5. And St. Paul tells us other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid which he saith not is St. Peter not Petrus but Petra is Jesus Christ the true Rock who is the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets both that upon which they themselves were built and stood and that upon which they as God's Builders built his Church 1 Cor. 3.11 Ephes 2.20 And surely no man can stand more strongly by being built upon St. Peter than by being built upon Christ Nor find we either Christ himself or any of his Apostles to say or signify any such thing as that the place or Church where Peter should reside or praeside should be more Infallible than any other Church or Churches founded resided in or praesided over by any other of his Apostles Nor that such as should succeed him as Bishops in any place much less in Rome praesided in by him should be more Infallible than other Bishops If the praesidency of St. Peter in Rome can secure that Church or it's Bishop from failing or falling into Errour how comes it to pass that his sitting at Antioch did not also secure that place Church Yea those Churches of Judaea of the Circumcision whereof he was the Prime and immediate Apostle Gal. 2.9 Surely they ought rather to have had this Privilege and Praerogative from him than Rome a Gentile Church which was rather under S. Paul's Barnabas's Jurisdiction as being the Apostles of the Gentiles It 's strange that none of the Churches more certainly planted by him should have this Privilege but only Rome which it is not certain that he planted or ever came into for some of no small learning have made a question of that that I say not have positively denied it Surely none but simple persons and such as are easy and willing to be deceived and therefore look not well to their goings will believe such groundless praetexts imposed upon them True it is that some of the Ancient Councels gave a Patriarchal power to the Bishop of Rome subjecting these Western Churches thereunto but that was but an humane constitution for order and unities sake and gave him no more Infallibility than the like constitutions gave to the Bishops of Jerusalem or Antioch or Alexandria or Constantinople whom they made Patriarchs also in their respective Jurisdictions Nor yet did that make Rome or it's Church the whole Catholique Church or the Bishop thereof the Head of it as is evident by the 6th Councel of Carthage where Faustinus the Popes Legate challenging for his Master a power to order all great matters in all places pretending for it a Decree of the Nicene Councel was upon diligent search into the Records of the said Councel found a falsifyer thereof and thereupon was decreed an equality in power with the other Patriarchs But beside all this against the plea of that Church's Infallibility it is evident 2. That she hath in Fact erred and can there be a clearer and better demonstration of the possibility of her Erring deceiving and being deceiv'd than that she hath actually Erred For though à posse ad esse non valet consequentia yet ab esse ad posse est validissima Now that she hath actually Erred is evident not only in her members and different parties but also in her conjunct consideration and in her Head As for her having erred and yet erring in her parties and members it 's demonstrable in this that contradictoria non possunt esse simul vera of two contradictory positions maintained by different parties the one must needs be false Now in the Church of Rome there are contradictory positions maintained by several parties witness the Dominicans and Franciscans the one contradicting the other in the matter of the immaculateness of the conception of the Virgin Mary the one denying and the other asserting it if the Virgin Mary was conceaved in her Mothers womb without sin then the Dominican Party of the Roman Church errs and if otherwise then the Francâ—scan Party errs The like may be said of the Jansenists and Jesuites in the five Articles wherein they differ But I say not only their members but their Head and Bishop may erre also even in Cathedrâ or in his solemn Determinations and doings yea in matters of Faith as is made manifest in Liberius subscribing to Arrianisme and Vigilius who both condemned and commanded the same things to be believed as in the three Chapters condemned by a Councel as favouring Nestorianisme and in Honorius who was condemned by a Councel for a Monothelite And surely if a Pope may contradict himself and say and unsay a thing as Pope and Head of their Church and both condemn and command the belief of the same thing as in that case of Pope Vigilius he must needs be Fallible and erre in the one of them And there is no way to avoid it but that either some of their Popes have erred or some of their General Councels which is the Church representative and were some time also declared and held to be about the Pope and were usually consented to and confirmed by their Popes have been deceived in condemning them as having erred either of which supposals mightily infringes the Infallibility of their Church Nay and it is believed that the Jansenists would they speak out do not look upon the late Pope Innocent as Infallible in his condemnation of the five Articles maintained by them Nay did not St. Peter himself greatly erre in a main matter of Faith and that too after our Saviour had said to him Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church when he preaches such doctrine to his Master as that he should not suffer death for which our Saviour rebuking him cal'd him Sathan Mat. 16.22 23. But not only have and do great Parties in her and branches of her erre and even their Popes themselves but She herself in her whole Authoratative Constitution and Catholique complex consideration and that very grosly too if we look upon her Doctrines and determinations in the light of the infallible testimony of God and of his holy Spirit speaking in the holy Scriptures which is the Touch-stone to which the Prophet Isaiah or the Lord himself by him in Isai 8.20 and Christ himself in Joh. 5.39 directs us and to which the noble Boereans brought the Apostle Paul's preaching with commendation for their so doing Act. 17.12 yea and the Apostle St. Peter himself directs the Churches and the believers therein to that in 2 Pet. 1.19 and 3.1 2. and the Apostle Paul commends Timothy for that from a child he knew the holy Scriptures they being able to make men wise unto Salvation 2 Tim. 3.15 implying therein that even Children if they will mind the holy Scriptures and set themselves to seek the knowledge of them may as they grow up in some good measure obtain it to their great benefit and salvation Now contrary to these holy Scriptures
here was not a taking Gods name in vain and a notorious leading men to debauch their consciences I know not what is as for the fourth commandment they keep not that while they keep Markets on the Sabbath day and less observe it than many of their own instituted holy days the fifth commandment how little they reguard their often absolving Children from ingagements to honour their Parents and obey them yea their stirring up Children somtimes against them as Gregory the ninth stirred up Henry the Son against his Father Frederick the second Emperour of Germany and how often they have discharged subjects from their due allegiance and obedience to their lawful Sovereigns stirred them up to rebel and rise in War against them both our own Cronicles and the Histories of other Nations do abundantly evidence And then as for the sixth commandment their Murthering of Princes and the many great Slaughters and Massacres yea destructions both of Souls and Bodies occasioned and caused by the Roman Church and her Bishops before hinted at sufficiently declare how little care they have thereof That they little reguard the seventh both their forbiding Marriage to their Priests without any order or command of God and Christ to that purpose nay contrary to the express permission and allowance thereof of God in the Scriptures for both our Lord Jesus Christ himself chose Married Persons to be Apostles at least Peter was such when he chose him for we read before that of his Wives Mother Mark 1.30 with 3.16 Which he would not have done surely had he judged a Wedded State incompatible or inconsistent with the Ministry which he instituted yea and that St. Peter and other Apostles led their Wives about with them when they were Apostles is evident in 1 Cor. 9.5 And the Apostle expresly both in his Orders about Bishops and in those about Deacons orders and much more allows that they be Husbands of one Wife and have their Children in subjection which they would not have done had they forbidden Marriage to the Bishops and Ministers of the Church or judged it unfit for them as these according to his predictions of false Teachers that would depart from the faith do 1 Tim. 3.2.4.11.12 with 4.12.3 By which means they often put them upon the practice of uncleanness whoredoms furnications and the like mischiefs and allow them to keep Concubines for Money besides the Practice of Sodomy even in the Popes themselves some of them and the notorious Wickedness of one of their Cardinals that wrote and Wrote published a Book in commendation thereof their allowing publick Stews for Mony even in Rome it self are sufficient Proofs And that they as little keep the eighth Commandment their insatiable covetousness and many frauds to get Mony some whereof have by the way been hinted at yea their grasping whole Kingdoms to themselves from their lawful Princes as they did a great part of Italy yea and Rome it self from the Emperours to which they belonged and our Kingdom of England in King Johns time and taking away by force the Kingdoms of some Princes from them and giving them to others whom they have incouraged to get them from them as appears in the History of the Albingenses and the attempts of their Popes and Sea of Rome against our late Queen Elizabeth are sufficient demonstrations besides the most horrible theft of all others they are guilty of in stealing or taking forcibly from men the word of God not suffering men to know or be instructed into that therein taking away the key of knowledg and shutting up the Kingdom of Heaven against them and robbing their Souls thereof a theft which God complained of in the false Prophets of Israel when he saith Behold I am against the Prophets which steal my word every one from his Neighbour Jer. 23.30 Against the ninth Commandment is all their reproaching and branding falsly as Hereticks those that will not subscribe to their corruptions stirring up Princes and People against them to make Havock of them And that the tenth commandment is little set by their Doctrine that denyes the first stirrings and motions of Sin to be Sins and their Doctrine of venial Sins and their insatiable covetousness may be evidence enough so that they are horribly guilty of not keeping the commandments of God the like may be observed too of their keeping the things given in commandment by our Lord Jesus Christ that they keep none of his commandments purely and incorruptly for whereas he commanded Baptism into the Name of the Father of the Son of the Holy Ghost they have corrupt that with many devises as of oyl and cream and spettle and the like Fopperies his commandment of his Supper to take and break and eat Bread set a part with blessing to that purpose and drinking the Cup in Remembrance of him and as a commemoration of his death they have horribly corrupted and changed into a sacrifice propitiatory and unbloody available for obtaining remission of Sins for the quick and for Dead and into private Masses and half Communions and the Pageantry of carrying the consecrated Host as a God in Procession the command of Preaching the word sincerely they have exchanged into teaching for Doctrines of men that is their own precepts and devises and his command about prayers and supplications unto God they have corrupted by injoyning Prayers in unknown Tongue and to others besides God even to Saints and Angels But what needed I to have been so larg in going over these several commandments when the complexion of much of their divinity is a clear patronage of all manner of Sin and Naughtiness while they promise to men the pardon thereof upon so easy termes as the only being at some small time before they dye grieved that they have sinned though without any real contrition of heart for it or love to God and so hearty sorrow that they have offended him as springing therefrom provided that they receive but the Sacrament as they will have it of their extream Unction and the absolution of one of their Priests and have devised a Purgatory in which after death they may be Purifyed though they continue till death in their Sins from the pains of which also they perswade men they may be soon delivered by the propitiatory sacrifices which they say they can and do dayly make in their Masses both for the quick and for the dead and by the indulgences which are in the Popes dispose and which for such sums of Mony given to their Church-men or for such uses as they prescribe as for the procuring Masses Dirgies and such like fopperies they propose to sale what are all these devises of this covetous Church and its Church-men but ways of making merchandise of mens Souls and an incouraging them in and unto an impenitent breach of all Gods commandments all their days for who that loves his lusts and lives in any pleasurable or profitable way of Sin will much
THE Church of Rome Unmask'd OR HER FALSE PRINCIPLES Briefly Detected TOGETHER VVith some Reasons of so many retaining or returning to Communion with Her and the great danger of everlasting Destruction That such Persons especially after separation from Her return to Her Communion do run themselves upon Written by a Learned Divine by way of Letter to a Friend in the Country Prov. 4.14 15 16 17. Enter not into the way of the wicked and go not in the way of evil men Avoid it pass not up it turn from it and pass away For they sleep not except they have done mischief and their sleep is taken away unless they cause some to fall For they eat the Bread of wickedness and drink the Wine of violence I heard a voice from Heaven saying Come out of her from Babilon my people that ye be not partakers of her Sins and that ye receive not of her Plagues For her Sins have reached unto Heaven and God hath remembred her Iniquities Rev. 18.4 5. LONDON Printed for Isaac Cleave at the Sign of the Star next door to Searjants-Inne in Chancery-lane 1679. The Fallibility and Falshood of the Church of Rome briefly detected and made manifest SIR SInce Providence cast me so luckily into your company and acquaintance your affable carriage and obliging civility hath stirred up in me both towards your self and your relations no small affections and affectionate desires of your best welfare and happiness and therefore having heard not without grief that the Roman party have endeavoured to seduce you or them into their communion I have not been a little exercised in my heart with desires to prevent or rescue you therefrom being well assured that the Factors for that communion are Deceitful workers evill doers such as the fruit and product of their Principles in them who are snared with them is no less than imminent danger of if not inevitable destruction And indeed I cannot but bewail that any ingenuous persons brought up under the light of the Scriptures and of Protestant doctrine should have attained to no greater understanding and better judgment thereby than to be imposed upon by persons guilty of so much corruption in their Religion as that a man with half an eye as they use to say if not careless to use and improve it for his own welfare may easily discern it but yet I know their subtilties are great and their insinuations strong where they can get admission to obviate which I shall indeavour a little to help you against them and to let you see wherein the Roman Church and the men of her communion are so dangerously erroneous and corrupt that it behoves all men as they love their souls to avoid them And first her claim of Infallibility is a most palpable errour and miscarriage for which she hath neither any good ground nor colour for what though Christ hath said that he will build his Church upon the Rock and that the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it yet that affords no more ground for the Roman Church or any officer in her to assert her or his infallibillity than for any other Church for granting that by the word It is meant the Church built upon the Rock and not the Rock it selfe upon which he builds it though the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cam it being a relative agrees in gender with and may therefore be referred indifferently to either of them yet its Christs Church indefinitely and generally that our Saviour asserts that of and the Church of Corinth the Church of Ephesus the Churches of Galatia and the rest mentioned in the Scriptures yea and beyond what are their mentioned were every whit as much the Church or of the Church of Christ as the Church of Rome that is they were all equally and indifferently members of the same Catholick or Universal Church when they were first planted and when the Apostles wrote to them and they were all one as well as another by the Apostles ministry and by Christ as going forth with them built upon the same Rock and so they were under the same promises and in the same state of safety for all of them conjunctly made up that Church which was and is the Church of Christ in its Catholick and Universal capacity and yet we see the other Churches might possibly and did actually erre very grosly as is evident in what is said of the Church of Corinth 1 Cor. 15 12 2 Cor. 11.2.3 and the Churches of Gallatia Gall. 1.6 and 3.1 2 3 4 10. and 5.2.3.4 and where now I pray are the Churches of Asia Ephesus and the rest have none of them failed or erred grieviously what promise made our Saviour to the Church of Rome more than to any of them nay he made such to some of them as to that of Philodelphia of Keeping her in and from the hour of temptation that should come upon all the earth as we no where find the like made unto Rome Rev. 3.8.9.10 oh how would Rome have boasted her self had such a thing been directed to her or to her Angel if there be any such to her where is it written or recorded And yet the gates of hell shall not prevail against Christs Church namely so as to ruin it Christ hath will have a Church in the World Maugre all the power and malice of hell yea and he may have part of it among those Churches in Asia and Graecia that are yet lest in being though under great oppressions and not free from corruptions for they whoever they be that heartily believe Jesus to be the Christ so as sincerely to imbrace his doctrine and be followers thereof to the best of their skill and power and keep singly thereto they even the whole company of them whoever they be or how much soever outwardly disperst are Christs church the Church built upon the Rock against which the gates of hell shall not prevail And such there are not only if there be any such at Rome and under her jurisdiction but more purely and less corruptly in divers parts of the world that are no members of her If it be said as I know it is by them that Christ gave a more peculiar priviledge to the Church or Bishop of Rome than to any other Church or Bishop belonging thereto as to infallibility in that it is built upon St Peter as its Bishop the Bishops thereof being his successors To that I say that the Scriptures know or use no such language as the Churches or any Churches being built or founded upon St. Peter Yea St. Peter himself tells us that the true Believers and so consequently the Church comes to Christ the living Stone disallowed indeed of men but chosen of God and precious and are built upon him so us to grow up into a spiritual house an holy Priesthood c. not making any mention of their coming to himself that is to Peter and being built upon him 1 Pet. 2.4
this Church of Rome errs 1. In forbidding and witholding from men the reading of the Scriptures both while in childhood and afterwards which is a manifest opposition to Christ and the holy Spirit and his faithful Servants for therein she forbids what they bad and exhorted to as is shewed in what is already said They said the Believers did well to take heed to them and willed them to be mindful of the words of the Prophets and the commandments of the Apostles 2 Tim. 1.19 and 3.1 2. And this Church refuses to let men have them in their own languages that they may read them especially except they will purchase a License with mony which is the great Goddess worshipped at Rome An evident and plain demonstration that the deeds of this Church are evil because she withholds from men the light whereby they should judge of them and that she leads her Followers into by-paths and ways of error when she witholds from them what holds forth and would guide them into the truth Chrysostom in his time exhorted his hearers to take the Bible into their hands and call together their Neighbours and by those holy Oracles to water the minds both of themselves and them that they might the better withstand the wiles of Sathan c. Hom. 6 in Gen. But this Church is for taking away these weapons of the holy Spirit and divine waterings of their minds from them 2. In making herself the whole Catholique Church while she ties up mens Salvation to their communion with her and subjection to her Bishop which is a gross and grievous error and all one as to make a part and that a very unsound too to be the whole to the denying in effect this fundamental truth that whosoever believeth on Christ shall be saved For while she maintains that out of the Church there is no salvation and then assumes that all that are not in her communion and of her Church are out of the Church she makes all those Believers in Christ however cordial and constant they be therein that are not of her society to be in the state of damnation and so contradicts Christ and his Apostles that say whoever believes on him shall be saved and that there is no respect of persons as to their belonging to this or that place or Church as to that matter It was not so in the Apostles time for neither the Churches of Judaea nor the seven Churches in Asia nor the Churches uf Galatia or any other Churches mentioned in the Scriptures distinctly from that of Rome were ever said or signified to be the members of the Church of Rome or to owe any subjection to the Bishop of Rome Nor doth the Apostle when he saith if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus the Lord and with thine heart believest that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved put in as a third requisite to the definition of a right Christian and an Heir of Salvation if thou acknowledgest the Church of Rome as the Mother Church and be subject to the Pope or Bishop thereof as if without that they were not true Members of the Catholick Church of Christ nor might be saved Rom. 10.9 yet this is now an Article of the Roman Creed wherein they imitate the Donatists of old who would confine the Church of Christ and by consequence Salvation to Affrica and therein to the Men of their Communion as St. Augustine testifies Surely this is none of the least Errors of the Roman Church but a gross and grievious one making Christ and his Apostles upon the matter to be Lyars and the Scripture sayings that own all Believers in Christ for Members of her Church to be falsehoods 3. In doing contrary to the Apostles express direction that all things in the Church should be done to edification to which he adds that if any man judge himself a Prophet or spiritual he ought to acknowledge the things he wrote thereabout to be the commandments of the Lord 1 Cor. 14.26 31. yet these men and this Church contrary hereto impose upon their Members in most places yet and have upon all formerly for divers ages to perform their Service or Prayers and Thanksgivings to God in an unknown tongue notwithstanding that the same Apostle hath expresly testified that the so doing is contrary to edification 1 Cor. 14.10 11. to 28. and will we follow men or joyn our selves with them that so palpably and openly contradict the Word and Commandment of God and so loudly proclaim that they fear him not and believe them when they tell us they are infallible and though perhaps it may be said that in this and another Nation they do or are willing to permit their Service in an unknown Tongue yet that excuseth them not for so much as they have all along so notoriously practised otherwise till of late some have extorted this as it were unwillingly from them nor do they yet acknowledge their error and iniquity in what they have done formerly but justify themselves in it by not altering that evil practise and imposition every where for in Spain Italy and in many other parts I suppose they retain it Nay Mr. Egan a lately converted Fryar informs us that the Pope forbids the use of their Prayers which some have turned into the Vulgar Language so as that they that use them are not right Roman Catholicks in his Recantation Sermon pag. 10. but if they had reformed this every where yet even their Reformation would be a Conviction that they have erred therein and destroyed their Plea for Infallibility whether in their Church formally considered or in their Head the Pope seeing both the one and the other of them have a long time practised allowed and imposed so gross a miscarriage and taught the people to believe it to be a service acceptable unto God Can this Church be Infallible that hath fallen and done so fowly or can they be innocent that joyn themselves in Communion with her when she so much slighting and acting impudently in opposition to the commandment and directions of Christ and as it were openly disclaiming therein what his authority injoyns and practises things so contrary thereunto especially how can they but be horribly guilty of casting away their own Souls who being brought up under clearer and better light do willingly depart therefrom or suffer themselves to be seduced into a compliance with her Surely since it was the design of Christ to bring light into the world and to be the Light of the world to direct and guide their Feet into the ways of Peace and he hath set his Church and Servants for lights therein also they who take away that light or withhold it from them and lead them into darkness denying them the Scriptures and teaching them to pray or rather to say Prayers in an unknown tongue wherein they cannot edifie or be edified they therein declare themselves to be opposite to Christ and so to be
very Antichrists Oh that none of your Souls may come into their secret or have fellowship with them but yet this is not all in which they declare plainly that they erre grosly from the Faith and Truth of Christ and the true way of his Worship Behold it still in other particulars For 4. Whereas the Lord Jesus in the Night in which he was betrayed instituted his Holy Supper to be Celebrated in commemoration and remembrance of him In which He gave to his Disciples and ordered his Apostles to do the like to the Churches afterwards a Commemoration of his death and passion in two distinct Elements of bread and wine the one before and the other after and bad them all expresly drink of the cup and the Apostles plainly tell us that they delivered to the Churches that which they also received of Christ Jesus and so that they both gave the bread to be eaten and the cup to be drunk by them Witness the writings of the Apostle Paul in 1 Cor. 10.15 16. Where not directing them to some eternal infallible Judge Determiner of their understanddings he bids them as wise men to judge of his sayings and mentions both the cup of blessing which they blessed calling it the communion or fellowship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the blood of Christ and the bread that they brake calling it the communion of the body of Christ and in chap. 11.23 24 25 26. Where repeating the words and order of Christs instituting his Supper in both branches or parts of it he saith for as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye shew forth the Lords death till he come and let a man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any man of the Church indefinitely Lay or Clergy as they are now a days distinguished examine himself and so let him eat of this bread and drink of this Cup. He saith not only let him eat of this bread but also let him drink of this cup. And whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this Cup of the Lord unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself And the Apostle saith also in chap. 14.37 as we noted before that the things He wrote were the Commandments of the Lord yet this Church of Rome most audaciously and with a non obsunt or notwithstanding all this presume to deny the cup to the Laity yea and to the Clergy too say some if any of them be present beside the Priest that celebrates or saieth Mass making nothing of Gods or Christs authority to the contrary Surely therefore to them may most truly and fully be applyed those words of our Saviour spoken by him against the Scribes and Pharisees in whose steps they walk viz. well hath Isaiah prophesied of you Hypocrites as it is written this People honoureth me with their lips but their hearts are far from me Howbeit in vain do they worship me teaching for doctrines the Commandments of men For laying aside the Commandments of God ye hold the Tradition of men c. And full well ye reject the Commandments of God that you may keep your own Tradition making the word of God of none effect through your Tradition which ye have delivered Mar. 7.6 7 8 9 13. For what is their doctrine of Concomitancy but their own Tradition wherein they teach their Followers to believe that the Cup is in the bread as it were the blood of Christ is in his body and they as well taken together For were they not so when Christ being yet alive instituted the Supper And after his Resurrection when the Apostle and the Primitive Christians observed it in both kinds And can the supposal of both together in one be so lively a resemblance representation and commemoration of his death as when they are given seperately The end of our Saviours instituting and of the Churches observing this Ordinance is to shew forth the Lords death till he come 1 Cor. 11.26 And is not his death more lively set forth and represented when the Elements are given apart and so the body represented as without it's blood and the blood as separated from the body than when both are supposed to be given together in one In Christs state of death his blood was shed forth from his body and in the supper as instituted of Christ the cup was given by it self as a representation of his blood shed for the remission of our sins So that here is in this bold contradiction to our Saviours precept and practice both a rejecting of his commandment and a making null the end of his institution the shewing forth of his death Though yet neither is this all nor the half of that in which this bad Church dares to confront the authority of God For 5. They also leave out in their Catechismes the second Commandment Thou shalt not make to thy self any Graven Image c. And to make up the number of ten they divide the last into two both contrary to the express voice and command of God who gave the second as audibly as any of the rest and with more express sanction by way both of threatning added as a jealous God punishing the Offenders and promise of blessing to them that love him and keep his Commandments and to the practise and manner of the Christian Church in all it 's Primitive times Because they confront Gods Commandment in their practise setting up and injoyning Images and the Likenesses and the Representations of things and Persons to be erected and worshipped though God hath expresly commanded the contrary Oh audacious Church and Congregation of evil doers And can any be so blind as not to see palpably in this and the other particulars that they both can and do err And how then can it be possibly imagined that they are Infallible Nay rather verily it is far righter to say that they are incorrigible impenitent and impudent in their notoriously evil Principles and Practises God saith thou shalt not make to thy self any Graven thing nor the likeness or similitude of any thing either in Heaven above or in the Earth beneath thou shalt not bow down to them nor worship them And these men do make the similitude of many things in Heaven and Earth as of the Virgin Mary the Saints deceased the Cross of Christ yea as they pretend of God himself c. bow down to them worship them yet they say they are innocent so did the adulterous Church of Judah when they upon every high Hill under every green tree wandred play'd the Harlot yet they said they were not polluted they had not gone after Baalim they were innocent and therefore surely Gods anger would turn away from them Jer. 2.23,35 Even so doth this corrupt and erroneous Church plead not only that she is innocent but also that she cannot err But we shall have occasion to say more to this anon Besides all this 6. What is their Doctrine of Transubstantiation but a
most gross and palpable error against the Verdict of Sence and Reason and the Word of God therefore must needs be without any substantial reason therefrom And me thinks it 's strange that men will believe Lies that are so evident and notorious that their very sences may convince them thereof If Christ should have told his Disciples that a Spirit hath not flesh and bones as they see him have and yet might impose upon their sences and make them to believe that to be flesh and bones upon the Verdict of their sences which yet in truth for all that might be other-wise had he not been really what his Adversaries falsly accused him to be And what weight would there be in that argument so often made use of by the Apostles to assure us of the truth of their Doctrine viz. that they were Eye-witnesses of the things they delivered for truths to the Church and see and heard and felt what they testified if things might be quite otherwise than the most plain and constant evidence of them to our sences represent them Now we may see the substance of bread in the Sacrament as plainly as our eyes can discern any substance we may feel it with our hands tast it with our mouths smell it with our nostrils And when we have so many evidences that it is bread yea and the word of God and Scriptures of the Apostles call it bread too as they do after the words of Consecration when it is broken yea and eaten too for they say the bread which we break is it not the Communion of the body of Christ and so often as ye eat this bread c. 1 Cor. 10.16 and 11.26 to be perswaded upon this Church's or it's Priests authority that there is no bread there but the very natural body and the substance of the flesh and bones of Jesus Christ is the most palpable imposture upon our faith and the most unreasonable credulity that ever was heard of not to be parallel'd in any Histories Oh but say they our Saviour said this is my body and therefore it must be his very natural body As if our Saviour never spake in Parables or used not similitudes and figures in his speaking and so must be understood to speak Literally when the understanding his words so contradicts our sences yea and our reason too For if the substance of bread be gone and the very substance of his body flesh blood and bones be there really present under the forms of bread and wine upon the Consecration or pronunciation of those words this is my body how many absurdities must follow thereupon As then Christ must have many bodies distinct from one another or the same to be multiplied beyond all possibility to say into how many yea then while Christs body sate by his Disciples whole and untouched it must be at the same instant in their hands and mouths yea his whole body in every one of their hands and mouths in it's mortal state and yet his whole body visibly before them all and distinct from them all and from all their hands and mouths and what was therein yea then his body must be broken by himself before it was broken and he was as it were his own Crucifyer before he was crucifyed slain and while as yet nothing of that nature was done to his body For if that bread which he took and blessed was transubstantiated into his body then he saying of it that it was broken for them in that he brake the bread it must then be broken by himself and yet for all it was broken and eaten too yet it was as whole after that yea and in the very time of it's being broken and eaten as ever and was taken and broken and crucified on the Cross by his enemies after every one of his Disciples had eaten it in it's natural substance Then also he must have a thousand and a thousand bodies at once in the several places where the Mass is Celebrated and the Host eaten and the whole body eaten by every Communicant in it's substance corporally yet his body whole entire in Heaven and the Heavens must receive or contain it till the time of the restitution of all things spoken of by the Prophets Yea and when the Hosts is reserved in the Pix or Box the same body must be in the same time in Heaven Glory and shut up in a narrow box in diverse places where possibly it may mould or if the Mice can come to it be eaten too by them except the Mice can eat accidents without the substance they can be accidents without substance to inherein that are in such case mouldy or the like and all the absurdities that the Prophets cast upon the Heathen Idolaters when they tax them with making a God that cannot help or save it self but may be carried to and fro as men please may be all justified as rational or warranted as possible enough by this one Doctrine For do not the Priests they say make of a piece of bread the person of Christ God and man even their Maker And when a Baker hath of the same dough made diverse cakes or wafers and divers of them being caught and taken and eaten by men the Priest takes one or more of them and Consecrates and makes a God of it and falls down and worships it and perswades the people to worship it telling them it is very God and their Saviour Though yet when it is in their hands it is in their power if they will to cast it away or to burn it in the fire if they secretly reserve it and it cannot rescue it self from them and their power no more than the God made of a piece of a Tree could May it not as well be said to these as to those Heathen Idolaters remember this and shew your selves men bring it again to mind O ye Transgressors Isai 46.8 For are not these men every whit as much infatuated as those persons or worse For there they took a piece of a Tree the workmanship of God more immediately and having burnt part of it in the fire and roasted meat and warmed themselves with it they made another part of it into an Image or similitude of something and set it up and Consecrated it with some words or charms and then they called it their God they prayed to it and said deliver me for thou art my God Isa 44.14 15 16 17. Giving it Divine worship Perhaps they might think as the Papists do that after they had Consecrated it it was transubstantiated too and ceased to be wood the matter and substance of that was gone and it was thenceforth not a Block or wood but really a God and had power to help and save it's Worshippers As the Poet deridingly sings of their Priapus Olim truncus eram ficulnus inutile lignum Cùm Faber incertus scamnum faceret né Priapum Maluit esse Deum Whence it might say
surely no private Brother nor any one or two with him is to be heard in whatever he or they may give out for truth or matter of faith whether it agree with the Scriptures and the commands of God and Christ or not or put absurd expositions upon the Scriptures that may be confuted by common sence And therefore neither speaks it there of any such authority given to the Church to give such interpretation or imposition laid upon any to receive such an interpretation given by any under that name Nor indeed by the Church can be meant there the Catholique Church all over the World much less is it tyed up to the Church of Rome except in it's proper Jurisdiction but it 's meant evidently of the particular society or congregation or Church to which such an offending Brother belongs For it is such a Church as any offended Brother his private admonition being rejected may inform of the offence and that upon the information given may also admonish the offender which can neither be done to or by the Catholique Church in it's Catholique and extensive capacity no nor yet to or by the Church of Rome as to the case of every or any offender to whom this rule appertains as to what is observable in case of scandal and offence that live in places remote from Rome and her Jurisdiction Surely our Saviour no where signifies that persons living in Judaea or Galilee should go or send up information against an offending Brother as far as Rome Nor find we that in any dissentions in the Churches any of the Apostles left any such orders in any of their Epistles however Rome may have challenged or desired such homage and honour to be done to her and hath put men upon such unreasonable and chargeable burthens since the times of her usurpations upon the World Her challenging that authority and homage to be done to her is but what the false Prophets of the Church of Israel calling themselves the Church or holy City were wont to do And therefore being forewarned by the Apostles even by St. Peter from whom the Pope pretends to derive his power that there should be false Teachers in the Christian Church or Churches now that would imitate and do like those false Prophets we are concerned to stand upon our watch and when we discern any party taking that course and walking in their steps not to give heed to them The Apostle Peter tells us that as there were false Prophets formerly among the people so there would be false Teachers among the Christian People that would bring in damnable Heresies going beside the Scriptures for that properly the word translated privily with reference to what was said before imports He had commended them before for taking heed to the sure word of Prophesie as to a Light shining in a dark place even the Prophets that came in old time by the will of God wherein the holy Men of God spake as they were moved or carried by the Holy Ghost the Scriptures of the Prophets Now these false Teachers going besides or contrary to them would bring in Heresies of damnation denying the Lord that bought them For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is introducent they shall bring in and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is often either contrà or praeter against or besides as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i◠contrary to the Law Act. 18.13 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is either contray to or besides what we have preached and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is contray to or besides what ye received or rather to what ye have otherwise received namely than as the false Apostles taught them Gal. 1.8 9. And so the sense is that these false Teachers should or would bring in damnable Doctrines or Heresies contrary to or besides that is differing from the forementioned Scriptures swarving from or opposing their sayings And such we find and have mentioned some of them and we may instance in more brought in and maintained by the Papists Now the false Prophets of old among the people to whom these false Teachers are compared and made to answer as the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even as there shall also be among you false Teachers imply were oftentimes the greatest and Prevailing party of the Prophets among the people such as the generality even the Kings Princes and multitude of the people usually followed as appears in Isa 9.15 16. and 29.9 10 11. Jer. 5.31 and 14.13 and 23.9 30 31 32. and 26.8 11. Lam. 2.14 and 4.13 Ezek. 13. and 22.25 28. Zeph. 3.4 And thence it was that the true Prophets were evil spoken of and traduced yea Persecuted and slain by them as if they had been false Prophets and seducers as is to be seen in Jer. 2.30 and 20.2 and 29.26 27. and 37.13 14 15 19 38.4 6. Mat. 23.29 30 31 37. Act. 7.52 Even as here the false Teachers are such and so received as that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the multitude or many it 's said shall follow their pernicious ways so as the way of truth which is agreeable to the Scriptures of the Prophets and the commandments of the Apostles shall be evil spoken of reproached and cast out as Heresie as the Church of Rome and it's Teachers cast out the commands and sayings of Christ and the Scriptures in many things and the way that is agreeable thereto accounting it Heresie and them that stick thereto Hereticks Now it was the way of the false Prophets whom these false Teachers which in these last days men have heaped up or multiplied by heaps to themselves that is in abundance as the Apostle Paul prophesied they would do 2 Tim. 4.3 do imitate that they used to say that they were the persons that had the Law with them and that therefore were to be listened to and followed as those to whom the Interpretation of it were committed and from whom it was to be received and that the true Prophets who clave to God and his word indeed were not to be hearkned to but persecuted and punished for contradicting them That this was the way of those false Prophets is evident in that they said we are wise and the Law of the Lord is with us Jer. 8.8 Just thus say the Church of Rome and it's Teachers we are the wise men we have the Law and Scriptures with us we are the true Interpreters of it and ye must take it from our mouths But the Prophets of God reproved those false Prophets and the people as joined with and led by them saying how say ye we are wise and the Law of the Lord is with us the wise men are ashamed for lo they have rejected the word of the Lord and what wisdom is there in them Even they that said they were wise and that the Law of the Lord was with them had in truth rejected the word of the Lord and therefore were destitute of true wisdom and dealt falsly from the Prophet to the Priest
vers 9 10. Even so the Church of Rome and it's Teachers reject the word of the Lord as is evident in the instances we have given and yet they say the Law the Scriptures and it's Exposition are with that is belong unto them They are they from whom men must receive it and upon whom they must depend for it Yea they do as the false Church in Isa 48.1 2. is said to have done who make mention of the name of the Lord but not in truth nor in righteousness though they called themselves of the holy City that is in effect the holy Catholick Church The like is timated of them in Jer. 18.18 where the persecutors of the Lord's Prophets that were such in truth yet said of themselves come let us devise devices against Jeremiah and add as if they had thence authority to do so for the Law shall not perish from the Priest nor counsel from the wise nor the word from the Prophet Now when we see or may see by the Scriptures of truth and the testimony of the Holy Spirit in them that there should be false Teachers among the Christians answerable to the false Prophets among the Jews that would bring in Doctrines swarving from the Scriptures and find that the Papists and their Teachers evidently do so their challenge of authority to be the sole Expounders of the Scriptures should nothing move us while we see that they therein walk in the steps of the false Prophets especially seeing also that they challenge an authority which the Holy Ghost hath not given them nor directed his followers any where unto For the Holy Ghost himself who led the Apostles into all truth Joh. 16.13 doth not in any Scripture testifie to us of Rome or the Roman Church that we should derive our Faith from her or resolve it into her or her Doctors more than into any other Church The Apostle Peter whose authority they pretend to have committed to them but without any evidence of the holy Scriptures and whose Successors they tell us their Popes or Bishops are could not leave more authority to them than he had exercised himself Now we find him expresly preferring the authority of the Scriptures before his own saying or testimony as to the resolution of other mens Faith Yea he as well as other Apostles proved his sayings by the holy Scriptures as is evident in his Epistles 1 Pet. 2.6 7. and 3.10 11 12. and obtruded nothing upon men on his own authority barely as the Popes presume to do He calls the word of Prophesy a more sure word than what he related of his own knowledge 2 Pet. 1.16 17 18 19. and instead of directing the Believers after his death to the Church of Rome and her Bishops which surely he would and ought to have done had he known of any power given of Christ to her or to them for resolving mens doubts and determining their Faith and exercising a dominion over mens consciences more than to other Churches or their Bishops yea or directing them to himself more than to the rest of the Apostles when he forewarned them of false Teachers Scoffers that would come in the last days He stirs up the Believers minds to remember the words of the Prophets and the Commandments of the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour He saith not his own Commands or his rather than of the other Apostles but indefinitely of the Apostles puting in himself with them as one of the same rank and of no superior rank or authority among or over them much less doth he say that we should after his death be take our selves to the Church or Bishop of Rome for our direction guidance and preservation from the Error of the wicked but directs us to the Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles the things spoken and commanded in and by them He thought not of the Lord Peter or the Lord Pope nor signified that the rest of the Apostles stood in relation more than himself to any man as their Lord but only to him who is the Saviour Yea and the Lord Jesus himself when afterward he appeared to John in the Isle of Patmos and gave him visions and revelations of the things that should come to pass in the world and unto the Churches directed him not to bid us go to Rome for resolution of our hearts in the matters of God and in what concerns our preservation in his truth but he in his several Epistles to the Churches bids Let him that hath an ear hear what the Spirit saith to the Churches He bids not That he that hath an ear should hear the Churches simply no nor yet what the Spirit saith in the Churches much less saith he Let him that hath an ear hear what the Church of Rome saith or what her Bishop as an heavenly Oracle or the Spirit as either in it or him as Infallibly tied to his Chair should dictate to us And yet which is very considerable this Book of the Revelations according to the most authentick testimonies of Antiquity was written after the Deaths of all the other Apostles and its probable at least that he lived not long after it himself who was the Penman thereof and therefore if there were any judge or orderer of mens faith infallible to be looked to by all Churches besides the holy Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles or any Infallible Interpreter of them above the rest to be taken heed to it had been the proper place and time surely for Christ the faithful and true witness of God the Amen the firm and sure friend and Pastour of his Church to have signified who it is and directed the Church and every one that hath an ear to hear and hearken to him but neither when he was asked or there was a strife among the Apostles who of them should be the greatest did he tell them Peter should be their Prince and chief among them nor did he direct them here to any Successor of his at Rome or elsewhere as an infallible Guide and Head to them no there is no other Director as to matters of Faith and Worship directed to of God by his Holy Spirit in any Scripture as our absolute and infallible Guide but only the Spirit himself as speaking in and by the Scriptures to the Churches what the Scripture saith being called the saying of the Holy Ghost or Spirit as is to be seen Heb. 3.7 and 10.15 Act. 28.25 And surely they are guilty of horrible Idolatry that prefer the Testimony Word or Determination of any person or persons Church or Bishop before or above yea or but as equal with the testimony of the Holy Ghost to cast by his sayings or commands to listen to and be ruled by men is indeed to have the fear of God taught us by mens precepts and in vain to honour God or worship him which was the fault of the Jewish Church reproved by the Holy Ghost in the Prophet Isaiah for which also he
threatned to give up their wise and prudent men on whom the people leaned to an infatuation of their understandings Isa 29.9 10 11 12 13 14. and the fault charged by our Saviour on the Scribes and Pharisees and the Jewish Church as depending on them Math. 15.1 3 7 8 9. Mark 7.6 7. to vers 13. and it will be as great or a greater evil in us than in them if we make our selves guilty of it in as much as God having now spoken to us by his only begotten Son hath declared his Name more plainly and expresly than he had done in former ages and therefore greater heed and acquiescence in his words and sayings is expected from us for us then to forsake the fountain of Living waters which is Christ speaking in his Servants the Apostles and Prophets in the Scriptures to dig up Cisterns broken Cisterns as all men with their inventions and decrees and all their authority and power that are not his are would be a more astonishable madness than what of that nature was practised under Moses and the Prophets by the Church of Israel Jer. 2.12 13. Our Saviour in the Relation of the Rich man and Lazarus introduces Abraham directing the Rich mans five brethren to Moses and the Prophets and not to the Jewish Sanhedrim or High-Priest or any other persons claiming an infallible authority distinct from them though they might have had more colour by far for claiming such a thing either from that in Deut. 17.8.11.13 appointing men in case of doubt or controversy to stick to and observe the determinations of the High-Priest or chief Ruler of the People or from that promise in Isa 59.21 where God promiseth to put his Spirit upon Zion or some persons in it and his words into their mouth so as to continue it from generation to generation than any the Pope or the Church of Rome can shew for their claim yet I say Abraham directs them to no such person or persons but onely to Moses and the Prophets and if he so directed them then surely now that we have Christ and his Apostles also added as a compleatment of the revelation of Gods mind and will and as infallible Interpreters of Moses and the Prophets it behoves us to take heed to them as speaking in their words and writings and not to neglect or refuse them under pretence of insufficiency in them to direct us now aright without some other infallible Guide that he no where directs us to to determine us And that Rome or her Head the Pope is not Infallible in her doctrine of Transubstantiation the thing last insisted on is evident from hence that Gelasius one of their Popes or Bishops hath taught the Church that the bread in the Sacrament is not naturû or substantiâ mutatus changed in its nature or substance and others of them have taught and determined that it is substantially changed so as the flesh of Christ it is that is eaten and torn with the Teeth of the Communicants as in the Luteran Council was defined and in contradictories one part must needs be false which things duly considered may imbolden us to reject the Pleas and pretence of that Church as more groundless Usurpations Inchroachments by which they pervert men from the right ways of God which our Lord Jesus hath delivered to us Nay our Lord Jesus in the Book of the Revelations instead of directing us to Rome doth clearly call us off from it and hath revealed that to us concerning her which being taken heed to by us will admonish us to flee from her for by the concurrent consent of Interpreters as led to it by the Scripture it self compared with the state and condition of Rome it is Rome deciphered in that Book not by the Name of Jerusalem the beloved City of God in the light whereof the Nations of the saved should walk but by the name of Babylon the Enemy of Jerusalem and her Inhabitants and the subject of the deepest died sins and heaviest judgments mentioned in that Book Yea the Papist writers themselves are also forced to confess the truth hereof it is so palpable and evident yea rather than they will not prove St. Peter to have been at Rome Babylon shall signifie Rome too in his 1. Epistle 5.13 surely she was the City that then ruled over the Kings of the Earth and was built upon seven Hills or Mountains and that 's the City called Babylon Rev. 17.9 18. and its evident that she ruled over the Kings of the Earth not only in her Pagan but also as much or more in her Papal State wherein their Popes or Bishops have exacted Homage of them made them kiss their Toes hold their Stirrups wait at their Doors and do things far below their Majesty and Grandeur in subjection to them Now in all that Book no good is spoken of Babylon nor any direction is given to Gods people the followers of the Lamb to resort to her for any thing but much is spoken of its Wickedness Whoredom Idolatry Bloodiness while it remains and of its woe and misery irreparable in its fall as that that shall for ever Perish with express and vehement command to Gods people that are in her to come out of her lest pertaking with her in her sins they should also pertake with her in her Plagues Rev. 18.4 which one consideration also quite overthrows that corrupt interpretation that would confine what is said of her to her Heathen state only as the Papists to excuse themselves do or rather to blind themselves from seeing their own guilt for if it were so then she should have found her not as a City or Harlot destroyed for ever but by a glorious Metamorphosis or dispossession of the Spirit of Whoredom and Resurrection from her falls in Heathenism changed into the holy City or the Lambs Wife whereas there is not the least intimation of any such thing but a vehement assertion of her sinking like a mighty stone in the waters never to rise again Rev. 18.21 whence it is evident which I shall mention as a farther distinct charge and a farther instance not only of her fallibility but also that she is fallen foully already in that it is thereby evident That 7. She is guilty of Idolatry for that 's it that in Scripture is represented by Whoredom and she is called the great WHORE and the Mother of Harlots and abominations of the earth And she is certainly as great a WHORE from Christ as ever the old Babilon or the old Pagan Rome was and more truly so also being not so espoused to Christ in her Pagan state as since she turned Christian Indeed she is a Mystical WHORE corrupted from the purity of the Faith and Worship of God in Christ yet giving out herself to be a Queen and Lady the Queen or Darling of Heaven the only Catholique and Infallible Church In her Pagan state she was more openly and grosly a Harlot a gross Idolatress
her imperial dignity among and over the nations of the World as to bodily slaughters in all her Wars and Battels or more Souls spritually in raising her self to and maintain her self in her Papal Empire And again whither she made more Martyrs of Jesus or slew more in their bodys for confessing him to be the Son of God in her Pagan state or for confessing and cleaving to the simplicity and sincerity of the Gospel against her spiritual fornications from and corruptions of it in her Papal state but in both states and in both ways its certain that she hath been and is notoriously guilty of Blood and Murther for if no Idolater hath any part in the Kingdom of God and Christ and they that depart from the simplicity of the faith to adulterate it with other mixtures are thereby abolished from Christ as the Apostle saith of those that were Circumcised Gal. 5. 2 3 4 19 20.21 how shall not those Millions of Souls which she leads into those Sins as is above shewed be ruined by her and as for Murthering and Martyring the bodys of those that cleave to the Sincerity of the truth and witness against her corruptions what multitudes hath she Massacred and murthered witness the Albingenses the Waldenses the Hugonots as they call them in France the Protestants in Ireland the Vallies of Piedmont c. besides the Multitudes burnt at stakes and otherwise Martyred in England Holland Spain Italy Germany and in almost all Countries so that what the Prophets testify of Jerusalem playing the Whore from the Lord is too truely applicable to this Papal Babilon for as Jerusalem was a bloody City the City that shed blood in the midst of it Ezek. 22.2 3. an Imperious Whorish Woman that slew Gods Children and therefore was to be judged as Women that break Wedlock and shed Blood are judged Ezek. 16.20 21 30 38. in her skirts was found the blood of the Souls of the poor innocents and yet so impudently hardned as to deny her guiltyness and plead I am Innocent I have not sinned Jer. 2.34.35 I am rich I have found me out substance in all my labours they shall find no Iniquity in me that were sin Hos 12.8 an Infallible Church Just so is it with Rome and as her Blood was so this Churches is in the midst of her She set and this sets it upon the top of a Rock in the view of all Men she poured it not upon the ground to cover it with dust Ezek. 24.7 no surely she was not ashamed of all her Blood and cruelty though her sword devoured her Prophets and slew the just doubtless she said and justifyed it by her false prophets that they were all mad men and false prophets whom she slew Hereticks and Factious persons that would charge her with Idolatry and Whoredom from God for worshiping him upon Hills and Mountains and under green Trees and some Baalim or matters with him and therefore she endeavoured not to hide her murtherous doings Just so this Church of Rome a Bloody Harlot both in respect of Soul Murther and Body Murther in all her territories yet she will justify her self by her Panders her Priests and Jesuits that she is Innosent an infallible Church under the conduct of an infallible Guide her Bishop that will not fail to lead her Members and Children to Hell and destruction She will not yield that she commits Adultery from Christ or that Saint worship or Image Worship or Host worship or any Idolatrous or false worships nor is she ashamed of those Bloody facts she hath done she sets her Blood on a Rock powers it not in the Dust to cover it but justifies all yea glories in and gives publick thanks for her rare atchievments and honours those that are actors in them though they Murther Kings endeavour to blow up Parliaments fire Citys The more mischief they do in her service the more meritorious she is Innocent and not grieved except it be because she can have her will no more Massacre Hereticks no faster but God will give her blood in his due time to drink according to all her Idolatries against himself and Son and Murthers done upon the Souls of Men and upon the Bodys of his saints and holy ones as is predicted in the Revelations He also will set her blood upon the Top of a Rock that it should not be covered therefore thus saith the Lord God woe to the Bloody City I will even make the Pile for Fire great see Ezek. 24.8.9 Oh who that looks upon her in the light of Gods testimony can be deluded with her fair pretences or reguard her devices but will rather acknowledge the truth of what the Apostle Paul long since in his Epistle to that Church predicted would befal her upon the course she hath since taken For to interpose by the way a third consideration 9. The Apostle in Rom. 11.21 22 23. implyed or supposed her Fallible contrary to her own boast of her self and shews the way how she might come to fall warning her of it And indeed that way she is fallen foully as therein was foreshewed together with what will befal her further Let us view his words they are thus Thou standest by faith be not high minded but fear For if God spared not the natural Branches take heed lest he also spare not thee or neither in any wise will he spare thee Behold therefore the severity and goodness of God on them that fell severity but towards thee goodness if thou continue in his goodness otherwise thou also shalt be cut off Now who did the Apostle there speak and write to Was it not to the Church of Rome who were then Saints but now all her Saints are dead and glorified Persons no Saints living now in Rome none that will own that name or be acknowledged to be such A sign they are fallen for then the living members of it were Saints but now there are no Saints in her but they that are long since gone but it was the Church of Rome that he speaks to and so it is as if he had said Thou Church of Rome standest by faith that is by an obedient dependance on God and Christ in an hearty belief of his Gospel cleaving to him and his instructions and commands and holding fast the faith as delivered to thee Implying that otherwise she is Fallible and might and would fall and therefore it concerned them to take heed of high-mindedness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mind not high things have no high conceits of thy self thou Church of Rome if thou wouldst not fall but keep thy standing be not high minded but fear As implying that if she grew high minded and were puffed up she would fall For indeed Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty mind before a fall Prov. 16.18 where Pride and High-mindedness then are found and fear is laid aside there a fall certainly and inevitably follows even as falling from God and Christ as to a
hearty dependance on him and close cleaving to him and to his will and directions in which they should be preserved as that was the way the Branches came to be broken off and Israel to fall by her iniquity Jesurun waxed fat and kicked she waxed fat grew thick and was covered with fatness Then he forsook God that made him and lightly esteemed the God of his salvation of the Rock that redeemed him he was unmindful and forgot God that formed him and moved him to jealousy with strange Gods and sacrificed to Daemons c. Deut. 32.15 16 17 18. According to their pasture so were they filled and their heart was exalted therefore they have forgotten me and sacrificed to them that were not Gods to new Gods c. Hos 13.6 with Deut. 32.17 They boasted that they were Abrahams Seed and so in covenant with God that it was impossible for them to be cut off and to be rejected they must alwayes be owned of him as is implyed of them in Mat. 3.8 9. Joh. 8.32 33. An Infallible Church not minding that as God said to Moses He could have cut them all off generally with his judgments and out of some one person of them as Moses he could have performed his promise to Abraham Exod. 32.10 raised up a seed to him that should be as the Stars for multitude yea out of stones as the Baptist saith Mat. 3.9 This High-mindedness and Pride leading them to boast as so in covenant with God and so to boast of God as so ingaged to them that they could not miscarry and so of their Law and skill in it and of their Temple and the like led them into carelesness and fearlesness and imboldened them to turn aside from Gods testimonies and hardened them against the Calls given them by the Prophets and by the Baptist and by Christ and his Apostles to repentance And so they became blind with a conceit of their Infallibility or impossibility of falling and so through unbelief they were broken off Rom. 2.17 18 19. Jer. 7.4 and 23.14 16 17. And of this therefore the Church of Rome was warned that she might have continued in Gods goodness and it was positively threatned to her that otherwise she also should be cut off But hath she taken warning verily no If there be a company of people in the World that are proud and high-minded it hath been and are they And that 's another charge That 9. The Church of Rome is a proud Imperious Harlot for hath she not lifted up her self in her Heads at least above all that is cal'd God or worshipped not only above Kings and Emperors as is most notorious as much above them as the Sun is greater than the Moon as one of them expressed himself but even above God and Christ also in daring to dispense with his Laws and Precepts and to set up their Decrees against them with a non obstante or notwithstanding that God or Christ otherwise ordered or commanded As in leaving out the second Commandment and worshipping and bowing down to Images contrary thereto denying the Cup to the people in the Sacrament Nay doth she not boast that her Priests can make God himself of a piece of bread or wafer And is not that a wondrous unparallel'd height of Arrogancy to presume to do so and a setting her above all that 's called God or worshiped For let reason or wise men judge If as one said majus est Regem facere quà m regem esse it 's a greater thing to make a King than to be one must it not needs be a greater power to make a God than to be a God If therefore they can make Almighty God as they believe they do Christ very God and very man Do they not set themselves above him and have it in their power to make him or not the effect therein as they say depending on the Priest's intentions so as if he intend not to transubstantiate the Bread it is not made into a God by him though he say the words that make him And if the ordinary Priests have such power how great is his height that is the Head and King of them But besides this have they not arrogated to themselves the Title of the Catholick Church and the promises made to the Church as solely belonging to them Though they have far less to shew for any promises to them more than to any other Church than the Jews had to shew that the promises made to Abraham and his Seed pertained to them Nor have they minded that as God could have destroyed the Jews as to the generality of them and yet have raised up Seed to Abraham to perform his promises unto So God can leave and cut off the Church of Rome and yet perform his promise of a Church to be given and preserved continually unto Christ and to secure the Church built upon Christ and humbly and sincerely cleaving to him against the gates of Hell Christs saying to Peter Tu es Petrus super hanc petram aedificabo Ecclesiam meam tibi dabo claves regni Coelorum that is Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church and to thee will I give the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven c. are not half so colourable a plea for the Popes and the Church of Romes pretences as Gods saying to Abraham that he would be his God and the God of his Seed after him throughout their generations was for the Jews conceit that they could never be broken off by him For they cannot shew that Peter only had the Keys of the Kingdom seeing all the other Apostles had the same power of binding and loosing mens sins as he as the Primitive Doctors also acknowledged and as is evident in Mat. 18.18 Joh. 20.22 23. nor that the Church of Rome was either the only or the whole Church built upon the Rock which was not Peter but Christ unless St. Paul was a false Preacher in 1 Cor. 3.11 and 10.4 Nor can they find in Christ's grant to St. Peter any such clause as to thee will I give them and to thy Successors at Rome in all ages and generations as we find to Abraham and his Seed after him the promises made But this also is another evidence of their pride and arrogancy exalting themselves above Christ and God that they dare presume to inlarge his promises and put in clauses of their own head into his Will and Testament as well as alter and lay by his Commandments A bold Imperious Harlot It would be accounted a very presumptuous deed in a Wife to add such a clause into a mans Testament for as the Apostle saith If it be but a mans Covenant or Testament yet if it be confirmed no man addeth thereto as they make bold to do to his who is God Gall. 3.15 But should we grant beyond any evidence or proof that St. Peter left his Keys to the Bishops of Rome successively yet
reguard the ceasing therefrom or any commands of God requiring it so long as his guides and leaders that pretend to have the keys of Heaven in their hands assure them that if but an hour or two before their deaths they confess their Sins and are sorry that they have endangered their Souls thereby and be a little attrite or troubled for them receiving absolution from the Priest and their extreme Unction they may by the vertue of the Sacraments to convey grace ex opere operato be secured against damnation and be eased too in and freed from their Purgatory pains if they be but bountiful to their Church and its Priests by the benefit of their devotions and the Saints Supererrogations so that by this first part of the Touch-stone they appear clearly convicted of being far from being an Infallible Church yea or a true and right Church of Christ especially if we also take in what some of them assert and their doctrine of probability therefore makes safe for all to believe viz. that no man is bound of necessity to love God but that is a work or frame of more perfection without which observing their Church Orders and receiving their Sacraments they may be saved Surely by our Saviours doctrine to love God is the first and great Commandment and that they that teach that men may be saved though destitute thereof cannot be under the commendation of keeping Gods commandments 2. And as much faulty are they with reference to the other branch of the character of the true Church opposed to the false Church or the Beast and his Image worshippers namely the keeping the faith or testimony of Jesus which they keep not that corrupt it and add their mixtures to and with it as the false Apostles kept not the faith of Jesus though they might hold as truths all the Articles of the Creed and teach them to others while they added thereto the necessity of being Circumcised and of keeping the Law of Moses unto Salvation no more than they would be commended for keeping for any ones use good and wholsome Wine commited to their custody and charge who would indeed deminish nothing of it but yet would mix with it some of those Stygian Waters which had a poysonous nature in them or other poysons whereby they might be made deadly to them that drink thereof such a Person might indeed plead that he had kept by him all the Wine deposited with him and took nothing of it away yea and that he gave out again all that other keepers of it who keep it Pure and give it out such as it is given do and something more but I suppose with no likement or commendation of him that commits it to him for the benefit of those that will drink of it just such keepers that is to say corrupters of the faith of Jesus are the Papists and their Church They retain with them indeed the whole Bible and all the Gospel and Gospel truths therein but so as to keep them in their Bibles from the generallity of the People that they may not read or hear them read to them yea and they retain with them and possibly Preach to the People and Teach them all the Articles of the Creed at least in an unknown Latin Tongue or if they also interpret them yet to be sure they teach them many other things as matters of faith necessary to be believed by them as much as any of the said Articles though they be quite different from all that Christ and his Apostles delivered to the Church to be believed by us as for instance they teach that God the Father and Christ and the Holy Ghost are one God in three Persons to be believed on and called upon by Men but they corrupt that with this addition of their own that the Saints also are to be called on and that they ought to believe on them to receive help by their intercessions being worshiped by them they teach that Christ is the Son of God and the Saviour of the World that he dyed for our Sins and offered up a Propitiatory Sacrifice to God for the whole World but then they add and mix of their own therewith that their Priests can do dayly make him of a Wafer and offer him up as an effectual unbloody sacrifice for the quick and dead to and that they ought to believe and expect to receive the forgiveness of their Sins through their Sacraficing him a most horrible impiety and indignity to his Cross and Passion and the alone virtue and efficacy thereof and a monstrous addition to and corruption of the faith once delivered of God to the Saints in his Apostles doctrine They hold and teach that Christ is risen from the dead and ascended into Heaven and sits at the Right Hand of God but they mix therewith and teach their Children and Followers to believe that the same very real Body that suffered and is in Heaven is also dayly in the Host at their Mass and is hung up in the Pix or Box that they put him into and that they carry up and down when they please in Procession and that they really tear him with their Teeth and eat him Lib. de Natura Deorum and therein they do what the Heathen Cicero abhorred to think of in their Pagan worship for he said quem tam amentem esse putas qui illud quo vescatur Deum credat esse that is who thinkest thou is so mad as to think that to be a God that he eats or is fed with those Papists are so mad as to think and teach so they hold and teach that there is a Heaven to reward the righteous and a Hell to Punish the wicked and so our Saviour delivered in his faith or testimony but withal they add that there is a third place between both called Purgatory wherein Souls that are not fit for Heaven when they dye may be purged by enduring pains and torments there and that the Pope hath the keys of this place to and can let Souls out of it c. And this Christ never taught nor his Apostles they believe and teach that there is a Holy Ghost and that he is to be believed in but they teach also corruptly that he is confined as it were to them of the Church of Rome and that their determinations or the determinations of their Popes out of St. Peters Chair are his infallible Oracles to be as much believed and held as fast as or more than the sayings of the holy Prophets Apostles in the Scriptures They teach that there is a holy Catholick Church but they add and mix with that also this Poysonful Doctrine that the Church of Rome only are that Church and that men are to resolve their faith into its sayings and conclusions and that the Pope is the visible Head of the whole Catholick Church and Christs Vicar on earth they teach a Communion of Saints but they teach also
with it a worship of those that are deceased and canonized by the Pope and that they may and ought to be invocated they teach remission of Sins but they corrupt the doctrine of it by teaching that it is to be sought for not only in believing on and yielding obedience to Christ but also by their prayers to and invocation of the Saints by Pilgrimages and penances of their own or others imposing on them by the merits of the Saints and not by Christs only by the virtue of their Mass and the very reception of their Sacraments and the like they hold and teach the Resurrection of the Body and Life everlasting but they teach also this corrupt doctrine that life everlasting may be merited of God by our good works for so some of them do teach that good works do truly merit grace in this world and glory in the next and that good works of just persons are of themselves worthy of the reward of Eternal life without any Covenant or acceptation of God yea and that no encrease of dignity comes to just mens works by the Merits or Person of Christ which the same works should not otherwise have had had they been done by the same grace bestowed by the liberality of God alone without Christ and therefore also they say that after grace infused our works are so perfectly Meritorious of life that it cannot be denied them and that therefore they never request of God by the Merits of Christ that the reward of eternal Life may be given to their worthy and meritorious works but that by Christ grace may be given them to inable them to merit worthily that reward and much to the same purpose may be found in some of their Writers as Vasquez his Disputations evidence So that instead of keeping the Faith and Testimony of Jesus they egregiously corrupt and mix it with their own additions which yet they require as much to be believed and practised upon as they do any Articles of the Faith delivered in the holy Scriptures and as much as the belief of the necessity of Circumcision and of keeping the Law of Moses was urged and practised upon by the false Apostles So that to any that will mind the Scriptures and impartially will weigh what is said in them and compare therewith the way of this Church they cannot unless they be stark-blind or wilfully close their eyes but see and conclude that this Roman Church is far from being a true or right Church of Christ muchless can it be the only and Catholick Church or Infallible in her Doctrines and Dictates which things being so it might be marvailed that all men do not fly out of and from her Communion that have any care of their Souls and desire the everlasting Salvation of them and that may be the matter of another inquiry and consideration 5. Whence it is that so many still continue in her Communion after so many convictions of the evil of her ways by so many learned and able Protestants and Reformed Writers and Preachers in so many learned Treatises yea and not only so but that many fall to her also that had rejected her or have lived under the knowledge of the Scriptures and the enjoyments of that light from them by which they might be able to discern and be led to beware of her In answer to which in both its branches it may be noted first of all that this is nothing more than what the Holy Ghost fore-saw and fore-signified in the Holy Scriptures for in the Book of the Revelations it is evident that Mystery Babilon would have many commit Fornication with her until her destruction comes upon her yea and they also many of them no mean persons for it is said that the Kings of the Earth who have committed Fornication and lived deliciously with her shall bewail her and lament for her when they see the smoak of her burning standing a far off for fear of her torment and saying alas alas that great City Babilon c. and the Merchants of the Earth shall weep and mourn over her c. and every Shipmaster and all the company in Ships and Sailers and as many as trade by Sea stood a far off and cryed when they saw the Smoak of her burning c. Revelations 18 9 10 11 17 18. Yea and the holy Ghost signifies that after the Preaching of the everlasting Gospel by an Angel flying in the midst of Heaven to them that dwell on the Earth warning them to fear God and give glory to him and worship him that made Heaven and Earth c. in distinction from and in opposition to all other false objects of worship such as are in Babylon as the Beast and his Image and after another Angel following and saying Babilon is fallen is fallen that great City both fallen from her first love fallen into false and corrupt worship and fallen too from her first dignity and splendor which she had as Babylon as that false Harlot that made all Nations drink of the Wine of the wrath of her Fornications yet it is supposed that some might and would yet worship the Beast and his Image Rev. 14 6 7 8 9. which may denote the continuance of the Babilonish Idolatry after the Gospel Preached by the Reformers calling men to the right and true worship and after the decay and fall of the Roman Church from her pristine splendor and grandeur for the falling of her may be one thing and her Plagues and burning may be another thing between which yet she may be strugling to recover herself and while so she may have some not only continuing in her communion to the last but some also joyning themselves to her Idol worship that were sometimes not joyning with her therein to which purpose also may be interpreted these two expressions concerning the man of Sin the mystical Jereboam that caused Israel to Sin that the Lord shall consume him with the breath of his mouth that is by his word and spirit in the Preaching of the Gospel as the Papacy hath been and is at this day under a consumption thereby and then at length he shall destroy him by the brightness of his coming 2 Thes 2.8 Now as it is in consumptions we know persons that labour thereof will sometimes be very ill and languish and sometimes chear again and revive and seem to be on the mending hand get up a little and be somewhat brisk so may it be with the man of Sin he may seem sometime in his consumptive state to be getting heart again and men may think he will recover his former health and get rid of that deadly wound that by the Sword of the Gospel he hath received and bestir himself then again more vigorously than before that he may keep up and no more fall down but yet at the brightness of the Lords appearance he will thereby totally ruin and destroy him but to speak a little distinctly to the causes and
our works for and in us in our listning to him and following his Word and Spirit we are too prone to slight and think much to put our selves to cost and pains and to stoop down to bear any burthens put upon us by him in and for his service Israel in the wilderness could readily pluck off their Jewels and Ear-rings to make themselves a Molten Calf of Exod. 32.2 3. when as afterward they could find in their hearts to put off God with the refuse or worst of what he gave them yea and to rob Him of his Tithes and Offerings Mal. 1.8.13 3.8 and so the false Worshippers of Rome are forwarder to put themselves to fastings and abstinence after their fashion with Devotions Alms-deeds and the like to make to themselves a confidence of or establish to themselves a righteousness in as the Apostles Phrase is in Rom. 10.3 and to purchase to themselves thereby forgiveness of that I say not with reference to some of them also a license to practise their Sins and to merit and deserve Gods favour and eternal Life when we that have the purity and simplicity of the truth of God more clearly among us and are Instructed into the alone sufficiency in the grace in Christ Jesus and have all freely promised to us upon his account only in a way of obedience to him and his instructions are yet too backward to yield up our selves to him and to be at such cost and charge and exercise such pains and patience as his instructions direct us to and his grace and love ingage us to that we might enjoy the pourings out of his spirit upon us glorify him worthily in our generations and do good to others to our capacities 6. Now upon all these premises I cannot but desire for all men especially for my friends and acquaintance that the Lord would grant to them that by all that is said or by what is otherwhere more fully and clearly said by more learned Persons they may so discern and see the Abominations of that Harlot as to avoid them and keep themselves far from them not listening to any of their fair and specious flatteries that would entice thereto of whom I may say in Solomons words None that go into her that is very few or none of those that willingly go into fellowship with her return again neither do they take hold of the paths of life so as to walk in the way of good men and keep the path of the righteous but with the simple ones and the young man void of understanding that declining towards the corner of the strange woman go in the path to her house who with her fair speech are made to yeild and with the flattering of her lips are inticed they go after her as the Ox to the slaughter or as a fool to the correction of the stocks till a dart strike through their liver as a Bird that hasteth to the snare knows not that it is for their life even for the life of their precious Souls Oh! might what follows with reference to this scarlet Whore be considered and received wherein wisdom adds Hearken now therefore unto me O ye Children and attend to the words of my mouth Let not thine heart decline or bend towards her way go not astray in her paths for she hath cast down many wounded yea many strong men men of strong parts have been slain by her as to spiritual life Her house is the way to Hell whether men think and believe so or not going down to the chambers of death Prov. 2.19 20. and 7.7 8 9.21.22.23 c. For if the Scriptures be true as undoubtedly they are both they and we confess that though they love to puzzle men with questions needlesly how they know them to be the Scriptures or word of God as if we must be beholding to them for that which is false then seeing the Scriptures affirm that no Idolaters shall inherit the kingdom of God nor any that love or make a lye they then that are of and hold communion with that Church are in a sad and piteous case they being clearly guilty of Idolatry and gross falshoods as may from what is said many other things that I have omitted be easily discerned And though some men they think charitably suppose that some who through their invincible Ignorance are necessitated to live in their communion may find mercy with God they believing and holding the fundamental Articles of the Christian faith though joyned with such corruptions as they joyn therewith whose charitable concessions to that purpose have I fear laid a snare for the feet of many I am confident have been and are abused to that purpose by her Priests and Jesuits to draw many in to joyn with them though no ground be given in them for that and to hold in them that were before of it Yet seeing as I question not the false Apostles and the Gallathians seduced by them did hold the main Articles of the Christian faith too only joyned with them a necessity of Circumcision as these joyn a necessity of communion with their Church in all that she injoynes and imposeth unto their salvation and the Apostle for all that pronounced that in case they were circumcised Christ would profit them nothing Gall. 5.2 I know little ground we have for that charity or what more than we may have for those of the Turks or Jews or Pagans who are invincibly kept from the knowledge of the truth of God and the true way of worshipping him received among us Christians by the prevalency of their false Teachers or the severities of their Rulers under whose power they live that they also may be winked at of God and saved Which if it may be supposed yet affords no good ground for any of us Christians to turn to any of their Religions and as little have we from the forementioned charitable concessions or suppositions of some to turn to Romes communion Nay it s most dreadfully dangerous for any that have known better or been brought up under the Protestant profession where they have had or might have had clear convictions of the falshoods and evils of that Church to depart from righter ways to her deceits and corruptions For to such doubtless belongs that dreadful sentence which we read of in Rev. 14.9 10. among others unto whom its possible it may hereafter also be applicable upon a farther account Where after the Angels preaching the everlasting Gospel openly as in the Mid-Heaven and warning all Nations to fear God and worship him in opposition to the false worship before in chap. 13. related and another Angels proclaiming Babilon that is Rome to be fallen both from the true Faith and worship and from her former lustre as before we explicated it there follows a third Angel proclaiming with a loud voice that any man namely if now especially after the two former proclamations either yet or having not done so before