with their secret purposes haue no reason but in charitie to hope the best that in time they will become good Christians Yet in wisedome to suspect that being as it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither fish nor flesh Romane Catholicks in opinion in outward Acts of conversation Statists they will prooue no better in the end then Obnoxious that I may not say pernicious vnto the state What talke you fondlie of my Saints and Angels as though you knew what the spirits and soules of just and perfect men in heaven and those Caelestiall and Sempiternall Thrones Ephes 1 21. Dominions Principalities and Powers doe judge If they abhorr them it is because they are false-hearted Catholicks like your selues not because they conforme themselues vnto my Protestants As for me I will answere you as I did sometime the Pharises Ioh. 8.15 yee iudge after the flesh I iudge no man and if I iudge 16. this my iudgement is true This I say then yee reconciled Romanists ye haue cast away my Cognizance ye are not of my familie yee are my foes yee are the Church Malignant yee are little better then Infidels your flocke your fold is another and not mine your pastures your sheepheards are none of mine and if I returne your owne woords vppon your selues which you presse vppon your poore Schismaticall soules I am able to make it good Haue no confidence in vaine lying words say not in your harts we be catholicks ye are none ye are become like black a Moores brats like Egyptian elues Sentence your selues ye naughty seruāts For I must tell you plaine the Protestants doe weare my badge and liverie they are of my familie the true Church and fellowship of the faithfull how dare you call them persecutors who haue been so grieuouslie and tyrannously persecuted by your Church As that in those bloudie times of Queene Marie See Foxij Act. Clanum within the space of 4. or 5. yeares about 400. Martyres even for that monstrous Article of Transubstantiation haue felt the furie of your fire and sword And I must laie it to your charge On the other side they never haue done you any harme but onlie haue castigated by necessary justice the same tempered with exceeding great mildnes and moderation the audacious and horrible Treasons and Rebellions of your popish Sectaries of whome not one all the daies and Raigne of the late Queene or of the present King for his conscience and Religion onlie hath been put to endure any Capital punishment But contrary yours haue most tenderly carefully byn dealt withall by writing by preaching by other good meanes and vsage recalled if not reclaymed as wandring and straying sheepe into my pastures flocke and fold and vnto my sheepheards among the Protestants Surely they are the Church which I haue purchased with my own bloud They are my beautifull and beloued Spouse Apoc. 14.4 They are the Virgins vndefiled with jdolatry white and glorious are their garments because they are the Robes of myne own jnnocency and they are the Israell of God which I haue deliuered from your Aegyptian bondage Then those that joyne in heart with them are true Catholicks though not Romane Catholicks Happy are they that are syncerely cōming from among you vnto them And for the rest who onely make a shew of separation from you for feare of the world hauing euill in their jmaginations when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed I the Lord will iudge both them and you 2. Cor. 5.10 at the last day In the meane time speake no more I charge you of the supposed punnishments and calamities of the English Church and the yoke whervnder your obstinate and wilfull Catholicks are sayd to groane neither slaunder my Church of England any more with cruelty least I jncrease my justice vpon you and reward you double according to your deserts The false Embassador Schismaticks shall receaue Iudgement with Haereticks OVt of my sight whome to behold is my griefe the view of your deformitie I cannot abide As I did to Chore and his company c. And as in the day of Vengeance I will plague Hereticks and Infidels c. The Lord Christ WHat doe you rayling vpon my people in my name yet the time is not come that I will say to them or you or any Mat. 7.23 out of my sight the day of doome and Iudgement is the day of Depart from me ye workers of Iniquity In the meane time I jnvite in mercy all that will come vnto me while they are lyving here they may repent and come 2. Cor. 7.3 Now is the accepted time now is the day of Saluation he that now refuseth it in this world shall never find it in the next Yet a little while Iam. 2.13 and there shal be Iudgement merciles to them that despize mercie But the day and time of this mortality must first be past before I shut vp all compassion from them for I may call offenders Matt. 20.6 and giue them grace to come to me at whatsoeuer hower I will True Abac. 1.13 I am a God of pure eyes and cannot behold iniquitie In which regard let no man trust to much vpon my mercy and let these take heed how they joyne praesumption to infirmity and grieue my holy spirit Ephe. 4.30 wherby I seale vp all my chosen vnto the day of redēption And so I counsaile you and all men Yea remember you withall especially that as I did to Chorah and his confederates Num. 16.32 and all that remained within the compasse of their tabernacle as I haue done not only to Samaria and her Idols Ezech. 16. but to Ierusalem and her abhominations 2. Thes 2.16 As I will plague not only the known Hereticke and Infidell but the secret Hypocrite and dissembler also who for feare or friendshippe of any man departeth from me and mine with the like scourges of Scorpions as the rest and the vengeance of eternall fire so except ye also come out from the Sodome Aegypt and Babylon of your Adulterous Romish Synagogue because you loue to be partners with her in her vnrighteousnes you shall ere long assuredly be partakers with her of her Plagues for her judgement is not farr off In the meane time from henceforth I commaund you call not the blynd any longer out of the right way wherin they are about to walke challenge not your poore vnsetled Catholicks any more thus jdly and ridiculously as ye do of Apostasie from my holie seruice of impugnation of my Faith of adhearing to faction of yealding to furie of partaking in iniquitie of exhibiting reuerence to an vngodly sect and performing personall obseruance to an Adulterous Synagogue for ioyning with my friends the Protestants of England for as all these your slanderous raylings and odious blasphemies I vtterly abhorr so be ye certified that these are with me in farr better estimation and accompt yea whatsoeuer
I feare whatsoeuer it be For I am sure Consilia impiorum sunt fraudulenta The counsels of the vngodly are deceitfull Mat. 7.18 An evill Tree cannot bring foorth good fruit and a bad man can hardly haue a good meaning as the Lord said to the Pharises Mat. 12.34 How can yee speake good things when yee your selues are euill Wee will not doubt but the Iesuited Recusant is in his hart traitourously affected and waiteth onely for an oportunitie to be a Rebell When time and power should haue offered themselues we make no question but Captaine Buckland Priest would haue buckled vp himselfe and his harnesse to the battell and so will all that are of his minde to roote out the memoriall of English Protestants though it be by faggot and fier or famine or Sword or any other violent forcible meanes But thanks be to God we hope that long desired black and bloudy day dawneth not yet howsoeuer their many brauadoes and cracking threats may make perhaps some peoples harts of the weaker sort amongst vs to startle now and then within them A little puffe of a quick winde will easely raise a small billow in euery Riuer yet no danger of a storme at all And therefore not troubling our selues greatly with this pettie Captaines purpose though it were as it may seeme it was in this Embassage to strike vp an Alarum to an opē Rebellion of the Popish faction but trusting in him that keepeth Israell neither slumbring nor sleeping Psal 121.4 wee leaue his jmagined deuice and drift vnto himselfe and his associats to discloze or Cloze vp in their owne bosomes at their owne pleasure Only this wee aduise his so named by him Schismaticks that because they are Papists they would Correct their opinions and because no Schismaticks in Ioyning with our Church they would hold on their practise It may in time by Gods grace and good means reforme their hypocrisie and dissimulation wherewith they are charged whether Iustly or vniustlye themselues can tell best by this Priest Yf they haue a good meaning and are comming onwards to the true Christian faith they are in a right course to Ioyne with vs in our seruice and Churches If they stand resolute as yet in their superstitious deuotion Yet God may reueale the better parte vnto them If they be obstinate both Haereticks and Hypocrits and corrupt our people with their leven of Rome and Creeping into corners seduce the hearts of the simple either let them hearken vnto their owne priest or els Vtinam abscindantur qui perturbant nos Galat. 5.12 Would to God they were cut of that trouble vs. And so I come to the Embassage Wherein not to trouble our selues at all with his method beeing as I conceaue it nothing els but a bundell of goodly argumēts heaped together to perswade Schismaticall dissembling papists to become open and obstinate Recusants That only conclusion being the drift of his whole message Let vs followe him foote by foote and as he nūbreth them vp in order and so prawnceth forward in his running vaine and Rhetoricall trappings so let vs obserue the fowle and daungerous bogs of filthy Romish way wherouer he trippeth like a wilde Irish and as it seems would haue our Protestants who may light vppon his booke to runne and fall as being vnacquainted with such paths and Passages Wherefore our Cheife purpose is onlie to discouer those erroneous and Blasphemous Positions and Paradoxes which here and there he hath tumbled into his Treatise whereinto whosoeuer shall follow him of the Protestant flocke may plunge themselues as into popish and Impious bogs and gulfes before they be aware The rest of his Rhetoricke tending only to the perswasion of their Hypocriticall Crew to vnmaske themselues and to appeare in outward profession that which they are in inward resolution We let Passe as it were as not offensiue vnto vs wishing as well as he that no one of them would dissemble with God and the world but shew themselues in their owne colours that we might know by their pronunciation whether they be Gileadits or Ephraimits Iudg. 22.5.6 on our parts or on our enemies For if wee shall finde them hereafter to be onely Temporizers Cunning Machiauels vnderminers Vault-workers or the like because they are in opinion halting Israelites halfe-baked Ephraimits luke warme Laodiceans and the like wee shall hold it I trust a most iust and necessarie course to cut them of for notorious Hypocrits against God detected Traitors against their King and country Lastlie because this false Embassador hath been so bold to deliuer this Message in the name of Christ wee hauing greater reason in defence of the verie truth then he had of his Popish cause to craue the assistance of our blessed Lord and Sauiour doe most humbly intreat his heauenly Maiestie to Countermaund this Embassage as being forged in his name to controwle the follies falshoods and blasphemies thereof in his owne words Humbly crauing pardon of his Highnes Holines being most vnworthy to speake from so great absolute a Monarch though wee shall deliuer the message with no semblable wisedome integritie and perfection as may beseeme so diuine a Maiestie Therefore thus we proceed AN EPISTLE TO ALL Schismaticks TO you oh you miserable who straying from the pathes of peace runne as confidently forwards in darke and slipperie waies as if yee traced the steppes of truth and righteousnesse neither wandred one iot from the high way to salvation AN ANSWERE TO the Epistle OR rather to the Title if it be so much Vax faucibus haeret Manum de tabula For mee thinkes his tongue cleaueth to the roofe of his mouth Hath he taken so soone and sodainly his hand from the worke what is the matter doth griefe thrattle him his spirit burne within him either doth his memorie forsake him or his heart smite him Cannot Balaam vtter his parable because God will not giue him leaue to curse his people what motion what passion is this what Lethargie what Apoplexie possessed the braine of this Priest that beginning a sentence hee was not able to bring it forth Belike the Diuell ought him a fowle shame to trip him downe on the threshold cut off both his head and his hands here for both his wit and his fingers faild him in this entrance Or was it not the Angell of the Lord of hoasts that stood in Balaams way to forbid him nay to rebuke and controwle his conscience in this wicked course and Treatise and yet to suffer him to go on forward withall Christian Reader marke I pray you if this be not very memorable that this false Embassador is made to speake and not to speake to begin and not to make an end like a cravin Cocke that begins to crowe and stops vpon a sodaine To you oh you miserable c. What doth hee say to them Nay that is abrupted either by the failing of his memorie or by
stubbornlie to the superstitious Novelties of their late fore-fathers faith who haue departed from the rule of my Religion whereinto their first christened Ancestors were converted by mine Apostles and their Coadjutors And wherein all their godly Predecessors both vertuously liued and happilie died before the patcheries of your Poperie came in They haue a shadow and shew of some late praecedent generations but the soundnes of Antiquitie from the purer times and truly Apostolicall who so ever sifteth their Moderne faith shal find they haue not for all their great cracks and brags Tertullianâ— de praescript aduersus haereses See Iude. Vers 3. And so Tertullian the ancieÌ„t spake well in that Dominicum verum quod prius traditum extraneum falsum quod posterius immissum The truth of the Lord was first deliuered to the Saints but forraine falshood crept in afterwards The false Embassador THese are they which nourish the sparkes of that fire which I came downe to kindle on earth c. Recusants highly to be commeÌ„ded for their zeale The Lord Christ THey are not praise worthie that praise themselues 2. Cor. 10.18 but they whome I the Lord doe praise Now I doe not allow your proude vaunting of your selues I know your workes and your waies that they are full of wickednes and hypocrisie Are you the men that nourish the fire which I came downe to cause to burne on Earth Luc. 12.49 No no yee know not of what spirit you are Luc. 9.55 For with the furious fire of a blind zeale which burneth in your breasts haue ye not inveÌ„ted kindled a subterraneal sulphureous fire to quench the light of Israell in this Realme and all the goodlie shining lampes thereof to the everlasting memorie of your perpetuall all shame Then at that time did you shew how you doe maintaine and vphold that my Law Exod. 20.13 Thou shalt doe no murder How so ever you presume of the rest when you intended attempted the most barbarous The Gunpowder treason tyranicall vnheard-of and Satanicall destruction of King Queene Prince and all the States the beautie and honour of this Kingdome in an hower Oh yee sonnes of Balaam and of Balack yee bastard generation and yee monsters of Moab Let my people sing Faux of Moab is destroyed and brought to silence in a night Piercie Catesbie and the rest of Moab are destroyed Ier. 48.10 and brought to silence in an jnstant And cursed shall hee bee that doth the worke of the Lord negligentlie or vnfaithfullie and with-holdeth his sword from the bloud of all the brood of Moab when her time and judgement shall be come For doe you glorifie my name that glorie in such workes being sorie for nothing more Papists sorie that the Gunpowder treason tooke no better effect Luk. 5. â—2 Ioh. 2.25 then that it hath not taken your wished and prayed for effect Dissemble it no longer for I know you hearts Therefore shall you be dishonoured for ever and the jndeleble blot of your noted infamie shall never be put out you shall be known for a spotted and pestilent generation so long as the world endureth Goe to now yee stars in the night yee greene Bayes in the winter yee fresh fountaines in the Deserts No no yee know your titles in mine Apostle Iude ve 12.13 in the Gospell well enough Cloudes without water carried about with euery wind whiff of vaine jmaginations Wells and pits dryed in the deserts barraine fig-trees if yee be greene in the midst of Sommer when the Winter cometh corrupt trees twice dead and plucked vp by the rootes wandring Starres fallen out of the jnferior heaven for whome is reserued the blacknes of darknes for euer For to be short ye walke in darknes and know not whither yee goe flatter not your selues your own sectaries doe not beleeue much lesse do they confesse that ye do well and your vowed enemies my true and faithfull servants and friends the English Protestants long agoe haue learned of me to repute and range you in the rancke of those who stand assuredlie in the state of condemnation The false Embassador Schismaticks haue no part with Recusants neither are of the same Church WIth these you may wish to consort in conscience To partake in profession of faith Yee may in bare tearmes auouch as much but shall neuer with reason be able to make it good c. The Lord Christ IF they haue no part with you how happie are they If they consort in conscience and partake in profession of a false beleefe with you they haue no part in me no part in Heaven but they most justly and aboundantlie deserue vnto themselues the vengeance of eternall fire â—ome out froÌ„ Recusants yee staggering Papists If they will come from among you wholie both in conversation and in Religion and follow mee faithfullie with my true professors serving me nor in the oldnes of the Letter with a servile feare Rom. 7.6 but in the newnes of the Spirit out of thankefulnes in loue from a pure heart a good conscience 1. Tim. 1 5. and Faith vnfained comming out from the Babel of your Superstitions Atheisines and Apostasies let them never care for your defectiue and infected merites For the kingdome of Heaven belongeth vnto mee by a double right Enheritance and Purchase In the one Bernard I was borne vnto it in the other I haue perfectlie deserved it through obedience and sprinckling of my precious and meritorious bloud 1. Pet. 1.2 and I will giue it them if they can apprehend it by a true and liuelie faith Rom. 4.4 c Ephe. 2.8.9 2. Cor. 7.1 without regard of any other merite provided alwaies if they doe their best without hypocrisie to walke before mee in righteousnes and true holines all the daies of their life Ephe. 4. â—4 Luk. 1.75 But ye perverted Runnagates because ye are become perverse Recusants and the shameles Apostates of my Church of England returne I advise you returne into my fold els I must saie vnto you as I spake vnto the Pharisees of old how can yee escape the damnation of Hell Mat. 23. â—â— The false Embassador Schismaticks are not Catholicks ANd are you indeed aske the Recusant and he reiecteth you aske the Persecutor and hee imbraceth you not Aske the Saints and Angels and they abhorr you I neuer yet tooke you for seruant of mine c. The Lord Christ. YOur meaning is your miscalled Schismaticks are not Romane Catholicks What if that be granted are they aught the worse But let me heare the proofe Aske the Recusants aske the persecutors you meane the Protestants aske the Saints and Angels and you adde of me I neuer yet tooke them for seruants of mine What opinion Recusants carrie of them neither doe they greatlie neither will I that they should at all regard The Protestants finding theÌ„ in their pauilions yet not acquainted
the Nations who are baptized and professe Christianity therein are no offenders but being true as it is reported of many of them that they still are judaicall in opinion and that the vayle of Moyses is layd ouer their hearts in that I disclame and detest them as forlorne mis-beleeuers and my sworne Enemies So let euery one of yours either be as they professe vnfayned Christians Perfect schismaticks Schisma facere ab vnitate Christi aut in Schismate esse profecto malū est magnū malū nec omninò fieri potest vt Christus det Schismatico non fidem sed sacrilegum errorem aut in Christo radicem Schismaticus fixerit aut Schismatico Christus sit origo caput Aug. lib. 4. contra Crescon Gramm or professe as they are false-hearted and false opinionated Catholicks Schismaticks they cannot be that professe the truth in the Church They only are such who being runnagates and hereticks maintaine falshoods with personall separation from the Church Neither yet doe I allow them for good and faithfull Christians who would be so reputed and are not for they only are such whose opinion and profession agree togither in the truth that is who professe the truth in syncerity The false Embassador I Know Protestants cannot be of the Catholicke church neither in their faith can be salvation I know what it is that lyeth at your heart c. Yee are not perswaded forsooth that the Protestants Religion is so abhominable c. To take your selues for a particular Church is vnpossible for a headlesse multitude who haue neither Temple Altar Priest nor Sacrifice neither distinct members nor anyband of Vnion aswell you may thinke of going at the latter day neyther to Heauen nor to Hell as to thinke in this life a Newtrality c. Will you diuide my Church c. To say that Protestants may by their profession be saued c. The Lord Christ. OH ye wretched and wicked Priests of Antichrist I know well I know that my Church my Spouse my body mysticall my chast Turtle my Citie my Kingdome my Familie 1 Cor. 11.19 Mat. 18.7 the piller of Truth is but one For albeit in my visible Church there must bee Haeresies 2. Tim. 2.20 Mat. 13 24. c. Mat. 3.12 and Scandals for the triall of my chosen for that in my house there are vessels of honour dishonour in my field there is Corne Tares in my garner there is Wheat Chaff Mat. 13.47 Gen. 7.8 in my Net there is good and bad Fish in my Arke there are cleane and vncleane beasts Phil. 3.2 Rom. 6.17 and there will be alwaies some of whome it may be sayd Beware of Dogs Mat. 7.15 Act. 20.29 Marke them that make diuisions among you and auoyde them Beware of false Prophets Grieuous Wolues shall enter in among you Yet as vnto my chosen there is but one way Ioh. 14.1 One truth one life so they are all baptized by one spirit into one body 1. Cor. 12.13 Ephesi 4.4 c. For there is one bodie and one spirit euen as they are called in one hope of their vocation one Lord one faith one Baptizme one God and father of all which is aboue all and through all and in them all One sheepheard and one fold My Doue is alone Ioh. 10. Cantic 6. The company of my chosen is but one Communion of Saints partly triumphant in Heauen and partly militant on Earth But must ye therefore be that one Do ye take it for graunted that I will not yeeld you Nothing but begging of the Question How dare ye say in my name that they are blind and impious who imagine holines in the Protestants prayers or saluation to bee found in their Faith For I euen I pronounce vnto you their prayers are holie A true sauing faith and their faith is a sauing faith which ascribeth and acknowledgeth the sole and whole worke and merite of redēption and the purchase of Heauen vnto me alone And to say that by any other profession a man may be saued is indeed to make an other God and Summum bonum besides me and to make me none or euil or jnsufficient at the least which in truth ye prowde Papists doe Papists ioyne their own merits with the Death of Christ in the purchase of saluation in vaunting the merits of your owne defectiue and jnfected works as coadjutors to the purchase of Eternall glory with the obedience and sprinckling of my precious bloud as though I had not made a full and perfect satisfaction without your ayde or helpe But thus ye boldly and presumptuously diminish dishonour me and my all-sufficiently meritorious Sacrifice and yet ye malapertlie charge my true beleeuers of that fault whereof your selues are guilty Shall I not punnish you for this thing The false Embassador The perfect opposition and contrariety of Catholicks Protestāts IF on the other side you ioyne Caluinists with Catholicks in one Church then set together the Woolfe with the Lambe c. For asmuch as my dreadfull Eucharist is irrefragably beleeued by the one to be my true body c. Of other maine differences consider c. The Lord Christ THis generall opposition betwixt you Papists and my true professors the Protestants I doe allow prouided alwaies that yee are the Wolues the Lyons the Goshawkes and they the Lambes the Harts the Partridges and that your Religion is the surmized their 's the sure yours vnpossible their 's infallible yours newly reared by mans imaginations cherished for pollicie c Theirs founded by my selfe from the beginning vppon my selfe the Rocke What other Haereticks doe or how they injuriously reuile vpbraide as an Idoll teare spit at and treade vnder foote my dreadfull Eucharist What is that to these true Christians whome opprobriously yee call Hugonots Sure it is they for their parts most constantly and deuoutly beleeue my true body jmpute no jdle Manichean phantasie vnto them and the personall presence of my Deity in the Eucharist I know their faith Popish adoration of bread me they adore with due veneration though not the Element that representeth my true body Neither doe they commit such a mysticall and spirituall kind of murder and mangling of my body asye do who professe Papists feed corporallie they say vpon Christ when they feed on him in the Sacrament See Ferus in Iohn cap. 6. The number of Popish Sacraments howsoeuer in termes ye disclame it not only a spiritual but a corporall feeding thervpon brutish Cannibals as yee are As touching the other maine differences between them and you in the particulars Know yee that I neuer ordained the number of 7. Sacraments but onely Baptisme and my holy Supper your vse of Images I scorne and abhorr Images being directly contrary to the second Commaundement of my morall Law Thou shalt not make to thy selfe any grauen Image c. Act. monū
Foxe pag 130. though your Pope Adrian commaunded thē to be taken for Laymens Kalenders Inuocation of Saints your Invocation of Saints is a derogation from my glory which I will not giue to any other Esay 42.8 I neuer commanded you by any praecept I neuer invited you by any godly example I neuer incouraged you by any promise in my holy word to any such deuotion Your forgiuenes of sinnes by your Popes indulgences Indulgences and your selling of pardons is paltry trifling and prophane Marchandizing in my holy Temple Heavenly glorie What heauenly glorie do you dreame of that my faithfull Protestants beleeue not much better then yee are able Popish difference of jnfernall paines your difference of infernall paines I am not acquainted withall I know none but eternall fire prepared for the diuell and his adhaerents your temporall purgatorie flames are but poëticall fables Purgatorie a poëtical fable Iustification your Iustification of the liuing by faith and works together is partly coyned in your owne forge and partly raked vp out of the Pharisaicall pride Praier for the dead Your praying for the dead is bootles they hauing now their Iudgemēt passed on them as the day of death hath left them so the day of finall Iudgement shall finde them either blessed or cursed for euer No prayers now shall preuaile or hurt them any whit at all Popish faith hope charitie Moreouer your faith is a confused Confidence nay rather an jmplicite and vnknowne assent you know not vnto what full of distrust and diffidence your hope builded thereuppon must needs be hopeles and voyd of sound and heauenly comfort your Charitie to me is very slender and luke-warme like theirs once of Laodicea Apoc. 3.15 for yee loue your selues as well as me your owne merits you joyne with mine vngratefully diminishing my meritorious sacrifice and the price of my bloud Oh sinfull Nation supply yee my pure and perfect obedience with your owne foule and filthie righteousnes Is this your loue to me to pretend the purchase of heauen together with me thus to be ouer-enamoured of your selues Fie Fie I cannot endure a Co-partner with me in this great worke of Redemption and saluation Therefore your jmagined freewill to good your merits of congruence and of worthines where are they your fastings and prayers conceited and practised not onely as means but as meritorious workes of eternall life I hate and will surely punish as the fumes and fomes of the pride of your old Adam As for sinnc yee knowe not the power thereof that suppose any one to be veniall in it selfe being committed against so eternall and jnfinit a Maiestie as I am And what haue you to doe with my counsell and decree of predestination Predestinatiō Will you or can you infringe the infallible Certainty therof that ye teach men to doubt of my loue why doe yee not tell them rather that though they cannot choose but doubt by reason of their many 1. Cor. 15.58 and mighty sinnes which is humane jnfirmitie yet they ought to be stedfast and vnmoouable in their faith being builded on me Mal. 3.6 Pro. 19.21 Heb. 13.5 who am God and am not changed whose Counsell is immutable who will not faile neither yet forsake them that put their trust in me yea though they beleeue not without great weaknes 2. Tim 2.13 yet I am God faithfull and true and cannot deny myselfe Finally what meane you to adde vnto my canonicall scriptures the Apocryphall writings of Iudith Tobias Maccabees and others which I neuer yet allowed to be put into the canon Nay to thrust in your owne vnwritten Traditions and Papall constitutions to make them of equall authoritie with the same Nesanda secreta These your nefarious hidden doctrines I will haue cancelled and abolished I cannot abide that yee should goe a whoring after your owne imaginations Goe and learne what that meaneth In vaine they worship me Mat. 15.9 reaching for doctrines mens precepts And that vers 13. Euery plant which mine heauenly Father hath not planted shal be rooted vp Thus haue you in deed almost in the whole summe of Religion tossed ouer euerie stone reuersed the whole frame of faith and turned all vpside downe And therefore take you heed yee obstinate Recusants least your departure and diuision from my true Church be a more then sufficient warrant of your heauy Iudgement with Arrius Nestorius Eutyches I adde with Manichees Marcionits Pelagians and other old Haereticks in the bottomles pit for that you haue not in one point but in many varied from the christian faith The false Embassador How abhominable the Scriptures Prayers and Churches of Haereticks are CAluinisme then being doctrine so diabolicall c. Oh how illusion bewitcheth you c. Their profane bread c. Their Rites and Ceremonies c. As Fasts Holy daies c. Yea their Churches and Temples c. Bethel was my house c. The Lord Christ. SVrely the Scriptures praiers and Churches of Haereticks are not well pleasing vnto me They are abhominable Papisme therefore being the verie doctrine of deuils your popish Scripture as being none of my word Popish Scripture The Latine vulgar edition authēticke among the Papists very erroneous but the word of the deuill so false and adulterated so poysoned and full of corruptions as it is in your latine vulgar edition authorized by your Trent Councell oppugning vndermyning and overthwarting my true faith and Catholike Church I disclame as a counterfait coppie and renounce altogether as no writ of myne Popish prayers Your praiers also are no better in mine eares then the howling of Wolues that prey vppon the soules of men the lowing of Oxen and the roaring of Bulls screeching of Owles and Night-Rauens yelling and bellowing Infernall blasphemies against my sacred Maiestie in vnknowne and vnconceiued in loud bawling in discording from my heart both tongues and tunes Popish Priests Your priests are perfect Chemarims and Priests of Baal officers of the very Antichrist his heralds and proctors his Apostles and Angels of his Kingdome of darknes Popish Communion Goe yee and suck the adders Eggs lesse poysonable out of doubt then your Communion bread and cup. Popish Ceremonies Your Ceremonies are not few but most fantasticall offensiue both in their nomber and in their nature apish and plainly ridiculous jmitations partly of the Heathnish superstitions and partlie of those Rites which my heauenly Father sometimes ordayned to his people Israell Your fastes are fish delicates wine Popish fasts and other dainty fare farr more jncentiue of filthie Lust in pampering of the body then any other foode and your abstinence sometimes a feasting sometimes a most Pharisaicall and Hypocriticall sowring of your faces and other ostentation of will-worship in neglecting the body Coloss 2.22.23 not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh as myne Apostle paints it out
yea at the sacred Font. Now also away with your smoky tapers greasie candels to giue you light at noone day they are not able to enlighten you in your spirituall Darkenes I Commaund let your light so shine before men that they may see your good workes c. and to that purpose let my word be a lanthorne vnto your feet and a light vnto yours pathes my Commaundement is a lanthorne and Instruction a light Let these other lights alone Your Idle vestments and gay clothes your vessels also of your profanation put of leaue of and appeare no more like heathnish or jewish priests in my presence And in a word seeing this is all as I perceiue that you can except against the seruice of the Protestants namely because they doe not communicate with your popish paltry trash and Traditions whereafter yee goe a whooring as after your owne jnuentions let them alone to pray jncessantly for propagation of their reformed and pure profession no Sect I-wisse against the Turke and Pope together who are both my professed aduersaries 2. Thess 2.4 the one raigning without the other raging within my holy Temple No your Pope is not Peters true and lawfull Successiour The Pope hath forsaken the doctrine of Christ His personall succession could neuer yet be prooued either by doctrinall or personall Succession much lesse the Rocke of Faith Finally let their wals and pillers be still more and more witnesses of their jntegritie and just departure from your more then superstious apparently Idolatrous abhominations And seeing their ministerie is the more sacred vnto mee the Lesse agreement and conformitie it hath and holdeth with your old our rather new vpstart paltrie and patcherie and their seruice I doe and will acknowledge for mine owne let your poore Schismaticall soules as yee terme them joyne themselues to my holy Sanctuaries And I would not onely they but all the rest vnresolued that are mine would speedily make hast come out of your spirituall Sodome Egypt Babylon Leaue your dissimulation or feare or whatsoueer hindereth and become not onely in part but altogether such as are my faithfull Protestants I say Trouble them not to call them backe that are Entring into the old and good way but let my people goe that they may serue me Ierim 6.16 Exod. 7.16 The false Embassador You can say that Priests did in many parishes follow the new course c. Schismaticks vainely build vppon pernitious examples And why rather leaue yee not vnto the example of the Bishops c. Who vniuersally died in long and lingring imprisonment c. Oh but great presidents moue you and many wise fellowes c. Where haue these Pastors the key of knowledge whence fetch these Doctors their profound Learning The Lord Christ BY this time you should haue ended your pretended Message but I see false Embassadors as yee are what you cannot enforce by Arguments yee will attempt to perswade by wordes But haue you neuer read ◠Cor. 2.4 not in the perswasiue words of mans wisedome but in plaine euidence of the spirit and Power Yf your Demy-Catholicks held an euill course no reason they should build vppon examples either of parish Priests or learned Bishops or any great presidents or any wise fellowes Nullum carn◠exemplo nesas Seneca or whatsoeuer Pastors Doctors Counsellors or holy men For which of them confesseth not that no mans example is to be followed in sin But if Priests and great presidents and wise fellowes Pastors and Doctors yea but puny students haue gon before them in a right way to follow them it can be no fault but a praise rather Therefore vainely and Idly doe you make your comparison betweene the parish Priests and other presidents and puny students on the one side as Corruptest soules Carcases Carions the like and the Bishops whome you meane great as you say for learning Popish Bishops neither ouer learned neither vnkindly vsed by Q Elizab. and superiour function on the other Especially seeing those bishops had no greater measure of learning and sanctity then their great places nor so much neither as their waightie functions required But as for that jmpudent and shameles lye which you are bold to vtter in my name of their Imprisonment death I knowing the truth to stand otherwise jt is jntolerable and hatefull in mine eares For some of them were not jmprisonned at all See Tortura Torti pag. 146. some cōmitted to the custody of their honorable and louing friends some after an easie jmprisonment for their stubbernnes to the Prince and States exiled themselues and onely Bishop Bonner that bloudy persecutor of my Saints died in the prisō A notable Popishlie and slaunder So vntrue it is that they died vniuersally after long lingring imprisonment Though had it bin so as you haue declared yet their stubborn standing out against the Truth had bin no good president for those whome you blame or any other to refraine the companie or Communion of my Saints the Protestants The false Embassador Examples fit to be regarded by Schismaticks for their instruction WHy rather fix ye not before your eyes so many c. Yf things present please you not cast your regard vppon age past c. The Lord Christ Examples yee bring I see of three sortes ' The first of your owne false Catholicks The second of Certaine holy and good men mencioned some in the Apocryphall some in my Canonicall scriptures The third of the auncient Martyrs of the Church To what end forsooth to perswade further your Schismaticks as yee call them to withdrawe themselues from the protestants service and prayers But neither is this any message of mine vnto them For first the examples of the first ranke which you take and alleadge to bee the Martyrs and Confessors of your owne Church you mistake and misaply You mistake For they were and are Traytors to their King and Country Traytors are Martyrs and Confessors with Papists disloyall disobedient Subiects to his Iust lawes for their Treasonable practises manifest and obstinate breach of the Law and not for the conscience of their superstition haue bin and are according to iustice yet with great mercy both put to death and imprisonned Yet are they not many much lesse multitudes in comparisō of those valiant Christians whome the persecuting Tyrants on your side haue murdered jmprisonned and many waies afflicted In the raigne of Queene Mary Popish Tiranny in the space of foure or fiue yeares Therefore these examples ought to haue bin spared in this place as being misapplyed For would you haue your Ambiguous or Ambidexter priests to follow them in open profession of their disloyall practises against their naturall Prince and natyue Country But the other of the second order viz. Tobias the Israelits the seauen Brethren Eleazar Maccabeus also Peter Paul Saint Iohn are indeed in themselues the more remarkeable and worthiof all
confesse to Saluation But they giue not my glory to another that goe to Protestant Churches yee doo that adore and worship jmages Crosses and crucifixes The rites of Protestants are not heathnish but few and easie and significāt yours of the Romane Synagogue are borrowed both from Iewes and Heathens as I haue told you before and a mightie multitude both Idle and cumbersome for nomber and for nature Their Conuersation that haue society with English Protestants js with faithfull Christians yours that are Romaine Catholicks is with Antichrist and his adhaerents Now then I commaund and Charge you all the sort of you Christ Iesus calleth not the wauering Romaine catholicks from the Protestāt Churches Companies to speake no more to your fellow Catholicks after this fashion in my name For I the Lord the omnipotent Creator haue not thus called them from among the protestants But I exhort and warne them rather to follow their faith because it is the faith of truth that faith also to beleeue in heart that they may be justified and that Faith to Confesse with mouth that they may be saued As for you you proud flesh and bloud neuer cast vpp an jdle and presumptuous accompt of merit added vnto merits yours or theirs or any mans to mine which will neuer verely I say vnto you amount to any sume of Felicitie mine owne beeing onely and altogether al-sufficient to that purpose The false Embassador Schismaticks violate the law of nature by going to the Protestant Churches And what if I had not in such expresse wise prescribed your duty doth not the light of reason the Law af nature c. Which faileth or falleth in one point of faith be fully guilty of Infidelitie c. The Lord Christ NO it doth not teach your Catholicks who are with Protestants any such thing viz. to cleaue firmly to their Popish faith and Religion for that is stubbernly to persist in error and to embrace in deed a strange and false faith and irreligious proceedings But what one argument bring you to proue that the lawe of Nature herein is violated Are you so jmpudent to alleage Propositions in my name and bring no proofe at all or do you goe about to prooue it thus He which breaketh one Commaundement is guiltye of all and a violater of Charitie ergo hee which faileth or faulteth in one point of Faith is fully guilty of Infidelitie and so by consequent violateth the lawe of nature The first assersion I graunt is mine owne in myne Apostle Iam. 2.10 if you vnderstand it aright But this latter thus inferred is your paradox For if he which faileth or faulteth in one point of faith be fullie guilty of jnfidelity that is must needs be charged and taken for a meer jnfidel then not onely all haereticks and you Papists who faile in many poynts of Faith but euen all true Christians and good Catholicks must be condemned so to Cor. 13 9. seeing they all know but in part and prophesie in part and so must needs faile in one point of Faith at least euen that which is hidden from their knowledge whereto they cannot for that cause yeld any manner of assent no man consenting vnto that which in his knowledge he doth not apprehend at all And thus ye Condemne by this Paradox all the world and namely all Christendome and your owne Romane Church for jnfidels nay fully guiltye of jnfidelitie and so there are no beleeuers at all by your doctrine There is no Church no Faith No Truth no Gospell no Christ no God among men Heere I must tell you also Though in some sence hee that is fully guiltye of jnfidelitie that is that beleeueth no one poynt at all of god or godlines as he ought Tit. 1.15 his very minde and Conscience is defiled and so the light of reason and the law of nature is violated in him Yet those famous and Renowned Paragons among the heathens Trismegistus Pythagoras Socrates c. Cato Aristides Scipio and many others of that ranck for their great and Admirable learning profound politick wisedome and worthy morall vertues were neuer-thelesse verie great lights and had the light of Naturall reason shining in them gloriously concerning many secular and ciuill affaires and liued in many things agreeable to the lawe of Nature How be it concerning Spirituall and heauenly things yea the true knowledge of God they became vaine in their Imaginations Rom. 1.21 and their foolish hearts where full of Darknes and in that might they be sayd to be fully guilty of jnfidelity because they knew not God the Father in me his only begotten Sonne Iesus Christ So that Iohn 3.18 26.8.9.10 17.3 some may be fully guilty of jnfidelitye and yet not violate the law of Nature Wherfore be not so rash hereafter I aduise you to proiect your Paradoxes in my name do not challenge them for partaking with haereticks that goe to protestants neither say any more that your Church your Faith your Sacraments are myne as ye doe For I will not acknowledge them yee doe me jniurie The false Embassador Heresie persecution purposely permitted of God for tryall of mēs hearts I Foretold while I conuersed on earth that heresies of necessitie must be for the triall c. The Lord Christ. True it is I foretold of Haeresies for the tryall of my Saints But are ye Romanists therefore the vniuersall Church No. yee know and allow my seruant Austen answering the Donatists of his time Augustine Africa non est orbis Therefore I say also vnto you The Synagogue of Rome is not the vniuersall Church And do Protestants and their followers preferre their owne Imaginations before it I tell you nay but yee Papists doe and run a madding after your owne jnuentions and Apostaticall Traditions closed and clasped vp in the bosome of your Pope Luc. 12.51 What though I forwarned that I came not to send peace but separation meaning not that I doe loue or bring diuision and strife among men but that many whose hearts my selfe haue not reformed are and wil be euer so bad and obstinate in their euill opinions and wicked wayes wilfully disobeying my Ghospell that they will gaine say and oppose their owne parents Children Princes Subiects Maisters Seruants wiues Husbands Brethren Kinsfolks and Friends that professe my name yea and will raise vp bitter persecution against them But I had no meaning to teach Children or seruants or Wiues or Brethren or friends disobedience and disloyalty against their Parents theyr Maisters their Husbands their Brethren their frinds much lesse to foster treasons in a state to raise vp mutinies and rebellions to arme naturall subiects against their naturall Princes and to practise the ouerthrowe of their Coūtries for the pretended catholick cause These are diabolicall suggestions and actions of Sathan my sworne Enemie wherewith yee Romanists are too too much acquainted The false Embassador ARe yee Christians and think your selues excused