Church and all Bishops Priests c. receive their power from him So that all are but his Deputies his servants the disposal of all Bishopricks and benefices if he please throughout the world belongs to him The power of Excommunication and absolution of making and altering all Ecclesiastical laws and injunctions resides in him and to him all appeals must be made 3. The Pope challengeth power over the Devils They have their book of exorcismes the office of exorcists their many mysteries certain prayers forms of words Holy water consecrated circles c. by which they pretend to cast out to raise to lay and bind the Devil as they please 4. They pretend also that the Holy Angels and glorified Saints are at their Command Pope Clement 6. the first author of their Jubilees in his Bull wherein he promised great priviledges to all that would come to Rome adds this viz. that if any of these holy Pilgrims should chance to die by the way in their journey he commandeth the holy Angels immediately to transport their souls to heaven The Keys of heaven are one of the Ensigns of the Popes dignity he can unsaint those that are gone to heaven he can release out of Purgatory as soon or detain there as long as he pleaseth Yea Pope Gregory the 1. they say by his prayers brought the soul of Trajanus the Emperour out of Hell 500. Years after he was dead They interpret the 8. Psalm v. 4. c. of the Pope viz. he is that son of man that is crowned with glory and dignity that hath dominion over all the works of God that hath all things put under his feet all Sheep and Oxen i. e. all Christians all the Beasts of the field i. e. all the Infidels the Fowls of heaven i e. the Angels and Saints above and the fish of the Sea i. e. the souls in Purgatory 5. The Pope exalteth himself above Christ he challengeth the sole government of the Church on earth to belong to him to make and abrogate Laws and to guide it infallibly so that Christ now hath nothing to do with the Church militant he can and daily doth interpret and dispense with the Laws of Christ and hath authority above his word When the Pope goes out of Town the host his breaden God is carried on Horse-back amongst his Sumpters and other furnitures a day before-hand as one of his utensils and in the Church the Pope sitteth above the Altar and above the Host and giveth it but a small nod as he passeth by when the people give ten times more reverence to him than they do to the Host even according to their own ceremonies 6. He exalteth himself above God He taketh more care to have his own Laws observed than Gods commands and punisheth the violation of them more severely than sins against God To speak against the Pope the virgin Mary or any of their Saints to work on their Holy-days to eat flesh on a fast-day especially in Lent are greater offences and harder to be forgiven than any sins against God Yea it is the design of the Papacy to exalt themselves whatever comes of the honour of God A man may be of any religion or no religion may live as he please so he own the Popes power and hold the Communion of that Church and this is all their unity they so much brag of Papa potest omnia quae Deus potest say their Canonists The Pope can do all that God can do yea and more as they add potest facere justum ex injusto he can make evil good vice to be vertue yea every Popish Priest they say can make his God and maker out of a piece of bread A Frier in a Sermon before the Spanish Governour at Milan magnifying the Priests power said a Priest could do more than God For God could only make creatures but every Priest could make the infinite God the maker of all which God could not do and yet saith the Authour this passed without controul The Apostle amplifieth this pride in the next words he exalteth himself so as he sitteth as God in the Temple of God shewing himself that he is God i. e. he ruleth in the Church of God and challengeth honour from the Church as if he were God The Papists would hence infer that Antichrist or this man of sin shall be a Leader of the Jews sitting and being worshipped in their Temple at Jerusalem to be rebuilt by him but that Temple shall never be rebuilt when the Jews attempted it in Julians time they were hindred by fire breaking out of the earth and descending from heaven and the Jews themselves shall all be converted to Christ The Temple of God here is his Church in which the Man of sin must sit who must therefore be an apostate Christian only not the Turk neither alone as some Papists would have it nor in conjunction with the Poipe as some Protestants think Piscator in Loc. he never was a Christian nor sitteth in the Church nor endeavoureth to alter or corrupt the worship of it nor assumeth divine prerogatives to himself nor was known to the world for many ages after this was written neither his religion name or Nation whereas this mystery of iniquity was working in the Apostles days and by him discovered and pointed at to the Church But that the Pope doth sit in the Church as if he were God is manifest It is not amiss to observe the word here used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he sitteth in the Temple of God is the term the Popes use Kings are said to reign Popes to sit so many years and Rome it self is Sedes Apostolica the Apostolical See or Seat 1. The Pope challengeth an absolute universal power over the whole world When John the Bishop of Constantinople usurped the title of universal Bishop Pope Gregory the 1. called him the King of pride the forerunner of Antichrist yet he challenged that title only over the Church and meant it only of a primacy of order to be the first and chief Bishop but Boniface the 3. ten years after obtained to be head and universal Bishop and his successours have ever since used it exercising an absolute jurisdiction both in Civil and Ecclesiastical matters The Pope challengeth the disposal of all Kingdoms if there be any question about succession or any controversie among Princes he interposeth and pretendeth to decide all as having the absolute power of disposing and ordering all things and in the Church the sole authority belongs to him of binding and loosing of appointing Bishops and Ministers and degrading them of conferring all imployments receiving all appeals not only in reserved cases but in all ordinary cases when he pleases or the parties please to remove the case to Rome This is a power beyond a mortal man a charge that no creature can perform to inspect and order the affairs of the whole world both of this life and that which is to come 2. He
mysteries than Gospel institutions Their chief worship devotion lyeth in building and adorning Temples for Masses not for preaching in buying Masses in decking of images with Gold Jewels in offering incense and wax Candles in pilgrimages and offerings to their Saints in vows of forced and usually feigned chastity of Hypocritical and lazy poverty and such like bodily exercises which profit little 1 Tim. 4.8 4. The Church of Christ owneth him only for her head King and Lord. God gave Christ to be head over all things to his Church which is his body Eph. 1.23 He hath all power in Heaven and earth committed to him to rule and order all things concerning his Church which is his own house Mat. 28.18 19 20. Whereupon he appointed Apostles to bring all nations to be his Disciples to consecrate and ingage them to him by Baptism and to teach them to observe all as he commanded Christ as mediator is the only head of the Church which is his body and all Christians members in particular of him receiving life strength and spirit from him and being governed by him But the Papists acknowledge and adhere to the Pope as the head of their Church which they say could not be one Church unless it be united to the Pope as their visible head Catec Rom. de Symb. Art 9. Q. 11. De eo i. e. Pontifice Romano fuit illa omnium Patrum ratio sententia consentiens hoc visibiel caput ad unitatem ecclesiae constituendam conservandam necessarium fuisse They say that Christ and the Pope make but one compleat Head of the Church That all which is said in the Canticles or elsewhere concerning Christ's relation to his Church may be truly applyed to the Pope That he hath all power in heaven and earth given to him Pope Boniface the 8. declared that it was absolutely necessary to Salvation for every man to be subject to the Pope of Rome Definimus decernimus declaramus esse de necessitate salutis omni humanae creaturae esse subditum Pontifici Romano accordingly they teach peccatum pagantiatis incurrit quisquis Pontifici non est obediens i. e. Whosoever is not obedient to the Pope doth thereby become an Heathen They ascribe to the Pope an universal headship not of order only but of power and jurisdiction he is the Rock the foundation of the Church he giveth authority to the Scriptures and without him authoritas Scripturarum plane nulla est saith one i. e. the Scriptures have no authority at all he can lay aside the Bible if he please or dispense with any of the commands of the old or new Testament saith their Canon Law and he daily doth dispense with oaths vows and obligations of all sorts both to God and man with unlawful marriages c. They say indeed in disputation that the Pope is a ministerial head the Deputy the Vicar of Christ but a Minister is only to execute the pleasure of his Lord a Deputy and Vicar is to see his Masters laws and commands observed not to enact laws of his own not to relax or abrogate any of his Masters laws which power the Pope both challengeth and exerciseth 5. Christ's Church professeth subjection to his law only Isa 33.22 The Lord is our Judge the Lord is our Law-giver the Lord is our King Christ is the only King of his Church and the power of making Laws is the chief prerogative of a King He gave his word to be the standing Law whereby his people should be ruled and guided and by which they must be judged at the last day John 12.48 But the Papists have another Law by which they are governed and the Pope is their law-giver who ruleth them The Scriptures they own indeed as the word of God but not as his whole mind and law and that no otherwise than as the Pope interpreteth and alloweth them They joyn with the Scriptures unwritten Traditions which the Council of Tent saith are of equal authority Traditiones non scriptas pari pietatis affectu reverentiâ suscipit veneratur Conc. Trid. Ses 4. Cat. Rom. Pref. Q. 12. The Canons of Councils viz. those that the Pope likes and confirms and the decretal Epistles of Popes they reckon equal with the Holy Scriptures Decretales epistolae meritò inter Scripturas canonicas recensentur The consciences of men they do subject to the determinations and commands of the Pope as to Jesus Christ so that the law of the Church of Rome is composed and made up of the Scriptures Traditions Canons and decretals of Popes over all which the Pope superintends as the supreme law-giver to confirm relax add or alter as he pleaseth according to the known Ruleof Cardinal Cusanus Lex currit cum praxi c. Whatsoever is the present allowed practice of the Church of Rome that must be taken for the infallible rule or law of Christ So that the will of the Pope is the supreme law of conscience to the Papist in this world 6. Christs Church acknowledgeth only his Sacraments Baptism and the Lords supper The Sacraments of the Gospel are badges of our professed Subjection to Christ and of our dependance on him for remission of sins for grace and eternal life and it is fit that Christ alone should appoint what should be the signs Seals and conveyances of his grace and the marks of subjection to him and the tokens of the Covenant betwixt him and his people Christ appointed his Disciples to enter into his Covenant by the sign and Seal of Baptism Matth. 28.19 to renew and confirm this Covenant from time to time by the use of his holy supper 1 Cor. 11.23 24. c. and he appointed no other but these and his people must institute and use no other as signs and Covenant seals betwixt him and them But the Papists have added five more which they own and maintain to be Sacraments besides many other significant ceremonies to which they attribute the use and effects of Sacraments these they make signs of Gods Covenant means to convey grace some of them as universally necessary as those that Christ appointed yea without which Christs Sacraments are not sufficient to Salvation viz. the Sacraments of Confirmation and Penance of the former they say a man cannot be a Christian till he be confirmed by the Bishop Baptism is not compleat without it De consecra dist 5. ch de jejun Nemo potest esse Christianus nisi ad Baptismum accesserit unctio episcopalis nisi confirmatione chrismatus Their penance consisteth of confession of sin to the Priest contrition for sin and the Priests absolution and they teach that sins cannot be forgiven unless they be particularly confessed to the Priest and he absolve them in the name of Christ upon their undergoing or promise to undergo some outward austerity or penance imposed on them by him These Sacraments are badges and means of their subjection to the Priest and to
not fit the Ministers of Christ should be under the power of men of this world or that they should judge of Ecclesiastical causes or dispose of Ecclesiastical imployments but that all should be managed by a spiritual Court and spiritual person 2. They pretend the benefit of the Church It is necessary they say that as the Church is one body on earth though dispersed in all quarters so it should have one visible Head who should be the fountain of Unity that he should have supreme and absolute power to judge all persons and to determine all cases to prevent divisions and to preserve Unity to maintain the doctrine and worship of the Gospel and to prevent or redress errors and corruptions and that things may be managed with safety it is necessary this Head should be infallible who may neither be subject to deceive or be deceived for what end shall there be of Questions and controversies in Religion or in Civil matters How shall Heresies Schisms Wars and Seditions be prevented if there be not a supreme infallible head and judge whose authority and decision may put an end to all strife and lead into all truth 3. They pretend great care of the peoples Salvation They take away the Scriptures from them for fear they should prophane them by using them in common discourse or fall into error and Heresies by mistaking the meaning of them or be puffed up with knowledge and so be disobedient to their teachers and run into Sects divisions therefore they give them Images Crucifixes c. which they call Lay-mens books to stir up their devotion without danger of making them heady or high-minded they allow them little preaching and celeberate all the worship of God in an unknown tongue that the people may not grow slight and prophane and that they may still admire what they understand not ignorance being the best mother of devotion and for the greater security and ease they teach them implicitely to believe what the Church believes and that being infallible they cannot believe amiss especially when they know not in particular what she believeth nor can call her faith into Question 4. They pretend great devotion and zeal to Gods worship spiritual knowledge pious affections spiritual worship such as teaching the word prayer and use of plain Sacraments as Christ appointed them they think are mean things instead of these they build Temples adorn Images adore the bread in the Eucharist offer incense Tapers and many gifts as more real devotion Conc. Trid. Ses 25. The Council of Trent commands that the Priests should carefully teach the people the right use of Images which are to mind them of their Saints their virtues and miracles and sufferings that they may be stirred up thereby to the imitation of them Their worship of the Virgin is devotion to her Son and their praying to Saints and Angels is honour to God whose servants they are and the Pomp and riches of the Pope and his Bishops is to preserve the Gospel in honour and religion from contempt 5. They pretend great mortification They have frequent fasts at least from flesh and some sorts of food to curb keep down the flesh has they pretend Their voluntary penance whippings pilgrimages to remote places confessing all their sins to a Priest and craving his absolution and all to shew their sorrow for sin and to break them off from it more surely than the plain Spiritual means of the word and prayer It is thought great self-denyal to forsake the world to live in wildernesses and Monasteries to vow single life and to refrain those comforts and imployments which God hath both allowed and commanded 6. They pretend great humility It is humility in them to be subject to their superiours especially the Pope against their own reason and conscience and to obey all the commands and ordinances of their Church without presuming to inquire into the reason of them or to prove them by Scripture They account it presumption to pretend to assurance of Salvation and great humility to live and dye in doubt but especially that the best of them must not pretend to go to Heaven but through long suffering the pains of Purgatory and the help of the prayers of the Church on earth and of the merits of the Church in Heaven 7. They pretend great care to have the Ministery pure and industrious therefore they allow them not to marry because said Pope Ciricius they that are in the flesh cannot please God and that being free from the cares of a family they may wholly attend upon their Ministry and lest the service of Parish Priests should not be sufficient they have multitudes of Monks and Friars to help them in private and whose prayers and private Masses are always going for the benefit of the Church Thus they have plausible pretences for all their doctrines and practices nevertheless it is a mystery of iniquity in every particular 1. The universal power the Pope claimeth is only to set up himself and his own institutions therefore he taketh upon him all the state and grandeur of the Roman Emperours even the proudest of them he gives away Kingdoms when Kings any way displease him though they be very religious towards God and when he can make any advantage He sets Christian Kings at war with each other and taketh the unjustest part so it be the strongest yea himself raiseth War and driveth Princes out of their dominions to increase the riches of the Church or to preferr his own Nephews and kindred This was notorious in Julius 2 and many of his predecessours he maketh the Emperours swear allegiance to him and the Bishops at their consecration use to swear to maintain Regalia sancti Petri the royalties of Saint Peter 2. The pretence of infallibility is only to gain authority to himself that he may command and do what he pleaseth in the world it is used only to draw people into seditions and massacres to patronize any unjust actions or claims when the Pope giveth away the right of a King or other person when he dissolveth Lawful marriages or giveth dispensations to contract unlawful Matrimony as betwixt Uncle and Niece in Philip 2. of Spain or betwixt Brother and brothers Wife as at this day in Portugal the former husband yet living and the like when he forgives all manner of sins when he maketh as his Canons give him leave just things unjust and sins to be duties then he maketh use of his pretended infallibility and never but it such cases for the Popes never do nor never will determine or end any controversie in religion for fear of losing one part of the contenders There is a great difference among themselves betwixt the Dominicans and Jesuites about the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary Philip the 2 and 3. of Spain did for many years together by their Embassadours earnestly sollicite the Popes to use their Infallibility and decide the controversie but they could never
then when the incumbent died the Pope must be judge who shall have it of all these which shall certainly be he that will give most money Thus they make woful Merchandize with mens souls 4. Continual endeavours to stir up wars and imbroil Nations The Pope pretends to be Lord of Lords and King of Kings and therefore he disposeth of Kingdoms sets up and pulls down Princes as he pleases and this is a sufficient pretence for any unjust wars and invasions and wherever there are any differences among Princes and their Subjects he interposeth his authority usually taking the unjust part if like to prevail that they being beholding to him may requite him with some addition to his authority or revenue Pope Zacheriah gave France to Pipin an aspiring man deposing Childerick their lawful King as unfit to govern Leo the 4. gave the Empire of the Romans to Charles the great and another gave England to the French in King Johns time and sent them to Conquer it and of late the Pope gave the East Indies to the Portugal and the West to the Spaniard where they murdred the poor natives as wild beasts made to be destroyed These doctrines and practices are not taught and practised by a few only among them but they are the State policies by which they stand which they never disown never endeavour to reform it is the design of their government to be universal and to attain it by any means Hence we infer that to hold communion with this Church is to conspire against the Church of Christ against all that is sacred or moral Nor may we expect any reformation from them they will not they cannot be better their interest and government depends upon these methods and therefore this Man of sin is the son of perdition appointed to be destroyed not to be reformed let us not deceive our selves with vain hopes They are and must be the same when they have opportunity The second character of this Apostasie is laid down v. 4. Who opposeth himself viz. the man of sin the Head of this apostasie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an adversary or one that sets himsel against Christ The same title that is given to the Devil viz. Satan an enemy or adversary Now the Devil was an adversary not by denying the true God he believes and trembles James 2.19 nor by causing himself to be worshipped as the supreme God for the Idols which the Heathens worshipped they worshipped as Mediators and servants to the supreme God but under this pretence the Devil took to himself all the worship and service of the world and left God but an empty name of Creatour and supreme residing in heaven when he himself was the God of this world ordering all things after his own lusts this the Devil did so long as Heathenism prevailed by the several Governours and Princes of the world and when he was cast out of Heaven viz. his worship Idolatry and Heathenish superstition abolished by the fail of the Heathen Roman Empire Rev. 12. v. 7 8 9 10. and opposition to the name of Christ was taken away he cast about and after some time delivered his power to the second Beast who used the power and tyranny of the former Beast i. e. the Roman Empire opposing Christ and his worship setting up himself with all superstition and Idolatry but under fair pretences of Christs authority Rev. 13.11 12 c. This beast was like a Lamb but spake as the Dragon and used all the power of the former beast viz. the Heathen government Now that the Pope and his adherents do thus oppose Christ and not his name but his power and worship drawing all subjection to himself and leaving Christ but a bare and empty title he being as Stapleton calls him plain supremum in terris numen i. e. the most high and absolute God in earth It is manifest 1. The Pope will not suffer Christ to be King and law-maker in his Church Kingly power consisteth in making laws and ruling according to them this belongs to Christ and he gave his word to be the law of his Church and his Mininisters to execute and administer it according to his mind But the Pope challengeth the sole power and government of the Church on earth to belong to him the authority of the Scriptures to belong to him that he can add to them take from them or dispense with any thing there commanded that he only must interpret and give them their sense that his determinations is the rule of conscience for whatsoever he defineth or commandeth is to be believed and obeyed and so under the pretence of Christs Vicar he rules as Christ on earth 2. The Pope will not allow Christ to appoint the ordinances of his own worship It belongs to Christ as King to appoint how and by whom he will be worshipped but the Pope will not give him leave He appoints more orders of Officers than Christ did more Sacraments and alters those of his appointing the bread in the supper he maketh a God to be worshipped and yet a Sacrifice to be offered to God the cup he takes away from the people the Council of Trent most insolently telling us that though our Lord Christ instituted and gave his supper to his Apostles under both kinds of bread and wine yet that doth not oblige all the faithful to receive it under both kinds Concil Trid. Ses 21. ch 1. Etsi Christus dominus in ultima coena venerabile hoc Sacramentum in panis vini specicbus instituit Apostlis tradidit non tamen illa institutio traditio â—ò tendunt ut omnes Christi fideles statuto domini ad utramque speciem accipiendam astringantur He appoints Saints and Angels and especially Christs Mother to be worshipped and honoured yea the very Cross on which he was murdered pretending these to be more honour to Christ than the preaching or hearing his holy word Almost the whole body of the Papists worship is of the Popes own institution 3. The Pope will not suffer Christ to appoint the means of his own grace to Salvation Christ as the Saviour of his people as divine and Princely Saviour is to appoint and hath appointed by what means and in what duties he will bestow and increase his grace to eternal life but the Pope lays these aside at his pleasure viz. the reading and hearing the Scripture the use of the Sacraments and prayer in a tongue that can be understood by those that use it and appointeth more upon which the greatest stress of salvation is laid as confession of sin to Priest without out which there is no forgiveness to the living and private Masses both for the quick and dead anointing of Children to confirm them in grace and anointing the dying to strengthen and comfort them against the terror of death crosses and holy water to drive away the devil and so many of this kind that they have greatly obscured the means
and corrupt and poyson the rest by errour superstition Idolatry The Papists plead that Antichrist shall deny both God and Christ his person and incarnation 1 John 2.22 cap. 4.3 But this the Pope doth not yet the doth it in effect though not in words when he useth and exerciseth the names titles power and office both of the father and the Son and hath set himself against the pure doctrine worship and discipline of the Gospel The Papists cannot prove from this or any other place certainly that such an Antichrist as they describe is to be expected and we do prove all the properties of Antichrist to belong to the Pope even this of denying Christ to be come in the flesh in effect though not expresly and yet some of them have called the Gospel a fable and have been professed Atheists If Christ rule not his Church if the Pope be head with absolute power over it if Christ he daily made of a bit of bread and daily Sacrificed by the Priest to make attonement with the Father as they teach and practise this is in effect to say he is not come nor hath made satisfaction to God for the sins of his people However we need not contend whether the Pope be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Antichrist that what to come or some other Heretick may be intended we are sure Antichrist fits the Pope and we have little more of him than his name but that he is the man of sin the Son of perdition the author and maintainer of a general apostasie and that Rome is the Whore of Babylon is clear from this place and Rev. 17. and this is all the Protestants mean by the name of Antichrist V se From all this we inferr 1. That pretence of some Papists that they are of the Church but not of the Court of Rome i. e. for the Romish religion but not for the Popes supremacy is altogether vain The Pope as Pope claimeth the full power of Christ both over the Church and over the world and if they believe him to be infallible they must believe he hath this power also if he deceiveth them in this he may deceive them in matters of religion likewise But they that will refuse the Oaths of Allegiance and supremacy because those deny the Popes jurisdiction over our Kings and can consent to the deposing of their persons and the giving away their Kindoms to strangers are certainly for the Court as well as for the Church of Rome 2. That the Pope is not to be acknowledged or respected as a temporal Prince The power he hath is usurped on the pretence of being head of the Church which is a power Christ never gave a magistracy that God never instituted his titles and claims are blasphemous he rules as a God not as Gods vicegerent nor doth he use his power for the proper ends of government to maintain the true religion justice honesty or sobriety among men and to preserve the peace of the world but to subvert religion justice and all morality and to imbroil all nations for his own interest As a society of Bandites or Pirates is no common-wealth but they are to be reckoned hostis humani generis enemies of mankind so the Pope is to be reckoned hostis Ecclesia the professed irreconcileable enemy of Christ and it is some degree of defection to have any commerce with or any respect for that Antichristian State Ver. 5. The Apostle having spoke thus much of the man of sin calleth the Thess to remembrance of what he had said to them about this matter when present with them Remember ye not that when I was yet with you I told you these things Moses forewarned Israel of a great apostasie that would be among them even such as would threaten utter destruction did not God remember his Covenant and that even then there was such a leaven working a nongst them Our Saviour foretold his disciples that false Christs and false Prophets should arise and deceive many and the Apostles in all their Epistlesforetell that seducers and defections would come in the Church all which is done to prevent the security that men are prone to and that the Godly might both beware of and be less startled at such things when they should see them come to pass The Apostle adds v. 6. and now you know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time He had told the Thessalonians what would delay the power and revelation of this Man of sin for a time that he might not prevail till the appointed time and then he should discover himself for he should not get his power or shew his wickedness all at once or apparently till some letts be removed out of his way but should secretly insinuate and grow by degrees till he should come to his full strength Ver. 8. For the Mystery of iniquity doth already work only he who now letteth will lett untill he be taken out of the way Ver. 8. And then shall that wicked be revealed The Apostle saw that there was even in his days some beginnings of this Man of sin some tendency toward the great apostasie but it was secret and a mystery of iniquity this is another character of this apostasie viz. that it should be mysterious and under fair pretences Christ and the true doctrine of Salvation are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the mystery of godliness 1 Tim. 1.16 and the apostasie from this faith is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a mystery of iniquity The great Whore Rev. 17.5 had a name written in her forehead Mystery Babylon the great the Mother of Harlots and abominations of the earth Though she should be both unclean and wicked her self and the author of it to all the earth yet it should be under fair pretences in a mystery Some travellers have observed amongst other antiquities at Rome Du Moul. Accom of proph Rev. 17. that there are shewn some ancient Miters of former Popes that have the word Mysterium in Golden characters upon the front of them as if she had been ambitious to have the prophecie verified of her self The Apostle also 1 Tim. 4.3 saith that the apostasie of the latter times should be brought about by men that talk lies in Hypocrisie forbidding to marry and to eat certain meats c. This plainly points out the Church of Rome The Heathens Jews and Turks are open and professed enemies of Christ but the Pope is a secret and mystical enemy that betrays Christ with a kiss and under the pretext of friendship Their pretences are such as these 1. That the Popes absolute power is for the honour of Christ that it was fit that he that is Lord of Lords and King of Kings should have a servant or Deputy on earth who should have Soveraign power over all persons and causes That his Church should not be subject to secular men and temporal Princes but to one who is Christ's immediate Vicar They say it is
Heathens they say they do not worship them as God the Heathens said the same and as truly but they do ascribe to them the praise trust homage and subjection fear and reverence which is due only to God which is above the condition and desert of our fellow Creatures who depend upon God and the merits of Christ as much as we and this doth take off the Heart from God and makes men believe that the Saints and Angels are nearer to us more merciful more ready to help us than God is and more concerned for our good than our blessed Lord whose whole work it is to redeem and interceed for us 6. Their imposing the belief of Transubstantiation and worship of the bread in the Sacrament Most of our Marian Martyrs were put to death upon this point only their not believing the real presence as they Papists call it of Christ in the Sacrament i. e. that the bread was substantially turned into the body of Christ If men would impose upon us the belief of the least untruth though in natural or civil things we must not submit to them much less when they impose such an untruth as this Tiansubstantiation which is against the plain letter of Scripture which saith that Christ did not only take which was before Consecration but also that he gave bread and wine to be eaten and drunk by his disciples which was after they were consecrated 1 Cor. 11.22 23. which is also against our senses the eye the smell the touch and taste all witnessing the Elements to be still bread and wine against Philosophie which teacheth such a change of one body into another especially so small a one as that of a Wafer into so large as the body of Christ to be absolutely impossible yea and against common reason which knows whence the bread and wine came how they were made how they go into the stomach are digested refresh and are carried off like other food should such a Paradox be admitted there can be no certainty in any thing For by the pretence of such a change or miracle all evidence may be evaded and so the Apostles that saw Christ in the body heard him handled him both before and after his Resurrection might for what we know be all mistaken and all the witnesses of the miracles that confirm both Testaments might all failin their sense and judgement of things and so nothing be certain in Religion seeing there is continually in innumerable places such a prodigie as the Host which is as they say the glorified body of Christ now in Heaven and yet sense and reason take it to be a bit of bread what may they not perswade and impose on people that can prevail with them to believe this The worshipping of the bread doth also destroy the nature and use of the Sacrament where instead of a comfortable remembrance of Christ and his death to increase faith in him and love to him men are taught only ignorantly to worship a bit of bread and that with more solemnity than Christ himself was honoured with on earth 7. Because they take away the cup from the people in the Sacrament hereby they take upon them to alter Christs institution at their pleasure they deprive the people not only of one part of the Sacrament but in so doing wholly obscure the meaning of the Sacrament for seeing they break not the bread but give it whole nor pour out the wine nor suffer the people to see and drink it the people have no representation of the death of Christ neither of the breaking or bruising of his body nor shedding his blood and in this the Papists are most insolent of any other their Corruptions for that their Councils of a Sess 13. Constance and b Sess 21. Trent do acknowledge that Christ gave both Elements to his disciples and that the Primitive Church continued the like custom for many ages and yet they can presume to alter it upon trivial reasons 8. The Papists greatly obscure the Doctrine of Justification the Gospel is the glad tydings of peace the word of reconciliation 2 Cor. 5. ch 19 20. v. that God is in Christ reconciling the world to himself is the chief thing committed to the Ministers of the Gospel if therefore this be obscured the Gospel is in a great measure rendred ineffectual and the Ministry useless for the end it was appointed for It is the chief enquiry of sinful man what he should do to be saved Act. 16.31 and on this depends all his worship of God for till man be reconciled to God he cannot worship him acceptably nor can he trust love and fear God aright unless he know upon what grounds and in what way God will have this done If we lose the doctrine of Justification we lose the substance of the Gospel and of all Religion Now this the Papists do obscure so much that a man can scarce tell amidst their Doctrines what Christ hath done for him and what he must expect from Christ They say a natural man improving the gifts of nature doth in some fort merit the grace and spirit of God and when he hath that grace he doth ex condigno properly and of due debt merit the continuance of Gods favour and heaven it self yea over and above may merit for other men and if a man do commit sins after conversion his voluntary penances his patient bearing of Gods corrections in this world and Purgatory in the next together with alms-deeds fastings and such good works do make full satisfaction for all these sins and he that wants penance and satisfactions of his own may be supplied out of the treasury of the Church by Masses and the Popes indulgences Now this is not only the doctrine of Schoolmen but the chief part of Religion and worship among them and the chief things the Priests teach and are imploy'd about 9. The Popes claim of supremacy is blasphemous and not to be submitted to by the Churches Under the Gospel Christ hath appointed no high Priest to whom all Ministers should be subject no place of worship to which all Nations should repair no Mother Church on which they should depend none to be his Vicar on earth but all this the Pope and Church of Rome claim and usurp which tendeth to bring all the Churches on earth into bondage to them and to exclude the conduct of the spirit in the Ministers and Churches as if it were peculiar to them only it is also a power which no Creature is capable of and derogates from the honour of Christ who doth by his Godhead spirit and word preside in govern and guide his whole Church 10. Because the Papists have wholly changed the discipline of the Gospel into a pompous worldly Polity Christ appointed Pastors and teachers for the edifying of the Saints till they all come to the perfect man in Christ Eph. 4.12 13. but the Papists have changed this into a visible worldly Monarchy though under