Christ alone and do properly and only belong to him nor was there ever any Bishop of Rome who would suffer so insolent and proud a Title to be given him before the Times of Phocas the Emperor who as we very well know aspired to the Empire by a most detestable Villany the Murther of Mauritius the former Emperor his Soveraign that is till the year of Christ 613. That the Council of Carthage expressly decreed that no Bishop should be called the highest Pâ—ntiff or chief Priest But the Bishop of Rome because he now desires to be so call'd and usurps a Power which belongs not to him besides that he acts directly against the ancient Councils and the Fathers if he dares believe St. Gregory one of his own Predecessors he has taken upon him an arrogant prophane sacrilegious antichristian Title and is therefore the King of Pride Lucifer one that sets himself above his Brethren who has denied the Faith and is thereby become the fore-runner of Antichrist 7. WE say that a Minister ought to have a lawful Call and be duly and orderly preferred in the Church of God and that no Man ought at his own Will and Pleasure to intrude into the sacred Ministry So that a very great Injury is done us by them who so frequently affirm that nothing is done decently and in order with us but all things are managed confusedly and disorderly and that with us all that will are Priests Teachers and Interpreters 8. WE say that Christ has given to his Ministers the Power of Binding and Loosing of Opening and Shutting And we say that the Power of Loosing consists in this that the Minister by the preaching of the Gospel offers to dejected Minds and true Penitents through the Merits of Christ Absolution and doth assure them of a certain Remission of their Sins and the hopes of eternal Salvation Or secondly reconciles restores and receives into the Congregation and Unity of the Faithful those Penitents who by any grievous Scandal or known and publick Offence have offended the Minds of their Brethren and in a sort alienated and separated themselves from the common Society of the Church and the Body of Christ And we say the Minister doth exercise the Power of Binding or Shutting when he shuteth the Gate of the Kingdom of Heaven against Unbelievers and obstinate Persons and denounceth to them the Vengeance of God and eternal Punishment or excludeth out of the Bosome of the Church those that are publickly excommunicated and that God himself doth so far approve whatever Sentence his Ministers shall so give that whatsoever is either loosed or bound by their Ministry here on Earth he will in like manner bind or loose and confirm in Heaven The Key with which these Ministers do shut or open the Kingdom of Heaven we say with St. Chrysostom is the Knowledge of the Scripture with Tertullian is the Interpretation of the Law and with Eusebius is the Word of God We say the Disciples of Christ received this Power from him not that they might hear the private Confessions of the People and catch their whispering Murmurs as the Popish Priests every where now do and that in such a manner as if all the force and use of the Keys consisted only in this but that they might go and Preach and Publish the Gospel that so they might be a savour of Life unto Life to them that did believe and that they might be also a savour of Death unto Death to those that did not believe that the Minds of the Pious who were affrighted with the sense of their former ill Lives and Errors after they beheld the Light of the Gospel and believed in Christ might be opened by the Word of God as doors are with a Key And that the wicked and stubborn who would not believe and return into the Way might be left shut up and locked and as St. Paul expresseth it might wax worse and worse this we take to be the meaning of the Keys and that in this manner the Consciences of Men are either bound or loosed We say that the Priest is a Judge but then we say with St. Ambrose that he hath not the Right of any Dominion and therefore Christ reprehended the Scribes and Pharisees with these words that he might reprove their Negligence in teaching Wo unto you Scribes and Pharisees for you have taken away the Key of Knowledge and shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against Men. Seeing then the Key by which a Passage is opened for us into the Kingdom of Heaven is the Word of the Gospel and the Interpretation of the Law and the Scriptures where there is no such Word there is no Key And seeing the same word was given to all and the Key which pertains to all is but one we say that the Power of all Ministers as to binding and loosing is one and the same and we say that even the Pope himself notwithstanding his Flatterers do so sweetly sooth him up with these words I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven as if they belonged to him and to no other Mortal under Heaven except he makes it his Business to bend and subdue the Consciences of Men to the Word of God we deny that even he as I said can either open or shut or hath at all the Keys and altho he â—oth teach and instruct the People which I wish he would sometimes do truly and at last be perswaded to believe it is at least some part of his Duty and Office but yet if he did so his Key would be neither better nor greater than that of others for who made that difference Who taught him to open more learnedly or absolve more powerfully than his Brethren 9. WE say that Marriage is Honorable and Holy in all degrees of Men in Patriarchs in Prophets in Apostles in Holy Martyrs in the Ministers of the Churches and in the Bishops and that as St. Chrysostom saith it is both lawful and just that he should ascend the Episcopal Throne with it and we say as Sozomen did of Spiridion and Nazianzen did oâ— his own Father that a pious and industriouâ— Bishop is nothing the worse for being married buâ— rather much the better and more useful in his Ministery And we say that the Law which by force taketh away this Liberty from Men anâ—ties them to a single Life against their Wills is as St. Paul stiles it the Doctrine of Devils and that from hence as is confessed by thâ— Bishop of Augusta Faber the Abbot of Paleâ—mo Latomus the tripartite Work which 〈◊〉 joyned to the second Tome of the Councilâ— and other defenders of the Papal Party and which is apparent from the thing it self and confessed by all Histories an incredible imâ—purity of Life and Manners and horriblâ— Debaucheries in the Ministers of God havâ— sprung and arisen so that Pius the secondâ— Bishop of Rome was not out when
SO we therefore because we are taken by them for mad-men and are traduced as if we were Hereticks and as if we had nothing to do with Christ nor with the Church of God have thought it not unreasonable or unprofitable to propound openly and freely the Faith in which we stand and all that Hope which we have in Christ Jesus that all may see what we think of every part of the Christian Religion and so determine with themselves whether that Faith which they must needs perceive to be consonant to the Words of Christ and the Writings of the Apostles and the Testimonies of the Catholick Fathers and which is confirmed by the Examples of many Ages be only the Rage of a sort of mad-men and a Combination or Conspiracy of Hereticks CHAP. II. Containing the Doctrine received in the Church of England WE believe that there is one certain Nature and Divine Power which we call GOD and that this is distinguished into three equal Persons the Father Son and Holy Ghost all of the same Power of the same Majesty of the same Eternity of the same Divinity and of the same Substance and altho' these three Persons are so distinguished that the Father is not the Son nor the Son the Holy Ghost or Father yet there is but one GOD and that this one God created Heaven and Earth and whatever is contain'd within the Circumference of the Heavens 2. WE believe that Jesus Christ the only Son of the eternal Father as it had been decreed before the beginning of all things when the fulness of time came took our Flesh and perfect Humane Nature of that blessed and pure Virgin that he might reveal to Men that hidden and secret Will of his Father which was conceal'd from all former Ages and Generations and that in this humane Body he might finish the Mystery of our Redemption and might nail to his Cross our Sins and the Obligation which lay against us 3. FOR we believe that for our sakes he died was buried descended into Hell and the third day by a Divine Power returned to Life and arose and after forty days in the sight of his Disciples ascended into Heaven that he might fill all things and that the very Body in which he was born in which he convers'd in which he was despised in which he had suffered most grievous Torments and a most direful Death in which he rose and now ascended to the right hand of his Father was placed above all Principalities and Power and every Name which is mentioned not only in this World but in that which is to come in Majesty and Glory And we believe that he doth now sit there and shall sit there till all things are fulfil'd and altho the Majesty and Divinity of Christ is diffused every where yet his Body as St. Augustine saith ought to be in one place we believe that tho Christ added Majesty to his Body yet he took not from it the Nature of a Body nor is Christ to be so asserted to be God that we should deny him to be Man and as the Martyr Vigilius said Christ left us as to his Humane Nature but he hath not left us in his Divine Nature and tho he is absent from us by the Form of a Servant yet he is ever with us by the Form of God 4. AND from thence we believe Christ shall return to exercise a general Judgment as well upon those he shall then find alive as upon all that are then dead 5. WE believe that the Holy Ghost who is the third Person in the Holy Trinity is true God not made nor created nor begotten but proceeding from both that is from the Father and the Son in a way neither known to Mortals nor possible to be expressed by them We believe that it is He who softens the Hardness of Mans Heart when he is received into their Hearts by the saving preaching of the Gospel or by any other way whatsoever that it is He who inlightens them and leads them to the Knowledge of God into all the ways of Truth into a perfect newness of Life and a perpetual hope of Salvation 6. WE believe that there is one Church of God and that not consin'd as it was heretofore to the Jewish People in one Angle or Kingdom but that it is Catholick and Universal and so diffused or spread over the Face of the whole Earth that there is no Nation which can justly complain that it is excluded and cannot be admitted into the Church and People of God that this Church is the Kingdom the Body and Spouse of Christ that Christ is the only Prince of this Kingdom that there is in the Church divers Orders of Ministers that there are some who are Deacons others who are Presbyters and others who are Bishops to whom the Instruction of the People and the Care and Management of Religion is committed And yet that there neither is nor is it possible there should be any one man who has the care of this whole Catholick Church for Christ is ever present with his Church and needs not a Vicar or sole and perfect Successor and that no mortal Man can in his mind contain all the Body of the Universal Church that is all the parts of the Earth much less can he reduce them into an exact Order and rightly and prudently administer its Affairs That the Apostles as St. Cyprian saith were all of equal Power and Authority and that all the rest were what St. Peter was that it was said to all alike Feed To all go ye into all the World To all teach ye the Gospel And that as St. Jerome saith All Bishops wheresoever they are setled whether it be at Rome or Eugubium at Constantinople or Rhegium they are of equal Worth and of the same Priesthood And as St. Cyprian saith there is but one Episcopacy and each of them hath a perfect and intire share of it And that according to the Judgment and Sentence of the Council of Nice the Bishop of Rome hath no more Authority in the Church of God than the other Patriarchs viz. the Patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch That the Bishop of Rome who now endeavours to draw all the Ecclesiastical Authority to himself alone if he doth not his Duty that is if he doth not administer the Sacraments if he doth not instruct the People Admonish and Teach he is not to be call'd a Bishop or indeed a Presbyter for as St. Augustin saith Bishop is the Name of a Work or Office and not a Title of Honour so that he who would usurp an unprofitable Preheminence in the Church is no Bishop But then that the Bishop of Rome or any other Person should be the Head of the whole Church or an universal Bishop is no more possible than that he should be the Bridegroom the Light the Salvation and the Life of the Church for these are the Priviledges and Titles of
under Boniface the 8th when the Papal Power was at the highest about two hundred years before Huldericus Zuinglius began to preach the Gospel or indeed was born But from that time to this all things there have been in the greatest Tranquility and Quiet that was possible not only in relation to foreign Wars but intestine Commotions so that if it were a sin to deliver their Country from a foreign Dominion which oppressed them with great Insolence and Tyranny yet it is unjust and absurd to load the Reformation with the Crimes of others or them with those of their Fore-fathers 14. BUT O immortal God! Shall the Bishop of Rome accuse us of Treason Will he pretend to teach the People Subjection and Obedience to Magistrates Or has he any regard to Majesty Why then does he suffer himself to be call'd by his Flatterers the LORD OF LORDS which none of the ancient Bishops of Rome ever did as if he would have all Kings and Princes whoever they were and wheresoever be no better than his Vassals and Slaves Why does he boast that he is the KING OF KINGS and that he has the Right of commanding them as his Subjects Why does he force Emperors and Monarchs to swear Obedience to him Why does he boast that his own Majesty is seventy seven times greater than the Majesty of the Emperor and that forsooth because God made two great Lights in Heaven and because the Heavens and the Earth had not two several but one single Beginning Why have he and his Followers in that like the Anabaptists and Libertines shaken off the Yoke and exempted themselves from the Jurisdiction of all Civil Powers that they might with the greater liberty and security plague the World 15. WHY has he his Legats that is a crafty sort of Spies as it were in ambush in the Courts Councils and Chambers of all Kings Why doth he as his Interest requires set Princes at variance amongst themselves and at his pleasure fill the Earth with Seditions Why does he proscribe and take for an Heathen and Pagan whatever Prince withdraws himself from his Dominion and promise his Indulgences so freely if any man will by any means whatsoever assassinate his Enemys Doth he preserve Empires and Kingdoms or at all consult and desire the Publick Peace You ought O pious Reader to pardon us if these things seem a little more sharp and eager than becomes a Divine for so great is the Provocation so great and so impotent with all is the Ambition of the Popes that it cannot be expressed in other or milder Words For he had once the Insolence to say in a publick Council that all the Authority of all the Kings in the World depended upon him He out of Ambition and Desire to Rule distracted the Roman Empire and tore in pieces the Christian World he absolved the Italians and amongst them himself from the Oath wherein they were obliged to the Emperor of Greece with great perfidy and solicited his Subjects to revolt from him and call'd Charles Martell the Great out of France into Italy and after a new and till then unheard of manner made him Emperor He deposed Chilperick King of France an innocent Prince only because he did not like him and set up Pipin in his Place He would if he had been able have cast out Phillip the Fair another King of France and have adjudged the Kingdom of France to Albert King of the Romans He broke the Power of Florence tho his own Country which was then a most flourishing City and changing its free and peaceable State he delivered it up to the Lust of one man He made all Savoy to be torn in pieces by the Emperor Charles the 5th on the one side and Francis the First King of France on the other scarce leaving to the miserable Duke one City to shelter himself in 16. I am weary of Examples and indeed there is nothing more troublesome than to enumerate the great Actions of the Popes of Rome of this nature I pray of whose Party were they who poisoned the Emperor Henry the 7th in the Eucharist and they who did the same to Pope Victor in the holy Chalice Who exercised the same Art upon our King John of England in a common Table Cup whoever they were and of what Party soever this is certain they were neither Lutherans nor Zuinglians Who is it that at this day permits the greatest Kings and Monarchs to kiss his Feet Who is it that commands the Emperor to hold his Bridle and the King of France his Stirrup Who was it that cast Francis Dandalus Duke of Venice and King of Crete and Cyprus under his Table to gnaw the Bones with the Dogs who crowned Henry the 6th the Emperor at Rome not with his Hands but with his Feet and then with his Foot kicked his Crown off again adding that he had power to create Emperors and to depose them Who armed Henry the Son against Henry the 4th his Father and caused the Son to take his Father Prisoner and having shaven and treated him ignominiously to cast him into a Monastery where he pined away with Hunger and Sorrow who was it that trod insolently upon the Neck of the Emperor Frederick and as if this had not been a sufficient Affront subjoyned out of the Psalms of David Thou shalt walk upon the Asp and the Basilisk and shalt tread the Lion and the Dragon under thy Feet Where is there such another Example of despised and injured Majesty in all History except in Tamberlane the Scythian a fierce and a barbarous Prince and in Saphores King of Persia All these were Popes all of them Successors of St. Peter all most Holy Men whose Words were every one of them to be Gospel to us 17. IF we be guilty of Treason who reverence our Princes who submit to them in all things as far as the Scriptures will permit us what then are these Men who have not only done all these base things but have also extol'd them as generous Actions Do they thus teach the People to revere Magistrates or can they with any Modesty accuse us of being Seditious Men the Disturbers of the Publick Peace and Contemners of the Majesty of Princes For as for us none of us shake off the Yoke nor imbroil Kingdoms nor dispose of Empires nor do we reach Poison to our Kings nor put out our Feet to them to kiss nor do we insultingly tread upon their Necks No our Profession our Doctrine is this That every Soul whose ever it is whether it be a Monk or an Evangelist or a Prophet or an Apostle it ought to be subject to Kings and Magistrates and so the Pope himself except he affect to seem greater than the Evangelists Prophets and Apostles ought to acknowledge and call the Emperor his Lord as the ancient Popes in better times ever have done We publickly teach that
might thereby reap some benefit by it but they that the People may never understand them whisper their Divine Service not only in an obscure and low Tone but also in a strange and barbarous Tongue 10. The old Carthagenian Council forbad any thing besides the Canonical Scriptures to be read in the holy Assemblies of the Church but they read in their Churches what they themselves do not doubt to be meer Lyes and silly Fables And now if any man thinks these things are of no great consideration because they were decreed by Emperors and small Councils consisting of Bishops of less esteem and not in full Councils and therefore are more fond of the Authority and Names of Popes 11. Julius expresly forbad the Priest in the Celebration of the holy Communion to dip the Bread in the Calice but they contrary to this Decree do divide the Bread and dip it 12. Clemens the Pope saith it is not lawful for a Bishop to bear both the Spiritual and Civil Swords and saith he if thou wilt have both thou deceivest thy self and those that hear thee but now the Pope claims both and bears both and therefore the Wonder ought to seem the less if that hath followed which Clement foretold and he hath accordingly deceived himself and those which have heard him 13. Pope Leo saith it is not lawful to celebrate more than one Mass in one Day in one Church they say every day sometimes ten at others twenty and at other thirty and sometimes more in the same Church at the same time so that the miserable Spectator knows not which way to turn him 14. Gelasius the Pope saith that if any man divide the Sacrament and when he has received one part refuseth the other he doth act Wickedly and Sacrilegiously but they contrary to the Word of God and the Decree of this Pope command only one part of the Eucharist to be given to the People and by so doing have made their Priests guilty of Sacriledge 6. BUT now if they shall pretend that all these things are antiquated and worn out of use and so are in a sort dead and do not concern our times yet that men may see what Faith is to be given to these Men and with what Hope they call Councils let us consider in a few instances how well they observe those things which have been ordained of late years and which are fresh in Memory by Councils which they pretend were lawfully called and in which they themselves decreed those things I shall mention to be Religiously observed In the last Council of Trent not much above fourteen years since it was decreed by the common Vote of all Orders there present that two Benefices should not be committed at one time to the same Person Where is that Sanction now Is that so soon antiquated and dead too for they do frequently give not only two Benefices but sometimes also several Monasteries too and sometimes two three or four Bishopricks to one Man and he too sometimes not only unlearned and consequently thereby unfit for them but a Soldier In the same Council it was decreed that all Bishops ought to preach the Gospel but they never Preach nor ever come in a Pulpit nor do they think it in the least any part of their Duty What then is the meaning of all that shew of Antiquity Why do they glory so in the Names of the Fathers and of the ancient and modern Councils Why would they so fain seem to rely upon their Authority whom as occasion serve at their Pleasure they despise 7. BUT I have a great desire to have a little discourse with the Pope himself and to tell him some things to his Face Be pleased then O Holy Father who so often boastest of Antiquity and pretendest that all the Ancients are intirely addicted to thy Service to inform us which of all the ancient Fathers ever call'd your Holiness the chief Pontif or the Universal Bishop or the Head of the Church Which of them ever said that both the Swords were given to thee Which of them ever said that you have the Right and Authority to call Councils that the whole World was your Diocess Which of them ever said that all Bishops had received of your Fulness That all Power both iâ— Heaven and Earth was given to you That you could not be judged by Kings nor by the whole Clergy nor by all the Peopleâ— Which of them ever said that Kings and Emperors by the Command and will of Christ derived Authority from you Which of them ever affirmed with a Mathematical Exactnesâ— and Certainty that your Authority was preâ—cisely seventy seven times greater than that oâ— the greatest Kings Which of them ever saiâ— that you had a greater power than the otheâ— Patriarchs Which of them ever said you werâ— the Lord God or not a meer Man like otheâ— Mortals or stiled you a certain Hotch-potch a Mixture or Concrete of God and Manâ— which of them ever said that you were thâ— fountain of all Law that you had an Empireâ— and Dominion over Purgatory and that yoâ— might at your pleasure command the Angels of God Which of them ever said that you were King of Kings and Lord of Lords And now we are in we may inquire of a fow other things of the same Nature What one Man of all the ancient Bishops and Fathers ever taught you to say a private Mass whilst the People did nothing but look on or to lift the Eucharist above your Head in which you now place all your Religion or to curtail the Sacrament of Christ and contrary to his Institution and express Command to deprive the People of one half of it And that we may conclude what one of all the ancient Fathers taught you to dispence the Blood of Christ and the Merits of the Martyrs and to sell your Indulgences and all the Apartments and Lodgings of Purgatory like Commodities in the Market for Money They are wont often to celebrate their own wonderful secret Learning and their manifold and various Readings Now let your Partizans at last produce something of it if they can or let them at least shew they have read and do know more than or dinary for they have often made hideous Outcries amongst their Hearers that all the parts of their Religion are ancient and approved not only by the number but also by the Continuance and Consent of all Nations and Times 8. WELL then let them at least shew this their boasted Antiquity let them make it appear that what they so much extol is indeed of so vast an Extent let them prove that all Christian Nations have imbraced their Religion But alass as I said before they flee from their own Decrees and have already pluckt up those Canons which but a very few years since they made to last for ever Why then should we trust them in relation to what they pretend concerning the Fathers the
more than some Private Councils of the Bishops and a sort of Great Provincial Synods For tho perhaps Italy France Spain England Germany Denmark and Scotland should meet yet Asia Greece Armenia Persia Media Mesopotamia Egypt Aethiopia India and Mauritania in all which places there are many Christians and Bishops would yet be absent And how could such a Council as this ever be reputed a General Council by any understanding Man And when so many and such considerable parts of the World are absent how can they pretend to have the Consent of the whole World Or what kind of Council was the last at Trent or how could it in any sense be said to be General when only Forty Bishops met there out of all the Christian Kingdoms in Europe and some of them too were so very Eloquent that it had been fit to send them to the Grammar Schools again and so Learned that they had never in all their Lives read the Bible over But be these things as they will the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ doth not depend upon General Councils or as St. Paul saith upon Mans Iudgment But if they who ought to take care of the Church will not understand and will be wanting to their duty and will harden their hearts against God and against his Christ and still go on to pervert the direct and streight ways of the Lord God will make the stones to cry out and endow Infants with an Oratorical Eloquence that there may ever be some to confute their Shams for God can protect and enlarge his Church not only without the help but against the opposition of Councils There be many Devices in Mans heart saith Solomon but the Counsel of the Lord that shall stand for there is neither Wisdom nor Prudence nor Counsel against the Lord for saith Hilary Those things theâ— are set up by Humane Industry do not continue long the Church was otherwise built and must be preserved by other means for she was built upon the Foundations of the Apostleâ— and Prophets and is fixed and cemented together by one corner stone Jesus Christ 18. VERY elegant and to our times most seasonable are the Words of St. Jerome As often saith he as the Devil lulls any a sleep with the sweet Blandishments of his Sirens the the Holy Scriptures never fail to awaken them with a Surge qui dormis elevare illuminabit te Christus Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the Dead and Christ shall give thee Light At the coming of Christ and of the Word of God and of the Ecclesiastical Doctrine when the time of the Ruine of Nineve that beautiful Harlot is come then shall the People awake which had before been lull'd a sleep under their former Teachers and shall pass to the Mountains of the Scriptures there shall they find the Mountains of Moses and Joshua the Son of Nun the Mountains of the Prophets and the Mountains of the New Testament the Apostles and Evangelists and when the People have fled to these Mountains and are exercised in the reading of them tho they find no Teacher for the Harvist shall be great and the Labourers few yet the Industry of the People shall be approved in that they have fled to these Mountains and the Negligence of their Teachers shall be reprehended Thus hath St. Jerome written so very plainly that here is no need of an Interpreter and with so great a Congruity to the Events which have happened in our Times that it looks as if he had designed to foretel and describe to us with a Prophetick Spirit the whole State of our Times the Ruine of that richly adorned Babylonish Harlot and the Reformation of the Church of God the Blindness and Negligence of the Bishops and the Alacrity and Zeal of the People For who can be so blind as not to see that these were the Masters who as St. Jerome saith led the People into Error and stupified them in it or that Rome their Nineve which was once painted with the most lovely Colours is not now better known and less valued or that pious Men being now as it were awakned out of a deep Sleep have not betaken themselves to the Mountains of the Scriptures the Word of God and the Light of the Gospel without ever expecting the Councils of such Teachers as these 19. BUT without the Popes Consent at least some may think these things ought not to have been attempted because he is the Bond that unites the Christ an Society he is that one Priest whom God means in Deuteronomy from whom Counsel was to be expected in all difficult Cases and from whom the Judgment of Truth was to be fetched and if any man should dare to disobey him he was to be put to death in the sight of his Brethren and whatsoever he doth he can be judged by no mortal Man that as Christ reigns in Heaven so he rules on Earth that be can do whatever Christ or God himself can do that his Consistory and Christs are one and the same that without him there is no Faith no Hope no Church that he who forsakes him rejects his own Salvation For thus the Canonists the Flatterers of the Pope write not very modestly of him for they could scarce say more and certainly not greater things of Christ himself As for us we have not forsaken the Pope for any humane Pleasure or worldly Profit and we wish passionately he would behave himself so that there should be no need of a Departure from him but so it was except we left him there was no coming to Christ Nor will he now enter a League with us upon any other terms than those proposed by Nahash King of Ammon to the men of Jabeth-gilead that he may thrust out all our right Eyes for he will deprive us of the Holy Scriptures the Gospel of our Salvation and of all that Hope we have in Christ Jesus for upon other Conditions no Peace with him can be had 20. AND as to that which so many of them accustom themselves to extol so very much that the Pope only is St. Peters Successor as if upon that account he always carried the Holy Ghost in his Bosome and so could not err it is an airy and a silly Pretence The Grace of God is promised to pious Souls and to those that fear God and not affixed to Chairs and Successions Riches saith St. Jerome may render one Bishop more powerful than another but yet all Bishops what ever they are are the Successors of the Apostles But if the Place and Inauguration be it they so much rely on both Manasses succeeded David and Caiaphas Aaron and an Idol hath often stood in the House of God Long since one Archidamus a Lacedemonian made a mighty boasting that he was descended from Hercules one Nicostratus chastised his Insolence by telling him it did not seem probable that he could be descended from Hercules because