in his Epistle to the Colossians Your holy dayes so your Churches and your Temples Churches dedicated amoÌ„g the Papists are dedicated not onely to the holy Trinitye and to other true and worthy saynts Martyrs many of them Dunstan but some to vile jmpious Traytors and Coniurers and such like abhominable sinners besids to the exercise of your Idolatrous and superstitious deuotious which I cannot abyde Therefore they are not more holy no more my howses no more the places of my sanctuary which you frequent nay all your meetings synagogues and asseÌ„blies I vtterly abhorr what talke yee of Bethel of Gerizim of Sichem of the Christian Churches For yee goe up to Beth-auen and stand vpon mount Eball and commit jdolatrie in the hill of Samaria The Turkish Temples are Antichristian The Pope and so are yours Your High Priest of the Romane sea is now deemed fitly of my Christian Churches the very Apostaticall Iudas of the world Apoc. 17.5 and the Ecclesiasticall Apocalypticall Beast so is euery one that receiueth his marke and jmbraceth his doctrine a Reuolter from my faith of truth Therefore all your prayers and seruice offered vnto me I haue in Execration The false Embassador OH think not it can be to my worship which is so wicked The Protestants publike prayer how vnlawfull and detestable Remember that Altar is raised vp against Altar c. Against my venerable Alter there is erected a plaine communion Table c. And stolen away with them her ornaments and to couer the ragges wherewith they are rigd Iet vp and downe clad in hir robes c. The Lord Christ It is so it must be so yee Papists betweene your Altar your Priests your Sacraments your seruice your faith and the Altar the Preachers the sacraments the seruice the faith of the protestants there is and euer wil be an opposition neither possibly can be any vnitie concord or conformitie The Papists Altar Idol For your Altar of jmagined Sacrifice propitiatory who hath required at your hands your abhominable host which I neuer acknowledged to be my blessed Body I know and condeÌ„ne for a detestable Idol The Protestants Communion But their plaine Communion Table is both necessarie and seemely to set my holy and heauenly bread vppon not a base and vnprofitable peece of Bread as yee blaspheme but bread honoured and consecrated by mine owne ordinance for an euerlasting memoriall of my death and Passion To the end that all beleeuing soules which feed thereon with a true and liuely Faith might be confirmed and nourished vnto Eternall life Dare yee call this an Idoll yee wicked jmpes of a contemptible supper yee are also the ministers of darknes yee stamped Priests of Antichrist they are myne only true faithfull Embassadours who faithfully require intreat my people in my name to be reconciled vnto god For theirs is the Reuerend worthy sound vndoubted faith of truth yours to returne your owne words because they fit you well as swords and arrowes into your owne hartes a Basterd Counterfait vncertaine and fained miscreance But finally what is this your blame in the seruice of my Saints and publique praier of the Protestants what positiue Corruption finde you therin that you will haue it abhominable in my sight Onely you alledge it is a forme of prayer a shadow of diuine seruice wholy tending to the maintenaunce of heresie not onely c. but directly substituted in defiance of me my mysteries and of the faith Catholicke which is put into English to Insinuate that my Church erreth in not vsing the vulgar A forme of prayer it is indeed The Protestants forme of prayer and an excellent forme not a shadow but a substantiall forme of diuine seruice wholy tending to the maintenance of the pure faith and the ouerthrowe of the popish Heresies Rites and Ceremonies superstitions jdolatries In regard whereof Ancient and approued Rites and whatsoeuer ceremonies are fitting and significant for edification it neither disanulleth nor suppresseth not stumbling at euery straw to be scandalized with things indifferent whatsoeuer other opposites say or write to the contrarie but it retaineth and ordaineth prudently and deuoutly Rites and Ceremonies of such nature and qualitie as these prophane and dissolute times do much require Vestiments and ornaments As touching the ornaments or vestments vsed in their Church yee speake vnlearnedly and spitefully to saye they were stollen from your Church and the protestants Iet vp and downe in your Robes They know the stollen attire of the Strumpet of Babylon will ill become the virgin the daughter of God Therefore in defiance not of me but of you and your mysteries and your now Romaine Catholick faith The reformed seruice of the Protestants hath abolished Mass Latine Liturgie Invocation of Saints Praier for the dead Consecration of Bels Books Candels c. Elevation of host Superstitious crossing and profane Crosses They haue well and wisely and according to my will abolished your abhominable Masse and Mattens with the MuÌ„meries thereof your ridiculous liturgie and seruice in a strange and vnknowne tongue and therefore vnedifying your superstitious Inuocation of Saints your jrreligious prayer for the dead your foolish and sottish consecration or coniuration rather of Bells Books Candells and such like trifles and toyes your thrise jmpious and odious eleuation of a wafer-god iustlie offensiue to euery good Christian eye Your ten-times jdolatrous profanation of Crossing and Crosses at the sight whereof say you the furies quake Ah yee fooles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what furies meane you those fictions of the poets nay be they rather the raging furies of your owne distempered braines and tormented Consciences as they may well enough yee haue it in such an execrable vse Images And so haue the pictures and Images of saints in your Temples and howses and high waies for which cause howsoeuer they may be to some historicall monuments and memorials of those worthy personages and lessons of instruction to the Ignorant to jmitate their vertues yet otherwise quod legentibus Scriptura hoc Idiotis praestat Pâ—ctura â—crueÌ„tibus Greg. Rom. EpistolaruÌ„ lib. 9. cap. 9. seeing they can stirre vp nothing but a blind and buzzardly deuotion and those lay-mens bookes as your Gregorie stiles theÌ„ can be no better then a doctrine of vanitie though they be demolished broken and burnt vpp As Idolls it is no matter no more then that the signe of the Crosse is vtterly abolished and cast away as it is in vse Signe of the Crosse not Popish hath a tolerable vse It is generally graunted euen by most learned displinaricis in immortalian laâ—acâ—o Tertullian Origen Cyprian See confereÌ„ce at Hampton Court an 16â—4 Pag. 69. Taâ—ers Mat. 5. Psal 116. Prou. 6. â— Vestiments and vessels or abuse rather among you howsoeuer they retayne it as they finde it hath bin vsed in the prime purer Churches
confesse to Saluation But they giue not my glory to another that goe to Protestant Churches yee doo that adore and worship jmages Crosses and crucifixes The rites of Protestants are not heathnish but few and easie and significāt yours of the Romane Synagogue are borrowed both from Iewes and Heathens as I haue told you before and a mightie multitude both Idle and cumbersome for nomber and for nature Their Conuersation that haue society with English Protestants js with faithfull Christians yours that are Romaine Catholicks is with Antichrist and his adhaerents Now then I commaund and Charge you all the sort of you Christ Iesus calleth not the wauering Romaine catholicks from the Protestāt Churches Companies to speake no more to your fellow Catholicks after this fashion in my name For I the Lord the omnipotent Creator haue not thus called them from among the protestants But I exhort and warne them rather to follow their faith because it is the faith of truth that faith also to beleeue in heart that they may be justified and that Faith to Confesse with mouth that they may be saued As for you you proud flesh and bloud neuer cast vpp an jdle and presumptuous accompt of merit added vnto merits yours or theirs or any mans to mine which will neuer verely I say vnto you amount to any sume of Felicitie mine owne beeing onely and altogether al-sufficient to that purpose The false Embassador Schismaticks violate the law of nature by going to the Protestant Churches And what if I had not in such expresse wise prescribed your duty doth not the light of reason the Law af nature c. Which faileth or falleth in one point of faith be fully guilty of Infidelitie c. The Lord Christ NO it doth not teach your Catholicks who are with Protestants any such thing viz. to cleaue firmly to their Popish faith and Religion for that is stubbernly to persist in error and to embrace in deed a strange and false faith and irreligious proceedings But what one argument bring you to proue that the lawe of Nature herein is violated Are you so jmpudent to alleage Propositions in my name and bring no proofe at all or do you goe about to prooue it thus He which breaketh one Commaundement is guiltye of all and a violater of Charitie ergo hee which faileth or faulteth in one point of Faith is fully guilty of Infidelitie and so by consequent violateth the lawe of nature The first assersion I graunt is mine owne in myne Apostle Iam. 2.10 if you vnderstand it aright But this latter thus inferred is your paradox For if he which faileth or faulteth in one point of faith be fullie guilty of jnfidelity that is must needs be charged and taken for a meer jnfidel then not onely all haereticks and you Papists who faile in many poynts of Faith but euen all true Christians and good Catholicks must be condemned so to Cor. 13 9. seeing they all know but in part and prophesie in part and so must needs faile in one point of Faith at least euen that which is hidden from their knowledge whereto they cannot for that cause yeld any manner of assent no man consenting vnto that which in his knowledge he doth not apprehend at all And thus ye Condemne by this Paradox all the world and namely all Christendome and your owne Romane Church for jnfidels nay fully guiltye of jnfidelitie and so there are no beleeuers at all by your doctrine There is no Church no Faith No Truth no Gospell no Christ no God among men Heere I must tell you also Though in some sence hee that is fully guiltye of jnfidelitie that is that beleeueth no one poynt at all of god or godlines as he ought Tit. 1.15 his very minde and Conscience is defiled and so the light of reason and the law of nature is violated in him Yet those famous and Renowned Paragons among the heathens Trismegistus Pythagoras Socrates c. Cato Aristides Scipio and many others of that ranck for their great and Admirable learning profound politick wisedome and worthy morall vertues were neuer-thelesse verie great lights and had the light of Naturall reason shining in them gloriously concerning many secular and ciuill affaires and liued in many things agreeable to the lawe of Nature How be it concerning Spirituall and heauenly things yea the true knowledge of God they became vaine in their Imaginations Rom. 1.21 and their foolish hearts where full of Darknes and in that might they be sayd to be fully guilty of jnfidelity because they knew not God the Father in me his only begotten Sonne Iesus Christ So that Iohn 3.18 26.8.9.10 17.3 some may be fully guilty of jnfidelitye and yet not violate the law of Nature Wherfore be not so rash hereafter I aduise you to proiect your Paradoxes in my name do not challenge them for partaking with haereticks that goe to protestants neither say any more that your Church your Faith your Sacraments are myne as ye doe For I will not acknowledge them yee doe me jniurie The false Embassador Heresie persecution purposely permitted of God for tryall of mēs hearts I Foretold while I conuersed on earth that heresies of necessitie must be for the triall c. The Lord Christ. True it is I foretold of Haeresies for the tryall of my Saints But are ye Romanists therefore the vniuersall Church No. yee know and allow my seruant Austen answering the Donatists of his time Augustine Africa non est orbis Therefore I say also vnto you The Synagogue of Rome is not the vniuersall Church And do Protestants and their followers preferre their owne Imaginations before it I tell you nay but yee Papists doe and run a madding after your owne jnuentions and Apostaticall Traditions closed and clasped vp in the bosome of your Pope Luc. 12.51 What though I forwarned that I came not to send peace but separation meaning not that I doe loue or bring diuision and strife among men but that many whose hearts my selfe haue not reformed are and wil be euer so bad and obstinate in their euill opinions and wicked wayes wilfully disobeying my Ghospell that they will gaine say and oppose their owne parents Children Princes Subiects Maisters Seruants wiues Husbands Brethren Kinsfolks and Friends that professe my name yea and will raise vp bitter persecution against them But I had no meaning to teach Children or seruants or Wiues or Brethren or friends disobedience and disloyalty against their Parents theyr Maisters their Husbands their Brethren their frinds much lesse to foster treasons in a state to raise vp mutinies and rebellions to arme naturall subiects against their naturall Princes and to practise the ouerthrowe of their Coūtries for the pretended catholick cause These are diabolicall suggestions and actions of Sathan my sworne Enemie wherewith yee Romanists are too too much acquainted The false Embassador ARe yee Christians and think your selues excused
and Land to make one Proselyte and having made him transforme him two-fold more the child of Hell then they themselues are What doe I or what should any of my servants respect what your Tridentine assembly decreed against them They were blinded Haereticks themselues and they had all and every one the marke of the beast in their foreheads Prov. 26.2 As for their Anathema The curse that is causeles shall not come for of my faithfull Protestants I still pronounce Blessed is he that blesseth them and cursed be he that curseth them The false Embassador Haereticks how precisely to be shunned BEsides that principall praecept of louing God aboue all c. If you will but a little looke about you ye shall find that I haue yet left you another commandement c. Well then whose spirit but mine inspired and established as a perpetuall obseruation to the worlds end that Haereticks c. The Lord Christ WHat an jdle ExpostulatioÌ„ is this for it shall bee graunted vnto you that Haereticks should be vtterly auoyded as such and such whom you haue alleadged and described truely out of the scriptures But that the Protestants are the Haereticks and you the true Catholicks shall not be graunted So that yee haue impertinently abused the scriptures Wherefore speake no more presumptuously let not arrogancy proceed out of your mouth Not they that come to Protestants but rather yee that hold and hang with Papists participate with Infidels haue fellowship with Beliall and the cup of Deuils are in darkenes Ioyne with Lucifer come to the solemnitie of Babylon make a bargaine with hell and with accursed Death and that not so much for feare of any worldly losse or crosse as for affection to your sinne Therefore I counsell you repent and turne you from your abhominations else I will come against you shortly and giue you your portion with the whore the beast the false-prophet and the Dragon whome you serue in the lake that burneth with fier and Brimstone the same is the second death Schismaticks are infected with haeâ—esy and not with pure schisme only The false Embassador SHal they then which professe Haeresie with Haereticks be found cleare c. The Lord Christ NOw the Schismaticks are infected with Haeresie and of this you haue chalenged them long agoe But thus you seeth and boyle your coleworts ouer and againe thus for lack of matter you fill an Idle and vngodly message full of vaine and wicked words charging and challenging thundring and thretning and drawing as much as in you lieth poore and distracted seely soules into desperation of my mercie for entring into the rightway Thus did your father the Deuill deale with my servant M. Luther when I began to call him first from your Pauilions For hee would needs perswade him that he shoud bee damned in the Protestant profession Luther de Missa priuata because he had byn once a popish Priest had sayd Mass had turned the Eucharisticall bread into my body and done such other like feats of your superstition and now was revolted from it How absurdly and how jmpudently do you compare my true beleeuers in England to the Canaanitish jnfidels but that you haue a Custome to abuse my word and to misapply the scriptures I will surely punish you for this thing What fire or flame or Sea-surges or pitch is this you prate of do not I know yee erre not knowing what you say But let me see how learnedly and diuinely you prooue your supposed Schismaticks to bee Haereticks Your learning is to say and not to prooue Your diuinitie was neuer founded on my word but fashioned and framed in your owne forge For what are the Haeresies wherewith they are infected forsooth euery one almost rarer is he then a white Crowe who doth it not either cancelleth fasting daies by his owne Authoritie or dispenseth with meats prohibited as often as he list or doubteth of some Article of Faith if not of all What do they cancell fasting daies and which I pray you I say those onely of your popish institution And how jn that they fast not after your popish fashion I wisse a very great offence I but of their owne Authoritie they doe it No They haue the Authoritie of the Lawfull Magistrate to beare theÌ„ out They dispence with meats prohibited as often as they list By the law of my eternall Ghospell ther are no meats prohibited For doth not my Apostle tell you 1. Tim. 4.4.5 that euery Creature of God is good and nothing ought to be refused if it be receaued with thanksgiuing for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer If then not as often as they list that is your calumny but as often as necessity requireth and as they may without publique scandal or offence they make no difference of meats but vse them all without scruple of Conscience put betweene this and that Oh sure it is a greeuous crime It is jndeed amoÌ„g your superstitious orders but not among my holy Saints who haue learned that this your prohibition of meats proceedeth from the spirit of Error 1. Tim. 4.1 and is a doctrine of Deuils Are these your Haeresies to cancell Popish fasting dais eat of meats prohibited by the Church of Rome But I say these are actions crossing the Haereticall doctrine of your Antichristian Canons they are no haeresies Besides to doubt of this or that Article of faith yea of all the Articles of your faith call you this jnfection of Haeresies But I say to dissent from the moderne faith and doctrine of the Romane Church and stoutly to maintaine the contrary is not Haeresie in my sight much lesse onely to doubt of any or of all the articles thereof For first as many of theÌ„ as are different from the Protestant profession they are the erroneous articles of a false Church a synagogue and conventicle jnfected with many haeresies Againe if they were all granted to be true yet seejng all Haeresie is a confirmed and setled error Haeresis error confirmatus See Aug. cont CrescoÌ„ Gram. and whosoever doubteth is ever stammering as yet vnsetled and vnresolved because he doubteth therefore hee that doubteth of whatsoever poynts cannot bee sayd fitly properly either to be well affected to the truth or to be jnfected with haeresie why because hee standeth jndifferent and jrresolute though declining from the one yet not as yet embracing or jndeed jnfected with the other Neverthelesse let it now be yeilded vnto you that they who are not perfect Haereticks yet may be jnfected with haeresies or haereticall opinions tell mee what and which they be whereof you challenge these your Schismaticks You say One improoueth Confession another Purgatory this man inuocation of Saints or vse of Images that man prayers for the dead or the office in Latine doubtles a very greevous accusation and miraculous poynts of Haeresie But will you neuer learne that your Auricular confession in a Corner your Pagan
I feare whatsoeuer it be For I am sure Consilia impiorum sunt fraudulenta The counsels of the vngodly are deceitfull Mat. 7.18 An evill Tree cannot bring foorth good fruit and a bad man can hardly haue a good meaning as the Lord said to the Pharises Mat. 12.34 How can yee speake good things when yee your selues are euill Wee will not doubt but the Iesuited Recusant is in his hart traitourously affected and waiteth onely for an oportunitie to be a Rebell When time and power should haue offered themselues we make no question but Captaine Buckland Priest would haue buckled vp himselfe and his harnesse to the battell and so will all that are of his minde to roote out the memoriall of English Protestants though it be by faggot and fier or famine or Sword or any other violent forcible meanes But thanks be to God we hope that long desired black and bloudy day dawneth not yet howsoeuer their many brauadoes and cracking threats may make perhaps some peoples harts of the weaker sort amongst vs to startle now and then within them A little puffe of a quick winde will easely raise a small billow in euery Riuer yet no danger of a storme at all And therefore not troubling our selues greatly with this pettie Captaines purpose though it were as it may seeme it was in this Embassage to strike vp an Alarum to an opē Rebellion of the Popish faction but trusting in him that keepeth Israell neither slumbring nor sleeping Psal 121.4 wee leaue his jmagined deuice and drift vnto himselfe and his associats to discloze or Cloze vp in their owne bosomes at their owne pleasure Only this wee aduise his so named by him Schismaticks that because they are Papists they would Correct their opinions and because no Schismaticks in Ioyning with our Church they would hold on their practise It may in time by Gods grace and good means reforme their hypocrisie and dissimulation wherewith they are charged whether Iustly or vniustlye themselues can tell best by this Priest Yf they haue a good meaning and are comming onwards to the true Christian faith they are in a right course to Ioyne with vs in our seruice and Churches If they stand resolute as yet in their superstitious deuotion Yet God may reueale the better parte vnto them If they be obstinate both Haereticks and Hypocrits and corrupt our people with their leven of Rome and Creeping into corners seduce the hearts of the simple either let them hearken vnto their owne priest or els Vtinam abscindantur qui perturbant nos Galat. 5.12 Would to God they were cut of that trouble vs. And so I come to the Embassage Wherein not to trouble our selues at all with his method beeing as I conceaue it nothing els but a bundell of goodly argumēts heaped together to perswade Schismaticall dissembling papists to become open and obstinate Recusants That only conclusion being the drift of his whole message Let vs followe him foote by foote and as he nūbreth them vp in order and so prawnceth forward in his running vaine and Rhetoricall trappings so let vs obserue the fowle and daungerous bogs of filthy Romish way wherouer he trippeth like a wilde Irish and as it seems would haue our Protestants who may light vppon his booke to runne and fall as being vnacquainted with such paths and Passages Wherefore our Cheife purpose is onlie to discouer those erroneous and Blasphemous Positions and Paradoxes which here and there he hath tumbled into his Treatise whereinto whosoeuer shall follow him of the Protestant flocke may plunge themselues as into popish and Impious bogs and gulfes before they be aware The rest of his Rhetoricke tending only to the perswasion of their Hypocriticall Crew to vnmaske themselues and to appeare in outward profession that which they are in inward resolution We let Passe as it were as not offensiue vnto vs wishing as well as he that no one of them would dissemble with God and the world but shew themselues in their owne colours that we might know by their pronunciation whether they be Gileadits or Ephraimits Iudg. 22.5.6 on our parts or on our enemies For if wee shall finde them hereafter to be onely Temporizers Cunning Machiauels vnderminers Vault-workers or the like because they are in opinion halting Israelites halfe-baked Ephraimits luke warme Laodiceans and the like wee shall hold it I trust a most iust and necessarie course to cut them of for notorious Hypocrits against God detected Traitors against their King and country Lastlie because this false Embassador hath been so bold to deliuer this Message in the name of Christ wee hauing greater reason in defence of the verie truth then he had of his Popish cause to craue the assistance of our blessed Lord and Sauiour doe most humbly intreat his heauenly Maiestie to Countermaund this Embassage as being forged in his name to controwle the follies falshoods and blasphemies thereof in his owne words Humbly crauing pardon of his Highnes Holines being most vnworthy to speake from so great absolute a Monarch though wee shall deliuer the message with no semblable wisedome integritie and perfection as may beseeme so diuine a Maiestie Therefore thus we proceed AN EPISTLE TO ALL Schismaticks TO you oh you miserable who straying from the pathes of peace runne as confidently forwards in darke and slipperie waies as if yee traced the steppes of truth and righteousnesse neither wandred one iot from the high way to salvation AN ANSWERE TO the Epistle OR rather to the Title if it be so much Vax faucibus haeret Manum de tabula For mee thinkes his tongue cleaueth to the roofe of his mouth Hath he taken so soone and sodainly his hand from the worke what is the matter doth griefe thrattle him his spirit burne within him either doth his memorie forsake him or his heart smite him Cannot Balaam vtter his parable because God will not giue him leaue to curse his people what motion what passion is this what Lethargie what Apoplexie possessed the braine of this Priest that beginning a sentence hee was not able to bring it forth Belike the Diuell ought him a fowle shame to trip him downe on the threshold cut off both his head and his hands here for both his wit and his fingers faild him in this entrance Or was it not the Angell of the Lord of hoasts that stood in Balaams way to forbid him nay to rebuke and controwle his conscience in this wicked course and Treatise and yet to suffer him to go on forward withall Christian Reader marke I pray you if this be not very memorable that this false Embassador is made to speake and not to speake to begin and not to make an end like a cravin Cocke that begins to crowe and stops vpon a sodaine To you oh you miserable c. What doth hee say to them Nay that is abrupted either by the failing of his memorie or by
from my familie Haue not I ordained Sacraments for your speciall comfort A Sacrifice c. The Lord Christ HEre you lay vpon your friends a threefold accusation in my name but I haue not accused them of Deniall Contempt and Resistance of God in yeelding to the Profession of a Protestant Your service is not my seruice your Coate my liuerie your Synagogue my familie your pitcht field my Campe and Colours or the Protestants pavilions mine Aduersaries Tents yee are my Adversaries and your Tents are the tents of vngodlines your Campe and Colours are opposite vnto mine To enter your familie to weare your liverie to doe service in your assemblies is to forsake and denie mine But they doe well that doe the contrarie Againe I haue Commanded all my professors to loue mee aboue all to confesse my Name my faith and Church and to striue for the truth even vnto bloud But your Religion is not the Truth your Faith and Church are none of mine so that they cannot despise and disobaye mee that depart froÌ„ you For your 5. 5. SacrameÌ„ts thrust in by papists which Christ never ordained see Sect. 13. Sacraments added vnto my Baptisme and holie Supper I never ordained as necessarie to Salvation or significant symboles of my death Passion Your infernall Sacrifice of the Masse He. 10.10 c. as not onlie an jdle and odious repeticion of my pretious death But a most jmpious and blasphemous derogation from the All-sufficient and eternall merite thereof I hate and abhorr as an Antichristian Idoll They haue doon well that haue with-drawen themselues from it and entred into the Congregations of my faithfull Protestants despizing and refraining your tedious Multiplicitie of Ceremonies altogether ridiculouslie both Superstitious and Profane obseruances for herein they haue honoured and obayed me Lastlie then let other Romanized English bee discomforted let their courage faile and the number decrease on your part let the false-Catholicke cause be weakened and the enemie thereof be fortified they doe well who are a meanes of this and please mee best of all that come from among you so farr it is that they oppugne and assault me The false Embassador Schismatickes wilfully deceaue them selues YOu flatter your selues notwithstanding all these iniuries soothing your consciences c. The Lord Christ NAy never perswade them vnto that For having builded vpon a false foundation how can you choose but inferr a false and presumptuous conclusion Your foundation was that they are * Sect. 1. erring Soules departing from my Church joyning with Heretickes * Sect. 4. denying despizing and oppugning mee which they will never graunt you which I will never yeeld you yet thereof you would haue them to be perswaded And to that end forsooth would rouze vp their Consciences and sound the bottome of their hearts to search and see their dissimulation That they are Romanists in heart and dissemble their faith I cannot approue it that they vnite themselues vnto the Protestants I will not blame it that they doe so onlie in a colour to saue their Lands and goods I doe not justifie it that they therfore must be concluded for deniers despizers oppugners of me The Popish Priest t keth vpon him to judge his brethren contrary to the commandement of Christ Mat 7.1 and my faith of truth in conversing with the Protestants and comming to their Seruice and Churches how should I jnferr it yet you take vppon you to prooue it The false Embassador DOe yee not as Peter denie your selues to bee of my Company c. By Peters denyall is prooued that Schismaticks deny Christ Not contented with eschewing the exercise of the Catholicke faith and participation with the faithfull in profession of conscience yee make no Scruple to frequent the rites of a false beleefe c. The Lord Christ NO sir they doe not Doubtfull Catholicks may come to Protestant Churches to 〈◊〉 theÌ„selues Recusant Papists perseuere in erroneous Contumacie For yee Recusant Papists are none of my companie my followers my inheritance my â—ooke the household of faith my Children and the like as you stile your selues To denie your companie your Religion and false Catholicke Church is not to renounce mee their God Redeemer and Saviour and to denie my holie Name and Maiestie Therefore let this whole comparison betwixt Peters deniall of me and theirs as yee suppose goe for naught and cancelled Onlie I would haue you remember The Pope is onlie the presumed successor of Peter that your holie Father the presumed Successor of this Apostle and all his followers haue learned well his Apostasie but cannot find the waie to returne repent goe out with him weepe bitterlie My blessed * Mat. 16.17 Apostle had hee not slipped from mee in the high Priests Hall * Mat. 26.58 his continuance in the profession of my name had beene true Christian constancie But your perseverance in your erroneous hereticall and jdolatrous course can be no lesse theÌ„ profane contumacie and wicked desperation Happie then are they who eschew the exercise of your Catholicke faith and participation in profession of Conscience with such mis-beleeuers as yee are Happie who frequent the Rites of my true friends the Protestants and partake with them in the sacred profession of their Religion Be it known vnto you Protestants onlie are true Catholicks and to all men They onlie are accepted of me for true Catholicks and remaine firmelie vnited to the Church my Spouse and all the rest whatsoever they professe commit the Acts of heresie Nay are absolutelie either mis-beleevers or vnbeleevers Hereticks of Christendome or Panim Infidels The false Embassador DAre yee then saye that Catholicke Recusants are not my proper flocke c. Schismaticks are not of the Catholike Church The Lord Christ. NAy dare yee saie they are I say they are the heard of Antichrist Recusant Papists Foxes Wolues the wilie * Canti 2.15 Foxes the wild Bores that destroye my vine yea the * Matt 7.15 ravening Wolues that prey vpon the soules of men If your conceaved Schismaticks be not of their band nor members of their Church and brother-hoode it is the better for them For no companie is or can be mine which imbraceth their erroneous and false Catholicke Faith which pursueth their traiterous murderous and vnnaturall course of life The false Embassador The assured ground where-vpoÌ„ Recusants stand REcusants to stand vppon an assured ground none can iustly denie or with reason call their saluation in question who cleaue stedfastlie to their fore-fathers Faith c. First christened Auncestors c. The Lord Christ NO can indeed Ah yee spirits of presumption stand they vpon the assured ground of my Apostles doctrine in my word Popish foundations traditions and shew of Antiquitie No they are weakelie builded vppon the sand of humane traditions Therefore I even I doe call their saluation in question They cleaue not stedfastlie but
stubbornlie to the superstitious Novelties of their late fore-fathers faith who haue departed from the rule of my Religion whereinto their first christened Ancestors were converted by mine Apostles and their Coadjutors And wherein all their godly Predecessors both vertuously liued and happilie died before the patcheries of your Poperie came in They haue a shadow and shew of some late praecedent generations but the soundnes of Antiquitie from the purer times and truly Apostolicall who so ever sifteth their Moderne faith shal find they haue not for all their great cracks and brags Tertullianâ— de praescript aduersus haereses See Iude. Vers 3. And so Tertullian the ancieÌ„t spake well in that Dominicum verum quod prius traditum extraneum falsum quod posterius immissum The truth of the Lord was first deliuered to the Saints but forraine falshood crept in afterwards The false Embassador THese are they which nourish the sparkes of that fire which I came downe to kindle on earth c. Recusants highly to be commeÌ„ded for their zeale The Lord Christ THey are not praise worthie that praise themselues 2. Cor. 10.18 but they whome I the Lord doe praise Now I doe not allow your proude vaunting of your selues I know your workes and your waies that they are full of wickednes and hypocrisie Are you the men that nourish the fire which I came downe to cause to burne on Earth Luc. 12.49 No no yee know not of what spirit you are Luc. 9.55 For with the furious fire of a blind zeale which burneth in your breasts haue ye not inveÌ„ted kindled a subterraneal sulphureous fire to quench the light of Israell in this Realme and all the goodlie shining lampes thereof to the everlasting memorie of your perpetuall all shame Then at that time did you shew how you doe maintaine and vphold that my Law Exod. 20.13 Thou shalt doe no murder How so ever you presume of the rest when you intended attempted the most barbarous The Gunpowder treason tyranicall vnheard-of and Satanicall destruction of King Queene Prince and all the States the beautie and honour of this Kingdome in an hower Oh yee sonnes of Balaam and of Balack yee bastard generation and yee monsters of Moab Let my people sing Faux of Moab is destroyed and brought to silence in a night Piercie Catesbie and the rest of Moab are destroyed Ier. 48.10 and brought to silence in an jnstant And cursed shall hee bee that doth the worke of the Lord negligentlie or vnfaithfullie and with-holdeth his sword from the bloud of all the brood of Moab when her time and judgement shall be come For doe you glorifie my name that glorie in such workes being sorie for nothing more Papists sorie that the Gunpowder treason tooke no better effect Luk. 5. â—2 Ioh. 2.25 then that it hath not taken your wished and prayed for effect Dissemble it no longer for I know you hearts Therefore shall you be dishonoured for ever and the jndeleble blot of your noted infamie shall never be put out you shall be known for a spotted and pestilent generation so long as the world endureth Goe to now yee stars in the night yee greene Bayes in the winter yee fresh fountaines in the Deserts No no yee know your titles in mine Apostle Iude ve 12.13 in the Gospell well enough Cloudes without water carried about with euery wind whiff of vaine jmaginations Wells and pits dryed in the deserts barraine fig-trees if yee be greene in the midst of Sommer when the Winter cometh corrupt trees twice dead and plucked vp by the rootes wandring Starres fallen out of the jnferior heaven for whome is reserued the blacknes of darknes for euer For to be short ye walke in darknes and know not whither yee goe flatter not your selues your own sectaries doe not beleeue much lesse do they confesse that ye do well and your vowed enemies my true and faithfull servants and friends the English Protestants long agoe haue learned of me to repute and range you in the rancke of those who stand assuredlie in the state of condemnation The false Embassador Schismaticks haue no part with Recusants neither are of the same Church WIth these you may wish to consort in conscience To partake in profession of faith Yee may in bare tearmes auouch as much but shall neuer with reason be able to make it good c. The Lord Christ IF they haue no part with you how happie are they If they consort in conscience and partake in profession of a false beleefe with you they haue no part in me no part in Heaven but they most justly and aboundantlie deserue vnto themselues the vengeance of eternall fire â—ome out froÌ„ Recusants yee staggering Papists If they will come from among you wholie both in conversation and in Religion and follow mee faithfullie with my true professors serving me nor in the oldnes of the Letter with a servile feare Rom. 7.6 but in the newnes of the Spirit out of thankefulnes in loue from a pure heart a good conscience 1. Tim. 1 5. and Faith vnfained comming out from the Babel of your Superstitions Atheisines and Apostasies let them never care for your defectiue and infected merites For the kingdome of Heaven belongeth vnto mee by a double right Enheritance and Purchase In the one Bernard I was borne vnto it in the other I haue perfectlie deserved it through obedience and sprinckling of my precious and meritorious bloud 1. Pet. 1.2 and I will giue it them if they can apprehend it by a true and liuelie faith Rom. 4.4 c Ephe. 2.8.9 2. Cor. 7.1 without regard of any other merite provided alwaies if they doe their best without hypocrisie to walke before mee in righteousnes and true holines all the daies of their life Ephe. 4. â—4 Luk. 1.75 But ye perverted Runnagates because ye are become perverse Recusants and the shameles Apostates of my Church of England returne I advise you returne into my fold els I must saie vnto you as I spake vnto the Pharisees of old how can yee escape the damnation of Hell Mat. 23. â—â— The false Embassador Schismaticks are not Catholicks ANd are you indeed aske the Recusant and he reiecteth you aske the Persecutor and hee imbraceth you not Aske the Saints and Angels and they abhorr you I neuer yet tooke you for seruant of mine c. The Lord Christ. YOur meaning is your miscalled Schismaticks are not Romane Catholicks What if that be granted are they aught the worse But let me heare the proofe Aske the Recusants aske the persecutors you meane the Protestants aske the Saints and Angels and you adde of me I neuer yet tooke them for seruants of mine What opinion Recusants carrie of them neither doe they greatlie neither will I that they should at all regard The Protestants finding theÌ„ in their pauilions yet not acquainted
ye backe-byte and bable to the contrary I say they they the Protestants are my only faithfull seruants and the lot of mine enheritance and I am the lot of theirs The false Embassador NO man can serue two Maisters Indifferency in Religion in effect Apostasie c. You say you loue my Tēple but you enter into Bethel and Galgala c. Haue accesse to my Priests frequent my Sacraments clense your selues c. The Lord Christ. YOur Generall is true Mat. 6.24 No man can serue two cōtrary Masters No subiect two aduersarie Princes but your applicatiō most vnjust vngodly For how can this be iust which I will neuer justifie nay which I must condemne for the greatest and most intolerable blasphemy that can be vttered not onely that you compare my seruāts the Protestants to Idolaters Deuils and their most holy and Christian seruices to Idolatrous and Heathnish sacrifices but my selfe also their God and Sauiour to the Idolls of Bethel and Gilgal and the mountaine of Samaria to Ieroboams Calues to Malcham and Baal nay to Beelzebub himselfe Oh desperate and hellish blasphemy what are ye now jnferiour yee Serpents yee Vipers ye wicked Generation Mat. 23.33 vnto those Cast-awaies of mine own Natiō who so reuiled me in the daies of my flesh while I liued with them nay how are ye not superiour vnto them in wickednes most dānable praesumptiō for they spake of me in the time of my humility when I appeared vnto them onely as a man but ye in this my day of Glorie now I am sitting at the right hand of my Fathers Maiesty Ephes 1.21 farr aboue all principalities and powers and euery name that is named in this world and in the next Therefore ye are cursed with a curse and looke ye well vnto it that this be not the vnpardonable sinne Blasphemy against the holy Ghost Marc. 3.29 Luc. 12.10 Heb. 6.4 c. so that it be vnpossible for you to be renewed vnto Repentance As for those your Catholicks at whome ye rayle vnder the names of Schismaticall Israelites of Samaritans of libertine Corinthians of Laodiceans of swearers by God and Malcham and of wicked Ahab if they loue my Temple that is none of yours because they are comming on vnto it and haue ioyned with my seruants in profession then are they no dissemblers But if they are still enamored with your Temple which ye say is mine but falsely by my selfe but not by your Embassage ye shall not speake for me I aduize them better minds Yf they be my seruants and my Children let them loue me with all their hearts syncerely not in words and colour onely but in workes truth also and serue me as they doe among the Protestants in the faith of truth That they cannot doe if they haue accesse to your Priests frequent your Sacraments haue in reuerence your rites and Ceremonies honour your seruice prostrate themselues before your defiled Altar adore at the houre of your direfull sacrifice All which you call mine but I disclame them all as I doe also your Confession and penance For will you neuer learne Popish priests none of Christs ordination that your charactered sacrifizing Priests neuer sprāg from my diuine ordinatiō neither can be numbred among any of those whom I Ephe. 4.8 when I ascended vp to Heauen and led captiuitie Captiue gaue as gifts to men some Apostles some c. for the perfecting of the Saints for the worke of the Ministerie c. Two Sacramēts I haue ordained in my Church to confirme and seale vp the faith of my Chosen which they haue in me Baptisme and my Holy Supper as few as may be most significāt of my death passion price of my redēption The other 5. Cōfirmation Confessiō Penance Matrimonie Extreme Vnction and holy Ordination Let the most of them be sacred actions but as symbolicall signes and seales of this great mystery of my Redēption that is properly as Sacraments I neuer did appoint thē They are added so of humane 1. Confirmation of your own jnuētion and jnstitution Confirmation after Baptisme as it was in vse in the Primitiue Church and in the Apostolical times is good profitable 2. Confession and Penance Confession and penance are by you abused as a snare to entangle the reputation and to slay the soules of my people For yee enforce the same as a necessary Sacrament ye call for a particular enumeratiō of sinnes if it be possible the Act with all the circūstances thereof Vincent Bruno tract de Paenit when where in what manner and how often it hath been committed not only wicked vngodly but euen foolish jdle and vnfruitfull words yea the very secret thoughts and intents of the hart must be remēbred and layd open to the Priest And ye appoynt a most ridiculous Penance as a satisfaction for sinne 3. Matrimony Heb. 13.4 Ephe. 5.32 for which no man can satisfie but my selfe alone Mariage is honourable in all and it signifieth the mysticall vniō betwixt me and my Church yea to be solemnized in the open view of a congregation it is an ancient and most wholsome Custome Gen. 29.21 Iudic. 14.10 Tertull. lib. de pudicitia penes noc occultae coniunctiones c. Conc. Carth. 4. Ecclesiasticall Constitution for the avoyding of Plagiaries of Clandestine adulteries fornications jncests and such like jmpieties But I neuer required it to be held for a Sacrament of the Church it being also lawfull and commendable among the very Infidels who are not within the Church 4. Extreme Vnction Vnction of the sicke with oyle was a Ceremonie both * Marc. 6.13 in and immediatly after the daies of my habitation here on Earth which I allowed to mine Apostles Primitiue Elders of the Church because by the meanes of that and prayer I was pleased to giue vnto thē a gift of healing for the recouery of the sicke weake Iam. 5.14 But now since the gift hath been withdrawn with many other of like qualitie Marc. 16.17.18 granted for tokens euidences of beleeuers on me in those dayes therfore it shall be but humane idlenes vanity presūption to continue the Ceremony without a grace Much more is it audacious if not extreme impiety to deuize a new Ceremony a new name of Extreme Vnctiō and therunto to forge a grace As for any other smeering or anoyling vsed in your Synagogue at Baptisme or other where I disclame 5. Orders and renounce it as the scumme and filth of your owne braines Ordination of bishops Priests and Deacons as it is in vse amongst my English Protestants is both ancient and Authentick beeing euen from the prime and purer Churches Socr. li. 1. c. 11 Sozom. lib 1. cap. 22. reputed Apostolicall but by you it is Mudded and polluted with a sacrifizing Priest-hood to the most shamefull and slaunderous derogation and
impeachment of That mine euerlasting Offering Popish Ceremonies apish ridiculous and Office after the order of Melchisedech Your multiplicity and absurdity of most apish and toyish Ceremonies as ducking crossing closing opening of hands Host-eleuating loud-bawling secret Mumbling and the like are fitter for a Theater then for the Church What reuerence can yee require to such jrreuerend childish and profane Administrations To be short your dishonorable seruice your detestable Altar your hypocriricall creeping and casting downe your bodyes your no lesse odious lifting vp jmpure harts and hands your idolatrous adoratiō your contumacious endeauour of blynd zeale your dreadfull nay direfull abhominable sacrifice The abhomination of the popish Masse therfore abhominable because an offring not only of my passion but of my body a spirituall a Carnall a bloudy and vnbloudy Sacrifice indeed a Sacrifice and no Sacrifice because not only a memory of me the Redeemer of my Chosen is solemnly celebrated and liuely represented but a propitiation also for the liuing and the dead is pretended to be offered directly crossing and contrary to that one Oblation of my selfe once offred not without bloud Heb. 10.14 whereby for euer I haue consecrated and perfected them that are sanctified wherein by the Eternall spirit I offered vp my selfe vnto God Heb. 9.12.13.14 and found eternall redemption for them All these are not the workes of my Children and seruants and therfore I command you once againe vnder the penalty of my great and Eternall curse that yee cease any further to lead the blynd out of the way whome you haue peruerted too farr already and will not suffer them so much as to enter a deliberation to returne vnto the flocks of my Sheapheards againe The false Embassador Schismaticks justly repelled from the Sacramēts HEre you straine courtesie here flesh and bloud reclaimeth the spirit taking the foyle and the old man triumphing Some of you discharge themselues of their crimes by my Stewards ouer rigorous austerity c. How dare you proffer to approach to my Altar where so great a Maiestie is resident c. The Lord Christ IS not this an ouer-Rigorous austerity and most apparent in you First to inhibite them the Churches of the Protestants and after to exclude them from your own mysteries Oratories also You say nay For first you would haue them to Confesse themselues guilty for ioyning with the Protestants and to purpose amendment of that fault to receaue your absolution and to doe penaunce and so to be purged and so be prooued worthy to come vnto your Altar But I say vnto you still your Altar is not my Altar my great Maiestie is not there resident but onely the pettie Maiestie of your profane bread neither is your penaunce your pardon your Confession my ordination Therefore they who refuse these things from you are guiltles before me and as yee saye in this one thing happie that they are suspended and reiected of you And I denounce a woe against you that Cal good euill and euill good sweet sower sower sweet Esay 5.20 put light for darknes and darknes for light The false Embassador WEll then Schismaticks are to be praesumed for Haereticks and why among my Catholicks since you are not where shall I find you where c. The Caluinist taketh you for Proselytes c. The poore Catholick scandalized at your impiety c. The Lord Christ WHat and will you still make me the Patrone of your lyes surely I doe not hold them among my true Catholicks no more then I doe your selues neither yet doe I conclude The Lord alloweth not dissembling Catholicks that cleauing to the Protestants they cleaue to sectaries neither doe I pronounce them Protestants neither do I allow their reproofe either in priuate talke or in priuate opinion of the Protestant proceedings neither are those proceedings departure from the faith nor yet their Temples houses of Idolatry as ye blaspheme So that albeit by their presence with them in appearance they honour by obaying they allow by example they further by deeds they cōfirme by dissembling they establish those proceedings albe-it they goe to those houses as one of them they sit there as one of them they behaue themselues reuerēdly as one of them yet in all this or in any of these they cannot be defined eyther Schismaticks or Haereticks In a word howsoeuer they are reputed Proselyts of the Caluinist as you terme the true Christian and howsoeuer your poore Catholicks poore indeed and voyde of true Catholicke faith Dissembling Catholicks no Schismaticks are scandalized of them though they may be lost sheepe for the time and dissemblers yet are they no Schismaticks being not diuided from the true Church much lesse at the brinck of bottomles haeresie in that respect The false Embassador Those which goe to the Conuenticles of Haereticall rites are iustly and properly called s hismaticks ABhominable is Schisme and horrible is the name of Schismaticke c. When my Church in her first prime c. The Lord Christ. Schisme is a separation from the faith of truth and the true Cōmunion of Saints What is Schisme And therefore all those Christians vpon whatsoeuer intent purpose of heart whether for Feare of the Aduersity and Crosses or for loue of the prosperity ease and sensuality of this present euill world who do consort themselues though but for a time with the Iewish Turkish or any other Heathnish profession let them be censured for schismaticall Reuolters till they returne into the Church againe But herevpon how can you charge your cunning Catholicks of schisme for associating in their actions with the Protestants First you are to proue the one to be Haereticks their Assemblies also and rites haereticall which you can neuer do and then forewarne the other vnder the penalty of Schismaticall reproch to adhaere vnto them Be it that some of them for all I know who know the hearts doe not repute and take the Protestants for Haereticks for that is the poynt you press vppon them and yet like Ambidexters Machiauels and Temporizers only for feare or for loue of the earth and earthly things against their consciences will make a shew to be on their side yet I say neuer shal their own false opiniōs no more thē yours conclude them to be Schismaticks in joyning with my Church howsoeuer they may be convicted of themselues for notorious hypocrites and dissemblers and so be vnexcusable in my sight For I cannot like it that they or you or any should dissemble with me Iosue 9.9 or my people The Gibeonites in that they sought the friendship of my seruant Iosua and his host did not offend me in that they sought it by dissimulation they did not please me vers 21. Therfore for the one I spared their liues and for the other I adjudged them to perpetuall seruitude The remnant of those Iewes who dwell now among
the Nations who are baptized and professe Christianity therein are no offenders but being true as it is reported of many of them that they still are judaicall in opinion and that the vayle of Moyses is layd ouer their hearts in that I disclame and detest them as forlorne mis-beleeuers and my sworne Enemies So let euery one of yours either be as they professe vnfayned Christians Perfect schismaticks Schisma facere ab vnitate Christi aut in Schismate esse profecto malū est magnū malū nec omninò fieri potest vt Christus det Schismatico non fidem sed sacrilegum errorem aut in Christo radicem Schismaticus fixerit aut Schismatico Christus sit origo caput Aug. lib. 4. contra Crescon Gramm or professe as they are false-hearted and false opinionated Catholicks Schismaticks they cannot be that professe the truth in the Church They only are such who being runnagates and hereticks maintaine falshoods with personall separation from the Church Neither yet doe I allow them for good and faithfull Christians who would be so reputed and are not for they only are such whose opinion and profession agree togither in the truth that is who professe the truth in syncerity The false Embassador I Know Protestants cannot be of the Catholicke church neither in their faith can be salvation I know what it is that lyeth at your heart c. Yee are not perswaded forsooth that the Protestants Religion is so abhominable c. To take your selues for a particular Church is vnpossible for a headlesse multitude who haue neither Temple Altar Priest nor Sacrifice neither distinct members nor anyband of Vnion aswell you may thinke of going at the latter day neyther to Heauen nor to Hell as to thinke in this life a Newtrality c. Will you diuide my Church c. To say that Protestants may by their profession be saued c. The Lord Christ. OH ye wretched and wicked Priests of Antichrist I know well I know that my Church my Spouse my body mysticall my chast Turtle my Citie my Kingdome my Familie 1 Cor. 11.19 Mat. 18.7 the piller of Truth is but one For albeit in my visible Church there must bee Haeresies 2. Tim. 2.20 Mat. 13 24. c. Mat. 3.12 and Scandals for the triall of my chosen for that in my house there are vessels of honour dishonour in my field there is Corne Tares in my garner there is Wheat Chaff Mat. 13.47 Gen. 7.8 in my Net there is good and bad Fish in my Arke there are cleane and vncleane beasts Phil. 3.2 Rom. 6.17 and there will be alwaies some of whome it may be sayd Beware of Dogs Mat. 7.15 Act. 20.29 Marke them that make diuisions among you and auoyde them Beware of false Prophets Grieuous Wolues shall enter in among you Yet as vnto my chosen there is but one way Ioh. 14.1 One truth one life so they are all baptized by one spirit into one body 1. Cor. 12.13 Ephesi 4.4 c. For there is one bodie and one spirit euen as they are called in one hope of their vocation one Lord one faith one Baptizme one God and father of all which is aboue all and through all and in them all One sheepheard and one fold My Doue is alone Ioh. 10. Cantic 6. The company of my chosen is but one Communion of Saints partly triumphant in Heauen and partly militant on Earth But must ye therefore be that one Do ye take it for graunted that I will not yeeld you Nothing but begging of the Question How dare ye say in my name that they are blind and impious who imagine holines in the Protestants prayers or saluation to bee found in their Faith For I euen I pronounce vnto you their prayers are holie A true sauing faith and their faith is a sauing faith which ascribeth and acknowledgeth the sole and whole worke and merite of redēption and the purchase of Heauen vnto me alone And to say that by any other profession a man may be saued is indeed to make an other God and Summum bonum besides me and to make me none or euil or jnsufficient at the least which in truth ye prowde Papists doe Papists ioyne their own merits with the Death of Christ in the purchase of saluation in vaunting the merits of your owne defectiue and jnfected works as coadjutors to the purchase of Eternall glory with the obedience and sprinckling of my precious bloud as though I had not made a full and perfect satisfaction without your ayde or helpe But thus ye boldly and presumptuously diminish dishonour me and my all-sufficiently meritorious Sacrifice and yet ye malapertlie charge my true beleeuers of that fault whereof your selues are guilty Shall I not punnish you for this thing The false Embassador The perfect opposition and contrariety of Catholicks Protestāts IF on the other side you ioyne Caluinists with Catholicks in one Church then set together the Woolfe with the Lambe c. For asmuch as my dreadfull Eucharist is irrefragably beleeued by the one to be my true body c. Of other maine differences consider c. The Lord Christ THis generall opposition betwixt you Papists and my true professors the Protestants I doe allow prouided alwaies that yee are the Wolues the Lyons the Goshawkes and they the Lambes the Harts the Partridges and that your Religion is the surmized their 's the sure yours vnpossible their 's infallible yours newly reared by mans imaginations cherished for pollicie c Theirs founded by my selfe from the beginning vppon my selfe the Rocke What other Haereticks doe or how they injuriously reuile vpbraide as an Idoll teare spit at and treade vnder foote my dreadfull Eucharist What is that to these true Christians whome opprobriously yee call Hugonots Sure it is they for their parts most constantly and deuoutly beleeue my true body jmpute no jdle Manichean phantasie vnto them and the personall presence of my Deity in the Eucharist I know their faith Popish adoration of bread me they adore with due veneration though not the Element that representeth my true body Neither doe they commit such a mysticall and spirituall kind of murder and mangling of my body asye do who professe Papists feed corporallie they say vpon Christ when they feed on him in the Sacrament See Ferus in Iohn cap. 6. The number of Popish Sacraments howsoeuer in termes ye disclame it not only a spiritual but a corporall feeding thervpon brutish Cannibals as yee are As touching the other maine differences between them and you in the particulars Know yee that I neuer ordained the number of 7. Sacraments but onely Baptisme and my holy Supper your vse of Images I scorne and abhorr Images being directly contrary to the second Commaundement of my morall Law Thou shalt not make to thy selfe any grauen Image c. Act. monū
Foxe pag 130. though your Pope Adrian commaunded thē to be taken for Laymens Kalenders Inuocation of Saints your Invocation of Saints is a derogation from my glory which I will not giue to any other Esay 42.8 I neuer commanded you by any praecept I neuer invited you by any godly example I neuer incouraged you by any promise in my holy word to any such deuotion Your forgiuenes of sinnes by your Popes indulgences Indulgences and your selling of pardons is paltry trifling and prophane Marchandizing in my holy Temple Heavenly glorie What heauenly glorie do you dreame of that my faithfull Protestants beleeue not much better then yee are able Popish difference of jnfernall paines your difference of infernall paines I am not acquainted withall I know none but eternall fire prepared for the diuell and his adhaerents your temporall purgatorie flames are but poëticall fables Purgatorie a poëtical fable Iustification your Iustification of the liuing by faith and works together is partly coyned in your owne forge and partly raked vp out of the Pharisaicall pride Praier for the dead Your praying for the dead is bootles they hauing now their Iudgemēt passed on them as the day of death hath left them so the day of finall Iudgement shall finde them either blessed or cursed for euer No prayers now shall preuaile or hurt them any whit at all Popish faith hope charitie Moreouer your faith is a confused Confidence nay rather an jmplicite and vnknowne assent you know not vnto what full of distrust and diffidence your hope builded thereuppon must needs be hopeles and voyd of sound and heauenly comfort your Charitie to me is very slender and luke-warme like theirs once of Laodicea Apoc. 3.15 for yee loue your selues as well as me your owne merits you joyne with mine vngratefully diminishing my meritorious sacrifice and the price of my bloud Oh sinfull Nation supply yee my pure and perfect obedience with your owne foule and filthie righteousnes Is this your loue to me to pretend the purchase of heauen together with me thus to be ouer-enamoured of your selues Fie Fie I cannot endure a Co-partner with me in this great worke of Redemption and saluation Therefore your jmagined freewill to good your merits of congruence and of worthines where are they your fastings and prayers conceited and practised not onely as means but as meritorious workes of eternall life I hate and will surely punish as the fumes and fomes of the pride of your old Adam As for sinnc yee knowe not the power thereof that suppose any one to be veniall in it selfe being committed against so eternall and jnfinit a Maiestie as I am And what haue you to doe with my counsell and decree of predestination Predestinatiō Will you or can you infringe the infallible Certainty therof that ye teach men to doubt of my loue why doe yee not tell them rather that though they cannot choose but doubt by reason of their many 1. Cor. 15.58 and mighty sinnes which is humane jnfirmitie yet they ought to be stedfast and vnmoouable in their faith being builded on me Mal. 3.6 Pro. 19.21 Heb. 13.5 who am God and am not changed whose Counsell is immutable who will not faile neither yet forsake them that put their trust in me yea though they beleeue not without great weaknes 2. Tim 2.13 yet I am God faithfull and true and cannot deny myselfe Finally what meane you to adde vnto my canonicall scriptures the Apocryphall writings of Iudith Tobias Maccabees and others which I neuer yet allowed to be put into the canon Nay to thrust in your owne vnwritten Traditions and Papall constitutions to make them of equall authoritie with the same Nesanda secreta These your nefarious hidden doctrines I will haue cancelled and abolished I cannot abide that yee should goe a whoring after your owne imaginations Goe and learne what that meaneth In vaine they worship me Mat. 15.9 reaching for doctrines mens precepts And that vers 13. Euery plant which mine heauenly Father hath not planted shal be rooted vp Thus haue you in deed almost in the whole summe of Religion tossed ouer euerie stone reuersed the whole frame of faith and turned all vpside downe And therefore take you heed yee obstinate Recusants least your departure and diuision from my true Church be a more then sufficient warrant of your heauy Iudgement with Arrius Nestorius Eutyches I adde with Manichees Marcionits Pelagians and other old Haereticks in the bottomles pit for that you haue not in one point but in many varied from the christian faith The false Embassador How abhominable the Scriptures Prayers and Churches of Haereticks are CAluinisme then being doctrine so diabolicall c. Oh how illusion bewitcheth you c. Their profane bread c. Their Rites and Ceremonies c. As Fasts Holy daies c. Yea their Churches and Temples c. Bethel was my house c. The Lord Christ. SVrely the Scriptures praiers and Churches of Haereticks are not well pleasing vnto me They are abhominable Papisme therefore being the verie doctrine of deuils your popish Scripture as being none of my word Popish Scripture The Latine vulgar edition authēticke among the Papists very erroneous but the word of the deuill so false and adulterated so poysoned and full of corruptions as it is in your latine vulgar edition authorized by your Trent Councell oppugning vndermyning and overthwarting my true faith and Catholike Church I disclame as a counterfait coppie and renounce altogether as no writ of myne Popish prayers Your praiers also are no better in mine eares then the howling of Wolues that prey vppon the soules of men the lowing of Oxen and the roaring of Bulls screeching of Owles and Night-Rauens yelling and bellowing Infernall blasphemies against my sacred Maiestie in vnknowne and vnconceiued in loud bawling in discording from my heart both tongues and tunes Popish Priests Your priests are perfect Chemarims and Priests of Baal officers of the very Antichrist his heralds and proctors his Apostles and Angels of his Kingdome of darknes Popish Communion Goe yee and suck the adders Eggs lesse poysonable out of doubt then your Communion bread and cup. Popish Ceremonies Your Ceremonies are not few but most fantasticall offensiue both in their nomber and in their nature apish and plainly ridiculous jmitations partly of the Heathnish superstitions and partlie of those Rites which my heauenly Father sometimes ordayned to his people Israell Your fastes are fish delicates wine Popish fasts and other dainty fare farr more jncentiue of filthie Lust in pampering of the body then any other foode and your abstinence sometimes a feasting sometimes a most Pharisaicall and Hypocriticall sowring of your faces and other ostentation of will-worship in neglecting the body Coloss 2.22.23 not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh as myne Apostle paints it out
jmitarion But yet of them who are sure they maintayne the truth of god as those were and did not of your Pope-lings though yee bee stout much lesse when yee be stammering in your opinions For what say yee what would Tobias what would the Israelites what the 7. Brethren what would Eleazar what Maccabeus what would Peter what Paul or my beloued Iohn haue done in these times would they not haue joyned with my professors the ProtestaÌ„ts I say yes they would and I am sure You they would haue despised abhorred reiected and all your Babylonish jmpieties and Profanations no lesse then they did the heathen persecutors Blud-suckers jdolaters of their time and then they did those named Hereticks Simon Magus Elymas and Cerinthus and all the like with their heathnish jdolatries and detestable heresies But here I haue somewhat against you Will you neuer clense your filthy tongues neuer cease to reuile and rayle at my faithfull seruants and worthy Champions of my truth Luther What is Luther like to Simon Magus no. But I must tell you That man of sinne who brags and vaunts him selfe to be an vniuersall Bishop in Simon Peters place and is not to be the Vicar generall of the vniuersall Church on earth and by me was neuer appointed to that office is a very subtill Simon and a Magicall enchaunter of my people For I neuer gaue to my beloued Apostle Simon Peter him selfe any such place or power as this your Peter Pope by many crafty sleights and deuilish practices hath aduanced himselfe vnto Luther founder and Grandfather of many falsehoods No No but ordained of old and borne by my great prouidence and mercy to be the discouerer of your falsehoods and recouerer finder out of that holy truth which long had bin lost in the ground and dung of your Canonisticall and Sophisticall diuinitie and many other of your meet machiauellianly politicall and practicall corruptions Therfore you hate him the more deadly and I loue him the more dearely and will loue honour him in my heauenly Kingdome eternally Dare you say of Iohn Caluin Caluin An Arch Haeretick and corrupter of whole Prouinces whome though I know to haue knowne the truth in part and to haue prophecied in part 1. Cor. 13.9 as all my Seruants do yet I haue well approued for a choyce Teacher and Instructor of the truth by his laborious writings godly jnstitutions through all the parts of Christendome I say therefore once more touch not mine Annoynted do my prophets no harme Psal 105.5 make not the Ministers of my gospell the seducers of soules 1. Tim. 4.16 for they shall saue themselues and them that heare them Els I will come against you shortly and not onely consume you with the breath of my mouth 2. Thes 2.8 but vtterly abolish you by the brightnesse of my coÌ„ming Then shall you see and know the third sort of your examples myne Ancient true Martyrs worthy jndeed of all jmitation for their constant labouring and striuing in defence of my gospell vnto the death to be none of your defiled and corrupted Church yea you shall see them I say Crowned with jmmortall happines and glory but your selues with a number of false Martyrs whome yee haue thrust into your yerely Kalender with all haereticks and jdolaters to be cast out into vtter Darknes Mat. â—4 51 there shal be weeping and gnashing of teeth The false Embassador Participatition in works of Haeresie worse then in Acts of Idolatry IF now you be so simple as to thinke that Heresie is not worse then Idolatry that to forsake me c. Greater sacriledge then the courtesie of Cap and Knee c. Euery Iote of whose rituall Customes c. 24. 24. Heresie worse then jnfidelity jdolatry Seeing euery falshood the more it hath of truth is the more apt to beguile c. A plaine fable is laughed at but not hated c. The Lord Christ. WHether Haeresie be worse then Idolatry or no I do not reasoÌ„ with you neither is it to the purpose here They are both Abhominable in my sight and damnable it is to communicate with either But this is your perpetuall error to take the Protestants for Haereticks reforme that and this declaration is altogether jmpertinent Let Haeresie be worse then Infidelitie and Idolatry yet if the professed Protestants of England be not Haereticks and their seruice not haereticall you haue no Reason by that reason to call those your adhaerents in some opinions from those their Congregations where they may learne to reforme them but yee say if yee be so simple as to thinke that to cast 2. or 3. graines of frankincense vppon an heathen Altar or to lay c. that is to offer and doe homage to the Idols of the heathen Bacchus Ceres Iupiter and the like to be greater sacriledge then the curtesie of Cap and knee and reuerentiall presence at their thrice Idolatrous Communion or then the seruice to maintenaunce thereof erected Euery iot of whose rituall Customes and publique prayers was inuented Commaunded practised and is still continewed only in detestation defiance extirpation and deniall of my faith Catholick Then oh then how are yee deceaued First why say you thrise Idolatrous Communion and not rather thrise haereticall in this place being now about to Call your fellowes from the Haeresie of the Church of England by presuming the same to be worse then Infidelitie idolatry But this Crazines in your braine I forgiue you only I would haue you shew but one poynt of Idolatry in that Communion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is no worship of bread as in yours no veneration no adoration of a crosse or Crucifixe They onely kneele and do reuerence to me the honourable sonne of God represented vnto their faith when they receaue the bread and wine in remembraunce of my death and passion §. 20. pag. 36. lin 11. Againe haue yee so short and shitlie a memorie as to forget what you lately charged the Protestant Church withall viz. That their ministerie hath stolen away your Churches ornaments and let vp and downe clad in her robes that now you say euery lot of their rituall Customes and publique prayers was inuented Commaunded practised and is still continewed onely in detestation defiance extirpation and deniall of your faith Catholick for myne you call it falsely for if euery Iot of their rituall customes and publique prayers were inuented onely in deniall of your faith then haue they stolen away none of your ornaments nor let vp and downe in her robes c. And if they haue stolen any then euery Iot of their rituall Customes was not invented as yee say Thus jnconsequently and giddily to speake is this to bring a message from Heauen jn my name Now Fie vppon such folly Idolatrie and Haeresy are both alike abhominable It is Idle to argue which is the worse Yf I should examine your doughty
from the precept c. Dissembling in religion is abhominable Reuealed you are to your owne shame and to my griefe c. The Lord Christ DIssimulation and double dealing I hate in euery thing and in acts of Religion I vtterly abhorre you need not proue it by the Prohibitions in the law Deut. 22 10.11 of wearing a garment of linsey woolsey ploughing with an Oxe an Asse sowing a field with diuers kind of seeds Prou. 10.9 or by the parable of Salomon He that walketh vprightly walketh safely or boldly But will yee then remember how I cannot but detest your popish aequiuocation and mentall reseruation which is nothing else but flat lying hypocrisie As for those of your popish opinions which conforme themselues vnto the Protestants herein they must needs offend me in that they beleeue with you and professe with them for I would haue them not only professe as they doe but also change their Faith as long as they beleeue the doctrine of your Antichristian Synagogue me they cannot please For as they are Christians and know full well that my Commaundement Deut. 13.1 not to hearken vnto a Deceauer belongeth vnto all so my wil is further that they should take knowledge how that you Papists are the false-prophets of these times who compasse sea and land to make one proselyte and to draw as many as you can vnto that new strange and false doctrine of your romish faith vsing all diligence and diabolicall crafts you can in imitation of the diuell himselfe the great compasser of the earth either to perswade Iob. 1.7 or else to enforce them to fall downe and worship the whoore the beast and the false prophet Apoc. 19.20 and him only to serue I say euen that new and strange abhominable Idoll Anâ—â—e EudaemoÌ„ etiaÌ„ apolog pro Hen. Garnet pag. 137. 138. the Lord your God the Pope of which Title and Blasphemy some of you are now ashamed As touching the doctrine of the Protestants shew in what one point it is not ancient and Apostolicall that you call it new They tell you and haue prooued it oft vnto you Popish new doctrines that your Canon Idoll of the Masse your Carnall presence and transubstantiation in the holy Supper your interdiction of the Cup to the Laitie your adding of salt and spittle oyle and creame in the Ceremonie of Baptisme and many other points of your beleefe where neuer heard of in myne Apostles times or in many yeares after But ye exclame and cry out vppon them new Doctrine new Faith new Ghospell yet are yee not able to say and prooue it of any point thereof This is new How is it then that you are so malapert with my Ghospell and the truth of christianitye which they professe to begin the originall thereof both foolishly and falsely slaunderously Luther Caluin and blasphemously from Mart. Luther and Iohn Caluin Remowned and worthy Instruments of my glory they were in their time and valiant oppugners and expugnators of your Antichristian haeraesies But no first founders or Authors of my aeternall truth and ghospell Moreouer Caluins Idoll who or what is that I pray you The Popes Idoll is the Masse And which are the Calamities of this present tyme whereof yee prate The hand of Iustice is to remisse and ouerslack vppon you as appeareth in that you are so bold to speake and write and print your paltry Pamphlets and seditious Libels at your pleasure Wherfore neuer tel your supposed Schismaticks that They are reuealed to their owne shame and to my griefe neither Call vppon them any more to confesse your Faith by a conuersation pleasing you but learne your selues at length to profes Syncerely the true faith by a godly life or I will make it shortly knowne to all the world to your owne perpetuall shame and horror that yee are the men who haue greiued and vexed me with your calumnious exclamations against my Saints and jdolatrous abhominations against my selfe The false Embassador ADmit that neither reason nor rule of conscience suggested vnto you Schismaticks contemne the authoritie of the Church nor that I expresly exacted of you such firme confession of faith yet ought not the authoritie of my Church c. Nor to my Vicar on earth c. The declaration of my generall Councell at Trent c. The Lord Christ. WHat a doe is here will ye neuer giue ouer railing and slaunder how long shall I suffer you Oh yee disobedient and jmpudent Generation I tell you againe your Church your Priests your Vicar your Councell at Trent are none of mine I renounce you all your Church for the Synagogue of Sathan your priests for the ministers of Beliall your Vicar for a deceaver an jdolater a grand false Prophet as Balaam your councell at Trent for a private Conventicle of Popish Prelats and Priests of your owne faction Foolishly then and ridiculously doe you charge your Schismaticks of contempt of my Church my Spouses voyce and admonition Madly doe you censure them for worse then Heathens and Infidels and divelishly do you accurse them all It is jndeed as sacrilegious as Idolatry to obay your Church to enter your haereticall Conuenticles to giue external consent to your detestable rites But to frequent the service of the Protestant Churches the Ecclesiasticall assemblies of my true Saints is so well pleasing vnto me that had these harkned vnto your Priests who called them there-from I should haue held it grieuous sacriledge by consent betweene them both had they refrayned and refused the pardon of life vpon so godly a condition viz to communicate with my Church of England I should haue found them guilty of their own bloud as now I doe these Priests I had a godly Bishop that gaue them a godly rule Augus Dulcitio ep 61. Jdem ad Festum ep 167. if they had had the grace to haue kept it Causa non paenafacit Martyrem the cause not the punishment maketh the Martyr And my selfe haue pronounced them blessed that suffer But Mat. 5.10 Addidit magnam differentiam quae vera Sacrilegio pietas Secâ—rnatur Aug. cont ep Permeniani lib. 1. 1. Reg. 18.28 Santons Hagies propter Iustitiam in a righteous cause or for righteousnes sake But tell mee now how farr vnlike herein were these your Papists to the Priests of Baall that cut and launced their bodies and those phantasticall Santons or Hagies as they call them among the Turks and Moores that disoculate and wound and even kill themselues in the madnes of their Superstition Also I know I know your Pope not my Vicar is after a fashion so solicitous for soules that hee spareth neither care nor cost yet not to saue them but to destroy and murther them so that hee most aptly resembleth even Sathan himselfe the great compasser of the Earth as his jesuitical vasals also doe those their famous Praedecessors the Pharisees Mat. 23.15 that compassed both Sea
purgatory in an vnknowne world your praesumtuous jnvocatioÌ„ of Saints vnder colour of humility your Idolatrous vse of jmages your idle prayers for the dead at rest your Latine office and seruice in an vnknowne tongue I even I my selfe haue ever jmprooued repooued and condemned So haue I also them that suppose Antichrist shall be one singular person and not a succession of many because they directly oppose my holy Revelation therein Yet to suppose and belieue as I haue reuealed it to my servant Iohn Apoc. 17.18 alibique you will needs jmpute it for an infection of haeresie Moreouer you are not content with me the true and onely head of the Church which is my body Ephe 4.15 and the presence of my grace and power Mat. 28.20 whereof I spake when I sayd Behold I am with you to the end of the world But except there be acknowledged one visible and ministeriall Head that your Pope forsooth may be the man and tirannize ouer the consciences of my people the very Antichrist sitting in the Temple of God 2. Thes 2.4 and aduancing himselfe aboue all that is called God it must bee haeresie with you But come yee now and reason with me of these poynts if ye be able if it bee possible that ye can bring any other Arguments then haue byn brought and answered already by my servants or else because ye are not able I jmpose you silence and charge you henceforth to set a broche no more lyes and forgeries in my name For if yee doe I will call you to accompt at my dreadfull day of Iudgement when ye shall not escape The Councels of my primitiue Church are of good and great authority in their kind Your Gregor was too bold so to compare them but not of the greatest not any of theÌ„ aequall to my 4. Euangelists your decrees Ecclesiasticall of farr less as contayning in them many Cannons both erroneous ridiculous and blasphemous The gates of Hell cannot prevaile against my Church for I haue grounded it vppon a Rock that is my selfe 1. Cor. 10.4 But your Church is not my Rock as well appeareth for the gates of hell haue already preuailed against it and it hath lost the spirit of truth Iohn 14. ver 16.26 the promise of my Father yea the faithfull Citie Rom. 1.8 whose faith was famous sometimes in all the world is become an harlot like Samaria and Ierusalem long agoe and she hath playd the harlot with all her neighbour Princes whom shee could jntice Therefore they doe well and follow the truth in righteousnes that call in question the authority of many Councels and assemblies of men that detract from your Ecclesiastical decrees and decretals that not onely feare but beleeue and find and report abroad not that I haue not fulfilled my promise Act. 2.1 c. for I haue and haâ—e sent my spirit of truth the Comforter vnto my chosen which shall lead them into all truth but that the same my spirit hath beene by you your Praelats and your false-teachers diuersly abused and despited so that it hath byn pressed and as it were compelled to forsake you and depart from you many yeares agoe Cease ye then to cast your filthie haeresies vppon my Saints or to call them backe into your stewes whome I haue caused to come and joyne and dwell with them in my holie house Els thou Babylonish harlot woe wo vnto thee Ah how shall I punish thee in the end how shall I be avenged of thee seeing thou dost all these things of an jmpudent whoorish woman The false Embassador WHence all this By what meanes Schismaticks grow to be Haereticks not because the longer yee liue c. By neuer talking with Priests not conferring of matters touching the Spirit by being loden c. As in domesticall Adders and in their familiarity as in Cocatrice eyes c. Flee Babilon flee Chore flee Sodome flee from the aduersarye campe in tyme. c. The Lord Christ. HEre againe as els where and almost every where in this false Embassage you diue into the Consciences of your brethren and you can tell them without me yet very boldly in my name that they begin to loth your religion for checking of their humor For you challenge them that feare of aduersity loue of the world neuer talking with your Priests nor conferring of matters touching the spirit and the load of secret sins haue jnduced them to depart from among you Thus you raile vpon them exclaime expostulate advize and commaund them in my name restles as you are You rayle vpon them as possessed of sensuall carnall and worldly affections lying open to the enemy destitute of my grace and protection made a prey to the roaring Lyon conuersing among haereticks becomming like them in conditions quickly delighting in their sutable doctrine To which they can easily answere if they bee wise that thus haue you deciphered your own selues ye Runnagates who have forsaken a good and pleasant land to converse among your Romane Haereticks and so are made like vnto them in evill and vngodly conditions disloyall to your Prince and country having first conformed your selues to their damnable doctrine Therefore you are as you say of them sensual carnal worldly affectionated lying opeÌ„ to the Enemy destitute of the Sauiours grace and protection and made a prey to the roaring Lyon You exclame poyson poyson lurketh in their company meaning the Protestants you should haue ment your selues as in domesticall Adders and in their familiaritie as in Cockatrices or Basilisks eyes Thus doe you plainly shew that Adders poyson is in your lips and vnder your tongue lurketh vngodlines and vanity You expostulate What though they be not conquered at the first what though the Arguments of Protestants be but weake foolish yet that they may in time be perswaded ouercoÌ„e by them So they may jndeed for those Arguments as weake and foolish as they are yet you do find them Gordian knots and like the Trumpets of the Priests of the Lord of Hoastes Iosue 6.20 at the blast whereof the wals of Ierico fell downe yea like stones in dauids bag 1. Sam. 17.49 whereof some one or other when the measure of your wickednes is filled vp shall stick so fast in the forehead of your Pope the great Goliah that he shall fall groueling to the ground and neuer be able to rise againe Then shall you find those Arguments which now are but drops of Raine to fall vpon you as a storme as hailestones and Coles of fier For sure it is Esay 55.10 as my word is like the snow and rayne which commeth downe from heauen and watereth the Earth that it may bud and bring forth seed vnto the sower and bread vnto him that eateth Heb. 6.7.8 so the earth that drinketh in the rayne which falleth oft vppon it bringeth forth nothing but bryers and thornes is neer vnto Cursing whose