and that which is crooked as the Philosopher well said yet let vs yeeld so much to our Aduersaries either ignorance or obstinacie that as wee haue brought out the true and right notes of Antichrist out of the text of Scripture so wee may refute the false and fained proceeding out of the braine of man Bellarmine writes honestly that the opinions of the Fathers about Antichrist which cannot be prooued out of the Scriptures are not to be held as certaine truths or to bee beleeued as matter of faith I would hee would follow his owne rule we should sooner agree among our selues And he hath reiected some of their fables in this cause the Scripture being his guide but I thinke hee refused other mens deuises herein that with greater authoritie he might shew foorth his owne Some of them as false and absurd others as more probable but false for all that both of them he doth reiect Why so I pray Because they cannot be prooued out of the Scripture Who would not thinke that this man dealeth with vs in good sooth Of the generation of Antichrist 1 Antichrist is not as he saith borne of a Virgin 2 He is not the Deuill as Hypolitus thought 3 He is not a Deuill incarnate 4 He is not Nero brought to life againe These opinions saith he are absurde Others are more probable neither true 1 Antichrist is not a bastard as Damascen said 2 He is not of the Tribe of Dan as 12. Fathers do thinke and all Papists almost besides Bellarmine Do you not see Paul the 5. how your Bellarmine reiecteth twelue Fathers in this cause and giues his own side the slippe He denieth the old Tribe of Antichrist we looke he should deny his Countrey anone Hee denieth him to be of Dan by and by he will deny him to be a Iew. For as for the Tribe of Dan Bellarmine alloweth Hyeromes opinion Why This cannot saith hee be prooued out of the Scripture Although for the Tribe diuers Papists bring texts as probable as Bellarmine doth for the nation But those this plaine dealing man forsooth hath reiected Doe you not see how your men disagree in this matter that you may no more tell our men of their disagreements CHAP. XXVIII Of the Nation Religion Office and seat of ANTICHRIST BVT Antichrist saith he shall be by Nation a Iew by Religion circumcised and for a time a keeper of the Saboth by his office Messias for he shall especially come for the Iewes sake and shall be accepted of them for Messias and he shall sit at Ierusalem in the Temple of God reedified by himselfe A lyer must beare a memorie Messias of the Iewes saith he shall come not in his owne name but in Gods name So Bellarmine Bellarmines contradiction But Antichrist shall come not in Gods name but in his owne saith Bellarmine Antichrist therefore is not the Messias of the Iewes But he proueth out of two places of the Scripture that Antichrist is the Messias of the Iewes one if another shall come in his owne name saith Christ Ioh. 5. him you shall receiue Whereout of a compound supposition of an indefinite person if another hee doth inferre a simple proposition definitely that is that Antichrist absurdly nor well applied to the purpose Which sets downe that that Antichrist shall come a little before the end of the world Those Iewes therefore whom Christ spake to then aliue now dead could not receiue Antichrist for Messias Vnlesse peraduenture as he tells vs Enoch and Elias shall returne before the end who shall resist Antichrist A great absurdity so he imagines the Iewes that Christ spake to shall rise againe before the generall resurrection to receiue Antichrist But see how vntowardly the parts of this tale hangs together For he saith That Enoch and Elias should be killed of Antichrist and after three daies and a halfe liue againe and that it shall come to passe afterward that the Iewes being conuerted by that miracle shall kill their Messias in the mount oliue and shall returne to Christ who shall come 45. daies after Which dreame of his he refuteth in another place which he bringeth The Apostle saith that to them who receiue not the loue of the truth to their saluation God will send the working of error to beleeue lies and so to be iudged with the iudgement of condemnation 2. Thess 2.9 Wo be to those saith he who haue not receiued Christ The Iewes Although the Apostle saith not who receiued not the truth 1. Christ but who receiued not the loue of the truth as false Christians But how shall God punish those Iewes God shall send vpon them the working of error that they might beleeue a lye 1 Antichrist and should bee damned Therefore the Iewes shall receiue Antichrist for Messias But Bellarmine doth affirme that the Iewes shall bee conuerted by Enoch and Elias and therefore shall bee saued The Apostle speaketh of men reiecting Christ and therefore to be condemned he speakes not therefore of the Iewes But the Apostle saith that Antichrist is sent to them who would not receiue Christ which of the Iewes is true of the Christians false Yea he saith that he is sent to seduce those who haue not receiued the loue of truth which doth well agree with the Papists those false-christians Who although they receiue Christ The Papist receiue Christ but not the loue of Christ receiue not the loue of Christ But the Apostle speaketh of the time past Who haue not receiued the loue of truth not in the future Therefore he vnderstandeth the Iewes who before the Apostle wrote this refused to beleeue the preaching of Christ and his Apostles But the Apostle speaking of the sinne and punishment of Antichristians which presupposeth a sinne going before did expresse their sinne in the pretertense which is not to be referred to the time of the Epistle which Paul writ but to the time of the punishment which he enioyned But if the Iesuite doe vrge the pretertense so farre as if the Apostle should vnderstand that Antichrist should be receiued of them only who had reiected Christ before that time hee must hold that he must be receiued of them in the end of the world who were dead a thousand fiue hundred yeares before And is not this a worthy demonstration A popish absurdity whereby he proueth that Antichrist shall bee in Office the Messias of the Iewes to be receiued of them in the end of the world whence as one error begets another he concludeth that he is by nation a Iew by Religion circumcised c. I haue wonne it now that Antichrist is an Apostata-christian It followeth therefore that hee can by no meanes bee an Infidell Iew who as yet was not come to Christ I prooued that hee was an inward and hypocriticall enemy who denied Christ secretly indirectly It followeth then that the Iew no waies can be an outward and professed enemy who denieth Christ directly and plainely
of Rome as what it ought to doe For this is rather an admonition then a commendation and with a praise giueth warning of duty Wherefore you shall doe well Calander as S. Peter warnes you if you alwaies giue attention to the holy Scripture as to the candle to the Church as to the candle-sticke so long as it containeth and vpholdeth that candle giuing light to all the house For if it bee bereft of the light of her sunne and being blinde endeauours to make others blinde also while it makes new Articles of the faith and conceales the old it doth retain the name of a Church but it hath altogether lost the nature that which may very truely be spoken of the Church of Rome § 128 You doe very vnaduisedly traduce the Church of Rome saith Saturnine by whom you thinke that new Articles of the faith were made for the Articles of the faith which it propoundes are diuided into two sortes One are of immediate Reuelation Others are drawne and fetcht from thence What articles of faith the Church maketh The Church doth not make new Articles of the faith of the first sort But the Church maketh Articles of the second sort which ought to bee beleeued with the Catholicke faith as the case requireth if it thinke them necessary Therefore Vincentius Lyrinensis thinketh that the life of propheticall and euangelicall doctrine must be directed by the rule of Ecclesiasticall and Catholike sense so that he doth in vaine brag of the text of scripture who reiecteth the sense of the Church § 129 Then Patriott how absurdly is it said saith he that the Church doth not make immediate reuelations of God Vnlesse that be more absurd to thinke that to fetch and draw from is the same which to make for an Article must first be made before a doctrine can be drawne or fetcht from the same Therefore that is said to bee an Article of the faith which is drawne from an Article Foolishly Articles are principles deductions are conclusions An article is one thing a conclusion drawne from the article is another which often is so contrarie that it vtterly ouerthroweth the article As it shall bee made cleare in the explication of your creede For I confesse with Vincentius Lyrinensis that the line of propheticall and Apostolicall doctrine is to be directed by the rule of the ecclesiasticall and catholicke sense For the ecclesiasticall and catholicke sense must alway agree with the Propheticall and apostolicall text For where the text doth faile vs the glosse cannot helpe vs. Whence I conclude that nothing can bee Catholicke and Ecclesiasticall which is not Propheticall or Apostolicall Now because Vincentius doth restraine the propheticall and apostolicall line to the cannon of the Scripture which he confesseth to be more then sufficient for faith it followeth that nothing contrarie to the canonicall Scripture can be Ca holicke though it bee so determined by the Church Wherefore Calander if the Church of Rome haue cast any article of faith into the Creede of the second sort which is contrarie to an Article of the first sort and haue added an ecclesiasticall glosse disagreeing from the definition of canonicall Scripture that Church shall sooner leaue off to be the Catholicke Church then that Article shall beginne to be Catholicke Let vs come therefore to the Creede and let vs intreat Argentine if hee please to open it vnto vs. Then Argentine I will doe it and very willingly and § 130 I will so professe it as it is propounded by the Bull of Pius the 4. to be a forme of an Oath of the profession of the orthodoxall faith 1 I William Argentine doe firmely admit and hold the Apostolicall and Ecclesiasticall traditions and other ordinances and constitutions of the Church of Rome The Popes creede Traditions Scriptures according to the Romane sense 2 I doe firmely hold and admit the holy Scriptures according to that sense which the mother Church hath and doth hold whose right it is to iudge of the true sense and interpretation of the Scripture neither will I euer admit it or expound it but according to the ioynt consent of the fathers 3 I professe that there be seauen Sacraments truely and properly of the new Law 7 Sacraments ordained by our Lord Iesus necessarie for the saluation of mankind Baptisme Confirmation the Eucharist Penance Extream vnction Orders Matrimony I admit the receiued and approoued rites of the Catholicke Church Originall sin and iustification 4 I admit and hold all and euery those points concerning originall sinne and iustification which were determined in the holy Councell of Trent The Masse 5 I professe that there is offered vp in the Masse vnto God a true proper propitiatorie sacrifice for the quicke and the dead Transsubstantiation 6 I beleeue that in the holy Eucharist the body and blood of Christ is truely and really and substantially and that there is made a change of the whole substance of bread into his body and of the whole substance of wine into his blood which change or conuersion the Catholicke Church calleth transsubstantiation I confesse also that vnder one kinde onely whole Christ is receiued and a true sacrament Purgatorie 7 I constantly hold that there is a purgatorie and that the soules there deteined are holpe with the praiers of the faithfull Adoration of Saints 8 I hold that the Saints raigning with Christ are to be worshipped and to be called vpon and that they offer vp their prayers to God for vs and that their reliques are to be worshipped The worshipping of Images 9 I firmely hold that the Images of Christ and the euer blessed Virgin and of other Saintes are to bee had and to be adored with due worshippe Indulgences 10 That the power of indulgences was left by Christ and that the vse of them is very auaileable for saluation The supremacie of the Pope 11 I acknowledge the Catholicke and Apostolicke Romaine Church to be the mother and mistris of all Churches and I vowe and sweare true obedience to the Byshoppe of Rome the successour of blessed Peter the Prince of the Apostles and the Vicar of Iesus Christ The authority of the Councell of Trent 12 I vndoubtedly likewise receiue all other thinges defined and determined by the holy Canons and Occumenicall Councells chiefly of the holy Councell of Trent and I reiect and accurse all things contrarie and all heresies reiected by the Church This true Catholicke faith without which none can § 130 be saued at this present I voluntarily professe I will procure as farre as lyeth in me to be wholy vncorruptly and constantly kept and taught by Gods assistance to my liues end I the same William promise vow and sweare so help me God and these his holy Euangelist And I stand in feare of that which the most holy Father added It shall not bee lawfull for any man to infringe this authoritie of our ordination inhibition
no errors The Pope of Rome doth erre by the Papists iudgement Peter de Aliaco a Cardinall Adrianus Pope The three Legates of the Trent councel I wonder that Peter de Aliaco a very learned Cardinall granted that there were many things not only in manners but in faith had neede of reformation Why did Adrian the sixt ill touching the fountaine it selfe say that all mischiefe came from the cheife Byshoppe into the whole Church and promised reformation of all things by his Legate Cheregatus to the Germaines I wonder also why the three Legates in the Councell of Trent did apply that Prophesie of Ieremy to themselues and to the popish people This people haue committed two great euills They haue forsaken mee saith the Lord the fountaine of liuing water and haue digged to themselues cisternes that can hold no water And in the Councell it selfe Cornelius the Byshoppe of Bitont did openly acknowledge the Apostasie of the Church of Rome in the chiefe heades both of doctrine and life I would to God saith he that they had not falne wholy from religion to superstition from faith to infidelitie from Christ to Antichrist from God to Epicurisme saying out of a wicked heart and with an impure mouth There is no God Neither did any Shepheard or Pope care for these things For all of them sought their owne and not one of them all sought for those things that belong to Iesus Christ § 137 I wonder also why after that Councell many not onely priuate Doctours did plucke in peeces the decrees of that Councell as Sixtus Senensis Canus The councell of Trent reiected by their owne side Lindanus the Byshoppe Catharinus Pighius Ouander Ferus and many more but Pope Pius himselfe confest that the worshippe of the Church of Rome had much swarued by continuance of time from the ancient institution Therefore these reuerend Doctours Cardinalls and holy Byshoppes doe giue mee both cause and leaue greatly to doubt Neither doe I desire only that the chiefe Articles of immediate Reuelation be discust which I embrace with all faith and reuerence but these articles of the second sort which are supposed to be fetcht from the first and in truth doe altogether ouerthrow them For whereas by the aduice of Austen the simplicitie of beleeuing noâ— the quickenesse of vnderstanding is required not an humble desire of learning things necessarie but a curious desire to seeke after high mysteries is forbidden by him For the simplicitie of beleife Implicite faith blinde Idoll doth as well shut out brutish ignorance as presumptuous knowledge I can therefore no longer adore that blinde Idoll implicite faith whereby we are taught to receiue with all reuerence what the Church teacheth and to beleeue as the Church beleeueth though wee doe not well know what the Church beleeueth Bellarm de iustific lib. 1. cap. 7. Neither can I giue credit to Bellarmine saying that faith doth consist in the assent not in knowledge and may better be defined by ignorance then vnderstanding Whence our learned aduersaries do too truly conclude that as Cleargy poperie was before nothing else but a catechisme of treason so Laicke-popery was nothing else but meere idiotisme and as they worthily laugh at the fox-like craft of our Doctors so likewise the asse-headed ignorance of our schollers Such faith which the colliar had so commended by Staphilus A certaine colliar being at the poynt of death Apolâ—g Staphi pars 1. pag. 53. was tempted by the Diuell and demanded what faith he held the colliar answered I beleeue and die in the faith of the Church of Christ The Colliars faith And beeing againe demanded what was the faith of the Church answered as it § 138 were in a circle it is that faith that I holde and so the Diuell being vanquished by this answer fled away if we may beleeue Staphilus Therfore the faith of a Romish Catholike is the Colliars faith that is a circular faith I pray you Saturnine teach mee first before I giue my assent and write to that reuerend Bellarmine that hee will prouide that implicite faith which is nothing else but blinde and affected ignorance bee put out of the creede wherewith the grauity and wisdome of the Catholike religion is greatly defaced I haue learnt at last to distinguish between the fictions of mans braine and the doctrines of Christian faith the foundations wherof are not the opinions of men but the oracles of God and those which are committed to writing by the Prophets and Apostles by inspiration of God wherein all necessarie principles of faith and precepts of life are plentifully contained as I heare it affirmed by the fathers Let vs now come to the creed § 139 Wherein first I demand whether the supremacy of Peter with such things as depend thereon haue her foundation directly in the Scripture as the Cardinall writeth in Tortus For I hold no doctrin necessary to be beleeued vnlesse it bee founded on the Scripture as Pope Gregorie the first reacheth I am a bad Text-man and I reade the bookes of the Prophets and Apostles but seldome the reading whereof the Church hath forbidden to vs lay-men fearing lest by reading we should fall into heresies But I am both ashamed and repent of that my ignorance and negligence Yet I leaue not off to reuerence the fathers both olde and new whose sonne I professe my felfe to bee and not their seruant I account them for schollers in the Scripture not masters witnesses and interpreters thereof not arbitrators and iudges Neither am I so much mooued with their names as with their reasons I seeke not then what they bring out of themselues but what they prooue out of the Scripture in the cause of faith I will henceforth admit of no definition of the Church vnlesse it relie vpon a manifest testimonie of holy Scripture or at the least a necessarie conclusion drawen from thence I will not haue the matter ordered by bare authority but let thing with thing cause with cause and reason striue with reason neither am I led with the number of arguments but with the waight * Number doth oppresse the memory waight doth beget knowledge Neither am I delighted with circumstances I desire breuity And I will preferre one sound argument shortly and directly concluded out of the Scripture before all the quirkes of men brought for pompe and shew Neither will I suffer any of you to leape from this one poynt to another before I see this bee fully sifted and discussed among you Buckle vp your selfe therefore Saturnine to set the onset and confirme the supremacy of Peter and the succession of the Pope and that power which you say is annext to the supremacie out of the holy Scripture but that you may not swarue from the state of the question remember that you are to prooue the primacy not of order and distinction which is granted to Peter but the primacy of power and iurisdiction which is denied For
Pauls authoritie one of them that S. Peter without doubt was a Catholike but Paul if he be not warily expounded seemes to smell of heresie Thother that places out of Paul by the testimonie of Peter were hard to be vnderstood and had need of a Romish Commentarie Peter I said made mention of the hardnes but not of the commentarie In whose Epistle say they whatsoeuer soundeth against the Romane faith therein wee do not attaine to the true sense that which the Rhemists haue obserued Rhem testam argument epist in gene For he in the first chapter say the Fryers did commend the faith of the Church of Rome whereto Cyprian denieth that vnfaithfulnes can haue accesse But in the 11. chapter I say Epist 50. he warned the same Church that if it departed from the bountifulnesse of God it should take heed lest as the Church of Israel was cut off so shee were not cut off also It may therefore be cut off be it spoken by Cyprians leaue For it is in act cut off when it is fallen from that foundation which is placed in the only mercy of Christ apprehended by faith That faith therefore of the Church which Paul the Apostle so much commended and taught by his writings is one and the faith of this Church which Paul the Pope hath left so deformed with his vnwritten traditions is another And yet shee glorieth much as I said that Paul is hir founder I had rather they would vse him as an author But she will neuer doe it Shee maketh more accompt of Pauls Bulls than Paules Epistles which the ancient Fathers did rightly tearme the key of the Scripture Which most of the popish sort do so feare that they cannot reconcile Paul and S. Iames together but oppose them one against thother The reconciling of Paul and James as if Iames the Apostle had concluded that a man is iustified by his workes before God not with faith alone against the Apostle Paul when as Paul doth not vnderstand the same faith and the same iustification which Iames doth For hee requireth faith placed in the heart this reiecteth faith bragged on in the tongue Hee requireth a liuely faith this reiecteth a dead faith Hee doth enforce a heauenly faith which layeth hold on the promise this casteth of a diuelish faith which doth onely acknowledge Christs historie without application hee doth commend and extoll fruitfull faith working by loue this doth rightly condemne a barraine faith voide of the duty of holinesse he doth set forth the iustification before God which Aquinas calleth the righteousnes of imputation Iames the iustification before men whom the same Aquinas calleth the righteousnesse of declaration Moses from whom either Apostle drew his testimonie doth expound ech and doth take vp the controuersie begun by the Aduersarie The imputation of righteousnesse whereof Moses maketh mention Gen 15.6 went thirty yeares before that worke for which they dreame that Abraham was iustified before God Which circumstance of time Paul most earnestly weighing concludeth that faith was imputed to Abraham to obtaine righteousnesse before God 15 yeares as Moses noteth before hee begat Isaac and other 15 yeares at the least before he would haue sacrificed him They know not well how to loose themselues out of this indissoluble knot whosoeuer thinke that righteousnes was imputed to Abraham before God because he killed his sonne who was not as yet borne when as the Holy Ghost doth pronounce him to be righteous which S. Iames himselfe v 23 seemeth to vnderstand as Oecumenius gathereth out of the place that Abraham was the image of iustification which is wrought by faith alone when it was imputed to him for righteousnesse ver 23. ver 21. that he beleeued and of that iustification also which is by workes when hee would haue offred his sonne Isaac vpon the Altar Therefore faith did make perfect the person of Abraham and the worke did iustifie the faith and declare ech to be perfect Is this a fight is this an opposition especially betweene two holy Apostles who writ their Epistles with the instinct of the same spirit But no one thing doth more neerly gaule the Synagogue then that Paul the Apostle by the direction of the spirit writ the commentarie of the mysterie Apoc 9. 2 Thess 2. 1 Tim 4.1 which S. Iohn afterward set forth of that great Antichrist whom hee maketh to be the falling starre i. an apostata from the faith or rather the prince of the apostacie as Paul expounds it Iohn calls him the Angell of the bottomlesse pit the key-keeper of hell the beast arising out of the earth and counterfeyting the lambe with two hornes and in his voyce resembling the Dragon Therefore in shew the Vicar of Christ in deed his aduersarie in ambition aboue Kings Gods emulus as Paul explaines it Iohn in order the 7. King of the Romane state Apoc 13. the reviued image of the former beast to be after reuealed within the Empire decayed as Paul doth interpret it Iohn sitting in the common place Lord of the seauen hill'd Citie in the speciall place in the temple of God A description of the Pope that is in the Church of God as Paul doth expound it for Kings thrones are called Bishops seates Therfore he is in office a Bishop in name Romane or Latine in his disposition a great hypocrite and a notable dissembler by his cunning an inchanter and bewitcher of soules by his worship an Idolater by his malitious practise a murtherer giuen ouer to sinne sold ouer to destruction as both of them define Water is no liker water than Antichrist to the Pope But S. Paul being not therewith content defineth Antichristianitie to be not iniquitie but the mysterie of iniquitie And doth after diuide it into three parts 1. Curious speculations 2. Absurd superstitions 3. Iewish ceremonies whereof it is wholy compounded which who so holdeth doth not hold the head as the Apostle speaketh I beseech thee Christian Reader tell me what is more like than old and new Antichristianitie What is become of them who deny that Poperie hath his beginning from the antient heresies which being of the same age with the Apostolike truth in many things as Tertullian saith was wounded with the Apostolike style as shall be made manifest in the discourse following I do therfore more disdaine than admire that the Apostle Paul doth so exceedingly displease the Romane synagogue who did foreshew that Poperie should be patcht together of Paganisme Idiotisme and Iudaisme A little Glasse of Christ and Christianitie BVt I purposing to set out all the force and nature of Antichrist and Antichristianitie in latine I thought good to set before it a liuely and short forme of Christ and Christianitie which the Apostle defineth to be the mysterie of godlines that the truth of the Gospell being brought into light out of the labyrinth as it were of discoursing might put to flight with her authoritie and countenance
I heare of some I hope they bee but a few false brethren like to Ianus are wont to bee though lightly bitten and reprehended Who if they be not ours they might doe very well if they would more open themselues if they be ours as I rather desire let them fauour our holy labours vnlesse they desire to heare of some writer of ours which Lelius a certaine criticall reprehender heard out of Martiall When Lelius carpeth mine and keepeth in his verse Or let him hold his prate or else his owne rehearse For it is both greeuous and vnseemly that their writings should be closly bit with a Theonine tooth by false brethren whose throates are first assailed with a leonine crueltie by open enemies There is almost none of our writers who haue not written that the Pope is Antichrist But there be certaine men among vs very moderate forsooth and politicke who would not haue the Aduersarie so angered and stirred vp with so sharpe a conclusion and that thereby all hope of composition and peace betweene the parties should bee cut off betweene whom they thinke to bee a great difference of wordes but little or none at all of things that God is alike deare to each Church and that the liturgie of each is alike accepted of God that saluation is in both when each doth rest vpon Christ the foundation that a Papist may although halting come to heauen and that the hatred of Papists is not so great as we make it and that it is not conceiued by their owne accord but that it is encensed by such bitter disputations and that the quarrell had been ended if certaine hot spirited Theologians had not encreased the controuersie These luke-warme Christians that seeme to bee of no side and of both sides seeme to dispute soberly and politickly But your religious wisedome Christian Reader doth better vnderstand that the Romane Synagogue is full of idolatrie and that it doth therefore hate God and by Moses iudgement is againe hatefull to God neither was Caine prouoked with any iniurie of Abels but by his owne malice and hatred of godlines And though both of them were wont to sacrifice to God in Adames house yet Caines sacrifice was reiected Abels accepted and the worke pleased God for the person not the person for the worke that which Saint Gregorie gathereth out of Moses because the person was first made righteous by faith as the Apostle taught Heb. 11. and that therefore there is no lesse difference of worship and faith betweene a Protestant and a Papist then was betweene Caine and Abell And that the Synagogues anger against our Church is as implacable as Caines against Abell and Ismaels against Isaac and that before it was stirred vp with the blast of contention it was moued with hatred of the promise And as the hatred of Ismael against the promise which he derided being couered with a visard of circumcision brake out against the sonne of the promise so the hidden and secret hatred of the Synagogue of Rome against the holy scriptures the tables of the promise as I said being couered with a certaine shew of voluntarie religion did greiuously breake and burne out against our Church the heire of the promise so that Agar doth not leaue off to persecute Sara againe the Haidmayde her Mistris in the house of Abraham And when it can bee proued that Caines sacrifice was as well accepted of God as Abels then I will grant that the Papists Masse be as acceptable to God as the Liturgie of the Protestants and when it can be euicted that Christ alone apprehended by faith without our workes is not the foundation of the church I wil grant that the same is the foūdation of both Churches Lastly when it shall appeare that Ismael the sonne of the handmaide borne by the power of nature is coheyre of the house of Abraham with Isaac the sonne of the free woman borne by the force of the promise then I will grant that an obstinate Papist may come halting to heauen In the meane time I will warne these luke-warme and halting Protestant that they will giue sentence in Gods matters according to the certaine truth of God not out of their prevaricating charitie and that there be no middle counsell to be taken neither let them trust the Pope being more ioyntly and easily intreated by them will be the more easie and gentle to them Whom we by short conclusions out of holy Paul and Iohn excellently expounded by notable worthies of our Church although a little more bitterly and roughly then seemeth good to some we shew to be Antichrist I confesse that this is a weighty and darke prophecie whose importance doth reiect the vanitie of tales whose obscuritie requireth more cleare light of interpretation So it falleth out sometime that the exposition is larger the conclusion shorter For a short exposition and a long conclusion are faultie alike when hard and controuersies of importance are handled For a short exposition wants light and a long conclusion wants sharpenesse of wit The Aduersarie doth offend in both while hee is busied in the interpretation of the prophecie for it doth lessen things of weight neither doth it make plaine matters obscure For hee doth depresse the excellencie of the prophecy by stuffing it vp with the vanitie of many fables and being satisfied with vncertaine coniectures of Fathers and with their naked names hath not driuen away the obscuritie So it falleth out that from strange and vnkinde expositions of the prophecie they gather weake and idle conclusions In the vnfoulding of this mysterie the holy fathers haue stood vs in good steed and more had if they had beene Prophets But whenas they Daniel being the Authour doe teach that the vnderstanding of the prophesie is to be taken from the performance of it and grant that truth is the daughter of time we that are fallen vpon the endes of times conferring all the parts of the prophecie betweene themselues with great study and reuerence and bringing light to the text out of the context and to the context out of the euent because Christ hath opened the booke that was sealed vp nor called it an a A thing sealed hidden apocrypse but an b A thing opened and reuealed apocalypse we do from thence more confidently drawe a conclusion not as an Article of faith but as asure demonstration of the doctrine of Christ Although the popish Synagogue which without any testimonie of Scripture makes this the thirteenth Article of their faith I beleeue that the Pope is the Vicar of Christ may iustly pardon the reformed Church if being taught by so many testimonies of Scripture it make this to be an Article of their faith I beleeue that the Pope is Antichrist Now I did foresee that when I made a looking glasse for Paul the 5. it would come to passe that the Iesuites who do so often traduce the King of great Britaine with their slanderous and infamous libels
Church At the last he calleth Luther that falling starre That falling starre not Luther and the Lutheranes Heretikes and the Protestants Locusts whose armie he brought out of the bottomelesse pit when hee fell Of that anone now I demand how an abiect silly Fryer as they call him out of his cloyster that examineth all things by Scriptures can bee that starre falling from heauen not that great Lucifer much lesse that little Luther can be called the falling starre but some great Byshop as loftie as the starres Lucifers mate who a good while since hath forsaken heauenly doctrin and holy life and hath betaken himselfe to earthly businesses and wicked manners that is hath fallen from heauen to earth For then are Byshops said to stand in heauen What the fall of a star meaneth when they performe their duties and then fall to the earth when forsaking holy life and doctrin they seeke after worldly matters But this doth not agree with the Pope onely for many other starres hauing beene pulled downe by the Dragons taile are falne to the earth The Popes key and the effects of it True But none besides the Pope is of that power as holy Iohn ascribes vnto him For the key of the bottomlesse pit was giuen to this falling starre This great Byshoppe while he shined as a starre in the Church that is in heauen he vsed the key of heauen committed to him as he ought but after he fell from heauen he tooke to himselfe the key of the bottomlesse pit Therefore Antichrist the Angell of the bottomlesse pit is the key keeper of hell Apoc. 9.1 1. Tim. 4.1.3 Whereof blessed Paul giueth a double reason One that by that his key hee brought into the Church the doctrine of Diuells in forbidding meates and marriages Another that lifting vp himselfe aboue all that is called god that is aboue Kings and Emperours hee doth shut them out of their kingdomes and thereby hath brought the darkenesse of the bottomlesse pit into the common wealth Is not this the liuely image of the Pope who assoone as he left of to be a starre by his fall began afterward to be a foolish fire Ignis satuus Whose key is now no longer the key of heauen but of hell For his hatred to that doctrine and gouernment that proceede from God is a most certaine brand of Antichrist Of the key I shall speake more hereafter in the Creede CHAP. VI. Wherein Antichrist is proued an Apostata and vniuersall Bishop WHom Saint Iohn tearmeth a falling starre Saint Paul tearmeth an Apostata from the faith and makes him a Captaine not of a particular but an vniuersall Apostasie whom he so sets downe with his proper markes that he seemeth to haue pointed his finger at the Church of Rome to whom euery way they doe agree She forbiddeth marriages and meates not in open blasphemie as some old Heretickes did but in hidden hypocrisie as the forenamed Apostataes as the Apostle noteth Whence I inferre thus The head of the vniuersall and generall Apostasie is Antichrist The Pope is the head of the vniuersall and generall Apostasie Therefore the Pope is Antichrist Therefore Antichrist is not a Iew or head of the Iewes who cannot be said to haue departed from Christ before they came to him but an Apostaticall Christian Lib. 4. Epist 32.34.38 And as it is obserued by Gregorie the great A Bishoppe beleigerd with an armie of Priests not a Bishop onely but an vniuersall Bishop Not that hee alone for that cause did depose all other Bishops but that he aduanc'd himselfe before all others Whence againe I argue thus An Apostaticall Christian an vniuersall Bishop is Antichrist The Pope is an Apostaticall Christian and an vniuersall Bishoppe The Pope therefore is Antichrist And that title of vniuersall Bishop Pope Gregorie calleth wicked prophane sacrilegious Whereunto to consent is nothing else saith he but to lose the Faith As hee writ to Anianus and thereby to aduance himselfe in honour aboue the Empire as he writ to Mauritius which whosoeuer doth as Iohn Bishop of Constantinople did already and Ciricius did afterward he doth pronounce him confidently to be the follower of Lucifer and the fore-runner of Antichrist The Pope first vniuersall Bishop Pope Gregory was a true Prophet alas too too true a Prophet for within fiue yeers after that King of pride whom he foretolde to be so neere at hand with his army of priests did vsurpe that chaire from whence Gregory did deliuer that Oracle and hath held it now aboue 1000. yeeres being first called the vniuersall Bishop Then vniuersall Prince because he hath the iurisdiction ouer all Bishops As first Boniface that falling starre After that vniuersall Prince created out of himselfe because he had the soueraignty ouer all Kings and Emperours as Gregorie the seuenth So that the Bishop of Rome is by a Bishop of Rome prophetically concluded to bee for his treason Lucifer Lastly Lucifer and Antichrist for the losse of his faith Antichrist But the Bishop as themselues affirme cannot erre in his definitiue sentence for hee hath the Spirit assistant and tied to the Chaire The Bishop therefore is Antichrist for that I may cast vp all into a short summe Antichrist is a falling starre a degenerating shepheard a domineering Bishop CHAP. VII Antichrist within the Church in stead of God and how he lifts vp himselfe against God DOe you not behold your selfe in this Looking-glasse Paul the fift suffer not your selfe to bee deceiued by those men who imagine Antichrist to be an outward aduersarie whom the Apostle doth make an homebred stubborne Traytor for as he doth abuse the name of a King against a King so he doth oppugn Christ in the name of Christ Whom therefore Paul doth place within the Church not without it and sitting not in a bodily gesture but in a spirituall gouernement Besides that Theod. in 2. Thess 2. the thrones of Kings are called the seats of Bishops And he sitteth not in a materiall Temple for Temple is not any where so taken in the new Testament as Bellarmine confesseth therefore in the spirituall Church for the which the Temple of God is alwaies taken as the Fathers expound it Chrysostomus Oecumenius Hieronimus ad Algasium quae 11. who all affirm he shall sit in the Church not in the Temple of Ierusalem Antichrist hee sitteth in the Temple of God not in the Temple which hee shall re-edifie in Ierusalem as is imagined for that should not bee called the Temple of God but of the Diuell Againe he is said to sit against the Temple as Augustine did well translate it out of Greeke as if he were the Temple of God that is the Church Wherein the wretched man bearing rule doth not thinke himselfe to bee God much lesse God alone as Bellarmine dreameth Antichrist is not such a foole but in stead of God for he sitteth as God and taketh vpon him as he were God
not Christ but for Christ a Substitute to his Person and an Opposite to his Glory for in many things hee makes himselfe equall to Christ The Pope wherein he makes himself equall to Christ carrying himselfe like God forgiuing sinnes redeeming soules making new articles of the faith the Iudge of all men himselfe to be iudged by no man That although hee call not himselfe God yet he makes a shew as if he were God as the Apostle teacheth Is not this the liuely picture of the Pope Doth it not present him vnto vs almost palpable Not so saith Bellarmine For Antichrist doth thinke himselfe to be God alone wherein he doth not agree with himselfe Bellarmines Antichrist is the Messias of the Iewes who doth brag that he is sent from God He doth not therefore bragge that he is God alone for God that doth send is one and God that is sent is another Againe he saith The Pope doth not sit as God but as a Bishop but yet as he that hath all the power of God both in heauen and in earth as he saith in another place He sitteth therefore at the least as a Bishop deified But he doth not call himselfe Christ But hee taketh to him if not the name yet the power of Christ This therefore I inferre Who sitteth as God in the Church and makes a shew as if he were God the same is Antichrist The Pope hath done and doth this The Pope therefore is Antichrist How the Pope lifteth vp himselfe against God For doe not thinke Paul the fift that Antichrist is so foolish to lift vp himselfe aboue God or doth swell with greater pride then doth befit a miserable mortall man He is sayd therefore Not to lift vp himselfe against euery God true and false as Bellarmine supposeth Wherin he doth contradict himselfe For a Magician doth not lift vp himselfe aboue all that is God For he doth not lift vp himselfe aboue the Diuell who is the God of this world Bellar. de Pont. lib. 3. cap. 14. But Antichrist is a Magician as Bellarmine saith Therefore Antichrist doth not lift vp himselfe aboue all that is God as the Cardinall saith But hee doth lift vp himselfe aboue all that is called God as the Apostle teacheth To whom not the essence of God The name of God to whō imputed in the Scripture but the name of God is attributed for the name of God in the Scripture is giuen to the Angels in heauen and the Princes on the earth for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not only signifie Maiesticall or Maiesty but it is also any thing which is worshipped as God or wherein God is worshipped And therefore the images alters among the Heathens were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now when as the Pope beareth rule ouer the Angels in heauen and ouer the Princes in the earth and ouer holy things in the Church it cannot be but hee needes must be Antichrist CHAP. VIII How Antichrist doth denie Christ NEither suffer your selfe Pope Paul the fift to be deluded by them who shal tell you that Christ is not openly expressely and directly denied by Antichrist so properly called For Antichrist was not so blockish that hee would openly and directly denie Christ by whose name and profession hee saw so much profit and honour to come vnto him you may bee sure hee was not so madde It was therefore requisite that he might both satisfie his owne hatred and serue his owne turne he should denie Christ secretly by consequent indirectly for could Antichrist possibly haue held his gouernment so manie yeeres in the Church if he had openly denied Christ certainely hee could neuer haue held it for all those Christians ouer whom he gouerned would either haue hist him out for a foole or burnt him vp for a blasphemour It was not therefore for Antichrists profit to deny Christ after this manner Adde moreouer that hee is described by the Apostle to be a cunning and a crafty companion and that he shall come with all deceit of iniustice Popery is a mystery of Iniquity Besides all his religion is not called iniquitie but the mystery of iniquity And the glosse hath noted that the mysticall impiety of Antichrist shall bee cloakt ouer with the name of piety It had beene therefore very absurd to haue denied Christ plainely openly and expressely for that did no whit agree either with the good of his kingdome or the humour of Antichrist or the mystery of Iniquity It followeth therefore that he denied Christ secretly implicitly and indirectly and retaining the name of Christ did abolish his faith and doctrine But that belongeth to petty Antichrists to denie Christ secretly and indirectly but to that great Antichrist directly and openly wherevpon his comming is called a Reuelation as Bellarmine doth sophistically gather By which words is expressed not the manner of the deniall of Christ but the manner of vsurping his kingdome For if you consider the manner of doctrine the apostacie of the great Antichrist is called mysticall and so is his opposition as of all the rest but that their apostacie from Christ ought to be counted particular his vniuersall And therefore for all Bellarmines words that Antichrist doth denie Christ secretly and indirectly as the Pope who though hee doth in word expresly and directly confesse Christ to be God and man yet he doth closely and indirectly denie hoth Christs Diuinitie and his Humanitie CHAP. IX The Pope taketh away the properties of ech nature in Christ. FOR hee taketh away the properties of ech Nature The Godhead is infinite the Humanitie finite The Pope doth set out the Deitie of the Father in pictures and images and doth imagine the humanitie of Christ to be present in many places at once and therefore doth forge a finite Diuinitie and an infinite Humanitie He doth confesse directly in word that Christ is iust and mercifull but in deed doth indirectly denie both for perfect iustice doth not admit imperfect satisfaction that is humane and perfect mercy doth not grant imperfect pardon it doth not remit the fault and retayne the punishment The Pope doth teach that imperfect satisfaction and pardon is performed by Christ to the faithfull he doth therefore denie vnto Christ perfect iustice and mercy and so makes Christ a plaine I doll CHAP. X. The Pope denieth the three offices of Christ HE doth in word acknowledge the three offices of Christ but indirectly denieth them his Prophecie his Priesthood and his Kingdome His prophesie First his Prophecie while hee telleth vs that the Canonicall Scriptures wherein the voice of our Prophet in all things necessarie to saluation is fully conteyned whether they be principles of faith or precepts of life to be very imperfect And therefore doth account his Decretall Epistles among the Canonicall Scriptures Distinc 9. Sic omnes Fie vpon such blasphemie and intolerable pride Herein he is a very Iew in that he abrogateth
vpon the stage with his head couered for the greatnes of his griefe So these good fellowes bring vpon the stage their pleasant Antichrist hoodwinkt for the greatnesse of his ioy that the world may not see how he fleeres at them The number of the Locusts 5. The multitude and number of Locusts is answerable to the number and power of the Monkes old and new chiefly the Iesuites whose swarmes do adde greater force to doe mischiefe 6. Power is giuen to these Scorpions ouer the earth and charge giuen them that they hurt not the grasse of the earth Apoc 9. v. 4. nor any greene herbe nor any tree but men onely as it followeth in S. Iohn These Locusts then are reasonable creatures yet such as abuse their reason to the destruction of men for they doe not trample vpon herbes and trees but doe annoy the bodies and soules of men whom they strike with their stings infect with their poyson and kill with a lingring death The practise of Iesuites These Iesuites whom these Locusts and Scorpions doe liuely represent doe choke vp with their poyson and extinguish the fidelitie of subiects toward their Prince and the faith of Christians toward God The fidelitie of subiects when they teach they are released from the Oath of Allegeance giuen to their Princes whom the Pope doth denounce excommunicated The Popes vsurped power ouer Princes who can driue out of his Kingdome and depriue of his gouernment Kings Catholike in the faith but wicked as goates hereticall Kings as wolues as Bellarmine writeth neither only open but secret Heretikes as Symanchaâ— nor those onely but their sonnes and followers are vtterly to be rooted out as Creswell agreeth with Symancha by any meanes whatsoeuer as Saunders either by open force 2 King 33. as Iesabel by Iehu or by craft as Holophernes by Iudith as Rainoldus Bourchier write The cruell practise of Papists against Princes or by knife dagger wherby Henry the 3. Henry the 4 were most basely murthered either of them being a Catholike as they terme them only because they fauored hertikes that before sentence was denounced against them or els by a dag poyson The gunpowder treason from Iesuites by which means Queen Elizabeth was often assaulted as Walpoole and Comensus perswaded or else with gunne-powder wherewith King Iames with all the Kings Progeny and Nobilitie and the whole Kingdome of Britaine should haue been vtterly ouerthrowen by certaine wicked English conspirators as Garnet the Prouinciall of the Iesuites in England thought meete whereby it is manifest that the Cheargy-popery whereof Iesuitisme is the braine is nothing else but a catechisme of treason Must we not heere needes acknowledge the poyson of Locusts and Scorpions whereby the Allegeance of subiects towards their Princes is shaken off Let vs looke after another kinde of poyson if you please The Papists poyson the faith of Christians whereby the soules of simple people are infected to choake vp the faith of Christians which they teach must be secret and implicite that the Lay-people must beleeue as the Church beleeueth when as they know not neither what themselues or the Church beleeueth as Bellarmine saith that faith is not placed in the vnderstanding but in â—he assent i. The Colliars faith or that circular faith which Staphilus so much commendeth the master of the sentences proueth out of the first of Iob ver 4. While the oxen were at plow the asses fed neere them Many Mast sent lib. 3 distinct 25. saith he beleeue such things they know not and they haue their faith couered as in a mystery He liketh the greater and Doctors to Oxen Lombards foolish interpretation the lesse and the simpler to Asses who in their humility adhering to the greater beleeue in a mysterie an asse-headed interpretation by the masters leaue 8. Whereby it appeares that Laike-popery is nothing else but meere foolery Vers 4. Whom the Loâ—usts doe hurt 9. Neither doe these Locusts and Scorpions hurt all men but those onely which haue not Gods marke in their fore-head their mindes they goe about to intoxicate with their poyson As S. Iohn saith that the great heapes of vnbeleeuers are onely the prey of the Locusts Vers 5. Locusts kill not but afflict men 10. It is giuen to the Locusts and Scorpions not to kill men but to afflict them for fiue monthes but how can that be true say some when as the Iesuites be notable Cut-throates I answer that S. Iohn in this verse speaketh of the slaughter of soules which these destroying Locusts doe chiefely deuoure Wherein they doe not kill men at a blow but by afflicting them by little and little as they which bee stung of Scorpions consume away by lingring greefe This is S. Iohns sense when he saith that the Scorpions doe not kill men but torment them For when these Antichristian scorpions doe infuse and conuay the poyson into men what gnawing and pritching doe they leaue behinde them how doe they vexe mens consciences how doe they inwardly bite and sting men feele themselues to bee miserable sinners and after death stand in horrour of iudgement They heare little of the true fire of hell much of the false fire of Purgatorie from the Monkes they feele the bitternesse of sinne they feele not the sweetnesse of the remedy They neuer heare of Christ They giue eare to the monks preaching historically of the crosse of the death and resurrection of Christ but of the vertue of the crosse of the benefit of his death of the efficacy of his resurrection the force and power whereof doth consist in speciall application not one word The Papists enemies to certainty of saluation Yea rather there Doctors cry out that it is presumption and arrogancy if the wounded conscience of a penitent sinner be certainely perswaded by faith that Christ Iesus is his Sauiour or that he may confidently trust he is in the estate of grace vnlesse an Angell doe specially reueale it vnto him as though to a faithfull mans spirit the spirit of Christ the God of the Angels doth not giue a more inward more certaine and a more excellent testimony that he is the sonne of God the heire of heauen and fellow-heire with Christ so that the faithfull man feeleth that hee is gouerned by the spirit of Christ from whom hee receiued that testimony and doth ioyne the grace of that gouernment with the grace of that comfort Neither of this do those locusts feele or teach who while they depriue their auditours of the holy confidence in Gods mercy The manner how Papists torment mens conscience nor suffer them to serue God with a sun-like but a seruile spirit and therefore not with the reioycing of the spirit nor suffer them to enioy peace of conscience in the middest of their afflictions and send sinners trembling for feare to the treasure of the Church as popish indulgences and humane satisfactions and
say that the Oath of obedience cannot be kept their faith and saluation reserued which Christ the Authour of faith and saluation did both command and performe I am not ignorant that both the Pope and Bellarmine doe take it for proued and granted that the King is an Hereticke But if the King might argue both cases with them face to face before learned and equall iudges I durst paune my life that the King in their presence would conuince more strongly and more peremptorily that the Pope were Antichrist then that the Pope with the helpe of his Champion should proue the King to be an Heritike But grant to them for a time that which they miserably begge would Christ thinke good that faithfull obedience should be giuen to an Infidell i. to an Emperour that was altogether a stranger from the faith and would he iudge the same to be denied to an Hereticke i. to a King deceiued in the faith hee would not hee would not If Christ then did right then doth this supposed Vicare of Christ amisse And if fealty and obedience cannot be performed to a King as you thinke with reseruation of the Catholike faith why did Saint Peter when he had set downe Catholike faith in the 1. Chap command obedience due to the King in the 2. Chapter 1. Pet. 2.13 Bee subiect to the King as to the most eminent euen to Nero that monster of men wherein he taught that the impietie of the person ordained of God to gouern ought not to ouer throw the obedience of subiects nor the authoritie of the Prince If Peter speakes well then Peters successor speakes ill If Peter speake by the spirit of Christ then Peters successour speaketh by the spirit of Antichrist But Peter did binde all by a bond of a religious commandement both Clarkes and Laickes when he presentlie added 1. Pet. 2.17 feare God honour the King As if he had said they be cleane voide of Gods feare whosoeuer deny honour to the King And therefore Salomon Prouerbes 21. doth comprehend both duties vnder one word My sonne feare God and the King § 13 Here Saturnine But auncient Ignatius saith he in his Epistle to the Church of Smyrna speaketh after this manner Forged Ignatius brought in to crosse Salomon worship God next the Byshoppe and last of all the King This is a hard case Saturnine said Patriotta to make Ignatius Salomons corrector as if hee had forgotten his dutie toward the chiefe Priest Pro. 21. Salomon saith honor God and the King but I say honour God first the Byshop next and the King last Certainely true Ignatius would neuer haue spoken so saucily Salomon saith but I say and so preferre a Priest before a Prince But it is no hard matter for you to place the Byshop in the middle betwixt God and the King For you do nothing more willingly then make your Pope the controuler of all Kings and to that purpose bring in a counterfet and a bastardly Ignatius to patronize your ambition § 14 But Peter saith Saturnine calleth the Prince a humane creature True answered Patriotta in respect of his nature but in respect of his ordination he is of as heauenly a creation as a Priest For kings rule by God as priests preach by God From man they haue their nature from God their power For there is no power but from God as the Apostle teacheth As they are men they are immediately from their Parents as they are Princes from God Therefore a Magistrate is called a Minister and ordination of God Yea which is more Kings are called Gods They as Gods vicegerents vpon earth are vouchsafed the honour of Gods name Priests are called men of God Angels of God but kings are called Gods Therefore the King is not called a humane creature by Peter because he hath his beginning from man A double obedience due to kings actiue passiue in things lawfull vnlawfull but because the gouernment is administred by man and for man Be subiect to him saith Peter for the Lord the text hath it sometime as to the Lord i. as to Christs Vicare in his owne kingdome as Eleutherius Pope of Rome called King Lucius sometime in the Lord i. in all things lawfull although in things vnlawfull there is a certain kind of obedience due but an actiue obedience in things lawfull to do that which is commanded a passiue in things vnlawfull to suffer that which is inflicted But for the Lord saith Peter that Kings although they bee tyrants as then Nero was bearing the rule and image of God vpon earth though they bee Gods scourges yet they must be honoured with the fealtie and obedience of all for Gods sake As an heathen man could say Good Emperors are to be desired of vs but any are to be endured The Apostle addeth for the praise of the good and the punishment of the wicked Hence a certaine Master of the Presbyterie gathered a false a dangerous consequence cosen germane to yours A leude collection of a Schismaticke That because the king is a power ordained by God to the praise of the good and the punishment of the wicked if he gouerne to punish the good and praise the wicked that hee is not a power ordained by God and if hee bee not of God no more to be obeyed but to be resisted O wicked consequence vnknowne to Peter Paul who although they did see and feele the tyrannie and crueltie of the Lyon as Paul calles Nero that they thought not that the abuse of the power did take away the power it selfe but did lay necessitie of obedience vpon all Christians teaching that it would come to passe that if they did resist Nero they did resist God himselfe the Author and ordainer of so great power With what face therefore can the Pope deny that the Oath of Allegeance and obedience is to be kept with a Christian moderate King though an Hereticke as you thinke as a matter in it selfe vnlawfull and contrarie to faith and saluation whereas Peter commanded faithfull obedience as holy and performed it as dutie to Nero a Pagan and most bloody tyrant § 15 And if fealtie and obedience cannot be performed of Catholickes to an Hereticall King retaining their Catholicke religion why did Saint Paul whenas formerly he had in plentifull maner deliuered the Catholike religion of Rome in his 13. Chapter drawe from thence this precept Rom. 13.1 that euery soule should submit himselfe to the higher power he that speakes of all excludes none as Chrysostome obserues And Bernard to the Archbyshop of Sene euery soule is subiect therefore yours Who hath exempted you from this generall commandement The exception is a meere illusion Subiection requireth these three 1. Reuerence in their soules 2. Honour in their wordes 3. Obedience in their deedes And marke that he requireth subiection of the soule in a subiect Rom. 12. In the beginning of the 12. Chapter speaking of the obedience due to
this is as Bellarmine saith the cheife point of the Catholike faith and the cheife foundation of all religion Then Saturnine you doe too much restraine saith § 140 he Scripture alone hurtfull to the Romish Church Calander the Catholike faith if you keep it within the compasse of the Scripture For if you admit of Scripture onely it doth goe ill with the Catholike Church as Paul the fift did wisely answer the Venetian Ambassadour Yet I will doe as you will haue mee and I will comprehend these three together the primacy of Peter the succession and power of the Pope For the Church could not long stand without a Primate and Prince nor a Prince without a successour nor a successour without a supreme power I will giue you the keies Matth. 16. Whatsoeuer you binde or whatsoeuer you loose Feede my sheepe feede my Lambes Ioh. 21. What they meant by Popish keies What by feeding When Christ therefore promised the keies of the Kingdome of heauen to Peter alone that is to the Church hee promiseth the principallity When hee committed the power of binding and loosing to Peter alone hee committed the power of the keyes When hee gaue the charge to Peter alone to feede the whole flocke hee gaue him the principallity Therefore the primacy was there promised heere it was giuen For as he that receiues the keies of a city receiues the gouernment of the city so he that hath receiued the keyes of the Church hath receiued the gouernment of the Church And because to feede is the same which to gouerne and onely Peter is commanded to feede not some but all therefore onely Peter receiued the promise first in those words to gouerne the whole Church Wherein there is ioyned to the threefold confession of his loue What to loose bind a twofold confirmation of honour but those words of Christ ioyned to the primacie do prooue the power of excommunicating which was directed to Peter alone whatsoeuer you shall binde and whatsoeuer you shall loose And that twofold one of binding Kings the other of loosing subiects not onely from sinnes but from vowes lawes and oathes For in those words whose sinnes ye remit or the power of order is giuen to all Io. 20. limited ouer sinne But in those words whatsoeuer you shall binde and whatsoeuer you shall loose there is a power not limited and vniuersall giuen to Peter alone not restreyned to sinnes not to persons because he doth not say whomsoeuer but whatsoeuer Whence it followeth that Iames the King of Great Britanie doth either not belong at all to the sheepfold of Christ or that he is subiect to Peter and to his successor the Bishop of Rome the chiefe Pastor as well as the King of France and Spaine that as Kings catholike Kings very sawcily resembled to Rams and Wolues but euill as vnruly Rammes so hereticall Princes as rauening wolues are iustly to be driuen by him out of the fould depriued of all gouernment the Lords being bound that they rule no longer the subiects are loose that they obey no longer Here Patriot An egge saith he is not so like an § 141 egge as Saturnine to Bellarmine who as if he had distrusted that the primacie and principalitie of Peter could be proued out of one place huddled three together whereby he boasted in Tortus that it was most plainly founded Here before I weigh Saturnines argument I purpose to marke the popish Doctors wrangling among themselues by what Text of Scripture the supremacie of Peter is said to be giuen vnto him Cardinall Contarenus saith it was giuen Contar de Sacra Christ. leg l. 3. p. 203. Bellar de Rom. Pont. lib. 1. cap. 12. Câ—nterane and Bellarmine 2. Cardinals at a farre when Christ said to Peter I will giue thee the keyes Cardinall Bellarmine contradicteth Contarene and denieth that the keyes were then giuen but promised and that the gift of supremacie was graunted with the keyes Ioh 21. when Christ said to him Feed my sheepe as Saturnine obserued more subtilly than truly saith Contarene But there is no more promised to Peter Matt 16 than was giuen to all the Apostles Ioh 10 as Christ the best interpreter expounded that his whatsoeuer you shall loose spoken to Peter in those words whose sinnes soeuer you remit speaking to all his Apostle And taught that all this power of the keyes was both common to all the Apostles and directly restrained to sinnes as Ambrose Austin Theophylact and Bernard thought Therefore the supremacie of Peter was not founded vpon the keyes § 142 But marke I pray you the singular subtlety of Bellarmine in this place which Saturnine also vsed In the first words is vnderstood the vnlimited power of iurisdiction giuen to Peter alone not restreyned to sinnes or to persons because he saith not whomsoeuer but whatsoeuer in the second words the power of order limited ouer sinne communicated to all O admirable witty interpretation The Bishop therefore may set open any prison resolue any hard doubt for that generall word Whatsoeuer you shall loose doth plainly conteyne all these things vnder it The right interpretation of the keies Those things are knowne and common which the Fathers both old and new both the popish and our owne haue left written in their Commentaries of the proper and true sense of the keyes all of them did comprehend the right of the keyes and the power of binding and loosing within the remitting and reteyning of sinnes the key wherewith heauen is opened or shut they make to be the interpretation of the Law as Tertullian the knowledge of the Scriptures as Chrysostome appointed for sinnes not Seignories as Bernard giuen to all Ministers that they may binde and loose that they may reteyne or remit sinnes as out of Christ Ambrose Austin Theophylact that they might rightly out and diuide the word of wrath and the word of grace as St Paul that to the obstinate this to the penitent The key of knowledge doth direct the key of power .i. the force of doctrine the execution of discipline whereby the obstinate are shut out and the penitent are reconciled Two keyes of order and iurisdiction This is the force this is the vse of the keyes whereof the Fathers made two the one of Order the other of Iurisdiction The key of order the power of the Ministerie whereby they preach the Gospell administer the Sacraments and by the preaching of the Gospell remit or reteyne sinnes The key of Iurisdiction the power of restreyning sinners by excommunication that is by expelling the obstinate out of the Church and receiuing the penitent Concil Colo sub Herman Sacra confess Concil Colon. sub Adulpho as Gropper in his booke of the Councell of Coleyne vnder Hermannus and Adulphus who said that ech key did not belong to Peter alone but was transferd to all the Apostles and their successors And Cusanus long before that Nothing said he is spoken to
Analytickes and after he hath read them himselfe let him teach vs how two contradictions may be true at once Secular Princes haue no power immediately from Christ to beare rule ouer subiects And Secular Princes haue power immediatly from Christ to rule ouer subiects A manifest contradiction Hee speaketh in both places not of the title but of the power A manifest contradiction But how may Proteus fast be held Who changeth shape at euerie turne But the feeble old man doth often faile in memory and contradict himselfe as Father Paulus and Fulgentius and Marsilius and Chichester haue taken the man tardy and held him to it shrewdly As the mans great wit appeares in Tortus all whose disputation doth hang vpon the begging the thing in question § 174 For that he may proue that the Kings oath doth require not only ciuill obedience of Papists but deniall of the catholike faith Bellarmine continually beggeth the question he taketh the thing in controuersie for granted to wit that it is agreed among all Catholikes that the chiefe Bishop may rightly depose hereticall Kings and free their subiects from obedience And hee affirmeth that this is the catholike doctrine but proues it not which ought soundly to haue been proued if he would disproue the oath He addeth further that when the Kings of the earth haue admittance into the Church with this condition that they submit their scepters to Christ c. if they refuse it it is lawfull for him who hath the rule ouer all the Church vpon earth in Christ his steed to remoue them from the communion of the faithfull and to forbid their subiects to obey them How falsly the Bishop of Chichester teacheth now we obserue the mans wit we are very sorry that Bellarmine doth openly begge and that one thing twise which is in the very question For it is in question among vs whether the Pope haue the power to depose the Prince and to free his subiects from their obedience Here Bellarmine as if like Apollo Pythius he gaue his Oracle from his three-footed stoole pronounceth malapertly enough that hee who is Christ his Vicegerent in gouerning the Church hath that power For he saith that he hath power to excommunicate therefore to depose He proueth that excommunication is an inward thing fastned vpon the supremacie when hee should proue that this deposing is an inward thing belonging to excommunication otherwise hee disputeth not to the point So the state of the controuersie being either turned aside or altogether vnknowne he goeth from the point and fighteth with vs after the manner of the Andabata who fought blind-fold And because the power to depose Princes by excoÌ„munication § 175 is denied the Pope therfore he saith the power of excommunicating is wholy denyed It followeth not it is a fallacie from that which is in some sort to that which is simply and absolutely And when he had affirmed and repeated it againe and againe till a man might loath it that Christs Vicar had so great power he vsed no arguments or proofes to that purpose he desireth to be credited vpon his bare word without reason as if he were a Pope Bellarmine the Pope need not alledge reasoÌ„s of their actions who is not bound to bring arguments to refute the oath for then saith he he might be thought an vndiscreete Prince if he thought he might not forbid a wicked action except he added reasons to his inhibition and write a large treatise after the fashion of the Philosophers to that end They do very cunningly as they seeme excuse that vnreasonable creature who sets downe the articles of the catholike faith as the Mathematikes do their principles You must not therefore ô yee Kings in a matter of such importance as concerns your right so neerely looke for any reasons from Robert Bellarmine more than you expect from Paul the 5. He speaketh as a Prince not as a Philosopher He setteth out not arguments but edicts He disputes not but determines in the Popeâ— cause against the King and that against the opinion of infinite Papists both better learned and honester men than himselfe as appeareth in the answer of the Bishop of Chichester So that Bellarmine seemeth to many wise-men to haue attayned an opinion of learning rather than learning it selfe Foâ— in that whole dâ—sputation the begging sophisme of the thing in question The ground of Bellarmines argument is the begging of the questioÌ„ is the foundation of all Bellarmines answer so heauy headed and dull he seemes in Logick and so vnskilfull in Grammar as appeareth in that part wherein Saturâ—ine disputeth of the spirituall and temporall obedience Bellarmine the great learned man speakes false Latin and alleageth Bellarmines owne words out of Tortus luretur fidelitas Let fealtie saith he be sworne to the King but so ne abiuretur fidelitas that faith be not forsworne to Christ his Vicar § 176 He speaketh false Latin in disgrace of all Grammarians But that farre worse that hee thinketh so basely to the contempt of Kings and Emperors For we doe not so much blame his grammar as his diuinitie And we obserue this by the way he doth obiect incongruitie of speech to others when he himselfe is faultie in manifest barbarisme and calls other mens stiles dyrty when his owne is cast ouer with hell dust That which Robert Bellarmines mouth doth clearely shew the same doth Robert Saturnine who when hee had abased the power of secular Princes to aduance forsooth the power of that one spirituall Prince hath also so tyed the spirituall obedience of Christians to the will of one Bishop that by the pretence therof he may take from Princes at his pleasure the ciuill obedience of subiects God the obiect of spirituall obedience But as he erred in the originall of either power so he erreth in the obiect and end of either obedience We make the true obiect of spirituall obedience to be God himselfe the end Gods word hee makes a contrary obiect the Pope himselfe and the end the Popes will We make the true obiect of ciuill obedience Gods ordination of the ciuill Prince the end the spirituall obedience toward God therefore Paul saith we must obey him for conscience sake not for the busines sake that is enioyned by the Prince but for the authorities sake that is ordeyned by God Hee placeth the Bishop in Gods place enioyning spirituall obedience to vs for very conscience of those things that are enioyned and hee maketh ciuill obedience terminable at pleasure by the obseruation of good order and manners So that subiects obey the ciuill Magistrate not for conscience sake as Paul speaketh but for policies sake as Bellarmine speaketh and that Clergy men obey not for necssarie subiection but at voluntarie discretion and are held in Clergie exempted from obedience not by force of law but by force of reason as hee saith So to vs the obseruing the spirituall dutie is the direction and
with their decrees The popish levvd dealing Here the Popes side haue brought in so many voluntarie corruptions forgeries impostures wherewith they might foyste in false Canons and blot out true that they who haue dealt so deceitfully are rightly deemed to haue a bad cause Lastly wee brought into open view not only the doctrine and practise of Christ and Peter that the literall sense hath reproued this supremacie which the allegoricall sense of the Scripture did not proue and that literall sense is confirmed not only by the testimonie of the ancient Fathers and Doctors of our owne side but by the testimonie of the very Papists themselues So that this tower of Babylon being not only bereft of her rotten weake vpholders but being also thrust at by our strongest engines that is by the decrees of the Church and oracles of scripture must needs be shaken in peeces and fall to the groud Therefore the supremacie of Peter that in Bellarmines iudgement is a transcendent thing aboue all by the censure of the Scripture is nothing at all and the succession of the Pope is not from the institution of Christ as they say but from the fact of Peter and this fact is proued not by any certaine reuelation but by an vncertaine vision Behold why the primacie of Bellarmine in Tortus did vaunt that this article of the catholike faith had a sure ground in the Scriptures And now marke Calander to what passe all Bellarmines deuises are brought The deposing of a King hangeth on the excommunication of the Pope the power of excommunication is vnited to the supremacie the supremacie hath the beginning from a Primate but the Primate though hee be narrowly fought for yet cannot possibly be found in the text Where is then the supremacie where is the power of excommunicating Kings where is the right of deposing them Truly your Primate hath either a bad title or a bad Patron But the Patron is said to be very good therefore the title is very bad But the Papists will accept any thing at his hands as he hopeth with whom if hee preuaile in this cause it is more for the credulitie of the Readers than the wisdome of the Writer Then Regius The supremacie being ouer-turned that double power which is so annexed to the supremacie must needs be ouer-turned the spirituall and the temporall The spirituall whereby as a Bishop by excommunication hee thinks hee may driue from their kingdomes Kings that are in opposition whether Heretikes or Roman-Catholikes The temporall whether it be direct or indirect whereby hee may as the chiefe spirituall Prince take the Crowne from one and bestow it at his pleasure vpon another But of the temporall we shall see afterward Excōmunication the mother of rebellion Now let vs consider of the spirituall This great Sophister when the Pope of Rome purposed to shoot his venemous arrow at the head of the Prince he bent the Popes bowe with this double power as it were with a double stringe that if the temporall did faile the spirituall should hit him home Which if I should not accompt holy as the desire of gold is holy I should lye For this tricke of popish excommunication wherewith he bindeth Kings that they cannot raigne or absolue subiects that they doe not obey the world hath felt long since that it is but a diuelish arte as Vrshergensis saith which hath brought in treacherie and rebellion vnder the cloake of faith and religion dreadfull to Kings damnable to subiects to whose bodies it hath brought destruction and damnation to their soules as appeareth manifestly by the former Dialogue § 222 Then Saturnine We saith he for our parts do not greatly care what Heretikes say what the Church ordeynes that we regard neither are we bound to their conceits but to hir decrees And wee retayne the supremacie by a double right by claime and by possession About the claime the Heretikes haue often moued many brawles from the possession they shall neuer remoue vs. Then Regius you say that you regard the constitutions of the Church as you call them I wish rather you should regard the oracles of Scripture You say that you hold the supremacie by a double right by clayming and by possessing The Pope is falne from the right of a great claymer as Patriott hath plainly won Now at the last you vrge another right of a great possessor which what is it else than the right of a strong theefe For what other law belongs to theeues than to brag that that which they possesse is their owne howsoeuer they haue got it Now seing the supremacie is not grounded vpon Gods institution but mans ambition which you see to be clearely ouerthrowne by the oracles of the scripture and decrees of the Councells it followeth now that the serpents head being broken we breake in peeces likewise the rest of his members Then Calander Saturnine seemes to bee driuen to straites when as being beaten from the right of clayming he flyeth to possession That therfore you may haue a breathing time let vs put of the conference about the other Articles till another day for now it is more than time that you refresh your minds being tyred with the labor of this discourse A Table of the principall matters conteyned in this Treatise A. ABomination of desolation what is ment thereby 82. 90 Absurdities 78. 108. 133 An admonition to popish Princes 156. Adrian against Fredericke choakt with a flye 253. Agathus obedience to Constantine 249 The oath of Allegeance and Supremacie confounded 240 Ambrose did obey Valentinian an Arrian 248 Alexander the 3. in a Cooks attyre 374 Alexander and his foure Princes 99 Alexander trod vpon the Emperors necke 254 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereof it is a note 6. Antichrists type in Daniel himselfe in Iohn 2. The reasons 98. Hee began to worke in Pauls time 2. He must decay by the preaching of the word and perish at Christs last comming 793. Epiphanes described in Daniel not Antichrist 3. Hee shall worke wonders 3. Hee is held for one single man 5. The reasons ib but is a succession 9. Antichrist hath two hornes like a lambe speaketh like a dragon 5. 40. Antichrist is Christs Vicar in apparance in truth his aduersarie 6. Antichrist not a beast of three yeares and a halfes continuance 8. Heresies makes the great Antich 8. 28. Antichrist is the Land beast 9. As many Marij in one Caesar so many Antichrists in one Antichrist 11. He is that man of sinne and sonne of perdition 11. Antichrist in many ages yet but one 11 The popish description of Antich 12 a bearer 39 Antichrist a falling starre an Apostata a Renegate from the Lord. 13 He is not a Iew but an Apostaticall Christian 15. He sitteth in the temple of God or against the temple 17 He doth not openly deny Christ 19 Antichrist denieth Christs two natures three offices and the benefits therof 20. 21. 26. 27 His kingdome darke and smoakie
Gods commandements by mans traditions For as the Iewes had the vnwritten Cabala to interpret the old Testament so the Pope hath brought in his vnwritten traditions as the Iewish Cabala whereby hee doth bring a sense of his owne what pleaseth him of the written commandements of God But with the same argument that Christ did refute the Iewish we doe briefely refute the Popish traditions The obseruation of humane traditions is the abrogation of Gods heauenly commundements Matth 15. witnesse Christ But Poperie is the obseruation of humane traditions witnesse the Decretalls Here Duarenus said pretily that it fared ill with mens affaires since the decrees had gotten winges that is since the Decretalls were so sawcie as to flie into the Church ouer the Scriptures Therefore Poperie is the abrogation of Gods heauenly commandements I will bring one example wherein it appeareth that Bellarmine the Popes sweet-heart hath by his exposition ouerthrowne one of the greatest commandements of the Law Bellarmines lewd dealing with the second commandement God said Thou shalt not make to thy selfe any likenesse to worship Here Bellarmine distinguisheth Thou shalt not worship an Idoll But thou shalt worship an Image A distinction of the word not of the thing Far an Image is an Idoll when it is worshipped But the worshipping of an Idoll is Idolatrie and in the Commandement there is no mention made of an Idoll but of a likenes and that of euery likenes which as it were the genus or generall doth comprehend equally both Image and Idoll But Idolatrie is to worship the Creature for the Creator yea by your leaue with the Creator too for the worship of any likenes is absolutely forbidden in the law whether it be worshipped for God or with God And the reason of the prohibition is absolute Idolatrie is compared to fornication and God to a iealous husband who by no meanes will haue the likenes of any thing to be worshipped either before him or with him Bellarmine seemeth to alledge the same excuse for his idolatrie which the harlot doth for her adulterie for shee telleth her iealous husband I tooke not this Letcher for my Husband but for my Friend I tooke him with you not for you So this adulterous minde of Bellarmine answereth to God that is full of iealousie I do not worship the image for God but with God not for the Creator but with the Creator But God as a most iealous husband doth absolutely forbid any worship of an image as the lewd imbracing of an adulterer Ioh 9. v. 20. and therefore S. Iohn calleth the worshipper of an Idoll the worshipper of the Deuill Now it is plaine that the Pope is a worshipper of an Idoll therefore the worshipper of the Deuill The Pope oweth me a good turne for saying he is an Idolater wherein I feare I shall seeme to prevaricate and dissemble that while I giue him the name of an Idolater I take from him the name of Antichrist For Antichrist is not an Idolater as Bellarmine would haue it The Pope is an Idolater as truth it selfe would haue it Therefore the Pope is not Antichrist I counsell the Pope that if he giue credit to Bellarmines proposition he graunt our assumption so while he take to himselfe the name of an Idolater hee may happily lay aside the name of Antichrist But he will resume it so giddie headed and wauering is Bellarmine By whose confession Antichrist doth worship Maozim that is as he saith the Deuill But the worshipper of the Deuill is an Idolater Antichrist therefore is an Idolater But the Pope hath taken to him the note of an Idolater from holy Iohn let him therefore take againe to him the note of Antichrist From hence ariseth that which I intended to proue that the Pope doth nothing else but abrogate and annihilate a principall commandement of God with his tradition and opposition What is it to denie the Prophecie of Christ if this be not what as though hee hath not only corrupted but also peruerted the Gospell of Christ The Popes fift Gospell while hee hath suffered a fift Gospell to be coyned by his Dominicans as Matth Parisiensis doth witnesse They called it the Gospell of the Holy Ghost Anno 1254. Math. in Hen. 3. and the eternall Gospell wherein they taught that Christ is not God nor his Gospell the true Gospell and that compared to their Gospell his was the shell and theirs the kernell O blasphemie to be punished with hell fire Hereof they be the Neptunian or rather Vulcanian Fathers who in that Tridentine furnace haue by their fiering and hammering shap't out that prophane Gospell anew but without the name of the fift Gospell Although Clement the eight did of late gladly and willingly take vnto him the name of the fift Euangelist put vpon him by crouching Gâ—briel that detestable Parasite as though Clement had finished the fift Gospell which doth not onely giue a blow to the foure Gospells but a deadly wound The authors whereof doe incurre Pauls curse which is denounced not only to Popes but to Apostles and Angells if any shall bring in not a contrarie but another Gospell Not if any contrarie but if any besides that which the Galathians receiued of Paul that is besides that which they had receiued out of the legall and euangelicall Scriptures as Augustine did expound the place if they doe not only preach or ouerthrow the whole Gospell but if they doe neuer so litle preach beside the Gospell or doe thwart any thing as Chrysostome hath explained the place For another Gospell doth not only corrupt but peruert the Gospell of Christ The Pope of Rome doth not onely bring in another but a contrarie wherein hee doth not onely adde many things but oppose many things against the Gospell of Christ In the one hee doth weaken the Gospell in the other he destroyeth it for euery addition doth import an imperfection euery opposition a falshood And therefore Poperie is to be deemed not only a corruption but a subuersion of the Gospell Out of that fift Gospell is their new Creed of their faith taken which conteyneth twelue articles of the faith to be discussed in the Dialogue following For the making whereof diuers Popes heretofore tooke great paines and euery one added a peece of his owne till it came to full perfection by Pius the fourth and hath been lately printed by your authoritie Paul the fift that the great glory of your omnipotent power in the Papacie might appeare As likewise the conformities of S. Francis are lately brought to light and by your commandement published in print I thinke that typicall Iesus being brought againe into the world by you might remoue the true Iesus out of his throne Let God arise and let his enemies be scattered Let true Iesus vtterly confound the typicall Iesus Do not these things Paul the fift manifestly proue that thou art that great Antichrist who althogh thou do openly in word confesse that