they no place at all in determining of the second point Who is this great Antichrist because they liued before the time wherein that great Antichrist who lurked in those Fathers dayes vnder a mysterie was to be detected disclosed and found to sit at Rome and by his deeds to fulfill all those Prophecies which the holy Ghost had deliuered concerning him in the Scriptures So that our holy Brethren who yet expect a more full expressement of Antichrist in some one particular vile Monster that should if it were possible surpasse the Pope in villany are not so much against vs as they seeme to bee in show seeing it is not any good liking they haue of the Pope whom they confesse to be Antichrist but onely the iust detestation of so wicked a Monster as is Antichrist that draweth them to imagine the further deferring of his most dangerous and accursed approach They are in hope Wee are in faith and both in loue They expect a farre off Wee behold euen at hand the end of all these miseries by the fore-past reuealing the present rage and raigning the future happy ruine of Antichrist and his Kingdome now settled in Rome Wee agree both in the maine not much differing in the Bye As wee yeeld to them in the iust execration of the odious nature of this abominable Antichrist so farre as they prooue what they speake from the Scriptures euen so in like manner are they bee they neuer so learned and wise with patience and loue to heare and to iudge vs their deare Brethren speaking with some knowledge in true zeale concerning the maner of the reuealing of Antichrist which they hold yet to be in futuro We finde to be fully finished in praeterito in praesenti both in times before and now If any x 1. Cor. 14.30 31. thing bee reuealed to another that sitteth by let the first hold his peace For yee may all prophesie one by one that all may learne and all may be comforted y Homer 2. Odyss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 weake men combined may worke much good since z Ouid. quae non prosunt singula multa iuuant what one cannot many may Proofes of our Assertion from the ancient Fathers § XXVII And yet I speake not this in diffidence of our cause For wee want not the authoritie of ancient Fathers either prophesying beforehand or zealously publishing vpon his appearance that the Great Antichrist is alreadie come and the Pope of Rome is hee I will produce no Babes but onely such as without exception are either produced by a Canis Catechis cap. de nouiss quaest 3. Canisius and b Coccius tom 2. Catholicism lib. 10. art 30. 1. Prophesying before Coccius as if they were on their side or else registred for eye-witnesses by good Historians For those who beforehand prophesied of Antichrist and of his seat or kingdome agree vpon these two points The first that Antichrist shall sit at Article 1 Rome rearing vp his Kingdome vpon the ruines of the Romane Empire For to this Article speaketh First Tertullian when c Tertullian in Apâ—loget cap. 32. hee saith that Christians pray for the safetie of the Romane Empire because by the course thereof the great Persecutions which must come by Antichrist are put off and hindred Secondly Cyrill of Hierusalem when d Cyrill Hierosolymitan Catechesi 15. hee saith that Antichrist shall violently take vnto himselfe the power of the Romane Empire Thirdly Ambrose when e Ambros in 2. Thes 2. hee saith that Christ shall not come till the Romane Empire faile and Antichrist appeare who must kill the Saints giuing libertie to the Romanes yet vnder his owne name Fourthly f Chrysost hom 4. in 2 Thes 2. Chrysostome followed by g Theophylact. in 2. Thes 2. Theophylact h Oecumenius in 2. Thes 2. Oecumenius and i Radulphus Fluuiac lib. 18. in Leuit cap. 1. Rudolphus Fluuiacensis when both he and they after him ioyntly affirme that Antichrist by trecherie must destroy the Romane Empire The second that Rome is Babylon the proper seate of Antichrist which shall be destroyed before the end of the World For to this Article Article 2 speaketh First Tertullian who in full assurance of what he speaketh oftentimes k Tertullian lib. in Iudaeos cap. 9. lib. 3. in Marcion cap. 13. vseth these words Babylon in our Apostle Saint IOHN beareth the figure of the Citie of Rome therefore great and proud by her Kingdome and a destroyer of the Saints Secondly Hierome who liuing at that time when Rome was wholly Christian vnder Constantius Iulian and Valentinianus the First yet in foresight of future Apostasie therein there beginning vnder a Mysterie but afterward openly to be complemented very l Hierony tom 1. Ep. 17. ad Marcellum Ep. 151. ad Algosiam qu. 11. in Praefat. ad translat Dydimi de spirit Sanct. Omnia secund Editionem Parisiens 1609. often termeth that Citie Babylon and the purple Whoore spoken of in the Reuelation wherein sometimes hee was an inhabitant Now this cannot bee spoken of Babylon in Mesopotamia which then was desolate and where Hierome neuer liued Thirdly Lactantius who m Lactant. li. 7. Instit cap. 25. alluding to the Sybilline Oracle saith that when that head of the World shall fall and beginne to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is but a street or Impetus for it is deriued either of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sluo or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 traho who can doubt but that an end is at hand vpon all humane affaires and vpon all the World The words of the Sybill to which he alludeth are these as learned n Xistus Betuleius in Annot. in Lactantium Betuleius doth cite them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Rome shall bee a street and Delus vnknowne c. But let vs leaue these Prophesies and come to performances For Antichrist did no sooner appeare in his likenesse but God in his mercie to wards his Elect sent forth his faithfull Witnesses of euery sort Publishing his present approach by open Verdit to publish abroad vnto the World that the Mystery was reuealed and Antichrist was then come and seated in Rome It is odious to say it and idle if wee prooue it not Therefore that Papists especially in England may at length see and marke how their Pope was reputed off in former times euen before Iohn Wickliffe spake against him in Oxford the Pope shall haue faire play his Cause shall bee tryed by a Grand Inquest of twelue good men and true according to the o Sir Thom. Smith de rep Anglor l. 2. c. 18. onely most laudable custome of the Common-wealth of England whereof foure shall be Kings and Princes foure shall be Arch-bishops A Iurie Impanneled and Bishops and foure shall bee Abbots or Monkes Behold now the Prisoner standing at the Barre who because hee is become a Peere in the World shall
Mat. 22.30 Angels and shall not need this World since there in Heauen d Reuel 22.5 shall bee no night and they need no Candle neither light of the Sunne for the Lord God giueth them light and they shall raigne for euermore Therefore if this visible World shall then bee it shall be emptie or if it be full then it shall be idle and that is against nature this against Grace Wherevpon seeing the manner of this change is secret and the change it selfe most certaine hold we most certainely this truth for our stay that the World shall end and leaue we the manner thereof to bee reuealed by him who will very quickly performe it as now it followeth in the second Doctrine which I noted before § VI. That the end is euen now neere at hand Proofes of the second doctrine For besides the plaine testimony of Scripture recorded in my former exposition of this part of my Text the signes of the end exhibited by Christ himselfe and his holy Apostles will euidently declare it if we well perceiue first what those signes are secondly how in these dayes they are fulfilled That we may know them the better what they all are let vs with our selues at our best leisure priuately recount and peruse these places written in the 24. Mat. 25. Mat. 13. Marke Luke 17. 21. Cap. Rom. 11. 2. Thess 2. 1. Tim. 4.2 2. Tim. 3. and the whole Booke of Saint Iohns Reuelation For out of all these places the signes of Christs Comming are gathered to be twofold first the further remooued secondly the neerer conioyned signes The further remooued signes beginning long before the Comming of Christ are especially three First Warres amongst Nations as our Sauiour said e Mat. 24 7. Nation shall rise against Nation Realme against Realme there shall bee Famine and Pestilence and Earthquakes in diuers places For although there shall bee such peace amongst the Godly in the time of the Gospell that f Esay 7.4 they shall breake their Swords into Mattockes and their Speares into Sythes Nation shall not lift vp a Sword against Nation neither shall they learne to fight any more yet the g Esa 57.20.21 wicked are like the troubled Sea which cannot rest whose waters cast vp mire and dirt For there is no peace saith my God to the wicked since amongst themselues they rush heads together like mad Rammes and wild Buls and towards the Faithfull fulfill Christ his Prophesie that h Mat. 10.36 a mans foes shall bee they of his owne Houshold The second Carnall securitie such as befell in the dayes of Noah vnto them of the olde World and in the dayes of Lot amongst the Inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrha when i Luk. 17.26.27.28.29 c. they did eate they dranke they married wiues and were giuen in Marriage till the Floud came vpon the one sort and the fire from Heauen fell downe vpon the other For k Prou. 16.18 pride goeth before destruction and an hautie spirit before the fall The third the Reuelation of Antichrist as my Text and other Scriptures to bee opened hereafter will plainely proue Now the signes which are neerer at hand vnto the latter Day are likewise three in number The first the Conuersion of the Iewes l Rom. 11.25 after that the fulnesse of the Gentiles shall come in The second the terrour m Reue. 6.15.16.17 of all Tribes and Kindreds when the Kings of the Earth and the great men and the rich men and the chiefe Captaines and the mighty men and euery bondman and free man hide themselues in the Dennes and in the Rockes of the Mountaines and say vnto the Mountaines and Rockes Fall on vs and hide vs from the face of Him that sitteth on the Throne and from the wrath of the Lambe For the great Day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to stand The third and last and the very next vnto the finall dissolution of all is the shaking of the visible Heauens when as our n Mat. 29.29 Sauiour sheweth out of the Prophet o Ioel. 21.31 IOEL The Sunne shall be darkned and the Moone shall not giue her light and the Starres shall fall from Heauen and the Powers of the Heauens shall bee shaken For God doth exhibit these signes vnto vs in his holy Word both to shew that hee shall come and also to prepare vs his Children for his comming since by these signes we see how he hasteneth it according as hee spake this Parable of the Figge Tree vnto his Disciples p Luk. 21.29.30.31 Behold the Figge Tree and all the Trees when they now shoot forth yee see and know of your owne selues that Summer is now nigh at hand so likewise yee when yee see these things come to passe know yee that the Kingdome of God is nigh at hand The fruit saith Gregorie q Gregor Hom. 1. in Euangelia is the fall of the World for this end it groweth that it might fall for this end it falleth that it may bud againe for this end it buddeth forth that whatsoeuer it buddeth sorth it may consume by ouerthrowes For loe the first signe complete in bloudy wars not onely amongst Pagans both of old as Romans against the Gothes and Parthians and of late as Turkes and Persians but also amongst the Christians as Greeks and Latines amongst the Latines as Germanes Franks Spaniards Englishmen Protestants Papists who all fulfill that Prophesie of r Dan. 9.27 Daniel coÌ„cerning the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place applyed by our Å¿ Mat. 24.15 Sauiour vnto this purpose For as the Learned t Vid. â—uni lib. 1. parcello sacr cap. 45. well expound it it is nothing else but a most depopulating and raging Armie of Infidell people in the middest of the Church u Esa 9.21 22 Euery man eating the flesh of his owne arme EPHRAIM MANASSEH and MANASSEH EPHRAIM and both these together being set against IVDAH Secondly concerning carnall security whereby men x Amos 6.4 put farre from them the euill day and approch vnto the seate of iniquitie what need we vse many words For the Gluttonie amongst the Rich and the Drunkennesse amongst the poore and the abominable coupling of all men in Polygamie with those y Vid. Act. Monuments Jo. Fâ—x pag. 225. Edit vltimae three Daughters of King Richard the first of that Name King of England Pride Couetousnesse and Luxurie which Fulco the Bishop wished the King to marry away from his Person and Court and which vpon good experience that Great Prince then bequested presently after this order the first to the proud Souldiers of Hierusalem called Templars the second to the Monkes of the Cistercian Order the third to the Prelates of the Popish Church this matching I say of their soules and bodies vnto these three most abominable vices and crying sinnes sheweth plainely that the last Day is
Bellar. lib. 4. de Christo cap. 6. Bellarmines owne graunt but to make answere vnto their second forgerie we admit it into the summe of our faith all agreeing in the matter that Christ descended into hell howsoeuer there is amongst our learned men in priuate such diuersitie of iudgement onely in deliuering the manner of Christs descension into hell as may by distinction of time wherein all those actions were fully complete in my poore opinion be easily couched into one sound corps of necessary truth For some as i Caluin Instit lib. 2. ca. 16. §. 10 Master Caluin and the k Catechism Ecclesiae Geneuensis inter opuscula Caluini Church of Geneua say that then did our Sauiour descend into hell when he suffered in his Soule those hellish torments that were due for our sinnes expressing his humiliation vnder so great a burden by his griefe by his heauinesse and by his crying on the Crosse my God my God why hast thou forsaken me Others as l Oleuian in Symbol De substant foederis art de descens Oleuian and the m Palatin Belgiae in Catechismis Vrsmi Bastingij Churches of Germany holding against the reall bodily presence of Christs body in the Sacrament say that then did Christ descend into hell when vpon the dissolution of his soule from his body by death he entred into the state or condition of the dead which is nothing else but that the body lyeth in the graue and the Soule is with God separated from the bodie as Christ was till the third day vnder the lowest degree of his humiliation Lastly the ancient Fathers followed by the best and most learned n Vid nostros vt D. Hill B. Bilson M. Sparke D. Abbots in his Answere to D. Bishop against M. Perkins Aduertisment Diuines of the Church of England with whom the o L. Hutter in explic lib. de Concord art 9. Eckardus in Enchirid. Controu cap. 3. q. 30 31. Lutheranes also accord hold that then did Christ descend into hell when his soule being separate from his bodie then buried went really and locally downe into hell as a King into the prison to declare his power in it and therein to triumph ouer Satan and all the gates of hell which from thenceforth should not any way * Mat. 16.18 preuaile against his Church Opinions all true though it may be all of them cannot so fitly be applied to this article as the onely proper meaning thereof Wherefore with that most blessed and renowned seruant of Christ p Bucanus loco 25. Institut q. 6. Vrsinus Catechism p. 2 q. 45 pag. 315. Bucanus we thus reconcile them all into one by the true and necessarie distinction of times wherein our Sauiour first suffered in his soule those griefes and paines which were due to our soules both in all his life time but especially a little before and at his death in the state and condition of which death secondly he continued from the time that he gaue vp the ghost vntill his resurrection in which space of time thirdly his bodie was buried and his soule now being separated from the body returned vnto God that gaue it so as that it first went into Paradise where it was with the theefes soule and after by the power of his Godhead really and locally descended into the place of the damned it may be about the time of the earthquake which hapned a little before his resurrectioÌ„ there to make a defiance against Satan in his owne kingdome For all these assertions are seuerally true by the assent of diuers q Aquin. Opusculan Symbolii Colonienses in Instit super huÌ„c artic Ferus in Mat. 27. learned Papists themselues what reason then is there why they may not be as orthodox being ioyned together by way of reconcilement to make peace amongst brethren in whose diuisions as in r Iudges 5.15 those of Reuben there are great thoughts of heart For holding fast the matter we haue more freedome of saith concerning the manner in the opening of which if there be any difference it onely sheweth Å¿ 1. Cor. 12.7 the abundance of Gods Spirit in the Seruants of God who swim towards heauen their last and euerlasting Hauen through the waters of the Scriptures t Ezech. 47.1 2 3. that issue out of the Temple by diuers channels and seuerall depths So that against these wrongs of our Aduersaries thus clearely wiped away from our faces by the euidence of truth it selfe and their owne assent also we conclude with those words of S. Augustine u Aug. Ep. 174. ad Pascentium If men sometimes were not one according to diuersities of their wills and pleasures and according to the vnlikenesse of their opinions and manners yet shall they be one when they come to that end that God may be all in all The fift Article vndermined 1. By their practice Now to proceed from this fourth Article whereon wee haue insisted the longer that wee might the more fully discouer the very bottome of the filthy sinke of Popery the fifth concerning Christs Resurrection on the third day is secretly vndermined first by that Popish practice of going in Pilgrimage to visite the Sepulchre of Christ at Hierusalem both authorized by their x Synod Moguntina sub Sebastiano c. 44 Mediolanensi 4. An. Dom. 1573. c de Peregrinat apud â—inium tom 4. Concil Councels and confirmed by those Letters testimoniall which the y Vti vidi daâ—as cuidam Eduardo Long Generoso Anno Dom. 1609. Prior of the Couent now being at Hierusalem giues to the superstitious Pilgrimes our English PhaÌ„tasticks who vpon money let out to receiue some fiue for one vndertake that idle Iourney for if we beleeue it what need wee see it z 2. Cor. 5.7 Wee walke by faith and not by sight Gregorie Nyssen a Gregor Nyssen in Epist ad Cappadoc Graecolat apud Catalog testium verit tom 1. li. 4. p. 163 saith of this abuse that since locall motion doth not bring God neerer to vs to whom hee will come wheresoeuer we be we must labour to trauaile from the body to the Lord and not from Cappadocia or from any other Countrey else vnto Palestina which is not to be called aboue others b Innocent 3. apud Platinam an Holy Land being c Mat. 27.25 2. By their Doctrine subiect yet to the curse for the death of Christ as they wished His bloud vpon themselues and their children Secondly by that most strange assertion that d Iodic Coccius tom 1. Catholic lib. 2. art 5. Christ should rise clauso Monumento The Sepulchre being shut whereas the e Mat. 28.3 Angell came downe to roll away the stone not as some f Maldonatus in Matth. 28. of them say after his Resurrection onely that the woman might see it but before his rising as LEO g Leo 1. Ep. 83. cap.
is Saint Bernard the worthy Abbot of Clarae-vallis who feared not to write m Ber. Epi. 125. thus vnto one GERARDVS DE LORITORIO The Beast in the Reuelation to which is giuen a mouth speaking Blasphemies and making Warre with the Saints possesseth PETERS Chaire as a Lyon readie to the prey And thus hath the Iurie giuen their verdict against which The supply against exception by a Decem tales if the Prisoner at the barre make exception by disliking of any of them as too too partiall and so worthily to be challenged we haue a Decem tales others void of exception readie vpon the call to appeare The first as amongst the Princes Fredericke Barbarossa Emperour who writing to the Cardinalls said n Albert. CraÌ„tzius in Metropoli lib. 7. cap. 53. that the authority of the Romane See had loosed the reines of boldnesse and replying vnto Hadrian the fourth protesteth o Hen. Mutius l. 18. rerum Germanic ex Chronâ—co HirsaugieÌ„s The second that hee would prouide for the peace of the Church since he seeth that the detestable beast of pride hath crept vp into Peters chaire and Lewes the Twelfth king of Fraunce who in the heroicall spirit of his most illustrious Progenitor Philip the faire p Naucler tom 2. Generat 44. Platina in Bonisac 8. the famous suppressour of that Raging Tyrant Boniface the eight caused q E Chron. Gal. apud Pet. Molin de Monarchiâ temporali Pontific Rom. ca. 15. his coyne of Gold to be stamped on the inside with these words Perdam nomen Babylonis I will destroy the name of Babylon meaning Rome the seate of Pope Iulius the second his deadly enemie and lastly our most Puissant Princes and Kings of England r Vide in horvitis Chron. Anglicana praecipuè Mat. Paris Roger. Houeden Holinshed Stow l. Fox in Martyrologio King Iohn King Edward the third King Henrie the eight King Edward the sixth blessed Queene Elizabeth all of them to their power renouncing the Pope as the very Antichrist but especially our most Gracious Soueraigne King Iames concerning whose most Å¿ Apolog. cum praef Medita in Apocalyps 20 Diuine Discourses of this argument well knowne to all the world yea and carped at by t Bell. Parsons Suarez Coquaeus Schioppius c. Popelings but not corrected admired at but not answered we may most truely take vp that prouerbe u Prou. 31.29 The fourth c Many haue done vertuously but thou surmountest them all Secondly amongst the Bishops x Nilus Thessalonic li. 2. de primatu Papae Nilus of Thessalonica pulling downe the Popish Primacie and y Apud Auent lib. 7 p. 573. Probus Tullenses shewing the Popes Legats to be Antichrists seruants and Honorius z Hono. Angustod dial de praedest et l. arbitrio Augustodunensis auouching the seate of the beast to be in the Pope and Cardinalls yea and all a CoÌ„cil Turonensi sub Lodouico 12. the Bishops of Fraunce in the dayes of Lewes the twelfth and of England in the Raigne of Henrie b Vid. Fox Mart. sub Hen. 8 Edwar. 6. The eight c. the eight and Edward the sixth renouncing the Pope Lastly amongst the Monks Henrie c Petrus CluniaceÌ„s l. 1. Ep. 1. 2 the Scholler of Petrus de Bruis calling Rome Sodome and Babylon and d Rob. Gallus l. de vaticinijs apud Posseuinum to 2. Apparatus Robertus Gallus a Dominican describing the Pope for Antichrist vnder the figure of a Serpent and e Guido Carmelâ—t Bern. de Luzenburg in Catalog haeres Bell. in ChroÌ„ ad annum 1191. Petrus Iohannis Bitterensis a Franciscan in his Postills vpon the Reuelation prouing the Pope to be that Antichrist to conclude if all this thicke cloud of witnesses will not cast him we can produce whole Churches as f Catalog test verit lib. 3. at Leodium whole Synods as those g Ap. AueÌ„ l. 7. c of Rome vnder Otho Fredericke and Lewes Bauarus and a great many such Councels holdeÌ„ in h Sub Philippo Pulchro Lodouico 12. France yea whole peoples in Countreys who euer reiected the bondage of this Antichrist as in England those faithfull ones whome i Fox Martyrolog â—ub Rich. 2. Henrie 5. they wickedly nickenamed for Lollords in France k Reinerius de Waldensiâ—us the Waldenses in Italie the l Naueler tom 2. Gen. 44. Fratricellians in Bohemia m Iacob Misnensis de aduent Antichr apud Catalogum test Ver. lib. 1â— the Melitzians all before Iohn Wickleffs time yea and in the Mountaines of Rhetia aboue Sauoy the n Ioh. Nicho's his Recantation Mornaeus de Mysterio Iniquitatis pa. 730. An exception against these truely answered faithfull Inhabitants of Vallis and Telina who had from their first conuersion to Christ alwayes their owne true Pastors neuer subiect to the bondage of Babylon and Antichrist Rome and the Pope But me thinks I heare some Papists except against all these voyces as giuen by their enemies and by Heretikes condemned by the Catholique Church But to these men I cannot make a better reply then such as that of o Reg. 18.13 Elijah vnto wicked Ahab proudly demaunding Art thou he that troubleth Israel when he said I haue not troubled Israel but thou and thy Fathers house in that yee haue forsaken the Commandements of the Lord and thou hast followed Baalim For none of these were otherwaies their enemies but as true men are to theeues neither did the Catholike Church their Mother at any time condemne them for Heretikes who mainteined no doctrine contrary to Scripture neither followed other discipline then at that time was vsed Indeed the Pope and his adherents in hatred of that truth which God reuealed by them to the world did enterprise to condemne them and persecute them with Fire and Faggot sword and desolation onely to fulfill the Prophecies giuen out concerning the crueltie of the wicked Antichrist But yet their cause is neuer the worse since the great side doth many times ouersway the better neither is the credit of their verdict thereby any whit impaired in the iudgement of the wisest and most godly since time hath brought that truth to light which in that Darke world yet these faithfull saw clearely Three specialties enforcing good Men vnto this sharpe censure of the Pope to bee that Antichrist and the Pope hath proued their words to be true by three sundry specialties of most liuely proofe which enforced not onely the forenamed witnesses but euen the Popes owne deare dearlings and best friends to confesse that Antichrist was euen then come and amongst them The first The first specialtie was his pride in vsurping vpon the secular power by the deposing of Princes first p Vid. Bellar. cap. 1. in Barklae Reuerend D. Roffensem Episc in Bellar. lib. 1. cap. 2. attempted by Pope Hildebrand Gregorie the
is best now at length to let them alone and leaue them in the hand of Gods great Councell For now to change our note or tune of lamentation into exultation of weeping for them into reioyceing for our selues we may all say with DAVID n Ps 124.6 7. Blessed be the Lord who hath not giuen vs euer for a prey vnto their teeth our soule is escaped as a Bird out of the snare of the Fowlers the snare is broken and we are escaped Surely many Prophets and righteous men liuing in times before vnder Popish darknesse and Antichristian slauerie haue much desired to see o Mat. 13.17 those things which we see and haue not seene them and to heare those things which wee heare and haue not heard them Wee heare with our eares the Word plentifully preached which is the onely best and free vse of the Spirituall Sword and wee see with our eyes to the comfort of our hearts an absolute libertie from all forrayne power repurchased by our Soueraigne Princes enforced for their more secure and safe raigning to draw out of the Scabbard of the Common Right set downe in our Lawes the Temporall Sword that as a most learned obseruer of true witnesses hath gathered out of the proceedings of our Princes p Gowl p. 2. Catalog test verit pag. 775. England is the fatall foe to the Papall See and Popish tyrannie For as Brittaine q Platina in Eleutherio was the first Kingdome which amongst the Gentiles publikely professed the faith of Christ in the dayes of good King Lucius about some hundred and fourescore yeeres after Christ vnder the very same forme of Discipline which by Gods especiall Grace it hath constantly retayned euer since the first planting and now in despite of the deluding Deuill and doting Disciplinarians it happily exerciseth by the orderly hands of Arch-Bishops in Prouinces Bishops in Diocesses and Priests Presbyterâ— not lay Elders such as some r Vid. Bilson c. 1. perpetuall Gouernment Saraâ—iam in Bezam according to their owne onely phantasies haue of late times to the great trouble of the Churches Order newly deuised but preaching Ministers of the blessed Word sent by the Bishops out of Cathedrall Churches into Parishes abroad euen so is Britaine the first of the Å¿ Reuel 17.16 tenne hornes which hated the Whore and made her desolate I say t Ribera in 14. Apocâ—um 52. the first of the ten Kingdomes which once holding with the Pope now breaketh his yoke resisteth his tyrannie and deliuereth it selfe from his burdensome bondage by exalting in it selfe the most free vse of a double Sword both Spirituall and Temporall restored to her Gouernours by the three Great Estates assembled in Parliaments wherein they ioyntly with the Royall assent of their Gracious Gouernours enacted such Statutes as were not introductory of any new law but declaratorie and restoratiue of the ancient iurisdiction both in Spirituall and in Temporall things to the Crowne of England as against all the filthy barking of foule-mouthed Dogs I meane Parsons and his prating Companions it is both learnedly and largely deliuered out of the depth of our English Antiquities by the liuely now liuing Oracle of the Common Lawes u Sir Ed. Cooke then L. Chiefe Iustice of England part 5. of Reports in Cawdries Case de iure Regis ecclesiastico For so farre as I can finde by diligent search of the Acts and Monuments touching the issues of Church affayres I see that God tooke the very same course for our deliuerance out of Popish tyrannie which he vsed x Exod. 4.16 for the bringing of Israel out of Aegypt by Moses and Aaron MOSES for the Sword and Aaron for the Word Aaron to bee Moses his mouth and Moses to bee Aarons God Because it was Gods pleasure for the pulling downe of the Popes Supremâ—cie and the rooting out of Popish tyrannie from out of this most ancient Christian Kingdome to put in vre a double knowledge the first of Gods Word publikely and powerfully preached by his Ministers for the y Rom. 1.16 saluation of them that beleeue the second of the ancient Lawes of this Land explayned both priuately by our learned Iudges in particular Cases reported by foure of the most ancient Benches appointed before-times to select and write downe the iudgements of the Sages as in the course of yeeres they might fall out and publikely in Statutes enacted vpon grieuances for reformation which being a worke of rare atchieuement especially in Religion so vilely corrupted that those who were infected could in no sort endure the sight much lesse the touch of the Launce was first to bee prepared and afterwards to bee perfected God vsing for his instruments in this important businesse two of the most puissant and peerelesse Princes that euer did sway the Scepter of these Kingdomes to wit Edward the Third and Henry the Eight both of most famous memorie For in his dayes began the preparation of this great worke first by z Fox Martyrolog pag. 390. the preaching of Iohn Wickliffe and his Schollers all Ministers of Christ secondly by that a Rastals Abridgm tit Prouis et Praemunir Statute enacted in the twenty fifth yeere of his most Victorious Raigne against Popish prouisions and admission of Strangers into Benefices and other Spirituall Promotions within this Kingdome And b Fox Martyrolog p. 963. c. in the foure and twentieth of this most Potent and famous King Henry was it brought to some perfection first by the preaching of these blessed Martyrs of Iesus Christ Bilney Tyndall Barnes Latimer and such like secondly by the Statute made touching the Kings Supremacie next vnder Christ within these Kingdomes both spirituall and temporall restored to the Crowne by all the Estates Lords Spirituall then swearing it the Lords Temporall then maintaining it and Commons so approouing it that from that time to this the Popes power in England hath beene in a consumption still lesse and lesse till it was c 1. Elizab. c. 1. abolished wholly by the blessed Queene Elizabeth since whose first inthronizing till this very day for the space of fiftie three yeeres and more we most happily haue enioyed that perfect libertie from the Popish yoke which Israel had from the bondage of the Philistines d 1. Reg. 4.25 in the dayes of Dauids and Solomons raigne when euery man from Dan to Beersheba sate without feare vnder his Vine and vnder his Oliue Tree For lo a double freedome the first inward of the conscience by the preaching of Gods Word the e Luke 11.52 true Key of all knowledge then lost now found then hidde now ready for euery mans hand to f Reuel 3.20 open vnto him that knocketh at his eare for the comfort of his heart the g Reuel 3.14 Amen Christ Iesus the second outward of the Purse then open to the Pope now shut from his Prouisions Pensions Annates Tenths Peter-pence and other meanes of subtill emunctions