 16. Piemont M. Fox in the acts and monuments lib. 7. And the Reformed Churches that are this day in France Flanders England Scotland and so forth throughout Europe all have condemned your Popes Supremacie So that if his Supremacie were to be put to tryal by the judgement and will of men so many thousands of Pastors Doctors Synods Councils Universities and Churches through all ages in all Countreys of all sorts and estats may suffice to put the Pope from his Supremacie So that I think you may blush M. Gilbert that hath so boldly written that he hath been alwayes acknowledged by the visible Church to be the visible Head of the Church seeing his Monarchie was never fully acknowledged until the Lateran Council under Leo the 10. 1516. years after Christ But seeing the Word of God is the only just tryal of it and seeing it is not written in the book of life therefore I conclud that his Supremacie is not a citizen of that new Jerusalem but a child of Babel and therefore they are blessed that shal dash it against the stones M. Gilbert Brown That the Church at any time may be invisible it is repugnant to the Word of God in many places and to M. John also For he gives examples afterward of sundry as he saith that was of his Religion and opponed themselves to the Pope and his Clergy and that saith he when he was come to the hight If the true Church opponed its self to the Antichristian Church then it was visible and known and if it was known when the Popes Kingdom was at the highest much more when it was low and so it was always known by M. Johns self Master John Welsch his Reply Whether oppugn ye your own imagination M. Gilbert here or that which I write If the first then you are foolish who fight against your self as ye do indeed If the second then I say that which I said was this That no man should think that the Church of God was ever open and visible in that flowrishing estat as it is now For this is our doctrine concerning the invisibility of the Church the which because you know not therefore you stumble at it and oppugns only your own invention and not our doctrine and therefore your reasons and Scriptures which ye bring here serve to no purpose for they make nothing against us We say that the Catholick Church which comprehends all the elect is always invisible both because the principal part thereof is in heaven and also because the senses of men cannot discern who are true members of the Catholick Church here their effectual calling their faith love hope and inward graces their union with Christ their Head their spiritual armor weapons and warfare and their Head Christ Jesus and their whole glorie is inward and invisible and they shal never be seen all gathered together until that great day Ephes 5.25.26.27.32 Psal 45.13 John 10.27 2. Tim. 2.19 Luke 11.28 Matth. 7. Ephes 6.12 2. Cor. 12.3.4 So that suppose they may be seen outwardlie as they are men and sometimes in respect of their outward ministerie yet in so far as they are a part of the Catholick Church that is in so far as they are chosen and sanctified c. as hath been said they cannot be discerned by the senses of men and so are invisible Next we say that the particular visible Churches are not always in one outward estat sometimes outwardlie glorious sometimes more obscure sometimes openly known and seen by all sometimes known and seen but by a few sometimes frequent and consisting in many sometimes rare and consisting in few sometimes adorned with outward ornaments of peace largeness outward glory and multitude sometimes again wanting this outward glory under persecution but yet having that inward glory of these inward graces So that when we say these particular Churches are sometimes invisible we do not mean as though they were known to none for that is not our doctrine M. Gilbert as ye imagine but that they are not so openly known that they are patent to all to be the true Church but known unto them with whom they have to do and who profess the truth with them Yea sometimes some of them are known unto the very persecuters and enemies by their constancy and perseverance in their sufferings suppose they allow not their profession And in this state was the Church of Israel in the time of Elias when he complained that he knew none left but himself of the true worshippers of God 1. Kings 19.10 And the Church of Juda in the days of Achaz and Manasseh Kings of Judah 2. Chron. 28.24 2. Kings 16.10 And such like in the time of Christ both in the time of his living among them as also in the time of his death and resurrection the Church
in their own name because they were not truly sent of God And this is that saih he which is said now meaning in this place if any shal come in his own name that he is not truly sent of God neither hath Gods power So then a false Prophet is said both to come in the Name of God and in his own name In the Name of God falsly vaunting so in his own name because God sends him not but he intrudes himself without a lawfull calling Now to answer you then I say the Pope comes in the Name of Christ as his Vicare I grant he and his Clergy so vaunt but falsly For the truth is he hath come and he comes in his own name and that truly because the Lord never sent him but he hath intruded himself without God his calling therefore this cannot free him but he may be the Antichrist But how prove ye that he comes in Christ his Name and not in his own name Because say ye he calls himself the Vicar of Christ and the servant of the servants of God A pretty argument He so calls himself Ergo he is so Who will credit either you or him in your own cause Is this all ye can do for your Pope He is called so Ergo he is so Augustin saith Non attendamus ad linguam sed ad facta Tract 3 in Epist Joan. Let us not take heed to the tongue but to the deeds For if all be asked all with one mouth confess Christ let the tongue cease a little ask the life Interroga vitam and again whosoever denyes Christ factis by his deeds is Antichrist The idolaters of Ephesus might have reasoned so for their great Goddess Diana Acts 19.27 She is called a great Goddess Ergo she is so indeed And what false Prophet yet ever came but they said they came in the Name of God they called themselves and were called by these whom they deceived the servāts Prophets of the Lord Jer. 23.25 Ezec. 13.6.7 and yet will you frame this argument for them as you do for your Pope All the false Prophets said they came in the Name of God were called by these whom they deceived the servants of God therefore they came not in their own name but in the Name of God Did not the false Apostles in Ephesus say they were the Apostles of Christ yet they were found liars Rev. 2.2 And did not the Synagogue of Satan call themselves Jews and yet they blasphemed in so speaking Rev. 2.9 Doth not the Harlot with whom the Nations of the earth have committed fornication say in her heart she is a Queen Rev. 18.7 and yet she is that great Harlot Rev. 17 4. And is not her cup of gold and yet the drink therein is abomination And should not the Antichrist sit in the temple of God and yet he is the son of perdition and an adversary to God and to Jesus Christ 2. Thess 2.4 And said not the Devil of himself that all the Kingdoms of the world were given to him and he would give them to whom he would Matth. 4.8 9 and yet he was a liar So if this argument of yours will follow The Pope is called the Vicar of Christ and the servant of the servants of God therefore he came never in his own name and so he is not the Antichrist you may with as good reason conclud that the false Prophets and false Apostles came not in their own name but in the Name of God because they are called the servants of God both by themselves and also by these who were deceived by them Yea you may with as good reason conclud that the Antichrist is not the son of perdition and adversary to God 2. Thess 2.3.4 that all the Kingdoms of the world are given to the Devil and that he hath the power in his hand of giving them to whom he will because the Scripture fore-told of the one that he should have horns like the Lamb Rev. 17. and the other ascribes this right and power to himself Matth. 4.9 It is good therefore that you cannot defend your Pope from being the Antichrist unless with him also you defend all the false Prophets false Apostles false Churches the Antichrist and the Devil himself from being the thing which they are indeed But who will venter the salvation of their soul upon this so silly and foolish a reason But I pray you M. Gilbert let me ask you this Is your Pope the servant of the servants of God and the Vicar of Christ as he calls himself Dare you avow this in the presence of him who shal judge the quick and the dead that he is so as he calls himself Did ever Christ Jesus either tread upon the necks of Kings and Emperors with his feet Or was he ever lifted up and carried upon the shoulders of noble-men Or did he ever give his feet to Emperors to kiss as your Popes have done as your own Histories do witness And have ye ever read what one of his own Archbishops of Colen one of his own Religion writes to Pope Nicolaus the first five hundred years ago Speaking to him he saith Thou pretends the person of the Pope but thou playes the tyrant we feel under the habit of a Pastor a wolf the stile belyes the parent Thou vaunts thy self to be God by thy deeds while as thou art the servant of servants thou contends to be Lord of Lords according to the discipline of Christ our Savior thou art the least of all ministers of the Temple of God but thou by the ambition of ruling goes to ruine whatsoever likes thee is lawful Aventinus lib. 4. annalium This was evil in those dayes but there are worse since And what now Reader shal we say of the Pope since his own Archbishop hath so written of him You say he is the Vicar of Christ but Christ Jesus in his latter Testament did never leave him to be in his stead For in the 4. Ephes 11. He gave Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Doctors for the work of the ministery and the building of the body of Christ But that he ever left a Pope to be head of the Church in his stead to be a Monarch in this earth to reign in Rome and to be Lord over the servants of God there is not a syllable in the whole Book of God to prove it And because you say he is the servant of servants what service I pray you doth he whereby he makes it manifest that he is a servant indeed For the principal service of the Ministery of the Church stands in preaching the Word which he neither doth neither thinks that it appertains to him to do Yea what is it that appertains to any Lord King or Monarch in the earth that he ascribes not to himself and doth not also practise Yea as though that were too little what either stile or properties or works which are peculiar only to
for I think you would not have wished me to read that thing which ye your self believes not to be true I therefore read it and read it over again And beside many other things I find this in it that the Antichrist should be born of a Virgin by the help of the Devil as Christ was born of the Virgin by the work of the holy Ghost I wondered that you should have wished me to read that Book in the which there was so manifest an error and that contrary the doctrine of your own Church You should beware of this M. Gilbert for if your Head and Church get wit of it they will not only count you a bad defender of the Catholick Faith as you say you are but also it may be they suspect you of heresie who do wish your adversaries to read that Book wherein so manifest an error is and that against the doctrine of your own Church For who will think of you but that ye are of that same opinion your self seeing you are so earnest with others to read the same Bellarmin that great defender of your Catholick Faith was more wise then you in this point For first he saith lib. 3. de Rom. Pont. cap. 12. There is a manifest error in that treatise Next he saith It is certain that that treatise cannot be Augustins but it is probable saith he that it is Rabanus his work So to conclud this I assure you M. Gilbert I am of the same mind that I was concerning your Popes for all the reading of that work But I am not of the same mind towards you that I was before the reading of the same for either I think you have been very foolish in wishing me to read that which you believed not your self to be true or else that ye defend a manifest error not only against the truth but also against the doctrine of your own Church And let your Pope who is the bond of unity among you see to this how to reconcile you and Bellarmin two defenders of his Catholick Faith you saying that that work is Augustins and Bellarmin flatly denying it and affirming that it cannot be his you wishing your adversary to read it and Bellarmin confuting a manifest error in it But betwixt you be it Now this is all that you have said for the defense of your Pope which are but as figg leaves which cannot hide his nakedness Now I will let thee see Christian Reader what we have for us wherefore we affirm and teach and is ready also as thousands have done before us to seal it with our blood that the Popes of Rome are the Antichrist which the Scripture hath fore-told should come time hath made manifest and the Lord his mouth hath in a part consumed And first I will lay this ground which M. Gilbert cannot gain say and the conscience of all men will subscribe to That as the true Christ is sufficiently described in the Old and New Testament so the Antichrist is sufficiently described there also And as he is to be believed under the pain of the endless damnation of their souls to be the true Christ to whom the prophesies of the Old Testament concerning the Savior to come doth agree and of whom the New Testament testifieth that they are accomplished so he must be that Antichrist which the Scripture fore-told was to come to whom every one of the marks and properties of the Antichrist set down in the same do agree and in whom they are found to be accomplished Let us therefore out of the Scripture search the marks of the Antichrist and then let us see whether their Popes of Rome be stamped with these marks or not I speak not now of the many Antichrists whereof John speaks 1. John 2.18 which were fore-runners of that great defection which was fore-told should come in the Church of God but of that chief and great Antichrist who not in one or two things only but almost in all the points of his Religion should be contrary to Jesus Christ whom these places of Scripture 1. John 4.3 2. Thess 2. Rev. 11.13.17.18 do describe And while as I affirm that the Popes of Rome are this great Antichrist I understand it thus That they are the Prince and Head of that defection and apostasie which the Scripture fore-shew and fore-told was to come in the Church For I do not think that all the strength and force of the Antichrist is included in the Pope but the Pope and his Kingdom which is contrary to the Kingdom of Christ is most truly called the Antichrist whereof because the Pope is the Prince and Head therefore by that figure taking the part for the whole I call him the Antichrist And in this we follow the Scripture for the Scripture speaking of the Antichrist sometimes calls it a defection and a mystery of iniquity and the second beast that hath horns like the Lamb and the Harlot and sometimes points out the principal and chief in this Kingdom on whom the whole body of iniquity doth hang as when he writes here the man of sin and son of perdition which is an adversary who extolls himself above all c. which is most properly spoken not of the body but of the Head Having shown now in what sense we take the Antichrist we will go to the matter And first to that 2. Thess 2.3.4 where he is described and that by no dark prophesies as you say but by plain sayings First therefore the Scripture calls him there a man of sin a son of perdition The which to be accomplished in your Popes your own Histories Cardinals Councils Favorers Friers Friends and themselves do sufficiently testifie So that if they speak true of themselves which you cannot deny then of all the monsters that ever the earth hath born some of your Popes have been the greatest monsters For in this point M. Gilbert we deal not with you as ye deal with us for ye cite our enemies as witnesses of us which should have no credit and we cite your own friends and these of your own Religion So that they shal be fetched out as witnesses against you in this point whether your Popes be the men of sin and sons of perdition or not What Commandment is there of the first or second Table which they have not violated in the highest degree 1. Whoremongers 2. Adulterers 3. Sodomits 4. Incestuous 5. Fosterers and maintainers of harlots 6. Tyrants 7. Devilish and Sorcerers 8. In pride passing all creatures under heaven 9. Atheists without God 10. Perjured 11. Burreaus 12. Bawds and merchants of whores 13. Sacrilegious 14. Traitors 15. Seditious 16. Blasphemous 17. Parricides 18. Poysoners of Emperors Senators Cardinals yea of their own parents and sisters 19. Helpers of the Turks 20. Drunkards 21. Simoniacks 22. Monsters 23. Bastards 24. Arrians 25. Idolaters 26. And so contentious that sometimes there was two sometimes three and sometimes four all Popes striving for the Popedom together
Antichrist is called an adversary that is opposed and contrary to God and that not in life only but in doctrine Religion and government and that not in one point only but almost in all the substantial points thereof The which mark the Popes of Rome bear and that not only in their lives but also in the whole substantial points of Religion And to make this clear besides that which hath been spoken we shal compare the doctrine of Jesus Christ and the government of his Kingdom set down in the Scripture with the doctrine of the Popes and the manner of their government that the contrariety of them may be known so that it shal be seen that cold is no more contrary to heat and black to white then Papism to Christianity and the Religion of the Church of Rome to the Religion of Christ Jesus The doctrine of Christ stands especially in these two things in the knowledge of his person and in the knowledge of his offices And therefore the Apostle saith I desire to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified 1. Cor. 2.2 And Christ himself saith It is life eternal to know thee to be the only true God and whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ John 17 3. The doctrine of the Popes of Rome overthrows both And first to prove this concerning his person the Scripture testifies that Jesus Christ is conceived of the substance of the Virgin Mary and that he hath but one true body made of the seed of David and of the seed of the woman Rom. 1.3 Gal. 4. 4 and not many and that he is like unto us in all things except sin Heb. 2.17 The doctrine of the Church of Rome is that Christ Jesus his body is made of the bread and wine in the Sacrament their doctrine makes him to have as many bodies as there is bits of bread in the Sacrament and not to be like his brethren in all things except sin Bellar. lib. 3. de Eucharistia fol. 399. Pope John 22. lib. orat in scr antidotarius animae for his brethren can be but in one place at once with their own due proportion visibly But their doctrine of Transubstantiation makes him to be both in heaven and earth at once in heaven visibly in earth invisibly in heaven with his own quantity and proportion in earth without his natural proportion and not in one place of the earth only but in innumerable places thereof at once so that this main foundation of mans salvation without the which there is no eternal life concerning the truth of Christs manhood made of the woman is utterly defaced and overthrown by the doctrine of the Popes of Rome in making him to have infinit bodies not made of the feed of the woman but of bread and wine or at the least made of two diverse substances And as they overthrow the doctrine of his person so they overthrow the doctrine of his offices His offices are three a Prophet a Priest and a King which are all overthrown by them As he is a Prophet he hath revealed his Fathers whole will unto his servants John 1.18 and hath left it in register in his latter Testament and hath forbidden to add empair or to alter the same Deut. 4.2 and hath pronounced a wo a curse unto them that adds empairs or alters the same Rev. 22.18 Gal. 1.8 and that because it is sufficient to make a man wise unto salvation and to make the man of God perfect unto every good work 2. Tim. 3.15.16 and because it is pure and perfect and easie to all them that will understand it Prov. 8.9 Psal 19.8.9 13. 119. But they have many wayes corrupted this Testament of Christ by mingling and adulterating the same First in that they give divine authority to the Books called Apocrypha which are humain Concil Trident. Sess 4. Next in receiving and commanding others to receive traditions with equal reverence and affection with the Scripture Thirdly in their corrupt Latin translation which they have made authentical which some of themselves confess have missed sometimes the meaning of the holy Ghost Bud. annot prior in Pandect Andrad lib. 4. Arias Montanus Tom. 8. Bibl. Reg. in praefat Fourthly in joyning with the Commandments of God their own commandments and that not as things indifferent but as necessary to salvation Concil Trident. Sess 6 cap. 10. Fifthly in condemning all sense and meaning of the holy Scripture but that which they hold themselves Sess 4. Last of all in quarrelling the Scripture of imperfection obscurity and ambiguity calling it dead and dumb like a nose of wax They therefore who have altered added and corrupted the Testament of Jesus Christ confirmed by his death which he hath left in writ for to instruct his Church in all things and to make her wise to salvation and perfect to every good work doth spoil the Lord Jesus of his Prophetical office But the doctrine of the Church of Rome hath done so Ergo they spoyl Jesus Christ of his Prophetical office Thirdly they are no less sacrilegious and injurious to his Priesthood His Priesthood stands in two things First in purchasing unto us by the vertue of that one sacrifice once offered up upon the Cross an everlasting redemption Next in making continual intercession for us with his Father Heb. 9.11.12 15.24.25.26.27.28 the which both are overthrown by the doctrine of the Church of Rome As to the first it is overthrown many wayes as first our Savior saith That his soul was sorrowful unto the death and that he swat drops of blood Matth. 26.37.38 and he sent up strong cryes and supplications with tears in the dayes of his flesh Heb. 5.7 Luke 22.44 and therefore he thrise upon his knees prays That if it had been possible that cup might be removed from him Matth. 27.39 And upon the Cross through the sense and feeling of that wrath he breaks forth in that complaint My God my God why hast thou forsaken me All which do testifie that he suffered more then a common death to wit the terrors of the wrath of God which was due to the sins of all the elect But the doctrine of the Church of Rome ranverseth this doctrine of our salvation and teacheth that Christ suffered not the wrath of God upon his soul which if it be true then Christ hath not payed our debt sufficiently for our debt was not only the natural death of the body but the wrath of God upon the soul and therefore the Scripture saith The soul that sinneth shal die the death Ezech. 18.20 Secondly the Scripture testifieth that Christs death and blood is a sufficient ransom for our sins and a sufficient satisfaction unto the justice of God Heb. 10.10.14 John 19.28 1. Tim. 2.6 1. Pet. 2.24 1. John 1.7 They by the contrary joyn to his satisfaction the satisfactions of men both in this life and in the life to come in Purgatory and that not only for their own sins but for
verissimum regnum hoc Ε χ χ λ η.  5 20 20 30 8  σ ι α Ι Ï„ α. 200 10 1 10 300 1 λ ι η α.   30 10 20 1   habet vocabulum Latini enim sunt qui nunc regnant And as the letters of this Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 amounteth to this number 666. so doth the letters of these Latin words Ecclesia Italica written in Greek letters and of the Hebrew word ROMIITH that signifieth R O M I 200 6 40 10 I TH   10 400   Romam Is not this much now that this number of 666 agrees to the name of the Papistical Kingdom both in Hebrew Greek and Latin In Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Latin in Hebrew ROMIITH that is Rome in Latin Ecclesia Italica that is the Italian Church For Italie is called Latium that is Latin What more would any man require Will not this suffice to make it manifest that the Popes are the Antichrist to whom every thing prophesied of the Antichrist by the Apostle Paul and this Revelation of the second Beast do so fitly agree So that there can be none under heaven unto whom they can be applyed but only to the Popes of Rome But yet for the full manifestation of this point we will go to the 17. of the Revelation For as his Kingdom was figured under a Beast that had two horns like the Lamb in the 13. chapter so there is the principal throne and seat of his Kingdom figured under a great harlot with whom the Kings and Nations of the earth have committed fornication The which harlot is most gloriously decked and richly apparelled Who hath a cup of gold in her hand full of abomination in whose fore-head a name is written A Mystery that Babylon that mother of whoredoms who is drunken with the blood of the Saints and Martyrs of Jesus which is that great city which reigneth over the Kings of the earth which sitteth upon seven mountains For the maintenance of whose Kingdom ten Kings yeelded up their power and authority to fight against the Lamb and to overcome him That this great City is the City of Rome it is so plain that he is more then blind that sees it not For what City did reign over the Nations when this Revelation was received but Rome And what City since the Pope clamb up to his Kingdom hath done the same but Rome And what City sitteth upon seven hills but Rome whose names are yet known As testifieth Capitolinus Palatinus Aventinus Caelius Exquilinus Quirinalis Viminalis And what City hath been the mother of all spiritual and bodily fornication of all idolatry and abomination but Rome Yea what City hath been so enriched with gold purple and precious stones but Rome And what City hath been drunken with the blood of the Martyrs and Saints but Rome All these things are so manifest that not only some of the Fathers as Jerome in praefat ad Didymum in Epist ad Algasium and Tertullian contra Marci lib. 13. advers Judaeos cap. 9. saw it But some of themselves confess it that this Babylon is Rome Both Bellarmin grants it plainly and also the Rhemists do not deny it For that great Jesuit Bellarmin saith lib. 1. cap. 2. That John in the Revelation every where calls Rome Babylon and confirms this first by the testimony of Tertullian and then by the circumstances of the text For saith he there was no other City at that time that did reign over the Nations but Rome And it is most notorious saith he that Rome sits on seven hills Lib. 4. cap. 4. What now would ye have more And in another place It appears saith he that in the time of the Antichrist Rome shal be made desolat and shal be burnt as it is gathered out of the 17. of the Revelation and this shal not be until the end of the world These are plain speeches And I say this great City of Rome which is called here mystical Babylon is not described here as she was the seat of the Heathen Emperors when they reigned in her as the Roman Church saith but as she is and hath been the seat of the Antichrist For in the time of the Emperors she made not the Kings of the earth commit fornication with her that is she did not pollute them with her idolatry and Religion as it is fore-told of this Rome for she left every Kingdom free to use their own Idolatry and superstition But Rome since she began to be the throne and seat of the Antichrist the Popes of Rome have propagated her idolatry and worship to all Nations and have made all Nations drunken with the wine of her fornication and have obtruded her Religion to all Nations against their will with fire and sword And from thence have proceeded all the wars and blood-sheds in many Nations of Europe because they did go out of her and departed from their idolatry Further all the parts of her description here agrees to Rome having the show of Christianity and not as she was Heathen under the Heathen Emperors as that purple and scarlet wherewith she was clad that gilding with gold and precious stones and pearls which the Archbishop of Ratisbon Albertus Magnus and the Gloss interprets of the simulation of piety and meekness the spiritual graces of God as faith hope charity all which say they she shal in hypocrisie pretend but yet in truth have nothing such but cruelty and ungodliness the which can no wayes agree with Rome as she was in her Gentilism therefore of necessity Papistical Rome is here described and not Heathen Rome Thirdly that Rome is here described which was upholden by the Beast unto whom the ten Kings yeelded up their power to fight against the Lamb as is manifest by the 12. and 13 verses of that 17 chapter But this Beast is not the Empire of Rome but the Antichristian Kingdom for these ten Kings had not received their Kingdoms all that time that the Roman Emperors were Heathen and long after Therefore Rome as it is the seat of the Antichrist and not as it was the seat of the Roman Empire is here descrybed And the Rhemists say in their annotations upon this place that some expons these ten Kings of ten Kingdoms into which the Roman Empire shal be divided which shal all serve Antichrist therefore Rome as it is here described mâ—st be the seat of the Antichrist Last of all the Revelation speaks here of that Rome that shal be burnt with fire and be made desolat by the ten Kingdoms which God should stir up to hate her and he speaks here of that Rome which shal be casten in the midst of the sea after the which shal follow the day of Judgement But this cannot be Rome as it was the seat of the Roman Empire but as it is the seat of the Antichristian Kingdom for it is more then a thousand years since
of Rome he saith They only desire to reign They cannot abide peace They will not cease till they have stamped all under their feet that they may sit in the Temple of God and be lifted up above all that is called God or that is worshipped He who is the servant of servants is the Lord of Lords and desires to be thought of as if he were God And he saith That man whom they use to call Antichrist he speaketh great things as though he were God in whose fore-head that name of blasphemie is written I am God I cannot err Franciscus Petrarcha a light of that age for his manifold learning calls the Court of Rome Babylon and that harlot of Babel that sitteth upon many waters the mother of Idolatry and whoredom the refuge of heresies and errors And Petrus Joannes pronounced the Pope to be the Antichrist and the synagogue of Rome to be that great Babylon And Matthias Parisiensis saith That Antichrist hath seduced all the Universities and Colledges of the learned so that they teach nothing soundly now And the Edict of the Empire under Lodowick the fourth speaking of Pope John the 22. saith Christians cannot keep the peace which is given them of God for this Antichrist meaning the Pope And in another Edict it is written As he is a disaguised Pastor so is he a mystical Antichrist and we declars him being the author of that Antichristian Empire to be damned of heresie and deposed by our right by the Council sentence and common consent of the Princes and Prelats of Germanie the Priests of Italie and people of Rome so desiring And Aventinus in the history of Hildebrand writes That almost all the plain just simple and upright have written that then to wit when he was Pope the Empire of the Antichrist began because they saw that come to pass at that time which our Savior fore-told so many years before And to conclud this Hadrian the 6. Pope in his instructions of his Legats to the Convention at Norimberg he saith Thou shalt say that we grant freely that God hath suffered this persecution to come upon the Church for the sins of men and especially of the Priests and Prelats of the Church And again he saith We know that in this seat speaking of that Pontifical seat in Rome many abominable things have been for some years as abuse in spiritual things excess in commandments and last of all all things changed in worse And the Popes Cardinals speaking to Paul the third say From this fountain holy Father as from the Trojan horse so many abuses have rushed into the Church and so heavy diseases wherewith as we may see she is brought into a disperat estat I omit the rest Ye may see the truth is strong that hath made their own mouthes to fyle themselves To conclud this then He must be the undoubted Antichrist and his Kingdom Antichristian unto whom the whole markes of the Antichrist as he is described in the Scripture by the Apostle Paul and John in the Revelation doth agree But they all agree unto the Popes of Rome and his Kingdom as hath been proved Therefore they must be that undoubted Antichrist who was to come Secondly he must be that undoubted Antichrist whom his own Friers Bishops Cardinals and some of themselves do call Antichrist and ascribe these things unto him that belongs properly to the Antichrist But his own Friers Bishops Cardinals and some of themselves have so testified as hath been proved also Therefore out of their own mouthes they are condemned to be that Antichrist and their Kingdom Antichristian Now to put an end to this my reply That Religion is false which hath neither unity succession nor antiquitie this you cannot deny because you make them the marks of your Church But your Religion hath neither unity for that is broken by your manifold contradictions and dissentions among your selves whereof I have marked some and the diligent Reader of your works may gather many mo Chrachtovius in his book called Bellum Jesuiticum hath gathered of two heads to wit the Mass and Antichrist 205. contradictions let the Christian Reader judge then what may be gathered of the rest no succession neither personal broken by their Popes who was Atheists Schismaticks Hereticks and by a woman Pope neither in doctrine being direct contrary to the doctrine of Christ no antiquitie for the authors and origine of sundry main points of your Religion is set down here and all your Roman Clergy have not satisfied M. Jewels challenge these thirty years ago concerning the novelty of twenty and seven of your opinions Therefore since it hath neither unity succession nor antiquity it is a false Religion by your own doctrine Secondly that Religion which is contrary the Scripture contrary the practise of the primitive Church which opens a door to all licentiousness which can bring no true peace and consolation unto the consciences of men which blusheth to be known and made manifest which maintaineth many great absurdities horrible blasphemies abominable idolatry that is the doctrine of Antichrist and the doctrine of Devils which by their own mouthes is condemned must be erroneous and false But the Religion of the Church of Rome is such as hath been evidently proved before therefore it must be false Wo therefore belongeth to their souls that profess it openly or secretly REVEL 14.8 And there followed another Angel saying Babylon is fallen is fallen that great City because she made all Nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication Vers 9. And the third Angel followed them saying with a loud voyce If any man worship the beast and his image and receive his mark in his fore-head or in his hand Vers 10. The same shal drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is powred out without mixture into the cup of his indignation and he shal be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb Vers 11. And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever And they have no rest day nor night who worship the beast and his image and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name FINIS A BRIEF DISCOVERY OF THE BLOODY REBELLIOUS AND TREASONABLE Principles and Practises of Papists Wherein is evidently demonstrated That they teach and commit Treasons and Rebellions against the lives of Princes and peace of Nations and dissolve the obligation of all Oaths and Bonds and making Perjury and Rebellion duties and meritorious works they have been the Authors of Warrs Commotions and Combustions both before and ever since the Reformation in Kingdoms and Common-wealths and have used unparalleled cruelty and unheard-of inhumanity towards Protestants where ever they had the upper-hand And the excuses of H.T. the Author of the Manual of Controversies are evidenced to be false and frivolous 2. Tim. 3.1 In the last dayes perillous times shal come For men shal be lovers of their
of Bohemia in his slead Hence ensued a great and bloody war and the Emperor Ludovicus Bavarus was poysoned by Pope Clement as some Authors write And how Benedict the 13. excommunicat Charles the 6. of France and how Pope Julius the 2. excommunicat Lewis the 12. King of France and puts the Kingdom to interdict excommunicats the Venetians giveth their Dominions to any that will take them driveth the Bentivogli out of Bononia excommunicats the Duke of Ferrara and invades his Countrey by arms going to war in his own person makes the English Spaniards and Switzers to fall upon the French takes many Imperial Cities excommunicats the King of Navarre and giveth his Kingdom to the King of Arragon who upon that invades and takes it and possesseth it to this day It is thought that this Pope was the death of 200000. Christians in seven years XI But passing these I shal come to the time of the Reformation happily begun by Luther at which time we find Clement the 7. the great fomenter of the war between the Emperor and the French King joyning sometimes with the one and sometimes with the other and playing false with both He thundered out his excoÌ„munications against King Henry the 8. the which his successor Paul the 3. confirmed but it did him no harm XII I shal show more particularly afterward how Pope Pius the 5. excommunicated Queen Elizabeth and stirred up not only her own subjects but also the King of Spain against her who prepared a great Navy to invade England anno 1588. yea this Pope was so active in raising war against Queen Elizabeth that when he published the Bull he laid down an hundred thousand crowns to raise war and promised fifty thousand more yea and to bear the whole charge of the war He also used all means to stir Spain France and the Netherlands against England XIII Gregory the 13. who succeeded to Pius the 5. was no less active in plotting and stirring up war against Queen Elizabeth for he gave to Thomas Stukly a commission to help the Irish rebells and get the Kingdom of Ireland for James Boncompagnon his own bastard son and gave him the command of eight hundred Italians to joyn with Sebastian King of Portugal who had engaged to the Pope to serve him with his whole forces against Queen Elizabeth and had raised a great army for that expedition But when Stukly came to the King of Portugal he was upon a new design to wit to help a Moor King of Fez against another Moor King who kept him out of possession and to get the Kingdom from them both to which war he invited Stukly promising immediatly after that work was done which he held forth as most easie they should accomplish the Popes desire So they sailed over to Africa where the King of Portugal and his whole army were destroyed and with him Stukly and the Popes Italian souldiers XIV The Pope had a great hand in the unparalelled massacre of Paris anno 1572. for neither his predecessor Pius the 5. nor himself would consent to the marriage by reason of their difference in Religion while the Cardinal of Lorain told him that it was intended as a trap to destroy the Protestants then presently he granted a dispensation for celebrating of it and gave all encouragement to the design and when the news of the massacre came to Rome there was nothing but triumphing and joy and Cardinal Ursin was sent to France to coÌ„mend extol the Kings piety and wisdom in that great action and to bestow blessings and spiritual graces upon the King the Duke of Guise and the rest of the Actors of this horrid Tragedy Not long after this Pope sent to Henry the 3. the French King and to his people Indulgences for millions of yeaâ—s if they would be diligent and zealous in extirpation of Protestants XV. This Pope laid a claim to the Kingdom of Portugal all the males being extinct as depending from the See of Rome and would have the Kingdom rising in arms for him against the heir from the females but his claim was rejected XVI In the year 1580. he made a new assay upon Ireland for he sent an Italian called San Josepho with some Italian troups there to joyn with the Irisâ— Rebels for gaining the Kingdom to his Bastard or else to the King of Spain XVII About the year 1588. Pope Sixtus the 5. to favor the enterprise of Philip the 2. King of Spain renewed the excommunication of Queen Elizabeth pronounced by Pope Pius the 5. deprived her of her Kingdom absolved her subjects from all allegiance to her and gave plenary Indulgence to all that would make war against her whereupon followed that great Armado of Spain which the Lord in mercy did wonderfully discomfit XVIII This Pope did also excommunicat King Henry the 3. of France and absolved his subjects from their allegiance although he was a Papist and was a plotter of the Massacre of Paris yet because he did not zealously enough prosecute the Popes design in rooting out Protestants and was no friend to the holy League he was excommunicat whereupon many of his subjects rebelled against him especially the City of Paris and he was slain upon that account by a Dominican Frier which action was highly commended by the Pope as we told you before in a full Consistory at Rome and forbade that any should pray for his soul for the Pope was not content that he had slain the King by his Bull but would also damn his soul XIX His successor Gregory the 14. excommunicated King Henry the 4 of France forbidding all Peers Noblemen Cities and Commons to yeeld him obedience and declaring him incapable of the Crown as an heretick and a relaps Pope Clement the 8. did the same over again and although many of the French did adhere to him yet the City of Paris and the Guisian faction did violently oppose him and would not acknowledge him for King and several attempts were made to take away his life first by a woman next by Peter Barriere and thirdly by John Chastel all denying him to be King because excommunicat by the Pope And although he turned Papist and procured absolution from the Pope yet it was his death for Ravillac who killed him alledged at his examination that the King was an heretick in his heart and deserved to be slain as an enemy of the Church XX. Pope Paul the 5. was as turbulent as his predecessors as witnesseth his quarrels with the State of Venice which he excommunicated and put their State in interdict because they had stopt by Edict the giving of lands to the Church About the beginning of this Popes reign was that hellish Gun-powder plot hatched at Rome and should have been effectuat in England by blowing up the King Prince Nobles and Commons all at one blow This horrid treason was the fruit and effect of the Popes Bulls for not only was Queen Elizabeth excommunicat once and again
desperat propounders and ring-leaders of that treason against King James and Prince Henry at his coming to England for which the said Watson and Clerk suffered the reward of traitors So that H. T. and other Papists are not to be believed for they will say any thing maintain any assertion that they may make for the advancement of their cause 3. What is the matter although they pretend to grant to the King all that the Sorbon Doctors and Parliament of Paris grant yea what although they profess to swear their allegiance are we the safer seeing they change their principles according as they see occasion and seeing they hold that the Pope can dispense with any oath even after they have taken it as I have proven before And did not Parsons and Campian anno 1580. notwithstanding of their strict oath to obey the Pope in all things procure a dispensation to free all Catholicks from obeying the Popes own declaratory Bull of excommunication against Queen Elizabeth till a better opportunity So you see they can get a dispensation from the Popes own Bull if they find it not seasonable What oath then will bind them especially to these they account heretical For that is one of their principles No faith is to be kept to hereticks as we shewed you They can change themselves Proteus-like in any form When there is no remedy they will yeeld to any thing But when they see their time they will do any thing I shal close all with the testimony of two great Doctors and Bishops in King James time the first whereof is Doctor Andreus Bishop of Winchester who in a sermon on Nov. 5. 1616. speaking of the reason that Bellarmin gives why the primitive Christians did not rise up against persecuting Emperors id fuit quia deerant vires He makes this collection that is as much as to say if they now in these days be so as they were then and carry themselves quietly it is quia non sunt vires and to hold no longer then donec erunt And then you are like to hear of them to have them go again with such another birth Ye shal have them as myld as Gregory the first when they have no strength But as fierce as Gregory the 7. when they have and afterwards thus See ye not next under God whereto to ascribe your safety even to non erant vires there is a point hangs on that for while that lasts while ye keep them there ye shal have the primitive Church of them have them to ly as quiet as still as ever did the barrels in the vault till vires like fire come to them and then off go they then nothing but depose Kings dispose of Kingdoms assoil subjects arm them against their Soveraigns then do they care not what But if the powder take not fire then shal you straight have books tending to mitigation then all quiet again certainly thus standing it were best to hold them in defectu virium to provide ut ne sint to keep them at non sunt vires till time they be better minded in this point and we have good assurance of it for minded as they are they want no will no virus they tell us what the matter is strength they want they write it they print it and si adessent vires they would act it in earnest Thus he The second is Doctor Prideaux in a Sermon on Nov. the 5. who having reckoned up a Catalogue of the damnable doctrines of Popery professeth to have done it To make it appear to these that would willingly be better perswaded of their doctrine that the doctrine it self directly warranteth treason Let the traitors be what they will and that none can be an absolut Papist but if he throughl◠understand himself and live under a Christian Prince that hath renounced the Popes authority must needs being put unto it be an absolut traitor Thus I hope ye have it proved both from their principles and practise that if Popery or Papists get any strength or footing in a Kingdom it will tend undoubtedly to the ruine of both King and Kingdom Yet the Papists are grown so impudent of late as to charge the Protestants integrity of rebellion and rebellious principles and excuse their own rebellious principles As in a Treatise intituled Philanax Anglicus dedicated to the Archbishop of Canterbury But Peter du Moulin hath learnedly answered it And truly herein they deal with us as Verres did with Tully Verres himself was a very notorius thief and knew that Cicero had much against him in that kind and therefore he knavishly and impudently calls Cicero the thief first though a very true man and noble Orator It is just so in this case Now I pray what case may both King and Kingdom expect to be in if Papists get any strength or power Have they not given infinit proofs both of old and late of their rebellious disposition and treasonable practises SECTION V. Containing some instances in particular of the barbarous and inhumane cruelty of Papists to Protestants where they had the power over them I Have hitherto shown that both the principles and practises of Papists tend to treasons rebellions war and blood-shed I shal in this Section to detect their cruelty give some instances in particular of their barbarous inhumane cruelty to Protestants where ever they get power authority or the upper-hand over them This is so well known that none that knows any thing of History are ignorant of it Ought ever the sad and deplorable case of England in Queen Maries time to be forgotten when either the soul behoved to be ruined by Idolatry or else the body to be burnt in a fire This was an unanswerable Dilemma either soul or body must perish How many hūdreds of Martyrs were burnt in one year all the Countrey over Their inhumane cruelties executed on Protestants are so many and terrible that they would make up many Volumes and make the hair to stand and the ears to tingle What greater torments are imaginable then is used in the Inquisition of Spain and Italy as it is described by M. Clerk in his Martyrologie But that the Reader may know ex ungue leonem their cruel and inhumane carriage to Protestants I shal set down a few instances I shal begin with the Waldenses in Provence against whom Meinerus President of Oppede anno 1545. raised war coming to Cabriers in which there were only 60. poor sick pesants who offered to open the gates and quite the Countrey leaving all their goods behind them but he entering the town caused all the men to be brought in a field and to be cut in pieces The souldiers striving who should show the best manhood in cutting of heads arms and leggs The women he caused to be locked in a barn with much straw and so put fire to it where many women great with child were burnt One souldier moved with pitie opening a hole in the wall that