Hereticks Pope Julius II. afterwards confirms this Constitution of his Predecessor as to all the Punishments contain'd in it Excommunicates and Curses all Persons Ecclesiastical and Secular of what Dignity soever though Kings who shall offend against that Constitution and Decrees that they shall have their Portion and Damnation with Dathan and Abiron The Damnation then intended and threatned in this Impious Bull of Pius V. as in other Papal Bulls of the like nature is not only some Temporal loss and damage though that also be included and expressed but the Eternal Damnation of Body and Soul Which further appears by that Famous or indeed Infamous Erroneous and Ridiculous Constitution of Boniface VIII wherein having said That there is but one Catholick Church out of which there is no Salvation and that our Blessed Saviour made Peter and his Successors his Vicarij Vice-Gerents and Heads of that Church he adds That whoever are not of that Church and in Subjection and Obedient to the Pope can have no Salvation And Pius V. in this very Bull expresly says the same For 1. He says That out of the Apostolick Church he means evidently his own Roman Church there is no Salvation 2. He Declares Queen Elizabeth an Heretick that she and all her Adherents had Incurr'd an Anathema and Malediction were Excommunicate and cut off from the Body of Christ. So that Queen Elizabeth and all her Loyal Protestant Subjects who never were nor could be as without great Error and Impiety they could not subject to the Pope nor Members of his Apostolical Church are by this Bull Eternally Damn'd 4. But this is not all for we have greater Evidence that by the word Damnation in their Bulls wherein all Hereticks Protestants you may be sure who without Truth or Charity they call so are Curs'd and Excommunicated they do and must mean Eternal Damnation For 1. Pope Leo. X. in the Lateran Council which with them is General and Oecumenial innovates and establisheth with the Approbation and Consent of that Council the aforesaid Doctrine and Constitution of Pope Boniface VIII 2. The Trent Council does so too and absolutely Anathematizes and Damns all those who do not believe their whole new Creed in which there is not one true Article but all Erroneous many Superstitious and Impious and tells us It is the Catholick Faith without the belief of which no man can be saved and swear firmly to believe it to their last breath and Anathematize all who do not And which is further very considerable and pertinent to confirm what is abovesaid they do in that Oath promise vow and swear to receive and imbrace All Things delivered defined and declared in their General Councils and All the Constitutions of their Church For these Particulars are parts of that new Creed to the Belief and Profession of which they are sworn And the Trent Council it self as well as the Pope in that Creed requires that they make such a Profession Whence it evidently follows that all their Bishops all Regulars of what Order soever who are provided of Monasteries Religious Houses c. All Canons and Dignitaries in their Church all who have any Cure of Souls and all who profess and teach any of the Liberal Arts c. for all these are required to take that Oath are sworn to receive believe and profess all the Desinitions of the Lateran Council under Leo. X. and the Constitution of Pope Boniface VIII which denounces Damnation to all those who submit not to the Pope and imbrace not their Popish Religion and hence it further and as evidently follows that not only Queen Elizabeth but all good Protestants then and ever since who neither did nor without great Error and Impiety could so submit to their Popes or believe their New Creed are by their Papal and uncharitable Divinity Eternally Damn'd So that it is not only some Temporal mischief or loss but the Eternal Damnation of Body and Soul which is threatned and Declared to be the Effect and Inevitable Consequence of this against Queen Elizabeth and such other Excommunications of those whom they call Hereticks 4. In the beginning of this Impious Bull we are told by the Pope That our Blessed Saviour committed the Government of His Church with all plenitude and fulness of Power to Peter and his Successors And that we might know how great the Power was over all Kings and Kingdoms he miserably misapplies a Text in Jeremy and says That our blessed Saviour did Constitute Peter alone a Prince over All Nations and All Kingdoms to Pull up and Throw down to Dissipate and Destroy to Plant and Build in Ordine ad Spiritualia in Order to the Salvation of his Faithful People so that if we may believe this Infallible Expositor the same Power which God gave Jeremy over all Nations and Kingdoms to pull up and destroy them the very same did our blessed Saviour give to Peter and his Successors Nor is Pius V. the only Pope who makes use of that Text to prove their extravagant Papal Power over Kings Pope Alexander III. having told some of his Brethren how the Emperor held his Stirrup when he mounted his Palfrey In his next Constitution having said That the Diligence of the Bishops and Pastors was necessary to pull up and cut off Hereticks and wicked men in the Church he Cites the place of Jeremy to prove it and says That the Power over Nations and Kingdoms to pull up cast down and destroy was Given to Jeremy and In Him to the Evangelical Priest to Peter and his Successors as he there expresly explains it And Pope Paul III. tells us That he was Vicar of Christ our blessed Saviour and plac'd in the Throne of Justice Above All Kings in the whole World According to the Prophecy of Jeremy And then Cites the words of Jeremy before mention'd And to omit others Pope Boniface VIII Cites the same Text though to as little purpose to the same end to prove the Popes power above Kings so as to punish and depose them And before him Innocent III. in his wild and irrational Epistle to the Emperor of Constantinople Cites the same Text of Jeremy and another Gen. 1. 16. more impertinent if that be possible to prove the vast Power of Popes above all Kings and Emperors By all which Papal Bulls and Constitutions as by many others of the like nature it may evidently appear that they challenge a Power to depose Kings and that they bring the Text of Jeremy as a ground and proof of it But although their Popes brag That they have all Laws in the Archives of their own breasts and that they are Supream and Infallible Judges in all Controversies of Faith yet their whole Discourse and Deductions from the Text of the Prophet Jeremy is inconsequent and indeed ridiculous and no way concerns either Peter or any of his
Vniverse of the whole World it follows That all Kings and Emperors are his Subjects and he their Supream Lord and Sovereign and so far greater in Power then any one or all of them together And least we should mistake and undervalue his Papal Greatness Pope Innocent the Third told the Emperor of Constantinople and has told us in the Body of their approved and received Law That the Pope is as much greater then the Emperor as the Sun is greater then the Moon And here the Author of the Gloss Bernardus de Botono a great Lawyer but no good Astronmer tells us That the Sun is 47. times greater then the Moon and so by that Computation the Pope is 47. times greater then the Emperor This is pretty well and gives so vast a Magnitude to the Pope above the Emperor that a man would think it might satisfie his Ambition so that he needed not ask nor his greatest Flatterers give him more Yet they do give much more For in a Marginal Note on the said Chapter in their most Correct Editions of their Law we are told That the Sun is greater then the Moon Quinquagies Septies 57. times and so the Pope so much greater then the Emperor But this is not all Laurentius a Canonist in the same place tells us That it is evident that the Sun is 7744 ½ greater then the Moon and so the Pope omitting the Fraction Seaven thousand seaven hundred and forty four times greater then the Emperor This is so prodigiously erroneous and impious as none save their most Holy and Infallible Guide could be guilty of such Error and Impiety But a Learned Roman Catholick who understood Astronomy and the Magnitude of the Sun much better then the Pope or his Parasites seriously tells us that the Sun is greater then the Moon 6539. times And so by the Popes Logick and Decretal Definition and the Computation of his best Artists he must be 6539. times greater then the Emperor Monstrous Pride and Ignorance which is so far from proving him to be our blessed Saviours Vicar that it evidently proves him to be that Man of Sin the great Antichrist who exalts himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above all Kings and Emperors Certainly Antichrist cannot exalt himself more then to declare to the World as the Pope here does in his Publick Laws and Constitutions that he is 6539. times greater then any King or Emperor So that although St. Paul and Peter too acknowledged the Emperors Power Supream and required that all men even the Pope if he were a man should conscienciously obey them though St. Paul appeal not to Peter but to Caesar as Supream Though Athanasius say That there lay no Appeal from the Emperor but to God and though Tertullian say That the Emperor was Solo Deo minor and the Bishops of Rome for almost One thousand years after our blessed Saviour acknowledged the Emperors their Sovereign Lords yet Hildebrand and his Successors have as above exalted themselves far above all that is call'd God and have that indelible Character of Antichrist Q. E. D. 2. And they further say That this Vniversal Monarchy is given him by God himself and so he has it not by any Human Right or Injust Usurpation but Jure Divino by the Law of God and a Right derived from him and this is said not once only nor by any private Person whose Authority might be question'd but many times in their Authentick Roman Breviary restored according to the Decree of the Council of Trent and revised and publish'd by the Authority and Command of three Popes successively so that we may be sure they approve it That Breviary has it thus speaking of Peter Thou art Prince of the Apostles And God hath Given Thee All the Kingdoms of the World These are the words of that Authentick Breviary approved and confirm'd by the Authority of those three Popes before mentioned as appears by their Bull prefix'd to the Edition and is now in publick use in their Church So that he Exalts himself as Universal Monarch over all the Kings and Kingdoms in the World and that as he impiously pretends by a Divine Right and the Donation of God himself And hence it is That not only the Canonists the constant and great Parasites of the Pope but even the Learned Divines of the Roman Church give the Pope and he Approves and Assumes such Extravagant and Blasphemous Titles as none but the Man of Sin who Exalts himself above all that is called God would approve To pass by many hundreds of the like nature I shall Instance only in one Stapleton an English man and a very Learned Professor of Divinity at Doway in his Dedicatory Epistle to Pope Gregory the Thirteenth calls that Pope The Highest Top and Prince of the Catholick Church The Master of the whole World and on Earth The Supream God or Deity Certainly â—he who approves and admits such Titles to be given him Exalts himself above all that is called God and so has the Character of Antichrist mention'd by the Apostle 2 Thess. 2. 4. And here though I intended it not I shall crave leave to add two or three Passages more which casually come in my way and memory and are very pertinent to our present purpose 1. The Gloss on their Canon Law tells us That the Pope is neither God nor Man but something more then Man And though this Impious and Blasphemous Gloss was Censured to be left out by the Master of the Sacred Pallace Yet Clement the Eighth thought otherwise and those words are still in the best Edition of the Canon Law only with this Note in the Margent Haec verba sunt sano modo intelligenda prâ—lata enim sunt ad Ostendendum Amplissimam Pontificis Rom. Potestatem But this Gloss is something modest though it make the Pope more then Man and being in Verse may have some Poetical Licence allow'd 2. But another Gloss in plain Prose expresly says That it is our Lord God the Pope For although in some Old Editions of the Canon Law it was only Our Lord the Pope yet now in the most Correct Editions of that Law confirmed by Gregory the Thirteenth it is without any Qualification in the Margent our Lord God the Pope 3. And to make the Blasphemy full and evidently Antichristian Ant. Puccius in an Oration made by him in their General Lateran Council speaking to Pope Leo the Tenth says That the Rayes of His Divine Majesty did dazle his Eyes Impious and Antichristian Pride and Blasphemy yet approved at Rome and by themselves to their shame published to the World Nor is this all He pretends to and assumes an Infallibility and that of so high a Nature that all his Definitions and Determinations of Doubts whether è Cathedrâ or not whether in a General Council or out of it to be the
that what Erasmus Observes out of Hierome is true is this The Spanish Inquisitors have damn'd it and in their Index Expurgatorius Commanded it to be blotted out But Erasmus adds further That it cannot Logically and firmly be concluded from the Order wherein the Apostles are number'd which of them is to be preferr'd before the rest because where many are number'd there is a necessity we begin with some one and 't is not material which we begin with And This the Inquisitors let pass without a Deleatur they do not condemn it to be blotted out and so seem to approve it otherwise it had not pass'd so that even by our Adversaries consent all that can be rationally Inferr'd from that Text where in numbering the Apostles Peter is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first is only a Primacy of Order which we willingly grant but no Primacy much less a Supremacy of Authority Dominion and Jurisdiction over the rest of the Apostles which the Pope and his Party desire and we justly deny 2. And as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Primus so Princeps or Prince amongst the best Latin Authors usually signifies Order Only or some Excellent Quality in those who are call'd Principes without any Authority or Jurisdiction over those in relation to whom they are so call'd And that the Rest of the Apostles were call'd Principes as well as Peter I have Authentick warrant even the Roman Breviary restored according to the Decree of the Council of Trent publish'd by Pius V. The very Pope who publish'd this Impious Bull a-against Queen Elizabeth and then Revised by the Authority of Clement VIII and Vrban VIII and Printed at Antverp 1660. In this Breviary we have this Hymn in the Office for the Feast of St. Peter and Paul Ecclesiarum Principes Belli Triumphales Duces Coelestis Aulae Milites Et vera Mundi Lumina c. Now in this Hymn Peter and Paul too are call'd Ecclesiarum Principes Princes of the Churches For being a Hymn for the Feast of those two Apostles Ecclesiarum Principes cannot relate to less than two nor Properly to any but them two in that Place Though elsewhere it relates to all the Apostles as in the Place cited in the Margent when after the Invitatory as they call it Come let us adore the Lord King of the Apostles it follows thus Aeterna Christi munera Apostolorum Gloria Palmas Hymnos debitos Laetis canamus mentibus Ecclesiarum Principes Belli Triumphales Duces Coelestis Aulae Milites Et vera Mundi Lumina c. So that if we may believe their own Authentick Breviary Publish'd and Carefully Revised by these Popes according to the Decree of the Trent Council All the other Apostles under our blessed Saviour and by his Authority were Princes of the Christian Church as well as Peter Now I desire to know how these things will Consist Pius V. in this Bull against Queen Elizabeth says That our blessed Saviour Committed the Government of his Church to One Only to Peter and Constituted him Only a Prince over all Nations and Kingdoms so he in his Bull and yet the same Pope in this Roman Breviary for it was Approved and Published by him and the Hymn here cited says That all the Apostles were Ecclesiarum Principes and if so then Peter was not the Only Prince to whom the Government of the Church was Committed no the Commission of every Apostle given by our blessed Saviour was as unlimited and as large as Peters This will appear in all the Particulars of it equally given to all as they are expresly set down in Scripture from whence alone we can surely know what their Authority and Commission was Our blessed Saviour tells them and us 1. As my Father sent me so send I you There we have the Author and Authority of their Commission The same blessed Saviour of the World sends them all 2. Then he breath'd upon them and said Receive ye the Holy Ghost There we have the Principle inabling them to discharge that great Office and Trust reposed in them It was that Holy Spirit which gave them 1. Infallibility in their Doctrine 2. Power to work Miracles for Confirmation of it 3. Then he adds whose sins ye retain they are retained c. Here we have the great Spiritual Power given them for the calling and governing the Church which is elsewhere called The Power of the Keys which Consists in binding and loosing retaining and remitting sins For so 't is Explain'd by our blessed Saviour in the Place last cited and is by our Adversaries confess'd So that 't is Evident that the Power of the Keys the Power of binding and loosing of retaining and remitting sins is Equally given to all the Apostles to every One as well as Peter 4. He Assigns them their Place and Province where and the way how they were to Exercise their Apostolical Power Go and Teach All Nations baptizing them and teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have Commanded you Their Diocese was the World Go ye into All The World and preach the Gospel to every Creature every man And the administring the Sacraments and teaching men to believe and observe the whole Goâ—pel was the business they were to do in that their Diocese 5. And to incourage them to this great and difficult Work he graciously promises his Presence and Divine Assistance Lo I am with you Always even to the End of the World These are the Powers and Promises given to the Apostles and which to me seems Evident without difference or distinction Equally to all to Simon the Cannite for so it should be writ as well and as much as to Simon Peter If any think otherwise if he can and will by any Cogent Reason make it appear either 1. That the foregoing Powers and Promises were not Equally given to all the Apostles 2. Or that some other Power or Promise was in Scripture given peculiarly to Peter whereby he had an Authority and Dominion over the other Apostles and the whole Church to make him Only a Prince over all Nations and Kingdoms as Pope Pius V. in this his wild Bull confidently affirms I say he who can and will make both or either of these appear shall have my hearty thanks for the Discovery and I shall for the future have a better Opinion of Peter's Supremacy which at present I take to be a groundless Error without any proof or probability I know that the Popes in their Constitutions and their Party usually urge that place in Matthew to prove Peter's and thence their own vast and Monarchical Supremacy over the whole Church even the Apostles themselves not excepted the words These Thou art Peter and upon This Rock I will build my Church And I give unto thee The Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven From this Place most
Word of God So a Learned Popish Author tells us That the Word of God is threefold 1. His written Word the Scriptures 2. His unwritten Word Traditions 3. His explained or declared Word when Scripture or Traditions are declared and explained by the Pope whether in or out of a Council And he says That this Last word of God the Popes Definitions and Explications is the most approved and most men do with greater pleasure acquiesce in it Though this be much yet not all For the Pope does not only pretend to and assume to himself an Universal Monarchy over all the Kingdoms of the World but such an Absolute Power to dispose of them that he can parte inconsultâ give away Kingdoms pro Arbitrio to whom he pleases A Memorable and for Papal Pride and Injustice a Prodigious Instance we have of this in Pope Alexander the Sixth who at one Clap gave to Ferdinand and Elizabeth King and Queen of Castile and their Heirs for ever All the West-Indies from Pole to Pole and all the Isles about them which lay One hundred Leagues Westward from Cape Verd and the Azores with all their Dominions Cities Castles Villages all the Rights and Jurisdictions belonging to them And this he says he gives of his own meer Liberality by Power deriv'd from Peter and as Vicar of Christ. Then he Excommunicates all of what degree soever Kings and Emperors by name who shall dare to trade into the West-Indies given to Ferdinand by him without the leave and licence of the said Ferdinand Here we see the Pope gives away almost half the World from the true Owners Causa incognita inaudita indicta the Persons and their Quality being utterly unknown to him If it be said They were Pagan Idolaters Grant that Yet 1. What they all were he neither did nor could know 2. If they really were such as probably they were yet dominium non fundatur in gratiâ a Pagan and Idolater may jure naturae have as just a Temporal Right to his Estate as a Christian. Caesar was a Pagan in our blessed Saviours time and yet he Commands them to give to Caesar the things which were Caesars Some things were Caesars in which he had a propriety and to which he had a right and his Subjects an Obligation to pay him tribute and other things due to him But I hope this will not be deny'd For if none but pious men and true Christians have any just Right to what they possess it will I fear go hard with his Holyness and he will have no Propriety in St. Peters Patrimony or any other thing he does possess And therefore if he Impartially consider it he may find some reason if not for Truths sake which with him is not always a prevailing Motive yet for his own to be in this of my opinion By the Premisses I hope it may and does appear That the Pope Exalts himself above all that is called God or worshipped and so really has the Characteristical Note and Mark of the Beast that Man of Sin and is indeed that great Antichrist described and foretold in Scripture 4. Nor am I singular in this Opinion many Excellent Persons both for Learning and Piety have said as much and some have given us a Catalogue of their Testimonies I shall say nothing of the Fathers many of which make Rome Babylon in the Revelation some of them I have Cited before and Schardius in the Place last Quoted has more Nor shall I say any thing of the poor persecuted Waldenses and Wiclisists or the Reformed Churches since Luther who both believ'd and constantly affirm'd and prov'd the Pope to be Antichrist especially the Church of England as appears both by her ablest Writers and her Authentick Homilies confirmed by the Kings Supream Authority in Convocations and Parliaments Omitting all these which yet were abundantly sufficient to shew that I am not singular in this Opinion I shall only of very many more give a few Evident Instances and Testimonies of those who lived and died in the Communion of the Church of Rome And here 1. The Emperor Frederick the Second in a Letter to the King of France complaining of the Prodigious Pride and Tyranny of the Pope and his Impious Practices to divide the Empire and ruin him he says That he Indeavour'd to build the Tower of Babylon against him And that we may know what and whom he meant by Babylon in another Epistle to the King and Nobility of France he Complains of the horrid Injuries and Injustice done him by the Pope and his Party he calls them the Elders of Babylon c. 2. A faithful Historian speaking of Pope Hildebrand or Gregory the Seaventh and his Prodigious Tyranny and Impiety tells us That in those times Most Men both Privately and Publickly curs'd Hildebrand call'd him Antichrist that under the Name and Title of Christ he did the work of Antichrist that he sat in Babylon in the Temple of God and as if he had been a God Exalted himself above all that is worshipped c. And much more to the same purpose abundantly Testify'd by the Historians of those times who were neither Lutherans nor by the Roman Church then reputed Hereticks And afterward speaking of the same Hildebrand we are told That he laid the Foundation of the Kingdom of Antichrist One hundred and seaventy years before that time when that was said under a colour and shew of Religion He begun the War with the Emperor which his Successors continued to that Day till the time of Friderick the Second and Pope Gregory the Ninth where we have many things more concerning the Prodigious Pride Impiety and Tyranny of the Pope to prove that he was Antichrist The same Historian also tells us That almost All Good Just and Honest Men did in their Writings publish to the World that the Empire of Antichrist begun about that time the time of Hildebrand he means because they Saw those things then come to pass which were foretold long before 3. But this is not all We have further Testimonies of this Truth 1. Robert Grosthead who both for Learning and Piety was Inferior to none in his Age He on his Death-bed having spoke of many horrid Enormities of Rome and loss of Souls by Papal Avarice he adds Is not such a one deservedly call'd Antichrist Is not a Destroyer of Souls the Pope he means an Enemy of God and Antichrist And after a long List of Papal Tyranny and Impieties he calls Rome Egypt so Saint John calls it Spiritually Sodom and Egypt and concludes that the Church will never be deliver'd from that Egyptian Servitude but by the Sword 2. Nor is this all we have great Councils of whole Nations in their Publick Edicts and Constitutions expresly declaring the Pope to be that Antichrist who Exalts himself above all that is called God We have a Publick Edict
Expence of Money the Pope and his Party designed and earnestly desired and indeavour'd to Execute 3. When all this would not do and the Pope and his Party plainly saw that they could not cut off the Queen by Pistol Poyson or private Assassinations horrendum majus machinantur scelus they design by Fire and Sword by open War utterly to destroy that good Queen and all her Heretical that is Loyal Subjects And to this end besides Plenary Indulgence and Pardon of all sins here and the Kingdom of Heaven hereafter Pius the Fifth promises and immediately gives two whole Kingdoms England and Ireland to Philip the Second King of Spain as is notoriously known and confess'd by their own Popish Writers His Successors Gregory the Thirteenth and Sixtus the Fifth renue and confirm the Excommunication of Elizabeth and the donation of her Kingdoms and accordingly not with Gods but with the Popes Approbation and Blessing in that memorable year 1588. the vainly supposed Invincible Armado was sent to destroy the damn'd Hereticks the Queen and her Loyal Subjects and take Possession of her Kingdoms which the Pope had given him The Pretences the Pope had to give those Kingdoms for they were but miserable Pretences void of all Reason and Justice were Two 1. King John's Donation and Resignation of his Crown to Pope Innocent the Third about the year 1213. when that King and the whole Nation groaned under many Miseries and Papal Oppressions Which Act of King John was invalid and absolutely Null he having no just Power to give away his Kingdom And even then declared to be Null not only by the English Barons and Nation but by the King of France and his Nobility as Matthew Paris tells us 2. Nor is it only Matthew Paris who says that the Kings of England and Ireland are since King John's time Tribuiaries to the Pope as they pretend but their Historians Canonists and the Popes themselves So Matthew Westminster Henry Knighton Cardinal Tuscus c. The Cardinal tells us That the Pope is the Supream Judge of All. That he can Depose the Emperor Kings Dukes and All who Acknowledge No Superior and that the Kings of England and Sicilie are Tributaries to the Church of Rome And he who denies this Papal Power is No Christian And for Ireland Pope John the Two and twentieth in a Bull to our King Edward the Second tells him That his Predecessor Adrian the Fourth Gave the Kingdom of Ireland to Henry the Second King of England upon certain Conditions which Conditions our King had not kept And this ridiculous Bull we have in Matthew Paris ad Ann. 1156. pag. 95. where he tells us That all the Islands in the World which are Christian belong to Peter and so to the Pope See Archbishop Vsher of the Religion profess'd by the Ancient Irish pag. 51. 92. 93. 94. c. And upon these and such like ridiculous Pretenses the Pope required Edward the Third to do him Homage for the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and the Arrears of One thousand Marks per Annum All the Popes pretences were in a full Popish Parliament declared vain and evidently null as appears by my Lord Cooke and the Record before mention'd Besides 't is certain that John was an Usurper and had only Possession of the Crown but no just Right and Title to it For Elinor Daughter to Jeffery his Elder Brother was living and was the true Heir of the Crown so that King John's Resignation of the Crown to the Pope was absolutely null it being impossible he should give a Just Title to another who had none himself His second Pretence was that the Queen being an Excommunicate and Deposed Heretick as he was pleased to miscall her her Kingdom was forfeited to him by the Canon of their great Lateran Council Wherein 't is declared That such obstinate Persons as they call the Queen when they stood Excommunicate and would not give Satisfaction the Pope was to absolve their Subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance and give their Lands and Kingdoms to Catholicks who by that Canon were bound to Exterminate or Extirpate all Hereticks Upon the aforesaid Sandy Foundations the Popes successively since King John's time build their Right to the Crown of England and believe or at least say and would have others believe that the Imperial or Royal Power of England and Ireland is in them and our Kings only Beneficiarij Feudatarij as the Civil Law calls them Feudataries to the Pope of whom as their Supream Lord they hold their Kingdoms Whence it was that Pope Innocent the Third in his Letter to Philip King of France calls the King of England his Vassal And his Successor Pope Innocent the Fourth with a Prodigious Antichristian Pride and Impiety calls our King Henry the Third was then King His Vassal and which is more his Slave What says he Is not the King of England our Vassal Nay that I may say more our Slave These are his words and expressions of such prodigious Pride as is absolutely Inconsistent with that great and exemplary Humility which our blessed Saviour practis'd in his own Person and Commanded all even Peter and his Apostles to imitate But yet congruous enough and consistent with the Hypocrisie of him who would be call'd Servus Servorum Dei the Servant of all Gods Servants and yet as the Man of Sin mention'd by the Apostle Exalts himself above all that is called God and with Pope Innocent the Fourth in the place now cited calls Kings his Slaves and Vassals 'T is true we believe and know that the Pope indeed had no Power to performe those aforesaid Promises and so in making them was to all intelligent sober and pious Persons not only impious but ridiculous yet to those of his Popish Party who having strong delusion to believe a Lye were perswaded he had Power to make good his Promises that he was Christs Vicar Supream Head and Monarch of the Church that he had the Power of the Keys and so could shut and open keep out and let into Heaven whom he pleased that he could by this Power Depose Kings and was Infallible and never Err'd for these Erroneous and Impious Positions are approved and received at Rome I say such Promises made by such a Person were very great And to such deluded Persons who were perswaded of the truth and reality of them prevailing Incouragements to make them desperately indeavour to Assassinate and Murder Queen Elizabeth Forty or Fifty thousand Duckets promised was great and inticâ—ing Wages for doing such a Work and actually prevail'd with many to endeavour it But when what the Pope promised Philip King of Spain two whole Kingdoms here and the Kingdom of Heaven hereafter are promised for destroying the Hereticks the Queen and her Loyal Subjects this was such an offer as could not be refused by
but freely Profess that the Pope upon just cause and he is Judge of that may Excommunicate and Depose Princes and Absolve their Subjects from their Oath of Allegiance And then he adds That the Subjects are bound in Conscience to Obey the Popes Sentence not only in the Cases mentioned But in All other of the like Nature And this impious and traiterous Doctrine of Gretser is not only approved by the Provincial of the Jesuites in Germany and the Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ingolstade but his whole Book and so those mentioned and many more such Rebellious and Impious Positions Was Approved at Rome by the Suffrage of Most Learned Divines This the said Provincial of the Jesuites and the Rector of the University of Ingolstade expresly testifie in their Publick and Printed Approbations of Gretsers Book The Premisses and Traiterous Popish Principles consider'd which are received and believed at Rome though men may wonder at the Beast the Pope and his Party and that any who would not only be thought Christians but the only Catholicks in the World should maintain and publickly justifie such Principles yet we need not wonder that such Persons should practise and act according to such Principles and continually indeavour especially after the Anathema of Pius the Fifth by Rebellions at home and Invasions from abroad to rob Queen Elizabeth of her Crown and Kingdoms and of her Life too by Roman and Mahometan Assassinations I say we need not wonder at this For let the aforesaid Doctrines which they approve and constantly contend for be granted That the Pope is Supream Judge and Monarch of the World directè or indirecte that all Kings and Emperors are His Subjects that he has Power to Depose and Deprive them of their Kingdoms that when he has Judicially deprived them any Private Person may Murder them that he has Power to Absolve their Subjects from all Obligations and Oaths of Allegiance and to Command them upon pain of an Anathema never to obey any of their Princes Laws or Commands that the People may depose their King with His Consent and Counsel and that he may Command and Compel them to do it and this so oft as he shall Think it Good for the Spiritual Health of the Kingdom Prodigious Error and Impiety as if Rebellion Assassinations and Murdering their Kings conduc'd to the Salvation of the Subjects I say these Erroneous and Impious Doctrines granted and as they are at Rome believ'd it is certain that so far as they have opportunity and ability they will as they ever have done prosecute their Interest and practise according to those Principles and all Christian Kings will be in perpetual danger to loose their Crowns their Kingdoms and their Lives too unless they can please the Pope and become his dutiful Servants and indeed Slaves to his Anti-Christian Tyranny I say no Christian King Tros Tyriusve Papist or Protestant can be out of eminent Danger where such Doctrine is by such Doctors maintain'd We have sad and certain Instances of this Truth For 1. Henry the Third and Fourth of France were neither Calvinists nor Lutherans but declared Sons of the Roman Synagogue yet because they did not Comply with the Popish Interest in that degree and measure the Pope and his Party expected they fatally fell by the Traiterous and Prodigious Villany of bloody Assassins Ridente gaudente Roma The Pope and his Jesuitical Party with an Extasie of Joy Approving and Commending the Treason and in their Writings and Pictures Canonizing the Traitors 2. For Protestants and as they call them Heretical Princes their danger proportionable to Romes hatred of them is greater They may by the Power and Gracious Providence of God want ability but they neither do nor unless they renounce their Erroneous and Impious Principles ever will want a desire and indeavour to ruine those they call Hereticks either by open Hostility and Rebellions or by Poyson Pistols and private Assassinations Their many known Plots and Conspiracies against Queen Elizabeth King James Charles the Martyr and his Gracious Majesty now Reigning whom God preserve are undeniable Demonstrations of this Truth The Ark of God and Dagon Light and Darkness Truth and Error the Bible and Popish Bullary Protestancy and Popery cannot possibly Consist and be in Peace Nothing is or can be so destructive of Darkness and Error as Truth and Light And 't is evidently known to this Western World That the Evangelical Light and Truth which the Protestants have haphily and clearly discovered to the long deluded Church of God have awakened thousands to a detestation of that Superstition and Idolatry under which they formerly lay to the dishonour of God and ruine of their Souls and to a shaking and great diminution of the Papal Monarchy and Tyranny so many Kingdoms forsaking Rome and shaking off the Heavy and Intollerable Yoke of Sin and Popish Servitude Et hinc illae Lacrymae Hence it is that the Pope and his inraged Party when they cannot by any probable pretence of Reason confute what they call Heresie the Protestant Religion they indeavour to Confound and by Fire and Sword Consume the Hereticks Aeterna bella pace sublatâ gerunt Jurant odium nec prius hostes esse desinunt quam esse desinunt They excite and incourage Princes of their Profession to persecute and destroy all Protestants in their Dominions and their barbarous and bloody Poet has told us how they desire it to be done Vtere Jure Tuo Caesar Sectámque Lutheri Ense Rota Ponto Funibus Igne neca Use thy Power Caesar let Lutherans be slain By Fire Rack Halter Sword or drown'd i th' Maine DAMNATIO ET EXCOMMUNICATIO Henrici VIII REGIS ANGLIAE EJUSQUE FAUTORUM Cum aliarum ADJECTIONE POENARUM Paulus Episcopus Servus Servorum Dei Ad futuram Rei Memoriam EJVS qui immobilis permanens sua Providentia Ordine mirabili dat cuncta moveri disponente Clementiâ vices licet immeriti gentes in Terris in Sede Justitiae Constituti juxta quoque Prophetae Hieremiae vaticinium Ecce Te Constitui super Gentes Regna ut evellas destruas aedisices plantes praecipuum super Omnes Reges Vniversae Terrae cunctosque populos obtinentes Principatum ac illum qui pius misericors est vindictam ei qui illam praevenit paratam temperat nec quos Impoenitentes videt severa ultione Castigat quin prius Comminetur in assidue autem peccantes in peccatis perseverantes cum Excessus Misericordiae sines praeteriunt ut saltem metu poenae ad Cor reverti cogantur Justitiae vires Exercet imitantes Incumbenti Nobis Apostolicae solicitudinis studio perurgemur ut cunctarum Personarum nostrae Curae Coelitùs Commissarum salubri Statui solertius Intèndamus ac Erroribus Scandalis quae hostis Antiqut versutia imminere conspicimus propensius obviemus Excessusque Enormia ac scandalosa
1. Their many and monstrous Errors contradictory to sacred Scripture and the sense and belief of the Christian World for a thousand years after Christ our blessed Saviour which they approve and publickly receive as Articles of their Faith in their new Creed the Trent-Council and Roman Catechism Considering also their many Superstitions and stupid Idolatry professed and practised by them in their sacred Offices their Missal Breviary Horae B. Virginis their Ritual and Pontifical c. I say these things impartially considered they may be and really are Idolatrous Hereticks but 't is impossible they should be what they against greatest evidence pretend to true Catholicks 2. Considering the unchristian indeed Antichristian Pride and Tyranny of the Pope and his Party Excommunicating Cursing and Damning all Christians save themselves without and against that Charity which the Gospel requires and so Schismatically cutting off from the Body of Christ whole Kingdoms at a Clap as Pius the Fifth does in the following Bull which are things inconsistent with the Christian Temper and Charity of a true Catholick I say these things considered and that the Pope and his Party are really guilty of such uncharitable Actions dividing and violating the Vnion of the Church it evidently follows that they are so far from being true Catholicks that they are great and formal Schismaticks And therefore they must pardon me if in these Papers I do not call them what really they are not Catholicks and for the same Reason I do not call them Roman Catholicks For as it is neither reason nor sense to call him an English Gentleman who is no Gentleman at all or him a Sorbon Doctor who never saw Paris or ever had or desired that Degree so it is alike irrational to call him a Roman Catholick who really is an Erring Schismatick and no Catholick at all 5. I know some otherwise learned and pious Writers who say that those words Roman Catholick are inconsistent and imply a Contradiction as signifying a particular Universal But this I confess is a manifest mistake For not only particular Persons of which before but particular Churches in this or that City be it great or little have anciently and usually been call'd Catholick Churches without any Contradiction or Impropriety In an Epistle of a great Council at Antioch we find the Bishop of that City call'd a Catholick and that particular Church a Catholick Church So in the Subscriptions to Nazianzen's last Will and Testament Optimus Bp. of Antioch subscribes thus Optimus Bp. of the Catholick Church at Antioch and the rest of the Bishops who subscribe that Testament and they are six or seven use the same Form So Nazianzen subscribes himself Bishop of the Catholick Church in Constantinople Amphilochius Bishop of the Catholick Church in Iconium and so all the rest In the Appendix to the Theodosian Code Pope Vigilius begins his Encyclical Epistle thus Vigilius Episcopus Ecclesiae Catholicae Urbis Romae Bishop of the Catholick Church of the City of Rome So Pope Leo the Great and many more Bishops of Rome uses the very same form The Popes stiled themselves Catholicae Ecclesiae non Orbis sed Urbis Romae Episcopos The Antichristian stile of Universal Bishop as Pope Gregory the Great calls it was not yet usurped at Rome The Bishops of Rome then and their Church were Catholick and so was every Orthodox Bishop and his Church as well and as much as they Constantinople Iconium Antioch c. and their Bishops were as truly Catholick as St. Peter's Successor or Rome it self The truth is evidently this the Pope and his Party are in this nec Christi nec Petri sed Donati Successores they do not follow Peter or our blessed Saviour as they vainly bragg but that impious Heretick Donatus whose damnable Schism and Heresie they have espoused St. Augustin who well knew it tells us in several places That the Donatists assumed to themselves the Name of Catholick said that their Sect was the only true Church and so damn'd all other Christians and upon this Heretical Opinion they Schismatically separated from the whole Catholick Church The Pope and his Party with as little reason and charity do the very same thing they as the Donatists anciently Heretically affirm That they and they only are truly Catholicks and the only Members of the true Christian and Catholick Church and then Schismatically Seperate from Excommunicate and Damn all other Christians 6. And further that I may freely speak what I really believe I am so far from believing the Pope and his Party to be what they vainly pretend the only true Christian and Catholick Church that I do believe them and so did thousands before Luther and many whole Kingdoms and Provinces since to be Ecclesia Malignantium an Antichristian Sect and Synagogue in side highly erroneous and in facto as highly impious And the Pope so far from being Peter's Successor and our B. Saviour's Vicar-General that he is that man of Sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Adversary of our blessed Saviour and the great Antichrist the Apostle speaks of who Exalts himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above all Kings and Emperors This I hope will in part appear by what is said in the following Papers At present I shall desire the Impartial Reader who possibly may read this short Epistle and trouble himself no further to read what follows to consider That the Pope really and professedly does Exalt himself above all Kings and Emperors and so has this Mark of the Beast and Indelible Character of Antichrist That he does so Exalt himself will evidently appear thus 1. Pope Innocent the Third tells the Emperor of Constantinople and with prodigious Error and Impudence indeavours to prove it out of Scripture That the Pope is as much greater Then the Emperor as The Sun is greater Then the Moon So Innocent the third and that we may be sure his Successors liked it well Gregory the Ninth approves and refers it into the Body of Canon-Law And Greg. the Thirteenth approves it too and with the other Decretals confirms it for Law and 't is continued in all Editions of that Law ever since It is then certain and confess'd That the Pope Exalts himself above all that is call'd God above all Kings and Emperors and that he is far greater then they And if you inquire of the Proportion how much he is greater I say 2. That their approved and received Glosses on their Law with some difference of Opinion calculate how many times the Sun is greater then the Moon and then infer the Pope's Greatness above the Emperor And here 1. The Author of the Gloss Bernardus de Botono was the man a good Lawyer but sure I am no good Astronomer tells us ignorantly and ridiculously That the Sun is greater than the Moon and consequently the Pope greater than the Emperor Forty seaven times This is
was 25. years Bishop of Rome and actually transferred that Power to his Successor there or that our blessed Saviour ever had or exercis'd such a terrene and temporal power as they pretend the Pope as his Vicar has from him I say let them make all or any one of these Pariculars appear from Scripture and I will confess and retract my error Nor is the Condition unjust or unequal when I require Scripture proof For they themselves constantly affirm that the Pope has Right to his Monarchical Supremacy Jure Divino by the Constitution of our blessed Saviour and Divine Right and this their Popes Canonists and Divines with great noise and confidence but no reason endeavour to prove from Scripture miserably mistaken and misapply'd I know that their late Jesuitical Methodists so much magnify'd by their Party require of Protestants to confute their Popish Doctrines Transubstantiation the Sacrifice of the Mass Purgatory c. by express words of Scripture not admitting of Consequences however deduced from plain Texts as Premisses This method of theirs being irrational and demonstrated so to be I shall not tye them too But if they can prove any of the aforesaid Positions by the express words of Scripture or by good Consequences deduced from it or what they pretend to Vniversal and Apostolical Tradition I shall admit the proof Nay I shall make our Popish Adversaries two further and if that be possible fairer offers 1. Let them prove by any just and concluding reason whatsoever that any Christian Church in the World acknowledg'd or the Church of Rome her self assumed and publickly pleaded for such a Papal Supremacy as now they pretend to for 1000. years after our B. Saviour and for my own part I will confess and retract my Error 2. Let them prove by any such concluding reason that any Church in the World Eastern or Western Greek or Latin did acknowledge what now the Pope and his Party so earnestly and vainly contend for the Popes Infallibility and his Supremacy over all General Councils for 1500. years after our blessed Saviour and for my part Cedat Jülus Agris manus dabimus captivas I will retract what here I have affirmed and be what I hope I never shall be their Proselyte To Conclude I have no more to say my Adversaries will think I have said too much save only to desire the Readers who sincerely and impartially desire truth and satisfaction to read and consider the Margent as well as the Text. In this they have my Positions and the proofs of them in plain English In the Margent the Authorities and Authors I rely upon in their own words and the Language in which they writ and I have for the Readers ease not my own cited not only the Authors and their Books but the Chapter Paragraph Page and mostly the Editions of them That so the Reader may with more ease find the places quoted and judge whether I have cited and translated them aright It is notoriously known that our Popish Adversaries have published many forged Canons and Councils many spurious Decretals and supposititious Tracts under the names of Primitive Fathers and ancient Bishops that they have shamefully corrupted the Canons of Legitimate Councils and thousands of other Authors making them by adding and substracting words or Sentences say what they never meant or not to say what indeed they did both mean and say and this they themselves have without shame or honesty publickly own'd in their Expurgatory Indices and after all this fraud and falsification of Records these Apocryphal Books and supposititious Authors are continually produced by them for proofs of their Errors against Protestants who well know and as many sober men of their own Communion justly condemn such impious Roman Arts Nec tali auxilio nec defensoribus istis Christus eget Truth needs no such forg'd and false Medium's to maintain it nor will any honest man use them Sure I am I have not in this Discourse built the truth of my Positions upon the Testimonies of our own Protestant Authors knowing that our Adversaries would with scorn reject their Testimony nor of any supposititious or spurious ones The Testimonies and Proofs I have quoted and rely upon are drawn from Scripture the genuine Works of the ancient Fathers and Councils or which ad hominem must be valid from their own Councils the Popes Bulls their Canon Law their Casuists Schoolmen Summists the Trent Catechism the Book of the Sacred Ceremonies of the Rom. Church their approved and received Publick Offices such as their Missal Breviary Ritual Pontifical c. which Authorities if I do not misquote or mistake their meaning are and to them must be just proofs of those Positions for which I have produced them But let the Evidence of the Testimonies and the Authority of the Authors quoted be what it will I have little hope that they will gain any assent from our Adversaries so long as they believe the Infallibility of their Pope and Church and their Learned Men are solemnly sworn firmly to believe their new Trent Creed the whole Body of Popish Errors to their last breath and to Anathematize and Damn what Doctrine soever contradicts it For while they are possess'd with these Principles it may be truly said of them what was said of the Luciferian Hereticks in St. Hierome Facilius cos Vinci posse quam persuaderi you may sooner bassle then perswade them They will in despite of Premisses hold the Conclusion nor shall the clearest demonstration overcome their blind Zeal and Affection to their Catholick Cause However that God Almighty would be graciously pleased to bless us and them with a clear knowledge of Sacred Truth with a firm belief and in dangerous times upon undanted and pious profession of it is and shall be the Prayer of Oct. 3. 1680. Thy Friend and Servant in Christ T. L. The Damnation and Excommunication of Elizabeth Queen of England and her Adherents with an Addition of other Punishments Pius Bishop Servant to God's Servants for a perpetual memorial of the matter HE that reigneth on High to whom is given all Power in Heaven and in Earth committed one Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church out of which there is no Salvation to one alone upon Earth namely to Peter the Prince of the Apostles and to Peter's Successor the Bishop of Rome to be governed in fulness of Power Him alone he made Prince over all People and all Kingdoms to pluck up destroy scatter consume plant and build that he may contain the faithful that are knit together with the band of Charity in the Unity of the Spirit and present them spotless and umblameable to their Saviour Sect. 1. In discharge of which Function we which are by God's goodness called to the Government of the aforesaid Church do spare no pains labouring with all earnestness that Unity and the Catholick Religion which the Author thereof hath for the trial of his Children's
Faith and for our amendment suffered to be punished with so great Afflictions might be preserved uncorrupt But the number of the ungodly hath gotten such power there is now no place left in the whole World which they have not assayed to corrupt with their most wicked Doctrines Amongst others Elizabeth the pretended Queen of England a Slave of Wickedness lending thereunto her helping hand with whom as in a Sanctuary the most pernicious of all men have found a Refuge This very Woman having seized on the Kingdom and monstrously usurping the place of Supream Head of the Church in all England and the chief Authority and Jurisdiction thereof hath again brought back the said Kingdom into miserable destruction which was then newly reduced to the most Catholick Faith and good Fruits Sect. 2. For having by strong hand inhibited the exercise of the true Religion which Mary lawful Queen of famous memory had by the help of this See restored after it had been formerly overthrown by Henry the Eighth a Revolter therefrom and following and embracing the Errors of Hereticks she hath removed the Royal Council consisting of the English Nobility and filled it with obscure men being Hereticks oppressed the Embracers of the Catholick Faith placed impious Preachers Ministers of Iniquity abolished the Sacrifice of the Mass Prayers Fastings choice of Meats unmarried Life and the Catholick Rites and Ceremonies Commanded Books to be read in the whole Realm containing manifest Heresie and impious Mysteries and Institutions by her self entertained and observed according to the Prescript of Calvin to be likewise observed by her Subjects presumed to throw Bishops Parsons of Churches and other Catholick Priests out of their Churches and Benefices and to bestow them and other Church Livings upon Hereticks and to determine of Church Causes prohibited the Prelates Clergy People to acknowledge the Church of Rome or obey the Precepts and Canonical Sanctions thereof compelled most of them to condescend to her wicked Laws and to abjure the Authority and Obedience of the Bishop of Rome and to acknowledge her to besole Lady in Temporal and Spiritual matters and this by Oath imposed Penalties and Punishments upon those which obeyed not and exacted them of those which persevered in the Unity of the Faith and their Obedience aforesaid cast the Catholick Prelates and Rectors of Churches in Prison where many of them being spent with long languishing and sorrow miserably ended their lives All which things seeing they are manifest and notorious to all Nations and by the gravest Testimony of very many so substantially proved that there is no place at all left for Excuse Defence or Evasion Sect. 3. We seeing that impieties and wicked actions are multiplied one upon another moreover that the persecution of the faithful affliction for Religion groweth every day heavier heavier through the instigation and means of the said Elizabeth because we understand her Mind to be so hardned and indurate that she hath not only contemned the godly Requests and Admonitions of Catholick Princes concerning her healing and conversion but also hath not so much as permitted the Nuncios of this See to cross the Seas into England are strained of necessity to betake our selves to the Weapons of Justice against her not being able to mitigate our sorrow that we are drawn to take punishment upon one to whose Ancestors the whole State of Christendom hath been so much bounden Being therefore supported with his Authority whose pleasure it was to place Us though unable for so great a burthen in this Supream Throne of Justice we do out of the fulness of our Apostolick power declare the aforesaid Elizabeth being an Heretick and a favourer of Hereticks and her Adherents in the matters aforesaid to have incurred the sentence of Anathema and to be cut off from the Unity of the Body of Christ. Sect. 4. And moreover we do declare Her to be deprived of her pretended Title to the Kingdom aforesaid of all Dominion Dignity and Priviledge whatsoever Sect. 5. And also the Nobility Subjects and People of the said Kingdom and all others which have in any sort sworn unto her to be forever absolved from any such Oath and all manner of Duty of Dominion Allegiance and Obedience As we also do by Authority of these presents absolve them and do deprive the same Elizabeth of her pretended Title to the Kingdom and all other things abovesaid And we do Command and Interdict all and every the Noblemen Subjects people and others aforesaid that they presume not to obey her or her Monitions Mandates and Laws And those which shall do the contrary We do innodate with the like Sentence of Anathema Sect. 6. And because it were a matter of too much difficulty to convey these presents to all places wheresoever it shall be needful our will is that the Copies thereof under a publick Notaries hand and sealed with the Seal of an Ecclesiastical Prelate or of his Court shall carry altogether the same credit with all people Judicial and Extrajudicial as these presents should do if they were exhibited or shewed Given at Rome at St. Peters in the Year of the Incarnation of our Lord 1570. the Fifth of the Calends of May and of our Popedom the Fifth year Damnatio Excommunicatio Elizabethae Reginae Angliae eique Adhaerentium cum aliarum poenarum Adjectione Pius Episcopus Servus Servorum Dei ad perpetuam Rei memoriam REgrans in Excelsis cui data est Omnis in Coelo in Terra Potestas unam Sanctam Catholicam Apostolicam Ecclesiam extra quam nulla est salus soli in terris videlicet Apostolorum Principi Petro Petrique Successori Romano Pontifici in Potestatis plenitudine tradidit Gubernandam Hunc unum super omnes Gentes omnia Regna Principem constituit qui evellat destruat dissipet disperdat plantet aedisicet ut fidelem populum mutuae Charitatis nexu constrictum in unitate Spiritus contineat salvumque incolumem suo exhibeat salvatori Sect. 1. Quo quidem in munere obeundo Nos ad praedictae Ecclesiae gubernacula Dei Benignitate vocati nullum laborem intermittimus omni operà contendentes ut ipsa Vnitas Catholica Religio quam illius Auctor ad probandam suorum fidem correctionem nostram tantis procellis conslictari permisit integra conservetur Sed Impiorum numerus tantum potentia invaluit ut nullus jam in Orbe locus sit relictus quem illi pessimis doctrinis corrumpere non tentârint adnitente inter caeteros flagitiorum servâ Elizabeth praetensâ Angliae Reginâ ad quam veluti ad asylum omnium infestissimi profugium invenerunt Haec eadem Regno occupato supremi Ecclesiae capitis locum in omni Angliâ ejusque praecipuam Auctoritatem atque Jurisdictionem monstruose sibi usurpans regnum ipsum jam tum ad Fidem Catholicam bonam frugem reductum rursus in exitium miserum revocavit Sect. 2.
pretended Successors For 1. This Power which God gave to Jeremy was Personal to himself only not hereditary or after his death to be continued to any Successor much less to Peter who came above Six hundred years after That the Popes of this or former Ages were Successors to Peter both the Popes themselves and Popish Authors universally affirm but as yet I have found none except the Pope and some few of his Party who say that either Peter or any Pope was Successor to Jeremy It 's true Pope Alexander III. in the Place quoted a little before says That that Power over Nations and Kingdoms to pull up dissipate and destroy c. was by God given to Jeremy and in Him to Peter So that by this wild Supposition Peter succeeded into that Power which before him Jeremy had But notwithstanding his Infallibility this is gratis dictum without any shadow or pretence of Reason For he who succeeds into a Right which another possess'd before him must do it either 1. Per generationem Jure Sanguinis as a Son succeeds his Father or the next Heir In jus defuncti and that Peter or any Pope did this way succeed Jeremy as none with any reason can I suppose none will say 2. Per Consecrationem Jure Ordinis so one Bishop succeeds another in the same Bishoprick Neither could Peter succeed Jeremy this way for Jeremy was never Bishop of Rome or any other place and then 't is impossible that they should succeed him in a Place he never had and be Successor to one who never was their Predecessor 3. A man may be said to succeed another who has a new Commission given him to Execute an Office which though intermitted some had lo◠before him So suppose the King should give one a Commission to be High Constable of England after the Place had been long void he who had such Commission may be said to succeed him who had that Office last though One or Two hundred years before Now if the Pope or any for him can shew that our blessed Saviour gave Peter the same Commission which God gave Jeremy and set him over Nations and Kingdoms to pull up dissipate and destroy c. as Pope Pius V. expresly says he did in this His Impious Bull against Q. Elizabeth then I will Confess that in this Sense Peter may be called Jeremy's Successor But that our blessed Saviour gave Peter any such Commission though the Pope say it is absolutely untrue not only without any foundation or ground of Reason for it in Scripture and nothing else can prove it but point blank a-against it As our Saviour's Kingdom was not of this World no Temporal Power or Dominion so he neither exercis'd any such Power himself nor gave Peter or his Apostles who all of them had Equal Power with Peter any such Temporal Power over Nations and Kingdoms to pull up destroy and dissipate c. All the Power they had was Spiritual they could punish no man unless miraculously which the Pope pretends not to in his person by loss of Life or Liberty by Imprisonment nor in his purse by imposing and exacting Pecuniary Mulcts as has been and might be farther demonstrated were it now my business Only by the way I crave leave to observe That Pope Pius in this Bull makes that Commission which he says our blessed Saviour gave Peter far larger than that which God gave Jeremy For he tells us 1. That our blessed Saviour did Constitute Peter a Prince to pull up and destroy c. but there is no such thing in Jeremy's Commission 2. That Peter was Constituted a Prince over All Nations and All Kingdoms but Jeremy had not such Universal Power as is evident from the Text. But to make this further appear it is to be Consider'd 2. That Jeremy was a Priest and a Prophet so that if Peter and his Successors succeeded him it must be in one of those two Capacities But 1. 'T is certain that neither Peter nor any Christian Bishop did or could succeed him as a Priest he being a Priest of Aaron's Order which absolutely ceased at our Saviour's death 2. Nor did he succeed Jeremy as to his Prophetical Office 1. Because that was Extraordinary Temporary and Expired with his Person The Prophetical Office was not Hereditary or Successive 'T is true some Prophets preceded in time and some afterwards followed So Jeremy was after Isaiah about One hundred sixty five years Ezekiel after him Four and thirty years Daniel after him Twenty years But each Prophet had a new Call and Commission and that for particular and different purposes as is evident by the Prophecies themselves 2. Jeremy and those Prophets were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Divinely Inspired and that to an Infallibility and their Prophecies as Divine and the Word of God referr'd into the Sacred Canon of Scripture Now although Peter not by Succession from Jeremy but by a new Call and Commission from our blessed Saviour was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and had such an Assistance of the Holy Spirit as made him Infallible and his Doctrine Divine Truth yet such assistance being personal in him as it was in all Prophets before him his Successors cannot without Impudence and Impiety pretend to it though some of the Canonists the Jesuits and Papal Parasites would have us believe what the World knows to be false that they are Infallible 3. But that I may in short come to the main scope and hinge of the Question the truth is Evident That all these Popes in the Exposition and Application of this Text in Jeremy notwithstanding their pretended Supremacy and Infallibility are miserably mistaken and put a sense upon it which before them never any Father or Ancient Author did no nor their own Learned Writers of later times even when Popery most prevail'd a sense if I may call it so inconsistent with the true and certain meaning of Jeremy For when 't is in that Text I have set thee over the Nations and Kingdoms to pull down dissipate destroy plant and build That which Alexander III. and other Popes after him Cite this Text for is to infer a Power in Jeremy and from him in them so far to pull down dissipate and destroy as to Depose Kings and Emperors and Absolve their Subjects from all Oaths of Allegiance Though the Text mean nothing less nor can any such Impious Conclusion by any save possibly Popish Logick be deduced from it For when the Text says I have set thee over the Nations to pull down and destroy c. 1. The meaning is not that Jeremy by this Commission had Power and Jurisdiction per modum Imperantis as a Prince and Superior to pull down and destroy any man much less Kings and Emperors nay so far was he from that that he quietly and patiently submitted to the Authority and Commands of Injust and Impious Superiors as is evident
shall be bound in Heaven we declare and denounce the said Friderick deprived of all his Honour and Dignity absolve his Subjects from all Oaths of Allegiance and Excommunicate all who shew him any favour or obey him as Emperor And to the same purpose their Trent Catechism tells us That the Pope has by Divine Right not by any Human Constitutions that Supream Degree of Dignity and Jurisdiction over the Vniversal Church as Peter's Successor sitting in his Chair and as Vicar of Christ. 5. But that which they press with most Noise and Confidence is That our blessed Saviour gave Peter the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven They seem to be in Love with these words Dabo Tibi Claves c. For in their Offices for only two of St. Peter's Festivals they are repeated almost Twenty times But how Impertinent this is to prove any Supremacy much less their Papal Monarchy will evidently appear in that this Power of the Keys which they would appropriate to the Pope was given to the rest of the Apostles as well as to Peter as is proved before nay to every Bishop and Priest in the World For 1. So their own Roman Breviary published by the Authority of Pope Pius the Fifth and afterwards revised by Clement the Eighth and Vrban the Eighth expresly says for having told us that our blessed Saviour gave the Keys to Peter it follows That this Power did pass to the other Apostles and Princes of the Church 2. Their Trent Catechism having spoke of the Power of the Keys afterwards tells us to whom our blessed Saviour gave and concredited that Power before he Ascended into Heaven And it was To the Bishops and Presbyters So that Catechism publish'd according to the Decree of the Council of Trent by Pope Pius the Fifth And 3. Their Roman Pontifical gives the Authentick Form how they Ordain a Priest in which the Power of the Keys is given to every Priest in the very same words our blessed Saviour did give it to the Apostles Receive the Holy Ghost whose sins you remit they are remitted And whose sins you retain they are retained 4. Lastly The Trent Fathers are yet if that be possible more express For speaking of the Sacrament of Pennance and Absolution They declare all their Opinions to be false and erroneous who think that the Exercise of the Ministery and Power of the Keys belong to any save The Bishops and Presbyters and who think those words Whatsoever you shall bind on Earth c. And whose sins you remit shall be remitted c. to be spoken indifferently to all the Faithful and so think that any of the faithful may bind and loose remit and retain sins In which words the Council does I suppose Infallibly Declare at least in our Adversaries Opinion 1. That those two Texts which are cited in the Margent of the Council are to be understood of the Power of the Keys though in one of them that of John the Keys be not expresly named 2. That the Exercise of that Power of the Keys belongs To the Bishops and Presbyters but to none else neither to Lay-men nor any Inferior Orders By the Premisses I think it evident and confess'd by our Adversaries that every Apostle had the Power of the Keys as well as Peter and since they left the World every Bishop and Priest as well as the Pope Whence it further and manifestly follows That 't is impossible that the Bishop of Rome or any of his party should as they vainly indeavor prove his Supremacy from his Power of the Keys which is common and really possess'd by so many thousands beside himself For this is just as if Titius should brag that he is far richer then Sempronius because he has Five hundred pounds per Annum when Sempronius has an equal Estate and of the very same Value Or as if Sejus should say he had far greater Power then Cajus when the Power given them by the Emperor was equal and the same And yet such is the vanity and folly of their pretended Infallible Judges that in their Bulls and Papal Constitutions received into the Body of their Canon Law Dabo Tibi Claves this Power of the Keys is laid as a Sandy and Insignificant Foundation on which they build the vast and Insupportable Fabrick of their Supremacy I shall Instance only in two though I might in many more 1. In that famous Decretal of Innocent the Third before cited wherein he impiously and ridiculously indeavors to prove that the Papal Dignity is as much greater then the Imperial as the Sun is greater than the Moon And amongst other wild and ridiculous Arguments to prove his equally wild and extravagant Position he comes at last to this Dabo Tibi Claves to the Power of the Keys as the most known ground of his Supremacy 2. The second Instance is that of Pope Innocent the Fourth in his Impious Excommunication and Deposition of the Emperor Frederick who had been before Excommunicated by his Predecessor Gregory the Ninth in the Council of Lions It is Extant in the Canon Law and two things there prefix'd to that most Impious Decretal 1. That he depos'd Frederick in the Council for a perpetual memory of it And so it stands for a perpetual memory of his Antichristian Pride and Impiety 2. That the Pope can Depose the Emperor for lawful Causes And then in that Impious Decretal he grounds his Power to Depose the Emperor principally upon the Power of the Keys which he says was given to him in Peter when our blessed Saviour said Whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth should be bound in Heaven c. so he and his Predecessors and Successors generally for this Six hundred years last past applies that Power of the Keys which is purely spiritual to carnal and temporal ends and impious purposes And here it seems to me Considerable and I believe will seem so to pious and dis-interessed Persons that in former Roman Breviaries as also in our Portiforium or Breviary of Sarum and in the Missals of Salisbury and Hereford we have this Prayer 1. Deus qui Beato Petro Apostolo tuo Collatis Clavibus Regni Coelestis Animas Ligandi atque Solvendi Pontisicium tradidisti Concede ut Intercessionis ejus Auxilio c. O God who by giving the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven to thy Apostle Peter hast concredited and delivered to him the Pontifical Power of binding and loosing mens Souls grant that by the help of his Intercession c. Where it is evident that in the sense and plain meaning of this Prayer and Scripture too the Power of the Keys is spiritual to bind mens souls if Impenitent and if Contrite and truly Penitent to loose them I say spiritual for edification and saving mens souls and not temporal for Deposing Kings and Emperors and absolving their Subjects from their Oaths of
Allegiance 2. But this Doctrine was not pleasing to the Pope and his Party And therefore in their late Breviaries and Missals they have left out the word Animas Souls and say only that God had given Peter Power of binding and loosing not mentioning in that Prayer what it was he had Power to bind and loose 3. But that we may better know their meaning and reason why they left out the word Souls it follows a little after in those late Offices Tu es Pastor ovium Princeps Apostolorum Tibi tradidit Deus Omnia Regna Mundi Ideo Tibi traditae sunt Claves Regni Coelorum They all agree That the Power of binding and loosing is as they call it in that Prayer Pontificium the Pontifical or Papal Power and having told us That God had given All the Kingdoms in the World to Peter and his Successors they add That Ideo Therefore he gave him Pontificium the Papal Power of binding and loosing superior to all Kingly Power so that they might by it Depose Kings and Emperors if they were not Obedient to the Pope for so their Popes as appears before have in Thesi affirm'd and in their Bulls their Publick and Authentick Constitutions approved and publickly maintain'd that Doctrine and in Praxi to the fatal Mischief and Disquieting of the Western World the ruin of many Princes and scandal of Christian Religion impiously acted according to it and put it in practice when they had advantage and opportunity By the Premisses I hope it may and does appear that all those Honorary Titles given to the Pope or his See Apostolicus Sedes Apostolica Cathedra Apostolica Peter's Successor Christ's Vicar the Power of the Keys Prince of the Apostles c. having been Anciently given to Thousands beside the Pope who never had nor dream'd of any Supremacy Though in these late and worst Ages they have been appropriated to the Bishop of Rome and though Old and Innocent Titles made use of to amuse and deceive the Ignorant to cover and give some Colour and Credit to New Errors and made Arguments to prove what he never had the Popes Supremacy yet 't is Evident that all such Arguments drawn from such Topicks are not only inconsequent but as I said before and still believe Impertinent and indeed ridiculous and Conclude nothing save that surely they who bring so bad had no better Arguments Two other words there are Papa and Summus Pontifex now appropriate to the Bishop of Rome and as generally and impertinently used as the former to Insinuate what they can never prove the Popes Supremacy For many Learned men have evidently proved or confess'd that Anciently every Bishop was called Papa a Pope and Summus Pontifex too Baronius a most Zealous and Partial Assertor of the Popes Supremacy and Monarchy over Kings and Emperors has in the Place quoted in the Margent confess'd what without great Impudence he could not deny that Anciently every venerable Presbyter was usually call'd Papa or Pope Afterwards he says the word Papa became common to all the Bishops though more particularly given to the Bishop of Rome and he further adds That the name Papa continued common to All the Bishops for Eight hundred and fifty years till Hildebrand Pope Gregory the Seventh in a Council at Rome in the Year 1073. decreed That there should be but one Pope meaning himself in the whole World Here we see that Hildebrand that Prodigy of Antichristian Pride and Tyranny appropriates the name Pope to himself and See which had for Eight hundred years he might have said a thousand been commonly given to Bishops and Presbyters as well as to the Pope Now I desire to know how this or any of the aforesaid Honorary Titles or Priviledges which were common to all Bishops and usually given them for many Ages as well as to the Bishop of Rome can be an Argument or Ground of the Popes Supremacy which were confessedly no ground of any such Supremacy in other Bishops who had the very same Titles and Priviledges as well and as much as he Suppose twenty Swans possibili posito in esse nil absurdi sequitur to have equal whiteness and the same Degree of that Quality To say that any one of those Swans was by far the whitest Swan in the World when as nineteen others were as white as that one Or suppose twenty men of Equal Piety all having the same Degree of Goodness and Vertue to say that any one of them was by far the most Pious man in the World when nineteen others were as Pious as he this were certainly irrational and ridiculous And yet our Adversaries reason no better when they say The Pope being Christ's Vicar and having the Power of the Keys has a Monarchical Supremacy over all the Bishops in the World when all those Bishops are Christ's Vicars and have the Power of the Keys as well as he But enough if not too much of this For were it not for the great noise number and confidence of our Adversaries such miserable inconsequent Reasonings might deserve Pity and Contempt rather than any serious Answer 7. Having made some Observations upon the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Title and Preamble of this Impious Bull I come now to the Penal part of it to observe what Punishments and Curses are contain'd in it and the Persons against whom they are denounc'd For although in the Title prefix'd to the Bull 't is call'd The Damnation and Excommunication of Queen Elizabeth only yet Thousands besides the Queen are concern'd in those Curses as will appear anon Here then it is to be Observed 1. That in this Uncharitable Bull the Pope Anathematizes and Excommunicates the Queen as a Slave of Impiety as an Heretick and a Favourer of Hereticks and Cuts her off from The Vnity of Christ's Body 2. He deposes and deprives her so far as the Plenitude of his Usurped Power and Tyranny could of her pretended right to the Crown of England and of all and all manner of Dominion Dignity and Priviledge By the way what the Pope speaks here notwithstanding his Infallibility is neither Reason nor Sense for if her Right to the Crown was only as he calls it Pretended he could not possibly take it away no not by his Plenitude of Apostolical Power if he really had it For 1. Notwithstanding all his Excommunications and Cursing she might keep that Right and as strongly pretend a Right to the Crown after as before his Anathema's 2. And if she had only a Pretended Right then he could not deprive her of any real Right it being impossible to deprive her of a Right she had not 3. He Absolves all her Subjects and All Others who were bound to her by Any Oath from their Oaths and all Debt of Fidelity and Obedience and that For ever Where observe 1. That 't is not only her own Subjects he absolves from Oaths of Allegiance but
All Others who were bound to her by Any Oath whatsoever So that if any French-man Dutch or Spaniard any Pagan Jew or Turk had sworn to pay her Ten thousand pounds really and by the Law of God and Man due to her he absolves them from their Oaths and so if they had not more Honesty and Conscience then he she must loose her Money The Pope in the mean time being more kind to Turks and Pagans then to a far better Christian then himself Queen Elizabeth 2. He absolves them from all such Oaths For ever So that if the Queen had turned Papist none of her Subjects if the Popes Absolution had been valid were by an Oath unless they took a new one bound to Obey her as their Sovereign 4. Nor does he only Absolve all the afore mention'd Subjects and all others from all Oaths made to the Queen but also severely interdicts and prohibits them all to Obey any of her Laws or Commands That is he forbids them to do that to which by the Indispensable Law of God and Nature they were absolutely bound 5. And if any of the Persons mention'd in the aforesaid Particulars did otherwise and obey'd any of her Laws or Commands he pronounces the same Excommunication and Anathema against them So that 1. If any French Spanish or Italian Papists lived in England in Queen Elizabeths days after the Bull and Excommunication was publish'd as many did and do either as Merchants or Travellers and obey'd the Laws of England as of necessity they must and ought to conform to the Civil Laws of the Country where they live all these by this wild Bull did stand Excommunicate Nor had they any way to Escape it but either by Leaving the Kingdom and all their Trade and Interest in it to their great loss and possibly the ruin of some Or by staying here and disobeying the Queens Laws which never was nor would be permitted to undergo all the Severity and Penalties of those Laws 2. But which is yet much more strange suppose any Jews Turks or Pagans in England in the Queens time he Excommunicates all those if they obey the Queen But surely this Rash and Impious Sentence was not pronounc'd è Cathedrâ for which is no good Sign of his Infallibility he does in this undertake a thing beyond all the Power he did or could pretend to an absolute Impossibility For Excommunication being a Selusion and Depriving a man of Ecclesiastical Communion a turning out of the Christian Church it was absolutely Impossible that either Peter or the Pope his pretended Successor should deprive those of a Communion they never had or turn them out of a Church in which they never were 6. He Excommunicates all Papists as well as Protestants if they obey'd any of the Queens Laws or Commands So that their Case was this If they obey'd the Queen their Sovereign to whom they ought a natural and sworn Allegiance the Pope Curses and Damns them and if they did not obey her as St. Paul assures us God himself would Condemn them Certainly all pious and considering Persons will think this an easie choice and that it is better rather to Obey God then Men and believe St. Paul rather then the Pope and yet such is the Power of Error and strong Delusion that the generality of the Papists I do not say all choose to obey the Pope as shall appear evidently anon by their many open Rebellions and continual Plots and Conspiracies to disquiet the Government and their Indeavors by Pistol or Poyson to Assassinate and take away the Queens Life 2. That all Papists who gave any Obedience to the Queens Commands or Laws were Excommunicate as well as Protestants is evident by this That the Popish Party petion'd Pope Gregory the Thirteenth Ann. 1580. Elizabeth 13. That he would declare that the Bull of Pius the Fifth should always bind the Queen and all Hereticks but not the Roman Catholicks As Things then stood but hereafter only when That Bull might be put in Execution They were willing to Obey the Pope and Disobey their Queen when they had an Opportunity They Petition the Pope to give them leave to do what God by Divine Law Natural and Positive had Commanded them to do that is to obey their Lawful Sovereign and that they will Obey no longer then till they have a Power and Ability with Security to themselves and Estates to Disobey 7. It is a certain Rule of Law and Justice that before any Judge can Legally Condemn any Two things are necessary to preceed 1. Cognitio Causae a Convenient Knowledge of the Cause What Accusation the Actor or Plaintiff brings what Answer and Defence the Reus or Defendant makes 2. That the Proofs and Evidence be such as may be a just ground for a Damnatory Sentence If either of these be wanting either the Judge or Sentence or both are unjust Qui aliquid Statuit parte inaudita alterâ Aequum licet Statuerit haud aequus fuit And hence it was that a Pagan Judge could truly say It is not the manner of the Romans to deliver any man to Dye before he which is Accused have the Accuser face to face and have Lycence to answer for himself Such was the Justice of Pagan Rome But as Christian or I fear Antichristian Rome the Case is alter'd Pius the Fifth the pretended Vicar of Christ our blessed Saviour Anathematizes and Damns many hundred Thousands even Two whole Kingdoms at once Causâ indictâ inauditâ An Action so prodigiously Impious as hath no ground or pretence for it in Nature or Scripture or any Precedent amongst Pagans or Christians for a Thousand years after Christ till Hildebrand one of the worst in the Papal Catalogue to the Scandal of Christianity and fatal Disturbance of Christendom unhappily Introduc'd it and his Successors since have with like Antichristian Pride and Tyranny impiously practis'd it 8. Seeing it appears by this Bull of Pope Pius the Fifth as by many more such published by his Predecessors and Successors that the Bishops of Rome Usurp and Exercise such a vast Extravagant Power to Excommunicate Kings and Emperors to Depose and Deprive them of all their Dominions Honour and Dignity to Absolve their Subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance and Fidelity To Inhibit and Interdict them against the Laws of God and Man to give any Obedience to their Lawful Sovereigns and if they do to Anathematize and Curse them for so doing and lastly to Excommunicate whole Kingdoms at once Causa indicta inauditâ if they do their Duty and give any Obedience to their Prince when they forbid them c. I say for this and many other Reasons I believe the Bishop of Rome has the fairest Plea of any in the World to be than Man of Sin and the great Antichrist spoken of in the Gospel It is neither my intention or business now fully to dispute that Question
body else can do to free the Pope from being the great Antichrist For if either Caligula or Simon Magus who have been dead this Sixteen hundred years and more be that Antichrist then unless you will have two or three such Antichrists The Pope is secure and wrong'd by those who call him so miscall'd Antichrist Sed salva res est there is little danger from such extravagant Opinions they will neither be beneficial to the Pope nor prejudicial to his Adversaries to believe and prove him to be Antichrist That Caligula or Simon Magus was that great Antichrist none or if any very few believe The Reformed Churches say that the Pope is Antichrist and have great reason to say so many of the Propheties and Predictions of him in Scripture being now actually fulfilled and so the truth of the Prediction made Evident and easie to be understood by the Event On the other side the Popish Party say that Antichrist is not yet come and so neither Party does believe Caligula or Simon Magus to be Antichrist because it is a Novel and Apocryphal Hypothesis take which of the two you will without truth or probability Sure I am that the Reasons those two Learned Persons bring for their Opinions are evidently Illogical and Inconsequent For 1. If Grotius his proofs for Caligula be cogent and concluding then Dr. Hammonds for Simon Magus are Inconsequent and if Dr. Hammonds be Good those of Grotius are not Whence 't is evident that all the proofs of the one Party at least are Impertinent and to prove his Position Insufficient 2. But indeed all the Reasons they both bring to prove their several Positions are as I said Illogical and Inconsequent That this may not be gratis dictum I say 1. That both their proofs are built and rely upon the same ground they take not all but only some of the Characters and Marks of Antichrist which the Apostles give him in Scripture 2. They indeavor to accommodate and apply those Marks to Caligula or Simon Magus and think they make it appear that such Marks are really found in Caligula or Simon Magus 3. And hence they Argue and Conclude thus Such Marks of Antichrist are to be found in Caligula or Simon Magus Ergo They the one of them at least are that Antichrist Or which is all one Magus and Antichrist agree in some things Ergo They are the same 4. Now such Arguing is miserably Illogical and Inconsequent and no better then this A Duck and a Goose do agree in many things each of them has one Head two Legs two Eyes a flat Bill or Beak and sometimes Feathers of the same colour c. Ergo A Duck is a Goose. Or thus Sempronius and Titius agree in many things they have the same Father and Mother Romans both born in the same Hour being Twins bread at the same School both good Scholars c. Ergo Titius is Sempronius The Reasons those Learned men bring to prove their several Antichrists prove no more then those I have given that is just nothing 5. The reason of such Inconsequence in such Arguments is this Young Sophisters in the University can tell you out of Porphyrie Aristotle and their Scholiasts That every individual person or thing is made up and does consist of such Properties and Qualifications Quorum Collectio nunquam in aliquo alio Eadem esse potest It is certain that a Collection of all the Properties and Qualifications which Constitute any Individual person cannot be in any other person whomsoever though it is as certain that some of them may Now had Grotius or Dr. Hammond taken a Collection of all the Characters and Marks of Antichrist given him in Scripture and made it appear that all those Marks had been really found in Caius Caligula or Simon Magus their proofs had been Logical and Consequent This they neither did nor could But their accommodation and applying only some of the Marks of the Beast to Caius or Magus and thence Concluding that they were Antichrist such deductions are evidently Illogical and Inconsequent And so much the more Inconsequent because even those marks of Antichrist which they indeavour to prove to be really in Caligula or Simon Magus never were in either of them in that sense and extent in which they were and since his coming are to be found in Antichrist If any man censure me as may be some will for contradicting those two Learned Persons Dr. Hammond and Grotius all the Apology I shall make for it needs none is only this It is as lawful for me to contradict them in defence of evident truth as it was for them to contradict each other and the Christian World in defence of a manifest Error 9. The Pope in this his Impious and Lying Bull declares the Queen to be what he really was and she was not a Slave of Sin a Heretick and a favourer of Hereticks And then with a prodigious Antichristian Pride and Impiety pronounceth his Penal Sentence against her of Damnation Excommunication Deprivation c. And here it is further to be observed 1. What this Papal Power is and whence he has it which he pretends to inable and authorize him to sit Judge and pass such Damnatory Sentences against Princes and Supream Powers for Heresie 2. What that Heresie is and who the Hereticks who by the Pope are so severely damn'd for it 3. What those punishments are which they pretend they may and actually do Inflict upon such Hereticks 1. For the first Pius the Fifth in the beginning of this Impious Bull tells us that this Papal Power is Divine For he says That our blessed Saviour did Constitute Peter and his Successors the Popes of Rome Princes over all Nations and Kingdoms with a Plenitude of Power to Pull up Dissipate and Destroy c. Thus he and so others in their Damnatory Bulls but with some variation and if it were possible in such words as are more Extravagant Erroneous and Impious I shall only Instance in one Paulus the Fourth who was next Predecessor save one to Pius the Fifth who in his Bull against Hereticks and Schismaticks and their Favourers expresses his power to damn them thus The Pope of Rome here in Earth is Vicar or Vice-Roy of God and our Lord Jesus Christ and has Plenitude of Power over Nations and Kingdoms and is Judge of All men and not to be Judged by any Man in the World And that you may see that they are not asham'd to pretend to and usurp such an Antichristian Power for none but Antichrist ever pretended to it This Bull of Pope Paul the Fourth is referr'd into the Body of their Canon Law almost One hundred years ago dedicated to Cardinal Cajetan and lately publish'd again as a part of their Law without any Contradiction and therefore with the approbation of the Pope or his Party That this their Opinion of the Papal Power is far from truth