your selfe neither eate nor drinke Bee not such grosse impieties and palpable absurdities iustlie worthie for ever to be abhorred and detested FINIS SECVNDAE PARTIS THE THIRD PART of the BOOKE CHAP. I. That the Authoritie of the Church is not above the Authoritie of the Scriptures That Popish Rome is the Whore of Babylon and therein of some special spiritual Whoredomes or Idolatries of the Romish Church BVt yet when they further say that the Authoritie of the Church is above the authoritie of the holy Scriptures what is this but to exalt men their authoritie above the authoritie of God himselfe and to magnifie the creature above the creator and to advance the wife in authoritie above her husband and his will and commandement The Church is the spouse of Christ and therefore is to be in subiection to him as to her head and husband as the wife is to be in subiection to her head and husband for so S. Paul declareth If then the Church be as is evident in subiection to Christ it is cleere shee can claime no superioritie or authoritie over him or his will or word in the Scriptures conteined yea it is the note and marke of an harlot and dishonest woman to challenge and usurpe authoritie over her husband And therefore what doth this position else prove but that the Romish Church is and must needs be the proud insolent false and dishonest Church even the vvhore of Babylon as shee is called in the Revelation of S. Iohn For what may not that Church doe or dare to doe be it never so wicked or ungodly which holdeth her authoritie to be above the authoritie of the Scriptures Is not this a dore that openeth a way to all licentiousnesse and wickednesse and to devise decree and doe in matters concerning Religion whatsoever pleaseth her selfe The right and true Church is of another and a better disposition and is ever content and desirous to live in subiection and in obedience to Christ and to his word will and pleasure and accounteth that as indeed it is her greatest honour And so also Christ Iesus himselfe sheweth that this is her chaste and godly disposition for thus he saith My sheepe heare my voyce and I know them and they follow mee and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall any plucke them out of my hands Marke that hee saith that his sheepe heare His voyce and follow Him and therefore they follow not others nor their owne unbridled humors lusts or pleasures but desire and endevour evermore to obey him and to doe as he hath willed and commanded them Againe the Church of Christ is expressely charged to observe all those things which Christ Iesus her Lord head and husband hâ—th commanded and therefore is to keepe her selfe within those her limits and bounds and not licentiously to wander or to goe beyond them Wherefore S. Paul also saith thus that the Lord Iesus shall shew himsâ—lfe from heaven vvith his mightie Angels in flaming fire rendring vengeance unto them that know not God and vvhich obey not the Gospel of our Lord Iesus Christ vvhich shall be punished with everlasting perdition from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power vvhen hee shall come to be glorified in his Saints and to be made marvailous in all them that beleeve Doe you not here likewise see how great subiection and obedience unto the Gospel of Iesus Christ and to his word and will is required of all men Yea what great peril and punishment they are to undergoe which will not subiect themselves unto it namely that such shall be punished with everlasting perdition Take heed therefore and with as much good hast as ye can declare your subiection and obedience to the Gospel and word of God in the sacred Scriptures conteyned without anie further neglect of it or opposition to it As for the reason that some make that because the Church telleth us that This is the Scripture therefore the Authoritie of the Church is above the Scripture it is but a verie weake and an idle reason and no better then if it should be said that you had not knowne that this were the King but that such a man told you and shewed him to you Ergo this man is above the King Were not this a verie ridiculous and a most absurd inference The Church is by her Ministerie bound and according to her duetie ought to tell testifie and declare the word of God and what Scriptures be canonical and what not to teach the truth in those Scriptures conteyned but this office sheweth rather service and subiection in the Church then anie Soveraigntie or Superioritie in her above the Scriptures Schollers in a Schoole can tell a stranger who is the Master of the Schoole yet is not their authoritie therefore above the authoritie of their Maister Whilest then the Popish Church holdeth that her authoritie is above the authoritie of the Scriptures it is manifest she is not guided as shee vanteth by the holy Ghost but contrariwise with a spirit of pride and licentiousnesse and of opposition against God and his authoritie word and will in those his Scriptures declared And what then can such a spirit be but the spirit in verie deed of Antichrist and consequently what can such a Church be but the erring and Antichristian Church 2 For further proofe whereof give mee leave now to shew unto you that The Popish Citie of Rome from whence as from their mother Church all Papists receive their bane is that very vvoman even that VVhore of Babylon as I said before which is mentioned in the Revelation of S. Iohn with vvhom the Kings of the earth have committed fornication and vvith the wine of vvhose fornication the Inhabitants of the earth have beene made drunken Which Woman is there further said to be arayed in purple and scarlet and gilded vvith gold and pretious stones and to have also outwardly a Cup of gold in her hand full neverthelesse within of abominations and filthinesse of her fornications and all this to entise and allure Lovers and friends unto her Now if wee would know certainely and assuredly who this woman was which S. Iohn thus saw in vision the Angel telleth us precisely saying The vvoman vvhich thou sawest is the great Citie that raigneth over the Kings of the earth But the great Citie that then raigned over the Kings of the earth in the daies of S. Iohn and had the Empire was not Constantinople nor anie other citie but only the citie of Rome as all men know and therefore only the citie of Rome and not anie other citie is and must needs be there meant under the name of the woman there otherwise called the VVhore of Babylon But for more explication who this woman was it is there further said that there were seven hills or Mountaines vvhereon the vvoman sate Now it is
respect of his Episcopal or Spiritual And for this cause also the one is said to arise out of the Sea and the other out of the Earth Rev. 13.1.11 for in respect of his Episcopal supremacie and Pseudoprophetical demeanour hee arose from the Earth it receiving his original from below and from the Earth and not from Heaven and in respect of his Imperial dominion hee arose out of the Sea because the Ruines of the Empire by meanes whereof hee arose to that his Imperial Greatnesse were not otherwise wrought but by the wavering and disquiet turbulencies that were in the World in those daies So that howsoever it is called the first Beast and the second Beast in distinct considerations yet upon the matter they both make but one Antichrist And therefore in Rev. 17. is there mention made but of One Beast only which supported the Whore of Babylon Yea Fatentur omnes pertinere omnino ad Antichristum verba illa Iohannis c. All men confesse saith Bellarmine himselfe that those vvords of Iohn in Rev. 13.11 c. doe undoubtedly belong to Antichrist Now then let us examine and see if they be not all verified in the Pope and Papacy First it is said that this second Beast had two hornes like a Lamb but he spake like the Dragon Duo Cornua similia Agni scilicet Christi cuius duo Cornua sunt duo Testamenta He shal have two Hornes like to those of the Lambe that is like to those of Christ vvhose two Hornes be the two Testaments as Lyranus Primasius and Augustine also expound them Whereby appeareth that Antichrist shall outwardly pretend great sanctitie sinceritie humilitie and simplicitie and as if hee did all things by good authoritie and strength of the holy Scriptures the two Testaments the Old and the New and yet in verie deed his voice and speech that is his doctrines decrees lawes canons and constitutions should bewray and discover him to be but a Wolfe in Sheepes clothing and no lesse cruell and malignant against the true Church of God then the verie Dragon Doth not everie man perceive that these things doe rightly fit the Pope For who maketh a greater outward shew of sanctitie pietie and Christianitie then he and what doth he else but pretend the strength and authoritie of the two Testaments namely of the holy Scriptures for warrant and maintenance of the false doctrines errors heresies hee teacheth and holdeth Can anie man outwardly pretend greater humi litie then he when he entitleth himselfe Servus servorum Dei a servant of Gods servants and yet for all that he taketh upon him by his claimes and actions to be Rex Regum Dominus Dominantium the King of Kings and Lord of Lords So that howsoever hee pretendeth humilitie yet wee see hee is farre from it And howsoever hee pretendeth the authoritie of the holy Scriptures viz the two Testaments for the strengthning and confirmation of his religion doctrine and doings alledging them to be shadowed out and figured in the two Hornes of his Myter yet partly by reason of the unsound and false translations of those Scriptures which he defendeth and authorizeth against the truth of the Originals and partly whilest he perverteth and misinterpreteth the true Scriptures themselves and equalleth also his Traditions unto them and moreover dispenseth with them at his pleasure and preferreth his owne authoritie and the authoritie of his Church above them and so maketh them to speake in another sense and otherwise then ever they meant it is apparant that being thus used and abused they be at the most but like the two Hornes of the Lambe as this Text speaketh and be not the verie two hornes themselves that is they be not the pure incorrupt and undoubtedly true Scriptures themselves but corrupted differing from them Pope and Popery then appeareth to consist all in shewes semblances and likenesses of veritie sanctitie and pietie and have it not in verie deed and substance And therefore not without good cause did diverse Bishops make their complaint long sithence in their Epistle to Pope Nicholas recorded in Aventine saying in this sort unto him Thou bearest the person of a Bishop but thou playest the Tyrant under the habite and attyre of a Pastor vvee feele a VVolfe It is a lying Title that calleth thee Father thou in thy deeds shewest thy selfe to be another Iupiter being the servant of servants thou strivest to be the Lord of Lords c. But moreover doth not the Pope speake like the Dragon that is like the Divell for by the Dragon in the Revelation is the Divell understood when he saith that the Kingdomes of the world be his and that he hath power to dispose and give them to whomsoever hee will For did not the Divell speake the verie same to Christ in the Gospel Yea the Pope is as they write Totius orbis Dominus The Lord of the vvhole vvorld and hath Coelestis terrestris potestatis Monarchiam The Monarchy or soveraignetie both of the heavenly and earthly power and to him forsooth they apply that Prophecie Dominabitur à mari ad mare à flumine usque ad terminos orbis He shall rule from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the vvorld Yea they attribute that unto him which Iesus Christ spake of himselfe saying that All power is given unto him both in heaven and earth Matth. 28.18 Be not these most abominable blasphemous and divelish speeches being attributed to the Pope But yet further what doth hee else but speake like the Dragon that is like the Divell whilest he teacheth that doctrine of Divells mentioned in the Epistle to Timothy as shal afterward appeare and whilest he maintaineth a wrong worship of God a false faith and an Apostatical and Antichristian religion against the right most pure and onely true religion of Christ extant in the booke of God the holy and canonical Scriptures 3 Againe it is said that this second Beast did exercise all the power of the first Beast and that before him And who is so ignorant but hee knoweth that the Pope exerciseth all the power of the first Beast that is of the Latine or Romane State and that before him or before his face that is to say even at Rome and in the presence of the Romane State For hath not the Pope gotten that which was the seate of the Emperor namely Rome and made it his seate And is not the Emperor put downe from having anie Headship or Soveraigne Authoritie there Yea doth not the Pope there take upon him to exercise all the Imperial power authoritie tamen sine nomine Romani Imperatoris yet vvithout the name of the Emperor of Rome as Bellar. himself also saith that Antichrist must doe For this Imperial Authoritie aswell as his Ecclesiastical that is to say both his supremacies as before is shewed hee claimeth and holdeth under the name and title
chiefly in respect of the world to come For it hath as you see Gods owne expresse commandement bidding all his people to depart from that mysticall Babylon Popish Rome When therefore God himselfe thus speaketh and would have none that bee his people to adhere to such a Mother as the Whore of Babylon is but cleane contrariwise would have them to depart from her and utterly to renounce abhorre and detest her as being indeed the Mother of VVhoredomes and abhominations of the Earth as she is intitled is it not good reason and your bounden dutie to give eare unto him and to obey his voyce herein as you tender your owne salvations and desire to be His People It appeareth that ye have been of a long time mistaken as touching the right Mother-Church For not Popish Rome but Hierusalem which is from above is the Mother of us all as S. Paul expressely witnesseth Yea what maner of Mother Popish Rome is I trust yee now sufficiently perceive Bee no longer therefore so much abused or so extreamely deluded as to take the wrong Mother for the right and him that is the grand Antichrist to bee Christs Vicar the head of his Church S. Peters successor and the Bishop that cannot erre in matter of Faith For what christian charitable and good minde doth not grieve to see so manie honourable and honest-hearted men to bee so farre carried away and misled to their owne perdition Howbeit if anie amongst you rest not satisfied herewith but thinketh that hee can answer this Booke and will take upon him so to doe I desire him first that hee will doe it not by parts or peece-meales but wholly and entirely from the beginning of it to the end Secondly I desire him to doe it not superficially or sophistically but substantially soundly and satisfactorilie if hee can Thirdly as I would haue him to doe it in love and charity and with an affection onely to follow Gods truth so doe I also desire him to set his name unto it as I have done here to this But if none amongst you can make anie solid sound sufficient and satisfactorie Answere unto it as I rest assured before hand none can or will bee able For who was or ever will be able to Answer or confute that Word of God whereupon the Protestants Doctrine Religion is apparantly grounded then is there so much the more reason for you all to yeeld to that which you see to bee evident unanswerable and irrefutable God Almightie if it bee his will open all your eies to see his splendent and invincible truth in his sacred Canonical Scriptures conteined and grant both to you and to us that wee may all acknowledge professe and observe it to his glorie the discharge of our duties and our owne everlasting comforts and salvation through Iesus Christ. Amen VVisdome is iustified of all her Children Luk. 7.35 Vnto the King everlasting Immortal Invisible unto GOD onely wise be honor and glorie for ever and ever AMEN 1. Tim. 1.17 FINIS AN EPISTLE VVRITTEN BY THE REVEREND FAther in God James Vssher Bishop of Meath concerning the religion anciently professed by the IRISH and SCOTTISH Shewing it to be for substance the same with that which at this day is by publick authoritie established in the Church of ENGLAND WORTHY SIR I Confesse I somewhat incline to be of your minde that if unto the authorities drawen out of Scriptures and Fathers which are common to us with others a true discoverie were added of that religion which anciently was professed in this kingdome it might prove a speciall motive to induce my poore countrey-men to consider a little better of the old and true way from whence they have hitherto beene misledd Yet on the one side that saying in the Gospell runneth much in my minde If they heare not Moses and the Prophets neyther will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead and on the other that heavie judgement mentioned by the Apostle because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved God shall send them strong delusion that they should beleeve lyes The wofull experience whereof wee may see daily before our eyes in this poore nation where such as are slow of heart to beleeve the saving truth of God delivered by the Prophets and Apostles doe with all greedinesse imbrace with a most strange kinde of credulitie intertaine those lying Legends wherwith their Monks Friars in these latter dayes have polluted the religion and lives of our ancient Saints I doe not denie but that in this countrey as well as in others corruptions did creepe in by little and little before the Divell was let loose to procure that seduction which prevayled so generally in these last times but as farre as I can collect by such records of the former ages as have come unto my hands eyther manuscript or printed the religion professed by the ancient Bishops Priests Monkes and other Christians in this land was for substance the verie same with that which now by publick authoritie is maintayned therein against the forraine doctrine brought in thither in later times by the Bishop of Romes followers I speake of the more substantiall points of doctrine that are in controversie betwixt the Church of Rome and us at this day by which only wee must judge whether of both sides hath departed from the religion of our ancestours not of matters of inferior note much lesse of ceremonies and such other things as appertaine to the discipline rather than to the doctrine of the Church And whereas it is knowne unto the learned that the name of Scoti in those elder times whereof we treate was common to the inhabitants of the greater and the lesser Scotland for so heretofore they have beene distinguished that is to say of Ireland and the famous colonie deduced from thence into Albania I will not follow the evill example of those that have of late laboured to make dissension betwixt the daughter and the mother but accompt of them both as of the same people Tros Rutulúsve fuat nullo discrimine habebo That wee may therefore fall upon the matter in hand without further preambles two excellent rules doth S. Paul prescribe unto Christians for their direction in the wayes of God the one that they be not unwise but understanding what the will of God is the other that they be not more wise then behoveth to be wise but be wise unto sobriety and that wee might know the limits within which this wisedome and sobrietie should be bounded hee elsewhere declareth that not to be more wise then is fitting is not to bee wise above that which is written Hereupon Sedulius one of the most ancient writers that remaineth of this countrey birth delivereth this for the meaning of the former rule Search the Law in which the will of God is contayned and this for the later He would be more wise then
Secondly I must crave leave to say that I find not Popery how subtill or sophisticall soever it be to be of anie such puissance but that a man of meane learning armed with the strength of the divine Scriptures may easily ruinate and overturne it Thirdly those that oppugne the Religion His Majesties Supremacie what doe they else but oppugne therewithall as they must needs at least inclusively the Lawes and Statutes of the Kingdome whereby they are both established And what reason then can bee shewed why hee that is a Lawyer by profession may not defend and maintaine the Lawes and Statutes of the Realme in those two great points especially wherein they be so unjustly and causelessely oppugned But when I consider my selfe further to be a servant though unworthy to his most excellent Majestie and that in so high and eminent a Court as His Maiesties Bench is beside my profession the duetie of my place also tyeth mee to defend his Maiesties Supremacie as being a thing properly appâ—rtayning to his verie Crowne and Regall dignitie And doth not moreover the Oath of Supremacy to His Majestie which I have taken necessarily binde mee hereunto Yea even for this verie cause that I am a subiect to his Maiestie though there were no other reason doe I hold my selfe in duetie tyed to my power to uphold and maintain that his Regall Supremacie For if everie good childe will maintaine the right and Authoritie of his Father and everie good servant the right and Authoritie of his Lord and Master ought not everie good subiect to maintaine the right and Authoritie of his Soveraigne Lord and King And as touching the Religion if there were no other reason but this that I am a Christian by profession though no professed Divine doe I hold it for that verie cause not onely well beseeming mee but my duetie likewise according to such measure of knowledge and abilitie as God hath given mee to defend and maintaine the true and Christian Religion I professe against that which is untruly called the Christian and Catholike and is indeed the false erroneous and Antichristian For whereas some have a conceit that not Lay men at all but Clergie men only and such as be of the Ecclesiastical Ministerie should meddle with the Scriptures and matters of Religion it appeareth to be a verie vaine conceit and an untrue opinion because S. Paul directly requireth even of Lay Christians as well as of others that the Word of Christ should Dwell in them and that not poorely or in a small or slender measure but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is richly plentifully or abundantly Whereupon Primasius saith that Hence wee learne that the Lay people ought to have the knowledge of the Scriptures and to teach one another not onely sufficiently but also abundantly And therefore are they further expressely charged to admonish exhort and edifie one another yea to contend and not onely to contend but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 earnestly to contend for that faith which was once given unto the Saints And doth not God himselfe also command thus Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart but Thou shalt in anie wise rebuke thy neighbour and not suffer sinne to be upon him Agreeably wherunto would not S. Iames likewise have all Christians to labour the conversion of such as be in error and goe astray telling them for their better encouragement in this matter that if any doe erre from the truth and another convert him let such a one know that he which converteth a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soule from death and cover a multitude of sinnes You see then what duties in respect of the good of others as well as of himselfe be required even of a lay person in matters concerning God and his religion And indeede verie strange it were if lay Christians should be tyed in charitie to take care of mens bodies and yet should in no sort be permitted to have anie care or to shew anie Christian charitie or affection in respect of their soules and the good and safetie of them It is true that no man may take upon him the office and function of Bishops Pastors or other Ministers of the Word without a lawfull calling or ordination first had and obtayned but although a lay man may not therfore preach minister the sacraments nor do anie such acts as be proper and peculiar to those that be Ecclesiasticall Ministers yet in such things as be not proper and peculiar unto them but be acts and duties common with them to other Christians a Lay man may lawfully intermeddle It is likewise true that the knowledge of Gods Word and consequently of Divinitie doth in a more exact and more plentiful and fuller maner and measure and chiefly belong to those that be professed Divines and of the Ecclesiasticall Ministery but thereupon it followeth not that therefore it belongeth onely to them As also although those of the Ecclesiasticall Ministery are to teach and instruct the Lay people out of the Scriptures and that the Lay people are to learne what they rightly teach from thence yet neither doth it thereupon follow nor is that anie argument or impediment but that the Lay people may neverthelesse reade and get knowledge in the Scriptures and thereout learne what good they can also even by their owne industry diligence and endevour We reade of Aquila and Priscilla his wife that they were by their Trade Tentmakers and that Apollos was a man eloquent and mightie in the Scriptureâ— yet so skilfull learned expert were those two nameâ—ly not onely Aquila but Priscilla also his wife in the Word of God as that they tooke unto them the same Apollos and expounded unto him The Way of God more perfectly All men know that Kings Princes and such like civill Magistrates be none of that Order of the Ecclesiasticall Ministery and yet of them it is specially required that they reade the Scriptures Book of God and that they be verie diligent and conversant in it For God expressely requireth of a King that When hee shall sit upon the Throne of his Kingdome He get him the Book of his Law and chargeth him to reade therein all the Dayes of his Life that he may learne to feare the Lord his God and to Keepe All his Words and ordinances not turning from them eyther to the right hand or to the left That so he may prolong his Dayes in his Kingdome Hee and his Sonnes after him And to Iosuah a civill Magiâ—â—â—ate hee likewise giveth this charge and commandement saying Let not This Booke of the Law depart out of thy mouth but Meditate therein Day and Night that thou maist Observe and Doe according to All that is written therein for then shalt thou make thy Way prosperous and then shalt thou have good successe Was not the Treasurer to Candace Queene of the Ethiopians also a Lay man and not
good ends and purposes and not to satisfie the severity of his Iustice by that meanes for their sinnes and the punishment thereto belonging p. 125. c There is no iust cause to be shewed vvhy the pretended Catholicks should refuse to take the oath of Supremacy or refuse to come to our Churches Their obiections and reasons answered p. 1 2 c p. 407 c. See also throughout the vvhole booke for this purpose Concerning auricular Confession and to vvhom confession of sinnes is to be made and that it ought to be free and voluntarie and not forced or compelled pag. 302 303 c. pag. 253 254 D FOr vvhom Christ Dyed and to vvhom hee is a Redeemer pag. 187 188 189 c Every sinne Deadly in his owne nature although all sinnes be also veniall and remissible in respect of Gods mercie grace and bounty except the sinne against the holy Ghost pag. 114 115 E THe Emperor in ancient time had the Supremacy and not the Pope pag. 30 The Emperor in times past had power to place and displace Popes pag. 27 The Emperor in ancient time banished imprisoned and otherwise punished aswell Bishops of Rome as other Bishops pag. 22 Hee did make Lawes concerning Ecclesiasticall causes and religion pag. 24 As also Commissioners in an Ecclesiasticall cause and the B. of Rome himselfe vvas one of those Commissioners pag. ibid. An appeale to the Emperor in an Ecclesiasticall cause pag 24 Generall Councils in ancient times called by the Emperor and his Authoritie pag. 24 The Christian Emperor did and vvas to meddle in matters of the Church and concerning Religion pag. 25 The Christian Emperor in ancient time did nominate and appoint Bishops of Diocesses and Provinces and even the Bishop of Rome himselfe pag. 25 Emperors in ancient time did ratifie the decrees of Councils before they vvere put in execution pag 28 Miltiades Leo and Gregory all Bishops of Rome in their severall times subiect to the Emperor and at his command pag 24.26 Ancient Fathers Popes of Rome and Councils aswell generall as provinciall may erre even in matter of faith aswell as in matter of fact pag. 49 50 51 52. c See also the Preface for this point The Romane Empire dissolved ever since the Emperors have ceased to have the soveraigne command and rule of Rome and that the Popes have gotten to be the heads and supreme Rulers of that City and to be above the Emperors pa. 331.332 and pag. 391.392.393 The Pope of Rome hath no power or authoritie from Christ to Excommunicate any pag. 299 c Excommunications be they never so iust and lawfull be by Gods law and appointment of no force to depose from Earthly kingdomes or to dissolve the dutie and allegeance of subiects pag. 299 300 301 c F OVr Forefathers and ancestors not to be followed in any vices or errors they held pag 34 35 Foretold in the Booke of God that an apostacie from the right faith and a mysterie of iniquitie otherwise called an Antichristianisme should come upon the Church and that so the Church by degrees should grow corrupted and deformed pag. 35 36 280 Foretold also how long the Church should lye in those her corruptions and errors and vvhen she should begin to be clensed and reformed pag. 35 36 VVhat is to be thought of our Forefathers that lived and dyed in the time of Popery pag 39.40 41 42 Foretold that a strong delusion to beleeve lyes shouâ—d possesse them of the Antichristian Church because they received not the love of the truth extant in the divine Scriptures pag. 307 308 Men are iustified in Gods sight and before his tribunall by Faith only and good vvorkes be the fruits and declarations of that faith pag. 99 100 101 c. to the end of that chapter and pag. 116 117 118 c. to the end also of that chapter G God is not the author of sinne pag. 168 169 c. H NOt Protestants but Papists be the Heretickes pag. 72. and Schismaticks pag. 37 38. pag. 413.414 c Not the Pope but Christ onely is the Head of the universall militant Church as well as of the triumphant pag 94 95 96 97 98 I VVHo is to be the infallible Iudge of controversies in religion or vvhich commeth all to one effect in the conclusion vvhat is the infallible Rule vvhereby men must iudge and be directed for the finding out of truth in those controversies pag. 49 50 51 c. See also the Preface for this matter The Implicita fides of Papists reproved pag 78 79 80 K KIngs have the Supremacie over all maner of persons aswell Ecclesiasticall as Civill vvithin their own Dominions pa. 1. to p. 5 Their Supremacie in all kinde of causes aswell Ecclesiasticall as Civill pag. 5 c Kings and Princes although they have the Supremacie yet thereby claime not nor can claime to preach to minister the Sacraments to excommunicate absolve or to consecrate Bishops or to doe any other act proper to the function of the Ecclesiasticall ministers pag. 32 c Kings and Princes be notwithstanding their Supremacies under God and subiect to him and his vvord pag. 33 Even heathen Kings may command and make Edicts and Proclamations for God and his service pag. 7. c Christian Kings and Queenes are by Gods appointment to be nursing fathers and nursing mothers to his Church and Religion p. 7. The authoritie of a Christian King in respect of contemptuous disorderly and unruly persons requisite and necessary in the Church as vvell as in the Common-weale pag. 6 c Kings and Princes may command and compell their subiects to externall obedience for God pag. 6 7 8 9 10 Christian Kings may make lawes about matters Ecclesiast p. 7 8.24 Hee may make Commissioners in Ecclesiasticall causes pag. 24 He may have Appeales made unto him in a cause Ecclesiastical ib. He may nominate and appoint Bishops of Diocesses and Provinces pag. 27. Councels and Convocations to be assembled by his authoritie and the decrees thereof by him to be ratified and confirmed before they be put in execution pag. 26 27 28 Christian Kings doe punish offendors in Ecclesiasticall causes not Ecclesiastically but Civilly pag. 6 7.32 Subiects ought not to rebell against their Kings and Princes though they be adversaries to the Christian Religion and though subiects have power force enough to do it pa. 20 21 22.299 300 Kings of Rome did sometimes send the Bishops of Rome as their Ambassadors pag. 22 How thankefull subiects ought to be unto God for Christian Kings and Princes pag. 33 The power of the Keyes most grossely abused by the B of Rome to vvorke his owne exaltation above Kings and Princes pag 299 300 301 c The Keyes of the kingdome of heaven no more given to S. Peter then to the rest of the Apostles pag. 292 293 294 295 L NO Licentiousnesse or impiety in the doctrine of Iustification by faith or in the doctrine of predestination or
assurance of salvation or in the doctrine of redemption or in any point of the religion of the Protestants but the cleane contrary pag. 99 100 c pag. 153 154. c. pag. 125 c pag. 404 c Lay persons may and ought to reade the Scriptures and thereby to examine and try the doctrines of men vvhether they be right or no pag. 73 74 75 76. c. See also the Preface It is impossible for meere men by and in their owne persons perfectly to fulfill the Law of the ten Commandements and so to be iustified yea the Law vvas given to other uses and ends pag. 108 c No such place as Limbus Patrum pag. 130 131 132 M MIracles signes or vvonders done in the antichristian Church pag. 98 99 pag 306 307 pag 280 281 Mens Merits deserve not salvation but damnation p. 110 111 112 113 c. pag 366 367 N THe Name of Christians the most ancient and the most honourable See the Preface toward the end The Name of Catholicks to vvhom it rightly and properly belongeth pag. 63 64 O THe Oath of Supremacie to the King explaned and declared to be iust and lawfull pag 1 2 3 4 c. to the end of that chapter P THe Pope got his supremacie over Emperors and Kings partly by fraude and partly by force pag. 27 28 The Ecclesiasticall supremacie vvhen it vvas first affected by a Bishop vvas oppugned even by some of the B. of Rome themselves p. 13 14 15. Divers generall Councils also against it p 16 17 The Popes Supremacie vvhat a vvicked founder it had and how vvickedly it is still maintayned and upheld pag. 12 Three Texts of Scripture usually alledged for maintenance of the Popes supremacie abused answered p. 11 12 p. 291 292 c Excommunication and the power of the Kâ—yes abused by the Pope for establishing maintenance of his supremacie p. 299 300 301 Divers vvritings forged under the names of Clemens Anacletus Evaristus and other ancients for the upholding of the Popes new Supremacie pag. 12 The Donation of Constantine also forged for that purpose ibid. Miracles signes or wonders also done for that end p. 341 342 c Poperie is a corruption of the most ancient and Christian Religion and is to the Church as an infection or disease is to the body of a man or as a plague or pestilence is to a Citie pag. 38 Pope and Poperie exclaymed against long before Luther or Calvin vvere borne pag. 42 43 44 45 46 c The Popes excommunications and curses to be contemned pag. 44 45 299 Popes of Rome have erred and may erre even in matter of faith and iudicially pag 51 52 53 54. See the Preface also No such place as Popish Purgatorie pag. 125 126 c. to the end of that chapter That there is a Predestination is confessed both by Protestants and Papists the doctrine vvhereof being rightly understood is verie sweet and comfortable and is so farre from introducing any inconvenience licentiousnesse or impiety as that it inferreth the cleane contrary pag. 153 154 155 156 157 158 Predestination dependeth not upon the vvill of men but upon the vvill of God pag. 178.179 180 c Vocation iustification sanctification and all saving graces be consequents and effects of Election or Predestination to life everlasting pag. 154 c pag. 198 c Predestination dependeth upon Gods foreknowledge and vvhat that foreknowledge is pag. 194 195 196 c Faith foreseene and good vvorkes foreseene be not the cause of Predestination but the effect and a consequent thereunto ibid. The doctrine of Predestination teacheth no dissolutenâ—sse or carelesnesse but the cleane contrary pag 154 155 c. p. 199 200 c Predestination teacheth no man utterly to despaire though he be exceedingly vvicked and impious for the present inasmuch as there is a possibilitie to be converted so long as life lasteth as likewise it teacheth no man rashly or unadvisedly to presume p. 157 158 198 200 c The Popish Masse and Popish Priesthood thereto belonging both abominable pag. 217 218 219 c VVhat maner of Primacie it vvas that Peter had amongst the Apostles pag. 295 296 c Popish Priests be not the Ministers of Christ but of Antichrist and therefore to resort to them as if they had commission or authoritie from Christ to give absolution or forgivenesse of sins is vvicked and in vaine pag. 302. c. Q ALl Questions and controversies concerning faith and religion to be decided and determined by the sacred and canonicall Scriptures pag. 49 50 c. See also the Preface throughout R THat there is a Reprobation aswell as an Election and vvhat it is pag. 165 c Reprobation and Election both at one time and the cause vvhy this man in particular vvus chosen and that man refused is Gods own meere will and pleasure pag. 196 197 198 None can certainly determine of himselfe before-hand that hee is a reprobate though he be for the present exceedingly vvicked and ungodly because God may possibly call and convert him before hee dye p. 157.158 p 199 200 Rome apparantly proved to be the vvhore of Babylon p. 246 o. Bellarmine himselfe other Papists confesse Rome to be the whore of Babylon pag. 247 The evasion they make that onely heathen Rome is there intended is shewed to be very vaine and false pag. 247 248 249 c Some special spiritual whoredomes that is Idolatries of the Romish Church pâ—g 258 259 260 c VVho is the Rock and foundation vvhereupon the Church is builded pag. 292 293. c. S THe Spirit that speaketh in the sacred Scriptures is not a private or humane spirit but a divine spirit even the Spirit of God And by this Spirit speaking in those Scriptures is every spiriâ— speaking in men to be tryed pag. 53 54 Exposition of one place of Scripture must be such as agreeth vvith the rest of the Scriptures pag. 58 59 A rule to kâ—ow vvhen a man speaketh by a private Spirit of his owne and vvhen not pag. 53.54 The true Church to be tried and knowne by the sacred and canonical Scriptures pag. 59 60 61 62 Some bookes held by the Papists to be canonicall Scriptures which the ancient Church held not to be so pag. 65 66 The publicke prayers and Service in the Church should be in such a tongue as the people might understand pag 67 The originals of the Scripture incorrupt and to be preferred before that vvhich is called S Hieromes Translation and all other Translations vvhatsoever pag. 67 68 69.70 The English Translation of the Scripture is rightly iustified against the uniust exceptions of Papists pag. 71 Not any humane learning or private spirit of any man but God only and his Spirit is the opener and unfolder of the true sense of the divine Scriptures pag. 73 74 Lay people may and ought to reade the Scriptures pag. 73 74 75 76 77. See also the Preface That there be
yee cannot so much as shew the points of your religion wherein yee differ from us by the testimonie of the sacred and Canonicall Scriptures to have beene in the Apostles times and taught or approved by them as wee can doe ours And as touching Perpetuitie your Church hath it not but ours verie clearely hath it as having beene not onely in the times of the Apostles but in all succeeding ages also and posterities as is before sufficiently and plainely declared in the first part of this booke Chap. 2. For the true Church is builded upon so strong and invincible a Rocke namely upon Christ Iesus himselfe whom Peter confessed as that the gates of hell shall not prevaile against it If all the power of hell and divels as is here manifest cannot prevaile against the Church of God that is the companie of Gods Elect and the number of his true and right Worshippers It is evident that this Church that is a companie of right and true worshippers of him must be granted to be perpetuall and to have continued throughout all ages and generations especially considering what God himselfe further speaketh saying thus I will makâ— this my covenant with them my spirit that is vpon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy Seede nor out of the mouth of thy Seedes seede saith the Lord from henceforth even for ever Yea that our Church was in Esse and had continuance even during the hottest rage of the raigne of that Romish Antichrist besides all other arguments this is a manifest one namely because the Popish Church still molested pursued and persecuted our Church under the names of Berengarians VValdenses Albigenses VVickâ—evists Lutherans Calvinists Lollards Heretickes Scismatickes and such like And yet very true it is that such may be sometime in some place the state of the Church by reason of rageing persecution against it as that even a right godly man and true worshipper of God may thinke himselfe to bee left alone without anie followers or copartners with him there in the right service of God As for example Elias complained in his time and of that place where he then lived that hee was left alone and That they sought to take avvay his life also And yet for all that was not Elias left alone although he so supposed and spake for God told him that he had even there namely in Israell where Elias then was reserved unto himselfe Seven thousand right worshippers of him which had not bowed their knee to Baal If the Companie of Gods chosen Church and elect people and right Worshippers of him be as is here evident sometime in some place unknowne even to a right godly man and Prophet of God no marvell is it though they sometimes lye hid and be unknowne to their enemies and persecutors to whose devowring pawes and bloodie hands without urgent cause they had no reason to shew themselves It is therfore no good argument which Papists make when they say that at some times during the raigne of Poperie they neither saw nor knew nor could heare of anie Protestants for if it were so as they say that they could finde none nor knew of anie at sometimes yet even then might there bee and were there also some such true and right worshippers of God albeit they lay hid from them and kept themselves as they had reason from their knowledge and mercilesse crueltie The reason then which they make against the continuance and perpetuitie of our Church because it was not as they say at all times seene of the world nor had their exercises of Religion at all and singular times publikely knowne to the world appeareth to be verie idle and of no force As for the answer which the Rhemists make to the former complaint of Eâ—ias that the faithful in his time were forced to keep close by reason of the persecution of Achab Iesabel which was onely in the Kingdome of the ten Tribes that is in Israell and yet neverthelesse that at the verie same time in Ierusalem and in all the Kingdome of Iudah the externall worship and profession of faith was openly observed well known even to Elias himselfe Admit all this were true which is not proved yet what will they then say to this that the Church at other times hath beene so hidden that there was no open or publike exercise of Religion to be sâ—ene no not in Iuda or Ierusalem it selfe no more then in those ten Tribes of Israell as namely in the daies of Ahas the sonne of Iotham King â—f Iuda of whom it is said that hee walked in the way of the Kings of Israâ—ll yea and made his Sonne to goe through the fire after the abhominations of the Heathen and in whose time the Altar of God was removed and an Idolatrous altar by the high Priests consent 〈…〉 Yea in the daies also of Hoseah King of Israell it is testified that not onely Israell but Iuda also kept not the Commandements of the Lord their God but walked according to the fashion of Israel vvhich they vsed How was the Church then visible in that sort and sense that wee speake of that is to say was it such a Church as had publike exercises of Gods religion splendently seene and openly apparant to the world Againe in the daies of Manasseth King of Iuda when Hee did evill in the sight of the Lord after the abhomination of the Heathen and erected altars for Baall and worshipped all the hoast of heaven and served them and when hee also built Idolatrous altars in the house of the Lord yea when it was recorded that this King Manasseh led the people out of the way to doe more wickedly then did the heathen and made Iuda also sinne vvith his Idols I say when Iuda became thus corrupted and Idolatrous aswell as Israell Had then the Church her outward practise of Religion according to Gods commandement and appointment to bee openly seene of the world And was it not so likewise in the daies of Amon King of Iuda Sonne and successor to Manasseh vvho did evill in the sight of the Lord as his father Manasseh did for he walked in all the waies his father walked in and served the Idols that his father served and worshipped them Thus you see that the Church of God was sometimes not openly seene but lay hidden and that as well in Iuda and Ierusalem as in the ten Tribes But perceiving this Church of Iuda and Israell to make against them then they flie to another devise and say that the Christian Church hath better promises then the Church of the Iewes Howbeit they can shew none as touching this point better for the one then for the other Yea for the Church of the Ievves to continue untill the first comming of Christ there be as strong as good promises to be seene as for
in respect of his bodily presence and manhood departed from the world and in that respect is as himselfe affirmeth no more in the vvorld but in heaven untill the day of the general judgement as S. Peter also and our Creede doe teach us how grosse and absurd yea what misbeleevers be Papists that dare affirme him cleane contrarie to his owne testimonie and the testimonie of S. Peter and the rest of the Scriptures and contrarie also to the verie Creed it selfe to be still in the world in that his manhood and bodily presence It is high time therefore for all to renounce and forsake this monstrous and detestable errour if they will be right Christians and right beleevers As for that Text where it is said No man ascendeth up to heaven but he that descended from heaven even the sonne of man vvhich is in heaven It is easily answered and resolved for most true it is that the Sonne of man Christ Iesus was even then in heaven in his Deitie at such time when hee was also upon the earth in his humanitie So that in respect of that his Deitie or Godhead it is that being upon the earth he was neverthelesse also in heaven and not in respect of his manhood or humanitie for his manhood or humanitie or bodily presence was then on the earth and could not also be in heaven at one and the selfe same time as is before declared S. Iohn saith that Every spirit vvhich confesseth not that Iesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God but this is the spirit of Antichrist Now what is it else to denie Iesus Christ to be come in the flesh but to denie him to be true man and like unto men in all things sinne onely excepted Whilest men therefore thus denie Christ to be come in the flesh that is to have all the properties of a True man and to be like unto other men in all things sinne onely excepted how can they cleere themselves but that they must be enforced to yeeld and confesse that they be herein led not by the spirit of Christ but by the spirit of Antichrist Yea whilest they thus say that Christ is in his manhood and natural bodie present upon earth what doe they else but denie or impugne not onely those Articles of the Creed viz. that Christ is ascended into heaven and that there hee sitteth at the right hand of God his Father and that from thence he shall come to iudge the quicke and the dead But this Article also that Iesus Christ vvas borne of the Virgin Mary and was incarnate and made man of her substance For this doubtlesse is the right Iesus Christ in whom wee are to beleeve but by this their doctrine they contrariwise beleeve in another Iesus Christ namely in such a one as they affirme by this their Transubstantiation to be made of another substance namelie out of the substance of a piece of bread And how can such a Christ so made of the substance of a piece of bread be the true Christ Of which and of all other sorts of false Christs the true Christ Iesus himselfe hath given us sufficieÌ„t forewarning Fiftly they herein make their Massing Priest after their words of consecration uttered to be the maker of his Maker namelie of Iesus Christ And that Iesus Christ is thus made anew everie day or so oft as their Masse is celebrated How manie thousand Iesus Christs by this meanes will they have in the world But can anie be so absurdlie impious as to beleeve or suppose that Christ Iesus can be made out of the substance of a piece of bread by a Priest by vertue of anie words of consecration uttered or by anie devise whatsoever Can anie creature possibly make his Creator or the thing made make his maker Fie on these and all other such senselesse detestable abominations Diverse other absurdities also of the Papists might here be further alledged but these before mentioned will I hope suffice to declare the most grosse and most notorious false exposition of the Popish Church concerning those wordes of Christ This is my Body in the Lords Supper wherby they strangely suppose a Transubstantiation and a carnal eating of Christ his verâ—e natural bodie contrarie to the Scriptures and contrarie to all sense reason right faith and true Religion For ye must learne so to expound Scripture as that yee make all the rest of the Scriptures to stand and agree with that sense you set upon it so that there may be no repugnancie But the sense and exposition which the Popish church setteth upon those words of Christ namely This is my Body is cleerely repugnant to other Scriptures and even to the verie Articles also of the Creede aswell as to all sense and reason as is before apparant and therefore it cannot possibly be the right sense nor true exposition What remaineth then but that the right and true sense and meaning of those words is and must needs be the same which the Protestants set upon them because that their exposition is consonant agreeing to the rest of the Scriptures and to all the Articles of the Creede aswell as to all sense and reason and is also sutable and correspondent to the like usuall ordinarie phrase and manner of speech in other and former Sacraments amongst the Iewes the old people of God under the old Testament according to which maner of speech Christ also spake when he instituted this Sacrament of his Supper under the new Testament calling according to the usuall Sacramental phrase the signe by the name of the thing signified Which thing I trust is now so cleare and evident as that none can iustly anie longer make anie doubt or question of it 5 But yet for the fuller discussing hereof it will not be amisse here to speake a few words touching Consecration because upon Consecration it is that they seeme to build their before mentioned error of Transubstantiation Let us therfore consider what Consecration is and what it importeth or worketh To Consecrate then is to take a thing from the prophane or ordinarie and common use and to destinate or appoint it to some holy use and end And if wee would know how things come to bee consecrate or sanctified S. Paul saith that everie Creature of God is good and nothing to bee refused if it bee received with thankesgiving For it is sanctified saith hee by the word of God and prayer Sanctification then or Consecration of a thing doth here appeare to bee by the institution and word of God and by praier or invocation whereof thankesgiving is a part And therefore the Lord Iesus before he brake the bread and gave it hee Blessed that is he gave thankes to his Father that hee out of his love to men had appointed him to bee the Redeemer for the satisfying of his Iustice in the behalfe of his elect and had given him authoritie to institute this
of his most holy and most pure Religion and ordinances delivered in the sacred and canonical Scriptures the Infallible rule of Truth For doe you thinke that ever Christ and Antichrist will agree together VVhat hath the chaffe to doe vvith the vvheate saith the Lord. Or VVhat fellowship as S. Paul speaketh hath righteousnesse vvith unrighteousnesse vvhat communion hath light vvith darkenesse vvhat concord hath Christ vvith Belial vvhat part hath the Beleever vvith the Infidel vvhat agreement hath the Temple of God vvith Idols In some things I grant the Popish Church holdeth rightly and in all things such is the mysterie of Iniquitie maketh a semblance and pretence of pietie and Christianitie But take heed and be not here with deceived for beside that it is the nature and maner of Hypocrisie so to doe you now I hope doe sufficiently understand that neither the Pope of Rome could be Antichrist nor his Church be the Antichristian vnlesse they did make this semblance of pietie outward shâ—w and pretence of Christianitie yea cleerely they should be altogether Vnchristian and not Antichristian people if they made no semblance or profession at all of Christ. But all is not gold that glistereth nor that ever right and true Christianitie that seemeth to be so The Divell himselfe will hold some things rightly and will sometimes utter and tell some truths but it is to the end to gaine credite and beleefe to himselfe at other times and in other things when and wherein he speaketh lies And this craft and subtiltie have all Antichristian and false teachers learned and do practise being as S. Paul calleth them False-Apostles deceiptfull vvorkmen transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ And no marvaile saith he for Satan also himselfe is transformed into an Angel of light Therefore it is no great thing though his ministers transforme themselves as though they vvere the Ministers of righteousnesse vvhose end shall be according to their vvorkes Now then concerning the Kings Supremacy and his Authoritie in all kinde of causes and over all sorts of people aswell Ecclesiasticall as Civill you see what it is and you understand I trust the cleere lawfulnesse of it within his owne Dominions For a time there was as before is shewed when the Bishop of Rome was limited his precincts and bounds aswell as other Bishops and had no more Supremacy or Authoritie over other Bishops then they had over him Yea a time there was when Bishops in a Councell assembled had authoritie over the Pope of Rome and might and actually did depose him and when also the Bishops of Rome were subiect to the Emperor and at his command as is likewise before declared So that the best title which the Bishop of Rome at anie time had to his Supremacie within anie Kingdome appeareth to be not by anie institution or law of God but by an humane constitution onely and a positive law And seeing that this his Supremacie was afterward put downe againe dissolved and abolished within this Kingdome as also in all the rest of his Maiesties Dominions by as high and as good authoritie as at anie time it was erected and established in the same namely by Act of Parliament made within those Realmes Everie subiect to his Maiestie now standeth tied and bound in duetie utterly to renounce and forsake it If yet yee alledge as ye sometimes doe that for the space of divers hundreth yeares in the later times the Kings and Princes in Christendome submitted themselves to this Supremacie of the Pope I answer first that it is apparant that Non fuit sic ab initio it vvas not so from the beginning and that the most ancient Precedents be to the contrarie Secondly that this was to fulfil a prophecie in the Scripture which foretold that so it should come to passe namely that these Kings should vvith one consent submit or give their Kingdome unto the Beast untill the vvords of God vvere fulfilled Yea these Kings not onely submitted themselves and their Kingdomes to this Supremacie of the Pope but to the adulterated Religion likewise of that Whore of Babylon the Papal Citie of Rome to fulfill the like Prophecie which saith that vvith her have committed fornication the Kings of the earth and the Inhabitants of the earth have beene made drunken vvith the vvine of her fornication Inasmuch then as these things be thus foretold in holy Scripture to come to passe what marvell should it now be to anie to see and know them to have beene accomplished accorcordingly But yet thirdly observe that although these kings did for so long time yeeld and submit themselves and the people of their kingdomes to this Beast vvhore of Babylon yet the later part of this Prophecie remaineth to be fulfilled which is this that Tenne of these Kings that were so long enchanted and bewitched with this Whore and seduced and abused by her shall afterward discerne and espie her fraudes and wickednesse and thereupon shall detest and hate her make her desolate and naked eate her flesh and shall burne her vvith fire Which Prophecie as it is alreadie begun to be performed in some of these Kings which have fallen from her hating and detesting both her authoritie and her adulterated religion so shall it in all the parts and points of it in the due time appointed of God be fully and actually performed and accomplished The long continuance then of Pope and Poperie in the world is no argument or proofe of the lawfulnesse or allowablenesse of them for beside that it was foretold to be of that long continuance Mahometisme Paganisme heresie and error drunkennesse adulterie and sundrie other sinnes and vices be also verie ancient and of long continuance in the world yet doth not that make them therefore to be ever the more lawfull or allowable Yea the longer the Popes Supremacie and his adulterated Religion have continued the greater wrong and iniurie hath been done all that while not onely to all other Bishops in the world and to all Emperors Kings and Princes likewise but also to the whole Church and religion of God and even to God himselfe And therefore this maketh not for the upholding or confirmation but for the further and greater detestation and condemnation of them both 2 So that no sufficient cause or reason can anie of you shew why ye should refuse to be of our Religion or why yee should not all come to our Churches assemblies and ioine with us in the right and true service of God For first where yee suppose Ours the Protestant Religion as it is called to be false and heretical and yours the Popish to be the onely Catholike right it hath before bni made verie manifest unto you cleane contrariwise that Ours is the right Apostolike Catholike most ancient religion that yours comming in afterward is the new adulterate heretical false Antichristian and that those be not the children of the right and
Teachers which we are to renounce and detest Neither is this anie disorderly immodest or unseemely course whatsoever Rhemists or other Papists say to the contrarie but verie requisite and necessarie as you see in this case especially where the learned professed Divines themselves be at such variance Yea it is a thing not onely permitted and allowed but commended and commanded also in Gods owne Booke For when Christ Iesus biddeth aswell lay persons as others for tryall and finding out the truth in a doubtfull matter to Search the Scriptures is not that a sufficient commandement And when those noble-Christians at Berea did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 search the Scriptures and that daily thereby to trie and judge whether those things were so or no which their Preachers Teachers had taught delivered unto them be for the same so highly commended by the holy Ghost Shall anie be so unadvised rash or presumptuous as to say or thinke it to be either unlawful or unlaudable for them that be learners and hearers so to doe Is not all the immodestie pride arrogancie in them rather which will not suffer or allow their Doctrines to be thus tryed and examined by the Scriptures but as if they were Lords over mens faith will have men to beleeve them whatsoever they teach be it right or wrong without anie further search enquirie or examination May not men most easily be thus deluded deceived Against which doth not Christ himselfe say Take heed that no man deceive you Againe doth hee not say Take heed and beware of the Leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees that is of their Doctrine as it is expounded in the same chapter And doth not S. Paul likewise bid the people to Try or examine all things touching mens doctrines and to hold fast that which is good Doth not S. Iohn againe say thus unto them in plaine termes Beleeve not everie Spirit but try the Spirits whether they be of God or no for many false Prophets be gone out into this world Chrysostome in his dayes answering the obiection of such as said they could not tell what religion to be of because there were so manie differing opinions of it saith that seeing they have the Scriptures vvhich be so true and plaine it will be an easie matter thereby for them to judge for tell me saith he hast thou anie understanding or judgement for it is not a mans part barely to receive vvhatsoever he heareth Say not then I am a learner and may be no Iudge for that is but a shift And this also S. Basil teacheth Origen likewise teacheth the same saying Me dicente quod sentio Vos discernite examinate si quid rectum est aut minus rectum Whilst I speake what I thinke Doe you judge and examine vvhat is right and vvhat is not right in it S. Ambrose likewise saith thus Wee justly condemne all new things vvhich Christ hath not taught for Christ is the Way to the faithfull If therefore vvee our selves preach anie thing vvhich Christ hath not taught Doe you saith hee judge that abominable In like sort speaketh S. Cyril saying Concerning the holy and heavenly mysteries of faith vvee must not deliver anie thing though never so small vvithout the holy Scriptures neither may vve be led away with probabilities and shew of vvords nor yet beleeve me saith hee barely saying these things unto you unlesse you also receive the demonstration thereof from the Scripture For the securitie of our faith ariseth from the demonstration of the holy Scripture Here then you plentifully perceive that even lay persons are to judge and discerne of the Doctrines of men although not by anie private spirit of their owne yet by that divine Spirit that speaketh in the holy Scriptures the onely infallible rule of true Religion the voice and iudgement of which divine Spirit there speaking we ought to obey and yeeld unto Let not therefore anie reason drawne from possibilitie of errors or heresies which men may fall into by misunderstanding of the Scriptures taking them in a wrong sense alienate you from reading of them for if this should passe currant and be held for a good and sufficient reason then neither should Clergie-men or Ecclesiasticall Ministers be permitted to reade the Scriptures because there is a possibilitie for them also in the reading of them to misunderstand them and to take them in a wrong sense and so to fall into errors or heresies as we see indeed that some of them heretofore have done and still doe And as for the obiection of difficultie or obscuritie in the Scriptures S. Chrysostome hath answered it long agone saying that therefore God penned the Scriptures by the hands of Publicanes Fishermen Tentmakers Sheepheards Neatheards and unlearned men that none of the simple people might have anie excuse to keepe them from reading them and that so they might be easie to be understood of all men the Artificer the housholder the vviddow-woman and him that is most unlearned And further hee saith that the Scripture when it speaketh anie thing obscurely expoundeth it selfe in another place And so also saith S. Augustine that there is almost nothing in these Obscurities but in other places a man may finde it plainly delivered In like sort speaketh S. Hierome saying It is the maner of the Scripture after things obscure to set downe things manifest and that which they have first spoken in parables to deliver afterward in plainer termes And so testifieth S. Basil also that the things that be doubtfull and in some places of Scripture seeme to be spoken obscurely be made plaine by those things vvhich be evident in other places And therefore none of us that be lay-men upon anie pretences of difficultie or obscuritie whatsoever must be deterred or discouraged from the diligent reading and searching of these sacred divine canonical scriptures that so we may at last therby finde out the certain and undoubted truth in these Controversies that so deepely concerne us and be of so great and high importance But these things be more fully handled afterward and therfore I here forbeare to speake any further of them In the meane time you see that which I cannot conceale or denie namely that in these Controversies I hold with the Protestants against the Papists which neverthelesse I hope ye will conceive that I do not in anie partiall worldly or sinister regards but for that upon triall and examination of these matters by the rule of the divine and canonicall Scriptures I finde the truth to be on their side and so I rest assured that even your selves also will finde it if all partialitie and preiudicate conceits being laid aside yee will be pleased to â—udge of them as of right yee ought and in reason I hope ye will be moved to do by that only infallible rule I grant that the name of Protestants is
not verie ancient as being given of later times to those Christians that have protested against the errors abuses in Poperie yet that hindreth not but that the Faith Religion by them professed may be nevertheless as it is the most ancient Apostolick Catholick Christian Divine As likewise the name of Papists is not verie ancient as being also of later times given by their adversaries unto them for that they depend so much upon the Pope his doctrine decrees designes yet do the Papists neverthelesse hold the faith and religion which they professe to be verie ancient yea the most ancient and the Apostolick Catholick and Christian. Howbeit both these Religions they being so repugnant contradictorie one to the other cannot be right but one of them must needs be wrong and that is Poperie as this Booke declareth That which wee meane and comprehend under the name of Poperie being nothing else but the errors heresies and corruptions which the Church of Rome holdeth and be accrued and growen unto it since the first institution and planting of it by the Apostles For what the Church of Rome rightly holdeth or beleeveth the Protestants impugne not nor have cause to impugne but they onely impugne her errors heresies and corruptions As for the terme of Catholicks which Papists have put upon themselves their calling themselves so doth not therfore prove them to be so for the Arrians in times past likewise called themselves Catholicks who were neverthelesse not so but Hereticks in verie deed But as we dislike not but well approve of that name of Catholicks when it is rightly used and applyed and given to those to whom it properly belongeth so doe wee preferre the name of Christians before it as being indeed the more ancient and the more honourable name it being derived from Christ himselfe the Head of his Church and the Author of the Christian religion Who be the right Catholicks and the true-Christians who not yea which be the Christian and which be the un-Christian and which be the Antichristian people doth afterward appeare that so every man may know what name doth rightly properly belong unto him and may ranke himselfe in his due place For whosoever knoweth Antichrist well wil abhorre detest him and will love honour and adhere unto Christ the puritie of his religion so much the more If then the Pope of Rome shall here appeare unto you to be as hee is the grand Antichrist foretold in the Scriptures I doubt not but you wil speedily renounce him his Antichristian Supremacie his Antichristian Religion together with all his seducing and Antichristian Teachers and wicked and Antichristian courses against the Church of God For no true-Christians ought nor will give anie better respect to Antichrist especially after that they once know him have him discovered manifested unto them God therefore open reveale his truth more more unto us all and incline all our hearts and affections to embrace it evermore to walke in the wayes of it AMEN An Alphabeticall Table of the principall matters handled in this Worke following A ANtichristianisme a mysterie of iniquitie and not any open hostilitie or professed enmitie against Christ and Christianitie pag. 208. pag. 39. p. 61.62 pa. 285.286 pag. 394 395. c. Antichristianisme began in the Apostles dayes pag. 280.321 VVhat maner of adversarie the speciall and grand Antichrist is pag. 285.286 and pag. 394 395.396 pag. 334.335 Antichrist is the falseâ—Prophet amongst Christians and not amongst the Turkes and other Infidels of the world pag. 341. c Miracles signes and wonders done in the Antichristian Church to seduce and deceive people with all pag. 280.281 VVhat maner of miracles or vvonders they be that be done in the Antichristian Church pag. 280.281.282 pag. 306.307 pag. 341. pag. 98.99 A difference betweene Christian un-Christian and Antichristian people pag. 286 Antichrist is not one singular or particular man that shall continue iust three yeares and an halfe but is a State or succession of men that is to have continuance for many hundreth yeares in the world pag. 312.313.314 315.316.317.318.319.320.321 c. Antichrist is to sit in the Temple of God that is in the Church and amongst those that professe Christ and Christianitie p. 283.284 The speciall and particular place vvhere the grand Antichrist is to sit is not Constantinople nor Hierusalem nor any other Citie but Rome pag. 283.284.285 pag. 246.247.248 p. 377. c That the Pope of Rome is the grand Antichrist shewed out of 2. Thes. 2. pag. 279.280.281 c The Pope of Rome further shewed to be Antichrist out of Rev. 13. pag. 325.326.327.328.329.330.331.332 c Againe the Pope shewed to be Antichrist and the Popish Church to be the Antichristian out of 1. Tim. 4. verses 1 2 3 4 5. pa. 353 354.355 c Sundry obiections of the Papists concerning Antichrist answered pag. 377.378.379 380 381.382 c. That Papall or Popish Rome is the vvhore of Babylon shewed out of Revel 17 pag. 244.245.246 c The Romane Empire standing in the height and glory vvas the let or impediment that Antichrist could not shew himselfe in his height untill that impediment vvas removed pag. 304.305 pag. 391.392 393 That Antichrist is come long sithence pag. 391.392.393 394. pag. 43.44 c. pag. 61.62 Antichrist the man of sinne the sonne of perdition pag. 396.397.398 399.400 c. The reason vvhy men are so seduced and misled by Antichrist pag. 307.308 The most fearefull and vvofull estate of those vvho receiving many admonitions to the contrary vvill neverthelesse live and dye in obedience to Antichrist and his religion pag. 309 and p. 397 c. Assurance of salvation in this life and how it is 〈…〉 and mâ—y be obteyned pag. 158.159 160.161 c B IN vvhat sense some ancient Fathers call Peter Bishop of Rome and vvhether he vvere properly so to be called pag. 90 91 92 How unlike the Bishop of Rome is to S. Peter pag 92 93 94 c VVho that Beast is that is mentioned in Rev. 13 and in diverse other places of the Revelation pag 308.309 pag 325 326 327 328 c. and pag. 249.250.251.252.253 C WHere our Church vvas during the raigne of Poperie pag. 36.37 38 Councels aswell generall as Provinciall may erre in matter of Faith as vvell as in matter of fact pag. 50 51 52 54 c. See also the Preface VVhat Church that is vvhereof it is said that it cannot erre and vvhen and how farre it may erre and how farre not pag. 81 82. See also the Preface Concerning universalitie antiquitie perpetuitie visibilitie unitie succession of Bishops and doing of miracles vvhether all these be in the Popish Church and vvhether they be inseparable markes of the true Church pag. 83.84 85. c. to the end of that chapter Chastisements and afflictions in this life be sent of God upon his children out of his love toward them for other
decrees of these former generall Councels dare and doe affirme the Pope to be above all general Councels to be supreme Iudge over all and not subiect to the iudgement of anie upon earth Is not this intolerable pride and most abhominable licentiousnesse and lawlesnesse in the Pope of Rome and most grosse notorious and palpable flatterie in his followers The Popes Supremacie ecclesiasticall then which he claimeth over all Bishops and Councels and the civill Supremacie which he likewise claimeth over all Kings and Emperors appeareth to be not onely a meere Noveltie but a thing also extreamely iniurious to all Bishops and Councels and to all Kings Princes and Emperors also and is therefore iustly worthie of all to be detested and reiected 6 For must not the Supremacie civill which hee also claimeth over Emperors Kings and Princes to depose them from their Crownes and Kingdomes and to assoile their subiects of their allegeance be a most strange and a most damnable impietie when God himselfe saith thus By mee Kings raigne and not by the commission or permission of anie Pope and when in Daniel a voice from heaven proclaimeth That it is not the Pope but The most high that beareth rule over the kingdome of men and giveth it to vvhomsoever hee vvill and when moreover not the Pope but God himselfe is hee that is intituled King of kings and Lord of lords Besides it is a thing cleerely out of the commission of the Apostles and consequently out of the commission of all Bishops and other Ministers of the Gospel for they be the Keyes of the kingdome of heaven and not of earthly kingdomes that bee committed unto them And therefore it is not within the compasse of this their Divine and Ecclesiastical commission to meddle with anie earthly matters much lesse with earthly kingdomes or to depose anie Kings from their Thrones or to give away their kingdomes or to disanull the duetie and allegeance of subiects which by the law of God and Nature they owe unto their Soveraignes Did anie Apostle yea or all the Apostles together in ancient time take upon them to depose Nero or anie other Emperor were he never so great a persecutor or were hee never so wicked Or did anie Bishops in the ancient Church take upon them to depose anie of them that were hereticall Arrian Emperors in their times and persecuters of the Oxthodox and right beleeving Christians Yea did anie Bishop or all the Bishops in the world together take upon them to depose the Emperor Iulian though an Apostata though a man Anathematized though a most impious person and a scorner of Christ and of all Christian Religion By this one president then of Iulian the Apostata if there were no other you may easily perceive that no excommunication or Anathematization nor anie power of the Keyes whatsoever committed by Christ to Bishops Ministers of the Gospel have anie force included in them to depose Emperors Kings and Princes be they never so wicked or adverse to Christ or Christianitie yea that Bishops in no sort neither directly nor indirectly or in ordine ad Spiritualia as they speake or for advancement of anie pretended or Revera Catholike cause have anie such authoritie For Iulian still remained an Emperor and his Christian souldiers and subiects notwithstanding that he was so great an enemie to their Religion were neverthelesse obedient dutifull and serviceable unto him as S. Augustine also sheweth and affirmeth So farre off were they from rebelling or withdrawing their allegeance from him and so farre off also were the Bishops of those times from perswading abetting or counselling anie such wicked matter unto them Yea whereas Bellarmine and some other Papists affirme that the Christians in the primitive and those ancient Churches were therefore obedient because they wanted sufficient power and force to withstand their wicked Emperors doe they not herein speake more like politicke Atheists then Christian Divines Where is Obedience for conscience sake which God requireth of all Christians as S. Paul witnesseth if such Popish doctrine as this were true But besides Tertullian expressely confuteth it witnessing that such was the affection and disposition of the Christians in those times being ledde thereunto by dutie conscience as that they neither taught nor put in practice any course of disloyaltie or disobedience or bare armes against their Emperor albeit they had as he there sheweth sufficient force to have done it Yea the Christians in those times notwithstanding all their great number strength their sufficient power to rebel if they had bin so ill disposed were neverthelesse so farre from rebelling or procuring rebellions to be made against the Emperor of their times that contrariwise they were quiet and suffered all things patiently and prayed for him that Almightie God would grant unto him A long life a secure raigne safetie in his Court valiant Souldiers a faithfull Counsell dutifull subiects a quiet kingdome and all those blessings and comforts that his heart could desire Sigebert mentioning the Popes proceedings against Henry the Emperor divers hundred yeares since saith thus Bee it spoken vvith the leave of all good men This novelty that I say not heresie had not as yet sprung up in the vvorld that Gods Priests should teach the people that they owe no subiection to evill Princes and though they have sworne allegeance to him yet they owe him no fidelitie nor shall be counted periured that devise against the King yea That hee that obeyeth him shall be counted for excommunicate and he that doth against the King shall be absolved from the guilt of vvrong and periurie Vincentius likewise testifieth the same matter Where you see how directly they both condemne these trayterous and rebellious positions of Poperie which be at this day by too manie amongst them cherished and maintained for points of Catholike doctrine and that notwithstanding the pretence of the Popes authoritie and of a Catholike cause they be long since condemned and accounted and recorded to be meere Novelties if not Heresies Now then you perceive I trust that as the Pope hath no Supremacie lawfull in Ecclesiasticis so much lesse hath he anie Supremacie lawfull in Temporalibus within the Kings Dominions or elsewhere within the Dominions of anie other King And I assure my selfe that such are your loyalties and such the odiousnesse and apparant untruth of the trayterous and rebellious positions delivered in these later times by Iesuites and such like Popish Teachers against Kings for maintenance of the Popes pride that yee unfainedly and utterly abhorre detest those positions of theirs together with their practises as they are indeed iustly worthie I would yee did also detest the rest of their false doctrines as I hope upon better information ye will even for truths sake and the safetie of your owne soules 7 But to proceed what cleerer or greater argument can there be against the Popes Supremacie
and to declare the Supremacie of the Emperor then this that the Emperor in ancient time exiled banished imprisoned and otherwise also by his Authoritie punished even some of the Bishops of Rome themselves as well as other Bishops and when the Emperor said moreover thus that If anie did grow tumultuous or unruly Illius statim audacia Ministri Dei hoc est mea executione coercebitur his boldnesse shall forthwith be repressed by the sword or execution of Gods Minister that is of my selfe For as S. Paul saith the Emperor King or Prince or anie of those higher powers that beare the civill sword is Gods Minister and a revenger unto VVrath to him that doth evill whosoever he be Yea such was the demeanour and loyaltie which even Gregory the Great Bishop of Rome performed to the Emperor that when the Emperor had commanded a law to be published which Gregory himselfe misliked yet neverthelesse he obeyed the Emperors commandement as a good subiect unto him Ego quidem iussioni tuae subiectus eandem legem per diversas Terrarum partes transmitti feci I being subiect to your command saith hee have caused the same law to bee transmitted through diverse parts of the earth By which one example of Gregory if there were no more spoken you may perceive that for the space of manie hundred yeares after Christ even unto his time and in his time the Bishops of Rome themselves were subiect to the Emperors and at their commands Which doth yet further appeare by this thaâ— even Kings of Rome did also sometimes send the Bishops of Rome as their Embassadors as for example King Theodorick sent Iohn Bishop of Rome Embassador to the Emperor Iustinian And King Theodatus about the yeare 537 sent Pope Agapetus as his Embassador likewise to the Emperor about a Treatie of peace But yet together with the Supremacie of Emperors let me shew unto you more fully their Authoritie in Ecclesiasticall things or causes for of their Authoritie in civill or temporall causes there is no question made 8 When the Donatists therefore alledged that Emperors were to meddle onely with civill causes and not with Ecclesiasticall or concerning Gods Religion Optatus held this to be a point of madnesse in Donatus and those his followers Ille solito furore accensus in haec verba prorupit Quid Imperatori cum Ecclesia Donatus inflamed with his accustomed furie or Madnesse saith he brake forth into these words What hath the Emperor to doe with the Church Where you see he calleth it expressely a Madnesse to hold that opinion And this S. Augustine likewise censureth and condemneth accounting it an absurd thing for anie to say thus unto kings Take yee no care in your kingdomes vvho oppugneth the Church and vvho defendeth it vvho is religious and vvho sacrilegious c. For if the King be to regard and punish by civill punishment the offences done against the second Table as disobedience to parents murder theft trespasses wrongs and iniuries done by one man against another is hee not much more to regard and punish by civill punishment the greater offences namely those that be done immediately against God being breaches of the first Table as Atheisme Idolatry false vvorship vvrong relâ—gion heresie schisme blasphemy breach of the Sabbath and such like For is there anie comparison or proportion betweene Man and God But to declare this matter yet further by some particulars The Christian Emperors in ancient time made lawes for God and his Religion and caused them to be executed and so dealt in matters Ecclesiasticall as well as civill as beside that which is before spoken is further evident even by the Titles of the Civil law it selfe viz. De summa Trinitate fide Catholica De sacrosanctis Ecclesijs De Episcopis Clericis De Haereticis c. They likewise made Commissioners in Ecclesiasticall causes For when Caecilianus Bishop of Carthage was accused by Donatus and some other of that faction Constantine the Emperor commanded Caecilianus to come to Rome with a certaine number of Bishops that accused him And by his Commission extant in Eusebius authorised and appointed Miltiades the then Bishop of Rome and some others with him for the hearing and ending of that matter These Commissioners condemned Donatus who appealed from their sentence to the Emperor himselfe which Appeale also the Emperor at last received Where beside that you see that this Christian Emperor made Commissioners in this Episcopall and Ecclesiasticall cause observe withall that Miltiades the then Bishop of Rome was one of those Commissioners and therewithall you may note that the Bishops of Rome were then verie cleerely subiect and not superior to the Emperor So that a Christian King or Prince not only may make Commissioners in Ecclesiasticall causes but may also have Appeales made unto him as is here apparant Yea even S. Paul himselfe Appealed not unto Peter which no doubt hee would have done if Peter had then had the Supremacie but unto Caesar. The Councell also of Affrick would allow of no Appeales to the Pope of Rome or beyond the Sea but made a Decree directly against it appointing Presbyters Deacons or other inferior Clerkes if they were grieved with the sentence of their owne Bishop to resort to the next Bishops Quod si abâ—ijs provocandum putaverint non provocent nisi ad Affricana Concilia vel ad Primates Provinciarum suarum Ad Transmarina autem qui putaverit appellandum à nullo intra Affricam in Communionem suscipiatur And if they shall think fit to Appeale from them let them not appeale but to Councels within Affrick or to the Primates of their owne Provinces But he that shall thinke it fit to appeale beyond the Sea let him be admitted to the Communion by none within Affrick This Canon which was thus established in the Affrican Councell purposely for the defeating and disanulling of the ambitious courses and claimes of the Bishops of Rome is againe repeated and confirmed in the Milevitane Councell In the time likewise of King VVilliam Rufus Anselmus the Archbishop of Canterbury would have appealed to Rome But not onely the King but the Bishops of England also were therein against him And afterwards in the dayes of Henry the second King of England this Law was made Si quis inventus fuerit c. If anie shall be found bringing letters or a mandate from the Pope c. Let him be apprehended and let Iustice be done upon him vvithout delay as upon a Traytor to the Law and kingdome Againe it is there said Generaliter interdictum est ne quis appellet ad Dominum Papam That it was generally given in charge that none should Appeale to the Pope Moreover the Christian Emperors in ancient time had the authoritie of summoning and calling Councels as for example the first generall Councel of Nice was assembled by Constantine
forme of the said Oath shall accept of the same Oath vvith this interpretation sense or meaning her Maiestie is vvell pleased to accept every such in that behalfe as her good and obedient subiects and shall acquite them of all maner penalties contayned in the said All against such as shall peremptorily or obstinately refuse to take the same Oath The words of that Admonition being thus set downe I shall need to say no more For hereby you see I trust verie fully the true certaine and undoubted sense scope meaning and interpretation of the Oath Why therefore should anie be so contentious or malicious as to wrest or wring it to a contrarie meaning or such as it never intended For hereby appeareth that although the king be supreme Governor within his owne Dominions yet it is explained That he is supreme Governor under God so that by reason thereof the King neither doth nor can take upon him anie authoritie over Gods word or ordinances to devise alter or frame religion as he list as some verie odiously and no lesse strangely have inferred Such thoughts be farre from his godly minde Neither when it is said at anie time That the King hath Authoritie or Iurisdiction ecclesiasticall is anie other thing meant thereby but his Iurisdiction or Authoritie in Ecclesiasticall causes and over ecclesiasticall persons and thereby is not meant or intended as some againe verie absurdly and malignantly have imagined That the King hath anie such authoritie as is meerely Ecclesiasticall and proper to Bishops Pastors and such like Ministers of the Church as namely to preach to minister the Sacraments to excommunicate to absolve to consecrate Bishops or such like for the exposition of the Oath which is before delivered in the Admonition and ratified by an expresse Act of Parliament directly declareth the contrarie to that conceit And therefore his Majesties authoritie in Ecclesiasticall causes must not be conceived to be anie such as is properly Sacerdotall or Episcopall but such as is rightly and properly Regall and Imperiall Which Regall and Imperiall Authoritie ought no more to be denied unto him then that which is meerely and properly Sacerdotal or Episcopal may be denied to Priests or Bishops What should hinder then but that yee all may as ye ought utterly renounce and forsake for ever the Papall and all forraine Iurisdictions whatsoever and further also promise according to the tenor of the Oath to your power to assist and defend all jurisdictions priviledges preeminences and authorities granted or belonging to the King his heires and successors or united and annexed to the Imperiall Crowne of this Realme considering that there is no Authoritie in these matters ecclesiasticall granted or belonging to the King or united or annexed to his Crown but such as appeareth to be lawfull and is rightly Regall and Imperiall and which withall in no sort wrongeth the authoritie of anie other Church governors of Gods institution whosoever Yea the King is so farre from encroching or intruding upon or impugning or hindering anie of the offices or authorities granted or belonging unto them from God that contrariwise he leaveth all those rights and authorities wholly and entirely unto them to be executed and which is more such is his most godly and Christian disposition that to that their divine Calling Ambasâ—age and Ministerie enioyned them from God and by them sincerely and faithfully administred himselfe in his owâ—â— person most readily and willingly yeeldeth both reverence and obedience as wel knowing that in respect of God whose Ambassadors and Ministers they be and whose word and will onely they are to teach and deliver the greatest King is but a subiect Howbeit neverthelesse otherwise and in respect of their owne persons it must be confessed that they be subiect unto him and owe him obedience and are in all dutie and humilitie to performe the same unto him So that I hope you now sufficiently perceive that his Maiesties Supremacie under God his government and authoritie as touching causes persons ecclesiasticall being such as is only Regal and Imperial and no way derogatorie preiudiciall or iniurious to anie Bishops Pastors or Ministers that be of divine Institution or to their offices and functions but rather verie much helpfull to them in their places is so farre from being to be disliked that contrariwise being rightly understood it is ever to be allowed and that with much praise thanks unto God for the same whose gracious ordinance it is for the further good greater comfort and benefit of his Church and Religion CAP. II. Wherein is shewed That our Church was in the Apostles dayes and in all times and ages since howsoever that which we call Popery did as an Infection or Corruption grow unto it whereof it was againe to be purged and so to become as we call it a reformed Church and that all these things came thus to passe in the Church according to the Prophecies thereof formerly delivered in Gods owne Booke AND What is to be thought of those forefathers of ours that lived and dyed in the time of Poperie AS ALSO That long before the Dayes of King HENRY the eight and long before LUTHER or CALVIN were borne the Pope of Rome was complayned of and exclaymed against and affirmed and published to be Antichrist as also Popish Rome affirmed to be the whore of Babylon mentioned in the Revelation of S. Iohn BEfore I enter to speake of the other particular points hereafter mentioned it will not be amisse here to speake something in a generall sort concerning Gods Church and his Religion For how confident and resolute soever some take upon them to be in that Popish Religion they hold and professe yet is that no proofe that therefore they be right for not only those of a right Religion but those also of a wrong be verie resolute and confident as appeareth by all Sectaries Heretickes and Schismatickes who be verie pertinacious and resolute for the maintenance of their severall errors and opinions Neither is it a reason sufficient for them to say they follow the waies of their forefathers and ancestors except they be sure that they went the right way for we are not to follow our forefathers and ancestors in anie vices or errours they held be they otherwise never so deare unto us VValke not yee saith God in the ordinances of your fathers nor observe yee their maners nor defile your selves vvith their Idols I am the Lord your God vvalke yee in my statutes and keepe my Iudgements and doe them Yea ye may remember that it is written thus of some people who are therefore much reproved So did their children and their childrens children As did their fathers so doe they unto this day Where further it is said that notwithstanding this following of their forefathers and doing after their old custome yet they obeyed not God Nor is it sufficient for them to say they follow the doctrine or direction of their
Priests Teachers and Leaders unlesse they be sure that they direct and teach aright for there be false Teachers as well as true Teachers and some that be blinde leaders of the blinde who cannot therein excuse the People because They both as Christ himselfe affirmeth in that case doe fall into the Ditch Neither is it a sure or sufficient ground for anie of them to build upon to say that their Religion of Popery is of a great long continuance in the world For Paganisme and Mahometisme have beene likewise of verie great and long continuance in the world and yet are they never the truer for all that A Custome therefore or Prescription or Continuance though it be for manie hundreth yeares in the world nor anie Antiquity ye can alledge though you could alledge it never so truely is not sufficient in this case unlesse it be the most ancient antiquitie extant in the daies of the Apostles and from their times deduced and in the sacred and Canonical Scriptures to be seene and there approved For there is an Antiquitie in Error and wickednesse as well as in Pietie and right Religion and a Mysterie of Iniquitie as well as a Mysterie of Godlinesse and an Antichristianisme as well as a Christianisme and a growth succession and proceeding in them both they both growing together as Wheate and Tares doe in a field untill they be separated Which Mystery of Iniquity otherwise called Antichristianisme that yee may know of what Antiquitie it is S. Paul telleth you that it began to work in the Apostles daies even in his time And so also doth S. Iohn expresly testifie although it then climbed not to that great growth and height that afterward by little and little and by degrees it ascended unto So that Mysticall Iniquity or which is all one Antichristian Errors and heresies began as you see verie early and went on forward endevoring to corrupt and infect Gods Church and his Religion and in continuance of time so encreased and prevailed as that at last like a Leprosie it overspread the whole Body miserably defiling polluting and deforming it and that for sundrie Ages even untill the time appointed of God came wherein Antichrist and that mysterie of Iniquitie were to be discovered and that the Church and Religion thereupon were to be reformed by the Booke of the Holy Scriptures opened and the true doctrine thereout once againe preached and delivered to the world which was not to come to passe untill the Sixt Angell had begun to blow his Trumpet as is shewed in the Revelation of S. Iohn that is not till toward the latter end of the world For under the blowing of the Trumpet by the seventh Angell the world is to end as appeareth in the same Revelation Now then what cause hath anie knowing and considering these Prophesies in the Booke of God concerning the state of the Church to marvaile or wonder that the Church and religion had such corruptions and so manie errors by degrees accrued unto it and continued so long in them or where our Church and Religion was all that while For this Prophecy and foretelling of these things thus to come to passe namely that the Church was to have these corruptions to grow upon it and to be continued therein for so long a time and that it was not to begin to be reformed or purged of them untill the blowing of the Trumpet by the sixt Angell giveth a full answer solution and satisfaction to all those demands and requireth everie one to cease questioning marvailing or wondering anie longer in that behalfe Would anie then know where our Church was all that while and untill they made an actuall separation from the Popish Assemblies The answer is verie easie and apparant namely that it was where those corruptions were and even where the Papacy and Antichristianisme was For Gods people doe sometimes dwell and be even where Sathans Throne is yea Antichrist himselfe being at length mounted aloft and placed in his Throne did then as was foretold he should doe sit in the Temple of God domineering over it So that Protestancie and Poperie that is true Christianitie and Antichristianisme were then mingled together with much griefe and sorrow to the true Christians untill they afterwards through the crueltie and persecution of their enemies and in detestation of their abhominations were forced to make and did make an actuall separation from them Which thing also was foretold that so it should come to passe for a voice sounding from heaven commanded them to Come from them to a more pure and heavenly-minded Church and to Goe out from amongst them lest being partakers of their sinnes they should also receive of their plagues When they were thus commanded to depart and to separate themselves and to goe out from amongst them it is evident that before and untill this their departure and going out from them they were amongst them and intermingled with them Yea even in those times namely under the blowing of the Trumpet by the sixt Angell when the Temple came to be measured it is apparant that the false Christians there noted under the name of Gentiles were the most and greatest number and did tread the rest that were the true Christians under foot so that even then as there appeareth there were some that were right and true worshippers of God in that Temple Yea euen during the time that they were thus intermingled together did God neverthelesse distinguish put a difference betweene them for he would have one part namely Atrium that is The Court or outer part under which those false Christians that is the Antichristian people are comprehended which outwardly pretended to worship God aright and yet were not the right and true worshippers of him indeed to be excluded and not to be measured or reckoned as anie part of the holy Citie or holy Temple that is of the true Christian Church Which I here observe the rather because some upon this That Antichrist was to sit in the Temple of God verie inconsequently and no lesse untruely inferre that therefore the Popish or Antichristian Church or people be the true Church For you see them here directly excluded from being anie part of the holy Citie or true Church Albeit therefore both Protestants and Papists were in those times thus intermingled together yet was not the Papacie the true Church as is here apparant For indeed Poperie to the Church is but as a corruption contagion or disease is to the bodie of a man or as a plague or pestilence is to a Citie and therefore they that made a separation from Poperie separated themselves not from the Church of God but from the disease corruption and contagion of the Church and from the plague and pestilence in that Citie and consequently cannot but most uniustly be termed Schismatickes especially considering that they also made this their separation by the warrant
he changeth the good lawes and establisheth his owne he prophaneth he raveneth he spoyleth he defraudeth he massacreth even that man of perdition doth this vvhom they are wont to call Antichrist in vvhose forehead this name of blasphemy is written I am a God I cannot erre He sitteth in the Temple of God and Ruleth farre and wide c. Petrus Blessensis likewise verie earnestly adviseth all good men to depart from Rome as from the midst of Babylon And Sigebertus also witnesseth that for the most part all that were good just open hearted ingenuous and plaine-dealing men held That the kingdome of Antichrist vvas then and in those dayes About which time also the VValdenses and Albigenses in France did openly sequester themselves from the Romish Church holding and maintayning amongst other articles as the bookes of their adversaries themselves doe witnesse That Popish Rome is the Babylon mentioned in the Revelation and that the Pope is the very Antichrist foretold in the Scriptures And about the yeare 1230 one VVilliam Bishop of Paris likewise feared not to call Rome Babylon Egypt Sodome and her Prelates Profaners and spoylers of the True Spouse of Christ that established Lucifer againe in the heaven of Christs Church Robert Grosthead Bishop of Lincolne Sebaldus Archbishop of Yorke and Probus Bishop of Thoul did in their times also mightily inveigh against the Pope One Haiabalus a Franciscan preached openly in Avinian That the Pope and his Cardinals were Antichrist and that the Popish Church was the VVhore of Babylon mentioned in the Revelation And being sent for by Pope Clement the sixt he affirmed that he was commanded from God to publish it and that hee could not otherwise doe Francis Petrarch Archdeacon of Parma and a Chanon of Padua who lived about the yeare 1350 and who for all kinde of learning might be called the light of his age not onely in his Sonnets but even in his Epistles also exclaimeth against the Pope his Court and Church saying That the Popes Chayre is the Chayre of lying that it is a Defection a Revolt an Apostasie of a people that under the Standard of Christ rebell against Christ and fight for Sathan That the Papacy and no other is the Babylon the mother of all the vvhoredomes of the earth c. Nicholaus Oresmus also who lived about the yeare 1364. feared not to say before Pope Vrban the fift That the Church of Rome vvas vvorse then vvhilom vvas the Iewish Synagogue That the Time of Antichrist spoken of in 2. Thess. 2 vvas come seeing the Romane Empire vvas desolated and that betweene the desolation thereof and the comming of Antichrist there vvas no middle time thereby signifying plainely enough that Antichrist then was in being and had his seate in Rome Which thing also Iohannes de Rupe scissa a Franciscan Frier was bold to affirme before Pope Vrban the sixt for which hee was prisoner a long time in Avinion These to pretermit sundrie other Authorities and Testimonies which might be further cited if need were sufficiently declare that manie hundreth yeares before King HENRY the Eight or LUTHER or CALVIN were borne the Pope of Rome was held published to be Antichrist and the Beast spoken of in the Revelation and that Popish Rome was the Whore of Babylon as also they shew where our Church was all that while untill they made an actuall separation from the Pope and Poperie And where it hath been ever since is a thing so well knowne and apparant that it needeth not to be shewed And thus much may suffice to have spoken generally Now let us proceede to other matters FINIS LIBRI PRIMI THE SECOND PART of the BOOKE CHAP. I. Wherein that point concerning the infallible Iudge of these controversies is amplified and further debated and declared And what Scriptures be Canonical and what not Of the perfection and sufficiencie of the Scriptures without Traditions That the Church is to be tryed and decided by the Scriptures And who be the right Catholikes That the Scriptures in their originals be incorrupt and to be preferred before that which is called S. Hieromes Translation and before all other Translations whatsoever That the publique Service should be in such a Tongue as the people may understand That Lay-people may and ought to reade the Scriptures And whence all right exposition of them is to be had AS wee are all under one God and under one King and the same a most worthie learned vertuous and Christian King so were it very consonant and convenient if by anie good meanes it might be brought to passe that we did all hold and professe one and the selfe same true faith Christian Religion For indeed not anie unitie or agreement in falshood or errors but an unitie or agreement in the truth and true Religion is the thing that ought of all to be sought after and desired But now which is that one true Christian Religion which all ought to embrace is that which is made the great Question namely whether it be Protestancy or Papistry inasmuch as both these lay claime unto it Wherein if God speaking in his owne sacred and Canonicall Scriptures may be as is most fit he should be allowed to bee the Iudge then is this which is made so great a question soone decided and at an end it being by him there cleerely resolved that not that which is called Papistry but that which is called Protestancy is the right and true Christian Religion For what be Protestants as they be in this Controversie distinguished against Papists but such as professe to build their Faith and Religion wholly and altogether upon that undoubted word of God the sacred and Canonical Scriptures And what is Papistry on the other side but a profession of such a Faith and Religion as is not so grounded but relieth partly upon unwritten Traditions partly upon the determination of the Popes partly upon the Decrees of their Councels and voice of their owne Church and Teachers and upon such like strengthes and staies as whereby they may easily be deceived Howbeit what cause is there why the pretended Catholicks should not allow God speaking in his divine and Canonical Scriptures to be the Iudge in these Controversies For is there or can there be anie higher better juster or surer Iudge to trust unto then hee or is there anie equall to him or comparable with him What meane they herein Would they have their owne Church Clergie Councels and Pope to be the Iudge That were not fit nor equall yee know that such as be parties should also be the Iudges in their owne cause Yea if their Councell of Constance and Councell of Trent or anie other of their Councels were much better then they be as they be indeed none of the best sort yet were they not to be held for sure or infallible Iudges in this case for anie to build his faith upon or to trust unto them
is he besides that which is before spoken doe but consider what the Abbot Ioachim long sithence told King Richard the first King of England namely that Antichrist was then alreadie borne and had his seat at Rome and was to be advanced in that Apostolicall Sea And he further saith Non nulli sub specie sedis Dei id estâ— universalis Ecclesiae Facti sunt sedâ—s Bestiae quae est regnum Antichristi regnantis ubique in membris suis c. Sundrie saith he under pretence of Gods seat that is of the universall Church are become the seat of the Beast vvhich is the Kingdome of Antichrist raigning everie vvhere in his members consisting as he there further saith in the Cleargie men in the Monkes and Monasteries Againe he saith that Rome est in spiritu Babylon Rome is the spirituall Babylon And againe he saith Negotiatores terrae sunt ipsi sacerdotes qui vendunt orationes missas pro Denarijs facientes domum orationis Apothecam Negotiationis The Merchants of the earth be the Priests themselves vvho sell Prayers and Masses for money making the house of Prayer a shop of Merchandize Yea sundrie both Princes and Bishops of Germanie long agon have affirmed and published the Pope to be Antichrist as appeareth in Aventinus But I leave this to be as I said more fully handled afterward In the meane time if anie would know who be the right Catholikes as Papists verie boldly but verie uniustly take upon them that title let him consider these two sentences of Vincentius and conferre and ioyne them together The first is this Id teneamus quod VBIQVE quod SEMPER quod ab OMNIBVS creditum hoc est enim verè proprieque Catholicum Let us uphold that vvhich hath beene beleeved everie vvhere and at all times of all persons for this is rightly and properly Catholicke The second is this where he saith Ille est verus Germanus Catholicus qui quidquid universaliter ANTIQVITVS ecclesiam Catholicam tenuisse cognoverit id solum sibi tenendum creder dumque decernit He is the true and right Catholicke who iudgeth that he is to hold beleeve onely that which he knoweth the Catholicke Church to have formerly held universally in the old time This Vincentius lived above 1200. yeares sithence so that this Antiquitùs this old time whereto he referreth everie man that will be a right Catholicke cannot be intended the age and time wherein himselfe lived much lesse can it he supposed anie of those manie hundreth yeares that came after him and are sithence his time gone and past but it must needs be intended of an old time passed long before the time wherein hee lived and wrote these things which old time therefore which he so called what can it be but the Primitive and Apostolicke times If then yee will prove your selves to bee Catholickes and your Church to bee the Catholike Church by this rule and definition of Catholikes out of Vincentius then must you not take your patterne and proofe from that Councell of Trent nor from the late Councell of Constance nor anie of the times after Vincentius but you must transcend and goe to the times that were in the old Time long before the daies of this Vincentius even to the primitive and Apostolike times which were indeed the best and purest times and from thence must you take the patterne of your Church and Religion For that which alwayes formerly and every vvhere and of all Christians in That Old Time was held and beleeved is the thing that he accounteth and defineth to be Catholicke and such to be Catholickes which hold and beleeve only so much and no more Which faith doctrine and religion of those old Primitive and Apostolicke times was at first delivered by word of mouth by the Apostles but was afterwards as Irenaeus hath before enformed us committed to VVriting that so it might be for ever that The foundation and pillar of our Faith Yea this even Vincentius also himselfe teacheth saying Scripturarum canon sufficit ad omnia satis superque the canon of the Scriptures doth suffice for all matters sufficiently and more then sufficiently that is abundantly and overflowingly By this rule then and definition of a Catholike given so long agon by Vincentius it is evident that not yee but wee are to be held for the right and true Catholikes inasmuch as not yee but wee doe beleeve and hold that faith doctrine and Religion which those old and first Christians universally held in those ancient primitive and Apostolick times and which was afterwards written and is omni-sufficiently conteined in that written word of God the sacred and canonicall Scriptures Yea that and onely that wee hold and beleeve as Vincentius saith right and true Catholikes ought to doe and so doe not you therefore whether yee or wee be the right Catholiks is a verie easie and apparant matter to be decided Aufer Haereticis quae cum Ethnicis sapiunt ut de scripturis solis Quaestiones suas sistant stare non poterunt Take from the Heretickes saith Tertullian those things wherein they savour of Heathen wisedome so as that they bring their Controversies to bee decided onely by the Scriptures and they be not able to stand In which wordes men that will not suffer their Controversies to bee decided onely by the Scriptures may see themselves ranged within the compasse of Hereticks and so termed and entituled by him so farre are they off from being the right and true Catholikes And yet Papists have I grant for some of their errors a kinde of Antiquitie but it is an Antiquitie of a later date and it is not that most ancient Antiquitie which Vincentius and the rest of the ancient Fathers direct you unto and which should be in request For that is the True whatsoever is the first and that which is later or commeth in after the first is the adulterate or corrupted as Tertullian againe expressely affirmeth Yea he saith further Hoc mihi proficit Antiquitas praestructae divinae Literaturae Herein doth Antiquitie availe me if it be builded upon the divine Scripture Wherefore if yee will be good and right Catholikes ye must go and take the patterne and president of your Faith and Religion from those most ancient primitive and Apostolike times as we doe because as Eusebius also out of Egesippus noteth the Church so long as the Apostles lived remayned a pure Virgin for that if any vvent about to corrupt the holy rule vvhich was preached they did it in the Darke and as it vvere underneath the earth But after the death of the Apostles and that generation was past which God vouchsafed to heare the divine wisedome with their own eares the placing of wicked error saith he began to come into the Church For which purpose to shew that corruptioÌ„ grew in those after succeeding times ClemeÌ„s also alledgeth the proverb
according to these originals And herein Gregorie Martin and the Rhemists have chiefely shewed their skill but Doctor Fulke that great Linguist and excellent Scholler in all kinde of learning especially in Theologie hath fully and sufficiently answered them both in his defence of the English Translations against Gregorie Martin as also in his Answer to the Rhemists and their Annotations Wee defend not anie translations in anie point wherein they can be shewed to be wrong and not according to those originals For wee abhorre such wilfull and wicked perversnesse but wherein soever our translations be right and true and according to those originals we have ever good reason so far forth to defend and maintaine them against the frivolous and vaine exceptions either of Gregorie Martin the Rhemists or of anie other whosoever And I could wish and doe indeed wish and earnestly desire you that as yee read the Rhemes Testament so ye would also read the Answer unto it and to the severall Annotations of it And as ye read anie Popish Writer in anie point of controversie whatsoever you would likewise search and see what Answer the Protestants make unto it that so seeing and hearing both sides without partialitie and without preiudice yee may bee the better able to iudge iustlie and rightly in the cause and to give both to your selves and others a sufficient and sound satisfaction For so long as yee heare and read but one side onely and will not heare and read the other side to understand what answer is made thereunto it is impossible ye should be held for good indifferent or equall Iudges or Censurers or that you can give either to your selves or others anie sufficient resolution or sound satisfaction in that case 7 But you will say peradventure that your Church alloweth you not to read the Bookes of Protestants whom therefore they call and account to be Heretickes As for their accounting and reckoning us Heretickes we regard it not For wee know how far their iudgments are blinded and that they mightily mistake and misreckon because not we but they in verie deede be the Heretickes if they had eies to see it But it is no marvaile that the true most ancient Catholicke and Apostolicke faith and religion conteined in the sacred and Canonicall Scriptures which wee professe hold should be by them tearmed Heresie for we finde that it was so likewise reputed and tearmed Heresie even in Saint Pauls time Such hath ever beene the wickednesse both of unchristian and Antichristian Spirits against it But whilst your Church is so politicke and wily for her selfe and her owne safetie as to forbid you the reading of Protestant Bookes lest ye thereby discerning her errors and heresies should be mooved to turne from her unto us haue yee not good cause at the least to suspect and mistrust such a Church For if their cause were the truth truth is ever able to stand against all encounters and needeth not to feare the opposition of anie adversaries But indeed their cause appeareth to be naught For what is Poperie if it bee well considered but an Hotchpot or Bundle of errors and heresies aggregate and patched together to make one bodie of that profession Yea what is their whole Church and religion if ye rightly consider it all together but revera the Antichristian as this Booke amongst others doth sufficiently declare And will anie then be so unwise as to subiugate hin selfe and to yeeld his obedience to the voice decrees statutes and commandements of such a Church I would wish you to be more considerate and better advised then to be so farre deceived For the difference between a Protestant and a Papist is not small being no lesse then this that the one holdeth of Christ wholly and altogether and the other of Antichrist which being a difference so great and of such importance it standeth upon the salvation of Soules for all persons duely to consider it But yet further why will not your Church permit the lay people to reade the holy Scripturs themselves without a speciall licence from their Priests or Bishops For is not Gods licence sufficient for them in this case Chysostome exhorteth all people and even secular men by name to get them Bibles and at least the new Testament And S. Hierome likewise saith that Married men Monkes and silly Women in his time used to strive and contend who should learne most Scripture without booke S. Augustine also exhorteth all men in their private houses either to read the Bible themselves or to get some other to read it for them Is not your Church then herein directly contrarie to the ancient Church Yea wherfore is it that God hath given unto men that precious Pearle and inestimable Iewel of his will and word in the Scriptures conteined but to the end they should take notice of it and be directed by it so that it is to be as the Psalmist speaketh a Lanterne unto their feet and a light unto their paths Doth not S. Peter speake even to the lay people as well as to others telling them that they doe well to take heede to the most sure word of God as unto a light that shineth in a darke place Will anie earthly King forbid his Subiects the reading of his lawes and Statutes whereby they are to bee ruled and governed Doubtles if ever it were necessary for men to read search studie and often and againe and againe to revolue the Scriptures and booke of God now is the time in the midst of so manie errours and diversities of opinions as be in the world to be most diligent in that behalfe For amongst them all there can be but one right religion and how shall wee yee or anie other know for certaine which is that one right religion which God hath instituted and allowed of but by the Scriptures Let no man therefore forestall or preiudicate himselfe with supposing that he cannot understād the Scripturs For first how can he tell whether he can understand them or no untill he have made tryall Secondly it is well known that God helpeth forward a willing and industrious minde that is earnestly desirous to know his will and religion therein delivered and seeketh it out in his feare and with an humble affection and a sincere purpose to observe it and to walke in the waies of it For so the Psalmist witnesseth That them that be meeke God vvill guide in iudgement and teach the humble his vvay And againe he saith VVhat man is hee that feareth the Lord him shall hee teach the vvay that he shall choose And againe he saith The secret of the Lord is revealed to them that feare him and his covenant to give them understanding And againe it is said that God resisteth the proude but giveth grace to the humble And againe To him will I looke saith God even to him that is poore and of a contrite spirit and that trembleth
the sacred and canonicall Scriptures this is not as Papists affirme to make a private spirit or anie private man but a Divine spirit even God himselfe speaking in those his sacred and canonicall Scriptures to be the Iudge in the matter To whose voice and judgement all Churches Men Angels and all creatures must stoope and obey And therefore as I said before all the insolencie and most intollerable pride and arrogancie that is in this case is not in those who for their owne safetie and securitie make search and examination but in such Bishops Pastors and Teachers as will not endure this triall and examination of their doctrines by those Scriptures Pure and uncounterfeit gold will endure the Touch-stone but no marvaile though the drossie corrupt and unsound doctrine of Poperie will not admit of such a course 2 But you say the Church cannot erre that therefore you may boldly and confidently relie and build thereupon without anie further search or examination Howbeit you should first find out and know which is the Church that cannot erre before you relie so confidently upon it For you will easily and readily grant that the false Church may erre And indeed the Text that you alledge where S. Paul calleth the Church Columnam firmamentum veritatis the Pillar and ground of Truth sheweth that he speaketh not of anie false but of the True Church namely as himselfe expresseth of that which is the Church of the living God His words put all together be thus These things I vvrite unto thee saith hee to Timothy trusting to come shortly unto thee But if I tarry long that thou mayest yet know how thou oughtest to behave thy selfe in the house of God vvhich is the Church of the living God the pillar and ground of Truth In these words thus rehearsed by mee that ye might the better observe them consider that Timothy who was the Teacher and overseer of this Church at Ephesus had his direction and instruction from the writings of S. Paul the Apostle for so he saith These things I vvrite unto thee c. The Church then which is the ground and Pillar of Truth appeareth even by this verie Text to be such a one as receiveth her instructions and directions from the sacred and canonicall Scriptures whereof those Apostolicall writings of S. Paul to Timothy be a part From whence therefore you may rightly conclude this which we hold namely that so long as anie Church followeth and is guided by these holy and canonicall Scriptures it is the pillar and ground of Truth and doth not erre or goe astray but if it decline from them and goe another way it doth and must then needs fall into error Howbeit if when you say The Church cannot erre you meane it of the whole universall Church of Christ that is of all and everie one of the faithfull members thereof it is true that cannot erre totally nor fundamentally that is to say All and everie one of those faithful members of Christ as Panormitan and the Glosse also upon the Canon Law have before told us cannot erre in such points as be necessarily required to salvation for Gods Church shall never utterly perish or be extinguished but that in some or other it shall continue to the worlds end and consequently so must the saving faith thereto belonging But if you meane it of anie visible particular Church such as is the church of Rome the Church of Ephesus the Church of Corinth or anie such like it is as cleere that may erre and goe astray yea and fall from God to Idolatry and false worship Were not the people of Israel in times past the true Church of God and yet did even that Church erre fal verie grievously even unto Idolatrie and false worship when they and Aaron also the high Priest with them made the Golden Calfe and did worship before it And manie sâ—ch declinings and falls from God to Idolatrie and false worship in that people are sundrie other times likewise to be found in the old Testament But besides what is now become of the seven Churches in Asia mentioned in the Revelation of S. Iohn which were once the true Churches of Christ Hath not Turcisme and Paganisme overflowed and drowned manie that in former times were famous Christian Churches Yea did not God himselfe also sometime complaine even of that Church and Citie of Ierusalem saying thus How is the faithfull Citie become an Harlot No marvaile then is it though Rome which was once a faithfull Citie and a true spouse of Christ be now long since fallen away and become an Harlot even the vvhore of Babylon as was long agon prophesied and foretold of her that she should be For neither was it anie more impossible for her to degenerate into Antichristianisme then it was for sundrie other Christian Churches and cities to degenerate and to be turned into Turcisme or Paganisme Yea S. Paul also hath long since prophesied and foretold of this great Apostasie or departure from the right faith and religion which hath now of a long time so amply prevailed in the world under the head of that Apostaticall and Antichristian kingdome the Pope of Rome and therefore this ought not now to seeme anie new or strange thing unto anie Christian. 3 Howbeit ye usually alledge these namely universalitie antiquitie perpetuitie unitie succession of Bishops and doing of Miracles or vvonders amongst you to bee markes of the true Church But first if by universalitie ye meane that faith doctrine and religion which was taught universally in the world by the Apostles of Christ and at his appointment Wee tell you that yee are farre from that universalitie For that faith doctrine and religion which was taught universally in the world by the Apostles is comprised in the sacred and canonicall Scriptures and is the same that wee hold and not you as appeareth by conferring and comparing both the religions with those Scriptures But moreover remember that the great Whore of Babilon as shee is called sate upon many waters that is ruled over manie people and multitudes and nations and tongues as the text it selfe expoundeth it And it is further said that with that VVhore the Kings of the earth have committed fornication that the Inhabitants of the earth were drunken with the wine of her fornication Yea it is again said That all Nations have drunke of the vvine of the vvrath of her fornication the Kings of the earth have committed fornication vvith her Behold here the universalitie belonging to your Church which being thus foretold the event being correspondent none should with such universality be any longer deluded As for Antiquitie unlesse truth and true religion be ioyned with it which is not in the Popish Church it is but Vetustas erroris Antiquitie of errors as S Cyprian rightly calleth it Yea Antiquity of the ancientest date our religion hath and not yours for
yee First it is well knowne that S. Peter was a contemner of the pompe and pride of the world and a disregarder of the wealth riches thereof insomuch that hee said to one that asked almes of him that he had neither silver nor gold but the Pope of Rome is not so but contrariwise hath the pompe pride glorie and riches of the world in verie high and chiefe esteeme and aboundeth with them Againe Peter was subiect to Emperors Kings and Princes and taught all Christians to be likewise subiect to them but the Pope is so far from being subiect to them that contrariwise hee claimeth soveraignetie and supremacie over them all and taketh upon him to depose Kings Princes and Emperors at his pleasure and to disannull and dissolve the allegeance of subiects when and as often as he listeth Peter would not allow Cornelius though but a Captaine of the Italian band to fall downe at his feete but bad him arise but the Pope of Rome doth well allow not only Captaines but Kings Princes and Emperors to fall downe and kisse his feet Yea hee hath not beene ashamed with his feete to tread upon the necke of some of the Emperors Peter was a godly earnest and diligent Preacher of the Gospel in his owne person according to that commandement of Christ so often repeated saying unto him Pasce Pasce Pasce feed my lambes feed my sheepe feed my sheepe But the Pope of Rome like an idle pompous and slothfull man in his owne person seldome or never Preacheth Peter was content and well endured to be reproved at the hands of S. Paul when there was cause He also patiently suffered himselfe to be accused and contended against by certaine Christians and mildely and modestly answered to those their exceptions against him for their satisfaction But the Pope of Rome though he be never so worthie of reproofe will neverthelesse not suffer himselfe to be reproved nor accused or contended against nor will have his doings examined questioned censured or iudged by anie men such is his unmeasurable pride and unmatchable loftinesse Againe S. Peter did acknowledge S. Paul S. Matthew S. Andrew S. Iames and the rest of the twelve to be Apostles aswell as himselfe albeit they had no ordination or calling to that their Office of Apostleship from him for that they all had an immediate calling to that their Apostleship from Christ Iesus himselfe and not from Peter is a thing undeniably manifest But the Pope contrariwise acknowledgeth none to be a Bishop except he be ordeyned and made a Bishop by him or by his authoritie Moreover they were accounted and held to be Presbyters and Ministers of the Church which were made and ordeyned by other Apostles though they were not made or ordeined by Peter nor by anie authoritie derived from him But the Pope of Rome acknowledgeth none to be Presbyters or Ministers of the Church which be made by other Bishops except they be made and ordeined by him or by authoritie originally derived from him Yea S. Peter did acknowledge the rest of the Apostles to be his fellowes or Equals as well knowing that Christ Iesus himselfe did directly forbid them to beare Princely authoritie one over another insomuch that Peter aswell as Iohn was content to bee sent by the rest of the Apostles into Samaria and did goe thither at their sending But the Bishop of Rome acknowledgeth not other Bishops to be his fellowes or Equalls nor will be content to be sent as their Messenger to anie place but most proudly challengeth a Princely Primacie and king-like superioritie over them all If the Pope will needes be Peters successor it were reason and a thing equall and iust that he should claime no more authoritie over other Bishops then Peter had over the rest of the Apostles yea if hee will make Peter his patterne and president to follow as it were a happie thing for him if he were in verie deed so wel affected he must then utterly give over his triple Crowne and all his Papal worldly pompe and pride and be cleane reformed and become altogether another man in all respects wherein he is so exceedingly degenerated and unlike unto him And then together with the relinquishing of his most proud Popedome he must also forsake renounce and detest his Poperie and Popish Religion for S. Peter cleerely was such a one as we call a Protestant that is to say one that both held and taught that Religion that wee hold namely that which is conteined in the Booke of GOD the sacred and canonicall Scriptures Yea S. Peter died a Martyr for the testimonie of this faith and religion and the Pope of Rome is contrariwise a persecutor of those that professe this faith and religion For that the Papists be the cleere and undoubted persecutors of the Saints and Martyrs of Iesus is afterward manifested by a direct and most evident testimonie thereof in the Revelation of S. Iohn to the end ye should not hereafter bee mistaken in that point as usually yee be nor deceive your selves anie longer therein Furthermore S. Peter was content and held it honour enough to be a member of the bodie of Christ which is his Church acknowledging with S. Paul and the rest of the Apostles that Christ onely was and is the head therof But the Pope of Rome is not content unlesse he intrude himselfe into this his verie royal prerogative taking upon him to be the verie head of the whole militant church We know that the Church of Christ is but one body as the Scripture speaketh and witnesseth though there be manie members of it and one bodie is to have but one head why then or by what right or reason doe they make this bodie of Christ which is his Church to have two heads namely one in heaven which is Christ Iesus another on earth which they say is the Pope They confesse that of the Church in heaven which is to us invisible Christ is indeed the head but of the visible Church on earth the Pope say they is the head and that such a visible head for the visible church is requisite and necessarie And here they have a distinction that Christ is indeed Caput vitale the vital head from whence all his members have and derive their life but that the Pope is Caput ministeriale visibile the ministeriall and visible head And thus they boldly speake frame and devise matters and distinctions according to the fancie of their owne braines But first what Patent conveyance warrant or commission from God can the Pope of Rome shew whereby he is thus authorized to be either Christ his special or onely Vicar Deputie or Lievetenant over his whole universall church here upon earth or to be this speciall and onely visible and ministeriall head Iust none at all doe they or can they shew for it And is it
should bee termed Regeneration which is not the verie Regeneration it selfe but a signe and token of regeneration for the Regeneration it selfe is the renewing of the man to the Image of God wherin hee was at first created which is a thing begun to bee wrought in him in this life not by the verie externall act of Baptisme performed and administred but inwardlie by the operation of the holy Ghost And likewise it ought for the same cause to seem nothing strange to anie that the Bread in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper is called his bodie when as neverthelesse it is not his verie natural and substantiall bodie but a figure signe and token of that his bodie As for the reason which yee draw from the omnipotencie or almightinesse of Christ whereby hee is able as yee saie to make his verie essentiall and naturall bodie out of bread you must first proove that it is his will to have it so made before ye dispute of his power or omnipotencie For no man doubteth but that he can doe manie things which neverthelesse hee doth not doe nor will doe It is an Axiome in the Art and rule of reasoning that a Posse ad Esse non valet argumentum and therefore that God can doe such a thing and such a thing ergo hee hath done it is no good argument But that you may the better conceive the weakenesse of this your argument grounded upon Gods omnipotencie in this matter take another like unto it in this sort Christ saith of the Cup This is my blood And he by his omnipotencie is aswell able to make the very Cup his verie essentiall and natural blood as the bread his bodie ergo the verie Cup is his verie essentiall and natural blood Againe Christ saith that hee is a Vine and that hee is also Bread and by his omnipotencie hee is aswell able to make himselfe a verie Materiall Vine or verie materiall Bread as he is to make bread his natural bodie ergo hee is a verie Materiall Vine or verie Materiall Bread These arguments bee like yours when you say thus Christ saith the Bread is his body and he is by his omnipotencie able to make it his verie essential and natural bodie Ergo it is his verie essential and natural bodie I hope by this time yee see the vanitie and absurditie of this maner of reasoning But you still urge the words of Christ and say that hee saith It is his bodie and wee must not say you make him a Liar and therefore it is his verie essential and natural bodie God forbid that anie of us should goe about to make Christ a liar who is all Truth and the teacher of all Truth neither doth anie of us go about it but we say that Christ is true in those his words but men speake more then is true when out of those words of his they teach and affirme that the bread is become by way of Transubstantiation his verie essential and natural bodie For Christ doth not say so that it is his verie essential and natural bodie by way of Transubstantiation as they inferre but his wordes are onelie that it is his bodie And it may bee and is his bodie as I said before though it be not his bodie by way of Transubstantiation For if it be as it is his bodie figuratively sacramentally and significatively I trust his words are found true enough without anie such Popish grosse supposition Because Christ saith the Cup is his bloud shall he therefore be supposed a liar or untrue except the verie material Cup be beleeved in verie deed to be his verie essential and natural bloud by way of Transubstantiation or because Christ saith that he is a Vine shall he by and by be concluded to be false or untrue unlesse it be beleeved that therefore he is turned and transubstantiated into a verie natural and substantial Vine But moreover if it be Christs natural and substantial bodie in verie deed as you say it is shew us some way how we may be induced to beleeve it or how it may be proved or appeare to be so you answer that Christ his body is there miraculously But I replie againe that if it be there miraculouslie it must be there visibly and so appeare to the outward senses for it is of the propertie of everie miracle to be visible and to appeare to be so to the eie to the rest of the outward senses as when Christ turned water into wine it did appeare to be no longer water but wine to the outward senses So likewise when Moses rod was turned into a serpent it appeared to the eie outward senses to be no longer a Rod but a Serpent If therefore the bread be turned as yee say miraculouslie into the verie natural bodie of Christ it must likewise appeare visiblie to the eie and to the outward senses so to be namelie no appearance of bread must anie longer be there and on the other side onlie the verie natural bodie of Iesus Christ must appeare to the eye and the outward senses of the Receiver but cleane contrariwise there is no natural bodie of Christ Iesus appearing to the eie and outward senses of the receiver after consecration but bread onlie ergo the verie natural bodie of Iesus Christ is not there miraculouslie as Papists most absurdly affirme But although they cannot shew Christ his verie natural bodie to be there by way of transubstantiation yet say they they doe beleeve it to be so and they say withall that it is as well to be beleeved as the creation of the world the resurrection of the dead a virgin to beare a childe namely Christ Iesus such like But whilst they speake thus I pray let them tell mee can their supposed real bodilie presence of Christ in the Sacrament by way of Transubstantiation be as well proved by the Scriptures as the creation of the world the resurrection of the dead the bearing of a childe by a virgin or as the rest of the things which they meane and are directlie found in the Scriptures I am sure it cannot for all that can be said for your Transubstation hath beene examined againe and againe but no such matter can be proved or appeare Why then doe they match those things together which be nothing like Yea why be anie so unwiselie confident as to say they beleeve and verilie beleeve this real bodilie presence of Christ in the Sacrament by way of transubstantiation when they can no way shew it by anie maner of proofe or probabilitie What will men beleeve unremoveably beleeve things without wit sense reason or religion for which they have no maner of colour or warrant at all in Scripture from God or his word If they be such credulous people they may beleeve if they will anie thing whatsoever be it never so incredible or absurd for if their will and fancie shall be held for a sufficient râ—â—son who
thereby declaring that it shall not bee anie open hostilitie or professed Enmitie against Christ and his Gospell such as is amongst Turkes and Iewes and other Infidells of the world but an hidden close and covert Iniquity not easie to be discerned to be Iniquitie it should carrie and convey it selfe so subtillie and under such shewes and pretences of godlinesse and Christianitie And least wee should deceive our selves in the time or thinke that this Mysterie of Iniquitie vvas to rise to his height and fulnesse on a sodaine or all at once or not till some few yeares beâ—ore the end of the world behold S. Paul telleth us that it was then in working eveÌ„ in his daies so that even then namelie in S. Pauls time it began to worke in such sort as it could going on and creeping forward by little and little and by degrees untill at last it came to his full stature and highest tallest growth And further the text sheweth that in this Apostacie or mystical Iniquitie there should bee signes vvonders and lying Miracles wrought for the better prevailing and fortification of it and for the stronger alluring of people thereunto and confirming them therin Now they bee called lying Miracles or lying wonders partlie for that they bee false and counterfeit and partlie for that they lead men into falshood and errors as Chrysostome expoundeth those words And likewise S. Augustine sheweth that they be called lying signes and wonders either because hee shall deceive the senses of mortal men by counterfeit shewes and apparances that he may seeme to do that which hee doth not or else because they shall draw unto lies such as shall beleeve that they could not be done but by the power of God they not knowing the power of the Divell For the Divell sometimes interposeth himselfe to worke these miracles And even in this verie place also to the Thessalonians they are said to bee done by the operation or vvorking of Satan Consider then whether these things bee not found verified in the Papacie As touching the Miracles which are said to bee done in Poperie there be as that learned and reverend Bishop D. Dovvnam hath distinguished set them downe three degrees or three sorts of them the one such as bee merelie fabulous and devised by lying Companions whereof their Legends Festivalls and other their Bookes have good store of examples some of them being so notoriouslie incredible as that none except he were miserablie intoxicated and bewitched could or would beleeve them which lowd and lewd lies and no better then Poetical Fictions were neverthelesse in so high esteeme in the Popish Church that they were both publickelie and privatelie read in the vulgar tongue when as the sacred and Canonical Scriptures were closed up and kept from the people in an unknowne language And as this first degree of Miracles is of such as never were indeede not so much as in apparance but in the opinion onelie of men besotted and given over to beleeve incredible untruths So the second degree or second sort of their Miracles is of such as be in shew or apparance onelie or artificial conveiances of deceitful men or iugling trickes of Legerdemaine of which sort are the nodding or moving the smiling or frowning the sweating or speaking of Images and such like The third sort of their Miracles bee such as bee done by the power of the Divell working by natural causes and naturall meanes although so closelie covertlie stilie and speedilie sometimes as that they draw ignorant people that perceive not the reason of those things into a great admiration and conceit that they are true miracles indeed when as neverthelesse though they bee done yet they surpasse not the strength of nature as those doe that bee true and divine Miracles For those that bee true Miracles indeed bee supernatural and beyond the power of all natural causes whatsoever and are done onelie by the omnipotent power of God Neither is the Pope nor all his partakers able to produce anie one such true Miracle wrought by a Divine power and by the finger of God for confirmation of anie pointe of their New Religion wherein they differ from us although they pretend divers Yea some of their owne writers doe ingenuouslie confesse that sometimes there is verie great deceiving of the people by Miracles fayned by the Priests or their adherents for temporal gaine sake And another of them saith directly thus That in the Sacrament appeareth flesh sometime by the conveyance of men sometime by the operation of the divell Another of them saith likewise that Miracles bee sometimes done to men that flocke to Images by the operation of Divells to deceive inordinate worshippers God permitting it and the infidelitie of such men requiring it Irenaeus even in his time also telleth of a certaine man called Marke which in the Sacrament of the Eucharist mightilie deceived the people by changing the colour of the wine in such sort as that it seemed to bee blood All which kinde of deceiveable practises it is good that all those that bee so much devoted and wedded to Poperie and to listning after Miracles should take special notice of and thereby learne to take heede of such Impostors and Deceivers in time All the great wonderfull and supernatural Miracles which have beene done by Christ and his Apostles and in those ancient former and elder times be sufficent for confirmation of that old and most ancient faith and religion which wee hold namely which is conteined in the sacred and Canonical Scriptures neither doe wee desire anie moe or thinke anie more requisite or necessarie For as S. Augustine saith Quisquis adhuc prodigia ut credat inquirit magnum est ipse prodigium qui mundo credente non credit VVhosoever still seeketh after wonders that hee might beleeve is himselfe a great wonder who when the world beleeveth beleeveth not Yea if the Papists had not these their signes wonders and miracles amongst them they could not bee as here wee see the Antichristian Church But there bee no people of the world that so much obiect and boast of them as they As for the Iewes they have them not The Turkes and Mahometists disclaime them professing that their religion is to bee propagated and promoted not by miracles but by force and armes and by the sword The true Christians which bee the Protestants urge them not nor require them onelie the false Christians that is the Antichristians which bee the Papists doe urge and require them and glorie and vaunt of them and none so much as they nor anie like to them and therefore this note or marke of Antichristianisme touching Miracles is verie evident and most apparant amongst them 2 Againe this text of S. Paul sheweth that this great Antichrist who is the head of this Apostatical Church which thus aboundeth with false and lying Miracles and Wonders should sit in the Temple of GOD that
the people in the world may aptlie be divided The Vnchristian people be those that make no profession at all of Christ or Christianitie of which sort be Iewes Turkes and other Infidels of the world The Christian people revera and indeed of which in this distribution I speake be those that professe Christ and beleeve in him and addict themselves onelie to his religion and the rules and waies of it as it is described and set downe in the sacred and canonical Scriptures The Antichristian people be those that professe Christ in words in outward shewes and semblance but yet neverthelesse denie or oppugne him in deeds or in doctrine or in both Whence is concluded that neither the Turke nor Mahomet as I said before nor anie of the rest of the Infidells of the world can properly and according to the Scripture phrase and sense bee tearmed Antichrists or Antichristians fith they make no profession of Christ at all but such are properly to be termed Vnchristian and not Antichristian people and consequently it remaineth that Antichrist and Antichristian people bee onely to bee found within Christendome and amongst those that professe Christ. And who these be within Christendome is easily to be discerned for that the Pope of Rome and his followers be this kinde of covert masked and disguised adversaries and opposites to Christ and that under the name and profession of Christ his church and religion I thinke there is none but doth or may verie readilie perceive But would you know it further and in some particulars For you must indeed come to particulars with them inasmuch as otherwise in general termes and words they will make great profession of Christ and of the rights honors prerogatives to him his Church belonging and yet in the meane time in particulars and indirectlie and by consequent they will oppugne him Inasmuch therefore as he hath the name of Antichrist chiefelie by reason of his opposition unto Christ in this covert and disguised manner let us see how that is verified in the Pope and Papacie For which purpose let us consider our Lord Iesus Christ as he is to be considered namelie in respect of his person and in respect of his offices committed to him from his Father In respect of his person he is both God and Man in respect of his offices he is a Prophet a Priest a King unto us Now in everie of these respects doth the Pope and Papacie oppugne Christ. For first what a God doe they make Christ to be when they preferre the Virgin Mary above him and acknowledge authoritie in her to command him For thus they speake unto her Iube natum Iure Matris Impera redemptori monstra te esse Matrem That is Command thy Sonne and by thy motherly authority command the Redeemer and shew thy selfe to be a mother Is he God and the creator and supreame commander of all things that is thus made subiect to the authoritie and commandement of a creature But doe they not further oppugne his Godhead verie manifestlie when they hold that everie Priest of theirs after breathing of a few words out of his mouth can create and make Iesus Christ his maker for so they say as is before shewed that Sacerdos est Creator creatoris sui The Priest is the Creator or maker of his maker Now then is he a God that can be thus made by men And what doe they else but oppugne his Manhood also verie manifestlie whilest they make his bodie to be multi-present that is present in manie places at one time For they say it is both in heaven and in earth at once yea in so manie places as their Masse is celebrated or their Host reserved at one and the selfe same time which is contrarie to the nature and propertie of a true bodie which we are sure Christ Iesus hath Yea as they hold his Body to be carnallie eaten in the Sacrament with the bodily mouth so doe they hold it also to be void of dimensions and quantitie and to be uncircumscribed and invisible and no way sensible which is likewise as much as to make him to have no true bodie at all When againe they hold that his bodie is made out of the substance of a peece of bread for so much that their verie word of Transubstantiation importeth which was indeed not so made but of the substance of the Virgin Mary doe they not verie cleerelie oppugne his humanitie and the veritie of his bodie You see then how they doe oppugne the person of Christ both in respect of his Deitie and also of his humanitie verie apparantlie Let us now likewise briefelie consider how they oppugne Christ in his three offices namelie as he is a Prophet a Priest and a King unto us The Prophecie of Christ whose voice and instruction as of a Prophet and Teacher all-sufficient we are commanded to heare and obey they oppugne first by teaching that the sacred and Canonical Scriptures be imperfect and insufficient for a Christian mans instruction and salvation without their Traditions secondlie by adding not onlie their owne Traditions but the Apocryphal Bookes and Decretal Epistles also to the Canon of the Bible and stablishing them to be of equall authoritie reverence with the Canonical Scriptures themselves thirdlie by equaling also the determinations of their Popes and the Decrees of their Councels and Church which they say cannot erre unto the divine and canonical Scriptures they holding them to be as undoubtedlie the voice oracle of the Holie Ghost as anie thing is which is contained in those Scriptures fourthlie not onlie in equaling but which is more and much worse in preferring magnifying and advancing of their Pope and Church and their authoritie above the authoritie of the Scriptures and therefore doth Silvester Prierias Master of the Popes Palace affirme that Indulgences bee warranted unto us not by the authoritie of Scripture but by the authoritie of the Church and Pope of Rome which saith hee is a greater Authority Againe hee saith Whosoever resteth not on the doctrine of the Roman Church and Bishop of Rome as the infallible rule of God à qua sacra Scriptura robur trabit authoritatem from which the sacred Scripture draweth her strength and authoritie hee is an Heretick And so saith Eckius likewise that Scriptura nisi Ecclesiae authoritate non est authentica The Scripture is not authenticall but by the authoritie of the Church and sundry such waies doe they oppugne the all-sufficient written word doctrine and instruction of Christ our Prophet His Priesthood they also oppugne which consisteth chiefly in these two things viz. in sacrificing himselfe once for all his people upon the Crosse to take away their sinnes and in making intercession for them Now this his onely-propitiatory and only-bodily and all-sufficient Sacrifice they oppugne by erecting of another Sacrifice in their abominable Masse wherein they say their Priests
shall vvalke after the Lord your God and feare him and shall keepe his commandements and hearken unto his voyce and yee shall serve him and cleave unto him But that Prophet or that Dreamer of dreames hee shall bee slaine because hee hath spoken to turne you avvay from the Lord your God vvhich brought you out of the Land of Egypt and delivered you out of the house of Bondage to thrust thee out of the vvay vvherein the Lord thy God commanded thee to vvalke Wherby we are admonished that if anie Miracle be wrought or wonder done to leade a man out of the right way from God and his religion or for the confirmation of anie Idolatrous erroneous or false religion or of anie point of Error or Vntruth wee must not regard it or bee moved by it And therefore wee are first to examine whether that point of faith and religion which in these daies is so attempted or intended to bee proved by Miracle or Wonder bee consonant and agreeable to the word of God delivered unto us in the holie and Canonical Scriptures For if it be not found to bee thereby warranted the Miracle or wonder wrought for the confirmation of that untruth must beare no sway with us how great soever it seeme but must be reiected as here you see And this is one cause amongst the rest why they bee called Lying Miracles and wonders which are done in Poperie the Antichristian Church because they bee done to this end to maintaine lyes and lying doctrines and an untrue and false religion whereby they deceive men and bring them first to Impietie and misbeleefe and afterward to utter ruine and destruction 7 For as this Antichristian Poperie was to prevaile by the subtiltie and deceiveablenesse therof and by the working of Satan and by the lying miracles and wonders that be therin so S. Paul further sheweth amongst vvhom it should prevaile namelie Amongst them that perish because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved and that therefore God did sent them strong delusion that they should beleeve lyes that they all might be damned vvhich beleeved not the Truth but had pleasure in unrighteousnesse In which words you see first the cause and reason which God had to punish the world with this great plague of Antichristian Popish blindenesse namely the neglect and contempt of his Word and Gospell and their preferring mens traditions doctrines lies and devises before his truth in his Scriptures contained For saith he because they received not the love of the Truth that they might bee saved therefore it is that Satan with his fraudes and deceiptfull practises should so prevaile among them Againe hee saith And therefore shall God send them strong delusion that they should beleeve lyes that they all might be damned vvhich beleeved not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousnesse Observe here well that hee calleth it as most apparantly it is indeede a strong delusion wherewith Papists are possessed and carried and that it is also a strong delusion to beleeve lyes and such as that they take pleasure in that unrighteousnesse Doe not all devoted Papists finde this to be true And is not Popish Antichristianisme also rightly worthily called Iniustice or unrighteousnesse when most iniuriously it hath robbed God and men Christ and his Church and the sacred and canonical Scriptures and not only Bishops and Clergie men but Kings Princes and Emperors also and people of the rights and dues to them belonging Yea it breaketh the strength and sinewes of Common weales also aswell as of the Church by lying and deceiptfull equivocations by dispensing with oathes and with other things by their doctrine and Decree that Faith is not to be kept vvith Heretickes by their dissolving of the allegeance of subiects by their doctrine of deposing Kings by their Gun-powder plots and most detestable devises of treasons rebellions murders and massacres of Christian and Protestant Princes and their people and by sundrie other wayes rufull to be told and most shamefull to be either professed or put in execution Can there be greater points of iniustice or unrighteousnesse then these But all this while forget not I beseech you amongst what manner of people it is that this Antichristian Poperie prevaileth namely that it is amongst them that perish that all they might be damned vvhich beleeved not Gods truth extant in his Scriptures but take pleasure in that unrighteousnesse For doe you not hereby perceive the most fearefull estate and most wofull condition that all Papists be in that notwithstanding they be often admonished will not for all that forsake Antichrist and his religion to embrace the truth and the most pure religion of Christ taught in the holy Scriptures Bee they not here expressely affirmed to be such as perish and are to be damned if they persist obstinate and will not be reclaimed or converted Agreeably hereunto is also that which is written in the Revelation of S. Iohn where the Angel uttered it with a lowd voice to the end that all men should take notice of it saying If any man vvorship the beast and his image and receive his marke in his forhead or on his hand the same shall drinke of the vvine of the vvrath of God yea of the pure vvine that is poured into the cup of his vvrath and hee shall be tormented with fire and brimstone before the holy Angells and before the Lambe and the smoake of their torment shall ascend up evermore and they shall have no rest day nor night vvhich worship the beast and his image and whosoever receiveth the print of his name Consider these things seriously yee that are wont to say and hold that None can be saved but he that is a pure Papist Doe yee not see the cleane contrarie here directly affirmed and that by warrant from God himselfe that whosoever is a pure Papist and in contempt of all admonitions will so live and die is not a saved but a damned soule Wee wish your salvation and if your selves wish it likewise as no doubt ye doe yee will then take the right course for it and be content not onely patiently but thankefully also to receive these christian and friendly admonitions and so be moved in time to relinquish and utterly to detest and abandon this Antichristian Poperie that thus directly and certainely leadeth to Hell and damnation 8 But consider yet further the other words of S. Paul where he saith of Antichrist thus VVhom the Lord shall consume vvith the spirit of his mouth and shall abolish with the brightnesse of his comming For hereby appeareth that Antichrist and his religion shall be consumed by the voice and preaching of the word of God which he calleth the spirit of his mouth and that hee shall be utterly abolished at the bright and glorious comming of Christ to iudgement so that here you may observe the decay and destruction of that Antichristian monster namely
that though hee shall not be utterly destroied in all points and respects untill the comming of Christ to iudgement but that some remnants of him will be till then yet he shall in the meane space be mightily decayed wasted and consumed by the voice and preaching of the pure strong powerfull and prevalent word of God which is able to cast downe strong holds and imaginations and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God and to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. The truth of this wasting and consuming of Antichrist by the powerfull preaching of the Gospell and word of Truth wee see apparant before our eyes for who knoweth not how since the preaching of the Gospell by those manie excellent instruments of God whom he was pleased to raise up in the later age of the world for that purpose Pope and Poperie hath come downe in diverse kingdomes and dominions of Europe and hath beene much and mightily wasted and consumed and must yet consume more and more untill at last he be utterly destroyed and abolished according to this Prophecie of S. Paul And agreeably hereunto S. Iohn also in his Revelation telleth us of seven Angels that were to blow their Trumpets and that under the blowing of the Trumpet by the seventh Angel there shall be no more time but the mysterie of God shall be finished and the world have his end Now after that the sixt Angell had began to blow and before the blast of the seventh Angell there is a little Booke opened namely the booke of the holy Scriptures which had before lien closed and shut up in Poperie which booke is there delivered to S. Iohn representing the person of Christs faithfull Ministers with a commandement given unto them that they should take it and eate it up and that it should make thâ—ir belly bitter but should be in their mouth as sweet as honey and that thereout they should preach and prophecie againe among the people and nations and tongues and to many Kings And this in another place is called the Everlasting Gospel committed to Christ his Ministers and servants to preach unto them that dwel on the earth and to every nation and kinred and tongue and people This Booke of the Everlasting Gospel and Scriptures of God is called little in respect of the great volumes of the Popes lawes and decrees and constitutions of men and is commanded to be taken and eaten up by the Ministers and servants of Christ because they were eagerly and earnestly and with a vehement appetite to reade and studie it and to digest muse and meditate upon it and it is said to make the belly bitter though in their mouth it vvas as sweet as honey because such was the exceeding great contentment and abundance of solace and ioy which they received thereby to themselves as that tasting and finding the incomparable sweetnesse of it and letting it as it were downe into their stomacks and filling their bellies with it they were not able to conteine it within themselves but must needs utter and declare the same unto others whatsoever bitter troubles afflictions persecutions or calamities should or did thereupon ensue which molestations their enemies would bring upon them purposely to hinder the preaching and publishing of Gods religion and truth conteined in that Booke for the maintenance of the Popes law religion constitutions which had so long before prevailed in the world You see then how after that this Antichristian Poperie had corrupted oppressed the most ancient true religion of Christ once planted stablished by the Apostles conteined in that Book of the Scriptures the verie same book of the Scriptures the truth therout being as was foretold it shold be once again preached published hath begun to spread his beames taken in hand the discoverie and conquest of that secret hidden subtil traytor the Antichristian Poperie having alreadie much wasted and consumed it by the power thereof in divers parts of Europe still more and more must wast consume it until at last it be utterly abolished So that we may observe here for the better confirmation of us in our faith and religion that all things fall out in their iust times and seasons foretold and before appointed of God namely that this wasting and consuming of the Pope and Poperie by the preaching and publishing of Gods truth and religion in that booke of the Scriptures conteined came not to passe nor was to come to passe till after the time that the sixt Angell had begun to blow his Trumpet that is not untill toward the latter end of the world for under the blowing of the Trumpet by the seventh Angell the world is to end as is before declared 9 But now against this position of the Pope to be Antichrist is obiected that Antichrist shall be only one particular man in certain which shall raign iust three yeres an halfe and no longer And so Bellarmine also teacheth for proofe of this opinion he citeth diverse Texts of Scripture out of Daniel and the Revelation as namely Dan. 7.25 and Dan. 12.7 where mention is made of a Time and times and halfe a time and of Rev. 11.3 where mention is made of the two vvitnesses that they did prophesie 1260 dayes and Rev. 12.6.4 where mention is againe made of 1260 dayes and of a Time and Times and halfe a Time and Rev. 11.2 and Rev. 13.5 where mention is also made of 42 Moneths All which times hee maketh to be one and the same and accounting 30 daies to everie moneth hee saith they conteine iust three yeares and an halfe and that this is the precise and full time of Antichrist his Raigne Neyther is it saith hee against this that in Dan. 12.11 Antichrist is said to raigne 1290 dayes that is 30 dayes more then S. Iohn mentioned for S. Iohn saith he speaketh of the two witnesses vvhich shall be slaine by Antichrist one moneth before Antichrist himselfe perish But how can these things stand together wherein there is such a palpable and manifest contradiction For first if it be true which he saith that Antichrist shall raigne onely 1260 daies that is iust three yeares and an halfe as he expoundeth it how can it be true which hee afterward saith that Antichrist shall raigne 1290 daies which is one moneth longer consisting of 30 daies Is there no difference betweene 1260 daies and 1290 daies Bellarmine himselfe confesseth that there is a moneths difference consisting of 30 daies betweene them And is the difference of a moneth or 30 daies nothing in the account of time Do not 1290 daies by Bellarmines own reckoning conteine three yeares and seven moneths and is three yeares and sixe moneths and three yeares and seven moneths all one Yea the verie reason which Bellarmine bringeth to reconcile the difference of the times will not agree with himselfe For you
know the times and the seasons vvhich the Father hath put in his owne power There is another exposition which the Protestants deliver unto you touching the 42 moneths and 1260 daies otherwise called a Time and Times and halfe a Time mentioned in the Revelation which is this namely that times in Gods appointment certaine of the several persecutions and molestations of the Church be therein limited and prescribed albeit to us they be uncertaine untill the event doe declare them For that a time certaine even in the Revelation of S. Iohn may be thus put for a time uncertaine the Rhemists themselves doe sufficiently declare who expound the Thousand yeares wherein the Divell is said to be bound which in it selfe is a time certaine to be neverthelesse the whole time how long or short soever it be of the New Testament untill Antichrists time If then the certaine time of a Thousand yeares signifie no certaine number of yeares but are put for an indefinite and an uncertaine time as the Rhemists and other Papists also teach what marvell is it or what iust exception can they take against us if wee likewise expound the 42 moneths and 1260 daies otherwise called a Time and Times and halfe a Time for a time indefinite and uncertaine to us untill it be accomplished though God in his foreknowledge hath certainely limited it Yea according hereunto Beda saith By the number of these dayes vvhich make three yeares and an halfe the Holy Ghost comprehendeth all the times of Christianitie because Christ vvhose body the Church is preached so long in the flesh To the same effect he saith upon the 14 verse Hee designeth the vvhole time of the Church comprehended before in the number of Dayes Ambrosius Ansbertus likewise saith The number of 1260 dayes in vvhich the woman tarieth and is fed in the vvildernesse doth so signifie the course of Preaching or end of Persecution in vvhich the old enemy is permitted to rage against the holy Church by that damned man vvhom he shall possesse that neverthelesse it comprehendeth the beginning either of the preaching or of the persecution in vvhich Christ began to preach and suffer yea the vvhole time of this present life which is betweene the beginning and the end Rupertus also expoundeth these daies for so long time as the Church being a stranger in the vvorld suffereth persecution Haymo likewise saith It may be referred unto all the time from the ascention of Christ unto the end of the vvorld Thus you see that even these ancient Expositors expound it not for iust three yeares and an halfe as yee doe but as comprehending in it a much longer time and as being a time certaine put for an uncertaine as wee doe But yet to answere more particularly to those Texts And first to that Text of Revelat. 11. It is there said That the Gentiles shall tread under foot the holy Citie that is the true Church of God two and forty moneths But I will give power unto my two vvitnesses and they shall prophecy saith the Text 1260 dayes clothed in Sackcloth These are two Olive Trees and two Candlestickes standing before the God of the earth And if any man vvill hurt them fire proceedeth out of their mouthes and devoureth their enemies For if any man vvould hurt them thus must he be killed These have power to shut heaven that it raine not in the dayes of their prophecying and have power over vvaters to turne them into bloud and to smite the earth vvith all maner of plagues as often as they vvill And vvhen they have finished their Testimony the Beast that commeth out of the bottomlesse pit shall make vvarre against them and shall overcome them and kill them c. You suppose that by these two witnesses here mentioned be meant Enoch and Elias who as you imagine shal come againe personallie into this world to encounter and oppose themselves against Antichrist But first how doe yee prove these two Witnesses to be Enoch and Elias for yee finde them not so named in the Text. And indeed it is but an imagination or surmise which hath no sufficient ground or certaintie in it Yea S. Hierom reiecteth it saith that they be Iudei Iudaizantes haeretici c. Iewes and Iudaizing hereticks that looke for a corporal or personal comming of Elias And in another place he reckoneth such maner of expectation and opinion touching Enoch and Elias as also the opinion touching the building againe of the material Temple at Hierusalem in the number of Iewish Fable Arethas indeed saith of these two Witnesses that it was constantly received that they should be Enoch and Elias but Victorinus who was more ancient then Arethas telleth us otherwise Many thinke saith hee that one of these two vvitnesses is Elias the other eyther Elizeus or Moses but they are both dead Howbeit the death of Ieremy is not found And all our Ancients have delivered saith hee that that other is Ieremy And S. Hillary thinketh them to be Elias and Moses Such uncertaintie there is even in ancient Fathers as well as in other Writers when they goe by coniectures ghesses and imaginations onely without sufficient warrant from the word of God It is therefore to be observed that the Revelation is full of mystical prophetical and alluding speeches As for example where these two Witnesses be called two Olive trees and Candlesticks he alludeth unto that prophecie in Zachary chap. 4.1.2.3.4.5.6 c. Which witnesses of divine Truth and Preachers and Ministers of the Gospel be not unfitly called Candlesticks inasmuch as they beare and hold out the light of Gods word unto the people as also they be well resembled to Olive trees inasmuch as by the meanes of their Ministerie and Preaching of the Gospell the Oyle of Gods grace and of his spirit is powred into mens hearts to mollifie and to convert them unto God Againe in that hee mentioneth two witnesses hee alludeth unto the Law which requireth the Testimonie of two witnesses the testimonie of which number of witnesses is held sufficient to ratifie and confirme a matter So that by these two witnesses he meaneth that hee will ever have even in the greatest furie and rage of Antichrist a competent and sufficient number to beare witnesse of his truth and religion conteined in the two Testaments of the holy Scriptures Likewise hee alludeth partlie unto the times of Elias and partlie unto the times of Moses when hee saith that If any vvill hurt the two vvitnesses fire proceedeth out of their mouthes to devoure their enemies and that these have power to shut heaven that it raine not in the dayes of their prophecying and have power over vvaters to turne them into bloud c. For so in Moses time in the land of Egypt vvere the vvaters in the River turned into Bloud and sundrie other plagues brought upon that land of Egypt for molesting of Gods
ever since the Emperor ceased to have any Soveraigne command in that Citie and that the Pope hath gotten the soveraigne rule and command there is apparantly become the seventh so the last Head of Rome How can it bee avoided but that Antichrist must needs be come long sithence and that the Pope of Rome undoubtedly is hee and that there is none other to bee expected Obiect 10. Antichrist is to be an open oppugner of Christ and a direct and professed enemie to all manner of Christianitie Ans. You are mightilie deceived if you thinke so For first the Scripture telleth us of manie Antichrists of one grand Antichrist above the rest According whereunto Origen saith Generaliter unus est Antichristus species illius multae c. Generally there is one Antichrist but there bee manie sorts of him c. For as all the true Prophets had relation to Christ By whose spirit they spake as S. Peter sheweth so have all the false teachers and false prophets in the Church relation to Antichrist by whose spirit they speake as S. Iohn affirmeth in the Church relation to Antichrist by whose spirit they speake as S. Iohn affirmeth For which cause S. Cyprian saith that Novatianus the Schismatick is to be reckoned amongst the Antichrists And so saith S. Hierome that all Arch Hereticks be Antichrists and againe there bee so manie Antichristâ— saith hee as there be teachers of false doctrine in the Church Yea this they might learne of S. Iohn himselfe in his Epistles who likewise calleth those that were hereticks and false Teachers in the Church so manie Antichrists And this also Saint Augustine teacheth saying Hide quibus Iohannes Epist. 1 Antichristi sunt ad illum novissimum pertinentes c. These Antichrists of vvhich Saint Iohn speaketh in his first Epistle be belonging to that last the grand Antichrist Againe Quisquis Christum qualis est ab Apostolis praedicatus negat Antichristus est VVhosoever saith Saint Hillary denyeth Christ to be such a one as he vvas preached to be by the Apostles is an Antichrist Irenaeus affirmeth that Valentinus Basilides and Câ—rinthus vvere Antichrists Antichrist saith Origen hath nothing but the name of Christ for hee neyther doth the vvorkes of Christ nor teacheth his doctrine Christ is the very Truth and Antichrist is the disguiser or counterfeyter of Truth The mysterie of that Antichristian Iniquitie wrought even in S. Pauls time as hee himselfe affirmeth He vvell calleth it saith S. Chrysostome a mysterie of Iniquitie because he shall not come like a Nero by open force and vvithout all maner of shame c but entisingly and underhand This Mysterie saith Theodoret signifieth the heresies by vvhich the Divell maketh vvay for Antichrist S. Gregory saith that Antichrist seduceth the people by his Preachers the ministers of lying He hath two hornes like to those of the Lamb Rev. 13.11 that is saith S. Augustine hee hath the two Testaments like to those of the Lamb inasmuch as under the name of Christ he doth covertly infuse the venome of the Dragon And for this cause is he called the false-Prophet diverse times in the Revelation by reason of the false Religion and false doctrines he teacheth in the world under the name of Christ and Christian verities Yea this Antichrist must sit in the Temple of God amongst Christians within Christendome and not without it amongst Turkes Iewes and such like Infidels of the world for he must pretend himselfe to be a chiefe Christian as S. Hierome also sheweth which none of those so much as pretend themselves to be yea they utterly disclaime to be anie Christians at all so that those be rightly and properly to be termed unchristian but not Antichristian people Within Christendome then and no where else is Antichrist to be sought and found Now then within Christendome where shall we finde him Can Protestants be hee No for they professe not to confirme their doctrine and religion nor any point thereof with miracles signes and wonders done by them as this Antichrist and his complices doe neither doe anie of their Bishops or Pastors exalt themselves against or above all Kings Princes Emperors Magistrates of the earth which be called gods in the Scripture as this Antichrist also doth neither doe they teach that doctrine of Divels as S. Paul calleth it which consisteth in prohibiting of Meates and Marriages for conscience and religion sake as this Antichristian and Apostaticall Church likewise doth Protestants then verie cleerely appeare to be such as belong not to this Antichristian crew or companie Who then within Christendome or outwardly professing Christianitie is more likely or so likely to be or possibly can be this grand Antichrist but he onely that exalteth himselfe not onely against but above all Kings Princes Emperors and Potentates of the world and that obtrudeth vaunteth and boasteth of so manie miracles signes and wonders done in his Church and by him and his Clergie and people for confirmation of his religion and that teacheth also that doctrine of Divels aforesaid consisting in prohibition of Meates and Marriage that is to say the Pope of Rome For there is no other within Christendome to be named to whom these things doe thus fitly agree Yea Hee and onely hee in all the world hath all the markes of the grand Antichrist upon him And therefore he and onely he and no other is to be held of all for the undoubted grand Antichrist Obiect 11. The grand Antichrist is The man of sinne the sonne of perdition 2. Thess. 2.3 But shall anie be so bold to affirme these things of the Pope of Rome especially doth it not seeme to be a rash and uncharitable thing to affirme of him that he is the sonne of perdition Answ. It is never anie rashnesse or uncharitablenesse to affirme what God in his word affirmeth It were rather incredulitie not to beleeve it and impietie not to affirme it For if the Pope of Rome be that grand Antichrist and the man of sinne doth it not well agree unto him that he should also be the sonne of perdition as well as Iudas Iscariot who likewise pretending to be a friend to Christ did neverthelesse betray him He that under the like pretence of being a special friend to Christ and under colour of Christianitie destroieth himselfe and others and that without check of conscience remorse or repentance at anie time shewed is he not worthily and iustly called the sonne of perdition Yea doth not the Scripture directly say of him that hee is in Hebrew Abaddon and in Greeke Apollyon that is in English a destroyer And must not hee needs be deemed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sonne of Perdition who together with himselfe thus destroyeth others For all those that be led by him and maugre all admonitions will neverthelesse irremoveably adhere unto him and follow him be answerably
true Church but of the whore of Babylon which submit themselves and yeeld their obedience to the Pope and Popish Rome And whereas secondly ye obiect that it would move scandal and offence to others if yee came to our Churches What need yee care that others without cause be offended so long as God is well pleased For in such a case it is an offence not given but taken And when there is no iust cause given why anie should be offended the fault is theirs that be so causelesly offended and not yours A man must never forsake God and Gods religion nor absent himselfe from the true Church of God because some seduced or ill-disposed people will finde fault with it Thirdly yee obiect that it were but a point of dissembling to come if your mind stand against it But this allegation is soone answered if yee please to come as ye may and ought that is with sincere hearts and unfained affections and without anie such wicked Hypocrisie and Dissembling For indeed all halting dissembling and counterfeyting especially in matters of Gods service and religion is ever to be eschued and detested Fourthly ye obiect that the Translation of the holy Scriptures amongst us is not right But it hath before beene shewed unto you that our Translations being according to the originals of the Hebrew and Greek must needs be right whereas contrariwise your Translations not being according to those originals be and must needes be untrue in all those sundrie and manie places detected and discovered at large by the Protestants wherein they differ from those originalls Fiftly yee say that our Church-Service and Liturgie is disallowable for that it wanteth your Popish Masse and sacrificing Priesthood But to that we answer that our Church-Service is so much the better and the more to be liked for that it hath abolished as it ought that Idolatrous Popish Masse and that abominable Priesthood thereto belonging which fearelesly and impiously presumeth to offer up and that in a bodily manner as they say Christ Iesus againe and againe and often and that also as a Sacrifice propitiatorie for the taking away of mens sinnes whereas all true Christians doe knowe contrariwise that Christ Iesus was in a Bodily manner to bee offered up in sacrifice to his Father but once and that was upon the Crosse and that himselfe was the onely Priest allowed and appointed of God to make that Bodily oblation and no other and that this Bodily oblation and sacrifice by himselfe performed upon the Crosse is the onely propitiatorie Sacrifice and onely availeable and effectual to clense and take away the sinnes of men So that our Church and Church-Service were indeed iustly worthie to be abhorred detested and condemned as now yours is for the same cause if such blasphemous and intolerable monstrous abominations were suffered or allowed in it And wee are highly and everlastingly to thankâ— God that they be removed and abolished Sixtly yee alledge that in a Psalme or Hymne which wee sometimes sing in our Churches wee pray unto God to keepe and defend us from the Pope and Turke and why should we not doe so It is plainly and cleerely proved before that the Pope is the grand Antichrist and that hee not openly and professedly as the Turke doth but closely and covertly and therefore in a more subtill and more dangerous manner oppugneth Christ and his religion and ordinances deceiving under the name of Catholikes and of the Catholike Church and pretence of the Holy Ghost ruling that Church of his so that it cannot erre as hee suggesteth to his credulous and blinded followers whereunto he hath also added all maner of impostures and deceiveable and lying signes and wonders to enchant and seduce the people and to allure them to himselfe and to confirme them in their misbeleefe and errors Wherefore not without good cause doe wee pray God to keepe and defend us from him especially now in this later age of the world wherein he useth not only secret sleights and fraudes but open warres also and rebellions when he seeth fit time for them and murthers and massacres of Protestant Princes and people Gunpowder villanies and such like hellish abominations Who then can iustly blame us for praying against him that doth thus abound with these his wicked and mischievous plots fraudes forces treacheries and conspiracies Lastly yee alledge it to bee against your conscience to come to our Churches But herein I desire you to consider better and more seriously whether this will stand or bee allowed for a good excuse or plea for you in the day of Iudgement For may not Turks Iewes Pagans hereticks schismaticks or whatsoever other erroneous deceived and misbeleeving persons make the like excuse and pleade the same plea and say that it is against their conscience to become Christians or to come to their assemblies or to be Orthodox and right-beleeving people Or if they make that plea doe you thinke it will passe for good and allowable before Gods Iudgement seate in the last day But yee I pray shew some cause or reason if yee can why your â—â—â—science wil not give you leave to come to our Churches Is there anie thing in our Church-Service that may iustly offend anie of you â—f there be declare it But you were 〈◊〉 yet able to shew it and I assure my selfe you never will be able If then your Conscience be as in this case it appeareth to be not a right but a wrong and an erring and missed conscience you must endevour to rectifie and reforme this kinde of conscience and not be guided or carried anie longer by it For so also â—tacheth Siâ—â—â—â—â—â— Priâ—rias inâ—â—â—â—â—â—â—scientia that a man is bound to forsake his erroneous conscience and not to follow it 3 But consider yet further how manie Martyrs also there have bin that have died for in defence of several points of our religion and how few or rather none at all there be that have bin put to death for in defence of anie one particular point of Popish religion against Protestantie unless you wil account denying the Kings Supremacie and such like points of treason disloyaltie and contempt against Princes theâ—â— Commonâ—weales and Kingdomes to be points of that Religion For example that I may be the better understood What man amongst them was ever put to death for that their Article of Transubstantiation or for their opinion of Purgatorie or for their opinion of praying to Saints and Angels or for their opinion of meâ—â— meriâ—â— or for anie other such like point of their religion for of such it is that I speake and meane Can ye name or produce anie one man that ever since the world began died for anie of these articles If you say 〈◊〉 some amongst you have beene bold to say that there neither was nor is anie Law amongst us to put Papists to death for anie point of their religion are you not therein much deceived For may not Hereticks by the
dissented from the Church of Rome in the celebration of Easter and manie other things made no scruple to prefixe this loving respectfull superscription to their letters To our Lords and most deare brethren the Bishops or Abbots throughout all Scotland Laurentius Mellitus and Iustus Bishops the servants of the servants of God For howsoever Ireland at that time received not the same lawes wherewith other nations were governed yet it so flourished in the vigour of Christian doctrine as Abbot Ionas testifieth that it exceeded the faith of all the neighbour nations in that respect was generally had in honour by them It now remaineth that in the last place we should consider the Popes power in disposing the temporall state of this kingdome which either directly or indirectly by hook or by crook this graund Usurper would draw unto himselfe First therefore Cardinall Allen would have us to know that the Sea Apostolick hath an old claime unto the soverainty of the countrey of Ireland and that before the covenants passed betweene king Iohn and the same Sea Which challenges saith hee Princes commonly yeeld not up by what ground so ever they come What Princes use to yeeld or not yeeld I leave to the skanning of those unto whom Princes matters doe belong for the Cardinalls Prince I dare be bold to say that if it be not his use to play fast and loose with other Princes the matter is not now to do whatsoever right he could pretend to the temporall state of Ireland he hath transferred it more then once unto the Kings of England and when the ground of his clayme shall be looked into it will be found so frivolous and so ridiculous that wee need not care three chippes whether he yeeld it up or keep it to himselfe For whatsoever become of his idle challenges the Crowne of England hath otherwise obtained an undoubted right unto the soveraintie of this countrey partly by Conquest prosecuted at first upon occasion of a Sociall warre parâ—ly by the severall submissions of the chieftaines of the land made afterwards For whereas it is free for all men although they have beene formerly quitt from all subjection to renounce their owne right yet now in these our dayes saith Giraldus Cambrensis in his historie of the Conquest of Ireland all the Princes of Ireland did voluntarily submitt and binde themselves with firme bonds of faith and oath unto Henry the second King of England The like might be said of the generall submissions made in the dayes of King Richard the second and King Henry the eighth to speake nothing of the prescription of diverse hundreds of yeares possession which was the plea that Iephte used to the Ammonites and is indeed the best evidence that the Bishop of Romes owne proctors doe produce for their Masters right to Rome it selfe For the Popes direct dominion over Ireland two titles are brought forth beside those covenants of King Iohn mentioned by Allen which hee that hath anie understanding in our state knoweth to be clearly void and worth nothing The one is taken from a speciall grant supposed to be made by the inhabitants of the countrey at the time of their first conversion unto Christianity the other from a right which the Pope challengeth unto himselfe over all Ilands in generall The former of these was devised of late by an Italian in the raigne of King Henry the eighth the later was found out in the dayes of King Henry the second before whose time not one footsteppe doth appeare in all antiquitie of anie clayme that the Bishop of Rome should make to the dominion of Ireland no not in the Popes owne records which have beene curiously searched by Nicolaus Arragonius and other ministers of his who have purposely written of the particulars of his temporall estate The Italian of whom I spake is Polydore Vergil he that composed the booke De inventoribus rerum of the first Inventers of things among whom he himselfe may challenge a place for this invention if the Inventers of lyes be admitted to have anie roome in that companie This man being sent over by the Pope into England for the collecting of his Peter-pence undertook the writing of the Historie of that nation wherein he forgatt not by the way to doe the best service hee could to his Lord that had imployed him thither There he telleth an idle tale how the Irish being moved to accept Henry the second for their King did deny that this could be done otherwise then by the Bishop of Romes authority because forsooth that from the very beginning after they had accepted Christian religion they had yeelded themselves and all that they had into his power and they did constantly affirme saith this fabler that they had no other Lord beside the Pope of which also they yet do bragge The Italian is followed herein by two Englishmen that wished the Popes advancement as much as he Edmund Campian and Nicholas Sanders the one whereof writeth that immediatly after Christianitie planted here the whole Iland with one consent gave themselves noâ— only into the spirituall but also into the temporall Iurisdiction of the See of Rome the other in Polydores own words though he name him not that the Irish from the beginning presently after they had received Christian religion gave up themselves and all that they had into the power of the Bishop of Rome and that untill the time of King Henry the second they did acknowledge no other supreme Prince of Ireland beside the Bishop of Rome alone For confutation of which dreame we need not have recourse to our owne Chronicles the Bull of Adrian the fourth wherein he giveth libertie to King Henry the second to enter upon Ireland sufficiently discovereth the vanitie thereof For hee there shewing what right the Church of Rome pretended unto Ireland maketh no mention at all of this which had beene the fairest and clearest title that could be alledged if anie such had beene then existent in rerum natura but is faine to flie unto a farre fetcht interest which he saith the Church of Rome hath unto all Christian Ilands Truly saith he to the King there is no doubt but that all Ilands unto which Christ the Sunne of righteousnesse hath shined and which have received the instructions of the Christian faith doe pertaine to the right of Sainct Peter and the holy Church of Rome which your Noblenesse also doth acknowledge If you would further understand the ground of this strange clayme whereby all Christian Ilands at a clap are challenged to be parcell of S. Peters patrimonie you shall have it from Iohannes Sarisburiensis who was most inward with Pope Adrian and obtayned from him this verie grant whereof now wee are speaking At my request saith he he granted Ireland to the illustrious King of England Henry the second and gave it to be possessed by right of inheritance as his owne