into one Church triumphant is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an aggregation or a Congregation of Congregations The second the affection to this gathering together in the word our appeareth to bee an allusion in that Proverbe Matt. 24. 28. Wheresoever the carkeise is there will the Eagles be gathered together For Nature doth not make the Eagle so to sent out and to hunt out the carkeise as Grace doth make the Faithfull to hunger and thirst after that comming The sense then thus I set down in more and more plain termes As Christ will joine you to him effectually and as you long after that conjunction affectionately even so by the gathering together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by our gathering together unto him wee beseech you brethren not to bee moved from the truth by any false seducers From these premises let us conclude this Doctr. doctrine Gods blessings doe binde Gods children to be constant in the truth Thus wee see in this Text that Christs comming is urged as an argument to confirm the Thessalonians in Christs doctrine Rom. 9. 31. and 32. the grievous fault and punishment of Israel was this God gave them righteousnesse by faith but they fell to their workes and therefore lost all Luke 12. 32. God giveth his servants a kingdome therefore they should not feare to serve him And indeed this is the maine end wherefore God giveth us his blessings to incourage us in his truth The man who hath his head held up by a skilfull swimmer meriteth drowning if in a fond feare he forsake him to lay hold on some floating staffe So let him sinke in errour that will bee affrighted even with an Ocean of temptations if Gods blessings support him Alexander the great Iust hist l. 11. saith Iustine made choice of the stipendiary his Pensioners for his prime souldiers in his Persian expedition So such as are Gods Pensioners that is inriched with his continuall favours ought to be his Triarij that is his most courageous souldiers and most constant professors in the Church militant And finally as in 2 Sam. 12. 7 8. Nathan said unto David Thus saith the Lord God of Israel I have anointed thee King over Israel and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul and I gave thee thy masters house and thy masters wives into thy bosome and gave thee the house of Israel and of Iudah and if that had been too little I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things As I say David was here argued from Gods benefits because he fell into carnall adultery so shall wee bee condemned also from Gods benefits if we fall into Spirituall adultery We shall finde the Lord a jealous God if his mercies move us not to keepe his Commandements Hence therefore it may appeare that the Vse assurance of Gods blessings that is the certainty of salvation is not the naturall mother of Presumption No that Bastard is filius populi presumption proceedeth from mans corruption accidentally and not necessarily from that sweet Consolation But if Blessings doe binde then are we bound to God in infinite bonds Remember that blessed uniting of the two Roses the white and the red Yorke and Lancaster Remember the uniting of the two Lyons in gold and gules England and Scotland By the first dissention the two Houses might have ruinated this Kingdome by the second the two Kingdomes might have ruinated this Iland had they not beene united Yet can wee not bee haled to Vnion in the Church but still we nourish a fatall dissention Remember moreover Gods blessings of protection in 88 God delivered us from water and in 1605 from fire And yet some of us love that Religion which hatched those hatefull machinations Consider his present blessings such a plenty for three yeares and such a peace for three score yeares as this Land enioyed not in three hundred before And yet remaine we unmindfull unthankfull Now that we may be sensible of this sin God withdraweth some of them This City doth see and the Country doth feele the abundance of unseasonable raine so that some cannot end their harvest and others cannot beginne their seed-time May not this be a prologue to a Famine Againe is it a small thing that we are almost universally smitten with the small poxe May not this be a Rabshekah the Fore-runner of Senacherib May not God tell vs by the small poxe that he hath a greater plague to smite us with To what end is all this Even to urge the same argument upon us which St. Paul here doth upon the Thessalonians that we be constant in our Religion Therefore by all those blessings ye have or hope for by those judgements yee doe deserve and may stand in feare of by the liberty of our Conscience and plentifull preaching of the Gospell by the famine of bread and famine of the word but above all By the comming of our Lord Iesus Christ I beseech you brethren Brethren I beseech you bee constant in the Truth of God And the God of truth make vs carefull cheerfull and joyfull to performe it SERMON II. 2 THESS 2. 2 3. That you be not soone shaken in minde or bee troubled neither by spirit nor by word nor by Letter as from us as that the day of Christ were at hand Let no man deceive you by any meanes The comming of Christ may not be defined The errours of the understanding cause terrours to the conscience Meanes to avoid errour Three fountaines of errour Of Enthusiasine Of the use and abuse of Eloquence Of false quotations and corrupting Authors Ten meanes of seducing to Popery THis Text and the former verse containe the short preface premised to the great point of Antichrist In that you heard by what St. Paul did disswade the Thessalonians by the comming of our Lord Iesus Christ In this you shall heare from what he disswaded them from an error concerning the comming of Christ In the text there are two generalls the Heresie and the Fallacy The heresie to which and the fallacy through which they were in danger to be seduced In each generall there are two particulars In the heresie their errour and their terrour The errour in the last words of the first verse as that the day of the Lord were at hand and their terrour in the first words of this verse that yee be not soone shaken in minde or troubled In the Fallacy observe it related in particular in the remnant of the second verse neither by spirit nor by word nor by Letter as from us and finally observe the fallacy repeated in generall in the third verse Let no man deceive you by any meanes The first of the five particulars is their Errour They thought the day of Christ to be at hand But say some those erre who call this an errour For St. Iames saith Iam. 5. 8. The day of the Lord draweth nigh◠and St. Peter 1 Pet. 4. 7. The end of all things is at hand If therefore
the Anchor of our hope against all Antichristian attemps Notwithstanding let us shake off securitie Let us watch and pray least we enter into that fearefull temptation Let us lift up our hands and our hearts unto God that amongst us Antichrist may consume til the Consummatum est That Popery may consume and wast away in our Land if it be his blessed will even till the second comming of our blessed Saviour Christ The instrument diminishing Antichrists tyranny is the spirit of the Lords mouth The interpretatioÌ„ whereof is faire without forcing delivered by Damascene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Damascenus 4 27. that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the spirit of his mouth that is by the word of his mouth saith Damascene The like phrase we read in Isaiah 11. 4. He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked The same phrase in the 4 of the Hebrewes and the 12. The word of the Lord is sharper than any two-edged sword And a two-edged sword to come out of his mouth is the description of Christ given by Christ Rev. 1. 16. Such a simily also do Interpreters raise from Revel 6. 2. He who sitteth on the white horse is expounded to be the Ministers who are said to have a Crowne the embleme of Victory and a Bow signifying the easinesse of his Victory the Lord will overcome his enemies a farre off and strike them by his Word as it were with a Bow without any labour Three reasons make good this exposition First Antichrist did attaine his Dominion by false expounding of the word therefore the true expounding of the word shall lessen and diminish the same Next he doth maintaine his tyranny by the ignorance of the word therefore the knowledge of the word shall diminish and discover the same And finally God doth use his owne mouth and not the hand of man his word and not the sword of Princes to consume the Adversary that the honor of that Conquest may be wholly and soly ascribed unto him Not unto us not unto us O Lord but unto thy Name doe we yeeld the glorie The sonne of David commeth against this Goliah not with a sword and speare and shield but in the name of the Lord of Hosts the God of the Armies of Israel whoÌ„ this man of sinne hath defied I will seale up the exposition of these words with the saying of our late learned Soveraigne Praemonition pag. 54. The word of God and the preaching therof is meant by the spirit of the Lords mouth which shall piece by piece consume and diminish the power of that man of sinne till the brightnesse of the Lords second comming shall utterly abolish him Here must I speake a little of that great question whether it be lawfull for Protestants to put downe Popery by force of Armes I professe my selfe to bee both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both a Peacekeeper and a Peacemaker to bee bound both to perswade and to practise Peace by a double bond as I am a Christian and as I am a Preacher I say therefore to take the proposition plainly It is unlawfull for Protestants to put downe Popery by force of Armes These are the arguments which perswade me 1 the phrase of my text doth teach us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 words not swords must bee the instruments to consume Antichrist 2 The same lessoÌ„ have our forefathers learned in the schoole of Experience their testimonie tells us of Henries and Frederickes of many famous Germane Emperours who have contended to breake the yoake of Papall Tyranny from their necks by their Armes but they have gotten nothing unlesse it were the changing of a wodden yoake into one of Iron by their warlike contention 3 I prove it à Pari Wee ought not to make Warre upon the Turke onely for Religion therefore neither against the Pope I conceive it unlawfull for any Christian Prince to invade the Turke upon the pure and sole title of Religion who hath interest in those territories jure belli by Conquest by the peoples submission and by a long possession Because the matter of faith and Religion neither giveth to any Prince nor taketh from any the proprietie of his temporall estate Barbarous Mahomet Ep. Morbisani ad Pium 20 had art enough to urge this argument against Pope Pius the second that he erred in exciting Cruciados to invade Turkie for said he ex lege ipsius Christi non potestis aliquem ad credulitatem compellere that is by the Law of Christ it is not lawfull for Christians to compell any to Christianity 4 Ab exemplo we have no such precept of Christ or patterne of the primitive Christians to propagate the Gospell by war gladio or is not ore gladij ever they did it by the word never by the sword 5 Ad hominem wee our selves condemne their Cruciados and Renegados the Popes inticing of Princes to publike invasion or of subjects to domesticall insurrection 6 Conversion by compulsion is not of Christian lenity Christ himselfe comparing it to the piping of children 7 All this I confirme with the sentence of our earthly King Iames on Rev. 20. Quaerunt impij persequntur fideles Fideles inquisitioneÌ„ persecutionem patiuntur that is the ungodly doe inquire for and persecute the faithfull but it is the propertie of the faithfull to suffer their Inquisition and Persecution and 8 with the saying of the King of Heaven Impij obsident fideles obsidentur the wicked are the Besiegers and the faithfull the besieged Rev. 20. 9. For never did the Lambe hunt the wolfe nor the Dove pursue the Hauke but the contrarie is continuall Therfore simply it is unlawfull for Protestants to put downe Poperie by force of Armes It remaineth then that we distinguish of the Persons moving the warre and of the reasons moving the persons The Person moving this warre must be Summus Magistratus a Soveraigne No subjects may take up Armes for propagating their Religion This indeed is objected by the Papists unto Monarchoâ—ach â—art 1. tit 6. Fraâ—in oratione habita Lovanij anno 1565. Melancton lib. Consil Evang. part 1. p. 314. â—ilson the French Dutch Germans and Suevians and indeed to all the Reformed that they reformed Religion by Rebellion Some answer they did take up armes onely se defendendo to save their liues from implacable violence Some that they tooke up armes against their fellow subjects who abused the authority and minority of their Kings Some that their soveraigne was not an absolute Prince but onely ex Abbot de Antic cap. 7. sect 6. conditione Some that those warres were managed jure suo non aliquo ecclesiae privilegio for the infringing of the fundamentall Lawes of those Lands not for any reasons of Religion Others render other reasons For my selfe I say I know not the Lawes of those Republikes nor the circumstances of
〈◊〉 the comming of the Lord which interpreters take for the last comming of Christ to judge the quicke and the dead mentioned in the Creed In this sense is this phrase used 1 Thess 2. 19. and 1 Thess 3. 13. the same signification is established from the epithete 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the brightnesse of his comming Which Saint Paul to Titus 2. 13. doth terme the glorious appearance of the great God So also is it expounded by Saint Augustine De Civitate Dei lib. 18. c. 4. The meaning then is Antichrist shall bee destroyed utterly at the comming of Christ unto judgment Concerning this great question the finishing and finall destruction of Antichrist I must speake both briefly and very cautelously For this point is future And prophetare non praesumimus nec de futuris contingentibus scientiam Dounam Derensis de Antichr part 2. Dem. 16. Sect. 1. assumimus wee neither assume to foresee nor presume to foretell things future contingent to come saith our judicious Bishop The destruction therefore of Antichrist being to come I cannot dispute nor define particulars thereof I disclaime all curiosities in this discourse I dare not wade so farre as some Papists who describe the very circumstances thereof For the Place Occidetur in Oliveto he shall bee slaine in Mount Olivet saith Hoveden The person slaying him Occidetur ab Archangell Raphaelc the Archangell Raphael shall be the Matth. Westm aetat 4 c. 16. Executioner saith their Sibyl in our Matthew of Westminster The maner Ascendente Antichristo Steuartius in 2 Thess 2. 8. per aera audietur vox Christi coelo missi morere confestim fulmine percussus interibit saith the Vicechancelor of Ingolstade When Antichrist saith he shall slye in the ayre there shall this voice be heard from heaven Morere Dye wretch in which moment he shall be shattered in pieces with a thunderbolt But these are groundlesse predictions and grosse contradictions to the truth therefore onely to name these fictions is enough if not too much Neither dare I follow some Protestants who are too confident in defining of Antichrists fal and finall overthrow Iohannes Aventrotus assigneth Iohan. Aventrot ad Regem Hisp pag 43. the Popes universall overthrow unto the very yeare 1621 experience hath confuted his over-confident conclusion Napeir doth precisely determine the utter destruction Napeir in Apoc. cap. 14. of Rome to fall out anno 1639. The Pamphlet set out under the title of T. L. is T. L. dedicated to Q. Elizabeth pag. 108. peremptory that the period of Antichrists reigne shall pitch upon the yeare of our Lord 1666 unto which hee maketh that number 666 Revel 13. to accord Learned Moulin is as punctuall The persecution under the Pope Peter Moulin Accomplâ—shment pag. 412. 250. shall have an end in the yeare 1689. And the Epocha and full point of his Hierarchicall Empire must be in the yeare of our Lord 2005. I dare not subscribe to any of these no nor to those who dare desine any time saying that Rome the Pope or Antichrist must be destroyed within such a compasse Prophetiae non intelligantur donec compleantur Time is the only interpreter of Prophecies We therefore who are before them cannot declare them In two words take notice of two things there is Romana sedes and Romana sides that is there is the Seat or possession of Antichrist and the Service or profession of Antichrist The last doubtlesse shall continue to the last day Papistry shall not utterly be extinguished but as the Text speaketh by the brightnesse of Christs comming But for the seat of Antichrist for Rome it selfe it may bee said boldly that that Citie shall have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an vtter subversion before that day Revel 18. 19. and 21. it is said there shall be a cry that in one houre shee is made desolate And an Angell cast a great Milstone into the Sea saying that with violence the great Citie Babylon shall be throwne downe and shall be found no more Which Babylon if it be a particular City Suarez doth acknowledge Suarez Apol. lib. 5. cap. 7. Malvenda de Antich lib. 4. cap. 4. that it can be no other than Rome And Malvenda more positively and pereâ—ptorily Non potuit manifestius Romanam urbem veluti digito demonstrari he saith that Saint Iohn doth as it were point at Rome with his finger Both concurring that there shall bee a fearfull subversion and finall eversion thereof So that the prophecie of Valerius Probus may be verified R R R and F F F that is Regnum Romae Ruet the Republike of Rome shall be Ruined Ferro Flamma Fame with Famine Fire and sword And Suarez seems to anticipate some Suarez Aâ—olog lib 1 cap. 5. num 5. such eveÌ„t by a suppositioÌ„ he maketh althogh he muffleth it up in a piè credenduÌ„ that it shal never be so posset particularis Ecclesia Romana deficere Episcopum suum abijcere that is the Pope of Rome may be forced out of the City of Rome It may be that old Iesuite did dreame of some new Prophecy answerable to our old Proverbe Avignon was Rome is and Toledo shall be The Summe is this The Papacy may be ruinated but Popery retained the pompe may be diminished extinguished but the profession of the Church of Rome shall remaine so long on earth as the Sunne doth in heaven The Text saith the man of sinne shall not bee utterly destroyed but by the brightnesse of Christs comming The Agent which doth use his Spirit to diminish and will use his brightnesse to finish the force and fury of Antichrist is the Lord. The Lord is the ordinary epiâ—hete of Iesus implying that that Lord is now our extraordinarie Saviour Hee did save us from our sinnes Matth. 1. 21. he doth save us from our enemies also from our grand enemy Antichrist The Lord doth consume and will destroy that wicked one saith my Text. At this time the Church christaÌ„ may truly be termed the Church militant And we may suppose us all as it were incamped in the valley of 1 Sam. 17. 2. Elah The Papists having pitched on the one side like the Philistims and the Protestants on the other like the Israelites They approach us in the guise of Goliah with Swords and Verse 44 45. Speares and shields to give our slesh to the fowles of the ayre and beasts of the field And we encourage our selves in that phrase of David The Lord saveth not by sword nor speare that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel All our comfort and courage against Antichrist is in our Captaine The Lord will consume him Alexander was so great a Captaine that Iustine Iustin hist l 12. reporteth three rare things of him First Cum nullo hostium unquam congressus est quem non vicerit He never sought battell but hee wonne the field Secondly Nullam urbem obsedit
one Professour of the Romish Religion was put to death for hearing their Masse or refusing our Church c. Mine eares and eyes have impartially inquired after these men but Gyges is revived this glorious Army of Romish Martyrs doth march invisibly not one precedent can be produced That parallell of Popish and Protestant Persecutions Ab. in Eud. c. 6. proposed by the Lord Coke is plaine and to the purpose In the five yeares of Queen Maries raigne three hundred Protestants were put to death onely for religion But under Queene Elizabeth and shee raigned forty and foure yeares not fully thirty were put to death and some five who concealed them and all for Treason not one onely for religion Where we distinguish of the Popish religion The plaine Popish religion which consisteth in those cases controverted betwixt the Romish and Reformed Churches as concerning Purgatory Pilgrimages Prayer for or to the dead c. besides there is a Gregorian Popery or the Papacy rather brought in by Hildebrand and borne up by the Iesuites concerning the Popes power over Princes Never did any die for the former For the latter these thirty did dye and meritoriously being therin ipso facto notorious Traitors And whereas Eudaemon maketh the objection in his Apology that wee make their meere points of Religion to be Treason as to bee made a Roman Priest to reconcile or to bee reconciled to the Romish Church to bring into our land Agnus Dei's Holie Beads c. The learned Bishop of Sarisbury doth Abb. in Eud. c. 6. render a full satisfaction in his Apologie who answereth that these also call not their lives into question dummodo per se sunt if they goe no further But when under the pretence of them the people were incited to rebellion the Crowne and Kingdomes hazarded then such persons were arrested and Suffered for Treason Which is most apparent both because many of Queene Maries Priests lived without any danger of death under Queene Elizabeth also because Hart Bosgrave Horton and Rishton learned and through Papists injoyed their lives in as much as they medled not with those publike affaires But the others who preached that the Pope had authority above the Queene in her own Dominions that the Pope had Authoritie to depose her that the Pope could give authority to her Subjects to take up Armes against her that those Priests did perswade the Papists not to take the Oath of the allegiance herein they became actuall Traytors and were put to death for palpable treason But for meere religion and plaine popery never did any one papist dye in all the raigne of Queene Elizabeth no nor of King Iames nor of King Charles neither Where then is extant that glorious army of Popish English Martyrs Thinke not now that these are single reports and that Baronius and Suarez are singular in charging our Church with persecutions You shall finde an Army of Writers who chronicle this Army of Martyrs The foresaid Suarez hath a large disputation in two Chapters An vexatio quam in Anglia patiuntur Catholici sit Suar. Apol. l. 6. c. 10 11. vera Christianae religionis persecutio that is Whether the vexation which the Catholikes do suffer in England be a true persecution of Christian Religion Malvenda saying that the persecutions Malv de Ant. l. 8. c. 1. which the Papists do sustain under the Protestants but under the English especially exceed all that ever Christians did suffer in the world before breakes out O Christe stupeo patientiam tuam O Christ I am amazed at thy patience Baronius in his Martyrology hath this Prosopopoeia Baron Mart. 29. Dec. Festo sancti Thomae Cantuariensis to Papists in England persecuted and martyred amongst us O moriatur anima meamorte Iustorum siant novissima mea horum similia O let my soule dye the death of the righteous and let my end be like to theirs Hath not all Europe talked of our English persecutions quoth Watson In the yeare 1621. The Papists put up a Petition to the Parl. 1621. Petition unto the Parliament pleading against their persecution But above all their Propheticall Psalmist who surely lived about the Gunpowder Treason In the first Psalme of the seven sparkes of the soule thus devoutly doe they pray to God and slander man Persecution followeth us like thuÌ„dring lightning The seven Sparkes of the soule p. 16. Fire Haile and Brimstone More cruell are our foes than Vnicornes More outragious then swift Tygers As David sought to death by Saul as the Israelites in the bondage of Aegypt As innocent Susanna in the hands of her Accusers As Daniel in the Lyons Den Such is our case O Lord. Can any English man understand this English Psalme when did England seize on the Papists like Tigers and Vnicornes What this obscure Psalmist speaketh to our God ChristophersoÌ„ Christ in Down ep Dedic speaketh somewhat more plainly to our King in his treatise against Dr Dounam What insolences and vexations are they constrained to endure And to omit the generality and severity of this persecution from which neither frailty of Sexe nor Lawes of Matrimony nor Nobility of birth can exempt any How many things lye hid and unkowne which would astonish and amaze the world if they were open to the view thereof Againe in the page following How many have beene beaten and tormented even to death in private houses without publike triall some Prentises in London can give good testimonies thereof And in the Treatise it selfe hee shameth not Christopheron part 1. c. 7. The Picture of which is in Oxens Library to avouch that shamefull shamelesse lye That some Catholikes have beene baited by Dogs in Beares skins That wee may therefore heare them utter their persecutions in plaine English let us passe froÌ„ these generall accusations to their particular instances Heare their complaint in two languages from two Authors these two alone doe I quote in this cause and Sermon which are not their owne yet their witnesse will be sufficient the one being the most learned King and the other the most learned Bishop of the world thus writeth that Bishop In Tortura Torti p. 152. Oxens Librarie Legenda illa c. In your Legend of our English persecution which is so frequent among you you may read and see the Pictures of English Papists some in the skins of beasts and torne in pieces by Bandogs others having Basins closed to their Breasts within which are mice inforced to eate into their intrals and others tyed to Mangers to eate hay or to starve The King hath the like in his conclusion to Christian Kings The Wals saith hee of their Monasteries and Iesuâ—te Colledges are filled and their bookes farced with the painted lying histories of the innumerable torments which their Martyrs are put to in England viz. some torne with foure horses some sowne in Beares skinnes and then killed with Dogs nay women have not
a tricke of an Harlot 1 Rog. 3. And to give unconsecrated Wine according to their phrase dead Wine in stead of the living blood of Christ unto the people whether this be a chaste act of that Woman of Babel I leave this conclusion to their owne confideration A fift instance is inferiour to none of the 4 former but is damnable beyond comparison and short of excuse this is Idolatry or Image-worship Consider how cautelous God is to prevent it how copious to reprove it how hee doth comparatively condemne it and plainly damne it Abundans causa God aboundeth in admirable caveats concerning the worshipping of Images in the fourth chapter of Deuteronomy 1. He doth propound the duty or inhibition in an exact enumeration in the sixteenth seveÌ„teeth eighteenth nineteenth verses Make you no graven Image nor similitude of any figure nor likenesse of male nor female not the likenesse of any beast that is in earth nor of any winged foule that flyeth in the ayre nor the likenesse of any thing that creepeth on the ground nor the likenesse of any Fish that is in the waters beneath the earth nor shalt thou worship the Sunne or the Moone or the Starres or all the host of heaven 2. God doth confirme this interdiction of Idolatry by five strong arguments First in the fifteenth verse from reason for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day the Lord spake to you in Horeb out of the middest of the fire Secondly from an unreasonable absurditie in the nineteenth that thereby they worship or serve those Creatures which God had divided or made servants to the world Thirdly a beneficio in the twentith verse Because the Lord had brought them out of Egypt from the yron furnace to be unto him a people of Inheritance Fourthly a servitio because God had declared unto them his Covenant which hee commanded them to performe verse 13. And finally in the 12 15 23 and 24 verses à supplicio Take heed animabus vestris as Master Calvin translateth it to your soules for God spake unto you out of the Fire and God is a Fire Praedictum cave how cautelous was God to prevent Idolatry Next he interdicteth the same in the second Commandement which is as large as eight of the other put together so copious is GOD to reprove it Thirdly when Samuel would brand that iâ—pudent iniquitie which causeth that double rejection both Active and Passive which causeth men to reject the Lord and the Lord to reject men hee calleth it Idolatry 1 Sam. 15. 23. Idolatry therefore maketh men reprobates and causeth their damnation And when Saint Paul would aggravate that sinne which maketh the way to heaven as narrow as the eye of a Needle he calleth Covetousness simulacrorum servitus Idolatry Idolatry therefore doth wholy damme up the way to heaven indeed a damned sinne Finally David denounceth their doome Psalme 97. 7. Confounded bee all those that worship carved Images Where I conceive the curse of God and confusion to bee little lesse then Damnation A damnable offence is Idolatry And this spirituall Adultery is like Davids corporall Adultery 2 Sam. 12. 4. It giveth occasion to the enemy of the Lord to blaspheme Both Turkes and Iewes justly reproach our Christian Religion for the Religious Adoration of Images Since therefore it excludeth others from Heaven and casteth the Authors into Hell I may call idolatry a damnable errour They wave this imputation of idolatry by Costerus Euchâ—r distinguishing of idolum and imago an idol and an image and in the image materiale formale the matter and forme thereof And againe that non in eâ honorem sigunt sed per eam transferunt in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is They doe not worship the image representing but the Saint represented I say their sophisticall heads may be cast into hel with those subtle distinctions in their mouthes without a drop of water to coole that tongue which shall frie in Tophet for blaspheming by blanching such idolatrie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall bee damned let them elude that also by a distinction Advantagious is this also to the Popish Church Idolatry is the Nebuchadnezzar of Rome and it may speake his phrase Dan. 4. 30. Is not this great Babel which I have built by the might of my power Philo Iudaeus relateth in the Temple of Hierusalem to have beene Trabem ex auro solido a Beame of massie Gold Image-adoration is such a Beame a golden Principall in the Church of Rome Shake it and the whole building will totter The Lady of Loretto bringeth much Tribute to the Lord of Rome and infinite other images by reason of their Ornaments Oblations Processions c. are Tagi are infinite golden Rivers issuing out flowing full spring-tides of Treasures to the Sea of Rome But it is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 St Iames his Fountaine 3. 11. Sending forth at the same fountaine both sweet and bitter water Idolatry and Image-worship is a profitable but a damnable assertion I will leade you no further forward in these instances but intreat you to reflect your eye backward and compendiously to consider the premises If a man may bee sure that hee may goe to heaven without the Scriptures without prayers with halfe CHRISTS Sacrament with a piece of Christs merits and plaine idolatry Then let him repaire to Rome the Romane Church will direct him But if an understanding man may suspect that the inhibition of the Scriptures the obscuring of Prayers the mingling of mans merits the mangling of Christs Sacrament and the very image-adoration forbidden in the second Commandement If an understanding man may suspect that these things may bee dangerous to damnation then let mee advise you not to take your faith on trust but to examine the Roman Religion Know moreover that this fearfull terme of damnation wee mutually lay at one anothers doores but with this difference The Papists charge us with damnation principally because wee have forsaken their Church Non Trident. Catech. in Artic. 9. enim ut quisquis primum in fide peccarit Haereticus dicendus est sed qui Ecclesiae authoritate neglectâ impias opiniones pertinaci animo tuetur that is Every person is not presently to be termed an Heretike so soon as he shall erre in faith but he that shall obstinately maintaine his wicked errours neglecting the Authority of the Church Or else they charge us with damnation consequently because they say we erre in one Article of faith On no such partiality or Niceity doe wee pronounce damnation against them Not because they are against our Church but because they are against the Scriptures because their positions have formall contradictorie syllables to the Scriptures and their practice the realty of abominable Idolatry And herein I submit my selfe to the severe law of Severus Si aliquis Duaraenus de Decimis l 4 c. 1. quis praepositum accusaret manifestis rebus probaret aut capitis poenam subiret