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A15761
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The hunting of Antichrist VVith a caueat to the contentious. By Leonard Wright.
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Wright, Leonard, b. 1555 or 6.
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1589
(1589)
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STC 26031; ESTC S120413
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23,031
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38
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AS the vngratefull Iewes of an obstinate blindnesse had most cruelly persecuted and condemned to the crosse that pure guiltlesse innocent the onely Sauiour and Redéemer of the world so after his triumphant Resurrection and glorious Ascention the spitefull heathen Emperours of Rome hauing the whole power and iurisdiction of all Asia Affrica and Europe in their hands intending vtterly to abolish his name and extinguish his religion for euer as before they had crucified the heade sought still by all meanes possible with most grieuous afflictions painefull torments and horrible kinds of death to persecute his poore dispersed members for the space of 300. yeares together till the Lord of his fatherly affection taking pitie of his poore dispersed flocke raised vp that godly and famous instrument Constantine the great After their long and lamentable troubles to snaffle Satan and set them in quiet rest and safetie This Constantine the first Christian Emperour to confute the infectious heresies of Arrius with his pestilent Disciples and to set an vniforme order in the Church assembled at Nicene a Citie of Bithinia a generall councell of 318 graue and learned Bishops himselfe being present where it was decréed that the vniuersall Church should be deuided into foure Prouinces and foure chiefe Bishops Patriarkes or Metropolitans to be heaâ—-Pastours and gouernours of the same Namely the Patriarke of Rome of Alexandria of Ierusalem and of Antioch and after in stead of Antioch came in Constantinople and so long as the Church was gouerned in this order though in outward rites and ceremonies there was some difference yet so well they agréed in one Catholike doctrine as it mightily increased and flourished till Sathan the authour of mischiefe had so greatly infected the minde of Iohn Archbishop of Constantinople as at length he presumed to chalenge vnto himselfe the proude title of vniuersall Bishop Pope or Arch-father assembling a councell to establish and ratifie his throne But Gregoris then Patriarke of Rome affirmed him in his chalenge to bée no other but the forerunner of Antichrist alledging the saying of Chrysostome Quicunque episcoporum primatum in terra desiderabit confusionem in coelis reperiet Untill the death of this Gregorie the basest of all the Bishops before him and the best of all that came after him the Sea of Rome remayned in some reasonable order not presuming to exalt her selfe aboue her sister-Churches till Boniface the third succéeding in that sea within thrée yeares after his decease obtained of Phocas that wicked vsurper who of a common souldier by consenting traiterously to murther Mauritius his soueraigne with his wife and sonne aspired to the Empire that he and all his successours should bée called supreme head of the vniuersall Church The same title which his predecessour had left for Antichrist At which time as it is written was heard a voyce in the ayre saying Hodiè venenum infusum est Ecclesiae Afterwardes through the liberalitie of good Princes especially one Mathilda a noble Dutchesse in Italie who made the sea of Rome heire of all her landes and reuenues the Bishops beganne to growe in wealth and prosperitie and the more they flourished in the worlde the more they swelled in pompe and pride And the more they shut vp and swelled the more Gods holie spirite forsooke them till at last they had cast of the lawes of Simon Peter and were become in conditions and manners like Simon Magus Caiphas and Iudas so as that which was ordeyned to bring men vnto God was made an occasion of falling from God for riches begat ambition and ambition destroyed religion or after S. Augustine Religio peperit diuitias filia deuorauit matrem Nowe to open the filthie detestable doings of that Romish rabble from the time of their first corruption what superstition they practised what heresies they taught what hypocrisie they vsed what vice they maintayned and what bloudie warres they raised setting Princes together by the eares and the sonne agaynst the father woulde not onely loath honest natures but also infect the verie ayre Some Popes came in by Simonie some by Negromancie and some by poysoning It is written howe Siluester the second a sorcerer gaue himselfe to the deuill conditionally that hée would helpe him to be Pope Iohn the thirtéenth was noted for a wicked person euen from his youth namely a whooremonger and a cruell tyrant Of some of his Cardinals hee pulled out their eyes of some he cut out their tongues and of some their noses He made the Palace of Laterane a Stewes committed incest with two of his owne sisters and in the ende being taken in adulterie with a mans wife was slaine of her husband Iohn the thrée and twentieth had these crimes prooued agaynst him that hée was an heretike an hypocrite an inchanter a murtherer that hee had hyred a Physition to poyson the Emperour and was therefore by the Councell of Constance deposed Iohn the two and twentieth and Clement the seuenth were ranke heretikes openly denying the immortalitie of the soule In the space of nine yeares was nine Popes one hoysting another out of his place Againe thrée Popes raigning and raging at once as Benedict the first Siluester the third and Gregorie the sixt Though the Pharisies were not to bée followed yet were they to bée heard but the Romish rabble whose doctrine standeth chiefly vpon lying visions and prodigious fables are neither to be followed nor heard the effect whereof is this That it is possible for man to kéepe the law That all actes of charitie deserue eternall life That the woorkes of Friers do merit Paradice That Saints can by their merits saue all men that pray vnto them That whosoeuer is buried in Saint Frances habit is deliuered from the paines of Purgatorie That our Ladie by her virginitie can saue all women that call vpon her attributing vnto her that which in Dauids Psalmes is spoken of the father and the sonne In thée oh Ladie haue I trusted haue mercie vpon me oh Ladie The Lorde saide vnto my Ladie sit thou on my right hande c. The absolution they gaue to their penitentiaries is in this maner The passion of Christ and the merits of the blessed virgine Marie Saint Peter Saint Paul and all other hée Saints and shée Saints of Paradice be vnto thée in remission of thy sinnes In these and such like dependeth their whole religion Thus was the worde of God neglected true religion defaced the right way to saluation abolished and vice vnder a shew of vertue maintained For vnder a cloke of professed pouertie they possessed the riches of all lands Under a shadow of being dead to y e world they ruled it at their pleasure Under the colour of hearing the keyes of heauen and hell they crept both into mens purses and their consciences And like as the Scribes and Pharssies in bragging so highly of the Temple of the Lord destroyed
in déede the true Temple of the Lord so these vnder the title of Christ and his religion haue indéede persecuted both Christ and his true Religion And vnder the name of Catholike Church haue most cruelly oppressed the true Catholike Church And colouring their procéedings with in nomine domini haue put the true members of Christ to death pro nomine domini And like as in the Primatiue Church Satan perceyuing he could not preuaile against the person of Christ himselfe turned all his force and malice against his poore members So being let loose again in this latter age worketh stil what hee can to hinder the glory of God and saluation of man Whose speciall instruments God and Magog the tyrannous Turke and bloud-thirstie Pope ruling the worlde at their pleasure haue so vehemently conspired with all seueritie and meanes possible to subuert deface and vtterlie abolish both Christ his Church and religion as if either the furie and malice of Satan the strength and power of man the wit and pollicie of the world cruell tormentes paines of death or hell gates coulde haue preuayled no crueltie could euer bée inuented which hath not béene attempted Yet so mightily hath the Lord alwayes preserued his poore despised truth and strengthned his afflicted members as no threatening paines or kinde of death could euer so feare or terrifie them but that from time to time they haue alwayes stoode in defence of the truth against the tyrants of the world and preuailed In whom both in their liues and deaths appeared manifest tokens of Gods diuine working far beyond mans reach being so readie in their answeres so patient in their imprisonment so strong constant in their sharp torments so willing to pardon their enemies and so chéerefull couragious in suffering that so they might winne Christ they feared neither gallowes tearing their members pressing theyr bodies nor all the grieuous tormentes that wicked worldlings could deuise Hauing two special markes of Gods children outward persecution and inward comfort in the holie Ghost In the world you shall haue affliction saith our Sauiour but in me you shal haue peace Thus was the Popes honour first begotten by presumption borne by ambition nursed vp by superstition increased by violence and defended by false wresting the Scriptures And from a rotten roote arose rotten branches which sent theyr rottennesse into euerie twigge whose contagious infection flowing continually from one to another is conueyed from the ancestors to the posteritie Whereby Rome of a schoole of vertue became a sinke of all vice of a daughter of peace a beldame of debate of a louing mother a hatefull stepdame or rather a proude frantike whoose delighting in murther and bloudshed whose Pilots are turned to cruell pirats rakers of riches cōtenders for worldly mastership That Rome is Babylon and the Pope and his Cleargie Antichrist NOw that Rome or rather the Empire Monarch or dominions thereof is that daughter of Babylon the sea of Antichrist so liuely described of Daniel by 4. monstrous beastes conteining both the crueltie of the leopard the beare and the Lion and so liuely painted out in the Apocalips by another beast muth after the same shape colour and condition hauing seuen heads and ten horns And also by that great purple coloured whoore sitting vpon many waters it appeareth plaine and manifest in that the Angell himselfe expoundeth that purple whoore to be that great Citie Babylon the mother of all abhomination which beareth rule ouer the kings of the earth And the seauen heads of the beast to bee seauen mountaines or hils whervpon the woman sitteth which all writers historiographers and poets affirme to be a plain description of the Citie of Rome which because of her abhominable filthynes is spiritually called Sodoma for kéeping Gods people in bondage slauery Egypt and for her likenes in conditions Babylon That good smelling dog Tertullian who liued about 200 yeres after Christ discoursing of figures and things figured sayth that Babylon in the Apocalips beareth the figure of the Citie of Rome That swéete mouthed hound Chrisostome féeling a hot sent of his game calleth on to his fellowes in this manner Like as the Persians came in the psace of the Caldeans the Grecians in the place of the Persians and the Romanes in place of the Grecians so shall Antichrist vsurp the Empire of the Romanes That famous finder S. Augustine affirmeth that at the same time when the first Babylon being alwaies enemy to the Citie of God was destroied in Caldea least the Citie of God should want an enemy the second Babylon which is the Citie of Rome was erected in Italy The good shepheards dog Saint Gregorie hauing found out that monstrous Hydra giueth warning to his flock saying He that shall claime to himselfe the title of vniuersall Bishop and shall haue a gard of Priests to attend vpon him that same is Antichrist That well flewed hound Saint Barnard hauing found of his footing doth spend his mouth in this manner That beast of the Apocalips to whom is giuen a mouth to speake blasphemie and make warre against the poore Saints possesseth Peters chayre as a lyon prepared to his pray That trustie and diligent searcher Ireneus hauing ranged the forrest of y e Apocalips where it is said that the nūber of the beasts name is 666. saith that this Gréeke word Lateinos the Latine man was thought to bee the name of Antichrist which being numbered by the Greeke letters after their order and manner of accounting maketh iust 666. And in the Latine tongue Dux Cleri the Captaine of the Clergie doth the same as followeth L Λ 30 D 500 A Α 1 V 5 T Τ 300 X 10 E Ε 5 C 100 I Ι 10 L 50 N Π50 E 0 O Ο 70 R 0 S Σ 200 I 1 The generation of Antichrist FIrst the deuil begat darknesse darknes begat ignorance ignorance begat error error begat merits merits begat the Masse the Masse begat superstition superstition begat hypocrisie hypocrisie begat lucre lucre begat purgatorie Purgatorie begat abundance abundance begat pompe pompe begat ambition ambition begat the Pope Cardinals and the Pope Cardinals brought forth tyrannie murther of Saints licence to sinne the end whereof is death and vtter destruction To conclude forasmuch as Christ himselfe was accused of high treasen against the Romane empire persecuted condemned and crucified within the circuite of the Romish dominions by the Romish officers according to the Romish lawes it must néeds follow that the same Empire which hath so persecuted the head should bring forth that monster which should persecute the members Anselmus affirmeth that Antichrist shall come vnder a cloke of holinesse and shall promise the kingdome of heauen The Apostle sayth that hée shall sit in the Temple of God and be worshipped as God But séeing there is none that exalteth himselfe so high in the Church