the Tridentine heresie a Colos 1.29 God the Father did decree by the testimonie of Paul that his only begotten sonne from all eternitie b Heb. 1.10 the Creator of heauen and earth c Colos 1.16 of Angells and men d Heb. 1.3 the brightnesse of his glorie and Character of his person e Heb. 2.16 should take on him not the nature of Angells but of men f Heb. 7.25 wherein he alone without any fellow helpers might fully finish the whole saluation of man God the sonne g Rom. 9.5 God aboue all blessed for euer though Arrius reuiued burst for griefe h 1. Tim. 3.16 reuealed in the flesh approued in the spirit True God true man brought forth without a father By a maide whom God begate without a mother i Heb. 7.3 As he was shadowed out by Melchisedech and therefore k 1. Tim. 2.5 the onely one Mediator betweene God and man in the fulnesse of time fulfilled the decree of his Father reconciling God displeased with man that was lost by his owne accord The meanes whereby saluation is procured to man by the excellencie of his person the sanctitie of his nature obedience of his life and sacrifice of his death did alone deserue eternall saluation not infusing into him so much grace wherby man himselfe might merit saluation to himselfe m Rom. 4.24.25 but imputing the merit of his death which he might lay hold on with a thankefull and holy minde God the holy Ghost proceeding from them both did lay open to the minde of man saluation which the Father decreed the Sonne deserued and sealed it vp in his heart n Ephes 1.14 giuen not as a pledge but as an earnest which Austin obserueth out of the Apostle o Austin in this place because that mony which was borrowed when it is paide againe the pledge is restored but the earnest when the price is paide againe is not restored because it is part of the price which is not to be taken away but is to be supplied as p Aquin. in this place Aquine teacheth out of Austin Therefore the spirit of Christ giuen to man the earnest of heauenly inheritance is not paide backe againe So the Apostle hath set three foundations of mans saluation more sure then heauen and earth 1. The eternall decree of the Father 2. The infinite merit of the Sonne 3. The irreuocable earnest of the spirit So the worke of our saluation is from God alone the knowledge of saluation from the word of God alone hence he is called the word of saluation q Gal. lib. 2. de sanitate tuenda Galen writeth that the cause of many diseases in the body as hereditarie proceedes from corrupt seede and from putrified nourishment The disease of the soule is hereditarie from corrupt seede as Iob saith which is encreased by custome of sinning as with impure nourishment Now as the diseases of the bodies are cured by contraries so the diseases of soules which God being r Pet. 1.23.2.2 dead begetteth againe by immortall seede being againe begotten feedeth them with pure nourishment being sicke diseased healeth them with holesome medicines that is with the pure word of God who is to be accounted the true Father Pastor and Phisition of the soule Yet he vseth men to that purpose as instruments whom he sendeth and moueth that first they preach forgiuenesse and absolution from all their sinnes promised freely by faith in Christ to the penitent and after enioyne two things to him that is forgiuen One that he pay backe againe the dutie of holinesse to the blessed trinitie alone for so vnspeakeable a blessing of saluation The other that he afford all the helpe of charity to man for Gods sake being the liuely Image of God setting before the obedient at the last inward peace vpon the earth and an eternall inheritance in the heauens So the men of God doe raise vp a man that is sorrowfull with the promise direct a man that goeth astray with the commandement comfort him that is fainting with the reward but the men of God doe speake outwardly the spirit of God doth worke inwardly They do beate these things into their eares the spirit doth ingender faith hope and loue in the heart faith which doth apprehend the promise hope which looketh for the reward loue which keepeth the commandement Å¿ Colos 1.12 For God doth not finde man fit but maketh him fit to participate the inheritance of the Saints in light whom he draweth being vnwilling and tooke him resisting out of the power of darkenesse and placed him being thus deliuered in the kingdome of light the kingdome of the sonne of his loue t Ephes 2.1 For hee found man not yet regenerated dead in sinnes not halfe dead but starke dead not like to the man with the palsie who lay sicke on his couch but to Lazarus who lay foure daies stinking in his graue So that euery sinner before he heare the powerfull voice of Christ speaking inwardly to him lyeth putrified and consumed in the graue of his sinnes Whence a sinner riseth and commeth forth as Lazarus for the power of the Lord is in both not the power of the dead u Austin in tracta of Iohn 49. as Austin doth expound Saint Paul So that hee hath neede not of helping grace whereby hee recouereth health but creating grace whereby he is againe brought to life And a sinner is meerely passiue and can bring no more help to his conuersion then Lazarus brought to his rising againe In whom Christ doth not helpe his weake wil but create a new x Galat. 6.15 Ephes 2.10 hence the conuersion of a sinner is called new creation not in respect of the naturall faculties and of morall virtues which sinne only corrupteth but of spirituall graces which sinne hath blotted out as the master of the sentences obserued out of Austin Therefore the image of God imprinted in the soule in respect of the substance is deformed in respect of the qualities is cleane put out y Greg. Nyss de orat Dom. Serm 5. as Gregorie Nyssen teacheth The restoring then of the image blotted out is the rising againe of man being dead This is the nature this is the disposition of the Apostles doctrine it doth depresse man that it may extoll God it doth cast off corrupt nature that it may bring in sauing grace A man therefore must liue in God yea farther by God before he can either will or thinke any good a meere passiue subiect of grace at the first while being as it were made warme by the spirit of Christ hee beginneth to will his owne conuersion and is made a voluntarie instrument of grace by no imbred or infused force of the will but by the power of the seede of grace and of the new life which hee had from God Paul doth thus distinguish betweene a man to be converted and converted He maketh him
God he exacteth subiection of the body Rom. 13. In the beginning of the 13. Chapter speaking of the obedience due to a Prince he requireth the subiection of the soule What obedience is due to Princes Hath hee not likewise submitted the soule to God and the body to the Prince yes verily But to that end he hath distinguished these because men doe for the most part thus excuse themselues that they vowe their soule to God when they prostitute their body to the Deuill and yeeld their body to the magistrate when they deny him the reuerence of the soule Therefore let the soule be subiect to the higher power saith the Apostle Hence two other parts of subiection doe necessarily follow Paul the Apostle doth adde the reasons with a commandement which Paul the Byshoppe doth not adde with his prohibition For all power saith he is of God He speaketh not so much of the Prince as of the gouernment nor so much of the person as of the power To shew that hee rather respecteth the right of gouerning then the qualitie of the gouernour Againe if the power of a King be from God Power from God not the Pope or people then it is not from the Pope as diuers of the Popes flatterers would haue it Neither is it from the people as diuers flatterers of the people doe at this day striue for it I beleeue they leaue the power of destroying a gouernment to him whom they dreame to haue a power giuen to build it vp They that yeeld so much to the Pope subiect a King vnder a sober tyrant they that yeeld so much to the people subiect him vnder a furious tyrant and as the Poet said very wittily and truely to a beast of many heads And therefore the King is not bound to giue accompt either to Pope or people but to God from whom hee receiued all his power immediately Hence the Apostle presently inferreth these two conclusions 1. He that resisteth Gods power resisteth the ordinance of God and draweth to himselfe damnation The 2. that the King is Gods Minister and beareth the sword wherewith he doth defend the good and punish the wicked and that all must bee subiect not for wroth but for conscience That no man may thinke that Peter and Paul thought that obedience was due for the times sake and that they wanted force rather to resist Nero then a minde I will shut vp all in a word The Catholicke faith of the auncient Romane Church as it was deliuered by Paul the Apostle did inferre loyall subiection to a Pagan cruell King The Catholicke faith of the vpstart Church of Rome as it is deliuered by Paul the Byshop doth take away and ouerthrow Allegeance and all obedience as it were vnnaturall from a Christian King and such a King that euen by the confession of his Aduersaries is very mercifull Whom then shall we beleeue Paul the Apostle or Paul the Byshop an holy decree or an vnholy prohibition Neither were these commandements of Christ Peter and Paul of ciuill obedience to be shewed to Emperours Kings and ciuill Magistrates mutable according to times but are to be accounted perpetuall and eternall I haue laid the first foundation of our loyaltie the expresse and euerlasting commandement of Christ the second followes which is the practise of Christians § 16 Heere Saturnine before you go further saith he I yeeld that subiection reuerence honour fealty obedience is to be performed to a King A King excommunicated no King in poperie so long as a King is a king but if he leaue off to be a king then it ought no longer to be performed But he leaueth off to bee a King assoone as he is denounced to bee rightly excommunicated by the Vicar of Christ whereby he is presently accounted by law to bee deposed of his Kingdome and his subiects absolued from the Oath of obedience And although you laie very heynous and greiuous crimes of treason vpon our most holy Father and vpon many holy Priests and chiefly vpon the Iesuits yet if you would thinke of the matter a little better all this smoak of words would vanish to nothing For first I affimre that the Pope of right hath had and now hath this power then I affirme that assoone as he had it hee did put it in practise And yet it followeth not that he that defendes this as you conclude is a Traytor Thomas Aquinas obiected Vnlesse perhaps you dare account Thomas Aquinas that most glorious Saint and Angelicall Doctour to be a Traytor who writeth thus After that the Prince is denounced an Apostata all inferiours and subiects are to bee absolued from the Oath they had taken and from their obedience due vnto him And you may if you please ioyne with him Francis Toletanus obiected as a fellow in the like treason Francis Toletan a worthy Professor in our time who doth thus comment vpon Thomas Note saith hee that there is the same reason of one that is excommunicated because that assoone as one is denounced excommunicate all his subiects are freed from the fealtie The Laterane Councell obiected and that most famous Oecomenicall Lateran Councell held about 300. yeares since of 70. Pattiarches and Archbyshops and 400. and 12. Bishops and 800 other choice Prelates because it decreed that the Pope had the power we speake of do you thinke it was a conuenticle of Traytors Then Patriotta what Thomas Aquinas saith he what § 17 Toletane what Laterane Councell doe you speake of Thomas Aquinas writ 1200 yeeres after Christ was ouertaken with the error of his time and was the Popes vassall neither did hee alledge any Prophet Apostle or Doctor only he rested vpon the only example of Gregorie the seuenth who was the first that a 1000 yeeres after Christ did attempt by excommunication to cast Henry the 4. out of his Kingdom Pope Hildebrand no fit example against Kings A very weighty authoritie forsooth against a Kings sword which Christ ordeyned and to whom the Church of Christ as it shall appeare afterward obeyed for a 1000 yeeres of an vpstart Canonist dreaming in the darke night of Poperie that the subiects might be absolued by the Pope from the oath of obedience wherewith God had bound them and alleaging no other Author but Pope Hildebrand a turbulent and furious monster as he was accounted by his owne Cardinalls And yet Aquinas was somewhat more reasonable then Toletane Aquinas answered he thought that no mans subiects were to be absolued from their oath of obedience but his that was denounced an Apostata that for euer had fallen from all christianitie But Toletan forsooth Toletane answered the worthy professor of our age the Popes hireling with lesse learning and greater boldnesse as if he were some worshipfull Vmpire giues his sentence without all reason Note saith he that the case is all one of a Prince excommunicated by the Pope vpon any cause whatsoeuer Do you not
of Rome as what it ought to doe For this is rather an admonition then a commendation and with a praise giueth warning of duty Wherefore you shall doe well Calander as S. Peter warnes you if you alwaies giue attention to the holy Scripture as to the candle to the Church as to the candle-sticke so long as it containeth and vpholdeth that candle giuing light to all the house For if it bee bereft of the light of her sunne and being blinde endeauours to make others blinde also while it makes new Articles of the faith and conceales the old it doth retain the name of a Church but it hath altogether lost the nature that which may very truely be spoken of the Church of Rome § 128 You doe very vnaduisedly traduce the Church of Rome saith Saturnine by whom you thinke that new Articles of the faith were made for the Articles of the faith which it propoundes are diuided into two sortes One are of immediate Reuelation Others are drawne and fetcht from thence What articles of faith the Church maketh The Church doth not make new Articles of the faith of the first sort But the Church maketh Articles of the second sort which ought to bee beleeued with the Catholicke faith as the case requireth if it thinke them necessary Therefore Vincentius Lyrinensis thinketh that the life of propheticall and euangelicall doctrine must be directed by the rule of Ecclesiasticall and Catholike sense so that he doth in vaine brag of the text of scripture who reiecteth the sense of the Church § 129 Then Patriott how absurdly is it said saith he that the Church doth not make immediate reuelations of God Vnlesse that be more absurd to thinke that to fetch and draw from is the same which to make for an Article must first be made before a doctrine can be drawne or fetcht from the same Therefore that is said to bee an Article of the faith which is drawne from an Article Foolishly Articles are principles deductions are conclusions An article is one thing a conclusion drawne from the article is another which often is so contrarie that it vtterly ouerthroweth the article As it shall bee made cleare in the explication of your creede For I confesse with Vincentius Lyrinensis that the line of propheticall and Apostolicall doctrine is to be directed by the rule of the ecclesiasticall and catholicke sense For the ecclesiasticall and catholicke sense must alway agree with the Propheticall and apostolicall text For where the text doth faile vs the glosse cannot helpe vs. Whence I conclude that nothing can bee Catholicke and Ecclesiasticall which is not Propheticall or Apostolicall Now because Vincentius doth restraine the propheticall and apostolicall line to the cannon of the Scripture which he confesseth to be more then sufficient for faith it followeth that nothing contrarie to the canonicall Scripture can be Ca holicke though it bee so determined by the Church Wherefore Calander if the Church of Rome haue cast any article of faith into the Creede of the second sort which is contrarie to an Article of the first sort and haue added an ecclesiasticall glosse disagreeing from the definition of canonicall Scripture that Church shall sooner leaue off to be the Catholicke Church then that Article shall beginne to be Catholicke Let vs come therefore to the Creede and let vs intreat Argentine if hee please to open it vnto vs. Then Argentine I will doe it and very willingly and § 130 I will so professe it as it is propounded by the Bull of Pius the 4. to be a forme of an Oath of the profession of the orthodoxall faith 1 I William Argentine doe firmely admit and hold the Apostolicall and Ecclesiasticall traditions and other ordinances and constitutions of the Church of Rome The Popes creede Traditions Scriptures according to the Romane sense 2 I doe firmely hold and admit the holy Scriptures according to that sense which the mother Church hath and doth hold whose right it is to iudge of the true sense and interpretation of the Scripture neither will I euer admit it or expound it but according to the ioynt consent of the fathers 3 I professe that there be seauen Sacraments truely and properly of the new Law 7 Sacraments ordained by our Lord Iesus necessarie for the saluation of mankind Baptisme Confirmation the Eucharist Penance Extream vnction Orders Matrimony I admit the receiued and approoued rites of the Catholicke Church Originall sin and iustification 4 I admit and hold all and euery those points concerning originall sinne and iustification which were determined in the holy Councell of Trent The Masse 5 I professe that there is offered vp in the Masse vnto God a true proper propitiatorie sacrifice for the quicke and the dead Transsubstantiation 6 I beleeue that in the holy Eucharist the body and blood of Christ is truely and really and substantially and that there is made a change of the whole substance of bread into his body and of the whole substance of wine into his blood which change or conuersion the Catholicke Church calleth transsubstantiation I confesse also that vnder one kinde onely whole Christ is receiued and a true sacrament Purgatorie 7 I constantly hold that there is a purgatorie and that the soules there deteined are holpe with the praiers of the faithfull Adoration of Saints 8 I hold that the Saints raigning with Christ are to be worshipped and to be called vpon and that they offer vp their prayers to God for vs and that their reliques are to be worshipped The worshipping of Images 9 I firmely hold that the Images of Christ and the euer blessed Virgin and of other Saintes are to bee had and to be adored with due worshippe Indulgences 10 That the power of indulgences was left by Christ and that the vse of them is very auaileable for saluation The supremacie of the Pope 11 I acknowledge the Catholicke and Apostolicke Romaine Church to be the mother and mistris of all Churches and I vowe and sweare true obedience to the Byshoppe of Rome the successour of blessed Peter the Prince of the Apostles and the Vicar of Iesus Christ The authority of the Councell of Trent 12 I vndoubtedly likewise receiue all other thinges defined and determined by the holy Canons and Occumenicall Councells chiefly of the holy Councell of Trent and I reiect and accurse all things contrarie and all heresies reiected by the Church This true Catholicke faith without which none can § 130 be saued at this present I voluntarily professe I will procure as farre as lyeth in me to be wholy vncorruptly and constantly kept and taught by Gods assistance to my liues end I the same William promise vow and sweare so help me God and these his holy Euangelist And I stand in feare of that which the most holy Father added It shall not bee lawfull for any man to infringe this authoritie of our ordination inhibition
vpon the stage with his head couered for the greatnes of his griefe So these good fellowes bring vpon the stage their pleasant Antichrist hoodwinkt for the greatnesse of his ioy that the world may not see how he fleeres at them The number of the Locusts 5. The multitude and number of Locusts is answerable to the number and power of the Monkes old and new chiefly the Iesuites whose swarmes do adde greater force to doe mischiefe 6. Power is giuen to these Scorpions ouer the earth and charge giuen them that they hurt not the grasse of the earth Apoc 9. v. 4. nor any greene herbe nor any tree but men onely as it followeth in S. Iohn These Locusts then are reasonable creatures yet such as abuse their reason to the destruction of men for they doe not trample vpon herbes and trees but doe annoy the bodies and soules of men whom they strike with their stings infect with their poyson and kill with a lingring death The practise of Iesuites These Iesuites whom these Locusts and Scorpions doe liuely represent doe choke vp with their poyson and extinguish the fidelitie of subiects toward their Prince and the faith of Christians toward God The fidelitie of subiects when they teach they are released from the Oath of Allegeance giuen to their Princes whom the Pope doth denounce excommunicated The Popes vsurped power ouer Princes who can driue out of his Kingdome and depriue of his gouernment Kings Catholike in the faith but wicked as goates hereticall Kings as wolues as Bellarmine writeth neither only open but secret Heretikes as Symanchaâ— nor those onely but their sonnes and followers are vtterly to be rooted out as Creswell agreeth with Symancha by any meanes whatsoeuer as Saunders either by open force 2 King 33. as Iesabel by Iehu or by craft as Holophernes by Iudith as Rainoldus Bourchier write The cruell practise of Papists against Princes or by knife dagger wherby Henry the 3. Henry the 4 were most basely murthered either of them being a Catholike as they terme them only because they fauored hertikes that before sentence was denounced against them or els by a dag poyson The gunpowder treason from Iesuites by which means Queen Elizabeth was often assaulted as Walpoole and Comensus perswaded or else with gunne-powder wherewith King Iames with all the Kings Progeny and Nobilitie and the whole Kingdome of Britaine should haue been vtterly ouerthrowen by certaine wicked English conspirators as Garnet the Prouinciall of the Iesuites in England thought meete whereby it is manifest that the Cheargy-popery whereof Iesuitisme is the braine is nothing else but a catechisme of treason Must we not heere needes acknowledge the poyson of Locusts and Scorpions whereby the Allegeance of subiects towards their Princes is shaken off Let vs looke after another kinde of poyson if you please The Papists poyson the faith of Christians whereby the soules of simple people are infected to choake vp the faith of Christians which they teach must be secret and implicite that the Lay-people must beleeue as the Church beleeueth when as they know not neither what themselues or the Church beleeueth as Bellarmine saith that faith is not placed in the vnderstanding but in â—he assent i. The Colliars faith or that circular faith which Staphilus so much commendeth the master of the sentences proueth out of the first of Iob ver 4. While the oxen were at plow the asses fed neere them Many Mast sent lib. 3 distinct 25. saith he beleeue such things they know not and they haue their faith couered as in a mystery He liketh the greater and Doctors to Oxen Lombards foolish interpretation the lesse and the simpler to Asses who in their humility adhering to the greater beleeue in a mysterie an asse-headed interpretation by the masters leaue 8. Whereby it appeares that Laike-popery is nothing else but meere foolery Vers 4. Whom the Loâ—usts doe hurt 9. Neither doe these Locusts and Scorpions hurt all men but those onely which haue not Gods marke in their fore-head their mindes they goe about to intoxicate with their poyson As S. Iohn saith that the great heapes of vnbeleeuers are onely the prey of the Locusts Vers 5. Locusts kill not but afflict men 10. It is giuen to the Locusts and Scorpions not to kill men but to afflict them for fiue monthes but how can that be true say some when as the Iesuites be notable Cut-throates I answer that S. Iohn in this verse speaketh of the slaughter of soules which these destroying Locusts doe chiefely deuoure Wherein they doe not kill men at a blow but by afflicting them by little and little as they which bee stung of Scorpions consume away by lingring greefe This is S. Iohns sense when he saith that the Scorpions doe not kill men but torment them For when these Antichristian scorpions doe infuse and conuay the poyson into men what gnawing and pritching doe they leaue behinde them how doe they vexe mens consciences how doe they inwardly bite and sting men feele themselues to bee miserable sinners and after death stand in horrour of iudgement They heare little of the true fire of hell much of the false fire of Purgatorie from the Monkes they feele the bitternesse of sinne they feele not the sweetnesse of the remedy They neuer heare of Christ They giue eare to the monks preaching historically of the crosse of the death and resurrection of Christ but of the vertue of the crosse of the benefit of his death of the efficacy of his resurrection the force and power whereof doth consist in speciall application not one word The Papists enemies to certainty of saluation Yea rather there Doctors cry out that it is presumption and arrogancy if the wounded conscience of a penitent sinner be certainely perswaded by faith that Christ Iesus is his Sauiour or that he may confidently trust he is in the estate of grace vnlesse an Angell doe specially reueale it vnto him as though to a faithfull mans spirit the spirit of Christ the God of the Angels doth not giue a more inward more certaine and a more excellent testimony that he is the sonne of God the heire of heauen and fellow-heire with Christ so that the faithfull man feeleth that hee is gouerned by the spirit of Christ from whom hee receiued that testimony and doth ioyne the grace of that gouernment with the grace of that comfort Neither of this do those locusts feele or teach who while they depriue their auditours of the holy confidence in Gods mercy The manner how Papists torment mens conscience nor suffer them to serue God with a sun-like but a seruile spirit and therefore not with the reioycing of the spirit nor suffer them to enioy peace of conscience in the middest of their afflictions and send sinners trembling for feare to the treasure of the Church as popish indulgences and humane satisfactions and
or keepe open doores or haue any contract or businesse or haue any comfortable society with Christs faithfull seruants as Martin the fift in the bull annexed to the counsell of Constance did word for word declare 8. The name of the Beast or of Antichrist doth follow in the last place it is not a proper but a common name For if we know what the Beast is we shall quickly know what his name is CHAP. XVIII Of the name and number of the second Beast THe Beast with seauen heads as I sayd is the state of the Romane and Latine Empire whose sixe Heads or Kings were called Romane or Latine The seuenth is Antichrist called likewise Romane or Latin Therefore Antichrist is the seuenth King of the Romane or Latine Empire But the Pope is the seuenth King of the Romane Empire The Pope therefore is Antichrist 9. But hee must not onely beare the name of the Beast but the number of his name not the number of time but of his name for so saith Saint Iohn no man may buy or sell but he that hath the mark and name of the Beast or number of his name He doth not say the number of the time wherein Antichrist was to bee reuealed but the number of his name which he was to stampe vpon his But the number of the name is the number of the yeeres 666. which is contained The number of the Beast both in the Hebrew name in which language the Prophesie was deliuered to S. Iohn or in Greeke in which language it was written by S. Iohn Romanus in the Hebrew Latinos written in Greeke maketh vp that number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Ireneus witnesse Romanus by Fox his accompt There the common name of Antichrist is Romanus or Latinus It is the name of a man also which is very fitting for Latinus was the name of a King in Italy Romanus of a Pope Heere is wisdome saith S. Iohn hee that hath vnderstanding let him count the number of the Beast for it is the number of a man and his number is 666. It is an olde tradition not to bee reiected of them that bee addicted to traditions that Irenaeus tooke the the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from Ignatius Ignatius from Polycarpus Polycarpus from S. Iohn There be other names that containe the same number as Euandas and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but none of these bee the name of the Beast nor the name of a man none such which Antichrist doth imprint vpon his and to whom all the notes of Antichrist doe agree Whosoeuer doth compell those that bee vnder his iurisdiction to take on them the marke and name of the Beast the number of his name and the number of a man is Antichristrist But the Pope of Rome doth compell those that be vnder his iurisdiction to take vpon them the mark and name of the Beast and the number of his name and the number of a man as I haue demonstrated before Therefore the Pope is Antichrist CHAP. XIX Wherein is shewed the place where Antichrist sitteth The Pope sits in Rome which is Babylon WEe haue seene the actions the marke and the name of the Beast Let vs see his seat I haue expounded the starre which fell from Heauen I added somewhat of the Beast which rose out of the earth now hearken to the whore which sitteth on the Beast Ere while the falling starre did represent Antichrist now the whore of Babylon doth represent the seat of Antichrist A falling starre because hee left his place a whore because she broke her troth ere while the Land-Beast did poynt out Antichrist so called not onely because she tooke a surer and a stronger beginning out of rest and idlenesse but because shee being a slaue to her beastly affections sauours nothing but earth and flesh Now the whore of Babylon doth shadow out by your owne confessions the seate and Church of Antichrist Aug. de ciuit Dei lib. 16 cap. 17. cap. 22. lib. 18. Sic Hieron in Esa cap 47. v. 1. and else vvhere often Demonst 13. 18. for they are not afraid to call Rome Babylon as the Rhemists Parsons and Bellarmine and mysticall Babylon as Augustine cals Babylon as it were first Rome and Rome as it were the second Babylon and the daughter of the first Babylon whereupon your owne men grant that Rome is that whore of Babylon described by S. Iohn yea they proceede farther for your Saunders calleth it the seat and â—ity of Antichrist We take that you grant for it followes by your grant that not Heathenish Rome but the Bishops Rome is mysticall Babylon for the state of Antichrist being the seauenth head doth follow the state of the Empire being the sixt head of the Beast And therfore Heathenish Imperiall Rome could not be the seat city of Antichrist Therefore Christian Rome the Popes Rome Wherby it is broght to passe that not Heathenish Rome but the Popes Rome is mysticall Babylon For this is the summe of my conclusion Mysticall Babylon is the seat and city of Antichrist described in the Apocal. chap. 17. But Rome is mysticall Babylon there described Rome therfore is the seat and city of Antichrist But they distinguish of Rome in the assumption and they enforce it to be Heathenish and the Imperiall Rome which then gouerned persecuted the Saints Not this Christian and Popish described by S. Iohn It is a very waighty and euident prophesie 1. It had beene a colde and a weake prophesie Reasons to shew it was not Heathenish Rome but the Popish if he had prophesied of that persecution which he saw in others and felt in himselfe Prophesies looke not to the present but the future times 2. If he had meant that Ethnicke Rome had beene Babylon which did afflict the Saints at that time hee had not spoken as of a mystery for that could not seem to him so mysticall that Pagans should persecute Christians That was a plaine mysticall euill that Christians should oppresse Christians 3. Neither would he haue called Ethnicke Rome a whore in that sense which had not giuen her faith to Christ and therefore had not as yet broken it neither did shee deceiue the nations with whorish trickes and daliances but had vanquisht them with military force and weapons Hee doth therefore call Rome a whore after it left off to be a faithfull city which daunted the nations not as Bellona but enchanted them as Circe 4. Neither would he haue made her marchants the Sales-men of soules or that all nations had beene deceiued by her venemous baits if he had meant Ethnick Rome which subdued nations by force did not infect them with poyson For that kept a shambles for bodies not a market for soules And among all the negotiations of Popish Rome none is so gainefull as the trafficke of soules whereof S. Iohn which Ethnicke Rome neuer practised Therfore the Christian Popish Rome is that Babylon Popish Rome
Iohn 7 Now those ten hornes saith the Angell are tenne Kings vers 12. which as yet haue not receiued the Kingdome They be not then those tenne hornes whereof Daniel did prophecie whose kingdomes are at an end But they shall haue kingly power together with the beast that is with Antichrist which cannot be vnderstood but of the Proconsuls or Propraetors who were vicegerents to the Emperours in the Prouinces who together after the dissolution of the Easterne Empire had at that time absolute kingly authoritie with the Pope For while the Empire stood and flourished neither the Pope at Rome nor the Kings in the Prouinces did rule absolutely after it decaied both hee enioyed Rome and a great part of Italie and they enioyed the Prouinces And these tenne hornes together with the beast as Bellarmine confesseth it euent proues it Lib. 3. de Rom. Pont. cap. 13. diuided the Romane Empire betweene them Hence I inferre this At that time whenas Rome was accounted the Whore of Babilon by the Angell then the tenne hornes tooke absolute power with Antichrist But before Rome was Christian and Popish the ten hornes had not absolute power with Antichrist It followeth therefore that Rome not before it was Christian and Popish was accounted the Whore of Babylon by the Angell CAHP. XX. Wherein the qualities of the Whore of Babylon are described WHose glorious profession is fitly resembled to the golden cuppe of fornication It is said that Edward the 4. King of England had three Concubines the first very deuout the second very subtill the third very plesant The whore of Babylon alone doth expresse these three dispositions For what is more deuout what is more ioconde what is more wily shee hath a face none of her owne as her Husband Antichrist hath not For he doth alwaies weare a visard and therefore is a counterfeit Antichrist A whore not only for her carnall filthinesse but for her spirituall Idolatrie whereto she hath entised the nations with her allurements such as had to do with her She is therefore a blasphemous and filthy Whore more then that a proud couetous cruell whore And therefore she is said to bee decked with purple and golden attire inriched with the spoiles of all sorts and drunke with the innocent bloud of the Saints Note For what extremities soeuer impietie could effect by blasphemie or lust by laciuiousnesse or couetousnesse by rapine or pride by delicacie or crueltie by torture the same the Angell so long before foretould that the Church should endure by that whore of Babylon Neither if we grant that Ethnicke Rome from her cradell was Babylon because the beast is said to haue 7. heades any inconuenience will follow thereby Neither if wee shall say that the purple whore began then The Pope compared to Romulus when Romulus first founded Rome will it ouerthrowe the exposition of the Angell For it remained to bee that which she was in the beginning Yea a great deale worse when it was falsly Christian vnder Antichrist then heathenish vnder Romulus It is reported that Romulus was a notable theife a Deflowrer of Virgins a truce breaker a brother-killer and that hee founded Rome at the first by these sinnes But he was not so notorious for his theifts as this for his sacriledge Nor he so filthy for the forcing of Virgins as this for the worshipping of Images Nor he for his breaking his league with men as this with God Nor he such a spiller of his brothers blood as this of Christian blood What an one thinke we him to be who doth surpasse a theefe in robberie a deflowrer of Virgins in lechery a truce breaker in treacherie and a brother-killer in crueltie Therefore the Angell called the Bishop of Rome Babylon and the purple whore by a super excellencie The descripti of the Whore of Babylon For she was proude by the spoiles of Prouinces this by the spoiles of all Churches She was composed or carnall this of spirituall adulteries and whoredomes She brak her faith with men this with God Shee was enraged against the bodies of the Saints this against the soules of the Saints She dealt with the lambes of Christ by open force as a Lyons Whelpe this as a Foxe with her cunning did sauagely teare them in peeces and deuour them Wherefore let Rome if you will bee that whore of Babylon from the beginning certainely she could not make drunke 10. kings with the golden cuppe of her fornication before there were tenne Kings For while Ethnicke Rome did stand they were the Emperours subiects they were no kings They were kings vnder the Pope of Rome therefore by popish Rome made drunke to whom by an excellencie the name of that whore is giuen by the Angell Neither yet will I euer accuse that Bishoply Rome which suffred for Christ vnder the ethnicke Emperours For not Rome regenerated and suffering but degenerating and persecuting can properly be called that whore of Babylon Neither doe I wholy excuse the imperiall Rome Imperiall Rome not to be excused which vnder Constantine Theodosius and other holy Emperours professed Christ because Rome which was Babylon from the beginning did retaine in her bosome diuers reliques of the former paganisme and diuers seedes of the future Antichristianisme Because it is not necessarie that all that were of the same succession should be of the same affection No I would not exclude Paul the 5. himselfe from the hope of saluation if the wretched sinner would repent and returne vnto his God Hence certaine dispute against vs. Antichrist cannot be saued for he is the sonne of perdition as the Apostle teacheth The Pope may be saued by your owne confession The Pope therefore is not Antichrist Or thus It is not lawfull to pray for Antichrist It is for the Pope The Pope therefore is not Antichrist This obiection is a fallacie called the begging of the question For it doth presuppose Antichrist to be one singular man We contrary as by many reasons wee haue proued it If therefore they keepe them to the point and take the Pope collectiuely the assumption is false if they take him for this or that single man the assumption is true if the Pope repent But then there be foure tearms in the syllogisme For the Pope is otherwise taken in the assumption then in the conclusion For there it is taken for singular Popes heere for a succession of Pope But of this sophisme I haue spoken enough before CHAP. XXI How the Church of Rome may be said to be the Church of GOD. BVt heere is another doubt to bee resolued how the seate of Antichrist can be called that purple whore as Saint Iohn saith and temple and Church of God as Saint Paul saith For if Antichrist sit in the Church of God as I taught before and popish Rome be the seat of Antichrist as in many wordes I haue declared it seemeth that popish Rome is the Church of God I answere and
left off to be a Paradise Paradise ouerflowne with the flood But this vniesuited Bellarmine that he might preserue that place free from the inundation of waters to be more pleasant and wholesome for Enoch and Elias hath remooued it into a place neere the circle of the Moone Paradise not neere the Moone But the Iesuite Pererius doth proue that it is the more incommodious and vnholesome and altogither inhabitable First for the neerenesse of the Sunne and other starres then for the Element of fire placed next the moone besides for the perpetuall agitation of the place being carried swiftly about with the constant motion of the heauen So that Bellarmine hath prouided very ill for those good Fathers when he placed Paradise so neere the Moone hath done great wrong to the Inhabitants of the earth as Pererius noteth pretily and pleasantly that the height of Paradise being in a place opposite to the east would keepe away the light of the Sunne It is good sport to see these two learned Iesuits wrangling together about the scituation of Paradise Papist against Papist as the Madianites wounding one another with their mutuall blowes Yet out of this their conflict the truth doth appeare that Enoch and Elias is not in the earthly Paradise And yet without all doubt they must be in Paradise then in heauenly Paradise Which when all is done he confesseth they bee not in the ethereall but aeriall heauen Aeriall Doctour who dreames that God will giue but an aeriall happinesse to these his excellent Prophets For whereas he thinkes it is a matter of religion for any to confesse that heauen gates were open for any before Christ and to the proofe therof hath gathered and bent all his forces that most learned Byshoppe of Elie hath so weakened and disperst them that he hath cleane vanquished the Sophister and driuen him out of the field Enoch and Elias are members of the sonne of man the sonne did first ascend into heauen by his owne power Enoch and Elias being members of Christ haue ascended by the power of the sonne of man so that Christ may bee rightly said to tread the way before them both Whence seeing it sufficiently appeares that Enoch and Elias doe now liue in heauen I will demand againe The second Question whether they entred heauen in their soules alone or with their bodies also For if onely in their soules as certaine learned men doe thinke they must twise rise againe if it be true that Bellarmine saith once to fight against Antichrist the second time to conuert the Iewes to Christ If with their bodies also which the greater sort and better learned on both sides do conclude that they may not deny the priuilege giuen to them for our comfort I will not curiousty inquire whether they enioy the blessed vision of God when I heare they be entred into the house of God that is the heauens wherein Christ saith that he hath many mansion places Three examples of God his glory Enoch Elias Christ. It contents me that God for the comforting of his Church vpon earth would haue three examples and shewes of his glorie to appeare Enoch before the Law Elias vnder the Law Christ vnder the Gospell that the two former by anothers Christ by his owne power entred heauen in their bodies Enoch for the comfort of married folkes Elias for the comfort of Virgins Christ for the comfort of either estate who being borne of a Virgin that was espoused did adorne both of them in his life the Virgin by his example the married by his miracle but especially that Enoch being famous for his integritie Elias for his zeale Christ for his perfection in all graces might be openly knowne to haue their entrance into heauen Hence euery faithfull man may behold the foundation of his happinesse in Christ the first fruits in Enoch and Elias in him the working cause in these a warrantable earnest of their resurrection and ascension into the highest heauen with the highest ioy and hence may we conclude against any Iewish heretike that as there was an entrance into heauen to Enoch and Elias to perfect their happinesse so a returne to the earth is denied vnto them onely Christ who ascended vp into heauen not for himselfe alone but for them and vs must come againe in the latter day that hee may bring those that belong vnto him into heauen Nor let any doubt but that Christ by which power hee shall carrie those being changed in the twinkling of an eye into heauen whom hee shall finde aliue at his comming on the earth hath with that power changed Enoch and Elias in the very moment of their translation and assumption that being made like to his glorious bodie he shall as he hath made them so also make vs fit for heauen The third Question Here I thirdly demand how Bellarmine can imagine their bodies to be mortall and corruptible who haue so many ages enioyed in the heauens immortalitie and incorruption for flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdome of heauen and corruption cannot put on incorruption as the Apostle teacheth Bellarmine contradicteth the Scripture whom the Cardinall doth contradict Enoch was translated that hee should not see death saith the Apostle he shall returne that he may see death saith the Cardinall so Bellarmine alwaies beates against the rocke so long till it be to be feared he will be beaten in peeces by the rocke But if so be that Enoch and Elias doe liue in their bodies in the heauens which is Gods house as the wiser Papists doe confesse to be agreeable to Scripture it followeth that their bodies be incorruptible and immortall The fourth Question I demand therefore in the fourth place how it can be that they should be killed by Antichrist in the latter day how they can so die that they be raised vp the third day There is no shew of truth in the inuention no probabilitie in the deuise And yet these two inhabitants of heauenly Paradise the possessors of immortalitie as Hierom calls them not that now they desire but that they now enioy immortalitie as Tertullian speaketh the marke-men and first borne of our resurrection as Epiphanius saith the most ancient inhabitants of heauen in whom the worth of grace hath changed the law of nature as Athanasius saith Immortalitie not ouercome by death euen these two this old doting Doctor Bellarmine doth imagine shall returne againe vpon the earth that they may dye by the hand of Antichrist Mortalitie shall be drunke vp of life but immortalitie shall not be drunke vp of death For God will not giue that glory to Antichrist that he triumph ouer the death of the Saints in heauen for they be immortall If they be heauenly and immortall what businesse haue they vpon the earth to fight with Antichrist whom Christ hath purposed by three meanes vtterly to destroy and abolish 1. By the effectuall ministerie of his word
Britaine What maruaile is it if they raile vpon holy Doctors that doe but write against them when they reuile great Princes that can proscribe them But that is no maruaile that they spare not the good name of a King when they spare not his blood For they be not only byting doggs but deuouring wolues as appeares not only by the gun-powder Treason I should haue said the Iesuites treason but by the cruell death of Henry the third and fourth Kings of France An exhortation to Princes I am grieued at your sluggishnes I am greeued at your slauerie ô yee Kings and Princes who doe endure such sowers of sedition such teachers of periurie such authors of King-killing Beware of these dogs catch these foxes driue away these wolues as my spirit hath aduised you to whom slandering is a sport consening is a game rebellion and conspiracies is meat drinke Foresee that your patience be no longer hurtfull both to you and me Awake out of sleepe at the last and defend my glory together with your owne safetie take the cause of the Gospell in hand and laying aside Antichrist put on Christ Iesus not a false and a faigned Iesus as he is deuised by that Apostata but true and right Iesus as he is preached by the Apostle Doe no longer hold shadowes for bodies shewes for substances preferre not things vaine before those that be sound nor things fraile before eternall Vaine and fraile is the outward shew of Christ which deceiues the eyes sound and eternall is the truth that feeds the soules it is not the forme but the power of the Crosse that brings saluation Let not the glistering shew of Antichrist which wrongs you being aliue and cannot helpe you being dead deceiue your eyes that it may keepe you from Christ from whom you may expect comfort in life and true rest in death Whereby their madnes seemes the more who groueling vpon the ground so dote vpon Antichrist that they neglect the faith of Christ his name onely being reteyned who cannot feele the sauing force of the Crosse nor the inward power of the Spirit nor the heauenly light of the Gospell nor the spirituall glory of my kingdome As if my estate base and contemptible in whom there is no outward forme nor shew to be desired as my Prophet Esay said had caused you to turne both your looking and your liking from me or as if I had suffred the most greeuous anguishes of the soule and the most bitter tortures of the bodie for mine owne sake and had not been wounded for your transgressions and broken for your sins that the chastisement of your peace might reside vpon me and saluation out of my wounds and miseries might come to you For this is the very truth the basenesse of the estate I vndertooke ☜ the weaknes of the flesh I tooke on me the ignominie of the Crosse I endured for your sake seemes vile and contemptible in the iudgement of flesh and blood But if that heauenly maiestie if that power if that glory which through the vaile of humilitie weaknesse and ignominie is transparent to the eye of faith might appeare to your mindes euen as I am described by Iohn a lambe slaine and a lyon inuincible that so I may appeare to you a mighty God in the forme of a weake man How great loue and feare if you beleeue either a heauen or a hell would the vniting of so infinite mercy with such infinite power and iustice stirre vp in your soules Great sinners such as commonly Kings are had need of great grace the preaching whereof shall be as acceptable to you as necessarie when once you shall feele the stinge of an accusing conscience pricking you whereby you might come to heauen by the way of repentance that could not come thither by the way of innocencie But they that vnderstand not the force of their sicknes desire not the force of the remedie And while they feele not the wound inflicted by sinne they looke not for the remedie applied by grace To whom I denounce that I will proue either a most louing Patron or a most seuere Iudge with my right hand to saue them or to be reuenged on them All men whatsoeuer they haue or are owe it all of right to me but Kings and Princes chiefly whom by my speciall fauour and grace I haue aduanced a few ouer so many millions of men and placed them in mine owne throne To what end to what end I pray that they might giue themselues to lust and idlenesse to serue the Dragon to aduance and adorne Antichrist not so not so verily But that they may watch ouer the Church may fight for the Lambe may spoile teare in pieces the Beast if that heauenly quire of Saints in heauen fall down before the lambe sitting on his throne and worship him that liues for euer and cast their Crownes before the throne saying Thou art worthy ô Lord to haue all glory and honor because thou hast made all things and being slaine hast redeemed vs by thy blood vnto God If that innumerable ranke of melodious Angels doe with sweet and loud voices sing of the power wisdome and strength of the Lambe that is slaine and giue him all honor due vnto him What ought you to doe you vnder whose purple robes as yet abideth dust and ashes and who weare but corruptible Crownes vpon your heads what ought yee to do in the cause of your King and Redeemer for since I haue brought those holy soules after the end of all their trauels dangers in my quarrell and battell into the possession of true happines promised and vowed vnto them you that as yet are in the very heat danger of the battell both the necessity of my helpe the expectance of the reward ought to stir you vp to a more feruent desire to defend mine honor Heere I haue a iust grieuous cause to complain that your mutual suspitions quarrels haue made Antichrist weake and contemptible in himselfe to be so dreadfull and mighty Hence it is that that Laterane Idoll hath taken to it selfe the golden head of a swelling title and spread abroad the siluer armes of his pecuniary inrisdiction and strouted out the brazen belly of conspiracy and rebellion and hath mooued and stirred from home those iron feet of violence and pride wherewith he hath not onely trod vpon your crownes but your neckes I tell you plainly the discord of Kings hath encreased Antichrist their amity shall weaken him Is it for your good to admit of spies that may search into your counsels fiery spirits that may cast the seedes of discord betweene neighbor-kings and set them together by the eares Harpeyes that may spoyle you of your treasures Horse leeches that may sucke your blood secret traytors that with faire words may cut your throats who when they haue laught at you in their sleeues that they haue left you lead and taken your golde that
accompt either to a Priest or to the people but to God For he holds his Crowne by the right of blood and inheritance not by the virtue of invnction or consecration or of election and acceptation as you were wont to say that you may giue some authoritie of deposing and depriuing to a Priest whom you make to be the first mouer and some to the people whom you make the remouer So you make Kings hypotheticall and the people conditionall but Priest absolute and categoricall being herein very simple because that power which you say they haue receiued of God to depose Kings that was neuer brought into practise vnder the whole old Testament Your argument therefore from the stronger falls to ground and comes to nothing that if the priestly excommunication vnder the old Testament was of such force of how greater and larger force is it vnder the new But we haue euicted it that there was none at all vnder the old Popish blasphemie At last you returne backe againe and repeat that former blasphemous argument of yours that God was not prouident enough but left the Church in a miserable case like a widdow cleane forsaken if hee had not giuen the chiefe Priest to hir either as a Tutor forsooth or a Husband That is like as if the father husband of the Church were not aliue or tooke care of another daughter and wife or else would appoint in his place such a one to be a Tutor for his daughter whom he foretold to bee an aduersarie or prouide such an husband for his daughter who would proue an adulterer Lastly as if Peter and Paul had dissembled and had commanded obedience to bee shewed to Nero so long till Christians could make head and other Christian Bishops had so many ages consented to the like dissimulation you doe not blush to affirme that Bishops could of right excommunicate their Princes and depose them being excommunicate if the Church had then power to resist True sayd Saturnine for Christ his Preistly prerogatiue § 51 wherewith he was able to breake in peeces such kings as earthen vessels beeing granted by large and precise charter to the Bishop of Rome the chiefe Preist which reason brought by vs you past by as a man vnknowen gaue power to the first Bishops and right to the thing it selfe as the Lawyers speake to depose Kings excommunicate being infidels apostataes heretickes and tyrants but the Church did neuer practise that authority till she gathered strength in processe of time For that commandement of Christ alleadged by you Giue to Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are Gods doth he not submit Caesar to be kept vnder by the Vicar of God when hee denieth to God those those things which belong to God And whereas Christ did thâ—â—ce speake to Peter Feede my Lambes feede my sheepe feede my sheepe did he not commit all Christians little and great lambes and sheepe subiects and princes to be fed and ruled without exception to Peter and Peters successour And when as he had committed the keyes of heauen to Peter and Peters successour to let in and shut out doth he not shew that diuine and admirable power of excommunication which you forfooth would haue so weake and feeble for whereas you sayd that Prelates and Bishops ought to be subiect and obedient to Kings Heb. 13.17 I did much maruell that you were so forgetfull of another commandement no lesse Apostolicall whereby hee bound Kings as well as subiects to obey their Prelates and their Pastors and to submit themselues as to them by whom accompt is to be giuen to God for their soules wherein what Christian Prince can exempt himselfe if hee doe thinke that he haue a soule § 52 Then Patriotta I past by that your reason Saturuine of the prerogatiue of Christ communicated with the Bishop Christ ouer-ruling Kings not as a preist but as a king not as vnknowen but as very idle For that prerogatiue whereby Christ doth bruise and breake in peeces kings and kingdomes the Prophet shewes not to bee his Preistly but his Princely power I haue set my king saith God not therefore as a Preist but as a King he hath broken and beat in peeces wicked Kings with his iron Scepter As a Priest he beares the Crosse as a King he bears the Scepter as a Preist he offred vp himselfe vpon the crosse and suffered his blood to bee shed for the remission of sinnes as a King hee vanquished his enemies shed their blood weakned and ouercame their power with the sight of this so great glorie that resides in him so you went about to blind our eies while you did closely subiect the scepter of a King to be trampled on by the Popes feet § 53 For you say that this prerogatiue of Christ is communicated with the Pope What else And that with large and precise charter where be those words point at the place shew the charter where Christ imparted this his prerogatiue with the Bishop of Rome Heb. 7. v. 23.24.25.26 For there bee many others appointed Preists saith S. Paul who by reason of death cannot continue but this because hee abides for euer hath an immutable Preisthood whence he can perfectly saue those who come vnto God by him alwaies liuing to make intercession for vs. For such a Preist was fit for vs holy innocent immaculate separated from sinners made higher then the heauens who hath no neede euery day as the Preists of Leui to offer sacrifices first for their owne sinnes then for the sinnes of the people for that he did once when he offered vp himselfe the onely sacrifice for sinne that hee might obtaine for vs eternall redemption The Bishop of Rome let him packe and bee gone and let him bragge of Christs Preistly prerogatiues granted to him by a large charter that all men may spit in the blasphemous face of this impure wretch But if hee haue not all yet hee hath imparted with § 54 him some of his prerogatiues at the least Which I pray you the keyes of the kingdome of heauen to open shut heauen the power of binding and loosing the power of feeding and ruling by all which you doe more then insinuate that the Bishop can rightly by the power of excommunication wrest from Caesar his scepter his crowne sword subiects kingdome and life For these belong to Caesar Therfore when Christ spake to Peter feed my sheep he meant this depose Princes I will giue you the keies of the Kingdome of heauen that is I will giue you the thrones of earthly kings that you may let into the kingdome whom you will and whom you will exclude that you may loose subiects whom you please and whom you please binde that you may punish whom you will and may forgiue whom you will We must I thinke learne not onely a new Diuinity but a new Grammer and a Logicke also To feede Christs sheepe The popish
I demand what King he deposed you take exception that he farre before is deposed by him whosoeuer for time to come doth breake the priuiledge of that house so long as the world endured And thefore hee deposed Kings not onely before they were crowned but before they were borne But the proposition that you defend is as false as the reason you alleadge is friuolous What King soeuer doth infringe the priuiledge of the monasterie of Medard let him be depriued of his honour Whether is this rather a depriuation of a King or an imprecation Adde which you omitted and let him be damn'd in the lowest pit of hell with Iudas the traytour If the Pope haue power out of this place to depose a King he hath likewise power to damn him But he hath not power to damne him therfore he hath not power to depose him Are you well in your wits who take a vow for a censure and the forme of imprecation for a sentence of depriuation a former curse for a reuenge following § 113 And you neuer can sufficientlie adorne and set out Gregorie the seuenth your sweet delight and that worthily for that he shewed himselfe not onely a traytour as you are your selues and desire to make others like your selues but also a captaine and ring-leader of all treason to promote the glorie of Preists with diminishing the credit of the people For those praises which you laie vpon Gregorie and those reproaches you cast vpon Henrie doe nothing either helpe your cause or hurt ours but I wonder that this good Arch-deacon as you call him prooued so bad a Bishop Gregorie condemned and for what that all the Germaine Bishops almost did condemne him in the Councell of Wormes of monstrous periuries strange mis-behauiours and diuers outrages in his life But the Italians did acquit him Not so neither For thirtie of them beeing assembled at Brixia after they had receiued Ambassadours and letter from nineteene Bishops who had consulted at Mentz with the Nobles of Italy and Germanie did publikely testifie that Gregorie did most impudentlie inâ—rude himselfe into the See Apostolike by deceit and briberie did peruert all Church gouernment did trouble all gouernment in the Christian Empire did attempt the destruction both of bodie and soule of a Catholike and peaceable King and maintained a periured rebell against him Nor being therewith content at last adiudged Hildebrand a most shamelesse person committing sacriledge and robberie defending periuries and murthers calling into questiun the Catholicke and Apostolicke faith about the body and bloud of Christ being an ancient scholler of Berengarius the hereticke an euident obseruer of dreames and diuinations And therefore to be canonically deposed for his backsliding from the true faith Lambert in an 1077. and to bee thrust out of his Popedome But these factious fellowes fauoured the Emperour against the Pope What they that fauoured the Pope against the Byshoppe But Lambert Schafnaburgensis doth praise the man But the same very Lambert whenas he was the Popes Legate and had shewed that the Emperour had reconciled and submitted himselfe at Canufium yea by his owne report all of them the Italians began to chafe to hisse and clappe their handes and to scoffe at his apostolicall Legacie with flowting outcries and to cast out bitter and railing curses in their madde moode that they nothing regarded his excommunication whom all the Italian Byshoppes had excommunicated a goodwhile since vpon iust causes him who had climbd vp into the Apostolicke seat with simonicall heresie imbrued it with murthers defiled it with adulteries and capitall enormities that the King had done otherwise then became him and had much staind his honour for submitting the maiesty of a King to an Hereticall Pope most infamous for all villanies For all this wee excuse not the faults of the Prince but defend his right neither do we accuse the life of the Pope condemned by his own side but we weigh his fact we obserue this one thing that a Simoniacall and an adulterous Emperour as Marianus Scotus writeth was ill remooued by a Simoniacall and adulterous Pope as the Germaines and Italians call him I am not ignorant that Fredericke the first and second § 114 are after the same manner as bitterly traduced and disgraced by the Popes Flatterers as Henry the fourth was Princes traduced by popist writers as Ludâ—uicke the fourth Emperour by Iohn the 22. and Philippe the fourth surnamed the faire the French King by Boniface the 8. and Henry the 2. King of England by Alexander the 3. and Iohn King of England by Innocent all of them being once excommunicated were by the flattering stile of the Romane writers abused and slandered That it is no great matter to wonder at that the Princes of our time being taken for Heretickes by you though falsly Henry the 8. Edward the 6. Elizabeth and Iames the first be so vnworthily dealt withall who did euen then in the midst of popish darknesse so cruelly vexe their owne Princes But that not only the English whose faithfulnesse toward their Princes certaine hyred vassales of the Pope haue endeauored to corrupt in their bookes set out in English but that the Germaines the French the Spaniard the Italian may see out of their owne monuments the fidelitie of their ancesters toward their owne Emperours and Princes euen then when the Popes did most terribly thunder against them that they may acknowledge it with me and the rather imitate and expresse it in so cleare a light of the Gospell hearken I pray you hearken not what a few Lutheranes and Caluenistes but what the Catholickes of these nations almost without number haue often decreed in their Sinodes and Parliaments for their Kings against the Popes tyrannie which writers shall with authoritie easily ouercome the rest either old or new being few in number and corrupted by bribes § 115 You heard before what the Germanes Italians both Byshoppes and Nobles did decree publickely for their Emperour Henry the 4. against Gregorie the 7. Now heare what the Germanes did publickly first for Fredericke the second against Innocent the 4. then for Lewes against Iohn the 22. and after of the rest The Pope resisted by the popish clergy The Germane Byshoppes first whenas they had receiued a charge from Albert Pope Innocents Legate to publish the bull of excommunication against Frederick all of them refused it The Abbotes being commanded to curse the Byshoppes that refused neglected it The Clergie receiuing a new charge that they should choose new Byshoppes and the Monkes other Abbotes being greatly agast at the nouelty of the example began to disdaine and chafe and detest the rashnesse of the Popes Legate and greeuously to accuse euen the Pope himselfe for vndertaking so strange and shamefull an action against all equitie and right and filling all Germanie with troubles How did they entertaine Raberius a French man being another Legate sent from Innocent in the same businesse hauing his associate the
limitation of the ciuill to him the bond of the spirituall obedience is the disioynting and loosing of the ciuill Is not Bellarmines deceit euident enough who vnder the pretence of spirituall obedience hath taken the ciuill cleane away So he playeth the iugler Ciuill obedience taken away to deceiue the Papists sight and that with a twofold tricke One whereby he perswadeth that for the shew of ciuill obedience they thinke the spirituall may bee abiured by them the other whereby vnder the shew of spirituall obedience he cleane taketh away the ciuill Hence ariseth those new and strange interpretations § 177 of Bellarmine in the schoole of Diuinitie Bellarmines new and strange interpretations Let not obedience be shewed to man contrary to the obedience of God that is let not obedience be shewed to the King contrary to the obedience of the Bishop And we must rather obey God than men that is we must rather obey the Pope than Kings I appeale to your owne consciences ye Papists whether you thinke this to be the Apostles commentarie that in respect of spirituall obedience which consisteth in faith deuotion loue and feare of God a sinfull mortall man should be aduanced into the seat of God What if the Pope command which God forbiddeth that wee take from Caesar the things that are Caesars by Gods owne gift his sword scepter crowne subiects and life is not this vnder the shew of spirituall obedience to forbid ciuill obedience And to command that obedience be giuen to the Pope commanding vniust things against Gods obedience who hath enioyned your subiection to the King Rom 13. This ought not to appeare spirituall obedience to you but spirituall cousenage whereby vnder the cloake of spirituall obedience which the Pope hath gotten by the gift of men he loose the bond of ciuill dutie which is due to the King by the gift of God § 178 I beseech you ô yee Christian Kings and Princes whether you thinke it be for your good A caue at for Kings that such positions as these be setled into your subiects mindes That such a catechisme as this not only lye close hidden in books but be openly taught in your Vniuersities Churches There be none so dangerous trecheries to Princes as those which are hid vnder the cloake of duty and coloured with the name of catholike religion Vnder the pretence whereof Bellarmine hath cherished rebellion in the subiects of the Venetian common-weale which professeth Popery as hee hath done at this time in the subiects belonging to the most excellent King of Great Britaine A Troiane or a Tirian to him are all alike Beware ô yee Kings lest the mischiefe intended to one fall vpon all the rest Saturnine is an ill egge of an euill bird as in the proofe of the article of supremacie he is a corrupter of Gods will so in the practise of it he is an enemy of princely gouernment And as you had him ere while a manifest forger so now you haue him an open traytor § 179 Here Calander both your discourses said he the one against the Pope the other for the King giue me iust occasion of two doubts one how the spirituall and ciuill obedience is distinguished in the word of God the other whether the former Councells did cast of this spirituall power which the Pope doth generally vsurpe Which two points being briefely and plainly discust will cleare the whole controuersie and satisfie any man that is not contentious Then Patriott You do wisely Calander saith he to call euery thing to her beginning for euery thing as it is first so it is true and that which is right sets out both â—â—lshood and it selfe First therefore I answer about the distinction of the double power the Spirituall and Ciuill Chrysost de verbis Esa Vidi Dâ—m hem both which Christ ordayned I call that Spirituall which concernes the soules and that Ciuill which rules the bodies That 4. Power distinguished Christ committed to his Minister this to his Magistrate somtime to more somtime to few often to one That is called Episcopall gouernment this Princely or that is spirituall this ciuill Each as I said is of God To whom it is committed and how performed The Holy Ghost hath appointed Bishops to rule the Church of God Act 20. and Wisdome saith By me Kings doe raigne and Law-makers appoint iust things Therefore Kings doe rule by God as Bishops do feede Gouernment belongs to them Ministerie to these But these you will say haue Gouernment also I confesse it Bernard de consid ad Eug But these haue an inward gouernment ouer mens soules they haue an outward ouer mens bodies Bishops haue the key of the word and sacraments to be exercised not in the name of the King Matth 16. but in the name of Christ nor the key only of knowledge The difference of gouernment between Princes and Bishops Rom 13. Chrysost ex Paul ibid. but of discipline and that not after their owne pleasure but after Gods will Kings haue the sword to be drawne in defence of godlines and iustice whereby they command those things that be true and good forbid such as be false and euill and punish the wicked of what calling soeuer and defend the righteous The weapons of Bishops are spirituall of Kings corporall Therefore Bishops ought to teach to admonish to reproue to depriue of the seales of grace and to driue from the communion of the faithfull those that grieuously and publikely offend till they repent Chrysost ibid. Kings ought to restreyne them according to the qualitie of the offence either of libertie or goods with losse of limmes or of life it selfe Therefore the gouernment of Bishops is by perswasion of Kings by compulsion of a Bishop directing of a King constreyning A King rules men a-against their will a Bishop with their wills Jerom. al Heliâ— in Epitap Nâ—potiani Hee doth gouerne by feare this bringeth to libertie He reserueth the bodies for death this keepeth the soules for life Either of them doth punish not only theeues murtherers adulterers periured men traytors but also blasphemers Idolators Heretickes Schismatickes whether they be of the Laity or Clergie but he with the corporall sword the byshoppe with the spirituall Either of them haue equally a care of holinesse and honesty the one that he may teach by precepts the other that hee may ordaine by lawes Either of them is practised about holy things but not vpon holy things For they are not subiect either to the wil of the Pastor or gouernment of the King The King is conuersant about holy and diuine things not in the administration and execution thereof as Vzias but in appointing and ordering them as Ezechias A byshoppe is conuersant about holy things in the doing and executing of them to preach the word to Minister the sacraments and vse the keies Good lawes are made to settle truth by the counsell and faithfulnesse of the
Byshoppe and by the power and authoritie of the King § 180 There are some who foolishly compare these two together there are other who doe wickedly mingle them together so that one doth destroy the other which God hath most wisely ioyned together that one should helpe the other Now this spirituall power if you respect Christ Ephes 4. is monarchicall vnder him alone if men it is aristocraticall vnder many as wee shewed out of Paul The ciuill is of three sorts Either belonging to the People Princes or cheife King Which last when wee set foorth wee disgrace not the rest The duty of a Byshoppe It cannot be denied but that the byshoppe in his spirituall perfection and comfort doth excell the King for God doth not appoint the King but the byshoppe to bee the seedsman of his word the Messenger of his grace the disposer of the mysteries of his kingdome But in the outward authoritie and power of compelling the King doth excell the byshoppe while hee commandes that which God alloweth Neither do I so preferre the ciuill gouernment before the spirituall but do affirme that the same God who teacheth those that be simple and draw such as be willing by the mouth of the minister doth draw those that bee negligent and constraine such as be retractory by the sword of the magistrate whom the spirit and God of the spirits hath ordained to that purpose Yea truly they who set the ciuill gouernment behind the spirituall simply as the body behinde the soule and the flesh behinde the spirit do make a very fleshly comparison betweene Kings and Byshoppes vnlesse they imagine Byshoppes to be without bodies and Kinges without soules And who so inferre thereupon that a godly king cannot inflict a punishment vpon a wicked Priest doe deface holinesse in the King as a matter temporall and aduance wickednesse in a Priest as a matter spirituall And who thence conclude that a Christian King cannot promote holy rites by his lawes as well as a minister can by his doctrine and censure giue more without cause to the shauing of a Priest then to the character of Baptisme and do foolishly preferre priestly annointing before the Princely And they seeme not wel to vnderstand what those excellent lights of the world Constantine Iustinian Theodosius Valentinian Gratian Zeno Charles the great Lâ—wes his sonne and Lothary his nephew and many other Kings and Emperors did out of Gods word iustly commaund Byshoppes in causes ecclesiasticall and wherein they did obey Byshoppes as was made manifest before But the Byshoppe hath power from God to gouerne § 181 the Church as is before said therefore aboue the King in the gouernment of the Church I distinguish of the gouernment One was Inward Outward It is one thing to administer the inward another thing to order it In the administration of the inward gouernment a Byshoppe doth excell a King in the ordering of it a King doth excell a Byshop I confesse a Pastor is superiour in feeding so Carpenters in building and Mariners in sayling are aboue a Prince A Priest not aboue a Prince What then are they simply better It is a fallacy from that which is in part to that which is simply But the actions of a Byshoppe are more excellent then the workes of a King as the preaching of the word the administration of the Sacraments the remitting and retaining of sinnes Therefore a Byshoppe doth excell a King But the working and perfection of these things doth depend not vpon the arbitrement of the Byshop but the commandement of God August cont Cres lib. 4. c. 6. Ambros There is a double spirituall power 1 Ministeriall of men 2 Imperiall of God Therefore the credit of these actions must serue the glory of God not the honour of the Priest The spirituall worke is of God A Byshoppe great not in respect of his person but doctrine the bodily seruice is of the Minister Men in the remission of sinnes doe not exercise the right of power but doe exercise their Ministerie They pray God doth grant The ministerie is from men the gift from an heauenly power The reason therefore drawne from the perfection of heauenly graces in the Church to preferre the person of a Priest before the person of a Prince is very weake because the subiection due to the sword is annexed to the person of the Prince the worthinesse and power due to the key is not annexed to the person of the Byshoppe but to his doctrine § 182 By Gods law obedience is due to each For hee that saith keepe the commandement of the King saith likewise obey your Prelates who watch ouer your soules But we are to hold this that here are not to be vnderstood by Prelates Popes and Cardinalls who obtrude their owne inuentions vpon vs but holy and Christian Byshops and Pastors who deliuer the word of God vnto vs as the Apostle addeth for wee are not tyed to the decrees of Doctours but to the oracles of God Therefore the obedience required is not the outward subiection to the person of the Priest but an inward submission to the doctrin of Christ and an allowance and practise of the same For in respect of the person Byshoppes are called seruantes and their function is called a Ministery as I said Therefore the greatest King is bound to beleeue and obey the least seruant of God deliuering his Lords will And he oweth that subiection to the Lord not to his Messenger to his doctrine not to his person For hee commeth not in his own but in the Lords name which may be as truely said of the meanest Minister as of the greatest Byshoppe What a Byshop may do A Byshoppe therefore may teach a King that is ignorant may reproue him being an Hereticke as the Prophet did Ieroboam king of Iuda may admonish him being of a bad life as Iohn did Herod may correct him being a Tyrant as Elias did Ahab may reprehend him being otherwise good if hee doe openly and greeuously trangresse as Nathan did Dauid and depriue him of the sacrament of grace while he repent as Ambrose did Theodosius But whether he can remoue him from the companie of his faithfull subiects by excommunication it is a great question and diuersly discussed by the Fathers They who hold it may be done by the Byshop do denie for all that that the King by him may bee put from the obedience of his subiectes much lesse being excommunicated bee abandoned by his subiects and killed either by open force or secret treacherie as certaine of the popish sort doe hold I say certaine for the honester sort decree otherwise and commit the King to the Byshoppes cure submit him not to his Court. For the King is the Lords seruant and the Byshoppes Lord as I said before subiect to the Byshoppes pulpit not his consistorie that he may be directed by him not iudged by him A Byshoppe is appointed to perswade not compell not to gape
with their decrees The popish levvd dealing Here the Popes side haue brought in so many voluntarie corruptions forgeries impostures wherewith they might foyste in false Canons and blot out true that they who haue dealt so deceitfully are rightly deemed to haue a bad cause Lastly wee brought into open view not only the doctrine and practise of Christ and Peter that the literall sense hath reproued this supremacie which the allegoricall sense of the Scripture did not proue and that literall sense is confirmed not only by the testimonie of the ancient Fathers and Doctors of our owne side but by the testimonie of the very Papists themselues So that this tower of Babylon being not only bereft of her rotten weake vpholders but being also thrust at by our strongest engines that is by the decrees of the Church and oracles of scripture must needs be shaken in peeces and fall to the groud Therefore the supremacie of Peter that in Bellarmines iudgement is a transcendent thing aboue all by the censure of the Scripture is nothing at all and the succession of the Pope is not from the institution of Christ as they say but from the fact of Peter and this fact is proued not by any certaine reuelation but by an vncertaine vision Behold why the primacie of Bellarmine in Tortus did vaunt that this article of the catholike faith had a sure ground in the Scriptures And now marke Calander to what passe all Bellarmines deuises are brought The deposing of a King hangeth on the excommunication of the Pope the power of excommunication is vnited to the supremacie the supremacie hath the beginning from a Primate but the Primate though hee be narrowly fought for yet cannot possibly be found in the text Where is then the supremacie where is the power of excommunicating Kings where is the right of deposing them Truly your Primate hath either a bad title or a bad Patron But the Patron is said to be very good therefore the title is very bad But the Papists will accept any thing at his hands as he hopeth with whom if hee preuaile in this cause it is more for the credulitie of the Readers than the wisdome of the Writer Then Regius The supremacie being ouer-turned that double power which is so annexed to the supremacie must needs be ouer-turned the spirituall and the temporall The spirituall whereby as a Bishop by excommunication hee thinks hee may driue from their kingdomes Kings that are in opposition whether Heretikes or Roman-Catholikes The temporall whether it be direct or indirect whereby hee may as the chiefe spirituall Prince take the Crowne from one and bestow it at his pleasure vpon another But of the temporall we shall see afterward Excōmunication the mother of rebellion Now let vs consider of the spirituall This great Sophister when the Pope of Rome purposed to shoot his venemous arrow at the head of the Prince he bent the Popes bowe with this double power as it were with a double stringe that if the temporall did faile the spirituall should hit him home Which if I should not accompt holy as the desire of gold is holy I should lye For this tricke of popish excommunication wherewith he bindeth Kings that they cannot raigne or absolue subiects that they doe not obey the world hath felt long since that it is but a diuelish arte as Vrshergensis saith which hath brought in treacherie and rebellion vnder the cloake of faith and religion dreadfull to Kings damnable to subiects to whose bodies it hath brought destruction and damnation to their soules as appeareth manifestly by the former Dialogue § 222 Then Saturnine We saith he for our parts do not greatly care what Heretikes say what the Church ordeynes that we regard neither are we bound to their conceits but to hir decrees And wee retayne the supremacie by a double right by claime and by possession About the claime the Heretikes haue often moued many brawles from the possession they shall neuer remoue vs. Then Regius you say that you regard the constitutions of the Church as you call them I wish rather you should regard the oracles of Scripture You say that you hold the supremacie by a double right by clayming and by possessing The Pope is falne from the right of a great claymer as Patriott hath plainly won Now at the last you vrge another right of a great possessor which what is it else than the right of a strong theefe For what other law belongs to theeues than to brag that that which they possesse is their owne howsoeuer they haue got it Now seing the supremacie is not grounded vpon Gods institution but mans ambition which you see to be clearely ouerthrowne by the oracles of the scripture and decrees of the Councells it followeth now that the serpents head being broken we breake in peeces likewise the rest of his members Then Calander Saturnine seemes to bee driuen to straites when as being beaten from the right of clayming he flyeth to possession That therfore you may haue a breathing time let vs put of the conference about the other Articles till another day for now it is more than time that you refresh your minds being tyred with the labor of this discourse A Table of the principall matters conteyned in this Treatise A. ABomination of desolation what is ment thereby 82. 90 Absurdities 78. 108. 133 An admonition to popish Princes 156. Adrian against Fredericke choakt with a flye 253. Agathus obedience to Constantine 249 The oath of Allegeance and Supremacie confounded 240 Ambrose did obey Valentinian an Arrian 248 Alexander the 3. in a Cooks attyre 374 Alexander and his foure Princes 99 Alexander trod vpon the Emperors necke 254 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereof it is a note 6. Antichrists type in Daniel himselfe in Iohn 2. The reasons 98. Hee began to worke in Pauls time 2. He must decay by the preaching of the word and perish at Christs last comming 793. Epiphanes described in Daniel not Antichrist 3. Hee shall worke wonders 3. Hee is held for one single man 5. The reasons ib but is a succession 9. Antichrist hath two hornes like a lambe speaketh like a dragon 5. 40. Antichrist is Christs Vicar in apparance in truth his aduersarie 6. Antichrist not a beast of three yeares and a halfes continuance 8. Heresies makes the great Antich 8. 28. Antichrist is the Land beast 9. As many Marij in one Caesar so many Antichrists in one Antichrist 11. He is that man of sinne and sonne of perdition 11. Antichrist in many ages yet but one 11 The popish description of Antich 12 a bearer 39 Antichrist a falling starre an Apostata a Renegate from the Lord. 13 He is not a Iew but an Apostaticall Christian 15. He sitteth in the temple of God or against the temple 17 He doth not openly deny Christ 19 Antichrist denieth Christs two natures three offices and the benefits therof 20. 21. 26. 27 His kingdome darke and smoakie