daughter the Church of Rome hauing bene courteously enterteined ennobled enriched and exalted by diuers deuout Emperours vsing the aduantages which by little and little she gained partly by temporall greatnesse which then shined faire vpon her partly for that I had often good vse of her helpe in the midst of my troubles and garboiles which heresies brought vpon me wherein she stood me in good stead by procuring mee fauour and countenance of Catholique Emperours as also by the credit and reputation she had abroad froÌ„ those great Apostles S. Peter and S. Paul which were her fosterers and breeders vp yet she I say impudently abusing all this did about a thousand yeeres agoe enter into a bold rebellion against me not vouchsafing to remaine still my daughter nor acknowledging me for her mother in any wise but seeking to make herselfe my mistresse and to domineere ouer me But most of all about 550. yeeres after since the times of that firebrand Hildebrand and since the totall ruine of the Romane Empire this daughter of mine being high-growne in greatnesse and pride as shee began to withdraw her necke from the yoke of a temporall Lord who with his rod might hold her in obedience to me so would she needs also abandon her due place which she held with me of being a member of my body from which she rent herselfe by an horrible schisme and disdeyning to bee a member of it would haue no nay but perke aboue me and make herselfe my Head by tyrannicall vsurpation And whereas first according to the appointment of my Spouse she should receiue life and vigor from me as euery member of the Body doeth from its coniunction with the whole as being a part thereof she by tearing herselfe off from being a member to put forward for the Headship hath instantly lost all that spirit and vigor which euery particular Church partaketh with and from mee Cypr. de vnit eccles euen as branches deriue their vigor from the roote streames from the fountaine and beames from the Sunne which is S. Cyprians comparison And moreouer she hath bene so bold with me as to dispoile me of my robes and ornaments and to rob me of my proper name and now shee she onely must be stiled the vniuersall Church the Catholique Church the mother of the faithfull the pillar of trueth the Spouse of Christ c. Behold therefore here an infamous and dreadfull rocke For whosoeuer abandoneth me to cleaue to her hee is out of the Arke of Noah he not hauing me to his mother Cypr. ibidem hath not God to his father Whosoeuer is a follower of that tyrant which vsurpeth my dignity and trampleth downe my authoritie he certainely followeth not Christ my true Spouse but Antichrist No Church can be vnder Christ vnlesse it be first vnited to me and all Churches that enioy the graces flowing from Christ doe partake them by my meanes and so farre forth as they are my daughters and limmes growing vnto me who am the Body of Christ Therefore the Romane Church inasmuch as a daughter or member she will not be and mother or Head which faine she would she cannot be betweene both sure she hath no part in me And whosoeuer danceth after such a schismatical and rebellious ring-leader must needs himselfe be a schismatique and rebel and who so followeth the vsurping Pope must engage himselfe to beleeue euery falshood and fiction that is thrust vpon him and so shall be sure to tumble downe headlong after such a guide Thus the Papacie sheweth it selfe to bee the grand and most dangerous rocke of all the rest against which so many poore Christian soules daily dash themselues And so much for this mother-Rocke The rest I shall passe ouer more briefly ¶ The second Rocke Temporall Power SO farre haue my Churchmen bene puffed vp with Ambition that they haue not onely claimed but also professed and exercised temporall power in many meerely ciuill and temporall affaires challenging to themselues as in my right a power ouer Clerkes to imprison and banish them and to inflict reall forfeits and corporall paines vpon them yet can none of my Prelats pretend for any power otherwise then as the same belongeth to mee And I for my part from my conscience confesse that I haue not receiued from my Spouse any the least temporall power concerning any temporall affaire whatsoeuer but all the power I haue is wholly and meerely Spirituall For the end whereto I am ordeined being wholly and onely spirituall namely to guide the soules of my children vnto eternall blessednes which is supernaturall and spirituall it followeth that all the meanes which I am to worke by must be of their owne nature Spirituall and supernaturall and therefore mine owne and proper power can extend it selfe no further then to things Spirituall onely My Lord Christ himselfe what other power did he exercise then meerely Spirituall Did hee euer thrust himselfe into any temporall affaire S. Paul saith that Those that are set ouer my children Heb. 13.17 are to watch ouer their soules and to render accompt of them My care therefore properly and wholly concerneth mens soules As for their bodies and bodily or ciuill affaires they haue other gouernours namely temporall Princes The same S. Paul saith also that No man 2. Tim. 2.4 that warreth vnto God entangleth himselfe with the affaires of this life Moreouer by the ioynt acknowledgement of my holy doctors it is manifest that my employment is wholly and onely in cure of soule which also is not denied by diuers the most renowmed Bishops of Rome as Hormisda Epist 21. Gelasius de Anath vinc Epist 10. Symmachus in Apologet. Nicolas the 1. Epist 8. And why I pray you is my power described ordinarily in holy writ by the name of a Chaire â—â—â—th 23.2 but that it consisteth in teaching and directing this power of mine being principally instructiue and doctrinall Christ said to his Apostles Luke 22.25 that The Kings of the Gentiles exercise Lordship ouer them But ye shall not be so thereby inferring that it belongeth not to the officers of my family to exercise dominion or ciuill coactiue iurisdiction S. Hierome saith that Kings rule ouer men Hieron ep 3. will they nill they but the priest ruleth onely those that are willing to be subiect to him The reason is for that it is not in my reach to enforce any man S. Chrysostome very well saith of me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys hom 3. in Act. Apo. that I cannot impose any thing by authoritie that is in such maner as pretending power to compell others to obey me True it is that religious and deuout Princes to doe mee honour and for my sake to vouchsafe some priuiledge to my officers haue afforded mee the fauour to haue the exercise of a certaine ciuil and criminall Iurisdiction ouer my owne Ministers but such grants as these are at the courtesie and in the liberty of the
open neither vntill they come vnto my notice and yet these men would most fondly inflict actuall punishments for faults vnreuealed to them and vpon Delinquents vtterly vnknowen Let no man therefore bee afraid of these Excommunications iniure although they bee ipso facto vpon the very deede or latae sententiae vpon the generall sentence which is an errour nor is it possible that such Excommunications should worke ipso facto neither doth God hold any man for excommunicate vntill hee be namely bound and actually excommunicate Let euery one bee affraid of sinne though neuer so secret and let him looke for punishment from God but let him not feare any excommunication of mine vnlesse it be actually brandished out against him by his lawfull Prelate and that vpon good cause nor can this third Excommunication otherwise worke any whit vpon the soule Moreouer I aduise you that if a Prelate excommunicate any of you and that vpon iust cause for some offence deseruing excommunication if he doe not either by word or deede declare with which of these three Excommunications he doth strike you this his excommunicating though it be speciall and actuall is either none at all or at the most it is to bee vnderstood of the second and not of the third Neither can that stand which the new Canonists auouch that by the indefinite name of Excommunication the greater is to be vnderstood For they confound the second with the third which notwithstanding are most different one from anothers and they would haue the second to bee the greater because it taketh away Ecclesiasticall conuersation from the excommunicate party It must be vnderstood therefore of the second but as not amounting vnto the third which third is the true Excommunicatio maior the grand excommunication For it is true that in the later the former are included but not the later in the former Besides this you are to vnderstand that by my rules taught me by my Spouse none of these Excommunications especially the third can be of force but when the crime is grieuous publique notorious and very scandalous and such as giueth first very great offence to God and moreouer much scandall to the Church And hee that is cleere in his owne conscience and knoweth that hee doth not offend in the sight of God and that the act for which he is excommunicated especially by the Excommunication in iure onely is not of it selfe abhominable nor repugnant to Gods Law let him neuer feare any excommunication at all as making him guilty before God Whilst therefore a Prelate commandeth or forbiddeth any act of its own nature indifferent which is neither commanded nor forbidden by the word of God and imposeth this his command vnder paine of Excommunication you may laugh in your sleeues at it For the not obeying a Prelate in such things as in their owne nature are indifferent seldome amounteth to a mortall sinne and though it were mortall yet it is not such as can deserue the third Excommunication And so when you heare Excommunications thundred out for reading of bookes for not paying of pensions for punishing Priests and wicked Friars according to law with ciuill punishments and such like causes you may take such Excommunications to be made in iest and neede not bee afraid of them for I hold them to bee nothing worth neither was it euer my mind that this sword of mine should euer serue the turne either for temporall affaires or for the priuate ends of my Prelats Take also this with you which is one of my principall ordinances concerning Excommunications that none can excommunicate any other then those that bee in proper subiected to him and of his Diocesse And so the Bishoppe of Rome cannot excommunicate those that are out of the Diocesse of Rome And whosoeuer excommunicateth any that are not subiect vnto him his Excommunication holds not and in this case the Popes thunderbolt is of no more force then that of the Bishop of * A pety Bishopricke in Italy in the dominions of Venice Caurole Indeede any Bishop vpon great cause may deny to another Bishop his communion that is his communication and brotherly complying and spirituall correspondence So also may any particular Church deny its communion to another and this may bee called a fourth kinde of Excommunication but it hath no operation vpon the soule nor is exercised with any power or iurisdiction of one Church ouer another and the action it selfe is meerely negatiue not positiue nor operatiue namely when vpon euidence or deepe suspicion of anothers spirituall corruption mutuall correspondence is shunned And yet in this sort of Excommunication there is very great danger inasmuch as vpon it foule turbulent schismes doe ensue This Rocke as you see becommeth very dangerous vnto you whilest it makes you stumble vpon feares and terrors which withhold you from many actions that would bee profitable and commodious to you and also it maketh you run headlong into the actions of blindefold obedience whence indeede commeth your ruine seeing they will not suffer you to walke in the high-way of your saluation but amuse you in the by-wayes of eternall perdition and hold you in subiection to an Idoll and to him that would haue you deeme him a god vpon earth ¶ The fift Rocke The Commandements of the Church THis is a very great Rocke or rather a maine Sea of Rocks and shelfes heaped vp together and appointed for the spirituall ruine of you my deere Children The ambition of Popes hath hitherto vsurped a Law-making power through my whole family and would haue me bound vnder paine of mortall sinne to obserue their lawes Verely it belongeth to mee in my Synods and Councels to set down certaine practicall rules concerning rites and outward worship which rules are nothing else then certaine good directions and publique instructions requisite and necessary for the establishing of good order for the preuenting of confusion and for the increase of piety But I neuer pretended that they should haue the very nature of lawes but onely of good ordinances and therefore my will was to call them Canons that is to say Rules but not Lawes nor Commandements vnlesse I procure the secular power to giue them the force of lawes From which secular powers Christ hath not freed either mee or any of you as hee hath freed vs from the legall Ceremonies and from the yoake and burden of that law which beeing no part of the Decalogue perteyneth to the gouernment of the soule there yet remayning most full power in Princes and Magistrates as farre as concerneth temporall gouernment whereto all the sort of you are subiect not onely by constraint and for feare but also for conscience-sake as Saint Paul instructeth you True it is Rom. 13.5 that there is also an obedience due vnto the spiritual Ouerseers but this is to be vnderstood of following their good instructions in matter of faith and concerning Christian life Neither was it the minde of Christ to
Peter was ordained by Christ an vniuersall Pope ouer mee yet what hath the Bishop of Rome to doe with St. Peter The holy Scriptures giue-in no euidence at all that euer Peter was at Rome Onely humane histories report it And as for diuine Records they plainely shew that he departed not from the coasts of Iudea till the fiftieth yeere of our Lord. Thereafter wee finde in the Ecclesiastique histories that before his going into the West Hieron in Pet. hee preached the Gospell in the Easterne parts in Pontus Cappadocia Asia Bythinia c. for the space of diuers yeeres and that hee suffered martyrdome in Rome about the sixty eight yeere of our Lord. It is not possible therefore that he could haue bene Bishop of Rome so long as fifteene yeeres much lesse twenty fiue Which space of time is very vnaduisedly assigned him by some passable ancient writers But to omit these arguments from computation suerely neither Saint Peter nor any other Apostle was euer made Bishop of any particular City whereto his seat might be entayled by a perpetuity This is repugnant to the very office of Apostleship which was by Christ their Chiefe Lord instituted an order of professed errants throughout the whole world when he gaue them their commission Matth 28.19 Mar. 16.15 to Goe and teach all Nations and to preach the Gospell to euery creature that is to say to all men wheresoeuer throughout the world They had no power therefore to fix themselues on any particular place nor to binde themselues to it but their duty was to attend the enlargement of my tents Act. 1.8 beginning from Ierusalem to the vtmost parts of the earth and when they had founded any particular Church and vnited it to me the vniuersall Mother they were then to passe on for new plantations Who therefore is so hardy as to coope vp Saint Peter at Rome and to binde him to a particular Bishopricke there till the day of his death And if hee finished his course at Rome certainely hee died not with the title of Bishop of Rome but of an vniuersall Apostle For neither that nor any other See could be chosen by him as proper to him beeing by his function and calling to passe to and fro through the world But if hee ended his life in any heathenish place where as then there was no Church planted who then was to be his successor in the Papacie It is therefore a groundlesse and idle assertion to name personall successors to any of the Apostles whenas none of them all was a locall Bishop for as for Iames Bishop of Ierusalem Constit Apost lib. 6. c 14. Doroth. in synopsi c. hee was none of the twelue Apostles but a Disciple beside that number and therfore all Bishops succeed all the Apostles in Solidum that is to say euery particular Bishop whatsoeuer hee bee holdeth the place and office of the Apostles who by Christ's institution committed their charge and office to the Bishops and those to other Bishops and so to others by continuall succession till the end of the world and that by vertue euen of those words of Christ to the Apostles Io. 20. As the Father hath sent me so I send you That is to say As the Father hath giuen mee power to send you soe I giue power to you to send others and to giue them likewise the same missiue power which I giue you and the Father hath giuen me And hereupon it followeth that euery Bishop in respect of the diuine institution hath the very Apostolicall power that is vniuersall in habite or generall qualification which he is enabled to exercise actually in any part of the world But in regard of my restreining precept for the auoyding of disorder and confusion there are long since limitations set downe and particular distinctions of euery ones Diocesse Now therefore when as there is no personall succession vnto any of the Apostles who can fetch his claime from Peter who from Iohn who from any other of the Apostles Nay if such plea were good there could not bee aboue 12. or at the most 13. Bishops in the world And to afford personall succession to Peter onely with deniall of it to all the rest is to beate the aire with idle words and to goe against the Scriptures Certeinely for a thousand yeeres and more I neuer heard in all my family from the mouth or penne of any pious and holy Author that the Bishop of Rome was acknowledged for an Vniuersall Pope Indeed the Bishops of Rome themselues haue endeuoured to make me an vnderling and to put me vnder their feete and to make themselues my Head and Lord and Master with great wrong to my true and onely Head Lord and Spouse CHRIST IESVS but they haue long attempted it in vaine For they haue met with stout oppositions St. Polycrates a most holy Bishop of Asia did strongly oppose S. Victor B. of Rome S. Irenaeus B. of Lions did the like and this befell neere the times of the Apostles Cypr. l. 1. ep 3. l. 3. op 13. Apud Cypr. ep 74. Pamel S. Cyprian beareth himselfe as a companion and Colleague with S. Steuen and S. Cornelius both Bishops of Rome euen in the Vniuersall gouernment of the Church and spareth not to hold his owne against them S. Firmilian B. of Cesarea in Cappadocia handleth the same Steuen of Rome very homely and setteth nought by his excommunications Euseb l. 7. c. 4. Iulij Epist. ad Orientales Socrat. l. 7. c. 5. Sozom. l. 3. c. 5 c. The Church histories are plentiful in shewing how lightly S. Iulius though B. of Rome was ouerpassed by the Bishops of the East and by the Councell of Antioch which for the more part of it was Catholique and Orthodoxe for no lesse matter then that he would make himselfe an Vniuersall Iudge euen in the causes of the Easterne Church and yet in the end hee was faine to sit downe and be quiet The Councell of Nice acknowledgeth not the B. Con. Nic. can 6 of Rome for any other then one of the three then Patriarchs who had their limited iurisdictions so also doeth the first Councell of Constantinople and the Councell of Chalcedon None of the ancient fathers my dearest children for the space of 600. yeeres together hath any the least impression of the Romane Papacie by whom the B. of Rome was neuer taken for other then at the most for Patriarch of the West The Africane Church in those dayes one of my most noble daughters affronted the Romane Church and would not in any wise that she should exercise any power ouer her in the ordering of the Ecclesiasticall policie and went so farre as in open Councels to resist her in which euen the renowned S. Augustine bare his part The like hath bene many times practised by the Churches of Rauenna of Aquilege of Milan And S. Gregory in opposing the title of Vniuersal
grantors And yet hereupon my Prelats cary their heads too high and lay claime to exempt from the ciuill Magistrate all Clearkes and Monkes with their very hangbyes and lickspits And this Rocke is very dangerous euen to my Clergy themselues who not onely are heereby emboldened openly to disobey the Magistrate in his ciuill gouerment but also hide vnder this cloake of exemption a foule heape of heynous sins and enormities liuing as they doe debauchedly and without feare either of God or of the ciuill sword the execution of iustice in such cases by my Ministers being either too too gentle slacke and sleepy as it is ordinarily or on the contrary sometimes too cruell bloudy and barbarous This Rocke is so much the more harmefull and dangerous in that the Bishops of Rome cloaking themselues with my mantle thereby make pretension to mount aboue Princes Kings and Emperours and to bee iudges ouer them arrogating to themselues authority to ouerrule them at their pleasure in their ciuill gouerment and in their lawes nay moreouer to depriue them of their kingdomes and free their subiects from their bounden duty and oath of fealty and this not onely in case of heresie but vpon any other occasion which the Popes in their humor shall conclude to be important and sufficient An horrible and abominable pretension and altogether contrary to the law of God This Rocke surely is founded by the Diuell himselfe wherat so many of my children split themselues and for the maintenance of the Pope's ambitions forfeit their goods honours fame liberty life and soule By this hellish pretension rebellions are raysed vp in Kingdomes infamous and execrable murthers of Kings are plotted the peace of the whole world is troubled brutish enormities are committed and all this springeth only from Papall ambition It is most certaine and notorious that by the law of God and of nature expresly confirmed in the holy Scriptures euery one ought in conscience vnder the guilt of most heynous mortall sin to obey his lawfull Prince in matters concerning the ciuill estate whether the same Prince be good or euill Let euery soule bee subiect to the higher powers Rom. 13.1 1. Pet. 2.18 Bee subiect to your Masters not onely to the good and gentle but also to the froward And for certaine I neuer receiued any power to disanull the bond of God's lawes Whence therefore hath the Pope gotten such power that he presumeth to disoblige subiects from that naturall bond which tyeth them to be entirely subiect to their lawfull Prince in ciuill maters and those things which concerne the temporall gouerment It is a meere gull foppery that hee should pretend to depose Kings from their thrones and depriue them of their crownes and in this wise to let loose their subiects from their obedience whenas without all dobut such depriuations and depositions are meere temporall businesses and no power of mine extendeth it selfe beyond spirituals The Pope's arch-flatterers confesse that it followeth hence that he cannot directly depose Kings yet will they haue him enhabled to doe it indirectly namely as such matters are occasion of some spirituall good or euill But this say I is impossible For a thing is said to be done indirectly when it necessarily followeth vpon another thing which is done directly As for example when a thiefe robbeth a trayuailer of his cloathes and he thus left naked dieth with cold this thiefe hath robbed the man directly but killed him indirectly In like maner it should be shewen what spirituall action the Pope doth directly by his spirituall power whereupon necessarily but indirectly the deposition of a King or depriuing him of his temporals doth ensue But it is impossible that any such action should bee shewed For there cannot be any greater spirituall action atchieued by my proper power then Excommunication And who would euer come to that height of absurdity as to say and yet some haue said it and beleeued it that a Prince being excommunicated is held in the same instant to be also depriued of his kingdome and deposed And yet my very nouices know that excommunication medleth not with any temporalls A rich man beeing excommunicated doth not thereby lose his possessions nor a noble man his nobility why then should a King by excommunication lose his crowne Now therefore see what a terrible Rocke this is A toy takes the Pope in the head to beare the people in hand that their Prince is an heretique and excommunicate and so depriued of his kingdome and that they are to rise against him and to call in another to reigne ouer them These simple wretches being misled by the Popes false doctrine will needes disobey God to obey the Pope And thus first they herein sinne mortally and cast away their soules then are they also most iustly punished for traytors as they are and so farewell goods life and all Neither will the matter bee salued vp by that which the Romanists reply saying Obey your Prince and sweare fealty to him in ciuill obedience but when the case so falleth out that the Pope commandeth you otherwise then renounce this obedience Nay but obedience due to Princes is perpetuall absolute and without any reseruation or condition for God so commandeth Act. 5. And wee must obey God rather then men It behooueth therefore by God's law to sweare obedience and fealty in matters concerning the temporall gouernment vnto euery naturall liege Lord without any reseruation and consequently euery subiect ought to declare himselfe when hee is so required that hee sweares and promises perpetuall and absolute obedience any whatsoeuer or whosesoeuer declaration commandement excommunication or sentence to the contrary notwithstanding For in this world there is no power that can disoblige a man frō this perpetuall and absolute obedience commanded by the law of God himselfe And in like manner the deposing or depriuing Soueraigne Princes is to bee attempted by none but God's immediate hand to whom onely it belongeth to translate kingdomes Dan. 4.25 And as for any power of mine especially that cannot in any maner neither direct nor indirect lawfully attempt any such depriuations Let euery one therefore remaine subiect and obedient vnto his owne Prince in things concerning temporall gouernment nor let him thinke that hee euer can bee assoyled by any power on earth though Ecclesiasticall from such his entire obedience ¶ The third Rocke Implicite Faith CRuell and pestilent ambition The Pope to the end that his vsurped tyrannie may not be discouered and that he may be taken for a god vpon earth by simple seduced people or rather that they may be made pliable and capable to admit for good any falshood and forgery which the Pope for the aduancing his owne greatnesse shall propound to them causeth them to be perswaded and taught that in matter of faith it is sufficient for euery of them to beleeue whatsoeuer the holy Catholike Romane mother-Church doth hold and beleeue Verely I that am the vniuersall Church I
load mee with a multitude of externall obligations ouer and aboue the morall naturall law and a few other precepts when as himselfe commanded me that I should beware of making his yoake heauy vnto my Children by multiplying vpon them humane Commandements and precepts and sharply rebuked the Scribes and Pharises of his time vpbraiding them with that speech of Esay Esay 29.13 Matth. 15.8 This people draweth nigh vnto mee with their mouth and honoureth mee with their lips but their heart is farre from me in vaine doe they worship me teaching for doctrines the commandements of men They ouerpast the Commandements of the law and taught the silly people certaine obseruances inuented by themselues and established by humane traditions only In a māner euen so it befalleth you my Children now a dayes yee are plyed might and maine with certaine precepts which vsurping my name they call the Commandements of holy Church in which notwithstanding I haue no part at all and as for God's Commandements they lie by the walles You take farre more heede that you omit not a Masse vpon an holy day and many of you also vpon the working-dayes then that you leaue not your neighbour without helpe when he is in great misery Yee take more care of offending in eating flesh on prohibited daies then of committing fornication or adultery And hence it is that more scruples are started vp in your consciences and more adoe against you by your Confessors Preachers and Inquisitors if you haue but once supped halfe a messe of flesh-pottage vpon a Friday then if you had committed fornication an hundred times Know ye therefore that in vndergoing such scruples vpon these Church-commandements yee are plainely tyrannized ouer and are brought vnto a butchery shambles slaughter-house of the conscience 2. Cor. 3.17 Gal. 4.31 Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is libertie concerning all indifferent things which libertie Christ hath bestowed on you I haue indeed authoritie vpon occasion of publique spirituall affaires to intimate fastings prayers and almes but with sweetnes and gentlenesse without imposing any yoake or impeaching this libertie to the end that euery one of you likewise should of your owne voluntary sweetly and charitably compose himselfe to such holy exercises and thereby conforme himselfe to my intention which is alwayes hortatory rather then mandatory with compulsion I doe not hold my selfe to haue authoritie to command vpon the guilt of mortall sinne which I find no otherwise defined then to be that which is spoken done or thought against the eternall Law of God August cont Faust li. 22. cap. 27. it is not said against the commandement of the Church whereas principally I either cōmand or forbid that which in it selfe is indifferent and neither commanded nor forbidden by God's Law So the holy Apostles gathered together in the Councell of Ierusalem did resolue that the new Christians especially those that were conuerted from Gentilisme in respect of outward obligation besides the morall naturall Law of the Decalogue should not be bound in conscience to any other thing Acts. 15.29 except absteining from meats offered to Idols and from blood and from things strangled and moreouer to beware of fornication not that this is not comprised in the Decalogue but for that the Gentiles for the most part were in this error to thinke that simple fornication was not forbidden by the Law of nature In other things the Apostles left them entire libertie of their conscience Rom. 14.3 And S. Paul aduiseth Coloss 2.16 that he which eateth not should not iudge those that eate and that none ought to iudge the faithfull for eating and drinking Briefly I conclude you are to conforme your selues vnto the well-grounded and well-instructed deuotion of abstinence of fasting of prayers of diuine Seruice and other spiritual exercises especially vpon the Sundayes and more solemne Feasts But beware of two extreames On the one side lest you fall into superstition and bring your selues to such anxietie and scrupulositie as will oppresse the inward libertie of the conscience and therefore you are to put from you all feare of mortal sinne if sometime by negligence or for your owne conueniencie so it be without contempt or scandall you omit such deuotions appointed and ordeined by me who am your indulgent Mother and pretend not to hold you to it with such rigor The other extreame which you are to beware of is that hereupon you doe not runne into carnall libertie by contemning and vtterly neglecting my good and holy ordinances setting at nought the pious and deuout exercises appointed by 〈◊〉 whereby the holy worship of God is mainteined and the inward spirit is furthered in Christian vertues especially in Religiousnesse These Commandements therefore in such sort as they are imposed on you by the Pope are very Rocks he making vse of them principally to the end he may exercise his dominion ouer me with a Law-giuing power but secondarily also for other indirect ends tending vnto couetousnes they are I say Rocks because when as by Preachers Confessors and pettie doctrinall pamphlets it still ringeth in your eares that those Church-precepts doe binde you vnder the paine of mortall sinne they being little obserued by this your erronious conscience you make the omission of them to become in you mortall sinne indeed whereas otherwise it would be no sinne at all An erronious conscience is that which beleeueth a thing to be a sinne which in trueth is none and whosoeuer committeth or omitteth that which hee deemeth a sinne to be done or not done though in trueth this be not a sinne yet he by his erronious conscience sinneth mortally herein and this is a dangerous pit and deepe breake-necke of soules Now therefore when as you learne by mee that my precepts those that are meerely mine doe not include any obligation vnto mortall sinne be not you troubled with scruples when without contempt or scandall you finde them not obserued by you and so much the rather because some of those obseruations haue a tang of superstition whereupon it is not onely no sinne to omit them but also it would be often-times a sinne to obserue them I will declare my selfe more particularly There be fiue precepts which ordinarily passe vnder the name of my Commandements as common to all the faithfull and yet in very deed there are to be found in the body of Canons now a dayes in force a thousand such precepts euen more then euer the Iewes were burthened withall which is a thing very intolerable Those fiue are these 1. To heare Masse on Sundayes and established holy dayes 2. To fast in Lent in the foure Ember-wekes in the Vigils or Eues and to abstaine from flesh on Fridaies and Saturdaies 3. To be shriuen by your owne Priest at least once a yere 4. To be houseled at Easter 5. To pay tythes according to custome The keeping of the Lords day which succeeded the ancient Sabaoth is deriued rather from
would giue you a full pardon both of fault and punishment for you deeme their Absolutiō to bee sufficient for you and that it doth without faile make riddance of your fault and as for the backe-reckoning of punishment ye cheere vp your selues that a little tast of Purgatory shall make you free-men and so it falls out that you passe to another life perhaps which God forefend with your whole load both of fault and also of obligation vnto eternall punishment But when you know there is no Purgatory at all you will for the scaping of hell looke better to your tacklings and you will not then say as I heare many among you now speake I will not performe the penance that is inioyned me I am content rather to make it vp afterward in Purgatory And your instructers teach you that you may lawfully say and doe thus The other hidden Rocke that groweth to this Rocke of Purgatory are Indulgences It is a shamelesse boldnesse to say that Christ indeede hath fully satisfied for all the punishments due to euery sinner which addresseth himselfe vnto him but yet that the applying of Christ's merits goes in this man̄er the Confessor when he absolueth thee applieth the merits of Christ vnto thee onely in respect of the fault and the eternall punishment but as for temporall punishment that lies still at thy doore and that therefore in respect of this punishment it is in the Popes power to apply the said merits of Christ for the remitting the said punishment in part or in whole as he shall thinke good But I say if the Confessor absolue by the power of the keyes who hath restrayned him in this Absolutiō to the fault not to the entire punishment who hath halfed out vnto him the power of the keyes that by them hee should apply the merits of Christ for the taking away onely of the fault and of the eternall punishment but not of the temporall Surely the keyes containe entire remission who then thus hath minced it out And if the Confessor can impose such satisfaction whereby all kind of punishment may beecancelled and certainely as the Papists teach this satisfaction worketh by the power of the keyes being Sacramentall then his power extendeth also to the whole punishment and by absoluing and by Absolution applying Christ's Satisfactions vnto the penitent hee doth apply them with all the power and vertue which is either in Christ's merits or in the keyes or in the Minister himselfe that worketh by them there is therefore no kind of punishment which he hath not remitted and what then remaines behinde for Indulgences to worke vpon I say nothing of the merits of the Saints Supererogation which they shuffle into this Treasure among Christ's merits with as great falsehood as wrong and iniury done to Christ himselfe The falsehood lies in this for that the workes of any Saints whatsoeuer both as they are maritorious if they may bee called meritorious at all and also as satisfactory are wholly pay'd for the Saints owne debt nor is there any ouerplus left for others in case they were sufficient for the Saint himselfe as I shall afterward declare To Christ himselfe great wrong is done as if a man should poure a drop of water into the Sea and should say that this drop carries euery ship to the hauen but especially he is wronged in that onely he and none else beeing appointed of God the Mediator both for faults and punishments of the world and all men in it it must needes bee an odious blasphemy to say that the merits of Saints doe serue for the taking away of the punishments of sinnes for the cancelling whereof God accepteth nothing else but the blood of his onely-begotten Sonne as also hee hath sent none other nor chosen any other for that office then this his only Sonne neither is any other money currant in Gods Treasury for our complete redemption either from fault or from punishment then the treasure of the blood merits of Christ stamped with the image of Christ himselfe all other money vsed for this purchase is false coine and is reiected by the mint-master of heauen But besides this how is the Pope inabled to apply the treasure of Christ's merits who hath made him Master of it who hath put into his hands onely the keyes of it I haue heard that the principall key which leads to this treasure lieth open in publicke to be vsed by euery one that will take it and that the hand by which euery one may take it is true and liuely faith nor is there any neede to aske this key of the Pope or of any other man it lying open to all nor to beg of any man the fauour to bee made partaker of this treasure which Christ hath made common without giuing the custody thereof to any man in the world I haue indeede a particular key committed vnto mee by him but without any preiudice to the common key which lyeth open to all and this is that key by which I binde and loose and this is equally in the hands of euery of my Ministers and specially of my Bishops and this key doth after a sort apply vnto the penitent that treasure namely the merits of Christ according to the promise of Christ himselfe who whensoeuer he remits the fault remitteth also all kinde of punishment neither is it in my power or in the power of any that vseth this key of mine to separate the punishment or any part thereof from the fault for the money of this treasure payes all in the totall and that is the currant rate of it It is therefore open tyrannie in the Pope to incroach this key into his owne hands onely and to impart it to whomsoeuer he please and in what degree hee thinkes good whereas this key was giuen to me and I haue committed it to the handes of all and euery my Ministers equally without distinction And if there were any true Indulgences to bee had it were a great folly in you to seeke them of the Pope when as your owne Bishops can aswell graunt them as the Pope himselfe and this is not denied by the doctors of his owne side namely those that yeeld that Bishops haue all their authoritie power and Episcopall Iurisdiction from God and not from the Pope To comprise this briefly There are onely three Keyes which keepe the treasury of my house The one is common to all my children lying open to euery man as I said and not committed specially to the hands of any the other two are in the hands of my Officers and of euery of them for by them onely are they to be imployed but to the benefit of all the faithfull One is of the holy Sacraments namely of Baptisme and the Eucharist the other is for binding and loosing as I haue declared And whosoeuer brags that he hath another key besides these as the Pope vaunteth that he hath the key of Indulgences hee both is deceiued