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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A17988	The life of Bernard Gilpin a man most holy and renowned among the northerne English. Faithfully written by the Right Reverend Father in God George Carleton Lord Bishop of Chichester, and published for the sake of his common auditors, by whom it was long since earnestly desired.; Vita Bernardi Gilpini. English	Carleton, George, 1559-1628.; Freake, William.	1629 (1629)	STC 4647; ESTC S125899	43,782	70

member of Iesus Christ. If you approoue of none interpretation of Scriptures but what proceeds from Rome you may easily affirme whatsoever you please There is nothing so absurd or so contrary to the truth of the eternall God which may not be wrested by their corrupt glosses as it may seeme to serue to a wicked cause With such kinde of men is no disputation to be held As for that which you inferre touching Arrius and the rest of that ranke it is nothing to the purpose For all the writings of the Prophets together with other manifest Scriptures whereunto we ought to haue recourse in doubts of this nature and to be concluded by them doe evidently confound Arrius and all the rest his partakers Consubstantiality which the Greekes call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is confirmed by very many evident testimonies of Scripture But so is not Transubstantiation which hath so molested the braines of Scotus Occam Biel and all the schoole Divines that many a time they are shrowdly put to it what they had best stay for removing the absurdities which arise therefrom Therefore it is apparant that it is a meere fiction without any foundation of Scripture So that Scotus as Bishop Tonstall did many times ingenuously confesse was of opinion that the Church might better and with more ease make vse of some more commodious exposition of those words in the holy Supper And the Bishop was of the minde that we ought to speake reverently of ●he holy Supper as did the auncient Fathers but that the opinion of Transubstantiation might well be let alone This thing also the same Bishop Tonstall was wont to affirme both in words and writings that Innocent the third knew not what he did when he put Transubstantiation among the Articles of faith and he said that Innocentius wanted learned men about him and indeed saith the Bishop if I had beene of his Councell I make no doubt but I might haue beene able to haue disswaded him from that resolution When Mr. Cheasey said that the Catholicks should doe well to giue way in the Article of Transubstantiation I heard not himselfe speak the words but one which heard him tolde me Whereas you write touching the imprisonment of him and others truly I am of the opinion that as for this present life they liue most quietly Nor doe I think that themselues could haue made choice of a more retired kinde of life if the sting of conscience trouble them not for maintaining a cause that is not good but built vpon the sand But if you will needes haue it that men must of necessity conniue at the beastly and abominable liues of so many Romane Bishops aboue thirty you may also finde fault with our Saviour himselfe for discovering so plainly the pernicious enormities both of the Pharises who in those times were accounted forfooth the holy Fathers and also of their Fathers then dead you may blame also the Prophet Esay who will not haue evill men to be called good denouncing a curse against that man who calleth him holy that is not holy find fault also with Saint Bernard who calleth them the Ministers of Antichrist Those things which other godly men haue written to this purpose doe worthily excuse vs. He blameth those things openly concerning which he confesseth that it is a shame to speake I reveale not hidden things saith he but I reprooue things publickely knowne vnto which thing we are even obliged by the commandement of God Esaia 58. 1. Shew my people their sinnes whereas you say that fiue Sacraments are rejected by vs you doe not say well rejected for wee vse them reverently according to the word of God nor doe we take away the name of a Sacrament as the word Sacrament is generally vsed as was the washing of feete and many other things which may retaine the name of a Sacrament in generall as also they doe among the Fathers But the auncient Fathers and some Schoole men doe a●firme that onely Baptisme and the Eucharist are properly called Sacraments It is also the testimony of Bessarion We read saith he of these two Sacraments onely manifestly delivered in the Gospell I wonder at you that you doe so wrest the words of Saint Paul to such a sence as that out of those words all the Ceremonies of the Masse may be established whereas you cannot be ignorant that the greatest part of them hath ben added many ages after by the Bishops of Rome Wee reade also that the Apostles consecrated with the words of the Gospell and with the Lords prayer Moreover whereas Saint Paul had even at that time ordayned already that the people should not only eate the bread with the Minister as his owne words doe manifestly prooue but also drinke of the cup you see how there fellowes haue vtterly ●obbed the Church of that ordi●ation of Christ and his Apostles but how iustly or by what good authority they haue done thus let thē●elues looke vnto it I could never in my reading find 〈…〉 ground of that authority I find the contrary to 〈◊〉 that all men are altogether forbidden to alter any thing touching the word and will of God delivered in the holy scriptures You say that the Scriptures allow prayer for the dead and that you know this well enough Saint Hierom saith that the booke of Maccha●●s is profitable for manners not to establish doctrine You alledge that Saint Augustine doubted in many places whether there be a Purgatorie If that be a doubtfull poynt then it is not to be obtruded as an Article of faith but to be left indifferent For faith is a substance Heb 11. 1 and faith ought not to wauer saith Saint Iames The Bishop of Rochester writeth concerning Purgatory that amongst the Auncients there was either little or no mention of it And so long as there was no care taken for Prgatorie no man sought after Indulgences And so those innumerable gaynes by Pardons were never knowne before Purgatory was found out What shall we now say to bee meant by those words of Saint Paul esteeming gayne godline if this be not it This Mart hath fed and still doth feed many idle bellyes who stoutly driue away the word of God to the best of their abillity that they may not loose their Swine Howbeit at the last the truth shall prevaile how ever these men haue conspired together As touching that which you adde concerning the Invocation of Saints Saint Augustine exhorteth vs rather to stand to the Scriptures then either to his writings or the writings of others and not to build vpon his writings without the authoritie of Scriptures And surely in this poynt my conscience is resolued that there is not one poynt of all these which are controverted that is proved by more evident testimonyes of Scripture then this that God alone is to be prayed vnto and by one mediator namely Iesus Christ. Rom. 10. 13. How shall they call on him in whome they haue not beleeued We must beleeue

curiously pryeth into the Popish relligion he was inforced to acknowledge that very many errours were crept into the Church which hinder and obs●ure the matter of our salvation insomuch that they are no small offence to as many as hunger and thirst after righteousnesse and the knowledge of the truth He discovered many corruptio●s and changes of sound doctrine he found not so much as word touching seven Sacraments before Peter Lumbard and that the vse of the Supper was delivered vnder one kinde onely contrary to expresse Scriptures that Transubstantiation was a devise of the Schoolemen that the doctrine of the worke wrought called Opu● operatum was newly risen that the Masse was turned from a Sacrament to a Sacrifice that in the Church wherein all things were ordeined for the edification of the people all things were now done to the non-edification of them that the adoration of Images was instituted against the expresse commandement of God Demurring for a while as distracted with these thoughts behold the rule of faith lately changed in the Councel of Tr●n● vtterly astonished him For he had observed out of the auncient Writers as well as out of the later ones Lu● ba●d Scotus Aq●inas and the rest that the rule of faith was to be drawne onely from the holy Scriptures but in the Councel of Trent he beheld humane traditions made equall wi●h the Scriptures And seeing he vnderstood these traditions to be nothing else but peevish and crosse expositions of the holy Scriptures devised by the Bishops of Rome and thrust in among the Decretall Epistles as also that the said Decretall Epistles were meerely feigned and suppositions as is confirmed by the testimonies of many learned men and indeed by the confession of the very Papists themselues is acknowledged to be out of all doubt this so great a confusion of things being risen in the Church in these latter ages enforced Gilpin now earnestly desiring nothing so much as true piety to begin to doubt whether the Pope might not be that Antichrist foretould in the Scriptures and the Popish Church plainly Antichristian For what is it to exalt and set vp himselfe against all that is called God insomuch that he sitteth as God in the Temple of God behaving himselfe as God if not this that the Pope is head of the vniversall Church the Lord the Monarch and as it were the God thereof And that the word of the Pope is defended as the very word of God For how shall not he whose word is as the word of God be as God opposing himselfe to God and shewing himselfe that he is God But this word is called the vnwritten word or verbum non script●m is drawne out of the stinking puddles of the Decretals that is to say patched vp together out of false and fictitious writings And this word which is in no respect worthy to be compared with the word of an honest man is the vnwritten word of God and to be enterteined with the same pious affection as are the holy Scriptures Can Antichrist when he shall come if yet there be another to come more grievously wrong and blaspheme Christ and the holy Scriptures then the Pope doeth And here at the last he demurred as in an exceeding great doubt For who would haue thought the Pope to be Antichrist who durst to speake such a word before Martin Luther Therefore thus he argued with himselfe If the Pope be Antichrist I fee not onely probable but even necessary causes to depart from the Popish Church But if the Pope be not Antichrist I see no sufficient ground for such a departure It is not lawfull to make a seperation from the Church but we are not onely enioyned to come out of the Church of Antichrist but we see the fearefull anger of the living God and heare his dreadfull threates thundered out against those who shall remaine in Babilo● that Sinagogue of Antichrist Forasmuch as a voice from heaven speaketh vnto vs. Apoc. 18 Come out of her my people it is denounced that they shal receiue of her plagues whosoever haue beene partakers of her sinnes Here therfore he stoppeda while because except the Pope were manifestly detected to be Antichrist he did not vnderstand how he might seperate from the Church and therefore he applied himselfe by searching reading prayer and meditation to be resolved of this truth He observed out of the Auncient Fathers Tertullian I●rom Ambrose Augustine Chrysostome Cyrill and others that passage wherein Antichrist is described 2 Thess. 2 7. He which now withhouldeth shall let till he be taken out of the way to be so interpreted as vnderstood of the Romane Empire that the Romane Empire which now held preheminence should keepe possession vntill Antichrist shall come who shall possesse the seat of the Romane Empire And moreover whereas it is said in the same place that Christ shall not come againe except there be a depart●r● first he observed this thing to be fulfilled likewise He perceived first a very maine departure of the Church of Rome from her primitiue simplicity and truth And secondly a second departure or seperation no lesse manifest to wit of that of the Reformed Churches from the Church of Rome Mr. Gilpin would often say that the Churches of the Protestants were not able to giue any firme and solid reason of their seperation besides this to wit that the Pope is Antichrist For he vnderstood that a departure was commanded from the Church of Antichrist by that heavenly iniunction Goe out of her my people and be not partakers of her sinnes lest ye reciue also of her plagues Revel 18. 4. In which place S. lohn wisely foretelleth that the people of God should be called out of the Synagogue of Antichrist that here was no third thing to be thought vpon that either the Church of Christ was not to be forsaken or the Pope to be accounted Antichrist out of whose Church the Church of God is called forth by an heavenly voice command And now event which is the most vndoubted interpreter of Prophecies hath prooved all these things vnto vs We haue seene already many Ages agoe that Kingdome taken away which ruled over all in the time of the Apostles and in the roome thereof an Ecclesiasticall Kingdome erected such an one as was never seene in the Church in former Ages We haue beheld the fearfull departure of the Church of Rome from the auncient purity and integrity of the Church We haue observed and doe daily the people called as it were by a voice from heaven comming out of Babylon that is to say out of the Church of Antichrist Our eyes haue seene these things fulfilled which we haue read of as being foretould so many Ages agoe These things mooved the mind of Mr. Gilpin wonderfully to follow that Church which was shewed vnto him out of the word of God The Church of Rome kept the rule of faith intire vntill that rule was changed and altered by the