a great crime was kept prisoner by the Jesuits in the chamber of meditations where after they had long terrified his soul they propounded to him a way to lessen his torments in hell to wit to kill the King which the miserable wretch promised and attempted Whereupon the Colledge of the Jesuits was searched and many persons seized on among which was found a book in the praise of James Clement the murderer of King Henry the 3 written by the Jesuit Guignard containing many arguments and reasons to prove it was lawful and just to kill King Henry the 3. together with many incitements and motives to make away his successor King Henry the 4. then reigning The themes given to young scholars were found to be about King killing with praises of the attempt and exhortations to it Likewise Bariere another wretch who had attempted to kill King Henry the 4. being examined confessed that the Jesuit Varadius Rector of the Colledge of the Jesuits had incited and adjured him upon the Sacrament of confession and the communion of the Lords body to kill the King assuring him that if he suffered for it he should obtain martyrdom Moreover Ravillac in his examination shewed sufficiently by whose instructions he was perswaded to murther King Henry the 4. for he gave this reason why he did it because the King would make war with God in as much as he prepared war against the Pope who is God which is the plain doctrine of the Church of Rome So the Jesuits at the Popes instigation never ceased till they had assassinated both these Kings of France Henry the 3. and Henry the 4. So Peter du Moulin chap. 5. IV. William Prince of Orange being one of the blessed instruments the Lord imployed for the delivery of the Netherlands from the Spanish tyranny and Popish idolatry therefore the Popish faction carrying an implacable hatred to him they stirred up one Joanville to kill him and for encouraging him in this devilish attempt a Frier perswaded him that he should go invisible and for that effect he gave him some characters in paper and little frogs bones and other conjurations whereby he being animated to that wicked deed went lay in wait and shot the Prince with a pistol through the throat But he through Gods goodness recovering they stirred up Baltazar Gerard to make a second attempt upon him who shot him through the stomack and vital parts so that he presently died V. But leaving these forraign instances let us come home to Britain where we will see a wonderful Tragedy of secret bloody treasons plotted and carried on for the ruine of Queen Elizabeth King James c. and the whole Reformed Religion professed in these lands For so soon as the Pope perceived that Queen Elizabeth intended in earnest to shake off that Romish yoke and that all his flattery and fair dealing could not reduce her to his obedience she refusing to permit his Nuncio to enter her Kingdom he falls to his old course and anno 1569. Pope Pius the 5. excommunicats her as we said before absolving all her subjects from her obedience and â—ursing all that should longer obey her giving her Kingdom to the King of Spain But fearing that a war might be dangerous and of doubtful event he thought the most compendious way to ruine her was to send over his Agents to England to cause proclaim his Bull there and to excite the Papists in England to rebellion against her and to endeavor by all means to assassinat her For he thought this would either win her or at least it would strengthen the King of Spains hands when he knew that there were secret plottings in England for to accomplish his design Therefore he sent over his Bull declaratory by one Morton an English fugitive who bringing it to Rodolf a Florentin divers copies of it were first secretly scattered among the Papists and then the Brieve it self fixed on the gate of London-house by which time the Priests and other Agents for Rome had wrought so far with sundry Nobles and Gentle-men of eminency whom they either found or could make discontented with the Reformed Religion or Government or whom they discerned to be ambitiously affected that they never rested plotting one treason and rebellion after another For in that same year wherein the Popes Bulls was here scattered among the Papists the Earls of Northumberland and Westmerland and sundry other their complices fell out in actual rebellion But that not taking effect they used more secret and hidden wayes for carrying on their mischief For L. Aubespine a French Ambassador of the Guisian faction solicited one Mocdy to kill the Queen by laying gun powder under her chamber and secretly firing it But although that was discovered yet they did not cease but all that Queens time they were still plotting treasons such as the treasons of Stuckly in Ireland of the Stanlies in Darbishyre of John Trogmorton and Brook of Sanders and Bristow of the Nortons Barn and Mather of Doctor Story and Shirwin Parsons Campian and Kirly and many other Priests and Jesuits to the number of 120. of Somervail and his adherents of Mayn Nilson Thomson and the rest of that crue of Payn and his fifty resolutes hyred by the Pope to murder the Queen Of Francis Throgmorton Paget and Englfield Of bloody Pary of Babington Tichburn and the rest of that pack Of the same Babington Charnock and Savace on a second devilish design Of Lopoz of Stanly of Cullen of York and Williams c. with infinit mo that never came to light yea Garnet Winter Catesby Treshame and others in the last year of Queen Elizabeth travelled with the King of Spain to joyn with the Papists in England to depose the Queen and to extirpat Religion Thus they never rested all the time of that Queen to plot treasons and rebellions against her And is it not well known how the Duke of Guise and his faction in France did enter in the holy League to root out all the Protestants In prosecution whereof they warred and rebelled against their natural Soveraigns King Henry the 3. and King Henry the 4. while several hundreds of thousands of the subjects were killed and destroyed and the whole Kingdom almost wasted and depopulated and way made for the Spaniard to conquer the Kingdom with whom the Leaguers joyned and brought his forces unto the Kingdom And if his wars in the Netherlands and the loss of his Armado anno 1588. had not weakned him he might have conquequested all France But did King James feel them any quieter in Scotland Surely no. For beside the hazard he was in from them in his infancy and minority he felt also their treasons and rebellions when come to age For the Earls of Angus Huntly and Arrol the Lords Maxwel Hares and others made a conspiracy for bringing in the Spaniard with whom they were to joyn forces for the ruine of King and Kingdom and afterward brake out in open rebellion
at the bridge of Dee as is proved at large in a Treatise intituled A Discovery of the unnatural and trayterous conspiracy oâ— Scottish Papists c. printed by King James special command 1592. And as soon as he entered England Watson and Clerk instilled treasons unto sundry Nobles and Gentle-men against the King and Prince before the Coronation But that not succeeding they fall next to the Gun-powder treason designing to blow up King Parliament all at one blow they hiring the cellers of the Parliament-house in which they laid 36. barrels of gunpowder and 1000. billets and 500. fagots and if God had not discovered their wickedness by a singular providence both King Queen Prince Nobles Knights Citizens Burgesses yea the whole Parliament had all gone with at one blow I spare to speak of the continual treasons and rebellions in Ireland both in Queen Elizabeth and King James reign Or of that memorable design of the Spanish Armado anno 1588. Which however it was attempted by Spain yet all men may know that the English and Scottish Papists kept continual correspondence and were combined with the Spaniard And of the thundering Bull of Pope Sixtus the 5. then sent abroad for confirmation of the several Bulls made by his predecessors Pius the 5. and Gregory the 13. against Queen Elizabeth to the end our Papists might more cheerfully assist in that bloody enterprise Nor were the Papists less active in King Charles the first his reign as M Prin and M. Baxter have evidenced at large Prin in several treatises especially in a treatise intituled Romes Master-piece shows what great plots they had either to ruine King and Kingdom or to procure liberty for the profession of Popery M. Baxter in his Key of Catholicks chap. 45. seqq proveth at large that they plotted contryved and carried on that late change of Government in the State and that cruel and abominable parricide committed on the Royal person of King Charles the first Peter du Moulin junior Chaplain to the Kings Majesty in his vindication of the sincerity of the Protestant Religion in the point of obedience to Soveraigns chap. 2. pag. 58.59 testifieth That the year before the Kings death a select number of English Jesuits were sent from their whole party in England first to Paris to consult with the Faculty of Sorbon then altogether Jesuited to whom they put this question in writing That seeing the State of England was in a likely posture to change Government whither it was lawful for the Catholicks to work that change for the advancing and securing of the Catholicks cause in England by making away the King whom there was no hope to turn from his heresie Which was answered affirmatively After which the same persons went to Rome where the same question being propounded and debated it was concluded by the Pope and his Council that it was both lawful and expedient for the Catholicks to promote that alteration of State What followed that consultation and sentence all the world knoweth The same Author relateth That when the news of that horrible execution came to Roan a Protestant Gentle-man of good credit was present in a great number of Jesuited persons where after great expressions of joy the greatest of the company to whom all gave ear spake much after this sort The King of England at his marriage had promised us the reestablishing of the Catholick Religion in England and when he delayed to fulfil his promise we summoned him from time to time to perform it We came so far as to tell him that if he would not do it we should be forced to take these courses which would bring him to his destruction We have given him lawful warning and when no warning would serve we have kept our vow to him since he would not keep his word to us The said Author likewise relateth That in pursuance of the fore-mentioned conclusion at Rome many Jesuits came over who take several shapes to go about their work but most of them took party in the army About thirty of them were met by a Protestant Gentle-man between Roan and Deep to whom they said taking him for one of their party that they were going to England and would take arms in the Independant army and endeavor to be Agitators Much more hath he to this purpose M. Baxter likewise proveth that many Jesuits did enter in the army and swarmed through the Countrey under the name of Independants Seekers Quakers Levellers c. endeavoring to ruine the Reformed Religion by railing against the Church Ministery Ordinances c. From all which it is evident that the grand work of the Pope and Jesuits his Janisaries is to plot and carry on treasons and bloodshed in Protestant Kingdoms and Commonwealths which they have been still about since the Reformation And no wonder the Priests and Jesuits lay life and all at the stake to accomplish bloody and traiterous designs seeing they are sworn and ingaged by oath to make this their work For the Pope binds all the Jesuits and Priests by oath to inculcat their principles of treason into their proselyts and to stir them up upon all occasions to act it as will be evident to any who will but read the rules of Ignatius Loyola the father of the Jesuits Or the testimony of Pope Urban the 8. in his Bull of Canonization of Ignatius Loyola Touching that Society that beyond all other fraternity they are the chief and most strenuous propugners of the Popes authority And how far do the Jesuits extend their vow of blind obedience Even to the killing of Kings raising of treasons and rebellions whereever they can have access So that Watson in his Quodlibets and other secular Priests have proven and concluded the Jesuits traitors both for tenets and practise But not only are the Jesuits bound by oath to assassinations and rebellions but also the secular Priests themselves who are not Jesuits are bound unto the Pope himself in his Constitutions for ordering of the English Colledge at Rome by oath to propagat rebellion For thus speaks Martin Aspilcueta Doctor Novarrus lib. 3. consil resp concil 1. de regular cited by Doctor Burges At Rome in the Colledge of the English it is a Statut and Papal Constitution that whoever will be admitted into that Colledge he be tyed to swear that after so many years he will travel unto England for defence of the Catholick faith and there preach it both in publick and privat Now what Faith it is that they are bound to preach the treasons and rebellions raised by them can best evidence Now their great work is to corrupt the judgements of their followers and instruments of assassination and treason with poysonous positions touching the nature of such facts and bribe their consciences with strong baits of reward and glory to all that will undertake the acting of treasons and rebellions at their instigation which is a strong incentive to them For men that
the Temple which were shut up restored the worship of GOD sent messengers with letters throughout all Israel to convert them to the LORD their GOD restored the Priests and Levites in their Ministery as the LORD had commanded by his Prophets spake to their hearts strengthened them in their offices provided for their maintenance that they might be encouraged in the Law of the LORD Follow these examples Sir send Pastors throughout all the borders of your Kingdom to teach your subjects the Law of their LORD and the Gospel of their salvation establish Religion and Justice in all the Cities of your Kingdom Cause the waters of life to run from the heart of your Countrey unto the borders thereof that publickly and privatly the LORD may be but one and his Name one and he may be a soveraign King in all your Land as it was prophesied and promised Zech. 14.8.6 Establish Pastors in all your Kingdom strengthen them in their offices and speak to their hearts Provide for their maintenance that they be not distracted but may be encouraged in the Law of their GOD and in the execution of their Ministery And when it is reported to your Majesty or ye hear of any be they many or be they few be they man or be they wife be it publickly or be it secretly in any of the Cities or parts in your Majesties Kingdom that they have gone out to entise others to Idolatry or have committed Idolatry themselves ye try it search it seek it out most diligently for so the LORD hath most straitly commanded And if it be true and certain that such abomination is done in your Kingdom Take evil out of Israel that he may have mercy on us and multiply his blessings to us And then may ye Sir having done all these things take GOD to record that you are clean from the blood of all your people because you have kept no mean back from them which your calling craved but hath caused the whole counsel of GOD to be shewed to them so that if they perish their own blood may be upon their own heads And then shal forrain Nations and strangers say of you Sir as Hiram and the Queen of Sheba said of Solomon 1. Kings 5.7 and 10.8 Blessed be the LORD GOD who hath set such a wise and understanding Prince over Scotland to build his Church and to exercise Justice and judgement there It was for the love the LORD had to his Church there that he set such a wise and understanding Prince over them Yea the generations to come Psal 78.4 shal tell to their children and their childrens children the great work of the LORD which he hath done by you Sir in this Land I have heard your Majesty gravely protest before GOD in two General Assemblies that it was one of your Majesties greatest desires and ye were even as it were ambitious of that work to plant every Parochin within your Kingdom with a Pastor that the posterities to come might say King JAMES the sixth hath done such a notable work in his days Confirm your self Sir in that purpose For ye know Sir who hath said I will honor them that honor me There is no question Sir and I speak with confidence if ye honor him in this Kingdom and be faithful to him in the Government of it he shal honor you not only by making you to reign in that everlasting Kingdom but also by lifting you up to be Ruler over mo Kingdoms here The LORD anoynted David King over all Israel yet he gave not the possession of it all at once after the death of Saul but first proved him with the Government of one Tribe seven years and an half and then finding him faithful over that he placed him Ruler over all the rest and established all Israel in his hand So there is no question and I am sure of it if ye honor the LORD to the uttermost of your power in the Government of this Kingdom and give him a proof of your fidelity therein that as he hath given you the undoubted right by birth to be a King over mo Kingdoms then this so shal he make you Ruler of them and establish them in your hands Only Sir Be ye strong and couragious to do with all diligence as the LORD hath commanded you in his Word Josh 1.6.7.8.9 and as ye see these faithful Kings have done before you Decline neither to the right hand nor to the left and then assuredly I dare promise you in the Name of the LORD he shal not leave you nor forsake you all your days and none shal be able to stand before your face And as he was with Josua and David so shal he be with you For the LORD is true who hath promised then shalt thou prosper in all thy ways And consider upon the other part who ever prospered unto the end but these that walked as the LORD had commanded For true is that which the LORD spake by his Prophet to Asa He is with you while ye be with him and if ye seek him he will be found but if ye will forsake him he will forsake you 2. Chron. 1.4.2 Was the LORD any longer with Saul Joash Amatzia Uzzia all Kings of Juda then they were with him No no but from time they forsook him he forsook them Because Saul despised the word of the LORD in sparing whom he should not have spared the LORD despised him from being King over Israel and the Spirit of the LORD forsook him 1. Sam. 15.23 and 16.15 Because Joash forsook the LORD 2. Chron. 24.20 in permitting Idolatrie at the request of his Princes the LORD forsook him and his Kingdom and delivered them into the hands of their enemies Because Amatzia did evil and obeyed not the counsel of the Prophet 2. Chron. 5.16 when he admonished him the LORD determined to destroy him Vzzia all the dayes that he sought the LORD the LORD prospered him 2. Chron. 26.5.16.18 but from time he lifted up himself to corrupt himself to trespass against the LORD his GOD in passing the limits of his calling and invading the Priests office he had no honor of the LORD but was smitten with leprosie But let all these things be far from your Majesty since you see what every one of these have done to Kings and Kingdoms before you let your heart be constant before the LORD your GOD all the dayes of your life that priores posteriores 2. Chron. 25.26 be never registrat of your Majesty as it was of them neither in the Books of the LORDS Commentary before him neither in the Chronicles of the Kings of Scotland but that both your former and latter may be that which is good and right in the eyes of the LORD That both the LORD may give this testimony to your own conscience and to the conscience of all his children that he gave of David I have found you a man according to mine own heart that will
own selves covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to parents unthankful unholy Without natural affection truce-breakers false accusers incontinent c. Traitors heady high-minded c. From such turn away TO THE LOVERS OF THE Reformed Religion in Britain and Ireland Grace mercy and peace DEarly beloved in the Lord The great increase of Popery every where is so visibly seen and so evidently known that to speak any thing to prove and evidence the same were altogether needless seeing he is a great stranger in our Israel that knoweth it not But alace there is very great decay of zeal and hatred against that Whore that if our glorious Predecessors whose excellent Motto it always was No peace with Rome were alive they would wonder to see us so brutish and sensless indifferent and lukewarm in ae matter of so great moment wherein the honor and glory of God the eternal happiness and felicity of our own and our posterities souls and the safety and preservation of Kings Kingdoms our lives estats and all that is near and dear to us is so much and so nearly concerned Therefore for letting us see our hazard in all and every one of these as we have revised and republished the above written excellent Treatise of that learned godly and eminently zealous and faithful servant of Christ M. John Welsch whose memory is very precious in the Church of Christ who doth learnedly and plainly to any ordinary capacity discover the abominations of that Whore and solidly prove her doctrine both to be most heretical and damnable and her self to be the very Antichrist that all who love the truth of God and the salvation of their immortal souls may be stirred up to a just zeal and indignation against her So we have thought fit to subjoyn this following Treatise for discovering to all and every one who love the Reformed Religion and resolve to adhere thereto what treasonable and bloody principles and inhumane and matchlesly cruel practises are maintained and committed by Papists in reference both to Kings Princes and People who profess the Reformed Religion and consequently what all and every one of us may expect to meet with if Popery prevail that so being convinced of our hazard both in body and soul and in all that is near and dear to us we may be stirred up to a real hatred and indignation against that Whore and may be much in the exercise of prayer repentance and other lawful and commanded duties for the putting a stop to the growth of the spreading abominations of that Whore which is earnestly prayed for by Yours for the truth M. C. A BRIEF DISCOVERY OF THE BLOODY REBELlious and treasonable Principles and Practises of Papists SECTION I. Showing that the principles of Papists are treasonable and rebellious against the person and authority of Princes and peace of Kingdoms c. And the excuses of H. T. the Author of the Manual of Controversies are proved to be frivolous and naught THE Church of Rome was formerly most hateful to the Churches of Christ in Britain and Ireland not only because of her most damnable and heretical doctrine but also because of the rebellious and treasonable principles and practises maintained and committed by her against the persons and authority of Princes and peace of Kingdoms her faith being accounted faction and her Religion rebellion Therefore Papists of late have endeavored by all means to ingratiat themselves in the favor of Princes and Magistrats making ample profession of loyalty and fidelity and charging Protestants with the odious crime of disloyalty And thus we see their late Writers denying and disowning the doctrine of Rebellion and Parricide that our Divines have justly charged them with For H T. the Author of the Manual of Controversies c. printed at Doway 1671 calleth it a loud slander to charge Papists with maintaining that if the Pope excommunicat a Tyrant or heretical Prince his own subjects may lawfully kill him Therefore to unmask a little the bloody rebellious and treasonable principles of Papists we shal prove First that it is no slander but a real truth that the Church of Rome holdeth that if the Pope excōmunicateth a King his own subjects may lawfully kill him 2. That the Pope can dispense with the alleageance of subjects to their Princes and if he so dispense then they are loosed from subjection and alleageance to them 3. That no faith nor oath is to be kept with Hereticks 4 That the Pope and Synagogue of Rome have been the Authors of warrs combustions and confusions in Christian Churches and Kingdoms all Europe over 5. That their continual practise ever since the Reformation hath been to plot and practise treasons and rebellions assassinations and murders both of Princes and people who professed the Reformed Religion 6. That whereever they got the upper-hand and dominion in any Kingdom or Common-wealth they have practised most unheard-of cruelties and barbarous inhumanities against the professors of the Protestant Reformed Religion For the first and second of these points to wit that Papists hold that if the Pope excommunicat a King his own subjects may lawfully kill him And that the Pope can dispense with the alleageance of subjects to their Princes and if he so dispense then they are loosed from subjection and alleageance to them I shal evidence it to be their commonly received doctrine both by the writings of their approved Doctors and Bulls of their Popes and their dayly practises And lest they say we wrong them we shal for the most part set down the words of the Authors themselves 1. I shal begin with Doctor Ranchin a Papist and a famous Lawyer in France in his Book intituled A review of the Council of Trent lib. 2. cap. 10. who setteth down these following positions as commonly received in the Church of Rome to wit That it is necessare to salvation to believe that every creature is subject to the Pope of Rome That he it set over Emperors and Kingdoms That he carryeth both the temporal and spiritual sword That he may depose Emperors c. and transfer their Empires and Dominions from one line to another That he may absolve subjects from their oath of alleageance That upon just cause be may set up a King in every Kingdom for he is the overseer of all Kingdoms in Gods stead That it belongeth to the Pope to correct Kings when they offend Much more hath this Author to this purpose 2. But let us hear their own Doctors themselves Augustinus Triumphus de potest Eccles quaest 46. art 2. as Doctor Usher citeth him saith There is no doubt but that the Pope may depose all Kings when there is a reasonable cause so to do Thomas Aquinas their Angelical Doctor holdeth 22. quast 12 art 2. That so soon as a Prince is denounced excommunicat for Apostasie ipso facto his subjects are free from his soverainity and absolved from the oath of alleageance which they are bound to him Bannes and
suppose that the judgement were to fall but upon the committers of this sin only it were too great but it would reach further to a whole Kingdom wherein it were committed if by repentance and execution of Justice it were not prevented For shal Abimelech King of Gerar Gen. 20.9 fear the judgement of GOD upon his whole Kingdom for one adultery only intended and that in ignorance And what may a whole Land then fear for such abominable Idolatry in so clear a light of the Gospel And shal the ten Tribes fear the wrath of GOD Josh 22.21 to be kindled against the whole Congregation of Israel for the rebellion of the other two Tribes in setting up an altar to sacrifice upon as they thought And what should we fear then against this whole Land if there were altars reared up not to worship GOD on but the Idol of Babel And if Achans theft Josh 7. suppose both the person and the sin was unknown yea suppose there was no suspicion neither of the one nor of the other spoyled all Israel of GODS presence made them fall before their enemies and made the LORD refuse to be in the midst of them unless the sin and person was tryed and searched and the Anathema taken away And would not Babels Idolatry be much more effectual to spoyl all the Land if it were defiled therewith of GODS presence to make us fall before our enemies and to make the LORD to depart from us suppose it were but in one person seeing the sin is more odious in the LORDS eyes our light greater and we more obliged then they were And suppose that this abomination should be but in privat families yet it is a fretting canker as the Apostle saith 2. Tim. 2.17 that when it hath infected a member of the body it will infect the rest if it be not prevented by cutting off the festered member And the Apostle saith 1. Cor. 5.6 A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump And experience hath taught that by process of time a little leck hath sunk a great ship and one person infected with the pestilence hath infected a whole Kingdom The first Idolatrie of the land of Canaan began with Teraphim Jehovae silver sanctified to the LORD to be an Image Jud. 17.5.3 but afterward it grew up to the worship of Baal and Ashtaroth ch 2.13 It was in the beginning but in one only family the family of Micah ch 17.1 but in process of time it passed from that family to the Tribe of Dan ch 18. and from that Tribe to all the rest of the Tribes ch 2.13.14 till at the last all Israel sinned and did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD So there is no question Sir if your Majesty put not to your hand as you have begun to do it will get foot in this Land and it would pass from families to Tribes from privat houses to Temples from the worship of the round bread to the worship of stocks and stones and so by one degree to another till it have made all guilty what by infecting what by communicating with their sins and then bring the fearful vengeance of GOD upon all And suppose Sir that you have not need to be taught of any for that light and understanding wherewith the LORD hath anointed you in so great a measure beyond many doth teach you all things and your Majesty hath laid so sure foundation of maintenance both of Justice and Religion within your Land and hath begun so substantially to prosecute the same for the which from our hearts we render glory and praise to GOD. So that all further exhortation of your Majesty would seem to be superfluous Yet I must borrow leave at your Majesty to be bold with all humbleness of mind and reverence of heart to GOD and to your Majesty to beseech you by the price of JESUS CHRIST your LORD to stirr up the bowels of your compassion over this desolat Countrey For upon whom are the eyes of all Israel 1. Kings 3.20 but upon you Sir And what King is there under Heaven under whose Government the Gospel hath had so free a passage and the Church of GOD hath had â—â—châ—â—â—nrity and liberty in such peace for so long a 〈◊〉 a whole Kingdom without Heresie or Schism 〈◊〉 under your Majesties Government So that we were both ungrate to GOD and to you Sir if with all thanksgiving we did not acknowledge it Take therefore for examples these worthy Kings who have received a good report in the Word of the LORD and now resting from their labors have received that incorruptible Crown of glory Put on their affections Sir and follow their actions that your report here and Crown hereafter may be equal or rather above theirs Let your heart melt Sir with good Josias 2. Kings 22.19 not for our fathers transgressions as he did but for our own sins and the sins of this Land Ezek. 9.4 For GOD regarded not the time of their ignorance Acts 17.30.31 Rom. 2.16 when the Gospel shined not but now since that light is broken forth he admonisheth all men to repent because he hath set a day which cannot be far off wherein he will judge every one by the Man CHRIST JESUS according to his Gospel And if that great Angel had not descended unto us with that little Book open in his right hand Rev. 10.1.2 and the Land had not been once purged of Idolatry we should not have sinned but now we have no cloke for our sin John 15.21.24 Stir up your anger with Moses Sir who suppose he was the meekest man upon the face of the whole earth Num. 12.3 yet when he saw the golden Calf his anger was kindled Exod. 32.19 that he brake the Tables of stone the LORDS own work and writ burnt the Calf in the fire brâ—yed it in powder scattered it on the waters and made the people to drink thereof Follow the example of good Jehosaphat Sir who fought the LORD his GOD 2. Chron. 27.4.20 walked in his precepts lifted up his heart to the wayes of the LORD purged his land of Idolatrie And first sent Levits with his own Princes to teach all the Cities of his Kingdom the Law of the LORD and after being admonished by the Prophet for helping of the wicked and loving them who hated the LORD suppose he was his neighbor King joyned in affinity with him he so repented that he went from the one end of his Kingdom to the other even from Beersheba to mount Ephraim and brought his people to the LORD their GOD and established Religion and Justice in all the Cities of his Kingdom and therefore the LORD was with him he prospered and had riches and honor in abundance What joy of heart Sir brought Ezechias to the hearts of all the godly as well indwellers as strangers when he purged his land of Idolatrie 2. Chron. 29. and 30.31 brake the brazen Serpent which the people had abused opened the doors of
Church and as Bellarmin sayes as hath been said before If ye go this far as ye do indeed and as Bellarmin doth and your self must do if ye be a right defender of your Catholick faith here or else there is no ground whereupon ye can build the puretie and truth of your Church and Religion Then I say that your ground is as false and erroneous as the stuff that ye build upon it for both they have failed and have been interrupted as shal be proved afterward And mark this Christian reader as the Philistins Church wherein they praised their God Judg. 16. and mocked Samson the Lords servant had two chief pillars whereon the whole house leaned and was born up so hath the Church of Rome two chief pillars whereon the whole weight of their Church and Religion hings the one whereof is this that the Church cannot err the other that the Pope is the head of the Church Take these two from them their house must fall and their Religion can stand no longer For when they are brought to this strait that they see they cannot defend their Religion neither by the testimonies of the Scripture nor yet by the examples of the Church of God when she was in her greater purity and sincerity they are compelled to lay this as a ground to hold all their errors on that the Church of Christ cannot err So take this ground from them their Church and Religion cannot stand Now as to the testimonies which ye quote out of the Old Testament out of Luke 1.33 in the New Testament they only prove that the Church and Kingdom of Christ shal endure for evermore and that his covenant made with her is everlasting The which cannot exeem the militant Church from erring in points of doctrine for both the chaff and evil seed in the Church that is these that are called but not chosen may err and that to death and damnation and yet his Church and Kingdom and his covenant remaineth sure stable and inviolate for the Lord only offers his covenant unto them and they through incredulitie reject it and so he is not bound to sanctifie or save them much less to keep them from error And as for these who are called and chosen all these promises are made and performed in every one of them and the covenant of God is so sure in every one of them that our Savior saith None of them can perish John 10.28 And yet for all this every one of them may err in doctrine suppose not to death and damnation which ye will not deny And if ye would infinit examples not only of the Saints of God of the laicks as ye call them but also of the Priests Prophets Apostles yea and of Popes also and of your own Doctors and Bishops as a cloud of witnesses would stand up and avow the same in your face Now I gather seeing that the militant Church here on earth hath but two sorts of persons in her these that are called and chosen and these that are only called but not chosen and both may err in points of doctrine the one finally to death and damnation the other may err suppose not finally to death and damnation and yet the covenant of God remain sure everlasting and inviolate with his Church Therefore I say the promises of the stabilitie of Christs Kingdom and the perpetuitie of his covenant made with her cannot exeem the militant Church from erring in points of doctrine So ye have lost your vantguard Let us come to the rest and see if they will favor your cause any better then the former hath done The next place ye quote is Matth. 16.18 Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell shal not prevail against it And because ye trust that there is not a testimony of Scripture which shal fight more for you then this let us therefore try it to the uttermost and see how far it can be stretched out What argument will ye frame out of this place For if you gather no more but this Christ hath promised that the gates of hell shal never prevail against the Church that is built on the Rock that is on Christ Therefore the Church that is built on him shal never be all utterlie extinguished and abolished by Satan Then Bellarmin tells you that ye spend but time in proving of this for we grant it That the Church of the chosen shal never perish But if you go further and say That the Church of Christ shal never err because Christ hath promised that the gates of hell shal not prevail against it then I say either that exposition is false or else the gates of hell should have prevailed long since against your Church for when it prevailed against the rock whereon the Church was built it prevailed against the Church For raze and overturn the foundation of a house the house cannot stand seeing the standing of the house consists on the firmness sureness of the foundation thereof Now the rock whereon ye say the Church is built unto whom this promise is made is Peter and his successors the Popes of Rome for so ye all with one consent expone the same Rhemists annotation upon this place Seeing then that they are the foundation of the Church as ye say and the gates of hell hath prevailed against them as I shal prove by the grace of God it must follow if your exposition be true that the gates of hell hath prevailed not once only but at many times against â—he Church For first Peter himself erred in a matter of doctrine when he thought with the rest of the Apostles after the resurrection of Christ the Kingdom of Christ not to be heavenlie but earthlie not spiritual but like the Kingdoms of this world proper to Israel Acts 1.6 not common to all by vertue of the promise and also he is commanded to preach the Gospel to the Gentils doubting nothing Acts 10.20 Which testifies that he doubted before whither the Gospel should be preached to them or not and therefore erred in a matter of faith and that after he had received the promise of the holy Ghost And also he erred in the abrogation of the Ceremonial Law Acts 10.14 for he believed that some meats were unclean after the death and resurrection of Christ and therefore he refused to eat thereof And this was a matter of faith also And last of all the holy Ghost testifies that he went not a right foot to the truth of the Gospel Gal. 2.11 and therefore was rebuked by the Apostle Paul to his face And as for them whom ye call his successors the Popes of Rome not only may they be hereticks but also some of them have been hereticks And therefore if your argument be good the gates of hell both may and have prevailed against them That they may be hereticks I will fetch no other witnesses but your own Councils Canons Cardinals
Reader to set down here the particular sayings of every one of them And if ye had formed your arguments out of them I should have formed my answer by the grace of God to every one of them And thus much concerning your ground and the proofs of it Now I come to that which ye gather of it SECTION IV. Whither the Church of Rome be the only true Church and the Reformed not true Churches OF this we collect that our Church must be the only true Church and not theirs because ours hath never been interrupted nor hath failed in any substantial point of faith and Religion since Christ and his Apostles dayes and theirs hath done To confirm this I say that M. John nor no Minister in Scotland can be able to assign to us the circumstances of all mutations and changes in Religion That is to say 1. The author who first began our Religion 2. The time when it was begun 3. The place where it began 4. The true Church who said against the same 5. The matter it self which was changed or begun 6. Nor the faithful number from whom they departed All these things we shal assign to their Religion and that since Christ and his Apostles 1. The first auâ—hor of their Religion albeit not in all things was Martin Luther an Augustine Frier 2. He began his Religion in the year of God 1517. 3. He began the same in Saxony in the countrey of Almanie 4. The Church of Rome Italie France Spain Scotland England Denmark Sweden Pole a great part of Almanie with the east and west Indies which were the true Church said against him 5. The heads of Religion which he first said against were Pardons He affirmed that man was only justified by Faith He denied the Supper of our Lord to be a sacrifice c. 6. He departed himself from all the Christian Churches in Europe in the Indies and other places and therefore he had no predecessors of his own Religion as we read in the Apologie of the English Protestants that he and Zuinglius were the first that came to the knowledge of the Evangel and therefore none immediatly before them Then seeing that there was none of his profession in the earth before him immediatly neither visible nor invisible he and his could not be the Church of Christ for it hath ever stood and never failed no not the space of one day universally because our Savior saith I shal be with you every day to the consummation of the world M. John Welsch his Reply As to your collection the form of it must be this That Church only must be the true Church that hath never been interrupted nor failed in any substantial head of faith and Religion since Christ and his Apostles But say ye yours is such and ours not Therefore your Church is the true Church and ours not The proposition I grant But all the controversie lyes in the probation of your assumption Yea in stead of proving ye say it is not possible to me nor to no Minister in Scotland to assign to you the circumstances of all mutations and changes in your Religion as the person time place c. And then ye attempt to assign all these circumstances of our Religion upon the which ye conclud the falsehood of it So we will first see how ye prove your own and then see how ye disprove ours Indeed this argument of yours is of such account with you that there are not many of your Writers but they have set it as it were in the vant-guard of their host and among the greatest of their strengths and bulwarks for to uphold their ruinous Babel So Hammilton and Hay in their demands to the Ministers of Scotland so Campion so Duraeus Scotus against Whitaker in his defence so your Rhemists upon the 28. of the Acts and on 1. John 2. and so Bellarmin lib. 4. de Eccles cap. 5. Whereby it may be seen of what account this argument of yours is in the judgement of your Church But to answer to your argument first I say If there be no mutations or changes in your Religion since Christ and his Apostles then your Religion and doctrine will be one with that which is set down in the Scripture of God For you will not deny I hope but the Scripture doth sufficiently testifie what doctrine and Religion was in Christs and his Apostles dayes And so let it once be put in the ballance of the Scripture and tryed thereby and then I hope it will soon be made manifest how far it is changed So and you dare M. Gilbert let once your Religion be set upon the pannel and let it once have an assise of the Scripture and then the plea will end I hope Next I say it will not follow We cannot assign all the circumstances of changes in your Religion Therefore your Religion is uncorrupted For it suffiseth if we can prove the first only that is the matter or doctrine it self which is changed and that by comparing it with the Scriptures of God suppose we could not assign all the rest of the circumstances of the mutation as the time place author c. for the changes of many things are most notorious and yet all the circumstances of the change thereof not known We say then it is not needful to seek the beginnings and circumstances of the decays and corruptions in your Church when the corruption and change it self is so manifest by comparing your doctrine with the written Word of God that it cannot be denyed For will you say that he who is deadly diseased is whole and sound because I cannot tell you the first article of time the place and first occasion of the disease When it is manifest that a city is full of misorder and confusion will ye say that ye will not believe it to be so unless you know the first beginnings and progress of these misorders If you saw a ruinous house would ye say Prove me and tell me all the circumstances of the change of it otherwise I will not believe it Will ye deny that a ship could be drowned unless it were told you all the circumstances of the change of the leck where through it drowned If any found a man fallen in a pit shal he not believe that he is fallen whom nevertheless he sees to be there unless it were told him when and by whom he was cast into the same Even so will ye not believe or will ye hinder all others to believe that your Church and Religion is ruinous consumed rotten dead drowned and full of misorder heresie and confusion unless the first beginnings of these changes can be told you We say therefore it is sufficient to prove the ruine and consumption of your Church and Religion if by comparing your doctrine with the truth of God in the Scripture we make evident the direct opposition betwixt them suppose we could not assign all the circumstances of the change of
it out of the histories leaving it free to Historiographers to write what they please and omit what they please Thirdly it is manifest that the Church of the Jewes in the time of Christ was changed both in doctrine and manners from that estat that it was in the time of Aaron Eleazar and sundry others and also the Churches of Galatia and Corinth that they were changed from the estat wherein they were And yet I suppose that neither ye nor any Papist in the earth is able to assign to me all the circumstances of the mutations and changes in the same as the first authors time place c. and yet there was a great change in doctrine and Religion in all these Churches as hath been proved before And we read that our Savior and the Apostles convicted them of a change and yet they designed not the first authors time and place c. The like I say of the Church of Greece Asia and Africa which in number exceeds yours That there is a wonderful change in their Church and Religion ye will not deny or else your Religion is heresie For as said is they acknowledge not your Popes supremacy transubstantiation c. And yet I suppose ye nor no Papist in the earth is able to assign all the circumstances of changes in their Church and Religion which they have presently yea more unable to do this then we are able to do the same in yours I mean not the heresies of Arrius Samosatenus Nestorius Eutyches Sergius and the rest which long ago were damned by the Councils of the Greek Churches For I suppose ye shal not be able to prove that they now maintain these heresies which they condemned and refuted long ago But I mean of the present errors and corruptions in their worship and Religion which now they maintain and profess If then ye judge the Churches of the East heretical because they are not agreeable to your doctrine and Religion of Rome and yet not be able to assign the circumstances of the changes and mutations of the same will ye not grant the same liberty to us to account and judge your Church and Religion failed because it is not agreeable to the doctrine of Jesus Christ set down in the Scripture suppose we could not assign to you the circumstances of the changes of the same Fourthly I say if you have read Epiphanius there ye shal find many heresies which I omit for shortness which he accounts heresies whose beginnings and authors are unknown Fifthly there is such an universal complaint of the monstrous abominations decays in your Religion discipline and manners and that by your own Councils Concil Constant sess 4. 5. Trident. sess 6. Basil sess 2. 3. Fathers Bernard in Cant. 33. Popes Cardinals and Friers that I would have thought it uncredible unless I had read them that either your own mouthes should have so condemned your selves or else that the posterity afterward should have been so shameless as to have boasted of the purity of their Church and Religion Therefore the Council of Trent hath proclaimed it to the world in writ that the Church hath need to be reformed in the head and members Now I ask that of you concerning these abuses in discipline and manners which ye ask of us concerning your doctrine Show me all the circumstances of mutation and change distinctly if ye can what time what place by what author c. such monstrous abominations first brake in in your Church and Religion Now seeing there is no man who hath a spark of judgement that will doubt of that incredible change of manners and discipline in your Church and yet the circumstances of the changes unknown think ye then that ye shal assure men that no changes could fall in your doctrine unless we knew the circumstances of the changes of the same Sixthly the Scripture testifies Matth. 13.27.28 that even the tares which is the evil seed doth not appear so soon as they are sown and that neither the times nor the first author of them was known no not to the most diligent laborers of the Lords ground at the first and yet it was enough to know them to be evil seed by the difference that was seen betwixt them and the good seed suppose the time place and author was unknown at the first So it is proof enough against your doctrine that it is but tares if the difference be made manifest between it and the Lords truth in the Scripture suppose the circumstances of the changes of it cannot be assigned Seventhly error is likened to leaven and a canker which doth not all at once infect the whole mass and fester the whole body but piece and piece so your corruption came not in all at once but piece and piece infected your Church and festered your Religion And therefore it is no wonder suppose the beginnings of infection and circumstances of it hath not been marked For if they had broken in all at once and suddenly overthrown the whole Church it had been no difficulty to have assigned the circumstances of the overthrow of it For if any having a whole constitution with a stroke were slain if a ship with a wave were drowned it were no difficulty to assign the circumstances of the sudden changes But in a consumption and in a leck that hath come in piece and piece in the body and in the ship the beginnings thereof cannot be so easily perceived For a little leck in process of time will sink a great ship And if it be so hard to discern the beginnings of these things which our senses may grope how much more hard is it to perceive the beginnings of these spiritual corruptions which cannot be perceived by the natural man but only by the light of Gods Spirit by the spiritual man Eightly if now it be so in other heresies as the Scripture testifies of them that their beginnings are ofttimes unknown even unto the most diligent laborers of the Lords husbandrie and that they come in by little and little and doth not infect all at once how much more is this true in your Antichristian Religion which as it was fore-told should deceive all Nations and make them drunken with the wine of her fornication And therefore your doctrine is termed in the Scripture an iniquitie but a secret iniquitie an unrighteousness but yet a deceivable unrighteousness a delusion but yet a strong delusion 2. Thess an abomination and spiritual fornication Rev. 17. but yet put in a golden cup that is having the show of godliness and Religion and your Church is called a harlot but yet finely decked in purple c. not like a harlot but a Queen Your Kingdō is called a beast that speaks like the dragon but yet like the lamb in his horns resembling the power and authority of the Lord Jesus Seeing then your Church Kingdom and Doctrine is such a mystery of iniquity hath such a show of godliness hath such a
resemblance with the lamb hath such clokes of styles is so deceivable and is such a strong delusion as the Scripture testifies of it Is it any wonder suppose the beginnings of this mystery and of the whoredoms of this Queen be not distinctly marked and set down Ninthly it is likely enough that the great credit wherein the first Bishops of Rome was for their piety and godliness and the lofty estat of their successors after them together with their cruelty and tyranny did so dazel on the one side the eyes of the godly that they were not inquisitive in marking the changes and beginnings of their corruptions and so bridled the mouthes of other some that they durst not write the things they saw and if they writ any thing they writ it but barely and corruptly for the tyranny of your Church was such that none durst mutter against your Church and Religion but he was taken without further as an heretick and condemned and executed where ever your tyranny reached Last of all suppose they had been written by the Histories of every age and that distinctly yet considering the universal power craft and policy of your Church and Kingdom is it any wonder suppose they be not now extant at all but either burnt or else so falsified and corrupted that the beginnings thereof should not have been perceived For seeing in the purer times when the power and dominion of your Church was not yet come to the hight such was the ambition and falshood of your Popes that in the presence of a Council of 217. Bishops in Carthage anno 430. where Augustin was present they did alledge a false Canon of the Council of Nice for to have established their supremacy and under one of their hands sent it to the Council by their Legats the which was espyed and found out by the whole Council that not only it was decreed and ordained in that Council he should have no prerogative over the Churches of Africk and that none should appeal to him under the pain of deposition and excommunication but alâ—o he was rebuked by the Fathers of that Council in their letters to him If he was so bold then what marvel suppose since he hath falsified and corrupted every History and Writing that he saw might bear any wayes witness of the corruptions tyrannies and abominations of that Church and Religion of his And hence it is I am sure that we find so little written of the beginnings of their corruptions and of them that resisted it And your Index expurgatorius devised in the Council of Trent for blotting out every thing in the writings of men that might testifie of your corruptions doth also sufficiently witness unto the world what ye did in the former times So to conclud this suppose we could not assign to you the circumstances of the changes of your Religion yet it follows not but your Religion and Church may be corrupted and decayed But to satisfie your demand suppose I hope the things already said will satisfie the consciences of the godly What crave you that all the circumstances of changes in your Religion may be assigned to you First then I say there is nothing that may serve either to make the man of God wâ—se unto salvation or yet that may make him perfect in every good work but the Scripture testifies For it is able to do both these If these circumstances then serve either for salvation or perfection I say they are set down in the Scripture so that we need not to go to Histories to search the same The first then ye crave is the time when the change began The Scripture tells you That the mystery of iniquity began to work even then in the Apostles days and that it doth already work and so grew on from degree to degree till he that withheld it was removed that is till the Empire of Rome began to decay and the seat of it removed from thence as the Fathers expounded it Augustin Chrysostome Jerome and so the city left to the Pope the man of sin for him to set his throne there for Rome that seven hilled City Rev. 17 9 behoved to be the seat of the Antichrist as it was fore told by the Scripture So if you will believe the Scripture you have the time What crave you next The place I say the Scripture testifieth of the same that that mystical Babylon which Bellarmin lib. 2. de Rom. Pontif. cap 2. Rev. 17. your chief champion grants to be Rome that sits upon sâ—ven hills that had the dominion over the Kings of the earth that is the place where first your Church and Religion began to decay So there the place if you will believe the Scripture What crave you next The author The Scripture also hath fore told That the beast that came out of the bottomless pit and slew the witnesses of God and made war with the Saints and overcame them and made all to worship the image of the beast and the harlot Babel the city of Rome the mother of whoredoms who made all Nations to drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication Rev. 12 7. and 14.8 That is your head and Church they are the authors and mothers of this decay and corruption What is the fourth thing ye require The Church that said against the same The Scripture will tell you that too The two witnesses of God whom she killed the woman that fled in the wilderness the Saints with whom she made war and who would not worship the beast nor receive his image the hundred forty and four thousand that John saw standing with the Lamb on mount Sion who was not defiled with your idolatry but followed the Lamb whithâ—rsoever he went Rev. 11. and 12 and 13. and 14. These then are the true Church which spake against your corruptions who are like unto Eliahs seven thousand that had not bowed their knees to Baal What crave you more The matter it self they said against The Scripture and ye will believe will satisfie you in this point also The doctrine then that was said against Was the mystery of iniquity that deceivableness of unrighteousness that strong delusion 1. Thess 2 Rev. 13. That doctrine of the dragon that spiritual idolatrie and abomination Rev. 17.18 That doctrine of Devils in forbidding marriage and commanding abstinence of meat c. 1. Tim. 4. What crave you last The number from whom they departed The Scripture will also bear witness of this seeing your Religion is a departure from the faith 1. Thess 2. then all these that ever professed the faith of Jesus set down in his written Word even the Lord Jesus the head the Apostles the layers of the foundation the primitive Churh the woman that fled in the wilderness the Saints with whom ye made war and all the elect and chosen of God that abhorred your idolatrie These are the true Churches from whom you departed What now crave you more Will not the
when Martin Luther and Zuinglius first came to the Gospel The Latin words are cum Martinus Luther Zuinglius primum accessissent ad Evangelium So it saith not that they were the first that came to the Gospel but that it was easie to you to spew out cursed speaches when they came first to the Gospel So that this word primum that is first is not in comparison with them that knew the Gospel before but in comparison with that time in the which they themselves knew not the Gospel It is an adverb of time and you take it for an adjective noun But there is a vail over your eyes that ye can neither see what we or your selves writes So then to conclud seeing the Religion which Martin Luther taught hath the warrant from Christs Testament and seeing all that ever professed the true Religion that hath Christ to be the author of it in his Scripture visible or invisible are his predecessors Therefore the Religion which Martin Luther taught was the true Religion And seeing your Religion hath not Christ to be the author of it in his latter Testament but is that apostasie and defection that Antichristian Kingdom that was fore-spoken of in the Scripture Therefore I conclud that your Church and Religion which he oppugned is not the true Church and Religion but that Antichristian Kingdom And this for the first part of your objection Now we come to the second M. Gilbert Brown As for the other part of the objection which he alledges to be ours that is that our Religion was never said against we say not so for why all hereticks and others infected with false doctrine have ever said against the same almost at all times For how soon that Christ our Savior planted the truth the Devil immediatly sew popple in the same according to the parable set down in S. Matthew M. John Welsch his Reply I come now to that part which ye say is untruly alledged of you which moved you to say that either I knew not your proofs or if I knew them that I altered the same that I might the better oppugn my own invention Of my knowledge of your proofs I will speak nothing But let us see whither this be my invention or not or rather your own proof You for the confirmation of the truth of your Church and Religion brought in this as a proof that I nor no Minister in Scotland was able to assign the true Church that spake against it Either then ye prove nothing or else this must be one of your proofs because it was never spoken against by a true Church Now compare these words with mine and see whither I speak ignorantly or untruly of your proofs I said that ye affirmed your Religion to be true because it was never spoken against Here our words are one except this that ye add be a true Church I understand the same and therefore I gave the instances first of Christ and his Apostles next of the primitive Church thirdly of these that lived in Popery which spake against your Religion all which I appeal your conscience whither think ye that I judge them a true Church or not Now in that ye expound it otherwise of hereticks this is neither my words nor meaning but your own invention So that by this it may appear that either ye have not understood my words alledging your objection or else ye have altered the meaning of the same that ye might the more easily answer to your own inventions and gain-say my words M. John Welsch his Answer to the objection Your Religion of the Roman Church was never instistituted nor preached neither by Christ nor by his Apostles as I offer me to prove by their writings which is the only touchstone whereby all Religion should be and must be tryed M. Gilbert Brown I think in this M. John takes upon him an impossibility for it is said that it is impossible to prove a negative proposition except it be set down in the Word of God which is of authority and that I am sure he cannot find because Papistry by him is not so old as the Word of God is But in the mean time M. John proves nothing He offers very fair and when ever he proves any thing contrary to us with Gods grace he shal get an answer And note here that M. John can say nothing to our argument for to it he gives no answer M. John Welsch his Reply In your answer to this Section First ye think it impossible because of the form of it Next ye say it is but an offer and I prove nothing Thirdly that I answer nothing to your argument nor can answer nothing Now of all these in order And first to the form ye think it impossible to prove because it is a negative proposition Is not this a negative proposition that the Popes of Rome are not the Antichrist You cannot deny it Again I ask is this sentence to be found in the whole Scripture I suppose ye will never be able to find it Then I say if it be true that ye say then ye your self in your book and this your answer and Bellarmin lib. 3. de Rom. Pont. and Sanderus 40. demonstrations and all the rest of you that takes in hand to prove the Pope not to be the Antichrist takes in hand in your judgement an impossibility and so do you indeed not because it is a negative proposition but because he is the Antichrist in very truth What would the Pope your head think of you if he heard you say so Certainly I think he would not inrol your name among the defenders of his Catholick faith whereof this is the foundation Secondly is there not many formal syllogisms that have the proposition or assumption negatives and will you say they cannot be proved if the matter be true because they are negatives What is this but to raise the foundation of Logick and Raison Logick is not Rhetorick and Physick is not Logick both these are negative propositions and I suppose neither of them are so found in the Scripture and will you say that it is impossible to prove them because they are negatives What you mean by this I understand not unless you do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 strive about words prove and improve forbidden by the Apostle 2. Tim. 2.14 Thirdly ye except these negative propositions which are set down in the Word of God which hath authority as ye say I assume But your Religion in substance is condemned in the Word of God therefore by your own confession it may be proved suppose it be negative For Nazianzen saith lib. 5. de Theologia That these sentences that are collected out of the Scripture by a necessary consequence are of the same truth and authority with these sentences that are expresly set down in the Scripture And whereas ye say Papistrie by me is not so old as the Scripture I grant that What then Therefore it is not
was 630. Bishops Of Constantinople 6. Canon 36. anno 681. where there was 289. Bishops Of Nicene 2. Canon 1. anno 781. where was present 350. Bishops Of Constantinople 8. Canon 27. anno where was present 383. Bishops anno 870. Of the Council of Constance Sess 4.5 where was a thousand Fathers almost anno 1418. And of Basel Sess 2.18 anno 1431. all General Councils condemning your Popes Supremacy as your Church now affirms of him some more some less And also it is condemned by Provincial Councils as of Antioch Canon 6.12.13.14.15.19.20 and of Carthage 2. Canon 12. anno 404. and 3. confirmed in the General Council of Trullan Canon 26. and 6. and by the Council of Milevis Canon 22. condemned also by the Universities of Paris Appellat Univers Paris olione 10. ad futur Concil infastic rerum expe ca. fugi and Lovane Aeneas Sylvius de gestis Basil Concil lib. 1. and Colen and Vienna Histor de Europa cap. 22. and Cracovia Comer de rebus Polonorum lib. 21. So then by the authority of Councils General and Provincial and of Universities the Monarchie and Superioritie of the Pope over all General Councils is disallowed And suppose the Churches of France and Germany did honor them and gave them some preeminence both of honor and power being blinded at that time with the smoke that came out of the bottomless pit yet it may appear by their supplication ad Ludovicum 11. pro libertate Ecclesiae Gallicanae adversus Rom. aulam defensio Parisiensis curiae Gravamina nationis Germaniae exhibita Maxim 1. that they did not allow that full Monarchie of his but misliked it and hated the same yea France made laws against it in Conventu Bituricensi Now these are such whom your selves do hold for Catholicks and yet they acknowledged not the Monarchie of your Pope The Churches of Graecia and of Asia in the East Chalcon conc de reb Turc lib. 1. 6. and of Muscovia Jovius in Muscovia in the North and of Ethiopia in the South Alvarez in descriptione Aethiopiae cap. 77. 83. and of Boheme Aeneas Sylvius hist Bohem. cap. 32. Provence Sleydan comment lib. 16. Piemont M. Fox in the acts and monuments lib. 7. And the Reformed Churches that are this day in France Flanders England Scotland and so forth throughout Europe all have condemned your Popes Supremacie So that if his Supremacie were to be put to tryal by the judgement and will of men so many thousands of Pastors Doctors Synods Councils Universities and Churches through all ages in all Countreys of all sorts and estats may suffice to put the Pope from his Supremacie So that I think you may blush M. Gilbert that hath so boldly written that he hath been alwayes acknowledged by the visible Church to be the visible Head of the Church seeing his Monarchie was never fully acknowledged until the Lateran Council under Leo the 10. 1516. years after Christ But seeing the Word of God is the only just tryal of it and seeing it is not written in the book of life therefore I conclud that his Supremacie is not a citizen of that new Jerusalem but a child of Babel and therefore they are blessed that shal dash it against the stones M. Gilbert Brown That the Church at any time may be invisible it is repugnant to the Word of God in many places and to M. John also For he gives examples afterward of sundry as he saith that was of his Religion and opponed themselves to the Pope and his Clergy and that saith he when he was come to the hight If the true Church opponed its self to the Antichristian Church then it was visible and known and if it was known when the Popes Kingdom was at the highest much more when it was low and so it was always known by M. Johns self Master John Welsch his Reply Whether oppugn ye your own imagination M. Gilbert here or that which I write If the first then you are foolish who fight against your self as ye do indeed If the second then I say that which I said was this That no man should think that the Church of God was ever open and visible in that flowrishing estat as it is now For this is our doctrine concerning the invisibility of the Church the which because you know not therefore you stumble at it and oppugns only your own invention and not our doctrine and therefore your reasons and Scriptures which ye bring here serve to no purpose for they make nothing against us We say that the Catholick Church which comprehends all the elect is always invisible both because the principal part thereof is in heaven and also because the senses of men cannot discern who are true members of the Catholick Church here their effectual calling their faith love hope and inward graces their union with Christ their Head their spiritual armor weapons and warfare and their Head Christ Jesus and their whole glorie is inward and invisible and they shal never be seen all gathered together until that great day Ephes 5.25.26.27.32 Psal 45.13 John 10.27 2. Tim. 2.19 Luke 11.28 Matth. 7. Ephes 6.12 2. Cor. 12.3.4 So that suppose they may be seen outwardlie as they are men and sometimes in respect of their outward ministerie yet in so far as they are a part of the Catholick Church that is in so far as they are chosen and sanctified c. as hath been said they cannot be discerned by the senses of men and so are invisible Next we say that the particular visible Churches are not always in one outward estat sometimes outwardlie glorious sometimes more obscure sometimes openly known and seen by all sometimes known and seen but by a few sometimes frequent and consisting in many sometimes rare and consisting in few sometimes adorned with outward ornaments of peace largeness outward glory and multitude sometimes again wanting this outward glory under persecution but yet having that inward glory of these inward graces So that when we say these particular Churches are sometimes invisible we do not mean as though they were known to none for that is not our doctrine M. Gilbert as ye imagine but that they are not so openly known that they are patent to all to be the true Church but known unto them with whom they have to do and who profess the truth with them Yea sometimes some of them are known unto the very persecuters and enemies by their constancy and perseverance in their sufferings suppose they allow not their profession And in this state was the Church of Israel in the time of Elias when he complained that he knew none left but himself of the true worshippers of God 1. Kings 19.10 And the Church of Juda in the days of Achaz and Manasseh Kings of Judah 2. Chron. 28.24 2. Kings 16.10 And such like in the time of Christ both in the time of his living among them as also in the time of his death and resurrection the Church
blasphemous reason of yours Martin Luther is the author of our Religion For now your are inforced to grant the contrary that infinit numbers have taught the same doctrine before him The truth is too strong for you M Gilbert that compells you to grant the thing that ye would wish with all your heart the people never knew it But comfort your self M. Gilbert for the truth will be victorious at the last and your darkness dayly more and more will be discovered Indeed the least stroke that ye can give for the defence of your Pope is to call them all hereticks who have spoken against him For I grant the Pope and his Clergy is not such fools as being their own Judges to condemn themselves and to justifie them who not only have taught it but also sufficiently did prove it and many thousands sealed with their blood that he was the Antichrist and his Church Babel But with them they have the Son of God and the Apostles Paul and John hereticks for they also did condemn his idolatry and tyranny and errors But whereabout now will ye contend M. Gilbert Ye say whether their doctrine be heresie or not I would you and your Church would stand upon this and give over all your other contentions while this were first proved Whether their doctrine in so far as they agree with ours and ours in so far as it dissents from yours be heresie or not that is be against the Scripture or not the which if you would do then I hope our contention would soon be ended But for as fast as you run to this now you will flee from it as fast again when we desire to have yours and our doctrine tryed by the Scriptures which of them is heresie and consequently whether ye or we be hereticks And therefore you ever refuse to let your doctrine be tryed by the Scripture but run to your pretended antiquity and successions Councils and lying miracles and many other vain starting-holes like a wild Fox when he is hunted out of one hole he flies to another and dares never abide the fair fields And mark their craft Reader when we affirm that our Religion hath Jesus Christ to be the Author of it in the Scriptures as we offer to prove the same ye refuse this tryal by the Scriptures and say That Martin Luther invented our Religion and we had none that professed it and taught it before him When we again reply That we had sundry of all sorts many hundred years before him even when your Kingdom was at the hight and produces their names they not being able to deny it they slip from that again and say They contend not whether there was such that taught such doctrine or not but they contend whether that was truth or heresie so they run from one starting hole to another But I will ask you M. Gilbert if it be proved that this their doctrine was not heresie will you contend any more then Shal the plea cease then Will you ever slander our Religion of novelty in saying Martin Luther was the first that began it and we had none who professed before him But you will say This you have not proved It is true I had not proved it then but now I hope I have proved it sufficiently that your Popes are the Antichrist and your Rome Babel which was one of the principal heads of the doctrine which ye taught and sundry others also Disprove you it if you can M. Gilbert Master Gilbert Brown But he saith They preached the same Religion that he preaches c. Let M. John name any of these his Doctors that he will abide at in Religion and I shal let him see that he was not of his Religion in all things For that is the thing that we say That albeit M. John and his brethren have renewed many old condemned heresies of hereticks yet they were not of their Religion in all things And therefore this that M. John calls the only truth was never professed in all heads as it is now in Scotland before in no Countrey no not by any one man let be by a number which thing M. Robert Bruce grants himself in his Sermons in these words And God hath chosen a few hearts in this Countrey where he hath begun his dwelling place for God dwells now in the hearts and consciences of his own by his holy Spirit And surely so hath he dwelt with 〈◊〉 these thirty years in such purity that he hath not done the like with any Nation in the earth he hath not remained with any Nation without error and heresie so long as he hath done with us c. So God dwelt in no place without error and heresie the space of thirty years while now in Scotland Master John Welsch his Reply But you say they dissent from us in some things and is not of our Religion in all things Whereunto I answer That suppose this were true yet it will not follow but that they are of our Religion seeing they and we do agree in the main foundations thereof For we have learned to call them brethren which do hold the foundation as the Apostle saith suppose they have built hay straw or timber upon the same Otherwise if ye will be content to be measured with that same measure wherewith ye measure us if you will have none to be accounted of your Religion but these only that profess with you in all things as your Church doth now then not only by your reason shal ye want the Lord Jesus his Apostles the primitive Church as ye do indeed and that not only in the first six hundred years but long after till the thousand year and long after that also to be of your profession because not only the weightiest points of your doctrine have not their original in the Scripture and are unwritten traditions by the testimony of some of your selves but also sundry points of your Religion have been brought in after these dayes being unknown in the former ages as your selves will not deny and I have proved in some heads in the other part concerning the Mass Yea you shal want all the Fathers by this reason of yours For there is not one of them but they have their own errors which ye your selves will not defend and the most part of them are with us against you in many things which you cannot deny and that which is more ye shal want almost all the general Councils except three or four and many of your own Popes Doctors Bishops Cardinals and Jesuits for not only have some of them had errors and some of them been hereticks by your whole confessions but also some of them have been with us in some points against you as I have proved before so that I need not repeat them now As for example Pope Gregory affirms That the books of the Macchabees are Apocrypha Lib. 19. cap. 16. in morali And so have sundry others of your Clergy as
For if appears that either ye are not acquainted with the Histories of that age or else ye dissemble it of purpose for John Wicleff he left so many behind him in England who professed our Religion that though your Prelats did molest them what they could yet they and their favorers in short time grew to such strength and multitude that by the year 1422. which was an hundred years immediatly before Luther Henry Chichesley the Archbishop of Canterbury wrot to the Pope that they all could not be suppressed they were so many but by force of war The professors of our Religion began to gather so great force in Bohemia after the burning of John Hus and Jerome of Prague at the Council of Constance which was about the year 1417. which was just an hundred years immediatly before Luther that they were able not only to defend themselves by force of armes against the tyrannie of your Popes but also obtained many notable victories against the strongest power that the Pope did raise against them In England William Taylor was burnt anno 1422. and two years after that William White was burnt And betwixt that time and 1430. Father Abraham of Colchester John Wadden and Richard Hovington were burnt And after that Richard Wiche and John Goose one Braban and one Jerome and others with him were burnt Hieronymus Savanarola a Monk in Italie with two others named Dominick and Sylvester were condemned to death at Florence in the year 1500. with sundry others whom for shortness I omit here Now surely I cannot but wonder M. Gilbert that ye should have been so impudent as to have set it down in writ that I could get none that professed our Religion an hundred years immediatly before Martin Luther But the Reader may gather what credit he may give to your notes and yet with such impudent lies ye blind the poor people Upon the which I gather that both these conclusions of yours is false For the Church of Christ in all ages even from the Apostles days to this day hath ever had her own teachers and professors unto whom Martin Luther hath succeeded in his Religion suppose not in the like frequencie and puritie and that by reason partly of the smoke of that bottemless pit that is of your doctrine which darkned both the Sun and the air Rev. 9.2 that is both teachers and people and partly by your extream persecution whereby ye made war with the Saints of God and overcame them Rev 13 7. But your smoke will evanish away at the last and the clear light of the Lord shal shine more and more maugre all your hearts SECTION XXV That the Reformed Churches have not renewed old condemned Heresies Master Gilbert Brown BUt that M. John shal not think that we slander him and his â—iâ—h old condemned heresies let him read S. Augustin Epiphanius and others noted here as of these and many the like 1. Novatus forsook the Pope of Rome Cornelius and caused others do the like as Eusebius hist lib. 6. cap. 33. and Nicephorus report lib. 6. cap. 30. 2. Aërus the heretick denyed that offering or prayers should be done for the dead and that fasting should be free as S. Augustine and Epiphane declare haeres 75. 3. Eunomius and Aërius held that only faith justifieth as Augustin haeres 55. lib. de fide operibus and Epiphanius haeres 76. write Master John Welsch his Reply Now are we by Gods grace come unto your last calumnie in affirming that we renew old condemned heresies This is indeed M. Gilbert a heavie challenge if it were true but it is but like the rest of your calumnies yea it hath less appearance of truth then any thing which ye have spoken against us A liar M. Gilbert shal not enter in that heavenly city but his portion shal be in that lake that burne with fire and brimstone Rev. 19.20 22.15 And he that slandereth his neighbor much more then he who slandereth the truth of God shal not rest in the Lords holy mountain Psal 15 3. But to come to the first Novatus intruded himself in another mans charge and caused set up himself against Cornelius the lawful Pastor of the Church in Rome then and that craftily and withdrew many of his flock from him which is as contrary to our doctrine as black to white For we teach that every Pastor should have his own particular flock as Cornelius had then in Rome and no man should intrude himself in another mans charge as he did So this is a calumny M. Gilbert But your Popes are like Novatus who not only have disturbed all the Christian Congregations in Europe almost by setting up and thrusting down such Pastors as they would but also all the Kingdoms in Europe As for this doctrine of Aerius I answer you as ye did me I contend not whether he taught this doctrine or not for the Scriptures have taught the same But our contention is whether they be heresie or not which you have not proved nor ever will be able to prove by the Scripture It is true Epiphanius and Augustin following him reckon him among hereticks but Theodoretus in his Book de fabulis Judaeorum and the Ecclesiastical History reckon him not among hereticks and he was not condemned for an heretick in any Council that therefore which he taught according to the Scripture we imbrace But as for the errors of the Aërians which are errors indeed and which are ascribed unto them as the damning of marriage urging of continency requiring them whom they receive to their fellowship to forsake their own proper things These heresies I say your Church hath renewed who damns marriage and urges continency in your Clergy and receives none to your religious Orders but such as refuse their own proper things As to the third the Aërian and Eunomian heresies they secluded holiness of life from that faith of theirs and taught such a faith that might stand with whatsoever sins and with perseverance in them Will you stand to this M. Gilbert before the Lord that we teach such doctrine Is not this our doctrine that only living faith which works by love and brings forth good fruits doth justifie But you are like to them that know no other justifying faith but such a faith as both the reprobats and the Devils may have So this is your third calumnie M. Gilbert Brown 4. Simon Magus Marcion and Manichaeus denyed that man had free-will as Augustin haeres 46. Jerome and Epiphanius haeres 42. make mention 5. Jovinianus affirmed that Priests marriage was lawful after the lawful vow of chastity He moved sundry Nuns to marry in the city of Rome He made fasting and abstinence from meat superfluous as Augustin writes of him haeres 82. item lib. 1. cap. 7 de peccat merit remiss 6. Vigilantius denyed the prayer to Saints as S. Jerome contra Vigilantium writes He despised the burning of lights and candles in the Churches in the day
did not obey the other As also a number of the Fathers of your own Religion who in two General Councils the one of Constance where there was almost a thousand Fathers the other of Basel did not obey the Pope in defining General Councils to be above the Pope So if ye speak truth infinit millions of Christians in all ages and innumerable Churches and thousands of your own Religion are condemned to Hell But this is false M. Gilbert and who will believe you And to the end now my conclusion yet holds sure That seeing his Kingdom is that second beast that hath two horns like the Lamb and speaks like the Dragon Rev. 13.11 And himself is that man of sin and son of perdition that adversary and Antichrist that was to come 2. Thess 2.3.4 And his doctrine is that Apostasie and abomination sore-told in the Scripture Rev. 17. And his seat that Harlot and mystical Babylon that mother of whoredoms who is drunken with the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus Whosoever receives his mark on his fore-head or hand that is openly or privatly professes obedience unto him shal as the Angel proclaimed drink of the wine of the wrath of God yea of that pure wine in the cup of his wrath and he shal be tormented with fire and brimstone before the holy angels and before the Lamb. And the smoak of his torment shal ascend for evermore and they shal have no rest day nor night which worship the beast or his image And as for your prayer I beseech God M. Gilbert that he may open my eyes and inlarge my heart to understand and imbrace his truth more and more and to make me to grow up in that spiritual communion with Christ and his members more and more But that which ye call truth is heresie and that which ye call the true Church is Babel and therefore that doctrine and Church of yours is that strong delusion and whore of Babel with the which whosoever shal communicat is excluded from the merits of Christ and shal be partaker of her plagues and finally shal be damned SECTION XXVIII That the Pope is Antichrist Master Gilbert Brown IF the Pope be the Antichrist what is the cause that M. John would not set down some place out of the Word of God that proves the same But good Reader I will let you see how far M. John is against the Word of God in this and that by some examples only First our Savior shew unto the Jews that albeit he came in the name of his Father yet they would not receive him If another saith he shal come in his own name him ye will receive This no doubt as Augustin expones the same is meant of the Antichrist that the Jews shal receive Now it is out of all controversie that the Jews never received the Pope Therefore the Pope is not the Antichrist Again the Pope came never in his own name but in the Name of Christ for he is called the Vicare of Christ and the servant of the servants of God therefore he cannot be the Antichrist Master John Welsch his Reply I come now to prove that which I offered before to prove to wit that your Popes which ye will have to be the Head of the Church of Christ are the self-same Antichrist that the Scripture fore-told should come Thou wouldest know Christian Reader of what weight this controversie is Whether the Pope be the Antichrist or not For this supremacy of his unto them is the foundation whereupon their Religion and the safety of their whole Church depends so that they call it The Rock whereupon the Church is built against which the gates of Hell shal not prevail Rhemist annot upon Matth. 16. And Bellarmin calls him in his Preface before the controversie of the Popes supremacy The foundation which upholds the house of God the Pastor which feeds his flock the Emperor which governes his host the Sun which gives light to the starrs that is to the Ministers of the Church the Head which gives life to his body So that remove his supremacy the house of God must fall the flock of Christ must be scattered the host of the Lord must be discomfited the starrs that is the Ministery must be darkened and the body must ly still without motion And he applyes these Prophesies Isai 28.16 and 8.14.15 spoken and fulfilled only in the Son of God unto him a calling him that foundation stone in Sion upon the which the whole Church is built and that proved stone against the which the gates of Hell hath never nor never shal prevail and that corner stone which joyns both Jew and Gentil as two walls together in a Christian Church and that precious stone from whence the infinit treasure of grace is most plenteously derived unto the whole Church as unity in doctrine the bond of peace the unity of faith which is salvation it self and the very life of Religion And he saith There is no way to Christ but by Peter in whose room their Popes succeed So that in their judgement there is no way to Christ but by the Pope And he calls him that rock of offence and stumbling stone spoken of in Isai chap. 8. Upon the which whosoever shal fall shal be broken and on whom it shal fall it shal dash him in pieces O blasphemous mouth Let the heavens be confounded at this And therefore this is of such a weight that Boniface the 8 hath made it an article of our Faith whose words are these We declare we affirm we define and pronounce that it is altogether needful to salvation to all creatures to be under the Pope of Rome Extra de minoritate obedientia cap. unam sanctam So that Bellarmin saith when the Popes supremacy is called in controversie The sum of all Christianity is called in question and when that is controverted Then it is controverted whether the Church should stand any longer or not or fall and dissolve Unto them therefore it is an article of Faith which must be believed and practised under the pain of the loss of salvation And unto us he is that self-same Antichrist which the Scripture hath fore-told time hath made manifest and the Church hath suffered Unto them he is the Head of the body of Christ the Pastor of his flock the Sun that gives light to the starrs the foundation of the house of God and a mortal God among men Unto us he is Gods enemy the son of perdition the second beast and false prophet 2 Thess 2.13 Rev. 13.11 the adversary of true Religion a pest in the body a tyrant in the Common-wealth and Antichrist in the Church So thou sees Christian Reader of what weight this controversie is Let us see then how he defends him from being the Antichrist and then you shal hear our reasons to the contrary You ask wherefore I set not down some places of Scripture to prove the Pope to be the Antichrist I answer Not
Antichrist is called an adversary that is opposed and contrary to God and that not in life only but in doctrine Religion and government and that not in one point only but almost in all the substantial points thereof The which mark the Popes of Rome bear and that not only in their lives but also in the whole substantial points of Religion And to make this clear besides that which hath been spoken we shal compare the doctrine of Jesus Christ and the government of his Kingdom set down in the Scripture with the doctrine of the Popes and the manner of their government that the contrariety of them may be known so that it shal be seen that cold is no more contrary to heat and black to white then Papism to Christianity and the Religion of the Church of Rome to the Religion of Christ Jesus The doctrine of Christ stands especially in these two things in the knowledge of his person and in the knowledge of his offices And therefore the Apostle saith I desire to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified 1. Cor. 2.2 And Christ himself saith It is life eternal to know thee to be the only true God and whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ John 17 3. The doctrine of the Popes of Rome overthrows both And first to prove this concerning his person the Scripture testifies that Jesus Christ is conceived of the substance of the Virgin Mary and that he hath but one true body made of the seed of David and of the seed of the woman Rom. 1.3 Gal. 4. 4 and not many and that he is like unto us in all things except sin Heb. 2.17 The doctrine of the Church of Rome is that Christ Jesus his body is made of the bread and wine in the Sacrament their doctrine makes him to have as many bodies as there is bits of bread in the Sacrament and not to be like his brethren in all things except sin Bellar. lib. 3. de Eucharistia fol. 399. Pope John 22. lib. orat in scr antidotarius animae for his brethren can be but in one place at once with their own due proportion visibly But their doctrine of Transubstantiation makes him to be both in heaven and earth at once in heaven visibly in earth invisibly in heaven with his own quantity and proportion in earth without his natural proportion and not in one place of the earth only but in innumerable places thereof at once so that this main foundation of mans salvation without the which there is no eternal life concerning the truth of Christs manhood made of the woman is utterly defaced and overthrown by the doctrine of the Popes of Rome in making him to have infinit bodies not made of the feed of the woman but of bread and wine or at the least made of two diverse substances And as they overthrow the doctrine of his person so they overthrow the doctrine of his offices His offices are three a Prophet a Priest and a King which are all overthrown by them As he is a Prophet he hath revealed his Fathers whole will unto his servants John 1.18 and hath left it in register in his latter Testament and hath forbidden to add empair or to alter the same Deut. 4.2 and hath pronounced a wo a curse unto them that adds empairs or alters the same Rev. 22.18 Gal. 1.8 and that because it is sufficient to make a man wise unto salvation and to make the man of God perfect unto every good work 2. Tim. 3.15.16 and because it is pure and perfect and easie to all them that will understand it Prov. 8.9 Psal 19.8.9 13. 119. But they have many wayes corrupted this Testament of Christ by mingling and adulterating the same First in that they give divine authority to the Books called Apocrypha which are humain Concil Trident. Sess 4. Next in receiving and commanding others to receive traditions with equal reverence and affection with the Scripture Thirdly in their corrupt Latin translation which they have made authentical which some of themselves confess have missed sometimes the meaning of the holy Ghost Bud. annot prior in Pandect Andrad lib. 4. Arias Montanus Tom. 8. Bibl. Reg. in praefat Fourthly in joyning with the Commandments of God their own commandments and that not as things indifferent but as necessary to salvation Concil Trident. Sess 6 cap. 10. Fifthly in condemning all sense and meaning of the holy Scripture but that which they hold themselves Sess 4. Last of all in quarrelling the Scripture of imperfection obscurity and ambiguity calling it dead and dumb like a nose of wax They therefore who have altered added and corrupted the Testament of Jesus Christ confirmed by his death which he hath left in writ for to instruct his Church in all things and to make her wise to salvation and perfect to every good work doth spoil the Lord Jesus of his Prophetical office But the doctrine of the Church of Rome hath done so Ergo they spoyl Jesus Christ of his Prophetical office Thirdly they are no less sacrilegious and injurious to his Priesthood His Priesthood stands in two things First in purchasing unto us by the vertue of that one sacrifice once offered up upon the Cross an everlasting redemption Next in making continual intercession for us with his Father Heb. 9.11.12 15.24.25.26.27.28 the which both are overthrown by the doctrine of the Church of Rome As to the first it is overthrown many wayes as first our Savior saith That his soul was sorrowful unto the death and that he swat drops of blood Matth. 26.37.38 and he sent up strong cryes and supplications with tears in the dayes of his flesh Heb. 5.7 Luke 22.44 and therefore he thrise upon his knees prays That if it had been possible that cup might be removed from him Matth. 27.39 And upon the Cross through the sense and feeling of that wrath he breaks forth in that complaint My God my God why hast thou forsaken me All which do testifie that he suffered more then a common death to wit the terrors of the wrath of God which was due to the sins of all the elect But the doctrine of the Church of Rome ranverseth this doctrine of our salvation and teacheth that Christ suffered not the wrath of God upon his soul which if it be true then Christ hath not payed our debt sufficiently for our debt was not only the natural death of the body but the wrath of God upon the soul and therefore the Scripture saith The soul that sinneth shal die the death Ezech. 18.20 Secondly the Scripture testifieth that Christs death and blood is a sufficient ransom for our sins and a sufficient satisfaction unto the justice of God Heb. 10.10.14 John 19.28 1. Tim. 2.6 1. Pet. 2.24 1. John 1.7 They by the contrary joyn to his satisfaction the satisfactions of men both in this life and in the life to come in Purgatory and that not only for their own sins but for
As to the second who is he that hath caused all to worship the first Beast that is hath brought again that tyrānous cruelty dominion over the poor Church of God in setting up idolatry and abolishing the true worship of God which the Heathen Emperors did but the Popes of Rome For was not the Emperor of the East excommunicat because he would not suffer Images in the Temples Have not they filled the world with their Idolatry as hath been proved Who have made war with the Saints oppressed them in all the parts where their dominion might reach but they France Germany England Scotland the Low Countreys and all Europe bear witness unto this As to the third who by lying wonders have deceived the world but they And as to the fourth who hath healed the deadly wound of the first Beast in setting up an Empire here in the West in the person of Charles the Great which was more then three hundred years so deadly wounded through the incursion of other Nations that there was no Empire in the West Who I say did all this but the Popes of Rome Giving unto them the style or bare name but taking by little and little the substance of the whole Empire to themselves so that Theodorick à Niem saith lib. 3. cap. 43. The Roman Empire is so little now in Almany that there is some Bishops or Archbishops that will spend twise as much as they will do of all the lands that is under their subjection And some Princes have more land then the Emperor hath And if ye will look to Rome saith he and Italy it was once the seat of the Empire but now the Emperor hath nothing of it but the style As to the fifth Who is he who hath caused make the Image of the Beast and given a spirit unto it that it should speak That is who have set up a very Image of the Roman Monarchy and Hierarchy in the whole frame of their government in the Church of God but the Popes of Rome So that the whole frame of their government and Hierarchy is a lively pattern and image of the Roman Empire For as in the Roman Empire there was an Emperor whom all did worship as God unto whom there was joyned a Senat who was next in authority to him so is the frame of the government of the Papistical Kingdom There is a Monarch the Pope whom all are compelled when they come in his sight to worship as an earthly God to whose sentence all must stand to who judgeth all but can be judged of none who hath joyned with him a Senat of Cardinals who are next him in authority Secondly as in the Roman Monarchy the Emperor took upon him not only the highest Kingly authority in all matters civil but also the Priestly authority and power over Religion and not that only but also to be Tribuns over the people who had the power of forbidding and annulling of all decrees made by other Magistrats Even so the Popes of Rome have usurped all these three First the highest Royal authority over all Kings and Princes next to be Lords over Religion so that as Antoninus one of his Archbishops saith Summa part 3. tit 22. c. 5. He may creat new Religions thirdly to be Tribuns that is to disanul whatsoever decree or judgement of any Bishop or inferior Judges yea of Synodal and General Councils if they be not ratified by him Thirdly as in Rome was the head of the Empire the Emperor and his Senat with him and as the Emperors had their Magistrats under them in all their Provinces and places of their dominions from whom all their authority was and who was at their beck and commandment So in the Popes Kingdom the Pope who is the head and the Senat of Cardinals which is next him in authority have their seat in Rome and they according to the old pattern of the Roman Empire have their Bishops Archbishops Abbots Priors Monks Friers c. in all the places of their dominion under them who have their whole authority from him and who all are his sworn men So here is then the lively image of the former beast And as to the sixth Who did kill all them that would not worship the image and this frame of government of Popes Cardinals Bishops Archbishops c. and their Religion but the Popes of Rome The blood of infinit thousands do testifie this And what hath brought all under their bondage both one and other that none might buy or sell that is neither brook Civil nor Ecclesiastical offices but those who were marked with his mark that is took on them his profession and was Catholicks as he termes them Is not this sufficiently known that none might have offices nor benefices in the Church but they that received his mark orders from him And none might brook their Kingdoms and civil dignities in so far as lay in his power but these that were of his profession Rex venit ante fores surans prius urbis honores Post homo fit Papae recipit quo dante coronam Clement lib. 2. tit 9. And Erasmus saith in his Adagles That neither Baptism nor marriage nor sacrifice nor psalms nor prayer nor Sacrament nor grave in the Papistical Kingdom are given without money Now last of all to what Kingdom or Church under heaven since this Revelation was written doth the number of the name of the Beast here set down agree but to the Latin Kingdom of the Popes and their Latin Church for here is set down the name of the Kingdom of Antichrist The number of the name of the Beast here set down is 666. and the λ α τ ε ι 30 1 300 5 10  ν ο σ.   50 70 200.  all which being joyned together maketh 666. letters of the name of this Antichristian Kingdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 amounts to the same number of 666. For what is the name of the Popish Kingdom and Hierarchie Is not the Church called the Latin Church Is not all the exercises of their Religion almost in Latin And suppose the Old Testament be written in Hebrew and the New in Greek yet have they not condemned the Originals as corrupted And have they not authorized the Latin interpretation as only authentical So that Papacie is the very Kingdom of Latins Now the letters of this Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Latin for the Revelation was written in Greek doth amount to the same number 666. And what other Kingdom or Monarchy under heaven can show whose name is such that the letters thereof amounteth to this number Ireneus an ancient Writer yea so ancient that he saw and heard Polycarpus who was one of Johns Disciples who received this Revelation mentioneth that the name of this Beast in this prophesie is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iren. lib. 5. cap. 25. Sed Latinis nomen 666. numerum habet valde verisimile est quia
verissimum regnum hoc Ε χ χ λ η.  5 20 20 30 8  σ ι α Ι Ï„ α. 200 10 1 10 300 1 λ ι η α.   30 10 20 1   habet vocabulum Latini enim sunt qui nunc regnant And as the letters of this Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 amounteth to this number 666. so doth the letters of these Latin words Ecclesia Italica written in Greek letters and of the Hebrew word ROMIITH that signifieth R O M I 200 6 40 10 I TH   10 400   Romam Is not this much now that this number of 666 agrees to the name of the Papistical Kingdom both in Hebrew Greek and Latin In Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Latin in Hebrew ROMIITH that is Rome in Latin Ecclesia Italica that is the Italian Church For Italie is called Latium that is Latin What more would any man require Will not this suffice to make it manifest that the Popes are the Antichrist to whom every thing prophesied of the Antichrist by the Apostle Paul and this Revelation of the second Beast do so fitly agree So that there can be none under heaven unto whom they can be applyed but only to the Popes of Rome But yet for the full manifestation of this point we will go to the 17. of the Revelation For as his Kingdom was figured under a Beast that had two horns like the Lamb in the 13. chapter so there is the principal throne and seat of his Kingdom figured under a great harlot with whom the Kings and Nations of the earth have committed fornication The which harlot is most gloriously decked and richly apparelled Who hath a cup of gold in her hand full of abomination in whose fore-head a name is written A Mystery that Babylon that mother of whoredoms who is drunken with the blood of the Saints and Martyrs of Jesus which is that great city which reigneth over the Kings of the earth which sitteth upon seven mountains For the maintenance of whose Kingdom ten Kings yeelded up their power and authority to fight against the Lamb and to overcome him That this great City is the City of Rome it is so plain that he is more then blind that sees it not For what City did reign over the Nations when this Revelation was received but Rome And what City since the Pope clamb up to his Kingdom hath done the same but Rome And what City sitteth upon seven hills but Rome whose names are yet known As testifieth Capitolinus Palatinus Aventinus Caelius Exquilinus Quirinalis Viminalis And what City hath been the mother of all spiritual and bodily fornication of all idolatry and abomination but Rome Yea what City hath been so enriched with gold purple and precious stones but Rome And what City hath been drunken with the blood of the Martyrs and Saints but Rome All these things are so manifest that not only some of the Fathers as Jerome in praefat ad Didymum in Epist ad Algasium and Tertullian contra Marci lib. 13. advers Judaeos cap. 9. saw it But some of themselves confess it that this Babylon is Rome Both Bellarmin grants it plainly and also the Rhemists do not deny it For that great Jesuit Bellarmin saith lib. 1. cap. 2. That John in the Revelation every where calls Rome Babylon and confirms this first by the testimony of Tertullian and then by the circumstances of the text For saith he there was no other City at that time that did reign over the Nations but Rome And it is most notorious saith he that Rome sits on seven hills Lib. 4. cap. 4. What now would ye have more And in another place It appears saith he that in the time of the Antichrist Rome shal be made desolat and shal be burnt as it is gathered out of the 17. of the Revelation and this shal not be until the end of the world These are plain speeches And I say this great City of Rome which is called here mystical Babylon is not described here as she was the seat of the Heathen Emperors when they reigned in her as the Roman Church saith but as she is and hath been the seat of the Antichrist For in the time of the Emperors she made not the Kings of the earth commit fornication with her that is she did not pollute them with her idolatry and Religion as it is fore-told of this Rome for she left every Kingdom free to use their own Idolatry and superstition But Rome since she began to be the throne and seat of the Antichrist the Popes of Rome have propagated her idolatry and worship to all Nations and have made all Nations drunken with the wine of her fornication and have obtruded her Religion to all Nations against their will with fire and sword And from thence have proceeded all the wars and blood-sheds in many Nations of Europe because they did go out of her and departed from their idolatry Further all the parts of her description here agrees to Rome having the show of Christianity and not as she was Heathen under the Heathen Emperors as that purple and scarlet wherewith she was clad that gilding with gold and precious stones and pearls which the Archbishop of Ratisbon Albertus Magnus and the Gloss interprets of the simulation of piety and meekness the spiritual graces of God as faith hope charity all which say they she shal in hypocrisie pretend but yet in truth have nothing such but cruelty and ungodliness the which can no wayes agree with Rome as she was in her Gentilism therefore of necessity Papistical Rome is here described and not Heathen Rome Thirdly that Rome is here described which was upholden by the Beast unto whom the ten Kings yeelded up their power to fight against the Lamb as is manifest by the 12. and 13 verses of that 17 chapter But this Beast is not the Empire of Rome but the Antichristian Kingdom for these ten Kings had not received their Kingdoms all that time that the Roman Emperors were Heathen and long after Therefore Rome as it is the seat of the Antichrist and not as it was the seat of the Roman Empire is here descrybed And the Rhemists say in their annotations upon this place that some expons these ten Kings of ten Kingdoms into which the Roman Empire shal be divided which shal all serve Antichrist therefore Rome as it is here described mâ—st be the seat of the Antichrist Last of all the Revelation speaks here of that Rome that shal be burnt with fire and be made desolat by the ten Kingdoms which God should stir up to hate her and he speaks here of that Rome which shal be casten in the midst of the sea after the which shal follow the day of Judgement But this cannot be Rome as it was the seat of the Roman Empire but as it is the seat of the Antichristian Kingdom for it is more then a thousand years since
promise to them because no faith is to be kept to hereticks and therefore notwithstanding of the Emperors letters of safe-conduct they condemned them to the fire and accordingly burnt them Now H. T. himself saith in that same place What is defined by the Council of Constance is of faith with Papists therefore it must be a point of faith That no faith is to be kept with hereticks 2. Not only did the General Council of Constance decree this but the Pope hath confirmed it Now all Papists hold that what is determined by a General Council and confirmed by a Pope is of faith and obligeth all Catholicks Now that the Pope hath confirmed and allowed this is most sure for Pope Gregory the 9 whose Decree is extant in the Decretals lib. 5 tit 7. de haereticis cap. uâ—t out of his Pontifical seat decreeth Absolutos se noverint debito fidelitatis dominij totius obsequij quicunque lapsis manifestè in haeresin aliquo pacto quacunque firmitate vallato tenebantur ad stricti Let all know that they are loosed from their fidelity and obedience and any duty whatsoever that they are bound to any that are manifestly fallen in heresie 3. If to the Decree of the Council and confirmation of the Pope the common suffrage of their Doctors can add any weight then we have that too For when Plancius cited by D. Hornbeck p. 172. had said Dic sodes nonne in confesso est apud vos Principi haeretico aut excommunicato fidem nullam deberi uâ—i Pontifex jusserit Gratian. caus 15. quaest 9. decret lib. 7 cap. 5. ibi glossae Say if ye dare is it not confessed by you that no faith is to be kept by you to a heretick or excommunicat when the Pope commandeth Suertius answereth In confesso est nec inventus est hactenus magnâ— nominis Theologus qui non in hanc iêrit sententiam It is confessed neither is there any Divine of note who hath not held this opinion And Clarus lib. 5 sent saith that Sententiam illam frequentiori Doctorum calculo receptam This opinion is received by the common suffrage of the Doctors And Tiberius Decianus saith Omnium consensu illam obtinere de fide haereticis non servandâ That that tenet that faith is not to be kept to hereticks is received by the consent of all Hornbeck citeth many mo Popish Writers out of Plancius Elenchi pag. 7. Gerard. confess Cathol lib. 1 part 2. cap. 19. and he addeth himself that Thuanus declareth lib 63. ad ann 1577. that the Popish Doctors did cry out in their Sermons That the Magistrats were not obliged to keep faith to hereticks according to the Decree of the Council of Constance And he showeth moreover that upon this pretext the contract of marriage betwixt Charles the 5. his daughter and the Elector of Saxonies son was declared void and nul and Haumart the Emperors Legat openly said that faith was not to be kept to hereticks as testifieth Sieidan and Scultetus ad an 1527. Finally their dayly practises confirm this For Cardinal Ossatuâ— as Hornbeck citeth him tells us in his 87. Epistle ad D. de Villeroy that Pope Clement the 8. did press the King of France to joyn with Spain in the invasion of England and the Cardinal answered that the King was tyed by an oath to the Queen of England to which the Pope replyed that That the oath was made to an heretick but he was bound in another oath to God and the Pope and in end he alledged the saying of Franciscus Maria Duke of Urbin that indeed every one doth blame a Noble-man or great man that is no Soveraign if he keep not his covenants or fidelity and they aucount him infamous but supreme Princes may without any danger of their reputation make covenants and break them lie betray and commit other such like things Also Pope Innocent the 10. in his Bull against the Peace of Germany anno 1651. doth annul and abrogat the oathes for confirming of Peace 3. As the Popes practises is a good example to Papists so they follow their example to purpose as I shal show in some few instances In Queen Maries time in England the Suffolk-men did aid assist and advance her to the crown she swearing to them that they should enjoy the liberty of the Protestant Religion but this principle that faith should not be kept to hereticks induced her not only to break her promise but also to imprison some of them for minding her of it How many fair promises did Katherin de Medicis Queen of France and her son Charles the ninth make to the Protestants and yet this hellish principle induced them not only to break their promises but also under the greatest pretext of friendship to massacre them all at Paris anno 1572. It was this devilish principle that made Don Frederick son to the Duke d' Alva after he had taken Harlem upon composition that the citizens should give 24000. florins to redeem themselves and town from spoil to plunder the whole town contrary to promise and to hang some drown others and starve others It was this wicked principle that caused the Segnior Noucarmes when the inhabitants of Valenciennes in Hainault surrendred the city upon good conditions to keep the gates of the city shut for diverse days and most perfidiously and barbarously to hang up all the French souldiers with all the Ministers and Protestant merchants and confiscat their goods Many mo instances might be given but this may suffice Notwithstanding of all this H. T. is so shamelesly impudent as to say that the Council of Trent hath declared That to violate any least point of publick faith given to hereticks is a thing punishable by the law of God and man Sess 15.18 Ans I have consulted Petrus Suavis on Sess 15. and 18. and I can find no such declaration only there is a safe-conduct granted by the Council to Protestants to come to the Council But they fearing lest it was like the safe-conduct given to John Hus did not accept thereof The fourth evidence to prove that no oath nor obligation can bind Papists is Because let Papists swear never so solemnly whither for performance of fidelity to their Prince or of keeping covenant and bargain with their neighbor yet the Pope according to their principles may dissolve that oath and free them from the obligation thereof I might bring several proofs of this but I shal only bring one very observable After the Gun-powder treason King James appointed that all Papists should swear the oath of allegiance But hear how Paschenius in his answer to King James his monitory Epistle scoffs at it as D. Usher citeth him in his Sermon before the House of Commons Feb. 18. 1620. Vide in tantâ astutiâ quanta sit simplicitas See saith he in so great craft how great simplicity doth bewray its self When he had placed all his security in that oath he thought
as we said before and the Kingdom interdicted but also King James was by a Bull sent unto England a little before Queen Elizabeths death excluded from the Crown and all that were not Roman Catholicks were declared incapable of and excluded from the succession whereof his Majesty complaineth in his Apologie For Bâ—llarmin tells King James Tort pag. 19 That the Pope claims a dâ—uble right to England one by reason oâ— his Apostolick power which he extends over all men according to that Charter Psal 44. Thou shalt establish them Princes over all the earth The other proper by a right of Dominion for saith he England and Ireland are the Churches Dominions the Pope is direct Lord and the King his vassal XXI Neither were they less active in stirring up wars and combustions in other Kingdoms for a Priest of their own named John Brown aged seventy two in his voluntary confession to a Committee of Parliament set down by M. Prin in his introductioÌ„ to Canterburies doom p 202. saith That the Jesuits who are the Popes agents were the only cause of the troubles which fell out in Muscovia when under pretence to reduce the Latin Church and plant themselves and destroy the Greek Church the poor King Demetrius and his Queen and these that followed him from Polonia were all in one night murdered by the usurper of the Crown and the true progeny rooted out That they were the only cause that moved the Sweds to take arms against their lawful King Sigismund and chased him to Poland and neither he nor his successors were ever able to take possession of Sweden for the Jâ—suits intention was to bring in the Romish Religion and root out the Protestants They were the only cause that moved the Polonians to take arms against the said Sigismund because they had perswaded him to marry two sisters c. They were the sole cause of the war in Germany and Bohemia which began anno 1619. which caused the death of many thousands They have been the cause of the civil wars in France moving the King to take arms against his own subjects the Protestants where innumerable people have lost their lives for the Jesuits intentions were to set their Society in all Cities and Towns conquered by the King and quite to abolish the Protestants They were the cause of the murder of the last King of France They were the only projectors of the Gun-powder treason and their penitents the actors thereâ—f XXII M. Baxter in his key for Catholicks chap. 45. 46 47 48 49 proveth at large by good evidence that the Jesuits had a special hand in the late Civil War that burnt in the bowels of these three Nations till it had near consumed them Whose evidence I intreat that the Reader would read and seriously ponder From all which I hope it is evident enough that the Pope and Church of Rome have been the continual Authors and instigators to wars and combustions in Christian Churches and Kingdoms SECTION IV. That the continual practise of Papists ever since the Reformation hath been to plot and practise bloody and treasonable Conspiracies Assassinations and Murders both of Princes and People who profess the Reformed Religion IN the former Section we have proven that the Pope and Synagogue of Rome have been the grand Authors of warrs confusions and combustions in Christian Churches and Kingdoms In this Section we are to prove that not only have they been the Authors and instigators to bloody wars and confusions in Christian Churches and Kingdoms but that in all Protestant or Reformed Churches Kingdoms or States they have been secretly and under-hand always plotting and practising bloody and treasonable conspiracies assassinations and murders both of Princes and people who profess the Reformed Religion It would be too tedious to declare at large what plots and conspiracies the Pope and his dependers and vassals have had in all the Reformed Churches ever since Luthers Reformation we only shal instance some few not our near hand in France Ireland and in Britain I. I told in the former Section how the Pope and his sworn vassals were the Authors of the massacre of Paris anno 1572. which was surely hatched in hell and carried on with all the subtilty of that old Serpent for when the Pope and Court of Rome and Queen Catharin de Medicis and Charles the 9. her son saw that fire and fagot and force of war could not undo the Protestants they said come and let us deal subtily with them and ensnare them by pretences of friendship and flatteries therefore they not only concluded a peace with them but gave the sister of the King of France to the King of Navarre in marriage that so they might massacre the Protestants at the marriage and they suspecting no treachery came to the City of Paris where the Queen of Navarre was poysoned by a pair of perfumed gloves and the Admiral and the greatest part of the Protestant Nobility were all massacred in a morning the massacre was so cruel that it made the river run with blood and there were thirty thousand Protestants killed in one moneths time of which more afterward II. We also hinted before how King Henry the 3. of France although he lived and died a Papist and while he was Duke of Anjou had foughten several battels against the Protestants and was one of the plotters in the massacre of Paris yet because he did not joyn with the holy League and obey the Popes will in all things the Pope excommunicated him and stirred up James Clement a Jacobin Monk to commit that horrible parricide upon his Royal person III. We did also a little touch how his successor King Henry the 4. was opposed and molested by the Pope and the holy League his sworn servants and excommunicat and the Spaniards brought in the Kingdom to joyn with the holy League to his ruine But God so blessed his enterprises that he foyled them often but he being weary of war and consulting with flesh and blood for peace and ease to himself and quyet to his Kingdom turned Papist and sought absolution from the Pope and at length obtained it But because they thought him not a heart Papist and cordial for them in all things they plot his death by secret assassination and after several attempts one whereof wounded him in the mouth Râ—villac stroke him through the very heart although to please the Pope he caused recall the Jesuits which for their bloody principles and practises were banished the Kingdom So this is the Pope and his Jesuits method when they cannot overcome any Prince that they think no cordial favorer of theirs by open hostility they excite and stimulat some scholer or other of theirs secretly to assassinat him For John Chastel a scholer of the Jesuits who stroke King Henry the fourth of France in the mouth and broke out one of his teeth intending to have cut his throat when he was examined confessed that he being guilty of