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
to reclaim any of them But the time is hastening when as she is fallen into the Dregs of Impiety Error and Apostacy from her Primitive Faith and Worship in its purity multiplying as many false Objects of worship as ever Pagan Rome did with her Pantheon so she must because of her obstinacy and impenitency fall under Gods most severe and terrible Judgments forethreatned that as she is become a very Sink of sin and wickedness spiritual and corporal so she may sink into an Abyss of woe and misery eternal 10. In all that I have said and shewed it appears that she is also a false Church or a lying Harlot so far is she from being Infallible though I shall evince it still further in speaking something to what she pretends very much as an undeniable proof of her being the true Church at least Namely the multitude of her Miracles wherewith She endeavours to establish all other her False doctrines and practises as her doctrine of Images and Saint Worship her doctrine of Purgatory and of Transubstantiation and what not almost She pleads Miracles for confirmation of and this being added to her other Notes of her Antiquity Universality and Unity make her to glitter mainly in the eye of many simple people concerning which I may shew her to be a false lying Church too in a two fold respect 1. In her pretending such things as She calls Miracles the signes and strange wonders that she boasts of to be a good and undoubted note of a true Church owned of God and that the doctrines which they tend to confirm are true that this is false we have manifold evidences For 1. The Lord himself by Moses supposeth the contrary when he saith If there be a Prophet or a dreamer of dreams and he give thee a sign or a wonder and that sign or that wonder come to pass that he foretold of saying let us go after other Gods thou shalt not hearken to the words that Prophet Deut. 13.1 2 3. Such signs and wonders then are no true Note or sufficient evidence of the rightness of a person or of a people that doth or listens to them that do them or of the doctrines confirmed by them 2. The Apostle Paul also tells us that the man of sin that wicked one whose coming is after the manner of Sathan shall come with power and signs and lying wonders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wonders of falshood partly so called because done to confirm falshoods and he shall also have a great number of followers after him even the generality of those that have not received the love of the Truth that they might be saved 2 Thes 2.8 9 10 11 12. 3. And our Saviour himself warning his Disciples of the false Christs and the false Prophets which have been creeping into the world and among the Churches ever since the Apostles time such their Antiquity that should shew great signs and wonders so as to deceive if possible the very Elect who being the fewest it s most rational to suppose that the generality of those that have not Elect or chosen out of the world are deceived by them and so that there is a great over-spreading universality of them also and they at unity as to their following these Impostors and deceivers of them by their great signs and wonders Math. 24.24 25. 4. And in Revelations 13. we read of a Beast after whom the whole world wonders so great the universality of his power and of them that approve him unanimously before whom a second Beast shall do or doth so great signs and wonders and miracles as to cause fire to come down from Heaven in the sight of the Beast and in the sight of Men that is he shall do such things in the sight or judgment of men as do as clearly in their judgments testifie Gods approvement of him in what he propounds to them as he did Elijah when he caused Fire to descend from Heaven and consume his Sacrifice offered to Jehovah and yet he is a false Prophet for all that and his Image that he sets up to be worshipped and all the Marks and Characters that he causeth people to take by which they may be known to be the Beast worshippers and the worshippers of his Image it is certain are naught and most displeasing to God who therefore threatens the worshippers and receivers thereof with most dreadful punishments Rev. 14.9 10 11. and yet he by these Miracles and other exercises of his power causes them that dwell on the Earth to submit thereto yea all both small and great rich and poor to give some way or other an acknowledgment of it such their universality and unity therein And it s of great Antiquity if the judgment of the most learned and judicious Expositors may be taken who judge that the 42. months or 1260 days of the continance of that Worship signifies one thousand two hundred and sixty years a day for a year as is sometimes the reckning of the Prophets as in Num. 14.34 Ezek. 4.4 5 6. Rev. 13.12 13 14 15 16. so that this worship hath been in the world as Mr. Mede hath learnedly hinted in his Apostacy of the last times since between the Fifth and Sixt Century 5. How early in the world began the Pagan Idolatry how far and near did it spread it self and that for many ages and generations the Nations of the world unanimously agreeing therein for though its true that they worshipped diverse Gods and had in several places different rites and ways of worshipping yet they might for all that be said to have as great an unity and unanimity in their worship as the Papists have seeing they also worship divers Saints and some of them are more pecularly addicted to one Saint and some to another and observe divers aind different Orders in their different Devotions some being of the Order of St. Dominick some of St. Benedict some of St. Francis some of Ignatius Loyola some Votaries to one Saint and some to another Now the Pagans also had their Signs and Wonders to confirm them in their Religion by the operation and working of Sathan witness what Celsus aforementioned writes of them as it is recited by Origen to this purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. what should I reckon up how many things partly the Prophets and Prophetisses namely of the Pagans partly other persons Lib. 8. contra Celsum both Men and Women inspired with a Spirit have divinely foretold what strange and wondrous things they have drawn out of their secret Cells or Temples how many things they have also foretold from the Entrals of their Sacrifices to those that have consulted them How many things have been foreshewed by other Prodigies to some there have also been granted manifest apparitions of the Gods the life of men is full of these matters how many Cities have been built by the direction of these Oracles how many have escaped Pestilence and Famines