Constantinople insinuated himself in the Emperour's savour and obtained at his hands that the Church of Rome should be called the Supream Head of all other Churches and himself Supream and Universal Bishop of all Bishops Then Boniface as Platina writeth proud of his Vain Glorious New Title which he had snatch'd from the hand of an Usurper called a Council at Rome consisting of seventy two Bishops thirty Presbyters and three Deacons wherein the priviledge of Supremacy given by Phocas to the Roman Church was published Thus he who had murdered an Emperour could make a Bishop and add lustre to his ambitious Holiness and against the Nature both of Reason and Philosophy give that which in himself he had not Thus was this proud swelling Title Midwif'd to the World by a Tyrant who had Murdered his Master the good Emperour Mauritius with his Brother Wife and Children And as Bibliander observeth the Eagles three Heads with their bloody Bills awaked all at once viz. Boniface Phocas and Mahumet the Arabian Now considering these things and that the Bishop of Rome oweth his Greatness and Supremacy to the Emperour what Master of Ingratitude is he to Curse Excommunicate Depose and tread him under his Feet Cause him to hold his Stirrup Crown him with his Feet force him to stand bare-foot begging at his Gates Poison him and make him lye rotting above ground without a Grave to lye in Neither can the Pope deduce his Infallibility from Peter's constancy and stedfastness of Faith for he after he had received the Keys both could and did fall and was by our Saviour Matth. 16.23 not called His Holiness but Satan whence I might after the manner of Popish Argumentation infer that the Church of Rome is built upon Satan who denyed his Saviour and was ignorant Gal. 2.13 14 whether it was lawful to eat with the Gentiles till Paul informed and confirmed him in the true Faith. Yea all Papists foolishly conclude and affirm that during the time of Christ's Crucifixion none upon Earth no not the Apostles themselves had true Faith or believed in the Son of God but only the B. Virgin whence it will follow according to the Principles of Popery that the Church was built upon an Unbeliever and that the Devils the Gates of Hell did prevail against it Now then if Peter was neither Supream nor Infallible why doth the Pope of Rome father his Fopperies of Supremacy and infallibility on him as by a Gospel Line and Spiritual â— could prove his Right to the Holy Chair and throw down all his Brats of Abomination at the Blessed Apostle's Door But if I can by demonstration prove the Pope of Rome his pretended Holiness an Infidel in Faith and an Atheist in Life and Conversation I hope all ingenious Papists will acknowledge him Fallible for ab actu ad potentiam bene valet consequentia The first proof I shall bring is a short History taken out of the best Popish Writers which is this Formosus the first Reigned six Years and died anno 896. after he had made many Decretals Acts and Church-Canons which Steven the 6th spitefully annulled and cancelled as wicked and abominable because he had prevented him in the Popedom and would not allow him Concubines to his mind Yea to revenge his undeserved quarrel against him summoning a Council he caused his dead rotten Carcass to be digg'd out of the Grave and deckt with Gorgeous Pontificals and pulling off all again to be array'd in Lay-mens habit Thus the dead Body being degraded and devested of all Ecclesiastick Dignity like a superstitious Fool he cut off the two Fingers of his right hand wherewith he us'd to hold the Sacrament and threw them in the River Tyber and afterwards commanded his Body to be buried among Lay-men But Romanus the first succeeding Steven allowed and confirmed the Acts and Decrees of Formosus annulling and condemning the Canons Acts and Decretals of Steven as wicked and abominable Then after the Death of Romanus Pope John the tenth being a Favourite of Formosus made a General Collection of all the Writs and Processes against the dead Body of Formosus and condemned the Pope Steven his Council and all their Writings Till Sergius the third who had before by the Roman Clergy been elected Pope with Formosus but suppressed by Faction digg'd up the dead rotten Body of Formosus the second time which had been in the Grave about ten Years set it in St. Peter's Chair drew it thence by the Heels to a block and strook off its head And chopping off the three fingers which Steven had lest he caused the rotten stinking Massacred Body to be thrown into the River Tyber And lastly defaced anulled and condemned all his Acts and Decrees which before had been allowed denyed confirmed and condemned by several thwarting and contradicting Popes Till in the Reign of Pope Anastatius the third about the year 913 some Fishermen found the Body of Formosus in the River Tyber which was by his Holiness buryed sumptuously the very Images if you can believe the famous Popish Writers welcoming nodding and saluting the dead Body when it was brought into the Church Now of necessity some of these contradicting Popes were erroneous in their Judgments yea both faulty and Heretical and did fall in their Faith and sacrifice their Conscience to their spleen For contradicting one another they could not all be in the right nor affirm that whicn was true and Orthodox For it is an undeniable maxim that Duo contradictoria nequiunt esse simul vera But whatever was their Faith I am sure their Charity was thred-bare and their Holinesses destitute of all mercy vindictively pursuing their holy Father beyond the Gates of Death and revenging their quarrel in the very Grave Neither was this all for it is observed by Popish Writers and all others since that after the Death of Formosus the Popes of Rome poison'd and dispatch'd one another so fast that there were eleven Popes within nine years space The next proof of the Pope's Fallibility in Faith is that John the 23d was proved an Heretick in the Council of Constance by these words Pope John said and stubbornly believed that the Soul of Man dyeth together with the Body and is consumed to nothing like the Souls of Bruit Beasts And because Thomas Walleis an English-man was Imprisoned by the Pope for reproving his Heresie the King of France summoned a Council into his Palace in Viciana Sylva where the whole Assembly subscribed against the Pope's Heresie And the King wrote to John to reform it and set the Prisoner at liberty The last he did to prevent threatning dangers but of his Heresie he never would purge himself My third proof shall be from Pope Gregory the VII This man was an Adulterer a great Sorcerer and Necromancer and as Beno the Cardinal writeth when he was in his merry Fits would cast off his Sleeves and skip and dance like a Bear in form of sparkles and flames of fire
SPEEDY ADVICE TO ALL Roman Catholicks Especially those concerned in SCOTLAND AND IRELAND LONDON Printed and are to be sold by Richard Baldwin near the Black-Bull in the Old-Baily 1689. SOUND ADVICE TO Roman Catholicks c. THough there be none in this Nation who upon the account of Merit oweth less kindness to your Tribe yet as one well acquainted with the Intrigues of both Churches upon the account of Brotherly Love and Charity I humbly present you with my Christian and best Advice earnestly desiring you seriously to consider the sandy Foundation of your Romish Church and no more pin your Faith and confidence of Salvation to the implicit assertions of a pretended Authority and usurped Supremacy to believe every Contradiction of Nonsense which is or can be affirmed by the Spiritual Apostates of so abominable an Harlot whom with the Ephesians Act. 19.28 you term your Great Diana and unspotted mother-Mother-Church and therefore ought to be believed without any further enquiry though the Turks may on as good grounds perswade the World to embrace their Religion and their chief Mufti as well claim Christ's Vicarage upon the account of John of Constantinople as the Pope of Rome can on the Succession of Peter their Principles being neither more ridiculous nor contrary to the Scriptures of Truth and Apostolick Christian Faith than the Doctrine of the Church of Rome is at this present time Indeed I my self was lulled asleep by the allurements of the Popish Syrenes and the bewitching Sorceries of the Man of Sin as by the impetuous current of Babel's streams driven headlong to the brink and shore of the See of Romish Abominations But as Joseph was sold to Aegypt for the Preservation of his Brethren so was I laid aside by the permission of Divine Providence for the safety both of my King and Country Therefore with the Apostle Paul who was once a Persecuter knowing the terrour of the Lord and the danger of Popish Apostacy I perswade all men to renounce the Doctrine of Devils and embrace the Christian Faith freely offered to us in the Gospel And because I would gain ground on the meanest Capacities and discover the nakedness of the Roman Harlot in puris or rather nudis naturalibus I shall for the benefit of those who have not money to buy nor time to read great Controversies set down in this small Treatise some obvious and abominable Errours of the Romish Church in such capital and legible Characters that they who run may read MYSTERY BABYLON c. on the face of that impudent Harlot and unless they shut their Eyes Ears and all their Senses the Gates of their understanding be ready to cry out Men and Brethren what shall we do to be saved The first blow that I intend to strike is at the Pope's Supremacy and Infallibility the two great Pillars whereon the Church of Rome or rather Fabrick of Antichrist leaneth The first God hath as evidently prohibited Mark 10.42 as he hath Murder and Adultery in the sixth and seventh Commandments and since Papists unanimously acknowledge that all the Apostles received the gift of the Holy Ghost and Peter only the Keys the Orders and Badge of his Supremacy before they prove his Superiority and Dignity above the rest of the Apostles they must prove that those Keys were a thing better and more precious than the rest received yea than the Holy Ghost or God himself which none but Antichrist and his Members dare to affirm Peter indeed being a forward Man Self-confident and Audacious first answered our Saviour's Question Matth. 16.16 and our Saviour very gently continued his discourse to him not excluding the rest But were I to give the Supremacy to any Apostle I would rather give it to James the Lords Brother or to Paul or Barnabas to whom Peter himself gave the right hand of fellowship Gal. 2.9 or to John who could be more intimate with Jesus than any of the rest as is clear from Joh. 13.23 and was termed the Disciple whom Jesus loved Joh. 21.20 Yet what Fool will from thence conclude that he hated all the rest though the Papists foolishly affirm that because Christ gave the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven to Peter he gave them to none else He was pleased to wheedle over the rest with smaller enduements priviledges and preheminence though they received both the Father and the Son. Thus did Peter according to the Canon of the Church of Rome receive a more noble Gift and was inspired with a greater Spirit than God himself though our Saviour saith Joh. 10.29 My Father is greater than all Yet for all these Keys were so precious that bloody Sodomite Pope Julius the Second threw them in the River Tiber as he was marching before his Army the number whereof was as the sand of the Sea Whence Bibliander doth conclude that Pope Julius did resign all his pretended Right and Power of shutting and opening Heaven and Hell to the River Tiber or the Fishes or other Creatures therein For casting away the Keys the Testimony of his Authority he did deprive and spoil himself and all his Successors of Peter's inheritance But to approach a little nearer to this glorious Mitre whose dazling brightness darkneth all the Crowns in Christendom I would gladly know how the Pope of Rome came to be Peter's Successor and if he came honestly by his Popedom If Peter was Crucify'd at Rome his Succession must be by Usurpation and his Right to the Holy Chair but a meer Robbery But it is acknowledged by all that the Titles of Pope of Rome Universal Bishop Peter's Successor Christs Vicar and God upon Earth were not known till about 600 years after our Saviour The Patriarchs of Constantinople and Rome did both by Letters and Legates sollicit the Emperour Mauritius for the Title of Bishop of Bishops instead of Servus Servorum But Gregory the First abhorring that Blasphemous Name and calling it the Mark and Badge of Anti christ Lib 4 Epist 27. wrote to the Emperour thus Exclamare compellor ac dicere O tempora O mores Ecce cuncta in Europae Partibus Barbarorum juri sunt tradita Destructae Urbes eversa Castra depopulatae provinciae nullus terram Cultor inhabitat tamen Sacerdotes qui in pavimento cinere flentes jacere debuerunt vanitatis sibi nomina experiunt novis ac prophanis vocabulis gloriantur That is to say I am compelled to cry out O Times O Manners Behold in all the parts of Europe all things live under the reverence of barbarous people Towns are destroy'd Castles are over-thrown Provinces are spoiled No Labourer inhabiteth the Land notwithstanding the Priests who should lye in ashes upon the ground weeping are seeking unto themselves Names of Vanity and Glory in Prophane Titles Thus Anti-christ's Title was blasted in the bud and forc'd to linger in the birth till Bonifacius the Third finding opportunity by the disliking which the Emperour Phocas had of the Patriarch of
With which and many such Miracles or rather lying Wonders he deceived and perswaded ignorant people to believe that he was a Lamp of pure Holiness As also he kept a Brazen-Head in his Closet wherein dwelt a Spirit wherewith in any danger he consulted to know the result of his undertakings But on a certain time as he was preparing to War against the Emperour his Domestick God gave him such an ambiguous Answer that he could make no sense of it therefore took the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper his supposed Deity and setting it on a Table Conjur'd it with the same Words that he had his Brazen-Head a little before but the Sacrament giving him no Answer His Holiness in a great passion threw it in the fire with these Words There 's a God indeed Could the Idol-Gods of the Heathens give them Answer in their Success and canst thou give me none The Cardinals then present were much displeased that Hildebrand should have burn'd the God which they had made to be eaten Therefore John Bishop of Portua of the Popes Privy Council made his Apology in a Sermon in St. Peter's Church the next Lord's Day thus What meaned HILDEBRAND and We to do these things for which We all deserve to be burned alive From whence I infer that Pope Gregory was an Heretick and did not believe the real Presence and that the Sacrament was a True God. Yet this Gregory alias Hildebrand or Hell-brand as some term him for all he Poyson'd seven Popes to make way for himself to the Popedom dyed at Salerne in great Misery Anno 1086. My fourth proof is by consequence from the Words of Pope Gelasius concerning the Sacrament of the Lords Supper who against the Eutychians speaketh thus Biblioth patr Tom. 4. Surely the Sacraments which we receive of the Body and Blood of our Lord are a Divine thing so that by them we are made partakers of a Divine Nature and yet it ceaseth not to be the Substance or Nature of Bread and Wine and certainly the Image and Resemblance of Christ's Body and Blood are Celebrated in the Action of the Mystery Whence it will undoubtedly follow that he was a Heretick according to the Canon of the second Council of Lateran which confirmed the Doctrine of Transubstantiation or else that all the Popes since have been Hereticks who have maintained Christs real presence in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper My fifth and last proof shall be of Pope Leo the X. who when Cardinal Bembus moved a Question out of the Gospel very contemptuously Answered All Ages can testify enough how profitable that Fable of Christ hath been to us and our Company Who then dare be so impudent to affirm him Infallible in Faith who denyeth the very foundation thereof and him by whom only Salvation can be obtained Be astonished O ye Heavens at this and be horribly afraid c. Jer. 2.12 Now if this be the Fountain of the Romish Faith and the Creed of his unspotted Holiness what mud and dirt is in Babel's streams What Atheism and Infidelity must there be among the Crew of the Romish Clergy And Rabble of Brutish Priests Monks and Friers Est petri Sedes saith Bellarm. in praefat ante lib. de Pontif. Rom. Lapis probatus angularis pretiosus in fundamento fundatus St. Peter's Chair is an approved Corner Stone precious and laid in the foundation And again lib. 2. de pont Rom. cap. 31. The Pope of Rome is the foundation of the Church And Stapleton Relect. princip Doctr. in praef Alii nunc a Christo eorumve Doctrina praedicatio determinatio fundamenti apud me locum habebunt That is others now beside Christ and their Doctrine Preaching and Determination shall be esteemed of me as a Foundation The Begging Friers in the time of William de sanct amore as the Doctors of Paris in lib. de peric novis temp relate collected all their Dreams Fancies and vain Traditions into one Volume calling it the Eternal Gospel and Preach'd The Gospel of Christ shall cease and our Eternal Gospel shall be Preach'd and receiv'd to the end of the World. The Pope with great reluctancy did at last condemn this blasphemous Book of Abominations and lying Wonders at the earnest Request of the Doctors of Paris against whom his Holiness conceived such implacable hatred that he could never after be reconciled to them and favoured the Friars so much that he both preferr'd them and enlarg'd their Priviledges Now if any of the Romish Clergy perswade a Lay-man to believe as the Church believeth he must tell him what is the Church For if he believe what the Church of Rome preach'd formerly then he must not believe the Doctrine of Popery now Yea if he believe Pope Gelasius whom I have Quoted he must not believe the present Church of Rome or else if he will believe the Doctrine of Rome now he must acknowledge that Pope Gelasius was a cursed Heretick which will overturn the Doctrine of the Popes Infallillility which hangeth betwixt a Possibility and an Impossibility Now to prove the Pope Fallible in respect of evil Works Sin and Wickedness his godless and brutish life is enough to declare him both a Beast and an Atheist And I really believe that as soon as ever he sitteth down in the old rotten Stool which they call St. Peter's Chair as from an old enchanted Oracle he is possessed with the spirit of Delusion and Errour which driveth him headlong to all Abominations and Uncleanness And as an evil spirit from God troubled Saul so suffereth he the wicked one to take possession of this Prince of Pride that they who follow and wander after him and term him His Holiness may be inexcusable in the day of their accounts in reputing him a Terrestial God whom they see an Infernal Devil And for further satisfaction I shall here insert some Popish Pranks and Wicked Villanies committed by the Popes of Rome which the Reader may judge whether or not they can consist with Infallibility and unspotted Holiness Pope or rather Popess Joan was a Fornicatrix and died in Labour bringing forth a Bastard Pope John XIII lay with his own Sisters forced his Fathers Concubines played at Dice drank the Devils good Health pray'd to him for good luck and put out the Eyes of Benedict his Ghostly Father Gregory VII caused a fellow to put great stones right over the place where the Emperour Henry used to pray in St. Marys Church to knock him on the Head by an ingenious contrivance whilst he was at his Devotion he Cursed and Excommunicated him without occasion and took his Crown from him without any just cause Paschal II. stirred up Henry the V. to Rebel against his good Old Father who at last by his assistance beat him from the Empire and brought him to beg his Bread so that he lived and died miserable and was caused to lye rotting above ground without burying five years at the Pope's special command Innocent IV.