impeachment of That mine euerlasting Offering Popish Ceremonies apish ridiculous and Office after the order of Melchisedech Your multiplicity and absurdity of most apish and toyish Ceremonies as ducking crossing closing opening of hands Host-eleuating loud-bawling secret Mumbling and the like are fitter for a Theater then for the Church What reuerence can yee require to such jrreuerend childish and profane Administrations To be short your dishonorable seruice your detestable Altar your hypocriricall creeping and casting downe your bodyes your no lesse odious lifting vp jmpure harts and hands your idolatrous adoratiō your contumacious endeauour of blynd zeale your dreadfull nay direfull abhominable sacrifice The abhomination of the popish Masse therfore abhominable because an offring not only of my passion but of my body a spirituall a Carnall a bloudy and vnbloudy Sacrifice indeed a Sacrifice and no Sacrifice because not only a memory of me the Redeemer of my Chosen is solemnly celebrated and liuely represented but a propitiation also for the liuing and the dead is pretended to be offered directly crossing and contrary to that one Oblation of my selfe once offred not without bloud Heb. 10.14 whereby for euer I haue consecrated and perfected them that are sanctified wherein by the Eternall spirit I offered vp my selfe vnto God Heb. 9.12.13.14 and found eternall redemption for them All these are not the workes of my Children and seruants and therfore I command you once againe vnder the penalty of my great and Eternall curse that yee cease any further to lead the blynd out of the way whome you haue peruerted too farr already and will not suffer them so much as to enter a deliberation to returne vnto the flocks of my Sheapheards againe The false Embassador Schismaticks justly repelled from the Sacramēts HEre you straine courtesie here flesh and bloud reclaimeth the spirit taking the foyle and the old man triumphing Some of you discharge themselues of their crimes by my Stewards ouer rigorous austerity c. How dare you proffer to approach to my Altar where so great a Maiestie is resident c. The Lord Christ IS not this an ouer-Rigorous austerity and most apparent in you First to inhibite them the Churches of the Protestants and after to exclude them from your own mysteries Oratories also You say nay For first you would haue them to Confesse themselues guilty for ioyning with the Protestants and to purpose amendment of that fault to receaue your absolution and to doe penaunce and so to be purged and so be prooued worthy to come vnto your Altar But I say vnto you still your Altar is not my Altar my great Maiestie is not there resident but onely the pettie Maiestie of your profane bread neither is your penaunce your pardon your Confession my ordination Therefore they who refuse these things from you are guiltles before me and as yee saye in this one thing happie that they are suspended and reiected of you And I denounce a woe against you that Cal good euill and euill good sweet sower sower sweet Esay 5.20 put light for darknes and darknes for light The false Embassador WEll then Schismaticks are to be praesumed for Haereticks and why among my Catholicks since you are not where shall I find you where c. The Caluinist taketh you for Proselytes c. The poore Catholick scandalized at your impiety c. The Lord Christ WHat and will you still make me the Patrone of your lyes surely I doe not hold them among my true Catholicks no more then I doe your selues neither yet doe I conclude The Lord alloweth not dissembling Catholicks that cleauing to the Protestants they cleaue to sectaries neither doe I pronounce them Protestants neither do I allow their reproofe either in priuate talke or in priuate opinion of the Protestant proceedings neither are those proceedings departure from the faith nor yet their Temples houses of Idolatry as ye blaspheme So that albeit by their presence with them in appearance they honour by obaying they allow by example they further by deeds they cōfirme by dissembling they establish those proceedings albe-it they goe to those houses as one of them they sit there as one of them they behaue themselues reuerēdly as one of them yet in all this or in any of these they cannot be defined eyther Schismaticks or Haereticks In a word howsoeuer they are reputed Proselyts of the Caluinist as you terme the true Christian and howsoeuer your poore Catholicks poore indeed and voyde of true Catholicke faith Dissembling Catholicks no Schismaticks are scandalized of them though they may be lost sheepe for the time and dissemblers yet are they no Schismaticks being not diuided from the true Church much lesse at the brinck of bottomles haeresie in that respect The false Embassador Those which goe to the Conuenticles of Haereticall rites are iustly and properly called s hismaticks ABhominable is Schisme and horrible is the name of Schismaticke c. When my Church in her first prime c. The Lord Christ. Schisme is a separation from the faith of truth and the true Cōmunion of Saints What is Schisme And therefore all those Christians vpon whatsoeuer intent purpose of heart whether for Feare of the Aduersity and Crosses or for loue of the prosperity ease and sensuality of this present euill world who do consort themselues though but for a time with the Iewish Turkish or any other Heathnish profession let them be censured for schismaticall Reuolters till they returne into the Church againe But herevpon how can you charge your cunning Catholicks of schisme for associating in their actions with the Protestants First you are to proue the one to be Haereticks their Assemblies also and rites haereticall which you can neuer do and then forewarne the other vnder the penalty of Schismaticall reproch to adhaere vnto them Be it that some of them for all I know who know the hearts doe not repute and take the Protestants for Haereticks for that is the poynt you press vppon them and yet like Ambidexters Machiauels and Temporizers only for feare or for loue of the earth and earthly things against their consciences will make a shew to be on their side yet I say neuer shal their own false opiniōs no more thē yours conclude them to be Schismaticks in joyning with my Church howsoeuer they may be convicted of themselues for notorious hypocrites and dissemblers and so be vnexcusable in my sight For I cannot like it that they or you or any should dissemble with me Iosue 9.9 or my people The Gibeonites in that they sought the friendship of my seruant Iosua and his host did not offend me in that they sought it by dissimulation they did not please me vers 21. Therfore for the one I spared their liues and for the other I adjudged them to perpetuall seruitude The remnant of those Iewes who dwell now among
the Nations who are baptized and professe Christianity therein are no offenders but being true as it is reported of many of them that they still are judaicall in opinion and that the vayle of Moyses is layd ouer their hearts in that I disclame and detest them as forlorne mis-beleeuers and my sworne Enemies So let euery one of yours either be as they professe vnfayned Christians Perfect schismaticks Schisma facere ab vnitate Christi aut in Schismate esse profecto malū est magnū malū nec omninò fieri potest vt Christus det Schismatico non fidem sed sacrilegum errorem aut in Christo radicem Schismaticus fixerit aut Schismatico Christus sit origo caput Aug. lib. 4. contra Crescon Gramm or professe as they are false-hearted and false opinionated Catholicks Schismaticks they cannot be that professe the truth in the Church They only are such who being runnagates and hereticks maintaine falshoods with personall separation from the Church Neither yet doe I allow them for good and faithfull Christians who would be so reputed and are not for they only are such whose opinion and profession agree togither in the truth that is who professe the truth in syncerity The false Embassador I Know Protestants cannot be of the Catholicke church neither in their faith can be salvation I know what it is that lyeth at your heart c. Yee are not perswaded forsooth that the Protestants Religion is so abhominable c. To take your selues for a particular Church is vnpossible for a headlesse multitude who haue neither Temple Altar Priest nor Sacrifice neither distinct members nor anyband of Vnion aswell you may thinke of going at the latter day neyther to Heauen nor to Hell as to thinke in this life a Newtrality c. Will you diuide my Church c. To say that Protestants may by their profession be saued c. The Lord Christ. OH ye wretched and wicked Priests of Antichrist I know well I know that my Church my Spouse my body mysticall my chast Turtle my Citie my Kingdome my Familie 1 Cor. 11.19 Mat. 18.7 the piller of Truth is but one For albeit in my visible Church there must bee Haeresies 2. Tim. 2.20 Mat. 13 24. c. Mat. 3.12 and Scandals for the triall of my chosen for that in my house there are vessels of honour dishonour in my field there is Corne Tares in my garner there is Wheat Chaff Mat. 13.47 Gen. 7.8 in my Net there is good and bad Fish in my Arke there are cleane and vncleane beasts Phil. 3.2 Rom. 6.17 and there will be alwaies some of whome it may be sayd Beware of Dogs Mat. 7.15 Act. 20.29 Marke them that make diuisions among you and auoyde them Beware of false Prophets Grieuous Wolues shall enter in among you Yet as vnto my chosen there is but one way Ioh. 14.1 One truth one life so they are all baptized by one spirit into one body 1. Cor. 12.13 Ephesi 4.4 c. For there is one bodie and one spirit euen as they are called in one hope of their vocation one Lord one faith one Baptizme one God and father of all which is aboue all and through all and in them all One sheepheard and one fold My Doue is alone Ioh. 10. Cantic 6. The company of my chosen is but one Communion of Saints partly triumphant in Heauen and partly militant on Earth But must ye therefore be that one Do ye take it for graunted that I will not yeeld you Nothing but begging of the Question How dare ye say in my name that they are blind and impious who imagine holines in the Protestants prayers or saluation to bee found in their Faith For I euen I pronounce vnto you their prayers are holie A true sauing faith and their faith is a sauing faith which ascribeth and acknowledgeth the sole and whole worke and merite of redēption and the purchase of Heauen vnto me alone And to say that by any other profession a man may be saued is indeed to make an other God and Summum bonum besides me and to make me none or euil or jnsufficient at the least which in truth ye prowde Papists doe Papists ioyne their own merits with the Death of Christ in the purchase of saluation in vaunting the merits of your owne defectiue and jnfected works as coadjutors to the purchase of Eternall glory with the obedience and sprinckling of my precious bloud as though I had not made a full and perfect satisfaction without your ayde or helpe But thus ye boldly and presumptuously diminish dishonour me and my all-sufficiently meritorious Sacrifice and yet ye malapertlie charge my true beleeuers of that fault whereof your selues are guilty Shall I not punnish you for this thing The false Embassador The perfect opposition and contrariety of Catholicks Protestāts IF on the other side you ioyne Caluinists with Catholicks in one Church then set together the Woolfe with the Lambe c. For asmuch as my dreadfull Eucharist is irrefragably beleeued by the one to be my true body c. Of other maine differences consider c. The Lord Christ THis generall opposition betwixt you Papists and my true professors the Protestants I doe allow prouided alwaies that yee are the Wolues the Lyons the Goshawkes and they the Lambes the Harts the Partridges and that your Religion is the surmized their 's the sure yours vnpossible their 's infallible yours newly reared by mans imaginations cherished for pollicie c Theirs founded by my selfe from the beginning vppon my selfe the Rocke What other Haereticks doe or how they injuriously reuile vpbraide as an Idoll teare spit at and treade vnder foote my dreadfull Eucharist What is that to these true Christians whome opprobriously yee call Hugonots Sure it is they for their parts most constantly and deuoutly beleeue my true body jmpute no jdle Manichean phantasie vnto them and the personall presence of my Deity in the Eucharist I know their faith Popish adoration of bread me they adore with due veneration though not the Element that representeth my true body Neither doe they commit such a mysticall and spirituall kind of murder and mangling of my body asye do who professe Papists feed corporallie they say vpon Christ when they feed on him in the Sacrament See Ferus in Iohn cap. 6. The number of Popish Sacraments howsoeuer in termes ye disclame it not only a spiritual but a corporall feeding thervpon brutish Cannibals as yee are As touching the other maine differences between them and you in the particulars Know yee that I neuer ordained the number of 7. Sacraments but onely Baptisme and my holy Supper your vse of Images I scorne and abhorr Images being directly contrary to the second Commaundement of my morall Law Thou shalt not make to thy selfe any grauen Image c. Act. monū
Foxe pag 130. though your Pope Adrian commaunded thē to be taken for Laymens Kalenders Inuocation of Saints your Invocation of Saints is a derogation from my glory which I will not giue to any other Esay 42.8 I neuer commanded you by any praecept I neuer invited you by any godly example I neuer incouraged you by any promise in my holy word to any such deuotion Your forgiuenes of sinnes by your Popes indulgences Indulgences and your selling of pardons is paltry trifling and prophane Marchandizing in my holy Temple Heavenly glorie What heauenly glorie do you dreame of that my faithfull Protestants beleeue not much better then yee are able Popish difference of jnfernall paines your difference of infernall paines I am not acquainted withall I know none but eternall fire prepared for the diuell and his adhaerents your temporall purgatorie flames are but poëticall fables Purgatorie a poëtical fable Iustification your Iustification of the liuing by faith and works together is partly coyned in your owne forge and partly raked vp out of the Pharisaicall pride Praier for the dead Your praying for the dead is bootles they hauing now their Iudgemēt passed on them as the day of death hath left them so the day of finall Iudgement shall finde them either blessed or cursed for euer No prayers now shall preuaile or hurt them any whit at all Popish faith hope charitie Moreouer your faith is a confused Confidence nay rather an jmplicite and vnknowne assent you know not vnto what full of distrust and diffidence your hope builded thereuppon must needs be hopeles and voyd of sound and heauenly comfort your Charitie to me is very slender and luke-warme like theirs once of Laodicea Apoc. 3.15 for yee loue your selues as well as me your owne merits you joyne with mine vngratefully diminishing my meritorious sacrifice and the price of my bloud Oh sinfull Nation supply yee my pure and perfect obedience with your owne foule and filthie righteousnes Is this your loue to me to pretend the purchase of heauen together with me thus to be ouer-enamoured of your selues Fie Fie I cannot endure a Co-partner with me in this great worke of Redemption and saluation Therefore your jmagined freewill to good your merits of congruence and of worthines where are they your fastings and prayers conceited and practised not onely as means but as meritorious workes of eternall life I hate and will surely punish as the fumes and fomes of the pride of your old Adam As for sinnc yee knowe not the power thereof that suppose any one to be veniall in it selfe being committed against so eternall and jnfinit a Maiestie as I am And what haue you to doe with my counsell and decree of predestination Predestinatiō Will you or can you infringe the infallible Certainty therof that ye teach men to doubt of my loue why doe yee not tell them rather that though they cannot choose but doubt by reason of their many 1. Cor. 15.58 and mighty sinnes which is humane jnfirmitie yet they ought to be stedfast and vnmoouable in their faith being builded on me Mal. 3.6 Pro. 19.21 Heb. 13.5 who am God and am not changed whose Counsell is immutable who will not faile neither yet forsake them that put their trust in me yea though they beleeue not without great weaknes 2. Tim 2.13 yet I am God faithfull and true and cannot deny myselfe Finally what meane you to adde vnto my canonicall scriptures the Apocryphall writings of Iudith Tobias Maccabees and others which I neuer yet allowed to be put into the canon Nay to thrust in your owne vnwritten Traditions and Papall constitutions to make them of equall authoritie with the same Nesanda secreta These your nefarious hidden doctrines I will haue cancelled and abolished I cannot abide that yee should goe a whoring after your owne imaginations Goe and learne what that meaneth In vaine they worship me Mat. 15.9 reaching for doctrines mens precepts And that vers 13. Euery plant which mine heauenly Father hath not planted shal be rooted vp Thus haue you in deed almost in the whole summe of Religion tossed ouer euerie stone reuersed the whole frame of faith and turned all vpside downe And therefore take you heed yee obstinate Recusants least your departure and diuision from my true Church be a more then sufficient warrant of your heauy Iudgement with Arrius Nestorius Eutyches I adde with Manichees Marcionits Pelagians and other old Haereticks in the bottomles pit for that you haue not in one point but in many varied from the christian faith The false Embassador How abhominable the Scriptures Prayers and Churches of Haereticks are CAluinisme then being doctrine so diabolicall c. Oh how illusion bewitcheth you c. Their profane bread c. Their Rites and Ceremonies c. As Fasts Holy daies c. Yea their Churches and Temples c. Bethel was my house c. The Lord Christ. SVrely the Scriptures praiers and Churches of Haereticks are not well pleasing vnto me They are abhominable Papisme therefore being the verie doctrine of deuils your popish Scripture as being none of my word Popish Scripture The Latine vulgar edition authēticke among the Papists very erroneous but the word of the deuill so false and adulterated so poysoned and full of corruptions as it is in your latine vulgar edition authorized by your Trent Councell oppugning vndermyning and overthwarting my true faith and Catholike Church I disclame as a counterfait coppie and renounce altogether as no writ of myne Popish prayers Your praiers also are no better in mine eares then the howling of Wolues that prey vppon the soules of men the lowing of Oxen and the roaring of Bulls screeching of Owles and Night-Rauens yelling and bellowing Infernall blasphemies against my sacred Maiestie in vnknowne and vnconceiued in loud bawling in discording from my heart both tongues and tunes Popish Priests Your priests are perfect Chemarims and Priests of Baal officers of the very Antichrist his heralds and proctors his Apostles and Angels of his Kingdome of darknes Popish Communion Goe yee and suck the adders Eggs lesse poysonable out of doubt then your Communion bread and cup. Popish Ceremonies Your Ceremonies are not few but most fantasticall offensiue both in their nomber and in their nature apish and plainly ridiculous jmitations partly of the Heathnish superstitions and partlie of those Rites which my heauenly Father sometimes ordayned to his people Israell Your fastes are fish delicates wine Popish fasts and other dainty fare farr more jncentiue of filthie Lust in pampering of the body then any other foode and your abstinence sometimes a feasting sometimes a most Pharisaicall and Hypocriticall sowring of your faces and other ostentation of will-worship in neglecting the body Coloss 2.22.23 not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh as myne Apostle paints it out