Doctrine and Ceremonies which they have added in the latter hundred yeers without and against Gods Word Also there are two sorts of people amongst them The One who in their Christianity onely and principally cleave to the indubitable universal Apostolick Creed which they with us are baptized unto so that they seek onely 〈◊〉 salvation in Jesus Christ the crucified as their own Mediator and Saviour and testifie such beleef of theirs in the effect by Christian charity and godly conversation who also consequently will not condemn us as Hereticks who are united in spirit with them in such universal saving Faith working through love much lesse persecute us with hostility unlesse it were out of meer ignorance because they have no true information of our Doctrine and Faith How should we then condemn them Much more reason have we to account such Catholicks for true Evangelical and not for Popish Christians because their salvation is grounded not upon their own merits and satisfaction or upon other Popish traditions and Auxiliary concomitant means but onely upon the meer grace of God and the precious Redemption of our Lord Jesus Christ And that there hath been at all times a great number of such people and are still at this present even in the midst of Popery not onely the experience of them that live amongst them but their own Books before and after Luther's times do testifie it As Bernardi Anselmi Gersonis Tauleri Thomae de Kempis Erasmi Cassandri Feri Cardinalis Contareni Hosij Pighij Coloniensium in Anti-didagmate Enchiridio and of a great many more Especially their ancient Manuals concerning Meditations upon death which were commonly used a great while before Luther's times wherein the dying persons from all meritorious works and satisfaction and from all other humane means of salvation are onely directed to the precious merit and intercession of the onely Mediator and Redeemer Jesus Christ Formulae interrogandi infirmos inter Epistolas Anselmi Ars benè moriendi Monachi cujusdam Cisterciensis Hortulus Animae Georg. Cassander in Append. Opusc Joh. Roffensis Hosius in Confess Petricov cap. 73. Sacerdotale Roman Edit Venet. Ann. 1555. fol. 116. Sacra Institutio baptizandi Edit Paris Ann. 1575. fol. 35. Ordo baptizandi cum modo visitandi Edit Venet. Ann. 1575. fol. 34. In which Book the Spanish Inquisitors have ordained in their twofold Indice Expurgatorio Annis 1584. 1612. to deface and omit these Questions and Answers following Sacerdos Credis non propriis meritis sed Passionis Domini nostri Jesu Christi virtute merito ad gloriam pervenire Respondeat infirmus Credo Sacerdos Credit quòd Dominus noster Jesus Christus pro nostra salute mortuus sit quod ex propriis meritis vel alio modo nullus possit salvari nisi in merito passionis ejus Respondeat infirmus Credo By the Omission of which words they testifie against themselves that those amongst them who examined the dying persons upon this beleef wherein the principal fundamental Doctrine of salvation consisteth and died upon it have been verily addicted to our Evangelical Faith and Doctrine of the Church and not to their Popish beleef and doctrine And although such men have also adhered in their ignorance to some erroneous opinions according to the common course of those times out of want of better information yet they cannot be condemned or accounted for non-Evangelical because they fixed their comfort and hope of their salvation not upon such erroneous Doctrines not upon merits and invocation of Saints not upon Masses for the souls of the deceased 〈◊〉 â—pon Indulgences not upon Monastical orders and such other like things but onely upon Gods meer grace and mercy in Christ Jesus the crucified To the Objection that may be made That they neverthelesse went to Masse which we count Idolatrie and consequently must condemn all those as meer Idolaters We answer That such men went to Masse in the simplicity of their heart not even according to the new Masse-doctrine which but in the Councel of Lateran Ann. 1218. and after in the Councel of Trent was canonized but according to the pure ancient and simple beleef of Christs words in the holy Communion wherein even yet the moderate Papists so far must agree with us that it is Sacrificium commemorativum A Commemoration and Remembrance of Christs Sacrifice finished upon the Crosse and a spiritual meat of our souls Wherefore there is no doubt but many religious and pious hearts have at all times understood and eaten it after a spiritual sort who heard little or nothing of the Scholastical disceptations of Transubstantiation and had not yet known the depths of Satan as was said of those in Thyatira Revel 2. v. 24. Or have expresly rejected them and beleeved nothing else concerning the Holy Communion but what next to Augustine and other ancient Fathers and Doctors of the Church Bertramus or Ratramus in the times of Carolus Calvus when the disputes of this subject had their first beginning hath declared in his Book De Corpore Sanguine Christi who at all times was accounted for a true Catholick Teacher And though some had beleeved the real and corporal presence and oral manducation of Christs Body in the Masse Yet we should have as little reason to condemn them as the Lutherans if they have but grounded the principal comfort and hope of their salvation not upon the carnal but spiritual eating of Christs Body as being the onely Sacrifice and Propitiation for their sins Likewise though they have much declined in the Ceremonies of the Masse from Christs first Institution and have added thereunto many humane partly superstitious partly idolatrous Ceremonies Yet all those cannot presently be accounted for damnable Idolaters who in those times and places where the Supper of the Lord was not otherwise to be had nor the errour made yet so apparently evident went to the common Masse in their simplicity because of the remnant of Christs Institution therein to the end that they might be made partakers of Christs Body and Blood for the quickning of their souls Like as they used the Holy Baptism for to cleanse and wash them from their sins notwithstanding the superstitious humane Ceremonies that were added thereunto Who also though they kneeled down before the consecrated bread and wine being a Sacramental token of remembrance and exhibitive signe of Christs Body and Blood like as the Lutherans also at the administration of their Communion and the Reformed Protestants in England use to do Yet have not fixed the Adoration and confidence of their hearts on the bread and wine but on Christ himself sitting on the right hand of his Father in Heaven And therefore are much lesse to be esteemed Idolaters then for their kneeling and bowing down before painted 〈◊〉 carved Crucifixes which Christ never ordained for signes of remembâ—◠〈◊〉 instead of adoring Jesus Christ in Heaven Though we must confesse that all such things have been used in Popery at
as they do the Second Commandment concerning Images will they judge us therefore Should we not have the liberty to teach and to learn the Commandments of God as God himself hath spoken them from heaven and with his own finger graved them in the Two Tables of stone Whereas we tolerate the Omission of the Commandment of Images in them that hold it not absolutely necessary for Children and Ignorants though we cannot approve thereof nor excuse it especially seeing what great Idolatry it hath bred in Popery and that the said Commandment doth extend as well to the Children and Idiots as to the Priests and Levites yea we conceive it to be most necessary for those being naturally bent to Images and Idolatry Also in the differences in Doctrine of Faith that in the holy Communion by eating Sacramentally the blessed bread and wine we believe onely a Spiritual partaking or communion and presence of the Body and Blood of Christ and not a carnal and corporal Neither believe Vbiquity or Omnipresence of Christs Body but the Omnipresent power vertue and raigning of Christ true God and Man even in those places where his Body is not present Nor an Vniversal reconciliation and propitiation by Christs death whereby indifferently all men whether they do believe or not believe repent or not repent have remission of their sins already But whereby principally Repentance and Faith is required from all in general and withal forgivenesse of sins and life in Christ is faithfully offered and promised and consequently really and effectually conferred and given to those onely who effectually believe and repent Nor also an Vniversal Election of all men unto Salvation but onely of the Believers and yet so that they are not elected by and according to their faith or works which God hath foreseen in them before the election much lesse that they should be saved without faith or without good works But so that they are elected out of a meer special grace in Christ even to this end that they through faith might be converted from the bondage of sins to be adopted unto children of God and to good works and made fit for to walk therein and obtain everlasting Salvation Will they for these or other such like points of Controversie in Doctrine for the most part arising from thence judge and condemn us as Hereticks as most of them use to do then they must first prove that their opinions and manner of expressions in those points which they so fiercely insist upon and whereon commonly all the controversie dependeth are not onely agreeable to Truth but also absolutely necessary unto Salvation But we shall sooner prove those not to be warrantable by Scripture then they shall make them good to be necessary seeing we cannot finde any wherein the Word of God the truth much lesse the necessity thereof For what is then that is necessary unto salvation We agree already both in this against the Papists namely that whatsoever is necessary unto salvation is plainly and expresly taught in the holy Scripture but whatsoever are onely bare words of men and Humane Traditions and Doctrines ought and must not be necessary unto salvation though otherwise they are not repugnant to truth Wherefore they must first prove that such opinions and manner of expressions of theirs which they esteem to be necessary are expresly taught in the Scripture and yet so that we also may certainly and undoubtedly conceive them to be grounded thereon as a necessary point of saving Faith and obedience to Christ They will say That they have proved it already sufficiently and abundantly if not by words of the Scripture it self at least by equivalent words and by a necessary consequence drawn out of them And that we therefore onely will not receive and condescend unto it because it is contrary and repugnant to our natural reason As for Example When the Lord speaketh of the Bread Take eat this is my Body they make it to be equivalent as if he had said Eat my Body in and with the bread and that he meant a natural corporal and carnal eating Likewise when the Lord said I am with you till to the end of the world they infer that his Body also is present with us because Jesus Christ or his Godhead is nowhere without his Body or separated from it But although this may seem to them in their Reason to be a clear and plain Exposition or a necessary Consequence yet we examining and comparing not onely our Reason but also the words of Christ himself and not the Five words by themselves alone but all the words of the whole Institution together yea of the whole Scripture we finde the Contrary a great deal clearer and plainer that the words of Christ are not agreeable to their Interpretation nor their Consequence of any validity much lesse of necessity For indeed this is plain and manifest that Christ saying to his disciples Take eat spoke of the bread which he took brake and gave to them and that he meant there a corporal carnal visible and natural eating of the bread And it is also manifest and evident that he spoke of that bread This which I have broken and given This bread which ye take and eat This is my Body which shall be given for you But that this is to be understood after a carnal and corporal manner so that his body who sate with them at Table and reached to them the bread hath been Invisibly in and under the bread and eaten though supernaturally with their carnal mouth is no ways clear and manifest But they themselves and the Papists also notwithstanding they adhere and insist both upon the literal sense yet they cannot agree among themselves in their pretended literal meaning and besides they both must confesse that they are words of peculiar Mysteries which ought to be Mystically and Sacramentally understood Wherefore it is yet more clear and manifest since Spiritual things must be compared with Spiritual 1 Cor. 2.13 that these words also after the na ure and propriety of other Sacraments must have a Spiritual meaning as the Lord himself saith of the eating of his Body and the drinking of his Blood The words that I speak unto you they are Spirit and they are Life Joh. 6 63. As both Papists and Lutherans must acknowledge that in the Lords Supper is principally required a Spiritual eating We have also many pregnant motives which are not onely grounded upon Natural Reason but upon the words of the Institution it self upon the undoubted Articles of the Christian Faith and upon many other manifest places of the Scripture and therefore binde not onely our Vnderstanding but our Consciences that we cannot receive by any means their Interpretation concerning the Invisible body in the bread and the carnal eating thereof which may be common both to the unbelieving and ungodly Hypocrites and also to the believing because it doth more evidently appear to be repugnant to these words of God
then to be extracted out of the same by consequence But if we desire to have a certain undoubted and necessary Exposition of these words Christ himself and the Apostle Paul hath declared it unto us That the breast and wine is called the Body and Blood of Christ because it is the New Testament and the Communion of his Body and Blood and because we ought to eat and drink it in remembrance of him If we desire also to know how we ought worthily to eat and drink the Body and Blood of Christ Christ himself hath taught it so plainly Joh. 6 that our Adversaries themselves must confesse that not onely the afore-mentioned Spiritual eating of the Lords Supper is principally required but also is the onely true and saving eating without which the oral manducation is rather noxious then profitable and wholesome Wherefore we hold this declaration of Christ sufficient unto Salvation and him that onely standeth to it or giveth us but libertie to stand to it we will in like manner not compel necessarily to receive our interpretations and expressions which we acknowledge to be conformable to the words and exposition of Christ much lesse will we judge or condemn any man for an Heretick because of the verbal alterations and disceptations in Schools whether what Figure or Tropus Metonymia or Synechdoche or praedicatio inusitata it may be called Likewise it is clear and manifest that Jesus Christ hath promised to be present with us and all Believers as true God and Man with his assistance and grace Spirit and gifts power and operation which no Christian can deny But to infer and conclude thereby that also his body flesh and bones must necessarily be present with us all creatures on earth That is no ways plain and evident so that some of their own Divines do contradict it themselves by other manifest and plain testimonies of the Scripture And thus much may we say of all other different Points of Doctrine betwixt us and them and also of the Controversie of Predestination and Election and what doth depend on it wherein we next to the holy Scripture not onely refer our selves to Augustine Prosper Fulgentius and other Ancient Fathers and withal to the principal Scholastick Authors and Divines among Papists Thomas Scotus and others that followed them especially to the Modern Dominicans but also to Dr Luther himself and many Ancient learned Lutheran Divines Brentius Herbrand Flacius Hofmann Spannenberg Althamer Heshusius and others CHAP. VI. Which is the chief and principal Question in this present Difference of Religion and what are the safest means for the settlement of a Christian Vnity COnsiderirg exactly every thing that hitherto hath been declared it is apparently manifest thereby that all differences in matter of Religion that now adays are in agitation betwixt the said Christians especially betwixt those who acknowledge the holy Scripture to be the onely perfect Rule of their Faith and Religion meerly reside in this chief and cardinal question which if it were rightly and unanimously answered on all sides no doubt all such Contention and Controversie or all uncharitable Judging and Condemning would fall of it self and a happie Unitie might be setled among all Christians in Doctrine and Religion as much as may be necessary unto their salvation Namely Whether besides the holy Scripture it self such Interpretations and Consequences or Inferences which by some Teachers or Particular Churches that follow them are collected and deduced out of the Word of God according to the understanding they have for their part in the Scripture and held and received for certain undoubted or necessary expositions and consequences although they are not so plain and manifest that all other knowing and understanding Christians besides them may conceive them or as the Primitive Christian Church hath unanimously and undoubtedly received and taught ought yet to be absolutely necessary for all men unto salvation insomuch that all those that do not acknowledge and receive such Interpretations and Inferences as agreeable to Scripture may therefore be judged and condemned for Hereticks To which we directly answer No such matter But supppse that such Interpretations or Inferences were certain and true or in themselves necessary to be received by those that understand them yet they are not necessary for those that do not comprehend and conceive them as yet in their consciences neither can they therefore be judged as Vnbelievers but ought to be received as weak in faith according to the Apostles admonition Them that are weak in faith receive you but not to doubtful disputations not to judge their thoughts and to distract their consciences The main cause of all dissentions and differences in the Church of God I think rather even this to be the main and principal source and origine of all Divisions and Tyrannie in the Church of God that men set upon their own Interpretations Illations Comments Glosses Formula's Expressions which peradventure they pretend themselves to infer out of the Word of God according to the profunditie of their understanding or else adde thereunto out of Humane Traditions and Opinions as high nay a higher estimate and price and insist as vehemently thereupon as upon the Indubitable Word of God it self As if their words and expositions were as certain and necessary unto salvation as the Word of God yea as if they were able in some points to utter and deliver more plainly expresly fully and considerately the heavenly Mysteries then the holy Ghost hath expressed them in the whole Scripture Or as if all men did see whatsoever they think themselves to see and to know in the depth of their Understanding or though they do not see it yet were obliged to believe upon their word This this is the main and chief cause of all Divisions and Dissentions and of all unreasonable judging and condemning in the Universal Christian Church This is also the true fundamental point of Popery The Fundamental Point of Popery whereon all the Disputes and Controversies betwixt us and them depend That the Pope with his Prelates pretend to be an Infallible Judge of all different and doubtful Doctrines whose sentence and decision all men upon pain of damnation as certainly ought to believe and obey as the Word of God it self Upon this One onely ground all Popery is built And principally for this Point we are constrained to abandon it For otherwise for our part we could well yeeld to him his Primatum or Supremacie above all Bishops yea above Emperours and Kings as long as it pleaseth them upon condition he would not presume to take upon him Dominatum and ruling over mens consciences and expound also the Word of God the best he can and propound his sentence and opinion to his children within his Bishoprick or also to others that will believe and obey him if he would but acknowledge withal that he as well as others could erre and fail in those things which are not expresly and plainly
grounded upon the Word of God or at least that it should not be necessary unto salvation for us who do not acknowledge and receive it But when he will absolutely have his word parallel with Gods Word even in those points which we cannot but judge to be evidently repugnant to the Word of God and so in stead of Christ will be a Lord over our souls and consciences and of the Universal Christian Church on earth Certainly those can no ways be blamed who not onely give him no credit therein at all but by reason of that proclame him to be the Antichrist Now since we may not grant this power to the Popes at Rome although they had entangled by their perswasion and kept in subjection during many hundred yeers in the Western Church so many Emperours and Kings yea all Doctours Bishops and Prelates how much lesse may we impart it to any other Pastor and Teacher of Gods Church of what name soever And he that should ascribe perhaps to Luther or Calvin Jerome Austin Abuses of mens particular opinions and interpretations amongst the Evangelical c. or to any particular Convocations as to the Authors Formulae Concordiae Sax. as also to whole and National Synods that their own particular Interpretations Consequences Iâ—lations Manner of expressions were as certain and infallible or as necessary unto Salvation as the word of God it self what is it else but to make of Luther of Calvin and the rest so many Popes of such Convocations and Assemblies so many Popish Councels yea to prefer in some manner mens words and opinions before the holy Scripture as if they in some points had expressed themselves better and with more perspicuity and circumspection For my part I confesse that Dr Luther and Calvin have in the principal and most Points though not in all well truely and profitably expounded the Scripture because they have compared and declared for the most part Scripture by Scripture I acknowledge also that the Doctrine of the Confession and Apologie of Augspourg with other Confessions of the Reformed Churches Also the Doctrine of the Synod at Derdrecht is true and agreeable in it self to Scripture in those Articles that have been handled and concluded therein though withal I doubt not but some other Teachers of our Churches have yet expressed themselves better and more perspicuously in some one or other point of the holy Scripture But that we should hold their declarations and particular opinions and expressions as indubitable and necessary unto salvation as the Word of God it self and presently judge and condemn those for Hereticks who do not fully receive them They themselves as much as I know have never yet required it But those who under the name of Lutherans addict themselves to the profession of the Formulae Concordiae Saxonicae when they not onely binde and tie their Ministers to it by a solemn Oath but also us who do not receive in points of Controversies their expositions expressions and inferences contained therein for thorowly agreeable to Scripture what is that then but to judge and condemn us as Hereticks From whence must necessarily follow that their expressions and opinions ought to be as certain and undoubted and as necessary unto salvation as the Word of God it self which indeed would be a plain New Popery They use to accuse us Who are those that make the natural reason to be the foundation and rule of their Faith that we make our Natural Reason the foundation and rule of our Faith Whereas we principally insist thereupon that we ought not to ground any Article of Faith upon humane Reason but meerly upon the plain manifest and undoubted Word of God We make use of our Reason having been enlightned and brought unto the knowledge of Christ as of a requisite means whereby to learn to understand the holy Scripture for without Reason it cannot be understood How far the Reason may be used in matters of Faith That we also ought to infer out of the Scripture whatsoever by a necessary consequence dependeth from it and is agreeable to it as much as we by Gods grace are able to comprehend it or to refute and to reject whatsoever is repugnant to it And that we ought reverently to apply the holy Scripture unto Doctrine Consolation and Admonition yet so that we do not oblige and binde any man in his conscience further to those Interpretations and Inferences we in our understanding derive out of the Scripture then himself together with us is able to understand them to be warrantable by it and the Word of God doth binde thereunto But those who cry up their own Interpretations Inferences and Expressions not onely for True Doctrines but even for Necessary Articles of Faith insomuch that they judge and condemn as Hereticks all others that do not acknowledge them to be agreeable to Scripture They are those who make their Own reason and understanding to be the foundation and rule of their Faith and yet not onely of their own but of other mens Faith and of the Universal Christian Church They are those who make themselves new Popes and Infallible Judges in matters of Religion and Conscience Which honour we cannot give to any man living on earth but to God alone and his undeniable Word contained in the Books of the Old and New Testament as also all the Protestant Churches in whole Europe have Unanimously always against Popery referred themselves thereunto Neverthelesse we do not reject all consequences and interpretations How far we may make use of Consequences and Interpretations in matters of Faith nor all mens expressions though they are not verbally and literally set down in the Scripture as also we do not disapprove the Translation of the Scripture into other Languages We rather confesse that many Inferences and Interpretations may be very good profitable sound and necessary in themselves and that we may many times of necessity use them for the confutation of several Errours But we cannot ascribe further to any mans Interpretations and Consequences an Vniversal necessitie unto salvation for all Christians then we have declared already namely when they are so clear and manifest that they may be understood and received for certain and undeniable of all Christians or of those for whom they shall be necessary especially when they have been acknowledged and taught undoubtedly and with one accord in the true Primitive Church and therefore may be called true Catholike expositions Now those that do not acknowledge our Expositions to be such How far those that dissent are to be tolerated we may not therefore on our part judge and condemn them as Hereticks but we must receive and tolerate them as weak in faith according to the Doctrine of the Apostle Neverthelesse upon this condition that they reciprocally do not enforce upon us and others as necessary their own Interpretations and Inferences to the contrary nor we being willing to forbear and tolerate their
the word Sheol and Hades are generally understood of that Invisible World whetherto the souls depart out of this World and is attributed both to godly and wicked without certain determination of place whetherto they are departed which shall be manifested in the Resurrection So that by this Article is meant nothing else but that Christs soul after his death made no stay in this World but departed like other mens souls to the place of the dead and as if it were holden of the bonds of death till the third day yet in Gods hands which was indeed the lowest degree of his humiliation whereas in the mean while the World triumphed over him as over a dead man who went to Hell till at length it was made manifest by his Resurrection that he descended not to the Hell of the damned but to the Sheol or Grave to the faithful Patriarchs As the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not onely signifie a descending or going down beneath the Earth but a departing in general Act. 8. v. 5. and 9. v. 32. and 11. v. 27. and 12. v. 19. and 13. v. 4. and 15. v. 1. and 18. v. 5 22. and 21. v. 10. and 27. v. 5. By all which expositions doth manifestly appear that the two first opinions maintained by the Papists neither are solide and certain nor necessary The others which partly they partly we defend as much as concerneth the Doctrine in it self are consonant and agreeable to the Word of God and undoubtedly received of all Christians though the Controversie remaineth still which of them draweth neerest to the true opinion of this Article in the Creed And withall that we do not introduce any new Doctrine in this Article as necessary to salvation being we give to every one liberty in his opinion except in that which is agreed on of all sides Which is also the safest way and sufficient unto salvation if of this Article we do but generally so much know and beleeve that Christs Soul having suffered the extremest distresse and sorrow on Earth verily departed to the dead who are kept in the hands of his Father till the day of Resurrection Although we do not even determine the place that it descended really to the Hell of the damned or to a certain Limbus beneath the Earth before it entred into Paradise which the Lord promised to the theef upon the Crosse being we yet imbrace the most indubitable and certain comfort arising from this Article that Christ by such departure of his Soul hath delivered our souls from all the torments and pains of Hell to the end that they confidently might follow him out of this World without fear of Hell into that Invisible World whetherto the Lord hath prepared the way by his deceasing 8. Of the Antichrist Lastly Concerning the Doctrine of the great Antichrist of whom the Scripture doth so much prophesie Like as it is not directly necessary unto salvation to know that such an Antichrist is to come although it is requisite to beleeve it for them that have the knowledge of it out of the Word of God as hath been said heretofore Also much lesse is it necessary to salvation to know and to determine who is that great Antichrist except unto them onely to whom God hath perfectly revealed it And notwithstanding many of our Divines though not generally all are of this opinion that the Pope of Rome from that time he hath taken upon him to be instead of Christ the Universal and Supreme Head of the whole Christian Church over all Emperours and Kings and over all mens souls which hath been specially observed since the time of Gregory the seventh is that great Antichrist yet they do not teach it even as a necessary Article of Faith but as an Interpretation of the Prophetical Predictions which are very agreeable to Truth yea partly accounted by them for certain and undoubted since they have the experience by the event histories and writings of the Popes themselves that whatsoever hath been prophesied of the Antichrist is now fulfilled in these Popes And although this opinion of theirs must of necessity be thus far new because the Primitive Church could know no certainty of it before the accomplishing and revealing of the Antichrist Yet it is not so new neither whereas this name hath been attributed to the Popes some hundred yeers before Luther's times even by some German Emperours and Bishops and among others by the Emperour Lewys the fourth Duke of Bavaria three hundred yeers ago Yea when before 1460 yeers Irenaeus out of the Revelation of S. John 13. v. 18. conjectured by his name that he would be called Latinus that is to say Romane Neverthelesse not the whole Romane Church nor all its Members neither all their Doctrine and Rel gion is therefore to be accounted for Antichristian God forbid But the Doctrine of Christ which is left amongst them ought to be discerned from the Doctrine and traditions of the Pope and the Temple and People of God over which he extendeth unjustly his Supreme Jurisdiction and Dominion from the Pope and his Dependents as it is prophesied of in 2 Thess 2. v. 4. Revel 18. v. 4. But if the Pope or the Papists would reject or confute such opinion of the Protestants as erroneous They cannot perform it better then by the deed it self ordering matters in this manner First That hereafter he do not anymore exalt himself over the Gods on Earth over Emperours and Kings to depose deprive them of their Crowns and discharge the Subjects from their Oath obedience and subjection Secondly That he do not attribute to himself the power belonging onely to Christ over the souls and consciences of men or over Christian Doctrine and Religion by adding thereunto and diminishing from it Thirdly and principally That he do not Antichristian-like excommunicate and persecute those that do not acknowledge him as Universal and Supreme Head of the whole Christian Church In doing so none of our side will proclaim him for an Antichrist nor his Dependents for Antichristian Otherwise although they should erre or exceed in holding him to be the great Antichrist when perhaps a greater yet is to come Yet the Popes would have as little reason to charge them therefore with a damnable errour as the Wolves the Sheep for accounting that for the ravenousest Wolf which hath devoured most Sheep Thus we hope by these eight Points of moment wherein we are accused of new Doctrine is apparently and abundantly made clear and evident which also we could as easily have performed in all other Articles That we have introduced no Innovation of Doctrine but rather for the maintenance of the ancient undoubted Doctrine separated again whatsoever hath been added to the Universal Primitive Christian Doctrine in the latter hundred yeers To which end all the Reformed Churches have generally at all times declared themselves by solemn Protestations that they would hearken to no new Doctrine but punctually and positively