the Parisian French King or Charles our Kentish English Innocentius 3 Extra de Excessu Prâ—lat Soveraigne Nay it is the saying of the Pope Articulos solvit Synodumque facit generaleÌ„ thatis the Pope hath power to call a generall Councill and to disanul every particular Article Thus farre hee fareth for the opposing of the old Creed then for the composing of a new Though some affrighted with the absurd audacity of this assertion doe seeme to mince it yet the whole Church of Rome concur in the conclusion The Pope hath power Edendi novum Aquin. 22 â— â— artic 10. Symbolum saith Aquine to publish a new Creed Condendi to compose a Creed writeth Vigâ—erius Ordinandi novum Symbolum to ordaine or authorise a new Creed quoth Gabriel Biel. Finally what these and other Papists have avouched in words Pope Pius the fourth maketh good de facto in deed by whose authority the Trent Creed is published with Pij 4. Bulla annâ— 1564. twelve articles also as a parallell to the Apostles Creed and urged with as authenticall injunction First to beleeve the doctrine of traditions 2 The authority of the Church of Rome to expound the Scriptures 3 that there are seven Sacraments 4 all the points concerning originall sinne and justification as they are defined by the Councill of Trent 5 The Masse and that it is offered a propitiatory sacrifice for the living and the dead 6 Transubstantiation and that the Lords Supper is to be received but in one kind 7 Purgatory and prayer for the dead 8 Invocation or praying to the dead as also worshipping of Saints and their Relâ—ques 9 The adoration of Images 10 Indulgences 11 The Popes Supremacy namely that the Romane is the mother mistres mater magistra of all Churches and that the Pope is Peters successour and Christs Vicar and finally to beleeve all the definitions of all Oecumenicall Councills but especially of their last of that of Trent And that these are the Catholike faith extra quam nemo salvus esse potest which except a man do beleeve he cannot be saved The subscription running as peremptorily as if they were the very Dictates of the Apostles or of Christ himselfe Profiâ—â—or spondeo voveo juro that is I professe I doe beleeve promise vow and sweare that I will obey all these Articles of the Catholike faith This man therefore who contradicteth old Lawes maketh new Lawes and breaketh all lawe I thinke I may lawfully call him lawlesse and conclude him to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The very Antichrist Thus these lawes of God both of constraint and consent both Scripture and the Creed are infringed by this man of sinne without impediment with like facility doth this hornet break through those cobwebs humane lawes be they oecumenicall for all nations or oeconomicall for all families Those lawes of nations are of two sorts when faith is either contracted betwixt equals by an oath or exacted from inferiours by Allegiance Each way is no way to bind the Pope who is everie way boundlesse and lawlesse The law of oathes is so generall amongst nations as that all nations observe them as most sacred and inviolable in so much that Pagans would not infringe them Regulus would be rather tortured than perjured though he could have escaped by breach of oath It was Aristotles saying that he who did double in his oath for that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to sweare with a mentall addition Arist Rhetor. 18. ad Alex. hath neither feare of Gods vengeance nor shame of mans reproofe and Dionysius in Plutarch was condemned by all whose saying was that children were to be mocked with toyes and men with oathes Surely it shall be easier for those Pagans at that day then for some Christians Some Christians said Matchiavell make oaths Matchiav Hist Flor. lib. 3. obligations not equall to profit they use oaths not to observe them but rather to deceive those that put their trust in them And I take it that no one thing hath done such harme and brought such shame to Chriâ—â—â—â—dome as this particular Simancha teacheth very solemnely Simancha Inâ—â—it Cath. cap 4. art 14. edit Hiss Fides data haereticis non est servanda nec a privato nec a magistratibus quod exemplo Concilij Constantiensis probatur Nam Iohannes Huss Hieromus legitima slamma concremati sunt quamvis permissa illis securitas est Promises quoth he are not to bee kept with Heretikes neither by private men nor yet by publike Magistrates He proveth it by a precedent froÌ„ the Councill of Constance by whom Iohn Husse and Ierome of Prage were legally burned although from theÌ„ they had received a safe conduct Trâ—nt Hist lib. 1. And the same had beene practised on Luther also at the Diet of Wormes in the yeare 1521 had not the noble disposition of Charles 5 the Emperor and the plaine opposition of Lewis the noble Elector Palatine preserved him Finally Becanus doth avouch Perjury by a maxime juramentum non est vinculum iniquitatis that is an oath is no obligation of iniquity iniquitie he esteemeth it for a Papist to performe his promise to an Heretike or a Protestant although hee sealed it by swearing an oath which all sober men suppose to bee the surest and most solemne obligation of all others yet of all others the Popes themselves are the most remarkeble patternes and patrons of perjurie About the yeare 1080 Rodolphus duke of Saxony instigated by Pope Hildebrand or Gregory 7 to rebell against Henry 3 the Emperor joyned battell with him wherein having his soldâ—â—â—s cut in peeces and his hand Pless myster Opposit 40. cut off Loe said he to his friends and followers with this hand I plighted my troth to my Leige Lord Henry but the Popes authority importunity urged me to the breach of that oath and now in the same hand I have received my deaths wound and so be dyed On the two and twentieth of May 1526 Trent Hist lib. 1. there was a confederacy betwixt Pope Clemens 7 Francis 1 of France and the Princes of Relation of the Religion in the West Sect. 15. Italy against Charles 5 the Emperor under the name of the most Holy League wherein the King was absolved from his Oath taken in Trent Hist lib. 5. Spaine And some thinke the Pope had promised the King to dispence with that Oath before hee made it vpon the hope whereof hee also tooke it Anno 1556 Paulus 4 by Cardinall Caraffa perswaded Henry 2 of France to breake his league and oath made with Spaine though the Princes of the Blood and the Grandies of that Kingdome abhorred the infamie of oath-breaking yet he received absolution from the Pope and such an overthrow from the Spaniard at Saint Quintin that it made his whole Kingdome to tremble and totter Instances are infinite I will adde onely two one most remarkable the other most miserable The first
most gratious Possible it is that salvation may breake through the Inquisition it selfe I have read of many Protestants eveÌ„ in Civil And I have heard a Romish Convert confesse that his Conversion was wrought in Rome it selfe So farre will I bee from condemning all that live under the Authority of Rome that I will rather hope that that may bee true of the Romanes which Saint Paul wrote to the Romanes 11. 4. That God hath reserued to himselfe many thousands who did never bow their knees to Baal Though the maine Bulke bee Chaffe yet who dare take Petilians part to bee Ventilabrum arâ—ae Dominicae and say there is no Wheat amongst it As some Philosophers say of the extracting of Gold out of other meâ—â—â—s Difficultas non insert impossibilitatem so say I in this cause though it bee difficult yet is it noâ— impossible that Christ should have some servants vnder Antichrist and that some Papists may be saved even at this day in Spaine and Italy Concerning Popish errors wee must consider their kindes and degrees The kinds of them are of two sorts some are Capitall such as contradict the Articles or hinder the meanes of Faith as Adoration of Images Invocation of Saints Iustification by workes inhibition of the Scriptures c. Other Popish errours are lesse principall which of their owne nature doe not destroy any Article of faith nor absolutely hinder our salvation as Pilgrimages Penance Vowes c. Next the degrees of them are threefold some doe command those Popish errours as the Pope and popish Councils some doe teach them as the Fryers and Iesuites others doe onely follow and beleeve them Answerable to which is that distinction of St. Aug. Haeretici credentes haereticis there are erronious Auâ— de utilitate credendi cap. 1. seducers and erronious seâ—uced Now if my charity could frame a mathematicall abstraction that there were a credulous Romish Catholike led with the name of Catholike and with the shew of Antiquity who with an innoceÌ„t though ignorant devotion should follow the Pope as those two hundred did Absolon 2 Sam. 15. 11. in their simplicity I should not despaire of their salvation But to speake of Papists as I feare most Papists are at this time and in this land A Trent-Iesuited Papist a compleate Papist refusing hating persecuting the truth offered Such are certainly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those that perish I know not how to excuse them and the Scripture sheweth no meanes how to save them Now followeth the durus sermo I come to that vnpleasing conclusion concerning the salvation our English Papists For the time I have shewed that of the old Papists wee have great hope that a great number were saved For the place I have shewed also that wee have some small hope that some small number may bee saved even in Spaine and Italy But for our time and our place we have hardly any hope that hardly any English Papish can bee saved My reasons are two drawne from the two former heads from the time when and the place where they live 1. In old time though the Papists held horrible errours yet they professed them at large without any precise particular and personall submission and subscription But now by the Counsell of Trent they are imposed as Articles of faith and they subscribe that they beleeve them and sweare that they will maintaine them This I take it is the marke of Antichrist And I feare all English Papists are such Papists 2. In the next place consider the Place Here they live where the trueth is taught and not by Authoritie as in Italy but by their owne voluntary refusall they are debarred from the sound thereof All Papists are Antichrâ—stian This is too much and yet it may bee not enough to pronounce them damned But our English Papists are Antichristian according to the two Characters of DaÌ„nation in my Text. First as it is in the 10 verse they do not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they doe not receive the truth offered unto them they reject all instruction both publike by preaching and private by perswasion Secondly as it followeth in the twelfth verse they doe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 take delight to remaine in their ignorance and errours That I may conclude in the words of a Papist Haereticorum Steâ—art in 2 Thes 2. 10. qui obstinate nolunt veritatem inquirere ignoratio sit culpabâ—lis damnationi obnoxia quia sic affecta est ut si scire velâ—â—â— possent debentque that is the ignorance of Heretikes who doe obstinately refuse to seeke the trueth is culpable and damnable because it is of such a nature that if they would they might and ought to know the truth This is the best that I can say or hope of the best of our English Papists but of the most and worst I must say their estate is â—arre worse and of them my conclusion must bee more peremptory Our English Iesuited Papisis who are indeed almost all our English Papists these are the limmes of Antichrist in an high nature These hold the same haeresies with the former but farre more arrogantly and obstinately To use the words of one of their owne Iesuites Iungantur in unum dies cum nocte tenebrae Apologista c 3. pag. 119. Câ—saâ—b ad Front Duc pag 52. cum luce calidum cum frigido sanitas cum morbo vita cum morte erit tum spes aliqua posse in caput Iesuitae haeresin cadâ—re That is when it is possible for day and night light and darknesse cold and heat health and sicknesse life and death to bee united then will there be some hope that a Iesuite may be capable of heresie Can a greater unerring prerogative be assumed by an Apostle by an Angell yea by the trueth it selfe by Christ Iesus himselfe so arrogant and obstinate are the Iesuites in their hereticall assertions But here is not all to these damnable presumptuous Haeresies they adde as damned desperate positions of Moralitie As their breaking of faith with Haeretikes denying to sweare allegiance to their King avouching the Popes power to depose him absolving of Oathes and that devillish tricke of Equivocation paradoxes rasing the foundations and principles of Morality Christianity and Humanity And with these poysonous doctrines they infect their followers in all power through the working of sathan Watson Quod. 1. Art 7. To use the words of a Papist Some Romanists either of grosse ignorance or wilfull blinded affection haue said no lesse in effect then that though they knew they should bee damned for it yet would they for obedience sake doe whatsoever the Iesuites should command them This is limen inserni Their estate is damnable Hooker in Hab. pag. â—6 when as profound Hooker speaketh heresie is thus heretically maintained by men obstinately holding it against wholesome instruction Thus the truth doth extort froÌ„ me this peremptory conclusion I feare the estate of all English Papists But for a
beene spared Surely the Charitie of our Father the King and of our Mother the Kingdome is very admirable if these intolerable defamations extort not from them that imprecation against these their degenerate Children Prov. 30. 17. The eye which thus mocketh his Father and despiseth yea belyeth his Mother the Ravens of the Valley shall picke it out and the young Eagles eate it But the malitious effect hath not wholy erred from the villanous scope they aymed at These English lyers caused Spanish Malvenda Malv l. 8 c. 10. Niceph. l. 14. c. 19. to be so confident in his senselesse Blasphemy Cutis detractio apud Nicephorum Nicephorus saith hee mentioneth the fleying of Christians Saevius multo erat but a more excessive cruelty hath beene exercised in England in the reigne of Elizabeth Where the Martyrs are bound hand and foot laid on their backs Basins fastened to their bellies in which inclosed Mice madded with fire applyed to the Basins are forced to eate into their bodies and to hide themselves in their Bowels Passe we over to our Outlandish lyers those eveÌ„ of their principal Authors Suarez chargeth Suar. Ap. l. 6. c. 10. num 11. us and our King deeply enough saying Hoc colore that his Majesties Pursevants steale away the Plate of Gentlemen and the Apparell of Gentlewomen pretending that the Plate is for the service of the Altar and the Apparell the Suar. Apol. l. 1. c. â— num 9. Onaments of their Relicks Nay his tongue shameth not to tell the King to his face that English Papists licet essent moribus innocentia vitae praeclari although they have beene never so innocent and indued with never so rare vertues Vna confessio Romanae fidei yet only because they were of the Romish religion asperius eos quam sceleratissimos punirent they were punished more severely than the most wicked Malefactours Certainly this learned man would Pulions Abstract an 1577. Vnder the Head Rome never have printed nor believed this grosse lye if he had beene truely informed of our Statutes against the Papists even they having put a distinction betwixt them and other Malefactours by this Proviso that the Papists in the highest nature who did maintaine and set forth the usurped authority and jurisdiction of the Pope although the Statutes condemne them as guilty of Treason yet they provide that there shall bee no Attainder of blood no disinheriting of any heyre no forfeiture of any Dower no prejudice to any person besides the offender nor no hinderance of any charitable giving of reasonable Almes to the offenders These are the lawes for Papists in England would God they had the like lawes for Protestanes in Italy and in Spaine too And would God Suarez had beene able to say as much concerning the Inquisition and his holy House by Lisborne in Portugall Finally it is well knowne how seldome and sparingly these are put in execution Those therefore deserve to bee put in execution who mis-informe strangers dishonour our Land with such a lie That we use the most innocent Papists as wee doe the wicked Malefactours These generall Calumnies against our lawes Lessius laboureth to make good by particular Less de Antich part 2. Dem. 2. Comp. 9. Instances 1. That by the Lawes of England it is Treason for a man to be made a Popish Priest 2. That it is Treason to perswade any to the Romish Religion 3. Conceditur impunitas that there is no law against nor punishment for Anabaptists Familists Libertines and Atheists omnes tuto degant se propagant all these may live safely and propagate their professions publikely onely the Papists are persecuted as Traytors 4. To intrap the Papists Iudiciall Acts and principall Edicts are forged and so published 5. False witnesses are suborned against them 6. And finally the Papists are compelled to put their Children to be brought up by Protestants Recitasse est refutasse to recite them is enough to confute them they are such apparent AntichristiaÌ„ shining lies The English people are straÌ„gers to the knowledge of such cruell injust bloodie barbarous lawes and therefore it surpasseth our admiration how strangers can beleeve them much more how they can be so confident to avouch them The two first onely having onely some shew of truth but miserably mis-interpreted the foure following horrible accusations not so much as a shew of truth or probability but are most notorious untruths and most audacious Calumnies Concerning the two first to bee made a 25. Esiz 1. Priest or to perswade to Popery is Treason and most justly If most impudent liers did not 3. Iacob 4. most maliciously mis-interpret those Statutes Observe three things which qualifie the Watson Quodâ— 9. art 4. Quodl 8. Art 8. 9. seeming severity of those Statutes 1. The State had never made these statutes of treason but that they were constrained thereunto for the prevention of Popish Treasons this is the confession of Watson a Popish Priest 2. Those Priests 25. Eliz. 2. and Iesuites against whom these Statutes were enacted had leave to depart the land and so to save their lives a favour which few Protestants found from the Papists under Queene Mary And 3. though the Letter be against all yet the scope of those statutes of Treason aimeth onely against such as have made themselves 5. â—liz 1. actuall Traytors As the Statutes interprete themselves they meane such as maintaine 23. Eliz. 1. the Popes usurped authority such as withdraw the subjects from obedience and such as reconcile 3. Iacob 4. them from the naturall obedience to his Majesty plaine points of palpable Treason practice also no bad expositour of the lawes doth expound it so which hath turned the edge of those Statutes of Treason onely upon Trayterous Priests not touching the Innocent in that though popish Priests As Hart and others in the Queenes reigne and Preston and others in the Kings reigne doe undeniably testifie Who did and doe live without any danger of their lives because the State suspected no danger of Treason from their plots or persons But the execution of these Lawes hath beene upon such as Story was whose pious counsell concerning our Queene Elizabeth Abbâ—ti Antilog c. 6. was That the Papists should not cut downe the boughs but pluck up the roots of our Religion And against such as brought into England from Rome Agnus Dei's with this inscription Mi sili da mihi cortuum sufficit that is My sonne give me thy heart and it is enough Such Subjects as shall give their heart from their King if their King give an haltar for their Heads it is no injustice And finally those Statutes lay hold on such papists Lay or Clergie â—p Card. de Como ap Abbot p. 94. Reconcilers or Reconciled who were like Parry who was a Traytor and incouraged in his Treason by a Cardinall from the Pope as the Letter yet extant doth witnesse bearing date Roma Ian. 30.
Ecclesiam veneritis ejus morem servate si pati scandalum non vultis aut August epist 86. Casulano facere if we will neither give nor take scandall wee must submit to the judgement of that Church wherein we live or that of Saint Paul Ephes 4. 3. to keepe the unitie of the Spirit in the bond of Peace The premises to my conclusion Dr. Whites Orthod part 2. Vntruth 6. is the judgement of that judicious Divine the now Bishop of Norwich These are his words The most received opinion of all Protestants is that the Pope began to bee Antichrist when by the Donation of the parricide Phocas hee tooke unto him the title of Vniversall Bishop but became a perfect Antichrist under Gregorie 7 Paschal 2 Adrian 4 Alexander 3 and Boniface 8 by these foure actions 1 exalting himselfe as a King and Monarch over the house of God 2 making his owne word and definitions of equall authoritie with the holy Scriptures 3 Vsurping temporall jurisdiction over Kings and civill States 4 cruelly murthering the servants of Christ which denyed obedience to his traditions and tyranny Now via trita being via tuta I will rather follow the most of the Protestants in the Kings High-way than a few in a Path-way and they departing from one another into many By-waies For mine owne part if I should dissent from the most received opinion of all the Protestants If it were not for damnable errours and with unanswerable arguments I should censure my selfe no friend to the Protestants and unworthy of the name of a Protestant But Iohn 21. 21 22. The fift opiniō is that Antichrist is a Iew which being a branch thereof I will therefore relate the whole Popish opiniō And thā the Popish opinion of Antichrist never any thing was more grosly absurd and ridiculous among the Fictions of the Poets the Fables of the Iewes the dreames of the Turkes no nor among their owne Legends The points in their opinion being so improbable impossible incredible and incompatible that recitasse est refutasse that the plaine reciting is a plaine refuting of this paradoxe and exorbitant assertion Nineteene branches there are thereof 1. Their Antichrist shall be one man 2 a Iew 3 of the Tribe of Dan 4 begotten by an Incubus devill 5 Borne at Babylon in Assyria 6 Brought up at Chorazin and Beihsaida 7 Tutored by a Familiar 8 of the admirablest body accutest wit and accuratest learning that man was of since the creation 9 he shall collect the Iewes 10 Conquer the Pagans 11 cruelly persecute the Christians 12 kill Enoch and Elias 13 become the Monarch of the whole world 14 He shall have more riches power and wives than any man that ever lived 15 He must reigne but three yeares 16 He must build the Temple 17 In it hee shall bee actually adored 18 He shall have Divells in the shape of Angels visibly administring unto him 19 He shall ascend mount Olivet and from thence with a troope of Devills in the shape of glorious angells he shall fly in the ayre as if he were visibly to ascend into heaven But then shall a voice from heaven bee heard morere at which moment he shall bee smote through with a Thunder bolt and so tumbled headlong into hell Spectatum admist risum teneatis apretie Fiction But that it exceedeth the lawes of a Comedy there are too many impossiblities in the Fable 1. That Antichrist is but one person this is the opinion of every one of the Papists Take one for all Suarez disputeth it in three whole Suarez Apolog. lib. 6. Chapters A thing somewhat improbable that both in Daniel and the Revelation a Beast should never signifie one particular man but onely in this particular And it is something impossible for Antichrist was a working in Saint Pauls time verse 7. I conclude therefore how one man should live from Saint Pauls age to the end of the world I conceive this to be impossible 2. That he shall bee a Iew all the Papists agree in this also Let Bellarmine speake for all Bellar. de Pont. Rom. 3 12. in this also So he disputeth à generatione Antichristi no probable opinion For the same Papists and the same Bellarmine affirme that Antichrist shall affirme Se solum esse Deum which cannot bee done by the Iewes Messias for Deus missus mittens have some difference Moreover Antichrist shall be an Apostate vers 3. But one borne and brought up a Iew cannot Apostate from the Christian Religion 3. Of the Tribe of Dan. That he should be Sanders de Antichristo Demonstr 7. that Countreyman this is the opinion of Sanders our Countreyman But it is not very probable for the Iewes expect their Messias out of the Tribe of Iudah hardly therefore will they accept him out of the Tribe of Dan. Nay ex nihilo nihil sit there is no such Tribe as Dan in the world Bellarmine espied this impossibility Bellar. de Pont. Rom. 3. 12. and therefore hee durst not defend their Danish Antichrist 4. That he should bee begotten by a Devill Malvenda de Antichristo lib. 2 cap. 8. this opinion is the child of Malvendaes braine but it is filius populi a bastard Paradox few will Father it Besides in the third verse Antichrist is termed Homo peccati a perfect man And yet the Devill to be his Father these phrases have no full congruity 5. Antichrist shall be borne in Babylon This Malvenda 2 16. is a paradoxe not to be borne withall being both impious and impossible For Babylon in Assyria was utterly extirpated by the Medes and Persians Neither shall it ever bee reedifyed as God himselfe doth teach us Isa 13. 19. Ier. 50. 3. 39. 40. 6. Brought up must he be in Chorazin Bethsaida Rog. Hoven Richard 1. this was the common conceit of the old Christians as it is chronicled by our Hovenden But Chorazin and Bethsaida now are either but villages or not villages Which can give no probabilitie for this fiction that they shall be the famous Nurseries of the most famous Potentate even of Antichrist who shall contend with God himselfe say the Papists for Supremacy 7 Antichrist shall have Daemonē Paredrum a Malvenda 2 22. Devill to bee his Pedant This also may passe for another improbable fiction Indeed that Antichrist shall come with the power of Satan I have read vers 9. But that he shall bee acquainted with the Person of Satan This surely seemeth to have been added to the Scriptare and to the Truth also 8. Audiens Cratyppum idque Athenis having Malvenda 2 22. such a Tutor and such a Place the Devill and Bethsaida Yong Antichrist must prove a Rare Scholler Erit ingenio capacissimo formâ pulcherrimâ saith Malvenda a most beautifull youth beautified with infinite learning An Anti-Xenophon he described the best of all Kings and this man the worst of all Kings but both by way of fiction